Gaming: Rise of the machines

Pub games are finally beginning to adopt the latest technology, says Phil Mellows.

You might think you're just selling food and drink but it's becoming increasing clear that publicans are part of the entertainment industry. Just ask yourself what keeps your customers coming back for more when they could stay at home with cheap beer and wine and a takeaway, snuggled up in front of their widescreen TV.

One thing is for sure. Not very many of them will be lured into your pub to play the fruit machine.

AWPs, as the traditional one-armed bandits are called, attract a narrow audience of hardcore players, perhaps no more than five per cent of your clientele, all of them men. Between them they may feed your machines with a significant amount of cash, but where is the scope for expansion?

It is a question that machine operators have been grappling with for many years - and now technology is beginning to provide the answers.

The two biggest companies in the field, Leisure Link and Gamestec, are both getting pretty excited about the possibilities and both made a big fuss about it at the recent amusement machine industry show, the ATEI.

"Pubs are not just competing with other pubs any more," said Leisure Link chief executive Russell Hoyle. "Retailers want products that can drive footfall and we can work with licensees to help get consumers back into pubs.

"It's about having fun. We are talking about the complete transformation of the pub. Operators may have to take a little bit of a risk to push into the new world that is opening up, but they are certainly growing more aware of the opportunities."

Russell is referring to the impact of new technologies such as broadband telecommunications and wi-fi or wireless internet connection. This not only has the potential to create savings for the pub industry by linking together machines such as EPoS tills, big screens, beer flow monitors, CCTV and payphones - it can also deliver to pub customers an unimaginably wide range of electronic entertainments.

For the last couple of years Leisure Link and Gamestec have been steadily introducing internet-linked terminals which can offer more choice in games and frequently updated content to keep players interested.

Pubs and bars already provide homes for 3,500 of Leisure Link's Itbox and hard evidence has come back that the machines are attracting more people - including the elusive female audience - and taking more money.

"They have a broad appeal and encourage people to stay longer in the pub," said sales director David Purvis. "Playing these kind of machines is a group activity rather than for the lone male.

"Where a standard skill-with-prizes (SWP) machine might take £60 to £70 a week in a pub, Itbox figures can be at least double that.

"These are the kind of things we've got to have. We have to optimise the technology available to us - and that's as far as your imagination can take it."

Gamestec chief executive Glynn Mellor (pictured)​, with 4,000 internet-linked machines out there, has a similar perspective.

"Pub customers want more entertainment, more fun, more choice," he said. "Four or five years ago the SWP market was in huge decline. There were only 600 units out there. The new machines have turned that around.

"We've still not really seized the full potential of video games, we're still finding right combination of content. But business is increasingly female players and they don't want fruit machines, they want entertainment."

Glynn believes progress in this market has been held back by the great shifts that have taken place in the pub industry, in particular the change in emphasis away from managed chains to tenanted groups, meaning that machine operators have had to switch their focus to independent licensees.

A greater stability plus wireless technology, which makes the installation of new machines easier and more flexible, should, he believes, see another leap forward.

"We have the platform for the future," he said. "We have more information about how people use machines and we are learning to influence their play by adding content and value.

"There is a need to match games with trading patterns, to change content on the machines to match the mood. This is a fashion-conscious business in which a game only lasts 10 to 12 weeks."

For Glynn this means machines will be opened up to a whole new generation of players.

"Only 16 to 20 per cent of people in a pub will play on a machine, and only six per cent of those could be classified as regular players. But we believe 50 per cent have the propensity to play.

"We can bring them in by using video, adding games, making it entertaining. Content needs constant refreshment."

Behind the scenes​

New technologies are also having an impact behind the scenes in the way a pub manages its machines.

The latest version of MIDAS, Gamestec's machine management system, which is used to monitor the performance of 17,000 machines around the UK, is both wireless and works on broadband, making it faster and more flexible.

As well as keeping a closer check on machine take it has the capacity to download more sophisticated games and enable tournament games to be played between customers at different pubs in real-time.

MIDAS carries out its own fault finding and helps run a semi-automatic health check. Licensees can be alerted to problems through a text message on their mobile phone.

It is also solving early problems associated with note-taking machines, which became legal at the beginning of this year.

One drawback is that machines can quickly run out of coins to pay prizes. But with the new MIDAS if the float drops below £100 more than five times in an hour it sounds an alarm. It can also disable the note acceptor if fraudulent notes are circulating.

What's new​

• Digital jukeboxes​

Leisure Link's The Music jukebox has 2,500 tracks on its hard drive plus a database of more than two million that can be downloaded from the internet by broadband.

The two dozen machines already in pubs have demonstrated that customers will pay extra to download a track. The music can also be linked to big screen videos. Leisure Link has orders for 300 to 400, including Enterprise and Punch tenants as well as managed chains such as Spirit and Mitchells & Butlers.

"It used to take two to four months for chart music to get to the jukebox, now you can download it the same day," said sales director David Purvis (pictured)​. "And you can even buy CDs off the jukebox."

Networked AWP machines​

Gamestec and Leisure Link are both experimenting with internet linked AWP machines that can give players the same amount of choice that SWP players have had for the last few years and broaden their narrow user base. Roulette-based games are already proving popular.

Some say that AWP players will shy away from touchscreen terminals like these, but Gamestec's Glynn Mellor thinks "the sceptics are quite wrong. There is no reason why technology should be a barrier as long as the game is exciting and appropriate.

"We have used traditional gaming applications such as cards, roulette and horse racing and the results have been very positive."