Sportingbet

Betfair has unveiled its piece de resistance ahead of Euro 2012 with a brand new iPhone app designed with the tournament in mind. Released today it lets you peruse various match previews, team guides, score updates and…get this…it even lets you place bets. It’s also being designed to push their fixed odds offering, which will be available to customers for the first time in the lead up to the championships.

Boylesports are another sports betting firm that will be singing the praises of Apple after their mobile app was permitted into the App Store. The offering is available on both iPhone and iPad with all bases covered including football, horse racing and rugby. It also has news, fixtures, promotions and those all-important results from a number of different events. It follows them signing a deal with Buzz Sports just last week and signals an emphasis on in-play.

Sportech has been granted licences for its Vernons and Littlewoods brands in Alderney. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission awarded the category 1 and 2 licences covering “the organisation and preparation of gambling operations” and “the effecting of the gambling transaction including operational management of a gambling platform located within an approved hosting centre” respectively, according to eGR. Mobile gaming operator OMIgaming has also submitted a licence application to try and obtain a Core Services Associate Licence.

Business News

Domains have been seized, indictments created and a small number of people have even been arrested. But aside from the soap-opera drama that has followed the events of April 15, 2011 there has been a considerable effort from the iGaming industry to deal with the ramifications of what has occurred.

For most, this effort has consisted of developing and implementing a strategy which would allow iGaming operators to enter the potentially extremely lucrative US online gambling market.

This has been something that some companies have found easier than others and even those that haven’t put any plans onto paper are watching on. Be they focusing on the legal situation or assessing the fortunes of those who have already made the plunge – there’s plenty to be learnt.

While watching others provides an opportunity to assess the success of certain invasive tactics, it doesn’t put operators in the place that they want to be when legislation is brought in.

Having said that, some deals may have created significant levels of risk for the parties involved. What many are finding out and some would have claimed to be able to say before is that there is no safe strategy for making your way in the US. As such cases have to assessed on an individual basis.

Below are just some of the more high profile companies that have been making noise about combining the online gambling world with the US.

William Hill

After having considerable financial success in the online sector following their joint venture with Playtech, William Hill wasted no time in extending their reach to the US. First was the acquisition of American Wagering Inc. and Cal Neva Sportsbook division. This was soon followed by the acquisition of Nevada-based betting operator Brandywine Bookmaking.

All of these moves suggest that Hills are laying long-term foundations for their online and land based expansion into the US. But it would appear that for the time being they’re going to stick to what they know best by attacking the sportsbook industry. Following the Brandywine acquisition CEO Ralph Topping explained: “We see the US sportsbook industry as a great development opportunity for William Hill.”

Caesars Entertainment

Not a company to often be found wanting, Caesars have gradually ramped up their assault on the online gambling industry. CEO Gary Loveman was the cover story of Gambling Insider speaking about all things internet while the company went about establishing Caesars Interactive Entertainment – the online arm of the casino giant.

The Reno-based company also admitted to pressing hard in order to encourage the legalisation of online poker while an investigation found that Caesars had spent $821,000 lobbying in Q2 of 2011 alone.

But it’s not just been plain old iGaming where Caesars have looked to gain a foothold. In May, a ‘strategic investment’ was made into the creators of Facebook game Slotomania, Playtika.

All of this despite a self-imposed ‘quiet period’ caused by the companies flotation on the stock market!

888

As a pureplay operator with a great brand, the staff at 888 will have been licking their lips at the prospect of getting their hands on a piece of the US iGaming pie. They certainly haven’t hung around either with reports emerging in July about talks with Caesars Entertainment over a joint venture.

This was seen as a simple way for 888 to gain a Nevada online poker license and was finally completed when the company’s B2B section Dragonfish entered an agreement with Caesars. Rather than a new deal, the January announcement was simply an extension of the existing UK deal to also include the US.

But Caesars won’t be the only ones to break bread with 888 Holdings as Donald Trump has been reported by The Times to be talking to 888 about starting up an online poker site. However before 888 shareholders get too carried away, it’s worth remembering that Trump is a fairly shrewd operator and is likely to be talking to various other online operators.

