COMING TOGETHER
The merger of IGT and Everi creates a slot powerhouse
By Frank Legato
For the past decade, IGT and Everi have routinely been in discussions involving the top slot-machine suppliers in the business. IGT, of course, has been in that discussion pretty much since the late Si Redd incorporated his company as International Game Technology in 1983.
Meanwhile, beginning when financial solutions supplier Global Cash Access acquired Austin slot manufacturer Multimedia Games in 2014 to form Everi Holdings, the latter has carved its own niche in the slot market. Everi’s game library includes everything from elaborate themed video slots like Shark Week and The Vault to a reel-spinning lineup that stands up to any mechanical-reel slots in the business.
This year, the two slot suppliers became one, in a $6.3 billion deal that combined the gaming and PlayDigital divisions of IGT with the complete business of Everi, creating a newly christened IGT owned by an affiliate of private equity group Apollo.
It’s the biggest merger of slot companies since Scientific Games combined Bally, WMS and Shuffle Master into the company that today is Light & Wonder. In that combination, each legacy company kept its distinctive brands, cabinets and table-game products within the overall company umbrella. Blazing 7s is still Blazing 7s, Willy Wonka is still Willy Wonka.
The new IGT, while maintaining all the distinctive game families of IGT and Everi (IGT video poker is still IGT video poker, Hot Stuff is still Hot Stuff), is taking the next step in combining the companies—actually intermingling game themes and cabinets into new products that are hybrids of the two legacy companies.
The first big product combining the technology of IGT and Everi is Wheel of Fortune Cash Machine Jackpots, previewed at the recent Global Gaming Expo trade show and set to be released soon to casinos. It’s a mashup of the IGT Wheel of Fortune brand and Everi’s popular Cash Machine game.
Cash Machine has long been a favorite on the Everi side, with its digit reel symbols forming a “what you see is what you get” pay. The three-reel game, on Everi’s Player Classic three-reel mechanical reel-spinning cabinet, pioneered this style of slot, its distinctive cash-style numbers combining to deliver wins up to a top jackpot of $10,100 for lining up “10-1-00” on the reels.
Now, imagine that game topped by the famous bonus wheel from IGT’s storied Wheel of Fortune slot franchise—the IGT bonus on the familiar Player Classic Cash Machine base game. To the numerical reel symbols is added the familiar “SPIN” symbol on the third reel, triggering the iconic “Wheel… of… Fortune!” audience chant and the wheel spin, potentially landing on a big progressive jackpot.
Another example of a hybrid IGT/Everi game is Treasures of the Lamp, a follow-up to Mystery of the Lamp, one of IGT’s most successful games. Only this version is on the Everi Dynasty Sol Sync cabinet. According to IGT officials, the genie theme plays out beautifully on both hardware platforms.
IGT has indicated there will be a lot more merging of the legacy technologies and game themes to come, from Wheel of Fortune and Cash Machine to Wicked Wheel and Shark Week.
At the trade show, IGT even launched a new version of Everi’s Player Classic mechanical reel-spinning cabinet. Called Player Classic Premiere, it deploys the original Player Classic Signature reel-spinning base under a tall, IGT-style video top box. The launch games are Double Jackpot 777 Deluxe and Double Black Diamond Deluxe, both from the Everi game library.
The IGT/Everi combination was the biggest merger news of the year, but it wasn’t the only such news. AGS was acquired by private-equity firm Brightstar Capital. Elsewhere, a significant private-on-private acquisition was completed when Merkur Group, the slot supplier owned by Germany’s Gauselmann family, bought Las Vegas-based Gaming Arts, LLC, a former bingo supplier that had been growing in the casino slot market.
In each of these cases, the merger serves to super-charge what the legacy slot-maker has to offer. AGS is using the new injection of private capital to accelerate the expansion of game styles, progressive side bets and omnichannel (on land and online) game launches initiated by AGS as a public company.
For Gaming Arts, the backing of one of the giants of the European gaming industry opens up possibilities in expansion of a good game library that never would have been possible for the small, Las Vegas-based company otherwise.
The current M&A surge is not over, as more is to come from newly merged Aruze Gaming Global and from Ainsworth Game Technology, soon to be acquired by its largest shareholder, Austrian gaming giant Novomatic. But whatever the new combinations of slot makers end up being, expect to get the best of the old slot brands you love—only even better.
