Author: Sudhir Kale

Sudhir H. Kalé, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of GamePlan Consultants, a business that offers boutique high level consultancy to gaming establishments all over the world. He has published over 100 papers on gaming in scholarly journals and in trade publications. Until June 2015, Sudhir served as full-time advisor to Sands China Limited, the largest gaming company in the world. At Sands China, he was in-charge of creating an optimal customer experience for guests across six hotels, five casinos, and billions in retail sales. Sudhir is widely regarded as an expert in various aspects of gaming management such as customer relationship management (CRM), customer loyalty, customer experience, market segmentation and positioning, and customer lifetime value (LTV). For over two decades, he has worked tirelessly to further the continuing education of gaming executives. Sudhir’s gaming client list includes diverse casino companies such as Marina Bay Sands, Galaxy Macau, Starworld Hotel and Casino, Mohegan Sun, The Olympic Entertainment Group, Sun International, Casinos Austria, Mocha Slots, IGT, Wynn Macau and Crown Casino. He has been a regular speaker at the Global Gaming Expo (Las Vegas, Manila and Macau), Gaming, Racing and Wagering Australasia, and at the University of Nevada (Reno) Executive Development Program for senior gaming executives. Sudhir has a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry from University of Pune, a Masters in Management from University of Bombay, and an M.S. in International Business, and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An eloquent, intriguing, and sometimes provocative speaker, his views on a wide range of issues have been quoted by media the world over. Some of the media that have quoted Sudhir include Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Post, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Financial Review, and Sydney Morning Herald.

Marketing Imperatives for 2022 and Beyond

2021 was an exciting and turbulent year for businesses and the gaming industry was no exception. With multiple closures of casinos, inhumane layoffs, and then the Great Resignation, the agility of casino management has been sorely tested. Online gaming revenues, particularly in markets such as the United States, have increased manifold in the last twelve […]

Casino Positioning in Turbulent Times

I have been a marketing consultant to casinos for over two decades. Before undertaking any consulting assignment that involves marketing, I try to make sure that the interventions I am trying to enact are consistent with the casino operator’s existing positioning. I make it a point to ask casino marketing directors and general managers, “What […]

VICTORS: Dominate Your Competition Through Superior Customer Experience

A vast majority of businesses today compete primarily on Customer Experience (CX). However, the reality is that for gaming companies and clubs, efforts to achieve improvement in customer experience have consistently been bottlenecked, if not outright thwarted, resulting in inconsistencies and misalignment in CX delivery. Ambiguity and inactivity represent two of the most notable culprits […]

The 5Es of Great Customer Experience in Gaming

Several casino companies are now making considerable investments in trying to understand and orchestrate the experience they provide to guests. Based on early feedback, the results have been varied across properties. Specifically, those casino operators who understand their customers and make active inflections along the customer journey based on customer feedback are far more likely […]

COVID-19 and Its Aftermath: Five Trends to Watch

The story of COVID-19 is one of optimism and pessimism, of confidence and nervousness. While the economic, political, and cultural impacts of this pandemic will differ somewhat from country to country, there exist a handful of trends that will be experienced around the globe, albeit to varying degrees. The direction and pace of these developments […]

Land-Based Casinos: Battered and Bruised By COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge detrimental impact on the casino industry. With majority of the world’s casinos being forced to close for at least some time during the pandemic, gaming revenues in 2020 have taken a huge hit. The decline in revenues from pre-pandemic times to the post-reopening period shows dramatic variations across […]