Evolving slot loyalty systems turn to data analysis and technology to reward players while still at the slots.
For 20 years or so after the appearance of the first player tracking systems and slot clubs, rewarding players for their loyalty remained pretty much the same, regardless of which particular tracking system was being employed.
Points would be earned. Coin coupons would be mailed. Players would gather their coin coupons and make the rounds of casino cages to change them into cash. Invitations would come in the mail as well, to special events, or for monthly gifts—after the trips to the cage, players would queue up to get their free toasters.
Eventually, technology would catch up to the industry. Cashback coupons became free play, accessible right at the machine to prevent players simply leaving with the cash. Events such as tournaments became automated, on-demand events using standard machines on the floor. Carded players began being treated to floorwide bonus events.
These days, many casinos are turning to data analysis and even more advanced technology to reward loyalty, to greet players who may be in the midst of a losing session with a free meal, or to otherwise offer perks—while the player is still on property, even still seated at the game.
Player rewards, in short, are going real-time.
“Point systems have evolved to accommodate more sophisticated marketing programs,” said Ted Keenan, vice president, systems product management for Scientific Games. “Initially, there was a single bucket of loyalty points—that is, one counter for the loyalty points awarded to a player. Today, there are any number of point buckets for a single player. The SG casino management systems have multiple buckets in which players can earn loyalty points, drawing tickets, comps, and more. Furthermore, the SG Elite Bonusing Suite uses a separate bucket for each promotion so that a player’s eligibility can be tracked independently with varying dates of qualification.”
To increase real-time rewards, suppliers like JCM Global provide technology such as the Fuzion system that works with a variety of casino management systems.
“The systems companies have started to partner with other services available throughout the casino to bring their players a better experience,” said Dave Kubajak, senior vice president of sales, marketing and operations for JCM Global. “JCM helps operators capitalize on these partnerships with our Fuzion system to recognize all types of players. Fuzion links the EGM and the property’s CMS, and then enables the CMS to use the printer as a real-time promotional device via PromoNet.
“This way, instead of just awarding points or free play, the guest can receive printed promotions, and it is all directed and tracked by the casino management system.”
Beyond Free Play
Free play became the preferred method of player reward several years ago. Particularly in regional markets like Pennsylvania, the rules make it easy for casinos to award free play without affecting their reported revenue numbers. In other markets, the free-play rewards have become so ubiquitous that slot executives have commented that it has kept them from lowering the slot hold.
The latest casino management systems, though, offer rewards that diversify from the standard free play method.
One is Random Riches, part of the IGT Advantage system. Introduced in 2009, it is “a real-time, goal-based bonus including custom-delivery games and unlimited concurrent promotions,” according to Michael Ratner, IGT’s director of product management-systems commercialization. “Since then, we have built on the success of Random Riches and have added Slot Lotto, Lucky Draw, and most recently Intelligent Offer, which rewards players based on a rules-based engine that awards real-time activities, and player location within the property.
“One of the core features of the Random Riches system allows players to earn promotional credit as they play. It is also much more exciting to anticipate a win than simply be given free credits. This has proven to be a great way, in addition to innovations such as our Virtual Drawing Manager, to reduce a casino’s reliance on free play.”
“SG offers several different reward methods, all of which are designed to increase player value,” said Keenan. “All rewards have a perceived value to the player and an actual value to the casino operator. Successful marketing campaigns have high perceived value with lower actual value.
“Free play is one way to award high perceived value with low actual value. However, if players are inundated with free play, then the perceived value can decline even to the point at which it is lower than actual value. In this case, other awards might offer higher perceived value: merchandise, eligibility in a tournament, free drinks or other comps, etc. Today’s bonusing systems have to enable marketers to keep the floor fresh with awards and bonuses that have a high perceived value by individual players.”
Cath Burns, Executive Vice President Customer Experience at Aristocrat for Aristocrat Technologies
“Oasis 360 offers multiple rewards along with free play—points, comps, tier points,” said Cath Burns, Executive Vice President Customer Experience at Aristocrat for Aristocrat Technologies. “Points can be converted to promo and/or cash, voucher prizes, period awards, point multiplier, or offers.
“Oasis 360’s integrated One Link bonusing solution provides targeted bonus campaigns for both carded and uncarded players. Bonus types include progressive-style mystery jackpots that can drive customer excitement on the gaming floor, especially when configured to hit by a specific amount, with options available for time-based and poker jackpots. All jackpots can be awarded in cash and/or promotional prizes.”
“By monitoring player behavior during play sessions, PromoNet and Fuzion reward specific player behaviors and play patterns by responding to those with targeted marketing events,” said JCM’s Kubajak.
Real-time rewards involving everything from instant bonuses to floorwide events have become the norm over the past decade.
“Field studies have shown that real-time player rewards and recognition enhance the player experience and improve the bottom line for casinos,” Kubajak said. “PromoNet and Fuzion enable cross-marketing throughout the entire enterprise by giving players incentives to utilize other areas of the integrated resort, such as food and beverage, retail, hotel, spa/salon, entertainment, parking, gas stations, convenience stores, etc.”
