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Global Gaming Business Magazine GGB JANUARY 2025 •Vol. 24 •No. 1 •$10 Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers UNDERDOG’S JEREMY LEVINE RG BREAKTHROUGH FULL HOUSE’S DAN LEE IGT’S JENNIFER FALES Clean Sweep as other countries move forward LEANING LATAM 25 for ’25 Our Annual People to Watch PREVIEW ICE BARCELONA ’25Vol. 24 • No. 1 COLUMNS CONTENTS january 3 COVER STORY 18 People to Watch 2025 Our annual profiles of 25 People to Watch highlight the gaming executives likely to have the biggest influence on the industry this year. 40 Sports Betting Standout Jeremy Levine, co-founder and CEO of Underdog, describes how the site has expanded from its fantasy sports roots to a sports betting powerhouse. 44 Sweepstakes Rising The rapidly spreading phenomenon of sweepstakes casinos has sparked debate over their legality and concern over new competition to casinos. 54 Solving Problem Gambling A collaboration between two vendors is using artificial intelligence to aid in the recognition and treatment of problem gambling. JANUARY 2025 www.ggbmagazine.com Global Gaming Business Magazine 10AGA Forging the Path Ahead 12Fantini’s Finance 2025: Questions and Answers 4The Agenda 6By the Numbers 85 Questions 13AGEM 56Frankly Speaking 58Emerging Leaders 60New Game Review 62Cutting Edge 63Goods & Services 65People 66Casino Communications DEPARTMENTS Eyes on LatAm A new era begins January 1, when Brazil’s sports betting and iGaming businesses kick off and local gambling regulations mark a pivotal moment for the largest economy in Latin America. Other markets in the region may be set to follow soon. FEATURES SPECIAL REPORT: ICE BARCELONA After years of calling London home, the ICE trade show and conference makes its debut in Barcelona, Spain, at the Fira Gran Via conference center January 20-22. 48 Q&A: Stuart Hunter The managing director of Clarion Gaming, producer of ICE, reflects on the conference’s move to Barcelona and changes in the 2025 edition of the show. 50 Keynote Focus: Joe Kaminkow ICE keynote speaker Joe Kaminkow, chief innovation officer of Aristocrat and EKG Slot Hall of Fame member, breaks down the science of game design and reflects on his career. 52 ICE Floor Map 53 Schedule At A Glance New Year. 4 Vol. 24 • No. 1 • JANUARY 2025 Roger Gros, Publisher | rgros@ggbmagazine.com X: @GlobalGamingBiz Frank Legato, Editor |flegato@ggbmagazine.com X: @FranklySpeakn Jess Marquez, Managing Editor jmarquez@ggbmagazine.com Monica Cooley, Art Director mcooley@ggbmagazine.com Terri Brady, Sales & Marketing Director tbrady@ggbmagazine.com Beck Kingman-Gros, Associate Publisher & COO bkingros@ggbmagazine.com Lisa Johnson, Communications Advisor lisa@lisajohnsoncommunications.com X: @LisaJohnsonPR Columnists Frank Fantini | Bill Miller Contributing Editors Brendan D. Bussmann | Robin Harrison | Nicole Macedo Marjorie Preston | Patrick Roberts Bill Sokolic X: @downbeachfilm| Cole Rush Kathy Urban | Thomas Zitt ______________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Official Publication F or years we’ve been covering everything about the gaming industry, both land-based and online. We’ve walked you through gaming expansions in every region of the world. We’ve tried to explain the new technologies that will make our businesses run more efficiently and profitably. We’ve reviewed how online gaming has become not just an addition but a full partner in the success of this industry. But when you finally examine what makes this business tick, it’s the customers. Another issue we’ve been stressing for years is non-gaming revenue, and the casino resorts do very well with that. On the Las Vegas Strip, the revenue breakdown today is 70 percent non-gaming and 30 percent gaming. Regional and tribal casinos are more slanted toward the gaming revenue, but most of them are adding the non-gaming amenities so they can balance those revenues out. But truth be told, the bread-and-butter of any casino, online or land-based, is the gamblers. And the way you treat those players can be the difference between success and failure. But when the bean coun- ters get involved, they often miss the most important part of the equation, the relationship between the employees and executives of the casino and the gam- blers. That is such a crucial connection that it’s not only overlooked but often ignored. Don’t do that. Let’s start with the table games. Casinos are starting to turn off the real gamblers by introducing rule changes that favor the casinos. The 6:5 payout on basic blackjack and the triple-zero roulette are probably the most egregious examples, but the bonus side bets are also to blame. While you often can hide the house edge on those games via those bonus bets, it’s just annoying to