Exclusive: bwin.party sees senior management departures

Posted on June 6, 2013 by t.washington

Business development director Alen Lang to move on while WPT boss Steve Heller leaves as part of cost reduction at California office

Three bwin.party senior managers are set to leave the operator, the first high profile departures since CEO Norbert Teufelberger initiated a streamlined business strategy in April.

Business development director Alen Lang, group technology director Tod Martin and World Poker Tour (WPT) chief executive Steve Heller are all leaving the firm, eGaming Review has learned.

Lang, most recently responsible for bwin.party’s US strategy, is to step down after eight years with the company. In the past 18 months he has established bwin.party’s US presence, clinching deals with MGM Resorts, Boyd Gaming and California tribe United Auburn., while also signing a UK-facing partnership deal with social operator Zynga.

Meanwhile, as part of a cost reduction exercise at the WPT office in Orange County, California, WPT chief executive Steve Heller has been made redundant. Heller joined Party Gaming in November 2005 and served as CEO of its Asian business before heading up the bwin.party-owned WPT.

WPT president Adam Pliska – previously general counsel and secretary to the board of directors – will now assume the role of WPT chief executive.

Former PartyGaming CTO Tod Martin is also heading for the exit following the recruitment of new bwin.party CTO Guy Duncan in January. It is understood Martin was relieved of his role with Duncan’s appointment and has since been working on the operator’s technology for its US-facing operations, with a full departure expected later this year.

A bwin.party spokesperson said the operator does not comment on specific management changes.

The moves could be followed by more internal changes as the operator aims to improve operational efficiency, according to a source close to the matter.

In April Teufelberger announced a strategy of focusing on regulated and regulating territories and prioritising value over volume in the dot.com space. The initiative hit the operator’s Q1 revenues with all verticals showing decline year-on-year, but Teufelberger remained confident of future growth saying the group needed to “do less, but do it better”.

ClubWPT leaves Florida after internet cafes banned

Posted on April 17, 2013 by r.weston

Bwin.party-owned online subscription poker site reacts to law banning sweepstakes

ClubWPT has withdrawn from the Florida market after Governor Rick Scott signed into law legislation banning internet sweepstakes cafes.

The bwin.party-owned online subscription poker site informed its Florida-based customers via email on Friday and promised to refund advance subscription fees in their entirety.

“I am sorry because of recent legislation that has just gone into effect in Florida, ClubWPT members in Florida are no longer eligible to participate in sweepstakes-style tournaments that award either cash or merchandise,” the email read, according to poker affiliate CardsChat’s forum.

Legislation banning internet cafes from offering online gaming was signed into law last Wednesday by Scott. Last month 57 people connected to a company operating internet sweepstakes cafes were arrested on racketeering and money laundering charges, with Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll also resigning over her alleged involvement.

ClubWPT now accepts players from all but 16 states, with Washington State, Mississippi and Maryland among some of the others where customers are not accepted.

The best is yet to come

Posted on April 9, 2013 by r.weston

Boyd Gaming chief executive Keith Smith tells eGR NA why a partnership with bwin.party and powerful brands like Borgata leave the casino group well positioned to take the egaming market by storm

After more than 30 years’ experience in the casino industry, Boyd Gaming CEO and president Keith Smith has faced his fair share of daunting challenges but claims the biggest one of all has come during just the last few years. The global financial crisis that began in late 2007 has eaten into land-based resorts’ gaming revenues ever since and caused several high-profile casinos across the US to file for bankruptcy, the latest being Revel in Atlantic City.

Yet with Boyd posting a 6.5% year-on-year increase in its full-year results for 2012, while some of its biggest rivals saw heavy dips, it is fair to say Smith has negotiated these tricky times well. “We not only survived, we thrived,” he begins.

“As with all challenges, when you come out the other end, you come out stronger and smarter. Frankly, we had to reinvent the business and understand how to deliver a similar product, but at less cost to our customers, because they were still coming in great numbers. While revenues were down significantly, customer counts were not.

“The biggest challenge in my career in this business has been dealing with the Great Recession, working our way through that, maintaining our customer base, retaining good relationships with our banks, and staying out of trouble,” he says.

Smith could never have imagined facing such obstacles when he began working for the Ramada hotel chain in 1982. He first joined Boyd in 1990, both he and the company have come a long way since then. Having fought through the worst of the recession, Smith’s next challenge is to make Boyd a powerhouse in online gambling.

