Hosted by Bullet Business, the ceremony took place after day one of the sixth Online Bingo Summit. Award winners were determined by votes from more than 300 industry delegates and attendees at the conference held at the Victoria Park Plaza, London.

Virtue Fusion Commercial Director, Rob Keown-Boyd said: “Virtue Fusion’s continued success at the Online Bingo Industry Awards further consolidates our reputation as the leading name in the market.

“It is extremely satisfying to have won this award for the third consecutive year, especially as the votes come from key members of the industry itself. We are pleased that once again our efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by our peers and will continue to build on this success in the year ahead.”

Acknowledged for its best-of-breed products, Playtech was named RNG Casino Supplier of the Year and was awarded Bingo Network of the Year through its subsidiary Virtue Fusion, the world’s leading developer and licensor of internet bingo products.

The industry’s premier awards, which are now in their second year, took place at Chelsea Football Club on Tuesday 3rd May and recognise the very best B2B providers in online gaming.

Playtech CEO Mor Weizer said: “Winning EGR B2B Awards for two major product categories sends a significant message about the strength and capability of Playtech’s products across the group. As a leading name in the industry, we were delighted to be recognised at this prestigious event and look forward to building on our success in the coming year.”

24th January, 2011 – Playtech Ltd, the international designer, developer and licensor of software for the online, mobile, TV and land-based gaming industry, has established a bingo licensing agreement with Nordic Gaming for NordicBet.com, Triobet.com and Tobet.com.

Nordic Gaming will become Virtue Fusion’s second major Scandinavian bingo licensee, confirming its capabilities in the region. It will see Nordic Gaming add online bingo to its sportsbook, poker, casino and games offerings at all three of its sites through Playtech’s award-winning Virtue Fusion platform.

Playtech’s Virtue Fusion is the world’s leading developer and licensor of internet bingo products and operates in 12 languages and six currencies. Nordic Gaming’s localised and specialised offerings will benefit from their feature-rich products and unrivalled prize pool liquidity.

Mor Weizer, Playtech’s Chief Executive, said: ‘It gives us great pleasure to announce this agreement with Nordic Gaming, an operator with impressive B2C marketing capabilities and a strong local profile. The deal expands Playtech’s increasing portfolio of significant operators across Europe and adds to what is already a strong presence in the Scandinavian region.’

Ben Clemes, Nordic Gaming Head of Casino Operations, said: ‘Launching bingo is something that we have been planning for a long time and we at Nordic Gaming are very confident that we have chosen the right partners to do this with in Playtech and its Virtue Fusion network.’

Bingo continues to perform well for Playtech as did its online casino operations and William Hill Online. The performance of these key parts of the Playtech business were more than enough to cover the poor performance of Playtech’s poker offerings.

Thanks to strong growth from recently acquired bingo software provider Virtue Fusion and an Italian Bingo licence, Playtech bingo revenue increased 11 per cent compared to the second quarter of this year. Playtech’s share of the profit in William Hill Online more than doubled compared to the same period last year from €4.2 million to €8.8 million.

Mor Weizer, CEO of Playtech said, “The recent launches of Betfair casino and our Italian Bingo licensees have performed very well from soon after launch, and will be joined by RAY [the Finnish monopoly] in the coming months.I am also encouraged by discussions with a number of notable operators which should deliver a strong pipeline across the product range.”

Playtech also announced that early indications suggest that performance in quarter four is looking good and is already 25 per cent ahead of last years figures.

In total, William Hill group revenue rose 22 per cent compared to the previous period but the company still has net debts for covenant purposes of over £500 million.

Over the thirteen weeks up to 28th September 2010 online revenues were up 35 per cent as a whole even though the company had to close down the French arm of its online casino business thanks to recent changes in gambling legislation in France. The Sportsbook arm of the online business grew an incredible 287 per cent compared to quarter three in 2009, while bingo revenues grew an impressive 58 per cent compared to the same period.

In total the online part of William Hill’s business, including the well performing bingo, contributed £26.3 million of profits to the balance sheet; up nearly 80 per cent on 2009 figures.

Playtech, who run the William Hill Bingo site, had a non-controlling interest in the online business worth£7.5 million.

