Aristocrat CEO Talks Entering Sports Betting Market

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Aristocrat CEO, Trevor Croker about sport betting market

Aristocrat CEO Talks Entering Sports Betting Market

In most gambling establishments, casino gambling, whether online or offline and sports betting, are closely related. Often, you will find a casino site with a sportsbook market and vice-versa. While this has been a significant scenario, Aristocrat, a manufacturer and supplier of casino software and related products, has been exclusively known for this specialization. Prospects are rife now that Aristocrat has plans underway to venture into the lucrative world of sports betting. In this article, we dig deeper to bring all aspects regarding the developments at Aristocrat as informed by the need to cast its net wider.

 

Aristocrat Gaming is a Global Leader

 

Cut above the rest; it is no doubt that Aristocrat is a global leader in gaming innovations. Established in the 1950s, Aristocrat has experienced considerable leaps in the right direction. It operates in at least 90 countries and 300 gaming jurisdictions. Among its innovations that shaped gaming’s future is the launch of an exclusive Aristocrat Hyperlink system in the 1990s. To date, the system links up all progressive games by Aristocrat.

 

60+ Aristocrat Slots Collection

 

As a renowned player within the social casino, casual games and RPG markets, Aristocrat takes pride in these market-leading products.

  • Buffalo Slots. The latest addition in the Buffalo franchise was part of the inaugural MarsX Cabinet during the 2020 Global Gaming Expo.
  • Lightning Link Casinos. The latest platform from Product Madness that offers you a chance to an adventurous in-game mission replete with metagames, a ladder-up bonus feature, and incredible rewards
  • Cashman Casino Slots. It is the best platform to play Aristocrat 3-reel and 5-reel pokie machines for real money.

 

Besides, a range of Aristocrat Digital Products continue to place it among the top-notch companies.

  • Product Madness. Acquired by Aristocrat in 2013, it marked the company’s entry into digital markets with popular casino apps like the Heart of Vegas and Lightning Link. Since then anyone can play Aristocrat pokies online in Australia for real money that include the best Buffalo slots, 5 Dragons, Big Red and other no deposit free games with a high chance to win real money.
  • Acquired by Aristocrat in 2017, this originally Israel-based is a top supplier of mobile social games.
  • Big Fish. Aristocrat acquired it in 2018 and is known for its wide range of products spanning social gaming, social casino and premium paid games.

 

 

Expanding Into Sports Betting: Aristocrat CEO

gerenme—Getty Images; imageBROKER/Shutterstock

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: GERENME—GETTY IMAGES; IMAGEBROKER/SHUTTERSTOCK

 

With a successful business of supplying slot machines and digital games, Aristocrat considers a move into sports betting. Perceived as a viable option, the company has been receiving customer reactions regarding the matter. Commenting on the matter, Aristocrat CEO, Trevor Croker, had this to say in an interview to GGRAsia. “We have the balance sheet, and we also have the intent – as you can see from our previous acquisitions – to either build or buy.”

 

While taking part in an online interview with Fantini’s Research, Frank Fantini, Mr Croker continued to point to Aristocrat’s likely entry into the sports betting market. He said that they are monitoring the market to assess what is right for the company. He further argued that they are continually looking at customers’ feedback to make an informed decision. He said, ‘We get a lot of feedback from our (land-based operator) customers, and we are listening a lot to our customers, about what they want in a solution, and how they think is the best way to enter the sports betting field.’

 

Trevor Croker shares CEO Insights 2020 in Fantini’s Research Interview

 

Aristocrat’s growing fortunes have informed the move to venture into sports betting following diversification into social games and other online gaming products. A move into the sportsbook industry is equally based on investment analysts’ projections that sports betting in North America have been a growing consumer market segment coinciding with liberalization efforts due to the Covid-19 pandemic impact.

 

Voicing up on the subject matter, Mr Croker echoed diversification efforts. He had this to say, “Fortunate with the diversification of the last few years, with the digital business, which is showing some solid performance during a time when many land-based casinos have seen their business facing either temporary shutdown or reduced revenue due to the pandemic”. 

 

Market Entry Odds and Challenges

 

Even as the company ponders about entry into the sports betting market, the management is aware of the challenges.

