Growing international interest in Romanian show

It may still be in its infancy but the 2009 Entertainment Arena Expo, held in Bucharest, Romania, last week, attracted an increased amount of international interest, and has tripled in size, compared to last year's show.

The Romanian gaming market is still relatively young and 20 years ago there really was little to no gaming presence in the country. The market has really started to develop and attract the attention of international players in the past five years and companies such as Aristocrat, CTC, Kajot, Videobet, Apex Gaming, Nowogames, Synot and MEI to name a few were present at this year's show.

Webak Austria is one international player that has a substantial amount of experience within the market and was one of the first to enter Romania under the Webak Games brand over 17 years ago.

When asked about the players in Romania, general manager for Webak Games Romania, Iosif Bodosi, told InterGame: "Players' standards are developing and changing all the time in Romania but it is the simple games that perform well and Ball Scatter has been our most successful game in the market - complicated games do not do so well."

Bodosi went on to say that there are three types of players in Romania: the very rich players who play for amusement, regular players who tend to bet a fixed amount each time and on a regular basis and then players who gamble a lot of money.

There was also a strong presence of domestic manufacturers such as Baum Games, which showcased its Dracula themed slot machine for the first time. Company owner Gabriela Manu (pictured) told InterGame: "We are very happy that this show is happening for a second time and that Romania now has its own show.  The market is a very interesting one but the legislation needs to be brought in line with other European Union countries."

The question then of course would be - when to hold the show with September and October full to brimming point with exhibitions - some suggested that November could be a suitable month, when the weather is cooler and people's schedules are clearer.

There is no doubt that there is a great amount of interest in Romania at the moment and with this in mind the Entertainment Arena Expo, is definitely worth keeping an eye on

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Novomatic Continues Its Campaign Against Piracy. The Novomatic Group of Companies presented a further spectacular campaign against pirate copies of its products; this time at the first edition of the Romanian trade show, ‘Entertainment Arena’.

The 2nd day of the ‘Entertainment Arena’ in Bucharest saw a spectacular event: Novomatic held a special demonstration to officially declare the continuation of its war against product piracy.

DI Ryszard Presch, Vice-President of the Board of Directors, Novomatic Holding, officially announced the launch of a campaign against any person or persons who infringe the company’s intellectual property.

In a spectacular demonstration, witnessed by customers and press representatives, Novomatic steamrollered pirate copies of its hardware components directly in the exhibition centre. The visual ‘shock effect’ of Novomatic’s action left no one attending the event in any doubt whatsoever of the company’s intention to act firmly and decisively against the ‘product pirates’.

Novomatic, with headquarters in Gumpoldskirchen near Vienna, is internationally renowned for highly innovative gaming technology and state-of-the-art game design. The wholly owned subsidiary Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH (AGI), responsible for R&D, production and distribution, invests high expenditure every year in research and development in order to continuously develop new products and designs.

As a market leading and trend-setting producer AGI sells its highly popular products only to licensed casinos and arcades all over the world. Yet in Romania, where Novomatic is represented by its subsidiary SC Intertop srl., an increase in the number of pirate copies of Novomatic products has recently been observed.

Therefore the company decided to take measures to continue the campaign against pirate copies with the assistance of an internationally renowned law firm. “We want to rectify the position of our original Novomatic products in the Romanian market and highlight the obvious strengths in terms of quality and reliability - and we will pursue all avenues in doing so”, stated DI Ryszard Presch.

“The issue is not only the economic damage through lost business. Our primary aim is to prevent any damage to our customers caused by inferior and faulty copies. And we will do what is necessary to support our Romanian subsidiary in order to ensure a fair and well regulated competition in their home market.”

Adrian Georgescu, Managing Director SC Intertop srl., is pleased with the support from the Austrian holding: “It is good to know that we have such strong backing from a respected concern like the Novomatic group. We have observed the situation here in Romania very closely and came to the conclusion that this demonstration was vital in order to make a statement which will not go unnoticed.

We have registered a great demand for original Novomatic products in the Romanian market and we want to make sure that our customers clearly know the original from the copy. The great feedback we received here at our demonstration in Bucharest is very encouraging, and reassures us that the top quality and reliability of our original Novomatic products is highly valued in Romania.”