THIS WAY TO PRODUCE
Gaming America gets a few minutes with Andrew Burke, CEO at Bluberi, to talk about exciting new products in the pipeline and growth for the company.
What product launches can we look forward to from Bluberi?
We are currently re-working our Novus cabinet, and will have 10 new games coming for that cabinet in 2021. In addition, we’ll launch three other brand new cabinets this year. Two of them will come from our recent collaboration with Bzillions, the team led by Steve Weiss, inventor of the iconic Big Red game that youmay already be familiar with from AGS. These games are unlike anything seen on a casino floor today and will be out later in the year. We are also developing a new cabinet internally and are looking forward to showing it at G2E in October.
What consumer themes or trends are particularly exciting at the moment that Bluberi is capitalizing on?
We feel that there has been a lack of innovation in the space in recent years. Casino floors are starting to look homogenous, with many games and cabinets looking very similar. Rather than following trends in cabinet design or game theme, we see this as a chance for Bluberi to stand out. We believe that new, younger players will gravitate toward the unique, easy-to-understand games that we are working on with Bzillions in particular, and that will help us carve out a niche that others may try to copy in the future. This year is about Bluberi differentiating itself, not following trends.
What are your growth strategies this year considering market unpredictability? Are you seeing a lot of M&A opportunities?
We are bullish about the back half of the year, with all three of our new products launching between July and December. We are focused on controlling the things we can, such as becoming the easiest company to do business with, and engaging with our new and current customers to become a company they truly enjoy and look forward to working with. We are also looking at M&A opportunities and are in a good position to take advantage of those if the right fit comes along.
What emerging markets or regions look particularly attractive?
As a company, Bluberi has a ton of white space in front of it. We only hold about one third of the available licenses in the US and are looking to gain more of those markets that are still new to us. We are excited to announce that we were recently licensed in Arizona, for instance, and looking forward to gaining licenses in many other jurisdictions, as well. We have tons of opportunity in front of us and are looking forward to capitalizing on all of it in due time.
Can you describe how the competitive landscape is evolving?
We are looking at perhaps the most competitive landscape ever in the casino gaming space. Many smaller companies such as AGS, Everi and Incredible Technologies have grown to compete with the historically larger players such as Aristocrat and Konami, and have left a void that Bluberi and other companies of similar size can fill quite nicely. The market is competitive, but there is room for all of us. That is where our strategy of creating unique and innovative products will come in and set us apart.
Trusted relationships have always been a priority, but how has that importance been intensified in light of increasing regulations, social restrictions, and strains on demand and production?
Relationships are still a priority, perhaps now more than ever, when it is more difficult to be in the same room with our customers, showing live product and demonstrating our commitment to the business. To that end, we have focused on strengthening #our sales team, bringing on seasoned and trusted talent such as Casey Whalen, our chief commercial officer, Steve Kohon, VP of sales, western region, and Mesa Whitehurst, VP of sales, eastern region. The relationships and industry knowledge the three of them bring to the company is hard to overestimate. We have also hired industry veterans to lead just about all our business functions, so we take a fresh approach to how we do business with vast and unparalleled knowledge of what does and does not work in this space, and how we can do things better.
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