NOVOMATIC Ranked Austria’s No.2 Corporate Brand For The Seventh Consecutive Year In EBI’s 2026 Austrian Brand Value Study

A gaming supplier sitting second only to Red Bull says something about where reputation now sits on the balance sheet.

NOVOMATIC has again been ranked the second most valuable corporate brand in Austria, according to the European Brand Institute’s 2026 Austrian Brand Value Study. The NOVOMATIC brand value 2026 figure reached EUR 3.938 billion, up 2.0% on the previous year, keeping the gaming technology group behind only Red Bull for the seventh consecutive year. The company also held second place in the Sustainable Brand Ranking. The result lands during a busy stretch for the group, which recently strengthened its regional leadership with the appointment of Juergen Keller as Managing Director of NOVOMATIC Americas.

What the NOVOMATIC brand value 2026 result actually shows

The study is now in its 23rd edition. For the 2026 ranking, the European Brand Institute assessed 180 brand-name companies across 16 industries, more than 45% of them Austrian-owned, using the international ISO 10668 and ISO 20671 standards. That methodology matters. It moves the result out of promotional territory and into something closer to an audited number, which is precisely why a gaming supplier holding this position is worth a second look.

NOVOMATIC has ranked among Austria’s most valuable corporate brands consistently since 2020. Seven years locked in second place is not a fluke of a single strong year. It is a pattern.

Why a supplier brand ranking carries weight in gaming

Here is the part the press release will not spell out. Gaming technology operates under reputational pressure that most industries never face. Regulators scrutinise it. Banks and payment providers price risk into every relationship. Licensing bodies weigh the character of a company alongside its products.

Against that backdrop, an independently verified brand valuation becomes commercial currency. It is not a vanity metric. It reassures the institutions that decide whether a company can move money, hold licences, and expand across borders.

The scale behind the brand is part of what makes it hold. The NOVOMATIC AG Group is, as a producer and operator, one of the largest gaming technology groups in the world and employs more than 26,000 people. The Group was founded by the industrialist Professor Johann F. Graf in 1980 and has locations in about 50 countries, and exports innovative gaming equipment, system solutions, lottery system solutions, and services to more than 130 countries. The Group operates gaming terminals and video lottery terminals (VLTs) in its more than 2,000 own electronic and regular casinos, as well as via rental models. Brand strength across a footprint that size quietly reduces friction in every market it touches.

The ESG placement is the real signal

Stefan Krenn, a member of the NOVOMATIC AG Executive Board, tied the result to long-term strategy and the pairing of economic success with responsible business practice. Read past the corporate phrasing and there is a genuine point underneath it.

The second-place finish in the Sustainable Brand Ranking, supported by an ESG programme that outside rating agencies regularly confirm, is arguably the more valuable line in the whole announcement. In tightly regulated markets, verified responsibility credentials are turning into a supplier’s licence to operate. They open doors that product quality alone no longer opens on its own. The group’s influence also reaches beyond its own walls, as seen when Ainsworth appointed NOVOMATIC’s Birgit Wimmer as Chair, a sign of how far its leadership bench now carries weight across the sector.

What operators should take from this

For a platform head or content director choosing suppliers, brand durability of this kind is a proxy for stability. A partner holding measurable value across seven years and multiple independent audits is, in plain terms, a lower-risk one. That affects procurement conversations, contract confidence, and how comfortably a business ties its roadmap to a given vendor.

There is a caveat worth naming. Brand value is a lagging indicator. It reflects strength already built, not strength guaranteed ahead, and a single regulatory shock in a major market can move perception faster than any study can measure.

Future outlook

Expect the ESG dimension to do more heavy lifting over the next 6 to 12 months. As regulated markets tighten and institutional partners grow more selective, suppliers across the sector will increasingly treat verified responsibility and brand strength as commercial infrastructure rather than reputation management. NOVOMATIC has shown what that looks like at scale. Others will follow.

The trophy will be forgotten by autumn. The signal beneath it, that reputation in gaming is now a measurable business asset, is the part that lasts.

Source: NOVOMATIC