Playtech signs Gala Coral contract and acquires mobile-bet company

Playtech also said second-quarter revenue rose 7 % to 39.6 million euros over the same period a year earlier, led by online casino games.

Gala Coral, which has 2,000 betting shops in the UK and Italy, should become one of Playtech’s top three clients within a year after its software is transferred, in 2012, Playtech’s Chief Executive Officer Mor Weizer said in a telephone interview.

Mobenga will help Playtech expand in mobile telephone gambling, which generates 30 % of bets for some companies, he said. “This is a very important win for us,” Weizer said. “We already have most of the established operators in the U.K., and Gala Coral we were after for a long time.”

Playtech gained 5.4% in London, after earlier rising as much as 6.3 %. The shares have fallen 16 % so far this year, giving the company a market value of us$ 1.3 billion.

Stockholm-based Mobenga will give Playtech the ability to combine sports-betting, casino and poker games in one mobile- phone application, Weizer said. Playtech generates more than us$ 16.1 million from its biggest client, Imperial E-Club, he added.

Most of the company’s clients attract players through sports, though they make most of their money through games, so they’re always seeking to convert sports betters to game players, he said. Second-quarter casino revenue gained 9 % to 27.3 million euros, and bingo sales increased 32 % to 3.6 million euros, the company said.

Poker sales dropped 32 % to 5 million euros, the company said. The poker business declined even though the US charged founders of online poker companies still accepting games in the country with money laundering in April.

Weizer said the companies still had cash to lure poker players. Poker numbers have been “picking up” since the end of June, when one of the companies stopped play, he said. Full Tilt Poker, then the world’s second-biggest poker site, lost its license from Alderney on June 29.