Launches and sign-ups 28 November 2012
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (22 November to 28 November).
Aristocrat acquires leading social casino operator
Gaming supplier strengthens online business with Product Madness purchase.
Aristocrat Leisure has agreed a deal to acquire social casino operator Product Madness for an undisclosed fee.
The acquisition boost Aristocrat’s online business and will see it provide social gaming content to its casino customers as well as generating revenues via Product Madness’ own player base.
San Francisco-headquartered Product Madness was founded in 2007 by Lior Shiff and Jose Brotons, and is ranked in the top five operators in the social casino slot genre on Facebook, with more than 500,000 daily active users. It ranked 12th in the inaugural Power 25 published by eGaming Review’s sister magazine Social Casino Intelligence in August.
Aristocrat has acquired the entire Product Madness business, including management and around 20 staff.
EC to co-fund anti-match-fixing campaign
The European Commission has agreed to co-fund a campaign backed by the egaming industry aimed at educating sportspeople about match-fixing.
Educating European Elite Athletes about Match Fixing, which is supported by lobby groups the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and the European Sports Security Association (ESSA), also has the backing of 25 sporting groups including the French and Spanish footballers’ associations.
The 18-month programme, coordinated by the European Elite Athletes Association, will receive a total budget of 500,000, of which 46% (231,741) is to come from the European Commission, and will see former professional sportspeople educate 15,000 young athletes in 13 countries and at least 10 sports about rules regarding betting and match-fixing.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Odobo launches HTML5 games development program
Odobo, a new HTML5 games development program and platform for the online gambling industry, has launched today.
Funded by private equity investment the Odobo platform, Game Development Kit (GDK) and marketplace are the result of more than 18 months of development by a team of 40 industry engineers, architects, designers and developers.
Based in Gibraltar and founded and managed by CEO and current bet365 director and former Mansion marketing director Ashley Lang, Odobo has invested millions into building a “sophisticated, high-volume platform that supports a vast number of players, a statement added.
GameAccount signs European deal with Ainsworth
GameAccount Network has signed a deal with Ainsworth to integrate the Australian slot manufacturer’s online game content into its European-facing platforms.
Ainsworth has begun developing its own online slot content and GameAccount will distribute it to regulated European markets, with a particular focus on Italy. The first of Ainsworth’s games are schedules to be launched in 2013, with Italy poised to open up its online slots market in January.
Ainsworth CEO Danny Gladstone said in the company’s full year financial results yesterday: “This agreement will align our efforts with a third party provider that will introduce our innovative slot game content to an entirely new online audience.
UBS fraudster colleague to launch betting site
A co-worker of Kweku Adoboli, the UBS worker responsible for costing the bank $1.4bn with reckless trading and jailed for seven years last week, is to launch an online betting site.
John Hughes, who ran a $50bn trading portfolio with Adoboli, registered the name BetsofMates.com at Companies House in July. Other directors of the company include York City footballer David McGurk, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Featurespace rolls out new fraud solution
Marketing and anti-fraud analytics business Featurespace has begun the introductory phase of two new solutions to utilise ARIC, its flagship software aimed at helping gaming operators analyse player behaviour more efficiently.
The first product, entitled Snowdon, offers real-time fraud prevention, while the second, Nevis, focuses on the early identification of customer churn. Both are expected to be made available to egaming clients such as Betfair and William Hill Online over the course of the next 12 months.
Bodog88 signs up with FIFA Early Warning System
Philippines-licensed Bodog88 has become the latest egaming operator to sign a cooperation agreement with football body FIFA’s Early Warning System (EWS).
Intended to “Protect the integrity of football,” the cooperation agreement is designed to help identify suspicious betting patterns or related behaviour at an early stage.
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Net Entertainment has released its newest video slot, Lucky Angler: A Snowy Catch. CEO Per Eriksson said of the five-reel, three-line slot “We are confident players will be entertained by the sophisticated mathematics, features and animations.”
Dublinbet.com has launched a live multi-play feature which allows users to play multiple live casino games simultaneously. The feature enables its players to play live from two separate land-based casinos at the same time while they can play up to three live games concurrently. Paul Derwin, marketing manager at dublinbet.com, said: “The development of this feature has been based on the result of feedback from our members who constantly give us ideas on how to make their gaming experience with us even better.”