Skill Gaming news
May 16, 2005
Skill gaming was in the news this week with two commercial deals
involving Andrew Rivkin's Fun Technologies and Game Account.
The GameAccount deal with Digital Gaming Solutions, a supplier of
online casino and sportsbook gaming systems, is to provide a fully
white-labeled skill gaming system with seamless login, real-time
foreign exchange rate conversions and multiple languages.
The company says that the pay-per-play online games market is currently
estimated at $169 million per annum and is growing at a faster rate
than that for the overall online games market, but does not give
a source for the numbers. Game Account predicts that the skill games
sector will hit turnovers of $768 million by 2006.
The deal means that Digital Gaming Solution’s user clients
will have access to GameAccount’s skill-based games through
their existing gaming accounts. Several gambling companies, including
FHM, Tiscali, Sportingbet, Paddy Power and the Sun Online, use GameAccount’s
full back-end integration, supported by a suite of online management
reporting and customer service tools.
GameAccount’s networked P2P games include Gin Rummy, Backgammon,
8-Ball Pool and Multi-player Golf.
DGS chief Darren Rennick claims that his company manages more than
3,000,000 hits per day and millions of dollars in monthly deposits
and says that Game Account's DDOS attack-prevention facilities were
a factor in the giving them the business.
FUN Technologies and its SkillJam gaming division, another provider
of person-to-person skill gaming, also inked a licensing agreement
this week, teaming up with Victoria Real Ltd., the creative communications
producer and subsidiary of Endemol UK.
The agreement is to supply and support unique online, skill-based
games based on three of Endemol's leading shows: 'Fear Factor',
'Big Brother' and 'Last Man Standing'. Victoria Real has access
to the rights to develop games on all interactive platforms, based
on Endemol's 500-plus programme titles.
Victoria Real is a pioneer of interactivity, distributing fully
integrated applications across web, iDTV and mobile. Endemol, which
became part of the Telefonica S.A. group in 2002, was established
in 1994 as the result of a merger between the two major TV producers
in the Netherlands.
"The competitive nature of these three Endemol games
makes them exceptional additions to our suite of online games, and
we believe they will be well received by our over 7 million registered
players,” said Lorne Abony, FUN CEO.
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