“Real-time bonusing has been a key driver of the success of SG’s Elite Bonusing Suite for many years,” said Keenan. “EBS captures real-time data at the machine, passes it up to a server for evaluation, and then awards a bonus based on real-time player behavior.
“Real-time bonusing is evolving as casino operators hire their own data science teams that can write their own algorithms. Increasingly, casino operators are looking for real-time data for their scientists, who will do their own evaluations to make real-time bonusing decisions. SG is embracing the evolution to deliver real-time data with the tools to empower the data scientists at casino operators.”
Floorwide events featured as part of the bonus lineup have evolved from the first virtual racing events of a decade ago.
“Operators have used our Lucky Coin and Carded Lucky Coin mystery progressive jackpots very successfully for many years to promote floorwide play and incent players club membership,” said IGT’s Ratner. “Over time, we have added features such as extensive scheduling, multi-site capabilities and custom-delivery games to bump up the excitement. We have also implemented a floorwide ‘consolation prize’ to award all carded players when someone wins the primary jackpot.”
“SG has a variety of floorwide events to promote carded play,” said Keenan. “Some of the events are random, such as mystery-style progressives, while others are targeted to the most valuable players. Floorwide random events are used most effectively for widely marketed events designed to attract players to the casino. The advantage of real-time bonusing is that a casino marketer can reward player behavior the moment it happens to make the player experiences more compelling.
“Suppose a player loses 50 percent or more of their wager amount within one hour. A casino marketer may wish to keep the player engaged by instantly awarding a bonus game. Random events bring players in the door; targeted bonusing driven by real-time data keeps them in the seat.”
Throwbacks
Floorwide events and new styles of player rewards have by no means eliminated all of the traditional player perks. Slot tournaments, in particular, are still prevalent, although they bear little resemblance to the old style of event, in which players stood in line to register for a 10-minute session on one of a roped-off group of antiquated machines, plugged in only for the contests.
Modern system technology has taken much of the tedium away, for both operators and customers. Normal, in-revenue slots are quickly switched to tournament mode. Registration is online, so no physical lines. Many of the systems allow for on-demand tournament sessions; players can complete tournament sessions at their own leisure within a specified period. Technology allows flexibility for the winners, including electronic transfer of monetary prizes and shipping of physical prizes directly to the winners’ homes.
“Event block management removed the manual process from the beginning (scheduling the event) through end of the event (check-in),” said Aristocrat’s Burns. “This module can also be used to change players’ admission to the event, player swipe-in, and to track real-time status of RSVPs (ticket pick up, decline, etc.) through the life cycle of the event. The traditional casino rewards and marketing tools are still in full use, but they are enhanced to be more data-driven, real-time and extended to guests’ mobile devices.”
“Many of the traditional reward events are proven, and SG customers continue to use them,” said Keenan. “Modern technology has created some new experiences and has also enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of the traditional events. For example, Player Boutique is a new experience in which players can select a prize to be shipped directly to their home from a catalog curated by a casino marketer. SG continues to evolve its bonusing solutions to embrace evolving player preferences.
“Likewise, traditional events such as raffles, tournaments and progressives regularly undergo enhancements to make them more easily operated and more fun for the player.”
“Slot tournaments have come a long way since the days of shutting down banks of machines to stage tournaments,” added IGT’s Ratner. “For many years now, IGT has been offering our very successful TournXtreme solution that enables fast and easy configuration of tournaments, including prize offerings, days, times and machines. The system also enables the transition from revenue mode to tournament mode, so the machines function in stand-alone mode until the moment they’re needed for tournaments.
“The TournXtreme game library is extensive and consists of well-known tournament themes such as Cleopatra, Spin Ferno, SpinSplosion, Incredibell! and Ultimate X Poker. TournXtreme is the only tournament product that can run tournaments on video reel, reel steppers or video poker games.”
The other traditional player perk, of course, involves personalized service by a host. The latest loyalty systems take this into account with a system of alerts to hosts in response to various play triggers—good and bad.
“In recent years, we introduced IGT’s Mobile Host smartphone app for casino hosts and ambassadors,” said Ratner. “This technology alerts casino personnel when specified carded players arrive, provides vital statistics and generates real-time updates related to the player’s location within the property.”
“There are a variety of solutions to deliver personalized service,” said SG’s Keenan. “Some of the triggers are automated one-dimensional triggers such as a jackpot hit at a machine which can alert a host. Or, play at least $50 of coin-in to enable a menu with beverage ordering capability right on the game screen. Other triggers are multi-dimensional. For example, set play limits within 30 days on a minimum of three trips with a max coin-out to trigger an event.
“Events can be set to send an alert to a host, award a bonus game, set eligibility in a tournament at the end of the month, or other awards set by the casino operator.”
The future of system technology in casinos promises more convenience, including development by all suppliers of a single-card system, or even a single-smartphone system. According to the suppliers, the day is close when customers to integrated resorts will be able to use their smartphones to check in to a room, unlock their room door, fund their slot play through a phone app, cash out, and check out. No plastic cards and keys through which to sort.
Unless the player wants to continue with mag-stripe keys and plastic cards. For the foreseeable future, that option will remain.
But the other contact-free options are coming. And because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they’re coming fast.
