Launches and sign-ups 15 August 2012
A round-up of the egaming industry's launches and sign-ups from the last seven days (9 August to 15 August 2012).
Stars officially completes Tilt deal
Site will relaunch “no later than” 6 November.
PokerStars has made the US$225m payment to the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) required to complete its acquisition of Full Tilt Poker assets, spokesman Lee Jones has confirmed.
A post from the company’s head of home games, published on the Two Plus Two forums this afternoon, explained that: “90 days from today is November 6th…Full Tilt Poker will be live no later than that day.”
Upon settling with the DoJ, PokerStars announced its intention to relaunch Full Tilt as a separate business to its main offering, and that it would be launched in a selection of dot.com markets but not Belgium, Denmark, France, Estonia, Italy or Spain – where PokerStars currently holds dot.country licences.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups
Bwin.party beta tests fast-fold offering
Bwin.party is set to become the latest operator to push ahead with a fast-fold poker variant, beginning a play-money beta testing phase for its ‘Fast Forward’ offering.
While no precise date has been given for a real-money launch, the company is expected to launch micro-stakes cash games – with stakes up to US$0.05/0.10 – on its PartyPoker platform before the end of this month.
The news comes weeks after PartyPoker announced plans to remove high-stakes cash tables from its client, a move which – according to bwin.party – is designed “To make improvements to our poker ecology and [is] in our players best interests.”
MediaCorp subsidiary in Totepool deal
Media Corporation’s egaming subsidiary Intabet has signed up Betfred-owned totepool.com as a partner for its impending launch, the AIM-listed company has confirmed in a trading update today.
The sports betting partner became part of the Betfred group when the Gibraltar-based operator acquired the Tote in June 2011 in a deal worth an eventual £265m.
Intabet is due to launch ahead of the start of the English Premier League season next week after being incorporated by MediaCorp in May, while MediaCorp’s chairman Phil Jackson and interim CEO Adam Fraser-Harris both had ties to the company before its acquisition.
Chili’s Dreyfus takes over GPI
Zokay Entertainment, a group led by Chiligaming founder Alex Dreyfus (pictured), has announced the acquisition of the Global Poker Index (GPI) from US land-based group Pinnacle Entertainment.
Pinnacle had bought the poker player ranking system from former owner Federated Sports+Gaming in the June auction which also saw it acquire the Epic Poker League and Heartland Poker Tour, an auction in which Dreyfus was another of the interested parties.
Zokay, whose portfolio also includes the Deepstack Poker Open and the in-hibernation Chili brands – as well as industry publication iGaming France – intends to augment the existing ranking system of the top 300 tournament poker players with more projects under the GPI brand.
BetVictor debuts new ad campaign
Gibraltar-based operator BetVictor has launched its latest advertising campaign, the first to be produced by newly appointed agency VCCP.
As with the previous campaign featuring game show host Paddy McGuinness, BetVictor chairman Victor Chandler stars in the campaign. However in this instance he is joined by a new character, Maurice, played by comedian and actor Paul Kaye.
Rank Interactive‘s sports betting arm Blue Square Bet has become the latest name to sign up to OpenBet‘s online product roadmap. Blue Square Bet was OpenBet’s first ever online customer, and under the terms of a new multi-year contract it will be able to further develop the scalability and performance of its online sportsbook offering across a number of channels.
PokerStars has added Canada to the list of countries in which it offers its mobile client. The app was first launched in Italy in January, while a mobile-friendly version of the operator’s fast-paced Zoom offering followed in May.
Topjack Games is to advertise at tonight’s international football friendly between England and Italy at Wembley stadium. The supplier will feature on advertising hoardings at the game to promote its new insured jackpot brand, which has signed up several white label partners since launching earlier this year.
London sports betting magazine Citibet is set to return tomorrow ahead of the 2012/13 Premier League football season. The free publication has expanded its distribution to cover the West End as well as its core City and Docklands areas, while it has also expanded its online offering.