Morning Brief: Newspapers and Niches

With your morning coffee or afternoon tea:

A quiet morning so far, with Sportech, the pools betting specialist, having done an on- and off-line distribution deal with The Daily Telegraph. Under the terms of the agreement, the newspaper will host two games from Sportech's New Football Pools brand.

IGN's Take: The remainder of 2008 should be revealing for the Liverpool operator. Its online business is likely to receive a boost on September's transition to 888 Holdings, revenue from Vernons Football Pools will have been accruing and a Tote bid could be in the making.

For readers interested in the niche sectors -- skill games, bingo, mobile and others -- we've done an interview with Dermot Smurfit, chief operating officer of GameAccount Global Ltd., about the company's recent deal with Snai SpA, the Italian betting operator.

We've written a fair amount recently about consolidation in the casino and poker software business, given increasingly fierce competition over licensees. Mr. Smurfit told us that the pool of skill-games licensees, however, is not likely to stagnate:

"Potential e-gaming licensees of GameAccount’s product suite will not stagnate any time soon. GameAccount has a unique proposition we broadly define as 'Beyond Poker.' We’re not in the market supplying casino/poker products -- we supply niche skill-based games including backgammon, gin rummy, multiplayer blackjack, poker dice and dominoes. On their own the demand for any one of those games is too low to warrant a major operator offering them. Together they make a viable and valuable proposition for operators."