The Future of Casino-as-a-Platform
An industry strategic foresight trends report.
- Your operation is overly cautious with a low appetite for transformational disruption on the casino floor, risking being left behind as the rest of the industry progresses in this digital era.
- Your operation has difficulty attracting new customer segments and struggles to offer a compelling product in the competitive gaming space.
- Online gaming and sports betting have made your operation more vigilant, and therefore your objective is that when players come back to your property, they're not disappointed with what they see.
- The effects of the pandemic are still apparent with your operation most notably dealing with a shortage of labor and skilled labor, as well as health and safety customer concerns.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Transform your casino floor initiative into a casino-as-a-platform strategy by analyzing the six driving trends that embrace the elements of a digital ecosystem and an experience platform which, in turn, will create and enhance a seamless guest-centric experience.
Impact and Result
- Identify: As a methodology, strategic foresight flows from the identification of signals to clustering the signals together to form trends and uncovering what is driving the trends to determine which strategic initiatives are most likely to lead to success on an industry-level.
- Prioritize: Further customize the scores to your casino by tailoring the generalized weightings on an organization-specific level and determining the relevancy and timing to your operations. By doing so, your casino can determine which trend and technology to prioritize for your casino-as-a-platform initiative.
- Align: After establishing what trend and technology to prioritize, establish its benefits that closely align and promote the success of your business’ goals.
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The Future of Casino-as-a-Platform
AN INDUSTRY STRATEGIC FORESIGHT TRENDS REPORT
Analyst Perspective
In a recent interview, John Acres, Founder of Acres Manufacturing, spoke about a meeting he had with the operator of a large casino. During the interview he set a brick 1990’s cellphone down in front of the executives and said, “I believe this represents the state of the technology on your casino floor today.” Then, he took out his new iPhone and said, “This is where I want you to go. This is where we need to be. If we’re not in this new era, we’re not making anywhere close to the revenues we should be making.”
Many casinos are going through a slow rate of progress and pace of change, inflexible to player needs and preferences. Since many casinos are faced with the challenges of the pandemic and meeting expectations of consumers, the objective is for operators to accomplish the Casino Floor of the Future, taking advantage of the many opportunities that could increase revenue and maximize share of wallet. With digital transformation in mind, casinos must understand what innovative products and solutions are on the horizon that will allow for the expansion of operations and survival of the industry. It is the role of IT to help their casino adopt technologies with an eye to long-term technical and business impacts.
Info-Tech’s approach focuses on an analyst’s investigation of strategic foresight, a methodology that helps the IT department and the business process what is happening in the organization’s external environment in a way that guides ideation and opportunity identification. As a methodology, strategic foresight flows from the identification of signals to clustering the signals together to form trends and uncover what is driving the trends in determining which strategic initiatives are most likely to lead to success on an industry level.
LARRY FRETZ
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MONICA PAGTALUNAN
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The Obstacles of a Post-pandemic Casino Operator
| OPERATORS ARE FEELING THE LIMITS
The effects of the pandemic are still apparent with operators most notably dealing with a shortage of labor and skilled labor, as well as health and safety customer concerns. When questioned, MGM’s CFO Jonathan Halkyard said pre-pandemic, the company had 4,750 full-time employees, but “We’re under 3,000 today. We will never go back to 4,750 full-time employees.” Casinos like MGM are forced to consider how they think about labor, services, and products because of the pandemic with a massive amount of learning (and investment) to contemplate. (Escobar, 2021) FACTORS LIMITING OPERATIONS
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ONLINE BECOMES PROMINENT FOR THE INDUSTRY
Online gaming’s presence has dramatically outpaced the brick-and-mortar space during the pandemic making casinos wonder about their potential to cannibalize landbased operations. If anything, online gaming has made brick-and-mortar operators more vigilant and those that had already deployed online gaming more resilient. Everyone and everything is going online and so the answer seemingly lies in capitalizing “digital” in your own sector. There is a lot of pent-up demand to go out, socialize, and have fun, and therefore the objective is that when players come back to land-based casinos, they should not be disappointed in what they see. IGAMING , REGIONAL GAMING , LARGE - CAP GAMING INDICES VS. SAP 500
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Casinos Are at the Precipice of Significant Change
Operators should be concerned about what’s happening in the external environment that has a direct influence on what changes should be made within the four walls of the casino.
