avid, what can you tell us about the World Cup Experience that Merkur has created at the Peru Gaming Show?
It's a very good question! It was a pleasure to have been in Peru at the time of the World Cup, and we decided before we arrived that we would organize something of a celebration. I think you have already seen from the first morning's photos that all of our team were supporting their own national football teams by wearing football shirts, and we also had a football theme for the whole booth, complete with the official FIFA mascot, Zabivcka the wolf.
We had lots of different nationalities as well, from Merkur Gaming Peru, obviously, but also from Germany, Colombia, Argentina, England (only me, but there you go!), and members from nations that did not get to play at this World Cup although we wish they had: Canada and Ecuador.
And what about the attendance at the show? Could you grasp the opportunity to meet many operators?
Not all of them, but I did meet many. As you could see, and it has become a tradition now, the booth of Merkur Gaming was once more the focal point of the Peru Gaming Show for many different reasons. Not the least is that we were offering once more our traditional Merkur Beer Garden. But also, we had great products and a great team. Everybody that I spoke to throughout the first day of the show had been kept very busy, which is encouraging, and of course, we still had a busy day ahead of us.
And what would you mention was the Merkur 'star' for this show? What did you reveal for the Peruvian market?
The Evostar machine was our novelty, not only here in Peru but also in other countries across Latin America. And our star of the show was our Avantgarde machine, and its latest evolution, the Avantgarde Trio. They are rapidly becoming two of the most popular gaming machines in the Latin American market, and we were very happy about having them at the Peru Gaming Show with 100 of our top games available for play.
And what about interactive gaming? Everybody at Peru is talking about online gambling. Is Peru an interesting market for you in that respect?
Of course. Merkur Gaming is part of the Gauselmann Group, and we had with us edict Gaming who are specialists in the iGaming market, so of course they were excited about new possibilities. We also had Cashpoint and following the recent news of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, that makes us excited due to the expansion of the sports betting horizon that is sure to happen. The Merkur Gaming booth was not only home to the Merkur brand, but also of the whole Gauselmann group, and as with every new opportunity, we would be really excited to participate in this market.
