Walker Digital Gaming : Elite Baccarat
Walker Digital Gaming (WDG) had an idea for a new type of casino game that would offer players exciting new bets and provide the casino with a configurable house advantage and significantly improved security. WDG chose Control Group as its technology partner to bring the game from idea, to prototype, to production in under 12 months.
Elite Baccarat looks like a traditional Baccarat table with the addition of touch screens at each position. Hidden within the table are RFID readers that track chip movements and an optical card shoe that feeds a network of servers game state and returns to the player new and exciting bets calculated by an advanced real-time bet engine. A separate electronic trend board system is integrated with the table for traditional display of the game state with the new bets, and the system will also interface with existing player loyalty and chip accounting systems. Casino management monitors and manages sets of tables real-time via their own pit station, table-side interfaces, and remote monitoring stations that also provides real-time reporting and security alerts.
Control Group took Elite Baccarat from vision to production on a pace unprecedented in the casino industry and helped WDG create a product that uses disparate technologies in a new and unique way. Using Agile development principles, we developed a large requirements repository that defined the project for all of its constituencies while vetting all of the candidate core technologies. We simultaneously iterated through several rounds of prototype tables while developing the core game and off-table tracking software, and even leveraged our CAD experience to create the table manufacturing specifications. Our in-depth UAT and QA processes and our detailed software documentation facilitated a relatively short regulatory approval cycle. We also provided extensive operational support during the sales and regulatory approval cycles.
Elite Baccarat has received enthusiastic response and is being played on the casino floor of the world's largest resort.