News round-up 16 October
This week’s news in brief sees app updates from Unibet and Nektan announce its full years results
In this weekâs app updates, William Hill added a new promotions tab to its Vegas Games iOS app which it said would makes it âeven easierâ for users to take advantage of offers. Unibet added new games to its iOS Casino: Spin City app, as well as its Maria Casino brand. And PKR added 64bit support for its 2D Poker iOS offering.
Mobile platform provider Nektan said the firm had made âconsiderable progressâ since last yearâs IPO despite reporting an EBITDA loss and a sharp drop in revenues for the year ended 30 June. EBITDA for the period was negative £5.1m, slightly better than the £5.5m loss which had been predicted in July but an increase on the £3.5m deficit reported in 2014. Revenues of £528,000 were 72% down on last year. The firm said the successful launch of Sun Play and the growing reach of its US joint venture with Spin Games, Respin, meant it was optimistic for the future.
Ladbrokes digital director Andrew Bagguley has left the firm and has been replaced by director of commercial operations Nick Zajdel. The departure of Bagguley comes just six months into his role as digital chief, having initially joined the firm as head of mobile in late 2013. Ladbrokes said Bagguely had stepped down to pursue other opportunities and was thanked by chief executive Jim Mullen for his work, which included overseeing the operatorâs recent desktop switch to Playtechâs mobile Mobenga platform. Bagguleyâs replacement Zajdel joined Ladbrokes from Playtech in 2013 and has played a key role within the operatorâs digital team, primarily leading its multi-channel operation.
William Hill has overhauled its mobile sportsbook app to include a raft of new features and a complete redesign in-line with its new responsive front-end website. The operatorâs new William Hill Live Sports Betting iOS app was launched in the Apple App Store yesterday featuring a cleaner layout and a similar design to that currently being rolled-out on desktop under Project Trafalgar. Customers can login to the App using their fingerprints instead of a password after integrating Appleâs Touch ID, which was first utilised by Sky Betting and Gaming last year to speed-up the login process.
Software developer CORE Gaming has moved to a single code base for development on both mobile and desktop as much of the industry continues its move away from Flash. Earlier this year Ladbrokes rolled out its mobile-first HTML5 Mobenga platform on desktop in an industry-first which some predicted would be mimicked across the sector. CORE has launched four HTML5 games through the Sky Vegas platform for mobile and desktop gamers in the last few weeks, and will release six more before the end of October. âThis development proves once and for all that Flash is dead,â Justin Chamberlain, CORE chief executive, said.
Betsson has named its former mobile commercial manager Richard Smith as its new head of mobile. A spokesperson for the firm confirmed that Smith, who had previously worked at bet365, had replaced Altay Ural, who has since moved to a new role with oversight for the operatorâs platforms. Betsson has been growing rapidly on the mobile channel of late, reporting a 121% year-on-year increase in mobile revenues to £21.3m for Q2.