Addressing an audience at the recent Casino Marketing & Technology and Host Player Development Conference at Pechanga Casino Resort in California, Richard Sagman said mobile phones are “the first thing we do in the morning. It’s the last thing we do at night.”
That preoccupation includes while players gamble.
“If you’re thinking about your customers in your casino, they’re doing that as well,” Sagman, Everi’s Senior Vice President Product Management said during the session “How Class II Mobile Is Changing Player Marketing Across Casino Channels.”
“You’re probably all on it at the moment, and that’s fine because it’s what we do. But if you’re thinking about your customers in your casino, they’re doing that as well. And if they’re in your casino sitting on the mobile app on a competitor’s site or just anything, everything is a competitor.”
Everi introduced Vi this year to the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma. Delivered through Everi’s BeOn mobile services, the app combines Everi digital Class II games, CashClub Wallet, Everi compliance and loyalty products within the Muscogee Nation’s Class II gaming app.
Sagman said the app is a way to bolster a premise that patrons should be spending time and money on a host casino’s attractions.
“The starting point was how do we make sure that you’re getting involved in the digital space because there’s so many things you can be doing,” Sagman said. “And maybe the first thing to do is just to communicate with your customers at a website mobile app, which in some industries is a given.
‘But in the tribal gaming industry, for example, there’s a lot of casinos out there who just haven’t got around to it; (it) hasn’t been their focus. We’re thinking, ‘let’s start small and dip your toes into the digital space.’ ”
Sagman noted that Class II games are a tribal right and an opportunity for “reservation-wide” gaming. That Class II games have markedly improved over the past 20 years also is an advantage.
“We think it’s important to lean back into Class II in general, on the floor, off the floor, especially since there are all these threats,” Sagman said. “There’s prediction markets and there’s offshore gaming and there’s sweepstakes and all these other forms of gaming that are around you, and sometimes on your reservation.
“And not just reservations, by the way. It’s not just tribal casinos, but commercial casinos as well.”
Sagman said there are numerous options on most properties. He mentioned that Pechanga has a swimming pool, a conference center, restaurants, and bars.
It’s important to engage players with gaming opportunities no matter where they are on a property.
“When people are not on the casino floor, they could be in the hotel room and still engaging and playing games,” Sagman said. “That’s the opportunity, we think, is to be thinking not just of your slot floor, but expanding that floor across your resort. And, if it’s a tribal reservation, then across the whole reservation.”
