GameAccount, the Smurfit family-backed provider of online games for land-based casino company websites, has announced a partnership with another large US casino operator. The name of the new partner has not been announced, pending regulatory approval. The decision to go with the announcement before it has received regulatory approval seems a little strange unless regulatory approval is considered to be a formality. And, if so, then why not go the whole hog and announce the name of the new partner?

Long game

A clue to the answer might be found in the note put out yesterday by the company broker, Davy, in which it characterises the deal as marking “a continuation of its [GameAccount’s] simulated gaming roll-out strategy in the US”.

GameAccount, headed by Dermot Smurfit jnr, is playing a long game in the US. The first step is the selling of social or simulated games, which allow punters play casino games on casino company websites. There may be fees to play but no betting is involved.

Impatient market

The company hopes that its decision to eschew the lucrative market for unregulated, offshore real money gaming, makes it an attractive partner as the US market where regulators take a dim view of rivals who have dabbled in the unregulated offshore market.

The plan is that, in time, its relationships with US casino operators will blossom as the states in which they operate gradually start to allow them to offer real money gaming on their websites.

GameAccount’s problem however is that long-term strategies are rarely compatible with the short termism and impatience that characterises the stock market. The demand for signs of progress is relentless and hence pressure to release details of a deal that has not yet been fully cooked?