Casino loyalty and technology provider Acres Manufacturing Company has announced the launch of TIBO (Ticket-In Bonus-Out), a new ticket-based bonusing solution enabled by Acres’ proprietary Foundation technology.
The slot ticketing solution dispenses cashable tickets and bonuses directly to players via the slot machine’s ticket dispenser. Acres will demonstrate TIBO at the upcoming Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention, to be held March 27-30 in San Diego, California. TIBO deployments are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2023.
Acres calls TIBO “one of the first true evolutions” of Ticket-In Ticket-Out (TITO) technology, a solution that changed the industry when it debuted roughly 20 years ago and is now installed nearly universally in slot machines worldwide.
According to the technology provider, TIBO “takes TITO to the next level,” performing core ticket issuance and redemption functions at slot machines, kiosks and cashier terminals while enhancing the player experience by delivering tangible, physical bonuses of value to the player.
“Players appreciate and value the power and excitement of a printed ticket and TIBO makes it easier for casino operators to bring bonuses to players’ hands,” said Acres. The company also highlighted that the solution works on any slot machine, including those connected to casino management systems, allowing for operators to immediately deploy it on casino floors.
While the legacy CMS continues to account for play and loyalty data, the combination of TIBO and Acres’ Foundation takes over ticketing responsibilities “to deliver exciting new bonus opportunities,” which can be triggered by Foundation’s real-time data stream.
This new solution follows the launch of Acres’ Cashless Casino deployments, which have now reached 31,000 games in 9 states. “Over time, casinos will be able to migrate all CMS functionality to Foundation – including loyalty, bonusing, cashless, reporting and analytics – and remove the legacy CMS without disruption, resulting in meaningful annual hardware and maintenance savings that flow immediately to the bottom line,” says the company.
“We are continuously looking for ways to innovate to bring new technology to casino floors. In much the same way we’ve pursued the burgeoning cashless opportunity, we created TIBO because consumer tastes have changed in the 20-plus years since TITO was released,” said Noah Acres of Acres Manufacturing Company.
“Modern consumers want gamified experiences triggered by real-time personal data and TIBO fulfills these desires by issuing targeted, data-driven bonuses through the slot machine’s ticket printer,” further noted the executive.
Legacy TITO solutions cannot leverage real-time player data, notes Acres, able only to print in response to the push of the cash-out button on a slot machine and can only issue tickets for the amount shown on the game’s credit meter at the time of cash-out.
Acres’ new TIBO solution leverages the real-time data stream provided by the Foundation platform and benefits from access to game commands to print a ticket of any value at any moment, including a ‘print ticket’ pop-up in the casino operator’s Cashless Casino app or even automatically if a trigger event occurs.
Bonus tickets produced by TIBO and dispensed by the ticket printer can be redeemed for a number of categories, including cash, free play, or merchandise.
