32 Red online casino has acquired the Bet Direct sports book from its previous owners who wanted to get rid of the cash guzzling company. The online casino plans to use its technology in time for the World Cup. British online casino and poker operator, 32 Red, has announced that it has acquired a sports book called Bet Direct from Sportech or a total of GBP 11 million plus account liabilities. Bet Direct is one of the largest independent telephone and remote betting businesses in the UK, offering telephone, internet, interactive TV and mobile sports betting, as well as online casino, poker and fixed odds games. The purchase of the sports betting firm by the online casino brings with it a strong database of customers, as well as excellent infrastructure of employees, software and content feeds.
The online casino and the sports book would not be operating under the same account and players who wish to use Bet Direct's services would have to open an independent account. It has been announced, though, that 32 Red plans to launch a sports betting site which will be directly linked to its payment facilities allowing online casino players to ability to use one account for both of the company's activities.
The acquisition of a sports book is a very smart strategic move on behalf of the online casino, as it falls just in time for the 2006 World Cup which has already registered record pre-betting activity on several sports betting sites. Online casino companies with links to sports betting sites will be doing very well over the next month to facilitate the extent of sports bettors expected to wager on the soccer tournament. |
