Amusys of Austria, a leading light in the touchscreen amusement sector, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
Amusement Systems Electronics, to give the company its full name, was founded in 1999 by Otto Krauss (pictured above) and Peter Platzer, based in Hörsching in Upper Austria. The founders brought a wealth of experience in the touchscreen amusement market to the company.
A strong customer understanding led to the development of the WebSector touchscreen terminal. The focus was on a high-end entertainment product right from the start. Amusys invested in steel cabinets to underline this factor and allowed operators a long-term return.
Appreciating the market diversity for touchscreen games, Amusys simultaneously introduced an upright kiosk and a bar-top version. Both versions included a host of high-end components, ranging from the touchscreen to the coin selector.
Amusys has continually developed its games library. Platzer explains: "Our knowledge base allowed us to create an extremely popular touchscreen machine with WebSector. It is the continued discussions we hold with our partner companies in each separate country which ensure our enduring success. We ensure that we use this feedback together with our creativity to constantly update our games library."
It was a combination of experience and inquisitiveness that led to the growth of the Amusys product range. Having successfully identified the rise in the sports betting market, Amusys went on to develop a major product line for sports betting - the Tipomat.
Krauss explains the rapid growth of Amusys in sports betting: "Our reputation for producing high quality, innovative gaming machines first led us into this direction. We are a down-to-earth team and our customers appreciate how simple it is to deal with us concerning such complex product matter. We have built up a strong relationship with Austria’s leading supplier of sports betting machines, for whom we supply the Tipomat."
The Tipomat is available in two upright steel cabinet versions - the Tipomat Online and the Tipomat Y-Line. Furthermore, the Tipomat Info has been designed for wall-mounted applications.
It is this contract-based manufacturing that provides a complete solution. Amusys supports the industry with this far-reaching strategy, allowing start-up companies the potential to source a wealth of experience in gaming machine manufacturing. It was precisely this strategy that allowed the sports betting market to grow rapidly.
"We offer the industry such partnerships," said Krauss. "It is our strong belief to allow our customers the flexibility they require to be able to offer their market solutions. We work very closely together with our customers. This is also possible as we have a long-serving and loyal team behind us."
Special focus here is placed on the production manager of Amusys.
Joachim Grüneis, who joined Amusys at its inauguration and has ensured the continual excellent product quality over the years which is so vital to the company’s success. Furthermore, Grüneis brought a wealth of industry experience to Amusys when joining the company.
Amusys values this philosophy of long-term partnership with its suppliers. Peter Platzer explains: "We have a core of central suppliers with whom we have been working from the outset. We chose these suppliers based on our experience. We trust our suppliers to support us long-term. Thus, our customers know and appreciate the product consistency that such a strategy entails."
The printer is an essential component of a sports betting terminal. Amusys relies on the printer solution from Epson, offering the Epson TM-T88IV printer as standard.
Epson’s Leonard Beckmann said: "The Epson TM-T88 series can truly be seen as the reference point for all retail cash register printers and is the world’s most installed printer in this massive market. Unit sales of over three million speak for themselves.
"The actual product has an extremely high reliability, with a 15 million lines print performance and over 1.5 million print cuts. Naturally, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Amusys on its 10th anniversary and thank it for its continued support."
Another example of a strong supplier relationship is with Automated Transactions, the German subsidiary company of Innovative Technology. Amusys was one of the first companies that integrated the products of
Innovative Technology. Says Krauss: "Innovative Technology has truly brought innovative products to the market and has well earned its company name. We knew we could trust a company that wishes to offer the market real advantages.
"Communication runs in both directions and Innovative Technology has always had an open ear. The new NV200 Smart Payout banknote recycler is ideal for our applications."
Thorsten Labusch, director of Automated Transactions, said: "We have been working together with Amusys since the millennium and have built up a very strong business relationship. We wish Amusys all the best and look forward to the continued partnership.
"We are very pleased on the acceptance of our new product, the NV200 Smart Payout banknote recycler that can recycle 80 notes. All the note sets that NV200 offers can be offered on the Smart Payout. The SPF technology ensures very high first-time acceptance rates."
Naturally, Amusys has gained a wealth of experience with the touchscreen itself. Indeed, this technology was essential for the growth in touchscreen products. The co-operation with 3M began with the inauguration of the company. Amusys uses the capacitive touchscreen from 3M as standard - the SCT3250EX.
Peter Platzer explains: "The touchscreen technology lies at the heart of our product solutions. 3M has proven to be an excellent partner throughout the years."
Steffi van der Forst, the marketing coordinator for 3M, said: "We wish to congratulate Amusys on its 10th anniversary. We are proud to look back on a 10-year-old partnership based on mutual respect and trust. Amusys is a company that has steadily shown its innovating abilities and we are naturally proud to be associated with such a company."
For coin acceptance, Amusys has built up a strong partnership with two major industry suppliers, NRI and Comestero. The NRI G13 is very well known for its "made in Germany" quality.
The marketing manager at NRI, Tobias Roitsch, underlines this. "NRI set the standard by being the first company to develop a 3.5ins electronic coin validator. It is especially marked by its high fraud coin rejection due to the unique multi-frequency technology (MFT).
"Amusys has benefitted right from its foundation from this, as our successful relationship is also celebrating its 10th anniversary. We thank Amusys for its trust in NRI and wish it many more successful years."
The RM5 from Comestero has proved not only extremely popular in Italy, as the comments of the company’s Piero Martellotta demonstrate. "On behalf of Comestero Group, I’d like to wish happy birthday to Amusys. We are supplying them our RM5 ccTalk, a unique technological innovation that combines quality with affordability - confirmed by over 1,200,000 units in the market place, of which over 400,000 are ccTalk. It is tested and approved by the main manufacturers all over the world.
"Apart from the business side, I learned a lot from Otto, Peter and Joachim and I hope to continue doing business with them, but most of all to increase our friendship and celebrate as many anniversaries as possible."
Betting terminals often require the use of a card reader. Here Amusys has turned to an industry leader, namely Sankyo. Sankyo is the leading brand of card reading equipment and its high reliability and durability have contributed to the stable card handling in self-service terminals like ATMs, cash dispensers, kiosk terminals and naturally betting terminals.
Sanyo has over 30 years of experience in the card reader market. T Sakai of Sankyo Europe commented: "We thank Amusys very much for choosing our ICM350-3R0170 card reader. Our best wishes go to the team at Amusys. It is a pleasure to do business with such a professional company."
Amusys continues to exhibit its flexibility and dedication to the market place. The company looks forward to the next 10 years in the industry. The focus will remain on providing complete hardware solutions to companies that have developed a gaming or amusement concept, including the necessary software.
The strength and depth of the business relationships with the major suppliers highlight the experience and go a long way to explain the successful path of Amusys over the last 10 years.
