The Gauselmann Group is a German gambling and gaming giant; they have taken a huge leap of faith to get into the British gambling market. Their target is the UK amusements market with the purchase of Praesepe from private equity firm – Marwyn Management Partners. Gauselmann is best known for their Merkur brand, and it is this division that will take control of Praesepe’s 159 adult gaming centres, nine bingo clubs, five family entertainment centres, and Beacon Bingo online. The new company vehicle for this is Merkur Casino UK.

The current Merkur Casino compliment includes 240 arcades throughout Germany, and also has venues in Central and Eastern Europe, the Netherlands and Spain. There is also Merkur Win outlets in Italy. They are best known for their supply of slots, AWPs, Server-based gambling systems and VTLs. The vvast majority of employees is based in Germany; this is a staff compliment of somewhere around 6300.

The Chief Financial Officer of Gauselmann – Ulrich Wuseke – now becomes chairman of Merkur Casino UK. Nick Harding who is the founder of Praesepe, remains in the CEO role of the new company – at least for the time being. Wuseke commented that Praesepe has a good reputation in Britain across the markets it serves. They own the largest land bingo club in Europe and the UK, as well as the Crystal Rooms in London’s Leicester Square; this venue is world-famous.

At the moment the merge is examining a progressive philosophy which is where their investment efforts will take place; they believe they have a unique approach to gambling entertainment in the UK. They also have Blueprint Gaming on-board – another UK subsidiary – these people develop both games and devices. This means that Gauselmann now has a complete range of products to cover the UK market.

Gauselmann is one of the most inspiring business stories in the gambling/gaming industry; the company was launched in 1957, and fast grew into a €1.7bn internationally recognised enterprise. It is a business with back-bone which has survived the double-dip recession, and the Praesepe/Gauselman merge is set to cement this company into UK gaming history.

We mentioned the fact that the largest bingo club in Britain is also part of the Praesepe/Gauselman deal, so, feel that now might be an appropriate time to mention a little bingo aside. The future of UK bingo is also about to change, with the resignation of Paul Talboys from the Bingo Association. Miles Baron is the new appointee, and hopefully with this new blood will come some radical changes in what we believe we have seen become a stagnating representative body for bingo.

Bingo has been enjoying a new breath of fresh air online for the past ten or more years, and we would like to see the same happening in the land version of this game. Miles Baron takes up the post today – Monday 8th October – he has a wealth of industry experience, after leading as Sales and Marketing Director of Mecca Bingo since November 2006, and is no stranger to the Association.

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