Trifecta of Change
- DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION Operators have an eye toward the future and the future lies with the younger demographics. With Gen X and Baby Boomers aging out, casinos must consider a different audience, enhancing the landbased casino gaming experience to sway this new generation of customers. Strategically planning and investing in young bettors, their expectations, and their needs is an advantageous future forward approach.
- DIGITAL CONSUMER LIFESTYLE Sports betting and iGaming are incredibly important attributes to the decisions your casino should make around players and around assets on your property. This evidential increase of revenue goes to show that they have helped casinos get through the pandemic and that operators must make sure they provide an omnichannel experience that factors in these revenue streams.
- HEALTH & SAFETY HABITS Casino operators should be focusing on high-tech/low-touch solutions with manufacturers becoming focused on innovating products and platforms just for this mindset. In the reopening phase, there was an emphasis on barriers, social distancing, and cleaning investments. Now, the emergence of higher-end technology-related innovations has induced the need and desire for digital transformation and adoption.
The Need for Digital Adoption: Casino Floor Technology Hits the Trifecta and More
We must remember why people go to the casino: guests want the social aspect, the feeling of the chips, the pleasant interactions with the staff (i.e. dealers, slot attendants, cage, and loyalty), the thrill of escapism and winning, and the overall atmosphere. In the end, land-based casinos still have one big advantage over their online counterparts – the experience. The live casino experience remains at the heart of the business. And so, the decisions that are made by operators must fall into this.
The trifecta encompasses the overarching requirements and expectations of the consumer, or moreover, the player. To hit the trifecta, the casino must invest in casino floor technologies.
All in all, casinos have a long checklist to accomplish post-pandemic. Luckily, casino floor technology can:
- Lower unnecessary labor
- Invest in skilled labor or training
- Reduce physical touchpoints or allow for social distancing
- Accomplish an omnichannel approach
- Appeal to younger demographics
- Provide a connected consumer experience
- Enable additional and new sources of data points (house average, delineating a casino floor into table game and slot segments, measuring carded and uncarded play, evaluate incremental EBITDA, etc.)
“We have so many opportunities for innovation in the next few years to really get the digital and casino experiences aligned. We have to make sure we live up to those dreams and expectations in order to keep people coming back for more.” (Damien Connelly, Journalist at Casino Life (Connelly, 2021.))
Operators Can Speed Up the Rate of Progress by Investing in Casino Floor Technology
The first step is for operators to see the value of casino floor technology. According to the American Gaming Association, half of their panel respondents (50%) for the Gaming CEO Outlook Report, plan to put extra capital investment into hotel and food and beverage facilities in 2022.
Based on the responses, the casino floor’s outlook is not as promising with overall lower metrics for slot (43%), sportsbook (29%), and table game (14%) product investments.
There is a lot of potential benefits reaped by investing in casino floor technologies, but unfortunately there is an overly cautious and low appetite for transformational disruption on the casino floor. To be successful, operators must instill and embrace change in the casino space. This trends report will surface and investigate trends that Info-Tech is seeing in the casino floor space and determines which strategic initiatives are most likely to lead to success on an industry level.
CASINO AREAS TARGETED FOR EXTRA CAPITAL INVESTMENT| Hotel | 50% |
| Food & beverage | 50% |
| Casino floor – slot | 43% |
| None of the above | 36% |
| Casino floor – Sportsbook | 29% |
| Live entertainment | 21% |
| Casino floor – Table games | 14% |
This Poses a Challenge to Casinos’ IT Departments That Are Below the “Business Partner” Level of Maturity
CIOs MUST CLIMB THE MATURITY LADDER TO HELP CEOs DRIVE GROWTH
Based on GHRC’s 2021 benchmarking data, the industry’s maturity is rated as a “Trusted Operator” on Info-Tech’s maturity ladder. CIOs at this level can play a role in digital transformation by improving back-office processes but should aim for a higher mandate.
CIOs achieving the “Business Partner” level can help directly improve revenues by improving customer-facing products and services, and those at the “Innovator” level can help fundamentally change the business to create revenue in new ways.
