The three-day South American Gaming Expo and Congress (SAGSE) took place Nov. 9–11 at the Costa Salguero Convention Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Confirming once more that it is the top gaming expo for South America, it was announced just before the show that SAGSE will serve as the official sales agent in Latin America for the Global Gaming Expo (G2E). Now entering its 18th year, SAGSE, as always, attracted some of the world’s most innovative and largest suppliers of gaming machines, equipment and technology. CEM was there to cover the show and talk to some of the key players in the region. 
Aruze Gaming
Steve Walther
Vice President, Marketing
We are here at SAGSE in Latin America for another year, and we have a larger booth with a bigger presence. There are a few different categories of games that we brought here, but we are highlighting our stepper product. We are showing two of our breakout titles, Bamboo Panda and King of Dragons, on the stand. They’re getting some fantastic performance in the United States and Asia, and we figure that this product is perfect for the market, which likes a bit of stepper and a bit of video. Our Innovators are a fusion of both stepper and video technologies. Everybody on the stand seems to gravitate to these products right now—to this exciting stepper-based product.
SAGSE for us last year was more of an introduction—a coming out party, if you will. Now that we have approvals in many markets in Latin America, there’s great expectation for Aruze to do well down here. We’ve made some great relationships with a number of major operators, we’ve already sold all the games off our booth and are thrilled about our future prospects. And, of course, we are enjoying the attention that we are getting in the Latin American market. They are hungry for something a little bit different.
We present a premium product in a standard cabinet. Our products have a lot of interaction, video, lights, etc., and we think it’s all going to do very well in this market. I think the Latin American repeat local business market in the bingo halls and some of the casinos really appeals to a product that’s going to catch the customers’ interest, engage them and invigorate them.
It’s a little bit of a different play dynamic in South America than up in North America. Our products work really well in the clubs in Asia, which is a very similar market in terms of game play and the way that people want to play. We’ve had some fantastic performance there, and the Latin American markets could perform equally as well. Right now we’ve got installations in Panama. Also, we have some installations pending in Chile and we are moving into Argentina, Uruguay and Peru.
Konami Gaming Inc.
Eduardo Aching
Senior Director of International Sales
At SAGSE this year, we are launching a wide array of new products. Our main launch for the Latin American market this year is Beat the Field, our first 4-level community progressive. Another very interesting launch that we are doing is the Advantage Revolution; it’s something really innovative that the operator has never seen before. The third product that we are launching here is our first themed product, called Rock Around the Clock on the Advantage 5. This too has been very successful, and we are expecting very good return opportunities on this one as well. In addition to this, we are launching a new series of video products. Among them are the multi-line 15-reels and the double stand-alone progressive called Pirate’s Jackpot. Everything we are presenting here as SAGSE is pretty much all new.
We are the youngest company in the market. We’ve been here two years, and in this short period of time the acceptance has been extremely good for us. Today we have been able to install products in the major casinos for the main operators, and the feedback we have gotten back from them is really positive, not only about the product, but also how Konami and its distributors work with the customers. Our post-sale support is one of the strongest in the region.
We are targeting all the legal jurisdictions—Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, the Caribean, Mexico and Colombia. Our network of distributors covers the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean. I believe our success comes down to our distributors and our focus on the customer. Customer support is a very strong point for us. We receive daily feedback on that, and we are becoming very well known for committing to something and doing it.
This is really the most important trade show in Latin America. We already know most of the customers. It’s a perfect networking opportunity to meet and greet—and a good way to show our commitment to our customers. This year, our CEO is also at the show. He is showing the commitment of Konami Gaming to our customers here.
Shuffle Master Inc.
