Fresh from a successful re-launch under a new corporate banner, Spielo International is on course to deliver a record-breaking year in 2012. Simon Liddle sat down with president and CEO Walter Bugno to discuss the company’s re-branding, the move towards seamless gaming and the future of the industry
Walter Bugno is excited about the future for the company he leads, Spielo International. Recent “difficult” years are behind it and now, he says, people within the company are “enjoying winning.”
Bringing together the two established brands of Spielo and Atronic International under a single banner – Spielo International – was not simply a case of a change of name and a new corporate image. It required, explains Bugno, a lot of work behind the scenes to restructure and refocus the entire business. These steps are already paying off, with the company delivering unprecedented growth in key market segments and achieving greater profitability.
“First and foremost,” says Bugno, “we are one company. The ‘We speak your language’ marketing programme and the Spielo International re-branding exercise has given a real spirit to the team to act as one. So, whether we go into an existing jurisdiction and you’re an existing customer, we go as one company.
“Our ambitions for Spielo International are very simple. We want to be positioned as a reliable, innovative supplier that people want to do business with. By default, that makes us a growth-oriented business because the more people that want to do business with you, the more you flourish and therefore grow. We are very much maintaining the pace of growth that we have seen in the last few years.”
Having successfully integrated the two businesses, Spielo International is now taking the same step with its online business, GTECH G2, which was itself an amalgamation of four acquisitions within the igaming space.
“We’re going through that exercise again with Spielo International and GTECH G2, significantly growing the scope and scale of the business to offer multiple brands,” Bugno says. “It’s very exciting and gives us the opportunity to target land-based operations as well as those within the online space.”
Looking ahead, Bugno believes the convergence between the two presents a key opportunity for the company, as both operators and players seek to make the move from one to the other.
This interview can be read in full in the April 2012 issue of InterGaming magazine
