Multi-player mobile bingo, YouTube sports channels and the world’s first crowd lottery among 20 businesses to pitch at ICE Totally Gaming 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2014 (London, UK) – GamCrowd.com and Clarion Events has announced the final line-up of entrants for Pitch ICE, to take place at Stand N7-460.

Presented by GamCrowd.com, Pitch ICE is a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas in front of attendees and potential investors at ICE 2015.

The final 20 start-ups will each have a 15 minute slot to sell their business or concept on the show floor over the three days of ICE 2015, at ExCeL London from February 3-5. A wide variety of companies will be present, incorporating social gaming, online casino, online poker and more.

“This is a unique opportunity for start-up gambling businesses to get their idea off the ground in front of key industry decision-makers and potential investors at ICE Totally Gaming,” said GamCrowd CEO, Chris North. “The response to Pitch ICE has been incredible. As delegates will see, the programme is diverse, with concepts that could have an impact on many different areas of the gambling industry. We believe there are numerous stand-out ideas that have the potential to be very successful.”

Asylum Labs is one of the companies shortlisted. The innovative company aims to re-invent classic casino games for the 21st century by making them more social and focusing on online communities. Their key product, Wild Party Bingo, is a multi-player bingo game that allows players to join friends and either co-operate with or compete against them. Unique in-game features and a focus on social interaction could change the way that bingo is played online and on mobile in the future.

Sporting Savvy is a global network of YouTube channels across a variety of sports, including horse racing, Formula 1 and rugby. The channels focuses on reviews, insights and sports betting knowledge from respected experts who bring a dedicated audience with them. YouTube has over 1 billion unique users each month[i] and Sporting Savvy is one of the site’s original premium partners, meaning that the company can also create sponsored and branded content that many other channels cannot do.

Daily fantasy sports site FanDuel has reported its revenue numbers for the fourth quarter of 2014 and as can be expected from a site that has seen its exposure in the US market explode, FanDuel’s revenues in the last quarter of the year has skyrocketed up to $37 million, a significant improvement from its revenue numbers in the same time last year when it posted $7.4 million. For the entire year of 2014, FanDuel reported earning a total net revenue of $54 million.

The popularity of FanDuel’s daily fantasy format has even forced the company to address the challenge of the demand growing too fast, thus the need to expand its own business operations. “[FanDuel] is proving so popular that our main challenge now is meeting customer demand, we have over 125 staff split between offices in New York and Edinburgh and are planning on opening an office in Glasgow soon,” founder and CEO Nigel Eccles said, as quoted by the Herald Scotland.

The growing interest in the daily fantasy sports format in the US – it is legal there – has even given FanDuel the opportunity to leverage that popularity with partnerships with a variety of US pro sports teams, most notably in the NBA where it already has existing deals with the likes of the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, and most recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fan Duel also has a four-year deal with the NBA, which recognizes it as the league’s official daily fantasy sports provider.

FanDuel’s reach in the US is evident based on numbers. According to the company, it accounts for 80 percent of the market and its fan base has exponentially grown from having 190,000 active paying users last year to well over 1 million this year. The company has even launched an iPhone app, which has been downloaded just under 900,000 times.

FanDuel also reported $371 million in player entry fees from October-December, which accounts for 69 percent of the market. That’s more than double than the $166 million in player entry fees its closest rival, DraftKings, earned in the same period.

FanDuel’s status as the clear no.1 daily fantasy sports site in the US is something even rival DraftKings seem to have accepted. The company’s CEO, Jason Robbins, seemed to admit as much, telling the New York Business Journal his “disappointment” over not getting enough gains in shares over its rival site.

All this shows how healthy the daily fantasy sports market is in the US. It’s going to be interesting how the two sites and the rest of the other fringe players can handle losing the NFL season – by far the most popular fantasy sport – but then again, the NBA is still around. That’s good for FanDuel because it can tap into its partnership with the league to continue to drum up interest in its daily fantasy sports offerings.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is taking steps toward ensuring betting integrity for all of its competitions after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS).

As part of the deal, the FIH can use the intelligence sharing digital platform and access a network of monitoring and data-sharing information, which could help the federation address issues pertaining to illegal sports betting while creating framework for transparency and confidentiality for all parties involved.

Before the FIH and IOC tie up, there are seven Olympic winter sports federations and a number of Olympic summer sports federations have already partnered with IOC in time for the upcoming 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“We are pleased to sign up to IBIS and to be working together with the IOC in the fight against corruption in sport,” FIH President Leandro Negre said in a statement.

“As the world governing body of hockey, it is our responsibility to ensure the integrity of the sport is upheld and protected from the threats that are match-fixing and corruption. We are confident that this partnership will help safeguard hockey and all other Olympic sports and see it as an excellent step forward.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s Serie B has struck a deal with sports integrity specialist Sportradar, paving the way for Italy’s second division to take full advantage of the latter’s famous sports security services. The agreement between the two sides will cover the rest of the current season, in addition to the next two seasons.

As part of the deal, Sportradar will be tasked to run workshops and supply e-learning packages for the league’s 22 clubs on both the senior and youth levels.

iGaming and sports betting platform and technology supplier EveryMatrix has announced the appointment of Diane Dalli as its new Chief Financial Officer, directly reporting to the company CEO Ebbe Groes.

An experienced iGaming executive, Dalli joins EveryMatrix, having spent more than twelve years in the industry, from gambling technology firm Evolution where she served as Group Finance Manager from 2013 to 2014.