IT Innovation Leadership, Business Applications, and Client-Facing Technology are considered underrated services due to their low importance and satisfaction metrics. Furthermore, from an IT staffing perspective, being heavily focused on infrastructure demonstrates that the industry is stagnated on the IT Maturity Ladder as a Trusted Operator. By leveraging casino floor technology to enable new digital capabilities and placing more attention on applications and strategy, your casino will have the opportunity to demonstrate the value of IT and the satisfaction that can be provided. In the end, your IT department can establish credibility with business stakeholders and expand as a transformational or evolutionary innovator.
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What Does the Future Look Like for the Casino Industry?
Casino operators must take the necessary steps to reach the ideal state. Digitally transforming your casino floor is building for this inevitable expansion. It is necessary to monitor and assess the speed of transformations. Those who are slow to adopt expansion will simply be too late and will have missed out on potential opportunities to increase revenue and satisfy guests and may have to rush to catch up.
| OLD SCHOOL WAY OF THE PAST [PRESENT] | COVID-19-INDUCED DIGITAL AGE [2-3 YR. EST.] | CASINO FLOOR OF THE FUTURE [5-10 YR. EST.] |
Current state – slow rate of progress and pace of change:
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Mid-step – modest agenda of reform to reach new heights:
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Ideal state – fully embracing an integrated digital casino ecosystem and experience platform and all the trends that enable it:
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| The Casino-as-a-Platform Perspective: What trends open the door to the ideal state? | ||
What is the Casino Floor of the Future?
LOW LABOR, HIGH PLAY, EXPANDABLE PRODUCT |
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| FULLY AUTOMATED
The casino is operating with less staff, but those staff members are trained and skilled at focusing on the player experience, creating value, and building loyalty. Removing the transaction of mundane tasks and taking advantage of automation opportunities allows the freedom to create a hospitable environment and differentiate the casino experience. |
CUSTOMER FOCUSED
The casino encourages higher time on the device by providing a variety of games that attract different types of players and personalities. With digital marketing and hyper personalization in mind, the casino can also offer automatic promotions, further encouraging higher time on devices and coin-in by considering the player’s budget, personality, wins and losses, and betting patterns. |
CONFIGURABLE & ADAPTABLE
The casino can expand their product offerings to meet consumer expectations and preferences by accomplishing the connectivity that society demands. Players have the freedom to decide what and where to gamble and what currency to transact with and how. There is additional focus on non-gaming amenities to transition and convert consumers to the casino floor where games are fully downloadable and customizable to the personality and preferences of the player. |
Transform Your Casino Floor Technology Initiative Into a Casino-as-a-Platform Strategy
ENABLING THE CASINO FLOOR OF THE FUTURE BY BRINGING TOGETHER TWO OVERARCHING SYSTEMS:
| Digital Ecosystem –
Building for Expansion
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Experience Platform –
Building for an Optimal Experience
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Casino-as-a-Platform: Business Perspective
As casinos incorporate new technological innovations, they must remember that hospitality has always been, and will always be about the people. A Casino-as-a- Platform strategy begins with the operator’s needs but ends with the creation and enhancement of a player-centric experience.
POTENTIAL OPERATOR TAKEAWAYS
- Brand differentiation
- Improved reputation
- Increased revenue
POTENTIAL STAFF TAKEAWAYS
- Operational efficiency and productivity savings
- Employee confidence, satisfaction, and engagement
POTENTIAL PLAYER TAKEAWAYS
- Increased convenience and accessibility of information and services
- Expand value
- Meeting and exceeding expectations of various consumer segments
Casino-as-a-Platform: Foundational IT Elements
WHAT DOES THE BUSINESS NEED FROM IT FOR THE FLOOR’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TO SUCCEED?
