The feel-good factor of tournaments can make a real impression on cashbox but they do require a significant investment - in time and money. And a large number of installed machines certainly helps. It is for this reason that the most successful industry tournaments have been managed by the largest manufacturers, distributors and operators, who have these resources.

Again - like parties - some of the best tournaments can be small affairs. One machine, a pub full of willing players and a motivated pub landlord can be a recipe for success. But for those who would like to be involved in national or international tournaments, the situation is far more complex.

 "The biggest challenge in establishing a tournament is creating a back office server system capable of managing multiple machines and locations and updating all the data on an ongoing basis," says Nick Hardy, business development manager at Games Warehouse, which has run the Merit TOURNACHAMP tournament in the UK since 2006.

"This requires very specific expertise and substantial capital investment and Games Warehouse has benefitted greatly from our exclusive access to the Merit network that has been proven through almost a decade of successful operation. As others who are successfully operating this superb genre of entertainment will confirm, the learning curve is long and steep, the personnel required have specific skills and the cost of market entry is immense," he adds.

Electrocoin, the UK distributor, has been involved in organizing tournaments since 1995, when the first Golden Tee golf tournaments began. The company's Kevin Weir believes the biggest challenge in organizing a successful tournament is, "Ensuring that the message is communicated to the player. Advertising away from the machine is difficult with many pubs refusing poster campaigns. The live events are time consuming and logistically costly but rewarding because the players that attend are totally committed to the event and are hungry to win."

Choosing the right games for tournament play is also essential. "There has to be something for everybody, so we select our tournament games very carefully. It is important to have a balanced mixture, from classic card games to exciting quiz games to tricky games of skill and attractive prizes  - after all, they offer a substantial incentive for players to take part in the tournaments. The chance of winning something makes the tournament even more exciting and more interesting for all the players in the struggle for the most points", says Siegfried Dattl jun. managing director of TAB-Austria, which has been holding national and international tournaments regularly since 2002.

Peter Davis, business development director at UK operating giant Gamestec agrees that games are key, "It is essential to ensure we choose a tournament game that creates incremental play rather than substitution from other games and to make sure that a variety of tournament games are utilised to avoid the same expert players winning every time. There is also the challenge of choosing the right length of tournament to encourage repeat play but avoid boredom," he says.

This is a problem also highlighted by Josef Öhlinger, CEO of funworld ag - one of the pioneers of coin-op tournaments. He claims the most difficult aspects of organizing tournaments are: "Selecting an interesting game (e.g. card, quiz or skill game) and taking the necessary tournament configurations like the length or level (e.g. long or short-term, national or international) of a tournament.

"Legal issues also have to be taken into consideration as well as the best possible rewarding system (e.g. ranking lists, credits, vouchers, cups). But the most important thing is that a new tournament must fit into the overall tournament plan so that it does not collide with already existing ones," he adds.

Funworld's PHOTO PLAY games follow the philosophy "positive games" which stands for free of violence, free of gambling and free of pornography, so the games are allowed in almost all countries worldwide. "The same is true for the tournaments which are also allowed without appreciable restrictions in almost all countries of the world," says Öhlinger.

Fellow Austrian touchscreen manufacturer TAB laments the attitude of the Italian government toward tournament play. "In Italy, tournaments are forbidden by law, so we currently have to exclude Italian players from participation in the tournaments. Its real pity, our SILVERBALL terminals are particularly popular in that country - in the ranking list for the individual games, which is constantly updated on our community platform CHAMPIONSNET, Italian players are often right at the top. We very much hope that Italy will relax its laws in the near future, in order to also give our Italian customers the opportunity to take part in our international tournaments," says Siegfried Dattl jun.

Legal considerations vary greatly in different European countries and involve the perception of the type of game by the authorities and the type of prize being offered. Electrocoin's Kevin Weir found the situation limiting when organising his golf tournaments.

"In Europe the situation is very limited, only Ireland, Sweden and Finland have taken part previously, but even Sweden have had to pull out, although players from all of these countries have taken part in our live UK tournaments," he says. "The game must be pure skill with the same game being offered to all contestants. This we have achieved with Incredible Technologies Golden Tee and Funworld's PHOTO PLAY."

In the UK, operator Gamestec's skills with prizes machines (SWPs) actually fall outside of gaming regulations. However the company ensures that all its games comply with the BACTA Code of Practice for SWP Machines.

