The Novomatic Group - one of the world's largest gaming companies - has reported an 11.3 per cent rise in sales for the first half of 2017, to €1.21bn.
The company puts this down to the significant increase in its slot machine operations on the international market.
The number of locations, including casinos, sports betting outlets and bingo operations, increased from 1,800 to nearly 2,100 and machines operated hit a new record, up 9,000 to 70,700. At the same time the group’s number of employees rose to 26,336.
The growth, said the company, was driven by acquisitions made in the core German and Spanish markets, notably of the Casino Royal Group in Germany and Basque Gaming in Spain. There were also other, smaller, acquisitions in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
Those purchases together cost €115.4m, led by that of Casino Royal (€44m) and a total of €39.8m in Eastern Europe with the purchase of majority interests in four Polish companies.
Earnings (EBITDA) came to €282.5m, down €4.7m on 2016.
