Last week marked the last ICE edition to be held in London, before the major gambling expo relocates to Barcelona next year. DRGT actively participated in the event and, in a Q&A, shared insights into its interactions with both existing and potential customers at the event.
In this interview, Jurgen De Munck, DRGT CEO; Duncan Pollock, Managing Director (MD), Africa; Andreas Duller, MD Austria; and Christophe Van Quathem, MD DRGT Online, delved into the specifics of their engagements at the events, focusing on the key aspects of their solutions.
The conversation also explored the diverse geographical origins of the partners and visitors who attended the DRGT booth, providing perspectives on the company’s support to its collaborators.
How did things go at Clarion’s final ICE in Lonon?
Jurgen: Really well! I know that’s what everyone says, but I really mean it. We had some great feedback from existing customers, some really positive engagements with a number of prospective customers across both Europe and Africa, as well as some meaningful ‘go forward’ meetings with some new partners. And as always, Clarion put on a well-organized, well-promoted, and well-attended event.
What do you mean by new partners?
Andreas: Jurgen has spoken previously of our collaborative relationship with other suppliers in the land-based sector, and often referenced our international jackpot collaboration with APEX and our subsequent representation of them across a number of jurisdictions, and where in Mexico (specifically) we now operate in excess of 1,500 APEX EGMs on revenue share – that’s the type of partners we’re referring to.
Are any of those partnerships heading Africa’s way, Duncan?
Duncan: Well, I’d be letting the proverbial ‘cat out of the bag’ if I shared that now, wouldn’t I, so I shan’t.
Can you elaborate on what garnered the most interest, product-wise, at Booth S6-350 at ExCel this year?
Duncan: Our App, which we spoke about previously, was often a starting point both with existing and new customers, with the conversation then in most cases expanding into our broader systems offering with cashless gaming and web-based reporting stealing most of the spotlight, and then, more often than not, our ‘system-based’ jackpots.
Christophe: We also had a bit of a video tutorial running on the LED screen above our booth (a product we also offer as a matter of interest) detailing the capabilities of our drMediaManager and that too drove a number of conversations. I think the fact that visitors could actually see how the Media Manager worked from a jackpot design point of view, and not ‘just’ as a scheduling tool, was well received.
Any comment from you Andreas with regards to your customer discussions at ICE?
Andreas: You know we have an extremely mature market in Austria, and one I am proud to say we service really well. That said, we also service a number of other jurisdictions too, and what was encouraging for me was the number of operators I chatted to about our core systems (and cashless) capabilities.
The huge take-out for me was how operators, as their respective markets mature, have really started to embrace our ‘Player First’ mantra – one that we maintain has to be stuck to by us as the service provider, as well as our customers the casino operators, in order to ensure our joint success, sustainability, and growth.
ICE truly is a global get-together. Duncan, Africa is a BIG place, was it well represented?
Duncan: Yes, I’d say so. We had visitors from Botswana, Ghana, Seychelles, Nigeria, South Africa, Malawi, and Mauritius as I recall – some existing, and some prospects, which was encouraging. And to Andreas’ point above in respect of existing customers, many of them were looking for better ways to reward and communicate with their players in order to build better and more ‘sticky’ relationships.
I’d like to think we have some of the best, most robust, and most cost-effective technology and tools the sector has to offer in assisting them to do that, and as such I remain bullish as to what the future holds. Time will tell.
Jurgen: Our African customers and visitors were not the only ones looking for tools to assist them in understanding, engaging, and rewarding their players better. In some of the conversations I was involved in the same rang true for many of Andreas and Christophe’s customers too.
Christophe, you look after Belgium specifically, and enjoy a considerable market share amongst the 9 locally licensed casinos. How do you help them and yourselves remain relevant?
Christophe: I think the answer is two-fold, and it relates to the very reason, despite the ever-increasing scope of alternate offerings vying for their share of consumers’ wallets, as to why the land-based casino sector continues to remain a well-supported form of entertainment.
They are: i) The very fact that social engagement takes place, and that relationships and communities are built; ii) and that we all (service providers and operators alike) continue to leverage technology as best we can, to learn as much as we can, in order to service and reward our players better.
Jurgen: I’d like to add to that, if I may, and reference an article I read on the Forbes website about 18 months ago, where the point was made that there is no real one-size-fits-all loyalty solution, but that in order to make it effective, no matter the sector, rewards need to be easy to earn, there must be a variety of them, and technology needs to power the programme.
I think we tick those boxes, and as long as we continue to provide relevant technology and product solutions that assist our customers in nurturing the player communities Christophe alluded to, we will all continue to remain relevant.
