Devilfish Eyes Diversification in Entraction Dea

18 March 2008

Devilfish Gaming -- the latest addition to the small but growing post-UIGEA fraternity of London-listeds -- said this morning that it was able to "tick most of its key boxes" in a licensing agreement with Sweden's Entraction Holdings.

Via the agreement with Entraction, Devilfish will expand its offering with two new poker rooms -- one by Malta-licensed Entraction, the other by Boss Media's IPN network. The deal also sees Devilfish operate two casinos by WagerWorks and NetEnt, as well as an NYX Interactive-powered bingo product.

Speaking to IGN, Devilfish Chief Executive Paul Barnes said that while the group's brand is currently bound tightly to poker, the deal with Entraction nonetheless falls within its stated strategy of offering multi-channel gaming products.

"We are a gaming company -- part of the deal, in fact, is for a sports book, but we're keeping our options open as to how and when we launch that," he said.

Barnes said Devilfish would leverage Entraction's Maltese licensure to advertise in the United Kingdom -- its core market -- but said it would be looking to streamline ad spend.

The company's ad plans do include a televised offering, which Barnes called a "reality show around poker," though he did not provide a time frame for launch.

Looking ahead, Barnes said the group would like to add a skill games offering while expressing interest in the "booming financial spreads market."

"For all of those channels, we'll be on the lookout for acquisition chances, definitely, and that will start immediately."




Chris Krafcik is the editor of IGamingNews. He lives in St. Louis, Mo.