NEWS
What links a tabloid newspaper, an astrologer and Big Brother?
They’re all keen to lend their powerful brands to online gaming
One sure sign that a sector has achieved that heady mix of critical mass combined with ample scope for growth is the arrival of big brands from other industries, keen for a piece of the action. And by those criteria, online gaming in the UK seems to be one of the most attractive targets right now, with a household-name astrologer, a national newspaper and a TV game-show firm all joining the fun. The Daily Express – the also-ran of Britain’s populist-but- still-vaguely-respectable middle-market national newspapers, with sales a third of its rival the Daily Mail – has joined forces with Casinos Austria International’s CAIgames to run an online casino offering table games, slots and video Poker as well as jackpot and instant games.
The deal also draws on both parties’ offline businesses, with CAIgames getting advertising space and an editorial column in the newspaper, while prizes in promotions for
Express-casino.com will include visits to Casinos Austria’s land-based sites; the first is a weekend at Casino Semiramis in Cairo. Independent TV production company Endemol UK, a subsidiary of the Dutch firm of the same name best known for the Big Brother reality TV format, is taking a different tack. Don’t expect to see Casino Endemol: instead, it’s formed a new division, Endemol Games, to license both its own and other entertainment companies’ brands.
“Endemol’s entertainment properties attract a huge fan base and seamlessly cross over into branded gaming,” said Jurian Van der Meer, Managing Director of the new unit.
Endemol UK has already worked with gaming firms including Betfair, Camelot, Ladbrokes and William Hill. Its Deal or No Deal show, for example, has been licensed for an Internet Bingo site, an online jackpot game, and a popular amusement with prizes (AWP) quiz machine found mostly in pubs.
And a game show like Deal or No Deal that’s all about taking chances to win money may seem an obvious candidate for licensing to the gambling world. But even Russell Grant, the astrologer and TV personality, has found a way to market his content to gaming audiences. Grant is offering online Bingo operators horoscopes that he says will entertain players and drive return visits. The horoscopes use language that’s likely to resonate with Bingo enthusiasts – predicting, for instance, “days to push your luck” and “a pleasant money surprise” – and feature lucky colours and numbers for each star sign. The package also includes birth charts that operators can use as gifts for VIP players or as competition prizes, and for an extra fee Grant will visit online chat rooms. There are limits on the type of brands that can be
shoehorned into online gaming, and Grant may be approaching those limits. But expect to see plenty more businesses from media, entertainment and related sectors decide that the stars are aligned for a move into e- gaming.
Making management smarter Despite the dip, casinos continue to invest in management systems. Their motive: growing revenue
Spending your way out of a tough position may be a bad idea for gamblers. But for casinos, like many other businesses, economically straitened times can be the right moment for investment – for example, in systems that let the back office monitor and manage every aspect of operations, maximising return from the slots and tables they’ve already paid for as well as getting the most from their copious overheads. Italy’s Casino de la Vallée, for example, has opted for the sbX casino-management system from International Game Technology (IGT). Partly, the temptation was content: “sbX gives us access to a vast library of good-performing games. That in itself is a huge advantage for our operation,” said the casino’s Luca Frigerio. Indeed, the casino has also added 100 slots based on IGT's Advanced Video Platform (AVP), and about four in five machines in the new area are from IGT.
6 NOVEMBER 2010 INBRIEF
DEBATING M’SFATE Penn National Gaming is in talks with the Marnell family, owners of Las Vegas’s off- Strip M Resort Spa Casino, after purchasing its $860m debt from Bank of Scotland for $230.5m. The Marnells remain in operational control while negotiations continue, according to reports, and Penn is still seeking a property on the Strip itself. The Marnells’ $1bn project, which opened in March last year, has 1900 slots, 64 table games and 14 Poker tables.
EUROSPONSIBILITY The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) held its third annual Responsible Gaming Day at the European Parliament in Brussels in October. With speakers from the industry, European politics and academia, topics covered included online gaming and future EU gambling policy.
TOTALLY BOOKED January’s ICE Totally Gaming event in London continues to secure big-name exhibitors. Among the latest to sign up are Gamesman, JPM and R. Franco.
But the ability to remotely, and swiftly, configure the newly-expanded slot floor also means that Casino de la Vallée should be more responsive to its gamers’ needs, and translate that responsiveness directly into increased gross revenue.
The site near the French and Swiss borders is the fourth installation for sbX in Europe – following closely on a rollout at Grand Casino Helsinki – and the 15th worldwide. In Spain, meanwhile, Atronic is supplying operator
Nervion Group with a clutch of management tools for its Casino Kursaal in San Sebastian and Grand Casino Nervion in Bilbao. The
Crystal.net casino floor network will lie at the heart
of Nervion’s two locations, connecting to modules that include Atronic’s Qpon Cash cashless-gaming system; StarSlots for slot management; the StarCage system for vault, front cage and credit management; StarMarketing for player tracking; and StarJackpots for jackpot management.
They go live at the beginning of January – and just in case there was any doubt that Nervion is spending its way out of Spain’s fiscal fiasco, the Bilbao venue is moving to a new building too.
IT’S TWINS! Tabcorp, Australia’s largest gaming and betting corporation, is to split in two – creating one company for its casino business and a second to serve other sectors. Both will be listed on the Sydney stock market, and observers believe separate takeover bids are likely. Tabcorp is also issuing new shares to raise money for casino expansion.
WMS VS BALLY WMS Gaming has filed a lawsuit in Illinois against Bally Gaming, charging that Bally products including Cash Spin infringe WMS’s patents for its Transmissive Reels technology. It is seeking an injunction against Bally, plus damages.
COMBATING CROOKS Casinos in South Africa must now report financial transactions over 25,000 rand ($3500), as part of an effort to combat money laundering. It is believed that criminal syndicates using casinos as well as the property market have made the country into one of the world’s black spots for cleansing funds.
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