888.com
If you haven't heard of 888.com, you're part of a very small minority. The casino and bingo company dominate the gambling industry. We wonder whether 888.com will always monopolise the gambling world, or whether new competitors will steal this title from them.
Powered by their own software, 888 rake in millions in revenue every year. Formed in 1997, by two sets of brothers, Avi and Aaron Shaked and Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak. The brothers first set up Casino-on-Net, then created 888.com, which is considered their flagship brand.
Since then 888.com have essentially been dominating the gambling industry. Just Googling terms such as "casino" and "online casino" brings up 888.com and the casino company dominates the real world as well: They've sponsored Middlesbrough Football Club, the World Snooker Championships and they now currently sponsor Sevilla FC.
Recently, Cryptologic announced that they'd be supplying 888.com with 5 new casino games by the end of this year, which begs the question: Will 888 forever be the biggest casino brand?
Brian Hadfield, CEO of Cryptologic announced the following about the deal; "The relationship between CryptoLogic and 888.com continues to grow, driven by our mutual commitment to a superior player experience...It's exciting to have one of the biggest names in e-gaming choosing CryptoLogic games. CryptoLogic and 888 both recognize that in today's internet gaming market, playability means profitability."
Of course, Cryptologic are bound to be happy with this signing. The biggest online casinos are (arguably) Intercasino and 888.com - and now Cryptologic supply games to both.
Anyway, enough of the mutual back slapping and PR talk. Yesterday, we blogged about how Mitch Garber has been trying to set up Harrah's as a dominant online casino brand. If the UIGEA is pulled, we wonder if there will be space for older casinos like 888, or whether the market will be dominated by the likes of MGM and other big Vegas brands?
We realise that 888.com will probably never go away and will always remain dominant in the industry, but we wonder whether, at some point, they will be forced to cut down on their big spends and grip on the gambling world. Casinos such as Ladbrokes have admitted that they're struggling a little during the recession and while 888 have remained notably silent on the matter, something's got to give.
From the tone of this blog, as well as the fact that we don't feature 888.com, you might think we dislike the brand. Let me clarify that we do, in fact, they're a fantastic online casino: Offering fast payouts and great games, lots of players love spending time at 888. However, we believe in giving the little guys a chance, which is why we feature smaller casino brands which you might not have heard of before, such as Cocoa Casino, or Cherry Red.
