Gavin Isaacs, SHFL entertainment CEO

“In SHFL we are very excited about the igaming business”

2013-02-12
Reading time 2:52 min
(UK, exclusive Yogonet.com).- Gavin Isaacs, SHFL entertainment CEO, granted an interview to Yogonet.com at ICE show, held last week in London. There, he commented about the products showcased at the event, the change of venue and the strategy of the company for the European markets, among other issues, such as the incursion of the company on the i-gaming business.

SHFL is present at ICE show again. What have you decided to exhibit this year in London?
Our full range. It is the first time with the new brand SHFL entertainment. We’ve always been in Europe, in fact, we make a lot of our great shufflers in Austria. One of our heritages is our Austrian roots, and our headquarters in Europe are in Vienna. So we have in our stand our shufflers and we have the tables, our contents, our electronic tables. And, for the first time, we brought our slots to Europe. We decided to do so because of all the international customers are here in London. We have customers from Chile, from Peru, others from Macau, Australia.
And most important for the European market, we brought our interactive products. And we launched them properly here because they are fully approved. We have Gibraltar and Alderney licenses, and so we are now starting to write deals for our content to be available for money on the big European gaming sites. We are very excited about that. Big news for us.

And how have you seen the show in this new venue, the Excel space?
The new venue is fantastic. I mean, the transport is great, it’s a nice space, it’s fresh, it’s modern, I like it. I hope it success.

And how have you seen the performance in terms of attendance and operators? How was the show for SHFL?
I think people from all over the world are here. All the big European companies seem to be here; there’s a couple I haven’t seen yet but maybe I don’t know them. But I think it’s great, I like the layout. There was a risk of moving out here, and I was skeptical because the West End is so solid and such a great place to entertain. From the people I spoke to, who came to the show and walked around, I heard them say: “Why haven’t they done it earlier?” but I think the Olympics really made the infraestructure work properly, and it had a good timing and I am very excited for the show.

What can you tell us about the European markets? How important is Europe for the company strategy?
It is very important, I mean, it’s not a major part of our business, but Europe is still very important. We have our R&D, we have our teams, casinos we want to service, but what is really important is that it’s the home of igaming. Europe is key in that area so, in that respect, we opened up an office in Gibraltar.

Are you really open there?
Yes, we have 4 or 5 people there. We are beginning to do igaming business, which is been a very important additional driver. I’m hoping by this time next year we are making really a lot of money from there. Our games are very popular in casinos, they’ve become very popular in online casinos, so that’s why I’m here. It’s very exciting for me.

And the last question. We are starting 2013, which is your balance of last year and which are your goals and expectations for this new year?
You know, at the beginning of 2012, I was very excited. I thought the world market was getting better, and then, all of a sudden, in about March or April, it changed…and it was a tough year. We had a very good year at the company, with record revenues, so it was very nice. But we need our customers to have record years. I am really hoping that the economy begins to build momentum and that our customers begin to reinvest in their properties cuase then we can keep growing. So this year I’m really hoping that we see some really good strong rebound in our customers. We can be more eficience ourselves, but if our customers are not growing, that’s not good for us.

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