Monthly Archives: February 2019

EPL week 54 review: Man City close the gap to two points after Arsenal win

Week 25 of the English Premier League sees Manchester City close the gap at the top to two points after a stunning win against Arsenal, with Liverpool facing West Ham on Monday night.

When Manchester City lost to Newcastle in midweek, the grim reaper arose from his deep sleep beneath the weeds and took an Uber to The Etihad. Fortunately, for Pep Guardiola’s side, the sickle holder booked a return trip.

Since the turn of the year, City has won eight of nine matches, scoring 34 times and conceding only 4, so it’s safe to say the Newcastle defeat was more of a headache than terminal illness.

When Arsenal came to town, it was clear that the City players had taken their aspirin, as they burst into the lead within the first minute. As against Newcastle in midweek it was Sergio Agüero who scored after getting on the end of an Aymeric Laporte cross, after some dawdling from an Arsenal defender.

Ukrainian cops identify founder of Russian online casino Azino777

The man behind Russia’s online gambling bête noire Azino777 has reportedly been identified by Ukrainian police sleuths.

On Monday, Russian-language media outlet The Bell reported that the National Police of Kiev’s Investigation Department had fingered Albert Marselevich Valiakhmetov, a 33-year-old IT specialist from Russia’s Tatarstan region, as the founder of the Russia-facing, Curacao-licensed online casino Azino777.

Azino777 appeared out of nowhere a few years ago and quickly made a name for itself by its relentless promotion on Russian-language file-sharing sites. The site frequently employed flashy videos featuring Russian hip-hop stars singing/rapping the site’s praises.

According to the report, Azino777 was launched by a Ukrainian company named Royal Game, which Valiakhmetov (pictured above in a 2004-era mug shot for disturbing the peace) reportedly founded in 2014. The following year, Valiakhmetov opened an account under the name Royal Game at a Kiev branch of Sberbank, through which Azino777 transactions were later traced. In 2016, just as Azino777 began ramping up its marketing campaign, Valiakhmetov reportedly deleted all his social media accounts.

MyBet’s new owners to relaunch online sportsbook with Kambi help

The new owners of moribund German online gambling operator MyBet plans to relaunch its sportsbook with the help of tech provider Kambi.

On Monday, the Malta-licensed Kambi announced that it had signed a deal with Mybet Holding SE’s “new ownership” that will see the relaunch of MyBet’s German-facing online sportsbook. Kambi says MyBet customers should expect the relaunch to take place sometime during the first half of this year.

According to Kambi’s release, MyBet’s “brand and additional assets have since been purchased by a new investment group.” MyBet’s business will henceforth be operated by Rhinoceros Operations Ltd, which operates the Wunderino online casino under a Malta Gaming Authority B2C license issued in 2016.

Last September, Mybet announced that it was ‘pausing’ its online sportsbook and casino “until further notice” after failing to secure a deal with a potential strategic investor. The company had commenced insolvency proceedings the previous month after negotiations with its would-be sugar daddy came to naught.

Spain’s online gambling growth slowed in 2018

Spain’s online gambling growth slowed dramatically in the final quarter of 2018, despite operators’ marketing spending rising more than one-quarter.

Figures released Wednesday by Spain’s Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) regulatory body show locally licensed online operators generated revenue of €189.5m in the three months ending December 31, 2018. The sum represents a 4.2% rise over Q3 and a 10.7% improvement from the same period in 2017.

Sports betting continued to claim the largest slice of the revenue pie with just under €100m in Q4, but this represented sequential growth of just 2.3% and negative year-on-year growth of 2.1%. Live betting was up 13.1% from Q3 while pre-match wagering fell 5.3%.

Online casino revenue totaled €64.8m in Q4, up 6.4% from Q3 and a nearly one-third year-on-year improvement. Slots revenue rose 42.4% year-on-year to €36.4m, live roulette gained 35.4% to €12.9m, ‘conventional’ roulette nudged up 15.6% to €8.7m and blackjack was up 8.7% to €6.7m.

