Sega Sammy is seeing a patchy recovery in Asia’s markets, but says once social distancing measures are removed, there appears to be underlying pent-up demand. The company has been active with projects and product placements and is finding its stand-alone electronic table game product is highly suitable to the operating conditions imposed by Covid-19.
1) What kind of recovery are you seeing in the land-based industry in Southeast Asia?
Due to the pandemic, there are still ups and downs in the situation of the Southeast Asian (SEA) market. We do see signs of player demand picking up when Covid is under control in some regions. The land-based industry in SEA always had shown strong growth in pre-Covid times, but since then these operators are actively revising their strategies, with all having individual challenges due to the varying degrees of limitations. We expect that once the Covid situation eases, SEA will come back strongly.
2) What are you expecting for the second half of the year?
Just like other regions, it depends on the varying dynamics of the pandemic. How each region deals with limitations such as border closures, quarantines and social distancing measures is as diverse as there are countries. A positive thing is that we have been active with many projects and product placements throughout this time. We also have never stopped developing new products during the pandemic, so we have a wide range of products ready to go for our customers. We will continue to work together with operators to bring our new games for their floors that cater to their specific needs.
3) Do you have any new products/ initiatives focused on the Asian markets?
Our Standalone ETG product is produced especially for the Asian market. We focus on “Versatility” and “Performance.” Many operators are taking advantage of this flexibility of our product to maximize performance. For instance, social distancing requirements can be achieved more easily with standalones as they can be banked in creative ways, that allows more product to be activated. Performance is another important factor with us, as we have a track record of 100 percent trial pass rates across a variety of venues (IRs, local slot clubs). Due to this our Standalone ETGs are well accepted by players so will still receive steady orders from operators despite the pandemic. In the same way, we now have a variety of slot games focused on the Asian market such as “Dragons Foo”. A Popular ‘Dragons” themed game with the feature of Wild Addition. Our goal is to work with operators through these challenging times by bringing valuable products to their floor.
