Gaming hope for bookies - Euroslot - the independent voice of the amusement and gambling industry

Gaming hope for bookies

Published: 08 September, 2010

British bookmakers are increasingly looking to gaming machines to provide income growth in the face of widespread closures and growing costs.

Five hundred betting shops have closed across the UK in just two years, according to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, a decline that the

Association of British Bookmakers has characterised as the beginning of an “unprecedented downward spiral as the extortionate media rights fall on the remaining shops”.

Independents even held an emergency meeting in Wolverhampton this summer

to discuss forming a collective for negotiations with suppliers and regulators.

But gaming machines seem to be one bright spot on the bookmakers' horizon.

Scientific Games subsidiary The Global Draw, for example, has recently won its largest ever contract, to supply 7600 terminals to Ladbrokes. The Global

Draw's machines will go into at least 95 percent of Ladbrokes' 2170-shop estate, with rollout beginning early next year.

The 13-year-old supplier will be joined in the project by Playtech's subsidiary

Videobet, which is providing the platform and sharing capital costs. Videobet will also contribute some content, supplemented by The Global Draw's own games, licensed material from Hasbro, and titles from International Game Technology's Barcrest.

"The betting industry is highly competitive and machines are an increasingly important part of the overall trading mix for betting shops,” said Richard Ames, managing director of Ladbrokes Retail. The Global Draw units had improved takings in an 84-shop trial, he added.

Independents, too, are benefiting from in-shop gaming. The Global Draw has seen a year-on-year increase in gross win of ten percent across its independent-bookmaker users, with the number of installations of its Nevada gaming terminals also growing to nearly 750.

Global Draw managing director Phil Horne said: “We know how important machine income is to betting shops and recognise that the majority of independent operators don’t have access to the same resources and budgets for machine marketing as the major national chains.”

To make up for this, The Global Draw provides point-of-sale materials, intershop competitions and incentive schemes for management, to encourage both staff and customers to maximise use of the machines.

At north London bookmaker Thames, the seven-shop chain's owner Mick

Kane said: “We have tried to embrace the promotional opportunities put forward by the company and one of our shops was a runner-up in their last machine incentive scheme, which gave the staff a real boost.”

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