Online gambling technology providers Playtech have struck a deal to power the online bingo platform of UK newspaper The Sun.
On Monday, Playtech announced it had secured a five-year deal with News UK, the UK subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, to power the company’s online bingo brands, including Sun Bingo and Fabulous Bingo.
Both sites had been powered by UK online gambling firm Gamesys, whose CEO Lee Fenton described the split with News UK as amicable. Playtech will migrate both sites’ customers to its Virtue Fusion bingo network by August 2016, after which it will provide the brands with new desktop and mobile products.
Virtue Fusion currently provides bingo services for a variety of UK operators, including William Hill, Paddy Power, Gala Coral and Mecca Bingo. Those operators collectively boast around 20k online bingo players, while the News UK sites have around 15k players.
The News UK deal represents a rebound for Playtech after last week’s failure of its UK financial trading acquisitions. Playtech had sought to add both Plus500 and Ava Trade to its growing financial trading portfolio but the company was unable to resolve “certain concerns” expressed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority before the stipulated deadline.
Meanwhile, Playtech has lured a former William Hill exec to spur innovation at Playtech’s live online casino operations. Kevin Kilminster, who headed up Hills’ live casino and in-house Vegas casino division, will now oversee customer relations, studio and product development, biz-dev and sales for Playtech’s online live dealer casino operations.
Kilminster told eGaming Review that he was chuffed to be joining Playtech after four years with Hills, saying the transition to “a supplier of equal global stature” was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse, and he looked forward to working with “numerous top tier operator live products.”
