Novomatic’s curiosity in Ainsworth began in 2013 after Austrian and German authorities started to impose new restrictions on poker machine and on line casino operators, forcing the corporate to look offshore for progress.

As The Australian Financial Review reported on the time, Johann Graf, certainly one of Austria’s richest males and the proprietor of Novomatic, dispatched his son Thomas Graf and gaming government Jens Halle to Sydney to Ainsworth’s modest Silverwater headquarters to check the waters for a potential sale

Ainsworth reported revenues of $143.6 million within the six months to June 30, a 20 per cent improve on the prior corresponding interval. Profit earlier than tax rose 24 per cent to $23.3 million, the corporate reported, though write-offs of investments in Argentina affected the post-tax backside line.