Everi Holdings – Focusing on Strength

Everi Holdings is entering a season of change. By the end of next year, the company that was formed through the 2015 merger of slot supplier Multimedia Games and fintech giant Global Cash Access will likely be under private ownership, thanks to a $6.3 billion acquisition by hedge fund Apollo Global Management that will combine Everi’s game business with that of current rival IGT Gaming.

Everi’s Games division already has seen change, with Jesse DeBruin moving in August from vice president of gaming operations to senior vice president and gaming leader, replacing Dean Ehrlich, who left the company effective September 1.

Other changes include the promotion of Caitlin Harte to vice president of product management, a position in which she is working with DeBruin to formulate Everi’s short- and long-term product plans.

According to Harte, the pending change in Everi’s ownership and merger with IGT does not change Everi’s product roadmap. In fact, she says it has caused her team to refocus on what Everi does best in supplying slot product to casinos. After all, Everi’s slot library and product plan survived the last merger—what makes Everi slots some of the best in the business are the same factors that propelled Multimedia Games to success before the merger.

“In committing to our future, we are focused on what the next year looks like at Everi,” Harte says, “for our products and creating a culture where people want to stay and work to bring innovation to the industry. We’re excited—‘re-energized’ is the word we keep saying.

“Product-wise, it calls us to refocus. Are we making the right games? Are we making games just to make games? The space we operate in is more competitive today than ever, so getting this right is more important than ever.”

Regardless of what the company will look like two years from now, Everi’s team knows what the company does best, and that will be on full display at the Global Gaming Expo.

Stepper Expertise

With respect to Everi, their best often involves the stepper slot category. Going back to Multimedia Games, the company has been masterful in the stepper category, and this year is no exception.

The big news in Everi steppers this year is the launch of a new cabinet for the standard mechanical-reel category. Called Player Classic Spin, it is an extension of Everi’s award-winning Player Classic Signature stepper cabinet. Above the spinning reels is a 23-inch portrait monitor, topped by a prominent mechanical wheel. A nine-inch LCD button deck provides for easy play.

The cabinet is being launched as a for-sale cabinet with a limited-release product roadmap. “For a limited time, you get to buy a wheel (game),” says Harte. “How cool is that?”

As is typical with Everi steppers, the launch games have a traditional look and feel. “Everi has become known for the classic look and feel of its steppers, so the extension of Player Classic Signature is built on that foundation,” Harte says. “The reels are powerful, they’re well-lit. The cabinet features a

really cool, eye-catching top box with the old-school mechanical wheel, but we added the twist of a digital button deck, which allows us to communicate more clearly to a player on incentives or the line configurability.”

The launch games for the new cabinet, to be available shortly after G2E, are Smokin’ Hot Diamonds and Smokin’ Hot Rubies. Both are classic three-reel, nine-line mechanical steppers with multiplying wild symbols and multipliers on some of the bar symbols as well—2X, 3X and 5X, applied to winning combinations.

Three wheel symbols trigger the bonus wheel, which includes credit awards and the top three jackpots—Major, Mega and Grand, the top progressive resetting at $10,000. Two static jackpots are won through line combinations.

A second pair of games will be available on the cabinet in Q1 2025. Black Diamond Super Spin and Crystal Star Super Spin are extensions of hit titles on the standard Player Classic Signature cabinet.

“Black Diamond and Crystal Star are Everi’s top mechanical brands, and we’ve never paired them with a wheel feature before, so I think players will have fun with these,” Harte says. This is an exciting new way to play something that feels familiar.”

There will be no shortage of new stepper games launched on that standard mechanical cabinet at G2E. Joining recent releases that include a new version of the popular Cash Machine and sister “Win What You See” game (numbers on the reels constitute win amounts) Blazin’ Grand—both with a new “nudge” feature that randomly moves numbers to the payline to form a cash prize—will be five new game series, each with two titles.

Fired Up Triple Jackpot and Magic Pays Triple Jackpot feature fixed multiplier symbols and a free-spin bonus. Super Jackpot Double Lions and Super Jackpot Wild Gems feature 2X, 4X and 40X multiplying wild symbols.

The Super Nudge Series gives players an opportunity to win the lower-tier progressive multiple times with up to four nudges. The Wild Stacks Deluxe series features stacked wilds and a “wild nudge” feature. The Top Notch series features innovative classic steppers that focus on multipliers instead of symbols and a quick-stop bonus that awards one to 10 prizes paired with multipliers.

Everi’s Premium Mechanical stepper category includes some potential blockbuster games, headed by compelling new titles on the Player Classic Signature wide-area progressive, Skee-Ball and Pop-A-Shot. Both are three-reel “Win What You See” games, with video replicas of the classic arcade games in the top box.

“These are the launch games in our premium mechanical WAP on the Player Classic Signature,” says Harte, “so these can be banked with optional signage that’s reminiscent of old-school arcade brands.”

In Skee-Ball, the bonus ball flies into either one of the familiar concentric circles in the middle for a credit prize or three progressive jackpot hoops, including the top Grand—a wide-area progressive resetting at $100,000.

Pop-A-Shot simulates the basketball-shooting stand in the arcade. Prizes flash between credits, multipliers and the three jackpots, and the player wins the amount lit up when the ball goes through the hoop.

On the premium Player Classic Reserve cabinet is Everi’s latest licensed game, Powerball Wild Jackpots. In this game—also a wide-area progressive resetting at $100,000—the line wins are bar and 7 combinations, and three Powerball symbols trigger the top-box display of lottery balls being tossed around in a lotto-style “cage.”

“The cabinet features a circular chrome bezel, which we’ve only used to display a video wheel so far,” Harte says. “Powerball Wild Jackpots will be the first time we’re using it for a new feature display and the (video) ball hopper is perfect for it.”

