Friday, August 30, 2013

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news.casinolife

SLS LAS VEGAS PARTNERS WITH GLOBAL GAMING LEADER WILLIAM HILL ON STATE-OF-THE-ART SPORTS BOOK CONCEPT

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 02:16 PM PDT

Las Vegas – SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, sbe's highly anticipated, all-encompassing resort and casino property opening on the Strip in fall of 2014, today announced its partnership with William Hill, one of the world's top gaming companies, to introduce a state-of-the-art sports book concept.

As the SLS Las Vegas is the first new casino development on the Strip in more than three years, the property will collaborate with William Hill to launch a sports book experience featuring groundbreaking wagering technologies designed to provide guests with an unrivaled sports betting offering.

"sbe and the SLS brand are rooted in a commitment to innovation throughout every layer of our business and William Hill shares that commitment as well," said Rob Oseland, president of SLS Las Vegas Hotel & Casino."Together we'll create a sports wagering experience that's best in class for the market and takes the traditional sports book model to a whole new level."

"We are delighted to be partnering with sbe as they create a new Strip experience with SLS Las Vegas," said Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US. "As we move toward opening next year, we look forward to working with them to create a world class sports book environment."

The sports book partnership means SLS Las Vegas guests will have access to innovative wagering technology, including William Hill's market-leading mobile betting platform available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Additionally, the sports book will feature an expansive HD video wall for viewing of sporting events and betting odds, as well as fully automated InPlay wagering on many events.

The sports book at SLS Las Vegas will be situated within a property that offers a collection of award-winning brands, including The Bazaar by Jose Andres, Katusya by Starck, Umami Burger, The Sayers Club and 800 Degrees, as well as a number of new culinary and nightlife brands, and iconic fashion retailer Fred Segal.

For more information about SLS Las Vegas, visit www.slshotels.com/lasvegas and to stay connected to the latest developments from SLS Las Vegas, visit the Daily Blog here http://slshotels.com/lasvegas/blog/.

 

Gaming Operations Revenues Increase 33%

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 02:07 PM PDT

WAUKEGAN, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 29, 2013– WMS Industries Inc. (NYSE:WMS) today reported revenue of $202.8 million and net income of $13.5 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the fiscal 2013 fourth quarter ended June 30, 2013. These results include a$0.04 per diluted share impact for costs related to the pending acquisition of WMS by Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ:SGMS) in selling and administrative expenses and $0.06 per diluted share for net charges in interest income and other income and expense, net, primarily related to foreign currency losses due to the devaluation of the Argentina Peso to the U.S. dollar. This impact was partially offset by a $0.03 per diluted share benefit from discrete tax items, principally due to the conclusion of a prior year's federal income tax audit. For the fiscal 2012 fourth quarter, WMS reported revenue of $195.9 million and net income of $22.1 million, or $0.40per diluted share.

"Excellent customer and player demand for our innovative new Blade™ and Gamefield xD™ gaming machines drove year-over-year increases in new gaming machine sales and participation revenues, and these improvements, combined with continued strength in interactive products and services revenues, led to the growth in our quarterly revenues," said Brian R. Gamache, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our investments in R&D during the last several years have supported the development of great new products, games and innovative new gaming experiences that deliver substantial value for our casino customers and have set WMS on a path for renewed long-term growth. At next month's G2E® industry trade show, we'll demonstrate our latest new products that offer engaging gaming entertainment, including a full range of new premium participation and for-sale games."

