Data is at the core of Acres Manufacturing’s Foundation technology. The company says Foundation streams 100% of reported slot machine events into a reliable real-time interface, allowing casinos to trigger instant reactions to anything that happens on their slot machines.
This treasure trove of data collection opens the door for operators to analyze and influence player behavior in ways never before thought possible, including the development of Achievement Bonusing, which Acres will unveil at G2E and deploy into the field in the first quarter of 2025.
Achievement Bonusing can be deployed on any slot machine and is compatible with any casino management system.
Achievement Bonusing creates a ‘game within a game’ by challenging players to complete a specific accomplishment, then automatically pays the credit meter when the challenge is completed.
Player engagement is intensified by leveraging Achievement Bonusing with the Acres Foundation hardware platform to convert game level events from each slot machine into triggers that cause a bonus to be paid.
“Achievement Bonusing can challenge a slot player to achieve a bonus based upon any number of criteria, including a single game pay amount, the number of slots played, or number of spins on a particular slot machine.,” Acres revealed. “The key is that players have to earn Achievement Bonuses and can only do so by betting their own money.”
Acres added that the concepts used by Achievement Bonusing are already used with tremendous success in the video gaming, iGaming, and social gaming industries.
Acres Manufacturing is positioning Achievement Bonusing as a more profitable alternative to free play.
Gratuitous free play, it can be argued, is something players have come to expect rather than appreciate. Its intended purpose to stimulate and incentivize slot play has greatly diminished in recent years, with recent studies showing little to no correlation in free play offers and increased visitation or play.
Acres says Achievement Bonusing is more profitable than free play because it requires players to spend their own money first, maximizing the casino’s opportunity to earn a player’s full spend potential.
“If a player has just an hour or two of available play time and the first 20 minutes are used burning off free play, the casino’s yield potential for that player is significantly reduced. Achievement Bonusing incentivize players to chase rewards by actually wagering their own money.” Acres said.
At G2E, Acres will be demonstrating an Achievement Bonusing game they call Fortuna’s Challenge. A fortune teller named Madame Fortuna challenges each player to hit a single pay in order to win a bonus, i.e. “If you hit a $50 pay, I will give you a $50 bonus”.
The technology uses Foundation’s granular analytics to craft a right-sized bonus challenge for every player.
“We can use individualized data like a player’s average bet and average games played in a session to craft their challenge. If a player is a $5 average bettor, we can reasonably predict how many games they’d have to play to hit a $50 pay. This allows us to strategically create offers to incrementally stretch a player’s budget,” Acres explained.
How casinos structure their Achievement Bonusing challenges depends upon their strategy. A player can be ‘rewarded’ with a challenge that is 90% likely to hit, or ‘stretched’ with a bigger potential prize that is less likely to be hit based on that player’s specific play habits.
The company is also using its Achievement Bonusing technology to create an innovative badging service called “My Jackpot Moment”. Player achievements and milestones are celebrated with a customized badge, instantly delivered to the player’s phone
Each badge includes the player’s name, the specific accomplishment, and the casino’s logo. What’s more, it is ready to be posted to the winning player’s preferred social media platform.
“When a majority of players hit a jackpot, the first thing they want to do is take a picture of the machine and send it to all their friends,” Acres observed. “My Jackpot Moment creates a post card moment with a really cool graphic badge and different badges for different accomplishments. We manage everything from the image itself to the delivery, making it a lightweight solution for casinos to engage their players.”
According to Acres, casinos shouldn’t reserve badges only for big pays like taxable jackpots. Players should be celebrated for trying new games, visiting the casinos frequently or hitting exciting small pays, like $100.
Fortuna’s Link, which will also be demonstrated at G2E, is where players compete against one another to win a prize shown to the entire community. Games randomly convert to a bonus round where machines essentially convert to a real-time tournament mode. Players race against a countdown clock to earn the most coin out, and the winning player is automatically paid to the credit meter.
“Fortuna’s Link gives casinos ability to offer our solutions on just a bank or zone of machines. At G2E we’ll showcase a variety of zone-specific bonuses with different digital signage options that casinos can choose from.”
Experience Achievement Bonusing at the Acres Manufacturing booth at G2E.
