{"id":11592,"date":"2013-09-24T10:16:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T18:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11592"},"modified":"2013-09-27T16:40:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-28T00:40:24","slug":"new-look-for-igt-bally-thinks-small-why-see-britney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/new-look-for-igt-bally-thinks-small-why-see-britney\/","title":{"rendered":"New look for IGT; Bally thinks small; Why see Britney?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"web1_WEB-IGT-LOGO\"<\/a>There’s a new logo in town and it belongs to International Game Technology<\/strong>. That futuristic type you see is emblematic of the slot-machine company’s ongoing reinvention of itself into an online-gaming provider<\/a>. The firm may be rolling out new machines this week themed around Avatar<\/em> (available early next year), Bridesmaids<\/em> and Jurassic Park<\/em>, but CEO Patti Hart<\/strong> has made no secret of where she thinks the future of IGT lies. The company made sure to have its new logo prominently on display when Wall Street<\/strong> analysts were given advance tours of the IGT booth — always the focal point of the Global Gaming Expo<\/strong> show floor.<\/p>\n

“At this year\u2019s show, IGT will exhibit more than 70 new for\u00a0sale titles, with ~30% having been recently released, and the balance\u00a0coming over the next few quarters<\/em>,” wrote J.P. Morgan<\/strong> analyst Joseph Greff<\/strong>. Counterintuitively, one of IGT’s goal is to extend the lifespan of the boxes it places on casino floors, flying in the face of the all-important replacement cycle.<\/p>\n

\"Hart\"<\/a>IGT is also innovating<\/strong> something called Enhanced Content<\/strong> whereby two versions of the same game are downloaded to the slot floor, one readily available to players, the other dormant until play levels for the basic version justify an upgrade. “The idea behind Enhanced Content is that IGT can\u00a0monitor the play levels of the base game, and release the second title at\u00a0the appropriate time in order to extend the life of the game<\/em>,” wrote Greff. Of course, IGT will also be showing off its DoubleDown<\/strong> gaming application, upon which Hart (successfully) staked her job.<\/p>\n

Since Scientific Games<\/strong> is still in a sensitive phase of its WMS Industries<\/strong> acquisition, it didn’t have much of interest<\/a> to tell Deutsche Bank<\/strong>‘s Carlo Santarelli<\/strong>. Fortunately, Bally Technologies<\/strong> was a bit chattier<\/a>. Despite a slowdown in the installation of wide-area progressive games, Bally intends to devote more R&D to that sector of its business. The absorption of SHFL Entertainment<\/strong> proceeds apace and, due to SHFL’s big presence in the Pacific Rim, is expected to open new markets to Bally.<\/p>\n

The latter is<\/strong>, like IGT, de-emphasizing replacement cycles. Instead, it is focused on slot routes in Illinois<\/strong>, where it looks to take 30% percent of the market and eventually place 15,000 machines. Small casinos will be another Bally focus going forward. Thanks to the reputation of its slot platform, it has a staggering 450,000 slots hooked up — but Bally wants more.<\/p>\n

As you have probably read<\/strong>, a certain Britney Spears<\/strong> will be headlining at Planet Hollywood<\/strong>, an event announced last week. (In being helicoptered to the announcement, the ex-Mrs. Kevin Federline<\/strong> blew chunks whilst airborne, my sources tell me.) I can’t think of a good reason to see Ms. Spears in concert but Thrillist<\/em>, ever vigilant, has come up a lucky seven<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a new logo in town and it belongs to International Game Technology. That futuristic type you see is emblematic of the slot-machine company’s ongoing reinvention of itself into an online-gaming provider. The firm may be rolling out new machines … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[77,4,29,58,37,160,107,92,9,38,89],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11662,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11592\/revisions\/11662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}