GameAccount and Foxwoods ink US online partnership
Deal features B2B component allowing Foxwoods owner to offer online gaming platform to US casino operators
The owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino have entered into a partnership with software supplier GameAccount Network to launch B2B and B2C online gaming services in the US market.
The agreement announced today will see Foxwood owners, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (MPTN), initially launch a freeplay offering on a Foxwoods-branded site using GameAccount Network’s gaming platform and integrated content. This will be followed by real-money gambling when regulation permits.
GameAccount and MPTN will also collaborate to provide turnkey B2B solutions to other gaming operators throughout the US initially on a freeplay basis, but with the ability to scale up to real-money when regulation permits. The deal will look to build on MPTN’s “leadership role in the US gaming market” to establish the strategic partnership as a key supplier in the regulated US market.
“The Mashantucket Pequot Tribe has long been a leader in brick and mortar casino operations, and with the help of GameAccount we aim to take the same leadership position in regulated online gaming in the US,” Rodney Butler, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal chairman, said. “Our shared vision unites GameAccount’s technical capabilities with our Foxwoods brand and our leadership in casino management.”
Foxwoods.com receives around one million visitors each month and MPTN said its Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise (MPGE) was “uniquely positioned” to enter the US egaming space as both an operator and a supplier. Connecticut-based Foxwoods is the world’s largest resort casino, measured in terms of gaming space and slot machines, while its 7,200 slot machines is the largest number operated by a single casino in the world.
GameAccount’s gaming platform comprises skill, casino and mobile games and features third-party content from the likes of IGT and SHFL, with a focus on online versions of popular land-based casino games. It also features an automatic upgrade path for real-money internet gaming.
“As one of the first European internet gaming system suppliers that moved into the United States in advance of intra-State regulation in 2011, we have developed the specialist experience, expertise and technical functionality required to serve Foxwoods from a hardware platform located on-property in Connecticut,” Dermot Smurfit, GameAccount’s chief executive, said.
“We’re delighted that this experience and our unique capabilities will support our new strategic partner Foxwoods as they build a new internet gaming business in one of the world’s most exciting emerging regulated internet gaming markets.”
MPTN agreed a similar technology partnership with Sportingbet last year and planned to announce it at the G2E event in October, before the online operator was subject to an takeover bid by William Hill and GVC. Under that deal, gaming content from third-party suppliers would have been available through Sportingbet’s open platform, while MPTN would have been responsible for marketing and licensing the platform to other operators in the US.
GameAccount entered the US market last year through a deal with Australian slot manufacturer Aristocrat to launch an integrated gaming system called nLive. In April 2012, GameAccount and Aristocrat launched their first joint freeplay online casino website hosted in Nevada, Myliveonlinecasino.com for the Maryland Live! Casino, while in October Aristocrat launched a freeplay casino for Michigan’s Island Resort & Casino.
But in November, Aristocrat spent a multimillion dollar fee to acquire the right to replicate the nLive system without GameAccount’s involvement. Despite having to rely in part on GameAccount’s technical staff as part of the integration, education and ongoing maintenance process, the deal allowed Aristocrat to effectively “own” its own independent gaming platform.