Nick Hardy of Games Warehouse highlights another legal aspect of tournaments that is crucial and sometimes overlooked. "The main legal discipline is adherence to Data Protection legislation. All tournament players have to provide personal information in order to complete registration and our systems must be vigilantly secured in order to protect the privacy of our players and the integrity of our events," he says.

"Some of those who aspire to run networked tournaments believe that is a comparatively easy task. They are mistaken. It is highly specialist and in our view there are less than half a dozen coin-op companies in the world who have the required capabilities, and only one of those is operating on a viable basis in the United Kingdom," he adds.

Persuading the player to take part is another challenge facing the tournament organiser. "The most effective advertising in our experience is achieved by obtaining the buy in of the Retailer and their on site management team through effective communication. Staff incentives can also work well as they help generate strong word of mouth messages to pub customers," says Gamestec's Peter Davis.

"A strong visual game is essential to attract players. We have also tried point of sale (POS) advertising including signs and posters, but have found it is relatively expensive and not as effective as when licensees and or customers generate a strong word of mouth message about the tournament."

Funworld uses every possible form of communication to get its message across, "We advertise the tournaments with the PHOTO PLAY message system, the event calendar, special teaser promotions or ad champagnes in the dual-mode of the terminals. In addition to that, we also use point of play materials like posters, flyers or crowners to advertise the tournaments. Even stickers, cards or teaser CDs are in use for promoting the tournaments," says Josef Öhlinger.

But undoubtedly one of the biggest attractions to the player is the possibility of beating other players in pursuit of a big prize. In the UK, cash is king and the top prize usually stands around £1,000. "In the past we have offered a range of prizes including activity days, plasma TVs  and meal vouchers. However we find that customers prefer cash prizes and most of our tournaments now offer cash prizes," says Peter Davis.

For those running international tournaments - prizes need to be non-cash. Here, companies can offer an experience of a lifetime as a prize. "The range of prizes that are given in the tournaments is also an important success factor and depends, among other things, upon the type of tournament," says TAB's Siegfried Dattl jr. "From high-quality digital cameras and LCD televisions to wellness weekends, mountain-bikes and dream holidays - the prizes are always carefully and suitably chosen for the tournament. Special highlights are the tournaments in which a holiday is given away, such as in our current tournament "Las Vegas 2009", which will take the happy winner and a companion to the gambling Mecca in Nevada for a week."

Funworld offers credits, vouchers and cups as prizes for its tournaments and emphasis the "sporting" nature of its tournament play - with honour and achievement being key factors. However, the finals of its Olympics-style international tournaments, held every few years, usually take place in a holiday resort and with meals, entertainment and accommodation provided for international participants, just taking part for finalists is a prize in itself.

On one aspect of tournament organisation all of our contributors were in agreement - that of the importance of the close participation of the operator. "Operators are the lifeblood of coin-op tournaments and this is a true partnership. Whilst we can provide the technology, the network and the back office support, it is the operators who are the men on the ground," says Nick Hardy. "It is they who have the relationship with retailers and it is they who have to embrace the opportunity and ‘sell' this concept at street level. We work as closely as possible with operators on tournament development because its success is dependant upon their input and support. The benefits to operators are considerable, and you get out what you put in, so this is a totally integrated team effort."

"It is clear that those operators that make the effort to ensure licensees are briefed and promotional material is used are seeing the benefit. In addition technical training pays off, this is something that we have run seminars on over the years in operator depots that has had enormous benefit," agrees Kevin Weir.

As an operator Gamestec knows only too well how important the role is. "We have an extremely important role in promoting the tournament. It is our job to communicate information about the tournaments to licensees and to get their buy in so they are able to promote it effectively to their customers," says Peter Davis.

Funworld gets the operators on board by putting them in control to a certain extent. "The operators are very important for the promotion of the tournaments as they can support it with their personal engagement most effectively," says Josef Öhlinger. "Operators can even organize their own tournaments with the web based service tool "funservice". The so called Operator Cup is set up in no time fairly easy and allows a rewarding of the winners through the "Local Heroes" function. To promote their tournaments, operators can create their own advertisements with the funservice tool too and use diverse advertising materials like posters or crowners to raise the player's attention for their tournaments."

TAB's Siegfried Dattl jr sums up the win/win situation when operators work closely with the company to promote tournaments. "Of course it is important and in their own interests for our customers to also announce the tournaments in their pubs and inns. Winning prizes, competing against other players and appearing in the rankings lists is an immense incentive for players, and the more intensively the venue operator advertises the tournaments, the more guests will be aware of the tournament and thus also of the organiser's inn. This increases the takings enormously and is also an important means of binding players for the long term."

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---