Merkur Gaming shares G2E Las Vegas insight
Merkur Gaming reported its G2E 2018 performance, which is believed to be the best for the company yet.
US.- Merkur Gaming’s pre-event expectations for the 18th edition of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas were high and, with the commercial land-based casino sector of the US market reportedly enjoying boom times and the tribal government gaming market also expanding dramatically, the stage was set for a truly spectacular event.
The average annual rainfall in Las Vegas is just 21 days. Two of those days fell on the day before G2E but Tuesday, October 9th dawned sunny, bright and clear and even before the exhibition hall opened its doors the crowds outside were huge. As the Beatles song ‘Good Day Sunshine’ sounded throughout the Mirage Hotel, advertising their Cirque Du Soleil show Beatles Love, the Merkur Gaming team were once again in a prominent position inside the Sands Convention Center and totally ready for the Gauselmann Group’s iconic laughing sun to shine favourably on the new product range and raft of exciting new games on show.
Making its international debut, as G2E opened its doors, was what will be the first in a whole new 4K large screen cabinet range, the Allegro. Featuring a 43” curved Ultra HD monitor plus the latest Gforce Ultra HD multigame technology platform, attractive lighting concept, ergonomically assured perfect seating position and optional video touch button panel, Allegro (an Italian musical notation meaning ‘to play at a brisk speed’) is sleek, Allegro is curvy and Allegro is presenting Merkur Gaming entertainment in a new skin.
As the Allegro was attracting great attention, so too were Merkur Gaming’s latest new games. Shown in the Allegro cabinet were the sci-fi themed Secret Area 150, Asian Tower, a game of risk and reward and the highly colourful Neon Panther. The Merkur booth (which was displaying more than 120 games in total) featured the latest creations Merkur Gaming’s global array of game design teams, including Reel Time Gaming from Australia, Lucky Nugget Gaming from India, and STELLA from Germany to name a few, alongside Sunshine Games, Merkur Gaming’s Las Vegas-based dedicated games development studio with a total focus on creating exceptional and entertaining game content for the USA.
Merkur Gaming presented at G2E some thrilling new gaming entertainment concepts such as Jewels of the Nile, a four-title suite of Egyptian-themed games, Crash Stacks in which the different values of US dollar currency are ‘crashed’ to reveal spectacular prizes and the undoubted hit of the show, Big Deal Wheel. A traditional bars and sevens game with a spectacular extra, Big Deal Wheel has a television game show feel thanks to its half wheel segments that, when matched on the reels to create all red, all blue or mixed colour wheels, open the bonus feature that can lead to the Big Deal Wheel with its top prize of 10,000 times the bet. Additionally, the African adventure game Savanna Stampede attracted much interest thanks to its startling graphics and its randomly triggered animal stampede feature that can occur in both the base and free games. These new presentations drew visitors like magnets and were more G2E top attractions from Merkur Gaming.
As always, G2E was a presentation of the Gauselmann Group’s strength and depth in global gaming solutions with Merkur Gaming being joined by cash handling experts GeWeTe and, reflecting the current focus on the US liberalization of sports betting, Cashpoint displayed their market-leading solutions and created many new business contacts in this lucrative sector.
So, after concluding the 19 show hours of its three day run in Las Vegas, was G2E 2018 really the best ever? Charles Hiten, CEO of Merkur Gaming Americas, mused: “The best G2E ever? For Merkur Gaming, I believe so … until next year, of course. We have had a fantastic show, thanks to the new product range and the new games that we presented. Thanks also, to our entire team for all the dedication and work that went into making these three show days so spectacular. I believe that we have again taken Merkur Gaming to a new and higher level and now we must capitalize on that momentum and move on even further.”
CEO, International and Head of International Product Management, Athanasios ‘Sakis’ Isaakidis, shared that view, noting: “This has been a fantastic G2E for Merkur Gaming and I want to thank our entire team for making it such a success. As we move forward, on many fronts, with such great games and great products, I see even greater success on our horizon and it fills me with pride that our brand is held in such esteem and high regard around the world of gaming.”