The acquisition of bingo provider Virtue Fusion cost Playtech €37.7million and has generated €4.5million of revenue in the four months that Playtech has owned it. It also means that Playtech has the biggest network in the industry enabling sites on the network to offer greater prizes and more attractive promotions to its players. Virtue Fusion is one of the leading players in bingo software provision and gives Playtech the opportunity to make inroads into the online bingo markets in the UK and abroad. This includes the recent launch of an Italian bingo site.

The acquisition of Virtue Fusion means that Playtech now controls such established bingo sites as Crown Bingo, Mecca Bingo, William Hill Bingo and Virgin Bingo.

Playtech’s partnership with William Hill was most lucrative with a busy World Cup giving the company a €15million share of the profits from its online only partnership. The profit share received by Playtech was up by over 45 per cent on the previous year.

Playtech has also announced that future licences with Betfair Casino in the third quarter of 2010, RAY in Finland at the end of the year and Casino Gran Madrid in early 2011 are all on target to launch.

Thanks to this deal online bingo players from Italy will be able to play in many more rooms, with more networked games and excellent chat rooms operated by Italian CM’s.

Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS), Italy’s state gaming authority has announced that all Playtech software is compliant to Italian law, paving the way for the operators to make a big step forward in Italy’s bingo market.

In a press release from Playtech, Chief Executive Mor Weizer said, “Playtech’s bingo activities are making excellent progress across the board. This announcement adds to that momentum and is a significant revenue enhancing step forward for our Italian bingo operations. Playtech is in active discussions with additional Italian bingo operators and expects to add more licensees in the coming few months.”

Snai is a leading player in the Italian betting market, managing a network of 6,000 betting shops and providing a wide range of products and telematic services, including internet betting.

Eurobet is an Italian and international sportsbook owned by Gala Coral Group, and has been operating on Playtech’s iPoker.it network since 2008. It will join the bingo network in the next few weeks.

source: investegate

Playtech, based in the Baltic state of Estonia and one of the biggest companies in London’s junior market AIM, said that revenue in the second quarter of 2010 totalled €44.5 million. This is a huge increase of 34 per cent over the same period last year.

Revenue from bingo totalled €2.8million, a sharp increase of 61 per cent on the previous quarter, thanks to the increased contribution from Virtue Fusion, acquired recently by Playtech.

Playtech operate many of the leading online bingo sites in the UK market such as Foxy Bingo, William Hill and Ruby Bingo.

Playtech also remarked in their report that the World Cup reduced activity on its sites but traffic was returning after the competition ended.

One of the major highlights for Playtech, highlighted in a press release were the fact that their Italian bingo commitment with Sisal has already achieved an 18 per cent market share. Playtech and Virtue Fusion also gained industry awards for best bingo software.

The networked prize pool is accumulated from players on separate games. Matching combinations of balls then pay multiple amounts based on the total amount staked by an individual. The stake-per-game is £0.25 and each winning ball combination of five or more characters returns a respective cash prize in addition to a set of points which gives the player a position on the leaderboard. The higher up on the ladder a player is, the greater their share of the community jackpot.

George and the Dragon and Treasure Time Traveller Also launched by Virtue Fusion Alderney is George and the Dragon, a five reel, twenty five line slot with exploding reels, stakes per spin of £0.01-£50.00 and a progressive jackpot which has been seeded at £5,000. It also contains a bonus feature where the player, as the character of George, fights the Dragon to save the Princess.

Treasure Time Traveller is a new nine square scratchcard with a historical theme. Stake amounts vary from £0.10-£10.00 and players reaching the bonus round get the chance to pick a bygone era and destination, then travel through time to collect their winnings.

Virtue Fusion Alderney CEO Bob McCulloch said: “I am sure that bingo players across our network will love playing these new games. The community jackpot which is also part of our Blockbusters game is a feature that helps make online bingo even more sociable, so we expect it will be very popular.”

Originally broadcast in the 1980s, Blockbusters was screened into British homes for nearly two decades. Signature elements and music are included in the game where normal bingo numbers are replaced by letters, appearing on 20 trademark yellow hexagons per ticket.

