Speaking to George Steiner of Amatic, at the recent IGE show, InterGame found the company's sales and marketing director was pleasantly surprised by this year's visitor numbers, considering the current economic climate.

The company was there to promote its newest product, Showdown Poker, which is based on the Texas Hold’em game of poker and features bigger monitors and six to eight play stations.

It is no secret that Amatic has taken its time in introducing its poker table, but for Steiner, the advantage of this is that the company has been able to see what its competitors have done.

"By enhancing our product range with this latest table we can now be the complete supplier to all the needs of an automatic casino," said Steiner.

A new cabinet was also introduced at the show, the MGT slant top, and the multigame library has been extended to include 50 games.

"The multigame concept is being proven in more and more countries," said Steiner. "But all of our games are available as stand-alone games as well."

Talking generally, Stenier told InterGame that Germany is currently the strongest market for its AWP product and Spain for its roulette. It is also experiencing strong sales in Romania, the Baltics, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The plan for 2009, it would seem, is for the company to try and strengthen its position in existing markets and begin to enter new countries. "Our approach is not to confuse the player - give them something easy to understand and appealing," added Steiner. "An AWP should be an AWP but the line between street location products and casino products is blurring."