Zitro International – American Success

Zitro International has been prominent in many worldwide markets since its 2007 founding. The Barcelona-based supplier has been the dominant supplier in its home base of Spain, as well as the No. 1 slot supplier in Mexico and a leading player in Argentina, Peru, Columbia and other markets.

But two years ago, founder and owner Johnny Ortiz got the attention of many in the North American market when he tapped Derik Mooberry, who had been CEO of the former Scientific Games (now Light & Wonder) and a longtime executive of its legacy company Bally Technologies, to import Zitro’s success to the North American Class III market.

Since 2022, Mooberry has led the effort to establish Zitro USA in U.S. markets, beyond the relatively small contingent of slot machines the company already had in the States.

As Mooberry notes, after establishing a Class III beachhead in the U.S., the company has made steady progress.

“The U.S. has been a great story for us,” Mooberry says. “In fact, we’re up to over 100 casinos now. A couple of years ago I think that number was probably 30, so we’ve tripled the number of casinos that have our offerings.”

Those new markets started in tribal casinos throughout the U.S., he says. “Our strategy has always been to start with the tribal market, then we’re going to expand into the commercial markets.”

Those commercial applications, begun late last year, are now beginning to bear fruit. “Our license is pending currently in Pennsylvania,” Mooberry says. “We’ve just been approved in the state of New Jersey, where we’ve been granted a temporary license and authority to submit our product to their lab.”

Other major markets are pending—Mooberry says Zitro is on the verge of licensing in Colorado and the Michigan commercial market in Detroit. “Later this year, we will be submitting to the core Midwest states I call the ‘I’s’—Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Starting next year, we’ll take on Mississippi, Louisiana and other states in the South, and late next year, our goal is to start in Nevada.”

One of the big reasons Zitro is ready to expand in the U.S. is an R&D team that has improved its ability to create games for U.S. markets.

“The Spain team has increased dramatically in size,” Mooberry says. “We’ve also established technical talent in our new campus in India, and we’re actively looking into creating a studio here in the U.S. Meanwhile, we feel we’ve got plenty of content. Going forward, we’d like to see diversification in the products.”

He says he saw the benefits of a diverse range of products when he was with Bally, which had game designers in all corners of the world, each creating games for a dedicated market. “That’s why, when the time is right, we will absolutely have a U.S. game development studio,” he says.

Diversification in the U.S. product mix already has begun, and that’s a fact that will be on full display in October at the Global Gaming Expo.

Accordingly, Zitro is planning a new booth layout and, more importantly, a new booth location on the main aisle, alongside the top suppliers in the U.S. market. The newly prominent location will accommodate major new product introductions for Zitro, beginning with the launch of three new cabinets and continuing with the debut of games featuring the most dominant play mechanics of the day.

New Forms, New Game Styles

At G2E, Zitro will debut the Concept line of cabinets, consisting of three new form factors: the Deluxe Concept Prime will feature a 55-inch flat-screen 4K monitor, and the Concept Prime J will feature a 55-inch J-curved screen. There also will be a Concept Deluxe triple-screen cabinet featuring three 32-inch displays.

The new series will augment the existing Glare line of cabinets. According to Mooberry, Zitro will display over 40 slot themes in its G2E booth between the Concept and Glare cabinet lines. Most of the new games will be transferable between the two cabinet styles. “Customers are going to be able to see the portability of the game content,” Mooberry says. “You’re going to see games that work on both Concept and Glare.

“The new Concept cabinet is wider, bolder, and brighter in presentation, enhancing the content. You’ll be able to run the Fu Pots/Fu Frog game themes in the Glare lineup, or if the customer prefers they can run the game in the new Concept cabinets. We have noticed in the industry that the size of the cabinet does matter. Therefore, we felt it was important to have a large-form-factor cabinet line that complements the traditional cabinets.”

Mooberry adds that Zitro will present a wide range of sign packages to go with the diverse cabinet range, as well as a lot of new game content. “You’re going to see great diversity and depth of new content,” he says.

