New mobile casino from Virgin Games

[jetset]

VIRGIN CASINO GOES MOBILE

Internet gambling group develops its own technology for punters on the move

Online gambling group Virgin Games has announced that its casino subsidiary now offers Virgin Casino Mobile for punters on the move.

Virgin worked with mobile marketing agency, Somo, to develop the mobile offering using Virgin Games technology. The mobile product is integrated into the company's bespoke gaming platform and will be developed into a multi-content proposition with games from a range of content partners, a spokesman revealed today.

The mobile product has been developed as a web application, allowing it to be instantly available to customers without the need for App Store approval.

Virgin Games has attached its single wallet system to the new mobile product, meaning its players use the same account to play at Virgin Casino, Virgin Bingo, Virgin Poker and now mobile casino. Customers can register, manage their account, play for bonuses, deposit and withdraw seamlessly, whether they are on the web or on the move.

At launch, the mobile site will initially offer Microgaming's mobile games content, including the Thunderstruck and Tomb Raider slots, through the game developer's Quick Fire integration process. However, Virgin Games plans to launch additional content suppliers into its mobile casino in a similar fashion to its internet offering, which provides a variety of games from a number of developers.

Simon Burridge , CEO of Virgin Games, commented: "With Smartphone penetration now exceeding 40 percent in the UK, customers want and expect to be able to do on their phone what they do on their PC. With the launch of Virgin Casino Mobile we're simply responding to this demand.

"While the gaming industry has been on the cusp of a mobile revolution for some time, 2011 has really been the year when the planets have aligned to make mobile gaming a more attractive proposition. For us, we see it as the right time in the company's life, the industry's life and the technology is ready."

Roger Raatgever , CEO of Microgaming, said: "We are very happy to continue expanding our strong share in the mobile market by providing Virgin Games with our suite of mobile content through QuickFire.

In the past, we have seen joint success with our QuickFire partnership with Virgin Games so we are confident that together we can seize all the opportunities the mobile gaming market currently presents to providers."

[Jinn]

The mobile product has been developed as a web application, allowing it to be instantly available to customers without the need for App Store approval.

Odd that the news doesn't mention what devices it will be compatible with. It does say the mobile casino won't need approval from the App Store, and since the App Store is only for iPhones then I guess it's indicating it will at least be compatible with iPhones, but I wonder if this 'web application' will also work with Android / Blackberry / Other.

[prk]

Hi guys,

Virgin Mobile Casino was developed as a Web App, compatible with webkit-enabled smartphones -iOS powered Apple devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), Android, Blackberry, Windows devices.

From our mobile about us page (on m.virgingames.com):

...The Virgin Mobile Casino allows you to experience some of our online Casino, Bingo, Slots, Roulette, Poker and Blackjack games directly from your smartphone (including: iPhone, Android, Google, Windows, Blackberry), iPod Touch or tablet (iPad or other).

Because Virgin Games uses a home-grown single wallet technology, you can play our mobile casino games AND our web-only casino, poker and bingo games - available online from our PC, Mac or laptop - from the same account. It doesn’t matter to us whether you joined the party from your mobile or from a computer, all our doors will open with the same username and password..

It's Microgaming games only right now, but since the app is home built and as game-provider agnostic as our web casino, we can easily plug in games from other providers, something we will start doing as early as Q1 2012. There's also a £25 bonus available for new and existing players.

If that helps I wrote an article about mobile gaming in general and Virgin Mobile Casino in particular. It's available on my blog http://pierrickprk.wordpress.com/. It's a marketing piece more than anything, but hopefully you'll find more details there.

Cheers,