“ICE was the international launch of Sphinx 3D”

What products were presented in London? Did anyone specifically address the Latin American market or was the display targeted at the European market only?
At this year´s ICE, Gtech, with our gaming product brand Spielo, was truly “bringing gaming to life” by presenting an extensive line-up of new games and systems solutions across machine gaming, interactive, sports betting and lottery channels. Even though ICE is hosted in Europe (London), we find it to be a global show. For that reason, our showcase for ICE included products and solutions for the global gaming markets.

A major highlight of our presentation at ICE was the international launch of Sphinx 3D, the first title in our new True 3D product line presented on the brand-new Axxis cabinet, which uses a glasses-free 3D display designed exclusively for Gtech for the gaming industry by SeeFront. It uses a unique, patented autostereoscopic technology with integrated eye-tracking to make images jump off the screen or stretch into infinity in high resolution.

As well, ICE featured Gtech’s global launch of Action Jackpots, a unique novelty product offering four different progressive links tied into one single gaming machine, as well as the new linked progressive Volcano Island and the popular licensed games from our PopCap library available on the MaXVusion cabinet. We also presented brand-new game suites for the highly successful diversity multigame, as well as a wide selection of new  core games with innovative play features.

We also introduced two new Casino Systems solutions at ICE, with Rub4Riches providing an instant reward scratch card directly at the slot on the Crystal.net
player interface, and JP2go, a standalone, turnkey jackpot system developed to boost machine play. The System2go all-inclusive, packaged slot system with accounting, remote monitoring, a jackpot system and advanced cashless and player tracking features was also demonstrated.

Were any new deals reached?
ICE was an amazing and busy trade show for our Latin America business this year. We had many visitors and key operators worldwide are developing new projects in our region. ICE marked a good start to 2014 for Latin America.

What was the mood of visitors like? 
We welcomed many clients, and our booth was always full with plenty of guests. The social approach and close relation with the market created a positive atmosphere and we conducted a lot of business during the show.

What are the main demands placed on you as a supplier?  
Our key demands are content and innovation. We are globally involved in huge efforts to fulfill our clients’ demands in terms of games, math, new concepts and consistently top-performing products to support our customers’ daily operations. We are confident that we are on our way to offering 100% total satisfaction to our clients with our new portfolio.

In addition to participating as exhibitors, you also took part in the conference program. What were the main topics discussed?
Gtech was a series sponsor of the ICE Conferences this year and demonstrated its industry leadership at the conferences with the participation of Matteo Monteverdi, Gtech Senior Vice President, iGaming, and Giuseppe Portoricco, Gtech Vice President, Player Account Platform and Channel Management, in a number of panel presentations. On Feb. 4, Matteo was a panelist at the Mobile Gaming conference session called “Content is king: Meeting consumer demand for compelling mobile content.” On Feb. 5, he participated in the Next Generation Lotteries session, “Analyzing advancements in technology, envisaging lotteries of the future in the digital world,” while Giuseppe was a panelist in the “Spotlight on mobile” session later that day.  

How would you reflect on your experience of part sponsoring this type of training?
Gtech was a series sponsor of the ICE Conferences this year. As a result, our subject matter experts participated in the Mobile and Next Generation lotteries sessions. We felt the ICE conferences were well-attended and featured high-profile speakers and diverse, forward-looking topics. The industry benefits from the conference’s expert speakers on the operator and supplier side, as well as those representing industry organizations, in addition to experts outside of the gaming industry. Besides learning and exchanging opinions, the ICE conferences proved to be a great networking opportunity.

What are Gtech’s next targets?
Gtech has had a large and growing presence in Latin America for almost 30 years now, and it is a very important region for the company. We believe the region has significant potential as existing markets grow and new markets develop.

Our approach has been to look for the synergies across all our businesses in the region and leverage our presence, relationships, knowledge, and cultural awareness to create the best experience for our customers. We want to translate this experience into products and services that understand the different needs and expectations within such a diversified area.

In Latin America, region-specific growth drivers include increasing the number of venues and improved product distribution, which means having more regulated casino or slot machine/slot hall environments, and more lottery retailers. Our strategy has been to build our presence in every market in Latin America where legalized gaming is available through licenses and public procurements, for example.

We are the only gaming company that offers a full suite of gaming products, including lottery, casino games, VLTs, sports betting, and interactive, so we feel very confident about providing our games and our services to governments and to private operators in every Latin American jurisdiction where gaming is regulated.

In European markets, we’re slowly seeing the first signs of recovery from the recession for a growing part of our client base and expect this to further improve during 2014. We are happy that most of our clients managed to get stronger during the difficult last years and that our joint searches for creative solutions and business models have further deepened our relationship.

Our development teams have continued doing a great job, and during ICE, we presented some great new concepts and products that will further help to drive performance and help the operator to get profitability back to pre-recession levels as soon as possible. There is still a lot of work to be done for all of us, but the outlook is significantly better than it has been in recent years.