UK media giant signs Dab Gaming for social bingo launch
Northern & Shell will launch OK! Magazine-branded mobile bingo in Q2 with more games to follow
The owner of some of the UK’s leading media brands including the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! Magazine is entering the social gaming market in partnership with Dab Gaming, eGaming Review has learned.
B2B content supplier Dab, founded by former Mfuse CEO and Cashcade FD Geoff Read, will initially supply Northern & Shell with its freemium bingo game Bingo Dab and there are plans to add social casino products later in the year.
The first launch, due in Q2, will be an OK! Magazine-branded version of the multi-player bingo game which will be heavily promoted within the celebrity news publication, as well as Northern Shell’s other titles and websites.
The product will be available across tablet and smartphone devices from Google Play and Apple’s Appstore.
Dab will then roll out versions of the game and other social casino products for further brands in Northern & Shell’s portfolio, under a revenue share arrangement.
Northern & Shell publish a wide range of newspapers and magazines including the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, OK! Magazine, Star Magazine and New! Magazine. It also operates the Health Lottery.
“Freemium gaming represents an enormous opportunity for major media Brands like OK!, Express and Star Newspapers to share in the exploding freemium gaming sector already worth billions per annum,” Read told eGR.
“Having carefully evaluated the market, Dab were the stand-out partner for Northern & Shell’s freemium ambitions,” Stan Myerson, joint MD Express Newspaper Group, said.
“Their first game is monetising very strongly and we are very excited to now offer this and further games currently in development to our millions of loyal print and online readers.”
In a similar deal, Dab Gaming today also announced it has signed a contract with Tacit Media to create and operate freemium games products for the group.
The news represents another example in a growing trend of media firms launching egaming products.
In the past year the Guardian has launched – and closed – an online sportsbook, while in Italy, Playech signed a five-year deal to launch an online sportsbook and casino for La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy’s largest daily newspaper.
London’s City A.M. newspaper has launched a mobile casino and Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me has done the same.