Novomatic acquires Cirsa's slots activities
Austrian company hopes acquisition will help it gain a foothold in Spain.
Novomatic has completed the acquisition of slot machine manufacture and distribution activities from Cirsa’s manufacturing subsidiary Unidesa.
Spanish operator Cirsa has confirmed that the financial proceeds of the deal are “not material” to the company, and eGaming Review understands that it is unlikely to affect the existing operations of the business.
Its existing land-based activities in Spain include its Sportium joint venture with Ladbrokes, while its net operating revenues surpassed 300m in Q2 2012.
Covering intellectual property rights, designs, patents, trademarks and inventory relating to the design, manufacture, sale and service, the deal with Novomatic allows Cirsa to focus on other priorities in Spain, Italy and Latin America.
Jens Halle, managing director of Novomatic subsidiary Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH, said of the deal: “This agreement to acquire one of the leading international casino manufacturers and distributors further augments our product and service offering.”
While one of the larger land-based operators to enter the Spanish egaming space, having signed software deals with Microgaming and Betware as well as renewing its shirt sponsorship deal with football club Real Betis, Cirsa is still believed to be some way behind online mainstays such as PokerStars and Sportingbet brand Miapuesta.
It is among the founding members of Empresarios de Juego Online Asociados (EJOA), an organisation of predominantly land-based Spanish operators which focuses on the country’s egaming market. A number of these operators, including Cirsa, were not ready to go live immediately when the dot.es market opened in June.
Unidesa general manager Eric Barba said: “This transaction is an important part of our B2B Division’s strategy to focus on the Spanish AWP market (bars, arcades and bingo halls) and gaming interconnectivity systems.”