Lycos And SkillJam Team Up

Published: Friday, January 06, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

LYCOS AND SKILLJAM TEAM UP

Gamesville channel to get skill games

Skill gaming provider FUN Technologies, through its wholly owned subsidiary SkillJam, has inked an agreement with Lycos to create and provide it with a white label casual gaming platform.

SkillJam will develop, operate and support the pay-for-play platform for Lycos Games and adapt it for the high profile portal Lycos gaming channel gamesville.com. The site is due to go live in first quarter 2006 and will feature traditional tournament-style games and advanced community features including avatars, leader boards and private gaming leagues.

Lorne Abony, chief executive of FUN Technologies, said: "This is the first '360-degree' solution for skill-based casual gaming. For the first time, users will be able to play the game of their choice on a free, pay-for-play, subscription or download basis-all via a 'one-wallet' system. This deal marks our third agreement with a major portal, and is a true testament to our continued success in the casual gaming sector."

Brian Kalinowski, chief operating officer for Lycos, added that the games would allow Lycos to offer its millions of users a complete integrated gaming solution with Lycos Games.
British business press reports indicate that Sportech has been taking heavy losses on the contract, and it is understood that the company blamed lack of promotion of the service by ITV for very low use of the interactive services. Expressing a contrary view, ITV staffers said that Sportech's services, which used the Littlewoods brand, were simply not attractive enough.

A spokeswoman for ITV said: "Littlewoods' Gaming products did not capture the imagination of our mass-market audiences. We will be looking for another provider."

The Sportech services provided a betting facility for viewers to place wagers on the outcome of competitive hit shows such as I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and X Factor. It also provided sports betting for ITV viewers and a number of interactive games where prizes could be won.

Ian Penrose, who took over as Sportech's chief executive in October last year, said that the ITV contract would have landed his company with a loss of up to GBP 30 million over the next three years, in payments to the broadcaster and operating losses.

Sportech's services available on the BSkyB satellite platform and the attheraces horse racing channel are understood to be far greater than the returns achieved with ITV. Company spokesmen said that Sportech will continue to participate in the interactive betting market and have new launches in the pipeline for early in 2006.