Launches and sign-ups 4 June 2014
Launches and sign-ups from the egaming industry in the last seven days (29 May to 4 June 2014)
666Bet to make a splash with £8m marketing drive
CEO Barry Martin says multi-million pound investment will see new sportsbook and casino brand compete with big names “in a very short space of time”
The CEO of 666Bet, a new online sportsbook and casino brand which launched on Monday, said he expects the site to compete with the egaming sector’s biggest names within 18 months.
Funded by a private investor based on the Isle of Man, 666Bet is being unveiled in time for the football World Cup and has committed £8m over the next 12 months to marketing in order to establish a footprint in the UK, Europe and Asia.
Chief exec Barry Martin, who has been in the industry since 2001 and ran the Gutshot Poker club and its online site, said the new operator can “do a better job” than many big name bookmakers.
“Within 18 months we will be knocking on the door of the big guys,” he told eGaming Review. “We’ve got a very aggressive approach to marketing and committed a lot of money to TV this year “ £5m between now and the end of next football season.
Gala Bingo adds lottery as diversification continues
GalaBingo.com has launched a new OpenBet-powered lottery betting product as the Gala Coral subsidiary continues to expand its product portfolio, eGR can reveal.
The bingo brand released its Lotto tab last Wednesday following a successful testing period and comes just one week after the addition of its female-focused sportsbook product ‘Flutter’.
The Lotto service offers fixed-odds bets on 14 lotteries worldwide including the UK National Lottery, Euro Millions, Health Lottery, Australian Oz Lotto and New York Lotto.
Seven days in launches and sign-ups:
Kambi enters Georgia in first post-Unibet deal
Kambi Sports Solutions is to take its sportsbook into Eastern Europe for the first time after agreeing a deal with Casino Iveria, one of the largest land-based casinos in Georgia.
The deal, Kambi’s first since its spin-off from former parent company Unibet, will see the sportsbook provider launch an online sports betting platform called Iveriabet in regulated Georgia this week with the operator eager for the product to be live ahead of this summer’s football World Cup.
The deal also includes provisional plans to roll the product out into other countries such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan at a later date, while Kambi will also provide Casino Iveria with a retail betting outlet in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
Winamax launches sports betting site
Winamax has launched a sports betting product on its France-facing poker site just a week before the start of the football World Cup.
The poker operator first revealed its intention to diversify into sports betting in April this year, and subsequently received a five-year sports betting licence from the French regulator last month.
Pari-mutuel and fixed-odds betting is now available on Winamax.fr with a limited number of sports, including football, tennis and basketball.
Casino Raj to target “neglected” Asian audience
Casino Raj is targeting the UK’s “neglected” Asian audience with a new online and mobile casino site.
The business was founded by former World Pool Masters champion Raj Hundal and will be launched in collaboration with white label supplier Locus Gaming, under whose Isle of Man licence it will operate.
The site’s branding and marketing activity will be specifically designed to attract an Asian and specifically Indian gambling audience, which Hundal believes has not been catered for to date.
Vera&John adds Microgaming casino content
Vera&John has struck a deal with Microgaming that will see the gaming supplier’s Quickfire casino content integrated into operator’s portfolio of games as it looks to expand into South America and Asia.
The titles are due to launch next month and will include the supplier’s suite of desktop and HTML5 mobile games in 20 languages, as well as giving Vera&John players access to its progressive jackpot network.
The operator said that the deal would help it provide a bespoke and personalised casino offering by utilising Quickfire’s localised casino content for players in different markets.
Thunderkick seals Casumo slots deal
Newly-formed games supplier Thunderkick has signed its second major online slots agreement after sealing a deal with Malta-based casino operator Casumo, eGR can reveal.
The deal, which was signed earlier this year, will see Thunderkick’s full portfolio of eight games go live on Casumo.com next week including Turning Totems Esqueleto Explosive and Toki Time.
The Malta-licensed provider recently recent signed its first major real-money gaming agreement with Unibet after initially focusing on free-to-play games since its launch in 2012.