Operators of the Eighties
March Profile: Bob Rothman, Columbus, Ohio
Bob Rothman of Nine Limited
Leasing is a street operator, but
not a conventional street oper-
ator. His business started four
years ago and has grown into an
operation with 26 "mini game
rooms" . His "mini game rooms"
are in locations such as pizza
parlors, large restaurants cock-
tail . lou~ges, bowling ~lleys,
skating rinks, discotheques, and
a skateboard park.
Mr. Rothman was nominated as
an Operator of the Eighties
because of his unique business
approach to a route operation.
THE ''MINI ARCADE''
Bob Rothman operates an aver-
age of 10-12 pieces per location. By
operating a larger number of pieces
per location, many business expen-
ses, including servicing and
transportation, are reduced.
The positive attitude of his
customers toward the new, high
volume video games has been in-
strumental in the creation of his
' ' mini
• • game room'' concept. Across
all of his locations, Bob's game mix
is approximately 60% video to 40%
pinball.
"For the average street location
the pins are still the bread and but~
ter," Bob noted. ''But for us the
videos have been very strong. Take
S~a Wolf II and Sprint 2-they were
high earners initially and then
leveled off, but their lowest is still
high compared to a pin of the same
vintage."
TOKEN OPERATION
The token operation Bob offers to
his locations gives greater flexibil-
ity and security to the operator and
the location.
The token machines in his loca-
tions have been used for specials
and promotions. For instance dur-
ing the off-season in his skateboard
park location, the token changer
has been adjusted to give five
tokens for a dollar. The pizza
parlors use tokens as giveaways for
part_ of their birthday package pro-
m?t1ons, ~nd also give them away
with particular food specials such
as with the purchase of a f~mily-
sized pizza.
FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH
ACCOUNTS
For many new accounts, the per-
centage split that Bob uses is 60-40
with Bob getting the large;
amount.
As an alternative to the 60-40 col-
lections split, the locations may
choose to help Bob cover the over-
head of the newest and best equip-
ment. In order to do this, Bob and
the location must first come to a
mutually agreeable '' weekly
value" of the new game to be
deducted from the cash box over a
certain period of time. Bob used
ASTEROIDS as an example: Over a
year's period, $40 per week could
be deducted from the cash box to
cover the cost of the ASTEROIDS
game. ($20 of Bob's money, and
$20 of the location's money.) The
remainder of the money in the
cashbox would then be split 50-50.
LEGAL BATTLES
. According to Bob, zoning restric-
tions, the licensing and taxing of
games and obtaining arcade licen-
ses will continue to be a problem
for his business. Bob feels that the
best way to fight restrictive legisla-
tion is by improving the image of
the industry in general.
Bob himself has gone before the
legislature several times in the last
six years to help fight against legal
restrictions on amusement games.
He has shown pictures of his clean
well-managed locations before the '
city council of Columbus to illus-
trate the good side of family amuse-
ment centers. His efforts were suc-
cessful on those occasions.
With his unique approaches to
the street operation, offering his
locations the best of new equip-
ment, token operations and his
personal commitment to the posi-
tive image of our industry, Bob
Rothman is truly an Operator of
the Eighties. Atari's best wishes for
continued success in your busi-
ness, Bob, and thank you for shar-
ing your ideas with Coin Connec-
tion readers.
Regional
Sales Managers
Appointed
Lenore Sayers and Tom Petit
have been named regional sales
managers for the coin-operated
games division of Atari, according
to Frank Ballouz, Marketing Direc-
tor of the company.
Ms. Sayers returns to Atari after
serving as Vice President of Mar-
keting at Cinematronics for the
past nine months.
Petit, who joined Atari part-time
in 1977, has held various positions
with the company in manufactur-
ing, sales order processing, and
recently as sales representative.
Don Osborne, Atari's National
Sales Manager, commenting about
the promotions said, ''We are
pleased to have Lenore back with
us. The experience in all phases of
sales she had previously with Atari
and with Cinematronics will add
greatly to our ability to serve our
distributors.''
''Tom's enthusiasm and thorough
industry knowledge also make him
a valuable addition to our sales
management team.''
Both will report directly to Don
Osborne. Lenore's territorial re-
sponsibility will include the North-
east, Northwest, and upper Mid-
west. Tom will handle sales in the
Southwest, Southeast and Lower
Midwest. Both will also be responsi-
ble for the introduction and sales of
products planned for new markets.