Sega Amusements and ICE have entered an exclusive distribution agreement for Sega to represent ICE's extensive product range in various countries around the world including Russia, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Germany, to name just a few.
Joe Coppola pointed to the strength of Sega’s European sales team as a major factor in the manufacturer’s decision to move its large sports and redemption-based product line under the Sega Amusements Europe umbrella.
"ICE has always sought partnerships with strong individuals and companies," said Coppola. "We feel Sega can help us grow closer to operators in these various regions and expand the presence of coin-op redemption games."
According to Coppola, successfull operation of redemption game centres is still in its infancy in many emerging markets, but it is also gaining strength in those markets that at one point were mainly video markets. "Sega has been at the forefront of the video boom and as such benefited from great relationships with its distributor network and customers worldwide."
Paul Williams of Sega added: "We have seen tremendous growth in new and emerging markets. In these territories new entrants to the business try to set up locations and instantly contact us for advice and support.
"Unfortunately, previously Sega has only been able to supply high-end video games to these territories; therefore we felt there was a gap in our product portfolio and the mix of redemption and novelty product in a location is ever increasing."
Gene Brogowski, director of international sales for ICE, will continue to work each of these markets in full cooperation with the Sega sales team.
