What are your strategic goals for G2E 2026, and how will Ainsworth look to showcase its recent advancements during the show?  

The key titles we're showing will include those advancements. One is a legacy brand – Thundercash –  which we've reimagined for today and shows that we're utilizing top-performing titles from the past and introducing brand extensions going forward. The second is Double Action Dragons, which is out of our Australia studio. It's been a very solid title for us on our dual-screen cabinet and is an example of using our global game portfolio for the various regions.  

The last couple of years, those games have stayed within the regions they were developed in. Shrine of the Guardians comes out of our Las Vegas studio, and Five Fortunes Duck and Cover out of our Reno studio. Those four key brands that we're highlighting show we're no longer just regionally focused, we're going to pull from all aspects of the company to bring the best product forward to our customers. 

How crucial is G2E in helping not only Ainsworth but suppliers across the industry network with North American operators, Tribal partners and distributors? 

G2E is certainly a special event because it brings everybody together in a way that doesn't typically happen. It's basically the whole ecosystem. We have all of our suppliers there, our customers, our partners, media outlets… It's a special time for everybody in the industry to come together and see what's new and where things are headed.  

Does your role as AGEM Chairman come into play during G2E, such as specific conversations you expect to have or fostering more communication with fellow industry suppliers? 

From an AGEM perspective, we present our awards at the show and this year it's special in the sense that our two awards are going to Marcus Prater and David Lucchese, who are both long-time AGEM officers. They have really helped to bring the organization to where it is today.

There's a lot of competing priorities at G2E, so being part of that and taking a moment to be with our competitors, if you will, the other officers of AGEM, and present awards in a unified way is something that's special about this industry. We're on the show floor competing directly against each other, but then we can hit the pause button and do great things to help advance the industry.  

What feedback or outcomes from G2E is Ainsworth hoping to receive, and how will they influence future product roadmaps and operational priorities?  

It's a good opportunity for us to hear from our customers of what they're looking for in the coming years. Certainly, we want to show them what we've been working on over this past year and what we want to provide to them going forward – both from a hardware perspective and a game perspective – but it's a good opportunity to listen to them and find out what we can be doing better or differently to support them. 

How does G2E serve as a platform to showcase future innovation, whether that’s more expansion to online gambling or perhaps market-specific advancements? 

Every market is becoming more competitive and G2E is a good chance to showcase the breadth of product we have and the different segments we're in. People might not realize what we're doing in the VLT space versus HHR, class II or class III. We've had a lot of focus on development in class II, HHR and VLT, so we want to showcase all those aspects and then, of course, the online piece as well. Ainsworth's a bit unique in that we're only about 550 employees, yet we're in all these different market verticals. Showcasing that strength is important, and G2E's the perfect opportunity to do it. 

What message would you send to operators, partners and even attendees about what to expect from the Ainsworth booth this year? 

It's a fresh new Ainsworth. We're here to support operators and we're going to present the products and roadmaps to do just that.