IS THERE STILL A MARKET FOR HIGH AND MID DENOMINATION GAMES?

For many small clubs and pubs where machine numbers are limited, multigames play an important part in allowing them to offer a good variety of games that cover the requirements of all their players throughout different times of the day.  For big clubs, having a good number of specific high and mid denomination games is still an important part of the games mix and these games provide a higher turnover average each month than lower denomination games.  It’s the medium-large clubs where this question can be difficult to answer.

There are a few questions to answer first….

  • Does my outdoor gaming area earn more per machine that my indoor gaming area – if it does then you probably have a few bigger players and some night time trade. If possible you would always place high denomination games in an outdoor area unless you have a specific player who is a non-smoker.
  • Do I have the room to put some higher denomination games in a quiet corner – this must be a warm and low traffic area in a good sized outdoor room, or if you only have a few machines in this area you could add a couple, along with a few multigames to make the space a premium area.

Graph-3

And some thoughts….

  • If you already have a couple, complete a ‘Floor Matrix’, comparing the percentage of machines in the higher denominations you have (they might be 5% of your total machines), to the percentage of turnover (it might be 10% of your total turnover) and net that they achieve (again, a percentage of total net). It should look like the graph above. Where you have the turnover and net percentage higher than the percentage of space they take up it make sense to add some high and/or mid denomination games in. If not then you are better to make multigames available as most contain a range of higher denomination games anyway.
  • If you are buying new machines in it is a good time to try a high or mid denomination game when you have the safety net of the new game warranty that will allow you to convert it back if it doesn’t fire up. Higher denomination games will tend to take a little longer to get going than a 1 cent game so tell your rep what you are doing and leave it as long as you can before changing.
  • It is also a good way to soak up an older product line where games are in short supply due to age. For example IGT, Ainsworth and Bally/SHFL all have some great high and mid-denomination games for their older machine ranges that you can add in as a conversion fairly inexpensively.

And some current awesome games to consider….. (M = multi-denom)

Aristocrat
$1 Jet Strike (Helix), $1M ‘Players Choice -High Limits’ (Helix)

IGT
$1M Multistar- Champion Series (Neo), $1 ‘Multi Boxful of Dollars’, (Bluechip), $1 ‘King of the Castle’ (Bluechip), 5c ‘Mayan Spirit’ (Neo),

Ainsworth
Any of their 5c and 10c Triple and Quad Shot games such as ‘Sheer Wonder’, ‘Fortune Panda’, ‘Sapphire Eyes’, ‘Fortune Bear’, ‘Treasure Town’, ‘Year of the Snake’, ‘Year of the Tiger’

SHFL/Bally
$1 ‘Drifting Sands 4’, 5c/10c ‘Mystic Gold-Kings Coins’, $1/50c ‘King of Babylon’