Promoted feature: Greentube boosts its presence in Italy

As the digital gaming and entertainment division of the NOVOMATIC Group, Greentube offers a diversified portfolio of video slots, table games, AWP reloaded slots, social casino gaming, video bingo and more. Its recent acquisition of Capecod Solutions, an Italian software developer, will serve to further NOVOMATIC’s geographical expansion by widening its product portfolio and enhance its omni-channel strategy.

EGR Intel (EGR): How has the first few months been since Greentube acquired Capecod Solutions? What are the greatest learnings to have come out of it?

Michael Bauer (MB): The first few months following the Capecod acquisition have been really good. We have a very enthusiastic and committed group of people that are doing an awesome job considering how small the team actually is. Everything they’ve achieved so far has been very impressive.

In terms of our greatest learnings, we’ve been in the Italian market for quite some time now and if I’m being honest there aren’t too many new things we’ve discovered. With our strong history of success in Italy within the land-based and retail sectors through NOVOMATIC, over the years we have developed an in-depth understanding of player preferences. However, we’ve been able to make use of synergies between Greentube and Capecod when it comes to licensing games, for example by supplying NOVOMATIC Italia’s conversions of popular AWP titles to Capecod.

EGR: Do aggregator platforms play a particularly important role in Italy?

MB: Aggregator platforms play a huge role in Italy. It’s quite a complicated market because of integrations and all the work that must be done with the regulator in order to make things happen. It’s certainly not at all straightforward. Additionally, Italy requires a re-certification of games, so from both a supplier and an operator perspective it can quickly become quite a costly exercise across multiple integrations. This is why it makes complete sense for both parties to make use of an aggregator.

EGR: What are the advantages in having an aggregation platform as a slot supplier?

MB: Firstly, suppliers can use an aggregation platform as a second route to getting their products to market. Capecod already has a lot of existing integrations with smaller operators, and it makes little sense to perform all of these integrations again. On top of that, we have several other online slot suppliers within the larger NOVOMATIC group such as Ainsworth, so it makes sense to aggregate this content.

We also want to use our aggregation platform in other markets such as Spain and Latin America. Of course, this also means we’re open to new suppliers from these regions that want to integrate their slots and aggregate them. We’re in the process of building functionality into the Capecod platform so that they not only supply slots but also offer additional features to the operators such as gamification.

In addition, having an aggregation platform as a slots supplier helps from an efficiency, flexibility and cost perspective as it provides an additional business and revenue stream.

EGR: Traditionally a slot developer, does Greentube prefer direct integrations with operators or working with aggregation platforms?

MB: We have a few focus markets such as Italy, the US and the Netherlands where most of the integration needs to be fast. It’s all about speed to market and increasing market share.

Of course, we don’t want to miss out on other opportunities that might arise in new markets such as Latam or Africa, but we don’t have the time to dedicate integration resources, nor do we have a dedicated sales teams in these markets. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for operators to work with aggregators when entering less mature markets as they can help to make the process more efficient.

EGR: Can we expect Greentube to further explore aggregation in Italy or beyond?

MB: Yes, Capecod will further integrate new and additional suppliers on its platform and will be able to offer these games to other operators in Italy. In addition to this, we will also expand into other markets such as Spain and Latam. As mentioned, we’d also like to enter developing markets so that we can have an early footprint, which can be a crucial factor in establishing market share.

Michael Bauer is CFO and CGO at Greentube, NOVOMATIC’s digital gaming and entertainment division. He joined Greentube in Feb 2015, having worked for NOVOMATIC Group for two years. As CFO, Bauer is responsible for all group finance matters, from accounting and controlling to acquisitions and restructurings. In his role as CGO, his responsibilities include steering the strategic direction of the game portfolio, game production, operation and sales. Bauer has 15 years of experience in corporate and structured finance and a strong project management background.