2021 promises to be a busy year for Greentube. Michael Bauer, company CFO and CGO, explains why it is the start of a ‘new era’ for the supplier.
Over the last few years, Greentube has had an internal and external transformation. We restructured the organisation of the company into three main business verticals – games, operations and platform – to ensure we maximise our efforts and resources in the different areas. This transformation has been successful, and we are very happy with the results so far while we continue to internally strengthen the business further.
As we left our organisational legacy behind, we also thought that the time was ripe for a change of our exterior appearance. In early March we introduced a new logo to symbolise this new era for the company.
The new organisational structure has enabled us to be more focused in all our key areas. Starting with our games vertical, which has been transformed from the ground up, we first had a look at every angle of the business. What are our USPs, what are our weak points, what do we want to achieve and how do we get there? Based on this, we defined our new long-term strategy and derived short-term initiatives to operationalise it.
We soon realised that to achieve our objectives we had a lot of homework to do. That was also when we made the decision to build a completely new technology stack from the ground up, which will be fully rolled out later this year.
The new technology stack is central to our growth strategy and will provide us with a toolset to bring new innovations into the market at speed. It has been engineered from the ground up to focus primarily on our customers and will make game development easier for our development partners. It will also allow us to offer additional features on top of the games.
By introducing the new platform, we are building on our existing strengths while adding new USPs to our products. The new platform will break down technical barriers and, most importantly, it will help us get ahead of the competition.
“We need to make sure we collaborate to find answers to a range of important questions”
In operations, we made the decision to focus exclusively on regulated markets and move away from any .com business a few years ago. Back when we first took that step, it was an unusual move in the industry as it made it difficult to compete with other brands that could grow their margins more easily than us.
Times have since changed and more and more markets are now regulated. What used to be a challenge for us has developed into an advantage as we have gained the experience and expertise needed to operate in strictly regulated markets and still make a profit.
Being part of Novomatic, we have a rich heritage which we want to ensure we are utilising while also evolving Greentube as a standalone business. Greentube is an important part of Novomatic’s strategy and the COVID outbreak accelerated that process further as the need for a digital presence increased.
Some areas of our synergy are easy to understand and implement, such as converting successful land-based games to online. With our Greentube titles showing great success and gaining a big fan base, we are also increasingly turning them into land-based games for Novomatic. This is however only a small fraction of what we can do to ensure we maximise our relationship.
We need to make sure we collaborate to find answers to a range of important questions such as convergence of players from land-based to online, cross-channel compliance aspects and customer loyalty. This will be one of our main focuses for 2021, which is set to be a busy year for Greentube.
Throughout the year we will develop titles that take our portfolio to new heights, introducing innovative games that attract local players around the globe. We will also continue to expand our footprint in regulated markets, further increasing the reach of our products.
“We have high ambitions for the German market and want to become a market-leading supplier”
Germany and the Netherlands are set to introduce regulation for online gambling in 2021 and we are exploring all the options in those countries to ensure we will be an early mover in the markets. We have high ambitions for the German market and want to become a market-leading supplier in the country. For the Netherlands, we have one of the strongest portfolios of games for the market opening in October.
We have transformed original land-based classics from our sister companies in the Netherlands into online versions, ensuring we can bring games to the market that are well-known and proven from thousands of machines in local bars and arcades.
Regulation in Ukraine is also about to be implemented and this is another market where online gambling has had a strong foothold. We have high hopes that our games will resonate well with prospective customers there.
Last but not least, we are of course looking at the US. We will make out first market entry in New Jersey but we are also in the process of getting licensed in Michigan. For the US market, we are building on years of experience in the social casino space and we therefore have a good idea of the content that local players enjoy, so we are confident that our games will be well-received.
We are in a stronger position than ever and are ready and excited to take on any challenges coming our way. With several ongoing projects, new technology and continued global market expansion, we have an exciting time ahead at Greentube together with our partners.