At this year’s G2E Asia, Casino Review caught up with Riaan Swart, general manager of Aruze Gaming Africa, to discuss the company’s development in EMEA, where the firm is seeing success with its Muso Triple-27 cabinet and link titles Fu Lai Cai Lai and Wheels Go Round, along with the Muso Curve-43 with the Wheels of Prosperity game series. Reflecting its growing presence on the Continent, Aruze is currently planning to open new sales and support office in The Netherlands.
Casino Review: How was this year’s G2E Asia for your company, what were some of your product highlights at the show and what kind of response did you see from visitors?
Riaan Swart: Asia is a very strong market for Aruze Gaming, and our customers have high expectations for our product offerings and our latest initiatives. We are certainly surprised by the strong interest in Asia, especially in the Philippines, for our innovative Roll To Win Craps that was originally developed for the US market.
Lucky Roulette and Super Big Wheel continue to perform throughout the region as new installations and orders continue during the show. The award-winning Muso cabinets certainly continue to bring attention with its unique design and strong game content.
It was a pleasant surprise to have so many international customers and business partners visiting our stand in Macau this year. This is a real indication of how well the industry has accepted our products and teams.
CR: Moving over to EMEA, I believe you’re planning to expand in the region this year, which jurisdictions do you consider offer the greatest potential for market growth?
RS: As everyone knows, we already have a long history and a successful presence in Africa. We have been raising our footprint in Europe over the past five years, and we receive support remotely from both our offices in Macau and Las Vegas.
We have experienced tremendous growth in Europe during this time, especially over the previous year. We understand the need to align our support services for our customers in this region to move up to the next level of development. For this reason, we are now focusing on strengthening our support in Europe and North Africa and planning to open a new sales and support office in The Netherlands.
Aruze Gaming has been slowly developing our team in Europe. Through previous installations and feedback from our customers and partners, Europe has great potential for a company like ours, especially with our many initiatives which have often been the first in the industry.
Our team based in Europe will benefit from the strong and knowledgeable support structure we have developed at Aruze Gaming Africa over many years. I will be joining in the efforts and assisting the European business while also continuing to oversee our African business.
We currently have numerous installations taking place throughout Europe and Africa, especially with our Muso Triple-27 cabinet. We will be announcing more installations in the near future.
CR: What innovations and new products are you looking to bring to the EMEA markets in the coming year?
RS: Aruze Gaming is known for our innovations so the industry should always be ready for more new surprises from us but our main focus at the current time in EMEA is with our Muso Triple-27 and the high-performance link games of Fu Lai Cai Lai and Wheels Go Round. The proven performance on these games has been a fantastic success for us, and we will continue to grow our installations based on operators seeing for themselves the performance levels we are achieving.
Our Muso Curve-43 with the Wheels of Prosperity game series is producing some very strong results where they have been installed. We have high expectations for our latest release Fu Cai Tong on the same Muso Curve-43 cabinet.
CR: Where did Aruze see success in the last twelve months, could you tell us about some of your recent developments or partnerships?
RS: We are a relatively small company compared to some of our competitors, but we are always positive and strive for success in everything we do, no matter the size of the challenge.
I have to say the development of our award-winning Muso cabinet and the latest games, including Fu Lai Cai Lai, has been a major success story for Aruze Gaming.
We are working hard to achieve some new developments and partnerships which we will announce to the industry in the near future that will continue to strengthen the Aruze brand internationally.
CR: Looking forward, where will be some of the key focuses for Aruze this year?
RS: As we already mentioned, our focus on developing our business in Europe and Africa is a big focus for the group. However, we should not forget our expansion into Central and South America, our growth in Australia as well as our impending entrance into the online gaming which we are also very excited about and see many potential opportunities for Aruze Gaming globally.
Most importantly and above all, our main focus remains to provide our customers and business partners with strong performance games and new product initiatives using the latest available technologies.
CR: If you were asked to identify three areas where you feel the industry needs to change, what would they be?
RS: I would like to see the industry work together to promote positivity about ourselves, there will always be a great deal of negativity about our industry, and we need to manage this in a more professional approach.
Simplifying regulations across multiple jurisdictions is a change that would benefit everyone.
Customers will tell the industry where they want us to go. The current players age, as younger players who have higher disposable incomes come into the industry, as sports betting, lotteries, blockchain, skill games, tradition table games and slots in all its various forms all compete for that that disposable income, we all need to listen and keep an open mind while using all available technologies to keep the industry exciting.
