internationalcasinoreview
2012 Report
With a strong and broad base in operations, Apex Gaming has firm foundations on which to build innovative products as well the ability to prove how well they work in the wider market.
innovationcycle APEX GAMING
Apex Gaming’s philosophy is to take gaming to ‘the next level’ as the company demonstrated the strength and depth of its products and solutions at ICE. As both a games manufacturer and a significant operator in several European markets, the company is well placed to receive market informa- tion at first hand, which it believes ensures a short innovation cycle allowing them to bring new and entertaining gaming ele- ments quickly to market. One of those innovations is its Evolution platform offering 3D games on 2D screens, which it previewed at ICE last year. Having been extensively tested in Apex’s operations in the Czech Republic, it is now ready to ship. The platform allows players to navigate a spec- tacularly rendered virtual environment to find bonuses: they can choose to go in any direction in the virtual world and explore new areas. Apex has now developed five 3D games: The Adventures Of Captain Nemo, Legend Of The Sphinx II, Wonderland, Ocean Tale 2 and Royal Fruits, each offering a range of options to players from adventurous and entertain- ing games right up to tradi- tional fruit games.
Multi-games continue to be a hugely important element in all operations and Apex’s Multi Magic has seen its fair share of the
TransAct showcases Epicentral
developmentcentral TRANSACT TECHNOLOGIES
CEO and founder Johannes Weissengruber with the Evolution 3D games
Apex takes it to the next level
market. At ICE, the company launched a package of 20 brand new games with varying levels of volatility to meet the needs of any player. “They are fun, exciting and intelligent,” said Apex founder and CEO Johannes Weissengruber. “The Multi Magic VI games package blends in perfectly with the current Apex games choice. The fact that Apex gaming is an operator in many Euro- pean countries means that each game can be tried and tested over a substantial time before being intro- duced to the market. And the result is fun games that will be well accepted by the players - that is what we are well known for.” The company was also demonstrating its Pinnacle range of cabinets, available in both upright and slant top (SL) versions, each incorporating high defini- tion monitors as well as a
BMM here to help
testingthewaters BMM
Global compliance and testing firm BMM exhibited at ICE with a view to helping emerging manufacturers meet the technical product requirements needed to make an impact in the market of their choice. The company’s senior VP of operations in the Ameri-
38 March 2012 •ICEreport
cas, Richard Williamson, said: “Our presence at ICE has worked well for us. It puts us in a positive light, especially from the perspec- tive of manufacturers who are emerging into the gaming industry and need our guidance. We can give them practical help.” Williamson revealed that BMM had had talks at ICE with several companies
patented cooling system to ensure cool and clean running,
significantly
adding to the machine’s longevity and uptime. Apex offers products
across the entire range of gaming operations includ- ing a casino management system Pro Link, the innova- tive Quikker game and the Shuffle King shuffler. The unique Quikker, now
featuring TITO, combines elements of poker and roulette but provides better odds on both for the player - with prizes of up to 100 times the bet. It has already seen considerable success in the Czech Republic where there are around 25 machines in operation, and also in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo. “It’s easy to learn,” said
Weissengruber. “Players approach with curiosity and then stay to play because there is so much going on. And it’s a good earner for
casinos, too.” The GLI-approved
Shuffle King is a shuffler exclusively marketed by Apex and introduced to the market last year. “Shuffle King combines reliability with economic pricing and several major operators are now using it,” said sales manager Eric Walluschnig. Apex’s very latest venture is into mobile gaming: Magic Mobile can be downloaded as an app on a tablet com- puter and allows customers to play five of the company’s most exciting games. It also lets players know where their nearest land-based Apex games can be played. “It’s a great marketing
tool,” said Weissengruber. “It really proves we are taking gaming to the next level: through complete land- based gaming solutions, even more games, our 3D technology and mobile gaming - we are well placed for the future.”
Sharing a stand with its exclu- sive European distributor Eurocoin at ICE, diversified gaming printer manufacturer TransAct technologies has become renowned for prod- ucts including the Epic 950 server-based slot ticket solu- tion and the ServerPort pro- motional coupon printer. This year the Las Vegas- headquartered company was represented by Eurocoin sub- sidiary E-Service at the nearby EAG International Expo, but for the purposes of ICE was targeting casino and high-end street gaming sectors, with the new Epicen- tral Print System taking centre stage.
The Epicentral Print System is an easy-to-use software system that enables a casino to develop unique promotional coupons, offers and marketing messages and deliver them directly to their customers in real-time at the slot machine.
Epicentral connects to any existing slot machine regard- less of the game’s manufac- turer or the casino’s slot system as long as the slot machine has an Epic 950 printer. Casinos that do not currently have Epic 950s in
their slot machines can easily upgrade their current ticket printers to TransAct’s Epic 950 and ServerPort and then implement Epicentral. “We launched Epicentral with all of the new modules at G2E last year, but ICE repre- sents the European debut,” said Tracey Chernay, execu- tive vice president of sales and marketing for TransAct. “The new modules - Epicen- tral Campaign Centre, Epi- central Mobile Player and Epicentral Mobile Host allow unprecedented personalisa- tion of promotional coupons.” The Epicentral Campaign
Centre gives casino opera- tors the ability to fully auto- mate the use of Epicentral across the casino floor and create specific rules utilising their gaming, retail and hotel data as well as real-time casino play to determine when to print a particular coupon, all scheduled in a user-friendly application. Epicentral Mobile Player, meanwhile, allows casinos the ability to offer coupon choices to their players via a Smartphone application, and Epicentral Mobile Host pro- vides casino hosts with the ability to utilise an iPad or Smartphone to give coupons directly to players on the casino floor.
TransAct’s Tracey Chernay demonstrates the company’s new Epicentral Print System
Richard Williamson, BMM’s senior VP of operations in the Americas
with whom his organisation had not previously worked - and in some cases didn’t even know existed. “We’ve managed to make definitive working plans with a lot of them already,” he told Inter- national Casino Review. “We like to help them get into markets in the first instance and they pay us to do just that. You simply can’t replace eye-to-eye contact when it comes to building trust in a business relationship.” Williamson added that he
had been from booth to booth with a view to working out how to partner with new clients. He con- cluded: “It’s really impor- tant to be here as we’ve also managed to serve our key customers. After the show, we’ll all gather up our notes and share our new contact information. Everyone col- lectively reports on the results of the meetings we’ve had over the three days at the show and we’ll follow it all up immediately afterwards.”
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