Monthly Archives: March 2020

Simon Eaton gives iGaming operators a quick explainer on Asia

At an event like SiGMA Malta, where so many industry experts come to meet and share their wealth of knowledge, in depth knowledge of the Asian market is still in high demand. To understand how to get a foothold in that market, our Becky Liggero Fontana spoke with iGaming consultant Simon Eaton.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD_-9yF7Yuo?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

So much of the Asian iGaming industry is based in Manila, Philippines, and Eaton explained that the South East Asian country has a lot to offer to businesses. “As an operator, you do base yourself in Manila, the Philippines, because you can get a PAGCOR [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation] license and there’s easy access to staff and availability of resources,” he said.

With the Philippines as a base of operations, an entire region is at your fingertips. But where you offer to is crucial. “The countries you focus on, number one, obviously, you look at China,” he said. “But a downside look into China is if you dive into that straight away, you’re going to lose a fortune. So I say look at the other Southeast Asian countries, known as SEA. Do look at Thailand, do look at Vietnam, do look at Indonesia, Malaysia. Japan’s a wonderful market to go after, but once again don’t make Japan your entry point, or China, because they have their own issues. When it’s talk about Japan, they’re very picky, and it’s got to be perfect and it’s not perfect, don’t do it. Markets I really love to look at his Thailand, and I like looking at Vietnam, a huge number gamblers.”

Skywind Group is rolling out its premium games on Superbet online casino in Romania

Skywind is launching its premium, market-specific, games and player engagement tool on Superbet online, the Romanian market’s leading operator.

Recetly Skywind Group acquired a B2B license from ONJN, allowing the company to distribute its games in the Romanian market.

The new content-based partnership will grant Superbet’s players access to all of Skywind group’s new and upcoming releases. Focusing on market-specific games, the company released jackpot games like Fruit Reel, Viva Fruit Vegas, Gold Shot, Double Scatter 7’s, Respin Mania and many more.

Superbet will integrate Skywind Group’s unique Bonus Coins reward system, Daily, Must-Go and innovative Split jackpots among a range of other player engagement tools.

Tools for skinning the elephant

The legal challenges for Internet gaming in the plague year.

“Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.”

Sophocles

Two Congo pygmies, the story goes, tracked an elephant through the forest. Using skill and lots of luck they managed to bring it down. Immediately the younger hunter climbed on the huge carcass, dancing and waving his spear. “We got ‘im!” the younger one shouted. “We got ‘im!”

BtoBet bolsters casino portfolio to 100+ game providers and 8,000+ titles

• Alessandro Fried: “Ensuring operators can mitigate shortfalls in the sportsbook vertical”

Reaching the impressive milestone of having integrated more than 100 game providers, leading iGaming platform provider BtoBet is offering its partners the largest offer in the market in terms of providers and games.

BtoBet’s CEO Alessandro Fried expressed his satisfaction for the achievement, stating that such a wide portfolio of game providers, amounting to over 8,000 games, gives the Neuron 3 platform a competitive edge in respect to other platforms. “We decided to undergo this path not only to give the possibility to the operators to have at their disposal a very wide selection of games, but in order also to ensure that operators can expand in the way they deem best all verticals – not only sportsbook – and meet all the requirements of their target customers.”

Fried further said that having readily integrated in the core platform all the game titles from such a wide selection of providers ensures that the operators can mitigate shortfalls in the sportsbook vertical. “The unexpected advent of the novel coronavirus has disrupted to a major extent the sportsbook vertical, with the vast majority of sporting events postponed. The same applies for the summer period in lack of a wide variety of events. Thus providing natively an unparalleled portfolio of game titles allows operators the possibility to shift their strategies and minimise all negative impacts, diverting their resources to maximise a different vertical other than sportsbook.”

BET2020 is flexible and innovative: online format for global security!

In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, the expo BET2020 which was supposed to be held on 7-9 April in London, is postponed until the world’s situations stabilize. Our top priority now is the safety and health of our speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, partners and guests.

