What then led to Spielo and Atronic's integration?

When I was brought in over a year ago, the first key task I was given was to take Atronic and Spielo--two separate organizations – and merge them into one to start leveraging the opportunities and synergy between the groups. By merging two businesses together, and reducing duplication, we are able to increase the output of games. We are also able to invest in more on the single platform of technology, rather than try to maintain two separate platforms. Those were the key drivers behind us saying, “Here's a business that we could draw a lot harder in the marketplace to succeed even more than it has, if we could leverage the strength of these two groups and put them together as a collective.”

What does Spielo International hope to achieve with this integration?

The key is maintaining the focus on each individual customer segment, and foster the relationships. The front-facing end–-that is, our sales, customer service and support people--will remain unchanged. So if I am a customer, and I'm talking to this new organization called Spielo International, I'll be talking to the same people in the same offices that I've been dealing with for years.

That's a positive in terms of the relationships. The other thing that will happen on the front end over time is our game library will increases in magnitude. Customers will now have access to the broader library belonging to Spielo and Atronic. Plus, we are able to continually enrich our game library. Customers should also benefit from an increased speed of delivery, particularly of new technologies, because rather than spend time maintaining separate platforms, we've kept the same number of people all working on the common platform, and increased output.

At the back end, the key thing for us is a common direction, and to make sure our priorities aren't conflicting. We've put together an integrated management team that has responsibility for all segments, not just for a single segment; and all geographies, not just a single geography. That has allowed us to develop common product roadmaps, common technology roadmaps, and consistent costing and pricing. Our marketing is now aligned into one message, so there are a lot of efficiencies and benefits this business will be able to draw from this integration and then convert that into positive momentum into the marketplace.

What does Spielo International bring to the table in terms of products and innovations?

We operate across two major segments. One is the government distributed business, which is effectively the VLT business and central system business--much like the Loto-Quebecs and AGLCs of this world. Then there's also the commercial casino market, in which we have a number of product groupings. We have product, which is effectively the machines and the games that go with those machines, and the systems that run venues. We have slightly different strategies, and there will be slightly different benefits to customers depending on which segment they represent. Broadly, I think what customers should see from us is an increased focus on game performance, as we are putting together the best of the best from our side. We're also investing in building our game development capability so we can continue to create and, in fact, improve upon the performance of the games that we have and are continuously putting out.

Already in the last number of months, we have seen our new content perform better than ever. The benefits are already starting to translate. We will be able to work closely with customers at bringing them the latest developments in technology much faster. We are not necessarily a technology leader; we don't have the technology investment that some of the companies much larger than us have. However, when we do put technology forward, we are very good at that and we can bring it forward very fast. We should see increased speed in delivery of the latest technology from our end.

Lastly, we will be significantly improving our focus on innovation, because one of my personal beliefs is when one is competing against organizations that are larger than you, you don't win by being the same; you win by being different.

When I say “being different”, I mean taking some risks, particularly in the innovation side. From my perspective, innovation will become a big platform of ours, particularly when it comes to content and product.

Overall, how do Spielo and Atronic's clients benefit from being a part of the Lottomatica Group?

It's not just about financial security--it's being able to tap into the experiences and the resources, and leveraging the work that they've done in other sectors, markets, and other geographies for the benefit of growing the business. The best example is the Italy VLT project where, through our association with Lottomatica, Spielo was able to be first to market in the Italian VLT space. This gave Lottomatica first mover advantage in winning in its operations, and then gave Spielo the opportunity to prove to other concessionaires how good our product is, which resulted in three more concessionaires signing on with us as their major supplier and giving us our current number one position in the market in Italy. It's a fantastic relationship that goes beyond just being part of a big group. It's about leveraging all the components on it.