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With
the growth in online gaming,
Fortuna Gaming through its subsidiary, Fortuna
Gaming (UK) Limited is looking to capture a large portion of the market by integrating
access for mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs
Entertainment
Gaming Entertainment
(FGAM.OB)
Fortuna Gaming Corporation
1685 H St., No. 1071
Blaine, Washington 98230
Phone: 866-324-5788
Ralph F. Proceviat
VP Finance and Administration
Interview conducted by:
Walter Banks, Publisher
CEOCFOinterviews.com
October 6, 2005
BIO:
Ralph F. Proceviat, VP – Finance and Admin. – Fortuna Gaming (UK) Limited
Mr. Proceviat has more than 20 years of business experience spanning a number of
industries including high tech, telecommunications, real estate development and brokerage,
and manufacturing. He has held various CEO, CFO and COO positions with public and private
organizations operating throughout the United States and Canada. Most recently, he
held the position of Chairman and President of ThrillTime Entertainment International,
Inc., a publicly traded company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada and the OTC
Bulletin Board in the USA. Through its U.S.-based subsidiaries, ThrillTime held the
worldwide patents to amusement rides operating in 70 theme park sites located around the
world. From 1986-1994 he was the CEO of Cue Datawest, one of Canada’s largest
software developers providing banking services and products to the credit union system.
While at Datawest, Mr. Proceviat oversaw the rebuilding of the company, including the
funding and development of a $50 million banking system that has been installed throughout
the world.
Company Profile:
Fortuna Gaming Corp., is a public company incorporated in the State of Nevada, and listed
on the OTC Bulletin Board (OTC BB). The company’s operations are based in the United
Kingdom and carried out through its wholly owned subsidiary, Fortuna Gaming (UK) Limited,
which holds the first mobile gaming license developed by Mobile Gaming Now, Inc.,
(“MGN”), a leading developer of online gaming software. Fortuna Gaming Corp. is
launching the premiere interactive multi-player poker system online and for web-enabled
mobile devices. The company’s goal is to deliver the best in game choice, tournament
action, promotions, player features and customer service available.
CEOCFO: Mr. Proceviat,
please tell us about Fortuna Gaming; its management team’s experience and how that
plays into your vision?
Mr. Proceviat: “Fortuna Gaming is a start-up company;
however, the management team has been involved in the wireless side and online poker in
the past. We’ve been able to assemble a team within the last two to three months that
we feel will not only enable the company to achieve its aggressive short term game plan,
but more importantly reach its long term vision. In August, we were able to take over a
publicly traded company on a reverse take-over basis, paving the way for raising the
necessary capital to execute our business plan.”
CEOCFO: How long has
online gaming been around?
Mr. Proceviat: “Online gaming has been around since 1998
or 1999, in various aspects. There is the children’s side of it and then online
casinos operating off shore became prevalent in 2000 and 2002. Online poker has really
taken off in the last two years, with the introduction of the World Poker Tour and
presence on the various broadcasting networks. Fortuna’s goal is to leverage this
trend occurring in this market and industry by taking the excitement, entertainment and
customer service provisioning to another level by introducing with our mobile and PC based
poker products.”
CEOCFO: What is your focus right now?
Mr. Proceviat: “Our focus right now surrounds the Texas
Holdem game. Our goal over the long term is to differentiate ourselves from other
poker sites by providing to our players, the Ultimate Experience in terms of customer
service and support. We feel that there is still a lot of breadth and depth left to go
with the Texas Holdem game, especially in how the gaming experience is delivered to our
customers.”
CEOCFO: What separates your online poker game from the
competition?
Mr. Proceviat: “We are one of the first customers for
Mobile Gaming Now (MGN), a leading software developer/licensor in the mobile wireless
gaming entertainment area. Although 80% of our players are going to be using their PC to
play poker, many business travelers without access to Personal Computers face at a lot of
down time waiting at airports, commuting or living in hotel rooms. We saw tremendous
opportunity with this phenomenon and saw how Mobile Gaming Now’s technology would
allow our customers to play the game of poker, anytime and anywhere. The strategic
relationship with MGN is a great marriage, opening up a brand new world, especially with
the all of the changes happening in the wireless side of the business. So we look at
getting the best poker site around in terms of technology and then building on that
core.”
We look at our provision of services in three circles; the inner circle – the Poker
Lobby and Game Play is being built to so that people are excited to come. The surrounding
circle focuses on Customer Service. When our players are playing at our site, we want to
provide each player with ultimate poker experience from a customer service perspective.
Along with receiving VIP treatment and a great feel, we want to ensure our players
that the site is secure and safe. We want to brand our site so that people look at us as
they would a Starbucks or Tommy Bahama. We intend to create an icon that will
differentiate us from other sites, so that when they are there they are not just playing
poker, they will belong to a community of interests where our customer service will be
second to none. The outer circle will drive us to creating benefits associated with being
wireless. If a player wants to play with a particular poker player, we will be able to
provide him or her with a text message or interface through the wireless side notifying
him or her that a seat and table is open for play. We will also be able to provide a text
or voice message letting them know that at 5:00 PM, a game may be taking place that he or
she may be interested in’. We want to be able to integrate this functionality it in
our service offering.”