Never give up. And our team isn’t ready to give up!

Fortunately, we live in a fast-paced digital technology world and we have all rights to use options digitalisation provides us with. Therefore, the BET2020 team have decided to host the first event in an online format.

What does it mean:

Virus got your events down? Don’t get mad, Get ESPORTS.

“As more sporting events get cancelled or forced to run in private with limited live audiences, the virus wreaks havoc on sports fans and sports betting fans alike. While some events manage to push through, many are not so lucky.  The silver lining can be found in recent figures reported by ESL that show a +24% increase in audience for the Esports Pro League during the ongoing shutdown.” – explains Dan Gibas of EsportsConstruct.

Esports emerged from online tournaments held for digital audiences exclusively at first and only in recent years paved its way into the brick-and-mortar arenas. Esports keeps on running.

Rooted in Germany but with a diverse team based around the world, EsportsConstruct offers a complete out of the box solution for adding a dedicated esports product channel to any sports betting or casino operation as quick and simple as a Casino API integration. The solution is a service with attractive and configurable margins, either fully managed or giving your bored sports trading division a new challenge.

What is happening to the Esports market right now during the current COVID-19 situation and what opportunities are there?

Paysafe’s Paulette Rowe named one of the ‘Most Influential Women in Payments 2020’

March 19, 2020; London, UK: Paulette Rowe, President of Integrated Solutions at Paysafe and member of the company’s Executive Committee, has been named one of PaymentsSource’s ‘Most Influential Women in Payments in 2020’.

PaymentsSource’s list, which is published on an annual basis and is now in its eighth year, celebrates women who are creating change and opportunities in the payments industry. It is designed to recognise women who set an example for their peers, are unafraid to learn from newcomers and are diligent about encouraging a freshness and diversity of new ideas.

Paulette joined Paysafe at the start of 2020. Prior to this she was Head of Payments and Financial Services Partnerships for Facebook and held senior roles in a variety of financial organisations over a 20 year period, including Barclaycard, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Tesco Bank, NBNK Investments and GE Capital. She is also a Non-executive director at FTSE-100, United Utilities Group plc.

Paulette is considered a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion in the payments industry. She was named in PaymentsSource’s annual list of women in 2017, and the 2020 Power list voted her one of the top 10 most influential people of Africa or African Caribbean heritage for the second year. She is also listed in the Digital Banking Club’s Power 50 – a list of the most influential leaders in European financial services.

Phil Galfond performs courageous comeback against VeniVidi

“[I’ll] feel like a winner even if I don’t make any more back, but man, it’s hard not to hope for the full comeback.”

Phil Galfond’s reply to a fan on Twitter summarises neatly how the man behind Run It Once is dealing with the incredible swings experienced in his mammoth opening match of his ‘Galfond Challenge’.

When Galfond put the challenge on hiatus, he was over €900,000 down at his lowest point and in danger of second-guessing himself. He put out some fantastic thoughts on Twitter detailing his honest reflections on how badly it had gone, and while many in the online poker fraternity questioned whether Galfond had it in him to come back and play VeniVidi, even encouraging him to quit while he was nearly a million Euros down, Glafond himself was resolute.

Cue much contemplation. Radio silence. Then a break in the clouds, and Galfond resurfaced after much soul-searching. An emotional message contained a link to some of the best poker clickbait seen in some time. We’ve presented it to you below so that you can enjoy it in the same manner.

Poker Central and partypoker announce new online series

With online poker players flocking to play online during the Coronavirus climate we now live in, the announcement of a groundbreaking Poker Masters Online Series will come as great news to players around the world.

With over $15 million in guarantees across 30 events, the Online Poker Masters will feature high roller events from start to finish, with buy-ins ranging from $10,300 in most events up to $51,000 in the $2 million guaranteed Main Event, which takes place on Sunday 26th April.

