EAS ‘08 'dates clash'

EUROPE: A significant date-clash in trade shows is set for January 2008.

The European Amusement Show, which is run annually at different locations around Europe and is strongly influenced by the IAAPA organisation, will be held in Nice in 2008 from January 22-24 - exactly the same dates as the London ATEI.

The dates were announced by IAAPA during this year's show, held from Tuesday to Thursday last week in Seville, Spain. The organisation was surprised when it released the dates and InterGame pointed out the clash, but after consultations responded that the dates were fixed and could not be altered in any way.

While the EAS is principally a show for amusement parks and travelling fairs, there is a strong cross-over. In Seville, coin machine companies exhibiting included Recreativos Presas, Recreativos Falgas, Elaut, Motoi, Triotech, EBES, Tecmel, Golden Dragon, Billares Sam, VID Distribuciones, VdW, Sacoa, Bob's Space Racers, Diana Marketing and others. Many of them said that they would have considerable problems with the date-clash.

And it was not all coin-op companies which expressed misgivings. Philippe Reverchon of the famous French bumper cars manufacturer Reverchon, said: "I would have to exhibit in London and not in Nice... I meet all of the British travelling showmen at ATEI and they are too important to me. I signed up three sets of cars last week in London; what have I signed here? Nothing... some inquiries, it is true, but the fact is that London is more important to me."

Eurocoin awarded Slot Tickets accolade

US: Slot Tickets, the Memphis-based thermal ticket manufacturing firm, has awarded Eurocoin with its Distributor of the Year Award for 2006.

Company founder Tom Mitchell presented the award to Eurocoin sales director Colin Veitch at the International Casino Exhibition last week.

“Our partnership with Eurocoin has been nothing short of outstanding,” Mitchell commented. “The Eurocoin sales team has tremendous market knowledge, and really understands the casino currency business.”

Chips are down for Blackpool

UK: Blackpool Council has admitted to being “surprised and disappointed” at losing out in the race for the licence for the UK's first regional casino, declaring the decision to award the licence to nearby Manchester a “missed opportunity.”

Steve Weaver, CEO of Blackpool Council, said: "We are surprised and hugely disappointed by the panel's recommendation. The decision that the panel is proposing is an enormous missed opportunity for Blackpool to become a world-class resort destination.

"A regional casino would be a catalyst for substantial change in Blackpool,” he continued. “We are also the people's choice nationally, having received well over twice as much support nationally as any other location.

“Our ability to deliver our vision of the 'New Blackpool' will be severely constrained without a regional casino but we will continue to pursue the improvements we have already started with, the new sea wall, tramway, shopping centre and development sites that will put us in a good position to take advantage of a regional casino when we do get a licence."

Ritzio, Unicum to strengthen ties

RUSSIA: A major alliance is being formed in Russia between two of the biggest names in the market.

InterGame understands that an agreement has been reached - although not officially announced - between Oleg Boyko’s Ritzio Group and Boris Belotserkovsky’s Unicum to merge some of their businesses.

Ritzio has a huge 60,000-machine operation, either directly owned or managed, plus R&D and sales and marketing organisations, while Unicum has been one of Russia’s leading distributors and machine manufacturers for some years.

The two principals already have joint businesses, but the latest deal will tie them even more closely.

At Unicum, Belotserkovsky is president, chairman and sole shareholder, while at Ritzio, Boyko has a number of companies which are significant players in the market, including Smart Games, the manufacturer and distributor.

We understand that Boyko and Belotserkovsky are pooling parts of their sales and marketing and R& D businesses, but the manufacturing interests of Smart and Unicum are at this stage not affected.

However, between their two distribution companies, they represent the biggest names in the international market, including WMS, Bally, Atronic, Ainsworth, Aristocrat and Konami. The exercise, we understand, will reduce costs and will combine the inventive skills of the two businesses to give a greater access to the international market.

Jukebox industry makes way for Cubyte

UK: A new digital jukebox hit the market at the London ATEI, in the form of Cubyte, shown on the stand of Games Workshop.

