Online
betting firm bwin announces merger with PartyGaming
- 30th July 2010
Austrian
online betting company bwin announced Thursday it
had signed a merger agreement with British rival PartyGaming.
The
move, giving bwin a 51.6-percent stake in the new
group compared to 48.4 percent for PartyGaming, will
become effective in the first quarter of 2011, the
Austria Press Agency reported.
"This
business combination makes great strategic, operational
and financial sense," bwin chief executive Norbert
Teufelberger said in a statement.
"We
will be in pole position to capitalise on the wealth
of opportunities that will flow from the continued
evolution and expansion of the global online gaming
industry," he added.
PartyGaming
chief executive Jim Ryan echoed that sentiment, saying:
"The enlarged group will have a winning formula
to exploit the growing online gaming market, supported
by a strong balance sheet, significant cashflow generation
and a highly experienced management team."
The
two men will become co-chief executives of the new
company, which will have its seat in Gibraltar and
be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile,
bwin will be delisted from the Vienna Stock Exchange.
The
new group will be the largest listed online gaming
company.
In
late trade Thursday, bwin shares were up 20.35 percent
to 42.88 euros in Vienna and PartyGaming gained 19.49
percent to 307.1 pounds in London. (Credit:
Fairfax Media)
Virgin
Games Partners With Microgaming - 21st June 2010
LONDON,
UNITED KINGDOM- Virgin Games (www.virgingames.com),
the leading online gaming company, has today announced
that it has partnered with Microgaming, the world's
largest online gaming software provider. The partnership
will allow Virgin Games to further enhance its offering
by providing Microgaming's market leading flash casino
games to its customers, through Microgaming's pioneering
Quickfire software.
Virgin
Games has established a direct integration with Microgaming,
giving its customers access to a large variety of
games that will be launched over the coming months.
The first game to be launched is Thunderstruck, a
five reel, nine payline video slot game, with a Wild
and a Scatter symbol, a Free Spin Bonus Feature and
a Gamble feature.
Microgaming
is the world's largest gaming software provider and
powers over 120 online Casinos, 40 Poker rooms and
a number of market leading Bingo sites, worldwide.
This integration, using Microgaming's Quickfire software,
reinforces Virgin Games strategy to bring its customer
a wider choice of game content and follows integrations
with top tier content providers such as Wagerworks,
Cryptologic, Freemantle and Ash Gaming.
Simon
Burridge, CEO of Virgin Games, commented:
"Our customers have told us that they want a
wider range of games and specifically they would love
to play Microgaming games as a part of the Virgin
Games offering. Since the launch of our custom built
platform back in 2008, we have been introducing a
range of new gaming content to our sites and Virgin
Games now has one of the widest ranges of casino and
slot games available in the UK. The addition of Microgaming,
the world leader in its field, is a big step forward
for Virgin Games customers and we look forward to
launching its games with a range of promotions over
the coming months."
Founded in 2004, Virgin Games has over 1,000,000 players
and more than 200 games on its site. A growing selection
of games can be found at Virgin Games from a number
of games producers including WagerWorks, Cryptologic,
Freemantle, Endemol, Ash Gaming and now Microgaming.
To visit Virgin Games go to: www.virgingames.com
Notes
to editors
About
Virgin Games:
Virgin Games (www.virgingames.com)
launched in June 2004 and has quickly established
itself as one of the leading gaming websites in the
UK. Virgin Games comprises three distinct offerings:
•
Virgin Casino, offers content from a range of games
suppliers including WagerWorks, Cryptologic, Freemantle
and Ash Gaming, bringing consumers classic casino
games like Blackjack and Roulette, as well as great
feature slots like Monopoly, Rubik's, X-Factor and
the highly popular MegaJackpots progressive games,
with a current jackpot value of over £2,500,000
•
Virgin Poker, part of the Boss Media network, offers
a huge array of games and content for beginners through
to experienced pros – as well as the most generous
loyalty scheme in the industry
•
Virgin Bingo, part of the Virtue Fusion network, offers
cash prizes worth thousands of pounds in the progressive
jackpots, as well as Virgin prize bingo and a range
of unique Virgin Games bingo games.
About
Microgaming:
Since the company developed the first true online
Casino software over a decade ago, it has led the
industry in providing innovative, reliable gaming
solutions. Thanks to an unrivalled R&D programme,
that averages 60 games per year and a unique 'partnership'
approach to working with operators; Microgaming software
powers over 160 market leading online gaming sites.
The company's front and back-end software supports
multi-player, multi-language games - over 450 of them,
all uniquely branded and provides platforms for land-based
and wireless gaming. Microgaming powers the world's
largest Progressive Jackpot Network and has paid out
over €265million. In May 2009 it created the
biggest ever online jackpot winner with a single payment
win of €6.37m.
As
a founding member of eCOGRA, Microgaming is at the
forefront of an initiative focused on setting the
highest standards in the gaming industry, and leads
in the areas of fair gaming, responsible operator
conduct and player protection. Microgaming has been
awarded eCOGRA's Certified Software Seal following
a rigorous onsite assessment to ensure that the development,
implementation and maintenance of the software is
representative of industry best practice standards
Microgaming licensees are therefore eligible to apply
for the eCOGRA Safe & Fair Seal.