players who only want to play blackjack. The new variations of baccarat are also trying to pull that house edge in the casino’s advantage, by including glitzy signage and scoreboards, but the real gambler can see right through that. When I was the editor of Casino Playermaga- zine back in the late 1980s, we turned around the hold percentage on slot machines that was reported by the casinos to their regulatory authorities and called it the payback percentage. Today it’s known as “return to player” or RTP. When you play a slot game online, you are able to dig around in the description of the game to find the RTP. That’s not the case in a land-based casino. Why not? But what really annoys players is when there are wholesale changes to the players clubs. When Eldorado bought Caesars, they revamped Caesars Rewards in a way that made it almost unrecogniz- able to previous Caesars loyal players. Same thing with MGM when they renamed and reorganized Mlife to MGM Rewards. Players tumbled several levels and casino hosts had nothing to tell them that would make them feel better. Some casinos ramp up their offerings to attract new players but then pull them back as quickly as they raised them. Tier matching is also a dangerous game. If you don’t explain what the player has to do to maintain that tier, it can be confusing and disap- pointing for the player… and for the casino. When you get down to the granular level, it’s the relationship your employees have with your cus- tomers. Why is it often your privately held casinos that seem to be so successful? In Las Vegas, South Point and Ellis Island have fiercely loyal customers who return again and again. Across the country, there are examples of pri- vately held casinos that are very successful. In the U.K., look at the Hippodrome in London. Owner Simon Thomas knows that people come first, and if you give them what they want, they’ll remain loyal customers. Is it because their owners don’t have to answer quarterly earnings calls? Is it because they can afford to have a longer-term view? Wynn Resorts has been amazing in how they’ve kept the quality of their properties and their cus- tomer service up, even with the exit of their vision- ary founder, Steve Wynn. The Wynn board does have that long view and doesn’t focus as much on those quarterly reports. Of course, then you have a corporate raider like Tilman Fertitta who threatens to bring management down. Just look at Golden Nugget casinos (also a Steve Wynn product) and you’ll see the difference between a Fertitta-run property and the Wynn properties. Focus on people and you’re going to be success- ful in the long run. But focus solely on profits and you’re going to be running a company that will not connect with its customer base or its employees and will have ongoing problems. People Places BY ROGER GROS, PUBLISHER Global Gaming Business JANUARY 2025 THEAGENDA New Year. Giant Possibilities. Our New Year’s Resolution: To reach new heights, make a bigger impact, and help our clients Play To Win. Let us know if we can help you. Discover the possibilities at goodgiant.com.6 Global Gaming Business JANUARY 2025 BYTHENUMBERS Wake me up When septemberends A year-to-date analysis of U.S. gaming and the growth of its sec- tors with data through September was published at the time of writing by consultancy GGHM. According to the analysis, 23 out of 37 commercial casino mar- kets were showing YoY declines through September, with an average drop of 2.3 percent and a high of 6.2 percent (Laughlin, Nevada). However, GGHM said that 14 markets that had grown did so “at a pace greater than that of the declining markets.” Illinois, Virginia, New Hampshire and Kentucky HHR were markets that were noted as having benefited from recent expansion. Sports betting was the standout of all sectors, with GGHM say- ing it had reached YoY growth of 32.3 percent. Twenty-five of 30 markets saw growth over last year through September, but not all was rosy in the report. GGHM noted that revenues in Ohio, South Dakota and Montana were down “significantly despite increased handle, a trend worth continued monitoring.” Mississippi and New Hampshire, the firm said, saw revenue and handle declines. I n its 2024 “Instant Replay” analysis, the sports bet tracking platform Pikkit looked at data trends from the 323 million bets tracked on the app this year from its 600,000-plus monthly users. The top-line trend this year was basketball—34 percent of all bets tracked by Pikkit were on the NBA, followed by 22 percent for MLB and 19 percent for NFL. College bas- ketball and NHL rounded out the top five at 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively. With respect to bet types, parlays were the preferred wager for U.S. bettors, encompassing 50 percent of all bets