Mobenga Does First Deal in Italy

Mobenga, the Swedish mobile technology company, has done its first deal in Italy with Atlantis Bet s.r.l., a licensed sports betting operator and retail proprietor, to develop a mobile gambling portal.

Christian Rajter, the chief executive of Mobenga, told IGamingNews that the Atlantis Bet portal will be marketed by 3 Italia S.p.A., a mobile network operator in Italy, though he could not disclose details on the marketing strategy.

According to financial statements from 3 Italia's Hong Kong-listed majority stakeholder, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., 3 Italia serves approximately 8.45 million customers.

Italy, to boot, has a mobile penetration rate of 91 percent, according to the E-Communications Household Survey published by the European Commission in June.

Mr. Rajter, whose company supplies technology to Unibet and Bwin Interactive Entertainment A.G., said that the Atlantis Bet portal will offer pre-match betting services, exclusively.

However, he was hopeful that in-running -- from which Mobenga's clients generate the majority of their turnover -- would launch once Atlantis Bet adds that service to its Web site.

Mr. Rajter said that an undisclosed number of deals will be announced before calendar yearend, and that a number of new products are scheduled to roll out in 2009.

Probability, the London mobile gambling operator, leveraged another Hutchison Whampoa subsidiary, 3 UK, to market its mobile offering earlier this year. A link to its casino, LadyLuck's, was pre-installed on several million of 3 UK's handsets.

Representatives with Hutchison Whampoa could not be reached by press time.