SCIENTIFIC GAMES
One-On-One With Scientific Games Marco Herrera, Vice President and Managing
C
asino International caught up with Marco Herrera, Scientific Games’ VP of Gaming for EMEA, at the recent ICE exhibition, to learn more about the vastly expanded company and its ethos.
2015 was a year of mergers and acquisitions, some surprising, some not so much. Scientific Games emerged as the major player in the industry following the acquisition of Bally Technologies (and SHFL entertainment, which Bally acquired in 2014) and earlier, WMS Gaming. The breadth of product this promised was dizzying; the speed with which the company settled after such upheaval was impressive.
Marco Herrera, Scientific Games; EMEA’s Gaming
Vice President, spoke with Casino International at the recent ICE event about developments at the company.
Casino International (“CI”): How has the company changed overall, in terms of structure? Marco Herrera (“MH”): When we merged the companies, we did some reorganising not only of human resources, but also of regions. I think we went to a more traditional structure, with business units’ executives in charge of the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific. We also restructured into three distinct divisions – gaming, lottery and interactive. Gaming includes all of the slots, table products, and systems products for which I am responsible in the EMEA region.
CI: The sudden depth of product you have to deal with is mind-blowing now… MH: That is our major strength, and differentiates
us from our competition. Before the acquisitions, Scientific Games was a lottery company; Bally was primarily focused on slots and systems; WMS was
30 APRIL 2016
Director – Gaming EMEA Casino International caught up with Marco Herrera, Scientific Games’ VP of Gaming for EMEA, at the recent ICE exhibition, to learn more about the vastly expanded company and its ethos.
strong in slots and interactive; and Shuffle Master was a whole different dimension focused on proprietary table games, electronic table systems, and utility products like card shufflers and chip sorters. These strong companies have added enormous value to Scientific Games, allowing us to have very different conversations with our customers now. We have the broadest portfolio in the industry and are the only one-stop-shop offering online, sports wagering, lottery, table products, interactive, and great game platforms and content.
CI: There are two aspects of the company that
are really interesting – you now have recurring revenue from the lottery arm, and you also now own possibly the most valuable IP in the industry in Shuffle Master. It makes me think of a company like Novomatic, where everything they do is underpinned by their success as an operator. MH: I agree, it is extremely valuable IP. The industry is going through major transformations with all of the consolidation on both the supplier and operator sides. And, we see new companies entering the traditional casino business, changing the industry dynamics. In some cases we have partnerships with these companies, and even though we are competitors, opportunities exist to do business together.
CI: Partnerships make perfect sense; we are in a small industry in some ways, regardless of how big the companies are. If someone else has a strength, why wouldn’t you work with them? MH: Absolutely. Partnerships are driven by many
different things – by product, by regional strength, by customer need; those alliances are quite healthy for the industry.
CI: This is a significant change of position for
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