For the past few years, “skill-based” slot machines have entered the market to various levels of success, as a handful of manufacturers work at developing games that employ skill in some form.
Efforts to employ skill on the slot floor accelerated after 2015, when Nevada regulators—with the support of the manufacturing sector—approved games with a variable return-to-player percentage (RTP). These games would have a minimum RTP, but by employing skill, players could achieve the highest possible return.
While manufacturers have worked on program math that would achieve these goals in a way operators can still make a good return, they’ve had to struggle with a wrong perception because of the “skill-based” moniker, according to Georg Washington, founder and CEO of Synergy Blue, which is one of that handful of manufacturers employing skill elements in gaming machines.
“I think ‘skill-based gaming,’ the name, sort of hindered the genre,” Washington told GGB News. “It’s really skill-influenced. At the end of the day, it’s still very similar to video poker.” That game genre, of course, involves the skill of knowing which cards to draw in each hand to achieve “optimal” results—a concept that was developed long before regulators codified the variable-RTP game.
Washington adds that the nascent skill-influenced genre has been hindered by the perception that arcade-style and mobile phone-style games are solely targeting the millennial generation, the courting of which is seen in many circles as premature. “The demographic is evolving,” he said. “We’re not going after the millennial market per se. We think you’ve got to be able to hit some of the contemporary baby boomers, and one of the demographics that seems to have been forgotten in all this is Generation X, which is my generation. We have some disposable income, and we do frequent casinos.”
Synergy Blue is different than some of the suppliers developing skill games, in that its game developers and math models were born not in the video game arena, but in the casino business. Founded as Synergy Information Systems, the company had been a technology supplier specializing in the player loyalty area. One of the firm’s specialties was producing promotional games for service-window, system-based bonusing for various slot manufacturers.
Around the time Nevada passed the variable-RTP rule, Synergy began a partnership with the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians to develop and test skill-influenced games. Today, the tribe’s Augustine Casino in Coachella, California still serves as the primary testing ground for Synergy Blue games.
“When we started, the standard was still GLI 11 3.0, which basically made the games pure chance from a gambling aspect,” Washington explained. “We wanted to offer the interactive experience—video game or arcade-style mechanics combined with pure gambling. We started with that, and then we evolved later on.”
The result is the HAWG platform, for Hybrid Arcade Wager-based Gaming.
“Now, using our HAWG platform, we can do skill, we can do chance,” Washington said. “We’re evolving into Class II in the near future. We wanted to be able to provide different mechanics, so if we go into a jurisdiction that either hasn’t adapted skill regulations, or going into Class II in the Native American market, we can adapt to that and be able to move into that jurisdiction.”
The hardware also is a good example of the product’s hybrid nature, with standard slot cabinets, bartops and a larger cabinet that blends traditional hardware with the arcade look, including light guns, steering wheels and joysticks as well as the traditional touch-screen slot hardware.
Ambassadors of Skill
Meanwhile, the company has been one of the prominent forces educating the market on the potential of skill gaming. Synergy Blue has released two studies on the subject. The first, “The State of Skill-Based Games In A New Era of Gambling,” used a survey of more than 100 casino executives to show the potential of skill to bring new players into the casino.
On September 12, the company released a new study, titled “The Rise of the Gaming Gambler,” based on a survey of more than 1,000 gamblers who were asked about their expectations with respect to gambling in general and skill-influenced gambling in particular. According to the survey, 79 percent of respondents said they’d be more likely to visit a casino if the games were more like video, arcade or mobile games.
Some 63 percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to visit a casino if the games were more like video, arcade or mobile games, and the same percentage said they would spend more time playing that style of game than the traditional slot machine. And 84 percent said they feel if a game “requires more thought, strategy or skill to play,” their chances of winning are increased.
Games like Safari Match, Cocktail Crush, Zombies and Candy Cash follow that very formula. By employing the same skills used in the arcade—or on the mobile phone—players increase their odds of winning. However, each game still employs chance-based program math, so as not to penalize players with little or no skill.
“We want to make sure it’s fun, but if you achieve optimal play you can get a better RTP—that’s the key factor to it,” Washington said. “With optimal play, we can hit the similar metrics to a slot machine or video poker.”
Helping in this aspect is the fact Synergy Blue employs a lot of casino slot veterans. Brian Dolan, the company’s vice president of operations, spent 21 years at Caesars Entertainment, including the position of corporate director of slot strategy and gaming investment. Michael Low, vice president of technology and games, is a 30-year veteran of the slot supply sector, including slot development positions at Aristocrat and IGT. VP of Product Management Andy Fisher is a 20-year gaming veteran who was with Acres Gaming and IGT, where he was a senior product manager.
Washington notes that this type of experience was instrumental in creating a true hybrid platform that allows skill but is still based on casino math. “A lot of it has to do with blending the math with the game play,” he said. “Obviously, you need a fun game—that’s your No. 1 priority. But you’ve also got to blend in that math that makes people believe they have a chance of beating it—they’ve got that gambling feel.
“We’ve tried to blend that experience level from the gaming world with the video game world. The gambling world is a different beast. We’ve really gone a little heavier on the gambling side, because there are a lot of nuances there that are missed if you’re doing a straight video game.”
Last summer, the company moved its headquarters from Palm Desert, California to Las Vegas—according to Washington, to the delight of the Vegas slot veterans who had been commuting to the California headquarters.
“We’re really excited about that,” said Washington. “Basically, we outgrew our Palm Desert headquarters. I do like that it’s cooler here in Las Vegas, but the talent pool, the excitement in the area, the distribution, and the fact we’ve been welcomed not only by the business community but also the schools, has all been fantastic.”
Growing the Footprint
Synergy Blue still maintains a significant presence in the Augustine Casino, but is branching out to other California casinos and to Nevada, where the company’s license was approved in April, and where beta testing of the company’s games is expected to be under way in the coming weeks.
“We still use Augustine as our test site,” Washington said. “We push out product there, see how it goes, see what the customers are saying and what the property says, and make adjustments. We’ve had games out there well over a year now. And we’ve also got placements in Europe. That’s a whole different market; it’s a pure chance market there.”
Meanwhile, skill-influenced gaming in general continues to grow. Washington says the genre is now in its second generation, and is getting more effective with each stage of evolution. “You’ve seen the teething problems with the original versions,” he said. “Now, whether it’s Synergy Blue or our competitors, we’re getting to that second generation of games, so we’re going to see better tutorials, better math models and progressives—all these things will be built into the game play.
“I think you’ll see skill-influenced products popping up not only in domestic America, but you’ll see more acceptance in Canada, Asia and Europe. Expectations are changing on the gaming floor. We look at skill-based gaming as an emerging market. We’re not going to take away slot machines. We’re more like an ETG type of market segment, where it enhances the floor and allows a different demographic to be pulled into an area of the casino.”
