Monthly Archives: February 2017

Cherry completes grand slam of industry awards

Cherry has won a grand slam of industry titles at the International Gaming Awards, marking the fourth consecutive year that the group has been honoured at the ceremony.

ComeOn, which was acquired by Cherry in 2016, was named Online Sportsbook Operator of the Year.

Hans Martin Nakkim, spokesperson at ComeOn, said: “ComeOn has built one of the most respected and talented teams in sports betting, so we are thrilled that our hard work and commitment to innovation has been recognised.”

Yggdrasil Gaming, which has enjoyed a hugely successful 12 months, including a number of major new operator signings and industry-first launches, was named Innovator of the Year.

Yggdrasil crowned Innovator of the Year

Back-to-back wins at the International Gaming Awards for fast-growing supplier

7th February, 2017 – Yggdrasil Gaming has won Innovator of the Year at the 10th International Gaming Awards, the latest in a growing list of accolades for the supplier.

At the same awards 12 months ago, Yggdrasil was voted Gaming Software Supplier of the Year, while the company also won Slot Provider of the Year at the 2016 EGR B2B Awards.

It has been a huge year for the company, which has received a number of new licences, signed numerous major operators and introduced ground-breaking, industry-first promotional tools.

Yggdrasil crowned Innovator of the Year

Back-to-back wins at the International Gaming Awards for fast-growing supplier

7th February, 2017 – Yggdrasil Gaming has won Innovator of the Year at the 10th International Gaming Awards, the latest in a growing list of accolades for the supplier.

At the same awards 12 months ago, Yggdrasil was voted Gaming Software Supplier of the Year, while the company also won Slot Provider of the Year at the 2016 EGR B2B Awards.

It has been a huge year for the company, which has received a number of new licences, signed numerous major operators and introduced ground-breaking, industry-first promotional tools.

Yggdrasil crowned Innovator of the Year

Back-to-back wins at the International Gaming Awards for fast-growing supplier

7th February, 2017 – Yggdrasil Gaming has won Innovator of the Year at the 10th International Gaming Awards, the latest in a growing list of accolades for the supplier.

At the same awards 12 months ago, Yggdrasil was voted Gaming Software Supplier of the Year, while the company also won Slot Provider of the Year at the 2016 EGR B2B Awards.

It has been a huge year for the company, which has received a number of new licences, signed numerous major operators and introduced ground-breaking, industry-first promotional tools.

Yggdrasil crowned Innovator of the Year

Back-to-back wins at the International Gaming Awards for fast-growing supplier

7th February, 2017 – Yggdrasil Gaming has won Innovator of the Year at the 10th International Gaming Awards, the latest in a growing list of accolades for the supplier.

At the same awards 12 months ago, Yggdrasil was voted Gaming Software Supplier of the Year, while the company also won Slot Provider of the Year at the 2016 EGR B2B Awards.

It has been a huge year for the company, which has received a number of new licences, signed numerous major operators and introduced ground-breaking, industry-first promotional tools.

Matching Visions to gamify iGaming affiliates with ‘Matching Missions’ feature

Matching Visions is breaking new grounds in the iGaming affiliate sector with its new feature, Matching Missions.

Aimed at gamifying the sector, Matching Missions is the first of its kind feature that “follows up on the great successes had by numerous casinos and more recently, sportsbooks, with gamification, according to the firm.

The feature offers affiliates “missions” to complete each month for cash rewards, Matching Visions told CalvinAyre.com. Andreas Lilja, product development specialist, described Matching Missions as “something revolutionary.”

“We’re attempting to change and revolutionize the iGaming affiliate industry one step at a time, and we feel this new feature will add yet another unique twist to our network that will keep our loyal affiliates coming back again and again,” Liljas said in a statement.

Matching Visions to gamify iGaming affiliates with ‘Matching Missions’ feature

Matching Visions is breaking new grounds in the iGaming affiliate sector with its new feature, Matching Missions.

Aimed at gamifying the sector, Matching Missions is the first of its kind feature that “follows up on the great successes had by numerous casinos and more recently, sportsbooks, with gamification, according to the firm.

