SOURCE: Reuters

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Poker Deals

Last month the firm's vice-chairman and deal maker Avigur Zmora told Reuters Playtech was sizing up its European counterparts as it looks to increase its dominance of the online software market and bolster its poker network.

The firm said would it would announce a "significant addition to its poker network in the near future".

It is also developing software for computer-linked gaming machines in bricks-and-mortar casinos and cheered analysts after it said the new technology had got the seal of approval from globally recognized standards unit, Gaming Laboratories International.

"It opens up lots of markets and also shows the firm is playing the game from a regulatory standpoint," said Arbuthnot analyst Paul Leyland.

As the company had earlier indicated, overall group revenues were $44 million, down just 2.2 million from a year ago before an effective U.S. ban on online gambling closed off the world's biggest gaming market.

It said its growing army of developers around the world and new sales and marketing staff had increased costs but Weizer said the pipeline of deals meant the firm may upgrade profit forecasts.

"Hopefully we will be able to upgrade (profit forecasts) but it is too early to know," he said.

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