With industry pundits lamenting a lack of choice in the UK Category C sector it seems welcome relief has arrived in the guise of popular and highly irreverent comedian Al Murray.
JPM International’s Al Murray’s Beautiful British Game was the company’s first incarnation developed under its Al Murray The Pub Landlord licence for the UK Category C sector and, according to COO Paul Bursnell, its acceptance in the marketplace has been outstanding.
“The performance of Al Murray’s Beautiful British Game has completely surpassed our expectations,” said Bursnell. “Within a very short period of the game’s launch last month, Al Murray’s Beautiful British Game enjoyed rapid approval by the leading pub companies and has become a major hit with pub-goers up and down the country.
“The continuing strong order flow for Al Murray’s Beautiful British Game endorses our commitment to a development programme designed to deliver increased choice for the UK market now and well into the future.”
Operator Sceptre Leisure is very happy with its investment in the Al Murray brand. “Al Murray’s Beautiful British Game is a great performer from an iconic brand,” said CEO Ken Turner. “We’re thrilled to see JPM back with a strong mainstream Category C product and congratulate them on their perseverance and support for the market.”
Indeed, retailers have also been quick to respond positively to the promise of a greater choice of Category C games. Scottish and Newcastle Pub Company’s Sarah Barron commented: “We believe that the retailer has an obligation to support smaller and newer manufacturers in the Cat C sector by assisting them with bringing new product to market. We have introduced some very practical initiatives to help achieve this.”
Bursnell confirmed that despite the success of Al Murray’s Beautiful British Game and some notable achievements in Category B4, JPM has no plans to use dongle technology as a pricing tool. “Our strategy is to grow market share and achieve volume through the development of compelling games that deliver healthy cashbox returns which have exceeded, and will continue to exceed, retailer expectations.
"New games will be brought to market through a very aggressive content development road map, already defined for the coming year. Some might say it’s a beautiful British strategy.”
