At the stroke of midnight on April 1, Global Payments Gaming Solutions threw a party for employees working at its call center. It wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, but a celebration of a new era for the Las Vegas-based company that officially became Pavilion Payments at midnight.
Pavilion Payments CEO at IGA Tradeshow 2023/CDC Gaming Reports
“We have employees who will clock out at 11:59 and clock back in at midnight,” said CEO Christopher Justice last week at the Indian Gaming Association Tradeshow & Convention.
A tentative agreement was announced February 10, 2023, with private-equity firm Pavilion Capital agreeing to acquire the gaming division of Global Payments. A new organization, Pavilion Payments, emerges from the deal as a stand-alone and independent company.
“The advantage for Global is that it maintains an incredibly powerful business unit as a very strong customer,” Justice said. “All the while, it allows this business to grow and expand in a highly regulated environment without putting a lot of those burdens and pressures back on Global Payments as a whole.”
Justice said that Global Payments will continue to be a long-term partner with Pavilion Payments because “they provide the payments infrastructure that we’ve leveraged for years, which has given our customers incredible uptime reliability.” Pavilion Capital also provides a sound financial partner that will allow the new venture to accelerate product development, double its service organization, and add value for customers.
Will customers notice a difference?
“In some cases, I hope not, in other cases, I hope absolutely,” Justice said, noting that his former company owned its tech stack and that will stay the same, as will payment processing, uptime, and reliability.
“But what (customers) should notice is that we’ve expanded our service organization, the ability to deliver more powerful insights to our customers to help them drive better P&L value,” Justice said. “I think it’s the 360 view that we’ve got and are driving significant value to the consumers, which ultimately translates into higher GTR and better loyalty for those consumers with our operators. I think they’ll see that, and they’ll also see the fact that it’s the same management team with a lot of incredible industry veterans we are bringing into the fold.”
Pavilion Payments will increase the size of the organization by 48 percent over the next six months, with 21 new hires that Justice called “the top players in the league.”
There will be no discernible changes to the company’s mobile app for cashless gaming, VIP Mobility, although Justice noted that it will continue to be enhanced and refined.
Since Global Payments was launched in 2017, cashless payment systems have gained traction in the gaming industry, but are still less ubiquitous than in daily life. Justice said it’s crucial that the adoption of cashless be expedited, lest the industry be relegated to a second-tier entertainment option. He added that the gaming industry risks losing “high wealth individuals” who have zero tolerance for inefficiency
“If we do not adapt to how every other vendor in my life is allowing me to what I want when I want, and I’ve got to walk back to 1985 when I get to the casino space,” Justice said, “I think we’re going to be very, very challenged to win the hearts and minds of those individuals.”
