Exclusive: Fertitta Interactive launches Ultimate Gaming brand
Social poker set to go live, real-money poker to follow in Nevada if approved.
Fertitta Interactive has announced its new real-money and social gaming B2C brand Ultimate Gaming, eGaming Review can exclusively reveal, a move which has been in the pipeline since the company acquired CyberArts for an undisclosed sum last October.
In conjunction with poker platform and games supplier CyberArts, Fertitta Interactive and Fertitta Entertainment, owner of Las Vegas group Station Casinos, said it was just a week away from unveiling its new social poker game, Ultimate Poker.
Speaking to eGR this evening, Tom Breitling (pictured), co-founder of Fertitta Interactive, said social poker and bingo products would be launched under the Ultimate Gaming brand, and that it would launch real money poker as soon as it obtains a licence to do so.
Fertitta Interactive is one of more than 25 companies to apply for an interactive gaming licence in Nevada as the state looks to become the first to licence and approve a number of gaming brands, casinos and suppliers. The business has applied for service provider, operator and manufacturer licences with Breitling said he expected Fertitta Interactive’s licences to be heard by the Nevada Gaming Board in the coming months with systems testing on all approved licensees to begin in the first quarter of next year.
“Nevada is small but I think we are well positioned to compete,” said Breitling. “I think we’re operating in a unique landscape “ there’s absolutely room for a fresh new brand like Ultimate Poker, I think it will be very well received.
“It’s an environment that exists where people are waiting to see what’s going to come of it. I think people will welcome us with open arms.” He went on to say the company was well-prepared for a state-by-state regulation, which would “follow a partnership model”.
The free play version of Ultimate Poker “ based on the work CyberArts carried out when designing and implementing a poker platform for the now bwin.party owened Gioco Digitale brand in Italy “ is set to go live this weekend and will be heavily promoted via the Fertitta-managed and Zuffa LLC owned Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Zuffa is co-owned by the Fertitta brothers (40.5% each), Dana White (9%) and Sheik Tahnoon of Abu Dhabi (Flash Entertainment) (10%). Lorenzo Fertitta is Zuffa’s CEO and chairman with Dana White running the day-to-day operations.
Tobin Prior, CEO of Fertitta Interactive, said the game has been designed to incorporate the latest social innovations but have the look and feel of real money poker. “We see poker real products becoming more social and social becoming more real. By moving social mechanics into the poker environment, anyone familiar with real money poker will feel at home here,” he said.
Prior added that the UFC provided Ultimate Gaming with a “perfect demographic” to market its new poker product. He cited the UFC’s 2.4m Twitter followers, 8m Facebook ‘likes’ and 311m Youtube visits, from a core demographic of 21-35 year old, sport-loving males, as a “unique competitive advantage” for Ultimate Gaming.
According to Fertitta Interactive, 63% of UFC’s audience is male and aged between 21 to 35, UFC tickets cost an average of US$250 a seat, four times more expensive than its closest rival sport, and more than half of its fans’ have a household income of $60,000 or more with a third of fans earning more than $100,000.
“UFC is the fastest growing sport in the world. The brand is a very strong fit for our social product in the near term and then real money as we move forward with those opportunities. It provides a very good opportunity to promote brand due to the amount of control they have over their production.”
Breitling, Tobin Prior, CEO and Chris Derossi, founder of Cyberarts and CTO of Fertitta Interactive and Ultimate Gaming, said the new arm was well positioned for success and that there was “definitely room” for powerful B2C brand. They added that its 35 years of gaming experience, legacy in the US, ownership of the UFC brand and media rights and its acquisition of Cyberarts, was the ideal combination to market its social products globally and move to real-money as soon as licensing allowed this to take place.
Fertitta Interactive was founded by Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta, Tom Breitling and Tim Poster.
Breitling said of the CyberArts deal: “When we acquired Chris [Derossi’s, CyberArts CEO] company last year, not only does it offer great technology which we believe will catapult us into the next decade, but it was really important to have a clean regulatory history. It fits right in line with our belief of a new code of conduct as we move into the future.”