hello and welcome to the latest episode of the gr huddle today we're speaking to neil ehrlich chief corporate development officer at payments firm nouve [Music] hi neil thanks for joining us today thanks tim thank you for having me yep uh it's our pleasure we're excited to have you on and talk about nouveau as well as gaming payments more broadly to start off with can you give us an insight into the company's history and what you do as an organization sure well uh nouveau is a large global payment technology company we operate in over 200 markets around the world uh in over and offer over 455 different payment alternative payment types in over 200 uh markets 150 currencies we recently launched uh actually 40 additional cryptocurrencies and really our goal tim is to make the world a local marketplace and we do that by connecting our customers with their customers and allowing them to not only pay but get paid kind of anywhere they are around the world in a timely manner and obviously in a very safe environment absolutely makes sense um looking at your experience you've obviously got a lot of experience in the payments sector what does your role specifically cover yeah you talked about my experience i always sound old when i say this tim but yeah i've been in the industry for uh close to 21 years now um you know so so i have definitely seen a lot of stuff and you know the evolvement of digital payments obviously in the industry my role is i'm the chief corporate development officer i oversee all of our strategic partnerships uh you know work very closely obviously on our m a and and strategy and given my experience in gaming you know setting up the infrastructure and the strategy as it relates to uh our north american initiative sure and as you mentioned obviously um you know you is very involved in gaming i don't think we probably probably wouldn't be having this interview if you weren't so um looking at gaming payments specifically um obviously we're i don't say in the midst of a pandemic because hopefully we're on the way out but you know we've had a pandemic certainly uh unprecedented during covert 19 what trends have you witnessed in gaming payments as a result of you know what we've all gone through globally sure well as as a whole you know we didn't see the kind of same same kind of um you know blip that a lot of companies did you know with covid you know if you look at the industries that we operate in gaming obviously being one uh they kind of always have three main criteria in terms of where we focus so it's an industry that has inherent growth and tailwinds it has longevity and it has the propensity to operate globally and so when you look at that the industries we've been in we started seeing the growth before the pandemic and so what we think specifically as it relates to gaming um you know the progress has continued i think some areas that you see an increase in was was kind of the the cashless aspect you know if you look at brick and mortar and kind of the involvement of cashless but but really you know some of these we look at the total addressable market and how that's maybe kind of gone you know it's expedited the process but we don't see it kind of coming and going the way certain industries would you know if you look at people that are now buying their groceries online are they going to go back to the stores once they open up probably some of them will um you know but if you look at you know people that are doing their workouts are they going to go back to the gym or they can continue you know working uh working out you know digitally so for us when you look at gaming you know i think that specifically in north america what you've seen is an acceleration of some of the markets opening some of the states opening because you know these states needed those tax dollars the brick and mortar casinos had no choice but to move towards more of a cashless option so uh we've definitely seen probably an increase uh into what we think is a very you know nice sized pan sure and as you say kind of just just covering what you said there you see this as maybe a more of a long-term kind of permanent shift to caches i do i do i think you know there's obviously tremendous momentum look if you look around the world right for us you know our business is global and so our business continues to grow globally um and and there's certain areas that have obviously already opened up i i thought it was incredible to hear yesterday you know from you know in a board meeting with the aga um what blew my my mind was that the gaming revenues in march and april in nevada were the highest that they've been since 2013. and so when you think about that the economy just reopening i think this is kind of just the beginning i think people are hungry for some some different entertainment you know people have been uh you know it's been a very tough year for for millions of people for everyone around the world and so yeah i think this is an acceleration i don't think it's going anywhere we're very bullish obviously on the gaming industry we've been doing it for close to 15 years and um you know we think that it's it's only going to continue to grow yeah sure to pick up on that point about nevada when i saw those figures my jaw almost dropped to the ground that is a uh you know written outstanding considering you know everything that the gaming industry has has been uh through recently um my next question you you mentioned earlier that you know you obviously kind of the m a and with nouveau we've seen quite a few acquisitions recently i think most recently um unless uh there's one more i haven't seen just yet is is mizuma um can you talk us through and you know obviously you're well positioned to be the person to describe it can you talk us through the company's m a strategy at the moment sure well i'll talk about the strategy and you did miss one uh because we announced one after market closed last night we we acquired a you know entered into a definitive agreement to buy a company called simplex which is an on-ramp off-ramp uh fiat to cryptocurrency payment company and so before i touch on mizuma um you know i talked about the 40 cryptocurrencies that we enabled our merchants around the world to accept um last month uh now we you know acquiring simplex what's really interesting about simplex is that they offer the ability for consumers to buy and sell crypto using their debit and credit cards and they fully indemnify the solution so there's a no chargeback guarantee to the merchants so whether that's the exchanges in the wallet anyone that's accepting payment for the you know on-ramp off-ramp buying selling of cryptocurrencies so we think that uh and and the technology that they've developed in order to guarantee those transactions you know we think can be applied to other industries so we're very very excited again that one was just announced uh late last night um mizuma uh you know we think is a game changer so we're um we find the the user experience the tech incredible their partnership with plaid you know for account to account payments is um we think is industry leading for from a consumer perspective i think one in four you know u.s customers today have an experience using ply so they understand the kind of interface when they're going to be getting to a um you know a gaming operator site so we're very excited about you know what mizuma brings but really for us what it does is just it kind of it kind of extends our our current offering so our goal at nube is to always provide the operator now we're talking gaming specific but it's really across the board our goal is to provide the operator with any way that a consumer wants to pay and get paid we want to give them that ability no matter where they are so now we're talking about the us but this is really globally so if you look at you know what mizuma offers they just launched you know the first first company do this for gaming in north america real time payments so with the real-time payment rails a customer can request a payment to their bank account get those funds instantly so we all know the way a consumer likes to operate