Felix Rappaport said in late 2014 he would diversify Foxwoods’ revenue, which he is beginning to do.
New Foxwoods Casino CEO Felix Rappaport already is beginning to make an impact with the Mashantucket Pequot tribe’s gaming brand. The former Mirage president announced that Foxwoods Resort Casino has signed a deal with Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions, a subsidiary of Novomatic, to streamline and relaunch its social online casino. The new web address is www.Online.Foxwoods.com.
The site’s redesign was executed by a Greentube division, BlueBat Games. BlueBat said the new Foxwoods site received an “intense redesign, reengineering, and improvement.”
Foxwoods Free Casino
Though the Foxwoods site still bans real money gambling, the new portal has other alternatives, such as the ability to win free trips, hotel accommodations, and meals. In the past, the Foxwoods website was a free-to-play social gaming option which uses advertising to pay for upkeep. It is a far cry from the legal and licensed gaming in New Jersey, which allows land-based casino operators to accept real money players.
Rodney Butler, Chairman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, said, “This effort between Foxwoods and Greentube is the latest chapter in our strategic relationship. By leveraging Greentube capabilities, we have furthered Foxwoods as the industry leader across all gaming verticals.”
Why Launch a Social Gaming Platform
People might wonder why a billion-dollar tribal gaming enterprise would open a free-to-play online casino. Social gaming is a billion-dollar industry itself. While players do not make real wagers, their visits to the site makes them a ready customer base for advertisements. Advertisers pay the website to show their ads. The more social gamers go to the site, the more revenues that are generated.
Foxwoods believes the online gaming portal is a good marketing tool, allowing the casino to build its database of potential customers. Not only can Foxwoods market directly to new potential visitors, but it can encourage them to visit by having them game socially for hotel rooms, free meals, and free trips to the land-based casino.
Also, if Connecticut ever approved legal online gambling, Foxwoods Resort would have an online presence already established. Potential gamblers would be in the habit of gaming on the Foxwoods site, while the website itself would have “aged”, thus rising up the Google, Yahoo, and Bing rankings for its own name — and other gambling terms. Plus, advertising can be sold on the website. While it might be small in comparison, it is revenue, and one can never be certain when a site takes off.
Rodney Butler social online casino allowed for numerous in-play marketing opportunities. From an aesthetic perspective, the site also looks more like the brick-and-mortar Foxwoods Resort Casino, so the redesigned website helps with branding. Customers can become familiar with the look and feel of Foxwoods Casino.
Greentube CEO Speaks
Thomas Graf, the CEO of Greentube, was pleased with the two companies’ first collaboration. Graf said, “The Foxwoods brand was the perfect foundation upon which to build a formidable social casino with the latest offerings. We are proud of the product and look forward to continued collaboration with Foxwoods and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.”
The Vienna-based Greentube CEO said the plan to improve the casino included a mobile upgrade. Thomas Graf added, “Both teams worked against an ambitious deadline in order to re-launch the desktop site and mobile apps for IOS and Android.”
About Foxwoods Casino
Foxwoods Resort is a Native American tribal casino located in Eastern Connecticut. The resort is owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and has operated as one of the biggest East Coast gaming resorts in the United States since it first expanded (from a bingo hall) in the 1990s.
Foxwoods Resort, like it longtime rival, Mohegan Sun, struggled to maintain its market share as the American northeast was saturated with gaming venues. At a time, Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun, and the Atlantic City casinos were the only gaming destinations east of the Mississippi River.
Gaming Market Saturation
Eventually, lawmakers in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island approved one form of land-based gambling or another. Some states allowed tribal casinos. Others allowed slot machines or video lottery terminals (VLTs) at racetracks. The market became fragmented and the customer base shrank to in-state betting, in many cases.
Foxwoods Resort remains a major competitor, but whispers in the gaming market suggest that the company’s debt burden is rising to alarming levels, perhaps in the $1.6 billion to $2.3 billion range. Once again, while a gaming portal is a small step towards solving cash flow problems, the Foxwoods online social gaming platform could be part of the solution in the future. Like the struggling Atlantic City market, state legislators might eventually approve online and mobile gambling in Connecticut, to help increase revenues for the land-based products of the Connecticut gaming tribes.
