[Music] hello viewers and welcome to the latest episode of the Huddle it's a special episode as we have the gold gaming Awards executive of the Year Owen van lamot CEO of Casino Austria Owen thank you for joining us thanks so much for being here thank you um I would be remiss if I didn't start with uh Monday's events when you when you won the executive of the year we caught up briefly afterwards and uh and you mentioned you who to who you have to thank in the team and thanks to your wife as well for sometimes perhaps working late uh but uh after a couple of days maybe a bit more reflection um is there anything else that comes to mind when you think about that Victory well I think you know it's it's a really big honor um specifically because you know if you look at the judges there are a lot of people uh who are my peers who have known and we've been working in this industry for so so so long um and at the end of the day if you look at all the nominees and and then at the end of the day everybody says well you know you should get the award I think you can only be very humble and very thankful and uh it's a really big honor to receive award like that because you know at the end of the day I think everybody does his job because you love to do it and you're you're engaged doing it and you try to move a company into the future and you know it's always important to work hard and have fun um and you know it's not lifechanging but it is a great reward for hard work not only for me but I think for everybody who works with me you know bringing cinos Austria group but also the European Casino Association onto a Next Level sure so it's a it's a distinguished career you had but you weren't in gaming your whole career how does the gaming industry compare to other Industries you've been in um actually to be honest I think that I've been in live entertainment and television producing I was a television and live entertainment producer for for about 15 to 20 years uh actually I think I can use a lot of that experience together with my experience of the hospitality industry I I ran big hotels uh uh four five star Delux hotels uh for many many years I think those three elements together with gaming and gaming Ling actually is the perfect combination at the end of the day it is entertainment as we all know it is having good fun it is for all the generations it is trying to create long lasting relationship with guests and clients and players all the time um so I think by using you know all the experience I have and also still learning because you know the development technically nowadays are so fast so quick um I think that's a perfect mix or cocktail of be able to to be successful in this industry because at the end of the day it is entertainment we all know with very specific risks and we need to take them really really seriously is very well very well restricted and very well regulated I think a lot of people unfortunately specifically sometimes politicians think um that we're not I think we're one of the best and most professional regulated Industries in the world really um and bringing that all together is good fun it's sometimes challenging but I like challenges I like trying to find the perfect balance basically on a daily basis yeah sure so in your previous role you were the CEO of Holland casinos and uh you moved over to casinos Austria um the move I think it's safe to say has worked out for you you know you won the award the other day but uh it was still a big undertaking was it was it a big decision yeah I mean I think the thing that I really like moving to Austria is that it basically we we're supplying the market there with all the vertical so it's a lottery company it's an online company we have VTS there we have really St of the art casinos there and I really like you know the integrated approach of uh of anything that's got to do with gaming sure and I think that was uh in a way a challenge for me because I was in the supervisory Board of the Dutch lottery for f for many many years so I knew the lottery business from that perspective but I never run it um so I really wanted to do that because I think it's great fun because they're different players they different kind of of clients and and players in gu every single day but the in integrated model is very interesting to run um it's it's a little tense sometimes because you know Australia has a licensing system as we know so you know we need to apply in a few years for our licensing to be extended Etc um so that's a whole new ball game obviously for me as well but I think I learned a lot at Holland casino that was really 100% state-owned uh the Austrian company is 60% belongs to or entertainment as you know 33% is owned by the state of Austria and this combination of these two shareholders is quite inter um because I think in a way we have the best of both worlds we have you know the long-term more State oriented much more even to ESG goals Etc really important for politicians and politics in a nation and on the other hand you know what's your return on investment what's your plan for the next quarter what are you going to do the next few years how's your strategy going to develop or what's everything's going on which is really brought in by by or with a lot of energy and a lot of ambition and I think that combination um after being there for two years I I accustom to the system now uh but the first few months is it's new it's a different language I tried to speak German as much as I can I spoke German already but working and living there is really different uh and I try to speak German as much as I can because you know at the end of the day it's Austria it's German speaking Austrian speaking German it's a different language German German um but it also I think gives a sign of respect to the country and to all the more than 3,000 people that work for me mhm in terms of the latest velopments at casinos Austria um what can we expect from the company uh