888 poised for Italian slots launch
Operator anticipates being among first wave of licensees in December this year.
888 is confident of being among the first wave of operators to be awarded an online slots licence in Italy, chief executive Brian Mattingley has revealed to eGaming Review.
The country’s regulatory authority AAMS has announced plans to issue licences in two specific windows during December, although slots with non-spinning reels are already permitted due to a loophole in the country’s legislation and have been released by the likes of GameAccount Network.
Mattingley said: “We are ready, we are compliant, and we will be in on the first wave without a doubt. We have spent a lot of time and resources on making sure we’re compliant and making sure we have our product ready to go.”
He also revealed that 888 would launch its Italian poker network “around the turn of the year,” however he was less enthusiastic about slots in Spain, where the DGOJ has shelved plans to consider a rollout this year, instead revealing that it will reassess the situation in early 2013.
Consequently 888’s Spanish casino offering, of which slots comprised “at least 50%” in the dot.com era, has been unable to keep pace with a thriving dot.es poker offering which trails only PokerStars for liquidity and for which Mattingley adds, “We are seeing is good growth in revenue month on month so there is no slowdown.”
The same cannot be said for France, where the operator’s joint network with Microgaming is virtually non-existent in liquidity terms following the merger and subsequent migration to the Partouche Network of PokerXtrem and MyPok.
With regards to the dot.fr market the CEO noted: “It’s not a big player for us, we’ve never really focused on that and the taxation is punitive. We will review our situation in France continually, as we always have done, but investment is minimal at the moment.
Mattingley was speaking in the light of 888’s eighth successive quarter of revenue growth, with the Q3 total approaching US$92m and Spanish poker revenues surpassing pre-regulation numbers even accounting for the payment of back-taxes.