The feature offers affiliates “missions” to complete each month for cash rewards, Matching Visions told CalvinAyre.com. Andreas Lilja, product development specialist, described Matching Missions as “something revolutionary.”

“We’re attempting to change and revolutionize the iGaming affiliate industry one step at a time, and we feel this new feature will add yet another unique twist to our network that will keep our loyal affiliates coming back again and again,” Liljas said in a statement.

IWG seals GVC deal

New product line for operator as it launches instant win games across its portfolio of brands

London, 7th February, 2017 – IWG – a world leader in supplying online, instant win games – has signed a deal to deliver its content to GVC Holdings.

The supplier’s full suite of instant win games will be made available to GVC via its remote game server, allowing the operator to roll-out instants across its portfolio of brands.

IWG has provided a full online instant win service to lotteries for over 15 years, producing more than 250 high quality instant win games.

IWG seals GVC deal

New product line for operator as it launches instant win games across its portfolio of brands

London, 7th February, 2017 – IWG – a world leader in supplying online, instant win games – has signed a deal to deliver its content to GVC Holdings.

The supplier’s full suite of instant win games will be made available to GVC via its remote game server, allowing the operator to roll-out instants across its portfolio of brands.

IWG has provided a full online instant win service to lotteries for over 15 years, producing more than 250 high quality instant win games.

IWG seals GVC deal

New product line for operator as it launches instant win games across its portfolio of brands

London, 7th February, 2017 – IWG – a world leader in supplying online, instant win games – has signed a deal to deliver its content to GVC Holdings.

The supplier’s full suite of instant win games will be made available to GVC via its remote game server, allowing the operator to roll-out instants across its portfolio of brands.

IWG has provided a full online instant win service to lotteries for over 15 years, producing more than 250 high quality instant win games.

How high stakes FOBTs save lives

It was back in October when William Hill stock had a chance to jump higher quickly on merger rumors with Amaya. The chances were high enough that the deal would not go through so as not to take a position. Sure enough, one week later, the deal fell through. Hill is now stuck looking for organic growth, which it is not getting. The online segment continues to struggle, and retail revenues were only up 4% as of the last half year report due to a higher win percentage. Amounts wagered were actually lower. For consistent growth, volumes are more important than the amount of revenues you take home.

The stock is now a more decent buy having fallen 11.5% since October when the rumors were flying, but right now there is nothing inherent that would cause shares to rise. In fact, 2017 has begun with a bad omen as William Hill lost six figures on Super Bowl betting despite record volumes while most of its competitors came out on top. That has nothing fundamentally to do with the bookie itself but there is still too much risk to its business from government encroachment.

Retail accounts for 57% of William Hill’s top line. Fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) are a big part of that, and they’re under attack. The standard moralist argument is that FOBTs cause poverty and anguish and take advantage of innocent people who spin £100 of borrowed loan shark money every 20 seconds for hours and lose everything. And then hit men come and break their legs when they can’t pay and there’s been a spate of paraplegics with broken legs in poor neighborhoods and it’s all William Hill’s fault and if only these FOBTs weren’t so dangerous there would be no poverty and we’d all be back in the Garden of Eden. Because of course poor neighborhoods and gambling addiction never existed before FOBTs and for sure everything would be better if the limits were cut to £2 a spin. Sociology is an exact science and we know exactly what will happen with precision if the betting limits were to be cut in the way we arbitrarily decided because we all have PhD’s.

This is dangerous and shallow thinking teeming with hubris and guilt-tripping. It’s what F.A. Hayek calls The Fatal Conceit, imagining that we know the consequences of any policy aimed at social engineering. You look at one obvious and shallow cause and effect and think that it is the end-all-be-all. In this case you see a guy in debt placing irresponsible bets at a terminal and conclude that it’s the terminal that is causing the irresponsible behavior and not something inherent within the person who is only using the terminal as an outlet for whatever his personal demons happen to be.

Paysafe appoints Oscar Nieboer as Chief Marketing Officer

Former Amazon, PayPal and Betfair marketing chief joins Group’s exec team

7 February 2017 – London: Paysafe announces that Oscar Nieboer has been appointed as the Group’s first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), joining the payment provider’s executive leadership team and reporting to Paysafe President and CEO Joel Leonoff.

