Launches and sign-ups 20 March 2013
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (14 March to 20 March 2013).
Hills-Playtech call option approved at EGM
Some 99.93% of William Hill shareholders approve the acquisition of Playtech’s stake in William Hill Online.
William Hill’s acquisition of Playtech’s 29% stake in the operator’s online JV has received near-unanimous approval from shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting.
Hills and Playtech had finalised a £423.75m price for the stake earlier this month following an independent valuation process, while agreeing to continue a software licensing deal with CEO Ralph Topping describing the former JV partner as a “key software supplier”.
Some 99.93% of shareholders approved the acquisition at yesterday’s EGM, and Topping (pictured) said “We are pleased to have received such clear shareholder support for this transaction.
“Taking full ownership of William Hill Online is an important strategic step for William Hill as we continue to develop our online business, which plays a key part in our growth strategy,” added the CEO.
Unibet acquires stake in Bonza Gaming
Egaming operator Unibet has announced the acquisition of Channel Islands-based holding company Social Gambling Ltd, the part-owner of real-money Facebook operator Bonza Gaming.
Unibet will pay a nominal price of £100 for the company, providing a £2m loan facility to support the operator’s growth, with £0.5m of the loan expected to be drawn down on completion of the deal.
The holding company Social Gambling (Channel Islands) Ltd (SGCI) is understood to be the stake previously owned by Sportingbet, amounting to a stake of around 50% in Bonza, with Plumbee holding the other majority stake. The acquisition will see Unibet gain an equity interest in Bonza of around 45%.
Playtika partners with Sheriff for Slotomania Adventures
Sheriff Gaming has partnered with Playtika to launch Slotomania Adventures, the operator’s first spin-off title from its core Slotomania brand.
The app features a selection of free-to-play versions of Sheriff’s popular 3D slots including Atlantis, Mr Good and Fortune Farm, with more titles to be added in coming months, and is already live on Facebook. Playtika chief executive Robert Antokol described Sheriff’s pedigree as “impressive,” adding that he was “excited to see how [his company’s] loyal and passionate gamers will react to Slotomania Adventures.”
“This marks our first spin off game from Slotomania, and we have high hopes that Slotomania Adventures will engage users and take the social casino space to another level,” he explained.
Netplay TV signs three-year ITV deal
NetPlay TV has signed a new three-year broadcast agreement with ITV which will see the interactive gaming company increase its live broadcast on the UK channel to six nights a week.
The operator will now feature every night from Monday to Saturday and also appear on ITV’s website, claiming the broadened relationship “compliments our approach of targeting new customers via mobile, TV and online”.
NetPlay TV’s focus on its live TV casino offering saw it pen extensions to its broadcasting agreements with UK TV channels Five and ITV last year.
Spreadex takes over Cantor Index client list
Cantor Fitzgerald Europe has revealed that its financial betting arm Cantor Index has ceased trading.
The operation will see its client list transferred to Spreadex, with the spread betting operator pledging to honour all players’ open positions when accounts are migrated to the Spreadex platform on Wednesday. Player accounts are to be automatically migrated, with usernames staying the same.
SG Gaming has announced an agreement to bring its online games to Gala Coral’s online players. The deal is an expansion to the relationship between SG Gaming and Gala Coral in the land-based sector. SG Gaming’s content will be deployed on the GTS Edge platform with Rainbow Riches and Ca$hino as the first games available, with a roll-out of additional content planned.
Alex Stephens, MD of Interactive at SG Gaming said: “We are delighted to be building on the strong foundation of SG Gaming’s relationship with Gala Coral and working with them to bring our legendary games to even more players.”
Betting Promotion has announced an agreement with Plus-Five Gaming which will see it provide odds and risk management services for the Malta licensee’s newly developed sportsbook offering, with the solutions provider’s CMO Richard Hogg saying: “We have been talking to the Group for many months whilst they ensured that developing a sportsbook was the best approach for their business.”
Andy Jones, CEO of Plus-Five Gaming, said of the agreement: “Ensuring we had a partner who could help us deliver a bespoke product for all our clients was a key component of selecting Betting Promotion.”
Payments business Skrill has partnered with Initial Rewards on a best-in-class VIP store. Joseph Hall, Skrill’s VP of leisure and entertainment, said “The new store will allow us to offer a unique rewards scheme to all of our VIP customers, giving them incentive to keep using Skrill and building on our differentiation in the wider market place.”
PKR has launched a personalised RSS feed webpage designed to give users up-to-the-minute access to their favourite poker news, blogs, strategy and multimedia content. The PokerPRSS‘s default feeds include poker’s top news outlets, from Poker News to Cardplayer and Bluff, along with links to blogs, strategy, multimedia and Twitter feeds.