Full Tilt Inks Deal with Quickspin
The transition to all-encompassing online gambling destinations continues for the Rational Group’s internet poker rooms, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. On Wednesday, Swedish game studio Quickspin announced on Wednesday that it will make its entire portfolio of games available to Full Tilt Poker.
Quickspin, based in Stockholm, develops video slots games for social gaming sites as well as both real-money and play-money sites. This year, the company won two awards at the EGR B2B Awards: Social Gaming Supplier of the Year and Mobile Gaming Software of the Year. Last year, Quickspin won the Rising Star Award and the Game of the Year Award.
In a press release, Quickspin CEO Daniel Lindberg said, “We are very proud and honoured to add The Rational Group to our list of renowned gambling operators. It is very exciting to take part in their Casino journey at such an early stage, which I think proves the trust and confidence they have in our content.”
He added:
In order to succeed in today’s competitive market, it is imperative for an operator to offer a cutting edge gaming experience, with high quality games being the core of that experience. We look forward to working with The Rational Group, helping them grow their Casino business by offering their players a best-in-class gaming experience.
Quickspin’s games include Big Bad Wolf, Sugar Trail, Royal Frog, and Goldilocks and the Wild Bears.
In June, Quickspin signed a similar deal with online gambling site William Hill.
Of this week’s announced partnership, Sam Hobcraft, Director of Casino at the Rational Group, said, “We are looking forward to working closely with Quickspin, as we continue to build out our slots category. Their games have a proven track record of success and we are excited to offer them to our customer base.” 
This is just the latest in a string of announcements by Amaya Gaming and the Rational Group that signals Rational’s expansion into the casino gaming arena. PokerStars has always been a pure poker play, having no slots, blackjack, or any other casino games in its offerings. Full Tilt Poker was purely poker for a number of years, but had dipped its toe into the casino gaming waters. It was suspected, though, that after Amaya Gaming acquired the Rational Group that both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker would eventually see more and more casino gambling added to their sites. PokerStars players were especially afraid of this, as they did not want to see the site’s focus on poker and customer service to decline. Amaya Gaming has assured people that regardless of what sort of offerings are added, it will not mess with the formula that has made PokerStars such a success.
About a month ago, Full Tilt Poker announced that it launched a suite of Amaya Gaming’s online casino games on its software client “to bolster the site’s expansion into casino gaming.” Full Tilt’s first venture into casino gaming was in January, when it tested blackjack and roulette in select markets. In May, it partnered with Leander Games to offer slots and also signed a deal with Net Entertainment AB in the spring for mobile casino and mini games.
This month, in Amaya Gaming’s second quarter earnings conference call, the company announced its intentions to expand PokerStars’ offerings into casino games and sports betting. “The focus is to grow the sector,” said Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov. “The exciting part of this company [Rational Group Ltd] is that it comes with 86 million customers. Not 86 million gamblers specifically; 86 million customers.”
The idea behind expansion makes sense. Amaya estimates that about half its poker players also gamble on other games. Thus, by adding casino games and sports betting, it could keep many of those gambling dollars in-house, rather than losing them to other sites because PokerStars only offers poker. From the customer’s point of view, poker players could be tempted to stay at PokerStars for their other gambling needs because they could earn all their gaming loyalty points in one place.
Amaya Gaming’s next big move may come this fall. According to Jennifer Newell of NJPokerOnline.net, a week and a half ago, sources say that PokerStars and Full Tilt may soon receive licenses to operate in New Jersey. They may go live in the Garden State in early in the fourth quarter, possibly as early as one can go, October 1st. PokerStars was rebuffed in its efforts to acquire a gaming license previously, namely because if its legal history with the U.S. Department of Justice. But now that it is owned by Amaya Gaming, a company that has not had legal issues in the U.S., the road has been cleared and a re-entry for PokerStars into the U.S. seems like a foregone conclusion.
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