Bally Technologies

Not wanting to be left behind, Ballys sort of skipped a step when they went straight to social and mobile gaming. They did so in one fail swoop by acquiring MacroView Labs in July. By doing so Bally allowed the self to make use of the company’s free to play and mobile technology which are, to say the least, two very important markets.

October even saw the company finally create a digital arm, something which many will testify is well overdue. When it did finally arrive it came in the form of Bally Interactive and provided their operators with free play mobile and online gambling.

Perhaps recognising that they had been considerably late to the party the folks at Bally made a move to acquire the US ChiliGaming B2B platform at the end of February. This is a move which may finally bring them up to speed with the industry but they’re sure to need all the advice they can get from their newly acquired online gambling specialists.

Other European Online Operators

Despite having made the most headway, William Hill is by no means the only iGaming operator looking to the ‘Land of Opportunity’.

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has, unsurprisingly, adopted a different approach from their contemporaries. Rather than acquiring or partnering the company has gone full steam ahead by continuing with their application to be a licensed manufacturer and operator. This plan has been some time in the making with the original application having been made in August 2010 but should it come up trumps then the Irishmen will be ideally placed in Nevada.

bwin.party have adopted a similar approach by applying for a Nevada online poker license. The iGaming super company has been among a clutch of pureplay companies to apply for a coveted Nevada gambling license. Given Anurag Dikshit’s $105 million deal with the US government you would hope that bwin.party will be able to seamlessly move into the US but things continue to be less than easy.

Even 32Red’s whiter than white approach to grey markets has been tested with CEO Ed Ware recently admitting that they were having had ‘conversations’ with various US companies.

Big Names

Given the potential size of a legal US iGaming industry it’s no surprise that it has attracted the attention of many organisations across the world.

Of those who have made their iGaming intentions clear, few are more high profile than Donald Trump. Trump teamed up with Marc Lasry’s Avenue Capital Group hedge fund in October in an attempt to launch an assault on the US online poker market.

Steve Wynn is another who is sure to want to cash in on his brand and has been rumored to be doing so in a social capacity. The beginning of this month saw reports in The New York Post claiming that Zynga may strike a deal with the casino company Wynn Resorts.

With many more companies looking to capitalize on a legal US iGaming industry the deals and strategies above are sure to be replicated many times over.

It’s clear that these deals and strategies are more relevant now than ever. To illustrate just how close we now are to a legal iGaming industry in the US just look to Nevada.

The recent meeting of the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee to investigate the ways in which Las Vegas can take advantage of online gambling shows that plans must be made sooner rather than later. According to those in the know, when this committee meets things tend to happen – suggesting that if companies haven’t already got an online US strategy, they better get one.

Poker News

French gaming interest Groupe Partouche is to relaunch its French-facing online poker site after a drop in turnover. Partouche Interactive contributes a pitiful 1.3% to group turnover with a year-on-year decrease of 16.7% in interactive turnover not helping matters. Their move into Belgium should help matters and it hasn’t affected the group as a whole where turnover was up 1.4% for the four months to 31 January.

888 is teaming up with Ryan Air to offer a gambling service via the latter’s website. Customers visiting the low-cost airline’s site can now play online casino games, poker and place sports bets with the aim to win flight vouchers. Stephen McNamaras, communication’s director at Ryanair, said: “Ryanair already delivers Europe’s lowest airfares and with 888.com we now deliver the best online gaming entertainment to half a billion annual visitors to Ryanair.com.

“The world’s first poker tournaments featuring Ryanair flight vouchers as prize money are sure to excite gaming and travel fans throughout Europe who will also find casino, bingo and sportsbetting on Ryanair.com.”

Business News

Brian Mattingley, deputy chairman at 888, stated: “888 has taken a prudent approach to regulation, which culminated in the successful review conducted by the NGC, putting 888 and Dragonfish in pole position for the US market. This gives us a strong platform to roll out our cutting edge, turnkey solution to other potential partners as the market opens.

“We are delighted to be extending our relationship with CIE into the much-anticipated US market, and we are proud to be providing them with the technology and tools to leverage and monetise their powerful brand.”

The company Mattingley heads has already handed the Nevada Gaming Control Board a service provider licence application and will be hopeful they endorse of this deal given the Nevada Gaming Commission approving the original 888/Caesars tie up.

