Monthly Archives: June 2018

India’s Nazara Tech enters Kenya online sports betting market

India-based social and mobile gaming operator Nazara Technologies has bought into Kenya’s real-money sports betting market, despite ongoing uncertainties regarding local tax obligations.

On Monday, Indian media outlets reported that the Mumbai-based Nazara had established a Kenyan subsidiary, NZWorld Kenya Ltd, which holds a license issued by Kenya’s Betting Control and Licensing Board. Nazara will hold 70% of NZWorld, with its local partner controlling the remaining 30% stake.

Nazara CEO Manish Agarwal noted that real-money online gambling isn’t yet legal in India, but is “a very big market in Africa and is the main reason why we are setting up a new entity in Kenya.” Agarwal added that his company is investigating further real-money regional opportunities in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.

Nazara plans to introduce its existing products into the Kenyan market, including its social prediction sports and fantasy sports apps. The real-money products will launch in Kenya ahead of this month’s kickoff of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Turkey ramps up anti-gambling crackdown ahead of World Cup

Authorities in Turkey launched a major nationwide anti-gambling crackdown over the weekend in a likely preemptive strike on illegal World Cup wagering.

On Sunday, the Daily Sabah reported that over 8k police officers had mounted simultaneous raids on “thousands” of suspected illegal gambling venues across 81 provinces. The raids resulted in the closure of 36 coffee houses and other businesses deemed to offering illegal gambling to their customers.

The report claimed that 80 people had been detained for running the illegal gambling operations, while an additional 159 individuals were nabbed on outstanding illegal gambling charges. Fines have been issued against the operators of the 36 gambling venues and prison sentences are likely.

The action followed raids on 64 venues in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Wednesday that resulted in the arrests of 39 suspects, including a municipal-level police chief. The operation, which involved 300 police officers, targeted a criminal group involved in everything from illegal gambling to drug trafficking and loan sharking.

Nektan-powered, Monster Casino launches its new brand

1 June 2018 – Monster Casino, a UK online casino powered by Nektan, launches a rebranding initiative, including a new logo and an updated visual identity.

As part of the rebranding initiative, the online casino has revamped its website to provide its users with a simple and user-friendly interface, to offer its players a visually immersive experience. The rebranding of this fast-growing online casino is part of its strategy to expand in the UK market and to widen its appeal, with a sleek and modern look.

Palak Khare, Marketing Manager of Monster Casino, comments: “We are delighted to present our new logo and revamped Monster Casino site, showing improvements to the user experience along with an array of enticing features. Our new monochromatic colour scheme for instance, helps to create a relaxed player atmosphere.

“The branding updates were part of a wider strategy to stay abreast of the latest online casino trends to enhance the overall player experience across all devices.”

William Hill to open Maltese office as it braces for Brexit

The Times of Malta is reporting that the UK-listed William Hill will open a satellite office in Malta, making it the latest gambling firm to shift some of its operations outside the UK. They intend on keeping a “strong presence” in the British market.

The company plans to set up a small initial organization for its international facing business post-Brexit, according to William Hill Chief Digital Officer Ulrik Bengtsson.

At present, Gibraltar will remain Hill’s key operational hub for its online business with marketing and customer service units located in Israel, Bulgaria, and the Philippines.

Bengtsson quickly clarified that the plan to open a satellite office in Malta will not have an impact on its current business locations. A William Hill spokesman, on the other hand, pointed out that its Gibraltar operations will continue since much of the wagering firm’s online customers live in UK.

Kindred futures leads chatbot revolution

Kindred Futures, the innovation arm of Kindred Group, today launches a pioneering chatbot with tech start-up, Artificial Solutions, which leverages powerful AI to enable customers to find and place bets faster than ever.

Using Artificial Solutions’ Teneo conversational AI platform, Kindred Futures’ new chatbot bypasses click-button simplicity or key-word driven clinical responses which struggle to cope with the breadth and depth of a regular conversation, to not only understand the complexities and nuances of gambling language but also learn and adapt in order to get better answers faster.

Launched on the Unibet Facebook page, the conversation-based interface enables customers to do more; from finding odds and placing bets, to asking about fixtures and getting help with over 100 FAQs. Users are also able to connect to a Customer Service agent to escalate issues and questions.

