Sci Games makes Spain its gaming base for EMEA
U.S.-based Scientific Games Corp announced on Thursday that it has centralised its European headquarters in Barcelona, Spain and will discontinue by December 31, 2015, “redundant functions” at its Amsterdam office.
“The Scientific Games facility in Barcelona is now the central hub for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) sales, service, support, and manufacturing for the company’s Bally, Shuffle Master, and WMS product brands,” the firm said in a press release.
Scientific Games, originally a specialist in lottery equipment and management, in November acquired slot machine specialist Bally Technologies Inc in a transaction valued at US$5.1 billion. The deal came approximately one year after Bally Technologies acquired Nevada-based table games equipment and slot machine supplier SHFL entertainment Inc in a US$1.3-billion transaction.
In 2013, Scientific Games took over U.S.-based slot-machine maker WMS Industries Inc for US$1.5 billion.
“Our business in the EMEA region is strong and growing. We are excited to have our EMEA operations centralised in Barcelona, where we have the proper infrastructure to support our customers, along with a world-class showroom to highlight our trailblazing product innovations,” Marco Herrera, managing director of gaming for EMEA at Scientific Games, said in a statement.
“We are looking forward to bringing our talented teams from our legacy companies under one roof to enhance communication and leverage the combined knowledge of our strong product brands,” he added.
Scientific Games’ EMEA team includes also Jon Lancaster, executive director of sales; Stelios Tsapatos, Europe sales director; and Wavell Alexander, South Africa sales director.
The company said it would maintain localised sales, field support, product support, and product development personnel across the EMEA region, including Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
Scientific Games in August reported revenue of US$691.5 million for the second quarter, up by 66 percent from the prior-year period. Its net loss however widened to US$102.2, affected, it said, by costs and charges related to the acquisition and integration of gaming equipment makers Bally Technologies and WMS Industries.
Scientific Games said that by July 31 it had implemented US$184-million in Bally Technologies-related annual cost savings.
“As a result of accelerating actions originally planned for 2016 into 2015, we are raising our first-year target from US$188 million of cost savings to an expected US$200 million, while also implementing an additional US$30-million of WMS-related annual cost savings by the end of 2015,” the president and chief executive of Scientific Games, Gavin Isaacs, said in August.
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