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Interview with Mr. Mohamed Abdullah - the Technical & Customer Support Manager of NOVOMATIC Africa.
Mr. Mohamed Abdullah has more than 25 years of extensive technical experience within the gaming industry and shared his opinion on the contemporary casino management systems and especially the “game-changing” opportunities, that this comprehensive solution brings to the African Market. Mr. Mohamed explained the importance of monitoring and accounting control systems within the Casino, LPM, Bingo, and Sports betting markets. “In South Africa, the gaming industry is highly regulated for all stakeholders. Within the Gaming industry, we have a national legal framework guided by the National Gambling Act, provincial gaming legislation, and a set of National Technical standards. It’s within this framework that it is a requirement for Casinos to have a casino management and monitoring system, which allows for in amongst but not limited to player management, auditing, regulation, metering, and most importantly revenue and gaming taxes collection.
We understand that presently there are many control and monitoring systems out in the market. NOVOMATIC has been listed as one of the global systems providers in the gaming industry, but what is the added value that NOVOMATIC brings to African markets?
Mr. Mohamed further explained: “NOVOMATIC Africa offers a portfolio of gaming products and services, which address each part of the customer journey and one of them is myACP – which offers a complete solution. It is much more than monitoring, accounting, and control system starting from the biometric or RFID card identification of the guest at the casino, to the slot and live table games management, cash and revenues control, customer relationship management, business intelligence, and decision making.
The solution also features modules for the core casino processes such as slot and table games operation, Cash desk management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Loyalty and marketing, slot machines and assets management, electronic fund transfers, etc., It is, therefore, a complete solution to operators. myACP is successfully installed in almost 1,200 gaming locations, with more than 25 countries already trusting this powerful tool!
How does NOVOMATIC’s myACP solution differ from other systems?
Mr. Mohamed revealed that “other systems only offer one or two specific or critical operation functionalities - whether it be casino management, machine accounting or events control and reporting, while myACP offers an all-in-one solution, represented as a competitive edge not limited to size, scale or type of a gaming operation. The solution reflects the consolidated knowledge in gaming operations that NOVOMATIC has accrued within more than four decades of in-field expertise!
The most sought, new critical operation procedures, implemented with myACP and largely used at the gaming markets are Data Processing, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), real-time monitoring, and CRM. These also address the requirement of the recently enforced regulations like POPIA in South Africa and the international AML directives promoted by the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), a member of FATF. There is no doubt, myACP is one solution, with one trusted manufacturer - NOVOMATIC.
From a technical perspective, myACP supports most industry-approved communication protocols like SAS, etc. which can be activated and used in tandem with any other existing monitoring and accounting control system. myACP offers a flexible and modular platform architecture to satisfy both single- and multiple-site operations and is also completely hardware independent. A key feature is its remote management capabilities - Mr. Mohamed shared an example of how gaming operation managers would be able to log in remotely to the myACP system and have complete, secure access to live activities within the gaming floor such as games and tables analytics and KPI’s. This means instant and trustworthy business operation decisions can be made from anywhere, at any time.
The pandemic has brought many challenges to the gaming industry, with sudden restrictions implemented and Operators needing to adapt fast - The COVID-19 crisis and the enforced, prevention-spread measures generated an increase in the demand for full cashless functionality, both for slots & live games. The monetary transactions by means of any cash or cash equivalents had to be turned into a card or contactless payments while featuring secured and accurate accounting and control both for the consumers, operators, and control bodies
Mr. Mohamed explained that there are other similar platforms offering cashless facilities however - myACP is one of the first casino management systems, that offers a complete casino cashless functionality. Players use the cashless transaction advantages both in slot machines and in live games, which allows them to seamlessly move from slot machines to live games and vice versa with no interruption of the gaming activity. Another benefit of the adoption of the cashless technology is the system connectivity and the effective utilization of the Player Tracking Module, which facilitates the customer-centric system functionalities such as loyalty programs. All of these factors enhance the customer journey and add value to customer satisfaction throughout the pandemic.
Regarding the LPM market in South Africa, a very exciting feature that will positively affect the maintenance and performance of machines and more importantly save money for the LPM Operators is the live data and analytics of machine events, available to the technical managers. Mr. Mohamed explained that within the LPM market, in some instances, there are sites in far outlying areas, where data on machine breakdowns or faults would be tracked and monitored easily if the myACP system is installed. This information would assist the technical teams in forecasting servicing maintenance, ordering spare parts, and preventing repeat issues in areas inaccessible by technical teams on a regular basis.
Mr. Mohamed concluded “NOVOMATIC Africa offers the myACP solution to its African customers along with 24/7 support and a dedicated, highly skilled team of technical experts and business consultants is always available to attend to customer’s needs. The NOVOMATIC Africa team has geared up and up-skilled their teams for the rollout of myACP to ensure, that we are equipped to offer operators the best service with this comprehensive solution”
About NOVOMATIC
The NOVOMATIC AG Group is one of the biggest international producers and operators of gaming technologies and employs around 21,000 staff worldwide. Founded by entrepreneur Professor Johann F. Graf in 1980, the Group has locations in more than 45 countries and exports high-tech electronic gaming equipment and solutions to about 90 countries. The Group operates around 214,000 gaming terminals and video lottery terminals (VLTs) in its some 1,900 plus gaming operations as well as via rental concepts. Through its numerous international subsidiaries, the NOVOMATIC AG Group is fully active in all segments of the gaming industry and thus offers a diversified Omni-channel product portfolio to its partners and clients around the world. This product range includes land-based gaming products and services, management systems and cash management, online/mobile and social gaming solutions as well as sports betting solutions together with a range of sophisticated ancillary products and services. Find out more at www.novomatic.com
