Nikos Nikolakopoulos, President Latin America, Western Europe and Africa
 

"Intralot has developed a wide and integrated portfolio of gaming solutions that covers the whole spectrum of gaming, from lottery solutions, to mobile and online,” explained Nikos Nikolakopoulos, Intralot President Latin America, Western Europe and Africa. The executive talked to Yogonet.com and detailed the wide range of products that the firm exhibited at the show.

What do operators demand for their racing projects? What does Intralot have to offer?

Operators demand a fast and exciting service for betting on Racing that can be customized to their needs and delivered seamlessly to their sales channels. Players need to have all available information on horses or greyhounds in their local language, from race commentary to past performances, statistics, tips and forecasts. Operators also demand real-time TV broadcasting of the races and a turnkey technical solution for uninterrupted bet acceptance, risk management for fixed odds betting and access to international pools for pari-mutuel betting. They also need a service covering all their business hours in retail or online with racing events and betting opportunities.

Intralot delivers turn-key solutions that include all these elements. We combine premium live racing from the world’s best racetracks with exciting virtual or prerecorded racing and we can deliver a comprehensive schedule of racing events anywhere in the world. We can produce for any licensed operator a fully localized Racing TV channel and deliver it over any available infrastructure. We can couple this with full operational, marketing and promotional services. In short, Intralot can offer a bespoke racing solution for any operator, at any place and any time.

How did ICE visitors respond to your tailor-made solutions?

We were excited to see the visitors at our Booth showing great interest in all our innovative products and services. Intralot has developed a wide and integrated portfolio of gaming solutions, our “World of Gaming”, that covers the whole spectrum of gaming, from lottery solutions, to mobile and online, from racing to betting and Casino & VLTs, to name some.

Our Mobile Lottery product line attracted huge attention, since it is an, independent end-to-end solution for making the Lottery experience native on mobile devices of all operating systems, sizes and capabilities. What adds significant value to existing and new Lottery operations is the several completely new and innovative player engagement features that it incorporates and that our visitors had the chance to witness at our booth.

Also, the Sports Mobile betting management system that combines the proven Intralot i-FLEX sports book platform with a complete content management and delivery platform for mobiles and tablets was on display at ICE and was one of our highlights.

We also presented a new approach to instant games designed to bring instant win and e-Scratch excitement into a cross-platform and device optimised model for mobile, the Instant mobile Games.

At ICE, we unveiled also the Multichannel Lottery Experience, a seamless blend of internet and retail gaming. Games, technologies and marketing are smoothly coordinated in the Multichannel Lottery experience: NFC gaming, Retail terminals solutions, Augmented Reality promotional content, Internet gaming and Player Management services, in store, out of store and in mobile.

Visitors at our booth had the opportunity to get to know and understand firsthand the mechanics and the unique features of our products through live demonstrations by our dedicated team of executives.

What other products did you exhibit at ICE?

At ICE we demonstrated DreamTouch, a self-service and stylish gaming station that uses an amazing 42'' touch screen interactive display to offer a wide portfolio of Lottery gaming products. DreamTouch uses advanced methods to optimize the players experience for the purchase of instant scratch tickets, lottery numerical draw, and interactive touch games. DreamTouch was launched at NASPL 2013 and after the huge attention it attracted, which was maximized at ICE, we believe that it will soon become one of the company’s best sellers.

With the recent augmenting trend of Lotteries embracing Gaming Machines as a new and promising gaming vertical, Intralot presented at ICE the “World of Casino & VLTs”, solutions customized for this gaming area; the new version of iGEM, Intralot’s state of the art multi-venue, multi-protocol EGM monitoring and control system, featuring a number of new functionalities; GLS, a workflow based, fully on-line Gaming Licensing System, featuring e-licensing for all gaming stakeholders and all gaming assets, as well as Compliance and Investigations support, while offering a wealth of integrated capabilities; and our Players Club, a versatile and powerful cross-channel tool to maintain player information and support player retention, featuring responsible gaming, promotional campaigns, loyalty, integrated CRM and Help Desk support and more.

Showcasing our proposition for the “new retail”, we presented at ICE our complete line of land-based/retail solutions. Let me spot the light on some of them; our unique in the gaming industry, multi-functional player tablet, Gablet, with its impressive 22’’ touch screen and advanced gesture-based navigation, which I believe is the future of terminals; the ultimate solution for delivering content at retail shops, the LOTOS Horizon, a unique multimedia platform that offers high-quality, high-definition content on multiple monitors and terminals, in multiple locations, with optimal telecom resource utilization; and Virtual Games, the new entrance in our product portfolio, already embraced with enthusiasm by players in the regulated jurisdictions, where we have launched them. With Virtual Games, we enrich and modernize the retail networks, increase the number of betting opportunities, extend the duration of time customers stay in shop and as a result boost betting revenues.

What are Intralot’s main challenges of a huge and important continent such as Europe?

Intralot has established a worldwide presence being currently in 56 jurisdictions on all 5 continents. Every continent has specific characteristics that differentiate it from the others, and our goal is to address the different needs of each local market. However, despite the particularities of each local market, Intralot follows a common customer-centric business approach in all the jurisdictions, where it operates.

In Europe, the gaming market is regulated and is rather stable, with developed infrastructure, compared to other continents. What’s most important is that the European gaming market is a mature market. Intralot’s strategy to address the demanding European needs is to offer innovation. We are trying to constantly innovate, proposing state-of-the-art products and services for our customers, in order to provide an enhanced gaming experience to the players and on the same time promote social responsibility.

Intralot was also the Lead Sponsor of the ICE Conferences 2014. How did this event unfold? What were the main topics and conclusions to emerge?

As a leader of the gaming industry, Intralot decided to become the Biggest Sponsor of this year’s ICE Conferences, the “Lead Sponsor.” Intralot had an active role in the Conferences’ programme, with three of its top executives as keynote speakers in the International Casino, Mobile Gaming and Next Generation Lotteries Conferences, offering the company’s insight and expertise.

This series of eight high level Conferences engaged the key decision makers of the gaming industry across all areas of online and landbased gaming and were really interesting and educative for the participants, presenting the latest trends and providing to the opinion leaders of the industry the opportunity to express their views and exchange ideas.

You were recently appointed Company President for Latin America, Western Europe and Africa. What does this mean for your career? What are your aims in this new role?

Intralot’s new structure reflects the growing global footprint of our company, the need to better serve our customers, satisfy their fast evolving needs, optimize our operations, enhance the offering of top-quality and innovative products and services, and increase shareholder value.

My appointment represents a challenge and therefore a commitment to put my best efforts working together with the rest of the team, so that Intralot, together with its customers, can continue to evolve as the gaming industry’s leader, adding value to its customers.