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LAUNCHES
LAUNCHES
Intralot South Africa
announced the launch of online and mobile fixed-odds sports betting sites, which went live on 1 June under the company’s JustBet brand, after it was granted a fixedodds sports betting licence by the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board in January.
BWIN.PARTY REVEALS SOCIAL GAMING STRATEGY
Operator to invest up to €40m in social over next two years
Bwin.party has announced details of its social gaming strategy, setting up Win Interactive, a dedicated, Gibraltar- and Ukraine-based development studio as part of an investment of up to €40m in the vertical over the next two years, with the ?rst apps developed by the new subsidiary to go live this summer. The news follows eGaming Review exclusively revealing that bwin.party would acquire Ukraine development studio Orneon Limited as part of its entry into the social space. The operator also revealed it will acquire a number of assets from Velasco Services Incorporated – a separate business to Orneon – for up to €18m in cash, of which €14m has already been paid. These assets, from both companies, include a number of existing B2B social gaming contracts and software engineering resources. eGR understands Orneon was involved in the development of Mytopia’s Bingo Island as a ‘hidden object developer’, meaning it
worked on elements of the game’s design without owning the IP of its work. Win Interactive will operate on a freemium model, with revenues derived from the sale of virtual currency and virtual gifts, as well as advertising income from banner ads, paid search and special offers. In a joint statement, bwin.party coCEOs Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger said: “We’ve chosen a “build and partner”strategy, one that provides us with the resources and management expertise to execute our planned extension into social gaming – an exciting and fast growing area of digital entertainment that is the latest addition to our business strategy.” The social gaming division, which is set to impact bwin.party’s EBITDA through additional costs of €5-€10m in 2012 and 2013, will be overseen by Teufelberger, but day-to-day operations will be led by former Mytopia CEO Barak Rabinowitz. Read more on bwin.party’s social strategy on page 26
Betfair launched a fixed odds
sportsbook for UK customers. The product has been integrated onto the exchange platform, allowing bettors to switch between the two different prices using a ‘price switch’ tab.
PKR launched a fantasy poker app on Facebook, where players select a team of eight players from a list of 180 competing in the poker World Series. Paddy Power established a
presence in Latam, becoming the first sportsbook operator to offer live streaming of horse racing from the South American continent through a deal with Satellite Information Services.
SIGN-UPS
Bodog88 completed the
ONLINE SLOTS TO LAUNCH IN ITALY
Operators prepare to apply for slots approval
Italian regulator AAMS has opened up the
acquisition of the Bodog Poker Network for an undisclosed sum.
Sports data software
provider Betgenius strengthened its ties with Betfair, extending its partnership to provide the operator with its Connextra software to run live video adverts.
licensing process for operators to apply for approval to operate online slots in the market, with the ?rst ?rms to go live on two ?xed dates at the beginning of December. In new guidelines released by AAMS, the regulator explains the launch of online slots will be “limited to the ?rst (3rd) and third Monday (17th) of December 2012,” and from January 2013, companies will be able to launch the ?rst working day after securing approval. The decision to set a ?xed launch date mirrors the regulation of cash poker and online casino, both of which were approved in February 2011, but did not launch until
July of the same year. This was seen as a way of ensuring all operators had a period to prepare for the launch and to avoid giving large European operators a competitive advantage over their Italian counterparts. The long awaited approval of online slots follows last month’s European Commission rati?cation of a ministerial decree to allow exchange betting in Italy, ?rst introduced by AAMS in January this year. Following the legalisation of cash poker and casino, skill games, card games and games of chance have almost singlehandedly propped up the Italian egaming market, which has seen rapid decline in almost every other vertical.
Gaming suppliers Bally and
Aristocrat Technologies entered into a partnership with Shuffle Master and online poker network Ongame, so they can pool poker content and liquidity.
Cozy Games agreed a deal to supply Rank Interactive with its Cozy Connect mobile platform, allowing operators to integrate third-party gaming content onto the platform alongside Cozy’s own products.
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