Monthly Archives: September 2020

Ewa Bakun: ‘Pitch has never been more important to the start-up community’ as Sports Betting USA deadline is confirmed

Clarion Gaming has confirmed the details, format and timings for the first digital version of Pitch, part of the upcoming Sports Betting USA and Investor Digital Summit taking place across 9-11 November.

October 2nd is the first competition deadline when companies wishing to be part of Pitch – which has helped propel industry brands including BlueBat Games, NumberFire and Vigtory, – are required to forward their 2020 application form together with a supporting 2-minute video to [email protected].

Following receipt of the submissions, an invited community of senior international business leaders will vote for what they consider to be the three start-ups with the most commercial potential. The finalists will then go forward to pitch as part of Sports Betting USA 2020 in front of a live audience of industry professionals including key angel investors.

Ewa Bakun, who serves as Director of Industry Insight at Clarion Gaming, believes initiatives such as Pitch have never been more important to start-up enterprises. She explained: “It’s always been difficult for new businesses to secure the funding they need to progress and develop their concepts and ideas. There’s every indication that Covid-19 and the devastating impact it continues to have on economies throughout the world is making that task even harder, which is why Pitch is so important.

US Space Force turns to blockchain for space age security

If space is the final frontier, than we’re already learning that blockchain will be the security option of choice for those who go where no man has gone before. The United States Space Force (USSF) has named a blockchain firm to develop their space age security systems; something you could get started on if you attend CoinGeek Live.

Both the USSF and U.S. Air Force have named Xage Security to develop their blockchain solutions. The firm will implement their Xage Security Fabric solution for end-to-end data protection. The decentralized network removes any single point of failure, while allowing the USSF to monitor all activity on the network.

Xage Security CEO Duncan Greatwood said blockchain meets many of the complex needs of the USSF:

“The USSF requires decentralized enforcement of security to establish space domain resilience and objective situational awareness––across every asset and data element. We built the Xage solution to serve the needs of complex critical infrastructure systems, and are excited to bring the Xage solution to the Space Force in the form of a blockchain-protected space system security.”

Upcoming CoinGeek Live conference to feature expert crypto insiders

CoinGeek is preparing to hold the latest installment of its regular and hugely popular cryptocurrency conferences beginning in about a week. These conferences are traditionally put together in a live setting; however, the ongoing concerns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many important events to be held virtually, and the CoinGeek Live conference is no exception. Virtual events have become the new norm, at least for now, and are beneficial since they can attract greater participation. This upcoming free event is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to better understand the crypto space and what lies ahead, and a number of industry experts have lined up to participate as speakers. With a lot of global attention now being placed on digital currencies as the next evolutionary step for fiat, the CoinGeek Live conference is an important event to understand what will soon be coming.

CoinGeek Live will be held from September 30 to October 2 and features participation by 75 experts in the crypto and financial sectors. Now, more than ever, the marriage between conventional forms of currency and digital currency is recognized as the natural advance of money, and bringing together so many top names in the financial space will prove to be an invaluable resource for anyone that works in the industry, or who wants to stay on top of the rapid changes that are being seen. In no small way, Bitcoin SV (BSV) is going to be part of those changes, having been developed as a digital currency designed to work with existing financial systems and regulations. 

Among the names included in the speaker pool is Dr. Craig Wright, the chief scientist at nChain and the man most know as Satoshi Nakamoto. His knowledge of finance and crypto is unparalleled and Wright has been tirelessly working to bring Bitcoin to the forefront since it was first introduced. Joining him will be Jimmy Nguyen, the founding president of the Bitcoin Association and an award-winning intellectual property and digital technology lawyer. As head of the Bitcoin Association, a non-profit crypto-based entity, one of his responsibilities is to inspire adoption of Bitcoin as an enterprise solution while also raising awareness of Bitcoin’s regulation-friendly design. 

Thomas Moser of Swiss National Bank will be on hand, as well, participating in a discussion about the integration of blockchain and banking products. He will be joined by the head of research at Bequant, Denis Vinokourov, The White Company Director Dr. Edgar White, Drawbridge Lending CEO Jason Urban and nChain Director of Business Services Simit Naik, who will moderate the panel.

The Top 10 Gadgets you need in your home office

Working from home has become the new normal in 2020 and there are more than a few essential gadgets that we think you’ll need on your wish list to complete the ultimate home office. A quiet place and a stable internet connection are the bare essentials, but there are plenty of little extras that you can acquire to give you that extra boost in productivity.

Some of us may thrive working in their pyjamas, avoiding the daily commute to work and achieving that perfect work-life balance. While you may be still trying to stay fit and adjust to remaining productive from home, here is a wish list of a few gadgets that increase your efficiency and help you build a swanky home office that will make you the envy of those Zoom team meetings.

Nespresso Vertuo Next Solo Coffee Machine 

Forget tea, no office is complete without a decent cup of coffee. Everyone has a vice and a great cup of coffee is essential for morning zoom meetings. Nespresso has a decent range of coffee machines that won’t break your budget. The Vertuo Next Solo coffee machine comes in a range of colours and opens a window to Nespresso extensive range of coffee flavours. Nespresso also offers a recycling option for the coffee pods and there’s also the chance to do some long-term deals on their flavours, which is perfect for the coffee connoisseur. 

Email fraudsters prefer online bookmakers to dating sites

Fraudsters are increasingly posing as online bookmakers to encourage victims to click on links that will infect their computers with malware or lead them to sites where their banking info will be stolen.  

A new report by cybersecurity solutions provider Group-IB details the types of threats it has seen in malicious emails during the first half of 2020. The company says it blocked 9,304 phishing web resources in H1 2020, up 9% over the first half of 2019.

