G2E 2018 is now in full force, with its expo floor opening this morning at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas. Close to 400 booths are on display for the next three days with an anticipated attendance of 20-30 thousand people! Running alongside the expo floor madness are sessions covering all sorts of topics surrounding the gambling industry both within the Special Events Stage on the expo floor and dedicated conference rooms on the periphery.
The excitement surrounding regulated sports betting in the USA continues today and Las Vegas developer Derek Stevens, CEO of The D Las Vegas and the Golden Gate Hotel, has a vision of turning Downtown Las Vegas into a hotbed for sports betting.
In an exclusive interview, Stevens told CalvinAyre.com he is excited for the opportunities the repeal of PASPA will bring to Nevada and is confident Las Vegas will remain the epicenter for sports betting in the country.
“We’re going to open up at the D and the Golden Gate the sportsbook initially and then our new director of sports Matt Metcalf, he’s got a long history for a young guy working at Imperial Palace for Jay Kornegay and then at the Las Vegas Hilton Superbook, will be our director of sports”, Stevens revealed.
“When we open our two properties, what I think is going to be pretty great is you’re going to be able to shop. Within 100 feet you’re going to have a William Hill book, you’re going to have our book, you’re going to have the Golden Nugget and then not too far down the road you have some Stations Books and things like that, so it’s a great place to shop and a great place to have a little bit of fun”, he said.
“We’re going to build a whole television and radio studio inside of our new property and that will be the home of VSIN (Vegas Stats and Information Network) here in Las Vegas and they are going to have a great shot over what we consider to be a pretty game changing sports book when we open it up at the new property”, Stevens added.
Technology company and G2E Exhibitor Genius Sports Group was the first-mover in sports betting data and integrity in the US market. With the excitement surrounding regulated sports betting in the US and all the opportunities that come along with it, Genius Sports Group has found themselves in the spotlight.
“We moved [to the US] about 3.5 years ago and set up an office here with a view of PASPA being repealed, so its been quite an interesting development with the repeal of PASPA, the focus on state-by-state regulation and the increasing focus for sports on partnering in the sports betting industry with the operators. Its become a really exciting area for a technology company like us”, Genius Sports Group CEO Mark Locke told CalvinAyre.com.
“Integrity is really the key word here. When we came to the United States we had a very clear mandate which was to work with the sports to help them to understand the risk of integrity around the events that they hold”, he said.
“Really we work in two ways, we provide technology services that help them to aggregate data into central places which gives them a view and the other area we work on is education. So we help them to understand where there are risks and how they can mitigate those risks within their sports”, Locke added.
A number of payment processing solutions are on display at G2E as usual, all with their latest innovation to make payments as seamless as possible for both the casino and the customer. Data-rich gaming solution Lock Trust is here at G2E to demo their new cashless payment system.
“We’re a virtual bank and one of the things we can do is process payments”, said Andrew Spaulding, Lock Trust’s VP of Gaming Cash Solutions.
“With this product we also wanted to protect the property and the player, so we can set limits on how much they can take out how many times they can use it, but we can also push that money back into account so when they walk out after they win, they’re not getting rolled in the parking lot for somebody watching them win all that money”, he said.
“It’s a way to make it convenient but there’s a lot of rules and regulations that we want to play inside of and we want to be a progressive, forward thinking company”, he added.
Showcasing new products and the latest innovations has always been the backbone of G2E and the American Gaming Association (AGA) play a critical part in cultivating a culture of innovation at the event.
AGA’s Innovation Lab at G2E is situated by the “Special Events Stage” and the online gambling industry portion of the expo floor. Throughout the three days of the G2E expo, the Innovation Lab will welcome a series of presentations delivered by up and coming companies in the gambling space with a focus on Big Data & Analytics today, a focus on New Terrain & Emerging Marketing on Wednesday and an Innovation Incubator on Thursday.
“We’ve been organizing this for three years now, we curate the content, we reach out to the speakers, we plan the whole marketing strategy behind it and we just try to give space for new and upcoming and big companies to showcase their innovations directory at the show floor”, shared Andres Tovar, Marketing Manager for the AGA
“I would say that’s a big drive for attendees to come and see what’s new but not only what’s new and big, but what’s new and nobody knows about. Those hidden gems, that’s what we try to showcase here and highlight”, he added.
