“Certainly, 2012 will be a defining year for iGaming in Europe and for WMS”

What does online and interactive gaming business represent for WMS?
Our filing with Nevada’s State Gaming Control Board represents an important milestone in our efforts to support our customers’ needs with a broad array of online and interactive products, as well as managed services, such as fraud protection,  information technology operations, and marketing and customer services.  Just as we develop and produce innovative gaming content and gaming machines for land-based casinos, we are equally committed to helping our customers establish strong relationships with their patrons by offering the best in interactive entertainment available for mobile or home technology devices.

What is the company’s strategy for this market segment?
WMS has been a developer and innovator of leading game content for more than 50 years. By leveraging our understanding of players' entertainment needs and preferences with our expertise in creating compelling content and solutions, we have made significant progress in our development of a technology and entertainment content base that will help our customers unlock the emerging opportunities provided through online capabilities.

In a little over a year, we’ve seen great success with Jackpot Party Casino, the WMS UK-based online casino, in a very competitive market. Using that model, we will expand our B2B managed services capabilities internationally.  In the non-wagering/entertainment space, we’ll continue to work with PhantomEFX, Large Animal and other partners, to deliver WMS new and classic games in the interactive online and big box retail space to build brand awareness and attract an untapped audience of players for our casino customers.

What products do you have in this areas? What are their main characteristics?
Currently, we have four interactive, online platforms: PlayersLife.com, Lucky Cruise, Jackpot Party Casino, and WMS classic games, which are available as iTunes and Android apps.

With Playerslife.com, registered users can unlock bonuses and trophies on WMS games—Lord of the Rings and CLUE, to name a few—then head to the casino to continue the play, and then back home again. Today, more than 400 of our casino customers have incorporated Player’s Life Web Services as part of their player loyalty strategy.

Lucky Cruise is WMS’ first social casino game on Facebook and combines popular casino-proven WMS content with social gaming mechanics. This social casino game is non-wagering with unique play characteristics compared to other social casino games currently on Facebook, including the ability to influence future game play via strategic components, social experiences, and community-building aspects. Lucky Cruise demonstrates WMS’ industry-leading commitment to understanding players, in order to deliver products that create higher value for casino operators, and drive casino patron loyalty.

Jackpot Party Casino, the WMS online casino based in the U.K., demonstrates we are ready to work with our customers to create an online gaming platform. The success and credibility we earned with jackpotparty.com has proved out our technology foundation, our e-commerce engine and our world-class gaming content. This site validates our strategy and the investment we've made to build a successful foundation that is fully compliant. WMS today can provide a full range of online casino software and services capabilities needed to casino-brand the online gaming experience. For operators with online capabilities, we can integrate a WMS game library into back-end systems and provide technical support from our development teams.

In August of last year, we signed an exclusive agreement with PhantomEFX, a leading developer and publisher of PC-based casino and card game titles, to develop and distribute WMS classic game themes as mobile apps and through retail environments. To date, we have six WMS games, which represent some of the strongest-performing casino applications in the Apple and Android markets, , and more than 20 WMS themes, as bundled PC games, available through Target and Wal-Mart.

Together, these WMS interactive products provide a platform for testing how people want to engage with our content outside the casino and will allow us to deliver future products that create higher value for casino operators, and drive casino patron loyalty.

What markets have more potential in online gaming?
In the U.S., we are closely monitoring federal and state legislation, trade groups and public opinion on online gaming—and hopeful that we’ll see positive change in the current or next legislative cycle.  As a result of our internal development efforts and alignment with best-in-class partners, we are well-positioned in the U.S market for the next wave in casino entertainment.  When it happens, we’ll be ready.

Certainly, 2012 will be a defining year for iGaming in Europe and for WMS.  Our online iGaming business develops and markets products, services and end-to-end solutions that address global online wagering and casual gaming opportunities.

But there is no need to wait for legalized online gambling before taking advantage of the convergence of land-based casino, social, casual and mobile gaming. While various government groups sort out the risk and benefit, we’ve developed a portfolio of play-for-fun options available to our land-based casino customers that will help build capacity and player engagement. 

What can you tell to land-based casino operators that are evaluating to incorporate online and remote gaming? What benefits could they obtain from this category of games?
Our success with WMS online and interactive gaming – through our award-winning UK-based JackpotParty.com online casino, our popular, player-appealing Lucky Cruise social casino and our classic slot content for mobile and other casual play – puts us in an exceptional position to help our customers move forward with confidence, and fulfill our mission to create and provide the world's most compelling gaming experiences.

Why did WMS decide to submit an application to the State Gaming Control Board (SGCB) for an interactive gaming license in the State of Nevada?
As Nevada is the first state to move forward with formal regulations and the one that represents the heart of the gaming industry, we know how it important to our land-based customers to be ready with an interactive solution.  At the same time, we should all acknowledge that the size of the market will not be able to support the number of license applicants, and a strong partner will make all the difference in the success of the venture. We believe WMS is best positioned to deliver excellence in managed solutions combined with engaging and innovative content. 

What are WMS main objectives regarding online and interactive gaming?
WMS will leverage our knowledge of player entertainment needs and heritage of high quality product development to bring differentiated solutions to the marketplace.  Our creative Interactive solutions, whether focused on online gambling, social gaming, or casual gaming, will help our land-based customers engage with their player base 365 days a year, anywhere and at any time.