Is artificial intelligence a missing component? Could this unlock the potential possessed by forging a landscape that merges the worlds of bricks and mortar and online play?
For SuzoHapp’s North American Sales Director Jim Kirner this technology, very much a buzzword of modern times, could well hold the key to unlocking the immense opportunities that await.
In a wide-ranging conversation with SBC Americas, the wider possibilities presented by emerging technologies, process of new market entries, importance of truly nurturing relationships and milestones to be achieved across the coming 12 months also form central components.
SBC Americas: To begin, after joining the company as Sales Director earlier in the year, how would you assess SuzoHapp’s current standing with the gambling ecosystem?
Jim Kirner: SuzoHapp has been the largest distributor of parts and pieces and technology in the gaming industry for a long time. At one point in time, SuzoHapp manufactured all of the reels in physical, real stepper machines in the world. That’s quite an amazing feat.
From there we branched out, we now serve the sports betting community too, and we continue to try to maintain that leadership and expand it wherever we can find new technologies that we think will benefit the industry.
SBCA: While talk often centers around that of gaining new clients, how important is truly nurturing current relationships, and how is this achieved by yourselves?
JK: For us, It’s all about customers and relationships. That’s where this company grew itself from. It’s how we became the dominant player in the distribution business.
Maintaining that focus on the customers and what their needs are, and then adjusting our strategy to support those customers in the best way possible. This is what’s made the company successful and SuzoHapp will continue to do in the future.
It’s really not so much about us, it’s about them and how we fold into their universe and can provide the products that they need as the market grows and changes.
For me, it centers around the foundation: how do you get great customer relationships? It’s about trust, integrity, respect and execution. You need to be tirelessly focused on those four pillars at all times. I think that’s what makes a great company.
SBCA: Let’s take a moment to look at SuzoHapp’s future targets. If we were to talk again in one year’s time what milestones would you like to have accomplished?
JK: As I look forward to the next 12 months there, there are a couple things that are high on the list. One is to make sure that we deliver at a level of excellence that our customers expect and that we expect for ourselves. That’s number one.
Number two is continuing to look at how the industry as a whole is evolving and how we can participate in that growth.
Part of that is by providing what are the mainstays that support the industry right now, but the other part of it is what new technologies are out there that we can actually help bring to market and help our customers take advantage of.
My hope is when we have this conversation 12 months from now, I’m able to tell we are delivering and exceeding customer expectations on a daily basis.
We have some new technologies we have been able to help customers be successful with. If we stay focused on our customers’ results, the rest of it figures itself out.
SBCA: On the subject of emerging technologies, where is your attention focused?
JK: It’s fascinating right now. I know the buzzwords are artificial intelligence, but how does that play into the game? I’m not sure that everybody’s got that figured out, but we sure are paying attention to it.
In the world of sports betting, how will AI play into that? Mobile is a very strong aspect, but there’s also the physical sports betting terminal that people are using. The question is, how well can AI unite these two critical components and create an enhanced experience?
One example is leveraging mobile while players are potentially not on premise, marketing to them wherever they are and creating opportunities for redemption on premise to get people in the doors again.
There’s lots of different opportunities out there, but you need to be open-minded and consider that there are many ways to create powerful opportunities that please players and financially benefit operators.
Other tech related to opportunities on the gaming and sports betting sides of the industry includes age verification and facial recognition, and making sure that players and operators are safeguarded with respect to responsible gaming.
SBCA: On the geographical front, can we expect SuzoHapp to target any fresh jurisdictions through the current year? Where do you see the opportunities?
JK: We only make a decision to enter a new market after we are fully confident we can serve the market at a SuzoHapp level of quality.
The second thing that we look at is how do we support it? It’s not only being able to provide the products and the licensing, but then supporting those customers in that market.
The last part of it is obviously the business equation – can we do all those things and make money?
What I can say is that we take a very thoughtful and careful approach when considering entry into new markets, always ensuring that if we do move forward, we do it the right way.
It’s about making sure we exceed customer expectations, and everyone is able to make money. It’s that simple.
We’re always looking.
SBCA: Let’s look at current projects. What is on the horizon that is causing optimism and that the industry should be on the lookout for?
JK: In the sports betting world, we are actively paying attention to opportunities to bridge the gap between bricks and mortar and mobile. We’re still fleshing out how we’re going to play in that exactly, but we are actively paying attention to it and we believe that AI may play a role.
We’re also using other AI solutions related to responsible gaming and making sure operators have safety mechanisms in place to protect their businesses from risks.
We’ll continue to look at that and find the best partners out there for casino operators moving forward.
There are other projects out there that I don’t really want to get into, but they are exciting technologies and they’re exciting opportunities to create value add where casinos have not seen previously.
I’m optimistic about the future.
SBCA: You have spoken about bridging that gap between retail and online. What are the challenges associated with that that you have to overcome? How do you go about achieving that?
JK: I don’t have all the answers. My job is to listen to customers and understand their challenges.
We had a customer that recently talked to us about challenges with a geographically dispersed operation, literally physically separated on different islands, and how could we support them?
We actually found a technology that will allow them to do that. They were going to try to build it themselves, but we had a technology partner who already created what they were trying to build. It’s a sports betting customer and they are evaluating the technology right now. I’m excited for that kind of stuff.
A lot of times the best ideas come from more than one mind, and in this particular case I was just observant.
Hopefully it works great. If it does, terrific. And if it doesn’t, we’ll keep looking for more solutions for them. That’s one of the things I really like about the opportunity right now – trying to help people find solutions and if it’s not one partner, then potentially it’s another partner. We’re partnered with lots and lots of companies.
