Consolidation has been a fact of life in the gaming industry’s slot sector, and with each consolidation comes reductions in executive and R&D jobs that are duplicated when two companies merge.
While not good news for the individuals involved, the fact is that consolidation is good for the growth of the industry, because it enlarges the pool of available talent for other suppliers—particularly those seeking to reinvent themselves through a sudden influx of veteran talent. Examples over the past few years include Gaming Arts, Everi, AGS, and most recently, Konami.
But any list of companies benefiting from the growing talent pool has to include Eclipse Gaming Systems.
Founded in 2008 just outside of Atlanta in Duluth, Georgia, Eclipse is mainly a Class II manufacturer, supplying casinos of nearby Native American tribes such as Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians, as well as tribal casinos in Oklahoma, Florida and elsewhere.
Eclipse built a base of tribal customers, but by the start of 2018, new product development at the company had slowed significantly.
In August 2018, the company named Timothy Minard (l.), a former top executive of Class II supplier Cadillac Jack, as chief executive officer of Eclipse Gaming. Orrin Edidin, a longtime top executive of the former WMS Gaming, was named president and chief business officer in April 2019.
Minard would bring in other veterans of Atlanta-based Cadillac Jack (acquired by AGS in 2015), including Vice President of Marketing Gina Lanphear.
Edidin, who was president and chief operating officer of WMS Gaming in his nearly 20 years there, was named to the WMS Gaming/Scientific Games Hall of Fame in 2015, and was a founding member of the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers. While at WMS, he oversaw that supplier’s transformation from a pinball supplier with a fringe stake in the slot market into one of the top three U.S.-based slot manufacturers.
He hopes to participate in another company rebirth at Eclipse Gaming, with one big difference from WMS: Eclipse will focus its energies on serving the Class II market first and foremost.
“Eclipse will be the leading land-based Class II supplier in the space,” Edidin told GGB News. “We design our games from the ground up as Class II games. The big guys like to take a successful Class III game and make it a Class II game. We design our games as Class II games, from conception to commercialization.”
The opportunity to rise to the top of the market comes from all that available talent. “It’s reminiscent of WMS circa 1997,” Edidin said. “There’s so much talent and opportunity in front of this company. After the long-overdue consolidation that we all recently lived through, there’s only a handful of true, indigenous Class II developers/suppliers.”
Edidin says Eclipse will rise to the top of the Class II market the same way WMS succeeded in the Class III market—a team built on top R&D talent. In many cases, it’s that same former WMS talent, such as Steven Slotwinski, chief technology officer, who was a senior producer for WMS Gaming while Edidin was there. Scott Krell, who is director of product at Eclipse, also was a senior producer for WMS.
Edidin calls it “putting the band back together.”
“It’s all about the games and the math behind the games,” Edidin said. “Steve and I worked together for many years at WMS, so when I say we’re getting the band back together, I mean that literally.”
Minard also relates the opportunity at Eclipse Gaming to his former company. “At Cadillac Jack in its really early stages, we did something similar,” Minard told GGB News. “It was all about the people we hired, and then the vision and focus for the company.
“What I saw in Eclipse was similar, but with an incredible infrastructure—incredible bones to be able to do something magnificent. With all humility, all of us have had successful careers. But we still have the passion to keep trying to do it again. That’s what makes it happen. Great people, strong vision, the right reasons, and great focus.”
In addition to great games, an element crucial to the growth of Eclipse Gaming Systems, says Edidin, is building long-lasting partnerships with its tribal customers. For Edidin and Minard, building relationships with customers is as important as developing top Class II product. “I was 20 years with WMS; I decide if I’m going to do this, I want it to be more than just making and selling slot machines,” Edidin said. “There’s got to be a reason why we’re putting our heart and soul into this incredible run we’re about to have, and it goes to how we’re going to help partner with our customers—going beyond the game to bring meaningful impact to their communities. So, we’re meeting with the tribal leaders and their councils to understand where their needs are.
“We don’t want to be the people that stand there with a giant, oversized check. We want to be the guy who has a long, multi-year relationship, not just with our customers but with their community—whether it’s painting classrooms or opening clinics, or whatever we can do. Yes, there’s a financial aspect to that, but there’s personal involvement and a relationship that’s really going to drive our messaging going forward.”
R&D Ramp-Up
At this month’s Global Gaming Expo, Eclipse demonstrated that the company is well on its way in its reinvention. “We went from not having introduced new product in two years to displaying 10 approved games at the show, with 20 in the queue, and three new platforms,” Edidin said. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand. Customers are thrilled; they can’t wait to get their hands on (the new product).”
The production surge will continue in the coming months. In January, the company will move into a new 40,000-square-foot manufacturing and office facility in Georgia, and according to Edidin, the small second studio in Chicago has plenty of room to grow as well. “There’s a terrific talent base in Chicago, and Atlanta is just a hotbed of young talent; it’s amazing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Eclipse continues to expand its footprint. The company is currently live with product in 10 states, and growing. “Our product strategy is very much land-based—a Class II, land-based strategy,” said Slotwinski. “Our strategy goes three to five years out, so we’re always looking for what is best. That’s how we’re redeveloping all our products going forward.”
Minard adds that the focus will remain on land-based Class II markets for those three to five years. “The most important thing for us is that there’s so much room for us to grow in Class II, and really establish ourselves in that world,” he said. “Obviously, with one superstar title, you will move into markets that make sense, including Class III. But for us, tribal Class II fits so well.”
He adds that the company will look to supplement its land-based content with social/mobile content, as a service to customers. “We don’t necessarily want to be in that business, but we want to help our clients who are in that business,” he said, “and help provide them with our content and our expertise. But we want to concentrate on land-based products.”
“We will achieve our rightful floor share, which we believe we are entitled to,” said Edidin. “We need to go get it. Today, it’s a humble footprint, but we know there is more out there for us. That’s an enormous opportunity.
“With an opportunity like this, I like to say it’s not low-hanging fruit; it’s fruit that’s laying on the ground. Just pick it up and put it in the basket.”
