International Game Technology Plc. announced that it has signed an agreement with Optima Group for the licensing, support, and development of IGT’s sports betting platform in all international regions outside of Italy, the United States and Canada.
As part of the agreement, signed on December 15, IGT is licensing its sports betting platform to Optima, enabling it to provide the day-to-day management of IGT’s existing sports betting relationships in international markets, and to be IGT’s preferred supplier for delivering sports betting solutions in these regions.
“IGT, as legacy GTECH, has successfully partnered with Optima since 2014 when we licensed our sports betting platform to them for a group of existing GTECH betting and gaming customers,” said Walter Bugno, IGT’s CEO, international. “With this new agreement, Optima will ensure that all IGT sports betting customers in the international market receive high-quality ongoing support, while benefiting from Optima’s ability to develop and enhance the IGT sports betting platform.”
“This strategic partnership gives Optima the opportunity to focus on our strength as a B2B sports betting provider in the international space,” said Optima Group CEO Jacob Lopez Curciel. “As a result, we can continue innovating on our previous investments in the IGT platform, and ensure a first-class experience for sports betting customers and their players.”
In other IGT news, the company announced that it is preparing to deploy the first trial unit or a number of new slot machines for Macau, unveiled at November’s MGS Entertainment Show at Venetian Macao.
Among the new games are Prize Disk and Hyper Hits, both developed specifically for the Asian market. “The thing that keeps coming through, throughout the region, is that operators are looking for a point of difference,” IGT Managing Director, Asia-Pacific Andrew Hely told Inside Asian Gaming. “They’re not looking for ‘me too’ stuff. They’ve had good success from a small range of games from an even smaller range of suppliers, so they want points of difference and they are prepared to trial them.
“We’re still awaiting our approvals from the DICJ, but we anticipate that both of these series will be approved around January, so we’re hoping to have a large part of our portfolio on the floors in Macau in the first quarter of next year and look forward to seeing some strong results when we start our trials then.”
