Launches and sign-ups 30 April 2014
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (24 April to 30 April 2014)
The Sun trademarks Sun Bets ahead of sportsbook launch
News Corp’s UK subsidiary makes ‘Sun Bets’ trademark application and is set to use ‘back yourself’ tagline
UK newspaper the Sun is attempting to gain the trademark rights to ‘Sun Bets’, the likely brand name for its upcoming sports betting product.
According to the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), News UK, which forms part of the global News Corp Group, applied for four trademarks relating to the name Sun Bets at the end of February, including two with the strapline ‘back yourself’.
Although the applications have been published by the IPO, the body has yet to award Sun Bets with trademark status.
The Sun had previously launched a white-labelled sportsbook in the form of the similarly-named Sun Bet, which was managed by a succession of partners including Ladbrokes.
Ladbrokes changes marketing tack with new campaign
Ladbrokes is to debut its new-look marketing strategy this weekend in a flurry of TV and newspaper adverts, as it seeks to distance itself from its previous “loud” tone.
Adverts featuring the new ‘The Ladbrokes Life’ slogan will begin to air during this weekend’s sports coverage and will feature heavily in this national print press with five consecutive pages of advertisements in tomorrow’s Sun Sport section.
The new campaign features five characters designed to represent different types of bettor “ The Professor, the Gut Truster, Mr Brightside, Generous John and the Believer.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Boylesports unveils revamped sportsbook site
Boylesports has overhauled its sportsbook site to put in-play betting “at the heart” of the customer experience.
The new site, launched earlier this month, features 500% more in-play product than this time last year.
Customers will be able to choose between the old and new site for another two to three weeks, however more than half of existing customers have already made the switch.
PokerStars confirms partnership with California tribe
PokerStars has confirmed it has struck a deal with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and three of California’s largest card rooms to act as their online poker partner as soon as it is legal to do so.
The deal will see the Commerce Club, the Hawaiian Garden Casino, the Bicycle Casino and Morongo all use PokerStars’ real-money poker platform and related services.
The partnership will also see the three entities working together as a coalition to promote the legalisation and regulation of internet poker in California.
Guardian ramps-up sportsbook strategy
The Guardian has begun to ramp-up the visibility of its FSB Technology-powered sportsbook venture Go Wager with a new mobile site and its first set of adverts.
Ads began to appear throughout the Guardian‘s online sports content last week, promoting betting odds and potential winnings on football fixtures.
“Development of the site is ongoing,” a Guardian News & Media spokesperson told eGaming Review this morning, confirming that promotional activity is currently limited to the newspaper’s online football and horseracing coverage.
Mirror Football: the Paddy-Powered app
Trinity Mirror will focus its soon-to-launch sports betting app on in-play betting and tight integration with its football content, the media brand’s director of new business development revealed.
Speaking to eGR about the make-up of the Mirror Football app, Matt Colebourne said the product would lean towards in-play betting, with markets linked to live text commentary of football matches.
“The focus will be on in-running betting but as we are focusing on the connection between the content and the bet, and due to the majority of our content being derived from live match reporting, it’s a natural outcome,” Colebourne said.
Sporting Index unveils tablet site
Sporting Index has launched a tablet-optimised site as it looks to increase its mobile capability ahead of this summer’s football World Cup.
Developed in-house by the Sporting Index Group’s London-based software engineering team, the tablet site provides users with a similar depth of markets and products available on its desktop site.
Customers attempting to access sportingindex.com via a tablet browser will be automatically directed to the new site and compliments the separate mobile and tablet app which was released to the Apple App Store in January.
Betdigital has been chosen by NextGen Gaming to launch their Foxin’ Wins and 300 Shields online slots titles exclusively to Gala Coral’s licensed betting offices and bingo clubs.
Along with the warrior-themed 300 Shields, where players battle against the Spartans in Ancient Greece, it will be available exclusively on B2 and B3 gaming machines in over 1,800 Coral betting shops and 137 Gala Bingo premises. Foxin’ Wins is due to launch across all channels with Coral in the next couple of months and adds to their multi-channel gaming portfolio, supported by Coral’s ‘Connect’ single wallet across land-based and all interactive channels.
Content and systems developer Betdigital is integrating leading gaming supplier NextGen’s popular online games via SystemX. Betdigital’s proprietary platform allows for ultra-quick integrations of just 12 weeks, up to five-times faster than alternative systems.
Net Entertainment has announced a deal with The Rational Group to provide desktop and mobile casino content to the company’s Full Tilt Poker brand.
“Net Entertainment has some of the best games in the industry and will deliver a lot of value to our business, not least on the mobile platform,” Sam Hobcraft, Rational Group director of casino, said.
Playtech affiliates programme Euro Partners is to offer a $5,000 finder’s fee to the affiliate which refers the winning candidate to Titan Bet as part of its “Best Job in the World” competition.
The scheme has partnered with former Arsenal footballer Ray Parlour for the recruitment drive and will see the sportsbook fly the winner to Brazil to cover the 2014 World Cup.
“Brazil is the only place to be this summer and we’re sure we’ll be inundated with offers from people wanting to join the team,” Robin Becker, Euro Partners spokesperson, said.