With the series taking place from Sunday 12th April and lasting 15 days from top to tail, there are three very big Sundays to look forward to, with the collaboration between poker brands partypoker and Poker Central one that makes poker history.

The Managing Director of partypoker, Tom Waters put out a statement declaring, “We are pleased to be able to give players the chance to continue doing what they love and play the tournament in online format. The Poker Masters brand carries significant weight in the poker community, and we believe this innovative online format will be appealing for fans and players alike.”

What can we expect from the 2020 Fortnite World Cup?

There can be no doubt that one of the most exciting dates to look forward to in the Esports gaming universe is the 2020 Fortnite World Cup. With 2019 seeing the biggest single prize in Esports history being awarded to the Solo Fortnite World Cup winner ‘Bugha’, it was an amazing final game of six that saw the Battle Royal 100 whittled down to 1.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXuqhgghPuA?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

What does it take to win the Fortnite World Cup? Well, an incredible ability to build, snipe, shoot and harvest your way around the ever-changing map that around 250 million people have played in the game’s history. That’s 1 person in 30 of the world’s population.

The story of ‘Bugha’ in the 2019 Fortnite World Cup is a fascinating one and a tale that should inspire even the beginning player that a path to $3 million does exist. All it takes is a little luck and a lot of hard work.

Kronoverse partners with ESL as CryptoFights brings in Bram the Brave

With major steps forward in the last six months, CryptoFights, the battle-based skills game that relies on strategy and fighting skills has introduced a new tutorial system. It’s been a big fortnight in the development of the game and the Kronoverse platform in general, too, after a major partnership with the ESL platform was announced on 10th March.

With its foundations solidly set in Bitcoin SV, the Kronoverse platform’s partnership with ESL is a major one. Combining blockchain tech with online gaming is cutting edge but relies on mainstream Esports recognition and ESL Gaming provide exactly that, with a huge, respected reach.

Kronoverse are making Esports accessible for more players in the world of cryptocurrency, and with Bitcoin SV performing well in recent days, the demonstration that the virtual currency is resilient in the toughest financial market for many years is one that will back up the partnership.

Adam Kling, CEO and founder of Kronoverse made the following statement on the historic partnership:

GG Poker welcomes High Rollers as online poker spikes

“All right, it’s official; the people at GG Poker are just absolutely crazy!”

When Daniel Negreanu speaks, poker players usually listen. Sometimes they’ll agree with the vegan democrat, sometimes they’ll disagree. But they’re unlikely to find anything wrong with the Canadian’s latest announcement – that his brand, GG Poker, are ramping up their GG Masters event guarantee to a massive $400,000.

With the High Roller Week on GG Poker taking place between March 22nd (Mothers Day, don’t forget to thank where you came from before you register for the first tournament) to March 29th, there are plenty of chances to win big for what we have to say are comparatively low buy-ins.

There’s no doubt that while live poker venues have mostly closed their doors due to Coronavirus protocols, the online poker scene is more than making up for any shortfall in poker events.

Why the Premier League shouldn’t return to closed stadiums with fans locked out

Everyone is in the same boat, yet some are paddling with their hands, while others are gripping two oars with an iron grip. You might be confused for thinking that we’re talking of the Ironborn from Game of Thrones instead of the various football authorities around Europe. But after the spread of COVID-19 reached pandemic proportions and football – along with virtually every other sport – was closed down, some competitions took the news better than others.

Is it better to look good on sitting the shore, or throw yourself into the water and start swimming? The Premier League has been accused of the latter when it comes to pushing for an end to the hiatus. With football officially on lockdown until “at least” April 30th, there are myriad tournaments that are either in hiatus or won’t take place for downwards of a year.

Euro 2020 has become Euro 2021. The Nations League may not even take place at all. The F.A. Cup, Champions League and Europa League may be reduced to smaller, single-attendance tournaments to bring them back in line with a timeframe that looks tight even if football were to return in May, which currently seems unlikely at the very least.

The Premier League, however, are still pushing for the season to be completed.