Monthly Archives: March 2017

Bodog inks shirt sponsorship of Brazilian footballers Corinthians Steamrollers

Online gambling brand Bodog has signed a shirt sponsorship deal with Brazilian footballers Corinthians Steamrollers.

On Monday, Bodog announced a pact with the Sao Paolo-based Steamrollers, who play American-style football in the São Paulo Football League of the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol Americano, and are an offshoot of powerhouse football/soccer powerhouse Sports Club Corinthians Paulista. Terms and duration of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The Corinthians’ tie-up is a natural fit for Bodog, which recently announced a major expansion into Latin America. Bodog brand PR director Ed Pownall said he wouldn’t pretend that the company “knew much about the Steamrollers when we launched in the region, but the Corinthian brand and the American football angle seemed like a good fit for us.”

Corinthians Steamrollers president Ricardo Trigo said it was “great to see new brands coming into the sports” and hoped that Bodog’s international presence “can help both the Steamrollers and the sport grow further in the region and beyond.”

Irish court rules all gambling debts are unenforceable

Ireland’s gamblers have no guarantee on collecting gambling winnings they believe they’re owed, according to a new court ruling.

On Monday, Judge Francis Comerford issued a ruling that plaintiff Sayed Mirwais couldn’t collect on €11,713 he’d won playing an automated roulette machine at D1 Casino Club, a private members gambling venue in Dublin, in the spring of 2015.

Mirwais told the court that he’d won around €7,500 playing the machine, but when he went to cash out his winnings, he was given €2,500 in cash and €5k in casino chips and told to keep playing and he could collect the rest of his winnings in cash at the end of the night.

Mirwais went on to win an additional €6,713 but was told by the casino cashier that the venue had no more cash on hand and that he’d have to return the following day to collect his due. However, the casino also informed Mirwais that a casino engineer would be checking the roulette machine for anomalies.

Cyprus doles out more online sports betting licenses

Gaming regulators in the Republic of Cyprus continue their slow rollout of online sports betting licenses nearly six months after imposing their new online regulatory scheme last November.

On Monday, the National Betting Authority (NBA) confirmed the issuance of two new official online betting licenses to Paddy Power Betfair’s Betfair brand and to Meridian Gaming (CY) Ltd, which operates via the Meridianbet.com.cy domain in Cyprus.

The two licensees join UK online betting mainstays Bet365’s Cyprus subsidiary, as well as Bet On Alfa Ltd and Gambling Malta Ltd’s Stoiximan brand, as the only other operators currently granted full authorization by the NBA to offer online betting services to Cypriot punters.

The NBA issued eight transitional online betting licenses last November to companies including GVC Holdings’ betting brand Sportingbet and the Tain-powered Winmasters brand. That move followed just one month after the NBA began accepting applications for the new online licenses.

Mansion Group announce Casino.com rebrand

Mansion are proud to unveil a new logo and visual identity for their flagship brand, Casino.com.

The rebranding of this unique and impressive domain comes as Mansion continue to refine their online casino brand portfolio as part of a wider group strategy, to ensure the products they offer across all platforms are second-to-none.

With a sleek and modern new logo and look, plus an exciting fresh website design on both desktop and mobile, Mansion are excited by the strength of the new branding working alongside the enviable domain name.

Focus for the new website design was on ensuring a simple and user-friendly interface, taking best-practice inspiration from leading ecommerce giants outside of the gaming industry.

Kangwon Land outlook revised amid South Korea political crisis

International credit-debt watcher Morgan Stanley has downgraded its outlook on South Korea’s Kangwon Land amid political turmoil in the country.

In its latest report, Morgan Stanley pointed out that South Korea’s sole locals-only casino took a beating due to the political crisis that resulted to the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye. The turmoil has sent the casino operator at “2014 levels,” according to Morgan Stanley.

Also weighing Kangwon Land down, according to the international financial institution, was the uncertainty on whether a second casino catering for locals might be allowed in South Korea. Morgan Stanley issued its note following a visit to the property and meetings with Kangwon Land’s management.

“We are now at levels seen in 2014, with annual sales/net profit [at] 17 percent/27 percent below our current 2017 estimates,” read the analysis prepared by Morgan Stanley analyst Jay Lee in Seoul and his colleagues Praveen Choudhary and Alex Poon based in Hong Kong. “We think key market concerns were around: regulatory uncertainties (losing monopoly license amid discussion on the second locals-open casino); and earnings momentum slowing.”

Veikkaus-win2day go live with industry-first Playtech cross-border poker network

London: March 20th 2017 – Veikkaus and win2day have this week gone live with the industry’s first cross-border poker network powered by Playtech.

In an industry-first, the respective Finnish and Austrian gaming brands have joined forces to launch a joint poker network using liquidity from both player bases. This has instantly doubled the number of customers playing the widest variety of omni-channel poker products via a dedicated Playtech-powered iPoker network.

This is the first time that two regulated entities have joined forces to share cross-border poker liquidity and follows win2day meeting a series of stringent responsibility standards accredited by Veikkaus and the Finnish authorities.

The liquidity sharing agreement was approved by the Finnish Ministry of Interior on December 8th and the Austrian Ministry of Finance on August 8th last year. Veikkaus, that merged with RAY and Fintoto earlier this year to form a new entity, and win2day, previously had to limit online poker to domestic players only.

