The EILERS-FANTINI survey is designed to track slot machine and related technology purchasing trends on a quarterly basis and is the gaming industry’s largest slot survey in terms of total casinos and slot machines surveyed.
This quarter’s report represents the 20th proprietary slot survey and includes record-level responses from key purchasing agents at a number of North American commercial and tribal casinos, several racino/VLT operators, as well as nine international participants.
In total, the 104 survey participants collectively operate 369 gaming venues with approximately 361,845 total slot machines or equivalent gaming devices. 95 North America participants operate 270 casinos and approximately 306,500 slot machines, representing about 31.3 percent of the total install base of machines in North America.
Purchasing Activity for Third Quarter of Calendar Year 2014
North America survey participants purchased and took delivery of 8,172 slot machines in the quarter, including 2,585 new and expansionary units and 5,587 replacement units. Based on this quarter’s survey results, the estimated total North America sales are likely to be 18,300, including 13,500 replacements (11,500 traditional and 2,000 Canada/Oregon VLTs) and around 4,900 new and expansionary units.
Aristocrat Leads the Pack
Aristocrat was the clear market share gainer among the Big 5 vendors in the survey for third quarter of calendar year 2014 and scored well across almost every metric including receiving this year’s Top G2E supplier award. For the quarter, survey participants purchased 20 percent of their games from Aristocrat (excluding Canada and Oregon VLTs) and added +133 (net) leased games during the quarter.
Non-Big 5 Vendors Remain Strong
Non-Big 5 vendors continue to take market share in North America with survey participants purchasing 12 percent of games from non-Big 5 vendors during the quarter (excluding Canada and Oregon VLT replacement sales). Key suppliers gaining ground include Multimedia Games, Aruze and Ainsworth.
Top Performing Leased Titles
IGT’s Wheel of Fortune franchise remained the industry’s top performing premium leased game in the quarter while GTECH/Spielo’s highly anticipated Sphinx 3D landed in the second position. Aristocrat’s Buffalo Stampede, which had been in the number two position the last two quarters, continues to perform well and was in third place.
Top Performing Casino-Owned Games
According to survey participants, the industry’s top three performing casino-owned games in the quarter were 1) Aristocrat’s Buffalo, 2) Bally’s Quick Hits and 3) IGT’s Double Diamond. As for the vendors in aggregate, the top three suppliers were 1) IGT, 2) Aristocrat and 3) Bally/SHFL.
Most Anticipated Premium Leased Games
Aristocrat landed four out of the top five most highly anticipated games coming out of this year’s G2E show, according to survey participants, including Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, TED and Big Bang Theory.
Top G2E Supplier
This year Aristocrat was cited as having the best overall G2E show in terms of products and technology on display followed by Bally, Scientific Games/WMS, IGT and Konami rounding out the top five.
Forward Replacement Demand
The 95 North America survey participants (operating 270 casinos and 306,500 slots) plan to replace only 6.7 percent of the casino-owned games on their floors over the next 12 months, which is slightly below survey results from the prior quarter. We believe the decline reflects continued weakness in gross gaming revenue trends starting in late calendar year 2013 and carrying through the first half of 2014.