On top of the standard prizes, Blockbusters contains a special ‘1TG’ feature game, the ‘Gold Run’, for all players left with one to go when the final prize, either line or column, is won. Additionally, a Community Blockbusters Jackpot can be won if the first five letters called contain ‘B’, ’I’, ‘N’, ‘G’ and ‘O’ in any order. Players win a proportionate amount of the jackpot based on their game stake compared to the total staked by all players.

Rank Interactive head of gaming Angus Nisbet commented: “Branded online bingo games are among the most popular on Meccabingo.com and I am sure that Blockbusters will be another success. Playtech’s Virtue Fusion Alderney has created a fantastic product and I am positive it will strike a chord with fans of the show and be well-liked by new players too.”

Virtue Fusion Alderney CEO Bob McCulloch said: “Virtue Fusion Alderney has a long-standing relationship with Meccabingo.com. We recently created Britain’s Got Talent Bingo for them which was very well received so we are delighted to have been asked to provide this game as part of their exclusive agreement with Blockbusters.”

Playtech was the winner of the Bingo Supplier of the Year category through its Virtue Fusion Alderney bingo product which provides the most exciting bingo action in the industry.

Playtech CEO Mor Weizer said: “The EGR Awards are a prestigious new event in the industry’s calendar, so we are delighted Playtech have been recognised here with three separate awards. It really shows the strength of our products across the group. Being named Bingo Supplier of the Year is a fantastic endorsement and it is extremely satisfying as it comes straight after our double success at the Online Bingo Summit.”

Held at Old Billingsgate, London, the event saw Playtech win both Poker Network of the Year and Poker Software Supplier of the Year, for its leading iPoker network.

Playtech was the winner of the Bingo Supplier of the Year category through its Virtue Fusion Alderney bingo product which provides the most exciting bingo action in the industry.

The EGR B2B Awards follow on from those won at last week’s Online Bingo Summit where Playtech’s Virtue Fusion Alderney was awarded Best Online Bingo Software and Best Online Bingo Innovation.

Playtech CEO Mor Weizer said: “The EGR Awards are a prestigious new event in the industry’s calendar, so we are delighted Playtech have been recognised here with three separate awards. It really shows the strength of our products across the group. Being named Bingo Supplier of the Year is a fantastic endorsement and it is extremely satisfying as it comes straight after our double success at the Online Bingo Summit.”

Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram handed out the awards at the black tie ceremony held at London’s Old Billingsgate conference centre.

Dragonfish beat Microgaming and Virtue Fusion to win Bingo Network of the Year while Virtue Fusion beat Dragonfish, NYX Interactive and Parlay Entertainment to win Bingo Supplier of the Year.

NYX Interactive won the Innovation in Bingo Award, beating Alvin5 and Playtech and Cozy Games, who were highly commended in the category.

Dragonfish also won White Label Partner of the Year, while online scratchcard business NeoGames, who power Scratch.co.uk, were highly commended in the Software Rising Star of the Year award category.

Somewhat surprisingly, G2 GTech, owners of St Minver, the bingo white label supplier, were not shortlisted for any bingo awards, although they did win Lottery Software Provider of the Year.

Wednesday 9th June 2010 (London, UK) – Playtech was a double winner at last night’s Online Bingo Summit Awards through its Virtue Fusion Alderney platform.

Virtue Fusion Alderney, the world’s leading developer and licensor of internet bingo products, picked up the Best Online Bingo Software award for the second consecutive year. Dragonfish, Gamesys, Cozy Games, Parlay Entertainment and NYX Interactive were also nominated for the prize.

The company also claimed the Best Online Bingo Innovation for its Deal or No Deal product and one of its customers, Tea&Bingo, was named Best Newcomer for 2010 at the ceremony at the Victoria Park Plaza, London, which is now in its fifth year.

Virtue Fusion Alderney CEO Bob McCulloch said: “The Online Bingo Summit is very well regarded within the industry so it is fantastic for Virtue Fusion Alderney to have won the Best Online Bingo Software award for a second year in a row. We are very proud of our Deal or No Deal product so to see further success for that in the Best Online Bingo Innovation award was also very pleasing.”

