Bally and Aristocrat enter partnership; Shuffle Master record revenues; Popular social game has new owners

bally techTwo of America’s largest casino technology firms have teamed up ahead of possible online poker regulation. Bally Technologies and Aristocrat Technologies have signed a B2B contract providing a combined internet gaming solution. In layman’s terms, the two will pool liquidity in poker and share online slot content whilst competing for customers on gaming systems and content. Richard Haddrill, CEO at Bally, said: “By teaming up, Bally and Aristocrat can source and integrate with the strongest online poker product, specifically tailored for this market, which can help our customers maintain their leadership position in both land-based and on-line gaming.”

Shuffle Master reported record revenues for a first quarter driven by a 104% rise in Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) revenues. Total revenue rose 28% to $56.1 million to secure its place on the Shuffle Master wall of fame. It came on the same day they acquired OnGame from bwin.party. Both pieces of news pushed the company’s share price to a four-year high. CEO Gavin Isaacs, gushed: “I couldn’t be more pleased with the great momentum and excitement that Shuffle Master has generated lately and the first quarter was no exception.  Our record quarterly results, coupled with today’s announcement about our entering into an agreement to acquire Ongame Network, demonstrates that we’re growing our core businesses and successfully executing on our strategies to accelerate growth in the future.”

The creators of social gaming phenomenon Card Ace: Casino have been acquired by Big Fish Games. Self Aware Games and parent company Social Concept now come under the Big Fish umbrella with the game set for a further release as an HTML5 offering. Big Fish founder Paul Thelen added: “We are delighted to integrate one of the most talented mobile-social game development teams into Big Fish, and to extend our mainstream consumer reach to include the booming market of casino games. We look forward to delighting the enormous audience on Facebook with the Card Ace: Casino experience.”