Smartphone Gambling Apps a Boon for Australian Pokies Giant Aristocrat

There’s no longer a question of where modern technology will take us. We are situated squarely in the epicenter of the digital age, and few could be more pleased about that Australia’s number one manufacturer of poker machines, Aristocrat Leisure. While revenue is up all round, the company’s smartphone gambling apps showed the highest yield increase in 2015.

Throughout the ages, dating back to its first poker machine release in 1953, Aristocrat has been known for its development of land-based pokies, which can be found lining the walls of pubs and clubs throughout Australia. But as technology continues to blossom, digital gaming is on track to overtake the brick-and-mortar industry, and Aristocrat is taking full advantage of both avenues.

Following the 2014 launch of its first gambling app for Facebook and smartphones, Heart of Vegas, Aristocrat saw its 2015 digital gaming revenues increase 145.3% to $123.4 million. While the monetary value may pale to the company’s overall revenue of $1.582 billion, the differential in percentages is phenomenal compared to the 88.6% overall growth on the year.

Furthermore, the revenue harvested from Aristocrat’s digital department had a lot to do with the pokies marker’s statutory net profit figures, which were reported at $186.43 million over the last 12 months, up from a -$16.4 million loss in the previous 12 months. Normalised net profit was recorded at $236.1 million, an increase of 78.9%.

Acquisitions and Gambling Apps Lead Growth

Aristocrat noted three particular areas in which the company experienced the most growth. Topping the list was last year’s completed acquisition of US-based gambling firm VGT, followed by the remarkable growth of its venture into Facebook and smartphone gambling apps via Heart of Vegas.

Aristocrat first launched the digital gaming venue onto Facebook with an iOS app for Apple devices. Soon after, an Android app was launched. Since then, they’ve noted impressive numbers in player participation, with 799,840 daily active users at the start of the fiscal year, ending at 1.089 million. The average daily revenue per active users ended at AUD $0.53, totaling more than AUD $577 million per day.

Aristocrat’s Venture into Digital Gaming

The company’s venture into the digital gaming business began back in 2012 when Aristocrat made the strategic move to acquire Product Madness, the division of Aristocrat responsible for last year’s launch of the Facebook and mobile gambling app, Heart of Vegas.

At that time, Product Madness, which launched in 2007, was already among the top five operators in Facebook’s social casino slots market, recording over 500,000 daily active users and more than 3.5 million active users per month.

Heart of Vegas currently has more than 1.79 million likes on Facebook, and helped to earn Product Madness the esteemed title of 2015’s Social Slots Operator of the Year from eGaming Review.

Jamie Odell, CEO of Aristocrat, is viewing the digital gaming boon as a catalyst for future growth in the company, predicting a continued rise in daily user activity and overall revenue in the coming year. However, he also noted that the daily revenue per active user is expected to level out in 2016 as Aristocrat’s reaches scale growth in the market.