JOINING THE CLUB
During
Intralot S.A.'s shareholders annual general meeting,
Constantinos Antonopoulos, the Greek company's chief executive, introduced Intralot Interactive, a new Internet gambling venture.
"The great potential of the interactive market and our intention to become a significant global player in this business area has led to the establishment of a new global company," Mr. Antonopoulos said in a company statement.
The new interactive arm will seek operating licensing opportunities in "the new liberalized environment" as well as focus on international lotteries and state organizations, the company said.
"We will focus on the Internet gaming market, forming new alliances for major privatization projects and monitoring new opportunities for acquisitions," Mr. Antonopoulos added.
Additionally, Intralot said its new company will acquire Intralot's online gambling assets.
The lottery company reported revenues of 1.1 billion euros in 2008 and approved a distribution of a total dividend of 22 cents per share.
PARTNERING
Jadestone Networks, owner and operator of DiceArena and GamArena, has announced that Betfair will become a distribution partner.
Betfair will join other network distributors such as Bwin Interactive Entertainment A.G., Gala Coral Group and Ålands Penningautomatforening, or PAF, when it integrates the DiceArena gaming network this year, the Nordic-based online gambling operator said.
In partnering with Betfair, Jadestone said it anticipates a "significant increase" in DiceArena player liquidity levels.
ADDING
CryptoLogic Ltd., an online gambling software provider, said it has added a slot machine version of Jenga, the Hasbro game, to its games lineup.
In addition to the 18-payline Jenga slot, the new games pack includes "Buccaneers Bounty" video slot and "4 Deck Atlantic City Blackjack."
Last week the Dublin software supplier agreed to provide Betfair's online gaming site, Betfair Arcade, with 10 of its branded and non-branded games.
LAUNCHING
NeoGames Network Ltd., the electronic scratch games developers, has released a second brand called Hopa.com.
The new online scratch cards Web site has launched in seven different languages -- English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, German and Dutch -- to cater for players worldwide, the company said.
"I have seen Scratch2Cash grow at such a speed since we first started that makes me confident Hopa.com will have the same success, ," said Michael Labrecque, Hopa.com’s chief financial officer.
Also launching: World Fantasy Games' new project, RapidDraft.com, had its soft launch last weekend. The fantasy football site boasts a "How to Play" section with Miss Wisconsin 2007 and "Meet the Pros" section featuring fantasy sports pros.