Here’s the latest news from the online gambling business world.
New casino payment option from Ukash
Popular Ukash global payment solution provider Ukash has launched the Ukashout MasterCard, designed to enable “players to convert online winnings back to cash safely and securely” by making winnings transferable to MasterCard.
“Players can then use the loaded UkashOut card to withdraw cash from any ATM or use it at retail stores for purchases or for online purchases like funding casino accounts,” explains Ryan Alders at CasinoAdvisor.com. “The only condition is that the online or offline outlet must accept MasterCard based products.”
UkashOut is available in euros, British pounds, or U.S. dollars, and will be supported by a television ad campaign in Europe.
Ceasars buys social gaming network
Most experts in the online poker and gambling industry believe that, after the U.S. comes up with new regulations, the next online gambling giants won’t be upstarts like PokerStars and Full Tilt once were, but well-established American casino brands like Caeasars Entertainment and Ballys.
And why not suspect that when Caesars Entertainment, the largest casino operator in the world, is making no secret of their ambition to enter the online gambling market?
In what’s probably a move in that direction, the company announced last month that it acquired an Israeli-founded social gaming network, Playtika Ltd, at a value of about 90 million.
Calling the purchase “astonishing by almost every measure,” Globes.com, an Israeli business publication, went on to describe the deal as the “first time that a large US gaming company has bet tens of millions of dollars on an Israeli online gaming start-up that has not yet proven its worth.”
What’ll Ceasars use the company for? “Playtika does not call itself an online gambling company, but an online games company that develops games for use on social websites, such as Facebook and its Russian counterpart Vkontakte. The company has grown rapidly thanks the burgeoning popularity of social networks.”
Ladbrokes and Microgaming sign new partnership
Ladbrokes, the biggest bookmaker in the UK with more than 2,700 betting shops, has signed a new agreement with casino game software provider Microgaming.
Ladbrokes “takes bets worth around 15 billion pounds ($24.6 billion) each year,” reports Reuters. Its relationship with Microgaming stretches back for a decade.
New leadership for Bingo.com
Unibet-owned Bingo.com has announced that a new President and CEO has taken over. Jason Williams, who’s been with the company since 2001 as business and marketing leader, will be filling the shoes of Tarrnie Williams, who is continuing with Bingo.com as the chairman of the board of directors.
Other changes to the Bingo.com brand, per MarketWatch: The “election of Ebba Ljungerud, Head of Maria Bingo within the Unibet Group, to the Company’s board of directors” and “the reappointment of the current Bingo.com board members excepting Petter Nylander, the previous Unibet Group representative.”
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