Launches and sign-ups 8 August 2012
A round-up of the egaming industry's launches and sign-ups from the last seven days (2 August to 8 August 2012).
Facebook confirms real-money gambling launch
Social network partners with UK operator Gamesys to launch age-restricted Bingo Friendzy for UK customers “ “absolutely no plans to go with any other operator,” say Facebook.
Facebook has launched a real-money gambling offering for UK customers, with a bingo product live platform today as part of a private commercial venture with Gamesys, eight months after eGaming Review exclusively revealed it had opened discussions with a number of operators to open its platform to real-money gambling.
Bingo Friendzy “ which is restricted to players over 18 “ has been launched using Gamesys’ egaming licence from the Gibraltar Gambling Commission and will be followed by the launch of a slot offering in the coming weeks. By operating under the Gibraltar licence, the site is already monitored by an approved regulator.
Facebook has clarified to eGR that the agreement is “not a joint venture with Gamesys, [as originally reported] but rather a private commercial agreement”. It is currently unclear whether the partnership comes under Facebook’s standard revenue share terms for operators on the platform, which sees the network take 30% of deposits from social gaming apps.
Speaking to The Financial Times Facebook’s head of gaming partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa Julien Codorniou explained: “Gambling is very popular and well-regulated in the UK … for millions of bingo users it’s already a social experience [so] it makes sense [for us] to offer that as well.”
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Mypok to join Partouche network
French-facing poker operator Mypok.fr is set to leave the Microgaming/888 joint network and move to a soon-to-launch network from Groupe Partouche later this month.
The news comes shortly after Mypok merged with fellow dot.fr licensee PokerXtrem, whose founder Prosper Masquelier is a member of the Partouche family and spent three years heading up Partouche Interactive, to form FullPok.
According to a release published on Livepoker.fr, it is expected to be joined by further operators on the Partouche network, with Groupe Partouche having already agreed a partnership deal with Masquelier’s hybrid poker venture the International Stadiums Poker Tour.
Evolution launches Betclic Live Casino in Italy
Betclic Everest has become the latest operator to launch an Evolution Gaming-powered live casino offering in Italy.
Going live under the Betclic Live Casino brand, the launch comes less than one month after Betsson introduced its StarCasino.it live dealer offering in partnership with Evolution.
More recently, local operator Stravinci announced that it had integrated the live casino provider’s services into both its B2C and B2B offerings.
Bally and High 5 Games sign development deal
Bally Technologies has entered a deal with US game developer High 5 Games (HG5) to publish a number of its releases under the Bally brand.
The multi-year agreement will see slot game specialist H5G develop a “substantial” number of games which will be made available to Bally’s land-based, online and mobile clients.
H5G has long supplied games for the land-based casino industry, while earlier this year it launched a social gaming subsidiary to develop products for the online, mobile and social markets.
Lads and Cirsa in Spanish football deals
Ladbrokes and Cirsa have both announced partnerships with Spanish football clubs ahead of the 2012-13 La Liga season.
Cirsa has renewed its shirt sponsorship deal with Real Betis, exercising an option set in place when it agreed a one-year deal with the Andalusian club in August 2011.
The primarily land-based operator, which has a software agreement with Betware for the regulated Spanish egaming market, was among five operators named as inaugural members of industry body Empresarios de Juego Online Asociados (EJOA).
Tivoli Casino in Quickfire deal
Danish land-based operator Tivoli has teamed up with Quickfire, the Microgaming-powered casino games supplier, to provide games for its new egaming website.
The owner of the Tivoli Gardens casino in Copenhagen, boasting some 450 slots and gaming arcade machines, was recently awarded an online gaming licence in Denmark and launched its TivoliCasino.dk site, powered by Play’n Go, last month.
Betway launches sports betting app
Malta-based online gaming operator Betway has announced the launch of a mobile sports betting app.
The Betway Sports app will be available for download for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users via the Apple Store in the the UK.
Intralot enters Mexico with Sorteo deal
Greek operator Intralot has agreed a joint deal with service provider Sorteo Games to supply keno and online games to the Mexican national lottery.
It is Intralot’s first entry into the Mexican market, although it already has a notable Latin American presence and its Peruvian-facing subsidiary Intralot Peru launched its first online product last November.
NYX Gaming in GeoComply deal
NYX Gaming Group has agreed a deal for GeoComply’s geolocation services, allowing the gaming platform supplier to confirm the physical location of players who are using Apple and Android devices.
Gaming platform provider NYX will use the Nevada-based company’s player location services within the regulated markets it currently operates in, which include working with state-run operators Francaise de Jeux and Svenska Spel in France and Sweden respectively.
Double Down signs up with Golden Acorn Casino
The Golden Acorn Casino and Travel Centre in California has become the latest land-based operator to embed IGT-owned Double Down Interactive’s casino app on its website.
The Campo-based Golden Acorn will host the app “ which includes free-play multi-player poker and casino games “ on its customer-facing website in exchange for a share of revenue. It follows last week’s news that Casino Del Sol Resort in Arizona had entered a similar deal.