[P R O D U C T
NEWS
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LAUNCHES
LAUNCHES
PokerStars is developing a
mobile-ready version of its fastpaced poker product Zoom.
WINAMAX TO LAUNCH US-FACING POKER OFFERING
Company seeks US partners as application set to go live
French poker operator
Betfair confirmed its plans
to launch a fixed-odds sportsbook offering.
Winamax will launch a free-play poker site targeting the US ahead of potential regulation, and will also go live with a Facebook application, CEO Canel Frichet (pictured) has told eGaming Review. Frichet said the company, which overtook PokerStars to become the leading poker operator in the French market in January, is well placed to become a leading operator in a regulated US market having been able to successfully negotiate the challenging conditions in its current jurisdiction. “The ?scal and regulatory structure is so complex in France that we feel we would know how to navigate any American model, either state-by-state or federal,” she said.
She went on to reveal that Winamax is looking for American partners, and has recently gone live with a US-facing website, with a free-play offering to launch in the coming weeks. This will mark the operator’s ?rst move into a market outside France. Winamax will also launch a Facebook application, with Frichet telling eGR that the company’s proprietary software allows it to respond quickly to new developments in the market: “Our independence is what allows us to be highly reactive, a necessity for any internet company. We develop everything in-house. “A Facebook application will launch [soon], using the same poker network [as the free-play site], and this will be the ?rst time such a high-quality network will be made available on Facebook,” she said.
Unibet became the first operator to go live with Relax Gaming’s ‘Fast Poker’ product.
Social games studio Plumbee, led by Raf Keustermans, betalaunched its first Facebook slot.
bwin.party launched a realmoney poker application for the iPad.
WMS subsidiary Jackpot Party launched FriendSlot, a
free-to-play slots game that uses Facebook friend list data.
SIGN-UPS
Social gaming giant Zynga is reportedly in talks with Wynn Resorts over a potential egaming partnership. Canadian province Manitoba partnered with British
BARCLAYCARD TO IMPOSE GAMBLING TRANSACTION CHARGE
Bets placed using Barclaycard credit card to be hit with 2.99% fee
Payments giant Barclaycard
Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and OpenBet to offer regulated
online gambling to its residents. GBI Racing signed deals with Canadian racetrack operator
is to impose new charges on customers placing a bet using their credit cards, coinciding with a rise in fees for cash withdrawals. From 28 May, customers will be charged a fee of 2.99% – a minimum of £2.99 – each time a card is used to place a bet or gamble. As a result, punters playing a £100 bet would be charged £102.99 in total, paying almost 30% on top of their wager. General withdrawal fees when using a Barclaycard credit card have also risen from 2.5% to 2.99%.
A spokesman for Barclaycard told eGaming Review that the charge was a move to “bring the company in line with the rest of the payments industry”, however he declined to comment on why it had not introduced a charge earlier. Gambling transactions were previously treated as standard purchases and incurred no extra charges. There are now only a handful of banks that do not charge transaction fees, including RBS, which charges a cash interest rate ranging from 27% to 31.9% on gambling transactions, however punters incur no charges on their initial payments.
Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) and Danske Spil, which will see British and
Irish horseracing broadcast in Canada and Denmark.
Enetpulse signed a number
of multi-year tennis data deals with tier-one operators bet365, William Hill and Paddy Power. Swedish software developer
Play’n GO announced a deal
to supply UK-facing operator Quicksilver – operated by Talarius Ltd – with mobile and casino games.
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