Key decisions

Indeed, how Smith is remembered as Boyd CEO could hinge on how he navigates the operator’s maiden online voyage. Much of this will depend on the success of the deal he struck in October 2011, a partnership for Boyd with MGM and bwin.party to offer online poker in regulated states.

The B2C joint venture was officially announced as being 65% owned by bwin.party, with MGM and Boyd owning 25% and 10% respectively, although Smith “would be careful about positioning it that way”, saying that the full deal is “complicated” and “confidential”. Both MGM and Boyd also entered into separate 15-year B2B agreements with bwin.party, allowing them to use the service provider’s poker platform for their own brands.

And given that in Nevada alone, Boyd already has nine brands it could use from its property portfolio – The Orleans, Gold Coast, Suncoast, Sam’s Town, California, Fremont, Main Street, Jokers Wild and Eldorado – there are plenty of attractive names the casino group could take advantage of to entice its customer base online. But Smith does not seem in a hurry to rush the casino’s Nevada strategy, showing cautious pragmatism by keeping all options open, at least for now.

“We’re currently assessing what we think the right brands for us to launch in Nevada would be. We have a number of very strong brands and it could be one of those, or it could be a completely new one that we think would be appropriate to launch. It is likely to be more than one brand.”

Boyd Interactive Gaming, which received its online poker licence for Nevada in October last year, is headed up by Bob Boughner, who having spent more than 35 years working for Boyd manages the impressive feat of having even more experience in gaming than Smith. As the current executive vice president and chief business development officer, Boughner led the development and opening of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in 2003 and is in charge of Boyd’s expansion into any new markets and business opportunities – which right now means he is leading the casino’s first foray into online gambling.

New opportunities

With Atlantic City casinos set to be permitted to offer online gambling by November, it is the property Boyd commissioned in 2003, the Borgata, which looks set to continue to be the crown jewel in its portfolio. Boyd has a 50% stake in the property, with MGM Resorts International’s 50% stake currently held in a trust while it reapplies for licensure in New Jersey.

The Borgata will be an essential launch pad for Boyd’s online offering in New Jersey, as only the 12 Atlantic City casinos are eligible for egaming licences, and Smith is keen to make the Borgata as famous online as it is offline. “The Borgata is a dominant brand in Atlantic City and the dominant poker brand in Atlantic City, capturing the majority of the market there,” he argues. “It will clearly be a brand that we will look to use and to leverage when we launch that site. There could also be other brands that are launched as part of that as well.”

Boyd’s share price was buoyed by February’s legalisation of egaming in New Jersey, rising 6.8% to US$6.94, and this was followed a few weeks later by confirmation that its land-based business was performing well, reporting net revenues of $2.49bn in the 2012 financial year, a 6.5% year-on-year increase. With the potential of the New Jersey market generating excitement in recent weeks due to its wider range of permitted games and higher population compared to Nevada, bwin.party CEO Norbert Teufelberger told investors last month the operator was prioritising New Jersey over Nevada.

It is a stance Smith appears to sympathise with. “You have to focus as a publically-owned company and as a business person on where those opportunities are greatest,” Smith argues. “I’m sure bwin.party is focused on New Jersey because that is where the greatest opportunity is. I think we’re both evaluating the opportunities, and the size of them, here in Nevada, and trying to assess where the greatest opportunity is to launch a business and be profitable.

“We’re assessing what makes sense to do, how it makes sense to roll out and so we don’t have as clear a direction in Nevada today, because of the different opportunities and the fact that they are smaller given the population of the state. We all have limited resources and we have to allocate them to the proper places.”

Changing times

As the years have passed, so Smith’s priorities have had to evolve. When he first started working for the Ramada hotel group in the early 80s, gambling was only legal in two parts of the US – Atlantic City and Las Vegas. The concept of egaming was not even in existence when Smith joined Boyd as a corporate controller in 1990, and the casino group’s portfolio consisted of just four Las Vegas properties.

Now it is 22, across eight states – Nevada, Kansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi and New Jersey. Now in his 23rd year at Boyd, Smith has fulfilled a variety of roles, including chief operating officer between 2001 and 2007.

He also enjoyed a spell as chairman of the American Gaming Association Board between 2010 and 2011. “It’s nothing that I set out to do when I was growing up, but I’ve been very fortunate to be part of the tremendous growth that’s happened in this business over the last 20 years,” he reflects.

