Fundamental Casino Analytics for a Healthier Bottom Line
When it comes to making money in casinos using data, there are a number of fundamental analytics you should be able to do on your own today that will have significant impact to your bottom line. So, let’s get right to it.
1) A Good Property and Gaming Forecast – the Basic Tool of a Strategist
A good forecast of gaming revenues is a must have for any casino. How much coin in, table drop, and win are you expecting by day for the next month at least? Is it fairly consistent? If so go back through three years of history and look for bumps. What caused them? A holiday? A promotion? A slot tournament? An entertainment event? Which ones had the biggest boost to the daily number?
By looking at the total property number and seeing the differential between the baseline forecast day and the actual results by promotion is the best way to easiest way to identify incremental gains, identify the best promotions, and plan the most profitable marketing and events calendars.
2) A Matrix of Your Database Data Including Reinvestment
This is my favorite report to run, the player database matrix. Take ratings data for a year and break it up into ADT and trip frequency segments. For example, the rows will be ADT ranges of 0-25, 25-50, 50-100, etc. and columns will be trip ranges such as 1, 2, 3, 4-6, 6-10 etc. for the year.
Now add everything in your player rating system data into each matrix cell by those ranges such as total theoretical win, actual win, rated days, bet, plays, buy-in, minutes played, comp used, etc.
Then add metrics like ADT, average daily casino win, average bet, days per player, hours per day, comp used per player, total reinvestment percentage, etc. Finally, add ratios for each level such as % of players, % of theoretical win, % of casino win, % of days, etc.
Now stand back and take a look. Which tiers are making most of the money? Is 80% of your gaming revenue coming from 20% of your players? Is my reinvestment percentage equal across the board or is it possible I’m overspending on the low-end players and underspending on the high end? I’d recommend doing one for slot ratings and one for table ratings and let the insights begin.
3) Supply and Demand of Your Slot and Table Products
This technique is a little more innovative, but crucial for growing your casino business. All businesses have customers and products, and growth depends on the supply and demand associated in their relationship. The best way to see supply and demand in slots is to look at the handle pulls by machine, and check the average price to play per spin on those games. Find games that are high demand and low cost and consider adding games or raising bet minimums. Find games that have low demand and low price and consider removing or replacing them. There is gold here.
4) Analysis of Ratings Quality
Your casino analytics is only as good as your data, especially when it comes to ratings. It’s important to have someone review ratings quality on players and on systems. For players, its super common to have outlier ratings that can ruin a players ADT value. Look for players with high average bet and strong cash buying with a low ADT and I can nearly guarantee you’ll find anomalies in the rating that can be fixed. Also, have the slot or IT department check the player card readers on the games to ensure they’re working properly. If they’re broken, it won’t matter if the player uses their card or not, a bad reader won’t record a thing. On table games are your hand speeds and house advantages set right? Does the theoretical and actual match well in the aggregate? How are the procedures? Fix the data, grow the property.
5) Measure Your Service Times by Hour by Day, and Check Your Labor Schedules
One of my favorite things to do in gaming strategy development is focus groups. It can be terribly revealing just how simple the needs of our players can be, and those needs often revolve around service. How long does it take to get a beverage? How long does it take for a jackpot to be paid? How about your rewards club lines or hotel check in? Are your labor schedules matched with your volumes? Often with service the goal is to work smarter not harder, and that can be done not just by being nicer and smiling more, but by measuring and adjusting work schedules to customer service demand.
Obviously there are many more, but these five analytics are the foundation of growth programs and are must haves for any strategic development analyst.
This article was originally published in the November 2019 issue of Casino Journal.
