G3Newswire EMEA NEWS
WWW.G3NEWSWIRE.COM
PROFIT UP £19M AT ASTRA GAMING
Novoamtic subsidiary, Astra Gaming Group has published a set of positive financial results for the year to December 2013. UK - Suppliers
The Astra Gaming Group (the wholly owned UK subsidiary of Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH, (AGI) part of the Novomatic Group) has published its financial results for the year to December 2013.
Jurgen de Munck, CEO DRGT Systems and the
Simplicit-e Gaming team of Kurt Roman, Arnie Moffat, Nick Ferguson, and Charl Geyser.
SOUTH AFRICA – DRGT & WILD COAST WINTER GAMES The recent Wild Coast Winter Games (WCWG) that took place in July at the Wild Coast Sun Casino and Resort in Port Edward, South Africa was an excellent opportunity for DRGT to present even more systems innovations.
Exhibiting together with African partner Simplicit-e Gaming, DRGT has found success in Africa thanks to its ‘Duma’ wide- area progressive. The ‘Duma’ WAP was a joint development between Sun International, Simplicit-e Gaming, Gold Club and DRGT has proven to be enormously popular. Des Whitcher, Director of Gaming and Slots at Sun International. said of Duma “It’s one of the best performing products we have ever had on our casino floors.”
At the WCWG Sun International announced they will be expanding this WAP from a current 160 slots to in excess of 200. This exciting news was topped by the Sun’s announce- ment that the latest DRGT WAP called ‘Sun Striker’ will be launched by the end of Q3 of this year on an initial 170 slots across all of Sun International’s South African casinos.
DRGT is making a real name for itself in the field of wide-area progressives, while DRGT systems are gaining quickly in popularity as well. This serverless technology is particularly beneficial to operators in Africa as all information is contained in the drSMIB within the slot machine, so a central server is not necessary. This saves greatly on investment and running costs and makes the system’s management simple to con- trol for operators. The ticketing features gained much interest at the WCWG, as DRGT can offer ticket promotions that include random, mystery or turnover-driven prizes alongside jackpots that are generated at each gaming machine individ- ually. Adding the ability to issue and accept non-redeemable credits according to operator parameters, operators see they have so much more choice to offer their players when imple- menting DRGT.
The WCWG was abound with positivity for DRGT and this was summed up by the announcement of the adoption of its ticketing and gaming management solution by Boss Gaming for bingo sites in Port Elizabeth (Cleary Park) and East London (Owethu House) connecting an initial total of 328 bingo devices. Said Dave Winter for Boss Gaming, “With its plug-and-play scalability and the proven reliability of the platform with tickets or cards in such diverse environments, we are looking forward to unleashing the power of the DRGT ticket-in, ticket-out promotions capability to deliver a truly outstanding guest experience”. Installation of the DRGT sys- tem with Boss Gaming will be completed around the end of September 2014.
2 0
The combined figures, which show a gross profit of £44m against total revenue of £87m, include operating profit of £1.8m. Profit before tax for the year stood at £29m, up from £10m in 2012. The growth was assisted during the year by a signifi- cant dividend from group undertakings.
Trading at the Group, which comprises Astra Games, Bell-Fruit Games, Empire Games, Gamestec, Mazooma Interactive Games and RLMS Sales has been described by the board as ‘satisfac- tory’. However, it noted that profitability has come at a price due to poor margins and the restrictive nature of the market, especially in relation to Gamestec’s operations in the pub sector.
Group CEO Zane Mersich summarised the per- formance, said: “We are pleased to be able to deliver a financial report that shows a healthy profit against a backdrop of continued tough trad- ing and an industry business model that is at best challenging. While the Group is evidently in a strong position, it is vital that we remain mindful of the exigent conditions facing the industry as a whole and ensure that we constantly seek to improve all areas of our business.”
Among the key factors that contributed to a test- ing period of trading in 2013 were closures and falling revenues from the arcade and bingo sectors. The pub segment, also, came under pressure dur- ing the period.
Commenting on the outlook, Mersich stated: “The expectation is that 2014 will deliver better results than those of the preceding year as the general state of the economy improves and we begin to see some clear sky between the present economic conditions and those of the past few years.
“Adult gaming centres and bingo halls will still have difficulty competing with the much harder gaming offerings in the licensed betting office and online sectors, with far higher stakes and prizes; however, they may begin to regain some lost ground and smart operators will look to invest in their businesses in earnest. This coming year may herald some signs of the smaller but healthier market alluded to in previous reports.”
Greece Greek gaming and lottery operator Intralot reported a strong start to 2014 with the first six months of the year seeing an increase of 26.3 per cent reaching €905.5m in the first half of 2014 compared to €717.2m in 1H13. On a constant currency basis, net of a negative FX impact of €63.8m, revenues reached €969.3m, posting an increase of 35.1 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2014. EBITDA in the first six months where shaped at €89.5m, compared to €97.7m in the same period in 2013. Net of a negative FX impact of €8.6m, EBITDA reached €98.1m in the first half of 2014, an increase of 0.4 per cent compared to the same period of 2013.
Evolution Gaming launches Live Roulette first on Mecca
UK Evolution Gaming has announced that Mecca has launched Evolution Live Roulette as part of its Bingo Mobile offering. Mecca is Rank Group’s community- gaming brand for the British mar- ket with 96 bingo clubs in the UK and one of Great Britain’s most popular community gaming websites with associated Bingo Apps. According to Mecca, Mobile is their fastest growing vertical with the majority of the brand’s new player acquisitions coming from this channel.
Commenting on the new digital
pairing of Bingo with real-time, live dealer Roulette, Alex Franklin, Head of Games at Rank Digital, said, “RNG games have always been popular with our Bingo players, with up to 80 per cent of our casino games’ rev- enue generated by Roulette. Now, with Evolution’s world- class Live Roulette, we are able to offer our players a fun, fresh and exciting alternative to RNG Roulette for the first time.”
Sebastian Johannisson, Evolution’s Head of Account Management, commented, “Online and Mobile Bingo is a
very social and community-ori- entated game with players chat- ting with each other while they play. Live Casino also offers this element with the ability to inter- act with the dealer through live chat and to hear the dealer’s ver- bal responses and game com- mentary. Added to that, Roulette is an endlessly exciting numbers- based game just like Bingo, so there’s a great deal of synergy between the two games.”
Johannisson added: “Mecca is looking to replicate the success achieved by Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casinos, who have benefited from a strong contribu- tion to revenue and profits from their own Evolution-hosted Live Casino games and dedicated environment at our Riga studios.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132