“It’s a very exciting, dynamic business and I ended up staying and never getting out. I have been fortunate to be able to grow with the industry over the years, and frankly to grow with Boyd Gaming over the years, and take advantage of the growth in the industry.”

His colleagues cite his impressive command of data and facts around every issue he faces as one of the reasons behind Smith’s success. His shrewd stewardship of Boyd throughout the recession arguably demonstrated his strong and quick understanding of the difficult economic conditions facing not just the casino, but other businesses too – he also became chairman of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco last year.

Decisive and unafraid to make difficult decisions, he suspended construction of the $4bn Echelon site on the Strip in 2008 as the recession began to bite – a move since praised by analysts – and last month Boyd sold it to the Genting Group.

The bwin.party deal, struck early while other operators waited for regulatory progress, is another bold decision made by Smith. Few have questioned the partnership, but unhelpful headlines were generated in November last year when Teufelberger was questioned by Belgian police in Brussels. Teufelberger was asked about the operator’s activities in the country, where two of bwin.party’s dot.com domains had been blacklisted.

But the company finally received its Belgium licence last month for a dot.be domain, after agreeing a partnership with Groupe Partouche – a potentially crucial development with bwin.party’s Nevada licence hearing sure to be on the Gaming Control Board (GCB) agenda soon. However, the bad publicity never fazed Smith, whose meticulous research around bwin.party meant that the incident never alarmed him:

“Before we entered into our partnership with bwin.party, both companies spent a tremendous amount of time doing some due diligence and getting comfortable with each other. We determined that the management team, which included at the time Jim Ryan and Norbert [as co-CEOs], has operated with tremendous integrity.

“We are aware of the conversations that took place [in Belgium] as our partner properly updated us and we have no concerns about it. We have complete confidence in the direction their management team is headed with the company and the fact that they operate with a very very very high degree of integrity,” he adds.

Forward planning

Just as Smith is currently taking his time to weigh up Boyd’s online venture in Nevada, he was careful not to jump into the partnership with bwin.party two years ago. “We certainly scoured the universe and looked at lots of opportunities,” he says. “We made a determination that we wanted to partner with one of the top providers, so I think we were very fortunate to have been able to execute that agreement with bwin.party. We did a lot of research and talked to a lot of companies before we were lucky enough to engage in this partnership.”

To underline the benefit of Smith’s caution, a contrast can be drawn with the strategy taken in 2011 by rival casino group Wynn. In March that year, the operator partnered with PokerStars – less than a month later, Stars founder Isai Scheinberg was indicted as part of Black Friday for violations against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), and the deal was terminated.

But PartyGaming, which merged with bwin in 2011, withdrew from the US market after the passage of UIGEA, a decision which Smith says was vital: “That was a key element in choosing bwin.party, as we knew that they had made the right decision, which spoke to their integrity of management. That was one of the key reasons we went with them.”

With PokerStars set to enter New Jersey if state regulators approve its acquisition of the struggling Atlantic Club Casino in Atlantic City, the operator poses a serious threat to the market share the other casinos hope to achieve, although Smith has reason to be confident in the Borgata brand. When asked for his opinion as to whether Stars should be allowed to re-enter the US, he is naturally unwilling to offer a verdict one way or the other, although one can read between the lines.

“People who generally have flaunted US law or have operated in violation or in contradiction of US law generally are not found of good character to receive a licence,” argues Smith. “But it’s not my decision and it’s not for me to comment on, it’s up to the regulators and I certainly am comfortable relying on their good judgement and their discretion as over the years they’ve done the right thing by gaming.”

Growing strong

Despite the recession, Boyd is in such a strong position that in November last year, the operator bought Peninsula Gaming for $745m, acquiring five resorts in Kansas, Iowa and Louisiana, and significantly increasing Boyd’s presence in the Midwest and South US as a result.

“Over the last four or five years we didn’t just survive, and that would have been remarkable in itself, as not all of our competitors did, but we ended up managing to grow,” he explains, adding: “It would be wonderful to see states compact with each other to allow internet gaming to take place, obviously with the properties we have across a number of states, and be able to introduce all of our brands on one platform. It will be a real benefit.”

The US expansion doesn’t stop there either. Last year Boyd struck a deal with Sunrise Sports Entertainment with a view to opening a casino in Florida, and last month reached an agreement with the Wilton Rancheria tribe to work together to build a resort in California.

