The race to win the highest honor at this year’s Casino Journal’s annual Top 20 Most Innovative Gaming Technology Products Awards was very tight, but after all Aristocrat Technologies garnered the points had to receive the highly coveted Platinum Award for its Lightning Link progressive slot machine concept.

Competing for the highest prize but having to accept the second one place Gold Award was Scientific Games and its i-Deal Plus, the newest iteration of the company’s popular single deck card shuffler. Winning the Silver Award was Pulse Arena, a stadium-style table game concept created by Interblock.

The platinum, gold and silver winners of the highest 20 Most Innovative Gaming Products of 2015 were announced in the course of the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference, which happened last July at Paris Las Vegas. Visitors to the event’s trade exhibition floor cast ballots for an Attendees Choice Award to receive to at least one of the highest 20 finalists, an honor that went to the iDROP-E Table System from Apex Gaming Technology.

The platinum, gold and silver winners received the 3 highest scores of over 52 submitted products within the annual contest, which was judged by Warren Davidson, slot director, Coushatta Resort; Donne Grable, vice president, gaming operations, VCAT; and Claudia Winkler, president, G.H.I. Solutions. The whole Top 20 list of designated products was announced in April and written up within the June issue of Casino Journal; a recap description of the winning entries is equipped below:

PLATINUM AWARD

Lightning Link

—ARISTOCRAT TECHNOLOGIES

Lightning Link from Aristocrat Technologies is an explosive set of linked games with progressives that experience proven to be a success with players in Australia, North America and Europe, making the sport a really global phenomenon.

Lightning Link has player-selectable multi-denominations, a multi-format jackpot offering that mixes both linked and SAP jackpots, a very good mixture of games that attract quite a lot of players, a patented new jackpot mechanic for innovative game play and trigger methodology and an intuitive layout that may be easy to be told and play. Lightning Link was created specifically to entice all kinds of players—frequent players in addition to more casual gamers, and people who like a jackpot experience in addition to individuals who prefer a more entertaining experience. With frequent features and jackpots, the sport keeps players and spectators entertained and energized. The Aristocrat team has up to now developed 10 different Lightning Link base games with an exhilarating number of themes and features.

Multiple denominations call to players of all levels, and players was shown to like Lightning Link’s four current game themes, keeping players at the fringe of their seats looking ahead to the free games and hold and spin bonuses to strike, especially when a single bonus spin could award multiple progressives and bonus values.

The game involves the ground within the technologically advanced Helix cabinet, and has four fun game themes to make a choice from: Happy Lantern, High Stakes, Magic Pearl and Sahara Gold.

“What I LIKE about Lightning Link is Aristocrat has made specific games for the link, with math models that be mindful the progressive payout,” a judge said.

GOLD AWARD

i-Deal Plus

—SCIENTIFIC GAMES

Introduced in 2007, Shuffle Master’s i-Deal single-deck shuffler brought a brand new level of speed and accuracy to single-deck games like our Three Card Poker brand and other specialty table games. The i-Deal shuffler also offers an unprecedented level of security and key features including card recognition technology, fast, efficient operation and a low-profile design. The brand new i-Deal Plus from Shuffle Master offers enhancements to all of those key features and more.

Featuring a front-mounted display, casinos can now show game logos, table limits, paytables and videos without added signage, taking table game marketing to all new levels right on the table. An all-new on-board printer allows casinos not to only recall winning or disputed hands but additionally print out verification right on the table.

This added feature means extra efficiency and game integrity for unmatched table game security. The protection card feature and redesigned output tray also help to virtually eliminate “flashing”the hole card, further protecting game integrity.

One of the fastest single-deck shufflers at the market, the brand new i-Deal Plus helps operators grow revenue by increasing hands per hour and enhances productivity by eliminating game downtime because of hand hand shuffling, delivering significant cost savings to customers.

“I really just like the on board printer that permits for hand recalls without the surveillance review or having to run back the cards,” one judge said.

SILVER AWARD

Pulse Arena

—INTERBLOCK

The Pulse Arena from Interblock is an immersive, multi-sensory environment designed to provide established electronic table game players an exhilarating new wagering experience, while attracting the following generation of players to the casino floor.

Delivering a hybrid experience of entertainment, gambling and social interaction, the heartbeat Arena can also be themed to draw any form of player. Operators can arrange the heart beat Arena to create a dynamic vibe, offer tournament functionality or educate beginners. Operators will also flip from side to side through themes to fulfill changing needs through the week or over weekends. Dealers are entertainers within the Pulse Arena—helping to drag in Millennials by making a night club atmosphere on a casino floor. Interblock has developed unique dealer assist software that runs on an easy-to-use console, allowing dealers to concentrate on the players and their fun.

Central to the heartbeat Arena is a video wall that delivers high-impact visual motivation stretched across all LCDs. Attention-grabbing lighting tricks profit from this impressive display.

This lounge offers a vast collection of possible designs to satisfy each casino’s needs. With at least 35 connected play stations, Pulse Arena lets casinos create without equal gaming hot spot.

“Interblock has not only created a perfect gaming product… they have got taken it much further, understanding players are trying to find more,” a judge said. “By incorporating the product right into a multi-sensory experience, Interblock provides casino operators an entire solution rather than just terminals connected to table games.”

ATTENDEES CHOICE AWARD

iDROP-E Table System

—APEX GAMING TECHNOLOGY

Table games are a very powerful a part of the gaming industry and each casino’s floor, but drop procedures and security has been problematic for plenty of of those operators both within the U.S. and globally.

The iDROP-E Table System have been dropped at market from APEX Gaming Technology to reply to some of these needs while increasing player satisfaction.

The iDROP-E Table System integrates a banking industry transactional bill validator (JCM Global TBV) to offer industry leading counterfeit detection while recording all transactions, which eliminates potential dealer count errors. It's the only made from its kind to speak through SAS protocol which links to any and all casino management systems, thus providing real-time data collection and reporting. A TITO printer (Nanoptix Paycheck Slim) completes the unit, allowing players to seamlessly transition from slots-to-tables and tables-to-slots, by permitting them to exchange bills and/or TITO slips to chips and chips back to bills/TITO. Each player on the table may give the dealer their player’s card when entering the game, letting them reap all of the program benefits similar to at a slot machine.

In short, APEX has brought cash handling capabilities present in slot machines directly on the table while improving dealer reliability.

“I feel APEX iDROP-E is a real innovation not only for the dealers but for the count team as well, who should now be capable of process table games a lot more efficiently,” a judge said. “Additionally, there's now a bunch for accounting to carry the count team to, making skimming a lot more unlikely.”

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