right if they win and they want to get their money out of the site well we now have the ability to pay them instantly to their bank account you couple that with what we're doing you know in partnership with with the card associations and visa direct or ocp the ability to put winnings back to a visa debit card for example also in real time so for us taking care of that kind of you know there's this instant gratification obviously that that you know consumers are are now expecting in today's world so enabling our operators to provide that for the customer massively important and then working on the money in you know multiple acquiring relationships that we provide connectivity to all these different alternative payment methods that are in the market um and then of course you know with with the acquisition of mizuma we think we're very well positioned and we like where where we're at um the one thing i'll add to that because you talked about the m a strategy um you know i talked about mizuma i talked about simplex because those are the two most recent but really our our strategy is pretty you know we look at three things tim we look at when we're doing m a does it help us from a product capability standpoint does it help us enter into new geographies so new territories around the world and is there an opportunity you know for scale or something that's transformational so you know the last two acquisition acquisitions we feel you know check those boxes and uh we're very very excited with with both of them it sounds like uh not just nova but there's some great strides forward in payments as a whole and um i'd like to pick up one kind of because you've mentioned cryptocurrency obviously with the acquisition and you mentioned it earlier as well um lately we've been asking a lot of companies do you think cryptocurrencies are sort of sort of here to stay for the long term and what is new vase take on crypto generally and i'm assuming it's uh it's a very involved one based on this mma look we we we look at it in in the sense of making sure that if if our customers and their customers want to either pay or get paid in cryptocurrencies we want to enable that for them it's almost an additional you know alternative payment method that we have so i talked about the 455 which is increasing you know all through a single integration single platform the ability now to offer you know 40 cryptocurrencies on top of that plus the ability now to then you know for those exchanges and wallets that are actually accepting you know debiting credit cards from their customers to be able to accept those funds in a guaranteed fashion you know we think is is is an incredible incredible solution is it here to stay i don't think cryptocurrency is going anywhere i think it's a young industry still you know despite the people that have been in it for years it's evolving you know the regulatory you know landscape around it is changing constantly i think you're seeing you know a lot of uh very large brands you know big banks you know investment banks uh that are now getting involved so no we we think that i think that it'll continue to evolve but we absolutely think that you know in some capacity that cryptocurrency is here to stay now that that makes sense and um if we look at things maybe geographically for my next question uh looking at the us and often when you say u.s market people correct you and say well there's you know there's a number of markets within the us but the us has a region what is nuva uh targeting and aiming to achieve within the us i i don't know if that's a gaming specific question but you know we have we have a large uh user base more on the smb side in the us today it's kind of how we got our start you know 17 18 years ago um so we have a big presence in the u.s we have offices you know across the u.s and and sales people in the u.s so you know we're we're focused obviously globally i talked about the 200 markets but u.s is now you know a big focus i think when you look at gaming in the u.s um we see it we see a tremendous opportunity uh you'll hear our our ceo say a lot that we've taken a bit of a crawl walk run approach to the us as it relates to gaming you know we're we're we have tremendous partnerships around the world with some of the largest gaming operators uh and provide their you know provide payment services to them uh in many many countries so the u.s for us is just an extension of what we already do and why is that important because the merchants and the operators the you know some of the largest sports betting operators the largest gaming operators in the world that use new bay today as they now enter the u.s market we make it very very easy for them to start accepting payments both from an acquiring perspective from an account to account with things like mizuma the real-time payouts that i said so when they use us for europe and they use this in the last time now when they're entering the us uh we take care of all the heavy lifting and that's really you know one of the strengths that we offer them and do you operate when we look at gaming do you operate in online payments land-based or both our focus now is is uh it's an interesting question our focus is digital so our focus you know um right now is is is digital across the board uh that being said we have the capabilities to do so on the land-based side but what we feel you know where the industry's heading when you hear a lot about cashless gaming what people don't really understand is what cashless gaming most of the transactions if not all of those transactions are actually digital transactions so you're actually loading a prepaid card or you're loading a digital wallet you know before you hit the casino floor where you you can then use your smartphone you know to um to to play at the slot machine or eventually at the table so we look at that as an extension of digital payments right so a lot of people look at it and say well that's brick and mortar but we we see it a little bit differently um because the transactions again are are people that are going to be funding their accounts um in a digital manner uh often times before they even get to the brick and mortar casino sure and the final kind of real area i wanted to ask you about is seeing as we were just discussing the us um where does sports betting uh which is obviously so rapidly growing in the u.s at the moment fit into the the wider payments picture look i mean sports betting's that you know that's that's what everyone's excited about right now i think when you when you look at the momentum obviously not just with the success of you know companies going public that are in the sports betting space all of the m a that's happening in the sports betting space the revenues are increasing more and more states are opening up as it relates to sports betting you're seeing you know not only you know the pro sports leagues but professional teams you're seeing the larger you know networks across the u.s the media companies that are all getting involved so clearly everyone's very excited about sports betting so are we uh and from a payments perspective you know we don't really look at it any differently than we do other aspects of gaming what we try to do and what we believe you know we do very well is again to give the operator and their customer all the tools that they need to pay and get paid in a very timely fashion and now in real time which we think is is absolutely key and and continuing to do so in a safe environment so uh we we think again we love the position we're in we think the the momentum is amazing across the industry and and uh we look forward to the to the continued growth certainly exciting times ahead uh um hopefully for nouveau best of luck uh but also for the wider gaming industry and and you know payments in general uh neil thank you very much for your time and for your analysis i appreciate it thanks and have a good one thank you thank you for watching our interview with neil from nouve be sure to stay tuned for the next episode of the jr huddle and for more news on gaming payments be sure to check out gamingassider.com and gamingamerica.com