coin and note-operated devices in Playnation alone, of which around 6-7,000 are gaming machines, and the rest are non-gaming like cranes, pushers, video products. It’s not just about gaming, it’s family and leisure, and that’s a nice mix for us to have. When we provide product to these customers we are not just about gaming, we have a wide spread of product, and we can address all their needs. Of course, being an operator and a manufacturer means we have a great way to get the product absolutely right before making it available to customers. You don’t do the brand any damage by testing significant numbers of machines which may not make the grade – you try those products in your own locations and then have a much greater chance of those machines being successful all the way down the line.We have a great end-to-end business in the UK. And as an AGC operator, we have almost 250 locations in total, with over 14,000 machines and over 1,500 staff. CI: Does being in so many markets not dilute what we formerly thought of as ‘core’ NOVOMATIC product?
machines networked to aServe™ in casinos, which is one-third of all B1 machines in the UK. CI: Historically the UK is very open to adopting new technology and it’s relatively easy to do a largescale deployment in a small country, does that help you to innovate? ZM: The casino space has been a great success for us and we like the UK because customers here, the big casino groups and the smaller operators, are – despite being restricted by the number of slots they are allowed – really keen to find points of differentiation, to try new technology, to make the most of what they have and be innovative. It’s forward-thinking customers like Grosvenor and Aspers who encourage us to bring something new to the offer that we have; we do signage, can help with the look of the floors, create zones, different cabinets… Customers like that because rather than just buying a standalone piece of kit, going forward you have access to the evolving library of NOVOMATIC games. It’s like future-proofing the piece of hardware, and with aServe™, a new game is
The industry’s needs develop and evolve, and needs rarely simplify, they become more involved.
Zane Mersich, CEO NOVOMATIC UK
ADMIRAL Casino Slots Experience, Portsmouth.
ZM: When we started out in 2008 we had a very small share of the casino slots market here, at the time probably under 10%. We now have a much higher share, probably in excess of 50%. We have a significant quantity of B1 slot machines in the market and have also taken back the distribution of the NOVO LINE Novo Unity™ II electronic live gaming product from the previous distributor; we have actually put many of those out since we took back distribution. In terms of casino market share, with ELGs and B1 slots, we have in excess of 50% market share and continue to innovate heavily in terms of games, cabinets and we like to think that we will be very well positioned should there be an uplift in slots allocation for UK casinos. CI: What has been the driver behind the recent growth in slots? ZM: We came into the market with the Coolfire™ II-powered GAMINATOR® machine with a new suite of games – we put it out on test and it performed very well. It was a quantum leap in terms of product, and we had some loyal players. We built the player base over a few years, and then the Super-V+ GAMINATOR® very quickly grew a solid player base. As a result, we sold many more machines, then launched the slightly larger versions of the cabinet and moved to the NOVO LINE™ platform. The old games stayed on board but were upgraded to HD, as well as some new games, plus we launched the downloadable network solution aServe™ that includes a superb reporting module with an entire estate performance shown in real-time. We now have over 1,000
www.novomatic.com | Agosto 2017
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