ePub: Pubs raise their game
The digital conversion of pub machines has taken a step forward with the trial of a new package deal in 75 pubs in four different pubco estates.
Games Media has clinched deals with managed operators Spirit Group, Orchid Group and Greene King Pub Company plus tenanted giant Enterprise Inns to replace all existing machines at trial sites with digital versions. Games Media will also take responsibility for managing the machines online.
Video AWPs will replace traditional spinning reel fruit machines, internet-based SWPs and jukeboxes will be installed and, thanks to a partnership with cue sports specialist Bar Billiards, the deal will also cover pool machines.
All pubs taking part will be linked to Games Media through a wireless broadband feed that will enable new games to be downloaded automoatically, and the licensees in each will also have the support of dedicated customer relationship managers (CRM) to help them maximise machine revenue.
"It's a competely packaged proposition," says Peter Davies, Games Media's director of business development. "By remotely managing a pub's machines, hour by hour, and matching content to environment by downloading new games software, we aim to tailor games to the pub's customers and drive income upwards.
"We shall be looking at each pub in the trial on a daily basis to monitor customer behaviour, and we also have the ability to identify and resolve technical issues down the line.
"As pubs come under pressure, operators are seeing this as an opportunity to bolster their machine take, and as time goes on we aim to co-develop solutions with them."
Davies stresses that "it's not just a technical solution", however.
"The CRMs are part of the package. They will help manage machines in each venue alongside the licensee, getting close to the business and finding out how we can link up with promotions, and so on.
"We have put an awful lot of effort into this over the last nine months, and we are extremely serious about making it work."
The Enterprise tenancies will prove a special challenge for the project, and the pubco's head of retail services Russell Wood, said he was "very pleased to be working closely with Games Media on delivering an integrated digital gaming solution to our pub retailers".
"Our video gaming trials have had successful results so far and we are enthusiastic about entering into a wider commercial trial to identify the key benefits and practical deployment of this new style of gaming and entertainment."
The trials are expected to last 12 weeks when a possible future roll-out will be on the agenda.