Nieboer brings extensive experience in ecommerce, technology and payments. He has worked both in the UK and Silicon Valley, holding senior strategic roles with companies including Amazon, PayPal and Betfair.

Leonoff said: “While our business with its growing portfolio of payment products and services has been at the forefront of change and innovation for many years, 2016 marked the first full year under our new Paysafe brand identity. With our ongoing growth and bold ambitions in the payments space, we welcome Oscar to the team with great enthusiasm and anticipation as we take our business and brand to the next level.”

Paysafe appoints Oscar Nieboer as Chief Marketing Officer

Former Amazon, PayPal and Betfair marketing chief joins Group’s exec team

7 February 2017 – London: Paysafe announces that Oscar Nieboer has been appointed as the Group’s first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), joining the payment provider’s executive leadership team and reporting to Paysafe President and CEO Joel Leonoff.

Nieboer brings extensive experience in ecommerce, technology and payments. He has worked both in the UK and Silicon Valley, holding senior strategic roles with companies including Amazon, PayPal and Betfair.

Leonoff said: “While our business with its growing portfolio of payment products and services has been at the forefront of change and innovation for many years, 2016 marked the first full year under our new Paysafe brand identity. With our ongoing growth and bold ambitions in the payments space, we welcome Oscar to the team with great enthusiasm and anticipation as we take our business and brand to the next level.”

NetEnt pioneers online casino with real-money Virtual Reality slot

NetEnt, leading provider of digital casino solutions, today announces that it will develop and launch its first real-money Virtual Reality slot game to the online casino market. Gonzo’s Quest, one of the company’s most popular titles, will pilot this new game venture.

NetEnt continues to drive the digital casino market by committing to develop and launch its first online casino game for the rapidly emerging Virtual Reality (VR) market. The use of VR is a growing trend among consumers and research shows that online players are starting to look for alternative, more immersive gaming experiences.

NetEnt eagerly tracks technology advancements and believes that WebVR technology will be mature enough to offer basic support for VR game-play in 2017/2018. NetEnt’s ambition is to respond to that by adding the Gonzo’s Quest VR game to its current multi-channel offering and to distribute it through the existing NetEnt Casino Module to maximise reach and availability for its customers.

Per Eriksson, CEO of NetEnt, comments: “We firmly believe that VR has a given place in the future of online gaming, based on our research and the trends that we monitor. We remain focused on delivering the ultimate entertainment experience by taking this first step towards developing our first real-money VR slot. This is a milestone for NetEnt and the gaming industry.”

The park is open. Microgaming celebrates Jurassic World on Day 1 of ICE 2017

Factsheet: Released in the summer of 2015, Jurassic World tore onto cinema screens 22 years after the original Jurassic Park film. It had the second-biggest worldwide opening weekend in history and is currently the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time.

Microgaming signed a licensing agreement with Universal Brand Development in 2016 to create an online slot based on the blockbuster film. This is in addition to the Jurassic Park franchise deal that was announced in January 2014 and resulted in the award-winning Jurassic Park online slot that roared to life in August of the same year.

To celebrate the game’s launch in 2017, Microgaming has created its very own Jurassic World at ICE on Day 1, on the Microgaming Bar (N5 – 120). The entire bar is themed, containing dinosaur eggs, mosquitoes preserved in amber, as well as the installation of a mammoth 5m x 5m shark-eating Mosasaurus, a replica of the genetically modified reptile from the Late Cretaceous period, featured in the blockbuster Jurassic World movie.

Jurassic World online slot will go live in the summer. Players can relive the timeless adventure which is packed full of features, dangerous dinosaurs and daring heroes, as well as familiar clips from the film itself.

Oddsmakers pick ‘Lemonade’ to win 2017 Grammy Awards Album of the Year

If there is one thing that we’re sure about Beyonce, it’s that she rarely loses. But her supremacy is about to get tested—again—this weekend at the 59th Grammy Awards, because let’s face it, Queen Bey is up against some competition.

