April 4th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
Genting Casino gives away £10,000 and a 1 Carat Diamond as part of the “£10,000 Chase the Diamond Race”. This leaderboard promotion will have weekly prize winners and runs until June 22nd.
How to Enter
To enter the £10,000 Chase the Diamond Race you simply start playing any of the featured online slot games at Genting Casino. Among these qualifying slots are “Electra”, “X-Men”, “Rocky”, and the newly released “The Pink Panther”.
$1k in Weekly Prizes
As you play these slots you earn Carat Points for every £1 you wager. Every Carat Point you earn takes you one step up on the leaderboard. At the end of each week (until June 22nd) the top finishers will win a share of the £1,000 weekly prize pool.
Win the 1 Carat Diamond
Each week Genting Casino crowns new winners, but a top spot on the final leaderboard will bring in the big prizes. The player who is on top of the overall leaderboard on June 22nd will win the first prize: a 1 Carat Diamond.
The player who ends up in second place on the overall leaderboard will win £600 and third place pays £450. The rest of the £2,000 in cash will be paid out to the players until the 20th place finisher.
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March 21st, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
Earlier this month it was a change from a tax on turnover to one on profits – now the Greek government has apparently also removed provision for a ‘black period’ from its latest draft e-gaming bill currently before parliament.
The black period – a controversial interval during which applicants for a licence would have to cease all business involvement in the Greek market until a licence was awarded – raised concerns among many internet gambling operators with a significant stake in the Greek market.
There was speculation this week that the Greeks may be trying to avoid the delays and differences with the European Commission experienced by the Danes over similar moves last year.
Some of the other contentious restrictions still apply, such as the requirements for a Greek corporate presence, player ID cards and servers in-country, which are believed remain on the Greek agenda, but there has been some movement on the financial minimums demanded – down from 500,000 Euros to 400,000 Euros, showing a Greek willingness to listen to interested parties.
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March 10th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
The Isle of Man-based online gambling software provider Playtech plc has expanded its industry influence with the acquisition of B2B services provider PT Turnkey Services Limited from Worldwide Online Enterprises Ltd. for an initial cash consideration of 140 million Euros.
The agreement is subject to regulatory and other approvals, and is due to complete on 30 June 2011. On completion, PTTS, a newly incorporated holding company established in connection with the acquisition, will own a group of new companies which will own the assets carrying out a range of complementary B2B online gaming service operations that provide support to the Playtech licensees.
In a statement Thursday, the company notes that it has seen a significant increase in the demand for a turnkey solution in regulated markets and the clear competitive benefits of being able to offer a full turnkey service to existing and potential licensees.
The acquisition allows the Playtech to own outright a wide range of affiliate service providers which already provide services to the group’s licensees, ownership of which will significantly enhance its commercial proposition and competitive position in the expanding online gaming marketplace.
The deal will also enable Playtech to be a single source supplier of online gaming solutions, particularly to the growing number of new entrants targeting regulated online markets. These opportunities are in line with Playtech’s strategy to focus on regulated markets which are expected to be the most important in the changing gaming industry.
The consideration has been structured to enable payment out of existing resources and future cashflows and incorporates an element dependent on the future performance of the newly formed PTTS group. The initial consideration of 140 million Euros will be paid in cash in broadly equal half yearly non-interest bearing instalments over a period of 30 months following completion in June 2011.
Further consideration based on the new PTTS group’s performance in the 3 years following the completion of the integration process will become payable in cash, to the extent that 7 times the adjusted EBITDA of the PTTS group for 2014 exceeds the initial consideration, capped at 140 million Euros and paid in four broadly equal non-interest bearing instalments over the 18 months following the determination of the additional consideration
The Playtech statement notes that the acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive for the group, on an adjusted earnings basis, in 2011 and thereafter, targeting over 13% adjusted earnings accretion by 2012.
