I held AGI mid last year as a value play. I felt we might see 'mean' reversion in the industry eventually and I was going be patient. I sold them and bit the 'expensive' bullet and bought ALL. (This is not me rubbing anything in guys..)
Not to over simplify it, but I was to my local venue which has 100 machines capacity. By the end of last year 24 were lightning link and a further 8 were dragon link. New Ainworth games that were not just rebadges of same game format? Zero. They were not new new if you kn9w what I mean and it was 2 of them.
Now this venue is a bit of an extreme with the popularity if Lightning link, but the truth is that AGI is getting killed by ALL and even Scientific Games that has brought out the moderately popular 'lock and link' game.
I would encourage you guys to drive around to few venues and have a coffee and look at whats happening on the ground. I'm not saying AFI slots aren't popular, and let me tell you their slots from years ago are still very resilient. However, take notice of the new machines and vertually none of them are AGI.
A lot of people have critism for AGI, that it a one trick poney. Now thats unfair, however there is some truth to it. Most of AGI's most popular machines are the one format 'reskinned' with various animal and jewel themes. They havn't been able to bring a new game to the Aussie market that has made traction in years.
Now this is just the Aussie market and even AGI is quite international. Though we are in a unique position here to live in the largest per captia pokie market in the World. What works here will probably work well overseas. You can get insight into the industry in every suburb on the eastern sea board.
