Launches and sign-ups 6 February 2013
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (31 January to 6 February).
SciGames agrees $1.5bn WMS takeover
Scientific Games pays $26 a share for slots manufacturer with shares in WMS rallying in pre-marklet trades to more than $16.
Lottery and gaming software provider Scientific Games Corporation has agreed terms with slot game manufacturer WMS Industries to acquire the business for US$1.5bn in cash, the equivalent to $26 a share.
The deal represents an EBITDA multiple of six times WMS’ adjusted EBITDA of $246m for the 12-month period ended September 30, 2012, excluding synergies that Scientific Games said it “expects to achieve”.
Shares in WMS closed last night at $16.37 a share, while news of the deal sent WMS’s share price up 56% in pre-market trades to $25.60 a share.
The acquisition would “combine two leading companies in the gaming industry to create an organisation that will supply an extensive range of products and services to public and private sector lottery and gaming customers throughout the world,” the companies said in a joint statement posted early this morning New York time.
WMS acquisition “opportunity of a lifetime”, says SciGames CEO
Scientific Games CEO and chairman Lorne Weil has described the agreement to acquire WMS as “the opportunity of a lifetime” for both companies to boost financial performance and product offerings.
Discussing the US$1.5bn, $26 a share agreed acquisition of the slot game manufacturer in a conference call just half an hour after the announcement, Weil highlighted the significant boost he anticipated to Scientific Games’ earnings per share (EPS), as well as the chance to combine creative expertise to create new, unique games. Scientific Games anticipates the acquisition will officially close by the end of this year.
On the financial benefits of the acquisition, Weil said: “A very, very different financial profile emerges almost immediately because for the merged company, what in our case has been relatively modest EPS, certainly in relation to what our EBITDA has been, almost immediately certainly within a year or two, we would anticipate very very significant reported EPS.”
Bonza Gaming launches real-money Facebook offering
Bonza Gaming, the joint venture formed by Sportingbet and Plumbee, has signed an agreement with Facebook which will see it join Gamesys and 888 in launching a real-money gaming offering on the platform.
The company has today released Bonza Slots featuring five Net Entertainment games, through an exclusive deal which will see NetEnt provide the operator Facebook-optimised variants of its online games. The agreement was announced earlier this morning, but the launch of the app will take place following the signing of a contract later this morning.
It becomes the third operator “ and the first non-egaming company “ to launch a real-money offering on Facebook, following the launch of Gamesys’ Bingo and Slots Friendzy in August 2012, and 888’s Bingo Appy, via its social gaming arm Mytopia, in December of the same year.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Gamesys cuts suppliers on relaunched Virgin Games site
Gamesys has relaunched its newly acquired Virgin Games business reducing the number of suppliers on the site to just its own in-house games and those of IGT.
In the three weeks since eGR exclusively revealed that Gamesys had acquired the company it has rebuilt and relaunched the UK-facing Virgin Games site “from scratch”, according to a source close to the company. It has also identified which suppliers from its previous roster were the most popular with a Gamesys spokesman telling eGR that it has purposefully narrowed down the number of games offered on the site to just those designed by its in-house design team and that of US casino games provider IGT.
The games on the new site include Gamesys slots Bejeweled 2, X-Factor and Zuma, three bingo game variants, and nine table games including roulette, multi-hand blackjack and video poker. IGT’s games include Da Vinci Diamonds, Kitty Glitter and Monopoly Plus. In total both Gamesys and IGT have 24 games on the newly launched site.
Amaya launches Instant Rewards on Ongame network
Amaya Gaming has launched its Instant Rewards tool allowing players on the Ongame poker network to earn cash prizes and tournament tickets in real-time.
Players earn prizes for achievements such as winning a hand with pocket aces, with the patent-pending tool aimed predominantly at recreational players across the network.
Martin Lerby, Ongame’s director of marketing and operations, told eGaming Review that Instant Rewards is “inspired by the social gaming industry” and its focus on achievements.
Betfair and SkyBet sign up to IMG tennis data deals
A number of leading gaming operators have signed up to receive data from IMG Media , a division of sports rights and media group IMG Worldwide, for events on the ATP and WTA tennis tours.
eGR Operator of the Year SkyBet is among the companies to sign up for the data, alongside Betfair, Interwetten, Webis brand betinternet, and a number of others.
IMG opened a tender for the data in October last year with a limited number of packages available at Gold, Silver, Bronze and entry levels. It is unclear which operators have paid for which packages, however all of the named operators have taken either Gold, Silver or Bronze packages.
Betsson launches social sports app
Stockholm-listed egaming operator Betsson has announced the launch of MyFootball Connect, a mobile social sports app developed in partnership with OneUp Games.
MyFootball Connect is a bingo-style game which allows users to compete against friends during Premier League football matches, winning points when the football players complete a randomly-assigned action. The game also features achievements, leaderboards and a chat feature, and will stream games live, with other European leagues to be added in the coming months.
Bally signs up as OpenBet casino partner
Bally Technologies has become the latest game supplier to offer its casino content through OpenBet’s online platform.
Bally’s casino game portfolio, primarily consisting of online versions of its land-based products, will be made available to all of OpenBet’s licensees, who can then able select and integrate the games into their offerings across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
GPI launches Fantasy Poker Manager on Facebook
Former Chiligaming CEO Alex Dreyfus has announced the launch of a fantasy poker Facebook app, the first project from his new venture Zokay Entertainment since it acquired rankings system Global Poker Index last August.
Utilising the GPI rankings, which rates thousands of poker pros based on their live tournament results, the Fantasy Poker Manager (FPM) app allows players to pick a team of 10 players from a budget of $1,000,000 in virtual credits.
GameAccount and SHFL enter content deal
GameAccount Network (GAN) has signed a deal with SHFL entertainment to integrate the US casino supplier’s online games into its European-facing platforms and distribute them to its licensees across the continent.
The agreement will enable SHFL to offer online versions of its proprietary table games including as Three Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, and Fortune Pai Gow Poker to GameAccount’s operators in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain.
Quickspin announces Mr Green supply deal
Stockholm-based slots developer Quickspin has agreed a deal with Mr Green to supply the Malta licensee with its full portfolio of video slots content, with the first game set to go live next month.
Mr Green is one of a number of operators to sign up in recent months with Quickspin, which was nominated in the Software Rising Star category at last year’s eGaming Review B2B Awards.
Koolbit launches real-money mobile casino
Koolbit has expanded into real-money gambling for the first time with the launch of its new online casino, iGoSlots.com.
Tain pens Olympian Group sportsbook deal
Egaming platform provider Tain has agreed a deal to become operator Olympian Group’s sportsbook provider.
10Bet in mobile launch with SBTech
Software provider SBTech has announced 10Bet as the first operator to go live with its HTML5 sports betting platform for mobile devices.
Affiliate portal AffPoint goes live
AffPoint, a self-described “meeting point” for egaming affiliates and affiliate programmes, has launched today.
Sheriff Gaming has launched its first mobile game, five-reel slot Spartania. Spokesman Eric Roskamp said: “We wanted to show something that we feel the industry will not expect”