in 2024 so it depends a little bit on the vertical right so obviously um win today our online business is very successful double digit growth every single year um we actually had some new innovations that were introduced there doing really well so for the next few years we're absolutely a strong believer in that the digitalization of the gaming World in Australia should continue um I think the biggest challenge that we have there on that front is that although we have a monopoly position we in today our market share is only 58% 42% of the revenue basically is generated in Austria by illegal companies who do not have a license um and I think that's a bad situation because by doing that basically you're not applying the rules and regulations that apply in Austria uh so obviously I want that to be changed because at the end of the day if you have a monop you should be able to at least reach 90% Market check um I think for the casino World we're very successful in attracting the younger generation in younger generation being 24 or years and older when you're 18 or older you're more than welcome to come and play with us but that's not our Target group and we're very successful which is something that I brought from holl Casino in holl Casino It's called the next Zone it's called The Experience Zone in uh in Austria and it's basically the interblock product I think a lot of people know right the arena product but then brought into a Next Level there's a c to bar next next door there's a lot of entertainment going on during the weekends and during the day during the week as well very interestingly also an all elderly generation then finds this quite fun because it has a lot to do with being young at heart in setting the age by itself um so we'll absolutely continue by Rolling that out I think that you know the restaurant product and the experience as a whole the bigger pack package um has become much more important or investing there uh quite a bit obviously um at the moment and also for the next few years um and our buildings are amazing I mean we actually operate palaces in Austria which are beautiful um but the maintenance and the CO2 level on climate is a little challenging with these old building so that's a very important issue obviously that we need to deal with it's costly it's complicated because you cannot just take a wall out uh inace and just replace it by another wall it doesn't work like that so that's quite quite challenging I think but we're we're well on the way doing that and inclusivity I think it's absolutely crucial also for my chairman position as ECA me chairman you know inclusivity for the industry as a whole is absolutely crucial and and then I mean inclusive not only men women but inclusive in general our clients are our players are our guests are and I think it's absolutely crucial to find new great role models in leading roles uh who are not male white 55y old but younger and thinking differently because I think by bridging um the generations we can be much more successful than we already today yeah I'm glad you mentioned the ECA because before we finish up I wanted to wanted to touch on a couple of appointments a board level this week uh with Simon Thomas I think Albert Manzone from from Monaco a couple more if you could maybe talk us through uh talk us through the thinking and and and what you're looking ahead to for the next year at the ECA as well sure so uh we put a new board together for the next three years I've been re reelected anonymously as chairman which is again a great honor um Tina from Finland everybody knows Tina probably is official Vice chair um and lauron ASAS from France is now our second Vice chair uh and indeed Alber from Monte Carlo replaced Pascal who stepped out um and I think we have 10 really good and very passionate engaging people toh to make a difference I think there are three main topics for us as an ECA first of all regulation mhm we really need to fight all illegal activities across Europe um there's a very strong Focus still from Regulators but also from politicians and law makers on the licensed companies we don't have a problem with that if they're very clear rules that we need to apply like AML from European perspective we will if you make a mistake we'll fix it right away because we really want to do good but the main problem I think is that 80% today of what's being offered in Europe is illegal non-licensed it's an iceberg and the the concentration from a lot of regulations of politicians is only on the top 20% Which is regulated and controlled really well and 80% of the revenues basically is illegal and that's the big Iceberg problem and it needs to be solved because people are not protected MH um the revenue goes to Illegal operators instead of licensed operators who are heavily taxed as we all know and obviously then this tax actually goes into governments local governments and countries where we all know hospitals roads uh you know airports uh schools are built from tax money so I think that's absolutely top priority number one always linked to that is the new AML regulation and the new AML agency we really want to have a very proactive role in that um I have a very simple saying do not fight regulation embrace it and try to have a real dialogue together to improve regulation because everybody benefits from a very good regulation as long as it's really practically doable at the end of the day uh Talent Development I think we have challenges finding good talents everywhere so we make we must make our industry as a whole for all the vertical all the products we have more attractive uh because it's a fantastic industry to work in it has huge career opportunities absolutely and we should really try to bring them in as well well Owen thank you very much for your time fascinating discussion congratulations again on the award and good luck with everything at the ECA and casinos Austria for the year ahead thanks so much thank [Music] you