Slot manufacturers are testing the Internet for ways to appeal directly to the gambler
by Andy Holtmann
Think the average casino customer doesn't have that much daily activity with the Internet and online communication? Think again. There are countless records and statistics available that show the penetration of the Internet into North American homes has increased significantly. And as technology and innovation are coupled with higher speeds of delivery such as broadband or DSL, it's no longer about simply checking e-mail or chatting online. There are real possibilities to do, well, just about anything online, and it's a point that many casino operators and gaming industry manufacturers are taking note of.
Recent statistics from the www.internetworldstats.com show that the Internet has penetrated 69.5 percent of the North American population, and between 2000 and 2007, usage of the Internet has grown 115.2 percent. The United States leads all countries in Internet usage, with 211 million users, accounting for 19 percent of the entire world's usage.
"Fun Play™ is a great way to allow players to learn about more complicated games like craps, or just to spend time playing the games that they like when they are at the casino," said John Taylor, GameLogic's president.
And while current laws in the United States ban Internet wagering — at least for the moment — the gaming industry is beginning to realize that the Internet can hold a host of other opportunities. Chief among these is the idea of promotion — promotion of new games; promotion of brick and mortar casino properties; promotion of the gambling experience as it exists today in the United States.
"We saw the Internet space as definitely somewhere that we wanted to pioneer and take some shots at owning because we feel that whoever can effectively present their package of products and connect with players in an online format will have a huge advantage down the road when server-based gaming comes," said Rob Bone, vice president of marketing for WMS Gaming, which has launched several online promotions for its newer slot titles.
WMS's latest online promotion — Monopoly® Super Money Grab™ Future of Gaming Sweepstakes — was launched to help educate players of its new Transmissive Reels™ product line. On the Las Vegas-based manufacturer's Web site, slot players have a chance to win prizes during the 90-day event that began Aug. 15. By playing a brief online game, while receiving information about WMS line of Transmissive Reel slots, players can win one of 4,500 instant win prizes — gift certificates to major retailers. Or they could win one of five grand prizes — all expense paid trips to partnering casino resorts, which include properties from Station Casinos, Boyd Gaming, Isle of Capri Casinos and Harrah's Entertainment.
It's the third such online promotion WMS has done. Previous efforts surrounded the company's Powerball® and "Monopoly® Big Event™" slots.
Bone said the promotions give WMS an outlet to educate players. "It's a sea of clutter on a casino floor, so any way we can give them an advantage in understanding the compelling aspects of a slot machine, we think it gives us a leg up and helps WMS's products become top-of-mind."
But more importantly, he said, the promotions allow WMS to create active databases of players that are interested in the company's products — a process that has primarily been handled by resort-casinos, which don't let manufacturers to see their player information.
"... what has really surprised us is that Bonus Play™ is also causing casino guests to visit the casino significantly more frequently on even those days when they don't have a Bonus Play™ reward to redeem," said John Taylor.
Getting the skinny on players' wants and demands is the crux of what Reno-based International Game Technology is hoping to achieve with its first effort into the online "contest" promotion realm. The company has partnered with Dallas, Texas-based SCA Interactive to hype IGT's "Wheel of Fortune® Super Spin™" slots. Entrants into the online contest will have an opportunity to win $150,000. "It's kind of a test. Our first dabble in this to see the reaction — what kind of players we get; what kind of responses we get. And then maybe play with that database that responds to see if it's a worthy group of doing follow-up with," said Ed Rogich, vice president of marketing for IGT.
The promotion, called the $150,000 Super Wild Sweepstakes, will educate users on some of the new improvements of the machine, said Peter Ford, vice president of SCA Interactive.
"Basically, there will be a flash animated game. And it doesn't really in any way represent what you play when you're on the screen [in the actual slot game]. We don't want to confuse gambling with what we're doing, which is promotional," Ford said. "[Players] will come to the site and register to play the game. The game is a quick little gaming mechanism that involves finding matching pictures of the Super Spin™ machine. The concept is that you actually know what the machine looks like when you finish — almost like a puzzle. Then there's a random generated result that tells you whether you've won one of 60 Sony cameras to be given away or, instantly, the $150,000 in cash."
As with IGT, this is SCA's first venture into this type of promotion. "We've done business with IGT through other divisions of our company with traditional casino games. But this is the first time I think they've ventured online in an effort to reach consumers. They want to educate consumers so that they pile into casinos and make IGT's customers [the casinos] happy," Ford said.
In the past, Rogich said IGT has steered away from online promotions and Internet-related game activity such as free play of slot titles largely based on concerns over who can access sites (i.e. minors and restricted people). Despite no gambling activity occurring, it's still a form of gambling marketing. "It seemed hard for us to be contemplating having software out there for slots didn't have any restrictions on it."
