In a Grand Slam first, William Hill will become the official betting partner of the Australian Open, Australia’s largest annual sporting event.

Announcing the partnership, William Hill Australia CEO Tom Waterhouse said he was excited William Hill has become the first ever bookmaker to partner with a Grand Slam tennis tournament.

“We are extremely proud and excited to be the first official betting partner of a Grand Slam.

“William Hill and the Australian Open is the perfect match. Both brands are among the most respected, innovative and technologically advanced in the world in our fields and we are looking forward to a long and successful partnership.

DraftDay Gaming Group is the first Daily Fantasy Sports Operator to Use the New Solus Solution

October, 2015 – Las Vegas, NV, USA – GeoComply USA, Inc. today announces the launch of “Solus,” its new suite of services for the daily fantasy sports industry. Specially designed for the needs of this rapidly evolving sector, Solus provides cutting edge geolocation and anti-fraud solutions tailored for the particular operational and market needs of daily fantasy sports.

“DFS is one of the fastest growing sectors in the United States today, and with DraftDay, we are really excited to work with one of the most innovative operators in that space,” said Anna Sainsbury, CEO of GeoComply USA. “We have designed Solus to fit the specific characteristics of the daily fantasy sports market, where ease of UX and speed of transaction is key, while ensuring that the increased need for geolocation services within the DFS industry are met.”

“DraftDay Gaming Group is committed to being the safest and most secure DFS operator in the industry. By teaming up with GeoComply, the market-leader in geolocation services, we are providing our players with the highest level of consumer confidence with a unique user-friendly, B2B platform required to meet the demands of a rapidly changing environment,” said Rich Roberts CEO of DraftDay.

DraftDay Gaming Group is the first Daily Fantasy Sports Operator to Use the New Solus Solution

October, 2015 – Las Vegas, NV, USA – GeoComply USA, Inc. today announces the launch of “Solus,” its new suite of services for the daily fantasy sports industry. Specially designed for the needs of this rapidly evolving sector, Solus provides cutting edge geolocation and anti-fraud solutions tailored for the particular operational and market needs of daily fantasy sports.

“DFS is one of the fastest growing sectors in the United States today, and with DraftDay, we are really excited to work with one of the most innovative operators in that space,” said Anna Sainsbury, CEO of GeoComply USA. “We have designed Solus to fit the specific characteristics of the daily fantasy sports market, where ease of UX and speed of transaction is key, while ensuring that the increased need for geolocation services within the DFS industry are met.”

“DraftDay Gaming Group is committed to being the safest and most secure DFS operator in the industry. By teaming up with GeoComply, the market-leader in geolocation services, we are providing our players with the highest level of consumer confidence with a unique user-friendly, B2B platform required to meet the demands of a rapidly changing environment,” said Rich Roberts CEO of DraftDay.

October, 2015, San Diego, CA – VizExplorer today announced its new strategic partnership with Avance Systems. Avance has over 30 years’ experience as a software company operating in Mexico and will now distribute VizExplorer’s Operational Intelligence solutions in the rapidly growing Mexican gaming market.

“Casino operators here in Mexico are starting to realize how important it is for them to have the right operational tools to make the most out of the growing, and increasingly competitive, gaming market. From running marketing campaigns, to hosting players, to optimizing their slot floor, VizExplorer solutions can help with all these key areas,” said Marcos Levy, Vice President and Co-founder, Avance Systems. “With our long history in the Mexican market and our ability to provide great local support, we are really excited to be representing the VizExplorer solutions in this market.”

“This partnership with Avance is an obvious step for us in continuing to cement our global gaming presence,” said Veronica Ruffo, Business Development Manager, VizExplorer. “Avance’s existing strength in hotel solutions is a natural fit with VizExplorer’s casino solutions. Avance’s proven deployment capabilities are a huge plus for both VizExplorer and casino operators in Mexico.”

The Gaming & Leisure Roundtable recently awarded VizExplorer an Industry Excellence Award for Interoperability, recognizing the ability of VizExplorer’s products to seamlessly connect with a multitude of gaming systems and gaming data. This is seen as a key advantage as VizExplorer expands into new geographic markets which have very different gaming systems.

October, 2015, San Diego, CA – VizExplorer today announced its new strategic partnership with Avance Systems. Avance has over 30 years’ experience as a software company operating in Mexico and will now distribute VizExplorer’s Operational Intelligence solutions in the rapidly growing Mexican gaming market.

