Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING MARCH 2018 26 FEATURES honestly say we’re a combined effort in the US” by creating and migrating to a single game development platform. But Neumann also recognizes the enormous head start Ainsworth will be able to provide in pursuit of the company’s US goals. “US citizens have typically not preferred playing European games because the US casino market is very different and is much more entertainment-based with less volatility and different math models,” Neumann says. “Ainsworth already has good US coverage of 4% or 5% and they understand the USmarket too, they are licensed everywhere, they have distribution networks, they have networks to all the casino operators, so now we will use both channels – Novomatic and Ainsworth – into the US casino market.” On a broader scale, the Ainsworth acquisition includes five heads of terms relating to how the two companies will work together, including development of online products, game assets, the selling of Ainsworth products into Europe, non-exclusive distribution of Novomatic products by Ainsworth into North America and finally the exclusive distribution of Novomatic products by Ainsworth in Australia and New Zealand, including non-exclusive distribution across the rest of Asia-Pacific. The appointment of Dijkstra, former Managing Director of Ainsworth Europe, in January specifically targets that last stipulation. “From a Novomatic point of view, we are first of all going to do our own business and take our own product into Asia,” Dijkstra explains. “At the same time, one of our heads of terms is that Ainsworth will become the exclusive distributor of Novomatic products in Australia and New Zealand and a non-exclusive distributor in certain countries throughout Asia-Pacific including the Philippines, Macau, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Nepal. “Obviously Ainsworth doesn’t really distribute third-party products, it does sales of its own products and part of my new role is to go out and help support Novomatic products while at the same time also doing our own sales into the region. “If you look at Novomatic products in the region now, our ETGs perform very well at Resorts World Genting in Malaysia where we Part of Ainsworth’s role will be to help Novomatic understand the Asian market better, from the effective use of Asian imagery to the development of math models better suited to this part of the world. lucrative yet largely untapped markets of the United States and Asia. “Our strategy for Asia, with Ainsworth being our distributor, is about making sure we have the right distribution channels there,” Neumann tells Inside Asian Gaming . “It is my opinion that in past years we have not really focused enough on the Asian market, which we have changed now with the hiring of Robert Dijkstra as Novomatic’s VP of Business Development and Sales, Asia Pacific, and I expect over the next 12 months we will start to understand what sort of opportunities we have there. “We will put together our new Asian strategy in the next 12 months depending on regulatory requirements in Asia and of course our products.” First priority under the new partnership isn’t Asia, however, but the US, where Novomatic is looking to increase its market share in the next five years to 10%. That’s quite a challenge given Neumann expects it to take two years before Novomatic and Ainsworth “can