Jukebox industry veteran Doug Hession is behind the new box in conjunction with engineer Dean Hutchinson. They have formed Sound Sense Electronics, based at Ferrybridge, Yorkshire, UK, to produce the new box.

GLI becomes first testing lab for Comma 6

ITALY: GLI is the first testing laboratory for the new Italian Comma 6 market sector, the company has announced.

During the London show GLI reported that this had been confirmed by the Italian AAMS authorities a few days ahead of the exhibition.

Bell Fruit MD speaks out on ATEI

UK: Bell Fruit’s managing director, John Austen, with a big stand right on the dividing line between the ATEI and ICE shows, was scathing about the “curtain” which showed the demarcation between the twin events. But, apart from that, he said that he was “reasonably happy” with the 2007 show.

“There have been a lot of video games on the ground floor in previous years which this year have been moved upstairs. A lot of visitors have moved upstairs with them, so while it may have seemed that the new layout was showing fewer visitors to the ground floor, I have to say that many of them would not have been interested in gambling machines and therefore were not interesting to me!

“The show seemed quiet, but that was another effect of taking the driving and shooting games upstairs - a plus point for the new layout. Having had a more specifically-targeted sector for gambling devices on the ground floor has worked. We need to look more carefully at how the stands are designed and how they are laid out. This year it has been a little like a jumble sale, but with some ‘tweaking’ we should be able to get it right.”

South Africa boosts LPM numbers

SOUTH AFRICA: The first limited payout machines to go into the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal began operating in December.

Around 150 games were installed, the forerunners of 4,000 which will eventually be permitted into the region.

KwaZulu-Natal is the fourth province to introduce LPMs, which may have a top payout of ZAR500.

Mazooma sales boss disappointed with London show

UK: Mazooma’s Andrew Murden was not-so enthusiastic about the new layout for the ATEI show in London. The curtain which divided the ICE show from the ATEI, he said, indicated that those in the limited payout machine sector “are in economy class."

He said: “I think that the flow of visitors is badly affected by the change in the layout. There are fewer people in the aisles and there is no razzamatazz as a result. I think that we are in danger of losing contact with the customers.

“There are also too many kids signing in too easily. Overall, I am unhappy with this development. I think that ATEI should be ATEI with all of us in together, limited payout machines and amusement machines on one floor. If that means it needs to be somewhere else at another time, then so be it.”

TAB awards announced

AUSTRIA: Now in its second year, the TAB Austria Awards Dinner is becoming an event during ATEI in London to which many would like to go.

This year it was held at the Novotel, at Hammersmith, just a short way from the exhibition venue, Earls Court.

The Best Online Performance was between Bally Wulff of Germany, New Games of France and Norditalia Ricambi of Italy, with New Games the winner.

The Best Technical Performance was won by Dalgent of Croatia, with Leisure Tech of Dubai and Splin of Belgium as runners-up.

The Best Marketing Programme was won by Norditalia Ricambi of Italy, with New Games of France and Funlab of Turkey as runners-up.

The Best Overall Performance was won by C&P of Switzerland, with Leisure Tech of Dubai and Auto Centre of Greece as runners-up.

Global VR heralds move into casino business

US: Global VR, the touchscreen games manufacturer which made its name with tournament golf games, has entered the casino industry after a development agreement with Bally Gaming. Global has restructured parts of its business to take advantage of opportunities in other sectors.

The changes at the company see Mehdi Eghbal appointed vice president of national accounts and international business development, assisted by Bob Dekett as vice president of business development for Asia-Pacific. Completing the senior management for the international business is Julian Goicoa as managing director Europe. Goicoa is best known as the former managing director of Gaelco, the video games producer, based in Barcelona, Spain.

Global has produced a string of new games in the past year, completed the acquisition of assets of UltraCade Technologies and entered into an agreement to buy Tsunami Visual Technologies, a deal which should be completed soon.

Source: IGI