Recent Highlights:

  • Total revenues grew 4% over the prior-year quarter to $202.8 million and increased 14% on a quarterly sequential basis, while direct costs attributable to revenues declined by $4.4 million, or 6%, from the prior year due to improved productivity, strategic sourcing initiatives and mix of business.
  • Gaming operations revenues increased $20.6 million, or 33%, year over year to a quarterly record $83.4 million, primarily reflecting a 568-unit increase, or 6% gain, in the average installed participation base plus interactive products and services revenue growing to $17.4 million.
  • WMS shipped approximately 2,450 new for-sale Blade cabinets in the June 2013 quarter driving a quarterly record 4,376 new replacement gaming machines shipped in the U.S. and Canada.
  • International unit shipments improved by 39% year over year to 2,055 gaming machines.
  • Cash flow from operating activities increased $11.3 million, or 23%, in the June 2013 quarter over the prior year, while net cash used in investing activities decreased by $20.0 million, or 25%, from the comparable quarter a year ago.
  • Restarted sales and leasing of Video Gaming Terminals (VGTs) in Illinois following modification and amendment of the State's Video Gaming Act on June 24, 2013 that will now permit WMS to continue as a licensed manufacturer following the completion of the Company's pending acquisition by Scientific Games.
  • Launched the new, enhanced Play4Fun Network™ interactive product that provides a B2B white-label, free-play iGaming and marketing platform that seamlessly links players' online gaming experiences with a casino's land-based entertainment offering, with the first installation at the Snoqualmie Casino in Washington.
  • Extended the availability of the Jackpot Party® Social Casino across mobile and tablet devices to include Android™ based mobile devices.
  • Through the Williams Interactive subsidiary, extended the availability of WMS slot games to several additional European real-money online casino and bingo sites.

"Over the last two years, WMS prudently allocated capital to refresh our installed participation base while investing in R&D initiatives to develop innovative new premium games and platforms, such as the Gamefield xD participation gaming machine that launched in theMarch 2013 quarter," said Gamache. "As a result, today we have approximately 1,400 Gamefield xD cabinets in our installed participation base; and by accelerating the replacement and upgrading of our footprint, approximately 80% of our installed gaming machines are Bluebird®2, Bluebird xD and Gamefield xD cabinets. These investments have established a solid foundation for consistent growth in our gaming operations, as new titles such as the two initial THE WIZARD OF OZ™ game themes for theGamefield xD platform and the more recent launches of the MONOPOLY™ Legends™, SPIDER-MAN™ and WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY™ themes were drivers of our expanded footprint in the June quarter. With ongoing expansion of these successful products, our installed base of Wide-Area Progressive (WAP) gaming machines reached a new record level in early August. And, with the new IRON MAN™ WAP game on the Gamefield xD cabinet and THE LORD OF THE RINGS™ The Return of the King™ standalone game scheduled for launch in the September quarter, we expect to continue to generate further growth across our entire participation footprint and deliver strong earnings performance for our customers.

"The significant enhancement in graphics and player experience enabled by the increased power of our next-generation CPU-NXT®3operating platform and Blade cabinet is driving superior in-casino performance of our newest for-sale games such as Great Zeus™, Lantern Festival™ and Montezuma™ themes. As a result of the exceptional player appeal and customer performance, the Bladecabinet represented about 36% of global new units shipped in the June quarter, exceeding the previous record demand pace established by the launch of the Bluebird2 cabinet in 2008. Recently, we doubled the number of game themes available on the Bladeplatform and continue to extend the range of entertaining themes and play experiences available for the Blade cabinet to provide additional diversity of engaging game play for players and customers.

"In addition, success throughout fiscal 2013 in leveraging our creative development capabilities and legendary slot game library to create new interactive products and services resulted in interactive revenues reaching $57 million in annual revenues compared to just$4 million in fiscal 2012. We are highly encouraged by the successful development efforts and growth initiatives of our interactive products and services during the past year and expect to achieve additional growth in fiscal 2014 as we further monetize key game launches and realize ongoing benefits from the recent expanded availability of our Jackpot Party Social Casino in tablet and mobile device channels. We are confident that our interactive gaming initiatives and distribution opportunities for our content and games in these growing channels is a source of significant long-term growth potential for the Company," concluded Gamache.

www.wms.com

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Online gambling takes its biggest tumble yet, on the search front

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 04:11 AM PDT

London, 29 August, 2013 – Brits spend £2.3 billion annually on online gambling according to research from Deloitte, commissioned by the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB). However, a new report from leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, shows consumer online search volumes pertaining to sports betting, poker, bingo and casino, have suffered their sharpest drop yet.

