Simon Liddle visits Grosvenor's table game showcase in Coventry, UK
IN April, the Rank Group’s casino arm, Grosvenor Casinos, brought together some of the industry’s leading games developers at one of its flagship properties, G Casino Coventry, to showcase their latest table game innovations for both its customers and members of staff.
Part of the impressive Ricoh Arena complex, G Casino Coventry is among the largest of Grosvenor Casinos’ venues and provided the ideal location for what Ian Shanahan, the company’s table gaming project manager, hoped would offer a greater insight into player tastes and preferences when it comes to new games.
Around 180 customers and 50 Rank employees were invited to the event, which saw the likes of TCS John Huxley, Shuffle Master, Mr Casino Games, Customised Games, Saphirh Games, Dice Room Games and ICS Europe demonstrate their cutting-edge gaming solutions. Gathering immediate feedback from players was a group of hostesses who filled in questionnaires on their behalf right at the tables.
“The idea is to generate feedback because in the past when we’ve trialled new games in the casino, we’ve trialled the games we think the customers will like. It’s quite an expensive process and it doesn’t always work out.” Shanahan told InterGaming. “The idea here is to trial a lot of games, get as much feedback as we can and then go by what they say they enjoy. It’s about trying to get a better understanding of the market and what customers like so when we put games into casinos it’s less hit and miss.”
Changes to the UK gaming regulations, which were due to come into effect on June 1, are intended to simplify the trial process for casinos, giving operators greater freedom to test games within a live environment without seeking permission from either Parliament or the Gambling Commission.
In all, 22 games were available for guests - including those who happened to be visiting the casino that evening - to play for free. Only an hour or so into the event and already a large crowd were gathered around the tables area, playing a host of new game variations, from roulette to poker, and even an entirely new game introduced by Grosvenor Casinos itself.
“The beauty of this casino is the size,” Shanahan explained. “We’re able to run these type of events where we take a large part of the casino. In the UK, generally casinos are smaller than this so we’re unable to. With the success of this event, hopefully it’s something we can do a couple of times a year because it’s a very good way of seeing what’s out there on the market, getting the exhibitors to come back and show what they’ve got and getting customer feedback. 22 games in one night is fantastic.”
With the casino laying on something of a VIP experience for the invited guests, it made for a lively atmosphere and, unlike at a trade show, it gave both the operator and exhibitors the opportunity to see these new games in action in a real casino environment.
“Most of the games are brand new to the UK,” Shanahan continued. “Aside from maybe two or three that have been previously trialled in the UK, all the others are brand new. There are probably 12 or 13 games that have never ever been trialled anywhere in the world so this is their debut appearance - it’s exciting.”
As one of the UK’s largest casino operators, Rank has established relationships with an array of games suppliers and so choosing who to work with for this unique event proved straightforward. Convincing them of the merits of such a unique event, said Shanahan, was not difficult.
“The exhibitors are people we know from previous games that have been released and obviously we’ve got relationships with some of these people already,” he said. “As the market has started to grow they’ve been coming back to us with more and more games so we said ‘have as many tables as you think you’ll need and we’ll market test them’. I was in a situation where I couldn’t fit any more in.”
Such was the enthusiastic response from manufacturers, the operator was able to call on them to produce the tables and layouts specifically for the event themselves.
“We’ve not met any of the costs - that’s how enthusiastic they are,” he said. “They realise that if there’s a game that we like we have 33 casinos in the UK that we can introduce it into.”
