Issue N28, 2008
July 10, 2008
PartyGaming Announces “Slight” Drop in Revenues
PartyGaming, the online gambling company that is based in Gibraltar but trades on the London Stock exchange, announced this week that its May and June sales forecasts were “slightly” below expectations. The company cited a number of reasons as to why the numbers were lower than predicted.
PartyGaming’s poker section is trying to find a strong foothold in the European market after it was forced out of the United States market in 2006, following the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Since then, the company has needed to compete with other top companies who are still catering to US players who make up nearly fifty percent of the entire poker industry customer base. PartyGaming issued a statement saying that huge promotions and bonuses offered by other companies in the market were putting a strain on its own revenues in a bid to compete.
The company’s sportsbetting unit also performed below expectations because of poor results at the beginning of the Euro 2008 football championships last month.
Nonetheless, these numbers were improved greatly by the company’s bingo and casino game offerings, which performed well in the last two months. Two new slot game releases – Mission Impossible and Saturday Night Fever – attracted online casino players, while the launching of ITV’s Bingo Live did a lot to increase PartyGaming’s popularity in the UK bingo industry.
New Bingo Site Launched
A new bingo offering has just been launched by one of the biggest names in the gambling business – Bet 365. The company has recognized, along with many other big players in the industry, that there is huge potential in the online bingo business and approached Virtue Fusion, the industry-leading software provider, to power its new bingo brand.
Bingo at Bet365 will offer players everything that they are looking for in a bingo experience – excellent games with all ranges of stakes, enticing bonuses and promotions and a great social atmosphere, all within a safe and secure gaming environment, thanks to the backing of Bet 356 and its industry reputation.
“We are all very excited about the arrival of Bingo at bet365,” said Steve Ibberson, Bet365's Managing Director of Gaming. “With a 200% first deposit bonus, up to £200 free, plus a 50% reload bonus on every deposit, we are confident bingo players at bet365 will enjoy the most entertaining and rewarding online bingo available today, in addition to being part of the one of the friendliest bingo communities.”
King.com Links with Net Entertainment
Net Entertainment, the Swedish based software provider, will be able to showcase its superb range of sixty games to over 18 million new customers, thanks to a lucrative new deal signed between the company and King.com, the world’s largest skill games site.
According to the terms of the new partnership deal, Net Entertainment will provide Kingo.com with its games to power a new online casino site that should be launched during the third quarter of 2008.
Johan Öhman, the Chief Executive Officer of Net Entertainment, said: “King.com is a major break-through and needless to say I am very pleased that they chose Net Entertainment as their strategic partner. This proves yet again the strength of our product and service offering and the importance of having a good track record as software supplier.”
King.com management is also reportedly pleased with the new deal and the company’s Director of Business Operations and Games David Blomquist, said: “Providing high quality entertainment to our players is imperative for us. We chose Net Entertainment’s CasinoModule because we believe that their product best supports our continued expansion and the size of our business places quite stringent requirements on the platforms we work with.”
Asian Logic Reveals Plans for APT 2009
Asian Logic, the company behind this year’s successful Asian Poker Tour, has already announced plans for next year’s event and it promises to be bigger and better this time around. The Asian Poker Tour debuted in Manila, the Philippines this year, attracting over three hundred participants. Players from twenty three countries attended the opening event of APT 2008, and even greater numbers are expected during the next three legs due to take place in Singapore, South Korea and Macau.
According to Asian Logic, who purchased the rights to the Asian Poker Tour in February this year, next year’s event will consist of six stops at different cities and countries in the region. Asian Logic has also signed a deal with a leading Macau casino and resort to run an Asian Poker Tour poker room on its premises, a deal that is said to be worth a significant amount of money.
Asian Logic released its trading report for the last six months, showing that operations margins had improved from 2007. The report stated that “although Asian Logic anticipates lower levels of profitability in some sectors of its online casino activities due to margin pressure similar to that faced by land-based Asian casinos working with casino junket groups and agents, the company does not believe that these margin pressures will significantly impact overall business and the company remains very positive on figures for the full year.”