Williams Interactive inks Rank Group slots deal
Rank Group also agrees terms with Gala Coral to buy 19 of its casinos for £179m.
Williams Interactive, the online arm of WMS Industries, has agreed a multi-year deal to license its slot games to London-listed Rank Group as the supplier continues to expand its European offering.
Rank Group’s Meccabingo.com and Grosvenorcasinos.com sites will have access to all of WMS’ online slots games, including The Wizard of Oz, by the second half of the year, with the products to be implemented using OpenBet’s RGI.
The deal follows a similar agreement signed with Scandinavian-facing operator Bonnier Gaming last week and SkyBet earlier last month. It is the third B2B deal signed by WMS since the US$1.5bn acquisition by Scientific Games was announced in February, when CEO and chairman Lorne Weil suggested the predominantly US-facing WMS would benefit from SciGames’ presence in international markets.
Williams Interactive CEO and president Orrin Edidin said: “The alliance with The Rank Group Plc is another premier endorsement of WMS’ online gaming capabilities and demonstrates our growing momentum in expanding the worldwide audience for our gaming content. I’m confident that as we bring new levels of excitement and entertainment to its online communities we will achieve great success together in the years to come.”
Rank has also finalised its agreement with Gala Coral for the purchase of 19 of its land-based casinos for £179 in cash. Last month Rank was given permission to acquire the 19 casinos, rather than the 23 initially proposed last year for an agreed £250m, following the publication of a report from the UK Competition Commission.
The acquisitions would make Rank the UK’s largest casino operator with 54 venues and Ian Burke, Rank CEO and chairman, said of the agreement: “This acquisition enables us to capitalise on our proven record of operational excellence in the British casino sector and is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership. By rolling out the ‘G Casino’ format into the Gala estate and expanding the Grosvenor Casino brand into 11 new cities, we will accelerate the growing awareness of the brand and support the development of a multi-channel gaming business.”