Excapsa Hunting For A Online Casino Developer
Published: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
EXCAPSA HUNTING FOR A ONLINE CASINO SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
Raison d'etre for going public says CEO
Toronto based and London listed Excapsa is looking to buy an online casino software developer and operator, Chief Executive Jim Ryan has announced.
The company, which runs an up and coming poker network that includes well known sites like Ultimate Poker, raised GBP 56 million ($97.87 million) by floating on London's junior AIM index last month, the latest in a string of major gaming flotations, including PartyGaming, 888 and Empire Online.
"That was the whole reason for us going public - to put ourselves in the position of a longterm player, as opposed to somebody who would perhaps be an ideal acquisition candidate," Ryan told the Reuters news service.
"Today we're a pure poker play... so the opportunity for us is to bring casino-style games and games of skill into the equation," he added. "What we're looking at right now would be [to acquire] casino software developer-operators... to have the Excapsa network be more of a one-stop shop."
In a wide ranging interview, Ryan who was at one time the CFO of turnkey provider Cryptologic revealed that his company will soon launch wireless poker games over mobile phones and would branch out into blackjack this year.
In the fourth quarter, Excapsa's number of active players increased to 242,000 from 138,000 a year earlier, while average daily revenues rose 86 percent to $303,000 (GBP 173,000).
"Our plan is to ... supplement our gaming network with new products in 2006 and beyond with a view to realising the cross selling opportunities that exist with the networks real money customer database of over 317,000," the company said later in a statement.
Excapsa said it would launch blackjack for poker players to play while waiting for their turn at the table by the end of the second quarter, followed by multi-player blackjack tournaments by the end of the third quarter.
Ryan said Excapsa's poker over mobile phones had been partly limited by connectivity issues in the UK.
"You wouldn't be playing it on the train," he said. "But it's ideal for a wait in an airport or somewhere where you're stationary."
For the full-year 2005, pro-forma revenue jumped 93 percent to $87.6 million, with net income more than doubling to $23.3 million.
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