In the twelve months to 31 December 2010, the assets and businesses that will be comprised within the PTTS group achieved unaudited revenues of 90.2 million Euros with EBITDA of 18.9 million Euros. As at 31 December 2010, the assets and businesses had unaudited net assets of 61.6 million Euros.
The annualised run rate in the second half of 2010, which excludes revenues and profits from France, gives pro-forma unaudited annual revenues of 81.4 million Euros and EBITDA of 19.2 million Euros after stripping out one-off items.
A Playtech spokesman explained that once implemented, the deal will see the PTTS group providing marketing and ancillary services to operators of online gaming businesses.
These will comprise four separate service divisions – marketing, operations, payment advisory and network management – and will employ over 850 staff, the majority of which are based in Bulgaria and the Philippines.
The marketing services division has 5 clients – 4 of which are in regulated or soon to be regulated markets, all of which are existing Playtech licensees, and the remaining divisions have contracts with over 60 clients. The PTTS group and Playtech share a common client base, and the former is additionally in advanced discussions with a number of potential licensees in regulated and soon to be regulated markets
The integration of the businesses is anticipated to be completed by the end of Q4,2011. Playtech will assume responsibility for all functions from completion and the business will report as a separate division
Playtech has declared the interest of one of its main shareholders, Teddy Sagi, pointing out that the acquisition constitutes a related party transaction under Rule 13 of the AIM Rules, as the Worldwide Online Enterprises Ltd is beneficially owned by Sagi, who through Brickington Trading Limited, owns 40.4% of the issued share capital of the company.
Commenting on the acquisition, Mor Weizer, chief executive officer of Playtech, said:
“The increasing opportunities for Playtech to provide its services in regulated markets have significantly increased the strategic and commercial rationale for these affiliate businesses to be part of Playtech.
“Integrating these affiliate businesses into the group will enable us to provide current and future customers with a full service market leading offering. Playtech will be able to provide its licensees with a range of services up to a full turnkey solution for all their online gaming needs. This makes our proposition particularly attractive to those businesses looking to operate in newly regulated markets and wanting a fully functioning and highly competitive offering from day one.
“This is a highly complementary acquisition, allowing Playtech to integrate market leading support services into its primary technology and content provision business. It represents excellent value, is earnings accretive for our shareholders and has a significant performance related element of the consideration to be funded out of future cashflows.
“The acquisition provides an immediate and growing revenue stream in its own right. Having worked intimately with these affiliate businesses over a long period of time, we can take great comfort around a successful integration and are excited by the prospects for the enlarged group.”
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March 7th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
The online and land betting group Paddy Power has posted a strong set of results for the year ending December 2010, showcasing a pre-tax profit of 104.2 million Euros, a rise over 2009 FY of 55%. Revenues for the year were up 39% to 3.834 billion Euros, mainly thanks to a successful second half.
The online and land betting group Paddy Power has posted a strong set of results for the year ending December 2010, showcasing a pre-tax profit of 104.2 million Euros, a rise over 2009 FY of 55%.
Revenues for the year were up 39% to 3.834 billion Euros, mainly thanks to a successful second half.
Almost two-thirds of the Irish company’s profits were generated outside of Ireland last year, making it the third largest online bookmaker and sixth largest online gaming business in Ireland and Britain.
And remarkably, almost three-quarters of Paddy Power’s profits were generated online. The number of Internet active players grew by 56% to 838,083 in 2010. Active customers across the group increased by 44%, with a 56% growth in UK customers. Sportsbook punters grew by 45%, and gaming clients by 48%.
This year saw a full contribution from the group’s Australian operations, which delivered operating profit of 19.5 million Euros, with mobile revenues up three- fold as a third of sportsbetting came through this channel.
Online gross win jumped by 88% to 250 million Euros. Online operating profits rose by 52% to 75 million Euros.
The Irish retail division reported operating profits up 8% at 17.6 million Euros, with the division making up 17% of total group profits. In the UK retail division operating profits soared almost six-fold to 7.4 million Euros and the company predicted that it will have more shops in the UK than in Ireland by 2013.
Group marketing spend was around 50 million Euros.
