“For sure, the year 2018 was the best year ever for the Gauselmann Group as a whole and for Merkur Gaming specifically. The goals for 2019 are to be even more successful than we were in 2018, and we are working on it, starting the year in London with ICE,” said Orrick.

When asked about the importance of ICE for Gauselmann Group, he answered: “ICE is an event that we at the Gauselmann Group - because we always exhibit all the companies here as a group, not just Merkur Gaming- but ICE we regard as our home show. It is also one of the two great global events in the world: G2E in Las Vegas and ICE in London. Therefore, to be at the front of the industry as a top level company, which we are, we need to show our presence, our strength, our portfolio of products, our people, and, as I said earlier, all of the additional companies, because here we have GeWeTe, with cash-handling expertise, we have Edict Gaming, for online gaming solutions, we have Cash Point for sports betting, we have our companies from England, Blueprint Gaming, which is very important for them to be here at this time, and we have Dosniha from Spain, as well as our headline company Merkur Gaming.”

He then commented about the products exhibited this year: “At ICE 2019, we show more than 140 individual games, some as multi-game mixes and some as standalone games, but in total more than 140. We have a lot of new products here from a variety of designers; the studios that we use around the world, in India, in Australia, and our purpose built design facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, called Sunshine Games, and once that their products are intended for use in the America’s market, their success is already spreading, for example, the new games that we are producing right now for 2019 in the US market, are already been trialed in Mexico, for example. So it’s the truth of the statement that wherever and by whom games are designed, they have an attraction beyond the immediate purpose.”

“Also here at ICE 2019 we have a brand-new product and this is part of the recently arranged strategically technical alliance with the Slovenian company Spintec. And this product is a very high-class, wonderfully built roulette which we have at a special area of the booth here. It is the Merkur Roulette and that, as our owner, Mr Paul Gauselmann said, is “one more piece of the jigsaw”. It´s a product that we have not had in the past and we are very excited that we, in partnership with Spintec, which are experts in multi-player technology for electronic table games, and we are excited about the possibilities for this new product,” Orrick added.

Finally, when consulted about ICE 2019, he concluded: “The numbers tell the story. When the edition opened in day 1, crowds came in here thousands, the interest and the attraction to all of the exhibitors at ICE but particularly for us at Merkur Gaming, was immediate, and the results of the first day were extremely encouraging and exciting. And day 2, which is traditionally the busiest day of the show, was already bigger and better and busier than day 1. At day 3, we can say that the results of the company for ICE are proving extremely positive on an international scale, even on a global scale, I can say. So we are looking forward to analyzing the results after the show as we always do, and seeing what opportunities are being presented.”