Italian gaming behemoth Sisal signed with Playtech to launch a poker site, becoming the third Italian gaming company in the past few weeks to do so.
Playtech issued a press release today announcing their new partnership with Sisal SpA, one of Italy’s leading gaming and sports betting brands. This announcement comes on the heels of two other new licenses, as Snai and Gala Coral Eurobet also signed licenses with Playtech over the past 6 weeks, adding 3 new sites to Playtech’s Italian poker network. This is good not just for Playtech, but also for all involved sites – a larger network means more games, less waiting time for tables and tournaments, and very likely also bigger guaranteed prizes and network-wide promotions.
Sisal – just like Gala Coral Eurobet last week – will begin with a play money site before expanding into real money play later this year.
Mor Weizer, Chief Executive Officer of Playtech, commented on this aggressive Italian expansion:
We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with Sisal, who join Snai, and Gala-Coral’s Eurobet Italia on Playtech’s quickly expanding Italian poker network. The Group’s market leading technology and its strategy of focusing on newly regulated markets, such as Italy, have enabled Playtech to sign these licensee agreements with these leading Italian operators. It is clear that the Italian ipoker network is gaining an even more prominent position in the Italian market with the Group becoming a significant player. Playtech plans to work with Sisal and other operators to provide an exciting gaming experience for Italian players and capture an even stronger market share.
Sisal is a gaming company with over 60 years of experience in the Italian gaming sector: in 1946 Sisal launched a pool game for the Italian football Championship which started out as the Sisal Slip and soon became known as Totocalcio. Two years later Sisal expanded into horse betting, and set to work on an expanding network of shops across Italy. In 1991 Sisal went electronic, furnishing all points of sale with the latest in online terminals. Ever the innovator, in 1997 Sisal relaunched an updated version of a traditional lottery game, the SuperEnalotto, which according to their site “became one of the most resounding and popular games ever;” they also launched Sisal TV, a dedicated TV channel to be broadcast in all Sisal shops. Into the new millennium, Sisal expanded again into World Championship Formula 1 races and motorbike races, and one of their latest innovations was the Sisal Slot, before making an incursion into online poker. The extensive Sisal network has over 19,000 shops equipped with 20,000 online terminals, and it covers 97% of the towns and villages in Italy.
Francesco Tiso, Chief Financial Officer of Sisal, commented on this latest venture of the Italian gaming giant:
Sisal has launched Sisal poker online and it was a great pleasure to come to an agreement with Playtech to implement this project. Playtech has a reputation as a high quality and efficient partner and we believe Sisal’s online poker will contribute to that reputation, providing security and fun for the benefit our players.