Online gambling regulation permitting, entering these states could provide huge rewards, given their populations of approximately 19.3 million and 37.7 million respectively. Now Smith has expanded the company’s bricks and mortar footprint in the US, it is time to start taking Boyd’s brands online.

Given the care Smith has shown so far laying the groundwork for the casino’s egaming strategy, it is unlikely he will make any bold predictions about how successful Boyd’s offering will be. However, with the brands it owns and the online expertise of bwin.party on board, it is also unlikely Smith will struggle to reap the rewards as he takes on his latest challenge.

Bwin.party CEO: New Jersey “could be between us and Caesars”

Posted on March 15, 2013 by r.weston

Operator not pursuing Nevada licensure as actively, though CEO admits a licence in the Silver State could help with progress in California

The regulated New Jersey could be a head-to-head contest between bwin.party and Caesars if PokerStars fails to secure approval in the Garden State, according to the London-listed operator’s chief executive.

Norbert Teufelberger described PokerStars’ New Jersey push as “their all-in card in the US”, saying “They have already been excluded from Nevada and there will probably be language in other states’ regulations which excludes them.

“If PokerStars don’t get in [to New Jersey] it will really just be between us and Caesars,” he added, while noting that bwin.party would be meeting with New Jersey’s regulators next week.

Teufelberger said “there are only seven potential players in New Jersey – Caesars, Boyd [with bwin.party] and five others – and it is important to be there from the start.”

While he said “it is not for us to decide [whether Stars get a New Jersey licence]”, the CEO made reference to recent comments from the American Gaming Association (AGA) which called for the Isle of Man licensed operator not to be allowed into New Jersey due to its history of “systematically flouting US law”.

The AGA’s comments were attacked by Stars’ lawyers this week, with Jeff Ifrah saying an approval of the association’s petition “would empower the AGA’s thinly veiled anti-competitive campaign against the entry of a competitor into the market.”

Of bwin.party’s own progress in New Jersey, Teufelberger suggested the operator’s partnership with Borgata owner Boyd Gaming – announced in October 2011 – would be beneficial to it moving forward in the Garden State.

“If you have a strong partner [in New Jersey] it helps you get through the licensing process as they want the likes of Boyd to be there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Teufelberger revealed that – despite having applied for a service provider licence in the state – bwin.party has “chosen not to operate in Nevada”.

“[Applying for the licence] is something we did for federal legislation… we may not need it now,” he added, while acknowledging that a Nevada licence could still be beneficial to an application in California further down the line.

The comments regarding PokerStars in New Jersey bring to mind CFO Martin Weigold’s assertion in November 2011 that “until any action is taken against PokerStars that results in them shutting down, we are unlikely to see a huge benefit [for our poker business].”

That statement was made after Stars was forced out of the US market on Black Friday, but before the operator reached a settlement with US authorities which explicitly did not rule out the possibility of the company returning to a regulated US egaming environment.

In August 2010, Teufelberger – then CEO of bwin before the operator merged with PartyGaming to form bwin.party – admitted that, unless PokerStars and Full Tilt were “frozen out” of a regulated US market, bwin’s withdrawal from the market in 2006 would be “the biggest mistake [former bwin co-CEO Manfred Bodner] and I ever made”.

Tom Victor

Mixed reactions meet New Jersey egaming law

Posted on February 27, 2013 by t.washington

Stocks of European operators with NJ ties see strong uplift, while California business group slams bill for “weakening” eligibility requirements to enter gambling market

It was anti-climatic in the end but after almost four years, two vetoes and a whole load of uncertainty, New Jersey’s online gambling bill was finally signed into law yesterday, ushering in a new era for the US gaming industry.

The milestone event has already had positive ramifications for the share prices of companies hoping to have a crack at the market when it opens, while commentators from elsewhere in the US have criticised the bill’s backers for failing to keep out what have been described as “questionable corporations”.

In a thinly-veiled criticism of the state’s refusal to include a so-called ‘bad actor’ clause to prevent operators which accepted post-UIGEA bets from US customers (a provision removed from the bill last year), California Tribal Business Alliance chairman Robert Smith said New Jersey “appears to be weakening the eligibility requirements needed to obtain a gaming licence”.

Smith’s comments follow Nevada’s move last week to enact a five-year ban on any company – such as PokerStars – which ‘willingly accepted’ wagers after 2006. Conversely, Stars could yet find itself licensed in New Jersey should the Department of Gaming Enforcement allow its proposed US$40m acquisition of the Atlantic Club casino to go through.

