FORTUNE FAVOURS
THE BRAVE
THE QUIET GIANT OF UK MOBILE GAMING IS GETTING READY TO SCALE UP AND TAKE ON
DESKTOP AND THE REST OF THE WORLD. WE SPEAK TO CEO SIMON WILSON AND BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR SIMON LLANOS TO FIND OUT MORE
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Simon Wilson
CEO mFortune
W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M
BY ALUN BOWDEN
hen acquisition targets in online gambling are
mentioned one firm frequently finds itself in
the spotlight. With a diverse gaming portfolio,
in-house technology platform and deep
experience of mobile, Birmingham-based
mFortune is considered to be on most major
Xmas lists. But there is just one problem. “We are not
for sale,” mFortune CEO Simon Wilson says.
“Any company that is as successful as mFortune is
going to be constantly touted for a sale or opportunity
of some kind. But the owners are committed to taking
advantage of this massive opportunity by building
the business,” Wilson adds. And it’s clear where the
opportunity lies.
After five years developing and honing its offering on
mobile, the firm looks a genuine contender to take on
some of the bigger names in the UK gaming sector. And
unlike almost all of its rivals it welcomed the PoC tax.
“We have been waiting for this time. These are exciting
years. We have been paying PoC since the day we
started and now the playing field is level for us and the
opportunity for us to compete is high,” Wilson says.
Founded in 2003 as a fixed odds betting terminal
manufacturer, it wasn’t until 2007 the firm began to
morph into the mobile gaming operator of today. The
original vision, according to Wilson, was simple: “to
build the best mobile casino in the market”. At the time
that meant Java-based games for feature phones.
The firm started to build out games for mobile phones
through a development office in Bucharest, which
remains its core technology centre, with the IP, marketing
and customer service centre based in Birmingham. Its
first mobile casino games came in 2007 with bingo
following shortly afterwards and poker in 2011.
It’s been a period of rapid growth, and it now has
around 100 staff spread across its three offices, with the
p
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