“Casino operators here in Mexico are starting to realize how important it is for them to have the right operational tools to make the most out of the growing, and increasingly competitive, gaming market. From running marketing campaigns, to hosting players, to optimizing their slot floor, VizExplorer solutions can help with all these key areas,” said Marcos Levy, Vice President and Co-founder, Avance Systems. “With our long history in the Mexican market and our ability to provide great local support, we are really excited to be representing the VizExplorer solutions in this market.”

“This partnership with Avance is an obvious step for us in continuing to cement our global gaming presence,” said Veronica Ruffo, Business Development Manager, VizExplorer. “Avance’s existing strength in hotel solutions is a natural fit with VizExplorer’s casino solutions. Avance’s proven deployment capabilities are a huge plus for both VizExplorer and casino operators in Mexico.”

The Gaming & Leisure Roundtable recently awarded VizExplorer an Industry Excellence Award for Interoperability, recognizing the ability of VizExplorer’s products to seamlessly connect with a multitude of gaming systems and gaming data. This is seen as a key advantage as VizExplorer expands into new geographic markets which have very different gaming systems.

Gibraltar, 22 October 2015 – Playson’s classic pirate-themed slot game, Lucky Pirates, is now available via the Odobo Marketplace.  

Lucky Pirates is a 5-reel, 9-payline title with a pistol-toting starfish scatter bonus, a card-based gamble feature and humorous animated graphics. The majority of the symbols are fruits sporting an array of pirate paraphernalia including cutlasses, eyepatches and massive hoop earrings.

Lucky Pirates is a fast-paced game that is suitable to players of all experience levels. The highest value symbol is the red parrot, which can pay out up to 5000 times the stake value. For players that revel in the excitement of the gamble feature, multiplying their winnings hinges on correctly predicting the colour of a undisclosed playing card. Bigger multipliers are available for guessing the actual suit, with up to ten consecutive gambles permitted on each win.

Adam Daniel, Managing Director at Playson, said, “Lucky Pirates is an established game with a loyal following. The combination of humour, big win potential and a strong base game are the secret to its success. We know that players love the game so building it for Odobo allows us to maximise the distribution for an already popular title.”

The UK will be out in force at this year’s Macao Gaming Show with the Brits making their presence felt at the rapidly expanding exhibition. Drawn from both the mainland and the British Isles, Macau has proved a major lure to UK companies with the pull coming from across the sectors.

The Macao Gaming Show continues to extend its reach across the globe, drawing a strong contingent of prominent gaming companies from the UK to this year’s exhibition at the Venetian Macau. World-renowned companies from across the gaming, leisure and technology sectors based in Great Britain and Isle of Man have all signed up to the fast expanding MGS experience.

Keen to use MGS – the Gateway to Asia – as the starting point to reach the all-important Macau and Asian marketplace, the British companies exhibiting this year cover all aspects of gaming from software providers to Virtual Sports systems, from live gaming services to specialised computer platforms.

“We have enjoyed a strong relationship with businesses from the British Isles at the Macao Gaming Show since our debut in 2013,” commented Marina Wong, MGS Event Director. “Providing a platform for exhibitors and buyers eyeing the Asian market is an integral part of MGS and we are excited that so many internationally recognised companies choose to use our exhibition to showcase their services and network here.

Showcasing Cashier and Fraud solutions and sponsoring show party

SafeCharge, a leader in advanced payment technologies, is sponsoring and attending EiG (Excellence in iGaming), Berlin, 20th to 22nd October 2015, showcasing its Cashier and Fraud solutions.

The SafeCharge Cashier, a turnkey deposit and withdrawal management solution, has been designed for gaming merchants to give their players a personalised deposit experience. Some key features of the solution are:

• Localisation capabilities based on geo-location. Play Global – Pay Local

London, England. – London-based online casino provider Casino Kings continues the expansion of its gaming portfolio with the inclusion of new high profile games.

Casinokings.com launched in the UK in late 2014. Its early success led to quick growth of its gaming portfolio, and this new expansion will witness yet more titles made available to players through the outfit’s online and mobile platforms.

The latest expansion launched on October 19th, 2015 and includes industry leading gaming developer Microgaming’s Rugby Star, which goes live to players in time for the knockout phase of the World Cup Finals in England.

The other flagship features completing this latest round of releases for Casino Kings are Star Mania and Taco Brothers, both released by industry conglomerate NYX Gaming Group, and the HTML5 release of Thunderkick’s Flux.

