The first Russian regional operators conference gathered over 360 slot industry professionals.

Moscow, April 30. – The first Russian regional conference “New methods in the gaming halls management” hosted by Unicum, the leading Russian slot producer and distributor, and the organizers of the EELEX exhibition took place at the „Golden Ring“ hotel in Moscow. The event gathered over 360 gaming halls operators from Russia, CIS and Unicum’s international partners from Australia and Europe.

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Recently Russian operators showed a great interest to the effective management of their businesses, which became a reason for the conference. «At the industrial trade shows, while communicating with the Unicum’s support and sales people our customers tend to ask one question: How can we improve operating? Today Unicum has developed enough knowledge and technology to provide a qualified answer to this question. The sessions topics came out of the most frequently asked questions. The goal of the conference was not only to introduce new management and control methods but also to discuss real problems, which operators face everyday, and find successful solutions» – commented Yuri Larichev, Unicum’s vice-president.

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The conference started with the speech made by the head of Unicum, Boris Belotserkovsky, who analyzed recent tendencies in the Russian entertainment industry. He noted that regional slot operators have been actively expanding their activities and demonstrating a growing interest in the technology and products offered in the market.

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The conference program included three different discussion sessions. The first session «Equipment and systems for gaming halls: new products» was dedicated to the technological instruments of management and control. Unicum’s specialists told about their latest product, Systems in Progress. The system provides complete control over gaming machine statistics, integrates financial reports and allows the operator to offer a player fast and qualified services. Regional operators also pointed out an ability of the solution to manage different kinds of jackpots and create a great number of promotion activities.

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The moderator of the session «Gaming halls management» and the operations consultant in the Poryv company, David Meacher, shared his professional experience and secrets with the audience. «Today the quantity of operators that we see in Russia should change to quality. People buy slot machines but they do not know how to return investments and make machines work. That is why, the operator needs to concentrate on effectiveness of chosen business management methods», – noted Meacher. The issues discussed at the meeting included organization of an existing gaming hall (reporting, thefts etc) and planning of a new business project (location, design, slot machines selection).

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The audience of the third session examined marketing issues. Kirill Shatilov, the marketing director of the Moscow Gaming System Jackpot explained marketing department functions in the structure of a company-operator. The participants also discussed the lack of human resources in a small company, offered solutions to the problem and shared their experience in the promotion issues.

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The interest shown by the regional operators motivated the conference organizers to think about the second conference. Quite a number of issues were left behind the doors of the discussion rooms, because there simply was not enough time to cover them all. Human resources, staff motivation, slots selection and other topics may become a program of another regional conference.

Anastassia Kojemiakina

PR Manager

Unicum Group of Companies