ICE day 1 news round up

CASINO NEWS

Endemol Shine UK has signed an exclusive online real-money gaming licensing deal with Warner Bros Consumer Products for the Austin Powers film franchise.

The licence gives the company online real-money gaming rights to the classic Austin Powers films ‘The Spy Who Shagged Me’, ‘International Man of Mystery’ and ‘Goldmember’.

“We’re proud of our portfolio which already includes some of the most popular brands in entertainment and the Austin Powers film franchise is a fantastic addition to our catalogue,” Owain Walbyoff, MD of Endemol Games, said.

Microgaming-powered mobile casino platform Quickfire is introducing a new game management module, Quickfire iQ.

The module includes Business Intelligence, Game Settings, Incentives, Free Games, Player Segmentation, Achievements and Recommendations components and is designed to provide casino mangers with all the necessary tools to expertly manage their players.

“Running a successful online casino is all about managing players; that’s why we’re developing Quickfire iQ. This high-tech module will provide our Quickfire operators with every tool imaginable to manage players playing our games,” Neill Whyte, head of product channels at Microgaming, said.

Scientific Games has announced a deal with bwin.party for the the launch of its premium Game Server library for the bwin,party’s online casino sites in New Jersey.

Players on the bwin.party platform, which powers sites including BorgataCasino.com and nj.partypoker.com, now have access to many of the slot titles from the Scientific Games Williams studio that are already on casino floors throughout Atlantic City.

“Providing players with great games and entertainment is our number one priority. Securing access to some of Scientific Games’ most popular land-based slot games means we can deliver an even better experience to our customers and sustain our position as a market leader,” Jeffrey Haas, partypoker’s group director, poker, said.

Gaming platform provider Leander Games has announced plans to release a branded online slots game based on classic American TV series Taxi.

Leander Games was chosen as Pavilion Worldwide Group’s preferred partner to build and distribute a game version of the show, which ran on television from 1972-1983, to the online gaming market.

Players on the slot game are able to use the ‘Flag this down’ instant prize bonus, where they can watch the taxis drive and get a prize from each trip.

Novomatic-owned Greentube has announced the establishment of Stakelogic – a company specialising in the development and sub-licensing of high-end 3D HTML5 casino games.

Stakelogic has been set up under Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions GmbH, the interactive unit of Novomatic Group.

“With a team of stand-out slot design visionaries, Stakelogic is set to bring a whole new dimension of interactive gaming entertainment to global iGaming operators,” Thomas Graf, CEO of Greentube, said.

Microgaming has signed a licensing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing to produce an online slot based on the Universal Pictures comedy, Bridesmaids.

“We’re thrilled to have signed another licensing agreement with Universal. Furthermore, the brand adds a completely new dimension to our branded game portfolio – we’re excited for its launch later in the year,” Roger Raatgever, CEO of Microgaming, said.

Yggdrasil has announced the launch of its first pooled progressive jackpot, Joker Millions, which will be available to players from the end of February.

Joker Millions is a pooled jackpot and Yggdrasil signed up a number of sites to co-mingle in the pool prior to the official launch at ICE, where it is being displayed on a big wall of monitors at the Yggdrasil stand.

“This is the next stage in Yggdrasil’s development. In October we released our first 3D game Reef Run and last month The Dark Joker Rizes became the first of our slots to sit on our new HTML5 framework, called iSENSE 2.0,” Fredrik Elmqvist, CEO of Yggdrasil, said.

SPORTS BETTING

Playtech has unveiled a series of additions to its Virtual Sports portfolio including a new simulated football game, allowing for realistic betting and gameplay.

Playtech’s Virtual Sports multi-channel package is available online, in retail, mobile and satellite, across any device and includes full sports simulations, with extremely high-spec graphics

Playtech licensees are able to choose from a host of sports including football, horse-racing, greyhounds, velodrome, and speedway with tennis, basketball and trotting, complete with league and tournament and in-play betting, available later this year.

BetConstruct has announced the appointment of Vahe Baloulian as the company’s new chief executive officer.

Baloulian has more than 15 years’ experience in the online gaming sector and will be working out of BetConstruct’s London, Los Angeles and Yerevan offices.

He is taking over the position from Suren Khachatryan, who will assume the role of executive member of the board of directors with oversight of company’s strategic business and partner development activities.

“I have been working with the company for the last four years as an executive consultant and I am thrilled to join their talented team of people who are bent on making sure that gaming industry continues to innovate and thrive,” Baloulian said.

Inspired has completed the acquisition of Merkur Inspired which will now be branded “Inspired” in line with the global brand.

Inspired and Merkur Gaming GmbH, a subsidiary of the Gauselmann Group, formed a 50/50 joint venture in January 2011, called “Merkur Inspired,” to supply VLTs to the Italian marketplace.

Inspired has acquired all of the assets and fully incorporated them throughout its product and service portfolio, giving its Italian customers a fully integrated offering.

“This investment is testament to our ongoing commitment to Italy, which is the largest gaming market in Europe. With full brand ownership we can maintain and grow our leadership position, as well as fully integrate content and services across all platforms,” Vitaliano Casalone, president of Inspired Italia, said.

London-based social gambling start-up Eclectic Gaming Solutions has claimed it is the first company to offer the opportunity to send personalised bets as a gift.

Through the Eclectic Gaming technology platform, users will be able to select an appropriate bet from those displayed and add their own personal message.

The recipient is then notified that they have been given a ‘Bettagift’ by email, or SMS and via the social networks, and if the bet wins, the recipient claims the prize via sign up to the operator site.

POKER

NYX Gaming Group has signed White Hat Gaming as a partner on its NYX Poker product, formerly Ongame Network.

“White Hat Gaming are a fast moving full service provider, licensed in the United Kingdom. Together with NYX Poker, White Hat will be able to offer its clients both our OGS and Poker products to the newly regulated UK market and beyond,” David Flynn, EVP business development for NYX Gaming Group, said.

“The team at NYX have been working very hard post the acquisition of Ongame and it is great to see that in such a short space of time, we are beginning to see a number of potential new clients to our NYX Poker product.”