tracked. Interestingly, approximately a quarter of parlays tracked were same-game parlays, which have become a staple for major bookmakers like FanDuel and DraftKings. Aside from parlays, the remaining 50 percent of bets were split between straight bets (45 percent) and round-robins (5 percent). The three most-bet teams for the three major leagues were the Boston Celtics (NBA), the Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB) and the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL). Shohei Ohtani was the most-bet MLB player (3.4 million bets), Luka Doncic was the most-bet NBA player (6 million) and CeeDee Lamb was the most-bet NFL player (2.2 million). The online gaming sector clocked an impressive YoY jump of 28.7 percent, but authors did caveat that “the majority of these mar- kets are Northeastern coastal states, making this segment reliant on regional economic trends.” Finally, VLT revenues were up YTD in six of eight reporting markets, with the sector as a whole growing by 3.2 percent YoY through September. 34 % nba 22 % mlb 19 % nfl 6 % college basketball 5 % nhl other the three most-bet teams for the three major leagues bets tracked on pikkit8 Global Gaming Business JANUARY 2025 CALENDAR “TheyIt” 5QUESTIONS I f there’s one brand that has stood alone as the most popular, longest-running and iconic slot game, Wheel of Fortune is the one. Jennifer Fales has spent a decade promoting this brand, and explains how IGT has kept the game fresh with new styles, platforms and hardware. As the TV version of the show has changed, with its host leaving last year, IGT is keeping pace. Fales spoke with GGBPublisher Roger Gros in the GGB booth at G2E in Las Vegas in October. To hear and view a full GGB Podcast of this interview where Fales talks about other IGT brands, visit GGBMagazine.com. GGB: We recently did a cover story on the most successful slot game in the history of gaming, which of course is Wheel of Fortune. You’ve been able to keep it going for all these years and to keep it fresh, with more changes coming. Explain where we’re going with that. Jennifer Fales: About a year and a half ago, we announced our new deal with Sony. Starting on January 1, we have another 10-year agreement with Sony Pictures for the Wheel of Fortune license. And one of the things we did during this negotiation with Sony was really building in the ability to expand into new product lines. So specifically, we’ve released a Wheel of Fortune in the video poker space, in the VLT space, and Wheel of Fortune in ETG. So we’re really looking to expand on our Class III premium and also some of our specialty games into these three new verticals. How does it work with video poker? They don’t seem to be very compatible, but obvi- ously you figured out a way to do it. The DNA of the game, especially the base game, is traditional video poker. We found ways to bring in the most iconic element of Wheel of Fortune, which is the wheel spin, of course, and solving a puzzle. So the base game plays very traditionally, and winning hands get letters. Letters fill up a puzzle, and if the player solves a puzzle, it triggers a wheel spin. You’ve had a lot of different physical setups for Wheel of Fortune—the community game, two-seaters, large formats. What do you have up your sleeve for new versions? This year at G2E, we launched three new premium form factors. One of them is a community-style game. So thinking back probably 10 years, we had large-format, nine-seater games around the big wheel. Obviously, knowing that footprint and space is a little bit of a different situation now, we’ve created a three-seater with a wheel that spans the seats and kind of modernizes that “Super Spin” into a commu- nity-type game. We’re also launching a Wheel of Fortune on our Skyrise cabinet, which we debuted last year with the Whitney Houston brand. And then we are bringing our Diamond RS (stepper) into the Wheel of Fortune space as well. So quite a bit of new hardware and more than a dozen new games. Let’s talk about your partnership with Sony. They own the brand, so when you develop a new game, do they actually work hand-in-hand with you to do that? We definitely work hand-in-hand with Sony. They know the brand better than anybody, but we also know gaming. It’s a great partnership of strengths and capabilities. So typically two or three times during the game development process, we meet with Sony, we talk about the game at a conceptual phase, and at the midpoint when we do player focus groups. And then we do a final submission. So throughout the process, we are showing them the game, showing them the artwork and talking about the features and the mechanics, and they approve each step of the way. So it’s a great partnership and collaboration. This year, Pat Sajak has retired and Ryan Seacrest has been doing the nighttime version of Wheel of Fortune. Can we expect to see him here at some point promoting the Wheel of Fortune games? Ryan launched what Wheel of Fortuneis calling their new era. He started his co-hosting with Vanna White. We’re excited to see where the show goes and what the future holds. We haven’t announced any new talent deals, but it’s something that we’re actively discussing. It could be very interesting. We’ve had a great partnership with Vanna, so it could be something that we see in the future. 