Virgin Games seeks investors for new markets, marketing push 26/02/2010

Jon Parker

VIRGIN Games is looking for a number of external investors with which to enter new markets and ramp up its marketing spend, EGRmagazine.com can reveal.

The company is weighing plans to enter regulating markets including France, Spain, and South Africa, as well as potentially either or both of the US states in which the legalisation of intrastate online gambling has been proposed,  California and Florida, and is seeking commercial partners to fund marketing budgets in those countries.

Virgin Games also seeks investors to ramp up marketing in its established markets after Virgin Games recently concluded a two and half year platform-building process which it now plans to monetise.

Chief executive Simon Burridge (pictured) told EGRmagazine.com: “We do a lot of successful marketing and want to do more of it, but we can’t always throw appropriate sums behind it. We are limited in the profile that we can generate on our own behalf and with so many operators and markets opening up at the same time, we are going to need some cash.” 

The company is also planning to expand the Virgin Games brand beyond online gambling to become a ‘total gaming’ destination via a deal with technology company Game Domain International to offer more than 200 game titles for download. This could allow it to market the brand via its non-gambling products in markets ahead of any future legalisation of online gambling. 

“Going into new markets is going to require a new advertising budget, and the amounts of money that Bwin and others have been spending would be impossible for us to match,” Burridge said. Entry to each new market will require £5-10m of investment, he estimated. 

Virgin Games does not operate in 'grey' markets where legislation on online gambling is ambiguous, meaning that the formal legalisation of online gambling in new jurisdictions significantly expands its potential market.

The Alderney-licensed company receives only limited investment from the wider Virgin group, but benefits from cross-promotional activity with other brand divisions.

In Italy, which regulated its online gambling market and is still adding to the number of legal verticals, this has included advertising and coverage on radio station Virgin Radio Italia or in the brand’s Virgin Active Italia gym chain. 

In the UK, it has included advertising on the Virgin Atlantic airline, on Virgin Trains, on TV stations under the Virgin Media brand and on other Virgin products including books, cosmetics and drinks.

For more on Virgin Games, see the CEO interview with Simon Burridge in the March edition of eGaming Review.

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Posted: 26/02/2010