“Romania is an Alfastreet market”
(Exclusive interview).- Albert Radman, Sales Director at Alfastreet, talked with Focus Gaming News before the start of Entertainment Arena Expo.
The Entertainment Arena Expo (EAE) will take place on September 3-5 in Romania. That is why companies all over the world are getting ready to showcase their products.
Alfastreet, a leader in the region, will seek to further establish its brand in the territory at this year’s event. Sales Director Albert Radman talked in an exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News and discussed the expectations for this year’s EAE.
You’ve attended several shows over 2019, including some of the most notorious in the world. What does Entertainment Arena Expo bring to the table for Alfastreet in its 25th year in the industry?
Romania is, and will always be a special market for Alfastreet. This market was the first success for Alfastreet that helped us in a major way, to become who we are today.
In our initial years, we were lucky to connect with our distributor, Game World Romania, that stayed with us through all these years. Together we made Romania an ”Alfastreet” market, with hundreds of roulettes installed across all the country. With time, some changes were inevitable and the gaming market reduced considerably, yet our brand still remains a dominant electronic table game on the market and our distributor still works as hard as it did 20+ years ago.
That is why EAE is important for us and instead of them bringing something to us, we actually bring ourselves to them, to show appreciation to our customers, friends and partners, and to make sure Romania remains in our hands for many years to come.
Do you plan to focus on the Central and Eastern Europe casino market during your stay at EAE or does it bring further opportunities for the company?
EAE is mainly focused on the local market. While some visitors could come from the other sides, we notice the great majority of visitors come from the local market. Our focus is always on anyone that stops at our booth, regardless of the country of origin.
Instead of EAE bringing something to us, we actually bring ourselves to them.
You highlighted your performance at G2E Asia due to your installations in the Philippines and Singapore. What do you expect to be the Alfastreet’s highlight at EAE?
As mentioned, Romania today is much different than some years ago. The gaming market is small and somehow saturated. Our goal is to keep all of our machines running and grab any new opportunity that comes along. There’s nothing major that can happen in this market, especially not something as big as it happens in Asia. Yet Romania remains ‘our’ market and we appreciate and value anything that happens there for Alfastreet.
As a Slovenian-based company, how important is to have events like EAE or Eastern European Gaming Summit on Alfastreet’s development in the region?
Being a small company, this allows us to be more flexible with our development and customisation of the product. These shows are a truly important source of information and knowledge, crucial for our future development and customisation of the products dedicated to such markets.
Romania remains ‘our’ market and we appreciate and value anything that happens there for Alfastreet.
The event will host some online betting companies. As a casino equipment developer, how big of a challenge does the iGaming industry mean for Alfastreet?
Being small, yet dominant in our field of manufacturing, we believe the ”online” effect will be minor. Our main advantage is the fact that we’re basically selling live games, packaged in electronic machines. Online gaming is much more threatening to the land-based slot market and I’m curious to see how strong the effect will be in the following few years.