Gross win in bingo, casino and games grew by 32% while bet volumes in the Paddy Power’s online sportsbook grew 39 per cent. Profits were slightly ahead of the company’s expectations.

Paddy Power Bingo suffered several years of neglect as part of The Games Network, which was powered by Parlay Entertainment software. Company insiders told Bingo News that since they switched to Virtue Fusion software, which also powers brands such as Crown Bingo, Ladbrokes Bingo, William Hill Bingo and Sky Bingo, their financial performance and player retention has increased markedly. Virtue Fusion was recently acquired by online gambling software giant Playtech.

The Chairman of Paddy Power plc, Nigel Northridge, Chairman of Paddy Power plc told the company’s Annual General Meeting: “2009 was a year of significant developments for Paddy Power. We grew our turnover and market share across all our channels and expanded internationally through successful acquisitions in Australia, continued shop openings in the UK and a B2B agreement in France.

“Turning to 2010, the highlights of the year to date have been a very strong revenue performance in online (total gross win (ex Australia) +32%) and good bet volume growth across all channels. Significant investment has contributed to this growth and we continue to invest to maintain our business momentum and strong competitive position. Following a run of adverse sporting results in 2009, I am also pleased to report that the Group’s sportsbook gross win percentages have returned to normal expectations in the year to date.”

Shares in Paddy Power were up 1.92 per cent in early trading at 26.50 euros.

Playtech Ltd, the leading software provider to the online, mobile, TV and land-based gaming sector, is pleased to announce that it has established a bingo licensing agreement with Boylesports.

Playtech will provide Boylesports, Ireland’s largest independent bookmaker, with its online bingo solution through the Virtue Fusion Alderney platform, the world’s leading developer and licensor of internet bingo products,

Boylesports will receive unrivalled European prize pool liquidity from Playtech Ltd. The bingo product joins Boylesports’ egaming offering that already includes Playtech poker.

Boylesports Head of Online, Conor Grant, commented: “As the industry leading provider of online gaming software, Playtech have a proven track record for supplying fantastic products with great liquidity. We are delighted to be introducing their online bingo through Virtue Fusion to Boylesports.com.”

Mor Weizer, Playtech CEO, said: “We are delighted to become online bingo supplier to Boylesports. They already benefit from having Playtech for their poker product, so taking another best of breed service by utilising the Virtue Fusion Alderney platform will compliment their portfolio and bring enhanced opportunities.”

Online bingo was launched in Italy at the end of last year but operations were suspended a few months later when the administrtative court of the Lazio region ruled that the approval of the legal orders regulating online bingo were not compliant with rules and regulations required by Italian law. The decree allowing online bingo in Italy was cancelled by this court.

The Lazio court’s decision has been suspended by Italy’s Administrative Court of Appeal. This means that online bingo operations can be re-started in the country until a verdict is reached after a hearing on the 23rd March.

Italy is the biggest online gaming market in Europe. The news that online bingo is once again legal in this huge market will be encouraging to bingo operators looking to build on investment already made in Italy.

Playtech and PartyGaming both look set to benifit from this reprieve. Playtech announced that they would be targeting bingo operations in Europe after acquiring Virtue Fusion. PartyGaming will look to enter the market after acquiring bingo operator Cashcade late in 2009. Virgin Games also look likely to enter the Italian online bingo market and utilise Virgin’s already strong brand presence in the country.

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Playtech said that operational highlights included “launch of a new version of Playtech’s bingo product which will be further boosted by increased liquidity contributed by existing and new licensees” while William Hill said that “gaming activities, consisting of casino, poker, bingo and skill games, are performing well and in line with management expectations, delivering net revenue growth of 98% in Q3 (pro forma 12%).”

The two companies joined their online operations into one trading unit in October 2008. The division, headed by Henry Birch, has spent the last year working out how to integrate the two companies’ online gaming assets.

William Hill Bingo runs on Virtue Fusion software while Playtech have spent considerable time and money on developing their own bingo product.

Both Playtech and William Hill shares have remained stable in recent weeks, despite the run of poor sporting results which have hit trading margins. By contrast, Ladbrokes shares have plunged following their decision to have an emergency rights issue to raise another £250 million to reduce the company’s debt levels.

Playtech will take live bingo, blackjack, roulette and a fixed odds draw from NetPlay TV under a five year licensing agreement. As part of the deal NetPlay TV will move bingos.com and its other bingo brands onto Playtech software; the deal is a blow to Parlay Entertainment who have supplied bingos.com with bingo software since launch.

NetPlay TV said that it had conditionally placed 58,352,476 new ordinary shares at a price of 22 pence per share, raising gross proceeds of £12,837,545. The shares are being purchased by Directforce Trading Limited, who are already significant shareholders in Playtech.

Martin Higginson, CEO of NetPlay TV plc, said: “This agreement will take NetPlay TV to new heights. The investment of £12.8m into our business, along with the strategic relationship, both in terms of distribution and technology with Playtech, will enable us to drive the development of our converged gaming solutions.”

Mor Weizer, CEO of Playtech Limited, said: “We have been looking for a partner in the ‘live’ interactive gaming market for some time. Our clients and their customers are demanding ‘live’ products and therefore it is logical we offer them the best services available. This agreement enables us to offer our licencees unique TV quality gaming shows, this will also enrich their offering to gamers, and will boost Playtech’s Bingo offering, increasing Playtech’s bingo network liquidity significantly.

“We believe ‘live’ gaming is going to be very big in the coming years and, as such, a significant investment in this business makes perfect sense.”

Playtech have been keen to increase liquidity in their bingo network for some months and the deal is significant as one of Playtech’s largest bingo partners, Bet Fred Bingo, will soon switch to Virtue Fusion’s software.

Shares in NetPlay TV have traded at between 14p and 27p in the past 12 months and is currently valued at £34.9 million.

Like-for-like royalty revenues for the fourth quarter 2008 fell 53% to $871,661, dragging total fourth quarter revenues down by 38% to $1,241,621.

Chief executive Scott White said: “In 2008, Parlay took a very significant step to divest its US-facing business and focus on licensing its software to customers in the United Kingdom and Europe. The impact of that divestiture required that that we bring our cost structure into line with revenue, which efforts were substantially completed in Q4. We also anticipated that it could take up to three quarters to see the results of refocused sales and marketing initiatives translate into new royalty revenue.”

“Recently executed licensing arrangements and new customer launches will increasingly contribute to revenue throughout 2009, while our cost base will remain static. Parlay ended 2008 with in excess of $3,200,000 in cash. We have continued to invest in our technology and human resources with our share re-purchases exceeding 1,700,000 shares since the commencement of our normal course issuer bid.”

The final results for 2008 showed that total revenues hit $8,537,669, down 1% from 2007, royalty revenues were $4,696,576, down 40% from 2007,  software license fees were $2,922,089, versus zero in 2007 and net income was $497,909, or $0.04 per share.

Parlay’s software is used by bingo sites including Yahoo Bingo, NetPlay TV’s Bingos.com and three bingo networks,  St Minver, TGN and BingoNexus. Parlay is based in Oakville, Canada and has offices in Bridgetown, Barbados, and Valletta, Malta.

Parlay Entertainment were the subject of a bid from by PEIC Aquisition Corp, a vehicle led by online gambling legend Mark Blandford, the founder of Sportingbet. PEIC pulled out of the bidding in March 2008 after two more parties became involved in the potential sale, only for the remaining bidders to also pull out.

Parlay is widely considered to have dropped behind many online bingo software providers in recent months, most noticeably Virtue Fusion who are said to have persuaded several clients using Parlay software to switch to VF software. Announcements of the changes are expected in May.

Shares in Parlay stand at 40 cents at the moment, valuing the company at around $5 million.

The site is powered by Virtue Fusion software and is the first time the popular UK online bingo software has been used to power a Swedish language bingo site. For Swedish players it will make a big difference as almost all Swedish-facing bingo websites use Parlay bingo software.

All new players to Svenska Bingo will receive a 50 SEK free money bonus and a cash match bonus of up to 1500 SEK on their first deposit.