| DATA, OPEN APIs & INTEGRATION
The enablement of data, open APIs and integration is the first step necessary to make the casino floor a “platform” as they allow for accessible data points, greater functionality, a better understanding of guest preferences, and the ability to act upon them. |
BIG DATA
The big data business pattern can be used to determine what data sources should be implemented in your casino architecture and which ones will dictate the data integration capabilities required to drive business decisions and make the player experience memorable. |
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Dependent on both algorithms and data, it can interpret information to identify patterns. The goal is to behave in a similar way to a human and enhance the speed of processes and date in real-time. |
| INTERNET OF THINGS
Dependent on the breaking down of data silos and integration, IoT is there to connect players and the casino through smart devices. For example, casino beacons are used to track player betting and spending habits then use the information to offer bonuses, promotions, etc. |
ADVANCED WIRELESS
Connectivity methods gaining visibility are 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and CBRS. Casino-as-a-Platform technology requires a strong technology infrastructure for both casino operations and customer-facing technology. |
HYPER-SCALABILITY
A broad multi-service infrastructure umbrella that involves Edge Computing, Software Defined Networks (LAN), and optimized cybersecurity that is required for omnichannel online and offline enablement. |
Casino-as-a-Platform: Six Enabling Trends
| BRICK & CLICK
Omnichannel converge through mobile engagement The integration of mobile into the casino to steer toward an omnichannel approach that opens the door for an integrated and holistic iGaming and Sports Betting experience. |
INTANGIBLE VALUE CREATION
Rolling the dice on digital assets Cryptocurrency and NFTs enable the play-to-earn model, a modern approach that can be leveraged to incentivize play on the casino floor. |
HYPER-PERSONALIZATION 2.0
Right player, right message, right time The transition from traditional direct mail promotional methods to a digital marketing approach where operators can meet the players’ needs in real-time pre-visit, on the floor, and post-visit. |
| SMART PIT
Revolutionizing traditional table games Refers to the progressive, slot-like improvements of table games, including the ability to go “digital” and the emerging presence and usage of accurate data & analytics. |
CONSUMER ADAPTIVE
Where the casino floor adapts to the player Unconventionally, the casino floor is beginning to adapt to the player and the desire for convenience through technology that meets consumer tech expectations, which expands options while lessening physical touchpoints, hardware, and interfaces. |
READY PLAYER Z
Appealing to younger demographics The pandemic heightened the millennial-to-Gen-Z cultural transition, and the industry is exploring what investments will successfully draw in this sociable and experience-loving demographic of the future. |
Casino-as-a-Platform: Guiding Principles
#1 CONTINUE TO USE DATA AS A CURRENCY
Data as a currency is where your casino starts differentiating itself from competitors. Considered to be one of the most important commodities in casinos, data is used to forge personalized interactions and relationships with players. Data as a currency is a concept that is not going away, so moving forward operators must continue to (or start if they’re not already) spend time analyzing customer information (how they behave, what they prefer, etc.) in order to tailor these experiences and to fully enable the benefits of the technology/trend implemented.
#2 WEAVE REVENUE PER SQUARE FOOTAGE INTO TREND DESIGN
A casino-as-a-platform initiative requires weaving design and planning principles with the emerging technology. Since the operations side is primarily numbers driven, it is important to marry this lens with the player experience and the mechanism of delivery.
- Game – Your casino must have the perspective of game design. Getting a game on the floor in front of your player requires the internal view and testing of the mechanics and theme. The operator must question its performance and whether the game will be right for their casino and player demographics.
- Casino Floor – A noticeable trend is the concept of fewer games on the casino floor. The goal is to focus on products that have a substantial return on investment and remove all the empty noise. Furthermore, operators must consider how the floor space will be separated while still maintaining a sense of connectivity and openness (especially with less hardware on the floor). All in all, the space must be designed to allow the players to journey through a unique and friendly casino floor with the gaming area designed to satisfy all types of players.
#3 DON’T FORGET IT/OT HAND-OFF
For the casino industry, the role of IT is to select and implement the solution. Once implemented, the responsibility of the solution is for the most part transferred over to the departments of the casino such as Slot Operations (Technicians), Security & Surveillance, etc. The concept of IT/OT Hand-Off is that there needs to be a knowledge transfer to the support staff so that they understand how to fix technical issues, as well as awareness that these solutions will be handed off as operational technology and will no longer be the IT department’s responsibility.
#4 ADJUST RESPONSIBLE GAMING AND AML PRACTICES AS YOU FURTHER YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Digital attracts and supports these concepts a lot better, but casino operators should still do their due diligence to ensure the safety of their players. Operators will need to find the balance of encouraging high play while still promoting and giving access to responsible gambling and AML. As technologies emerge and are adopted, consider your responsible gaming plan, self-exclusion program, property signage and responsible gaming disclosures, advertising restrictions, wager and time limits, credit restrictions, restrictions on financial instruments, treatment and research funding, employee training, restrictions on alcoholic beverages, and so on.
