Frank Herold, Business Development Director, and Marisa Rusche, Head of Products, Lotteries, Emirat.
Can you please describe your company and its main business focus?
We are a German (Munich) based company with 15 years on the business. We started as a risk management company mainly for marketing purposes. Around 2011, we entered into the lottery segment, providing insurance and management for lottery jackpots. We offer our services for lottery companies all over the world, whether National lotteries or other lotteries. The lottery sector has rapidly grown over the last 5 years. In that period of time, we have had massive demand, especially from secondary lotteries. The difference between the classical lottery and the products our clients generally offer is that, in the latter case, you use official lottery results that your clients will take to bet online based on those results.
In which way is Emirat interested in the U.S. market?
We usually attend different shows of the industry, searching for opportunities. In last May, we went to ICE North America since it’s a new show, and we have been attending Clarion Gaming events, such as ICE London and ICE Africa, with good results. In the Boston show, we noticed most people that we talked to needed to be educated. In the other shows, visitors came to us with a specific target, knowing our product and having a clear idea of what they were requesting from us. However, as a first edition, ICE in Boston was really a good experience to us. Of course, we have to consider how the US market will evolve in terms of the iGaming legislation.
Is your company currently working with Latin American lottery operators?
We have had some contacts and requests from Latin America, but we have not expanded yet our services to that continent. So we are open to increase our conversations with companies interested in hiring our services there.