White Hat Studios has continued its US expansion through a deal with PokerStars, agreeing to provide its online casino content across all regulated US markets.
The company partnered with BetMGM earlier this month to enter the West Virginia casino market which means the studio is active across Connecticut, New Jersey, Michigan and New Jersey online casino.
The entrance into West Virginia came 13 months after its first presence in the United States. New Jersey and Pennsylvania online casino were the first states to run White Hat products, with both launching on the same day. This was then followed by Michigan online casino and penultimately Connecticut iGaming.
White Hat has a portfolio of over 100 different slots titles. The most well-known titles are:
- Peaky Blinders™
- The Goonies™
- Almighty Buffalos Megaways™
- Jackpot Royale (progressive jackpot system)
Before the deal with Pokerstars and BetMGM, White Hat announced deals with the likes of Golden Nugget in PA, plus Kindred in NJ and PA.
Sales and Marketing Vice-President for White Hat Studios, Daniel Lechner commented: “We are thrilled to be partnering with PokerStars, a prominent name in the United States iGaming market, and the deal exemplifies that the industry’s key players recognize the quality of our content.”
He continued: “The partnership is another major milestone for White Hat Studios and having recently gone live across all regulated states will allow us to further expand our presence within each.”
Recent American Gaming Association statistics show that the first half of 2023 represented the strongest performance of the commercial gaming industry ever.
Although retail gaming still represents over 75% of total gaming revenue in the country, the United States continues to see the online realm as the fastest growing. Q2 of 2023 reported 22.5% growth in iGaming gross gaming revenue year-over-year. Q2 2023 $1.48 billion online casino GGR.
Year-over-year, H1 iGaming GGR grew 22.6% to sit at $2.97 billion. Growth in iGaming comfortably outstrips the overall pace of commercial gaming growth, which was 8.3% quarter-over-quarter.
The fastest growing segment was sports betting, with growth of 58.5% in yearly quarter figures and 66.5% in yearly half-year figures. The reason for sports betting outpacing that of iGaming is the difference in speed and breadth of legalization.
Only Rhode Island online casino has been legalized since 2022, but will be a monopoly operated by Ballys. On the other hand, the following SB legalization has taken place: