Aspinalls will hand the keys to its Internet casino operation to Golden Palace, the U.K.-based casino operator said late Tuesday.
Golden Palace, one of the largest and most prominent online casinos, which recently made headlines for its use of henna tattoos to advertise on boxers' backs, is entering a memorandum of understanding to manage Aspinalls' Internet casinos.
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"(Aspinalls has) had some trying times recently, and we think we can reactivate their site and hopefully bring them back to a higher level of profitability than they have currently."
- Mark Billings
Golden Palace
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Mark Billings, the COO of Golden Palace, said the agreements governing the deal should be signed by Friday. At that time, the management of Aspinalls' online casinos will immediately be transferred to Golden Palace.
Golden Palace will have the exclusive right to promote the Aspinalls name within the online gambling environment for an initial 30-month period. Golden Palace has online gambling licenses in Antigua and the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake in Canada.
As per the MOU, Aspinalls will profit from the agreement by receiving a share of the revenue generated by players of the Aspinalls-branded casinos. Billings said the details of the revenue-sharing agreement would not be made public until final documents are signed on Friday.
"We consider ourselves to be one of the leading operators of the casino world, so we're trying to marry their brand name with our expertise and split the revenues accordingly," he said.
Golden Palace will operate Aspinalls Online Ltd.'s two Internet casinos, London Casino and Caribbean Casino. The sports book, Sporting Casino, is managed by Sporting Odds. Billings said whether Golden Palace will take over the sports betting management is still to be decided. If that happens, Golden Palace will outsource the sports book in the same way Aspinalls does with Sporting Odds.
"We may continue that; we're looking at that presently," Billings said. "We'll be operating the casinos for sure."
In a statement, Aspinalls said it hopes the outsourcing agreement will help eliminate overhead for its subsidiaries and also provide a cash stream that won't require it to risk its own money.
"The company has incurred substantial losses in establishing and operating its own online gaming business and the directors believe that the future value of its investment in the online gaming
industry will be better served through a outsourcing arrangement with an existing and well-established online casino company, rather than as an independent operator," Aspinalls said.
Aspinalls' I-gaming software is provided by IQ-Ludorum. Billings said it has not been decided whether the switch will be made to Golden Palace's proprietary software. He said players will notice a difference, though.
"They should notice a change in the sites, for sure," he said. "We will have our look and feel on the sites, obviously with Aspinalls' involvement and consent, but it will have more of a Golden Palace look to it."
Billings said the agreement came to fruition after representatives from Golden Palace met with Aspinalls chairman Damian Aspinall in London recently. He said Aspinall had indicated that he was looking to get out of operating an online casino and to find someone to manage their I-gaming sites.
"We've known Damian Aspinall, and obviously they have service here in Kahnawake, and we've talked to them a few times," Billings said. "He didn't come up to us out of the blue and say, 'I want you to do this.'"
Golden Palace has hopes of turning around the betting site's economic problems, he said.
"They've had some trying times recently, and we think we can reactivate their site and hopefully bring them back to a higher level of profitability than they have currently," he said. "With the revenue sharing, we should both profit from that."