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November 2, 2006 |
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| IGT acquires Novomatic IP for multistation products | |||
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IGT has acquired intellectual property
from Austria-based Novomatic AG for use in IGT’s M-P Series
multi-station gaming products.
The two companies also signed a supplier agreement that will make certain Novomatic roulette equipment parts available to IGT for its new roulette product, IGT announced last week. “After discussions with several companies, we found that Novomatic's technology and design approach for multi-station products was the right choice for IGT,” said Randy Hedrick, senior vice president of IGT Labs. “The professionalism throughout their company in addition to the technology itself confirmed our choice for this IP acquisition and supplier agreement.” “The Novo Unity multi-station platform technology acquired by IGT is the culmination of intensive R&D activities that have been ongoing since the presentation of the first Novomatic multi-station roulette product in 1997 at the ICE show,” said Jens Halle, managing director of Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH, the manufacturing and distribution division of Novomatic AG. “With offerings from IGT and Novomatic respectively, casinos will have a choice of top quality innovative multi-station games incorporating Novo Unity multi-station platform technology.” Deutsche Bank investment analyst Bill Lerner, in a note to investors, said IGT's electronic table products, which will be on display at the Global Gaming Expo in November, are likely to find some stiff competition. IGT’s products, he said, are likely to consist of general domain games such as blackjack, roulette and sic bo, an area “which we believe is becoming a somewhat crowded field with competitors including Shuffle Master, Aristocrat Leisure/Interblock and Aruze Corp.” Shuffle Master’s electronic table games product remains “relatively more compelling,” Lerner wrote, given Shuffle Master’s deep content of patent-protected proprietary games such as Three Card Poker and Let it Ride. Furthermore, he said, Shuffle Master recently earned 100 percent of the market share of the initial allotment of electronic table games in Delaware, having participated in an RFP process along with IGT and privately held DigiDeal. Still, Lerner said, “We believe that IGT will likely gain some share of the eTable market, while we think the worldwide opportunity remains quite compelling for all players.” Opportunities exist in domestic slots in markets such as Delaware, Pennsylvania and tribal casinos and international markets such as Macau and Europe. —Staff reports |
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