CEOCFO: Will they be able to become acquainted with other
players on your site, such as through some type of online chat line?
Mr. Proceviat: “As part of our service offering, we
intend to host and/or facilitate an online chat line. In addition to providing poker tips
from the experts to our online players, we will provide text and voice messages to our
wireless players. Our plan is to provide an overall scope of service that no one in this
space is offering at this point in time. As part of our plan to attract, convert and
retain players and to build player loyalty and interest within our poker community, we
will be hosting tournaments online as well as at selected venues around the world.”
CEOCFO: When will all of this come together?
Mr. Proceviat: “Right now we are looking at launching
our free site within the next couple of weeks in October 2005. We’ve actually got a
site under construction right now that people can go to. Over the next quarter, we will
continue building on the current the poker and customer service circles. We will then be
aiming for the 2nd Quarter of 2006 to have the text messaging and wireless
component tied in. So within 9 to 12 months we should have a site up and running,
integrating the wireless and the PC based version of our game.”
CEOCFO: What about people who are seriously interested in
playing poker for money?
Mr. Proceviat: “We have the capability of offering and
signing up members from all over the world and intend to offer that service to
jurisdictions where it is legal. Our target market is a global market and where it is
legal to gamble and take online games, we intend to be there. At this point in time we
have an UK incorporated company, where the operations will be run out of. The UK is a
gaming friendly jurisdiction. The laws in gaming in the U.K. are currently in transition
and by 2006; the regulations on online gaming should be in place. We also have our gaming
license in the Kahnawake Indian Band Gaming Commission, which is one of the largest gaming
commissions in North America.”
CEOCFO: How will you generate you revenues?
Mr. Proceviat: “We will be generating our revenues from
the jurisdictions that allow online gaming. Our revenues will be derived by earning a
percentage of the pot bet by the players. That percentage is disclosed right upfront when
members are playing their game, so they understand that a portion of the pot will be
deducted from the winnings. The commissions for facilitating the game ranges from 3
to 5% of the pot.”
CEOCFO: What are your plans for advertising and getting
people to know that you exist?
Mr. Proceviat: “We intend to market heavily to attract
our player base and we plan to use all media that are available where it makes best sense
to market. That includes the print media as well as online media.”
CEOCFO: Do you have the money in place to build out Fortuna
Gaming or will you have to raise funds to complete your plans?
Mr. Proceviat: “We have operating capital that we are
using to put together the team and finalize the tweaking of the product that we have. We
are also in the middle of a private placement that we feel will be attractive to
investors. We expect to have the financing using this vehicle completed over the next 30
to 60 days. Therefore, we are in the process of raising funds right now to allow us to
execute and support our aggressive marketing and customer acquisition plans”
CEOCFO: Was your technology developed in-house or acquired?
Mr. Proceviat: “It is acquired through a licensing
arrangement with the software provider, Mobile Gaming Now (MGN). They are a Nevada based
company, but they have operations and a development team in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ignition Technologies Inc., is the owner of the technology, but they are in the process of
being acquired by Mobile Gaming Now, which is the company that will be growing the
business.”
CEOCFO: How big is the online gaming market and what you
would like to capture in your first year or two?
Mr. Proceviat: “The U.S. Venue and Casino Gambling is
approaching $30 billion a year. Ten years ago it was just under $15 billion, so it has
almost doubled in that area. The internet gaming part, represented by the online PC based
segment alone, is growing in leaps and bounds. With the proliferation of cell phones
and wireless devices coming on the market, combined with the sophisticated and creative
content being developed, we believe that by expanding into the mobile sector, a new world
of opportunity awaits the company. Fortuna is positioning itself to tap into the market
worldwide and believe that there is still a tremendous upside for this sector.
Although there is some saturation happening in the poker space, our plan is take this
offering to another level.”
CEOCFO: In closing, what
would you like investors to remember about Fortuna Gaming?
Mr. Proceviat: “I believe that the wireless revolution
is going to have an enormous impact on not only teenagers, but also adults. Downloading
ring tones and content, only scratches the surface of what is coming with this next big
technology. Fortuna wants to be known at the end of the day as the ultimate gaming
experience company, where the players can play anytime, anywhere, whether you are in a
hotel room, in a chat room, in your house, in an airport, or on your yacht. We want to be
able to provide this environment, so that players can enjoy the ultimate gaming
experience. After clicking off on one’s PC or closing down one’s digital phone
or PDA, we want our players to say that they have had the ultimate experience and want to
come back for more. We don’t want to be known as being one of another 3,000 poker
sites that are out there. Our aim is to build on this poker phenomenon and take this level
of entertainment to another level. We want to provide an ultimate experience through our
service offering.”
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