FSB Technology partners with Mintbet.com

Irish betting retailer, Mintbet, has made the move online using software provided by FSB Tech.

Mintbet is the exciting and dynamic online rebrand of McBrides Racing Ltd, benefitting from over 40 years of industry experience as the family run bookmaker of choice for customers in the Republic and Northern Ireland. This longevity in the Irish market gives Mintbet an immediate and vital trust factor in the online world as founder and CEO Thomas McBride explains:

“Going online was a natural development for the Mintbet brand and one that I hope both existing and new customer will enjoy. We will continue to offer value and a range of markets to suit everybody and the fact that the people of Ireland know the brand will be a great help in a competitive market. The tools FSB provide will help Mintbet to build on our existing Irish business whilst putting us in great standing to compete throughout the UK.”

Richard Thorp, FSB Tech’s Business Development Director, added: “It is always exciting to see a business expanding into a new realm and we are confident our product will help Mintbet break new ground online.”

EnergyCasino adds Evolution Gaming live tables

EnergyCasino is proud to announce the addition of live dealer table games from Evolution Gaming, to their growing Live Casino line-up. With 7 new Roulette, 36 new Blackjack, 5 new Baccarat, and 1 new Casino Hold’Em tables, the addition of Evolution Gaming products will massively increase the choice for EnergyCasino Live Casino players.

Evolution Gaming tables available at EnergyCasino include standard Roulette, Immersive Roulette, French Roulette Gold, Benelux Slingshot, Blackjack Party, Blackjack Fortune VIP, Blackjack Grand VIP, Blackjack Platinum VIP, Blackjack Diamond VIP, Baccarat, Punto Banco, Baccarat Squeeze, Casino Hold’Em, and many more.

The production values and user experience of the Evolution Gaming tables is among the very best in the industry, with authentic sets and knowledgeable professional dealers. EnergyCasino CEO Marcin Sapinski explained “When we saw the sheer quality of the product on offer from Evolution, we knew that we wanted to bring it to on-board and offer it to EnergyCasino players. For quite a while now, Energy has been known for its world-beating range of slots, and we’re confident we’ll soon have the same reputation as a world-class live casino too.”

Though the Evolution Gaming tables will only be available to the UK market initially, there will also be 7 new native language roulette tables, consisting of Swedish, English, German, Flemish, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish; meaning EnergyCasino will be even more attractive for the large numbers of non-English speakers, resident in the UK.

iGaming Asia Congress 2017 adds one-day masterclass, new speakers

After a successful showing last year, the iGaming Asia Congress is set to return next week at the Grand Hyatt Macau.

iGaming Asia Congress is considered to be the leading social casino and mobile gaming event in Asia today, whose goal is to bring out the latest opportunities, strategies and innovations for social casino operators as well as mobile gaming executives in the region.

In 2016, regional market strategies were at the center of panel discussions, where experts discussed how to develop strategies to keep up with the ever-changing player preferences. The event also focused on innovations in the online casino, sports betting and eSports sector. But one of the key moments during last year’s iGA was the launch of the newly-formed Macau Gaming Information Association (MGIA), whose goal is to promote the gaming industry as well as the exchange of information among the industry’s movers and shakers.

So what’s new for 2017 at the upcoming iGaming Asia Congress?

Ninja Casino begins significant marketing drive with multi-media advertising campaign in Scandinavia

Monday, March 20, 2017 (Malmo, Sweden) – Global Gaming has begun a multi-media marketing campaign for its flagship Ninja Casino brand, with on and offline spots across TV, display, digital video and radio.

The campaign started in Sweden with an advert designed to create intrigue in the one-of-a-kind, lightning quick gaming experience, which features no registration, and instant cash payouts.

Set in a public toilet, the humorous clip features the award-winning operator’s trademark ninja character. It demonstrates how easy it is to play Ninja Casino on the go, and how quickly winnings can be paid.

The in-house produced advert marks the first step in a concerted 2017 marketing campaign that will be delivered throughout Sweden and Finland.

Russian bankers to discuss blockchain application on April 19

On April 19, Moscow will host a session dedicated to the application of blockchain technologies in the banking sector within annual Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Russia. It will engage representatives of Sberbank, Alfa Bank and other companies, actively implementing blockchain in business processes.

Why Russian bankers are interested in blockchain

Early in the year, it has transpired that Sberbank has developed a prototype of currency exchange service using blockchain. It is noted that the system operates perfectly and now the matter depends on the regulation issue.

Another project also draws attention: the platform for registering product supply data according to factoring agreements. The project was tested by Sberbank along with M.Video company. The system allows to speed up goods dispatch and making payments: phone conversations and long corresponding are not required any more.

Money does buy happiness, says lottery group survey

It turns out that one of the most popular cliches—that money can’t buy happiness—may not be true.

A recent survey conducted for lottery groups in Australia showed that it take AUD$10 million (US$7.7 million) to realize their dream and be happy.

ReachTel, the organization commissioned by lottery groups in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and NSW to conduct the survey, found that 30.4 percent of Australians believe that winning at least $10 million in a lottery would be ideal to make their dreams a reality.

Some 24.3 percent of the respondents, on the other hand, are contented with AUS$1 million (US$772,460). The results, according to the survey firm, was in contrast to a similar survey conducted six months ago, which showed that AUS$1 million is enough to fulfill their dreams.