Tangam Systems will be attending the ASEAN Gaming Summit from March 20-22 in Manila, Philippines. Asia Gaming Brief caught up with Varun Nayak, Tangam's SVP of Gaming Strategy for an interview prior to the show. Below is the interview in full or can be viewed on the AGB site.

Leveraging Data Driven Technologies

Asia Gaming Brief March 3, 2018

What kind of trends do you foresee in South East Asia over the next few years?

In Asia, we see a continued Increase in because of new properties opening and more tables being added to the market. However, from a customer perspective, it does not look like the growth rate is going to keep pace with the increase in supply. In fact, the focus to acquire and retain customers is heating up since everyone is targeting the same Chinese premium mass customer. Naturally, if operators are to protect their margins in this increasingly competitive environment they are going to have to focus on improving operational efficiencies. We believe that will increase the importance of the use of data in decision making.

In short, we expect that more operators in the future will find the need to leverage data-driven technologies to make their operations more efficient as the environment gets increasingly competitive.

How is your company responding to these trends?

Our platform TYM - short for Table Yield Management - is focused on using data to improve operational decision making for table games.

We live a world where we are drowning in data. The challenge has morphed into knowing what data to focus on and how will that improve the business. The more intelligent use of data an organization makes, the more benefits they are likely to see. That is what our platform delivers. Through machine learning and cutting-edge optimization algorithms, we are able to recommend specific changes to price, capacity and labor allocation to the gaming floor to not only improve player experience but also increase profits in the process.  

What products are you currently offering in the Philippines / Asia?

Clients across Asia are using TYM. We have also launched Floor Layout Analytics (FLA) - which delivers an easy way to visualize over 40 KPIs on a casino’s own geocoded floor map in real-time with just a few clicks. By allowing for seamlessly combining financial and operational KPIs FLA allows operators to make informed judgments about their floors as well as collaborate better with other parts of the organization such as marketing and finance.

What have been the biggest developments in Asia for you in the past year?

Table games yielding is complex - far more complex than say Hotel room yielding. Not only are a lot more variables involved but patrons react to changes to price/mix in real-time which increases the complexity exponentially. To succeed at yielding requires the right mindset, proper tools, and an alignment of marketing strategy with operations. When all of these pieces are in place, execution is seamless, and results follow.

We’ve seen this blueprint of execution with our clients in Asia Pacific and that has resulted in having market leading financial metrics such as hold% and Win per unit per day. Galaxy Entertainment Group has been leading on that front and their results speak for themselves. As an aside, I’d like to point out that yielding should improve customer experience since the high-value patrons get the level of service they deserve and that increases their propensity for repeat visits.