With the conversations I’m having in the US, I see a great opportunity now for the land-based casinos in non-regulated markets to move online. I sat down with Rory Shanahan from Scientific Games last week to share my thoughts with the industry in the first of a two-part webinar series hosted by iGaming Business. If you missed the webinar, here’s a recap on my discussion about how US land-based casinos can use social gaming as a customer acquisition and retention tool. Below are the key points from what was an insightful discussion on how the US land-based sector is evolving in the digital space: • US land-based casinos have the opportunity to introduce a social gaming product to their current customer databases as both an engagement and retention tool • US land-based casinos are in an optimal position to market a digital casino product because of the pre-established brand recognition and existing relationships with their customers, • Digital casino products, whether free play or virtual currency, can act as an acquisition tool to grow customer databases For a more detailed recap, check out the slideshow. What are your thoughts on the US casino landscape? Let’s continue the conversation. I’ll also be giving a recap of the second iGB webinar in the next few days.

1. Seizing the Opportunities of the US Gaming Market:
Offering a Digital Social Casino Experience
Nicky Senyard
CEO & Founder
Income Access Group
Rory Shanahan
Head of Marketing & B2B Social - Interactive
Scientific Games

2. To set the landscape, how has the US Gaming industry evolved over the years?

3. Two key themes have emerged:
1. Compliance
• Compliance vs. commercials
• National versus state regulations
• Vertical specific regulations
2. Market size of land-based casinos
• Growing size and penetration of land-based casinos
• Unique approach to community and reinvestment

4. A brief history:
 1931: Nevada legalizes gambling
 1976: New Jersey legalizes gambling, restricting it to Atlantic City
 1978: Resorts Atlantic City opens, first NJ casino
 1999: Multiplayer online gambling introduced in the US
 2014: American Gaming Association: The US land-based casino industry contributed
more than $240 billion to the national economy
 2009 – 2014: However, revenue growth has recently been challenging: following the US
financial crisis, the casino industry’s revenue growth averaged only 0.8% a year between
2009 and 2014
 2014: Some recent closures of casinos include the closure of Harrah’s Casino Tunica in
Mississippi in June 2014 and the shutdown of the Clarion Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in
September 2014

5. Talking of online gaming, what are the main trends
impacting the US gaming industry at present?

6.  Divergence
• European market is homogenous and coherent
• US market is still evolving and remains divergent related to regulation and
approach
 Technology
• Technology is enabling the growth of the market and increasing
engagement levels
 Consumer appetite
• There is an incredible pent-up demand in the US for gaming content
 Brand interest
• Brands in the US resonate with consumers and hold great value
• Organizations have the opportunity to evolve by capitalizing on brand
interest and consumer appetite

7.  Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 – federal
legislation banning real-money iGaming in the US.
 State by state legislation
2013: Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware regulate online poker
2014: No new states regulating real-money gaming
2015: Online poker bills before state legislature in California and Pennsylvania
2016: According to Eilers Research, no new states expected to regulate
2017: Pennsylvania online market to go live*
2018: California online market to go live*
2019: New York online market to go live*
2020: Connecticut and Massachusetts online markets to go live*
*Based on Eilers Research

8. Discussing land-based casinos in particular,
what do you see as the current landscape for this sector?

9.  Opportunistic
• Customer database
• Brand strength
• Market awareness
• Connection to the customers
 Age of Digital
• Expansion by leveraging current customer experience
• Ensuring brands are following innovative digital trends
• Increase revenue by implementing new acquisition and retention strategies
• Understanding compliance
 Challenges
• Slow pace of iGaming regulation

10. What choices do land-based casinos have?

11.  Verticals
• Depending on the state, there are choices related to the five key verticals (horse-
racing, fantasy, social gambling, real-money, branded social casino)
 Application
• Concierge mobile
• Adopting brand partnership
• Licensing social product
2014: Social casino revenue rose 38% year-over-year to reach $2.8 billion (Eilers Research)
2015: Forecasted that the global social casino market will expand to $3.8 billion
Over 35.4 million American players, according to SuperData Research

12. From your point of view,
what is the best focus for land-based casinos and why?

13.  Developing a social casino product can serve four main goals:
1. Engagement and customer retention tool
2. Acquisition of new customers (beyond current geographical boundaries)
3. Additional revenue/ revenue diversification
4. Building player database ahead of real-money regulation
Separate research by Sally Gainsbury (academic) and US gaming firm IGT says social casino and
real-money online casino brands have similar player demographics:
Players aged 30+ predominate (75% of social and 82% of real-money)
According to SciGames, player stickiness with social product is high and averages 2 years
Average monetization rates for land-based social casinos is 13% according to SciGames Play4Fun

14. Can you take us through the steps that a casino can take to begin the process of
moving online with a social casino product?

15.  Let’s assume that a land-based casino has only a web
presence (retail website, social media)
1. How to go online – what technology option best achieves
the goal
2. What does the infrastructure integration look like?
3. What content do I choose – what are my customers going
to want o play? (social casino games, etc.)
4. What is the internal management of the product to look
like?
5. Marketing, including use of online and offline channels

16. Given your company’s focus on marketing,
can you provide more detail on marketing a social casino brand?

17.  The first question to ask: what is the goal?
• Increase property revenue
• Increase customer base
• Increase market share
 Goal: engage current database
• Engaging and Existing with existing customer database
• Leveraging the resources a casino already has, and implementing content related to
social into current strategies – email marketing, social media, etc.
 Goal: increasing geographical reach of brand
• Marketing/ acquisition beyond existing database – SEO, PPC (Google ads),
performance marketing (use of social networks), paid social media ads, offline
channels (TV, print, radio, local billboards, etc.)

18. What can land-based casinos expect to achieve
in the first stage of marketing their social product?

19.  Keeping your ideal player in mind when strategizing engagement
• Identifying your ideal player, and concentrating on these types of players
 Expansion of current marketing activities
• Email marketing: Sustained email marketing campaign to the customer database that promotes the social
brand (both the desktop version and the mobile app)
• Social media: Focusing primarily on Facebook and Twitter, as they are considered the most impactful social
channels for B2C marketing, according to research from the Social Media Examiner
 Testing your marketing strategies
• Using efficient tracking technology to ensure you are maximizing conversion of existing customers into
social players
 Findings – Scientific Games
• 20+ mobile concierge player downloads
• 4.25+ sessions per daily user
• Players using social products increase in-casino spend

20. What about the secondary phase of marketing?
What can land-based casinos expect to achieve then?

21. Again, come back to the goal. Here are two examples:
1. Increase profitability
• Targeting current customers that are digitally exposed
2. Increase customer database
• Players that are outside geographical boundaries will be digitally exposed, and
seek to spend leisure dollars on activities such as a digital social casino
 NOTE: ensure transparency of your marketing efforts and investments to
understand what is most effective
• Track online, offline, and mobile channels
• Implement ad serving tools for targeted digital acquisition
• Google analytics/AdWords
 Constant re-evaluation of channels and marketing campaigns

22. What have you seen are some advantages that land-based casinos
have related to marketing?

23.  Land-based casinos are really well-positioned to market a digital product:
• Pre-existing marketing budget
• Already existing relationships with customers
• Brand value
• Customer database – segmented
• Player rewards programs

24. THANKS FOR ATTENDING!
For more Information, please feel free to email Nicky at
nicky@incomeaccess.com
Thank you to Rory Shanahan from Scientific Games for
sharing your insights. To contact Rory:
rory.shanahan@scientificgames.com