IGT’S POINT EXPLOSION AT CLUB RIVERS

Finding that point of difference that lifts your venue’s gaming results is vital in a competitive market, but finding a way that increases every players’ enjoyment when they visit and keeps them coming back is the real goal for promoting business growth. With branded, customisable bonus games, IGT’s Point Explosion delivers reward games directly on the gaming screen and turns points into Xtra Credit that players can immediately use to play (within jurisdictional regulatory limits). This decreases the point liability while boosting real-time engagement for regular players at all tier levels.

How it works

As players invest turnover on their machine, a progressive meter that sits on the bottom of the play screen increases. It doesn’t matter what tier level the player is at as the club can configure bonuses for all levels of players and set it at an appropriate spend level for each tier. This means that every player eventually achieves 100% on their progressive bonus and wins a point prize. The point prize can be added to their ‘Xtra Credit’ bucket so they can play the credits off through regular game play, up to the daily limit.

Club Rivers is currently running the Fire Dragon Point Explosion game. In this game players fill the progressive meter by landing a dragon egg to launch the win sequence. Players then pick a dragon egg off the on-screen artwork to claim their prize. All Point Explosion games operate with the same maths but have different artwork and Jamie Neil, COO of Club Rivers, confirms that operationally “having the more advanced content available has really increased engagement for the players”.

The Progressive Meter, now that it is located on the SERVICE WINDOW banner at the bottom of the screen, is visible to both the player and others around them.  According to Jamie and Lachlan Green, Gaming Manager at Club Rivers, “this is a positive change from the earlier versions of Point Explosion and is prompting players to help each other understand how it works with players seeing others filling the progressive meter and winning bonus prizes.”

Operational choices

While some clubs run Point Explosion at specific times as a promotion for different player demographics and tiers, Club Rivers have opted for a 24/7 cycle for 4-6 weeks and then take a break to refresh the promotion.

That was the original plan, however Jamie admitted, “the new Fire Dragon EZBONUS Point Explosion game has been so popular over the last six weeks, and produced such positive increases, that we have just extended it. We will take a break over Christmas when we run some seasonal promotions and then start again fresh in the new year.”

Club Rivers still run timed standard gaming promotions from Thursday to Saturday, as well as the Point Explosion bonuses.

“You can only give away limited prizes on a standard gaming promotion,” said Lachlan. “We run standard gaming promotions where we only have eight winners on the night. However, with Point Explosion the advantage is that every player has a chance to win a prize, no matter when they play, as it is based on turnover. With Point Explosion we have multiple winners among our players who win prizes no matter what tier they are in. Lots of happy, engaged players has been a big advantage for us and lifted our turnover by 18% in August alone!”

Controlled spend

The Point Explosion Progressive Meter prizes can be set by the club and can be based on tier level, allowing flexibility in rewarding customers at different levels. It is configurable per tier for both earn rates and prize rates, so higher tiers spend more but get bigger prizes. Lower tiers spend less for more frequent smaller prizes. Once it is set up, the IGT system calculates the cost, so the venue knows what they are spending … and earning… in additional turnover. So, everyone is happy!

Big advantages

When the on-screen Progressive Meter climbs and triggers at 100% for a win, the players meter does not go all the way back to 0% but rather restarts at a random percentage. This can be configured by the club and the team at Club Rivers have based theirs on five different restart percentages and five different prize values. “The players don’t know what prize they will win or what their Progressive Meter will restart at, and this becomes part of the excitement for them,” said Jamie.

Additionally, the Progressive Meter Points progress can be saved in the system so when the promotional period has ended, it doesn’t go away. It just stays in the system for the next promotion period. This has given Club Rivers an opportunity to communicate with players before a new promotion starts, identifying their Progressive Level, prompting them to come back in for another visit when the new promotion starts.

According to Lachlan one of the big advantages is that “the prizes are tiered so smaller players still gain access to awarded prizes, unlike standard promos where smaller players feel they don’t have a chance against the “big player.” Because it is turnover based everyone will come away as a winner eventually.”

For Jamie, the latest content has been a big advantage, “The games are much better than earlier versions, and custom games are coming soon too. For now, the players are loving the new games.”

Operational rollout

Lachlan produced an in-house training video for Club Rivers staff and this forms part of the ongoing training for all staff as they join the team. However, as well as staff involvement, the onscreen Progressive Meter is obvious to players and to the players sitting around them. “Not only does this prompt questions about how it works but the players are helping each other out and teaching new players what to do,” said Lachlan. “The customers are selling the advantages to other players and becoming our biggest marketing asset.”

The results

The proof is always in the results and Lachlan shared that their turnover for August, when they were running the current Fire Dragon Point Explosion game, is 18% up on the same month last year, well ahead of the NSW statewide average of around 7%. Additionally, the use of Xtra Credit by players has increased by 120% in August and is evenly split among all tier levels. With the on-screen banner button making this extremely accessible and attractive for players to use, Jamie and Lachlan confirm that they are on track to see this increase further in September.

The club is also seeing an increase in carded play when Point Explosion is running, from 50% normally, up to now 65%. According to Jamie: “The club has tried many strategies and spent money trying to lift this metric, but Point Explosion is the first time we really have moved this needle.”

According to the team at Club Rivers IGT’s new Point Explosion games and on-screen progressive meter have been a real hit with the players. Not only have they significantly increased their turnover, but they have a large cohort of happy players across all tier levels, who are all becoming winners!

For more information on IGT ADVANTAGE CLUB OR EZBONUS POINT EXPLOSION, contact your IGT representative

 

 

Written by: Justine Channing – Gaming Specialist for The Drop