“Bally develops where the opportunities are”

How was your experience in Argentina?
I don’t have a lot of exposure to Argentina, because I work with all markets outside the Americas. That is to say Asia, Europe and Austral Asia. But I know it has been a very strong market for a long time. I’ve been in Argentina twice before. My last time was a Sagse show, in 2012. Today I was here as a guest of Ricardo Regner and Juan Pablo Irarrazaval to give a presentation on customer panels. I certainly enjoyed coming to this beautiful country. Buenos Aires reminds me of Sidney, so it feels like home. Besides, customers response has been enthusiastic: After I finished my presentation, the majority of them went straight to the machines to play. It was rewarding seeing their reactions. I think that is all the payback one needs.

Which one, in your opinión, was the main issue of the customer panel?
Given that I look after international products, I believe i’m in conditions to affirm that there’s a common theme around the world and that is that every country in every región has its own problems, it’s región related. Interestingly enough, this only represents twenty percent of the issue. The other eighty percent is that every country has the same problems. So, there are certain fundamentals about slot machines that cross boundaries and they need to be adressed the same way all around world. On one hand, you have a large proportion of slot content and technological issues that are the same and on the other, you need to hear what the individual customers issues are in order to give them a voice and explain them whether you can or cannot adress those concerns. That’s what these customer panels are for, to give transparency in the communication between the customer and the manufacturer.

What was your impression on Argentinian players? What were the comments on Bally’s presentation?
Argentinian customers said we have a dominantly local place. I Heard players come regularly and enjoy our games. For what I've seen, they are very similar to an average Australian player

What’s important to stress is that some products are appropiate for a región and, perhaps, some others are not. Bally is working to satisfy all of its customers. One of the advantages that we bring is that we have more studios tan everyone else. One of the messages that I wanted to bring to the Argentinian customers is that we don’t just get our games from US anymore. We get them from China and Australia, as well. This gives us tremendous variety in the games we make. We have such a broad variety that many of our games are very appropiate for Argentina. We want to make sure to give direction and transparency to tell our customers which products we believe are appropiate for them. I think the message has to do with communicating customers that Bally’s not solely an american manufacturer, but an australian and asian manufacturer. This versatility and capacity gives us a great advantage over our competitors.

Are there any special launches for Argentina you’d like to tell us about?
We’re constantly planning on developing products that suit tops of players, whether they’re Argentinian, Italian or Chinese. You can find commonality between games that suit players. The trick is to identify which game is appropiate for each region. We don’t just develop for America or Australia. We develop where the opportunities are, and we believe Argentina is a very good market.