The Arizona Indian Gaming Association (AIGA) has become the latest high profile non-profit organisation in the gaming space to give its support to ICE Totally Gaming 2016 (2nd, 3rd & 4th February, ExCeL Centre, London)  The AIGA is launching its support by promoting a free trip to the London show, the winner of which will be announced at the forthcoming AIGAEXPO, 28th – 30th October, Talking Stick Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona, US.

Heralding the support, AIGA Executive Director, Valerie Spicer said: “We are very excited to be able to officially announce our relationship with ICE in the lead-up to our own EXPO at the end of October.  ICE is widely respected throughout world gaming and it is the most appropriate event for us to expand the reach of Tribal Gaming into the international space.”

Marketing Director, Jo Mayer, believes that the link-up with the Arizona Indian Gaming Association, sits perfectly with the ICE mandate and vision.  She explained: “First of all, I would like to place on record how delighted we all are at ICE to be working with the AIGA, a highly respected organisation which is committed to advancing the lives of American Indian people, economically, socially and politically in pursuit of the ultimate goal of self-reliance.  

“The AIGA speaks on behalf of its member Tribes with a unified voice and I believe that in a similar way, ICE represents the entirety of the gaming experience.  Our mission statement is to represent the ‘totality of gaming’ which we achieve by working with a wide range of international representative bodies and organisations.  At ICE 2015 the number of supporting associations totalled 26 and I am delighted to be able to add to this the influence of the AIGA.”

Armenia is a country with long gambling history. Here it’s legal and making progress, advancing the economy and civilized gaming methods. But investors, businessman and software developers need a common floor for sharing the experience, ideas and innovations.

The first Armenian Gaming Forum organized by Smile-Expo will become an important event for everyone involved into gambling. On the 19 of November, Erevan will gather casino and poker clubs equipment manufacturers, betting software developers, payment systems representatives, as well as interested investors.

Conference topics

Armenian gambling business: investment climate analysis.

Berlin iGaming affiliate conference will see unveiling of European online casino’s Income Access-powered affiliate programme

Montreal, QC. October, 2015 – Platincasino, an Isle of Man-based online casino that focuses on players in the European market, has announced that it will launch its new affiliate programme at the Berlin Affiliate Conference (BAC), which takes place from 22 to 25 October 2015, in partnership with Income Access, a technology and digital marketing company serving the global iGaming industry. The Platincasino affiliate programme will be managed using Income Access’ award-winning affiliate management platform.

Operational since 2013 and currently being relaunched with a fully responsive site, Platincasino, which is regulated by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission, offers players a range of online casino games. Providing play in German, Spanish and Czech as well as English, and across all devices, the brand features an impressive collection of online slots, including a selection from renowned German gaming company Merkur Gauselmann. Platincasino also boasts a suite of online card games, including baccarat, blackjack and poker, as well as table games such as American and French roulette, craps and Sic Bo.

To celebrate its second anniversary, Platincasino is currently offering players an enticing welcome bonus when they register and make their first deposit with the brand. Players are offered 50%, 100% or €100, depending upon the amount they initially deposit. An equally impressive player promotion will be unveiled when the brand unveils its new affiliate programme in Berlin.

RACE TOO CLOSE TO CALL – LATE DECIDERS WILL CHOOSE WINNER; VOTERS SAY HARPER BEST ON GLOBAL STAGE – NARROWLY SUPPORT TPP

Washington DC (16 Oct 2015) – Four days before Election Day in Canada, the Liberals and the Conservatives are virtually tied in voter support, according to a survey, Canada & the World 2015, conducted 13-15 October by the Democracy Institute, a politically independent think tank. (View a slideshow of the survey results here.)

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are currently favoured by 34.4 percent of decided voters, with Stephen Harper’s Conservatives backed by 33.6 percent. Tom Mulcair’s New Democratic Party has the support of 25 percent of decided voters, while Gilles Duceppe’s Bloc Québécois and Elizabeth May’s Greens are nationally the choice of 5 percent and 2 percent of voters, respectively.

Polling momentum has been with the Liberals over the past week, and they led the Conservatives during the first two nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) of this survey. However, the Conservatives rebounded significantly among poll respondents on Thursday night, which produced an overall statistical tie for the three nights of polling.

Isle of Man-based hosting provider Manx Telecom will be highlighting its cloud based hosting and disaster recovery solutions at the European iGaming Congress 2015 held in the Arena Berlin from October 20 to 22. The company, which is the hosting provider for the world’s largest poker sites PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, and Europe’s largest bookmaker PaddyPower, will be represented by eGaming Account Mangers John Corrigan and Daniel Walker on the Isle of Man Government stand (number 737).