She has held a number of high-profile financial roles before joining Evolution from Nordic Gaming Group, where she began as chief accountant before being promoted to the role of CFO. During her tenure, she restructured the operator’s accounting department and prepared the company for its acquisition by Betsson in June 2012. She also served as chief executive of white label solution provider Melita Gaming Network, financial controller of French-facing operator ZEturf, and assistant financial controller of Betclic Everest’s Expekt brand.

Dalli specializes in implementing cost effective and efficiency led financial strategies which will aid EveryMatrix as the igaming technology supplier looking to expand its services into new burgeoning markets.

“We are thrilled to have a highly experienced finance professional such as Diane join EveryMatrix. Her financial management expertise in the online gaming sector is exactly what our business needs in order to become even more responsive in meeting our customers’ needs and anticipating industry trends,” said Ebbe Groes, CEO of EveryMatrix.

London-listed mobile gaming platform provider Nektan PLC also announces David Gosen as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

As the new CEO, he assumes responsibility for the company’s day-to-day operations and implementing the business’ short- and long-term strategy, with a focus on European expansion and product development.

Casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG) has signed on to manage the biggest casino in Malta. The 2,700-square-metre Casino Malta project, which is slated to open before the end of the year, will cost €10m – of which €7m will be paid by OEG – and host over 250 slot machines, around 30 gaming tables and a sportsbook. The operation will be run by OEG’s wholly owned subsidiaries OEG Malta Gaming Limited and OEG Malta Holding Limited.

In December, the Maltese government awarded a new casino concession to hotel and entertainment outfit Eden Leisure, which controls the island’s Intercontinental Malta and Holiday Inn Express hotels, as well as a radio station, cinemas, health clubs and the Bay Arena.

After a competitive bid process for the right to manage the casino operations. Eden executive chairman Ian De Cesare said OEG was selected due to its “wealth of experience” and the fact that the two companies share “a similar ethos” with regards to customer service and entertainment.

OEG chairman Armin Karu said his company had been looking for opportunities to expand into “popular holiday destinations” and the Malta project was “a large step forward in making our expansion plans comes true.” OEG is primarily based in the Baltic region but also had operations in Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Belarus.

In its 2014 earnings report card, OEG reported full year revenue up 3.8% to €141m. Latvian operations rose 21.1% to €43.9m, Lithuania was up 3.3% to €20.9m and OEG’s fledgling Italian business nearly doubled to €6.4m. Things weren’t so rosy in Estonia, which fell 2.6% to €31.6m, while Poland fell 16.9% to €22.5m and Slovakia fell 3.4% to €14m.

MALTA LGA REBRANDS

In other Malta gaming news, the Lotteries & Gaming Authority has decided to rebrand under the moniker Malta Gaming Authority. Executive chairman Joseph Cuschieri said the rebrand was intended to provide “a better representation of the Authority’s heritage, pass successes, vision and values within the national agenda and in line with our strategic objectives.” The MGA has a new website at www.mga.org.mt.

Three small stories from the relatively new world of online cryptocurrency online poker sites, as GetLuckyPoker opens in beta mode; Winning Poker starts cashing out in Bitcoin, and Breakout Gaming goes quiet.

The future of online poker?

It’s just a shame that it all seems so damn complicated. Or maybe I’m a bit thick? After all, I did just admit to Jonathan Little that I don’t even understand the basic math that any poker player needs just to be ‘competent.’

But there are people out there that get it. And I’m glad. It keeps the grubby hands of the men in power away from our money, and I’m all for that. I better start learning what all the fuss is about. Get over my learned helplessness.

The Winning Poker Network (WPN) believes in the power of Cryptocurrency. The network that houses the likes of America’s Cardroom and BetcoinPoker has broadened their appeal by adding both deposit and withdrawal options in Bitcoin.

If you choose to deposit with Bitcoin the amount is immediately converted to U.S dollars. This removes the headache of managing price fluctuations in line with the market. The same then happens in reverse when it’s time to withdraw your funds back to your Bitcoin wallet.

It’s an obvious move for the American facing network. It keeps them deep in the grey area of legality by allowing them to claim that Bitcoin is not a recognized form of currency in the US, and therefore doesn’t fall foul to the laws that are preventing millions of people from playing online poker.

Australian Oliver Gill has taken the third gold ring at the 2015 Aussie Millions after defeating Tony Bloom, in heads-up action, in Event #3: $2,500 8-Game Mixed.

[Image Credit: PokerAsiaPacific]

It was a case of sixth time lucky for Oliver Gill. The Australian finally managing to snag an Aussie Millions gold ring after falling short during his previous five side event final table appearances.

Only 46 players turned up for the event, and at the end of Day 1 there were five players remaining in the contest, with the Brighton FC Chairman, Tony Bloom, leading the way.

It was a cracking final table. Final table chip leader Bloom sat down with over $1.6m in previous cashes in the Aussie Millions, including two runner-up finishes in the $100,000 Challenge (losing to David Steicke in 2009 & Sam Trickett in 2011).

Trying to pull the tail of The Lizard were four players who all had an interesting story to boot. Jonas Mackoff came into the final table in fine form. The Canadian finished fourth in the €1,100 EUREKA Main Event in Prague, and bagged a side event victory at the EPT/UKIPT London Festival in October, but he could only take fifth in this one.

Mikal Blomlie hit the headlines in 2013 when he turned a World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) Leaderboard victory into a 10th place finish at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event for £120,000. He also won the first-ever TonyBet Open Face Chinese Pineapple World Championships in Prague at the end of the year. The Norwegian finished fourth.