Casinomeister’s Best and Worst Awards for 2018 – finally announced

Always and still the “only iGaming awards that matter” the Casinomeister 2018 Awards for the online casino industry have now been published at Casinomeister.com for the 2018 calendar year. Casinomeister’s “Best and Worst” awards are held by many in the industry to be some of the most important and prestigious awards given to the online gaming community.

Casinomeister’s Meister Awards for 2018:

This year Videoslots shares the top honours with Trada as “Best Casino of 2018”. Videoslots continues to get awesome reviews by Casinomeister’s forum members but Trada has proved equally popular in this year’s voting to no-one’s surprise. The two were dead-tied in voting for Best Casino by the Casinomeister Advisory Group. Bailey stated, “instead of flipping a coin … I am giving the award to both casinos: Trada Casino and Videoslots. Both of these casinos are just freaking amazing.”

Trada Casino also took the honors for “The Best Customer Service of 2018”, as they have done for the third straight year. Bailey: “Trada Casino is one of the best run casinos in the business and sets a prime example that their competitors should take note of.” Trada’s Rachael Morgan also took the award for Best Casino Manager of 2018 while their Player Manager, Conor Dargle, nailed Best Casino Representative of 2018.

AGS Interactive announces content partnership with online gaming leader Bede Gaming

Company to provide its library of game content to Bede’s operator clients

LAS VEGAS – February 4, 2019 – AGS, (NYSE: AGS) (or the “Company”), a leading designer and supplier of electronic gaming machines, table products, and interactive solutions for the gaming industry, today announced that it has entered into an important partnership with Bede Gaming.

Under the terms of the agreement, AGS provide its real-money game content to Bede’s impressive client roster of some of the world’s most successful and prestigious online gaming brands, including 21.co.uk, Bet UK, Bingo Stars, Grosvenor Casinos, MECCA, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG), Slot Boss, and Sun International – to name a few.

AGS’ AxSys Games Marketplace game aggregation platform will seamlessly integrate with Bede’s powerful gambling platform to offer Bede’s operator partners an even larger and more robust library of high-performing game content, including soon-to-launch AGS game content already proven in land-based casinos.

Playtech BGT Sports promotes John Pettit to chief commercial officer

Management re-structure ahead of ICE will help grow sports betting business

London, 4th February 2019 – Playtech BGT Sports, the market-leading provider of omni-channel sports betting solutions, has announced that John Pettit has been promoted to Chief Commercial Officer.

Pettit, who has been managing director of the UK, Ireland, and Australia, since he joined the provider from Ladbrokes at the end of 2015, will combine his existing role with the management of all customer activities around the world.

As part of a management re-structure designed to support PBS’ plans to enter more regulated markets, a management team with three new territory managing directors will work under him.

OneTouch seals BetConstruct content deal

Market-leading mobile portrait table games available to BetConstruct customers

4th February 2018 – Premium mobile table games developer OneTouch has agreed terms with BetConstruct to supply its leading casino content to the software provider’s portfolio of well-known global brands.

OneTouch’s mobile casino table games are among the industry’s best-performing titles, specialising in portrait-first mobile play, an area few games developers have mastered. The rapidly growing developer is also in the process of finalising plans to launch its first portrait-enabled mobile slot games following the opening of a new studio in Kiev, Ukraine.

BetConstruct is an award-winning software and platform developer and provider offering a host of solutions and products to more than 250 global online and land-based sports betting and gaming brands including the Betsson Group, Interwetten and Tipsport.

Playtech announces 10-year agreement extension with Norsk Tipping

Partnership with Norway’s national gaming operator highlights Playtech’s strength in regulated and newly-regulated markets across Europe

London, 4 Febraury 2018 – Playtech, the world’s leading omni-channel gaming company, today announces that its subsidiary, Videobet, has agreed a 10-year contract extension with Norsk Tipping, Norway’s national gaming operator, to provide the system technology for its video lottery terminal (VLT) gaming system.

The strategic partnership between Playtech and Norsk Tipping, one of the most advanced gaming operators in world, began in 2003. It has seen Videobet’s VLT products and services available in more than a thousand of Norsk Tipping retail outlets across Norway.

