One of the largest US based First Nations tribes, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (MPTN) reservation, proud owners of the legendary Foxwoods Resort and Casino have inked a partnership deal with European based GameAccount. The sole purpose is to pursue online gaming initiatives in the US in anticipation that the market will continue on its path to complete legalization.
Foxwoods is a Native American themed complex of six land-based casinos located in Ledyard, Connecticut. This massive casino operation manages the complete suite of casino games on the floor including blackjack, craps, roulette and poker. They also have over 6,300 slot machines all catering to US players and international gamblers worldwide. Foxwoods is currently the second largest in the United States at 340,000 square feet. Only the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma is bigger by shear size.
The casino resort was originally established in 1986 and started as a bingo hall, financed by a Chinese Malaysian. I wasn’t until 1992 when the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, the owners started to add table games and then in 1993 slots. It was in 1995 when they added a full sized 30-table poker room to the establishment.
Now Foxwoods Casino and Resort is ready to take on the next frontier of gaming in the US and that’s legalized online casino operations. An alliance with GameAccount is a strategic one for both parties. London based GameAccount is a leading provider with its Internet Gaming System that is complete and available to be deployed anywhere in the world. This partnership is an excellent fit for Foxwoods who were looking to work with a company with a proven online gaming history and solid platform of games and infrastructure. Currently, Foxwoods has about one million visitors per month to their Foxwoods.com corporate branded site.
GameAccount provides the platform services that include the “one stop shop” solution for any land-based operator like Foxwoods who is looking for gaming software, hardware & support services provided as a fully-serviced Internet Gaming Systems available on standalone hardware platforms. Some of GameAccount’s clients include: Sportingbet, Paddy Power, William Hill, Boylesports, StanJames and many big players in the gaming industry. Furthermore, Foxwoods sounds like they have found the perfect partner to take then into the online gaming world, which is unchartered territory for them, “The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is thrilled to announce our proposed partnership with GameAccount Network,” said Rodney Butler, Chairman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
This deal is obviously contingent on the legal outcome of the US states and where they will be able to offer this to American players on US soil. When you bring these to businesses together into a partnership they could further evolve this relationship to provide additional turnkey solutions to other companies or even more Indian tribes in the US that have land based casinos but are looking to expand into online gaming. A B2B operation or division would be the next natural step for this arrangement to completely realize its full potential. The Mashantucket Tribe has the brick-and-mortar casino experience and GameAccount with the online full package deal could be a match made in heaven for companies that just want to get up and Going quickly in the US.
The plan at this point for Foxwoods is to launch a full-fledged interactive virtual online gaming offering on the site in 2013 and set it on a path for real money gaming once legislation in the US permits it. In the meantime, the play for fun games will be the next step and combine that with gaming incentives/promotions to bring them into the brick-and-mortar casino. Either way, both parties seem to be looking at this from a long-term perspective and both see the huge potential in the relationship. As Dermot Smurfit, GameAccount’s Chief Executive Officer commented, "We’re delighted that this experience and our unique capabilities will support our new strategic partner Foxwoods as they build a new Internet gaming business in one of the World’s most exciting emerging regulated Internet gaming markets.”
Moving forward, there will surely be more US partnerships and business relationships developing in the not to distant future between, tribes, European based technology companies and land-based casinos. They will all be getting set up, making their deals, arrangements and waiting for the states and eventually the Federal Government to allow these business relationships to become what they set out to do and that’s capitalize on this new and massive emerging US online gaming market.
