Given this scrap for survival that we are involved in has been going on since the dawn of time, it’s hardly surprising that competition is very much part of human nature and that this aspect of our psyche has spilled over into our everyday lives as well as our more existential concerns. When it enters our leisure time, we tend to call it sport and, once again, this dates back quite some time. The Ancient Greeks used to run around naked, wrestling each other and throwing things, while early ball games have been traced back to the Mayan culture in around 1200BC. Swimming was quite big in Ancient Egypt and the Romans, as we know, liked nothing more an afternnon spent at the chariot races. Gradually, over time, these sports developed, became more structured and evolved themselves into the pastimes and professions we know and love today. The next logical step, in some ways, was for the amusement industry to develop versions of some of these games. Indeed it’s quite hard to think of a sport that hasn’t been turned into a coin-op game in some form or another. Bizarrely, the rise in popularity of some of these games has overshadowed the original games themselves with recent estimates for the number of players of electronic darts worldwide far outstripping the player base of the game’s steel-tipped forerunner. Although not as ancient as thee real thing, compact sports are hardly new and are seldom seen as the most glamorous sector of the coin-op market. In fact if you were to liken coin-op to the motor industry then while the gaming sector may represent the fast and flashy sports cars, compact sports bear more similarity to the reliable old family saloon. and electronic darts) are mature and very much replacement markets in Europe. “The market is pretty good,” says Miguel Angel Quetglas, president of Spanish electronic darts manufacturer Compumatic. “It’s a full replacement market but we are still doing pretty well.” This sentiment is echoed by Paul Nicholson at Mida Medalist, a manufacturer of electronic darts, table football and pool tables that began life in the US and now also has offices in Japan, Thailand and Spain. The company enjoyed some recent success in the European darts market and Nicholson believes that there is still some room for growth. “We’ve been around for about 20 years in the US and then around eight years ago set up manufacturing in Asia and entered the Japanese market.” says Nicholson. “After doing pretty well in around nine or ten countries in South East Asia, we came over to Europe and are currently active in Finland, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany and are looking at the UK and the Middle East. While it was all green fields in Asia, it’s primarily a replacement market in Europe, but there is still good business to be done.” While electronic darts continues to tick over, table football and air hockey seem to be going from strength to strength at the moment. “Currently we are faced with our busiest period ever on air hockey tables,” says Liam Barrett of Sam Leisure. “The market has been maturing over recent years with sales steady but fairly static and we thought there may be room for new innovation to stimulate increased revenue. Accordingly we introduced the first four-player model of our popular Fast Track table and then quickly afterwards a soccer-themed variant. The effect was dramatic, with revenues doubling overnight. First the bowling chains started buying and after seeing their success, the seaside and FEC operators have got on board. We recognised that not all venues have space for the big four-player machines and launched the Fast Soccer in standard and mini sizes this year. Their success has proved that targeted branding and the football theme does increase interest and show higher revenues. It’s not just the size of the machines.” “Air Hockey has also done a very good job for us recently,” says Cheryl Sartin at US sports game manufacturer Valley-Dynamo. “But we’ve had even stronger [table football] sales across Europe. We’ve just signed new distributors in three countries and are looking to get some more on board. We’re doing particularly well in Portugal, France, Belgium the UK and, perhaps best of all, in Russia. We’ve been around a long time and we pride ourselves on the quality of our products – they’re good value and not frivolously made. With these sort of games, they’re going into place where they’re not going to be treated so good, so they have to be well made.” One sport that has been overlooked in compact sports round-ups in the past is basketball, which has tended to get lost in the gap between compact sports and redemption, but that is beginning to change. Three UK-based firms are reporting excellent sales figures for their basket ball games. Namco Europe claims to be doing very well with US manufacturer ICE’s NBA Hoops, which, according to international business development manager Kjeld Erichsen, succeeds thanks to its NBA branding and progressive game play. Gary Newman of Harry Levy Amusements offers another reason why basketball games are doing well. “Dream Shooter is doing fantastically well for us,” he says. “The games itself has come on, in that the game get progressively more difficult as it goes on and you can link up to 16 units so players can compete with each other, but I think much of the popularity has to do with the fact that it’s something in the arcade that can’t be replicated in the home, which is important these days.” Steve Bryant at Deith Group agrees: “The success we’ve had with Street Basketball from the Taiwanese firm Saint Fun has been a revelation. Certainly the fact that it offers something different from the home consoles is really important to its success. The reason we think this one’s a goody is that it’s got a trendy feel to it. We’re also planning to organise tournaments, with a view to joining the international competition organised