Chartwell Technology Inc., one of the leading software suppliers in the interactive gaming industry today formally announced that it has developed an online casino for Coral Eurobet Group, one of Britain's largest bookmakers.
The announcement comes more than a month after the site went live with a soft launch.
For Chartwell, the partnership marks the completion of significant inroads in the U.K. gaming sector. The Canada-based supplier also provides the front-end solutions for betting and gaming operators Victor Chandler and BetandWin.
Steve Latham, a sales and marketing rep for Chartwell, pointed out that the company now supplies casino games to "three of the top five" bookmakers in the United Kingdom. "Ladbrokes and William Hill pretty much round out the top of the pile," Latham said. "If we are in three out of five I think we are doing pretty well."
The deal is also significant for Chartwell because Coral Eurobet built its brand through land-based betting shops.
Coral operates 870 retail betting shops throughout the United Kingdom and has a subsidiary that owns and operates two greyhound-racing tracks. The group was on the cutting edge in introducing phone betting and was the first company to accept bets over the Internet. Its sports betting Web site now boasts account holders in more than 100 countries and offers betting through wireless telephone and interactive TV.
Darold H. Parken, president and CEO of Chartwell, said the partnership with Coral is another validation of the Chartwell system from a well established and respected bookmaking firm.
"We are extremely proud to be associated with one of the most powerful betting brands in the world," Parken said. "The Coral Eurobet Group represents the highest degree of professionalism and integrity within the sports betting business, and to have our technology selected for their move into online casino gaming is a very significant achievement for our company and endorsement of our business model."
For Coral, the decision to add casino-style gaming to its Web site was an easy one. The company feels the strong brand that has already been established through land-based betting shops and the strong betting presence on the Internet can be leveraged with its current players and future ones that want to try casino gambling on the Web.
"Coral Eurobet is well placed to take advantage of the continuing growth in online gaming, and the launch of the Eurobet Casino is further proof of our ambitions in this sphere," Coral Eurobet CEO Lee Richardson said.
Latham said the next step for Chartwell is penetrating the Asian market.
"We are going after new clients in Asia that want to go live on the Internet," he said. "We are currently in negotiations with some pretty big players in that market. I also think you will begin to see groups likes Victor Chandler and Coral push into the Asian market. That will drag our code right along with them."
To reach that end, Latham said, Chartwell will add Chinese-language versions of its software and will eventually introduce Chinese-specific games that are popular in Asia.
Earlier this month Chartwell integrated Hebrew into its software.
Coral's online sports betting service doesn't accept bets from customers located in the United States, nor will the new online casino.