It looks like its that time of the year again, where everyone gets a little festive – Jackpotjoy seem to be first off the line in the Mobile Gambling stakes, with the release of their seasonal Progressive Slot ‘Christmas Bonanza’.
This game is a 5-reel, 5-winline slot with a Progressive Jackpot that you win by getting 5 snowflakes – the game itself is in the game layout as their popular ‘Diamond Bonanza’, and seems to share the jackpot as well which should lead to higher jackpots available than you would normally see from a seasonal game.
The game seems to only be available for download through the WAP pages at the moment, as their main website does not seem to have ‘gone all christmassy’ yet.
Bit late on the uptake of this one, but it seems that PokerStars have been revealed as the mystery purchaser of Cecure Gaming, the mobile casino network that went into administration in the early part of this year.
The administrators of this deal, Cavendish Corporate Finance, where tight-lipped on both the buyer and the amount when they published the Press Release earlier this month. However various sources inlcuding GamingIntelligence have since quoted Cavendish as having revealed PokerStars as the buyer.
There is a strong feeling in the mobile gaming market that the Aces Royal product suite was a good one, and that Cecure Gaming’s major failing was the sacrifices in revenue share that it needed to make to get visibility in the marketplace. Hopefully with a major brand behind the products in the form of PokerStars, this will not be as much of an issue, and we can see one of the more innovative faces in mobile gambling returning to the table for another hand.
MFortune have decided to advertise their popular mobile Bingo title ‘MMM Bingo’ on ITV this winter, in a 10 second ad set to air 3 times daily between November 25 and December 5.
You can download their games here, or you can just follow the instructions in the above video
Mfortune have contacted their attempted downloaders with WM Smartphones this morning, to let them know that they are now supported on their game ‘Fruit Machine’.
The in-game functionality is the same as their Java-based versions, but with a few assets moved about the screen to make it more touchscreen friendly (where supported of course).
Gameplay again seems to be the same as previous versions, and the text content does not seem to be updated either – a good example is the detailed description of the rules of play: -
This was literally only announced in the last hour, so have not had chance to fully play about with it yet – more information coming soon, so keep it here!
Well, it looks like the mobile games provided Aces Royal (operated by Cecure Gaming) has taken one more step closer to oblivion this week – its webpage has been completely removed, to be replaced with a domain hosting holding page.
This is the latest in the Cecure Gaming administration story, as reported earlier in the year.
No news as of yet of a potential buyer for the company, but the disappearance of the web page has been a long time coming, seeing as it was still advertising its games and services despite being in administration and having closed the doors to all wagering.
EGaming Review Magazine (EGR to you and me) have today announced their shortlist for the EGR Awards 2009, which is due to take place on 30th November 2009. Their nominees for ‘Mobile Gaming Operator of the Year’ are: -
Rank Interactive – owner/operator of Mecca Bingo and Blue Square
All Slots Mobile Casino – whitelabel offering from Spin3 / Microgaming
Some of the usual suspects in here, with Probability being a regular appearance in mobile awards over the past 3 years, and Gamesys / Netplay TV being nominated in the ME Awards earlier in the year. Difficult to call who deserves this one this year to be honest, as the competition is heating up in this previously quiet sector of the market.
In an exclusive interview with EGRMagazine.com, Charles Cohen of Probability (operators of Ladylucks Casino) has described his intent to take their Head 2 Head Poker game (reviewed here) into the soon to be legalised French Gambling market.
No one is quite sure how the French government’s attempts to legalise some types of gambling will work out – their initial drafts have been met with widespread critisism within the international gambling market, mostly due to their restrictions on only allowing skill-based games, and their attempts to keep their state-owned monopolies in profit.
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