Mitch Garber, CEO and Caesars, added: “888 has been successfully driving the World Series of Poker brand in the UK for the past three years, and with current momentum toward either a Federal or State by State regulatory environment, 888 is uniquely positioned to support either outcome, without delay.”

We’re starting to see justification of Panmure Gordon getting so excited over 888 shares in the post-Xmas/pre-NYE window. They’re also of the opinion the Department of Justice (DoJ) won’t go after the firm for taking pre-UIGEA bets. If this is the case it will be quite the turn around for a firm that last-April was reeling after failing to doll itself up sufficiently to get Ladbrokes into the sack. It now leaves Lads CEO Richard Glynn red-faced. The realization for both 888 and CIE is that persisting with the only post-Black Friday partnership to survive was in the best interests of both parties. That’s if the DoJ doesn’t decide to go after 888, which is starting to look less likely. We’ll know more once the markets open in Europe and react to the 888/Caesars vow renewal. For now 888 looks to have escaped the shit of 2010/11 and is living up to the adage with the smell of roses emanating from their direction.

Poker News

Sports betting firm StanJames.com has signed on to sponsor racing’s Chester Cup for the next three years. The deal sees the race renamed The StanJames.com Cup from 9th May 2012 and includes three editions until its expiry in 2014. As part of the same contract the opening day of Chester’s May festival will be called StanJames Raceday, the firm’s CEO Denis Kelly commenting: “We’re delighted to be joining forces with Chester Races for the next few years to promote and strengthen one of the most popular races of the Flat Season. Punters love a great day out at The Roodee and so do we. The Chester Cup has got a long and rich history and StanJames.com is excited to become a part of the old race’s ongoing story over the next few years.”

Endemol Games and online casino 888 have gone live with “The Money Drop” in Italy. The Italian version of The Million Point Drop game is available on 888.it and follows Endemol’s first Italian game for 888.it, Affari Tuoi, which launched last year.

Business News

Danske Licens Spil

Bodog88 has introduced Super Six Baccarat to its Grand Bodog Live Dealer Casino. Popular in Asian land-based venues, it marks the first time the product’s been offered on live dealer sites. Super Six works by giving odds of EVENS (1/1) if the banker wins with a point total other than six. If the banker does win with six the bets are paid at 0.5/1. Players can also take an additional wager on the results as an insurance bet at 12/1. Robert Gustafsson, Managing Director of Bodog88, said: “Carving out something unique in the cluttered world of online casino is very difficult but with our new live dealer studio we can quickly react to the needs and wants of casino players. Any new trend can be immediately introduced which we hope will make Bodog88 the most dynamic online casino out there.”

888 have announced that Michael Constantine stepped down from the firm’s board of directors as of December 31 2011. Constantine served as an independent non-executive director and upon his retirement Richard Kilsby, chairman of 888, commented: “I would like to express on behalf of the Board and all at the Company our appreciation of Michael’s contribution to 888. We wish him all the best for the future.”

Business News

Deputy chairman Brian Mattingley commented, “This is a very strong set of results driven by good operating performances across our business lines. We have improved our offer, experienced good levels of new customer sign ups and activity has been at record levels. We are in good shape and, bolstered by our renewed strategic focus, are well positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they arise in newly regulated markets.”

The last quarter saw the firm’s Dragonfish casino brand expand aggressively into the newish Italian market. After receiving Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS) approval, their product is now being used by bwin.it and MicroGame. In addition expansion will see Gioco Digitale and King.com run on their CasinoFlex platform with “other deals in the pipeline.” Apart from the MyTopia loss it was an impressive few months and those at the top won’t be too worried about the future.

Business News

Mattingley added, “We would love to do it with them,” before stating they would decide whether to try for the license by “mid-autumn”.

It comes after William Hill decided it was entering the state by buying three companies to offer sports bets. In their case, it tied their hands even more than before as they had to gain approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC). Thanks to them being a public company, it means that they may miss out on the lucrative opportunities that private companies are enjoying and will continue to enjoy in Asia. This may or may not be the case for 888.

888 also released its half-year results earlier today and for the most part the bigwigs will be happy. Year-on-year revenue growth increased by 29% to US$79m and much of this was down to the investment made in their poker platform. James Hollins, analyst at Evolution Securities, told eGR that the results were “stellar” and that they were “reaping the rewards” of their choice to invest in poker. Whether they celebrated it by glugging down a pint of Stella, only they know (send us through the photos though!)