The Isle of Man’s only twin tier 3 data centre provider has just completed the second phase of its £10million Greenhill Data Centre which first came online in 2014. Providing additional hosting capacity for a number of client sectors – including eGaming, financial services, hospitality, retail, and utilities – their cloud hosting platform is ideal for smaller or rapidly growing businesses where rapid scalability up or down is critical for success in this fast moving sector. Combined with the Isle of Man’s jurisdictional advantage of being able to offer eGaming operators from anywhere in the world the option to operate their disaster recovery for 90-days licence free, the sector and Manx Telecom’s cloud platform continues to attract significant interest.

Manx Telecom has played a key role in the rapid growth of the Isle of Man’s eGaming sector and has invested more than £110million in the Island’s telecoms infrastructure over the last decade, with the proven capability to securely handle billions of pounds worth of transactions for eGaming clients. The company’s eGaming solutions range from entry level packages and customer co-located platforms to multi-site load balanced solutions and fully outsourced managed services with disaster recovery, global connectivity and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. In addition, it has the largest pool of IT and telecoms experts on the Island, accredited to the highest standards. This includes 70 engineers trained in IP technology, of which 30 are specialist data centre and core network engineers dedicated to delivering enterprise hosting solutions for global eGaming clients.

For more information go to www.manxtelecom.com/business/egaming

14 October 2015; Kyiv, Ukraine. The second day of the Game ON Conference, dedicated to latest trends in online gambling and sports betting, continued to address the at times difficult questions, offering a way forward for rejuvenating the gambling industry in Ukraine. The scale of the audience in the presentation hall despite the national holiday was a testament to the timeliness of this discussion.

Opening with a comprehensive review by DLA Piper Ukraine of the intricacies of the Ukrainian tax structures, Pontus Lindvall, CEO and President of Betsson, shared his company’s rich expertise and pioneering approach to online gambling on the European and American markets. One of the key messages of Mr. Lindvall’s address was the need for legalisation of the industry since reputable companies cannot enter an unregulated market. He stressed the need for transparent taxation as investors and operators working to international principles will not compete with companies who avoid payments.

Game ON also featured a presentation by Lasha Gogiberidze, Commercial Director of international holding company Parimatch, who acted as a lead sponsor of the Conference. His presentation titled ‘Sports betting – we are ready’ provided expert overview of the online bookmaking market in Ukraine, using the company’s positive experience in Moldova, Belarus, Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan as a case study: “85% of betting in Ukraine takes place online, with currently about 1500 illegal betting shops around. The majority of bets are placed through web-based platforms of foreign operators, which means the proceeds from the bookmaking business go offshore. There are about fifteen such online operators popular here, among which are Bet365, William Hill, bwin, Betcity, Fonbet and others. The end result is that the loss of potential profit for the country is enormous.” Lasha Gogiberidze further commented that sports betting and bookmaking in general is a financial product and as such it requires a working legal environment. The benefit for the state budget, however, would be substantial. He also stressed that bookmaking companies are ready to conduct business in a socially responsible way by supporting the development of national sports and addressing other social needs in line with proper regulation.

Martin Lucas of Inspired Gaming Group presented innovations in the Video Lottery Terminal sector, as an ever-evolving entertainment eco-system, which quickly reacts to the latest technological and customer trends. Simon Fraser from GBI Racing in his inspiring presentation demonstrated how sports betting can give an impetus to the development of horse racing and horse breeding, making those once again a part of Ukraine’s culture. Irina Sergienko, representing the Ukrainian Bookmakers Association at the event, summarised numerous legislative initiatives aimed at regulating various aspects of the gambling industry. She concluded, however, that there are only two that look at the market as whole, with one being developed by Viktor Romanyuk, a People’s Deputy and a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, who presented his draft legislation on the first day of the Game ON Conference.

SafeCharge, a leader in advanced payment technologies, is showcasing the latest innovation in payments acceptance technologies at Casual Connect Tel Aviv, 19-21 October. SafeCharge is the event’s exclusive Payment Solutions Sponsor and will be showcasing its Cashier solution designed for conversion improvement and optimising the deposit funnel, which is available across all platforms and devices. A demo of the Cashier solution and SafeCharge’s fraud prevention services can be viewed on the Company’s stand 210.

