Need to Know: Power 50, Playtech, Party et Les Menages a plusieurs

FRANCE REALLY is the world’s most romantic country ““ just ask Playtech and PartyGaming, who are both there on the pull.

Playtech, which is ready to roll out a stand-alone poker network in France when that market is regulated next year, plans to augment existing amant Francais Chili Poker with a ménage à trois (ou plus) with other French partners, chief exec Mor Weizer said. Apparently, it’s an open relationship

Flush with confidence after half-year results showing EBITDA up more than a third, Playtech will copy the strategy the company employed in France’s own rival in romance, Italy, where the company built Italian-only liquidity by smooth-talking its way into bed with Italian operators such as Snai and Sisal.

PartyGaming was also in an amorous mood this week, confirming that it too will launch online poker in France and copy the pulling strategy it employed in Italy, where it scored with Intralot.

Party will also continue to monitor the legal situation in the US, Ryan said, which took a turn for the worse this week as a legal challenge to the UIGEA egaming ban by the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) was rejected by the US courts.

The appeals court of Philadelphia rejected the lobby group’s claims that Congress failed to clearly define online gambling in the law, ruling that it’ “clearly provides a person of ordinary intelligence with adequate notice of the conduct that it prohibits.”

But then as our feature this week detailed, regardless of iMEGA’s success or failure fighting UIGEA in court, a consensus is emerging that the US will legalise egaming anyway…

In other news, two new media companies are to join the eGaming Review Power 50 ranking of the top 50 egaming operators this year, in a development that many will see as a sign that the industry may have reached the tipping point at which egaming joins the mainstream of leisure pursuits.

SPS Betting, the new egaming arm of pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport, has joined the list along with Bonnier Gaming, the egaming arm of Bonnier Publishing, Sweden’s biggest publisher, which has launched bingo brands to leverage the reach provided by its magazines across Europe.

The two companies are among a total of 15 new entrants to the Power 50, along with investment fund Mangas Gaming, which recently acquired Scandinavia’s Expekt, central Europe-focused operator Bet-at-home and a 75% stake in Betclick; Italy’s Snai; and Las Vegas giant Harrah’s’new interactive arm, Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, which is headed by August CEO interview and former PartyGaming chief executive Mitch Garber. (Look out for your copy of the Power 50 next week).

In other news: the new football season saw Coral’s return to the Oddschecker top 10 bookmakers; depressing half-year figures for 32Red and Smart Live’s boss walked out as the online casino shut its affiliate programme.

Till next week, au revoir…

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