ASK Global: Combining gaming industry expertise with future-proof payment solutions
After 25 years with some of the biggest brands in the industry, Fivos Polymniou launched his own gaming solutions company in 2017 under the banner ASK Global, which is now introducing the UK market to Italy’s leading cash handling kiosks.
Exhibiting at EAG for the first time this year, gaming solutions provider ASK Global has introduced itself to the industry in impressive fashion by offering a range of contactless payment kiosks from Italy’s leading cash-handling manufacturer.
So far the company has received great feedback from the market, with director Fivos Polymniou using his years of experience in gaming to supply products that offer direct solutions to the major challenges currently facing the industry. Indeed, his time at Coral, Bally, Leisure Link, FutureLogic and IGT (formerly Gtech) over the past two decades has given Polymniou a deep understanding of gaming systems and payment solutions, which combined with future-proof products and a smartphone management app from VNE, has placed ASK Global in an extremely strong position to assist operators through the current cash-handling evolution. This, of course, is the move towards cashless and contactless payment methods, and it’s a trend that continues to gather pace.
“What’s really interesting about the UK market is that the large operators have seen the value of going cashless in the AGC, largely because they are also international operators who have been cashless in their other venues across the globe,” explained Polymniou. “These operators are taking their customers to cashless in their environment, and what we are doing is offering the same capability to independent operators. The traditional kiosk tends to have a very large footprint, however we have the opportunity to move that forward with a contactless ticketing system on a much smaller footprint, which brings huge benefits to both operator and player.”
Several years in executive management positions at both Leisure Link and IGT have taught Polymniou to not only watch trends, but to act on them. He sees the UK’s move towards cashless as signal for operators to start future-proofing their cash handling solutions, which has inspired ASK Global’s distribution of kiosks that currently service the world’s largest AGC market in Italy. As Italian AGCs are still largely cash businesses, VNE’s King Change, Plus, and Logiko kiosks are made to handle coin and note with maximum efficiency, however it is their contactless payment capability that Polymniou is particularly interested in showing to UK operators. Like many in the industry, he believes cashless is an inevitable future for almost all businesses – but it’s a future he knows ASK Global are extremely well-placed to deliver.
“We can take our customers from thought and concept, all the way to fulfilling the required banking regulations to get the debit card in place,” he continued. “What I’ve learnt from my years in the casino sector is that you need to take the customer all the way through the process, whether its converting machines or using software or card transactions. Customers don’t want to have to go and get services from several different providers, and we provide UK-based support to ensure they don’t have to.”
The ICE exhibition in London this year showed the sheer volume of retail payment solutions providers entering the gaming space, all offering their own answer to the challenge that an increasingly cashless society presents. Furthermore, different banks and data providers all have their own different processes and systems, which ASK Global can help operators navigate to get the best deal for their needs.
“As well as providing the hardware and smartphone management app, we’ll help customers work through that mire of transaction fees, monthly fees, and sim costs,” concluded Polymniou. “If operators are not careful, they could end up paying way over the top on those operating costs when they don’t need to be. We work with all the major contactless providers, so we can lay-out the best options for customers and support them right through to implementation.”
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