Between acquisitions, partnerships, DOJ indictments and new regulatory schemes, keeping up with the igaming industry is harder than trying to draw a Game of Thrones family tree. To help you stay on your game, here’s a wrap up of the week’s big headlines.
Online Casino News
- Full Tilt to Offer Casino Games – In what’s clearly a move aimed at eventual domination of the US online gambling market, Full Tilt Poker announced plans to offer a complete suite of casino games under the name, Full Tilt Gaming. So far there aren’t a lot of details available, but the company is stressing that the new product won’t come at the expense of their core (and highly profitable) poker games.
- Bally Technologies to Purchase SHFL – Bally Technologies, the first company to receive a Nevada online gaming license, is purchasing the company-formerly-known-as-Shufflemaster for $1.3 billion. The deal is subject to approval by SHFL shareholders and could seriously boost the Bally product line.
- Playtech Purchases PokerStrategy.com – Playtech is purchasing PokerStrategy.com for $49.8 million. It’s a pretty good deal all around considering that PokerStrategy’s executives get to keep their jobs; and Playtech now has access to the site’s massive, extremely active, player base.
SEO News
- Cutts is Cool with Downtime – You know how sometimes your site is down when Google search bots come by for quick spidering? Well that’s something that Matt Cutts is completely cool with. In fact, if his bots run by when your site’s down for the count, they’ll come back tomorrow. Google is cool like that.
- DuckDuckGo Picks Up Steam – While the American public debates the actions of whistle-blower/traitor Edward Snowden, DuckDuckGo was quietly cashing in on the scandal. Ever since Snowden revealed the NSA’s PRISM program and massive surveilance schemes, the search engine with an emphasis on privacy has seen its daily searches skyrocket to nearly 3 million. That’s about 997 million fewer daily searches than Google, but it’s something to build on.
Legal News
- Congress Introduces Online Poker Bill…Again – Texas Congressman Joe Barton introduced a bill aimed at regulating online poker at the Federal level this week. Barton’s bill isn’t all that different from the several other (failed) attempts at injecting the Feds into the igaming business and stands almost no chance of becoming law at the hands of the least productive Congress in US history.
That’s the week that was in the igaming industry.
How did these events impact your business? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.