FatSpanner is an exciting and vibrant company, based in the West Midlands of the UK, dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of hardware and software products for the SWP games industry.
It was founded in 2002 and is still owned and run by the founder board members. From a one-room operation at its inception, the company has expanded into a multi-million pound operation run from a modern 11,000sq.ft office and factory.
The founding members came together from a variety of successful individual careers, bringing with them a complete range of relevant expertise and many decades of collective experience in the gaming and amusement industries. The majority were from the various disciplines of design and development.
Consequently, at the heart of FatSpanner’s philosophy is the continued investment in dedicated, proven creative talent, innovation being the root of all the company does. "We have some of the industry’s leading talent at our disposal in the fields of software development, graphic design and industrial product design," said the company’s Clive Barrett.
"Coupled with our focused sales strategy, both direct and through distribution channels, plus an unrivalled after-sales and support team we believe we have the complete package to meet the future needs of the industry."
The company started developing games towards the end of 2002 and then in 2003 introduced its first major cabinet/terminal development, which was designed and developed "to fill a gap in the market for a state-of-the-art modern styled games terminal." It was soon noticed by Games Warehouse and a deal was struck to license the product to them for manufacture.
The Paragon terminal proved to be a huge success in terms of reliability and customer approval. "In 2004/5 we undertook a redesign for GWH to restyle the external appearance of the terminal and create Paragon 2."
February 2004 saw the release of the Bullseye SWP game based on the long-running TV show. The game instantly roared to number one in the UK game performance charts and remained there unchallenged for the next two years.
"The early success of Bullseye and the Paragon project not only served to reaffirm our confidence in the FatSpanner brand both as a software and terminal developer but also contributed greatly to the funding of subsequent expansion," said Barrett.
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In the summer of 2004 the Fatbox concept was born. The first FatSpanner branded multigame terminal was developed as a conversion of existing cabinets already in the market. The first incarnation was only a four-game pack which was quickly increased to six and then nine games. The product has been developed into a variety of donor cabinets and has sold over 500 units.
"It was this product which really allowed us to cut our teeth on the development of games platform and management systems. Lessons learned in these early days have put us at the very front of the field today."
After taking on the lease for a further 2,500sq.ft of factory space, FatSpanner opened its own manufacturing facility, capable of turning out 50 units a week with a small but focused team of assembly personnel.
2004 was also a landmark year as the company became an employer for the first time over and above the owner/directors. "It’s a matter of great pride that almost all of our original employees have grown with the company and are still with us today," said Barrett.
The Slim cabinet, the first bespoke terminal for the Fatbox games system, arrived in 2005. "We designed and developed the complete terminal, including the technology platform, and sold over 500 units with the Fatbox content system."
The terminal attracted much attention which ultimately led to a contract with Games Media to manufacture it carrying its IND:E content platform. This was a deal which led to a further 2000 units passing through FatSpanner’s manufacturing facility over the ensuing two years.
A further relationship with Crown Leisure and Abbey Entertainment to convert the Slim cabinet for the fixed-odds betting terminal market led to a further 450 units.
In August 2006, with the staff now at 20 plus, the board decided the company had outgrown its offices and factory unit and decided to move to a new 11,000sq.ft all-in-one unit to bring all areas of the business under one roof and allow significant room for future expansion.
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Two further incarnations of the Slim cabinet were designed and developed in 2007. Core and Twin Core both had an extended top door area to facilitate more monitor display area.
"Around the same time we developed a stylish and exciting wall-mounted jukebox solution, which we named Dune. As with Core and Twin Core, we invested heavily in injection mould tooling in line with a conscious policy of investment in a high quality and versatile family of terminal solutions for a wide range of market applications."
In January 2008 the first version of the now flagship product O.P.E.N. (Open Platform Entertainment Network) was launched at the ATEI. FatSpanner had long considered that a top quality content management platform was required to take the company to the next level as a true market leader.
"As a result we invested heavily in both personnel and technology to achieve it, an investment we firmly believe now is paying dividends. O.P.E.N. is a multigame platform drawing on our extensive catalogue of games as well as third party content operated under a smart card system with an annual licence fee.
"O.P.E.N. gives the market a high quality, safe and secure content platform which outperforms rivals across a vast range of sites while at the same time giving the company a stable source of ongoing revenue from the ever-growing estate of licences. Later in the year we released O.P.E.N. Black with a much improved cabinet and enhanced content management features. The company aims to have 3000 O.P.E.N. licences in the market by the end of 2009."
Towards the end of last year, a contract was signed with Barcrest Group to provide multi-game terminals to the market under the D.I.C.E. brand. FatSpanner brought to the deal a state-of-the-art new terminal and a further improved version of the O.P.E.N. platform.
Earlier this year True Skill Bingo went to number one. The brand and its various planned incarnations look set to become a firm favourite with UK players for some time to come.
"Strong and varied game content gives us much greater control over the performance of our various terminals," said Barrett. "The O.P.E.N. manages content on a site specific basis, rotating games from a back catalogue according to local popularity, thereby maximising income in each site.
"Such a system is only as strong as the catalogue of content it stores. Further investment in top quality creative personnel within the game development team continues to ensure provision of market leading content to support our wide range of product solutions."
