The Latin American region is exceptionally strong for Merkur Gaming

How do you see the show this year?

We must say that this is the 16^th edition of Peru Gaming Show, an event that has a long established tradition was once again a success.  The exceptional factor this year is that the whole country of Peru and particularly the city of Lima is completely “football-crazy”, thanks to the FIFA world cup finals. So the atmosphere, the expectation of everything in Peru and in Lima in particular is rather different this year. In order to be part of that feeling, Merkur Gaming Peru decided that we would have a football theme for our booth and our staff. That is clearly shown in the photographs of our team members from many different nationalities wearing football shirts showing their own nationalities. So obviously we have a lot of people from Peru and, being a German company, a lot of people from Germany, but we also had representation from Colombia, from England, and even from some of the countries that are actually not lucky enough to be participating at this edition of the World Cup, including Canada and Ecuador.  With so many nations being represented, the buzz that we managed to create was absolutely exceptional. As we had created this atmosphere  that in many ways that led into an enhancement of the show itself. The show had a really good vibe, as always it is commonly said and widely believed that Peru Gaming Show is the friendliest show in Latin America. Not the biggest, for sure, but absolutely the friendliest. And that came across very strongly, not only from the organization and the companies that were exhibiting but also from the visitors. Everybody was having a good time. And the results of the football, well, they were sadly not so good, but the participating itself was exciting.

What are the company expectations and goals for this PGS edition?

Let me speak now towards the end of the second and final day of the show. We can say that we have definitely achieved our expectation, which was to have a major representation of the Merkur Gaming brand and, as we will talk in a few moments, about the products that we brought here to the show. The atmosphere was great, the number of visitors certainly on the first day was, as we expected, very high, and it’s also a representation of the fact that Peru as a nation has a very strong and very well regulated, very knowledgeable and very exciting casino culture. So in terms of expectation, we have achieved our aims by making an excellent presence here in PGS and we are absolutely 100% sure that we’ll be back in following years.

What are you showcasing at this edition of PGS?

We brought to Peru Gaming Show a presentation of two exceptionally strong products in the region and in Peru specifically, namely what has become the operator’s favorite, our Avantgarde machine and its new evolution, the Avantgarde Trio, a cabinet that has three HD screens rather than the original two. As important as the products themselves, we also brought a great range of games. We have more than 100 games that are available to be seen and to be played by visitors and naturally we highlight the games that have been most successful in the Peruvian market. The second product that we had here is the newer Evostar that is currently rolling out in Peru, and which we expect to be as popular as Avantgarde has already proved to be.

Alongside Merkur Gaming, we had representation of the entire Gauselmann Group. We had with us our colleagues from Cashpoint, who are sports betting experts, and obviously the news that broke recently in the United States of America of the decision of the Supreme Court to allow individual states to enter into the world of sports betting will have ramifications across the world, and therefore, our colleagues from Cashpoint were having an excellent show also. As well as Cashpoint we had GeWeTe, who are money handling experts and they had a strong team here and were receiving visits from a lot of potential clients as well as existing clients.

How do you see the gambling market in this region?

The Latin American region is exceptionally strong for Merkur Gaming because we bring to the region, in whichever country we are working, products that are guaranteed in terms of the manufacturing quality and excellence of being made in Germany. The Latin American region is growing every month, every year, in terms of the sophistication of the markets and of the players. The players across the Latin American region are knowledgeable, they want to be entertained, they want to have gaming products with which they can become familiar and with which they can repeat that entertainment experience again and again and again.

How is the company positioned in this market?

Merkur Gaming has subsidiary companies in Peru, in Colombia, in Argentina and in Mexico. To highlight Argentina particularly, which is the newest subsidiary of Merkur Gaming, has become a springboard for new business in Uruguay and Paraguay. So, whilst we have four individual subsidiaries, we are working across the board in six countries. We have been in Peru for six years, in Mexico and Colombia for five years, and we started in Argentina in 2017.

In which shows will you be present for the rest of the year?

The current calendar is: SAGSE Buenos Aires, followed almost immediately by G2E in Las Vegas. So, referencing back to SAGSE, the change in date that has been forced on the organizers, who normally run SAGSE in November. It has not been possible to obtain those dates for the required facilities this year, and therefore the show has moved its date. Unfortunately, that date is a very short period, just three weeks, before G2E Las Vegas. And therefore the representation that manufacturers will make at SAGSE will almost certainly not include anything new simply because the two shows at which major product launches are made are ICE in London, England and G2E in Las Vegas. Thus major tier one manufacturers will not make  big product launches at SAGSE this year, simply because they are going to make those launches in Las Vegas. We know that it is not the fault of the organizers, but we really hope that it will be possible in 2019 for SAGSE to return to its traditional date, which will be better for everybody. Having said that, we wish the organizers of SAGSE all the success in the 2018 edition.