  • The legality of gambling. Although online sports betting is legal in some states like New Jersey, other states are yet to legalize gambling, limiting the potential market entirely. States like California, Illinois, or New York promise a bigger market, but authorities are stricter in allowing full-scale sports betting activities.
  • Most states have a head start that works against incoming betting companies. As such, states allowing, for instance, the Aristocrat betting platform will have the chance to levy the maximum possible rates as opposed to when the company may precede enactment of betting control laws. The huge amount of taxes may stifle the company’s plan at the infancy stage.
  • Vague future of the betting industry. In the USA, the sports betting market is mostly vague. There have been campaign groups that are against the legalization of web-based gambling.

 

Nonetheless, company officials have anticipated such setbacks. Company’s view is that these plans need not be shelved as rarely will you find any business without entry barriers. Management is making strategic decisions while referring to eminent factors like timing, leveraging complementary assets, and scale compared to the competition.

 

Some of the steps the company has made include partnering with NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. The deal will see Aristocrat, the official partner of Raiders, and their Allegiant Stadium. This will afford Aristocrat the chance to showcase its products through signage on the stadium for a whole year. The company will enjoy in-game and in-stadium naming and branding rights. Besides, Aristocrat will serve as the official presenting sponsor of the club’s 50/50 Raffle. This is a joint effort that will see both Raiders and Aristocrat giving back to the community often.

 

Aristocrat Technologies and the Las Vegas Raiders new partnership

 

Based on previous successful entries into relatively volatile markets, Aristocrat may prove a success if they consider these factors in their decisions.

  • Aristocrat Gaming ought to use objective predictors to create a practical and workable reference class. This is enabled by studying similar companies with such scenarios in the past and their decisions. This provides a comparative data set for reality checks to illuminate the inside view.
  • Consider the outside view. While it is important to study what your peers have done in the future, it is also better to set the new rules yourself. Many companies in the oil, motion pictures pharmaceuticals have fallen for the “confirmation trap” approach and failed big time in their grand entry plans. Instead of over-relying on inside factors, Aristocrat needs to benefit from an array of outside stats while looking at parameters like relatedness of the market on plans, complementary assets, and entry order.
  • Aristocrat Company should consider enhancing factors identified in the inside view approach. In addition to drawing down references, the company ought to settle on the 5 important issues: the market size, level of competition, market share and revenues, costs, and the proposition value and capabilities. Experts argue that the closer a company is to its important/core issues, the higher the chances of benefiting from a successful entry plan.

 

Looking in Digital Future with Aristocrat Gaming

 

Aristocrat’s future is taking shape, given its recent rebranding to give birth to Aristocrat Gaming. Enlivened with vibrancy and first-class market portfolios, Aristocrat is packaged with futuristic features, creative collateral, and customer support communications.

Aristocrat Gaming 2020 Performance Overview

 

Looking at the performance figures, it is likely that Aristocrat will, from 2021, commit most of its resources towards the expansion of digital products. The general view was that COVID-19 hurt almost all Aristocrat gaming revenue channels. The digital segment, however, went against the waves, as underscored by the following statistics from the official 2020 Profit Announcement.

  • With a bias for digital products, the Diversification strategy saw its digital revenue section grow by 29% to reach $1,609 million with significant growths in Cashman Casino™ and Lightning Link™. Also contributing to this enormous growth was the great success following the launch of EverMerge™. This significantly mitigated the overall gaming revenue decrease, which stood at 32%. Besides, bookings for digital products went up by 31%, partly attributed to the continued scaling of new games and enhanced portfolio investments.

Aristocrat Key Franchises that impact digital revenue section growth in 2020

 

  • With Aristocrat Digital recording a profit increase of 34% and margin up by 30.8%, it is only justifiable to channel resources towards this market segment.
  • Besides portfolio diversification, Aristocrat gaming is likely to scale world-class RPG games to release 2 new casual games in the first half of 2021.
  • The company is likely to experience a surge in digital bookings as User Acquisition (UA) spend is expected to remain within the targeted levels of 25%-28% of all digital revenues.
  • While the normalized profit after tax and before amortization of acquired intangibles (NPATA) of $476.6 million represented a 47% decline compared with the previous year, America’sAmerica’s business segment experienced a 5.9% expansion of its class 3 premium gaming operations. Besides, the Digital segment posted post-tax revenue earnings growth of a whopping $129.4 million due to what was termed as an outstanding performance from social casino platforms and the constant scaling of games like RAID: Shadow Legends.
  • Group’s overall strategic investment in top-talent and technology acquisition is likely to be maintained or increased over the years to put the company in a better position for business growth.