Mattingley added, “This quarter has seen strong performance in B2C for 888 especially in poker and casino. We have been focused as ever on our goals – further bolstering our B2C performance and leveraging our industry-leading offerings, while maintaining our Dragonfish brand presence and B2B deal pipeline.”

As we earlier mentioned, poker was one of the star performers. B2C poker revenues reached US$13m, a 58% increase on the previous year. Add this to the casino revenue increase of 34% to $36m and you see why they’re all quite pleased with themselves.

Business News

Commenting on the appointment, Simon Duffy, chairman of Pwin, said, “We are delighted to welcome Geoff to the Board. Given the pace of change in our marketplace and his wealth of experience of working with high technology and social media companies, Geoff will be well-placed to contribute to the next phase of our corporate development. I would like to thank Rami for his contribution to the Board over the last two years and wish him well for the future.”

Baldwin, 46, is an investment banking professional with 24 years experience in various companies. His appointment follows a relationship agreement signed in January by Pwin, Emerald Bay, Stinson Ridge and many more.

888 Holdings has announced that its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the second quarter will be revealed on Thursday 21st July. Brian Mattingley, deputy chairman and CFO Aviad Kobrine will host the conference call at 10.30am (BST). In addition, William Hill will declare its half-year results on Friday 5th August. They will be for the 26 weeks ended 28 June 2011 and be accompanied by an analyst presentation at 9.00am (BST).

Lastly, the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed that the sale of the Tote has been completed. Bookmaker Betfred won the race last month and with the DCMS stamp of approval the deal is almost completely done. The news comes the day after the DCMS announced sweeping changes to the UK’s gambling laws.

Business News

Prior to this appointment, Alasdair filled a number of related roles during a ten-year spell at broadcasting giant BSkyB. Upon filling the role, Wright said: “I am thrilled to be joining Betfair at an exciting time in the company’s continued development. It is rare to get the opportunity to work with such an innovative product and I am looking forward to driving marketing efforts which enable customers to get the best out of their relationship with Betfair.”

In other job news, Dragonfish marketing director Gavin Bisdee is reportedly the latest member of the team to leave. eGaming Review reports that he’s leaving down the tried and trusted route of pursuing new opportunities. He told eGR, “The creation of Dragonfish has been a challenging and hugely rewarding experience and I am delighted that, through the efforts of many skilled colleagues, it has become a highly respected B2B business in the gaming market in such a short space of time. I now wish to move on to other challenges but have no doubt the team will continue to deliver great things and grow the business.”

It comes after a number of high profile departures from the company in recent months including CEO David Zerah and B2C managing director Adi Soffer-Te’eni.

Business News

In terms of the B2C part of the business, that also saw year-on-year growth of 9%, from $59m to $64m, with a rise of 7% from the previous quarter also present.

The first blip in the results was concerning their B2B revenue that declined 3% compared with Q4 2010. Levy put this down to regulatory delays in Italy and that growth would be back on track come the latter stages of Q2 2011.

Some of the results in the casino side of the business also saw a significant drop. Year-on-year, the revenue per active casino customer was down 39% to $258, with the figure at $51 for poker players, down 26% over the same period.

“The excellent figures reported today and the ongoing strength in current trading indicate the company is growing and is on the right track towards further success.,” Levy commented.

He continued, “Trading at the start of Q2 has continued to be strong and, as we enter the historically weaker summer period, we expect trading in 2011 to follow seasonal patterns.”

More important than these figures, is the news that the deal with “the Lads” is still breathing, albeit with the help of a ventilator.

On the subject of that deal with Ladbrokes, Levy told a conference call this morning, “The Ladbrokes deal is still alive, still an option. We carefully crafted wording for the RNS which basically said we don’t have anything to say because if we did we would have told you. But after writing it skilfully we read it and said ‘not having it is exactly the same.”

It will be interesting to see the developments over the next few months at 888 and whether they get the girl they’ve been pining after for some time – Ladbrokes.

Business News

EBITDA for the year fell by a disappointing 37% to $28.6m (£17.7m) and meant that the company’s shares on the London Stock Exchange were down by as much as 6.47%.