John Strickland
Director of Marketing
We have three exciting new table games products here at SAGSE that are new to this market and are already tried and true in America. We have Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em Progressive, Caribbean Stud and Three Card Poker Progressive. It’s the first time that we’ve shown our progressive option for our proprietary table games in this market, and they’ve been very popular during the show. The show stopper is obviously our Equinox cabinet for EGMs or slot machine products—it’s the Rolls Royce of cabinets. It has a sleek modern design, and all of the components have been placed strategically so it’s easy to switch or change, and to address issues. Cats, Bats and Hats is a monster title for us right now, and obviously Pink Panther Returns on the progressive side. We’ve also got a variety of stand-alone progressives and linked progressives on show.
As far as our utilities products, our MD3 shuffler is the next evolution of the MD product. Last year was the MD2CR, and this is the MD3. It’s faster, more accurate, and now with an on-board printer function. A lot of folks are asking, “Why the printer? What does that do for you?” Well, actually it’s quite good, because once the cards come out of the shoe and have been played, they are discarded and they need to be verified and reshuffled. The MD3 will tell the dealers if there is a card missing, which is a big problem because somebody could have palmed that card and then reintroduced it into play for their benefit later. So the MD3 has been extremely popular for us, and it was hugely successful at G2E in October.
From our proprietary table games and their progressive offerings, and the Equinox cabinet, we are doing a limited showing here at SAGSE, but we are excited and we’ve been very busy.
Ainsworth
Jason Babler
Product Marketing Manager
The Latin American market is higher denomination, lower line products, so we really focused on that as well as multi-game products. Our Multi-Win™ is going to be a great product. It is multi-language and Flash-based. The games are instant, so no load times! We are showcasing our 12 titles here at SAGSE. One of the key features of this product is that the stand-alone progressive is on top. Unlike many other multi-games, with ours you don’t lose the progressive as you switch games. All the money you’ve been contributing to the progressive accumulates in the mystery progressive and follows you through each of the 12 games. We think it’s going to be a real winner for us.
We are expanding our presence in South America every day. Currently, Mexico is a very big market for us, but we are breaking into Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama as well. Obviously Argentina, Chile and San Salvador are on our radar, too. Our games do great in the South American market, so of course we are trying to get them into every region at this point. With the growth in Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala, we’ve seen a lot more transfer from video poker and bingo to video reels, so we are banking on this to introduce some of our newer products into those markets.
Overall, SAGSE has been very positive so far. We’ve seen more people visiting our booth than we have in the past. Everyone is very pleased with our showing, and the first day of the show has already generated sales.
Bluberi Gaming Technologies
François Remy
Field Operations Manager
Bluberi is a Canadian gaming company based in Drummondville, Canada. The company’s strength lies in games with attractive graphics that offer varied progressive jackpots and bonuses and support cashless transactions.
Bluberi is well established in the U.S. and in Mexico and provides its customers with a wide range of Class II and Class III products. The company is now reaching the South American market, especially in Argentina with Class III games. Some of Bluberi’s games are already adapted to Argentina’s market, while others, based on North American concepts, will need to be converted. This can be easily done since Bluberi has the knowledge and resources required to customize games to suit its customers’ needs.
Bluberi has various patents in the U.S. One of them, the Target Jackpot concept, offers four levels of jackpots, two of which are linked through a network of machines located within a single or multiple casinos, while the other two are restricted to the machine (local). The player must match the current score of one of these jackpot levels with the associated target value, either by competing with the other network participants or independently. The values of current scores, targets and jackpots are displayed on a second screen.
The appeal of this concept rests on the possibility to frequently win sizable jackpots (depending on the number of machines, the average bets and the number of games played) as well as on the incitement to play, a feeling renewed each time the player gets notified that another participant has won a network jackpot. This is quite an attractive feature that Bluberi would like to launch here in Argentina.
James Marrison has been covering the casino industry in Latin America for over seven years and has written in-depth features on every country in the region. Marrison has worked as a research contributor for Global Betting and Gaming Consultants and serves as a consultant for industry professionals for the Gerson Lehrman Group. Marrison is also a researcher into the online gaming markets in Europe.
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