Management said that group expansion into Europe would continue.
Investors will be pleased with the 29% rise in the final dividend proposed by management.
“These are record results for Paddy Power, with increased profits for all divisions,’ commented the company’s chairman Patrick Kennedy. “They demonstrate the benefit of our ongoing business development initiatives and investment, which position the group well for further growth in 2011 and beyond.”
Kennedy went on to reveal that the new year had started well, with turnover up 16% and total gross win up 38% to end February on the comparative period in 2010.
Chief executive officer Breon Corcoran said that by preference the company operated in clearly regulated legal markets, which offer more certainty.
Earlier, Paddy Power announced that it was withdrawing from the spread betting sector and would be closing its Paddy Power Trader operation. Trader clients will apparently soon be invited to move over to LCG.
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March 2nd, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
Scandinavian owned gaming firm, Betsafe.com has entered into a three-year sponsorship deal as one of four major sponsors of the Danish Super League it was announced at Farum Park this week. In addition, Betsafe will become title sponsor of the first division which will be renamed Betsafe Liga (League).
The agreement will commence only once new Danish gaming legislation is in force and under the proviso that Betsafe is awarded a Danish licence.
Division Association director, Claus Thomsen says “It has always been obvious that one of the four Superliga sponsors should be a games company. We are therefore delighted that we have an agreement in place around both Super League and first Division with Betsafe, which we consider to be a highly ambitious company with a strong focus on the Scandinavian market. Now we just cross our fingers that new gambling legislation comes into force as soon as possible so that the agreement can be activated.”
Betsafe Danish manager, Richardt Funch says “It’s a great day for Betsafe. It is historic that we as the first privately owned gaming company to enter into a commercial agreement with Danish top football.
“Football remains the most popular sport in Denmark and the sport represents the largest part of our sports betting turnover. For Betsafe it is therefore a relevant sponsorship which will give us a unique strategic platform where we get our Danish license. This agreement should be a clear indication to the world that Betsafe has big ambitions and has become a very serious player in the future of the Danish gaming market.”
Posted in: Casino News
February 19th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
The Norwegian media, led initially by the newspaper Dagbladet, is reporting that Culture Minister Anniken Huitfeldt is actively considering ISP filtering to block foreign internet gambling operators. The report comes amid news that increasing numbers of Norwegians leave money on foreign gambling sites and gamble online despite legislative moves since July 2010 to block financial transactions with offshore gambling sites.
The reports note that Norwegians are back gambling online in numbers as big as before the financial measures were imposed. A survey attributed to the Norsk Tipping state gambling monopoly claims that 4% of Norwegians over the age of 18 are currently gambling at foreign sites.
The audit has apparently been forwarded to the Culture Minister, who is quoted as saying that the government continues to oppose unregulated online gambling.
“We want to consider using filtering IP addresses against gambling companies that are undesirable in Norway,” she said. “Such measures have been successfully used in Italy, Estonia and France, and the concept has found favour in Denmark,” Huitfeldt added.
The liberal publication Liberalen opined in an article that it was impossible for politicians to shut out citizens from foreign gambling sites, and that introducing ISP filters amounted to internet censorship.
“The proposal breaks completely with the liberal values that should be bipartisan consensus in Norway,” the editorial concluded. Liberal leader Ove Vanebo attacked the idea, saying that similar moves in Thailand had not been successful.
Posted in: Casino News
February 15th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
A lucky Bet365 Casino customer identified only as A.A. won the Gold Rally slots progressive jackpot this week and pocketed a healthy €1,207,278 million by landing nine scatters on a maximum bet.
A lucky Bet365 Casino customer identified only as A.A. won the Gold Rally slots progressive jackpot this week and pocketed a healthy 1,207,278 million dollars by landing nine scatters on a maximum bet.
Since the win, the popular 9-reel, 8 payline game’s progressive jackpot had already reached 94,980 dollars at the time InfoPowa went to press.
