Barcrest Group Limited specializes in the developing, manufacturing and marketing of gaming equipment to the European and UK amusement industries. The company is world-renowned for its superior products that boast premier workmanship and design. The Barcrest Group offers SWP gaming cabinets, gaming terminals based on servers, and video cabinets with multi game features.
History of the Barcrest Group
The Barcrest Group has been a formidable presence in the gaming industry for over 40 years since its launch in 1968. The headquarters of the Barcrest Group is situated in the UK in Ashton-under-Lyne. The company has provided gaming equipment to bingo clubs, arcades, elite private member clubs and pubs.
The management at the Barcrest Group is extremely particular about providing only the finest gaming solutions to its valuable customers. The company was acquired by International Gaming Technology (IGT) in the later part of the 1990s. Under the latter’s leadership, Barcrest emerged as one of the largest gaming software and solution providers in the gambling industry.
In Netherlands and the UK, the design centers owned and managed by the Barcrest Group manufacture an assortment of high-quality games that enhance the real money income levels of the customers. Barcrest Group is famous for forging meaningful partnerships with several companies in Europe so as to create a niche for itself in today’s rapidly changing market.
IGT announced its decision to put Barcrest up for sale last year due to undisclosed reasons. It was Scientific Games Corporation that acquired the Barcrest Group for over $65 million. The primary cash consideration amounted to almost $55 million along with additional payments of over $4 million.
Scientific Games, which is a world-renowned company that provides gaming solutions to more than 45 countries, regarded the deal as one of the smartest business decisions as Barcrest would significantly contribute to the revenue of the former. Soon after the acquisition was announced, IGT released a press statement declaring that Scientific Games was the perfect choice of a new home for the Barcrest Group.
The release further stated that both companies would blend comfortably together as they have the same goals. The deal allowed IGT to concentrate and specialize in other areas of significant interest to the company. The decision to sell the Barcrest subsidiary, according to IGT, was to not only benefit the shareholders interest but would also be detrimental to the business progress of both companies.
Earlier in 2012, Barcrest decided to step out from the analogue business, which was met with widespread criticism. According to industry pundits, the company, which decided to shut down the manufacturing unit for reel-based AWPs, was making a huge mistake. Barcrest is synonymous with innovation and creativity, which in most parts was due to its superior reel-based games and talented personnel including gaming developers and software engineers. This was a move that was said to be affecting everyone in the gaming and gambling industry as it would adversely affect the portfolio of games that could be offered to customers.
One of the chief reasons for the popularity of the Barcrest Group is its commitment to excellence and innovation. The company has always been one of the pioneers in the gaming industry and constantly released products that are never-before-seen, easy and safe to use.
Barcrest primarily specialized in microprocessor-based software systems and gaming products. The range of bingo and arcade games was also widely used across several land-based locations such as pubs, casinos and clubs. However, the competent management team at Barcrest Group realized that the coming years would require a technologically advanced suite of games.
And so it was in this manner, that the company started to venture into the highly profitable arena of online and mobile gambling. Before this, Telecommunications and IT department of Barcrest engineered the requisite software to accomplish the needful. Barcrest Group launched its comprehensively integrated server-based gaming solutions provider ICONIC sb. This was a revolutionary concept in the gaming technology era, which offered a centralized management system for the gaming terminals. The talented personnel at Barcrest designed the ICONIC sb system to specifically cater to the environment of gaming machines.
The company’s impressive portfolio of products for land-based machines notwithstanding, Barcrest also offers an assortment of successful games through its mobile platform. Players were allowed mobile access to slots such as Monty’s Millions and Rainbow Riches with additional features such as grand jackpots and bonus rounds.
The Barcrest Group signed a partnership deal with GameAccount to release an assortment of online games to be an able competitor in the rapidly growing e-market. The emergence of Spain and Italy, with legalized jurisdictions, has casino operators and gaming developers scrambling to offer a range of select games.
GameAccount was thrilled with the partnership deal as it is now in a position to cater the increasing number of regulated gaming markets across Europe. The extensive game portfolio of Barcrest is exactly what the corporate customers of GameAccount are searching for. One of the first games that were launched is Crown Jewels, a Barcrest product, which opened to rave reviews and continues to run successfully at several online casinos.
Barcrest Group, at present, may only have a reasonable suite of online games. However, the reason the company is opted for by several world-class casino sites is for the superior quality of these games. One of the casinos that offer Barcrest games is Paddy Power which is favorite casino site among online gamblers due to its impressive portfolio of games and customer service.
The product flexibility of Barcrest Group allows third-party system integration which is a tremendous boon for operators utilizing different technology. Earlier, Barcrest was operating with almost 5100 gaming terminals, but ever since its acquisition by Scientific Games, it is now part of almost 30,000 gaming terminal that offer gaming operations and services.
Barcrest Group is well-aware that it is not only the games but also the customer service and security of its players that will keep it afloat in the years to come. The company works with several organizations such as Gamble Aware which provides expert assistance to ensure responsible gambling and gaming.