Late last week the owners of SuperCasino came out with the announcement that they have not only built an iPhone app. for their live roulette game, but that it had been approved by Apple and added to the AppStore.

The game can now be downloaded free directly from the App Store by iPhone users in the UK and it pretty much offers most of the functionality of the TV version of the game that is broadcast shown on Channel Five and various other networks across Britain.  You can bet with real money, message the presenter and see live video stream of the game as it happens – albeit on a much smaller window.

Whether live dealer/presenter games are a good fit for the iPhone is debatable. After all the real appeal of these games is seeing and interacting with a real dealer – live and large as if you were sitting across the table from them in a traditional casino.  I reckon a certain amount of this appeal is lost when the game window is so small.

Nevertheless, the wider significance of this development can’t be understated.

In May BetFair became the first company to get a real money betting app approved by Apple for addition to the AppStore. But this was sports betting related rather than casino games.  If I had to take a punt on the first company to get a casino game over the line I would have said Spin3 (Microgaming mobile unit) or Playtech, who also have an impressive mobile offering and strong UK presence.

SuperCasino’s live roulette app has beaten a long list eager companies to the punch to be the first real money game added to the AppStore.  A very impressive achievement from a company that’s a live gaming specialist rather than a mobile gaming one.

So if you’re:

• from the UK; and
• use an iPhone; and
• like roulette; and
• like your dealers very small

then pop into the AppStore for a look see!

More screen shots and user reviews of the game can be found at the iTunes site.

While Las Vegas is still struggling to shake the remnants of post-GFC funk over in Macau the party is well and truly back in full swing after the briefest of pauses.

Las Vegas Sands Corp recently reported their Q2 2010 results and as a company straddling both Vegas and Macau, these results served to highlight the divergent fortunes of the world’s two big gambling towns.

Of group EBITDA of $473 million only $66 million came from Vegas operations, an impressive $94 million from the fledgling Marina Bay in Singapore , and the remaining $300 million-odd coming from Macau.

While the Vegas strip is doing its best to squeeze more cash from frugal players with party pit 6-5 blackjack tables, mass market table gaming revenue in Macau has increased 36% over the last 12 months.  VIP gaming increases are even more impressive…a whopping 85% according to a report in Macau Business.

Guess who’s a happy man?

If Macau’s doing well Stanley Ho is doing well – and typically just that little bit better than his competitors there. And this has been reflected in the just reported results of his company SJM Holdings which posted a 6 month profit of HK$1.57 billion.

This is a…wait for it…364% increase on the same period last year!  This included an overall gaming revenue jump of 79%, which comprised mass market table gaming revenue growth of 40% and VIP gaming growth of 111%; indicating the Macau junket market is well and truly pumping again and Stanley’s casinos are plugged into it up to their eyeballs.

SJM’s CEO Dr So (Ho is Chairman) commenting on the results said, “We expect that the year 2010 will be a rewarding one.” It seems Dr So isn’t one to overstate things.

So where do you go from a 364% profit increase?  A company spokesperson had this to say…

“Drs So and Ho both know you can’t go slow after a jumbo show.  This would be a no-no and give competitors the ammo to borrow and show more sicbo, lotto, bingo and keno that would narrow our lead and bring sorrow to our casino.   Dr Ho learned long ago that so-so gusto not does not make a hero and the other fellow, Dr So is a gung-ho pro so there will be no go slow.  Dr Ho and Dr So are in a chateau in Bordeaux sharing some info over some cocoa and sourdough.  They will send a memo to our corporate bureau in SoHo and return via limo and then hello, with the power of a sumo we bestow a crushing blow on those other casino minnows.”

Sounds ominous.

If you’re a player at Paddy Power live casino this week then don’t be surprised if your account gets a little cash boost.

They’ve been running a mystery cash drop promo since Monday and it ends this Friday.  Each day every £20 staked in the live casino earns players an entry in a daily random prize draw with prizes as follows:

1st: £100

2nd: £50

3rd – 7th: £10

To visit Paddy Power click here

To read our review of the casino, click here

Any doubts that the government of Singapore was being overly optimistic with tourism and economic growth targets expected to be driven by its two new casinos must now be fading pretty fast.

Singapore flying

Here are some pretty striking statistics…

• Two years ago Singapore was in the middle of its worst recession since 1965.  In the first six months of 2010 this same economy grew a staggering 18%.  It is currently growing at an annualized rate of over 25% and is in the running to be world’s fastest growing economy (second only to Qatar).
• From high unemployment levels 2 years ago, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong now says his country needs around 100,000 foreign workers to cool a labour market that is in danger of overheating.
• Monthly tourist arrivals hit the 1 million mark for the first time ever in July and the official target of 17 million tourists annually by 2015 (more than double numbers at the time the target was set in 2005) now appears it will be eclipsed comfortably.