Greenlight's findings follow hot on the heels of the government's announcement of a 15% tax imposition on operators in the remote gambling market – depending on the type of gambling offered, and warnings from bookies on losses to come from the planned tax reform set to kick in next year.

The agency's "Gaming Sector Report – Issue 11" profiled consumer search habits when they went to Google UK in July to make gaming-related queries. The report reveals the most popular search terms, total search volumes and the most visible sites to searchers.

The report's 12 month retrospective shows gaming-related consumer searches which totaled 995,830 in July, suffered a sharp 34% decline on June's volume of 1.5 million, the steepest drop yet since August 2012.

Casino made up the majority of July's queries, accounting for a 35% share, followed by sports betting (31%), Bingo (18%) then Poker (16%).

According to Greenlight, the ten most popular terms used by consumers to find gaming sites across the board were:

'bingo' (60,500 searches)

'online casino' (60,500 searches)

'casino' (49,500 searches)

'poker' (33,100 searches)

'no deposit casino' (33,100 searches)

'bet' (33,100 searches)

'poker hands' (22,200 searches)

'bingo sites' (22,200 searches)

'betting calculator' (18,100 searches)

'free bingo' (18,100 searches)

Overall, the most visible site to searchers in the organic* listings was paddypower.com which achieved a 44% share of voice. In the paid listings** however, williamhill.com was the most visible advertiser, securing a 75% share of visibility.

On Social Media, Betfair.com had the highest number of YouTube views whilst Paddypower.com had the highest number of subscribers to its channel. However, Wikipedia.org, the free web-based multi-lingual encyclopedia, a non-gaming site, topped Greenlight's Social Media analysis.

 

REED EXHIBITIONS PROMOTES MIKE JOHNSON TO INDUSTRY VICE PRESIDENT OF G2E AND G2E ASIA

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 02:57 AM PDT

 

 

 

 

LAS VEGAS – Reed Exhibitions (Reed), the world’s leader in organizing a wide range of events, today announced that Mike Johnson has been promoted to Industry Vice President for Global Gaming Expo (G2E) and G2E Asia, the premiere trade show and conference events for the international gaming entertainment industry.

Mike Johnson Industry Vice President for Global Gaming Expo (G2E) and G2E Asia

Johnson has worked on the G2E portfolio of events for seven years and will remain responsible for all G2E and G2E Asia’s revenue through management of exhibition, advertising, sponsorship and conference sales, as well as the development of the annual conference programs at the two events. He will also continue to manage G2E Asia’s overall business in Macau, S.A.R., People’s Republic of China. Johnson replaces Tom Loughran as Industry Vice President and will report to Courtney Muller, a senior vice president at Reed.

“On behalf of everyone involved with organizing and planning the G2E family of events, we are pleased to promote Mike to the position of industry vice president,” said Muller. “Mike has been instrumental to the growth of the G2E portfolio, and we look forward to the value he will continue to bring, ensuring that G2E and G2E Asia remain the largest and most successful trade show and conference events for gaming professionals.”

In addition to his position at Reed, Johnson also is a regular moderator of industry webinars and has lectured at various universities about the development of the MICE industry (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) as a business and tourism driver throughout the world.

For more information on Reed Exhibitions, visit www.reedexpo.com.  For more information on G2E and G2E Asia, visit www.globalgamingexpo.com and www.g2easia.com.

 

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Weswit renews Lightstreamer supply agreement with Yazino

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 02:46 AM PDT

MILAN, ITALY / Thursday, August 29, 2013 – Weswit, a leader in real-time data streaming solutions, has renewed its deal to supply its Lightstreamer real-time data streaming technology to Yazino, the specialist in in-sync, cross-platform social casino gaming.