Posted in: Casino News
February 13th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
It appears that it is not just poker and blackjack that capture the attention of the movie-going public; a new film due to start shooting in April this year is based on an at times amusing book on internet sports betting. The move would be based on the book, “Lay the Favourite”, which appeared last year and is the work of Columbia fine arts grad and Fulbright scholar Beth Raymer.
It is a memoir of Raymer’s activities back in the early years of the millennium when, as a cocktail waitress, she became embroiled with avid gamblers who were also technology and math-oriented adventurers – a relationship that blossomed into a lucrative offshore commercial sports betting enterprise.
The Focus Films production has already attracted some impressive star-power, with actors Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake and Catherine Zeta-Jones reportedly lined up for leading roles in the factually-based movie.
Director Steven Frears will take the action from Vegas to Curacao and Costa Rica once the production is underway.
“A day in the life of the office was really hectic,” Raymer told NPR’s Robert Siegel when the book launched. “September would be NFL, U.S. Open, the (baseball) pennant race, pre-season hockey, college football. There was always a lot of action in the office.”
Raymer recalls the nonchalance with which the sports books dealt with massive amounts of money – even recording bets of over $10,000 by scribbling them down on paper plates!
“The title’s kind of ironic, I guess, because it’s saying invest yourself in the outcome that appears most certain,” Raymer reportedly said of her book, “I and the people in my book have an almost pathological aversion to certainty.”
Posted in: Casino News
February 11th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
A story that originally surfaced in eCommerce-Journal late December concerning a legal action launched by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) appears to be gaining traction in online media this week following reports that a major online poker company has assisted the FTC in its investigation.
Full Tilt Poker is an internet venue where the central figure in the FTC action, a Utah man identified as Jeremy Johnson, allegedly gambled away some of the money that he appears to have obtained by questionable means.
It is claimed that he did so despite FTC warnings designed to preserve the assets in question.
The original disclosures reported a “…nationwide scam scheme that defrauds millions of Americans under guise of governmental help” and noted that the US Federal Trade Commission had filed a lawsuit with the US District for Nevada.
The litigation requested an injunction against a widespread Internet-based enterprise that allegedly made some $275 million by luring customers into trial memberships for bogus government grants and money-making schemes, then repeatedly charged them monthly fees for memberships they never ordered.
The Commission sought to halt the operation and secure the return of the unauthorised client fees that had been siphoned off.
“No consumer should be sucker-punched into making payments for products they don’t know about and don’t want,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement.
The FTC named Johnson as the alleged owner of I Works in Utah, along with nine other defendants, nine additional companies and 51 shell companies.
The Commission charged the defendants with violating the FTC Act by misrepresenting that government grants are available for paying personal expenses, that consumers are likely to obtain grants by using the defendants’ program, that users of their money-making products will earn substantial income and that their offers are free or risk free.
Posted in: Casino News
February 9th, 2011 / No Comments » / by admin
Mobile gambling solutions provider Spin3, powered by Microgaming, has announced the launch of the popular Tomb Raider slot as a native Android app, designed to run at any resolution across all Android-powered devices including smart phones and tablets.
Matti Zinder, head of Spin3, said, “2010 was a big breakthrough year for Android, but 2011 is set to be the year it dominates the mainstream mobile marketplace.
“In fact analyst house Canalys has already named Android as the world’s leading mobile platform, outselling Nokia’s Symbian platform for the first time. While Android devices are penetrating every level of the market – from low resolution devices such as HTC Wildfire, to the high-end Google Nexus S, as well as tablets – fragmentation of handsets represents an added level of complexity for developers and can result in a limited gaming experience for some consumers.
“Tomb Raider as a native Android App runs at any resolution and cuts through the fragmentation of Android devices to deliver a superior gaming experience across all handsets.”
Zinder says that Spin3 plans to extend its Android strategy with the launch of additional native Android app games including Mermaids Millions and Mega Moolah, which has the biggest e-gaming jackpot currently available. The new games will also support all Android device resolutions, and will be available during Q2,2011.
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