Summary

In this episode, Nick and Dan catch-up with Chris Rowe, President of Valicy Gaming. Learn how Chris and the folks behind charitable gaming and route powerhouse, Grover Gaming, are leveraging their unique product, service, and cultural experiences into the creation of one of the industry's most exciting new companies. Tune in to hear the history, what makes them tick, the product lineup, and more. Also in this episode, things that caught our eyes at G2E 2026.

Transcript

Nick Hogan:

Good morning, Dan. How are things in Clark County this morning?

Dan Cherry:

Great, Nick. Good morning. It’s the spooky edition of the ReelCast today. I know we’re not on video, but I see you’re wearing your costume. You got your Michael Myers Halloween mask on today.

Nick Hogan:

Exactly. Yeah. And it is actually incidentally my favorite holiday of all. And I oftentimes dress up and win prizes for these things. So it’s a holiday I get behind, no doubt about it. So Dan, it was great spending some time with you at G2E. I take it you had a good show?

Dan Cherry:

Yeah, it was great. A little subdued. I didn’t see attendance, but I feel like maybe it was a little less trafficked, maybe not with some of the sports betting folks overseas in Portugal. But yeah, it was a great show.

Nick Hogan:

Yep, agreed. And one thing we know for certain is those attendance figures will come out and everybody will look at them and start debating whether they’re real. So that’s the same way it works with every trade show it seems. Okay. Well, not surprisingly, Dan, all of this month’s listener questions were about what caught our eyes on the G2E exhibition floor. Once again, my time down there was a bit compressed. I guess my main takeaway was really that the cabinet footprints are shrinking, music to a lot of operators’ ears, I would imagine. All the big debuts. So we had Aristocrat’s Reign, Light & Wonder’s Lightwave Solar, Konami Solstice 27C or 29C.

Dan Cherry:

Apologies. The dual screen. Yeah.

Nick Hogan:

Yeah, I don’t remember if it was 27 or… Anyway, the smaller one. And AGS’s new Glow Upright 43 were pretty noticeable departures from, let’s call them, let’s say the theatrical formats of the past decade. But now you spent a lot more time down there than I, so I’d really like to hear what jumped out at you.

Dan Cherry:

Yeah, sure. And I totally agree with you. And we talked about this a little last month about expectations going in, and I feel the show was kind of as expected. So off the floor, there was a lot of discussion as we thought about prediction markets and online, but also a lot about AI, hot topics as expected. There was some conversation in the OEM booths about using AI to aid and enable the development process of games. But a lot of the AI conversation was off the show floor, smaller startups talking about using it either as solutions or using it to enable and speed up their go-to-market strategy. All of that is expected.

We talked last month about how the big two, Aristocrat and Light & Wonder have really been able to continue to take share from everybody else, and that theme continued. They both showed very well. On the IGT front, I felt they really strategically focused on retrenching and consolidating. Their booth was, I think they strategically took some product out of their booth. They didn’t launch a new core cabinet this year, but they have two very performing form factors in the peak 55 and the peak multi-screen. And so I think their focus was really showcase the continued performance of those and build momentum and show that they have a more consolidated, focused roadmap now with the consolidation of the two companies. Not a lot of IP from what I saw. Obviously in the IGT booth, they showcased Queen, Reign, and Aristocrat’s continuing to get momentum with Monopoly.

Nick Hogan:

Oh, that’s fantastic. Yeah.

Dan Cherry:

Yeah. But I agree 100% with what you said on the hardware. It seemed like either new form factors were, as you said, a little smaller or they were direct replacements of existing models simply with updated platform. And I think a lot of it comes from last year, one of the debuts was Konami Solstice where the focus was really the merchandising and the lighting around it. And a lot of folks are now making sure that that’s a key focus of the hardware as opposed to more and bigger. And we can ask our guests in a few minutes, but my sense is just the race to bigger and better is kind of hitting a ceiling because of cost more than anything else. And then the cost of hardware is escalating so much more than the top line for either the OEMs or the operators, and it’s nice to-

Nick Hogan:

It’s not just the purchase cost. I mean just logistically with these things, I mean they obliterate sight lines, they block surveillance coverage, you need specialized rigging to move them around. And of course, if a monitor busts on one of those suckers, you have a serious investment there.

Dan Cherry:

Yeah, for sure. So I think people achieved bigger through jumbo form factors, which we talked about before, but there’s some efficiencies there because it’s the same platform, but bigger street and some different components. And so whether it’s AGS or Bluberi or Konami or others, that was a big focus in trying to drive innovation and excitement and provide something for operators that is to be a splash on the floor. And I think we’ll continue to see that. I think there was a lot of buzz around some of the mid-size and up-and-coming OEMs, in particular Bluberi got a lot of good press out of the show. They are making a big focus on sound in particular. They had the Lighthouse Cabinet last year, and this year they had some new presentations that really showcased how you can use sound and light to merchandise in a pretty cost-effective way.

And they showcased SirMixaLot last year and talked about premium. This year they’re actually bringing it to market and ready to launch it. So making a big push there and some excitement. But between Zitro, GamingArts/Merkur, Valicy