“While the local market in New Jersey may be driving these sorts of decisions, in California we cannot allow for reciprocity with states that have lower standards and softer controls opening the doors to questionable corporations, which now appears to be the case in New Jersey,” said Smith. “Gaming at all levels should be held to the same, very high standards set for tribal gaming agencies in California.”

Meanwhile, in a statement made on the Senate floor prior to voting against the bill, Republican Michael Doherty said the bill was perpetuating a model “with its head stuck in the sand”, adding that “voting for this today is just allowing a bad policy to continue”.

But Governor Chris Christie’s swift signing of the bill following near-unanimous approval in the Assembly and Senate was met with far more positive reactions elsewhere. New Jersey now becomes the third US state to legalise online gaming after Nevada and Delaware, but as the eleventh most populous jurisdiction with almost 9m residents, it can truly be seen as a watershed moment for players, operators and suppliers alike.

The legislation’s key sponsor Senator Raymond Lesniak called it “a historic moment for Atlantic City and the state of New Jersey”, while Casino Control Commission Chairman Matthew Levinson claimed online gaming “holds the potential to provide a boost to the city’s casino operators as they rebound from the effects of the economy and increased competition, while adding another dimension to efforts to reinvigorate the city”.

Democrat Lesniak’s first attempt to legalise online gambling in the state was back in 2010 and he has fought long and hard to convince Christie that egaming will not cannibalise land-based profits, and that it would in fact give Atlantic City’s 12 casinos the lifeline they so badly need through an alternative revenue stream.

But it’s not just New Jersey’s gambling companies that are set to benefit. The share prices of two European operators – 888 and bwin.party – both with agreements already in place to provide online gaming software to leading New Jersey licensees, rose sharply.

888’s share price has risen by around 6% since the FTSE250 opened this morning based on the company providing Caesars with its online poker platform in the Garden State, capping off a strong start to 2013 which has seen a 26.2% hike. That’s a 163% improvement since the same time last year.

Meanwhile bwin.party, set to act as the software provider to New Jersey licensee Boyd Gaming, benefitted from a 12% boost which sees its stock up by 22.3% this year to date.

Both 888 and bwin.party will hope the brand recognition and marketing spend of their partners (Caesars controls four of Atlantic City’s dozen casinos while Boyd owns the significant Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa) will allow them to take a cut of New Jersey’s predicted revenue which will reach US$410m in year one, according data specialist H2 Gambling Capital.

Morgan Stanley increased its earnings per share (EPS) forecasts for 2015 by 5% for bwin.party and 24% for 888, adding that the long-term potential from the US market could be worth up to 460p per share for 888 and 560p per share for bwin.party.

The Poker Players Alliance, for so long a supporter of federal online poker regulation, commended Christie for signing the bill. Its executive director John Pappas said in a statement: “New Jersey has gone ‘all in.’ Residents now will have access to a safe and regulated online gaming market, and the state will have a new source for revenue and job creation – something the federal government has failed to do thus far. The US represents the largest percentage of internet poker players worldwide, so there is clearly a want and a need for a legal and regulated online gambling market. New Jersey will now serve as a leader in this thriving industry.”

Indeed, now the state has crossed the regulatory finish line, the race to take the lead in a nationwide market can now begin. Attention will no doubt now turn to the logistics of interstate compacts, with both New Jersey and Nevada hoping to become the dominant force in the process, but for now Lesniak and co can bask in the glory of winning a hard-fought battle.

Zynga files Nevada suitability application

Posted on December 6, 2012 by t.washington

Operator expects approval process to take around 12-18 months; described by chief revenue officer as long-term project

Zynga has filed an application for a Preliminary Finding of Suitability from the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the company has announced.

In a statement released this morning, chief revenue officer Barry Cottle explained that the filing was part of the company’s strategy of pursuing real-money gambling (RMG) opportunities, and expected the process to take between 12 and 18 months to complete.

“As we’ve said previously, the broader U.S. market is an opportunity that’s further out on the horizon based on legislative developments, but we are preparing for a regulated market,” Cottle explained. “We’ve also recently partnered with bwin.party to bring the highest quality real money gaming experiences to our UK players in the first half of 2013.”

Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus has previously hinted at partnering with a US land-based operator, directly name-checking Wynn Resorts Ltd as a potential partner at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecomms Conference in March this year.

At the time he said that the operator was in talks with “all of the players that you would suspect,” adding:

“We have incredible respect and admiration for brands and groups like the Wynn … I would expect that you’ll see a lot of these players kind of figure out their go-to-market partnerships for sure before the end of this year.”

While Zynga’s plans for the US market are in their infancy, the company is set to launch a UK-facing real money gambling offering in the first half of 2013. Following the revelation that the company had opened a tender process to select an egaming partner, Pincus confirmed plans to enter the sector during the company’s earnings call for the three months ending 30 June.

After a difficult few months which saw a number of management staff depart the business, culminating in the news that three of the operator’s development studios would be shut down, 5% of the workforce was to be made redundant and a number of games were being “sunset,” the company announced that it was to partner with bwin.party to launch its real money offering for the UK market.

Under the terms of the agreement both companies will partner to launch a full suite of gambling products including poker and a portfolio of more than 180 casino games including slots, roulette and blackjack. Zynga’s poker offering will join bwin.party’s poker network, while the companies will work together to develop a FarmVille-branded slot game.

After an executive reshuffle following the departure of CFO David Wehner to Facebook, newly-appointed chief revenue officer Barry Cottle was confirmed as overseeing the project, with former 888 executive Maytal Ginzburg Olsha taking on the day-to-day management as chief operating officer of new markets.

MGM receives Nevada recommendation

Posted on November 2, 2012 by r.weston

Nevada Gaming Commission expected to award online poker licence on 15 November – Z4Poker and CAMS also approved

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) has approved the online poker licence application of MGM Resorts Online with the operator expected to complete the process at a Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) meeting on 15 November.

Z4Poker’s application was also recommended, as well as service provider CAMS, which has been approved to offer geo-location, player verification and payment processing services.

MGM, which posted a US$181.2m net loss in third quarter results this week, told regulators it would set up a freeplay poker site by March 2013, with a view to offering a real-money product once bwin.party is licensed. MGM already has a social game on Facebook, myVegas, which was launched in August.

MGM is the second of bwin.party’s US-facing partners to be on the GCB agenda after Boyd Gaming obtained a recommendation from the board and was granted a licence by the Nevada Gaming Commission last week. At the meeting, newly appointed GCB chairman A.G Burnett confirmed that bwin.party’s application was currently being investigated and will be on the GCB’s agenda next year.

During an analyst call this morning announcing bwin.party’s Q3 numbers, co-CEO Jim Ryan said he expects the process to reach a conclusion in “the first half of 2013” adding that if he could “wave a magic wand” he would “love to see federal regulation”.

Meanwhile, MGM CEO Jim Murren yesterday told Reuters this week that MGM and other major casinos also favour federal legislation, but added “we feel strongly that if it is in fact state-by-state, the states themselves need to compact with one another to create a more viable business model. Any one state going on its own presents an economic challenge, particularly in a small state like Nevada.”

Z4Poker has applied to be a manufacturer and distributer of its interactive gaming system, as well as a service provider. Co-owner David Colvin told the GCB it was looking to market its poker system to smaller casinos that cannot afford to develop their own.

CAMS, founded earlier this year, is a subsidiary of global electronic payment company Verifi. If it receives its licence this month, CAMS would become the first company licensed to offer geolocation services for online poker in the Silver State, as well as the second to offer payment processing services after Global Cash Access.

Yesterday’s meeting was the first to be held since Burnett took over from Mark Lipparelli as chairman of the GCB. New GCB member Terry Johnson did not participate following his appointment earlier this month as his term begins on 12 November.

Bwin.party finalises Ongame sale

Posted on November 1, 2012 by r.weston

Amaya Gaming has paid the operator €15m, with a further €10m to be paid in the event of a regulated US egaming market opening within five years

Bwin.party has confirmed that the sale of B2B poker network Ongame to Amaya Gaming has been completed.

The Canadian software provider has paid an initial consideration of €15m, while a further €10m will be due “If there is regulated online gaming in the United States within five years of completion.”

Federal egaming regulation remains uncertain, with the latest regulatory proposals from Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl regarded by eGaming Reviewreaders in a recent poll as having no chance of passing.

Bwin.party notes in a statement this morning: “The exact amount of the contingent consideration will depend upon the extent of the regulation and, if not federal, is based upon the number of states that regulate and the total population covered.”

