Q&A: Leigh Nissim, IGT Interactive commercial director

Last month IGT Interactive posted a 22% year-on-year rise in full year revenues to US$324.2m after stunning growth in its social gaming business made up for a decline in its B2B slots arm.

The Las Vegas-based gaming supplier, which is in the process of being acquired by GTECH in a $6.4bn deal, saw its DoubleDown Interactive business soar 28% year-on-year to $280.5m, up from $218.5m in 2013, after increases in both daily active users (DAU) and bookings per DAU.

However, the growth in social masked a 6% drop in its B2B slots division to $46.5m and eGaming Review caught up with IGT Interactive commercial director Leigh Nissim to reflect on what he described as a “strong year” for the firm and discuss how it plans to return the slots business to growth in 2015.

eGaming Review (eGR): How do you feel IGT’s online B2B business performed over the course of 2014?

Leigh Nissim (LN): This year has been a strong one for IGT Interactive. Our remote game server (RGS) transaction volumes and the number of players on IGT games across multiple regulated markets are at record levels. These figures include the US, where, for the first time, egaming was introduced in New Jersey.

We have taken a series of very conscious decisions to transition from expensive legacy technologies and commercial relationships to focus on future, higher-margin growth. We have made a number of operational changes where we have switched off legacy systems and technologies and moved to focus on our remote gaming business. If you consider the RGS business, on a like-for-like basis, the interactive B2B division has seen strong growth, which we’re proud of in the face of these revenue closures.

eGR: Annual revenues from your B2B slots business are down 6% year-on-year, what’s behind this?

LN: The fall masks positive underlying realities and patterns. To put it in footballing terms, we’ve improved our stadium, upgraded our training ground, and signed some great new players. You can’t expect to do that without impacting the bottom line, but it is 100% necessary in the face of strong competition. It ensures improvement and makes sure we will continue to finish in the top positions every year.

eGR: What are you doing to address the decline?

LN: Doing what we do best – focusing on quality content, working with our customers and platform partners to help them grow their businesses and nurturing growth markets. The focus has to be not just on existing growth areas, but also on anticipating and creating other ones.

Our product development priorities are on areas we believe IGT can make a real difference and on features we’re able to bring to market quickly and cost-effectively. The UK Point of Consumption tax will bring an industry-wide structural change that all suppliers and operators will have to contend with. Our goal is to continue to grow our RGS business and volumes, attracting more players than ever before.

eGR: Where has the focus been in terms of winning new operator partners? Which markets have been the most exciting?

LN: Recently we have had a number of sizable operator partners, who were previously on old distribution models, move to RGS. We have also been working with IGT’s traditional land-based casino customers in New Jersey. Next year we expect to participate in two or three newly regulated markets where we are not currently operational.

In terms of specific markets, North America continues to excite – we’ve been growing consistently in New Jersey and our market presence in Canada is healthy. Europe excites too – there’s plenty of growth available and we’re finding that our customers are becoming increasingly innovative and progressive in their products and approach to marketing.

eGR: Has the success of DoubleDown along with the slow progress of RMG regulation in the US meant the development of IGT’s real-money B2B online slots business has had less attention?

LN: Every market has different demands and the great thing is that IGT is equipped to supply content to these markets in whatever form it takes. DoubleDown is at an exciting stage when it comes to its progression path, as is the IGTi B2B business. Both are powered by RGS, so both benefit from having the same production and high quality games in their ecologies.

Anything that we do as a company, with regards to production of new games or features, is always and as far as possible designed to improve transaction and game performance on both channels. We will continue to seek opportunities to introduce products, games and features that benefit both businesses, aligning priorities for maximum impact.

eGR: Can you explain what the key focuses have been in terms of product development?

LN: As the market for the supply of digital casino games becomes increasingly competitive, we’ve maintained focus on the delivery of high quality game content and titles across mobile and desktop, aiming for simultaneous releases wherever possible.

Mobile remains central to our goals. Recently, we released the third generation of our mobile console, creating an improved user experience, launched some superb top-performing casino titles like Golden Goddess, re-released classic mobile titles such as Cleopatra and Da Vinci Diamonds, introduced tablet versions of our table games and launched RGS mobile in Italy and Canada.

Elsewhere, we have opened a new data centre in New Jersey, to meet the demands of that market, and IGT made major investments in our other data centres around the world. For example, in New Jersey mobile is responsible for over one-third of our egaming volumes in that market and across the board, it is nearing historical desktop levels.