EELEX Review - What a Show!
3 February 2004
EELEX 2003 was a surprise we all should have expected, one of the first comments
received was, "the show is as big as ICE," from Gerhard Burda of Atronic
International. Well it was, in fact many thought this show was bigger with many
two story booths. The presentation too was much more professional and confident.
Congratulations to Boris Belotsokovsky and all his team at Unicum who organized
the show. The only major drawback is still getting into the show and using very
young and inexperienced/untrained staff to process registration and badges caused
unacceptable delays. Most exhibitors were previous show supporters with some new
ones. All previous exhibitors had increased booth sizes, for example AGS, Unicum
& WMS. However, due to mergers or joint ventures some companies had combined
resources, the best example of this was TCSJohn Huxley who announced a joint venture
with Octavian Inter-national. Their distribution arm Casino Amusement Technology
Supplies (CATS) are responsible for all distribution in the Russian Federation
and other Eastern European countries. Dutch manufacturer Twice a Company also
had a presence on this booth. UNICUM had a huge area to house the products from
companies they represent in Russia like Atronic International, Ainsworth Gaming
Technology and Bally Gaming. An interesting development was that Unicum are now
also manufacturing their own brand slot machines for the Russian market. In discussions
with the major manufacturers as to whether this indicated a conflict of interest
on the part of Unicum, the general response was very cool and positive along the
lines that in terms of slot machines Unicum was a one stop shop with leading brand
choices, together with their excellent distribution network and maintenance record,
it was a win-win situation all round.
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