QUOTE OF
THE MONTH
“You’ve got to look at
what works for your
own customer base – for
others more aggressive
cross-selling may be
more appropriate.”
Denise Coates, chief executive
bet365, read our cover feature on
page 26
RAMESH
SRINIVASAN
JOHN
CONNELLY
Chief executive
Srinivasan took over at Bally
Technologies in December 2012
when he was named president
and CEO after having spent two
years in the roles of president
and COO. He joined the firm
in 2005 as executive VP of
systems and was instrumental
in the recent $1.3bn acquisition
of SHFL Entertainment.
Senior vice-president of
business development and
interactive
Having spent nearly 10 years
at the US casino supplier,
Connelly took up the position
of senior VP of business
development and interactive
in November 2013. Prior to this
role Connelly has held various
positions at the firm.
www.egrmagazine.com
THE NEW STANDARD
FOR CONVERGENCE
ANDREW READER
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, VELO PARTNERS
The winners of this
year’s eGR Rising Star
award, Casumo, believe
convergence is the trend of
the future and they aren’t
the only ones. Whether it
be Gaming Realms’ Bingo
Godz (also shortlisted), Ever
Adventure or CasinoRoom,
there are many examples of
softer, gamified, real-money
user experiences that are
starting to be disruptive and
showing strong KPI traction
on the start-up scene.
Looking to the established
suppliers, Microgaming’s
Poker Network, for example,
launched individual
achievements in November
2013 with 27 real-money
achievements to collect.
They have been hugely
popular with the players
(over 200,00 collected
already) and the next set are
already being prepared for
roll-out.
On the bricks-and-mortar
front, our involvement in
the Hippodrome Casino
on Leicester Square and
establishment of an online
brand has proven there are
opportunities to successfully
extend a brand experience
into an online environment
which players value.
Generating new sign-ups
in the casino, using shared
NEIL DAVIDSON
Senior vice-president, CFO
and treasurer
Davidson originally joined
Bally as vice-president of
corporate accounting in 2006
before being promoted to
chief accounting officer and
finally chief financial officer in
August 2010. Before joining
Bally he was VP at gaming
and systems company
Multimedia Games.
loyalty points and in-casino
promotions, we have only
just started to explore all
the promising new ways of
expanding that business.
Convergence is not new.
We’ve been talking about
it at least since gaming
suppliers and operators
became interested in
acquiring social casino
assets in the first half of
2012. But, the term remains
highly in vogue, still
featuring prominently on
conference panel session
agendas and increasingly
found between the words
‘the next big’ and ‘play’
in business plans we are
seeing at Velo Partners.
Most people would agree
in the online context that
it refers to the adoption
of various social and
gamified features such as:
achievements, missions,
shared jackpots, team
challenges or gated content
by more traditional gaming
operators. These features are
generally considered to have
been popularised by the
free-to-play entertainment
operators using freemium
monetisation models
and historically not been
employed by traditional realmoney operators.
If you spoke to
KATIE LEVER
Senior vice-president and
general counsel
Despite seeing a number
of her colleagues at SHFL
Entertainment including chief
executive Gavin Isaacs leave
post-acquisition, Lever retains
her role and moves over to
Bally. At SHFL she was general
council and executive VP and
held a similar role at Global
Cash Access prior to that.
bricks-and-mortar casino
operators, they would tell
you convergence is about
extending the brand and
experience in-casino into
a complimentary online
offering. In both contexts,
2013 was a year that saw
great strides forward in
testing and establishing the
convergence thesis.
One thing we can all be
sure of, in 2013 convergence
happened. The interesting
thing to my mind about the
concept of convergence
is at what point does
convergence stop and a new
standard or niche become
established? For me, this is a
question that will largely be
addressed over the next 12
months.
MONTH
RICHARD
HADDRILL
Chairman of the Board
Former Bally Technologies
CEO Haddrill is due to
celebrate his one-year
anniversary as chairman of
the board this month after
spending eight years in his
previous role. Haddrill served
on the board of directors
from 2003 and joined the
firm as CEO in October 2004.
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