That said, Rogich noted that critical registration process and security measures for Web sites have improved dramatically in recent years.
"That's something we needed and we didn't have in the early days," he said. "That's good, tested methods by which you could qualify players and today, I think we have much better tools to be able to do that. You want to do it responsibly."
In late-2002, when Steve Kane and Mark Herrmann co-founded GameLogic, the initial idea was to take their successes from their past company, Gamesville, and apply them to a joint venture with Harrah's Entertainment to build and operate a subscription based satellite and Internet gaming system in the United Kingdom, said John Taylor, GameLogic's president.
"The service, called LuckyMe, was launched in February of 2004," Taylor said. "Unfortunately, the liberalization of UK gaming laws did not progress as expected forcing Harrah's to reconsider its overall UK strategy and they decided to abandon the entire UK initiative, including LuckyMe in October 2004."
But Taylor said the company had the foresight to develop several different products in parallel with its subscription gaming technology that could be utilized by land-based casinos in America. The technology created was based on the former model of Gamesville — a direct marketing company masquerading as free-to-play online games portal where players could win cash prizes playing casino games like slot machines and bingo.
This development work resulted in the release of GameLogic's casino loyalty and visit acquisition system called PlayAway™, which is comprised of three modules: Fun Play™, Bonus Play™ and Money Play™. Fun Play™ is a free Internet games site that lets clients brand and easily integrate into their existing Web sites.
"As the name says, these games are just for fun. Nothing is wagered or won," Taylor said. "Fun Play™ is a great way to allow players to learn about more complicated games like craps, or just to spend time playing the games that they like when they are at the casino. In addition and as importantly, casinos use the site as a way to pre-register new players to their player club, score them as potential players in real time, and present them interesting bonuses and offers to encourage them to come to the casino and complete their player club application."
Bonus Play™ allows casinos to use the popularity of Internet casino style games to drive particular behavior from specific segments of players. With Bonus Play™, a casino gives their players a chance to play games on the Internet each day to find out what they have won.
"Today, all casinos are giving their players coupons and offers in an effort to drive return visitation," Taylor said. "We do something similar, using the game as the distribution mechanism. The results have been remarkable. We always expected that a coupon rewarded through a Bonus Play™ win would yield a significantly higher redemption rate versus the same coupon reward simply mailed out to a casino guest. However, what has really surprised us is that Bonus Play™ is also causing casino guests to visit the casino significantly more frequently on even those days when they don't have a Bonus Play™ reward to redeem."
With GameLogic's Money Play™ product, players buy a ticket at the casino, which includes an Internet access code. They then go to the casino's Web site, login in and play games to see what they have won. The player must then return to the casino to redeem their tickets.
"This is the most aggressive of our products and plays most like what people would consider to be traditional Internet gaming. It's also the one module that initially intimidates many casinos, who have been warned off from Internet gaming in the United States." Taylor said. "With that said, Money Play is absolutely not Internet gambling, and has already been fully approved in Nevada, New Jersey and Mississippi.
The Dover Downs Hotel & Casino in Delaware recently installed GameLogic's Fun Play™ module.
"The results so far have been promising, as we have seen a significant increase in Web traffic as well as new customers to our site," Pete Bradley, vice president and general manager of slot operations for the property told Casino Journal earlier this year. "We recently added a 'Bonus Game' where our Capital Club members receive 20 credits each day to play for a chance to win entries into all cash online giveaways."
Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies is dabbling with free online play of its slot titles. Currently, three of the manufacturer's more popular games — "Hot Shot Progressive," "S&H Greenstamps" and "Playboy" — are available in free-play versions on the company's Web site.
"Back in the 'Betty Boop™' [slot] era, we licensed Masque Publishing — one of the leaders in home retail video games — to create a home, boxed version of our slot titles and what we gave them is all the artwork and PC sheets, which allowed them to mimic the exact pay cycle — pay distribution, hit frequency, etc. So they matched the game exactly how we developed it for casinos mathematically," said Marcus Prater, Bally's senior vice president of marketing. "That relationship has run its course in terms of us licensing our titles for them to sell to the home retail audience, but we use them to develop 'Hot Shot,' 'Playboy' and 'S&H' for use on the Web."
Prater said that Bally has been approached by a number of Web development companies interested in putting more actual Bally titles online in free play formats. But in order to do so accurately and faithfully to the original game development, those companies want to charge anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 per title. With the existing relationship with Masque, however, Bally has a vehicle to continue the free play effort — something Prater said is seriously being looked at.
