hi there tim paul here from gambling insider i'm with john connolly global ceo of interblock um hi john and can you tell us about your wonderful backdrop there uh well yeah that's uh that's a 10-year initiative um nothing goes too easy these days but uh i've been trying to catch a marlin for quite some time and that's that's fresh from hawaii pre-covered so i had i had to bring it back with me it took me so long to catch one so yeah no fantastic i'm glad i'm glad you've i'm glad it's there um should be eye-catching but um of course we've got plenty to discuss which is going to be of interest to our viewers as well um it's great to catch up with you once again how has 2021 been uh treating yourself and interblock well i i think it would it goes without saying you know it was a obviously a challenging year for for a lot of the industry however in the silver lining as we came out of it came out of kovitz strong at least from a north american perspective i mean when you talk globally you know unfortunately europe is going through another um round of uh or surge of of cases and concerned about that certain countries shutting down again um and asia is still still struggling another surge going on there you know the the bright spot is north america um although we are seeing more cases the the numbers out of the gaming sector post covid were some of the highest we've ever seen in in the history of gaming um in certain certain regions so that was very helpful i think to the operators and to the suppliers alike and then as a result of kovat you can imagine that you know the online proliferation of sports betting and online gaming has really taken off in north america as it has historically in europe and other parts of the world relative to inner block it was you know it's been a a little bit of a surprise for us as to the momentum we experienced during covet and postcovid relative to electronic table games um it's been a catalyst of growth more than we would have ever expected and what's i think the biggest surprise to me at least is is that when we came out of covet and the casino industry opened back up you know live table gaming opened back up i thought perhaps we'd see a little bit of a lull because there was additional supply offered to the player base and that hasn't happened the the momentum continues to grow at rates if not even higher than just post or during covet and postcode so um it definitely seemed to be a paradigm shift for our company yeah you mentioned north america obviously uh billions coming out of nevada pretty much every month and uh new jersey billions in terms of sports book handle and a lot of that online which is something else you mentioned uh focusing on north america how do you review g2e for your company and uh you had a quite an eye-catching invitation only stand as i understand how did that perform yeah i mean g2 this year it was definitely not as well attended as years past however the the caliber of people that attended was i think the best ever um you know people tended to decision makers owners executives i think because it had been a couple years and really wanted to stay in touch with what new innovations were out there how innovation could help their their businesses attended just they tended not to bring as many i would say employees or you know um you know uh different different categories of employees that they historically would have but from our standpoint it was it was a tremendous show and then the obviously the the invitation only we do that and we'll continue to do that just because we're you know we're unfortunately uh due to our innovation um a target of people trying to copy and and we work very hard to to try to stay market leader and and um and innovate with our team and provide the industry with cutting edge ideas and concepts ways to to improve the performance of their casino floors and we want to protect that so the reaction was actually quite good it was more exclusive environment inside people felt very important you knew when someone was in the booth that they were meant to be there and you could focus your attention accordingly so we enjoyed it sure an interesting point to make and uh certainly kind of making a stand on that with uh if it's a pun of sorts with the with the exclusive stand itself uh we mentioned ice briefly before before we uh jumped on this call um assuming the show goes ahead what are kind of your and interlocks plans for for that show yeah i think it's it's you know as as in years past ice will be very similar uh to uh to the vegas show g2e but will allow our european [Music] partners and customers operators to to experience and see some of the newest technology hands-on especially this year considering a lot of people did not travel internationally and were unable to travel so this is our way of being able to take really what we had at g2e and and and bring it over to europe and and do the same you know the same launch the same introductions of very similar products and technology yeah sure and naturally uh ice i mean somewhat kicks off 2021 obviously it's in february late january as we round off 2021 and head into 2022 i'm not sure which year i said earlier but 2022 is the one we're going into um what do you see as kind of the key trends to watch out for when it comes to electronic table games and land-based casino more generally yeah it's it's i'll tell you there's just by the by the month right now there's just such momentum and and we're learning a tremendous amount um both you know domestically in the north american markets and internationally uh as a result of covid um and player perceptions of table games and what i see happening is i see a i see now a correlation between the online world and the traditional casinos themselves and that bridge happening um i think due to acquisitions and mergers you know we've we've experienced that somewhat in europe historically but i think north america is going to be to a much larger extent where we have the traditional land operators who are also in the online space start to really create a unified approach to content and and and cross-marketing promotions um from a player perspective that we haven't seen before at least in certain regions so i think that's going to be something very interesting and fun to watch in 2022 relative to interlock and etg's we continue to you know see as i mentioned earlier a demographic split you know the fact that an electronic table game you know caters to many different types of players which we didn't know five years ago we've learned a lot that there's one demographic that prefers more of a social aspect and the best analogy i use now is you know casinos the traditional land-based casinos have such an advantage over online casinos such an advantage and how to utilize that infrastructure to um to drive value and you know they have spas they have shows shopping restaurants and whereas an industry we haven't been able to truly figure out is when someone does enter a casino or we pull someone online into that beautiful infrastructure and offering how to get a lot of those people to step onto the casino floor and what we're finding is that the stadium concept from inner block is a place that whether it be a couple or a group of friends can go and conjugate and remain social at an end of an evening or during the day whereas historically you know a lot of casino technology and casino environments are solitary in nature whether it be a slot machine or even table games you know you tend not to ever find three or four seats where you can sit together with your friends um and uh so so we found that you know the more social we make electronic table games in various distribution methods whether it be a stadium or a standalone seat a single seat um and and and putting a love seat in front of it um has really resonated with the player base so i i see 2022 really as now the industry's ready to talk about sections of a floor labor issues that resonate in