Table games managers have to balance several factors to maximize revenues – and make senior management and patrons happy.
What price should the games be at?
Do we have enough tables open so we’re maximizing patron experience and revenue? Are tables priced correctly?
Do we have too many tables open, so we’re spending too much on labor, and cutting into our profits?
Tangam Systems, based near Toronto, is working with casinos to provide answers that go beyond just the pit boss’s gut feeling. The company, which began focusing on optimizing table game revenue in 2009, is already overseeing more than 4,100 tables in seven countries.
The casino industry started dynamic pricing with hotel bookings, and as the market matures the urgency to squeeze out every possible dollar increases – which is why missed opportunities or wasted labor costs are becoming more closely viewed.
“We take the data already collected by table games, analyze it and forecast patron demand,” said Maulin Gandhi, chief operating officer. “What we do helps managers spend more time making decisions instead of crunching data.”
The analysis is agnostic as to game type, but does factor in house edge and table limits.
“A blackjack table full of $10 players is less profitable than one with a single $50 player,” Gandhi said.
Tangam – which in the company founder’s country in India is the word for “gold” – also has hired Ari Mizrachi, most recently the senior director of table games at Parx (Penn.) Casino, to muscle up its expansion in North America. Tangam also addresses the idea of what to do when pits are full.
“Sometimes if you don’t have labor, the only lever is price,” Gandhi said.
He also emphasized that Tangam provides the data and a forecast, but the casino floor makes the final decision.
“It’s up to them to follow the recommendation or reject it,” he said, noting that floor managers might know of other factors, such as a casino show letting out.
Tangam also has an online interactive module, called Tangam Academy, for those looking to understand how to maximize revenues. That element of TangamGaming.com was named one of the top 20 innovative products by Casino Journal in July, and about 3,000 people have taken the online interactive course.
“We want to continue to be the thought leaders in this space,” Gandhi said.
