Sydney
Aristocrat Leisure
The largest land-based gaming machine manufacturer, now building an online division by acquisition.
Merkur
The German family group behind the Merkur arcades and a digital content business built on the same titles.
What the company does
The Gauselmann group, trading as Merkur, built its business on gaming machines and on a large network of German arcades, and extended into online content through its digital subsidiaries. Like Novomatic, it is a manufacturer, an operator and a supplier at once.
Germany is the most instructive market for understanding the group, because the restrictions written into the federal online licence, including stake caps and a minimum spin duration, were drafted with land-based machine regulation as their reference point. The rules that govern German online slots look the way they do because the machine sector got there first.
The group also operates betting shops and supplies amusement-with-prizes machines, a category regulated separately from casino gaming in most European countries.
Where this sits in the supply chain
Manufacturers of gaming machines, lottery systems and casino equipment, most of which now run digital divisions as well. The engineering and compliance culture of the online industry comes largely from this sector.