Launches and sign-ups 25 June 2014
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (19 June to 25 June 2014)
Coral launches one-minute in-play markets
Operator bolsters in-running football offer with short-term markets from Las Vegas-based supplier Metric Gaming
Coral Interactive has debuted a new in-play product that offers customers the chance to place bets on markets lasting no more than 60 seconds.
Coral is the first operator to go live with Las Vegas-based Metric Gaming’s SuperLive product, which monitors live in-play events to generate short-term betting opportunities.
Customers can bet on what event will occur in the next 60-seconds of play with options including corner, offside, booking and a goal, while a market for what set piece will be next awarded is also available.
According to Coral Interactive’s recently appointed sportsbook director Keith O’Loughlin, the move comes amid an “evolution” in in-running betting with customers demanding an increased number of short-term markets.
Paddy Power seals ITV Twitter deal
Paddy Power is to tweet ‘near-live’ World Cup football highlights to its army of Twitter followers after agreeing a deal with the social media giant and UK television broadcaster ITV.
The agreement, brokered by media group Omnicom’s M2M agency, will see both ITV and Paddy Power tweet out as many as 10 highlights per game for the remainder of the tournament with the video clips sponsored by the Irish bookie.
The tweets will then be amplified by Twitter’s recently developed Amplify division, which will use customer data to target people based on their tweets, location and who they follow.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Rational Group plots Spanish casino launch
PokerStars owner Rational Group is preparing to launch casino games for the first time in Spain with a Spanish debut for the Full Tilt brand believed to be on the cards.
Rational, which recently agreed to a $4.9bn takeover deal with Amaya Gaming, launched its first casino products earlier this year in the UK and selected markets through its Full Tilt brand.
And the firm is now planning to extend its casino operations into Spain with Rational obtaining a temporary licence from the Spanish regulator late last week.
William Hill partners with Mirror for racing site
UK newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror has launched a new betting-focused racing website via an exclusive partnership with William Hill.
Mirrorracing.com, which was unveiled last week, displays the William Hill price for each runner on the site’s race card listings and, when clicked, directs customers through to a William Hill bet slip.
A William Hill banner detailing a new account offer is also prominently displayed on a site which has been optimised for mobile and tablet.
Sportech partners with Resorts Casino in New Jersey
Sportech looks set to enter the fray in New Jersey after signing a deal to supply the Resorts Casino with an online casino platform through a joint venture with NYX Gaming.
SNG Interactive, the joint venture between Sportech and NYX Gaming, will provide Resorts with a full suite of casino games but not online poker, with Resorts existing relationship with PokerStars apparently unaffected.
Sportech and NYX will each invest US$2m in the project, and plans to go live to players in the Garden State by January 2015, pending approval from the state regulator.
Bwin.party expands casino portfolio with IGT deal
Bwin.party has signed a deal with software supplier International Game Technology (IGT) as it continues with efforts to expand its third-party games portfolio.
The agreement, which will see the operator integrate a host of IGT’s best performing games, has been made on an international basis with bwin.party to launch the content in New Jersey, throughout regulated Europe, and also via its dot.com sites.
The deal gives bwin.party access to the entire IGT online and mobile games library, which is more than 100 titles, and will be rolling the content out over the coming months.
The Games Company makes debut with Betfair launch
The Games Company, established by former bwin.party developers Hans Winkelmann and Ian Matthews, has launched its first slots titles on Betfair’s gaming tab after collaborating with games specialist Odobo.
Odobo will initially exclusively host Football Crazy and Road to Rio on its platform before the titles are later made available to customers on Leander’s remote game server and Playtech-owned GTS.
Winkelmann, managing director at The Games Company, said Odobo’s experience of developing to tight deadlines provided the studio with the “best option” to deliver the games on time.
Quickspin targets 2015 US market entry
Quickspin is plotting an entry into the US online gambling market with the Swedish game studio in talks with potential partners in the States, eGR has learned.
Chief executive Daniel Lindberg told eGR the slots supplier was encouraged by the discussions so far and that he was confident the company would enter the market by 2015.
“We’ve made some good progress so far despite it being a tricky market to enter and as a smaller company we need to partner with a company with an established presence and knows the ins and outs of the market,” he said.
Marathonbet signs second Premier League sponsorship
Marathonbet has signed its second sponsorship agreement with an English Premier League football club after agreeing a “long-term” deal with West Ham United.
Financial details and the precise length of the deal are undisclosed, however Marathonbet will become West Ham United’s official betting partner and the title sponsor of an annual pre-season match known as The Marathonbet Cup.
“We’re delighted to have reached an agreement with West Ham United,” Graham Luke, CEO at Marathonbet, said. “The club is known throughout the world for its proud history and its loyal, passionate fan base.”
FSB Technology integrates with Bit8
FSB Technology’s managed sport betting product will be available to Bit8’s clients after the pair agreed a deal to integrate the sportsbook into the provider’s gaming platform.
Bit8 will offer FSB Tech, which manages the end-to-end sportsbook operation, to its client base as its preferred sports betting platform provider.
FSB Tech was launched last year by GameAccount Network founder David McDowell and currently provides its services to Genting and The Guardian newspaper.
Technology provider Oddslife has signed a deal with three Greek media companies to launch Tipmaster.gr on its social sports betting platform.
Satellite TV broadcaster Novasports,gr, radio owner NOVASport-FM 94,6 and sports newspaper SportDay teamed up to launch the social prediction game on web, iOS and Facebook.
“The passion for sport in Greece means that Tipmaster.gr has found a good home and we couldn’t have chosen better partners than Novasports.gr and NOVASport-FM 94,6, given their expertise and audience,” Rasmus Sojmark, Oddslife CEO and founder, said.
“We will provide them with a market leading platform, consultancy and local country support and in return they provide us with marketing budgets and local operational expertise which are invaluable to any local partnership of this size,” he added.
Asia-facing operator Bodog has launched its latest live dealer Blackjack game Zone21 as it looks to “rip up the rule book” of online casino.
The new title has been designed to increase the number of players that can be involved in the game in the same hand while also reducing the wait times.
“To us Zone21 is the nearest we can make the product while allowing everybody, not just a select few, to play,” Bodog’s casino product director, Bill Hu, said.
“The early figures are very encouraging and the product is a great addition to Zone Baccarat which is already our most popular live dealer game,” he added.