With all eyes on the World Cup this summer, the Unibet Chatbot allows users to find odds in over 1000 markets across all 64 games and outrights for the tournament, and the Chatbot will also be able to support bets on all main European Leagues and Competitions come the start of the new season. The World Cup is the starting point from which future developments will come, however already the breadth of functionality allows customers to interact with a range of Unibet services in a channel which has 1.3bn monthly users who send more than 2bn messages to business every month; creating a faster, frictionless customer experience.

Temporary freeze on Thai casino vendors’ Donaco shares stays

An Australian court has extended the freeze order on some 148 million Donaco shares held by several Thai vendors for five more months as they are now part of a legal claim.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales granted Donaco’s petition to extend a previous freeze order on the shares of Cambodian nationals Somboon Sukcharoenkraisri, Techatut Sukcharoenkraisri and Bhuvasith Chaiarunrojh.

Donaco said the frozen shares of the three represented approximately 17.9 percent of company’s issued capital. With the freeze order remaining in effect, the respondents are still prohibited from selling or disposing their stocks until the end of their arbitration in Singapore.

“The Supreme Court of New South Wales has today granted a further extension of the freezing order, by consent, until 2 November 2018, when the matter is listed for further directions,” Donaco said in a press release.

BetVictor launches The Million Pound Bet for World Cup 2018

Online bookmaker guarantees to give away over £1,000,000 on the 2018 World Cup

Online bookmakers BetVictor today announced the launch of ‘The Million Pound Bet’, a competition -for new and existing customers – that guarantees to give away over £1,000,000 for the minimum stake of £1 at this summer’s World Cup.

To celebrate the launch, BetVictor has released a brand-new TV ad campaign to promote the competition, which will air for the first time today at 21:30 on Channel 4 and again at 23:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIs9e8bXNeE&feature=youtu.be.

BetVictor will give away £1,000,000 to the customer who places a winning bet with the biggest odds on any World Cup market. If there is more than one winner, the prize will be shared equally between the winners.

The President of Armenia visits SoftConstruct development office

The newly appointed President Armen Sargsyan met SoftConstruct founders Vahe and  Vigen  Badalyan in the headquarters of the company.

The head of state took a tour around the SoftConstruct campus meeting the teams and getting acquainted with the solutions provided by the company. As the visit went on the guests of honor had a chance to speak to the employees of the company and learn about the latest developments of BetConstruct as well as its new launches. The founders, Vigen and Vahe Badalyan brothers shared their future insight on the company development and the growth of the IT sector in the country. President Armen Sargsyan was impressed with the scales SoftConstruct has reached over the 15 years of its existence.

The SoftConstruct entity has a number of projects running under its title. This includes BetConstruct, a renowned sports betting software supplier, FeedConstruct, a real-time data feed provider, Fast Credit UCO, Ucraft website builder, an innovative payment gateway FastShift, FastToken, a digital wallet developed for the iGaming activities, BetonPolitics platform for political debates and forecasts.

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Mr Green launch Colossus sports jackpots with exclusive offering

Today, the award-winning online gaming company Mr Green announced the launch of their pools betting product ‘Jackpot Bets’ in collaboration with provider Colossus Bets. The initial offering is spearheaded by a series of 5 exclusive £5 million Super 8 jackpots for this summer’s big football event. The launch includes the full Colossus sports portfolio with Syndicates ‘crowdbetting’ functionality and Cash Out.

Mr Green Ltd CEO, Jesper Kärrbrink, commented;

“Since the beginning, Mr Green has led in the market with our ‘Green Gaming’ ethos. Colossus sports jackpots offer a ‘low stakes for grand prizes’ alternative to traditional sports betting that is in line with our brand values and enables us to reach out to a broad audience. The timing is ideal with this summer’s big football event just around the corner, the launch advances our strategy to provide a full gaming portfolio to our existing players.”

The Super 8 jackpots are exclusive to Mr Green and can be won by picking the correct score in a series of 8 matches. These jackpots include Colossus’ unique Cash Out feature, which enables players to bank profits as they progress towards a lottery-sized prize.