888 chief executive Gigi Levy said, “Following a challenging start to the year 888 finished 2010 strongly.

“888 has begun the year with strong current trading and continues to make good progress across all segments of the business.”

The talk about 888 and Ladbrokes becoming part of the mergers/acquisitions/takeovers clique started back in December. By publicly stating that they’re still very much merger friendly they must be really keen to find out what goes on in the clique. Just make sure you don’t get blackballed guys – that would be embarrassing.

The world’s second biggest gambling services provider has also released their 2010 results and it doesn’t make particularly optimistic reading.

Bloomberg reports that Intralot SA profit dropped by 27% in 2010 and bet income for the period bottomed out at €36.6m compared with a figure of €49.8m the year before.

Group CEO Constantinos Antonopoulos, commented, “FY 2010 marks the completion of this expansionary phase as the Group has a large and healthy portfolio of projects that constitute a very significant asset. In the next few years we will focus on delivering value to our investors from existing projects by taking advantage of their full potential in terms of sales growth, by streamlining their operations and by improving our operating efficiencies.”

The Greek group’s EBITDA also showed a slight decrease of around 1.1% as they scrambled around for something to give everyone some optimism…and found the Consolidated Revenues increased by 23.5%. Well there’s a lot more need to impress if you’re known as “second biggest” isn’t there?!

Business News

Most will be wondering whether the company may now add an extra 8 onto the end of their name after their shares were 8% higher than at the start of the day. The clearance of the deal meant the shares were 3.25p higher than the previous day as they reached 43.5p.

A broker at Shore Capital explained that this wouldn’t be the last deal of this type to be struck, and said, “We believe the clearance is the first for a foreign operator and potentially paves the way for other foreign online gambling operators to enter into a joint venture with US based gaming companies (initially outside of the US).

“Furthermore, we believe this represents further encouraging momentum in the re-appraisal of online gambling in the US by regulators, with the regulation of online gambling now looking increasingly likely, at least on a state-by-state basis in 2011. Recently we have seen encouraging momentum from states such as Hawaii, Florida, Iowa, California and New Jersey all indicating a willingness to regulate online gambling.”

The deal may be the first of a couple that 888 makes over the next few weeks as the rumors over a possible tie-up with Ladbrokes will continue to persist. This may now cool down slightly after a tie-up between Ladbrokes and bwin.party was muted yesterday, which in turn also saw PartyGaming shares up 4.9p to 191.3p but you’d imagine the talk of a Lads/888 will continue to be there.

Business News

Elsewhere, some interesting results from a British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) staff survey. The Ipsos Loyalty survey, obtained by The Tyee via freedom of information request, involved 85% of the Canadian province’s government-run gaming company’s 880 employees. Numerous questions were posed and the results were tallied separately for each of BCLC’s 68 different departments. For instance… When asked whether they had “confidence in decisions made by senior leadership,” only 50% of the folks in Player Services agreed, while a mere 23% of Lottery Development people gave their top execs a thumb up.

Meanwhile, 100% of those polled at the President & Executive Assistance Division (the aforementioned ‘senior leadership’) responded in the affirmative. One hundred percent. You gotta admit, that’s pretty good. Those are Mubarak-worthy election numbers. Of course, it’s worth noting that this survey was conducted in early 2010, prior to the gaffe-prone launch of their online offering PlayNow.com. We’ll await the next survey to learn whether that perfect score is repeated, or whether the people on the bridge of the Titanic have taken to listening to iceberg-spotting employees like this one, who told Ipsos: “Our current strategy is to take a bunch of products that weren’t acceptable to be released in previous years and to fire them out into the market as fast as possible to make a quick buck.” Employee of the month, right there…

Business News

After tucking themselves up in bed with the customary cocoa after the scotch nightcap, it was time to get up this morning and fight their corner – the job being left to chief executive of 888, Gigi Levy.

The story was being reported over the weekend by many of the national papers as the shares have dropped drastically since Ladbrokes’ original takeover proposal, but Levy is still buoyant.

“The talks are ongoing. It’s a big deal for everybody,” he said.

He then added that he would not be drawn on any “stumbling blocks” between the two companies, and said, “These are negotiations like any other negotiations between two companies. They take time.”

