Launches and sign-ups 5 February 2014
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (30 January to 5 February 2014)
Exchange operator Matchbook has announced a partnership with Oddshecker to integrate its product on the price comparison site’s odds grid.
Matchbook CEO Mark Brosnan made the announcement yesterday at London’s ICE Totally Gaming conference and said the news was an important part of its strategy as the FIFA World Cup approaches.
“The Oddschecker customer is a discerning and price sensitive sports bettor and we’re very excited with the opportunity to showcase the competitiveness of our markets alongside other key industry operators,” he said.
Ladbrokes launches Playtech live dealer service
Operator still confident of completing full Playtech migration in Q2 as latest “milestone” reached
Ladbrokes has launched a suite of Playtech-developed live dealer games, the latest in a range of product rollouts as the operator continues to migrate towards the software supplier’s platform.
The live dealer rollout follows on from the launch of Ladbrokes’ new Mobenga mobile sports betting application in December and the operator’s migration of poker services to Playtech’s iPoker network in the same month.
“It is another important milestone for our digital business,” Jim Mullen, managing director of Ladbrokes Digital, said.
The new live dealer product integrates with Playtech’s back office system which, according to Ladbrokes, will enable it to more efficiently target bonusing and other CRM techniques to customers, while also increasing the number of available tables.
Guardian newspaper launches sports betting site
The Guardian Media Group has become the latest publisher to enter the online gambling market with the addition of a sports-betting service on its website, eGaming Review can reveal.
The company has launched its UK-licensed gowager.co.uk site, in partnership with platform supplier FSB Technology, and is already taking bets on limited markets.
The sportsbook currently only appears on the ‘clubs’ section of the website is available on desktop only, however a mobile version has been developed and is set for an imminent launch.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
888 acquires Spanish sports betting licence
Gibraltar-licensed operator 888 is readying itself for a push into the Spanish sports betting market after striking a deal with local gaming company Nervion Group.
The deal, which has seen 888 acquire Nervion’s online sports business Apuestas Ganador Online and accompanying remote sports betting licence for an undisclosed amount, hands the operator the opportunity to launch its Kambi Sports Solutions-powered sportsbook in Spain ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
888 had originally gained a sports betting licence upon the opening of the Spanish regulated market in June 2012, however, the operator decided to return the licence to the country’s regulator, Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), later that year.
High 5 Games to make European market push
High 5 Games is planning a push into European markets this year with the launch of its Vault remote game server (RGS).
Around 100 of High 5’s real-money slots titles will be offered to European online casino operators through the RGS when it launches in Europe later this year following its launch in New Jersey, which is currently scheduled for Q1 2014.
Vault will initially be exclusive to Caesars Interactive Entertainment’s online casino in the Garden State before being launched with other casinos, although High 5 has yet to disclose its additional casino partners.
Health Lottery branches out with German lottery game
The Health Lottery has soft launched its new Health Jackpot game based on German lottery results, continuing its recent efforts to diversify its product range.
Health Jackpot enables players to bet on the outcome of Germany’s 6/49 lottery with prizes ranging from £8 for matching three main numbers to an estimated jackpot of more than £7.5m for correctly predicting all six main numbers and the ‘star number’ between zero and nine.
Customers can play in the traditional way by purchasing a line of numbers for £1.50, or pay £2.50 to purchase a share in a syndicate of 100 lines. Players are allocated into syndicates randomly, with the total prize money divided equally per syndicate share.
PAF to develop “early warning” system for problem gambling
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land-based PAF has kicked-off a new problem gambling research project as the operator looks to develop an “early warning” system for problem gamblers.
The research, financed by PAF and run by Anders Tengström at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, has set out to develop a new a data driven system which will detect a negative gaming habit before it has even occurred.
Paf currently has its own system for detecting a problematic gaming behavior called the Radar but wants to be even more proactive and find problematic gaming behavior even earlier in the customer life-cycle.
Games provider Yggdrasil Gaming has announced the launch of its first mobile slots title to be integrated on four Nordic online casino sites. Jokerizer iSense, which launched on desktop in November, is a 3X5 reel slot and is now live on EuroSlots.com, SpilleAutomater.com, Norgesspill.com and CherryCasino.com.
“Player feedback on Jokerizer has been phenomenal and we can’t wait to hear what they think of the new iSENSE mobile version that contains even more unique gameplay features,” Bjørn Honerud Grene, spokesman for SpilleAutomater.com.