Interview to Marcel Heutmekers and Marc Attal

“Spielo is increasing its resources in Asia to be well positioned when new jurisdictions open up in the region”

2012-04-24
Reading time 4:12 min
(Macau, exclusive Yogonet.com).- Marcel Heutmekers, Senior Director and General Manager, Asia and Latin America, and Marc Attal, Senior Director and Managing Director, Casino Systems of Spielo International, granted an interview to Yogonet.com in which they talked about the business strategy for the Asian markets and the most recent corporate appointments. They also anticipated the products they will present at upcoming G2E Asia. “Spielo International is currently increasing our resources in the region to ensure we are well positioned when new jurisdictions open up in Asia”, they assured.

What does Asian market represent for Spielo International’s business strategy?
We have been present in the region for over 10 years and the last two years has seen rapid growth in the number installations we have in Macau, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines. This growth is continuing at a rapid rate and Spielo International is strengthening its presence in the region.

The appointment of Maria Garcia as our Sales Director for Asia, and the appointment of Lai Fatt Chiang as General Manager of Systems in Asia, demonstrates SPIELO International’s ongoing commitment to increasing support for its existing customers in Asia. Our intent is to strengthen the partnerships with our established in-country distributor channels throughout the region.

What will the appointments of Lai Fatt Chiang and Maria Garcia bring to the company?
Maria Garcia will work from Macau, which is her home base, and we trust that with her knowledge of the market, the operators, and more importantly, the Macau players, we can increase our presence in Macau over the next 12 to 18 months.

Lai Fatt Chiang has over 10 years’ experience in all aspects of the gaming industry in Asia with RGB International and he worked previously for Spielo International in the Games division (formerly Atronic). Chiang knows the Asian gaming market extremely well, and he also speaks fluent English, Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien.

The investment of adding new resources to the market demonstrates the importance of this region to Spielo International. Chiang will bring his experience and knowledge and his combined understanding of games and systems gives him a unique perspective that will benefit customers. Additionally, we believe that the future will be about convergence, and Spielo International has a unique position in that respect that Chiang will convey to the market.

What is the potential of Asia Pacific region? How is Spielo International positioned there?
Since the start of this year, we have invested heavily in our game library for Macau and currently have 20+ standalone titles, 5 multi-game suites and 3 progressive concepts approved or currently in approval for this region.  In the rest of Asia, we have recently done several installations of some of our newest products. Based on the initial results, we are confident that business will be good for us in 2012.

As Asia Pacific continues to legalize their gaming market after a successful example set by Singapore and Philippines, we believe countries like Japan, Taiwan, Korea and even some countries in Indo China will soon follow suit. Spielo International is currently increasing our resources in the region to ensure we are well positioned when new jurisdictions open up in Asia. When it comes to systems, as with any of our products, we understand the need to develop long-term relationships. This applies not only to sales activities, but also to service and support. We’re looking to implement the same level of services and support in Asia that our all our international customers enjoy. Like we’ve done in other countries, we adapt our organisation to the business and the cultural needs of our customers.

What benefits do Spielo International systems offer to casino operators?
Spielo International has one of the most complete portfolios of gaming systems solutions with Crystal.net and Galaxis. Crystal.net and Crystal WEB are the foundation for our systems modules. They provide the floor network on which the Galaxis applications reside. Galaxis is our casino management system consisting of several modules for all the different domains in the casino: tables, slots, jackpots, bonusing, cashless, marketing, display, vision and cage. We also have System2go, our turnkey management system for the smaller, multi-site slot venues with a cloud hosting option.

We bring 20 years of experience to our customers. For instance, our jackpot solutions are currently running some of the biggest WAPs in the world in over 16 countries, and we have one of the largest selections of bonusing solutions from a single provider. In Asia, our system is powering the many Pacqiao Wide Area Jackpots in 11 different locations nationwide.

As part of a big, diverse group -- Spielo International is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lottomatica -- we have solutions across all gaming segments, and as the market moves toward convergence, we are providing solutions that bridge internet and land-based gaming.

Not least, the company strongly believes in maintaining close relationships with its customers; understanding local requirements for both operator and player underpins its approach to the diverse Asian market.

And what can you tell us about Macau? What is the performance of the firm’s casino games there?
Player research is very important to the success of our games. We’ve been researching player preferences in this region, and we’re currently conducting trials at several locations in Macau to ensure that our games are very successful.

What are your coming plans for Asia?
For now we are concentrating on a successful presence at G2E Asia. At this year’s show, we’re showing 24 games with our latest releases. People can find us at the RGB booth. RGB is our distributor for the Philippines and we’ve been working with them for many years in Asia. It is always great to be at G2E Asia, and we are looking forward to seeing our clients from across the continent. As the market continues to grow, we expect similar or better attendance then previous years.

Overall, our plans are to continue developing the position we’ve built in Asia on a country by country basis. Our belief is that getting closer to a market will help us to develop a strong foundation, and this in turn  will also help us as we approach other countries, because we’ll have a list of reference-able customers.

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