Snapshot: innovation to determine egaming's future, Bodner says; Oddschecker Nov top 10; operators split over EU regs... 02/12/2009

INNOVATION, NOT MARKETING will determine the success of egaming companies over the next decade, Bwin co-chief executive Manfred Bodner has predicted. 

Ladbrokes has overtaken Stan James and William Hill while Betfair has recovered its lead over Bet365, the November figures from top odds comparison site Oddschecker reveal.

Europe’s top egaming operators are split over whether major EU economies will regulate online gaming, yesterday’s EGR Live event in London revealed. 

The EGR Awards, the premier recognition of achievement and innovation in the online gaming industry, were presented at London's Old Billingsgate Market on Monday night in front of a sell-out audience of more than 900 guests on the first night of EGR Live.

GameAccount has launched its suite of real-money online skill games in Italy on behalf of lottery giant Lottomatica. The games will be able to play via the Skill Club channel on the Lottomatica.it and Totosi.it portals. GameAccount received the go-ahead from the Italian government to launch a real money offering in August.

Welsh bingo site Castle Bingo has renewed its bingo software licensing agreement with GTech G2.

Rank Group has chosen SmartFocus to provide its marketing software.

Mobile services supplier Mkodo has launched Txt2Mobi Direct, a mobile marketing tool for the egaming sector that allows clients to send customers marketing text messages containing embedded, deep-links to mobile internet (wap) sites. 

BLOG: Looking at M&A? Think B2B. An increasing number of operators are now pursuing business-to-business (B2B) acquisitions - and rightly so, says Mervyn Metcalf, managing director of egaming consultancy Global Leisure Partners…

CEO INTERVIEW: Andreas Ternstrom, Bonnier Gaming. Andreas Ternstrom has major plans for Bonnier Gaming. But rather than just trying to take market share, Ternstrom says he will grow egaming markets instead.    

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eGaming Review would like to thank PartyGaming and PKR for their respective £20,000 and £7,500 donations to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, which was championed at Monday night’s EGR Awards for the second year.

Richard Glynn, Sporting Index chairman and a UK government-appointed trustee to the charity, said: “I am grateful to the egaming community for its generosity. Once again this proves the keen sense of social responsibility of this industry and its ongoing desire to help and protect the vulnerable in society.”

A PartyGaming spokesman said: “Great Ormond Street is special for many reasons: the patients are special, as is the hospital’s staff, which cares for remarkable and brave children. PartyGaming is proud to support eGaming Review’s chosen charity, and we wish the magazine well in its efforts to raise even more funds for this world-class hospital.

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Posted: 02/12/2009