Launches and sign-ups 11/01/12
A round-up of the egaming industry's launches and sign-ups from the last seven days (5 January to 11 January 2012)
William Hill signs landmark deal with Football Association
Bookmaker becomes first betting company to use England football team branding and image rights across its products “ also official betting partner of the FA Cup.
William Hill has become the first gambling company to sign a deal with the Football Association allowing it to use the national team’s branding and player image rights across various online and offline products in exchange for a revenue share agreement.
In a two and half year deal, and following in the footsteps of fast food chain McDonalds, the bookmaker will become the FA’s official England supporter as well as the official betting partner for the FA Cup with third round games being played this weekend.
A spokesman told eGaming Review that the deal involved a “significant” undisclosed initial sum, while in exchange for brand and image rights the FA would receive a revenue share from William Hill’s associated England and FA branded products.
The agreement features a “wide and unique range of image rights, advertising and promotional opportunities”, a statement released this afternoon read.
Bwin.party relaunches Pokerroom.com
Bwin.party-owned poker site Pokerroom.com has relaunched after a near three-year hiatus, the operator has confirmed.
First launched in 1999, the site was operational for 10 years before closing its doors in April 2009, with players encouraged to migrate to bwin at that time.
The branding on the site seems to imply a dot.com-only operation, although bwin.party has yet to publicly rule out launching dot.country versions under one or more of its licences in regulated jurisdictions.
Ladbrokes in discussions for supplier deal with Betdaq
Ladbrokes are in talks with Betdaq’s owner Dermot Desmond over a deal which would see the operator buy in the betting exchange’s pricing and trading solutions.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the funds for any potential deal will come from the £50m set aside for investment in technology to revitalise Ladbrokes’ online business.
Betdaq was founded in 2000 by Desmond, also the majority shareholder of Scottish football club Celtic, who holds a 2% stake in Ladbrokes.
Betfair expands mobile offering
Betfair has expanded its mobile offering with the addition of ante post markets and US racing, according to a Twitter announcement from the betting exchange.
It is the latest development from the operator’s mobile team under the stewardship of Raj Velmulapalli, the former Yahoo VP of mobile engineering who replaced Charlie Palmer in May.
Sporting Solutions unveils Cloud Calculation Engine
The industry is continually searching for the killer app, with many going so far as to describe their products as exactly that but often failing to deliver. One British company, however, believes it has come up with a concept that could change the way global operators generate their sportsbook prices forever.
Leveraging its B2C and B2B expertise in data, modelling, pricing and trading capabilities and its position as the dominant supplier of in-play data to 10 individual operators and growing, Sporting Solutions says it has listened to its customers and is confident its new product is what the market wants.
Netplay TV launches live roulette for iPad
NetPlay TV has announced that it has added a live roulette offering to its Supercasino iPad app at the end of the fourth quarter.
The news came as part of the operator’s Q4 trading update, where it also confirmed that KPIs for the quarter are “Ahead of the same period in 2010″.
Purple Lounge to leave Microgaming network
Media Corporation has announced it will move its poker offering from Microgaming to the Entraction poker network.
Olympian Trading to operate tribal egaming network
Malta, Netherlands Antilles and Kahnawake-licensed operator Olympian Trading will operate the newly launched tribal-facing GEObet Gaming Network in partnership with North Star Entertainment Limited.