Issue N24, 2010
June 18, 2010
888 Looks to Enter Social Gaming Arena
888 said this week that it had acquired assets from Real Dice Inc., including the social games development studio, Mytopia. The deal, that was signed for around $12 million (plus more in bonus milestones), will put 888 firmly within the social gaming arena and allow the group to develop new gambling games across the internet.
Guy Ben-Artzi, the Chief Executive Officer of Real Dice, said: “888 understand where the market is going. Mytopia will thrive with 888’s infrastructure and expertise behind it and bring to 888 new revenue streams from virtual goods and micro-transactions on social networks and mobile devices.”
“We both believe that an advanced social gaming creative and operational capability, along with technology to move faster in critical smartphone and emerging platforms like iPad, is the best way to connect with the next-generation of players,” he added.
In the meantime, the Chief Executive Officer of 888, Gigi Levy said: “This is a very exciting deal for 888, and builds on our aim of providing a variety of entertainment destinations where people can enjoy a truly interactive experience on a multitude of platforms.”
"Mytopia is one of the leading publishers of cross-platform social-games and this acquisition gives us an immediate footprint in the fast-growing social gaming arena, complementing our core offering and giving us access to millions of customers,” he concluded.
Online Gambling Operators Flock Neovia Payment Provider
Neovia, better recognized as Neteller, announced that it has signed a significant number of new agreements in recent months, indicating that the payment provider continues its growth in the online gambling market. The group said that bet-at-home, Littlewoods and CAIgames, as well as 2pay, Play n Go and Buzzluck had all signed agreements.
“We work directly in over 20 countries and indirectly with the rest of the world,” said Koray Cakir, development manager for bet-at-home’s marketing department. “We recognize that adding Neteller to our payment options will not only give us a single source for international payment coverage, but also a competitive advantage."
“We are delighted to announce these merchant wins which highlight the great combination of our Neteller e-wallet and Net+ card being used by more gaming merchants as a business enabling tool,” said Dan Starr, speaking for Neovia. “We are providing bold payment solutions to merchants, so that they can improve consumer engagement, increase lifetime value, offer instant consumer spending and maximize their revenues.
"Similar to our recent Sega Games contract win announcement, we are seeing more and more land-based operators looking to evolve their business model to build a strong footing in the online market, and within the online gaming market we are the experts in handling payments,” he added.
Win A Day Online Casino Jackpot Hit
A lucky student became the latest winner of the progressive jackpot offered at Win A Day online casino. The amount won by the player, who incredibly goes by the name LuckyTom, reached just over $200K, making him the second biggest winner in the history of the online casino. Win A Day is a no-download site and a sister site to the hugely successful Slotsland. LuckyTom won the jackpot while playing the Jack’s Shows video poker game at the casino.
“I was just killing time and taking my mind off my studies for a bit when suddenly out of the blue I hit the big one,” said the player. “I’ll probably blow some of this win on some party celebrations but I’m going to invest most of it in a film project I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
The Casino Manager for Win A Day, Michael Hilary said that the site has added new games recently so the casino has been busier than usual. “Many of our regular players knew we were a bit overdue for a big win so more of them have been placing maximum bets and going for the jackpot,” he said. “Every time they do, part of their wager goes into the jackpot pool so it had been accumulating even faster than usual.”
Crazy Vegas Online Casino Running Freeroll Slots Tournament
The leading Crazy Vegas online casino announced that it will be running a freeroll online slot tournament from the end of this month, with a cool $25,000 in cash up for grabs. From June 25, players can enter the competition at this Microgaming powered online casino and earn themselves 10,000 token coins and five minutes of free play. $10 rebuys for an extra 6,000 credits are also available. The top 75 players on the leader board will all share in the cash prize. The featured game will be the popular Avalon video slot game.
“We have been hosting monthly freeroll events for the past few months,” said Trevor Penn for CrazyVegas.com, “which have been received by our players with huge success, with the last event offering a $15,000 prize pool and the one before that offering $10,000. This month, we have decided to take the action up a notch with absolutely no cost to the player.”