Issue N7, 2008
February 14, 2008
Austria Launches Government Owned Poker Site
Austria has become the second country in the world to launch a government-owned poker site, following in the footsteps of its fellow-European state, Sweden. The new site, called Win2Day.at, will allow Austrian citizens to start wagering from this week already and has announced that over $77,000 will be given away in freeroll tournaments this month to celebrate the launch of the new site. This is contrary to Sweden’s policy of not offering freeroll events at all. Win2Day, which will work off the Boss Media software and technology platform, was developed partially by Sweden’s Svenska Spel and will be operated by Austrian Lotteries and Casinos Austria. The new software includes essential guides for newcomers to the game, covering all aspects of poker.
The CEO for Boss Media, Mr. Michael Hallen said: “We are very proud that Austria has launched its poker site using Boss Media’s software and there is a great sense of expectation. We have been given a big responsibility and everyone at Boss Media has been working hard alongside our colleagues at Win2Day.at and SvenskaSpel.se to make this launch successful, as successful as the launch of SvenskaSpel.se two years ago.”
The new poker site will differ from regular commercial poker rooms in a number of ways. Firstly, it will not offer any form of bonuses besides the freeroll tournaments. More importantly, it will limit the amount of money that each Austrian citizen can spend on the site to no more than around $1100, in order to promote responsible gambling. Win2Day.at has also set its rake at 2.5%.
Partouche enters UK Market Ahead of Euro 2008
A new online sportsbetting site is to be launched by the French casino operator, Partouche, in the hope of penetrating the UK market. It is hoped that English footie fans will get to know PartoucheGaming.com well enough before the kick off at the Euro 2008 tournament in June of this year. Despite being a French owned company, the new site will be primarily in English and will not serve French gamblers in accordance with the legislation in the country. The chairman for Partouche said, “Before June, Partouche Interactive will be a leading operator on the web after Gibraltar on the UK market.”
Partouche announced that the advertising campaign to launch the new site will be based around the great football legend, Eric Cantona. Although Cantona was French by birth, he was better known as an English football icon by playing for Manchester United for many years. In 2005, English soccer fans voted Cantona the best player ever in the English Premier League.
888 Celebrates Phenomenal Year
The Gibraltar-based gambling firm, 888 Holdings, has proven that a strong marketing strategy can help pull a company out of the worst situations. While many casino companies are still struggling to make up their losses that were incurred with the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, 888 Holdings has managed to come back with a vengeance. The company – which has operated for a full year without setting its foot in the US market - recently released its figures for the last quarter of 2007 and the results were quite phenomenal: 888 Holdings managed to bring in a 55% increase in its fourth quarter revenues!
Said Mr. Gigi Levy, Chief Executive Officer of 888 Holdings: "This is a transformational year. These are very good results that we think show our strategy is delivering."
In the last quarter of 2006, 888 Holdings reported sales to the tune of $40-million. The final quarter of 2007, showed a sharp increase to $62.8-million (up from $53-million from the previous three months of the year).
888 Holding’s poker revenue took a slow but steady rise to $21.4-million – an increase of sixteen percent. However, its casino game revenues increased nearly sixty percent in the final quarter of 2007, to $35-million.
There are many reasons for 888 Holding’s success in the last quarter of 2007. The company launched its prestigious World Poker Crown event last year with a $3-million guaranteed prize pool. Other initiatives included Lucky Ace poker, Wink Bingo and handicapped sport betting in the Asian gambling market. However, one of 888 Holding’s most successful ventures last year was undoubtedly the launching of 888ladies.com – a bingo service that targets the women’s market, with special features for newcomers to the game such as comprehensive tutorials, advanced chat tools and a buzzing online community. So successful is this service that 888 has reported that literally hundreds of new members are signing up each day.
888 Holdings has already gotten off to a good start in 2008. While it is still too early to report the first quarter revenues for the year, the company has said that the number of new players to the company’s poker and casino sites had risen by an impressive 17%.