iGaming News all over the world 29.10.2010

29.10.2010, PokerStars.net and FOXsports Team Up / Sweden's Online Gambling Group Unibet Now Licensed in France / Bally reports first quarter 2011 results / Tabcorp Investing in Mobile Online Gambling

PokerStars.net and FOXsports Team Up
The recently penned deal between PokerStars.net and the media company FOXsports has a lot more impact in the world of Poker than some people may think. First of all these are some of the world’s largest companies in their particular industries. Pokerstars, being the world's biggest poker room and FOXSports one of the world’s largest news and entertainment outlets. This combination can not help but have a massive impact on the popularity of poker especially in America.

FOXSports.com will become the main source of poker information on the web. Free poker games will be made available online by FOXsports along with up to date information for tournaments and the skills of strategy management and styles of play. Currently ESPN provides the most poker coverage with little or no information on other sports media sites.

Vice President of Gaming at FOX, Jim Bernard, who was excited about the deal that will promote the free and fun aspect of playing online poker commented, "FOX Sports is thrilled to team up with PokerStars.net. Poker enthusiasts are some of the most fanatical and engaged sports fans on the web today. We look forward to delivering the poker experience to our 26 million users."

PokerStars, North America Regional Marketing Director, was very positive about the agreement with FOXsports, said, "FOXSports.com is one of the most popular online destinations in the world, with thriving sports, gaming, and poker arenas that host the best live and editorial content on thousands of sporting and gaming events every week. This tie-in will see FOXSports.com and PokerStars.net combine the best live and editorial content with the web’s best online poker games.

Media companies that see the popularity of poker as a positive revenue generators are using a sound set of business rules. Giving the people what they want at the right moment is key to a successful venture. PokerStars.net is the poker portal for the non gambling consumer who just likes to play the game and learn a little while doing it.

=============

Sweden's Online Gambling Group Unibet Now Licensed in France
France has become a destination jurisdiction recently for online gambling operators wanting to cash in on the newly liberalized French internet betting market. Not to waste any time because it is expensive to be part of that exclusive operators club in France, Unibet, the Swedish online betting and gambling group has already gone live after being granted an online gambling license from the French regulator ARJEL. The Unibet application was sent to ARJEL for a license back in May of 2010 and has just recently been approved this October 22.

The French domain is something new for the company that has been offering online gambling since 1997 to an estimated 4.4 million players in over one hundred countries around the world. The Group was established in France before but withdrew it's services when laws were changed in the French jurisdiction. Now the firm based on the Stockholm exchange will be again offering online gambling to participants from France with a proper license that complies with all of the recently introduced changes. Unibet did express concerns about the profitability of such a move indicating that the regulations in France are some of the most stringent and restrictive of any in the online gambling industry. Taxation is a major issue for operators in the French market which operators say are prohibitively high.

Henrik Tjarnstrom Chief Executive Officer for Unibet said, "That we now received these licences is a first step. To receive a significant return on the French market, the terms need to be more favourable. It is our expectations that this will happen in the longer term,"

Other internet betting operators have taken a long hard look at the situation in the French market and have concluded the steep curve to make a profit is not worth the consuming effort. The 8.5% tax on all betting stakes that ARJEL is imposing on sports books that are allowed to operate in France has many established operators such as Ladbrokes leaving the French market for greener pastures elsewhere.

===============

Bally reports first quarter 2011 results
Bally Technologies announced diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of us$ 0.40 on revenue of us$ 171 million for the three months ended last September 30. It had certain post-closing adjustments related to the sale of the Rainbow Casino during the three months ended September 30, which reduced its gain on the sale in fiscal 2010 by approximately us$ 0.4 million, net of income taxes.

Delays in certain decisions and the unfavorable timing of some go-lives related to our systems resulted in lower than normal quarterly systems revenues; however, we continue to see strong growth opportunities in systems,” said Richard M. Haddrill, the Company’s CEO. “We are well positioned to capitalize on our innovation in new products and our investments in new jurisdictions in 2011.”

“During fiscal 2011, we have already purchased 826,000 shares of common stock for us$ 27 million, us$ 22 million of which was in our first quarter,” said Neil Davidson, the Company’s Chief Financial Officer. “This quarter represents the twelfth quarter in a row that the Company has repurchased its common stock. Since December 2007, we have repurchased approximately 5.3 million shares of our common stock for us$ 180 million.”

“Revenues in gaming operations set another all-time quarterly record driven by the success of Cash Spin featuring our innovative U-Spin T play mechanic,” said Gavin Isaacs, Bally’s Chief Operating Officer. “Cash Spin is the fastest premium game release in the company’s history. We are particularly excited about this year’s Global Gaming Expo, where we will showcase our first ALPHA 2 for-sale and participation games on our new Pro Series line of cabinets and introduce a new branded, third-party-developed wide- area progressive.”

