With revenues doubling in Asia over the past 12 months in the post-COVID era, leading machine maker and gaming supplier Aristocrat Gaming is bullish about regional prospects and is actively pursuing double-digit growth while doubling down on Macau through investments in products, infrastructure, and personnel, says Asia GM Lloyd Robson.
By Tony Lai
“A growing industry is a tailwind behind us as a supplier, but you’ve got to have the right products at the right time to be able to help drive that growth.”
The past 12 months have proven to be a period of triumph for Aristocrat Gaming, a slot machine maker and games provider, as its strategic investments in the Asian market in recent years began bearing fruit in the post-Covid landscape.
“For us, the business has been accelerating quicker and quicker,” Lloyd Robson, general manager for Asia at Aristocrat Gaming, expressed his enthusiasm for the company’s performance in the post-Covid era. “Our revenues have doubled in the last 12 months [in Asia], and there’ve been multiple contributing factors across the region — Macau has been a part of that, as have the Philippines, Singapore, and the rest of Southeast Asia.”
In Macau, the gross gaming revenue (GGR) surged by 41.9 percent year-on-year, reaching MOP113.7 billion (US$12 billion) in the first six months of 2024. Across other markets in Asia, the Philippine gaming sector, including operations beyond land-based casinos, achieved a record high of PHP81.70 billion (US$1.42 billion) in GGR during the first quarter of 2024, marking an 18.5 percent increase from the same period the previous year.
Aristocrat’s success does not only rely on the recovery of Asian gaming jurisdictions but also on its steadfast investments in the region. “A growing industry is a tailwind behind us as a supplier, but you’ve got to have the right products at the right time to be able to help drive that growth,” Mr. Robson said in an interview.
Games for Asia
“One of the decisions we made in the middle of the pandemic — when decisions were difficult to make — was to continue to build and invest in our content portfolio,” he said. “We’re building more games now for Asia than we ever have.”
The slot supplier now has 13 global studios for product development, with nine of them building games for the Asian market. “We make a really concerted effort to ensure the games we’ve brought to Asia are not just tweaks of global games. They’re games that the designers spent time in the market, listening to [casino] operators and players,” he exemplified.
“The fruits of that labour really started to be seen from about the middle of last year,” he continued. “Our product performance has just gotten better and better over the last 18 months, combined with markets opening up and more players joining casino floors.”
One example of Aristocrat’s success is its popular title “Dragon Link,” which is performing “exceptionally well on mass and high-limit floors” in Asian casinos, according to the general manager. At the recent Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2024, a major regional trade show for the casino industry held in Macau in early June, the supplier showcased an extensive game portfolio that went beyond “Dragon Link.” Some of the featured titles included “Grand Legends: Great King,” “Grand Legends: Royal Emperor,” “Caifu Zhong Sheng: Dragon,” “Bao Zhu Zhao Fu,” and others.
Aristocrat Gaming’s parent company, Australia-listed Aristocrat Leisure Ltd, recently reported a year-on-year revenue increase of 6.1 percent to about AUD3.27 billion (US$2.19 billion) in its financial first half. In the October-March 2024 period, its interim profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles (NPATA) rose 8.6 percent year-on-year to AUD752.1 million.
“We’ve been building out our marketing structure… to partner with casinos and bring products to life in a different fashion on the casino floor.”
New standards
The robust performance of the slot supplier in the Macau market can also be attributed to the ongoing replacement of electronic gaming machines (EGMs). Macau operators are upgrading their EGMs to comply with the new EGM Technical Standards mandated by the local gaming regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ). By 31 December 2026, all EGMs in Macau must fully comply with the new standards.
Given the cap of 12,000 gaming machines permitted on Macau casino floors, Mr. Robson estimated that about 35 percent of the machines in the market have been compliant with the new standards, indicating that operators are on track to meet the 2026 deadline.
“We’ve been trying to recruit younger, energetic [and] hungry people who want to grow within Asia and the Macau gaming market.”
Infrastructure and talent
Aside from continuous investments in products, Aristocrat Gaming also emphasises investments in infrastructure and personnel. After opening its first dedicated gaming showroom in the Philippines last year, the supplier spent six months renovating its office and showroom in downtown Macau. The newly revamped facilities in Macau were unveiled in early June, ahead of the G2E Asia 2024.
“We’ve been in this facility for 20 years… but this was the most significant investment that we put into rebuilding the infrastructure to create an environment that is very different for Macau,” Mr. Robson stated. “It’s designed to drive collaboration and engagement, not just for our employees but also for our customers and regulators.”
Aristocrat’s operation in Macau has also seen an expansion in its corporate structure, with the addition of roles in analytics, marketing, and sales. This has increased the headcount of the Macau team to over 20. “Historically, the supplier-casino relationship has been focused on providing games, selling products, and moving on,” he explained, highlighting the importance of the new roles.
“But we’re really trying to deepen those partnerships and add value in areas that are not as invested in across the industry,” the general manager stated. For instance, the supplier’s analytics roles could analyse the data of its titles “to ultimately help [casino] operators drive incremental GGR,” he added.
Significance of marketing
Marketing also plays a crucial role in attracting players, particularly young players, to slot machines. “We’ve been building out our marketing structure… to partner with casinos and bring products to life in a different fashion on the casino floor,” Mr. Robson remarked. “The core slot demographic across the region has typically been of an older vintage.”
“So one of the things that we’ve been doing is partnering with operators, especially in a marketing capacity,” he continued. “How do we package up? How do we retail up? How do we theme our games to create an experience that they [players] haven’t had before? It’s more than just putting a game on the floor and hoping the game will work.”
Aristocrat also focuses on cultivating local talent, as 95 percent of its Macau team consist of locals. “We’re really committed to our local team and growing local talent over the last three or four years,” he added. “We’ve been trying to recruit younger, energetic [and] hungry people who want to grow within Asia and the Macau gaming market.”
“We’re bullish on Asia, and we’re also bullish on the electronic gaming segment, as many markets around Asia have refocused on the mass market, which also lends itself to electronic gaming.”
Double-digit growth
With expectations of continuous recovery and steady growth across the Asian continent, Aristocrat Gaming is confident in the prospects of the regional market. “There’s a lot of growth in front of us and right across the region,” the general manager stated. “[We have] a double-digit growth expectation coming out of Asia.”
“If you look into the next five years, you see a growing Macau market and an expanding Philippine market, led by the president of the Philippines and the chairman of PAGCOR, who are very pro-business,” he explained, referring to the gaming regulator of the Southeast Asian country, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR). “There are also expanding markets in Singapore, Vietnam [and] Cambodia, not to mention markets like Thailand and Japan on the horizon.”
A consortium led by MGM Resorts International and Japanese firm Orix Corp is currently constructing Japan’s first integrated resort with a casino in the prefecture of Osaka, scheduled to open in 2030. Meanwhile, Thailand is in the midst of discussions about legalising casino resorts in the country, with lawmakers endorsing a feasibility study earlier this year.
“We’re bullish on Asia, and we’re also bullish on the electronic gaming segment, as many markets around Asia have refocused on the mass market, which also lends itself to electronic gaming,” Mr. Robson expressed. “As one of the leaders in the electronic space, we are pretty excited about what we see for the future.”
Continuous investments
To seize the opportunities across the region, the supplier is committed to continuous investments. “We will continue to invest in our people, our products, and our infrastructure,” he emphasised. “We’re really focused on providing a diversified portfolio that hits different player segments in order to drive incremental GGR [for casino operators].”
“We have been able to demonstrate over the last 12 months what investments in Asia can deliver, and we have the backing to go after Asia for the next five years and beyond,” he concluded.
