How AGS is integrating European learnings into its US growth strategy

Zoe Ebling, vice president of the interactive division at AGS, reveals the company is leveraging its European success to strengthen its strategy and operations in the US market.

AGS’ impressive rise continued in 2024, achieving growth of 45% across Europe, despite the regulations on the continent getting increasingly tight.

Ebling believes Las Vegas-headquartered AGS’ success in Europe makes the company something of an outlier among North American suppliers.

Additionally, the European growth is providing useful learnings that AGS is taking back across the Atlantic and applying in the US, creating a truly integrated global business.

“The benefit that I see in being in European markets is the knowledge and the long-term strategy and how that’s going to impact our North American business,” Ebling told iGB. “If you can make your product work in a heavily saturated market that has intense regulations, we can be successful anywhere.

“So, part of our European strategy is actually helping build sophistication in our North American business.”

According to Ebling, the sophistication of AGS’ game studio means it does not experience the same impact of changes in regulation as some of its competitors.

“We don’t just implement a regulation and say, ‘Whoop-de-doo,’” Ebling continues. “We say, ‘Hey, this regulation is coming, we’ve got a flexible product, we know it’s going to impact this portion of how a player engages with the game, this is how we’re going to reconfigure stuff to make sure that it’s still an enjoyable experience for players.’

“I think many other suppliers are just slapping on regulations and hoping that they can stay in the market, where we’re actually really working to ensure that our games still have the experience that players would expect despite regulation changes.”

Europe expansion on the cards with one eye on US regulation

With AGS flourishing in Europe, it is therefore understandable Ebling and her team are setting their sights on further expansion into the region.

Ebling believes AGS is well-placed to tap into European populations’ desire for a “classic American experience”, boasting some of the best games in that department.

“The markets that I think are really interesting are going to be markets like Greece,” Ebling explains. “Markets that are generally pretty tough to get into, but they don’t have as much competition as markets like Finland, or some of the other grey markets that are regulating.

“I think we can just be a bit stronger when you don’t have as many people in the puddle.”

The situation in the US is also piquing AGS’ interest, despite many lamenting the slow progress of iGaming regulation.

Ebling believes there could be a “flurry” of states regulating online gambling, driven by state governments’ economic needs.

“I think there are a lot of reasons why states won’t come online, but I do think that as our economy changes and state budget deficits continue to increase, iGaming will look more and more attractive for state revenue,” Ebling continues.

“I think the next state that legalises will kick off a wave of legalisation. I don’t think you’ll ever see 10 states come on at once, but I do believe that we are close.”

Diversification setting AGS apart

For Ebling and AGS, the goal now is to become a leader in the online space.

Ebling hopes to achieve that by capitalising on the company’s diversified product offering, allowing AGS to reach the niche players that exist in a digital space.

In that respect, Ebling compares the company’s strategy to that of Netflix, which took the niche genre of anime and ran with it, achieving success by attracting a large base of loyal followers, becoming an “anime powerhouse” in Ebling’s view.

AGS can achieve something similar, Ebling believes, explaining: “For us, we don’t just have video slots, we have stepper slots, we have concatenation, we have table games, we have an arcade style of content.

“So because we’re able to offer such a wide portfolio, we’re able to really identify with a wide player base and we have creative marketing strategies for how we cross players in between our different product verticals.

“I don’t think you’ll see another supplier that’s able to dominate in the product verticals we’ve created.”