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United Kingdom
Summary
- Aristocrat confirms plans to launch online casino product
- Pokie manufacturer to launch online casino platform by end of 2022
- Three U.S clients have already teamed up with Aristocrat
Aristocrat Leisure, the leading pokie machine manufacturer in Australia was keen to get into the online casino market.
The company was keen on acquire Playtech and made an offer for $4 billion but the deal eventually fell through as Playtech shareholders were not in favour of the acquisition.
Aristocrat had raised over $1.3 billion from in 2021 to fund a potential Playtech acquisition. The company has decided to give back some of these funds by announcing an on-market share buy-back of $500 million on 19 May.
Aristocrat has since shifted its focus from acquiring Playtech to developing its own online casino software that will offer real money games. The Australian company has for years focused on developing pokie (slot) machines as well as online pokie games but will now officially launch its own online casino software.
Trevor Croker, CEO for Aristocrat confirmed that their online casino software will go live by the end of 2022. Croker said they have two U.S. clients who would launch their online casino software before the end of the year and a third U.S client who would go live with their software in the first quarter of 2023.
Aristocrat will focus heavily on the U.S market as Australia does not permit online gambling at the moment. Croker said that if Australia does make changes to its gambling legislation then they will be in a great position to offer online gambling services in Australia. The focus right now is on the U.S market as a number of states are currently discussing gambling legislation as they look to legalize sports betting and other forms of iGaming.
Aristocrat Could Launch Their Own Online Casino
Aristocrat will currently look to provide their existing pokie customers access to their online casino platform and allow them to use it to launch their own online casinos in different markets. This will also allow Aristocrat to offer their portfolio of pokie games on the new casino platform.
Aristocrat is also keeping an open mind to developing and launching their own online casino offering real money games in the near future. Due to the buy-back announcement and new casino software launch plans, share prices climbed by 6 per cent to reach $33.73.
