Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN MAY 2019 22 A bird's eye artist's impression of Hoiana ホイアナの俯瞰イメージ COVER STORY IAG: Suncity has been very active of late, planning a new travel app, investing in gaming businesses in Russia and Cambodia and of course preparing for the launch of Hoiana. Why has it become so important for Suncity to pursue such a diverse array of interests? Andrew Lo: It’s true, we invest in lots of different products and most are not gambling. When we design an IR, the casino is the last part we have to worry about because we are not inventing any new baccarat games or blackjack games. A casino is a casino. But how do you make people come to your IR? They will go into the casino anyway right? So that is the interesting point. We’ve been doing a lot of work on that because as you know, Vietnam is our first IR. Two years ago, we launched a small business in Danang. Why did we start that two years ago? Because we are warming up the market for Hoiana. I see non-casino guys trying to do a casino overseas and some of those casinos are not for locals. But a foreigner-only casino is totally different to a locals casino and if they start advertising only one week or two weeks before they open, I don’t think they can drive many people there no matter who their marketing director is. Most have come from their home base casino, be it Macau or Singapore or wherever, and often their success is the market itself rather than their marketing. But what is Suncity? We are a marketing company. And now we are moving to the next step which is as an IR investor and IR operator. IAG: Suncity is expanding quite aggressively at the moment. You have a presence in Manila, Melbourne, Sydney, Phnom Penh, you’re opening in Vietnam with Hoiana and have a presence in Sihanoukville, Russia and Korea. What other places around the world would you be interested in? AL: Our existing customers are from Asia – China, Korea, Taiwan. Therefore, for the sake of convenience in terms of traveling time, Asian countries are our current focus.