“ We ’ re always going to be focused on growing our database coverage . The next milestone is 600,000 . We ’ re still seeing growth in the U . S . market , but international ( growth ) is a big initiative for us . We ’ re expanding into the EMEA and Latin American regions with the same concept — collecting data from casinos and publishing reports just for those regions .”
25 PEOPLE TO WATCH 2025
Performance Guru
Todd Eilers Co-Founder and Partner , Eilers & Krejcik Gaming
There ’ s a famous commercial conveying the confidence of a stock analyst with the slogan , “ When E . F . Hutton talks , people listen .” Todd Eilers has become the E . F . Hutton of the slot market . Eilers was gaming analyst for Roth Capital when he and fellow Roth analyst Adam Krejcik decided to form Eilers & Krejcik Gaming ( EKG ) in 2012 as a consultancy devoted to gaming analysis . Today , there is not a slot manufacturing executive who , when promoting a new game , does not refer to the game ’ s ranking in the “ Eilers report .”
Specifically , they refer to the monthly Eilers-Fantini Game Performance Report , which is created through a survey of hundreds of casinos to reveal the highest-performing slot machines in several categories , as well as slot cabinets , online slot games and overall supplier rankings . The report is at the core of the founding of EKG . “ In my first couple of years ( at Roth Capital ), I was covering casino operators ,” Eilers recalls . “ Then , after about two years , the lead analyst who was covering the suppliers got promoted , and I took over the supplier coverage .”
Eilers began speaking to casino operators to ascertain which games and suppliers were doing well . “ What I found was that each call was different , and what one slot manager liked , the other didn ’ t ,” he says . “ I thought I just needed a bigger sample size to make sense of what ’ s working in the market . That ’ s where the slot survey idea came in .”
Eilers saw a short-cut to creating such a survey in tapping gaming analyst Frank Fantini . “ I had subscribed to the Fantini daily newsletter and knew Frank , and I knew he had really good coverage in the gaming space ,” Eilers says . “ I knew that I wanted to put together a quick survey for slot managers to fill out , but I didn ’ t have a lot of contacts with casino operators — not nearly as many as Frank did . That ’ s how we ended up partnering .”
Eilers left Roth Capital in 2012 but kept growing the survey along with Fantini . By that time , online gaming — already popular in Europe — had entered the discussion in the U . S .
“ Adam Krejcik had worked with me at Roth for three or four years ,” recalls Eilers . “ He did a great job overing the online gaming space , and I was more focused on the land-based suppliers . The thought was that there just wasn ’ t a lot of market research focused on those areas ... That ’ s how the idea came up to start our own firm .”
EKG started with market research for use by casino operators . “ We had the survey , but that was more about purchasing and leasing , and supplier-level data . We didn ’ t have anything in terms of specific game theme and cabinet performance .” The idea to grow the slot survey into what would become a vital industry tool , Eilers says , came from none other than Matt Wilson , currently the CEO of Light & Wonder .
“ At the time , he was with Aristocrat ,” Eilers recalls . “ In Australia there ’ s a firm called Max Gaming that provides a similar type of service just for the Australian market . He mentioned that , and I liked the idea , so we started out small , with just a few casinos . The idea was the same as our survey — if you participate by sharing some data or filling out the survey , you get our market research for free .”
The Eilers-Fantini Game Performance Report grew quickly in popularity among operators and suppliers , and the database of casinos participating in the survey grew with equal speed .
Meanwhile , suppliers to the industry began considering a high rank in the
“ We ’ re always going to be focused on growing our database coverage . The next milestone is 600,000 . We ’ re still seeing growth in the U . S . market , but international ( growth ) is a big initiative for us . We ’ re expanding into the EMEA and Latin American regions with the same concept — collecting data from casinos and publishing reports just for those regions .”
Eilers-Fantini report as a badge of honor , using top spots in the survey to market their slot games , cabinets and online games .
It was for this reason EKG started its Slot Awards program , now in its seventh year . EKG determines winners across more than 25 product categories including both land-based and interactive games utilizing a datadriven process combined with a distinguished advisory board . It also has established a Slot Awards Hall of Fame , with recipients honored at a gala annual event .
“ We thought it might be something fun to just celebrate the industry ,” Eilers says of the awards . “ There are other award shows , as you know , and they ’ re all great . Everyone ’ s got their own niche , but we felt we ’ d make this one just about the games .”
Eilers ’ goal for 2025 is the same as it has been for years — grow participation in the survey , and grow the database for EKG ’ s research and products . This year , that database reached the milestone of 500,000 customers .
“ We ’ re always going to be focused on growing our database coverage ,” Eilers says . “ The next milestone is 600,000 . We ’ re still seeing growth in the U . S . market , but international ( growth ) is a big initiative for us . We ’ re expanding into the EMEA and Latin American regions with the same concept — collecting data from casinos and publishing reports just for those regions .”
That means when EKG speaks , many more people will listen . — Frank Legato
26 Global Gaming Business JANUARY 2025