Review ASTRA GAMING GROUP
REBUILDING THE MARKET
The Astra Gaming Group has arguably become the most important gaming company in the UK. G3 speaks to CEO Zane Mersich about the future.
The last 12 months have seen some dramatic changes to the Astra Gaming Group. The 300 strong business with its head offices in South Wales grew to over 1,000 people mid-2012 with the acquisition of the UK-based Gamestec Group. Evidence of the changes that have taken place within the group were obvious on the Novomatic stand at ICE Totally Gaming. In just six months of working within the Astra Gaming Group structure BFG presented its new cabinet at the show, a radical departure from previous street machine cabs. Having acquired Empire Games just the year before, Astra further showed a range of Empire created reel-based games alongside its own server-based iPub and iBet FOBT offerings.
Speaking to Astra Gaming Group's CEO, Zane Mersich, he explained the scope of the company now encompassed the UK's biggest single site operator with 28,000 different devices on site and 500 vehicles on the road. “I’d described our view of the market as buoyant and bullish,” stated Mr. Mersich of Astra’s take on the UK street sector. “It’s been a tough few years in the UK, but we’ve taken the approach to invest in product and people and we’re seeing really positive results. The acquisition of Gamestec, Bell Fruit Games, RLMS and Mazooma Games, together with Astra Games, means that we have a business that covers every aspect of the UK gaming market. The natural synergies between the businesses has meant that each has fitted together and is working well.”
Novomatic and Astra have had an immediate impact on their recent acquisitions providing much needed investment, especially in the area of technology and R&D. “As the UK market continues through a period of transition, the Astra Gaming Group is well positioned to provide our customers with the technologies and products they need to drive the industry forward,” stated Mr.
March 2013 PAGE 36
"We have seen the decline of the pub sector in the UK over the last 10
years. If you project forward without investment then
you'd be looking at ground zero. We need a healthy
supplier sector and Bell Fruit Games is
a huge component in that. I believe the industry
understands that to generate fair
returns and re- invest in the
business we need the support of the marketplace to
grow the pie as a whole. The
products had become less
appealing to the
player due to a lack of investment. We want to create a
healthy market and to do that the
dongle is here to stay. It's the
business model that we are
following and we
believe that we can turnaround this market to the advantage of everyone."
ZANE MERSICH
CEO, Astra Gaming Group.
REINVENTING THE UK AWP While the industry had speculated that Bell Fruit Games, under Novomatic ownership, would be reduced to a brand within the Astra Games Group, the acquisition by Novomatic of the freehold to BFG's factories and properties has underlined the company's commitment
Mersich. “We are not a group that’s interested in outsourcing. We are in the business of content and cabinet ownership. We build everything ourselves from the ground up and that’s a really important distinction. We have also kept each of the individual businesses as independent units within the group. Bell Fruit Games and Astra are very different as regards the products each company creates, but there are synergies that across the group we can bring to bear for the benefit of each unit. We are interested in creating the complete solution and believe that having access to such a wide range of content, under one umbrella, is our USP.”
not only to the independence of each of its subsidiaries, but also to provide the financial wherewithal to grow each business. The new Bell Fruit Games cabinet is a very visible sign of this investment. “The existing BFG cabinet wasn't allowing the company to change its base footprint,” states Mr. Mersich. “The new cabinet brings player appeal and modern up-to-date design elements, including LED lighting. It represents a totally different offering and the kind of synergies provided by the Group that can be brought to benefit each individual company.
“We have seen the decline of the pub sector in the UK over the last 10 years. If you project forward without investment then you’d be looking at ground zero. We need a healthy supplier sector and Bell Fruit Games is a huge component in that. I believe the industry understands that to generate fair returns and re-invest in the business we need the support of the marketplace to grow the pie as a whole,”
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