Major brands join forces to instantly double player base following government approval.
London: December 2016 – RAY and win2day have signed a ground-breaking agreement to share cross-border poker liquidity on Playtech’s iPoker-powered network.
In an industry-first, the respective Finnish and Austrian gaming brands will join forces to launch a joint poker network using liquidity from both player bases. This will instantly double the number of customers playing the widest variety of omni-channel poker products via the Playtech-powered network.
This is the first time that two regulated entities have joined forces to share cross-border poker liquidity. Following win2day meeting the responsibility standards imposed by RAY and the Finnish authorities, the liquidity sharing agreement was approved by the Finnish Ministry of Interior on December 8th. RAY has previously had to limit its online poker to Finnish players only.
Playtech has worked with both brands for several years. RAY, Finland’s Slot Machine Association, has partnered with Playtech since 2010, setting the benchmark in the Nordic region and establishing the country’s leading gaming operation, while Playtech has worked closely with win2day since 2015, providing the Austrian Lotteries and Casinos Austria-owned brand with a new poker network.
Playtech has invested significant development resources in poker in 2016, enhancing its award-winning iPoker client by introducing a new lobby and home tab, completing a full overhaul of the software’s poker tables and launching a series of new game views, enabling easier and fully personalised access to a wide variety of players’ favourite games.
Shimon Akad, COO, Playtech, said: “We have been pioneers in the gaming industry for many years and are extremely proud to be the first company to provide two great brands with a poker network and series of leading products that will combine to form the first ever cross-border poker network.
“Playtech has long been the largest and most successful poker network in the industry so we’re delighted to be part of this new venture.”
Jan Hagelberg, VP of Digital channels, RAY, said: “Working with win2day has been an extremely smooth process and today’s announcement significantly improves the game selection in both Finland and Austria. We expect the change to considerably increase the interest towards both operators’ poker games. As we have progressed our co-operation, we have also developed the online poker customer experience together with Playtech.”
Martin Jekl, Managing Director, win2day said: “It is with great pleasure that we welcome the opportunity to sustainably expand our offering as the leading online poker provider in Austria with the joint network and thereby improve the customer experience for our users. With RAY, we have found a strong and highly professional partner that shares our commitment to responsible gaming.”
Timo Kiiskinen, Senior Vice President, Business Operations, RAY, added: “We are extremely happy that the Ministry of the Interior accepted the merger of the poker networks. We hope that in the future we can expand the network together with other operators that meet our responsibility standards.”
About Playtech
Playtech is a market leader in the gambling and financial trading industries. Founded in 1999 and listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, Playtech has more than 5,000 employees in 13 countries.
Playtech is the gambling industry’s leading software and services supplier with more than 130 licensees globally, including many of the world’s leading regulated online, retail and mobile operators, land-based casino groups, government sponsored entities such as lotteries, and new entrants opening operations in newly-regulated markets. Its business intelligence-driven gambling software offering includes casino, live casino, bingo, poker and sports betting.
It is the pioneer of omni-channel gambling which, through Playtech ONE, offers operators and their customers, a seamless, anytime, anywhere experience across any product, any channel (online, mobile, retail) and any device using a single account and single wallet. It provides marketing expertise, sophisticated CRM solutions and other services for operators seeking a full turnkey solution.
Playtech’s Financials division operates both on a B2C and B2B basis. Its B2C focused offering is an established and growing online CFDs broker, operating the brand markets.com. Its B2B offering includes the division’s proprietary trading platform, CRM and back-office systems, as well as its liquidity technology platform which provides retail brokers with multi-asset execution, prime brokerage services, liquidity and complementary risk management tools.
For further information contact:
Playtech plc
Mor Weizer, Chief Executive Officer
Ron Hoffman, Chief Financial Officer
c/o Bell Pottinger
+44 (0)20 3772 2500
Andrew Smith, Head of Investor Relations
+44 (0)1624 645954
Bell Pottinger
David Rydell / Olly Scott / David Bass / James Newman
About RAY
The new Finnish gaming company called Veikkaus will start its operations on 1 January 2017, as the gaming operations of Fintoto, RAY, and Veikkaus merge. The new Veikkaus is a gaming company with a special mission. We want people to play our games safely and with moderation. Almost all adult Finns play our games; we have 1.9 million loyal customers. Thanks to the players, over one billion euros a year are accumulated for the common good. The gaming revenue is used to offer people chances for better lives.
About win2day
win2day.at is the online gaming platform of Casinos Austria and Austrian Lotteries and is operated by Austrian Lotteries and Casinos Austria via a joint subsidiary. win2day covers the portfolio of Austrian Lotteries’ classic lottery games as well as electronic lotteries in the form of casino games, the Poker Room, the Bingo Room and since 2013 also sports betting. Both the classic Internet offer as well as the range of games for smartphones (win2day app, poker app) have been expanded considerably over the past few years. Guided by the highest of standards in Responsible Gaming and general security, win2day places great value on safe and secure games as well as on its customers’ privacy and data protection.