"We're going to [put more free play games online]. The good news is that those three titles have remained very popular and we're not to the point where the games are stale. But we do need to think about what we're going to do to refresh the titles and we haven't quite pulled the trigger on that," Prater said, adding that demand is clearly there. "If you can give players a taste of what they can experience in a casino, and they like what they find online, then I would think that those who are most impressed would seek the titles out in the casino."
With last year's passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, online casinos and poker rooms were forced to stop accepting bets from U.S. gamblers or face sanctions and arrests. The online poker industry has been challenging the new law on the legislative front with lobbying groups seeking to exempt poker from the law, or overturn the law altogether.
In the meantime, literally hundreds of online poker companies have altered their operations. Sites like pokerstars.net, pokerroom.com and bodog.com now conduct free play sessions and contests and poker training and tips from professional poker players.
But one poker site is geared a little differently, and it's been doing all these things and more right from the get-go. Action Gaming's site, videopoker.com is the brainchild of Action Gaming founder and president Ernie Moody and was designed to hype video poker games through offering free play, strategies, tips and promotions like contests and tournaments to patrons online. The company and the Web site are essentially the strategic partner of IGT, which controls over 90 percent of the video poker market.
"Ernie wanted to provide a free place for people to practice their favorite games," said Action Gaming's executive vice president, Mike Fields. "He also wanted to provide a place where you wouldn't have to make a trip to the casino to see the newest games. You could actually try a new game for free, take that risk away, and if you liked it then you might go seek it out in the casino."
Fields said the goal of the site is to get people to practice at home and win at the casino. Video poker is one of the only games where, with practice and knowledge of pay tables and proper strategy, you can improve how long you play and have a greater chance of winning, he said. But far too often, what ends up happening is that the casual player casinos are trying to turn into loyal players don't always "get" the new breeds of video poker — multi-bets; expanded pay tables, etc.
"One of the worst things that happens in a casino environment is that you put $20 into a game, your $20 disappears and you still don't know how to play the game. That pretty much means that no one is going to reach into their pocket for their next $20," Fields said.
Fields said Action Gaming invests hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in the site. It's also a great way to expose his company's own product line of video poker machines, he said. The site has been operating for four years now. Two years ago, the site was revamped to create the feel of a true casino environment and included new features like a forum where poker players could communicate. When revamped, videopoker.com had 6,000 members. Today, there are nearly 71,000 (some of which became members through feeder sites).
"[The forum] is one of the reasons people come to our sites to play. If you're going to Tunica or Biloxi and you want to know where the best places are to play video poker, within 48 hours, there will be 15 or 20 responses from people telling you where to go, who has the best comp programs, what shows are good, etc.," Fields said. "That's a great tool for some of our enlightened operators. I often invite operators to go on there as players and ask what people's favorite place to play in town is. It's amazing to see what people say, and if you ask them why, you get really raw, unfettered feedback that you wouldn't get [from traditional survey methods]."
Action Gaming also uses the forum to get feedback on new game ideas from players, and from time to time to dispel industry myths or untruths that players can spread.
"More than 60 percent of our members visit Las Vegas six times or more a year; over half of them are north of 35 years old; 63 percent of them make more than $50,000 a year; 39 percent of them make more than $150,000 a year. What you have is really the profile of the people that all the casinos are after — the real players," Fields said.
Reaching out for player feedback is also what Bally's Prater said was a key element of his company's online efforts.
Bally did a direct marketing campaign targeting the people that signed up to play the company's three free-play games online. As part of that effort, the Bally Slot Advisory Club was created. Of 5,000 recipients from the first batch of players, 1,500 opted in.
"That may not seem like a huge number, but these are essentially hard-core slot players," Prater said. "And we have in fact marketed to them when we have a new version of Hot Shot released, or we've gone so far as to send out sample artwork and ask players for their opinion of the artwork. So we did capture online slot player information, got them to agree to opt in to our program and we then have marketed to them to not only hopefully to get their increased play, but also to get their feedback on game development issues."
WMS Gaming is launching a campaign called the "Road to G2E," a six-week program in which a new advergame is launched each week to correspond with WMS brands. Advergames are similar to mini games found on thousands of Web sites in which people can fly helicopters or shoot people out of canons.
"It's not necessarily a game that plays out the same way it would on a casino floor. It just has a very simple and very memorable fun game mechanic that people can play online," WMS's Bone said.
The company is partnering with the advergame site splashworks.com on the campaign.
"We're trying to connect with our operators and our players. We trying to not necessarily use the exact game play, but create a fun environment for people to talk about WMS products and WMS brands," Bone said. "The six games in six weeks will correlate with six of our top products we're going to be showing at G2E. People can vie for first place on each individual game and the cumulative six, and we'll give away a grand prize at G2E for any of our customers to be eligible for. It's the first effort we've done with advergames."