When you go to the grocery store, you can be confident that like product is grouped together. Milk is next to the yogurt, and tortilla chips are placed conveniently next to the salsa. Why should a casino be any different? We already do this to some degree. Slot operators group $0.01 games together as well as grouping video poker games together. Some even go as for as to making dedicated zones to Lightning Link or Wheel of Fortune. Why shouldn’t we do the same for games of similar mechanics?
With Eilers & Krejcik Game Attribute Database, we track various mechanics of top video slot themes and can even evaluate the efficacy of slot floor design. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the data shows that similar style games do better when closer together.
With data from over 200 casinos, the trend is striking. As the proportion of a type of game increases in a section of the slot floor, we see performance of similar games within the same zone increase. In other words, grouping like games allows players to find comparable games more efficiently.
Taking Hold & Spin games as an example, this relationship can be quantified (see Figure 1). The model suggests that as the share of the zone of Hold & Spin games increases by 5 percentage points, say from 15 percent to 20 percent, the average performance lift is 14 percent relative to the house average performance. This is statistically significant at the <.001 level.
Figure 1: Linear Regression of Vs House Index Performance Delta and Zone Percent – Hold & Spin Games
Source: Eilers-Fantini Gaming Performance Database, March 2021 to August 202
N = 3,450
The relationship between grouping similar games and performance is particularly strongest between games that are Perceived Persistence, Hold & Spin, Cash on Reels, and Wheel styles (see Table 1). Perceived Persistence style games include themes where players are chasing a pot think they is close to popping such as the Fu Dai Lian Lian games from Aristocrat or Coin Combo from Scientific Games. These games are highly stimulating with objects such as coins or symbols flying across the screen even after losing pulls reminding the player that a feature trigger is just a spin away.
Table 1: Performance Lift by Game Style
Source: Eilers-Fantini Gaming Performance Database, March 2021 to August 2021
N = 3,450
The takeaway for slot operators is this: When you purchase a new theme, peruse the supplier site or marketing material or maybe even some YouTube videos to learn more about the game. Understanding the mechanics of the game will help you optimize your location strategy. Consider a sign package to promote the area so players know what types of games are available. The data shows a material revenue opportunity for operators who have an understanding of the product they put on the floor.
