Chartwell awarded a five-year German online casino contract

Following on from its court victory last week, granting it the right to provide online casino games to residents of the German state of Lower Saxony, Spielbanken Niedersachsen has chosen Chartwell Technology as its online gaming system provider.

The five-year agreement calls for the initial release of casino and soft games, and provides Spielbanken’s sister companies for the release of additional gaming products where possible, with the release of its flash casino, scheduled for early May 25th, under the Casinoland.de brand.

Owned by Casinos Austria International, Spielbanken has been providing games of chance to residents of Lower Saxony for almost 20 years, generating a gross win last year in excess of 94 million euros.

Spielbanken is fully licensed to operate land-based casino’s in Lower Saxony, and that license also gives it the right to provide casino games online to the state’s residents, but local authorities had refused to give it permission to do so. However last week, the Higher Administrative Court of Luneberg rejected the state’s appeal of an earlier ruling which upheld Spielbanken’s rights, clearing the way for the company’s move online.

As a result, Spielbanken now holds the exclusive state license to offer internet gaming to the residents of Lower Saxony, the second largest German state, with a population of 8 million inhabitants.

„We are delighted to provide our gaming system for Spielbanken’s launch into online gaming,“ said Darold H. Parken, President and CEO of Chartwell. „We have gained an exceptional industry partner with a well established gaming business, helping to ensure our future growth in the key regulated German market. It has always been our strategy to align Chartwell with blue-chip licensed operators, and in Spielbanken we have a perfect example.“

Rainer Chrubassik, CEO of Spielbanken, said: „We shall be launching Germany’s first legal virtual casino, and are required by law to ensure the highest standards of security. With Chartwell as our partner we can fulfil our obligations in this respect, while at the same time offering an outstandingly attractive range of products. The intense process of system implementation has been a great challenge to all of us, but one we have succeeded in mastering. The project is unique in Germany and will point the way for future developments.“

For Chartwell, the five year deal represents a major achievement in a market which has seen the withdrawal of many of its competitors, following enactment of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling in January 2007 which prohibited most forms of online gambling.