The contract extension underlines Playtech’s position as a leading technology supplier in regulated and newly regulated markets, as well as its strategy to partner with, and invest in, the leading brands across these markets. It also reflects Playtech’s strength in retail, and commitment to integrating content across key product verticals.

ICS to highlight content and translation services at ICE

Sports content and digital media specialist to talk to delegates about range of products and services

30 January, 2019 – Leeds: The team from ICS Media Group (ICS), the sports content and digital media specialists, will be heading to London next month to talk about the full range of services they can supply.

ICS will be attending the event, which runs from 5-7 February, and will be talking to operators, suppliers, affiliates and regulators about its range of content, marketing and translation services across written and broadcast media.

This includes its match day radio shows which broadcast on FM radio across Nigeria every Saturday and Sunday, as well as Cheltenham Radio which broadcasts from the racecourse during every day of the Festival. ICS also supplies official horse racing commentary of all UK and Ireland races as well as commentaries on all Premier League games.

Banach Technology launch Soccer Player Props with Ladbrokes & Coral

Following on from US Sports product launch in Q4 2018. Banach add Player Props to their Soccer portfolio

Banach Technology are proud to announce the launch of Soccer Player Props on the Ladbrokes and Coral digital platforms. Soccer Player Props represents the third product that Banach have released with Ladbrokes and Coral in the last 12 months following on from Ready Made Multiples (#GetAPrice and #YOURCALL) and Build Your Bet.

Banach Technology’s Player Props offers Ladbrokes and Coral customers over ten prop bet types which can be placed as single bets, part of a #GetAPrice or #YOURCALL bet or included as a component of a Build Your Bet. The range of Soccer Player Props markets include shots, shots on target, goals inside and outside the box, assists, passes, offsides and tackles. These are available for all major UK and European competitions utilising the latest Opta live betting feed.

Mark Hughes, CEO, Banach Technology, “We are thrilled to provide Ladbrokes and Coral with the industry leading Player Props, Ready Made Multiples (#GetAPrice and #YOURCALL) and Build Your Bet products. It’s exciting times in the Sportsbook industry and Banach are delighted to have built a strong partnership with Ladbrokes & Coral over the last year and look forward to

Indian eCommerce portal Paytm rolls out rummy, fantasy sports games

Paytm, an Indian-based digital wallet and e-payment system, is poised to draw more customers after it was announced that the company’s mobile app now features rummy and fantasy sports, Glaws.in reported.

These new offerings come as a result of a joint venture between Paytm, One97 Communications Limited, and Alibaba-backed AGTech. Paytm customers can access these new features through Paytm’s homepage.

Founded in 2010, Paytm is an Indian-based digital wallet and e-payment system. Paytm users can play for a variety of goods and services such as mobile plans, utility bills, and groceries. Users can even book their travel and purchase tickets to events. Over 7 million Indian merchants accept Paytm and the company is valued at $10 billion.

Paytm’s fantasy sports app, Gamepind, was created by Vinfotech, which is an Indore-based software developer offering DFS games for cricket, football, and kabaddi. Neither of these new additions are currently available for real money but Paytm and Gamepind plan to offer real-money portals in the near future. However, those who use the fantasy sports app can play it using “beans” which can be bought through Paytm. Aside from the newly released fantasy sports and rummy, other games including trivia, ludo, and several other social games are available on the Gamepind platform.

AGames redesigned their logo

Innovative slot game developer AGames decided to start the year with a fresh new look and performed the full redesign of their logotype. The new logo meets all the requirements of modern branding and also has a deep symbolic meaning.

Being a part of BOSS. Gaming solutions, AGames is now being presented as an independent product. The AGames team will exhibit on ICE London 2019 with their own stand and present their latest gaming achievement, the exciting “Angels vs Demons” slot game.

The Heavenly Fire

With its slogan of “Unique Gamegination”, AGames claim their gaming products to be truly original. The symbol of the fire was chosen to reflect the everlasting relevance of the company’s products and their alignment with iGaming trends.