Launches and sign-ups 22 August 2012
A round-up of the egaming industry's launches and sign-ups from the last seven days (16 August to 22 August 2012).
bwin confirms Man Utd deal
Three-year agreement sees operator named as official gaming and betting partner of Premier League club.
eGaming Review Power 50 operator bwin.party has agreed a deal which will see its bwin brand become the official betting partner of English football club Manchester United.
The three-year agreement sees bwin replace Betfair after the exchange operator saw its own deal of the same duration come to a close this summer.
Bwin has an existing shirt sponsorship deal with Spanish champions Real Madrid and a partnership with UEFA Champions League finalists Bayern Munich with today’s contract with the 19-time English Premier League title-winners integrating the operator’s odds into its official website.
The football club, second-favourites behind fierce rivals Manchester City to win the league in the 2012-13 season which begins this weekend, floated on the New York Stock Exchange last week after raising more than US$230m at its initial public offering.
Dafabet signs Everton and WBA betting partnerships
Asian operator Dafabet has signed international sports betting partnership deals with English Premier League football teams Everton and West Bromich Albion and is just “weeks away” from receiving an Isle of Man licence in order to target UK punters, its managing director has toldeGaming Review.
Dimitris Karatzas, managing director, online betting and gaming for Dafabet, told eGaming Review that the Asian Logic-owned operator has been given a conditional letter of intent by the Isle of Man and should gain approval for a full licemce in the coming weeks allowing it to begin offering bets to UK and European customers, the first time in its six-year history.
The AsianLogic-owned site, that offers sports betting, casino and poker through suppliers ONEWorks and Playtech, has stepped up its marketing campaign in recent months signing up former England football team captain Alan Shearer last year to front its sports betting operation.
Betfred named as Tottenham’s UK betting partner
Gibraltar-licensed egaming operator Betfred.com has been named as the official UK betting partner of English top-flight football club Tottenham Hotspur.
The three-year deal will give the operator exclusive UK branding rights across the London club’s online, digital, mobile and social media platforms.
Tottenham, which finished last season in fourth place in the Premier League and will play in the UEFA Europa League in the 2012-13 season, also announced Fun88 as its Asian betting partner in a two-year agreement.
Everton FC partners with Paddy Power
English football club Everton has agreed a deal with Paddy Power which sees the Irish operator named as its official online betting partner for the UK and Ireland.
It is the second such deal that the operator has signed in recent months after agreeing a partnership with Manchester City in February, and will run for two years.
The agreement will see those who sign up to the Paddy Power site as Everton fans given a number of exclusive bets and offers related to the club, which finished seventh in the Premier League last season, while Paddy Power’s betting products will also be made available through Everton’s official site.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Rank-Gala deal referred to Competition Commission
Rank Group’s proposed £205m acquisition of 23 Gala Coral-owned land-based casinos has been referred to the Competition Commission, the final step required before the deal can be given the green light.
The referral was made by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) less than one month after Rank’s shareholders approved the deal, which would see the company increase its land-based casino estate to 58 properties, overtaking Genting as the largest casino operator in the UK.
If cleared by the Competition Commission, the deal will allow Rank to expand its Grosvenor Casino brand into 11 new cities, a move which CEO Ian Burke (pictured) has said “Will accelerate the growing awareness of the brand and support the development of a multi-channel gaming business.”
Unibet signs Belgian deal with Rank
Unibet has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Rank Group as it looks to boost its market-leading position in Belgium, the Stockholm-listed operator has announced today.
The operator was awarded land-based and online sports betting licences in the jurisdiction last month after submitting its application in February, launching its dot.be site on 11 July. However the new deal with Rank will allow Unibet to gain the necessary land-based connection required for poker and casino accreditation.
Chief executive Henrik Tjärnström revealed in today’s second-quarter interim report that Unibet holds a market-leading position in Belgium with a double-digit market share, helped in part by its acquisition of Mr Bookmaker 2005.
Win2day launches in Belgium with Prima
Belgian egaming licensee Win2day, part of the Casinos Austria group, has chosen Microgaming-powered Prima Networks for its launch into the regulated dot.be market.
It will initially launch a casino offering, with Prima pledging to roll out “Belgium’s first officially licensed Bingo room” later in the year.
The move marks the software provider’s second foray into a regulated European market in recent months, following its launch of a dot.es network containing the Spanish-facing poker offerings of Ladbrokes, Cirsa, Betway, Interwetten and Stan James.
Double Down partners with third US casino
IGT-owned social game developer Double Down Interactive has agreed a deal for its casino app to be hosted on the websites of five Jacobs Entertainment casinos in Nevada and Colorado.
The Double Down Casino app offers all of the developer’s products, including poker and slots games such as Da Vinci Diamonds. New games will be added automatically once they are released.
Betway sponsors Mirror Fantasy Football
Malta-based egaming operator Betway has been named as the sponsor of British newspaper group Trinity Mirror’s fantasy football game for the 2012/13 Premier League season that kicked off last weekend.
The sponsorship deal also covers the following two seasons with players taking part in the free game “ which boasts a prize pool of £100,000 “ able to enter up to four additional teams by placing a £10 bet with Betway.
Betradar partners with Don Best for US sports
Sports and betting data provider Betradar has signed an American odds monitoring agreement with Don Best Sports, covering ice hockey, baseball, basketball and American football fixtures in the US and Canada.
The agreement covers professional and college leagues, and comes three months after Betradar parent company Sportradar signed an exclusive distribution deal with the International Tennis Federation.
Two further English Premier League clubs have signed betting partnerships in the last seven days. Liverpool has signed up Paddy Power as its partner for the UK Ireland and Italy and amended its former betting partnership with 188Bet from a global to an international deal, while Fulham has followed Sunderland and Newcastle United in striking a deal with Worldlink.