Pioneering web site – the first to launch real-money slots for mobile phones – finalist in Best Gambling Company category
At a gala awards banquet in London tomorrow night, one of the world’s oldest gambling websites is being honoured as one of the first to offer real-money gambling for mobile phones and PDAs. Slotland.com, which just celebrated its eighth anniversary online, launched its first mobile phone game a year ago and has been adding original new slot machines to its mobile gambling suite ever since. The company is one of five finalists in the “Best Gambling Company” category of the inaugural ME Awards.
Slotland.com has committed itself to developing innovative, original games – no small feat for the relatively small company. It is also dedicated to providing customer service with a human touch.
“One thing we know from eight years online is that players like to try new games,” said Martin Smith, Slotland.com’s Mobile Games Manager, “And that they don’t want to see the same games they’ve seen at a dozen other sites.”
“We are excited to be one of the pioneers of mobile gambling and strive to emerge as one of the leaders in mobile games in terms of quality and uniqueness of our games, customer service, security and banking, as opposed to sheer quantity of games and services,” continued Smith. “This has always been our goal in the web-based gaming and we are sticking to it in the mobile games arena as well.”
“Some online casinos just think about being as cost-effective as possible and forget that their players are people – humans,” said Hannah Morante of Slotland.com. “We think communication with our members should be personal, not fulfilled by some external customer service that doesn’t care.”
The first annual Mobile Entertainment (ME) Awards are produced by Mobile Entertainment Magazine to honour excellence among those that provide content for mobile devices. The award for Best Gambling Company will be given to a company that has created a downloadable gambling game or set up a server platform for handling billing and player registrations – or both. Other categories, such as Best Adult Services Company, Best Music Label, and Best Video & TV Service Provider show that on the new mobile entertainment platform content is king. However, the list of awards also includes Best Handset Company and Best Payment/Billing Provider.
Slotland.com was voted “Most Unique Slot Site” and “Best Progressive Jackpot Site” by Strictly Slots Magazine readers and was named “Best Web TV” in a Gambling Online Magazine poll.
Juniper Research estimates the current mobile gambling market to be worth approximately $315 million worldwide and forecasts that the mobile gambling sector will be worth up to $16.6 billion by 2008. Experts predict that by then more than 450 million wireless subscribers will be playing some form of mobile games and that four out of five mobile users – 200 million people in Western Europe and the U.S. -- will be playing internet games on their phones. The Asia-Pacific region currently hosts 70 million mobile gamers with wireless gaming revenues totalling $1.1 billion.