by the manufacturer, the final of which takes place in China.” While the introduction of tournaments to promote sports games to players is certainly nothing new, the “WHAT IS ALSO BEGINNING TO EMERGE IS A SHIFT OF ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE GAMES THEMSELVES, WHICH ARE NOW BEGINNING TO BE SEEN AS SPORTS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT.” JUNE2007 37 www.euroslot-online.com WWW.EUROSLOT-ONLINE.COM development and refinement of the tournament concept is having two interesting effects. Firstly, it is bridging the traditional divide that has existed between traditional compact sports and video games that adopt sporting themes; particularly in the way the industry treats the sectors. But what is also beginning to emerge is a shift of attitude towards the games themselves, which are now beginning to be seen as sports in their own right rather than amusement-only machines. “Ask any Golden Tee player what their perception of the game is and they’ll tell you that it’s a sport,” claims Kevin Weir, business development director at Electrocoin, which distributes Incredible Technologies’ Golden Tee golf game in the UK and Ireland. “The success is engrained in the competition element of it, it really gives the edge. You can play a lot of things for fun, but they are at their most enjoyable when you are competing.” Golden Tee was, perhaps, one of the first video games to cash in on the tournament structures that have been exploited by the compact and cue sports sectors for many years. Other games have followed PGA Tour by Global VR has ploughed the same fertile ground as Golden Tee, while the dancing games made popular by Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution have sparked a whole new health and fitness craze in Scandinavian countries. But with Photo Play’s Touch of Sports branding, the firm has gone one further and taken video-based product that has not necessarily got any overt sporting content and promoted it as a sport. This attitude suggests that perhaps any video game with a hi-score table can be promoted in this way. “Photo Play has been a sport for a long time due to its tournaments and hi-scores,” says Funworld’s Helga Ehrnleitner. “Now we are making it a vivid part of our positioning. We wanted to underline the power behind the brand, ie the players’ enthusiasm to improve their hi-scores and to challenge themselves. In product development, we focus on games that make it possible for players to improve their skills and to see a training effect. We have found that any form of competition is a motivation to play more, this is why we implemented this spirit so strongly into our product philosophy.” So, the simple truth is, playing on the basic thirst for competition that is fundamental to human nature can improve the cashbox. This truth means that all sectors of the industry may have a little more work to do but it will be worth it in the long run. Firstly the manufacturers and distributors must offer tournament support to their customers and provide an attractive prize package. “It allows the player to get more excited about the game,” says Cheryl Sartin. “It’s not just about the quality of the table, but what comes with the table – the whole network of leagues and opportunities and events. Our events get a lot of media hype. Players from all around the world compete to attend our finals in Las Vegas. There’s a big hoop-la about the whole thing and we give away a boat. It’s amazing, there’s so much money to be won.” The big final is common to all the most successful tournaments: Golden Tee and Mida Medalist also fly their finalists to Las Vegas, Photo Play holds a massive four day event in a top European resort, Compumatic brings players from all over the world to Barcelona. There are often TV cameras and press photographers aplenty (no mater what channel the event eventually finds itself on). The more hype that can be generated the better; the punters will come. However, there’s no point the manufacturers putting all this hard work into the tournament structure if it is not supported at ground level. While some operators do put in the work (and reap the rewards) there are plenty that don’t and there are fears that these run the risk of tarnishing the sport for everyone. And, due to the level of support available from most manufacturers and distributors, it’s not necessarily a great deal of extra work that is needed. “It’s as simple as putting the posters up,” explains Terry Farr of Cosmic Video in the UK. “We go to a lot of trouble making up posters, prize warnings and winners lists, so people know that not only is justice being done, but that it is seen to be done. But then there are some useless people: will they put those posters up? Will they tell them what the prize money is? All the initiatives, the prize initiatives, the people who work the moist at it take the most: there’s a coincidence! It’s a sports game, there’s no point doing it without the competition element.” If you are considering setting up a tournament to promote your games, there’s one word of warning from Miguel Angel Quetglas. “The most important thing with tournaments is to make sure they are 100 per cent legal,” he counsels. “You should register any prizes that you give with the relevant authorities, following the rules of that particular country, otherwise there is a danger that the game will be banned as a product in the whole country.” But once again, the support is there for even the laziest operator. “Of course our company will help with this advice,” he adds. The only concern now is that if all the different manufacturers continue to run separate tournaments, they’ll be too busy competing with each other to capitalise on all the relevant opportunities. But, there’s no point asking them not to compete: it’s human nature after all.

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