Victory Square Ventures has helped startups in social gaming, lotteries, online gaming, and daily fantasy sports.
Foxwoods Resort Casino and Victory Square Ventures is partnering on a “living lab”, a plan to develop new gaming entertainment technology. The official name of the joint venture is “Foxwoods and Victory Square Ventures Living Lab“.
Foxwoods describes the partnership as a “first-of-its-kind” business deal, as land-based casinos are not prone to work with VCs and accelerator programs. Business Insider describes Victory Square Ventures as “award winning”.
In helping other startup companies, Victory Square has a background in online gaming, lottery betting, daily fantasy sports, and social gaming. VSV also has technical knowledge in the virtual and augmented reality gaming categories.
Felix Rappaport on the Living Lab
Felix Rappaport, the president and CEO of Foxwoods Resort Casino, said in a statement, “Foxwoods is thrilled to partner with Victory Square Ventures, joining two of the most innovative minds in the gaming industry. The Living Lab is an exciting enterprise that represents not only the next step in Foxwoods’ gaming evolution, but our commitment to leading the transformation of the industry as a whole and continuously giving guests unique experiences that excite. This is the future of gaming.”
The Living Lab will debut a variety of “interactive solutions”, giving Foxwoods the ability to debut a variety of alternative gaming options. Felix Rappaport referred to the gaming industry changing significantly in the next few years, describing it as “transformative”. The millennial gaming demographic, which represents the largest generation in American history, is the force behind that transformation.
What Millennial Gamblers Want
What it means is brick-and-mortar and online casinos have to adapt gaming solutions for millennial customers. That means betting options that involve skill-based gaming machines, virtual sports, and eSports. Millennial gamblers are not interested in slot machines and numerouos table games, because those games are pure games of chance. Millennials want to play interactive, skill-based games.
They also want cooperative games, because the typical millennial comes to the casino with a group of friends. Unlike players in the Baby Boomer and even Generation X demographics, they do not split up to gamble as individuals. Instead, they want to enjoy their gaming experience with friends.
Ray Walia, the managing partner at Victory Square Ventures, said that his business focuses on players who grew up in the video game culture. Walia said, “At Victory Square Ventures, we are actively on the lookout for new products, services, and platforms that engage and entertain today’s Millennial and Gen Z audiences.”
Skill-Based Gaming Machines from GameCo
Along those lines, Foxwoods Casino debuted GameCo skill-based gaming machines last month. GameCo’s gaming machines are described as “Video Game Gambling Machines” or “VGMs”. While GameCo has placed machines in Atlantic City, the Foxwoods Casino skill games are among the first to appear in North American gambling establishments.
Skill-based gaming machines are an emerging technology. That means the EGM designers are still learning the technology and receiving feedback from customers. Over time, one skill-based gaming machine likely will emerge as an industry standard. For the time being, gameplay is a work in progress.
The Foxwoods and Victory Square Ventures Living Lab is designed to design, study, and tinker with the emerging VGM market, just as it is designed to innovate with virtual gaming, virtual sports, and eSports. It gives Foxwoods casino a chance to be on the cutting edge of the transformation of gambling, and be in on the ground flood of the breakout systems which take over the millennial gaming market.
Victory Square Ventures
Victory Square Ventures is the brainchild of Shafin Diamond Tejani, a venture builder in desktop and mobile gaming startups. The enterprise was co-founded by Ray Walia and Shafin Tejani when Shafin was only 19 years old. Ray Walia has been in the business for over 20 years and was responsible for Launch Academy, Vancouver’s number one entrepreneurship consultancy.
In the two years since its inception, Venture Squares has helped launch 40 startups in 24 different nations worldwide. Between them, the startups have generated over $100 million in sales. Foxwoods Casino is its biggest partner to date.
Foxwoods Casino
Foxwoods Casino’s grand opening was in 1993, but the gaming complex started in 1986 as a bingo hall. These days, Foxwoods Casino is the largest brick-and-mortar casino by square footage, larger even than Las Vegas Strip casinos. Foxwoods is owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe.
In the 1990s and early years of the 21st century, Foxwoods’s location between Boston and New York City made it one of the most lucrative casinos in the world. Since New York State and Massachusetts approved land-based casinos inside their states, Foxwoods has had to become more inventive. The tribe launched a free-to-play Foxwoods online casino site in 2016, and is searching for new gaming innovations to attract millennial age gamblers. The Foxwoods Victory Square Ventures Living Lab is the latest project to do just that.
