Endemol Creates Games Group; Taps LaVanchy To Lead

Endemol USA, the TV production firm behind Deal or No Deal and Fear Factor among others, has formed a casual games group that will develop games based on its new and existing programming. The company, which will also create original games, currently produces several games and distributes animated shorts for its animation website JoeCartoon, which it bought early last year.

Eric LaVanchy, newly appointed director of gaming, will lead the Los Angeles-based division, reporting to SVP of digital media and branded entertainment Jon Vlassopulos. LaVanchy will be responsible for the company’s casual gaming strategy in North America and will work closely with Endemol’s London-based games group. He was most recently managing director of The Ritz Club London Online.

The company has U.S. shows such as Deal or No Deal, Fear Factor and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and then Big Brother. On the digital side, it tied up with Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) on its user-gen video site Ziddio, though the contest didn’t do that well. It has also recently done partnerships with Metacafe (Buzzed), AOL
(iLAND), Break.com (Record Breakers) and BET (Take the Cake). Endemol is now a subsidiary of the Consortium, a conglomerate formed by Mediacinco Cartera S.A., Cyrte Found II B.V., and GS Capital Partners VI Fund which bought it last year from Telefonica.

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