As the gambling industry navigates its post-Covid era, with a promising rebound in place in many jurisdictions all over the world, EGT‘s presence in the continent of Africa has continued to expand with new installations in several markets, including Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, Cameroon and Angola. With 2023 in full force, Lilia Georgieva, Director of EGT Tanzania, shares the company’s achievements and plans for the year ahead.
You are responsible for several markets in Africa: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, Cameroon, and Angola. In all of them, EGT’s gaming equipment is very successful. What positions does the company occupy in these markets?
I dare say that in just a few years, the brand EGT has become highly recognizable in Africa and, more specifically, in the markets I am responsible for. This is due not only to the high quality of our products but also the excellent technical support services we offer. Thus in a short period of time, we were able to establish fruitful relationships with local casino operators, and now they regularly renew their casino floors with our machines and games on an annual basis.
Currently, one of the most sought-after products on the continent is ours. In Tanzania, where our headquarters is located, we have a presence in 8 out of 9 casinos in the country, and in some of them, EGT machines are up to 80% of all available gaming equipment. There are a total of 6 casinos in Uganda, and we have a presence in 5 of them again with up to 80% EGT machines. In Cameroon, the situation is similar. Overall, our company’s products have over 50% market share in these countries.
Tell us more about the recent installations you have done.
We have recently accomplished several installations of the models from EGT’s newest General Series G 27-27 St and Up. This happened in a number of casinos in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Rwanda, Cameroon, Congo, Sierra Leone, and Ghana. The machines are supplied with bestselling EGT jackpots, and according to the feedback from the operators, they have demonstrated excellent performance so far. Soon we are going to make an installation of these cabinets in Senegal as well.
What are the best-performing products in the company’s portfolio to date? Which of the new developments do you think has the most potential for these markets?
For a long time, the most sought-after products with the best results were the Vega Vision jackpot and the slot cabinet P 24-24 Up. I am happy to say that the latest developments in EGT’s portfolio are also gaining momentum lately.
Eloquent testimony of this is the recent deliveries of the G 27-27 St and Up cabinets that I mentioned, as well as the installations of G 27-32 St, G 55 C VIP, G 50 J2 St, and G 32-32 VIP in three casinos in Tanzania, which we have made in early March.
They are equipped with the top jackpot solution Bell Link, Lady’s Cards, and Jackpot Cards, which have already established themselves as one of the most preferred EGT solutions in a number of markets globally, and it looks like they are going to reap success in Africa as well.
Our multiplayer products also perform very well locally. The S-line terminals made their debut about 2 years ago and have been showing excellent results since then. We expect to be able to install R-line products by the end of March as well.
How has the COVID pandemic affected the gaming industry in Africa? Are there still any restrictions, or is everything working normally now? Did it reveal any perspectives despite the limitations?
The COVID pandemic has definitely left its mark on the gaming industry in Africa. All countries were severely affected, and the effects of the restrictions were felt everywhere, including Tanzania, the only country on the continent that didn’t declare a pandemic. However, even here, several of the casinos were closed.
Currently, there are no longer any restrictions, and gaming establishments have returned to their normal rhythm. I would say that the most important consequence of the crisis was that in Africa, as in many other countries around the world, operators focused on online gaming.
I am happy to say that EGT’s subsidiary EGT Digital offers a rich portfolio of iGaming solutions, which will have the chance to reveal their enormous potential to the local players very soon.
Are there more big installations coming up soon, as well as other interesting projects which you would like to share with us?
Yes, there are some major installations coming up. One will be in Senegal, where we are going to supply two casinos with over 80 machines. We are going to deliver more than 40 slot cabinets for a casino in Cameroon, as well as 30 machines for a brand-new gaming hall in Ghana, which will be opening in the near future.
Very soon, we will be able to equip a new casino in Nigeria with 40 machines. This is a project whose implementation has been delayed due to the pandemic.
What are your goals and plans for development till the end of 2023?
My plans are related to strengthening the leading positions of EGT in the countries where our products are already operating, as well as entering new markets where the brand is not yet present. Guinea, Angola, Mauritius, and Seychelles are some of the countries with which we are in the process of active negotiations, and I expect that we will make the first deliveries of our gaming equipment there very soon.
Considering the impressive number of installations since the beginning of the year so far, I expect we will accomplish a minimum of 500 installations by the end of 2023.
We put a strong focus on EGT Digital’s iGaming products as well, as I mentioned earlier. The company’s in-house developed betting platform X-Nave will be of great interest to the local markets with its 4 products: Sports betting solution, offering a full range of promotional features; Casino aggregator, provided with a large package of game providers that are constantly enriching; CRM Engine, allowing full flexibility in terms of segmentation and setting parameters, and the Payment Gateway, enabling users to make safe and easy payments.
All of them could be both parts of the complete solution or operate separately as they can be integrated with third parties. I believe that especially sports betting and our self-service betting terminal (SSBT) will be a huge success.
Our online gaming solutions are another of EGT Digital’s products which I am confident will be available in some of the jurisdictions where we already have a presence by the end of the year.
