It has been a couple of years since the Covid-19 pandemic faded from the news headlines. That period coincided with a renewed commitment to Asia by slot machine specialist Aristocrat Gaming, which is showing positive results. This is according to Lloyd Robson (pictured), the firm’s vice president of sales and operations – Asia, speaking in an interview with GGRAsia.
“One of the things Aristocrat did coming out of the pandemic was to make an enormous commitment to this region,” he said. “Asia was identified as a high-growth region and, with that, came additional investment into Asia – firstly from a product point of view, but also from a people and infrastructure perspective.”
Mr Robson said the refreshed approach to the Asian markets “allowed not just a broader portfolio and commitment of games to Asia, but also the development of products specifically built for the region”.
He added: “That has really driven our product performance in the Philippines, Singapore, and Macau. We are also the market leader in Vietnam and Cambodia.”
His comments were made during the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2025 casino trade show and conference. The three-day event at the Venetian Macao casino resort concluded on Friday (May 9).
“We’ve put a lot of new roles and infrastructure into Asia,” Mr Robson said. “The team we have today versus the team we had three years ago is nearly double in size.”
The Aristocrat executive highlighted that, since the end of the pandemic, the firm has strengthened its presence in the Philippines by opening an office and showroom, while also renovating its Macau office.
“We’ve introduced a lot of new capabilities to the structure, particularly around our analytics and marketing functions. So, we’re really starting to partner and work with operators in a very different way,” Mr Robson said.
Return on square foot
At G2E Asia, a significant part of the portfolio on display at Aristocrat’s booth was either newly-developed for Asia or market-tuned content tailored to the region, according to the executive.
One of the product highlights at the trade show was the brand’s MarsX Slim cabinet, making its Asian casino trade show debut.
Mr Robson explained that the cabinet is already available in several Asian markets, including Macau and the Philippines. In essence, it is a more compact version of the larger MarsX cabinet, and was developed based on operator feedback – initially for Singapore.
“In essence, it allows you to deploy more units in the same amount of real estate as you could with the standard MarsX,” he said.
“It has really enabled operators to look at their slot floor with a different metric. Traditionally, machines or games have been measured by win per unit per day. This marks a shift in the dialogue towards return on square foot.”
He added: “If you’re able to unlock more real estate or more casino floor space by deploying additional units, then there’s a high likelihood you’ll generate more revenue from the same footprint. That was the logic behind MarsX Slim.”
