Focus SPAIN
The leap of faith
Like a stop-motion film, the changover from reel-slots to video in the Spanish street market is taking years to play out
The Spanish FER exhibition took place between 30th March and 1st April in Madrid against a continued background of financial and economic depression in the country. As unemployment in Spain soars past the 20 per cent mark, this single show replaces both the Malaga and the Madrid events.
UNA FERÍA FLOCA The general mood at the FER reflected the current crisis in Spain with the exhibition attendance suffer as a result. The notion that recessions do not affect gaming has been dispelled over recent years. Indeed, gaming operators are generally suffering badly with reports of falls in cashbox between 30 and 40 per cent on average. Such a great drop in earning is also linked to the recent smoking ban, which itself is said to have caused a drop in cashbox revenue of up to 20 per cent. Undoubtedly this is hampering the implementation of new innovative products. As new technologies have to be approved separately in each of the 17 autonomous state authorities in Spain, it takes time for new products to reach the market. However, this does not mean that the exhibitors were not offering innovations to the marketplace.
A MARKET DOWN BUT NOT OUT Under normal economic circumstances the FER could have been a great success. The major local and international manufacturers and key distributors took large stands, including:
R.Franco, Unidesa, Gi-Games, Zitro, Metronia, Ortiz Gaming, Novomatic, Sente (Merkur Gaming), Comatel, Costa Cálida and Dosniha. Aristocrat and ATRONIC continue to expand their focus on the Spanish street market (tipo B), while cash handling and change machine manufacturers had plenty to shout about. As such, there is definitely movement within the Spanish industry; the question is when and how quickly these innovations will be adopted?
The Spanish gaming market remains one of the largest and most important in European gaming. There are approx. 230,000 type B AWPs (with about 80 per cent in bars and 20 per cent in arcades). The casino market is relatively small for such a large country, with only about 10,000 casino slots in operation.
ARE HYBRIDS THE LONG-TERM AWP SOLUTION? Hybrid AWPs combine reel-based and video-based features, generally with the lower screen reel-based and the upper
G3 I MAY 2011 I PAGE 48
The Spanish gaming market remains one of the largest and most important in European gaming. There are approx.
230,000 type B AWPs (with about 80 per cent in bars and 20 per cent in arcades).
screen video. Bally Wulff set the hybrid trend with the introduction of the Lejano Oeste back in 2005. Spanish players have taken to hybrid AWPs and one-by-one the 17 state authorities authorised hybrid AWPs across their regions. There were plenty of new hybrid AWPs on display at the FER. However, the company that set the trend now sees the future of AWPs in Spain purely in the realms of video. For the first time at the FER, Bally Wulff presented a range of video-only AWPs. Spanish players continue to favour single games, so the majority of video-based
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