IGT – A New Day

Mergers and acquisitions have been commonplace on the supply side of the industry over the years, but the strongest suppliers to emerge from the deals are those where the combined company is more than the sum of its parts.

This year’s combination of IGT and Everi is a prime example. The $6.3 billion deal combined the gaming and PlayDigital divisions of IGT with the complete business of Everi, which is slot supply and the fintech business once known as Global Cash Access.

The acquisition by a fund managed by Apollo Global Management of both businesses to create a new privately held supplier operating as IGT, completed nearly three months ago, was arguably the biggest gaming M&A story in a decade, but the newly combined company is generating a second story: They are a perfect fit.

The big buzzword around the IGT/Everi combination is “interoperability.” The product offerings, the cabinets, the game styles of the two companies mesh seamlessly into a product library developed by the best talent of the legacy companies—to the point where the Global Gaming Expo will see the first IGT content on an Everi cabinet, and vice-versa.

Two months into the integration of the two companies, executives marveled at the progress of combining the two companies. “They’re really complementary,” Domenico Pastia, IGT’s senior vice president of global product, says of the two legacy companies. “At the Eilers-Krejcik Slot Awards, we can say we won the highest number of awards as a combined entity. We had success with a diversity of titles.

“Also, we are strong in areas where others are not as strong, like video poker. The PeakBarTop is still the best cabinet in the market in that segment, with no doubt. And on the stepper side, I would say that Everi brings a very strong offer to the market. So, the portfolio is really complementary.”

He adds that both legacy companies were among the top four in the market.

The newly private IGT has retained most key executives of IGT and Everi, including marketing and product management teams as well as game development in what is now a group of 25 studios across four continents, employing over 1,000 R&D staff.

Nick Khin, who has been president of global gaming for IGT, is CEO of global gaming for the new entity, and is interim CEO of the company until Hector Fernandez, former CEO of Aristocrat Gaming, takes over as IGT CEO in the fourth quarter. Darren Simmons, former Everi executive vice president and fintech business leader, takes on the role of CEO, fintech at IGT. Gil Rotem retains his role as CEO of PlayDigital.

Jesse DeBruin, who headed Everi’s gaming business, will be part of a leadership group managing global commercial operations and strategy at IGT. Jean Venneman remains as IGT’s head of global studios, and Pastia leads product management for land-based gaming.

“We now have 25 studios active globally, in nine countries,” Pastia says. “We have presence in North America in all the main hubs in Reno, Las Vegas, Austin and Chicago. We are present in Europe, including one of our most successful studios, in Graz, Austria.”

He adds that IGT has three legacy studios in Australia, one in Serbia, one in Beijing. “Our talent pool is well-positioned to deliver market-attuned content, considering the broad geographic footprint of our studios,” Pastia says.

IGT now has three operating divisions—Gaming Sales and Operations, the PlayDigital online division, and Fintech. “It’s already coming to fruition in the sense that there are emerging opportunities to place our product in international markets, as well as bundling deals between games, systems and fintech,” Pastia says.

“We’ve made considerable progress in a short period of time with respect to interoperability, and the intentional effort we’re making to customers during the season to show them that we are one company,” adds DeBruin. “This isn’t a portfolio here and a portfolio there. We’re going to have one approach with customers, and we’re excited where we are today and to see what the future holds.”

Built to Win

The combination of IGT and Everi has inspired a slogan for the first G2E of the new company—“Together: Built to Win.” The extensive booth will feature a mind-boggling array of IGT and Everi products, and will show how the games can adapt seamlessly into hardware produced by either legacy company.

“We are expanding our test bank practice to make sure that we can deliver the best-possible product to the market. In terms of integration, we are going to this G2E as a unified company. You will not see an Everi area and an IGT area; you will see a combination of the two,” says Pastia.

In the Premium category, IGT continues its multi-year celebration of the Wheel of Fortune brand, adding three new titles to more than 300 that have been added to the game franchise since its 1996 launch.

In the immersive Wheel of Fortune Trio presentation, in which three individual Rise55 cabinets are backed by a giant wheel and LED display, Wheel of Fortune Vegas Getaway is a ways-to-win base game featuring three collection pots and an enhanced free-spin bonus.

Also on the Trio is Wheel of Fortune High Roller Respin, which includes 2X multipliers and two extra pointer symbols in a hold-and-spin bonus that is followed by a wheel spin with the enhancements applied.

Separately on the Rise55 is Wheel of Fortune Cash on Reels, featuring two “Mystery Pots” and a “Mystery Wheel Bonus.”

On the DiamondRS stepper platform is Wheel of Fortune 2X Wilds Deluxe, featuring the multiplying wild symbols pioneered in Double Diamond, a “nudge” feature in the primary game, and a wheel bonus that can yield up to three spins of the famous wheel.

Elsewhere in the Premium category are Eternal Link on the Rise55, featuring both free games and a four-level Lock & Respin feature (IGT’s brand for the hold-and-spin bonus); Ring of Wealth, a ways-to-win game featuring a unique Lock & Respin bonus with a second hold-and-spin bonus as a feature within the feature; and Sure Fire Frenzy Link, which features a remarkable 27 linked “Must Hit By” progressive jackpots.

