Scientific Games-888 to provide iGaming to Delaware State Lottery

Scientific Games and 888 Holdings have been selected as primary vendor of online gaming systems and services to the Delaware State Lottery.

The two companies were selected under a Request for Proposals issued by the lottery in January of this year.

The Delaware Lottery said it would now begin negotiations with Scientific Games-888 Holdings with a view to awarding a contract under which “the successful vendor will deliver systems and services that will allow Delaware to become the first U.S. State to offer Internet-based, casino-style gaming to adult players”.

Subject to those negotiations, the contract will be awarded for an initial term of five years and includes four additional one-year contract extension options.

Under legislation signed into law by Governor Jack Markell in July 2012, traditional lottery games, casino table games and video lottery games may be offered online, under the control of the state lottery, to players within Delaware over the age of 21.

The Scientific Games-888 proposal is understood to have been selected over rival bids from Bally-Amaya and Stan James.

The SG-888 pairing will utilise the 888 platform and will be integrated with SG and WMS content.

"One of the reasons we were picked was because we have the closest thing to a ready platform for the regulated US," said 888 head of business development Yaniv Sherman.

"Even with a small market we will make it work. Because it's poker and casino games, the economics are better."

Shares in Scientific Games (Co. Data) (NASDAQ:SGMS) were trading up 2.23 per cent in New York this morning at $8.71 per share, while shares in 888 Holdings plc (Co. Data) (LSE:888) were down 0.47 per cent in London at 169.80 pence per share.