At present Nevada (population 2.7m) is the only state to have begun issuing licences, while varying levels of progress have been made in other jurisdictions such as Delaware and New Jersey over the last 24 months.

The completion of the Ongame sale comes one month after the deal was initially announced, and brings to a close a protracted process which began with the announcement in June last year that bwin.party – then a newly combined entity – would be looking to sell off the network as a “surplus asset” after the merger of PartyGaming and bwin in March 2011.

The intervening period saw Shuffle Master (since rebranded as SHFL Entertainment) agree an initial acquisition sum of €19.5m for the network in March this year before pulling out of the deal three months later, with chief executive Gavin Isaacs noting that: “Business conditions in Europe have deteriorated…and as a result, it has become evident to us that Ongame’s operations post-acquisition will not achieve the near-term results we initially expected and will require a larger ongoing investment than anticipated.”

Ongame holds the online poker offerings of operators such as Betsson, Betfair and bwin and ranks fifth for dot.com liquidity according to Pokerscout, however its liquidity is set to diminish when bwin.party completes the migration of bwin’s players to its proprietary PartyPoker platform.

Amaya’s acquisition of the network is the latest in a series of acquisitions over the last 18 months- after acquiring Chartwell and CryptoLogic last year, the company then agreed a US$167m deal for gaming machines supplier Cadillac Jack this September.

Boyd, Fertitta and Golden Nugget gain Nevada licences

Posted on October 19, 2012 by r.weston

Trio receive operator licences, with Boyd and Fertitta also awarded manufacturer licences

Boyd Interactive Gaming, Fertitta Interactive and Golden Nugget have been approved for operator licences to offer online poker in Nevada following a Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) hearing.

In addition, Boyd and Fertitta were licensed as manufacturers, although the former will wait until London-listed operator bwin.party – which agreed a 15-year agreement with Boyd last year to use its technology platform in the US – is licensed by the NGC before launching its online offering.

In contrast, Fertitta is using its own technology, thanks to last year’s acquisition of CyberArts, and will aim to offer online poker under the Ultimate Gaming brand as soon as its systems are approved by one of Nevada’s independent testing labs. A freeplay poker game, Ultimate Poker, was launched on Facebook in July.

Golden Nugget did not apply for a manufacturer licence because it will use a platform run by Bally Technologies, which was one of the first companies licensed for online poker in Nevada. A freeplay site went live in June, using Winamax software, as a result of Golden Nugget’s deal with the platform’s previous owner Chiligaming, before Bally acquired the platform in February.

Boyd, Fertitta and Golden Nugget had all received recommendations from the state’s Gaming Control Board earlier this month.

Nevada GCB approves Boyd and Fertitta for online poker

Posted on October 4, 2012 by t.washington

Both companies will find out if they will obtain operator licence at Gaming Commission hearing on 18 October

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (GCB) has approved the online poker licence applications of Station Casinos and Boyd Gaming’s online businesses.

In the first meeting since former GCB chairman Mark Lipparelli stepped down from his role, both Fertitta Interactive and Boyd Gaming were recommended for approval when their applications are to be heard by the state’s Gaming Commission on 18 October.

If the Gaming Commission gives them the green light, both operators must then await approval of their respective technology before launching an online poker site.

Boyd has partnered with European operator bwin.party for online poker in Nevada. In a three-way deal with MGM Resorts signed in October last year, the partners will “jointly offer” online poker, while Boyd also entered a separate 15-year agreement to use bwin.party’s technology platform and associated services to offer online poker to US players under a brand developed by Boyd Gaming, should federal law be passed.

Meanwhile Fertitta Interactive, controlled by the founders of the Station Casinos group, acquired game developer CyberArts this time last year and has since established its Ultimate Gaming brand and announced the launch of freeplay poker game Ultimate Poker on Facebook. A real-money money version of the game will follow as soon as its gaming technology is signed off by an independent testing lab (ITL).

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Boyd Gaming executive vice president Bob Boughner told the GCB the operator currently has “one-and-a-half” employees dedicated to online poker operations, but planned to increase that number to 20 to 30 once the system goes live.

So far only three operator licences have been awarded by the Nevada Gaming Commission, with last month’s approval for American Casino Entertainment Properties (ACEP) seeing the Stratosphere owner join Monarch Interactive and South Point Poker in being given the green light to offer online poker in the jurisdiction.