Under the direction of President and CEO Rick Meitzler, NOVOMATIC Americas is within the third year of a program that seeks to expand its footprint within the North American gaming marketplace. The company’s parent, NOVOMATIC, is one among Europe’s largest, most experienced and successful operators and game makers; and with its backing, NOVOMATIC Americas will likely bring innovation—and increased competition—to the U.S... slot machine scene.

Raving Consulting Partner, Slot Operations and Marketing, and Casino Journal Contributor Buddy Frank recently took a while to satisfy with Meitzler to speak about the challenges and opportunities NOVOMATIC Americas has faced during its entry into the united states.. casino business. Excerpts from this conversation, which originally ran in Raving Consulting’s Strategic Solutions Magazine, are available below:

NOVOMATIC is among the most dominant slot suppliers in Europe, but here within the U.S., you might be more like a start-up, as a way to speak. What are the advantages and disadvantages of that positioning?

Meitzler: NOVOMATIC Americas is now in its third year, and having spent the past two and a half years on licensing, we're now able to bring the NOVOMATIC brand and products to the North American market. Doing this for a corporation that's not only essentially the most dominant slot machine supplier in Europe, but may be very strong in other parts of the world, especially in Central and South America, can only bring benefits. Even though it hasn’t speeded up the licensing process, we're now in a lucrative position to bring international proven products to North America for the primary time.

In addition to our parent company developing one of the most innovative technology available on slot floors today, NOVOMATIC could also be a tremendous operator with greater than 1,600 traditional and electronic casinos world wide. This gives an enormous advantage by enabling our products to undergo extensive testing and modification before being released to customers, and provides us an important amount of information around the entire spectrum of the gaming industry.

You have nearly two dozen different cabinets and hundreds of game themes worldwide. Are you able to give us a short lived background on what products NOVOMATIC will bring to the North American market?

Meitzler: We're initially bringing a couple of products which have been customized for the U.S... market, in keeping with our initial research of the market and native players. It won’t be an enormous rollout initially, but selected games may be introduced from the extensive NOVOMATIC catalog, in addition to new games created at our U.S. design studio, to evaluate how different game styles perform in various jurisdictions. We can then further modify the maths to bring games in step with player preferences; a key explanation for establishing our studio in Illinois with local developers who're experts within the North American market.

The cabinets so that they can be the primary to launch in North America include the DOMINATOR and its sister cabinet the DOMINATOR Curve, which can be both hugely impressive and create maximum impact at the casino floor.

What has NOVOMATIC learned in Europe to help you within the Americas?

Meitzler: NOVOMATIC prides itself on extremely high-quality Austrian engineering and professional service. That is shown within the products that it produces and the casinos that it operates, in addition to the extent of focus it puts at the customer at every stage, from product delivery to after-sales support. These are core values which have been adopted by the company’s numerous subsidiaries across the world, and NOVOMATIC Americas isn't any exception. A customer-focused approach is vital to success, and being an operator, in addition to a supplier, has given us the tools to in no time react to customer demands.

As we expand the team here within the U.S. with some key personnel in sales, marketing and product development, we remain fully supported by the team in Austria and check out to make use of the experience built over the company’s 35-year history and use it on the North American market, giving us a competitive edge.

Why should a slot director choose NOVOMATIC?

Meitzler: Along with the high level of purchaser service instilled by the NOVOMATIC Group, the corporate manufactures all of its components in-house, meaning that it doesn’t need to depend on any outside parties, thus removing potential compatibility issues. A slot director should purchase a slot machine from NOVOMATIC, after which new games being released are entirely compatible to function on old or new machines, enabling casinos to personalize their NOVOMATIC offering, in addition to minimize spend while keeping the content fresh.

Any new content we release is backward compatible, so casinos don’t must replace machines every two to a few years, saving operators time and money, in addition to not having the necessity to retrain staff on new equipment. The sport mixes developed for brand spanking new cabinets can also be retrofit into existing cabinets, and offer the similar performance as a result of company designing its own game boards and technology. NOVOMATIC additionally supports antiquated and retired machines longer than anybody else.

NOVOMATIC is likely one of the few major vendors without “participation” or “shared revenue” games. Is that temporary or something so as to remain within the future?

Meitzler: That is something temporary for us within the U.S. in this initial period of testing the games available in the market. We first want to assess what games work in a number of cabinets for diverse jurisdictions. We're spoiled with the choice of NOVOMATIC games to select from, but we have to adapt the mathematics models, equivalent to modifying the volatility or collection of lines, to get the correct fit for the local markets. Once the goods has been out out there for some time, we can roll out more games tailored to North American players, at which point we will be able to offer operators mutually beneficial revenue models.

What was the most important challenges in getting NOVOMATIC up and running within the many diverse gaming jurisdictions that make up the U.S., and where are your products now licensed for sale?

Meitzler: The biggest challenge have been licensing for different states and product sectors. We've got been testing the market from a technical standpoint for the past 365 DAYS with a limited collection of games in an effort to eliminate potential issues, corresponding to downtime or incompatibility with the casino systems. That is the first actual time that NOVOMATIC is entering North America, and we've undergone the entire procedures, right down to the last detail, to verify everything runs smoothly. Now we have a product road map in place to launch 36 titles by July, and can then roll out new games every quarter.

Our plan is to start out by launching across North America, from California to Florida, as much as Ny and around the Midwest, in both tribal and commercial casinos. We continue to work on licensing additional NOVOMATIC products and in additional jurisdictions within the U.S. and Canada, while we further test and tweak the mathematics models of existing NOVOMATIC games within the market.

You also are a global leader in biometric technology. Do you spot these products being integrated into the united states.. gaming world within the near future?

Meitzler: NOVOMATIC pioneered biometric technology within the gaming industry and developed the primary commercial system for casinos. This idea continues to be very new and is currently undergoing initial trials in numerous casinos in Austria, that have to this point received positive responses from operators, players and regulators. We're paying close attention to how this technology progresses in Europe, in addition to speaking with U.S. operators about how its advantages may gain advantage casino payment systems. Ticketing has become older and it's time for a metamorphosis. And although we're not yet certain whether that is imminent or within the long-term, something that’s evidently is that NOVOMATIC might be leading the charge. 

Read More... [Source: Slots]