Eternal Link is exclusive to IGT’s Rise55 cabinet. It is a follow-up to the smash hit Prosperity Link. To the original hold-and-spin bonus is added a “red ball” bonus. Filling the bowl with red balls in the primary game triggers the high-paying feature, which plays out on up to four reel matrices, red ball thresholds unlocking up to three additional reel sets.

According to Pastia, the game is set for an omnichannel release—on land and online simultaneously.

Sure Fire Frenzy Link has added merchandising in the form of a dynamic sign above the bank that displays the progressives. The player is eligible for progressives according to denomination—nine jackpots in the penny version, nine more in the 2-cent game and nine more in the 5-cent game. There is a Lock & Respin bonus as well, with one pot enabling jackpot icons to accumulate to win one of the progressives.

The signage and game audio go into “Frenzy Mode” when any of the jackpots approach their “Must Hit By” level.

Also in the Premium category is Treasures of the Lamp,

a follow-up to the IGT hit Mystery of the Lamp, offered on legacy Everi’s Dynasty Sol Sync banked offering.

The new game reprises the hold-and-spin bonus from Mystery of the Lamp, with an additional “Cyclone” feature that enhances an entire row of cash symbols, and delivers a multiplier up to 25X.

To the Core

IGT’s Core Video collection at G2E will be a showcase of innovative games on the legacy hardware of both IGT and Everi.

Among the standouts is the new Five Alarm Fiesta game family on the sleek Dynasty Sol cabinet, with base games Rockin’ Rojo and Viva La Verdi. It is a celebration of different-colored chili peppers, which serve as five collection pots. In a unique display on Dynasty Sol’s 49-inch portrait monitor, each of the five peppers is displayed beneath a runway above the reels, creating anticipation for the players as they near the top, when one or more can trigger the main hold-and-spin feature.

In clever animation, the peppers appear to grow hotter as they rise toward the top. The five enhancements are “Ignite Zone,” which adds value to any new cash-on-reels symbol appearing in the hold-and-spin feature; “Spin Reset,” which resets the spin meter to three to extend the feature; “Double Reels,” which adds a second three-by-five reel set for a dual feature; “Split Symbols,” which splits cash-on-reels symbols into two or three prizes; and “Blaze Zone,” which collects all cash-on-reels values on the screen and concentrates them in one symbol, freeing up the other spots for more cash.

Another standout among core video slots is Magic Rockets, on the Rise55 cabinet. This game includes a hold-and-spin feature with unique twists. During the primary game, coins travel to two “Money Balls” pots and two pots represented by clusters of rockets. The Money Balls in the center pots are marked with the accumulated number of coins. If one of them triggers in the base game, all those coins travel down to the reels as cash-on-reels symbols.

If the “Big Bang” rockets trigger the event, the rockets unlock one or two extra reel sets for the hold-and-spin bonus. If triggered by the “Money Boost” pot, multipliers appear for the cash-on-reels symbols, up to 9X. If the “Money Ball” pot is triggered during the hold-and-spin feature, a fourth reel set appears, creating space for all those coins and more.

Also on the Rise55 at G2E will be the new Piggz Link series, with base games Frankenswine and Juicifer. This is a three-pot, each pot triggering a different bonus. The pots are “Pig a Prize,” triggering a picking game; “Monster Money,” which throws cash-on-reels prizes to the reels; and “Free Spins,” which triggers a free-game round. Funny animation abounds, the main character being a Frankenstein-monster pig.

IGT will launch a new core video cabinet at G2E. Called the Rise32, it features three 32-inch monitors, the top monitor active in the game and tilted downward toward the player for easy viewing. The pots in Rise32 games grow from the middle screen up to the top screen.

The cabinet’s inaugural series is Stink Link, featuring “Richard,” the skunk character from the popular Stinkin’ Rich series of games. There are two titles, Stink Link Hawaii and Stink Link Wild West.

The common denominator is an enhanced free-spin feature triggered by one of three pots: The “Wild” pot causes wilds to appear in the base game and adds multiplier wilds in the free games feature. “Thrash for Cash” triggers a picking game toward winning one of the five jackpots, including the top Grand, resetting at $10,000.

The picking feature proceeds until two “pooper grouper” symbols are unveiled to end the bonus.

Also on the Rise32 is King Khufu, another three-pot game with an enhanced free-spin bonus, a Hold & Respin bonus and a Wheel Bonus. The Hold & Respin pots are “Grow,” which increases a random cash-on-reels symbol to a higher value; “Boost,” which boosts the value of all cash symbols; and “Roll,” which spins a miniature reel in the symbol for credits or a wheel bonus. The wheel spins with a side view, like the wheel on “The Price Is Right,” and spins at least twice. It spins again until landing on a “collect” slice to end the feature.

When the bonus is triggered, the player chooses a free-game combination with one of three volatility levels.

The other Rise32 game to be launched at G2E is Mummy Link, a two-game family (Dawn and Night) with a cartoon mummy host and three pots to enhance the free games—“Double Reels,” “Jackpot” and “Money Ball.”

