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Aria evolves with sbX
Aria at CityCenter has a floor of 50 per cent IGT slots, alongside Bally, WMS and others – and it’s all running on IGT’s sbX server-based gaming network. Michael Volkert, VP of Slot Marketing Operations at Aria, explained to us what the network means for his casino
Server-based gaming has changed a lot from its initial concept – in its early days, a lot was made of its ability to deliver different games to different customer demographics, to change denominations according to what kind of player you might have on the floor at any given time, and more. But arguably its greatest gift to the customer, the casino, is the ability to market directly to the player, in real time. Mike Volkert of Aria at CityCenter, Las Vegas, talked to Casino International about their set-up.
Casino International: You have a bank of IGT machines on server-based network in Aria…
Mike Volkert: Actually, about 70 per cent of our floor is connected to the system right now. We’re close to making that 100 per cent. We’ve been testing some software for games from another manufacturer, and if that works we will do a 30-day test and we should be very close to that 100 per cent server-based mark, very soon.
CI: What’s on the slot floor?
MV: It’s various manufacturers, with IGT about 50 per cent of the floor, with WMS around 23 per cent, Bally 20 per cent and Aristocrat and Konami making up the balance of that.
CI: What, to you, are the benefits of a server-based floor?
MV: Server-based gaming provides a few advantages, one is flexibility. We have the ability to download content very quickly and easily so as customer demands or themes and interests change, we are able to move with that demand; if a video theme or a reel theme ‘falls off’ or is not popular, is not performing well or is a few years old and the demand is gone, we can very quickly we can very quickly change the composition of our floor to meet the market demands.
In addition, server-based is going to start providing us with some great marketing opportunities. In the very near future we will be running applications in the service window, a communication portal with the customer which allows us to offer marketing messages and different sorts of bonuses to customers based on the customer’s demographic, or the information we have. For example, if the customer is a member of our player’s club and we know that they are gaming with us, but they’re not necessarily staying with us at Aria, now I can communicate to them differently which we never could before. Our marketing programs were always, like other casinos, after the fact – you come in, you play, we see what your spend is, we might comp you something during your trip, but it’s after the trip we start sending marketing and promotions to get that player to come back. Now I can look at that player in real time and create rules engines so we can say well, you’re gambling here but not staying here? Okay, here’s a buffet comp if you come back tomorrow. I know you’re staying in town but not with me, we’ll do our best to make sure you come and play with us instead. You’re able to speak to your customers in real time, which was impossible before. It’s giving them the right message at the right time, when they’re in the casino and gambling. There’s a lot of really great marketing possibilities coming for us.
CI: What’s the change in ROI on your server-based floor? Does it noticeably earn more money?
MV: There is an impact on your floor. You can change denomination, minimum wagers and bets, and you are very nimble. I also have access to content faster than my competitors. When a manufacturer releases a theme, casinos are reliant on a salesperson to come by and communicate that new theme to them; if the theme is purchased you have to go through the purchasing process, IGT ships it to you, you have to install it – two months could go by before you actually get that game on your floor. I have all the new games every month on a disc, with everything that’s been approved on it. I drop the disc in the server and I can download that content at will. I’m first to market with all that content, and that’s a two-month head start over others.
CI: Do you use it in conjunction with TITO to market to your players?
MV: We are actively looking at promotional tickets, we have some partners who have designed promotional ticket marketing applications; we have not implemented those yet but we are actively designing and working with a partner to see about exploring that space.
CI: So at the moment, information from the player floor comes from staff directly engaging with customers?
MV: Some of the bonuses we have actually operate within the service window I mentioned earlier. One of those is branded Random Riches, which is designed to be a new member program. M Life is our player’s club and we try to encourage people to join M Life, and right now there really isn’t a competitive sales technique to join M Life when you’re on a casino floor. Lots of places have similar ‘accelerators’ – if you join my club I might give you some extra points faster, or with a certain number of points comes some free play… All of those programs are well used and it’s difficult to find something unique as far as that hook goes. So we have created an application where when you sign up on that first visit, Random Riches cerates a bonus; every time you hit a point threshold – and there are various point thresholds throughout the game – you get the opportunity to play a game within the service window which awards you free play. So it does a couple of things for us: one, it teaches the customer how to use the service window and it shows them that it is something important that they need to pay attention to, it’s a great training device; two, it is a great marketing tool: hey, you play here on this trip and you’ll get the opportunity to win free play. When they do win it, the free play is downloaded immediately to the game so there is no customer-employee interplay at that point. They can just play the game and enjoy the prize.
