The five games are very different, and though three of them have a poker theme, they are clearly aimed at different parts of the poker market. The other two offerings are side bets on Blackjack and Baccarat.

The games are Royal Match 21, Dragon Bonus, Let It Ride, Fortune Pai Gow Poker and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em.

The latter is the company’s most successful new game to date, with a 220 installations since its launch in 2005, at record speed; it’s already doing well elswhere in Europe, with Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em tables found in Italy, Latvia, Romania, Sweden, Denmark, italy, Slovenia, Liberia, Morocco and more.

Roger Snow, Shuffle Master’s VP of Entertainment Products is the brains behind some of the new titles and is extremely enthusiastic about their chances in the UK.

He enthuses: “These are all among the most successful games in the history of the industry.

“Shuffle Master has a lot of games; these five are the ones we think will thrive best in the UK market.

“Royal Match is a Blackjack side bet, an additional wager for the player. There are 760 of these around the world, so it’s one of the most successful side bets for Blackjack in the industry. You’re betting that your first two cards will be the same suit; if they’re the same suit and sequential, it pays more. Players win a fair amount, 23 or 24 per cent of the time. It’s been around about 12 years, so it really has staying power. It has the potential to raise turnover on a table by between 10 and 20 per cent.

“There’s a reason this has been around so long – players respond to it and the casino makes money.

“Dragon Bonus is also a side bet, for Baccarat. There are about 300 of these throughout the world, in Australia, the US, Canada, the Philippines… It’s the most successful proprietary side bet for Baccarat out there, we think.

At the end of a hand, when the final score is totaled, this side bet wins if the hand you select wins by at least four points. The higher the margin of victory, the more you can win.

“Fortune Pai Gow Poker is an older game, which debuted in 1996. There are about 700 tables out there, but every single one is in North America. It’s a poker game, of course, with players playing against the dealer. Players make two hands, one of five cards and one of two cards. Players have to beat the dealer with both hands to win; a split result equals a tie, which is fairly common in the game. Lose both hands and you lose.

Like Blackjack, Pai Gow Poker is a public domain game. Fortune is a side bet on that game which adds about 25 to 30 per cent, and possibly higher, increase for the house. The basic Pai Gow game suffers because it’s one of the slowest table games in the casino, possibly the slowest, with a low house advantage (about two per cent) and 45 per cent of the hands or so end in ties. So by its nature, Pai Gow does not drive much turnover until you add the Fortune side bet. It brings higher house advantage and the players actually really enjoy it. Most players will make the side bet; there are no ties on the side bet, either, it’s just win or lose. Most casinos in the US would not spread Pai Gow without this side bet. Fortune is on about 75 per cent of the Pai Gow tables in North America.

“Let It Ride is one of the founding fathers of the specialty table game industry, launched in 1993, and it was probably the second game to come to prominence in the industry. it’s a simple five-card-stud poker game in which the players are playing against not the dealer, not the other players, but against a pay table. If you have a pair of tens or better at the end of the game, you win; if you don’t, you lose. It’s simple, popular and has tremendous staying power.

“If these poker-based games have anything in common, it’s that they have nothing in common. They all have a different feel, they appeal to different players. Let It Ride tends to attract the older player, Fortune Pai Gow appeals more to Asian players, and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em is played mostly by younger men, and it’s a real gambler’s game. It’s a complex game, more so than the others, it has plenty to get the player involved – and the players really respond to that, it’s been incredibly successful in a short time.”

Look out for an ‘in situ’ report in a forthcoming issue of Casino International, when the games are successfully installed.

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