Shemer Katz, General Manager, Israel, together with Leopold Maurel, Co-Founder and Head of Marketing of  GGcorp will be presenting a case study about enabling global game monetization entitled “The perils and triumphs of payments in casual games” on 19th October at 13:30 in the Charles Bronfman Auditorium. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the unique considerations of game developers when it comes to accepting payments and how a trusted payment partner can increase conversions, minimise fraud and be vital to developing globally. Topics will include localisation, payments technology, customisation and more.

Commenting, SafeCharge Israel General Manager, Shemer Katz said:  SafeCharge is excited to be participating in another Casual Connect event. We are delighted to be working alongside our client GGCorp, and sharing our combined experiences on the subject of optimisation of the payment funnel. This event will enable us to meet the industry’s leading games developers, and improve our knowledge of the latest market trends and industry needs, which will help us in developing the next generation payments solutions.”

Casual Connect Tel Aviv covers game design, casino, funding, next-generation technology and industry best practices. The Casual Connect series is the video games industry’s premiere event, produced by the Casual Games Association. According to research by the Association, more than 200 million people worldwide play casual games via the Internet, in a market that is worth US$75.5bn.

CORE Gaming is leading the way in HTML5 technology after successfully deploying a single code base strategy for both mobile and desktop.

The software developer has launched four HTML5 games through the Sky Vegas platform for mobile and desktop gamers in the last few weeks, and will release six more before the end of October, including their flagship HTML5 Roulette game.

CORE Gaming is among the first developers to have launched single-code software for both platforms, and Chief Executive Justin Chamberlain said it was evidence of the company’s position at the forefront of gaming technology. Chamberlain commented:  “This development proves once and for all that Flash is dead and that CORE Gaming must be considered among the best and most advanced content studios in the business.

“We are one of the first movers on this and our future content for Sky Vegas and all other operators will eventually have to support both mobile and desktop platforms given the inherent security issues around Flash, and considering it has now been blocked by the likes of Firefox”

CasinoCruise.com, one of the world’s ranking online casinos by Genesis Global Ltd., released the name of the August-September Cruise Prize Draw winner: Elisabeth Lundqvist. Elisabeth goes by the screenname marialinnea and her name was selected as the lucky winner of the Mediterranean Cruise Prize Draw for September 2015. She was delighted at having won the cruise: ‘It was the best thing that has happened to me for a long time. Exactly what we needed! A longed for vacation.’

The Dream Cruise Draw is the signature promotional attraction at CasinoCruise.com. Mrs Lundqvist + 1 will be setting sail from Rome, Italy for a 10-night Eastern Mediterranean cruise that will take passengers to Sicily, Mykonos, Kusadasi, Rhodes, Santorini, Piraeus, Naples and back to Rome.  The award-winning Celebrity Reflection Cruise ship will be whisking players across the Med to these idyllic destinations.

Affiliate Program Director of CasinoCruise.com, congratulated Elisabeth Lundqvist on her win, ‘This is indeed a fantastic reason to celebrate. Elisabeth will thoroughly enjoy this 10-day Mediterranean vacation and we wish her all the best on her travels. The Dream Cruise Prize Draw is one of the most popular promos on deck and it ranks highly with all of our players.’

Players at CasinoCruise.com will receive a ticket to the Win a Dream Cruise Vacation for every $50 deposited. The promo period began at 00:01 GMT on August 1st 2015 and ran through 23:59 GMT on 30th September 2015. The tourist destinations change from one draw to the next, with only the crème de la crème being selected by organizers at CasinoCruise.com.

SlotJoint.com, a Canadian-founded online casino, today announced a return to player (RTP) self-check feature that allows casino players to check whether games are paying out as advertised.

With numerous online casinos to choose from, Integrity and Responsible Gaming protection are growing areas of importance for players selecting which casino to play with. The SlotJoint return to player (RTP) self-check feature addresses these requirements and needs of the player. The player can check whether games are paying out as advertised by viewing the actual RTP to theoretical RTP.

Furthermore in addition to standard self-exclusion tools, players are able to automatically flush all payment requests. This flushing feature was developed to promote responsible gaming by preventing players from reversing payout requests.

A spokesperson for SlotJoint.com commented that “The growing array of choice for mobile and desktop casino players can be very confusing in regards to what platforms and games are reputable. At SlotJoint we publish the theoretical pay-out percentages for each game at our site. These payout rates can be viewed from the game tab when the list mode is selected. Also, players can view their return to player (RTP) in their Player Account. This allows players to double check that the games are paying as advertised. Thus creating a fully transparent and trust communication with players in what matters to them most – the payout of the games.”