BYI NOTES FROM G2E

11/16/09 05:45PM EST

Best product they’ve had in years but still not as flashy as the other guys.  Flooding the market with Wheel games.  Solid long-term prospects.  Here are our notes

GENERAL PRESENTATION

Canada replaces 20% of their games like clockwork every five years.

They went to one single platform from seven last year.

This year they have 100% more titles then last year.  ProSeries cabinet + Alpha 2.  Sold 140k iviews and now they have a lot of content coming on that: iview wheel, iview wizard.  Biometrics is going live this year.  Today BYI has 8% of the install base in North America of game opportunities and 13% of sold gaming devices.

They think that normalized replacement range is 80-110k /year.

Upside from new US jurisdictions: 125-150k.  Singapore: 2-3k, Italy: 40-50k, Australia 10-200k opportunity (not in Australia yet but looking for entry as if new regulations pass which would spur replacement cycle), Mexico 30-50, and Brazil 75-ish

The new Uspin touch screen game very cool.  They are going to flood the market with wheel games.  

New huge jumbo 3 wheel.  It’s a huge version of the legacy games.  They added a wheel version of “Hot Shots”.  Now all the wheels will spin.  30 titles on new V32, more Transmissives.  Cash Spin game looks great.  They have a rear projector that is the competition to MLD.  The Uspin touch screen is very cool and is rolling out March/April.  Loveseat "meet in the middle" with two screens.  There is more interaction between players.  New MLD-like product allows the casino to customize pay tables to different customers.  New game maker with progressive.  New “Hot Shot” gives you second chance to win.  

How do they balance more product variety and good product margins?  If volumes increase then they will be able to be able spread fixed costs over a larger base.  Also, they haven't sold a lot of conversions. 300-500 of labor and overhead per unit.  Higher volume allows them to get better pricing on parts.  Think that more volume adds a point and conversion kits is most of it. Doing more legal/accounting from India as well.

50% of their game operations is fixed pricing.  Uspin will be 80/20 participation - but not finalized. Integrating systems and games - touch screens/iviews.  Sold 140K iviews with little content before - now coming out with content - would drive the recurring revenue systems line.

Australia - regulatory changes? It is a mature gaming market with 200k units. If the proposed gaming legislation passes then all units would need to be replaced by 2016.  They may buy someone to get into that market.

Don't see that gaming becomes all software driven. 

Strategy in Italy?  Have done a lot - lots of operators have submitted Bally’s tech specs.  Have handshakes on sales.  In Illinois they will have a distributor.  Have to work on the 500 bet limit content. 

SYSTEMS PRESENTATION

Cool new products: Bally’s live, cool sign, iview DM, biometric recognition.

Bally integration gateway allows for interoperability between all different products and vendors.

SDS 11: the largest slot system manager.  Same code basis globally, backward compatible, internationalized, open, scalable.

Business intelligence - captures data from the casino - reports/dashboards - allows you to track all metrics that you care about that are constantly updated.  Visualization/mapping - allows you to visualize the popularity of the floor and the market that people are coming from.

In FY09, they did 224 implementations (new installs: 46, add-ons: 88 like iview, BI, bonusing, upgrades: 90)

FY 08: did 193 installs - 49 new, 77 add-ons

Have 408,000 slots connected to their system.  600 locations.  240 locations are on high speed networks. 

28 of the largest 46 casinos world wide use Bally’s.

Competitive replacements:

  • Oneida - replaced IGT
  • Coushatta- ALL
  • South point BI - IGT mariposa
  • Greektown BI - IGT marisposa
  • SJM: ALL

ISLE came back to them from the IGT system that they replaced them with 4 years ago

BYI makes about 3k per slot device on a systems install - legacy - new are about 4k per device.  Average net competitive systems replacements - 8k slots: 32mm, new casino additions - average 17K units - new casino additions.

Canada is coming out with 100s of MMs of RFPs over the next few months.

Server based gaming:

  • Targeted marketing at point of play. 1) They will be able to customize second chance to win  2) Slot tournaments 3) customizing marketing content by gender and age 4) community events - however the operator defines them

Employee and customer self service:

1) Drinks ordering

2) Kiosk and POS

Game management:

1) Game configuration

2) Dynamic bet configuration

3) Peripheral management - for things like software upgrades/new bills/etc

Their iviews can talk to any system/any protocol/any manufacturer.  This allows customers to add new technology on old devices.

Showcased their server window.  Users can buy lottery tickets, place bets, order drinks (and save each customer's preferences). Can hide the window.

At City Center, the system isn't really stable.  BYI, ALL, Konami decided that it wasn't in their best interest at opening.  All their games will be there (22% of floor) but will have next generation and not SB. 100 WMS games will have SB windows and the rest will have Next Generation. All their games and ALL and Konami will just have Next Generation. Later on they will move to DM once the environment is stable.  Ask WMS why 450 of their games at city center won't have a SB window.  “Go check out Monte Carlo and see for yourself why".

Will have multiple properties committed to full DM view rollout before end of the year.  Also have a language option and ability to have a left hand screen pop out as well.

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