Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Dragon's Den Awards Largest Investment Ever to Online Gambling Website

BBC’s reality investment program Dragons’ Den has made an investment in online gaming site GamingAlerts.com. On Monday night, Emmie Matthews and Ed Stevens, founders of the site, recieved a £200,000 investment for their gaming site; marking the single largest amount ever awarded on the immesely popular program. Watch the video clip on BBC.

The Dragons’ Den panellists are famous for striking fear into the hearts of the hopefuls who turn up asking for investment. But Dragon Theo Paphitis was so impressed with their project he agreed to invest all the money on his own.

According to Matthews, Paphitis was excited about his investment because: “Theo knows the current and future value of online gaming and sees it as a major growth industry. He invested because of our years of experience in gaming, and because of our track record of success. In fact, Mrs Paphitis plays online bingo all the time so Theo understood the value of the company and its large consumer appeal.”

The winning concept of Gaming Alerts is to deliver up-to-date offers, advice and bonuses direct to the desktop of online gamblers from major online casinos, online poker rooms, online bingo sites and online sportsbooks.

Users select their interests, and Gaming Alerts tailors the best odds, bonuses, free bets and freeroll poker tournaments that fit the player’s exact criteria. This tailored-content solution is a convienience for users and a hugely valuable media outlet for online gaming sites.

Dragon, Theo Paphitis said “I am delighted to be working with the Gaming Alerts team, I think the whole concept of proactively alerting users to the best bonuses and offers is truly revolutionary and Ed and Emmie have really brought the idea to life, I am looking forward to working with them and realising the potential of the company.”

The founders have an exclusive agreement with technology supplier Skinkers, the market leaders in desktop communication, who are also the suppliers to the BBC and Sky News alerts services.

Stevens said “Gaming Alerts makes money the same way moneysupermarket.com or confused.com does – by referring customers or users from our site to operators in exchange for commissions.”

Paphitis has built his fortune on turning businesses into successes. He has transformed Ryman, Contessa, La Senza and Partners the Stationers into successful and profitable retail companies. He now heads up a 350-store chain a group turnover approaching 250m. Theo’s style and knowledge is part of the reason why Dragons’ Den has been such a huge ratings hit since its launch in 2005.