Of course the casinos can’t take all the credit for the economic turn around. Largely casino-free Malaysia and India have also rebounded strongly from GFC lows, although nowhere near as spectacularly as Singapore.

Casinos flying

The two casinos at the strategic hub of all this activity are doing very well.

Resorts World Sentosa recently reported a quarterly (Apr-Jun 2010) profit of US$291 million to the Singapore stock exchange.  Meanwhile Marina Bay has been acclaimed by analysts as the new jewel in the struggling Sands empire, recording an EBITDA  of US$94 million for its first 2 months of operation.

The results have lead a gaming analyst from DMG & Partners to proclaim, “Singapore is already the second-largest casino market in Asia after Macau and could potentially overtake the Las Vegas strip as the second largest casino market in the world after Macau in the next two to three years.”

Big bucks changing hands

Stories have already started to emerge of the enormous amounts of cash changing hands on the gaming floors of Resorts Word and Marina Bay.  According to a report in asia one Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou dropped S$2 million playing baccarat at up to S$200,000 a hand at the Marina Bay over the weekend.  The star’s management have denied the report.

On the same weekend, an unnamed Indonesian businessman hit a S$2.3 million jackpot at Resorts World Sentosa according to the Jakarta Post.

But the player who has all the tongues wagging is Henry Quek, a high roller and native of Singapore who runs a multinational seafood distribution business when he’s not gambling.  Henry went on a gambling spree of Terrence Watanabe proportions at Resorts World Sentosa that ended with him being S$26 million in the red!  Henry is suing the casino for allowing him to extend credit beyond an originally agreed $2 million.

What were those lines from Sinatra’s This Town again?

“This town is a make-you town,
Or a break-you-town and bring-you-down town”

Back in 2005 the Singaporean government cast an envious eye toward the Asian casino juggernaut of Macau and framed plans to build a casino industry that would rival the former Portuguese colony’s.  They have since built 2 of the most expensive integrated casino resorts in the world and early signs suggest their ambitious plans to significantly raise revenues and tourism numbers may just work.

Now Japan is casting an envious eye toward Singapore and may soon have a Marina Bay Sands of their own.

This would require legislative changes since Japan currently has laws banning casino gambling (despite a thriving pachinko and pachislots industry, which is another story altogether).  But it appears the necessary changes are in the wings.

Members of the Japanese Diet are apparently in the process of drafting a bill that will repeal existing laws and open the door for casino operations to submit license applications as early as 2011. The bill’s chance of successful passage is far from assured, but nevertheless realistic from all reports.  And we all know the impact that a bit of economic hardship has on legislators’ views toward gambling…and Japan has been hit by the GFC about as hard as any developed nation.

No doubt the Wynns, Adelsons, Hos, Packers and Gentings of this world are feverishly positioning themselves with local partners to get a strategic edge come RFP time.  And if the trend to build bigger and casinos continues, as it no doubt will, we can expect something pretty impressive to materialize in the land of the rising sun before too long.

Up until now live gaming of the ‘bricks and mortar casino stream’ kind has been limited to an Irish flavor – the Fitzwilliam Card Club and Casino in Dublin, whose games have been webcast by Vuetec and their casinos Dublinbet and Lucky Live for a few years now.

Now the Fitzwilliam is about to be joined on the Internet by the Sosua Bay Grand Casino in the Dominican Republic when they start streaming in-house games later this month.  21 August is the big launch date.  Although these guys have been threatening to get this thing up and running for most of the year so another delay won’t exactly shock everyone.

Kenilworth Systems are the US based company who will be powering the games.  How they will look and play I have no idea, but it will be nice to have another ‘real casino’ option (assuming it’s not a total dud that it).

So 21 August keep the Guinness on ice and mix up a nice Pina Colada or Daikiri (Brugal rum if you have it) and take a virtual visit to the tables of Sosua Bay…if you’re in a tropical mood that is.

Below
left: the Sosua Bay entrance even looks like a cocktail | right: the Fitzwilliam

David Merry, CEO of newly launched Castle Casino shares some thoughts with Livedealer.org on his company’s prospects and live gaming generally…

Q: First a brief bio…what is your previous experience in the online gambling industry and what prompted the move to running a live deal casino?

