Eduardo Aching, Konami: “Our team is focusing a lot of effort on building quality connections with casino customers”
Eduardo Aching, vice president at Konami Gaming, dives into company expectations, coming innovations, and the company’s attendance at ICE 2024.
Exclusive interview.- The vice president at Konami Gaming, Eduardo Aching, granted an exclusive interview to Focus Gaming News, unveiling insight into company projections for 2024, upcoming innovations, main industry challenges, and Konami Gaming’s Inc. presence at ICE 2024.
Konami will attend ICE London once again, what are your expectations for this event?
ICE 2024 comes at an important time for Konami and the customers we serve. Last year’s show hit record attendance, with very high levels of interest across Konami’s business including igaming, casino systems, and omni-channel gaming.
So in addition to Konami’s diverse lineup of traditional land-based casino slots, I believe we’re also gaining attention from global operators in expanding sectors due to the quality we can offer. Our Konami team and exclusive distributors look forward to a busy time at ICE 2024, connecting with customers and finding innovative ways to partner.
In last year’s edition, many attendees were impressed with Konami’s new DIMENSION slot products. What does this mean to the company and how hard is it to keep evolving and innovating?
Konami is constantly developing original, new entertainment. Not only new game series, but also the base themes within series often have unique math and mechanics. This allows casinos and players to try more novel entertainment experiences. In addition, it helps drive the industry forward with entirely fresh game creations.
Can we expect another groundbreaking innovation this year?
Absolutely. Guests at the Konami stand during ICE will discover new bonus reel frame mechanics in our Fortune Mint Trinity linked progressive series. They will also find a suite of credit collection bonus adventures in Chili Chili Fire Hot Rush, inspired by Konami’s popular Chili Chili Fire from Concerto. And I think our customers will be surprised by the iconography, sounds, and streamlined features of Super Golden Jackpots, which has a very different look and feel for Konami.
While our traditional land-based product is showing lots of fresh creative entertainment, Konami’s igaming team is likewise bringing more popular slot brands to social gaming and for-wager sites, for omni-channel game delivery. Additionally, Konami’s SYNKROS casino management system is seeing strong global interest for its latest tools and technology, spanning mobile solutions, reporting and analytics, compliance, and more.
“Our Konami team and exclusive distributors look forward to a busy time at ICE 2024, connecting with customers and finding innovative ways to partner”.
Eduardo Aching, Vice President at Konami Gaming, Inc.
Your casino management system SYNKROS was Gold Winner in the MarCom Awards for “outstanding digital media”. Why do you think this tool is so appreciated and what sets it apart from others?
SYNKROS continues to be recognized for bringing top casino technology to global markets, as we’ve seen with the MarCom Award for our SYNKROS Konetic employee mobile app. This smartphone app uses SYNKROS’ real-time data capabilities to empower casino personnel to perform job tasks through a quick mobile workflow.
Konetic offers administrative modules like “Dispatch”, “Attendant Pays”, “Progressive Signs”, “Patron”, and more, to empower casino floor personnel for improved job success, team output, and guest service.
One of the most in-demand modules is “Attendant Pays”, which expedites the jackpot hand pay process with a full digital workflow, including digital signing. And with Konetic’s “Patron” tool, casino employees can enrol new patrons and provide card reprints on-the-go, as well as track interactions and enroll mobile phone number logins at the game machine.
These types of mobile tools in one smartphone app are leading the industry, and it’s uniquely available for our customers who use the SYNKROS casino management system
What do you think are the main challenges the industry will face shortly?
Across nearly every industry, we are seeing the desire for consumers to engage with brands both online and through traditional brick-and-mortar locations. Konami helps today’s casinos achieve this through our owned Remote Gaming Server (RGS), which integrates with popular Internet Gaming Servers (IGS) to deliver top Konami slot games to online players.
When used in conjunction with traditional land-based Konami slots, the online Konami slots provide an omni-channel delivery of the games players already recognize and enjoy. We hope to work with more of our customers to deliver this omni-channel strategy in 2024 and beyond.
What are Konami’s main challenges for 2024?
Our team is focusing a lot of effort on building quality connections with casino customers, and supporting wherever possible with a variety of entertainment and technology solutions. That is a big priority for us, across global markets.
