Danoptra Holdings, the parent company of Gamestec and Bell-Fruit, has announced a joint agreement with Aristocrat Leisure, the UK arm of the giant Australian casino slots company, to work on the development of a new gaming product targeted at the UK betting industry.

Both companies believe that a significant opportunity exists for products, which will purportedly "bring together exciting game opportunities for the player while at the same time providing enhanced operational benefits for the betting retailer."

The joint project will result in a new product to be introduced to the market during 2007, they added.

"We are pleased to be working with Aristocrat and its subsidiary, ACE Interactive, and we are very much looking forward to bringing together the proven expertise within both companies to produce what we believe will be a very compelling product for this important sector of the UK gaming industry," said Colin Daniels, chief executive at Danoptra.

At ACE Interactive, chief executive Michael Koch added: "We will be working with Danoptra in this growing segment of the server-based gaming market. The UK FOBT market is ideal to introduce our ACE Interactive open content platform."