Issue N26, 2010
June 30, 2010
France Approves More Gambling Operators
France continues to approve licenses applied for by online gambling operators hoping to get their foot in the door of the reformed French gambling market. The country published the second wave of approvals just before the weekend, with big names such as Poker Stars finally earning their licenses. According to the publication, ARJEL, the French regulator, gave Party Gaming the right to launch five sites and networks that will appeal to French players. These include Party Poker, Party Bets and sports betting brands.
The following companies received their licenses: Poker Stars (Reel Malta Ltd.), Friend Bet (LIL Managers), Chili Poker (Gaming Illiad SAS), Partouche (Partouche Gaming) and Party Gaming’s five brands – Party Poker, Party Bets, Game Bookers, Act Poker and Lucky Jeux.
In the meantime, a number of operators have made a point of exiting the French market, including all Playtech casino brands, due to the new legislation.
The first French only gambling sites are expected to go live by this summer. Other groups already received their licenses in the first wave of approvals, including Everest Gaming, bwin and Bet Clic.
New Slot Game at Virgin Games
A great new slot game has been unrolled at Virgin Games online casino in the form of White Orchid. This forty pay line slot game promises to entertain and reward on an equal scale and has already attracted a lot of players as a result. Virgin Games continues to add new games to its collection of titles from a vast range of software groups, in a bid to provide its players with a gaming experience that is as diverse as possible.
“WagerWorks games have always been very popular with our players and, with its unprecedented levels of slot action and superb graphics, we believe White Orchid will be no exception,” said Warren Eloff, the Product Manager for Virgin Games.
“The introduction of White Orchid is in line with our commitment to offer our customers more choice from quality game producers to make us one of the most content-rich online casinos available,” he added.
Virgin Games describes White Orchid as such: “With 20 independent reels, players can reap awe-inspiring pays for big clusters of matching symbols. Get two or more bonus symbols and discover exotic wins in the White Falls free spins bonus. Enjoy ten, 15 or 20 free spins on extra-rich bonus reels with the opportunity to retrigger the bonus multiple times.”
New Sports Book Site Launched
With the World Cup in full swing, online players are always on the lookout for exciting sites to wager at. Players will be happy to note that a brand new sports betting site has been launched at BetBabes88.com. What makes this new offer that more interesting is that it will be supported by a three hour live daily transmission on BabeWorldTV. Players should expect to enjoy competitions for cash prizes, jackpots and plenty of other sports betting action.
“We’re very excited about the launch of this project and we’re particularly pleased at giving ourselves the opportunity to tap into the wave of World Cup fever across the country,” said Alan Bentley, who was once a Sky Sports and Liverpool TV presenter.
Bentley explained the reasoning for mixing beautiful women with sports betting: “There’s a significant overlap in target audience between those who like to bet on sports and those who tune in to stations such as BabeWorld TV. If you pick up a copy of any lads magazine, you see beautiful women and sport side by side. BetBabes88.com is just taking this to the next level.”
Party Gaming and Bwin Talks Still Going Strong
Despite rumors and speculation on the contrary, it was learned this week that talks between the two gambling giants, bwin and Party Gaming are still going strong. The groups have been involved in negotiations over a potential merger for several months now. Last week, the Chairman of Bwin, Hannes Androsch was quoted in a major European newspaper saying that: “It is true, that talks with the English company ultimately did not lead to the desired outcome.”
The news was later also quoted by Reuters, which went on to say that bwin was looking for a joint venture partner in the United States.
However, Androsch claimed this week that he was erroneously quoted in the Austrian publication, Trend and insisted that talks were ongoing.
In a statement, Bwin said that the quote in the newspaper should have read: “It is true that up until now, talks have not lead to any specific outcome.” Naturally, omitting the underlined words changed the entire meaning of Androsch’s statement.
The co-chief executive, Norbert Teufelberger, also told Trend that “bwin wants to tackle the task of entering the United States with a competent and local partner. We are holding talks to do this.”