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Ron Sylvester
Tom Breitling, Tobin Prior and Chris Derossi outline details for Fertitta Interactive’s launch of online gaming brands at Station Casinos corporate offices in Las Vegas on Tuesday, June 19, 2012.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 | 1:51 p.m.
A screen shot of the new Ultimate Poker game being launched on Facebook Friday, June 22, 2012, by Las Vegas company Fertitta Interactive as seen demonstrated on Tuesday, June 19, 2012.
The owners behind Station Casinos in Las Vegas are launching a free online gaming site this week, beginning with a poker game the developer calls the most authentic experience in cyberspace.
Fertitta Interactive today announced it would launch Ultimate Poker as the first step in preparing to move between social games, such as those on Facebook, and taking cash bets as the company applies for licenses in states that eventually legalize online gambling.
Ultimate Poker will launch Friday on Facebook as a free social game that Fertitta hopes will drive an eventual market for real money games.
Within weeks, the company will begin marketing its Ultimate Gaming brand through Ultimate Fighting Championship broadcasts, owned by Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta.
UFC fights have the potential to reach 1 billion homes in 148 countries, with a predominantly male audience that is also drawn to online gaming, developers said during a news conference.
“It is almost the same demographic as online poker,” said Tom Breitling, chairman of Fertitta Interactive.
Fertitta will control all of the content of its products, which also include a bingo game. All the games are being developed by CyberArts, a company Fertitta Interactive bought last year.
Chris Derossi, who oversaw development of the Macintosh 7.01 operating system for Apple and founded CyberArts, said the Ultimate Poker game will be more familiar to players of the real card game than other online versions.
“We are trying to provide an authentic experience for people who care about the game,” Derossi said. “As we move from the social side of gaming to a real money space, we will have serious players.”
Tobin Prior, chief executive of Ultimate Gaming, said the new brand will use the UFC’s knowledge of building social networks — UFC has a community of 8 million on Facebook and 2.4 million Twitter followers — in developing games that reach across online platforms. Ultimate Gaming plans to launch a mobile application later this year.
“We’re also going to utilize Station Casinos’ customer relationship model, which is very important in any online enterprise,” Prior said. “You need people to return to your product.”
Fertitta Interactive is developing its social games with an eye toward offering the same brands as they pursue government regulatory approval. “We’ll be ready to go from Day 1,” Breitling said.
“We view this as a global opportunity,” Breitling said. “When looking at online gaming, it’s going to be a domino effect with Nevada leading the way.”
Stations can't even get their club card web site to work properly and now they're launching a free online gaming site? uh, where are their priorities? Oh! That's right: they love locals!
Trust the Fertitta's? ...LOL yeah right
Sounds interesting. If the UFC and online poker demographics are the same, I'd have to imagine that they're starting off strong. They must have a decent database of customers, and I know they've been effective (at least as far as numbers are concerned) when it comes to Twitter and Facebook.
With the competition heating up and many companies offering online poker, I have to say Stations would my absolute last choice. Stations has already proven to be a questionable partner in their ventures. Put simply, they can't be trusted.
it will probably turn to gold just like everything else those guys touch.
they will manipulate and rob this just like others have by having a program to see everyones cards and then play against their customers these people are scum and i wouldn't ever give them 2 cents ever. they have screwed their employees, their partners, their creditors and their customers over and over.
jaquekeno/mrlucky, I know you guys have your personal issues with the Fertittas and Station, but do you honestly think there's a "trust" issue, from a customer's perspective? Or are you just jumping on any article that mentions them so that you can criticize? I'm guessing it's the latter.
I don't know much about these poker sites, but I'd have to imagine that the cheating that you're accusing them of would be pretty risky/stupid in a such a regulated, competitive environment (once legislation gets passed). I don't know what they did to get you guys so fired up, but for me, it's the way the bankruptcy was handled. As much as I hated that, they just spent a lot of money on legal to navigate the system. They didn't break any laws. I don't think I'd worry about them stealing from me as a customer, but I certainly wouldn't buy any of their stock or corporate bonds.