The Global Gaming Expo gave Everi a chance to get in front of customers and display its latest upgrades and enhancements in FinTech, but that will continue through the fall as it showcases its ever-expanding Digital Neighborhood.
That Digital Neighborhood represents a complete suite of financial, casino loyalty and compliance products and services that bring commonality and continuity to operator workflows, according to Darren Simmons, executive vice president and FinTech business leader at Everi, a premier provider of land-based and digital casino gaming content and products, financial technology, and player loyalty solutions.
“Post-G2E, we have a lot of customers who want to come who didn’t attend and do in-person meetings in our office and showrooms and go through what we have been working on both from the FinTech side of my business and the games’ business. We have had some really great results and feedback and have been really busy with getting our products and solutions out there.”
Everi recently launched the JACK Mobile Wallet, a cashless mobile wallet at the JACK Entertainment property Thistledown Racino. That is to be followed by the JACK Cleveland Casino.
The first phase at JACK Thistledown Racino includes the cashless funding feature that enables remote enrollment, deposit of funds to the wallet via mobile, kiosk and cage options, along with touchless access to funds at the kiosks via the “Money To Go” ($ToGo) feature, Simmons said.
In December, Everi announced it went live at the WinStar World Casino and Resort in Oklahoma and Seminole Casinos operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
In August, Everi announced that its digital CashClub Wallet technology is powering Penn National Gaming’s new mychoice Wallet at Hollywood Casino York in Pennsylvania, following previous installations at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course and the Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Pennsylvania.
Everi had 11 installations heading into G2E.
“Our friends at Penn have been great on their whole 3C’s initiatives – contactless, cashless and cardless,” said Simmons. “We’ve been excited to work with them. They have plans to launch through the end of the year. We’re just working at their pace to which jurisdictions go next. With a number of customers scheduled right now, we’re looking at 16 commercial and tribal properties (across four states) by the end of October and nearly 30 by the end of 2021. We’re thrilled with how it’s gone so far.”
Everi’s CashClub Wallet integrates and extends cashless payments throughout the gaming enterprise using traditional, alternative, and mobile technologies. It’s a mobile digital wallet that allows casino operators to offer their guests the option of cashless and contactless funding of electronic game play, including funding at the gaming device, as well as payments at the point of sale or online to fund sports betting or social gaming, Simmons explained.
CashClub Wallet also provides guests with multiple options to access their funds while on the casino floor. Available on more than 26,000 electronic gaming devices, CashClub Wallet is the most widely deployed land-based digital gaming wallet in the U.S., and the market’s only fully-integrated, multi-property, multi-jurisdictional, system-agnostic, solution, he added.
“CashClub Wallet anchors our mission-critical tools and serves to seamlessly connect our portfolio of FinTech products and applications,” Simmons said. “As we create operational efficiencies with existing infrastructure, it’s important that the interactive journey of the player reflects our collective goal of providing casino guests with a convenient, end-to-end mobile funding experience.”
Everi’s jackpot management system, Jackpot Xpress, is an extension of the company’s Digital Neighborhood concept. Installed in over 30 locations nationwide, the intuitive jackpot and tax forms management solution allows casino staff to securely and efficiently process slot jackpots using a mobile device right at the winning gaming machine.
Jackpot Xpress is the only jackpot management system that combines mobile productivity, secure payment, tax forms management and anti-money laundering tracking into a single solution, Simmons asserted. Jackpot Xpress also powers digital adoption by integrating with CashClub Wallet, enables new card sign ups via integration with Everi’s Loyalty Platform, Trilogy, and has secure email capabilities to allow casino patrons to electronically retrieve their tax forms.
Everi recently held a field trial for Caesars Entertainment at Caesars Palace.
“We just have been approved in Nevada,” he shared. “We keep growing that business. Jackpot Xpress is one of those great tools for the operator with player and patron experience and providing great customer service. It’s an efficiency tool for the operators in paying out jackpots with mobile digital technology. What’s great about that is it’s integrated with both the CashClub Wallet and our loyalty platform. Through Jackpot Xpress, you can pay out jackpots into the wallet and also enable sign up into the players’ club through our loyalty platform integration. Those are exciting ways we’re connecting our Digital Neighborhood with our products and services to enable great experiences for the players and patrons and for the operators and their teams from an efficiency standpoint. We have a tremendous amount of green space with that product, and we continue to grow that month-over-month.”
Simmons noted that Everi continues to innovate and bring in product extensions to the core pillars of its business: financial access services related to funding the entertainment experience, Title 31 anti-money laundering, compliance reg-tech products, loyalty products, and the Trilogy Go! mobile platform. The latter advances how casinos can engage with their patrons by extending many offered services – guests can book a table at a restaurant, participate in promotions and more, directly from their mobile device.
Another new product Everi displayed at G2E was PitXpress, which modernizes table games operations and improves both the player and operator experience by automating the credit, front money and marker lifecycle using mobile technology. Marker issuance, redemption, and transfers are performed in real-time, and mobile bet tracking allows for more accurate ratings for VIP players, explained Simmons.
“We have a mobile framework to deliver a lot of things,” he said. “We continue to show the self-service aspects like kiosks to enable the concept of ‘phygital’. That is a term that has gained traction in the last 18 months, which is how companies are bridging together the physical and digital worlds. We talk about our Digital Neighborhood, and it’s interesting that this term phygital gained traction. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we want to be able to use the technology we are building and innovating to create that digital experience in a seamless and user-friendly way that ultimately is helping our customers deliver great experiences for their patrons. And, ultimately, we want great experiences for the front of house and back of house employees. It’s bringing two of those together – all-around self service and convenience, ease of use, and trust and security. We’ve really embraced what we showed at G2E. There’s a lot of opportunities with innovations and technologies that I think we brought to G2E. We’re delivering now in self-service and trying to be more mobile in using the foundations that we have to drive things for the operators.”