“Lemonade” is arguably one of Beyonce’s most successful albums—and this is coming from someone who’s considered to be the most nominated and the second-most awarded woman in Grammy history with 20 awards and 62 nominations, respectively. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that “Lemonade” is a betting favorite.

At online sportsbook Bodog, Beyonce has 1/2 odds to win Album of the Year for “Lemonade.” Adele, however, might give her a run for her money as “25” is also up for the award with 2/1 chances of winning. Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” has 9/1 odds of winning, while Drake’s “Views” has 15/1 odds, and Sturgill Simpson’s “A Sailors Guide to the Earth” has 22/1 odds.

Meanwhile, the Best New Artist Award has an interesting mix of nominees. Chance The Rapper is the frontrunner with 4/9 odds, but The Chainsmokers are intriguing at 5/2. Rounding up the nominees are Maren Morris (7/1), Anderson Paak (18/1), and Kelsea Ballerini (20/1).

‘Zoolander 2’ faces off with ‘Batman v Superman’ for 2017 Razzies

On the night before Oscars, we get to award last year’s “crop of cinematic crap”—and the 2017 Golden Raspberry awards, aka the Razzies, is gearing up to be a titanic battle to death between “Zoolander 2” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

The fashion industry satire is leading the Razzies nomination list with nine, while DC’s attempt to compete with Marvel on the big screen comes in close second with eight nominations.

At Bodog, “Batman v Superman” is a favorite to win Worst Picture with 2/3, followed by “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” with 4/1 odds. “Zoolander 2” has 4/1 odds of winning, while “Independence Day: Resurgence” has 9/1. Rounding the list of nominees are “Dirty Grandpa” with 18/1 and “Gods of Egypt” with 18/1.

“Batman v Superman” is also a favorite to win Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel with 2/3 odds, while “Zoolander 2” has 9/2 odds. Also nominated for the award are “Independence Day: Resurgence” (4/1), “Fifty Shades of Black” (11/1), “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (12/1), and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” (15/1).

iGB Affiliate Awards to honour industry’s best

February, 2017 (London) – iGB Affiliate, the leading information provider for the iGaming affiliate industry, has confirmed that the 2017 iGB Affiliate Awards will take place at The Brewery in London on Saturday, 11th February.

The awards celebrate the achievements of those working in the igaming affiliate sector over the last 12 months.

This year’s awards will focus on what companies have done to maintain and grow their position during the period, and how they have stood apart from the crowd.

The theme for the awards is 1,001 nights, with attendees set to enjoy snake charmers, belly dancers and an immersive theatre group acting out scenes from the famous stories.

Analysts upbeat on Macau’s GGR in February

Several analysts have expressed optimism of a better gross gaming revenue this month, quickly brushing aside the disappointing January data.

The cause of optimism for HongKong-based brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd., JP Morgan Securities Asia Ltd., and Telsey Advisory Group is the unnoficial industry data of Macau casino’s gross gaming revenue for the first week of February.

The unofficial record showed that Macau GGR for the first five days of February was at MOP1.26-billion (US$157.69 million), which according to JP Morgan Securities Asia Ltd analysts DS Kim and Sean Zhuang was “second highest on record.”

 “This is the best daily run rate in 2.5 years (same as 2014 October Golden Week’s), and the second highest Chinese New Year run-rate on record (only after 2014 Chinese New Year, which was MOP1.6 billion per day),” the analysts said in its note issued on Monday.

Analysts upbeat on Macau’s GGR in February

Several analysts have expressed optimism of a better gross gaming revenue this month, quickly brushing aside the disappointing January data.

The cause of optimism for HongKong-based brokerage Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd., JP Morgan Securities Asia Ltd., and Telsey Advisory Group is the unnoficial industry data of Macau casino’s gross gaming revenue for the first week of February.

The unofficial record showed that Macau GGR for the first five days of February was at MOP1.26-billion (US$157.69 million), which according to JP Morgan Securities Asia Ltd analysts DS Kim and Sean Zhuang was “second highest on record.”

 “This is the best daily run rate in 2.5 years (same as 2014 October Golden Week’s), and the second highest Chinese New Year run-rate on record (only after 2014 Chinese New Year, which was MOP1.6 billion per day),” the analysts said in its note issued on Monday.