Skill gaming is not yet a totally proven product on the casino floor, and finding ways to introduce it can be tricky. Virtual Media Group is going the gradual route, slipping it in with familiar products. At G2E Vegas, our Becky Liggero Fontana caught up with Jonathan Strause and Keith Winters to talk about their strategy for expanding into skill based games.
As Winters explained, by expanding the offering to experienced players first, they felt they had the best chance of succeeding with skill based products. “This year we’re debuting Running Rich Reels which is a true hybrid slot machine and video game, or skill based game,” he said. “You’ll hear that term a lot. So this year, we decided instead of producing just a skill game and introducing it to new clientele, we wanted to go to existing slot players and say we have something new for you to play. So instead of a hard transition, this is sort of a slow introducing to the video game, skill game world, where the skill game is a bonus inside of the slot.”
But skill based experiences aren’t limited to slot machines alone. Strause added a whole other channel of wagering that benefits from it. “So we’re the first virtual horse racing, virtual sports and racing that is actually pari-mutuel,” he declared. “So people can bet in a pool betting, and have life-changing pools of a hundred thousand, million dollars, or pick six victory type bet. Also, players can put their horse into a race, manage the horse on a mobile phone, and participate in the races. We have it not only for horses, but also we have cart racing, which is really geared towards millennials. So really trying to span the audience of a sports book.”
Luckily for the sports betting public, these horse and cart racing products are already available. Strause told Liggero Fontana that they launched at MGM Casinos in December, and will potentially be expanded in the first half of 2020.
And if Running Rich Reels sounds fun, Winters noted that the game is already available at the Palms and Link in Las Vegas. If you can’t make it to Nevada, it’s been available for a while now at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.
Keith:
Within the next two weeks, we’ll be deploying to the Palms and to the Link here in Las Vegas. Currently on the floor in Connecticut at the Mohegun sun where it’s exceeding our expectations.
Jonathan:
We’ll be launching at all MGM casinos in December, hopefully the rest of the state in the spring.
