Spanish Venture -- U.K. bookmaker Ladbrokes Plc announced today that it has entered a joint venture with Barcelona-based Cirsa Slot Corp. to develop a sports betting business in Spain. The partners plan to apply for the new betting licenses in Madrid, where a decree was passed in December regulating betting shops, kiosks and remote betting via telephone and Internet for the first time. The joint venture said it will also seek licenses in other areas of Spain also considering regulation. The Spanish gambling market was worth around $37.7 billion in 2006, Ladbrokes said. Cirsa Slot accounts for 9 percent of the Spanish slot machine market, servicing over 15,000 food and beverage outlets with gaming areas and 90 arcades.
Busy -- Taiwan-based I-gaming provider GigaMedia Limited had a productive end of 2006. The group announced on Dec. 20 a strategic partnership with and investment in Southeast Asian online game platform Infocomm Asia Holdings Pte Ltd. According to the terms of the strategic partnership, GigaMedia has invested US$10 million in Infocomm and obtained Board representation and preferred shares convertible into an approximate 33 percent equity position, making GigaMedia the largest shareholder of Infocomm Asia . . . On Dec. 26, the company announced that it had licensed its real money MahJong and other Asian game software to Gibraltar-based online gaming operator Carmen Media Group. Also in December, the company announced a five-year deal with the World MahJong Organization (WMO) to co-host the MahJong World Championship.
Coming Soon -- eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gambling Regulation and Assurance) will release its Global Online Gambler Report--the results of a multi-national player survey launched--at the International Casino Exhibition in London later this month. The paper is the culmination of a research initiative launched in August 2006 detailing the behavior and attitudes of online gamblers. The report covered areas such as poker, casino, player protection, responsible gambling and luck and, around 11,000 people participated in the initial survey, according to eCOGRA CEO Andrew Beveridge. "Early indications are that there will be some surprises in the report," Beveridge said. "We think it will be very revealing for both industry insiders and a wider public."