Merkur Gaming pursuing growth opportunities in the U.S. after positive G2E experience

Tell us about the products you brought to G2E Las Vegas this year.

We premiered the brand new Evostar cabinet, which is different from anything Merkur Gaming has ever done before. When designing this unique cabinet, we focused on combining the slant top experience for players with a convenient technical basis for operators. Both the technology and the mechanics are a hybrid combination between a slant top and an upright. As part of our new growth strategy, Merkur Gaming is looking to extend our cabinet series, whilst increasing our game offerings.

We have a number of game development studios within the Gauselmann Group, many of which are already working on new content for the North American market. As you already know, we have announced the opening of another design facility, Sunshine Games, that is based here in Las Vegas. That will add another stream to our development programme and it is a really exciting new creative opportunity for us.

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It is our intention to launch the first of these new titles this time next year at G2E 2017

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How did G2E's audience react to the new cabinet?

Merkur Gaming is a well established Germany-based company with proven success track record in the gaming industry. We have a very solid presence in Latin America, as well as in other parts of the world. Right now our main focus is the U.S. Our approach, for the moment, is a straightforward one, for we're here to learn, to interact with both operators and players alike and get to understand what they need in order to be able to deliver products that offer great player experiences and increase revenues for operators.

And how is it working so far?

It's working very good, actually. As I said, we've launched a new game design studio here in Las Vegas. We're pretty much focused on creating new, innovative content at the moment. Certainly, for the North American market, but also as part of our international growth strategy to broaden our offering. Merkur Gaming is excited about what the future holds for us in North America.

Why does the North American market represent such a big opportunity for your company now?

The gaming landscape in the U.S. has changed substantially over the last years. We're seeing much more localized gaming. There are a lot of non-gaming activities taking place and generating a significant amount of revenue. But the market still has a lot of potential for gaming, as it continues to be a gaming destination. Tribal gaming, for instance, is an extremely important aspect in our strategy, and we're proud to say we recently became an associate member of the National Indian Gaming Association. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ernie Stevens, NIGA's chairman, for what he's done for Merkur. We couldn't have done it without him.

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On the other side, the American Gaming Association, in my opinion, is doing a fantastic job in telling the positive story behind gaming

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It's not everyday you get to hear positive stories on gaming, yet we all know it does have plenty of them. Gaming provides millions of jobs and is committed to giving back to the community. Social responsibility is of high priority on the agenda for industry executives.

What about Intellectual Property games in the U.S.?

IP games have proven to be very successful not only in the U.S. At this stage we're in no rush to pursue royalty themes because we're trying to learn how to come up with fun, entertaining stuff. Perhaps in a not-so-distant future we will launch royalty themes, but first we have to focus on the basics.

What's next for Merkur Gaming?

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We're still actively working in Latin America. At the moment, we're recruiting staff for our new office in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which will be our first in the country under the Merkur brand

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The new facility will open by the end of the year, so we're bringing the team together. I personally believe it's all about the people and I'm excited to share with Yogonet's readers that we have some great people on board, so you had better stay tuned for future announcements.