G3 Interview NOVOMATIC GROUP OF COMPANIES
parent company, Novomatic, announced that its Greentube Pro, its private-label social casino platform, was to become the exclusive social casino platform for Foxwoods Resort Casino in the US. Shortly after the show, Greentube further announced a deal with Unibet to supply Novomatic’s interactive content to the Swedish online giant.
Speaking to Thomas Graf about the growth of Novomatic’s interactive gaming division, he described the need for the company to play a role in the online gaming space. “When we started providing interactive content to UK customers, we quickly realised that while Novomatic was synonymous with quality gaming products on the land-based side, online customers had little to no knowledge of Novomatic. To create that recognition we would have to own the channels of distribution and supply content direct to operators, which led to our Malta licence and the acquisition of Greentube. We added a local operating company in Latvia to enter the B2C space, entering our first market, Italy, with AAMS approval and began directly competing with companies such as Lottomatica in their home markets.”
What’s significant about Novomatic’s expansion into online is that the company has taken the same approach to Interactive development as it has taken to land-based
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growth. It has acquired complementary businesses in local markets and leveraged the expertise of the wider group to bring platform expertise and market-leading content to local firms, which has expanded their market reach. Where Novomatic has needed key technology for expansion, the Group has acquired highly specific firms, specialised in delivering to the exact needs of their markets. The acquisition of BlueBat, a Vancouver-based social gaming and marketing specialist, at the start of 2015 is an example of Novomatic’s precision in selecting key partnerships to fulfil very specific roles.
“We acquired BlueBat to add a crucial social media component,” agrees Mr. Graf. “We added Greece’s AdZorba Games, which specialises in social casino gaming apps for mobile devices to further complement Greentube’s social casino portfolio. We have diversified our online gaming platform, adding standalone products to create a truly diversified solution, including bingo, sports-betting and lotteries, alongside traditional casino games. We currently have three bespoke solutions under the Novomatic Sports Betting brand for retail, terminals and
online.mobile, all of which are integrated into our B2B solutions.”
DOMESTIC MARKET Type the name Novomatic into a search engine right now
Thomas Graf, Chief Technology Officer, Novomatic
“In the US, you can either copy others, improve upon the copies of others or you can introduce your own concepts. Our belief is that for the locals market in the US, you don’t need bells and whistles, you need the right formula. If you look at the machines in casinos that remain on the floor year after year, nearly half of them are stepper games. The loyal casino players are conservative by nature and developing the right products for this market will not happen overnight.”
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