Need to know: markets new, Nordics say 'no'

THIS week in the world of egaming saw operators toasting plans to launch in a host of new markets, but two jurisdictions in the Nordics unveiling new plans to keep competitors out.

First up, the new markets. Playtech revealed that it has bought bingo supplier Virtue Fusion, the software supplier’s third major deal in little over two months, helping to swell Playtech’s existing bingo network by roughly seven times.

Virtue Fusion has more than 20 licensees including Bet365, Crown Bingo, Ladbrokes, Mecca, Paddy Power, Sky, Virgin and Playtech joint venture partner William Hill, and as reported on EGRmagazine.com last week, will also supply an end-to-end solution for PartyGaming for the launch of Party’s Foxy Bingo brand in Sweden.

The deal, for an initial consideration of £29m plus up to £7m based on EBIT performance, follows Playtech’s acquisition of casino software company Gaming Technology Solutions (GTS) in December last year and the formation of its SciPlay joint-venture with US lottery giant Scientific Games to deliver online technology to government-backed lottery operators last month.

Like GTS, which Playtech will use to develop skill games that are allowed under regulated markets, the Virtue Fusion acquisition fits into Playtech’ focus on regulated markets such as bingo stronghold Britain, but as EGRmagazine.com revealed, Playtech will also use Virtue Fusion to target France and Italy too.

To the south, meanwhile, Ladbrokes unveiled plans to launch a sportsbook in South Africa, a welcome distraction from the bookmaker’s depressing year-end results, while far to the north, Unibet launched a new B2B arm via a new contract to provide a sportsbook solution to Paf, the online gambling monopoly of Finland’s semi-autonomous Aland Islands.

Unless you’ve been working from a box under the stairs for the last year, you’ll be aware that Unibet is hardly the first operator to launch into the B2B space, and follows in the footprints of operators including 888, Betsson, Bwin, Paddy Power and PartyGaming ““ one of the reasons that eGaming Review has launched new B2B Awards. But to find out just how Unibet plans to make up for lost time, over to Unibet CEO Petter Nylander.

Anyway, where countries including France, Italy, South Africa and the UK have led, Norway and Finland have no plans to follow, it seems, with Norway clearing its own version of UIGEA and Finland clearing its Ray and Veikkhaus Oy monopolies to launch online casino, poker and bingo as a defensive move against competitors like you.

And in case anyone were to accuse them of hypocrisy, Finland’s politicians and regulators even held a public meeting to discuss the new rules. Over and out.

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PLUS: great blog posts this week on new jobs in online gambling; PartyPoker’s chip cap; Italy’s bingo laws and Betsson, Norway, Turkey and the faith.