One of the highlights will be the launch of Wonder Dream, which Mooberry calls Zitro’s “marquee game” this year. He says it’s designed for players looking for a different and dynamic gaming experience.

“All jackpots can be won with one jackpot symbol within the Bonus Free Games,” Mooberry explains. “The free games feature two simultaneous and independent free game rounds with extra pot/feature accumulators for each of the reel sets.”

He adds that the popular three-pot feature provides enhancements to the free spins.

A similar feature can be found in Fairyland Quest, in which two metamorphic mushrooms and a magic fairy above the reels can be combined, granting multipliers, extra spins, and double reel sets. Any of the accumulators can be triggered individually awarding the feature.

The multiplier enhancement sends a roaming frame across the reel array that applies multipliers to selected symbols. The extra-spins enhancement extends the free-game round, and the Fairy enhancement doubles the reel array.

The two reel arrays operate independently of one another, and the jackpots can be hit on both.

Another highlight game is Legendary Sword, featured on the 55-inch Concept Prime-J at the show. In this game, three metamorphic pot fillers are obtainable in the Bonus Link. It is a three-by-five, any-ways base game. Any or all of the three pots can burst at random to trigger the bonus round.

The pots are marked “Honor,” “Magic Sword” and “Glory.” The Honor pot applies multipliers of 2X, 3X, and 4X to cash-on-reels symbols in the bonus link feature.

There also is the chance to expand the reel array. Reaching thresholds of 14, 18, and 20 locked Bonus Link cash-on-reels symbols each unlocks an extra row, to a maximum five-by-six array. “You’re collecting prizes along the way, so you have the anticipation factor of seeing what you’re going to be able to win,” Mooberry says.

Magic Sword, the blue pot symbol, is an entertaining Bonus Link enhancement. Any Link symbol that appears in the center column will be duplicated, doubling prizes and making it easier to unlock the top rows. “It’s duplicating any prizes that show up on the center reel, so it becomes pretty exciting,” says Mooberry.

The Glory enhancement adds three spins to extend the Bonus Link feature after the normal free spins end, until the completion of the feature.

Filling all 15 spots on the bottom three-by-five reel array triggers a wheel bonus. A wheel spins to award either the Grand or the Mega progressive, with one of the two prizes guaranteed.

Zitro also will debut Triple Charm Journey, another Bonus Link game with a three-pot filler enhancement. In this case, the pots are marked “Enigma,” “Collect” and “Rise.”

Every time the Enigma feature appears it will increase its value, and then boost the rewards of certain Link symbols. With the Collect feature activated, it will accumulate the rewards from all the Link symbols. In each game with the Rise feature, the player will see how the symbols increase in value on each spin. The Mega prize is awarded with 15 symbols filling up the reel array in the bonus round.

“With the flexibility offered in our progressive configurations, we can link the top-level Mega jackpot, regardless of theme,” Mooberry explains. “We’ve been promoting and doing these little lounge concepts internationally for some time with great success. We’re putting anywhere from 10 to 40 games in a dedicated area, and we’re linking the top-level progressive across all games. It creates unique, fun ‘Mega Lounges’ for players where you’re getting these progressives that hit fairly frequently when you’re linking them across that many games.”

He adds that Zitro can also easily adapt any of its games to support a wide-area progressive. “At the moment we are seeing great success across Panama with a wide-area setup across multiple locations with one of our game titles, Mighty Hammer Ultimate,” Mooberry says, “and other countries across Latin America are also in the process of selecting a wide-area progressive link.”

As Zitro continues to increase its footprint in North America, Mooberry says “the company will maintain and continue to grow our market-leading positions in Mexico and Latin America, and our growth strategy across the EMEA region as well as our digital footprint in those markets. Our digital division has been booming, and has nearly doubled in revenue year over year.”

With offices in Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, France, Malta, Bulgaria, India and elsewhere, Zitro is a well-established multinational supplier.

“We have built this sense of community and strong values, and we’ve built a good leadership team around the world,” Mooberry says. “That’s been to our benefit.”

This year’s G2E is the next step in expanding that community in the U.S.