Launches and sign-ups 23 July 2014
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (17 July to 23 July 2014)
GTECH to acquire IGT in $6.4bn deal
Two gaming giants will merge next year after GTECH agreed to pay $4.7bn in cash and assume $1.7bn in net debt
GTECH is to acquire Las Vegas-based slot machine maker International Game Technology (IGT) for approximately US$6.4bn (£3.7m), creating a global gaming giant with combined revenues of around $6bn.
The deal will see Italian lottery operator GTECH pay $4.7bn in cash and stock while it will also assume $1.7bn of IGT net debt. A new UK-headquartered holding company, referred to as NewCo, will be set up and listed on New York Stock Exchange.
The acquisition comes after the two companies entered into “preliminary and exploratory talks” last month – although the merger is not expected to be completed until H1 2015.
Current GTECH chief executive Marco Sala will become NewCo CEO and will serve on a board of directors consisting of IGT chairman Phil Satre, who will take up the same role, and current IGT CEO Patti Hart who will serve as vice-chairman.
Former Gala Coral product boss launches B2B platform
The former head of product at Gala Coral and Evolution Gaming has co-founded a casino content and marketing platform supplier to take on the likes of OpenBet and Playtech.
Joe Coughlin, who spent three years at Amaya Gaming in his most recent role, told eGaming Review his new venture, the London Gaming Company, already has two unnamed clients on board and has more in the pipeline.
“Operators in emerging markets will be a natural audience for us at first but eventually we’ll be pitching for big operators against the big guys,” Coughlin, firm’s managing director, said.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Amaya strikes pre-merger Full Tilt casino deal
Amaya Gaming has kicked-off its relationship with acquisition target Rational Group in earnest after striking a deal to provide Full Tilt’s recently launched casino with a catalogue of games.
The agreement, which comes ahead of Amaya’s proposed $4.9bn acquisition of Rational parent Oldford Group, has seen Full Tilt integrate Amaya’s online and mobile games through Amaya’s casino gaming system.
And although Amaya made clear the deal was separate to the pending acquisition, which is due to finalise in September, it added that “in the future [Full Tilt] will further leverage Amaya’s international reach and product pipeline for additional offerings”.
mFortune signs deal with major UK news publisher
Mobile gaming specialists mFortune has tied-up with major UK local newspaper publisher Local World in a deal which will see the operator’s bingo and casino games made available across the publisher’s entire portfolio of titles.
The multi-year agreement includes both online and offline properties of Local World’s 73 regional newspapers and includes mFortunes entire catalogue of bingo and casino games.
The deal, which went live at the start of this week, has seen mFortune integrate its platform onto the various Local World websites, which last month attracted more than 17 million unique browsers.
Betsson scopes out UK market with new casino
Betsson AB will use the launch of its new UK-facing casino brand Mr Smith to help it decide whether or not it will apply for a Gambling Commission licence in the coming weeks.
Mr Smith, which is operated by Betsson subsidiary BML Group, replaced the now-defunct Harry Casino at the end of June after its partnership contract with Betsson had come to an end.
Betsson revealed the move during Friday’s Q2 results which saw the group post 30% growth in both revenues and profits with figures of SEK752.3 (£64.5m) and SEK629.7m respectively.
Sci Games consortium secures $2.8bn Turkish lottery contract
Net Holding has been awarded a ten-year licence to operate Turkey’s national lottery Milli Piyango after a consortium including Net Sans and US gaming supplier Scientific Games bid US$2.8bn (£1.6bn) for the contract.
Net Sans, a division within Net Holding’s hotel, casino and lottery management business, beat offers from two rival consortia from GTECH along with Czech investment groups KKCG and Emma Delta and Turkey’s ERG-Ahlatci.
The successful bid, which was lodged ahead of the 27 June closing date, has been part funded by Turkish corporate venture capitalist group Hitay Investment Holdings.
Betfair integrates Jumio’s KYC technology
Betfair has become the latest online gaming firm to partner with ID and payments security firm Jumio after adopting its Netverify customer verification solution.
Netverify allows customers to take pictures of identification documents using their smartphones or webcams before emailing them directly to an operator’s verifications team in order to speed up the player verification process.
The operator’s site has integrated Netverify today and Phillip Rivers, head of registrations, payments and fraud at Betfair, said the solution would make life “quicker and easier for our customers” while also reducing the cost and time taken by its current methods.