Sports betting software provider Miomni Gaming has hit back in its legal dispute with Delaware North, accusing the US casino operator of making “inconsistent” claims over the collapse of the parties’ joint venture.
In a filing with the Court of Chancery in Delaware, Miomni said the claims made by Delaware North in its initial lawsuit last April “vary from or are inconsistent with the terms” of the arrangement between the two parties.
The joint venture saw Miomni partner Delaware North to launch the BetLucky sports wagering platform, which went live in West Virginia on December 27, 2018, but ceased operating on March 6, 2019. Delaware North then terminated the contract in April 2019 and filed a lawsuit against its former partner.
Delaware North had argued that Miomni’s representations about BetLucky were knowingly false, but Miomni has stated that the reason for the platform stopping activities in March 2019 was due to the wrongful conduct of a third party, Enterg Software Solutions. Enterg provided certain back-end elements of the platform, something Miomni claims Delaware North was fully aware of – which the operator disputes.
The operator claimed that Enterg disabled the platform using a kill switch, due to Miomni’s “unauthorized post-termination use of the platform”.
In its lawsuit, the Delaware North claimed that this was due to Miomni not owning rights to the source code for the platform. The supplier rejected this claim.
In January this year, a ruling from the UK’s High Court stated the Miomni did indeed hold full rights to the software over which its dispute with Enterg centred.
Claims from Delaware North that Miomni intentionally concealed a dispute with Entergaming were also rejected.
The fact that such a “kill switch” was inserted into the platform code by Enterg was done without Miomni’s knowledge, the supplier continued. It had no right to have included this feature, and had not even terminated the supply agreement when it was activated, it said.
Miomni rejected claims it could not perform under the joint venture agreement and also denied that Delaware North may acquire its membership interest in BetLucky under the initial agreement. Delaware North had accused Miomni of obstructing its exercise of contractual right to acquire Miomni’s interest in the platform.
Summing up, Miomni said that Delaware North is not entitled to any monetary damages and for equitable relief as a result of the termination of the agreement. Instead, Miomni argued that it itself is entitled to certain claims as a result of the Delaware North breaching the agreement.
Its former partner had ignored a number of UK court orders stating there was no legal impediments to the continuation of the joint venture, it continued, which Miomni argued amounted to a breach of the contractual covenants of good faith and fair dealing.
Furthermore, it added, the new partnership struck between Delaware North and International Game Technology in January this year effectively discharged it from any contractual obligations to which it may have still been bound.