A: I was working as a full time SEO consultant when a colleague moved to become the affiliate manager at an online casino. We met up around a month after he started for a quick drink and he was telling me about his new job, through this I realised that the casino affiliate industry was a profitable area to be involved in and that I could utilise my skills to promote other casinos and hopefully make a side income. That night when I got home I started buying domains as well as existing web properties such liveroulette.co.uk amongst others and began promoting live casinos around the web, after around 6 months I had a number of these running. After seeing the  profits involved in running portals I couldn’t help but think towards discovering how online casinos operate and how I could get investment to start one. By December 2009 I had a business plan and had handed it around to potential investors, by July 16th 2010 after months of gruelling work and investor meetings Castle Casino was officially live and running.

Q: What have been the major challenges in getting a live casino off the ground?

A: To be honest I would say that the most challenging times have yet to be discovered and lie in marketing and breaking into markets. However I would say at present (aside from gaining financial investment) the hardest phase was finding the starting ground, running a live casino is comparatively easy compared to trying to fit the 100 pieces together and get the initial product live and to the market. I remember sitting on my laptop with the investment already guaranteed and being totally daunted by the task ahead of me, every little decision, be it with which software to use or which company I should contract to design the casino and then managing them thereafter, could make or break the casinos success. Let’s just say sleepless nights and all day meetings were common for a good few months!

Q: There are now quite a few live gaming platforms out there.  Why did you choose to go with ViG?

A: I had meetings with a number of platform providers however VIG really stood out to me for three primary reasons. Firstly, there was the friendliness and good nature of the team, I had to take into account that I would be working in partnership with whoever I chose for years to come therefore a good relationship had to be present. Secondly I was impressed by their range of live casinos already present, they all looked fantastic, operated seamlessly and were branded brilliantly and uniquely, I tested all the casino platforms and I loved the software from the get go. Lastly was the ambition and dynamics that they held, most platform providers had a flat offering, whereas VIG were never satisfied and always looking forward, they strive to become the best live casino provider in the market by a long way and I want to be part of that.

Q: In terms of geographic market (US aside for regulatory reasons) where do you see most potential for Castle, and the live casino industry generally?

A: Although hard to crack, I still consider the UK market breakable and full of potential given the right live offering. Casino TV channels are springing up all the time and I think they do a great job of marketing the technology to the wider market, let’s not forget that until late last year a casino had never had a slot on terrestrial television over here. Further down the line, Castle Casino aims to move into the European market where live gaming (at least using the resident language) doesn’t seem to have taken off as much.

Q: You have set the bar pretty high early on in terms of novel promos (Lamborghini Gallardo promo).  Can you give any hints as to what’s planned in the future?

A: Well I can’t give away the game entirely as nothing is set in stone, however let’s say that we are in stages of negotiation with a luxury yacht provider about an all-inclusive around the world trip!

Q: Do you think live casinos will ever have more players than RNG casinos, and if so when?

A: Yes I do, over the next 3 or so years I see more and more RNG casinos adapting their platform to include a live offering and then wider gambling being notified of the benefits and added thrill. It’s hard to put a timeframe on this, however I think that given the option the majority of casino players prefer to play live.

Q: Are you a casino gambler, and if so, your favorite casino and favorite game?

A: To be honest, I do participate in online gambling however I wouldn’t say I am a huge internet gambler, I spend half of my life on the computer so I prefer to get out and gamble in brick and mortar casinos every now and then. When I do gamble I will pay a visit to a casino in London and more than likely try to disguise lost money as a research expense! My favourite game has to be roulette, something about trying to beat the wheel has always fascinated me.

Q: Gazing into the crystal ball where do you see Castle Casino 1, 2 and 5 years from now?

A: This is a very interesting question. In 1 year, I see Castle Casino having a large fan base in the UK, something that I feel would be a solid foundation to expand on internationally. By year 2, I think we should have at least be active and starting to crack the European market. And by year 5, Castle Casino and hopefully other online properties by that time will be a worldwide success and I will be sunning myself on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean!

Ladbrokes has for decades been entrenched as one of the first choices for UK punters wanting to place a bet.  With over 500 betting shops and solid High Street presence their brand strength has been unquestioned for the greater part of the last century.

But times change and gamblers are spending less time in traditional bet shops and more time online – particularly in an age where bet lines are created almost by the second to cater for the in-play betting craze and convenient and immediate access to these lines is what players now want.

To remain at forefront of the industry today a strong online offering is crucial and this is an area where Laddies have slipped a little behind the competition according to recently appointed CEO Richard Glynn.  And he has already started to shake things up with the implementation of ‘Project Galvanize’ which last week saw a senior management re-shuffle that included the departure of the companies head of online gaming and a couple of key new appointments.

Any push to enhance online player experience has to be welcomed, but I have to say that from a live dealer casino perspective Ladrokes aren’t exactly lagging behind the competition.  In fact they’ve got a suite of games that is arguably one of the most comprehensive around because they are one of the few operators running dual platforms – the very slick Evolution Gaming product as well as CWC Gaming.  Game, table, and dealer range is extensive (no, I haven’t come across the young lady pictured above dealing any of the Ladrokes tables).

