ICE Barcelona 2025 is a month away and companies around the world are preparing for the tradeshow.
Ahead of the event, DRGT executives Marco Herrera, Chief Executive Officer; Andreas Duller, MD Austria; Duncan Pollock, Managing Director (MD), Africa; and Laurence Herbots, Managing Director, DRGT Online, shared the global supplier’s plans to present its latest products and solutions at the inaugural Barcelona-based showcase.
The upcoming ICE Barcelona presents a new venue, a new city, and a new country. And many new customers?
Marco Herrera: Indeed! Barcelona is luckily not new to me having spent five years working there previously, but for sure a new city for most, and dare I say a warmer one, even though we’re in the throes of winter.
Seriously though, we couldn’t be happier with how 2024 has turned out for us as a group, both here in Europe, and (as an aside) in Mexico too. Duncan has some great opportunities on the horizon for our Johannesburg-based business and we look forward to realizing several of them during the next 12 months. So yes, all in all, these are exciting times. I am thankful I was able to join the team when I did. (Herrera joined DRGT in September 2024)
Marco Herrera
Andreas, you were recently licensed in Bulgaria and have now done a deal with Efbet, correct?
Andreas Duller: Yes, we secured our supplier license in Bulgaria in November, and will soon start rolling out our management system solution to their 58 gambling halls, sports bars, and casinos which comprise around 2,500 machines; we’re also developing a wide-area progressive jackpot for Efbet
Speaking of licenses: Laurence, you were recently licensed in France too?
Laurence Herbots: You’ve been doing your homework. Our roots are in Europe, and we’re present there in a number of countries, enjoying significant market share in a number of them, in fact, we are the market leader by some margin in our ‘home’ country of Belgium as well as Switzerland, and enjoy a strong presence in the likes of Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, and Ukraine.
As a result, we have several existing partners who also operate in France, and the pursuit of this opportunity made perfect sense.
Marco Herrera: Add to that the fact that our sister company, Infiniti, has just been awarded the license to operate Grasse Casino in Alpes-Maritimes which they are on track to open in January, and we’re perfectly poised to aggressively pursue market share in France.
Duncan Pollock
Duncan, Marco mentioned some African opportunities – Can you speak on those?
Duncan Pollock: Based in Johannesburg, our ‘stronghold’ remains South Africa, but we do have a decent spread of partners in specifically, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, and Seychelles. That said, where we are currently seeing growth opportunities is in the widening of the gaming sector in Botswana, the general economic growth in Ghana, the expansion of the Bingo market in South Africa, along the recently publicised plans to explore historical horse racing (HHR) as a new segment in the South African market too.
Marco Herrera: In my experience, HHR has grown dramatically in certain jurisdictions of the United States, and we are of the view that similar opportunities exist on the Southern tip of Africa as well.
To realize these opportunities, though, you really need to remain ‘ahead of the pack’ – what can visitors to Fira Barcelona expect to see at booth 3D35?
Marco Herrera: Our ‘Player First’ design mantra continues to drive our product development and augmentation, as such our three key product showings at ICE will focus on exactly that, in addition of course, to our class-leading jackpots (as alluded to by Andreas), our cashless technology, and our marketing and bonusing solutions.
Andreas Duller
What are those three products, Andreas?
Andreas Duller: Our new drFloorManager software was launched at G2E in October and has since been augmented following feedback from numerous operators, none less than the Merit Group following our system’s installation at the Merit Royal Casino in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in June.
The solution affords operators the ability to see in real-time, with a simple mouse hover over their casino floor map, how various slots and tables are performing, and who’s playing at them. Historical data is also available through this user-friendly web application, and as such it is a great tool to identify and reward players, as well as easily view and assess actual game performance.
But you can’t manage what you can’t measure right?
Duncan Pollock: Exactly! It is that ‘measuring’ of gameplay performance that then led to the development of drAnalytics, a further web-based application that at its core is aimed at providing operators the easiest and most intuitive way to both understand their players and the products they offer them. With customizable dashboards, simple comparison functionality, autocomplete formulas, and live previews to name but a few, this tool truly drives business intelligence.
Laurence Herbots
And the 3rd key product, Laurence?
Laurence Herbots: I guess the 3rd product kind of ‘closes the loop’ in that the latest iteration of our PlayerApp now affords operators the ideal tool to leverage the outcomes of their drAnalytics reports to engage ‘one-on-one’ with their players, as well as provide a contemporary solution to drive cashless ‘tap and play’ gaming, player rewards, promotions, and bonusing.
Laurence and Duncan referred to partners as opposed to customers. Can you expand on that?
Marco Herrera: We consciously use that word, and it’s something I am a firm believer in, as it has served me well throughout my gaming career, and none more so than in the systems space. Now whilst I appreciate that it may sound rather contrived, it is true; we both (service providers and operators) need to ‘pull our weight’ and really contribute to make any casino operation a success.
To that end I value relationships tremendously and believe that through them we’ll mutually take on significant learnings, then share them amongst one another, and in so doing ensure our joint success.
Thanks, gentlemen. Any final comments?
Marco Herrera: Whilst I have attended many ICE Exhibitions during my time with Bally/Scientific Games and more recently Interblock, this will be my first with DRGT, and obviously a first for everyone in Barcelona. I am genuinely excited about the prospects the event itself, and what it being hosted in Spain, will bring.
In my view, what Clarion has managed to achieve over the years is build not only the world’s largest, but the planet’s premier, gaming exhibition, there really is nothing like it, and I have no doubt that the 2025 iteration will build on that legacy.
We have managed to secure a great booth location next to Merkur and I’m genuinely looking forward to meeting old friends and business partners, making new ones, and realizing further opportunities together.