Philippa Hellberg, Manager of Svenska Bingo said of the launch: “Our goal is to create a safe, trustworthy yet highly entertaining environment for all our players. We are passionate about bingo and aim to make Svenska Bingo one of Sweden’s most popular bingo sites”

The main room of Svenska Bingo is called Bingo Stugan and will aim to create an exciting Swedish bingo community for players.

Ms Hellburg also urged affiliates interested in making money from the Swedish bingo market to get in touch with her: “We have an excellent and very generous affiliate programme and our affiliate software is excellent and built specially for the Virtue Fusion platform. We are confident we can beat any deal in the Swedish market.”

The bingo operation, which is grouped together with skill games for financial reporting purposes, saw explosive growth on the back of a TV advertising campaign and extensive advertising of William Hill Bingo in the group’s betting shops.

Overall revenues from William Hill’s online operations rose 13% in 2008, to £83.1 million. Poker disappointed with a 21% fall in revenues while sports betting increased by 6%.

Earlier this year William Hill entered into an agreement with Playtech which saw the two groups combine their online sites into one group under the leadership of William Hill online chief executive Henry Birch. Playtech own 29% of the new group.

An interesting statement in the financial results says: “We also entered into a software agreement with Playtech for a minimum of five years, which will enable us to benefit from Playtech’s improved poker and casino software.” The failure to mention use of Playtech’s bingo software, which is widely regarded as one of the poorer products in the industry, suggests William Hill will stick with their current provider, Virtue Fusion, for the forseeable future.

At the same time William Hill informed the market they had reached new agreements with their banks to provide new funding of £838.5 million and would raise a further £350 million through a rights issue with shareholders entitled to subscribe on a one-for-one basis for new shares at 105 pence, a 57% discount to yesterday’s closing price. Shares in WIlliam Hill edged up 3 pence to 250 pence in early trading.

Two winners were widely accepted as being reasonably fair within the industry but most bingo insiders were left baffled by the decision to award Playtech the title of Best Bingo Software.

One bingo software rival said: “I could name six bingo software companies with better software than Playtech. They have hardly any licensees and their product is obviously not competitive in the market. To be frank, the judges must have been smoking something pretty strong to come up with this verdict.”

They added: “It’s a shame because it definitely detracts from the overall credibility of the awards”.

The other winners in the CAP awards for bingo were Jackpot Joy/Market Ace for Best Bingo Affiliate and Bingo Port for Best Bingo Affiliate. Both of these awards were widely considered to be reasonable within the bingo industry and a fair reflection of the hard work put in by both sites over the past year.

Virtue Fusion claim to be the largest dedicated online bingo software company in the world. They have a stellar list of the world’s top gambling companies using their bingo software.

Virtue Fusion holds an Alderney gaming licence and is in the process of applying for a Maltese licence.

Virtue Fusion is run by Alex Haig-Thomas and Robert Keown-Boyd. They are unusual in the world of online bingo in that both are old Etonians. The company has approximately 340 employees, of which 260 are chat moderators.

Virtue Fusion’s bingo product grew out of bingo software developed for Gala Group. Following Gala’s decision to build their own bingo platform, Virtue Fusion signed Mecca Bingo as their first client in 2005. They then signed Crown Bingo as their second client and first end-to-end bingo solution client in November 2005.

Sites currently running on Virtue Fusion software include:

UK Facing Online Bingo Sites

Mecca Bingo

Crown Bingo

Sky Bingo

Bet365 Bingo

Jackpot City Bingo

Jackpot Bingo

Ladbrokes Bingo

William Hill Bingo

Paddy Power Bingo

Carlton Bingo

Blue Square Bingo

Vernons Bingo

Scot Bingo

Bingo Loopy

Crazy Bingo

Minxy Bingo

Buckingham Bingo

Capitol Bingo

Take A Break Bingo

Fruit Bingo

Bonanza Bingo

Big8 Gaming

River Belle Bingo

Beach Bingo

Bingo Crazy

Bunny Bingo

European facing online bingo sites

Bingo Corona

Bingo.ie

Other territories and forthcoming launches

Virtue Fusion are planning to launch sites in Sweden and Denmark in early 2009. Virtue Fusion does not accept clients from the United States.