Summary

In this second episode of ReelCast, ReelMetrics CEO, Nick Hogan, and VP of Professional Services, Don Retzlaff, conclude their two-part discussion covering Inventory Overdiversification.

Transcript

Nick Hogan:

At ReelMetrics. We collect and analyze a ton of slot data and we’re hit up frequently for insights, tips, and tricks. So we decided to do a webcast in which we present, discuss, and otherwise nerd out on our work. Coming to you from our offices in lovely Leiden in the Netherlands, welcome to ReelCast.

Good morning, Don. How are things today in the greater St. Louis area?

Don Retzlaff:

They’re fine, Nick. Any jet lag from driving home or flying to Las Vegas?

Nick Hogan:

Oh yeah, I’m completely raggled, upside down, nothing new there. That took a couple weeks following the show to visit some clients and new folks around the US and so just hit Holland about 36 hours ago and arrived to what is the balmiest and sunniest late October in Dutch history. So it’s trippy. It’s about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 21 Celsius here today, which is really weird for this time of here, so whatever that is.

Don Retzlaff:

That’s a nice bonus.

Nick Hogan:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s okay. Not complaining, not complaining. So here we are, our second episode. And out of the gate, I have to say was pretty pleased with how the first was received. Remarkably, people actually listened and we received some nice comments from folks, so that was great. There were a few-

Don Retzlaff:

That was very nice.

Nick Hogan:

Yeah, for sure, for sure. There were a few requests that we get this into the various podcasting services and we’re working on that. And of course, we all had great fun comparing your voice to mine. So I think we landed on you having the silky baritone of a Barry White, whereas I landed closer to Paul Lynde, as we like to say. And here’s the kicker, while I was in the Midwest, to my horror, I think I discovered that there’s some Ethel Merman in there also.

Don Retzlaff:

Well, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.

Nick Hogan:

Yeah, exactly. I need to update my references here, Two people who haven’t been alive for 40 years or whatever. So no good, no good. But at least I can’t be accused of loving the sound of my own voice, so I’m okay there. Also, we have another G2E in the tank. It was a great show, attendance was way up, the international vendors were, back parties returned. And we were so slammed with meetings and demos that I think I clocked a max of around 30 minutes on the floor. So considering the time, effort, and money that the vendors pour into these shows, certainly wouldn’t be fair for me to comment about anything I saw. But I noticed that you managed to get a couple hours down there, so just wanted to ask you, did anything catch your eye that you saw there this year?

Don Retzlaff:

Yeah, a couple. I only got to spend about three, four hours down there. Like you said, we had a lot of meetings with clients and potential clients, but what I did see, I had a really nice tour of the IGT booth. That DiamondRS Reel cabinet is sharp and I’m not a big Reel fan. I went probably 10 years without buying a Reel product, everything was video, video, video. But they did a really nice job with that DiamondRS cabinet. The Neptune Single from Aristocrat looks nice. They’ve done a really nice job, their graphics are amazing. On the smaller side-

Nick Hogan:

Yeah, I did see that package. That was sharp, for sure.

Don Retzlaff:

Yeah, they’ve come such a long way. I remember going out and buying Mk fours and Mk fives back in the day, and you can see the dots on the screen from the graphics, and they’ve come such a long way. The other one that caught my eye from a smaller vendor was the Gaming Arts, the VertX Grand. That’s a sharp looking cabinet. The graphics on it are really good, so we’ll see if their games perform, but it sure is a sharp looking cabinet. But everything is so big nowadays. I feel sorry for the VPs of slots out there that have to try to worry about sight lines on their floor because everything is six foot, seven foot, eight foot tall.

Nick Hogan:

Yeah. And the riverboat operators with those low ceilings, I’m sure that stitches them up pretty solidly.

Don Retzlaff:

Yeah, there’s a lot of places that can’t even put the towers in because of the height. So yeah, everything’s getting taller and wider.

Nick Hogan:

Okay. Yeah, I have to say, I did take a look at the Neptune Single, that one. I think you and I were together when I saw that one. Not entirely certain. Okay. And then we went over to, do you recall the name of the new L&W cabinet that we saw there?

Don Retzlaff:

I don’t think they’ve named that one yet.

Nick Hogan:

Okay.

Don Retzlaff:

I think that was still a working title.

Nick Hogan:

All right. That was a cool looking new machine, too. It was looked pretty sharp, too. Okay, cool. Well, I think what we can do now is we can get cracking on the back half of our two-parter on Inventory Overdiversification. That is, Don, did you have any other observations that you want to share about G2E or were those the-

Don Retzlaff:

No, let’s rock on this.

Nick Hogan:

Okay. All right, very good. Before we jump in though, let me state again that we’d love to tackle any questions that anyone listening may have. So if you have a question about what we’re presenting or something that you’d like us to present, please drop us an email at reelcast@reelmetrics.com. Again, that’s R-E-E-L-C-A-S-T@reelmetrics.com. Our policy here is to keep all questions anonymous, so please speak directly and don’t worry about us revealing your identity, that’s just not something we do.

Okay. So without further ado, let’s get at it. In the first part on overdiversification we focused on these points here. So we asked, what is over diversification? Why should I care about it? Industry-wide, how problematic is it? And how did we get there? So we covered all those points in the first, and now we’re on to these two questions, which is, how do I know if my floor is over-diversified? And if it is, what can I do about it?