Disturbingly, Group-IB says 69% of these resources used safe SSL/TLS connection, up from 33% at the end of 2019. Sites lacking SSL/TLS certificates are often flagged by web browsers before a victim is allowed to proceed, thereby diminishing the effectiveness of phishing efforts, but fake or forged certificates are increasingly available on the dark web.

Emails purporting to come from legit online services accounted for 46.2% of malicious emails, while email service providers ranked second with 24.1%. Financial organizations (10.7%), payment services (4.3%) and social networks (4.2%) filled out the top-five.

Vietnam’s dumb betting rules keep illegal sportsbooks in business

Vietnam’s online gamblers have lost a few more homegrown but highly illegal options as the authorities still can’t provide a decent legal alternative.

On Tuesday, authorities in Hanoi and Quang Binh province announced the arrests of multiple individuals suspected of involvement in two separate illegal online gambling operations. Each of the two gambling rings reportedly handled wagers worth over VND1t (US$43m) before the authorities pounced. 

The Hanoi bust resulted in the arrest of 16 individuals, including the three suspected ringleaders, who each put up around VND300m in February 2019 to establish a support operation for a number of intermediary websites that steered gamblers to sites based outside the country.

As with previous Vietnamese busts, gamblers purchased ‘points’ from third-party sites that could be used as wagering currency. The ring established branch offices in several cities and was reportedly a sufficiently large operation to require staff operating out of high-end condo suites to work shifts to ensure round-the-clock support for nearly 4,000 gambling clients.   

Mikita Badziakowski leads WPT High Roller Championship final table

Mikita Badziakouski leads the WPT World Online Championships High Roller Championship with just six players sitting between him and a $1 million top prize as well as the title.

With 28 players returning to the action on Day 2, the $25,500-entry High Roller Championship, the day kicked off with a Russian losing all his chips first, Mikhail Vilkov being the first player to bust. He was swiftly joined by plenty of others, however, as Stephen Chidwick, Wiktor Malinowski and Andras Nemeth all found themselves on the rail.

Ludovic Geilich has had some great results recently but his tournament ended in 19th place, the Scotsman busting for a $68,000 payday. Two more big names at opposite ends of their poker careers would join him soon afterwards, with Late Night Poker legend Simon Trumper and Ole Schemion both leaving the party on partypoker.

It had been Pascal Hartmann who started the day as chip leader, but his race was run when he busted in 14th place and he wasn’t the only big name to get close to the final table without reaching it. Australian player Kahle Burns busted in 11th place for $102,500, and he was followed by Jake Schindler, Timothy Adams, and Brock Wilson, all of whom missed out of the final day.

BetMGM tap Jamie Foxx as face of ‘King of Sportsbooks’ campaign

Sports betting operator BetMGM has tapped noted actor/musician Jamie Foxx as the face of the company’s new ‘The King of Sportsbooks’ marketing campaign.

On Tuesday, BetMGM announced that Foxx had agreed to star in the brand’s new advertising campaign, built around the not entirely provable claim that it’s the King of Sportsbooks. But in a country in which the swill known as Budweiser can claim to be the king of beers, why not shoot for the moon?

The campaign, which was concocted in tandem with creative agency 72andSunny New York, will feature “a variety of traditional and social media advertisements,” with the first example being a video promo that will arrive “in the coming weeks.” Foxx will reportedly appear to levitate over the fountains at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, in order to showcase “the excitement that comes with sports betting.”

BetMGM chief marketing officer Matt Prevost called the campaign “the next step in the evolution of the BetMGM brand,” which is a joint venture of US casino operator MGM Resorts and UK-listed gambling giant GVC Holdings. Prevost further claimed that BetMGM “exists at the intersection of sports and entertainment and Jamie fits this positioning perfectly.”

Dutch online gambling licensees must show 2 years, 8 months good behavior

Online gambling operators seeking new Netherlands licenses will have to demonstrate nearly three years of compliance before their applications will be considered by the local regulator.

On Tuesday, René Jansen, chairman of the Netherlands’ Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory body, gave a keynote address at the Gaming in Holland conference in Amsterdam. Jansen’s speech focused on the country’s plans to launch a regulated online gambling market on September 1, 2021.

Jansen (pictured) claimed that “the countdown has started” towards the Remote Gambling Act taking effect on March 1, 2021, after which would-be licensees can “in all likelihood” begin submitting applications, with the regulated market launching six months later. At least, that’s the current plan, which has undergone multiple revisions over the past few years as the KSA and the government struggled to get their Act together.

Jansen said the KSA has handed operational control of its Central Exclusion Register (Cruks) to its managing party Netcompany. The associated Data Safe (CDB), to which all online licensees must connect so their monitoring of gamblers can be monitored by the KSA, is currently being notified to the European Commission. The KSA expects to publish the CDB’s technical requirements “probably” in October.

UK racing back behind closed doors, casinos’ backs “to the wall”

UK racing meets are going back ‘behind closed doors’ as the government re-imposes pandemic restrictions on retail operations and social gatherings.

On Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson bowed to the inevitable and announced new restrictions on entertainment venues, including mandatory shutdowns between 10pm and 5am and halting plans to welcome fans back to sports stadiums starting October 1. Johnson warned that the UK’s stubbornly rising COVID-19 infection rate means the new restrictions could last up to six months.

Among the casualties of the new rules are racecourse trials of allowing a limited number of spectators to watch the action in person. The Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk said Tuesday that its plan to allow up to 1,000 spectators per day at the three-day Cambridgeshire meeting starting this Thursday was now off, and the meet would go ahead as “a behind closed doors fixture.”

Monday saw Warwick Racecourse welcome a crowd of 500 spectators to its jumps meeting. Organizers praised the experiment as going off without a hitch, but this appears to have been a last hurrah for racing’s efforts to resume something resembling normalcy this year.