“Our systems business continues to outpace the industry through new and enhanced technology products that help our customers reduce costs, protect previously invested capital, and deliver more powerful player experiences floor-wide across the entire casino,” said Ramesh Srinivasan, the company’s Executive VP – Bally Systems. “Our release of iVIEW DM is continuing to gain traction in the marketplace. New content for iVIEW DM will be released during the coming weeks leading up to G2E, including the DM Wheel utilizing our U-Spin technology for floor-wide bonusing, making the product’s value proposition even more compelling.”

Overall -Selling, general and administrative expenses increased to 30 % of total revenues as compared with 24 % last year. -Research and development expenses increased to 13 %of total revenues as compared with 10 % last year. -Operating margin decreased to 20 % as compared with 26 % last year. -Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, including asset impairment charges and share-based compensation), a non-GAAP financial measure, decreased to us$ 58 million as compared with us$ 70 million last year. -Diluted EPS from continuing operations decreased to us$ 0.40 from us$ 0.50 last year.

Gaming Equipment -Revenues decreased to us$ 51 million as compared with us$ 62 million last year. -New gaming device sales decreased to 2,823 units as compared with 3,936 units last year, driven by fewer new openings and expansions during the period and a continued sluggish North America replacement cycle. -New-unit sales to international customers were 823 units, or 29 % of total new-unit shipments as compared with 1,518 units last year. -ASP of new gaming devices increased by 11 % to us$ 15,685 per unit, primarily as a result of product mix. -Gross margin increased to 49 % from 48 % last year, primarily due to improved manufacturing efficiencies and improved material costs related to production of our ALPHA Elite cabinets, including our popular V32 cabinet, and lower royalty expense.

Gaming Operations -Revenues increased to a quarterly record of us$ 79 million as compared with us$ 71 million last year, driven by placement of new premium games throughout the quarter. -Gross margin decreased slightly to 72 % as compared with 73 % last year.´

Systems -Revenues decreased to us$ 41 million as compared with us$ 54 million last year, due to a lower number of large go lives during the quarter. -Gross margin increased to 73 % from 67 % last year, primarily as a result of the change in mix of products sold and an increase in maintenance revenues. -Maintenance revenues increased to us$ 16 million as compared with us$13 million last year.

Yogonet.com

=============

Tabcorp Investing in Mobile Online Gambling
The technology driving today's world also drives the online gambling industry. With that said it's time to recognize the fact that mobile online gaming, especially when it comes to sports betting is the best thing to come along since sliced bread. Mobile gambling applications are become readily available as developers see the potential of the mobile market. To put it bluntly those people who like to wager and there are millions of us out there are on the move. To take advantage of the growing mobile market is the smartest move online gambling investors can make.

In an article from Computerworld which is called the voice of IT management, managing director and chief executive officer of Tabcorp, Elmer Funke Kupper, has decided mobile and online gambling is a the next big money maker. Funke Kupper said, demand for mobile device-based gambling, in particular, was on the rise. "During the year we continued to invest in online technology, we launched an app for the iPhone and the iPad which so far has been downloaded by more than 100,000 customers,"

Tabcorp sees the potential in it's own success statistics, since the online gambling industry is gaining momentum so are the required applications for mobile access to online betting. We are definitely moving towards a more application based society leaving the world wide web to fend for itself. Those companies who see the trend towards applications rather than net surfing are going to rep the rewards.

"Those (mobile and internet) investments will put Tabcorp at the forefront of the wagering technology on the internet and mobile devices and will allow us to compete with the best operators in the world," Funke Kupper explained. Tabcorp has been finding it's way in the online gambling world by investing in it's internet platform just in time to pull up it's flagging profits. Competition remains fierce so a confident move forward for Tabcorp is the best option for the firm.

Über iGaming News:

Casinos.ch ist die Gaming & Entertainment-Plattform der Schweiz und mit über 20 Informationsportalen und rund 100 Internetnamen (Domains) das grosse News- und Pressenetzwerk der Casino- und Glücksspielszene in Europa.

Aktuelle News, Interviews, Fotos und spannende Stories - direkt und live aus den Schweizer Casinos, der Spielbankenszene Deutschlands, über das monegassische Casino von Monte Carlo, weitere Casinos aus ganz Europa und der ganzen Welt finden Sie auf www.casinos.ch. Und last but not least natürlich auch aus der Sin City 'Las Vegas'.

Die Informationen sind unterteilt in die Bereiche Casino-Informationen, aktuelle News, Events, Jackpot und Tournament-Informationen, Fotogalerien, Live-Berichte und Interviews.

--- Ende Artikel / Pressemitteilung iGaming News all over the world 29.10.2010 ---


Weitere Informationen und Links:

Weitere Nachrichten der Gaming-Branche