Public Gaming Research Institute / Public Gaming Magazine

Public GamingDick HaddrillChief Executive Officer, Bally Technologies, Inc.Public Gaming:Since you joinedBally in 2004 thecompany’s stock hasmore than tripled, goingfrom $12 to over$42. Is there anythingin particular that youwould point at as contributingto the success of Ballyin the last five years?Dick Haddrill: First,we developed a five-yearstrategic plan. The entirefocus of this plan wasbased on how we can bebetter partners with ourcustomers, how we can getevery single aspect of thebusiness to become obsessivelycustomer-centric. Then we assembleda great team with key positions led by peoplelike Gavin Isaacs as our chief operating officer,Ramesh Srinivasan to head our systemsbusiness, Bruce Rowe to lead strategy andbusiness development, and Dan Savage tooversee marketing and product management.We all like to think we are customer-centric.But with fully half of your employees concentratingon R & D, and tools like Business Intelligencethat help the customer optimize the performanceby making better use of information and data,that notion seems to have a genuinely substantivemeaning for Bally.D. Haddrill: It really does. We have doubledour R&D personnel in the last five yearsto ensure strong innovation and quality. Wealign every aspect of our business toward customersuccess.The most important thing we do is to createa great player experience. We work hardto be very active listeners to both players andcustomers. Our business is really about twothings; creating unique game play experiencesfor the player, and operating a casino for optimalbusiness success. Obviously, the two arerelated, but optimal business success requiresmore than great games, and we partner withour customers in all aspects of building a successfulbusiness. Our entire cultuture is builtaround being a great partner to our customers.How do you differentiate between the needsof the next-generation player and the core playerthat will continue to drive revenues for a longtime? Is there anything interesting about the wayyou approach the whole business of getting feedback… focus groups and all that kind of thing?D. Haddrill: We’ve continuously evolvedour product management and marking functions.Our Vice President of Marketing, DanSavage, joined us from 3M Corporation abouta year ago. Dan brings more organization anddiscipline to the market data processes. We’vegot much more data than ever, but there stillis an art to product planning. The art comesfrom the ability to manage the data, but at thesame time realize that data isn’t 100 % accurate.Game design and development teams arecreative and you need to allow that creativityto flourish. We must encourge their imaginationand ability to see connections that thedata sometimes do not reveal. For example,we have the license for Playboy games. Andyet the biggest players of our Playboy gamesare middle-aged women. I can tell you thatbeta-stage focus groups did not reveal that.That’s just one example of how certain typesof games can appeal to many different demographicsin unpredictable and sometimes verysurprising ways. Why are steppers more popularon the East Coast and video slots morepopular on the West Coast? Why did someinternational video markets all of a suddenadopt steppers as we evolved steppers to includemore bonusing and multi-line features?In the end it takes some good judgment callsto know when to bow to the imagination orstick with the measurable data-driven conclusions.And, to acknowledge that you will notalways bat 1,000.Information and data are ubiquitous. The challengewe all face now is how to inform with contextand meaning. It seems like you’re developingprocesses and tools like Business Intelligence thathelp you and your customers do just that.D. Haddrill: Absolutely. Bally BusinessIntelligence is a great example. Data aboutwhat happens across an entire property as wellas at the specific game stations themselves iscritical to guidingssolid operating decisions.Our Business Intelligence products applytechnology to the task of sorting through thehuge amounts of data so that the operator cansee patterns that guide the decision-makingprocess. It isolates the most relevant indicatorsthat drive their business This tool is onlyuseful if it’s coupled with solid judgment ofthe executives tasked with analyzing the dataand making the decisions.And use that knowledge to drive a more effectivedecision-making process.D. Haddrill: Exactly. We try to combineas much of our own broad experiences and insightwith the data of each customer so thatour customers can optimize their decisions. .Our industry really is five to seven years behindother industries in its adaptation of newtechnology. As this wave of data is mined andtools like Business Intelligence are developedto convert this data into insight, we will seeaccelerated planning, development, and decision-makingprocesses that ultimately drive abetter entertainment experience for players,and more profits for operators. There will bea leap forward in data-management in gamingover the next few years.Why is the gaming industry five to sevenyears behind?D. Haddrill: There are three main reasonswhy the industry is behind. First, the regulatoryenvironment has made it somewhat riskyfor suppliers to introduce new technologiesthat are not yet fully proven. Two, there are afairly limited number of technology suppliersbecause of the very strict regulatory environmentfor licensing, which is necessary. Andthree, the suppliers grew up primarily boxmanufacturers, so technology is not part ofthe core DNA.…continued on page 36Public Gaming International • January 2010 16