Taiwan entrepreneur Stanley Ku eyes global slots, iGaming biz
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Taiwan-based Xiang Shang Games Co Ltd, which trades as XSGames, is aiming to enter the highly-competitive European market for slots and iGaming products.
An associated company, Velvix Corp, is seeking to expand soon into the Philippines slot market, as well as this year into the slot market of a number of U.S. states. That is according to Taiwan entrepreneur Stanley Ku Kang-wei (pictured) who founded both companies, and spoke to GGRAsia in an interview.
The privately-held XSGames started in 2009 as a developer of so-called ‘social’ games for consumers, before moving into business-to-business services and content for the iGaming segment, as well as supply of land-based slot machines.
The firm uses the term “EGM” as a synonym for slot machine. XSGames’ social-game member-signup platform – which does not involve cash prizes – currently includes a variety of card games, as well as mahjong and slot games.
Mr Ku has an engineering background in gaming software.
He says XSGames is in the “preparation” phase to get a business-to-business (B2B) iGaming licence in Malta, with the aim of “taking on the whole European Union market”.
XSGames hopes its potential in Europe will be boosted by its investment in Palasino Holdings Ltd, a company listed in March in Hong Kong. Palasino Holdings is a spinoff from Far East Consortium International, the latter also a Hong Kong-listed conglomerate with interests in property development and hotel operations. XSGames has been described as a cornerstone investor in Palasino Holdings.
Palasino Holdings runs three land-based casinos in the Czech Republic, one of them within an integrated resort. The venues’ players are mostly from neighbouring Austria and Germany, according to Palasino’s corporate information. That company also operates three hotels in Germany, and one hotel in Austria.
XSGames’ Mr Ku told GGRAsia: “For the Czech Republic, Palasino had signed an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with us with the intention of distributing our EGMs to be deployed in the casinos there.”
The challenge of European markets is the localisation of gaming content to suit consumers there, said Mr Ku. But he expressed confidence in XSGames’ expansion plans there.
“If they [Palasino Holdings] need our products, we can make them: whether iGaming or EGM” ones, Mr Ku stated.
XSGames has been in the EGM business since 2019, later spinning off that activity via Velvix Corp, founded by Mr Ku in 2021 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of XSGames.
“Velvix has a sales team in U.S, and its R&D [research and development] team is in Australia,” the latter with “over 30 members,” said Mr Ku, who is also designated as founder, chairman and president of Velvix, aside from his CEO role at XSGames.
Expanding in U.S., Philippines
For the Asia region, Velvix is to see its slot machines introduced to the Philippines soon. Mr Ku describes that country as a “vibrant” gaming market ready to try new products. In addition to Velvix’s anticpated product footprint in the Philippines, XSGames is also talking to “two iGaming brands” in that market about using its games there, Mr Ku stated.
The Velvix team is made up of “elite staff members… seasoned in EGM business,” stated Mr Ku.
He added: “Finding people that have this knowhow is relatively easier in Australia, because [it has] a lot of major slot suppliers.”
Despite being a newly-emerged supplier of slots, Velvix’s product rollouts in the U.S. had gone well, Mr Ku told GGRAsia.
“The feedback that we gathered in the U.S. market is that they are quite receptive to a new company, and new game play. Casinos there are willing to try Velvix’s EGM products, and see what the [consumer] reactions to them are like,” said Mr Ku.
He added: “Two states in the U.S. have casinos with slot machines from Velvix currently. The product rollout is expected to progress further in other states, after going through the licensing procedure. For this year, we estimate there will be some 30 to 40 casinos [in the U.S. market] that will feature Velvix’s product.”
XSGames thinks its competititive edge is to utilise its experience in online gaming, to gain insight on player preferences, and incorporate them in EGM game play, Mr Ku remarked to GGRAsia.
“Our advantage comes from the fact that we have a deep operational knowhow in online play. XSGames has accumulated a lot of experience in the field of online social games for several years. We also have iGaming products,” the XSGames boss said.
Mr Ku is also the chairman of Taiwan-listed GameSparcs Co Ltd, which distributes mobile games, develops its own online gaming platforms, and provisions the LAN-(local area network) based gaming systems that are suitable for use in settings such as Internet cafes.
GameSparcs, alongside companies including XSGames and Velvix, is part of the XSGroup that Mr Ku leads. Having a “complete” set of gaming product offerings, ranging from iGaming to slots, helps land new business opportunities with “greater ease”, Mr Ku remarked.
