He spent his own money playing NOVOMATIC slots amusement arcades and then started developing Flash games himself. When I later saw those games running full-screen on a PC, they looked surprisingly good. At the time, many companies were effectively creating small replicas of physical slot machines on the computer screen. Here was something that actually used the screen properly. Again, I could see the fundamentals of something we needed.
One of the fascinating things about Greentube's history is that social gaming was already part of the company before social casino became an established category. Yes, GameTwist had been operating a subscription-based model where users paid a fixed subscription fee, which was relatively modest, for a defined period (for example, one month) and could then play games without additional charges during that period. Tey found that people were buying subscriptions for extended periods, ranging from several months to, in some cases, more than a year. While analysing this behaviour, they saw it demonstrated very strong
customer engagement, and it was the trigger for the transition from a subscription model to a virtual currency-based model. Players were paying for entertainment despite knowing they could not win real money. Tis included not only casino-style games but also skill games, which at that time comprised a significant portion of the portfolio. Tis model was something that later became commonplace across app store ecosystems.
What was the moment when you realised bringing NOVOMATIC and Greentube together had genuinely changed the potential of the business? I think the pivotal moment came when Novomatic games began to gain significant popularity across online channels. Te success really exceeded expectations. Te games effectively promoted themselves through player recognition and word-of-mouth because players already knew and trusted our titles. Tis success represented the moment when it became clear that online gaming could develop into a major business segment.
Why was it important that Greentube retained its own identity after becoming part of NOVOMATIC? Because you couldn't fully integrate it. Tere were discussions about moving everything, but I said no. Greentube had its own DNA and its own company culture. Te best thing we could do was support it and, in many respects, leave it alone. We could help determine strategy and provide resources, but the biggest support was content. NOVOMATIC's best-performing blue-chip titles became a lifeline for Greentube because they could be introduced across B2B and social casinos, and then later B2C.
Te business subsequently faced a major shock when circumstances
changed in Germany. How important was that episode in shaping the Greentube we see today? Germany represented a huge concentration of the business. When the situation changed, we had to react very quickly. We had to restructure and redefine what the future should look like. Te big lesson was that we couldn't depend primarily on one market. We had to diversify. We started looking much more seriously at B2C opportunities in other markets, with Italy being an obvious example. We expanded social gaming, developed products such as GameTwist further and added other products to the portfolio. Later we looked at acquisitions and other opportunities. Would we have innovated and diversified as quickly if Germany hadn't happened? Probably not. Sometimes adversity forces you to look much more seriously at how you mitigate risk.
I think the pivotal moment came when Novomatic games began to gain significant popularity across online channels. The success really exceeded expectations. The games effectively promoted themselves through player recognition and word-of-mouth because players already knew and trusted our titles.
Tat makes diversification itself part of the problem-solving phi- losophy? Yes. You need different business lines if you want to be more robust. Having B2B and B2C, different markets and different channels means you're less exposed when something happens that nobody predicted. Look at the pandemic. Nobody could have forecast that, but digital became the only lifeline for many businesses during that period. It helped keep the wider group operating and paying salaries. We also had land-based casino customers where online became in-
credibly important because tourism and physical visitation collapsed – which demonstrates why diversification matters. You cannot predict the next crisis, but you can build a business that is capable of responding when it arrives.
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