“Becoming Shuffle Master’s CEO is the highlight of my career”

Becoming Shuffle Master’s CEO is the highlight of my career. Up until now, I have been preparing for this role. I’ve been fortunate to learn from great people and gain valuable leadership experience while at Bally and Aristocrat and prior to that. I’m delighted to serve as CEO of such an iconic brand in gaming and I’m excited about what lies ahead.

I ws looking for the right opportunity and Shuffle Master was the perfect fit. I’m very fortunate that the stars were aligned and that the position was available.

Everything. The buck stops with me. My job is to shape the future for Shuffle Master and to articulate that vision. This company has a tremendous amount of potential and my job is to align all team members with the market and future opportunities. As CEO, I am ultimately responsible for stimulating new growth and improving the way everything functions.  What's quite reassuring is that I'm surrounded by incredibly bright people who have many great ideas about where we can take this business.

We have four unique business segments and our objective across all product lines is to enhance player interactions and experiences, and create even greater efficiencies for the operator. These enhancements will come from the next-level of product development and the introduction of new technologies. Additionally, next steps in technology include product extensions related to mobile and online gaming.   

We’re starting to see the technology evolution drive change in the way our customers do business and we’ve definitely seen how it impacts the player universe.  The next phase of product development will focus on both of these dynamics.  Shuffle Master has done an excellent job at not only evolving with the gaming industry, but introducing ground-breaking innovation – like the i-Table – so that the industry evolves with us.

Shuffle Master has a rich patent portfolio and strong IP, which enable compelling new product innovations. There are promising new products in each of Shuffle Master’s product segments that are in relatively early stages of rollout:

1)    We’ve just begun the launch of the new MD2-CR which is an enhanced version of the popular MD2 batch shuffler. The MD2-CR is faster, easier to use, and features optical card-reading technology, resulting in more productivity, security, and profitability on games like baccarat and blackjack.

2)    We look forward to increased momentum from new proprietary table games like Blackjack Switch and Mississippi Stud, and we’re still in the early stages of our progressive upgrade strategy.

3)    The i-Table is our most compelling e-Table offering at the moment and fiscal year 2011 will witness the introduction of i-Table Roulette into the marketplace. This is a truly impressive innovation that provides all the functionality and efficiencies of electronic wagering yet replicates a traditional roulette layout.  Perhaps the most compelling feature of the i-Table platform is its ability to provide accurate player data which has never been possible on a live felt game; table game players will now get the same benefits as slot players.

4)    Our new Equinox slot machine cabinet made its debut into the Australian market in Q4 of fiscal year 2010. The customer response so far has been phenomenal and we’ll be rolling out new titles for this sleek new cabinet throughout the year.

Sergio, you know me: each and every market is a priority. However, I’ll highlight a few: In fiscal year 2010, Asia represented the fastest growing region for our business, led by the significant growth in Singapore. For fiscal year 2011 and beyond, we believe there is plenty of opportunity in several Asian markets – Macau, the Philippines, Korea, to name a few. The opportunities are present across all of our product lines, but more immediately, in our EGM and e-Table segments.

There are still great opportunities for us in North America. We are underrepresented in our core product lines in many markets and the entire market is interested in e-Tables and progressives. The i-Table represents an opportunity for precise rating and bonusing of table game players which is clearly exciting for our casino customers.  

Latin America emerged as another promising market for our products, especially our e-Tables in fiscal year 2010, and throughout the region progressive gaming legislation is stimulating growth. The gaming landscape in Latin America is quickly evolving and our future success in this market is dependent upon our ability to keep pace with market changes.  In fiscal year 2011 we’ll deploy more product than just Table Master; we’ll see our other e-Table offerings, like i-Table, make headway in this market.  We also look forward to increased placements of our EGMs into Central and South America in the fiscal year.

With the successful launch of Equinox, I’d also include Australia as a key market with ample opportunity. Between replacements cycles and the deregulation in Victoria next year, we have plenty to keep us busy.

Another “region” that we consider a priority is the internet and we’re heavily focused on implementing the best strategy to capitalize on our proprietary content in this vast arena.

It’s really very simple: we will protect, preserve and grow our core product lines.   We are on a path of continuous improvement while doing our utmost to protect and preserve our intellectual property.  We’ve publically stated that we’re increasing our investment in R&D this year to advance our growth products.  The continued success of the Equinox cabinet is dependent upon our ability to create an expanded game library so we’re increasing spending for new title development.  We’re also investing in our e-Table business so that our content runs deep on every platform and all efficiencies are truly realized.     

I made many great friends and have wonderful memories from my time at Bally. I was honored to be a part of a team that turned around the company and helped position it for a very bright future. I am delighted that their new range of cabinets are doing so well.