Virgin Games Seeks Investors For Marketing Push
1st March, 2010
Reports from eGaming Review reveals that Virgin Games are on the lookout for external investors so that they can enter new markets and increase marketing spend. Richard Branson’s company is said to have been weighing up plans to enter markets including: France, Spain and South Africa where online gambling is regulated. They are also looking into entering California and Florida where the legalization of intrastate online gambling has been proposed.
The online gaming site is also seeking investors to increase marketing in established markets after the completion of its two and a half year platform building process which it is now planning to monetise.
Chief executive Simon Burridge said, “We do a lot of successful marketing and want to do more of it, but we can’t always throw appropriate sums behind it. We are limited in the profile that we can generate on our own behalf and with so many operators and markets opening up at the same time, we are going to need some cash.”
Virgin Games is also looking to expand beyond online gambling so to become a total gaming destination through its deal with Game Domain International offering more than 200 titles to download. This move could allow it to market Virgin Games through its non-gambling products in markets ahead of any future legalisation of online gambling.
“Going into new markets is going to require a new advertising budget, and the amounts of money that Bwin and others have been spending would be impossible for us to match,” Burridge said. Entry to each new market will require £5-10m of investment, he estimated.
By Faye