the united states um and obviously internationally the ability of electronic table game to reduce operating expenses yeah and address those labor shortages um and the ability of technology to drive more handle and hold it seems like a you know a natural progression we're going to see into 22 that the the expansion of a casino floor from an electronic technology perspective is going to grow especially when you know you know under two percent of the floor currently in north america are electronic table games um so it's really at its infancy so excited about the future i think this is this is a similar topic in our uh recent gaming america magazine you said you see the stakes as never being higher for the traditional land-based segment um i mean is that the ca is what you're talking about just now is is that kind of what you meant and and if there's other things at play kind of can you can you tell us more about exactly what you meant there well what i meant was you know with the proliferation of at least again you know in parts of the world with online gaming sports betting um and and really you can feel there's a shift in the gaming industry you know and where the industry's heading over the next decade and the new types of players coming you know coming to fruition we as an industry really need to figure out how to optimize you know the the correlation between online and and the ability of players to play remotely not in the land-based facilities and then how to utilize that land-based facility and the you know the player databases um and and how to bridge the two to create one plus one equals three and i think from my perspective the the traditional operators land-based operators in the united states and and canada and internationally have such an advantage and now i think you see them now really looking for ways to optimize that as in our block our job is to continue to innovate and pull players onto the casino floor when they enter the facilities um but now we're looking as everybody to take our content and also put it online so that when people do leave the land-based facility and are part of a particular player club they can find the same content recognize it um and continue to remain loyal and play whether it be a brand or or a product um remotely whether it be a handheld device or a computer so that's kind of what i meant is that we all need to be thinking about you know the the positives the negatives a swot analysis relative to online wagering entering north america and how do we use the advantages that we've created over decades as an industry um to not only protect what we've created but to grow it yeah absolutely that that leads on uh that leads me on to sort of my next question quite naturally and um you've been in the industry a while a couple of things i wanted to ask one is this this shift that you talk about is it is it the biggest kind of shift or one of the biggest shifts kind of in terms of disrupting the industry that you may have seen and also obviously into block you mentioned kind of the the ambitions to to look at online content what are your kind of goals or certainly how are you planning to go about this in 2022 yeah i would say for us as inner block uh absolutely looking to go into the online space i've been hesitant over the past few years simply because the organic growth of our company the infrastructure you know we were very focused on you know obviously sustaining the the market leading position we have on the etg side and the traditional land-based and there's just been so many new ideas and concepts that have come that we've come up with that we needed to execute on and quite frankly scale the company and build a big enough foundation globally um to support that that that demand but now you know looking forward and seeing what's going on it's it's a natural progression to to take that infrastructure that brand recognition certain play actions ip that we've created and and bring that to the online space i think we'd be foolish not to and we're finally at a point i believe as a company where we built a big enough foundation and infrastructure we can we can handle two paths simultaneously um without jeopardizing quality or um or you know that growth momentum we're seeing certainly yeah um we've talked plenty about north america already and rightly so as you say booming market but looking more internationally um i think it was a notable achievement this year partnership with holland casino um what what aims does interlock have kind of on a global scale yeah we continue i mean we're investing heavily right now whether it be asia pacific latin america europe um we are you know across the board double-digit growth in our infrastructure and hiring um the the challenging part is to try to obviously time you know resource allocation to market openings um and and momentums you know covet it's it's it's a challenge to say the least um but we are we are coming out with several new products in the coming months that are designed to address demand in places such as latin america or asia pacific unique products whether it be for asia sikbo and various forms of baccarat for a predominantly asian demographic and and product offering to you know new forms of roulette which tends to be the predominant product demand in latin america so uh infrastructure um it continues to increase product offerings uh throughout each region will continue to expand and you know from that uh we'll we'll begin to then as i said across the board depending on the region of the world see how we can take that same you know best practices in the land-based side and evolve that into a more online type of offering yeah that all sounds um certainly like you you've got a lot happening in 2022 um but you know it sounds like big plans and i'm sure i'm sure you you can't can't wait really to welcome the year i think that a final question for you to round up because because we've talked about a lot of great stuff and thanks for all your analysis and answers so far um in a word or a phrase how would you sum up 2021 and how do you sum up what you're hoping for for next year that's a great question uh 2021 word or phrase uh it was it was surprising um i i think when everybody came out of the holidays last year hard to believe we're entering into them again now the year flew by but i think we all came out of the holidays you know with a with a little bit of concern and and skepticism as to where we were going to end up this year and looking back i think most people would say wow you know it's it's much much better than we would have anticipated in a very positive way and i think it shows the resilience of the industry and obviously the the player demand for for this segment i think is incredible i think it accelerated one of the exciting things for me is i think it accelerated so many areas of gaming we've talked about for years at a much much faster pace than what have happened without covid in many conversations i have you know people were anticipating to be where we are today three four years from now so i think that's also incredibly motivating and exciting and is creating a ton of opportunity for all of us and i foresee a lot more m a activity to come in the next 12 months because of all this you know positive momentum uh and the the economic environment of a lot of these companies right now being so strong in the banking sector and on wall street so i think we're we're entering despite unfortunately seeing covid you know affect you know a lot of the international markets again in a very serious way i think the good news is is that the industry is very diversified in many aspects globally and because of that we're going to continue to see significant investments significant strides forward perhaps at a faster rate than we've seen in in the past couple decades which is very very exciting yes i can certainly agree um john thanks very much for your time yeah thank you appreciate it have a great weekend you