Five white balls bearing credit amounts “fall” to a display, after which red “Powerballs” fill the cage, bearing credits, multipliers, and a jackpot, with one red ball falling to augment the award.

Other premium stepper games to be displayed include Disco Inferno, with a disco ball in the middle of a wheel that spins in a colorful light display to the background music of the Trammps’ 1976 disco anthem; and Money Maker Press Your Luck, a stepper based on the famous game show. That game, another “Win What You See” setup on the three reels, has a “Whammy Wheel” that can spin to the $100,000-plus progressive.

Video Power

The Powerball theme goes beyond the stepper category to head up Everi’s collection of games in the Premium Video category. Powerball Power Play resides on the Dynasty Luna, a new cabinet with a 36-inch square main display and a 49-inch J-shaped monitor positioned above it. In this application, the lower screen houses a five-by-three reel array and the large top monitor displays a lotto-style air chamber.

Powerball Power Play is a 30-line base game with cash-on-reels symbols landing on the first four reels. If a red Powerball lands on the fifth reel during the free games, it awards all cash-on-reels values with a multiplier up to 10X.

The main bonus is a hold-and-spin feature, with Powerballs as the cash-on-reels symbols and jackpot symbols for five lower-level prizes. During the feature, the player can unlock two additional reel sets. Filling all nine rows on three reel sets with Powerballs and jackpots triggers the wide-area Grand progressive, resetting at $100,000.

The other launch game for the Dynasty Luna cabinet is a new version of Casper the Friendly Ghost titled Casper Triple Fright, to be unveiled at G2E and released in Q2 of 2025.

Everi also will display several new premium video slot games on the Dynasty Dynamic cabinet, the hybrid setup featuring a classic three-reel base stepper game under a 49-inch curved monitor, with transparent “Dynamic Glass” technology that enables 4K video to be displayed over the reels.

Heading up the new games on the Dynasty Dynamic is a revival of the Zoltar theme, with video depicting the mechanical fortune-teller arcade games. Zoltar: Master of Mysteries (base themes Zoltar Face Your Fortune and Zoltar Wild Wish) deploys a three-reel base game in which symbols are accumulated toward one of two bonus events in which Zoltar deals out big wins with a mystical, intense animation that extends to the reels themselves, thanks to the Dynamic Glass.

Also on the Dynasty Dynamic are two new versions of Cash Machine—Cash Machine Inferno and Cash Machine Lock—that take the popular title to the premium, high-denomination space; and Chia Pet, which brings to life the late ’70s pop-culture phenomenon of figurines with growing chia sprouts resembling hair.

“Cash Machine Inferno features fireballs that go down over the reels that can lock,” says Harte. “And then on Cash Machine Lock, there’s a persistent feature where if you land a zero or double zero, it locks and remains locked until you win. It’s an interesting twist on a basic reel mechanic.”

Chia Pet features a three-pot collection feature (Chia pots, if you will) leading to a hold-and-re-spin bonus. Every time a Chia Pet lands on the reels, a watering can above the corresponding pet in the top box waters the pet, making it grow.

Sol Sync

Everi also is featuring several premium video entries on its Dynasty Sol Sync cabinet, which integrates the stylish Dynasty Sol cabinet with uniquely shaped LED signage and wedges that combine for a premium bank presentation.

Heading up offerings on this cabinet package is Shark Week On Location, with two location themes—Hawaii and Australia. In Hawaii, wild symbols with random multipliers appear on the three middle reels, while Australia has wilds on the three right reels including random credit values.

Both games feature the Shark Alert jackpot feature, which grows a single pot toward a progressive jackpot level, and a fun fishing bonus where players can fish for jackpots and credits with multipliers.

“This is a popular license that’s seen success in the past, with a fun new twist on it,” Harte says. “It doesn’t have the bank-wide Shark Alert like the original, but is more of a stand-alone feature with a single pot.”

Also on the Dynasty Sol Sync is Cosmic Wheel Link, a colorful game awash in psychedelic colors with two base games centered around wheel-spinning bonuses, plus a hold-and-spin bonus that can result in multipliers of the wheel prizes.

“Cosmic Wheel Link is a fun twist on the hold-and-spin bonus,” says Harte. “Players experience the hold-and-spin while building a custom wheel during the bonus as symbols land on screen and prizes on the wheel provide additional wheel spins.”

Everi will launch more than a dozen games in its Standard Video line at G2E. Among the standouts are the player-popular Dynamite Pop! series, which will now also be available on the Dynasty Vue, as well as high-denomination versions for high-limit rooms on Dynasty Sol and Dynasty Vue. Both base games have pot-style dynamite bundles above the reels, which randomly explode to trigger the “Pop Bonus,” a fast-paced picking game similar to that in the hit game Cha-Ching.

Another highlighted game in the Standard Video category is Chick-A-Boom!, featuring a funny animated chicken in a bonus sequence that unlocks prizes on a jackpot ladder by transforming chickens into fried chicken dinners. (It’s hilarious.)

Other standouts in Standard Video include Bank Heist Blast, in which a funny burglar character can unlock any or all of three bank vaults for bonus prizes; Zhao Cai Jin Bao Golden Cat, a gambler-style game with triple pots leading to a hold-and-re-spin bonus; and 888 Drums Eternity, in which a single pot leads to a progressive picking bonus.

Finally, Everi will display the latest version of its TournEvent on-demand slot tournament system, now available on its latest standard video cabinets, Dynasty Sol and Dynasty Vue, providing players even more accessibility to TournEvent.

“We’re excited about going into G2E with renewed energy and a renewed focus on product strategy,” Harte says. “We are committing to our future, and it feels great.”