hello viewers and welcome to the latest episode of the Huddle I'm with Steven crystal um previous guest and and a returning guest uh Co and founder of secg management Stephen welcome thank you Tim good to be back for another huddle looking forward to speaking to you again and this time we're we're sort of on your home turf because we're we're in Vegas at G2 30 years has been uh Vegas has been my home 17 years going to g2e so it's uh this is always the time in the year I look forward to most M and welcoming people from all over the world into one place and uh Vegas has never been more exciting MH yeah that's definitely true plenty to plenty to look back on and maybe look ahead to with you in this in this interview going to going to try and do things a little bit differently um but to start off with I want to give you a chance to tell us the latest developments from you guys and if you want to talk us uh a bit of about a certain Lady Luck HQ partnership as well sure I would say um two 2023 has been about International growth in in the first instance for secg we've really put focuses into the laan market especially Brazil which is now emerging we've planted the seeds in Asia in Thailand and I spent a month this summer traveling through asah MH including China and Vietnam Singapore Malaysia and uh Cambodia so I would say International uh routs being established so that we can expand the places that we can support our client partners and then secondly it's been about uh focusing on Niche content like professional pillow fighting and MMA in Brazil things that uh can can become important pieces of Engagement for betting platforms across the globe mhm the uh the pillow fighting store story was a was a big hit in our office when we covered it well I I think we all grow up doing it recreationally and uh we're now getting accustomed to see to seeing almost everything be turned into a professional sport but actually pillow fighting the people who do pillow fighting are usually retired or former MMA fighters um it has a scoring system it has a a flow it has a I remember after announcing our involvement the first call I got was from Joe Cortez a member of the Boxing Hall of Fame has he refereed more fights than any person uh in fighting uh and he said uh sign me up I'm ready to help you legitimize this as a sport so that tells you something MH when I said it was a big hit by the way I didn't realize I was making a pun but there you go fair enough um and can you can you tell us a bit more about the obviously the the lady like HQ partnership that's uh a big deal for you guys it's probably next to buying half of downtown Vegas which we did in 2004 it's probably the biggest opportunity in my 32-year career um we announced last week a partnership on the B Toc side to take the Lady Luck HQ brand globally as a social Cino brand she's been a Phenom uh basically creating her brand during covid exploding on the scene with almost a 100 million impressions a month M and what we aim to do is to leverage uh the brand and with bespoke content and a global audience and then to interweave into that rewards ecosystem that makes Lady Luck one of the top we hope one of the top brands in slots and in gaming in the world MH so plenty going on at the moment and plenty to come uh but you mentioned um you know well we know you've got experience in in the gaming industry um I wanted to use use your experience and and and ask you a few a few sort of quick fire questions but when I say quickfire we can we can follow up on them we can go into depth uh if needed um but wanted to put maybe put you on the spot with what is your proudest achievement in gaming uh look over 32 years uh having been through Riverboat gambling the Advent of Native American or tribal gaming in America having been through uh the explosion of Automation in casinos and Technology um the expansion of eye gaming and sports betting there been in so many different chapters um I think uh what I'm known most for was uh we came on to the scene in Las Vegas somewhat of a surprise we were not known to the corporate groups here or the families and we purchased uh the legendary Jackie gon's Assets in downtown six operating casinos and 10 square city blocks we did that in uh we put it under contract in 2002 we got licensed and took over 7,500 uh employees in 2004 and I think it was uh it was a very high-profile undertaking all done between the ages of 35 and 38 so it I was one of the younger participants in what was a game filled with people 20 30 years my senior uh I would say that's a once- in a-lifetime experience that I'll never forget absolutely I mean downtown now is is thriving as well uh is it fair to say you know you played your part in in in in that part of history and and are you sort of uh how you feel actually seeing downtown now and and what it's like um all these years later it's an interesting uh point I I've been so many places and done so many big deals and opened up new areas within the gaming industry but I'm my personality as such I don't tend to look back I can appreciate the accomplishments and learn from them um I still go to downtown obviously we're proud that we were part of a group of Visionaries um that saw the potential of downtown and I've seen that but there were people like Tony Shay and there were people like uh Tim poster um you know people who came along who had their contribution to the vision there's Circa that was built on what was formerly the Vegas club which we owned it's been the one of the most successful uh Resorts destination properties in Las Vegas in downtown yeah uh with with Derek Stevens so um yes we're we're we're not quite a footnote maybe we're a small chapter which I'm proud of but to be honest I'm more focused on what can we do with Lady Luck HQ what is the next chapter are we going to have a casino in the metaverse what is it that we can challenge ourselves to do yeah at the risk of sounding like I've completely not listened to any of that answer um I mean I do take it on board but if you uh the next question was going to be before you mentioned not necessarily looking back too much if you were to pick maybe a biggest career regret something you missed out on something that you you look back on now and think yeah I saw that maybe didn't you know didn't necessarily act on it is there anything that comes to mind what I would say is because of the nature of of how we how we've been entrepreneurs in the industry the issue always is uh are you too early you don't want to be too late that's the biggest curse and I would say that there have been a number of times where I've made uh investor and financial bets and in retrospect I was too early for example uh the Advent of electronic table games which is now 30 40 50% of the mix on a casino floor globally we were the first