Lightstreamer is a massively scalable solution for pushing live data over WebSockets and other web protocols to up to millions of concurrent users. It has been deployed by Yazino since 2011 to handle the live game interaction, including the real-time delivery of key game information and communications.

The new agreement means Lightstreamer will continue to play a vital role in facilitating the unique synchronous, multiplayer environment and live interaction of Yazino's games on both web and mobile platforms.

"Most social games are asynchronous – they aren't optimised for human interactions, only allowing players to share achievements and invite existing friends to play. Yazino develops synchronous social games to encourage a far closer to real life behaviour that lets players truly interact online with friends and meet new, real people," said Hussein Chahine, founder and CEO of Yazino.

"We take the playing experience to another level and Lightstreamer's real-time data delivery is a key requirement for us to provide this fully-engaged, in-sync offering. Lightstreamer rightly has a reputation for being dependable, scalable and fully functional across platforms, which is essential to our future as a fast-growing, multi-channel social casino games publisher. We have been very pleased with Lightstreamer's performance and support for the past two years and look forward to continuing our partnership," Chahine added.

Since launching in 2010, Yazino has developed five in-sync social games: Slots Wheel Deal, High Stakes Slots, Roulette, Blackjack and Texas Hold 'em Poker.

"Yazino is a company that is literally changing the game within the industry, so we are very proud that Lightstreamer has helped contribute to their success," said Mauro Fantechi, co-CEO and Chairman at Weswit.

"Playing in genuine real-time enables deeper engagement and a heightened social gaming experience. Lightstreamer is the most suitable technology to make any game live, with minimum effort and complete peace of mind – anytime, anywhere and on any platform, including smartphones and tablets."

Customers of Lightstreamer range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, with Yazino joining other partners in the betting and gaming industry, including bwin.party, Wirex, IG and City Index.

Lightstreamer is a highly engineered server for the streaming of real-time data to and from any mobile or browser-based and desktop applications, including HTML5, Android, iPhone, iPad, and many others. Based on HTTP and WebSockets, it is able to pass through any kind of proxy and firewall. Features include bandwidth and frequency control, proxies and firewall traversal capabilities and total control over security and quality of service.

 

BetTech Gaming grows international presence as it forms partnership with Ugandan operator 256Bet

Posted: 29 Aug 2013 02:43 AM PDT

 

 

Thursday, August 29, 2013 (Cape Town, South Africa) – BetTech Gaming, the provider of premium technology solutions to gaming companies, has secured a partnership with Uganda-based land and online operator 256Bet.

The South African company is providing its flagship BetTech Sports product to significantly upgrade and re-launch 256Bet.com alongside the introduction of a brand new mobile betting offering for the African sports entertainment company.

A wide range of fixed odds opportunities across a multitude of in-play markets have been implemented and 256Bet is the first BetTech customer to launch the Betradar-integrated Virtual Football League, which enables a close-to-reality fixed odds betting experience at any time.

BetTech has also implemented localised payment gateways and structures for the country via integrations with MTN Mobile Money and Warid Pesa.

"BetTech Gaming has an unbeatable knowledge of the African market and its sensitivities. This has enabled us to introduce a bespoke product that has taken our online operation to the next level," said Innocent Bamurike Davis, 256Bet owner. "Also launching an intuitive, yet comprehensive mobile product and Virtual Football League gives us a real competitive advantage."

"This partnership with 256Bet demonstrates exactly how the BetTech offering is ideally suited to emerging markets, whether it is existing bookmakers looking to strengthen their position or potential operators aiming to make an entry," said Mark Bosman, International CEO of BetTech Gaming. "Our customisable, cost-effective solution enables exciting wagering opportunities to be placed around the clock on the best local, international and now even virtual action."

 

 

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