Cryptologic's Casino Software Growth Strategy

1 Comment   Email   Print

The bulk of the online casino software market consists of software developers who provide the entire self contained casino management package along with the games. This system faced a drawback however. If a player at an online casino not powered by Cryptologic hears about a new release from Cryptologic and wants to try out that game he would have to sign up at a Cryptologic online casino. Probably many players are reluctant to take the extra trouble and financial commitment to sign up at a different online casino just for the sake of playing a few select games.

In recent years the branded online slot games from the Marvel Comics superhero series and the Casual Game series of Cryptologic achieved widespread fame. Cryptologic realized that it was restricting the reach of its games and also losing revenue by not having its games on the software platforms of other software developers. Therefore it entered into an agreement with some of the major software platforms for integration of its system with theirs. The objective was to provide a select number of popular Cryptologic slot games to the clients of the other software platforms. Brian Hadfield, Cryptologic's President and CEO said, “The global Internet gaming market continues to grow rapidly, and that is why Cryptologic's strategy includes opening up new channels to market through the world's leading operators.”

In May 2008 Cryptologic announced a three-year licensing contract with 888 Holdings PLC to have a selection of its best games at the online casinos operated by 888 Holdings. Accordingly Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and Bejeweled went live at 888games.com in October 2008. In August 2008 Cryptologic entered into a similar agreement with Sky Betting & Gaming, a leading entertainment brand in the United Kingdom. The first games were available on SkyVegas.com in early 2009. In October 2008 an agreement was made with PartyGaming on similar lines. Cryptologic games can now be played by players of PartyCasino. These deals were agreements with individual gaming operators. They increased the reach of Cryptologic games, but to a limited extent.

The major break through in this strategy came in December 2008, when Cryptologic entered into an agreement Orbis Technology Limited. The agreement paved the way for Cryptologic's best performing games to be available to the top-tier gaming operators in Orbis' portfolio of customers through Orbis' Fixed Odds Games platform. These operators include Skybet, Betfair, Paddy Power and Blue Square. In January 2009 Cryptologic tied up with another leading global supplier of platform solutions for online gaming operations, Gaming Technology Solutions (GTS). The customers of GTS include Unibet, bwin, Expekt, and Betclick. This strategy for growth was paying rich dividends and during the course of 2009 Cryptologic signed agreements with several licensees of Orbis and GTS and also operators like The Gaming Network and Gala Coral.

As of now Cryptologic has over 30 licensees under this strategy. And it is a win-win situation for all. The licensees are drawing leverage from having Cryptologic games on board and Cryptologic earns a share of the revenue every time a customer places a wager at the online casinos of the licensees.

Article Tools

 Email     Print     Digg     Del.icio.us    StumbleUpon

Comments

 Add Comment

Add Comment

More Articles