Online gaming technology provider GAN has inked yet another mystery social gaming deal with an unidentified tribal casino operator.
On Monday, GAN announced that it had signed on to provide its Simulated Gaming social casino product to “one of the longest-standing Native American casino operators in in the North Eastern United States.” GAN said the identity of the casino operator would be revealed “following the receipt of suitable commercial and/or regulatory consents.”
GAN CEO Dermot Smurfit celebrated his company’s 12th US signing and the fourth deal inked so far this year, which included similarly unidentified tribal casino operators in the “Southwest US” and a “North Eastern regional” market player, as well as Rock Gaming’s Ohio properties.
Back when GAN was still known as GameAccount Network, it used to supply Simulated Gaming to Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino but the companies agreed last September to a “managed exit” from their relationship. (Guess ‘conscious decoupling’ was already taken.) Foxwoods went on to ink a social casino deal with Novomatic Group subsidiary Greentube.
The new FoxwoodsOnline product launched In April, and the casino’s VP of gaming and revenue enhancement Eric Pearson recently told Hartford Business that the new site was already posting daily average usage numbers that are twice that of its previous GAN-powered site.
The new site has also enjoyed a significant spike in mobile users. According to Pearson, when Foxwoods launched its GAN site two years ago, “between 10-12% of our users played on mobile devices. Now it’s nearly 50%.”
Pearson said the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation that operates Foxwoods remains interested in real-money online gambling, should the state authorize such activity, but Foxwoods sees “a real value in social gaming and it’s very different than online gambling.” Pearson also predicted that, while “less than half” of casinos currently have any online presence, “that will change over the next three to five years.”
