32Red chief happy with progress of Hills damages hearing
Ed Ware expects findings from trademark dispute case to arrive next month.
The chief executive of 32Red has told eGaming Review that the operator is “quite happy” with the progress of the damages hearing in relation to its trademark dispute with William Hill.
Ed Ware explained that “The main issue is it went as expected, and some interesting points were made with some interesting answers from the defendants.”
The hearing took place across a two-week period beginning in late February, and Ware expects a final judgement to be handed down next month, bringing to an end a process dating back to 2009.
He also noted that “I do think a trademark dispute going to damages is a pretty rare bird – there was a lot of new ground being broken.”
32Red first brought a trademark infringement case against Hills in August 2009, on the grounds that Hills’ 32Vegas brand confused players who might have opened accounts with the Hills brand under the mistaken impression that they were registering with 32Red.
At the time, Ware claimed: “William Hill have been benefiting from this while we have been losing out. It is a big organisation trading on our name and reputation and we will look to recover appropriate damages and compensation.”
Hills subsequently withdrew the 32Vegas brand the following year, with 32Red attributing a performance uptick to the development, while 2011 saw a High Court injunction rule that the London-listed operator could not use the 32Vegas trademark anywhere in the European Union.
32Red’s recovery in H2 2009 was driven by a double-digit half-on-half revenue increase from the operator’s core casino business, and today’s FY 2012 results saw the business record a third successive year of revenue growth.
Revenues for 2013 to date are up 13% year-on-year, though Ware suggested that underlying revenues are closer to 20% as the corresponding period in 2012 saw revenues grow 69% year-on-year due in part to promotions which are not running in 2013.
The operator has seen a strong early performance from its Italian operation – launched late last year – though the CEO noted “Whilst we’re happy with Italy the numbers from there are still small.”
Of Spain, where a consultation into regulated online slots was opened earlier this year, Ware said: “We’re keen to see what they end up doing but we’re not holding our breath.
“We had the opportunity to enter first time around and we absolutely were not interested – in fact Spain is a closed market for us right now,” he added.
Meanwhile Ware also expressed his satisfaction with mobile, with the contribution of the channel to group revenues in the double digits in 2012.
“I’d always caveat talking about mobile by saying casino is different to sports betting. It’s not the same sort of impulse to bet, plus of course the entertainment is happening on your device in contrast to a football game or whatever,” he said.
“It’s a great way of recruiting customers and as devices become more sophisticated, and we do as much as we can with the technology along with our partners, stickability will improve on those devices as well,” he added.