INSPIRED MERKUR Focus
Alvarez. "We already have a large library of games of our own, with a handful already going live in Italy. However, we also have to date five third party game developers and a new agreement with Gauselmann Group subsidiary, Merkur Gaming (see press release), to access a vast library of national slot games for Italy. We have also joined with poker specialists, Magic Dreams, to offer the pre-eminent poker game to Italian players. It is a best-of-breed approach as opposed to a restricted offer from competing suppliers who are only able to offer their own games on their own platforms.”
AGUESSINGGAME The new games entering the Italian VLT sector will be something of an unknown quantity in this initial phase. There are those that believe the Comma 6b sector will ape the current crop of Comma 6a machines, with similar games and themes and looking to cannibalise that market. While others see the market as defining itself more as a mini-casino sector with higher-end play. Mr. Alvarez thinks that we'll see a bit of both.
"The fact that there will be 3-400,000 Comma 6a machines in the market versus the 50,000+ VLTs, I think that clearly Comma 6a will exist and prosper in such an environment,” he commented. “However, there are a whole bunch of new ventures looking to develop new VLT-specific venues. I think we will see players pulled across from Comma 6a, but at the same time VLT gaming will create new players and its own share of wallets. I'm confident Comma 6a will grow the market for both sectors, but that with higher prizes, different types of games (including poker) and player benefits, VLTs will attract a broader range of players.
developer and completely happy working inside any cabinet. "We believe our job is to make money for our customers," explained Mr Alvarez of the philosophy beyond Inspired's Open platform. "We strive to enable customers who own venues, mini casinos, slots arcades, sports-betting shops, etc., to make the most money from their machines as possible. To maximise that - you have to offer players best-of-breed cabinets and games. We recognise that although we supply extremely good cabinets such as the Storm - which is currently the top performing FOBT in uk - we believe there are equally exceptional cabinets in the market, with different styles suiting different environments.”
Inspired has followed a path that allows operators to pick and choose not only the type of cabinet, but the type of games
they want on them, and their origin. “We have fantastic game development skills in-house, but also recognise that other game developers produce great games too,” stated Mr. Alvarez. “As a retail operator, you don't want to be restricted to games from just one supplier. Ideally, you want to be able to choose the platform, the games and the cabinets from different suppliers, mixing and matching to suit your location and player requirements.”
Open is Inspired's all-in-one solution; a unified platform, delivering the required single connection to AAMS, but with open architecture to talk to any game on any cabinet.
"There are lots of different cabinet styles, lots of different games from lots of different suppliers," commented Mr.
G3i I ISSUE 2 I PAGE 23
“We strive to enable customerswho own
venues,mini casinos, slots arcades, sports-betting
shops, etc., tomake themostmoney
fromtheirmachines as possible. To
maximise that - you
have to offer players best-of-breed cabinets and games.”
Luke Alvarez, CEO InspiredGaming Group.
MIXINGANDMATCHING Inspired has 10 games ready for the Italian VLT market, with five currently approved and the remainder heading through testing as G3 went to press. "We are trying to cover the bases," described Mr. Alvarez of the mix of games Inspired has selected in its initial offer. "The biggest difference to Comma 6a is that we can offer poker, which is now legal and we are looking forward to seeing how it performs, as there was clearly an appetite for poker in the past. Roulette in the Comma 6a sector has been successful, and we will offer roulette as part of a wide range of slot games. We will offer games close to the Comma 6a sector and more international Class III style games, with Merkur offering a large number of titles to cover both game styles, alongside UK category B2-style games, which we also expect to perform well in Italy."
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