HARALD NEUMANN
Central/Eastern Europe – as much as 85-90% of turnover came from those places. Three or four years ago we defined a clear strategy to be the leading company based on our integrated business model – that means selling or renting our technology and operating our own gaming venues – in each of the major European markets: UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and we defined central and eastern Europe as one market because of the many similarities. We have reached this first target to become the clear number one in Europe.
After the first objective, the second was to enter the US market. We tried it five years ago, but not really successfully, because we made the mistake of believing you could take European games and sell them to the US. We soon learnt that it’s completely different – in principle, the European market is an AWP market and the US is a casino market. So, we needed a new strategy – and that led to the process of acquiring a 53% share of Ainsworth Game Technology. They were a relatively small company with a foothold in the US market, they were licensed in all US jurisdictions, they have a huge production and R&D centre in Las Vegas, and they understand the US market. We anticipate the deal to close at the
end of this year and in the meantime, we are already collaborating and offering our R&D knowhow to support in their game development. On the other side, they can communicate to us how the US market works.
The final company objective in the next three to
five years is to become the global number one in the areas in which we operate.
CI: You may as well aim high… HN: We now belong to the top three or four companies worldwide, and from there you need a clear target; from there, it would be the wrong target to be number two!
CI: A company’s ethos comes from the top; what beliefs and ethos have you brought to Novomatic, and how do you communicate that ethos to such a large, multi-national company?
HN: I think the secret of success is teamwork,
communication and empowerment. The gaming business is very local, especially in Europe where it is a fragmented market with more than 100 technical requirements and so on. You need local people that understand the individual markets, and you have to
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