FREMANTLEMEDIA


FremantleMedia ramps up gambling activity


Simon Murphy has joined the FremantleMedia Enterprises team with more than eight years experience in online, mobile and land- based gambling. During this time Simon has held key roles with WagerWorks, the remote gaming arm of IGT and prior to that was the Commercial Director of Million 2-1, a mobile gaming specialist acquired by IGT in June 2008.


C


asino International: Why does a media company like FremantleMedia have a Head of Gambling?


Simon Murphy: Probably the first point to highlight is that FremantleMedia has had a presence in land-based gambling for quite some time. Predominantly the way we have operated in this space has been via licensing deals for some of the entertainment brands we work with. For example in the US we have deals, or have had deals, with companies like IGT and WMS; right now we license The Price Is Right, and Press Your Luck to WMS. Both of these brands have successfully made the transition into the gambling space and are now regarded as premium quality, high-performing games in Vegas. In addition to these initiatives, we have recently


developed an online business. As online gambling started to develop in various countries we started to move into the space. Over the past 2 years we’ve worked with game development partners in order to create a range of online games applying our brands or intellectual property as the star – brands like The X Factor, for example, and Family Fortunes, Play Your Cards right; we’ve taken those brands into the online market. As a natural progression and following on from the


successes we experienced in both land-based and online gambling, we’ve now decided to scale our investment into this area. Hiring a Head of Gambling is one of a number of planned initiatives that will see us place more emphasis and focus onto this area of business.


CI: Why develop these titles yourself – why not just license and collect the money?


SM: There are two routes to market for us. There is 34 FEBRUARY 2011


Well known in consumer entertainment, FremantleMedia is putting greater resources into its gambling arm in order to further develop its branded content offering to Operators in the land- based, online and mobile arenas. Simon Murphy, Head of Gambling, explains what’s happening…


a licensing route and that’s the way we currently operate in the US and in the UK in some instances, where this model makes most sense to us and our partners. The other option for us is how we have worked with online Operators in the past couple of years, and what we’ve done with our first UK-facing land-based game. The X Factor Road To Stardom, which is in Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Mecca Bingo


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62