The UK's highly competitive land-based casino market is set to get even more spirited with the launch of another player into the fray, Casino Red.
Casino Red has operated the successful CasinoRed.com online casino since April, and is the brainchild of EndX co-founder Nicolas Boyes-Hunter. He is now set to open the company's first land-based casino in the northern English town of Huddersfield in November, subject to a successful Magistrates Licensing hearing.
Leeds-born Boyes-Hunter helped to found casino-management software specialist EndX in 1997, which developed and ran software for credit control, cage counting, player tracking, and game, slot, and table management. He also had previously worked for Security Gaming Management and Aristocrat Gaming, where he installed new software technologies into UK casinos.
"I helped to form EndX because I was cocky enough to believe that we could do it better," Boyes-Hunter said.
Under his leadership, EndX grew fast and eventually operated in more than 90 percent of UK casinos, with international offices in Las Vegas, Sydney, and Macao.
"There were a lot of requirements that were not being met, and we knew that we could develop better software, which we did," he said. "We were meeting customers' requirements and were successful because of the quality of the software we developed."
Boyes-Hunter then sold EndX to Progressive Gaming in 2005 for $27 million and immediately decided to reinvest in a UK casino operation, Red Gaming, along with former business partner and current Chief Financial Officer Stuart Payne. The Macclesfield-based enterprise has plans to become one of the larger British operations in the near future, and would like to operate as many as six sites, a position that would see it rival Sheffield's A&S Leisure Group.
"We formed Casino Red because, as with EndX, we believed that we could do it better, as the standards in UK casinos are still very poor in terms of service and hospitality compared to offerings elsewhere in Europe, the USA, and the Baltic," Boyes-Hunter said.
"We have a lot of ambition and believe, fundamentally, that we can offer a service and hospitality individual to each site and customer. I would class some of the larger casino groups in the UK as the 'Holiday Inn Express' of the casino world, where the offering is average for everyone regardless of the location.
"A casino solution isn't just opening an industrial-type shed and putting in a few slot machines. We will make our venues an experience for the customer rather than just looking at the bottom line and what gets put in the drop box."
Casino Red will open the first of its new casinos on the site of the 1930s Princess Cinema in the West Yorkshire town, and already has received planning permission for the $10 million investment that could create up to 120 jobs.
"Everyone we have spoken to in the town has been hugely positive about the project," Casino Red's Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Truelove said.
Upon entering the new venue, visitors will be welcomed by a spectacular reception area, from where they can access any of the facilities on offer spread over four floors. The basement of the site will house a dedicated poker room, while the ground floor will host the venue's gaming activities, including blackjack, roulette, and electronic machines. A mezzanine level will feature an 85-seat restaurant and separate bar, both with a view of the ground-floor gaming and stage area. A third-floor gallery will hold VIP or private functions, and the venue's domed ceiling is to be restored and complemented with a contemporary chandelier.
"We chose Huddersfield out of hundreds of possible towns and cities, but it was an easy decision for us to make," Boyes-Hunter, who serves as Casino Red's chief executive officer, said.
"It is a vibrant town with a thriving social scene, and we knew on viewing the old cinema that we could develop a spectacular site in a tremendous location. Statistically, the Kirklees Council region of West Yorkshire is the best region in the UK that is underserviced, as there are 390,000 people but only one casino in the area.
CasinoRed.com also has sponsored Huddersfield's soccer and rugby teams as part of marketing its name, and Boyes-Hunter stated that these moves also could help it to offer something different to its customers.
"We will be offering our VIPs, both online and in our Huddersfield site, something beyond just free drinks and a packet of cigarettes, such as access to corporate boxes for sporting events at the soccer and rugby stadiums, along with corporate entertainment at Manchester's MEN Arena along with other venues," he said.
Boyes-Hunter said that he anticipates approximately 105,000 visits to the Huddersfield site in the first year, about 300 a day, and that poker tournaments will be an important part of the site's overall future plan.
"The whole poker phenomenon is massive, and what we would like to do is make sure that we have solutions both online and with our land-based casinos," he said.
He stated that the Huddersfield site will host regular poker tournaments and also may be offered exclusively for anyone wishing to host their own.
"To date, there have not been a huge number of casinos that are offering fantastic solutions to poker players," the 36-year-old stated. "A lot of this has been down to the revenue that operators get, but this will change under new legislation with the possibility to collect a percentage of the rake fees."
As for the future, Casino Red does not have plans just for the UK, but also would like to have a land-based presence in mainland Europe and the Far East in around a decade while still maintaining its high levels of customer service and discovering just what local players desire.
"We would be offering customers in those areas something geared toward the local environment, and we would not be pushing something that would not work for those players," Boyes-Hunter said.