Hopefully the shake-up won’t change their strong support of the live dealer product!

Presenting part of the BolaVerde webinar on live gaming (titled ‘Live Gaming: Making It Real’) Vuetec deputy chief Grant Frazer had a couple of interesting things to say about his company’s plans to expand their gaming offering.

Vuetec…

Vuetec currently, through its Distance Gaming technology, powers a bunch of online casinos taking a live stream from the Fitzwilliam Card Club and Casino in Dublin – Dublinbet and Lucky Live Casino among them.

They have a live casino platform with a key point of difference to most others out there – the games are played in an actual bricks and mortar casino.  In this regard they take the goal of replicating a terrestrial casino experience (albeit online) about as far as you can take it.  They were the first developer to do this and today remain one of the very few and certainly the best known ‘real casino live platform’.

More casinos in different regions…

No matter which Vuetec powered online casino you play at, the games are being dealt from the one casino – the Fitzwilliam.  But according to Frazer this may change as early as before this year’s end.

The plan is to eventually be streaming games from a number of casinos in a number of countries so that players have more games to choose from and also an alternative betting option within Vuetec’s game suite in the event that their initial choice(s) are not profitable (rather than leaving to play at another live casino altogether).

No casino properties or operators were mentioned, but London, Switzerland and Asia were casino locations cited off the cuff.  The paramount consideration with respect to casino choice was that they be well known and respected brands so that any player trust issues are mitigated.

Licensing issues…

I’m sure there are no shortage of well known casinos that would be more than happy for the Vuetec techies to plonk the required camera’s, scanners and other technology on a few of their gaming tables.  It would mean more players after all, especially since Vuetec’s games are all set up as ‘one to many’ live games – ie. one dealer and table can serve a practically unlimited number of online players.

So why aren’t Vuetec already streaming games from The Ritz or Maxims in London, or the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore for that matter?  Well aside from the casinos having conflicting online ambitions of their own (which may preclude most of the very big brands), licensing issues can be pretty tough to nail down with live dealer gambling because their are multiple jurisdictions and regulations that have to be satisfied – Vuetec’s Isle of Man remote gambling license as well as the regulations where the casino is located.  Finding a marriage between the two wouldn’t be easy.

Nevertheless, unless Mr Frazer is doing a bit of managerial embellishing, it has either already been done or is close to being done.

Not sure what it’s going to be called, but the entity created from the merger of Bwin and PartGaming will be very, very big.

It becomes quite comfortably the largest pure-play online gambling business in terms of market capitalization  – $3.3 billion based on combined value before the merger was announced and closer to $4 billion now that the share prices have surged post-announcement.  And if HR2267 manages to get up in the US, this value will soar even further, with the company well placed to secure available licenses and enter the US market.

Size matters…

These were two of the industry’s bigger players in there own right, and not just in terms of player numbers, turnover and revenue but also brand presence. Both have invested enormously in growing their brands in Europe particularly – a fact that is readily apparent when you have a look at some of their high profile sponsorship deals.

Bwin have had their logo on the jerseys of FC Barcelona, Juventus Turin, AC Milan, Real Madrid and FC St Pauli as well as sponsoring entire football leagues like Portugal Liga. Beyond football they are global partners to FIBA, MotoGP, Red Bull Air Race, World Equestrian Games and Ski World Cup.

PartyGaming, through its PartyCasino, PartyPoker and PartyBingo brands, has sponsored events like The World’s Strongest Man, The PGA EuroPro Golf Tour, World Pool Masters, the Grand Slam of Darts, and Premier League Snooker.

If you’re a sports fan living in Europe then you’d have to be blind not to be aware of the names Bwin or PartyGaming.

More industry consolidation to come?

This merger looks like it might set of a powder keg of consolidation activity.  In an industry where ‘bigger is better’ other operators are now looking at mergers of their own.  An analyst has told Reuters that,

“The pressure is now on for others to pursue consolidation or risk being left further behind. For 888 consolidation looks imperative and, given the bottom line performance, the group could be pursuing this from a sole position of weakness.”

According to 888.com CEO Gigi Levy they started receiving calls from potential merger partners shortly after the bwin/PartyGaming tie up was announced.

“This puts us in a position in which we are one of the best assets in the field — we got a few phone calls immediately from various people. Everybody in the industry is looking and saying ‘who is the best one to merge with if we need to?’,” he said.

Details of the Bwin / Party Gaming merger including numbers and corporate structure are set out here.