Novomatic Italia announces new Board of Directors

"Italy is a stimulating market for the Novomatic Group, despite the increasingly stringent fiscal pressure. Italy's horizon is expanding, now more than ever, towards growth and expansion opportunities – with a new Board of Directors that will steer Novomatic Italia to further development and success," the company said in a statement.

The new Board of Directors is headed by Chairman Franco Rota, who has been part of the management team since the market entry in 2007. His vision has allowed the Group to become a key player in the VLT sector, as a provider of proven Novomatic gaming technologies and games to all Italian VLT concessionaires.

He commented: “It makes me proud to see how in almost 12 years Novomatic Italia has grown to become a leading provider of services and technologies of all kinds. There is no segment of the Italian gaming market that we haven’t scrutinized to deliver highly specialized and advanced know how. It is a great achievement to see that today the company that started out in 2007 with a handful of employees, has become a large enterprise with 2,800 staff.”

Olga Rodrigo's recent nomination as Chief Executive Officer demonstrates how experience and competence meld with the multinational nature of the Group. “The Novomatic Group proves its commitment to Italy as one of the most important countries in Europe. It is therefore essential to consolidate and increase our market leadership by leveraging synergy and collaboration: I am sure that only by working together and sharing common goals, we can obtain the expected results that can allow everyone to feel like active protagonists in their own professional reality,” Rodrigo said .

Also on the Board of Directors of Novomatic Italia is CFO Markus Buechele. He started his Novomatic career in 2006 at the headquarters in Austria and has been part of the Board of Novomatic Italia since 2008. 

The new constitution of the Board of Directors was augmented by a new personality, Karl Plank, who joined the top management as Chief Operating Officer (COO). A renowned entrepreneur of the Italian gaming industry made in Italy, he became part of the Novomatic family in 2008 with the take-over of Allstar. “My commitment will be focused on the Gaming Operations, with the aim to develop a collaborative work so that Novomatic Italia becomes a best practice example for the legal Italian gaming sector. Not only as far as the gaming offer is concerned but also with regard to the best practices in terms of Responsible Gaming, from the environmental point of view but also as an employer,” he said.

Bartholomäus Czapkiewicz, CTO Novomatic Italia since June 2017, commented in the same vein, emphasizing the value of teamwork, recognition and trust in the skills of each resource.

With these strategic players and entrepreneurial concepts, Novomatic aims to spearhead a new scenario in Italy, developing long-term objectives for the Group to benefit from every possible regulatory situation, through the synergic commitment of all the realities.