Understand the Priorities of Each Stakeholder
ENCOMPASS THE BUSINESS, OPERATIONAL, AND TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY AND IMPACT INTO YOUR RATIONALE
| CASINO OPERATOR/ VP OF OPERATIONS
Focused on understanding business imperatives of technology, seeking opportunities that are deemed necessary or provide crucial impacts to the business holistically. |
VP OF TABLE GAMES, SLOTS
Desire to understand the importance of the technology specifically for their own gaming function and how it could potentially eliminate pain points and boost productivity and player satisfaction. |
IT LEADERSHIP
Focused on identifying technical requirements and considerations when adopting technology solutions with the business’s context at the top of mind. |
WHO WILL BE IMPACTED
This legend appears throughout the trends report to demonstrate where your casino should gain support for each respective trend.
- Casino Operator/ General Manager
- Slot Operations
- Table Game Operations
- Security & Surveillance
- Cage & Count Operations
- Food & Beverage Operations
- Marketing & Special Events
- Hotel Operations
Impacts | Does Not Impact
CASINO-AS-A-PLATFORM | INFO-TECH PULSE SCORE
Criteria and Weighting Factors
Our Info-Tech Pulse scores can help operators evaluate the trends against their priorities. The higher the pulse out of 100, the more available, applicable, and impactful it is to the industry. Info-Tech Pulse scores represent each trend’s weighted impact across two sets of criteria:
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CASINO-AS-A-PLATFORM | INFO-TECH PULSE SCORE
Developing the Trends Radar
DEVELOP A CROSS-INDUSTRY HOLISTIC VIEW OF TRENDS
Moving from horizon scanning to action requires an evaluation process to determine which trends can lead to growth opportunities. Before implementing trend technologies, it is necessary to have a holistic understanding of how they will impact casinos on an industry-specific level.
Info-Tech evaluated the trend opportunities through a set of gaming drivers:
- Business Growth
- Risk & Resilience
- Operational Excellence
- Guest Value
- Brand Impact
Once an organization has identified a trend that warrants exploration, it is valuable to understand the underlying forces that are driving the trend in order to effectively assess its potential impact. Drivers are a fundamental component to building plausible scenarios that could arise from the adoption of a given trend. These value drivers are used to understand what is or is not driving a particular trend. This is achieved by identifying the value drivers for each trend as superior, strong, medium, or weak:
CASINO-AS-A-PLATFORM | INFO-TECH PULSE SCORE
The Gaming Value Drivers
Business Growth
- Drives sustainable growth
- Diversifies methods of generating revenue
- Increases the business market reach
Risk & Resilience
- Mitigates and withstands rapid changes across the business & IT landscapes
- Secures guest information while protecting brand assets
- Easily integrates with current technologies, projects, and strategies
- Is readily available technology and has active vendor support and expertise
Operational Excellence
- Provides transparency in the flow of value to the guest
- Empowers associates and promotes teamwork
- Improves responsiveness in problem solving
Brand Impact
- Enables first-to-market or unique marketing positioning
- Assists in accomplishing strategic priorities
Guest Value
- Surprises and delights associates and guests
- Connects associates with guests on a personal level
- Focuses on enhancing efficiency and convenience
How does each Casino-as-a-Platform trend measure against the gaming value drivers?
The Gaming Value Drivers
CASINO-AS-A-PLATFORM | INFO-TECH PULSE SCORE
Analyzing the Impact of Business Capabilities
DEVELOP A CROSS-INDUSTRY HOLISTIC VIEW OF TRENDS
Moving from horizon scanning to action requires an evaluation process to determine which trends can lead to growth opportunities. Before implementing trend technologies, it is necessary to have a holistic understanding of how they will impact casinos on an industry-specific level.
Info-Tech evaluated the trend opportunities through an additional set of advantage-creating criteria:
- Competitive Advantage
Focusing on these capabilities will deliver differentiated end-customer experiences - Cost Advantage
Focusing on these capabilities will help the organization derive operational efficiencies
These advantage creators are used to understand how impactful a trend is for business alignment and whether IT should be making investments to help the business enhance its capabilities through the implementation of this technology. This is achieved by identifying the number of competitive and cost advantage creators for each trend in the integrated casino business capability map.
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