eTITO+ whitepaper
Loyalty & Cashless System for Gaming Industry
Overview
The goal of the system is to increase Gaming Operator revenue. It does so by gamifying the player experience (with tournaments, achievements, badges, promo credits, jackpot, and other award types) and removing player friction with respect to credit transfer to and from the gaming machine. It replaces the card-based player loyalty and printer based TITO systems with a modern and more affordable system. Reward points can be earned by and spent on playing gaming machines, on food / drinks, hotels, or any other in-house or external partnering venues.
Our Guiding Principles
Easy to Integrate with any existing CMS and any SAS 6.02 gaming machine without cabinet retrofits
Secure for both players and operators.
Easy to Use for players, employees, admins and external partners.
Affordable for both established and growing gaming operators in 1st, 2nd and 3rd world countries
Loyalty Program
Tiers and Tier Points are the key concept in the loyalty program. Users can earn Tier Points through various means: by waging on gaming machines, spending on food and drinks, accommodation, etc. These can be in-house or at external partners’ venues. As users earn Tier Points they progress from one Tier to another. Each Tier offers certain benefits, such as exclusive deals and promotions, higher Tier Point earning rates, etc.
In order to keep users engaged and remain at a specific or progress to the next Tier, earned Tier Points can be set to expire at a calendar year end or after a certain time period (a week, a month, etc). Number of Tiers, points needed to achieve them, their expiration, etc can be customized by the customer (see Appendix A for details).
Reward Points is a mechanism to engage users even more: once a user earns a predefined number of Tier Points within a predefined time interval (e.g: 1000 points within a week) they start earning Reward Points. After that, each new Tier Point they earn also gives them a Reward Point. Reward Points do not expire. They can be redeemed (converted to or spent) for gaming promo credits, foods, drinks, accommodation, merchandise, travel arrangements, converted to real cash, etc. The rate at which Reward Points convert to each of these categories can be set by the customer and can be chosen to differ for different Tiers. For example 100 Reward Points can be worth $100 if spent on food or drinks, $120 if spent as promo credit, or $50 if converted to cash for users at Tier 1, and with higher rates for users in Tier 2. Redemption can be done in-house or at external participating partner venues (see Appendix A for details).
Reward Points can also be given directly to users as part of a special Promo Campaign (eg: every new user gets 10 Reward Points). For Promo Campaigns details, please see Promo Campaigns chapter.
Cashless Credit Transfer
At designated locations users can convert physical cash to eCash that will be credited to their eCash balance. The desired amount of eCash can be then transferred to one or more gaming machines (GM) for play. Similarly, at the end of play session users can transfer any remaining credits from the GM back to their account balance. Regular and promo credits balances are kept separately. Each GM is uniquely identified by a QR code. Using the mobile app the user scans the QR code and selects the amount of eCash (or Reward Points) to be transferred. This marks the play session start and ties the play session to that user. During the play session the system logs player gaming activity and collects any available metrics (bet, number of games, specific game, etc). The play session ends when the GM credit balance reaches zero (spends all credits or requests a handpay) or when the user initiates the credit transfer back to his eCash balance through the mobile app. The system can automatically end the play session (and credits the user back) when the remaining credit is below a set threshold and the GM is idle for a preset time interval (eg: credit < $1 and GM is idle for more than a minute).
Reward Points are transferred to the GM as promo credit using the specific preset rate. If not fully spent they’ll be transferred back to the user as Reward Points using the specific preset rate.
Promo Campaigns
System allows for several types of Promo campaigns. Specific campaign defines a user group which can participate, such as all users, Tier 1 users, or users that have met specific conditions (such as wagered predefined amount in a specified time period, played N days in a row, had a bad week, etc). When a promo campaign ends, one or more winning users are selected from the participating user pool. Selection can be fully random or weighted random. The awarded prize can be in form Reward Credits, physical item, etc.
To illustrate here are few typical Promo Campaigns:
New user signup bonus
selection pool: new users
winner selection: all from the selection pool
prize: $10 in Reward Credits
Played in specified casinos within a week
selection pool: users who wagered at least specified amount of credits in all casinos within one week
winner selection: all from the selection pool
prize: $50 in Reward Credits
Bad week cheer-up (cash back)
selection pool: users who had win-bet ration below a certain value in the last 7 days
winner selection: all
prize: fixed or % of the loss
Weekly Tournament
selection pool: users with a win-bet ration larger than a set value in a specified week
winner selection: top 3 from the selection pool
prize: $ in Reward Credits
Yearly Free Summer Vacation
selection pool: users that had total bet above a certain value in the last calendar year
winner selection: weighted random
prize: a free vacation for two people
Achievements
Gamification is a proven way to keep users engaged and excited while striving to fulfill the "next task" or to earn a badge for some accomplishment. eTITO+ provides a flexible way to create new achievements. From our perspective, an achievement is defined as follows:
Who can participate? One or more conditions restrict which players see and can achieve the goal. By default: all
Conditions: a list of criteria (bullets) a player has to accomplish.
Bullet: a single condition
Time frame: a time period within which the above Conditions have to be met.
Missions
Achievements can be linked together in a chain, forming a Mission. Players have to achieve all linked achievements within a set timeframe, and in that exact order to complete a Mission.
Leader-boards
TITO+ supports multiple player leader-boards. Each leader-board tracks a certain aspect of player activity. The most basic leader-board is the current rank within a Tier (#4 of #10815 players).
Key System Components
Player mobile application through which players can see current promotional offers, initiate cashless eCash transfer to and from one or more gaming machines, and see their profile page which includes various metrics (player tier, achievements, statistics).
Staff mobile application through which employees transfer regular or promotional eCash to players, monitor the active play sessions, resolve any potential issues.
Admin Panel Web application through which administrators create new promotional offers, generate reports and track live data.
QR Code Sticker uniquely identifies the gaming machine.
Hardware interface board that is put in each gaming machine between the SMIB and the gaming machine main board. It sends the gaming machine meters to the backend system in realtime and allows for electronic fund (regular and promo) transfer to and from the gaming machine.
eTITO+ bridge is a dedicated small factor server located either in a central operator location (or in each casino depending on the case) that ensures good system performance and strengthens the security of the overall system.
Business Model
One-time setup fee that includes everything to onboard a new gaming machine to the system.
Monthly fee for each participating gaming machine.
Contact us for pricing details at info@etitoplus.com
Appendix A
