“It's high time someone independent from the big gaming giants showed their ability to transform the industry”

What has been Merkur Gaming's focus over the last couple of months?

For the last 18 months, Merkur Gaming has focused on strategic markets. We've been supporting those markets with brand new innovative content. In addition, over the past year, we started the creation of our vision of where Merkur should be in the future, and where we want it to be: an even more significant presence on international markets and with a brand and a reputation that is fitting for one of gaming’s long established great gaming companies.

It is no news to the industry that ICE is a must-attend event in the gaming calendar, for it sets the trends that will determine the future of the sector. What's been yor overall impression of ICE Totally Gaming 2017?

With our wide-ranging portfolio of games and cabinets, we meet the requirements of international as well as national markets and simply do what we do best: gaming entertainment.

What Merkur Gaming does best included, firstly, our show presentation: on a booth that was the Gauselmann Group’s largest ever in London and which dominated ExCel’s south halls, with all of the exhibiting Group companies coming together this year under the Merkur Sun emblem; each highlighted by a futuristic lighting rig that would not have been out of place in any of London’s world famous West End theatres.

ICE Totally Gaming 2017 has been a great success for us, due to the highly positive market response to both our wide range of products and to our stand design. What we did was to take all the companies which had been represented at ICE for years on individual booths, and bring them together under one Merkur Sun brand. It was very important for us to be all together showing our international footprint. ICE has been just the beginning of a new era for Merkur Gaming.

So the spotlights truly shone on an impressive product display, one that covered current successes and near future highlights. Leading the line-up were Avantgarde and Avantgarde Trio premium multigamers and the modern Merkurstar upright cabinet. Taking those two established stars to a new level was the Evostar, a technical innovation that projects the ergonomic aspects and comfort of a slant top within the configuration of an upright cabinet in a wholly unprecedented manner. Evostar, now entering its rollout phase after its recent Las Vegas preview, also features an integrated USB port that provides additional comfort and added functionality for players.

Our big ‘reveal’ in London was the new Black Series. Special, and very elegant cabinets presented in a matt black and red highlight design, and already shaping up to be one of the eyecatchers of the year. Coupled with the high graphics capabilities of the black-and-white game Win City, this modern, contrast-rich, design now catapults the Merkurstar and the Avantgarde Trio to an entirely new gaming level. If you add to that our presentation of four new themed game suites plus the launch of eight additional standalone single games and our very exciting announcement of all new Bingo, Golden Dragon and Egyptian Treasures jackpots you can very clearly see that ICE for Merkur Gaming was an extremely busy and particularly rewarding experience for our own team and for our many, many show visitors. I can close by saying that our Merkur Sun truly shone brightly in London and ICE has definitely set the tone for what promises to be an exceptional 60th anniversary year for the world famous Gauselmann Group.

What are your aims for the year?

Not only are we heavily investing in R&D, but also putting a major effort into further developing the company. In the coming years, Merkur Gaming will have a bigger footprint on international operations. At the moment, we're leading certain European markets, and some others outside of Europe.

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People who have known Merkur for years will not be able to recognize us, as we intend to change the face of the company between now and into 2018

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It's going to be a drastic change in terms of how we do business and how we approach the different international markets. I believe it's inspiring what Merkur's R&D team does; their speed and energy represent our performance worldwide. And it's high time someone independent from the big gaming giants showed their ability and their willingness to transform the industry.

Remember, Merkur is very active not only in the casino market, but also a real leader in the street market. We're basically aiming to combine our vast product portfolio to meet the demands and expectations of each and every customer. For the year ahead, we have strategic goals in regions that we're already in, and we are looking towards several new market entries at the same time. The plan is to now extend our footprint to markets where we have had no previous presence.

With Brazil inching closer to gambling legalization, how are you preparing to enter the market?

There is no doubt that the opening of a fully legal industry in Brazil will be massive news for the entire global industry. So right now we are carefully observing the ongoing legislative developments there.

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Should the gambling bill pass, opening an office in Brazil would be a quite possible scenario

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But it all depends on the regulatory environment. All I can say for now is that the move to full legalization lies in the hands of the politicians but we're taking a deep and thorough look into the country and the obvious possibilities that the new law will hopefully present soon. You can be assured that, once the right time for a market entry comes, Merkur Gaming will be there … in style.