people doing it um you know electronic shufflers things that made that process automated um you know we would uh come up against the shuffle masters of the world and have to it was a David and Goliath story so I would say there are instances like buying casinos or taking a piece of land like we did with uh Station casino and building a riverbat that were huge financial successes huge um you know entrepreneurial successes and I have to balance that against companies that uh that didn't quite make it and had to be sold or exited because we were a little too early and um I would say that's part of being an entrepreneur in the gambling industry sure what was the best investment you think you've ever made the best investment by far was a deal that we did in Kansas City in 1993 we bought a piece of land from Kansas City Power and Light we put $10,000 down before we had to make the first payment towards that $1.7 million uh 150 acre piece of land we managed to strike a deal with Station casino to build a half a billion dollar Casino uh they finished making the payments and bought the land and then subsequently built the casino operated the casino and then sold the casino to a marar and when they did that they handed a check check for $46 million to the partnership mhm for what was actually at least in with respect to the land a $10,000 earnest money deposit I don't think that could be replicated again yeah I think that's that's an emphatic answer that one um if you're to look at the industry as a whole maybe not necessarily anything uh for this question that that you've you you've personally achieved but that might be something to do with it um if you were to pick um the biggest success story that surprised you that you didn't see coming maybe I don't know if it's an executive or a company or a type of gaming what stands out to you in that field I think what I learned the most um I'll use this as an example because it's both an example of something that was a failure but provided the most joy and the most value and that was when uh after we had sold the casinos in downtown Vegas and and I had made some investments in some technology companies I decided to purchase a Supper Club a Wine Lounge Cigar Lounge water and fire destination in the local community in Henderson it was called Vox Wine Lounge and uh for a period of time uh it was one of the go-to places in Las Vegas particularly for young locals who were upand cominging stars in their respective careers in the gaming industry and we operated that property uh it was a 247 entertainment 7 days a week if I told you the types of events uh we had a performing stage we had Outdoors indoors pool pool darts every kind of feature you could think of including gambling we had slot machines um we had a Speak Easy it was something that was in my wildest GS I could never replicate yeah the recession or depression of 2008 came and all of a sudden Vegas became a ghost town um that business no business survived of that type and so financially it ended up being a failure um but in the in the two years that we ran it the amount of joy that I had in terms of entertaining people doing their everything from their wedding anniversaries to their wedding parties to their very special celebrations for graduation to providing Cutting Edge entertainment in a town like Vegas um that is still the number one Joy creating experience in my career so Financial failure success in terms of creating Joy okay is there a trend that you thought or maybe were convinced that would take off uh that maybe hasn't yet still could and your maybe you're surprised that it hasn't I guess I would say look I I would maybe answer it a little bit differently I I always thought you know when I first started looking at innovation in the gambling industry this was before you know Mobile gaming which is what we have now the average time it took to take an idea like ticket in ticket out removing coin receptacles that took 11 years to to basically be absorbed into the casino industry here and it was a no-brainer on day one when you put it in it saves 25% of your operating expenses and I always believed why does it take so long um when I went into electronic table games that took maybe 15 years to be fully absorbed and the question is did you have the staying power to see that transition through however on the other hand payments during covid they wanted to get rid of paper money so they made it easier for you to deposit money from your electronic wallet onto a table or slot machine MH this surprised me I wasn't involved in the in that space But it amazed me how quick it was it took place so what I would say is as we move into things like obviously we have sports betting we have Mobile gaming we have I gaming in a few States we have uh skill-based gaming we have Esports peer-to-peer wagering we have the metaverse we have new forms what I'm excited about there is that the time period and the openness of regulators to tackle new product categories seems to have caught up with the demand for it and so this is what has energized me even 32 years into a career because I can see through Innovation even 32 years into a career because it's happening faster very interesting um you've been part of these interviews before so you know that I some I like to end them with a with a with a forward-looking question and uh you you you've mentioned a number of trends when you when you spoke spoke to me before um you guys as you say you're looking into Niche or I pronounce it Niche but you know um trends like that um you know you're into micro betting um you know big things like this if you were to pick one out in 2024 a trend uh that that you think is going to be the trend that that maybe changes changes gaming at least a little bit next year which one would you pick above uh above all others I think the trend if I'm looking at the US market which is where obviously we do most of our Focus uh there is a shortage of technology in the form of plat platforms iig gaming pams um there's not enough variety for the variety of operators we have in the US to meet the demand so the trend I'm looking for is to see the new entrance coming into the market in the in the area of platforms I think in addition to that obviously CRM Customer Loyalty customer retention this is and the use of AI yeah is always an intriguing and interesting Evolution because we know that there are good things about AI we know that there are potential dangers of AI but the use of AI to Simply know more about the customer know more about the customer's preference know the proclivity of something to happen just makes us better operators and so that are those are the things that I'm going to be looking for for 2024 as we approach it m uh Stephen always a pleasure and until next time thanks very much thanks Tim