There’s been a twist on the 888 side of the discussions though, after the performance of Wink Bingo, acquired in December 2009, was so far ahead of expectations that the earn-out may need to be renegotiated.

Nick Batram, an analyst at Peel Hunt, told the Telegraph that the earn-out payment “could be as much as £48m cash and compares with the group’s current gross cash position of $67m.

“We believe that the most likely outcome is a restructuring of the earn-out as opposed to an equity fund raising. Either way it is another factor that suggests 888 is not in a position of strength when negotiating a sale of the business,” said Mr Batram, who has a “sell” recommendation on 888.

It doesn’t look like getting any better for 888 any time soon, but as long as the negotiations are still ongoing, it must be a good thing, right?

Business News

An area in which the government does plan to intervene is the matter of online gambling outfits serving the UK market without direct licenses from the Gambling Commission. Specific actions are expected to be revealed by the end of March, but they are believed to include a requirement to report all suspicious betting patterns to the commission, ‘protecting children’ (from monsters under the bed?) and helping to combat the spread of problem gambling. (What about problem children?)

Turning to the UK markets, despite being pursued by Ladbrokes and now Playtech, 888 Holdings share price continues its downward trajectory. In a nice bit of synergy, 888’s price fell 8% on Friday, closing at 57.25p. This despite scuttlebutt earlier in the week that Ladbrokes had upped its takeover offer from 70p to 80p per share. Personally, we think Ladbrokes should up its bid to £1 per share, which should send 888’s price plummeting, allowing Paddy Power to swoop in and pick up 888 for a keg of Guinness and a loaf of soda bread.

Betfair had seen its shares tumble to 859p, a full third off its October float price of £13 per share. Needing to do something to right the ship, Betfair CEO David Yu took his theater group down to the offices of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the companies who got Betfair into this public mess in the first place. Whatever inspirational tale Yu & Co. acted out for the brokers (we suspect it involved a theme about things always seeming darkest before the dawn), the market mavens must have bought into it, as Betfair’s price rose to 922.5p by the close of the markets.

Business News

Today both of the two released statements to the London Stock Exchange confirming that they were in talks but added, “there can be no certainty that these discussions will ultimately lead to an offer.”

On news of the merger being put into the public domain, 888’s share price rose by almost a fifth but they didn’t want to comment any further on the latest merger talk when asked.

We also contacted Ladbrokes on the subject of the merger, and didn’t receive a reply from them either. eGR, however, quoted their head of PR Ciaran O’Brien as saying the proposed acquisition was in its “early days,” and that “nothing was certain” at this early stage. He also stated that it was not part of the newly installed CEO Richard Glynn’s “Project Galvanise”.

One of the problems that might come out is that 888 have yet to pay their bargaining wedge to the US Department of Justice, so any move into the US would be problematic until this were resolved. Add to that the fact they’re both publicly traded companies and you can see that problems are possible should the merger be completed.

Business News

The initial plan is to put 10% of the company’s stock into play, with more potentially being issued should demand warrant it. UK newspaper City A.M. is claiming that the share price will range between £11-14, which would put the company’s valuation between £1.25-1.59B. (We all await with breathless anticipation to see how the final figure jibes with those Bodog prop odds.)

Meanwhile, Sportingbet is still waiting for the big payoff from its $35M deal with the US Dept. of Justice. The ‘forgive us, for we have sinned’ payment was supposed to have transformed Sportingbet into the belle of the merger ball, but nothing’s happened yet, outside of a significant dent in its end of year numbers. The company’s financial director, Jim Wilkinson, gave some indication of the apparent lack of interest Sportingbet has received of late, stating “Sooner or later, the deal may or may not happen.” Riveting stuff.

Ending our lap around the publicly traded salad bar, Harrah’s rumored takeover bid has sent 888 Holdings shares up a whole half-pence. Bears, bulls, snails?

Business News

The country’s leading network provider, Microgame, have signed an agreement with 888, and this adds to the deals they already have in place with both bwin and Endemol in Italy.

888 have certainly plumped for pizza over the frog legs on offer from the French. You just wait for the public enquiry from Monsieur Sarkozy. Read more.

Business News

So without any further ado’s, let the bidding commence. Read more.

Business News