BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Mike Abecassis presenting his Sixth
Sense session at IAAPA in 2016.
Better Than A Hunch
Using your Sixth Sense for your arcade area.
By Dan McGrath
M
ike Abecassis knows arcade games. He doesn’t just
know games as they’re played and scored. He
knows arcade games in an anthropomorphic way.
"Your games are like employees," Abecassis says
to a nearly full room of about 200 industry people
at his 2016 IAAPA Attractions Expo learning session, ‘The Sixth
Sense - Develop Your Game Room Antenna.’ The audience for
his session comprises bowling center and FEC owners, operators
and managers, mostly from the
U.S. “Games are your cheapest
employees, so give them the
attention they deserve. Just like
employees, your games have
needs: fair and ongoing
evaluations; pay in the forms of
parts and labor; regular attention
and care; and from time to time,
they need to be replaced.” He
adds, “Just because they show
up for work doesn’t mean they
Mike Abecassis
38
IBI
February 2017
belong there. You need to let them go when their performance
no longer justifies their cost.”
Abecassis draws from 26 years of experience in the business
when he shares his ideas and recommendations to industry
audiences, such as the one gathered in Orlando. He is president
and CEO of General Vending, a provider of amusement vending
equipment, services and support in Florida. He’s also CEO of
GameTime, a seven-venue chain of FECs located throughout
South Florida. Prior to his current endeavors, he built and later
sold several amusement and entertainment companies.
The traditional definition of the sixth sense is extrasensory
perception, or ESP, which is the reception of information not
gained through the recognized physical senses (touch, taste,
etc.), but instead sensed with the mind. For his presentation
and approach, Abecassis defines the sixth sense as “results
derived by applying data from outside the normal fields of data.”
He encourages arcade operators to dig deeper – beyond the
standard revenue reports – to learn how they can maximize
revenue from the resources applied to an arcade area.
Critical to implementing many of Abecassis’ practices is data
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
collection, and there’s no better way to
collect arcade data today than with a stateof-the-art payment system, such as a debit
card system. Abecassis makes it clear in
his presentation that he doesn’t endorse
one system provider over another. “There
are a number of good systems out there,”
he told his audience.
Jason Mitchell, North American sales
manager at Intercard Inc., a provider of
debit payment systems, applauds the work
Jason Mitchell
that Abecassis is doing to help educate
the industry. “It’s altruism. Mike earnestly
wants the industry as a whole to improve. We at Intercard share that
philosophy, and I can’t agree more with the specific lessons he’s teaching.”
Mitchell has 31 years of direct, operational experience
in the amusement industry with companies such as
Putt-Putt Golf & Games, Fun Fest, and Main Event
Entertainment. He’s been with Intercard since 2011.
“If you have a debit payment system and you’re
not data mining, you’re throwing money away,”
said Mitchell. “Sure, data mining your customer
information – frequency of visits, favorite games,
spending habits, reactions to LTOs – is part of it. But
Mike is stressing the importance of data mining
your arcade games, too. A good debit payment
system provides all you need to manage your
business and maximize your revenue potential.”
In recent years, bowling proprietors are realizing
that, for example, having 40-plus lanes and 1,500
league bowlers is not enough. The industry is
changing. Much higher revenues and ROI are being achieved when traditional
bowling centers decide to be more competitive in the marketplace.
Remodeling a traditional house and adding arcades, laser tag, new menus,
and more attractions is a clear and proven method for staying relevant in
today’s market. In many cases, lanes are being removed to accommodate
these changes. Many centers have lost up to 80% of their league bowler base,
yet still show significant revenue increases year after year because they’re
making the necessary investments to change and diversify their business.
As stated in a 2016 report by Sandy Hansell & Assoc., “Sixty percent of
bowling centers recently surveyed by the Bowling Proprietors Association
of America reported that they had completed major capital improvement
projects within the last three years.”
Data mining alone is not a panacea. Operators must to do it correctly.
The Sixth Sense teaches operators the necessity of data mining and provides
a clear roadmap for increasing revenues and efficiencies in their arcade
business. Depending on the size of an operation, it can be worth the cost
of having a full-time employee dedicated only to data collection and
analysis. Over time that person will pay for themselves from the increased
revenue and efficiency opportunities they discover, as long as the operator
implements and experiments with the findings.
Taking Abecassis’ anthropomorphic approach a step further, Mitchell says,
40
IBI
February 2017
“Your arcade games need a ‘physician’ – a repair and
maintenance technician. Think of the data expert as the
games’ ‘psychologist.’”
Another thing that Abecassis stresses is the
importance of networking within the industry. At his
IAAPA learning session, Abecassis was asked by an
audience member how he learns if a new game
introduced by a manufacturer will produce well. His
answer: ask your industry contacts – distributors, debit
system providers, third-party repair techs, etc.
Mitchell amplifies on that approach for collecting
data. “A lot of operators are not comfortable
working with all of the available data that a system
like ours produces. My first reaction is to tell them
to try to learn it.”
Slide from the Sixth Sense presentation. This illustrates how an operator can
calculate and compare the performance of their games to the games’ average
performances at other comparable (very important!) stores, as provided by
your industry contacts.
Beyond that, most good debit payment system
providers offer resources for system education.
Operators should talk to their contacts. Debit system
providers, redemption companies and games
distributors all have a stake in the industry’s success, and
they understand the data of their respective fields.
To view Mike Abecassis’ slide presentation from
his 2016 IAAPA learning session, “Arcade-201: The
Sixth Sense”, go to www.iaapa.org/iaapa-attractionsexpo-2016-educational-conference-programpresentations. ❖
Dan McGrath is a marketing and communications
professional. His high score in bowling is 219,
achieved at Casino Lanes in Quincy, Ill. He can be
reached at [email protected].