Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of Vision 2030 has completely transformed the entertainment offering in the country, believes Electrocoin.
Saudi Arabia will “almost certainly” hit its targets for opening up the entertainment industry to its population, 14 years after its project began, says John Stergides of UK-based distributor Electrocoin.
Few have Stergides’ long experience in the amusement and gaming industry and with his close involvement with the Middle East industry stretching back to its infancy, his judgement can be considered rather more than just speculation.
“From the moment that the announcement was made by Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2016, resources were poured into the project, named Vision 2030, and now the set of strategic policies are rapidly coming to fruition.”
He points to the succession of leisure, cultural and entertainment projects that have already gone live in that time, and the progress made on the so-called “giga projects” – the massive lifestyle complexes that include attractions, as evidence of the Vision’s progress.
“You have the downtown Riyadh Boulevard, the Qiddiya complex with the Six Flags theme park, many initiatives by local operators, plus the huge Neom and other projects. It is all happening in Saudi Arabia and companies like ours have been in on the ground floor of the action.”
Electrocoin will be at the Saudi Entertainment and Amusement trade show at the Riyadh Front expo complex this month where it will have products on the extensive booth of its distributor in the Middle East, Amusement Services International.
“We will have our own senior staff at the show,” said Stergides, “liaising with ASI’s Prakash Vivekanand and his team, and meeting the raft of new faces that we anticipate will be on hand to see what the world of entertainment can offer them and their new projects.”
In the case of Electrocoin, that will certainly be at least the highly successful Mr Do’s Football Frenzy, a game fresh from the Dubai show in April and a product that may have been developed with the Middle East in mind, given it fits with the football enthusiasm of the region’s population.
“We launched it at the EAG show in London in January,” he said, “and it was an immediate success there; repeated in Dubai and we have little doubt that it will be high on the agenda for all the big Saudi operators who will be at the Riyadh show.”
In essence Mr Do’s Football Frenzy is a simple game – but then, as Stergides points out: “Historically, all the best amusement games are the simple ones.” The game is for two players and sees them blowing balls into holes in the rear playfield to score points.
It is just one of a whole portfolio of amusement devices that Electrocoin has come up with this year, including other favourites such as Pop Shooter and the Double Time crane, all either developed in-house or spotted in Asian creative environments and signed up for the western markets.
The partnership with ASI is key to the penetration of the lucrative Middle Eastern – and more particularly the Saudi Arabian – markets for Electrocoin. “We’ve worked with ASI for years,” said Stergides, “and they know the market there in the kind of detail that none of us based outside the region can hope to match.”
Stergides laments the apparent inevitability of three shows in the region next year, having gone on record just before last month’s DEAL show in Dubai as pointing out that three shows in a couple of months to serve the same market placed immense burdens on the industry.
While he feels that SEA is principally a “local show” for Saudi, rather than a regional or international show, that is far outweighed by the sheer size of the market. “They’ve gone from pretty well little in terms of entertainment, to opening the doors to the world’s entertainment ingenuity all with immense funding. It immediately creates a massive market and one which makes Saudi Arabia the key target for the industry’s big brand names.
“It has been done with calculated precision and with an awareness of just what’s out there to help with the overall target of devolving Saudi’s society away from its dependence upon oil. Only the best will do for this most discerning of clientele and companies like ours have a responsibility to bring the best to their attention.”
