Industry News

New Bank Welcomes Poker Players

A new online bank has been launched, targeting online gaming companies and enthusiasts. Ivobank, whose investors include the billionaire Indonesian Sampoerna family with a significant interest in gaming company Mansion, is believed to be the first independent bank to begin operations since 2001.

Managing director, Timothy Sawyer, said the bank, which is headquartered in London, was particularly geared toward the online gaming market.

"The online gaming industry has developed rapidly in recent years, but the financial services supporting it have not kept pace," he said. "Many online businesses and customers have been ill-served to date, resulting in relatively high costs and relatively low levels of service."

The bank is offering secure online payments and money transfer services, and customers can use the Ivobank Virtual Card (compatible with the MasterCard network) for payments and transfers. All funds are insured and settled immediately at any time of the day or night. The bank will initially aim its services at the UK, Ireland, Canada, and Spain.

Football Affects Poker Revenue at 888.com

888.com, the publicly-quoted poker and gaming operator, has announced its key performance indicators for the second quarter of 2008.

Net gaming revenue for poker in Q2 2008 (April to June) was US$20 million - no increase over the same period in 2007, and 10 percent less than in the first quarter of 2008. The company said its poker results were in line with general industry weakness during the Euro 2008 football tournament.

Poker active customers remained stable grew 2 percent compared to Q2 2007 to 169,898 but were 1 percent lower than the first quarter of 2008.

Quarterly net gaming revenue per active customer for poker was at US$116 in the second quarter of 2008, down 3 percent compared to Q2 2007 and 9 percent lower than the previous quarter.

The company said it had experienced stronger poker trading in the first three weeks of July 2008.

Total operating income at 888.com, which also offers bingo, sports book, and casino, was up 36 percent to $69 million from $51 million in Q2 2007 and 5 percent over Q1 2008.

BlueSquare Gaming Results Disappoint

Rank plc, owner of BlueSquare poker and online sports book, said in its interim report that results from the poker and casino business have been "disappointing."

Referring to the period from January to June 2008, the company said, "Revenue from the company's gaming products grew by 12.2 percent to £19.3 million, with growth from meccabingo.com offsetting disappointing casino and poker."

Chief executive of Rank, Ian Burke, said, "We remain positive on the longer term outlook for the UK gaming market. Our aim is to attract more customers to our businesses as we build on service improvement, games development, capital investment, and regulatory reform to create more entertaining gaming experiences."

Blue Square revenue for the six months to June 2008 was £27 million, up slightly from £26.2 million in the same period in 2007.

Devilfish Gaming Appoints New Chairman

PLUS-market-quoted Devilfish Gaming has appointed David Boden as executive chairman. Boden, a former managing director of Grosvenor Casinos and Rank Group Gaming Division, replaces Kevin Leech, who will remain on the board as a non-executive director.

Boden, who has more than three decades of experience in the gaming sector, said, "I am delighted to be joining Devilfish Gaming plc. Devilfish.com is a highly innovative online gaming brand with an extremely competent management team. It has considerable potential to build on the firm foundations that already exist, and I look forward to helping the team realise that potential."

Paul Barnes, CEO of the company that operates DevilishPoker.com, said, "The appointment of David Boden to the Board is a very significant milestone in our evolution as a multi-channel branded gaming operator. In addition to his many achievements, David has a strong profile within the financial investment community. It will be a great pleasure to be working closely with David taking Devilfish Gaming plc to the next level."

Online Gaming Finally Legal in South Africa

South Africa's long-awaited National Gambling Amendment Law has finally been signed by President Thabo Mbeki, but reports in the South African press suggest it will not be implemented until a date chosen by the President.

The law, which was introduced as a bill to the South African legislature last year and approved by government committee in May, will legalise online gaming in the country as well as tightly regulate aspects of the industry such as advertising and marketing.

The law will also introduce the taxation of online gambling and enact strict provisions to prevent underage gambling and allow for dispute resolution mechanisms.

Progress has been painstakingly slow, and the industry must continue to wait until Mbeki is ready to green light a new era for the industry, but the framework is now in place for a mature common sense approach to gambling in South Africa.

iPoker Revenue Doubles

Playtech, the publicly-quoted owner of the iPoker network, has announced that revenue for poker totaled $22 million between January and June 2008, up 109 percent on the same period in 2007.

However, revenue for the second quarter of 2008 was flat compared to the first quarter at $11 million.

Total revenues for Playtech (which includes casino revenue) in the first six months of the year were $81.4 million, a jump of 85 percent from the $44 million in the same period of 2007.

The company said in a statement that both casino and poker revenue for July 2008 continued to show growth. It also said that 10 new licence agreements had been signed so far in 2008, including operators such as Betsson, one of the largest publicly traded online gambling operators to the European market; Vista Global Limited, the group behind the celebrity endorsed Hollywood Poker brand; and Genting Stanley Alderney, a subsidiary of Genting International, the leading international gaming company.

Playtech is currently developing a poker network for the Italian market and will roll out a flash poker product in the third quarter of 2008.

Titan Poker Goes Russian

TitanPoker.com has further increased the number of languages it offers to 12 with the addition of Russian. The online poker room is now available in Russian, English, Danish, German, French, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish, with its website also appearing in Dutch.

The move is due to the large increase in Russian-speaking TitanPoker users. Instead of having these players decipher another language with which they may be unfamiliar, Titan Poker felt it was necessary to launch its website, software, and support services in Russian.

"We take special care and effort to accommodate all of our players," said Titan Poker manager Robin Steele. "We want them to have the best quality online experience possible. Adding additional languages, such as Russian, is just one example of how we pay attention to players' suggestions."

Other European languages are currently being incorporated into the Titan Poker language lineup, which will enable the poker room to meet the increasing demands of its international customers.