Steppers Step Up

Over the years, Everi has specialized in mechanical stepper slots along with its many forms of video. The Player Classic and Player Classic Signature cabinets all but redefined the stepper game for the modern era. IGT, meanwhile, evolved its stepper product from the industry-standard S2000 and S3000 groups to the DiamondRS cabinet, which adds animation on its “Diamond Glass” overlay.

As a combined company, the new IGT is bound to dominate the stepper market going forward, and it starts with this year’s G2E display of mechanical steppers using the hardware of both legacy companies.

IGT will launch a new version of the Player Classic cabinet at G2E. Called Player Classic Premiere, it deploys the original Player Classic Signature base under a tall video top box. The launch games are Double Jackpot 777 Deluxe and Double Black Diamond Deluxe.

Both games include a double “nudge” feature on random wins, enabling pays up to three times on a single spin. The game also features fixed multipliers that can increase wins by up to 75X. Three Double Jackpot 777 or Black Diamond symbols on the payline win one of two progressives—the secondary resetting at $250 by lining up the symbols on paylines 1 through 8; or the top prize resetting at $4,000 if landing them on payline 9.

Other games to be shown on the new Player Classic Premiere hardware are Top Shelf Double Jackpot and Moonshine Double Jackpot, both expected to be released just before the show.

On the DiamondRS is Bullseye Bonanza, a three-reel game with three bonus wheels in the top box. The top-box wheels spin to set the value of the free-game trigger, the bullseye symbol. During the free games, one bullseye symbol adds a free spin and two add two free spins.

On the original Player Classic Signature cabinet is Triple Hot Streak Respin, which features three collection pots in the top-box monitor. The pots enhance a hold-and-spin bonus with “Extra Spins,” increasing the spin cycle from three to four spins; “Nudge Respin,” which nudges stacks of cash-on-reels symbols on the reels, paying off each time until the symbols are off the pay lines; and “Boost Respins,” which adds to the values of the cash-on-reels symbols.

At G2E, IGT will debut a new version of a classic IGT slot, Triple Double Top Dollar, on the three versions of the DiamondRS cabinet. That includes the DiamondRS27, which is now available in the core for-sale category as well as premium. The video monitors replicate the familiar backlit stacks of cash of the original—lights would flash behind all the cash stacks displayed on the slot glass until landing on an award (one of the first slot bonuses).

Also on the DiamondRS and DiamondRS43 is Double Chili Mania Extremo!, an entertaining three-reel game with three pots, shown as different-colored peppers on a grill in the top box. Each pepper symbol in the primary game sends a pepper up to the corresponding grill, drawing it closer to a prize ladder displaying 10 progressive jackpots. Once the free-game bonus is triggered, additional peppers send the player up the bonus ladder toward a top progressive prize.

The chili character hosting the game is “Chili Mama,” voiced by “Lady Luck,” the slot influencer.

Another new DiamondRS game is Red Hottie Grand, which features a video dice roll to land one of 14 jackpot prizes.

Poker and More

As usual, IGT will arrive at G2E with a suitcase full of new specialty video poker games, in its growing series of video poker games that offer a bonus feature for a higher per-hand wager.

One of the best is Slammin’ Multipliers Poker. For a 10 credit-per-hand wager, random winning hands are “slammed” with a multiplier that can be as high as 15X. Sometimes, several multipliers fly over the cards and are added together. Even the pay on the royal flush can land a multiplier up to 8X.

Other new games include Power Stacks Poker. With the extra bet made, dealt Jacks or better or three of a kind awards extra hands with “sticky” draw cards. Any draw that improves the win sticks to the other hands in the Three Play, Five Play or Ten Play games. (Normally, each draw is from a separate deck with the held cards removed.)

Bonus Pick Poker enacts a random bonus for a three-credit-per-hand Bonus Bet. Every nine hands on average triggers a card pick to add a wild card, a 2X wild card or a multiplier to all hands in play.

A dealt hand bonus trigger is deployed in Major Multipliers Poker. For a 10-credit-per-hand bet, when dealt Jacks or better, two pairs or three of a kind, any improvement of the dealt hand on the draw can generate a multiplier up to 100X. This occurs every five hands, on average.

A new game program for IGT’s PeakBarTop cabinet also is being launched at G2E. Called Five Star Poker Plus, the program includes seven specialty video poker games formerly available only in multi-hand format in the single-hand format. The program also includes video slot games and a new eight-card keno game.

Finally, IGT is debuting a new electronic table game at G2E, Wheel of Fortune Big Money Spin. Billed as the company’s first premium ETG, the table combines the Wheel of Fortune puzzle with a huge wheel, which includes two levels—the inner wheel spins to multipliers and letters used to solve the puzzle, which triggers an additional bonus. The outer wheel is the normal Wheel of Fortune-style bonus wheel. Higher bets yield up to five pointers on the big wheel during the jackpot bonus feature.

The combination of IGT and Everi has created a new monster competitor in the slot market, and Pastia says G2E will show how well the two talent pools, all the studios and the game library have fit together.

“Like puzzle pieces, the two are merging really well,” he says, “and clearly, we are only at the beginning of the journey.”