Launches and sign-ups 31 October 2012
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (25 October to 31 October 2012).
Zynga partners with bwin.party for real money launch
Zynga partners with European egaming giant to launch poker and casino offering “ companies to work together on development of Farmvillle-branded slots.
Zynga is to partner with bwin.party to launch its first real-money gambling offering, due to go live in the first half of 2013, the social gaming business has announced.
Under the terms of the agreement both companies will partner to launch a full suite of UK-facing gambling products including poker and a portfolio of more than 180 casino games including slots, roulette and blackjack. Zynga’spoker offering will join bwin.party’s poker network (no date was given as to when), while the companies will work together to develop a FarmVille-branded slot game.
The UK-facing offering will operate under bwin.party’s Gibraltar egaming licence, meaning that Zynga will not be required to apply for regulatory approval, a bwin.party statement said.
Barry Cottle, Zynga’s executive vice president of corporate and business development, said: “Bringing together Zynga’s expertise in social gaming with the top international real money gaming operator is the best way to create the highest quality gaming experiences for our players in the UK.
Analysis: Bwin.party-Zynga alliance could change the game
Zynga has been the sole pure social operator to appear in eGaming Review’s annual Power 50 list for the last two years for a very good reason: it promised to enter the real money space in the first half of next year, and last night it delivered on that promise.
During the first six months of 2013, barring any delays, bwin.party, the industry’s fourth largest operator in our list, will exclusively operate real money poker and casino games in the UK using Zynga’s brands.
While no information is known as to the terms of the agreement or if a revenue share deal is involved, it is unlikely to be a material contributor to both sets of companies revenues. For now. But as Ivor Jones of Numis points out in a note this morning, “if it were to be extended to more markets and products, in particular should US Federal poker be regulated, then it could become very important”.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Clickfun and Betway partner for real money slots
Clickfun Casino is to launch a real-money slots offering in partnership with Malta-licensed egaming operator Betway, eGaming Review‘s sister publication Social Casino Intelligence can exclusively reveal.
While no official timescale has been announced for the launch of the egaming offering, SCi understands that development is at an advanced stage. Clickfun’s Facebook offering currently attracts 0.78m MAU, and is consistently ranked in the highest-grossing apps on the social network. It recently announced the launch of an iOS offering, with an Android variant set to follow.
Speaking exclusively to SCi, Clickfun co-founder and CTO Daniel Fiske (pictured) discussed the convergence of real-money and social casino, and outlined his thoughts on how the two industries would connect.
Playtech launches Mobile Hub
Playtech has announced the release of its Mobile Hub product, an open framework designed to integrate content on mobile devices.
Led by its mobile sportsbook subsidiary Mobenga, the Mobile Hub was developed to provide operators with an effective way to centralise and customise their entire mobile offering, Playtech said in a statement.
Bookmaker Gala Coral has already become the first operator to launch Mobile Hub with its new mobile offering and will soon be followed by Playtech’s other top licensees.
Caesars and Optimal pen US payments deal
Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) has agreed a deal with Optimal Payments for its future US real-money online poker offering.
The service provider will offer the casino group’s online arm payment processing services in the US, including fraud management and other related services. The deal is subject to both CIE and Optimal receiving respective online poker operator and service provider licences from the Nevada Gaming Commission, although no date has yet been set for the hearings.
NetEnt prepares for live casino rollout
Net Entertainment will begin beta-testing its new live casino offering before the end of the year, the Swedish-listed software provider has announced in its interim report for the three months ended 30 September.
Agreements have been struck with two partners ahead of the Q4 test phase, while discussions are ongoing with several “large operators”, while the company also anticipates completing preparations for the rollout of slot games in Italy in the fourth quarter as the country’s regulator prepares to award licences on two fixed dates in December.
The beta-launch will initially be for live roulette, however NetEnt president and CEO Per Eriksson revealed: “We will continue to develop new games which will launch in 2013. The plan is to have the same amount of games [as other players in the live-dealer market] and a similar range of games to what they have.
Mirage Games to offer first licensed dot.be mobile games
Belgian egaming licensee Mirage Games is set to become the first operator in the EU country to offer mobile games, after signing a platform deal with Finnplay.
The Finnish provider will supply Mirage – which offers dice games, video poker and roulette on its miragegames.be site via a B+ dot.be licence held by Pavaber SA – with a mobile platform compatible with all major devices including Apple and Android.
Mirage Games CEO Raymond Vanhoenacker said: “We will be the first legal operator offering mobile games to the Belgian players which is a key differentiator for us.”
Napoleon Games goes mobile with Kambi
Belgian egaming licensee Mystery Games, which operates the Napoleon Games brand, has become the second company in the market to go live with a mobile offering after inking a deal with Unibet’s B2B arm Kambi Sports Solutions which also covers the launch of an online sportsbook.
The land-based gaming machines provider is one of the country’s B+ online licence-holders, allowing it to offer various casino games, and it currently offers various dice and roulette titles from its dot.be platform.
Bodog88 launches in Vietnam
Bodog88.com has launched sports betting and casino in Vietnamese with poker due to go live at the end of this year, the company said this morning.
The Asian facing and Philippines-based arm of the business, which the company has focused on since acquiring its Bodog Poker Network in June this year, in a statement called Vietnam “very different in its online gaming consumption to other Asian markets” adding that as with any launch in a new region the bespoke needs of the customer have been the key part in how the site is structured.
Big Fish launches UK real-money slots on iOS
Games developer Big Fish has launched an iOS version of Big Fish Casino in the UK with real-money slots thanks to a partnership with UK-licensed service provider Betable.
Big Fish Casino has 130,000 monthly active users (MAU) on Facebook and includes blackjack, slots, video poker and Texas Hold’em. The Big Fish Casino UK app is the first from the company which can be downloaded directly from Apple’s UK App Store.
SBTech will add 3D slot titles from Sheriff Gaming to its existing turnkey offering after announcing an agreement with the software provider which Sheriff Gaming spokesman Eric Roskamp said: will give his company “access to top bookmakers and gaming operators and their players, making this a highly beneficial partnership for both parties.”
SBTech CEO Itai Zak added: “We are delighted to have Sheriff Gaming as our strategic partner in addition to our already existing partnership with Microgaming. By offering Sheriff Gaming’s 3D games via the SBTech platform we provide our clients with easy access to a further increased portfolio of excellent gaming content via a single integration.”
Swedish-listed operator Unibet has appointed eCOGRA as its regulatory audit partner. Unibet general counsel Ewout Keelers said: “We are confident that eCOGRA’s extensive mix of professional Big 4 audit firm, IT and industry experience will enable them to effectively assist us with the diverse spread of regulation and testing principles and methodologies being adopted throughout Europe,”
Microgaming has announced the launch of three new slot games for the month of November. and Break Away, Octopays are both available on the software provider’s Flash and Viper platforms, while Western Frontier is available on Flash only.
The Global Poker Index is close to launching smartphone and tablet apps after completing the redesign of its site. The player rankings site was acquired by Zokay Entertainment earlier this year, and will launch its inaugural awards ceremony in January 2013.
Paddy Power has released a Windows 8 operating system compatible version of its Premier League betting app which allows users to see live odds of a match they are watching on television by pointing a camera phone at the screen. The iOS version was released last month.