Atari Will Use Cryptocurrency to Bolster its Online Gambling Business

Atari's stock jumped 51% on the news Friday that it had planned to unveil its own cryptocurrecy. 

From Ars Technica:

The French holding company announced last week that it had traded use of its name for a 15 percent stake in Gibraltar-based Infinity Networks, which will create a cryptocurrency-based "Atari Token" platform that could be used to pay for various kinds of "digital entertainment." Atari is also planning to extend its existing partnership with online casino maker Pariplay to create a separate "Pong Token" that will be accepted in "crypto-casinos."

Atari CEO Fred Chesnais speaking about the idea in a press release:

“Blockchain technology is poised to take a very important place in our environment and to transform, if not revolutionize, the current economic ecosystem, especially in the areas of the video game industry and online transactions. Given our technological strengths with the development studios, and the global reputation of the Atari brand, we have the opportunity to position ourselves attractively in this sector. Our objective is to take strategic positions with a limited cash risk, in order to optimize the assets and the Atari brand.”

Atari is likely to just lend its name to the cryptocurrency while having little management of it, according to experts in the space.

And there are skeptics.  Paul Tassi of Forbes writes:

I genuinely have no idea what to make of Atari these days. This is a company that has also promised to release a modern day console in the insanely competitive current landscape, an “Ataribox” which will combine old Atari games with new-era gaming capabilities. But that project too remains a mystery. Atari once had a spring 2018 ship date for the Ataribox, but that’s been delayed, and we’ve heard precious little about the idea since it resurfaced with an Indiegogo campaign. I was always hugely skeptical about the idea, but the general public seemed to be interested, at the very least, perhaps not fully understanding the strange sort of company Atari has become in the past few decades.

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com