The news in brief for the week of February 13-19
Coral Poker has teamed up with Chelsea Football Club to celebrate the club’s centenary with a “Chelsea Legends” poker tournament featuring Chelsea fans and two Chelsea football heroes.
Kenilworth Systems, the developer of Roulabette, a system for playing along from remote locations, announced that it has been asked by the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to present to it a plan to broadcast from the Hyatt Hotel and Casino, Manila, live in-progress casino table games, utilizing Kenilworth’s patented Roulabette technology.
Kiwi Gaming, a subsidiary of Christchurch Casino, is to launch a new website offering online poker, British bingo and skills-based betting. The company already owns eight gambling sites including kiwicasino.com and fastwincasino.com.
Nine.com reported record gaming activity from New York City and the New England areas in its casino and poker rooms while those areas were being hit by one of the worst snowstorms of all time. “It is obvious that when it snows in New York, New Jersey and New England, and especially Providence and Boston, the snowbound people are looking to entertain themselves with something exciting to do while stuck indoors, other than watching more reruns of Law & Order, which I personally love doing,” commented Robert Evans, a Nine.com executive.
Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, has signed a deal with CD replication specialist Brandedmedia, to produce the UK’s first poker promotional CD insert to appear in a national newspaper. The ‘Paddy Power Poker’ insert campaign goes live in The Times on February 25 and will allow Times readers to download the poker software. In separate news, Paddy Power Poker has opened the registration for the Irish Open 2006 ahead of the start of the event on Saturday 15 April 2006. The €3,000 (+€200) event is Europe’s longest established poker tournament and is celebrating its 25th birthday this year.
Tipp24, a German online lottery company, has slightly exceeded its aim to double profits in 2005. In the period under review, turnover climbed 34 per cent to €26m while profit rose from €1.6m to €3.3m. The company also revealed that user numbers increased by nearly 30 per cent to around 1.3 million users and that it was very pleased with its market share in Germany, placed at between 40 and 50 per cent.
UNiTAB, Australia’s N° 2 wagering company, said first-half net profit rose 25 per cent, boosted by new businesses in its gaming arm, whose revenues rose nearly five-fold, helped by new businesses in Queensland and New South Wales states, while wagering revenues were flat. The gaming business comprises mostly casinos while wagering is mostly made up of totalisator operations, mainly horse and dog racing, where a betting pool is divided among the winners.
WPT Enterprises, creator of the Worl Poker Tour television show, reported fourth quarter and full year results. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2005 were $5.2 million, compared to $5.7 million in the same period in 2004, an 8.6% decline. The company’s net loss for the quarter was $1.4 million, compared to a net loss of $0.5 million in the 2004 period. For the full year revenues were $18.1 million, compared to $17.6 million in 2004, an increase of 2.9%. The company’s net loss for the year was $5.0 million, compared to net earnings of $0.8 million in the prior fiscal year. The primary reasons for the decrease in earnings year-over-year include additional expenses of $3.6 million associated with the production of the PPT, an additional $2.5 million in marketing expenses associated with WPTonline.com.
Owen O’Donnell, formerly at Betfair, has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at internet skill gaming company King.com, formerly Midasplayer, with immediate effect.
As reported by the Financial Times, Mike Smith, who retires next month as Chief Executive of Rank Group, will be free within days of his departure to lead or advise on a break-up of the UK leisure group because his employment contract does not contain non-compete clauses.
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