Delaware Chooses Online Gaming Partners

Delaware has moved forward with its online gambling venture and the Delaware Lottery who are overseeing the whole project have chosen their partners for this exciting new project. Those partners will be, Scientific Game, 888 and Williams Interactive with the joint bid of Sci-Fi Games and 888 providing the online poker package and Williams taking care of the casino side of the platform. The choices come as no surprise to many as Scientific Games are already in partnership with Delaware Lotteries and are a current supplier to their retail lottery products. This will be a joint venture between the three successful applicants and they are aiming to be able to offer the online product some time before the end of the year. Scientific Games will add poker and casino products to their core lottery software which will be pushed along due to the deal struck with Williams Interactive and 888 earlier this year. This means that Williams will be able to offer 888's poker product to land based casinos too on a free play offering and of course real money where regulated.

Delaware has moved forward pretty quickly and after announcing the Request for Proposals back in February they had many interested parties with some big industry names all expressing their interest. The applicants included PokerStars, Amaya, Bally Technologies and IGT, however Sci-Fi Games always did have the advantage having built a relationship previously. PokerStars may have missed out due to its single product offering of poker as the request was for the position of providing back end technology and operations, something which 888 and Williams have been working with on both casino and poker. The bill itself was approved in June 2012, which means it's taken 11 months to get to this stage and should their be a product available for Delaware residents before year end it would be something of a success with the amount of regulations and organization that has taken place. The bill will allow residents of the state to purchase lottery tickets online, as well as instant win games and online casino games including slots, all under the watchful eye of the Delaware Lottery.