The last time we reported on Blueprint was in January 2009 when the German Gauselmann Group had just acquired a 50 per cent stake in the UK developer.
Back then Blueprint had clear ambitions and objectives for 2009. These included the continued deployment of game content through strategic partners as well as the launch of its own gaming machine for the UK pub, arcade and bingo markets.
Not even a year on, Blueprint has made impressive progress. While continuing to develop and strengthen alliances in the content field, Blueprint has launched the successful Playmaker 500 video game compendium.
Playmaker 500 features Blueprint’s range of top performing B3 (£500 jackpot) games: BAR-X Super Spins, WAGS, VIZ and Extra Liner, a Gauselmann game developed under licence by the UK games house.
On the content front, Blueprint has launched top branded SWP Bookworm, with Bejeweled following later this month. New £70 games have been rolled out across partner networks since the new Category C stake and prize levels came into force in June.
Within the betting shop market Inspired Gaming has been a key partner and Blueprint’s top performing B3s are being deployed across their server-based gaming network of 10,000+ machines.
When discussing the progress to date and the future plans for the rapidly expanding business, Blueprint’s managing director, Darren Breese, is unsurprisingly upbeat: "2009 has been an exciting year for Blueprint in which we have moved forward under the Gauselmann umbrella. Having the technical expertise and support of the Gauselmann team has enabled the business to move to a new level."
Reviewing the year to date, Breese detailed the highlights: "Blueprint started as an independent content supplier and content has remained key to the business. In total our games can now be played on over 30,000 terminals.
"As we moved to launch our own gaming machine the business evolved and expanded to support this. I have been delighted at the overall results, which have only been possible due to the efforts of entire Blueprint team. The skills and experience of this creative team have enabled them to develop innovative and exciting games that perform on site."
He added: "Early in the year I strengthened the commercial team with the appointment of Matt Cole as commercial director. As well as developing further our core UK business, Matt has driven our moves into online gaming with the launch of the VIZ branded slot, which goes live on Sky Bet later this month. Online gaming and other new business areas will be complementary to our core UK products as we move into 2010."
Also early in 2009, Breese was pleased to welcome Richard Wilson to the Blueprint - Gauselmann team. Wilson is working in a consultative role advising the Gauselmann Group on the UK market and their interests in Blueprint.
Wilson is a highly experienced UK manufacturer with a number of successful start-ups to his long career, including BWB and Mazooma. Wilson is clearly excited by the opportunity and commented: "I am very impressed with the balance of professionalism, enthusiasm and experience that exists within Darren’s team. There are some fantastic ideas coming out and crucially these are being converted to performance on site.
Blueprint is much stronger within the group and can benefit from the years of experience of Paul Gauselmann and Michael Gauselmann, who have had previous success in the UK market with the Bell Fruit Group."
One of Wilson’s roles is to ensure group advantage is maximised and a good example of this came out of a relationship with one of Blueprint’s earliest and still most important partners, Inspired Gaming Group. From this relationship Gauselmann secured the manufacture of at least 6,000 Storm cabinets throughout 2009/2010. These machines are being built at Gauselmann’s state of the art facility at Lübbecke and will be deployed across Inspired’s betting estate.
Within his role Wilson has been working closely with Gauselmann management team of Dr. Werner Schroer, Jürgen Stühmeyer and Ulrich Wüseke. Wilson is clearly impressed by their forward looking approach, support for the UK market and desire to see Blueprint develop as a business.
A key partner for Blueprint within the domestic machine market is Crown Direct and their sister company Deith Leisure. Breese went on to explain that "the experienced teams at Crown/Deith, run by Dean Harding, have the best reach into the UK arcade market and working on an exclusive basis with them creates a real partnership approach to developing products focused on the arcade market. We look forward to working with Crown and see the upcoming Preview and London shows as key events."
The London shows will also provide Blueprint with a platform to showcase their digital pub offer. Glynn Mellor, through his Trinity Gaming consultancy, has been working with Blueprint on developing a product for the UK pub market, and as Mellor went on to explain: "Blueprint’s approach here is to work closely with UK operators to create a solid digital offer. For Blueprint this is a process that will take some time, but we are sure that the new £1 stake and £70 jackpot will be a major catalyst as it opens up new game styles."
With 95 per cent of the UK pub market still analogue, it would be a bold step for Blueprint to pin everything on digital machines. Breese’s outlook on digital is however very positive, as he further explained: "Even within the UK which sits behind a lot of markets, digital is the established format within bookmakers’ shops and increasingly arcade and bingo.
We believe that in the next two years the pub market will follow and our aim is to be at the very front of this transition. We are a developer focused on digital, but we are active in all areas of digital, not just the pubs. This is why our approach to digital in pubs is one of evolution, not revolution."
The UK market is in a period of transition with conventions being challenged and as always innovative products being developed. With its experience from the past and keen eye on the future, Blueprint is proving it can compete with the established incumbents. Its enlarged product and games range will feature strongly at upcoming events and will help us to chart the company’s progress in the longer-term future.