1 2 3 4 5 Jennifer Fales January 20-22: ICE Barcelona , Fira Barcelona Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain. Produced by Clarion Gaming. For more information, visit icegaming.com. February 23-25: SiGMA Eurasia, Dubai Festival City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Produced by SiGMA Group. For more information, visit sigma.world/eurasia. February 25-27: SBC Summit Rio , Riocentro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Produced by SBC Events. For more information, visit sbcevents.com/sbc-summit-rio. March 10-12: SiGMA Africa, GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World, Cape Town, South Africa. Produced by SiGMA Group. For more information, visit sigma.world/africa. March 12-13: NEXT Summit New York 2025, Convene, New York, New York. Produced by NEXT.io. For more information, visit next.io/summits/newyork. March 31-April 3: Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California. Produced by the Indian Gaming Association. For more information, visit indiangamingtradeshow.com. May 7-9: Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia, Venetian Macao, Macau, China. Produced by RX. For more information, visit g2easia.com. LETTER FROM THE CEO To our valued clients and partners, Our journey together has always been defined by a shared commitment to go further – beyond expectations, beyond borders, and never settling for “good enough.” With the momentum we’ve built this year, I’m excited to set a fresh pace for the future. Whether you’ve partnered with us for decades or are just beginning your journey with GLI, thank you for your trust. After 35 years, it’s incredible to say – we’re just getting started. Our focus remains, as it has since the beginning, on accelerating your time to market and getting it right the first time. With over 40 seasoned professionals averaging 15 years at GLI, our senior global management team delivers unmatched depth and expertise to clients worldwide. Since August, we’ve welcomed 140 new team members globally, adding to our 1,400 professionals, with plans to hire 140 more in early 2025. These seasoned leaders are shaping the next generation, instilling GLI’s legacy of core values while embracing modernization and new technologies. This ensures we deliver on time, on budget, and with the unmatched quality for which we’re known. Backed by a global Quality Management System and growing teams, we’re committed to delivering secure, consistent testing for all – regardless of your business size or location. Our cybersecurity services, now a core division of GLI, provide a seamless, one-stop solution for advanced platform security alongside the compliance expertise you rely on. As technology evolves, integrity remains our compass, ensuring we lead the way in setting and raising industry standards. I’m proud to share that our Gaming Security Framework (GSF), the first industrywide cybersecurity standard, has seen widespread adoption. I look forward to connecting with many of you at ICE in Barcelona and again at our 2025 Regulators Roundtable in Las Vegas, April 16 -17. We’re on track for record-breaking attendance, with regulatory experts worldwide joining our annual networking reception – an unmatched space for regulators and suppliers to exchange insights. As the largest regulatory event globally, we look forward to welcoming new faces alongside our longstanding regulatory partners. This past year, we’ve strengthened our connections with you – logging nearly 750 flights, countless miles, and over 1,500 hotel nights. Each visit has been a privilege – reconnecting with familiar faces, meeting new ones, and witnessing the innovation driving our industry forward. These conversations remind me of the gaming industry’s tremendous progress and GLI’s role in pushing boundaries alongside you. As we move forward together, we’re committed to breaking boundaries while maintaining the world-class quality that defines GLI. Thank you for letting us be part of your journey and here’s to turning today’s goals into tomorrow’s milestones. I look forward to seeing you somewhere on the globe. gaminglabs.com James Maida “When we exceed your goals, that’s how we know we’re on the right track.”Next >