Shareholders Agree to De-List AsianLogic

HONG KONG – Come July 3rd, AsianLogic Limited stocks will no longer trade on London’s AIM.

In last Friday’s Annual General Meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders of the Asian-focused gaming company, recently hit hard with an $11.9 million loss in its 2008 figures, have agreed to de-list from the London Stock Exchange market.

The last day of trading for AsianLogic will be on July 2.

In an earlier statement, AsianLogic Executive Vice Chairman Thomas Hall had voiced the proposal to de-list:

“The Board has unanimously decided to recommend delisting to the shareholders as we feel that the current economic environment means there is little benefit to AsianLogic and its shareholders in remaining listed. The delisting will reduce costs and management time associated with a listing on AIM and will enable AsianLogic to focus its operations to better service our shareholders, business partners and customers alike.”

On July 3, AsianLogic becomes a private company again and will try to rebuild.

In 2007, bullish about the prospect of online gaming in Asia where it has been active since 2007, AsianLogic listed on AIM with 111.62 pence per share, the first gaming company to do so in recent memory. Posting a promising return of $7.9 million in profits for 2007, its shares however careened in 2008 dropping more than 80% hurt by several factors including the worldwide recession. As of yesterday, shares for AsianLogic ended at 24.5 pence apiece.

Moving forward, AsianLogic hopes to move out of the wholesale betting business into the more profitable deposit-based one and projects to be in the black towards 2011.

In a previous announcement, Hall has previously stated that the Company is “repositioning the business by looking to dispose of its wholesale business and invest further into higher margin deposit and retail based products, as well as services and again we expect revenues to continue to grow.”

He had added in that previous statement:

“However, the capital expenditure, marketing and advertising spend required to grow this business means that profitability will be impacted throughout 2009 and into 2010. The global economic crisis has not helped our trading but we see continuing long term opportunity in our core Asian gaming marketplace.

Bodog88 Chooses Marketing Partner

PHILIPPINES – Bodog’s Asian-facing operations has chosen its marketing partner.

Tasked with expanding the Bodog brand in Asia is Macau-based online gaming marketing firm Macom Communications Company Limited. As Bodog88’s exclusive marketing agent, Macom will be responsible for making sure Bodog88’s live casino gaming is a success with regional players.

According to Bodog88.com Managing Director Ian Dunning:

“It has always been a pleasant co-operation with Macom and the Macom group in general and, together with its live dealer software and expertise in marketing, we are confident that we can achieve the same success in Asia as Bodog brand licensee’s have achieved globally.”

For its part, Macom CEO Jason Chan has expressed the marketing firm’s enthusiasm for the brand:

“Bodog is a very successful brand name in the west and we are very excited to get this project kicked off here in Asia. I am sure Asian punters are looking forward to this revolutionary lifestyle entertainment brand that can bring new leisure elements to this hard-core gaming region.”

Macom expertise in marketing services for online gaming companies include marketing and media planning, creative design, PR, affiliate marketing among others. Aside from Bodog88, the firm has also worked and continues to work with other Asian online gaming operators such as IASBet, Bet365, EasyBets, 188Bet and the Asia-facing operations of 888, SportingBet, Ladbrokes, and Victor Chandler.

Nokia N95 Tops Probability’s Top 10 List

LONDON, ENGLAND – Mobile gaming specialist Probability plc recently released the top ten mobile phones used by players in accessing their mobile casinos.

The result of three previous months registration (January to March 2009)through its mobile casino gaming operations revealed that Nokia’s N95 8GB Smartphone ranked on the top ten list followed by the Samsung SGH F480 and at third was the Sony Ericsson K800i. At the end of last quarter last year, the Nokia model was in third spot while the K800i was the top phone model for mobile games.

In the top ten were three Nokia phone models, three Sony Ericsson models and four Samsung models. The top ten list is as follows:

1. Nokia N95 8GB Smartphone
2. Samsung SGH F480
3. Sony Ericsson K800i
4. Samsung SGH J700
5. Nokia 6500s-1
6. Sony Ericsson W5800i
7. Samsung SGH G600
8. Samsung SGH E250
9. Sony Ericsson W910i
10. Nokia 6300

According to Probability CEO Charles Cohen:

“There are important points in here for the mobile and the gambling industries. For people in the mobile industry, this chart shows that consumers who own feature-rich phones are using them for more than playing Tetris and updating Facebook. To me, that’s a sign of greater variety and innovation to come as consumers demand more content from more sources.”

“For those in the gambling industry, they can see from this that there really is a broadly based market for mobile gambling and it’s not just the latest gadgets that they should be targeting. The Nokia 6500 has been around for over two years now and the Sony Ericsson K800i was launched in 2006. The speed with which phones come in and out of the top ten is impressive.”

Delaware OKs Sports Betting

DELAWARE, USA – Now punters can now legally place bets on sports — in Delaware, that is.

Two weeks earlier, Delaware became the first American state east of the Mississippi River to legalize sports betting. The state’s Senate approved the legislation via a vote of 17:2 and Governor Jack Markell signed into law last May 21.

The new legislation allowing casino patrons to bet on sports events is hoped to raise over $50 million a year to help the state’s financial woes. Delaware is currently looking at a budgetary deficit of $778 million.

The new law will allow players in the state’s three casinos to bet on sports with Delaware receiving 45% of revenues.

According to Governor Markell:

“I am very pleased that the Senate acted so quickly to pass the sports lottery legislation and I very much appreciate the leadership from both sides of the aisle. Delaware has a unique potential advantage because it is the only state east of the Mississippi that is authorised by Federal Law to have a sports lottery.”

The governor was referring to the 1970s sports betting experiment whereby Delaware was one of four states along with Oregon, Montana and Nevada to be excluded from the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 that bans sports gambling.

Before signing the law, the Delaware governor had also requested a legal court opinion and Delaware’s Supreme Court had given the legislation the green light much to the chargrin of opponents of the bill including the National Football League (NFL) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) who both criticised the bill because it can “hurt the integrity of sports”.

Commenting on Delaware legalizing sports betting, NFL Spokesperson Greg Aiello said:

“We expect that everyone involved in the administration of sports leagues, professional and college, will review today’s action and evaluate its impact as other decisions are made by Delaware officials and the Delaware Supreme Court.”

NCAA Spokesperson Stacey Osburn also stated that sports betting is a problem and not a solution to Delaware’s financial concerns.

The Delaware Governor was however quick to disagree stating to ESPN:

“My real issue with them is they ought not to be coming into Delaware and telling us as Delawareans how to run our state.”

William Hill Quitting Spanish Venture

LONDON, ENGLAND – British gaming group William Hill will be gradually withdrawing from its joint operations of sports betting shops in Spain with Spanish group Codere in the coming months.

The UK-based operator cited regulatory and economic reasons for its decision to withdraw from Spain where it co-operates Victoria Apuestas with Codere. William Hill clarified that Codere will continue to manage the 98 betting shops located in the Madrid and Basque while they will continue to provide bookmaking services.

In a statement released to media, William Hill stated:

“Achieving relevant scale for the business has always been dependent upon a substantial growth in the number of outlet. Achieving this scale has proved problematic because of the slow granting of local regulatory consents and the slower than anticipated regulatory changes within other regions. These factors, coupled with the difficult economic situation within Spain, were likely to lead to additional capital requirements and a delay in achieving William Hill’s target return for the venture.”

The company further added that it will instead focus its resources and energy to tis international sports betting strategy, in particular, expanding the online presence and business of William Hill Online.