UK-listed online gambling operator Bwin.party digital entertainment has inked an online casino content deal with US gambling device maker and software provider International Game Technology (IGT). The deal will see IGT’s complete online and mobile casino game library become available internationally via bwin.com, partypoker.com and various dot-country sites in Europe, as well as on Bwin.party’s online gambling sites in the state of New Jersey.
The deal marks the next step in CEO Norbert Teufelberger’s plan to end Bwin.party’s reliance on in-house game content, following on April’s deal with Williams Interactive. Bwin.party’s director of games Golan Shaked praised IGT’s games as “worldwide player favorites” that would add “instantly recognizable, market-attuned content” to Bwin.party sites. IGT Interactive commercial director Leigh Nissim called the deal “a key milestone in our journey across regulated markets” that “significantly extends the presence of IGT games in key markets around the world.”
While Bwin.party-powered sites currently lead the New Jersey market, that top dog status is now officially living on borrowed time. With Amaya Gaming Group having acquired the operations of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and Amaya CEO David Baazov already talking to New Jersey regulators about obtaining licenses for both brands, Bwin.party finds itself in a nightmare from which it cannot awake.
The knowledge that New Jersey players – as well as those in other US states currently considering online poker regulation – would be drawn to Stars like Luis Suarez’s teeth to human flesh has not gone unnoticed by Bwin.party investors. Bwin.party shares closed Tuesday at 98.55p after briefly dipping as low as 95p. Shares are now down over 20p (16%) since the month began, touching lows not seen in two years. Investors are slowly catching on to the fact that the US market won’t be the revenue savior Bwin.party and other European public company execs had promised.
