Sports betting software provider Miomni Gaming has hit back in its legal battle with Delaware North, saying claims by the US casino operator that it breached the terms of a joint venture agreement are entirely without merit.
Delaware North filed a lawsuit in April accusing its former joint venture partner and its chief executive, Michael Venner, of engaging in “an ongoing pattern of misrepresentation and bad faith” throughout the partnership.
In its response to Delaware North suit, Miomni says that its claims “fail in their entirety” for three key reasons.
Firstly, Miomni argues that Delaware North has failed to demonstrate that it is guilty of any breaches of contractual terms set out in its original filing.
Miomni also said the US court lacks personal jurisdiction over Venner, who is a citizen of the UK and has had no contacts with Delaware. Finally, the supplier said that the claims of fraud fail as they do not specify exact incidents or events that constitute such illegal activity, and are based on statements made by third parties.
“Delaware North has not stated a breach of the joint venture agreement and failed to adequately plead claims of fraud against either Miomni or Mr. Venner,” Miomni explained. “Moreover, the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over Mr. Venner. Accordingly, defendants respectfully request that the Court dismiss the complaint.”
Delaware North, which is yet to issue a response to the Miomni filing, said in the original lawsuit that Miomni made fraudulent claims to induce it to enter a joint venture and also wilfully breaching a limited liability company agreement governing the operation of BetLucky.
At the time, Delaware North accused Miomni and Venner of repeatedly claiming to own intellectual property rights to the platform, including the source code for the front end and back end of the platform.
Delaware North said it later discovered that these were provided by Cyprus-based supplier Enterg Software Solutions, trading as Entergaming. Miomni had told Delaware North that Entergaming agreed to sell it all rights to the platform.
Ultimately, Delaware North was unaware that Miomni was subcontracting elements of the platform to Entergaming, something prohibited under the joint venture terms.
However, Miomni argues that Delaware North was aware of the licensing agreement with Enterg. It has long argued that the platform’s shut-down on March 6 was down to Enterg activating a so-called ‘kill switch’ it had illegally integrated into the software.
The UK High Court of Justice’s Business and Property Court has since ruled Enterg has indeed integrated such a feature within solution provided to Miomni.
The joint venture was originally agreed to launch the BetLucky sports betting platform, which went live in West Virginia on December 27, 2018, only to cease operating on March 6, 2019. Since the platform went offline, sports betting has been suspended at the operator’s Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack and Mardi Gras Casino in West Virginia.