Monthly Archives: March 2020

Peer-to-peer sports gambling exchange eyes US launch this year

The coronavirus currently has virtually the entire sports world on hold, which is bad news for sportsbooks, especially those that just spent millions of dollars securing operational licenses. However, the downtime, as financially detrimental as it is, could provide an impetus to make changes to operations in order to provide even more options. One sports gambling-related company has been working on a platform that will literally allow an infinite number of sports wagers and will do so with a level of transparency and confidence unmatched by other companies. ZenSports is built on a blockchain and, based on preliminary activity, has been received well by the gambling community in the 90 countries where it currently provides services. Among these, absent is the U.S., but, now, it’s time for the company to hit the big leagues.

ZenSports isn’t a sportsbook in the traditional sense; it takes sports gambling to a whole new level by offering a sports gambling exchange. As previously explained to Calvin Ayre, “[We] actually allow you, as the bettor, to create any kind of sports bet that you want with your own odds and your own terms, and basically, you come up with everything. And so that puts you, the bettor, in control.”

Incorporating the operations with a blockchain makes perfect sense. There have been a number of examples of online platforms not always managing their operations in the most ethical (or legal) manner, but blockchain completely mitigates any drawbacks. There can never be a question about the terms of a wager, the outcome of the bet, the amount of money gambled, the amount to be paid out or who was involved.

ZenSports, which is licensed in Curacao, currently allows for bets for over 30 sports leagues around the world and has developed a substantial following. It’s geofenced to prevent U.S. gamblers from participating, but the company’s co-founder and CEO, Mark Thomas, is confident that this is going to change. ZenSports needs to partner with a licensed, land-based sportsbook to be able to operate, and he told Casino.org, “That’s completely dependent on when things can get back to normal, both in the sports world and the casino/sportsbook world… But yes, we’re still hopeful that we can get into at least two states by the end of this year.”

CEO of casino operator Macau Legend hands reins over to his wife

David Chow is no longer the CEO of Macau Legend Development Ltd. He decided to give up his position in order to dedicate his efforts to other aspects of the gambling company, but isn’t going too far away. The Hong Kong-listed company announced his departure last Thursday, adding that the new CEO will be his wife, Melinda Chan. Chow will continue as the company’s executive director and co-chairman of the board.

The move comes as the company looks to reverse its financial losses from last year. The first half of 2019 saw Macau Legend’s profits drop to a loss of $13.7 million, and it ended the year with a loss of $22.2 million. That was in spite of an increase in revenue for 2019, which was reportedly 26.5% higher, at $304.44 million, than a year earlier. Of those figures, the company asserted in its annual filing, “The significant increase in gaming revenue was mainly due to solid results contributed from a maturing development in Legend Palace Casino and strong performance in VIP sector.”

Macau Legend is behind three casinos in Macau under the concession of SJM Holdings Ltd. It manages Babylon Casino, the Landmark Casino and the Legend Palace Casino in the city and also runs the Savan Legend Casino in Laos. A new casino resort, under construction in Cape Verde, is scheduled to hold a soft launch sometime in the latter half of next year.

According to its filing on the executive changes with the Hong Kong bourse, Chow is relinquishing the day-to-day control of the company so he can create a “better work allocation” and “focus on the overall business strategic and policy development of the Group.” It wasn’t clear, though, what role he would be assuming in the company.

Koen Bongers talks SEO strategies and the importance of culture

One thing you can count on is that the science of search engine optimization (SEO) is always changing. You never know what the next update to Google will bring, and having that edge can matter so much to bringing in new traffic. To get some tips on the topic, our Becky Liggero Fontana spoke with Blexr’s Head of Search Koen Bongers, who emphasized vigilance.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdpyZW1n-lM?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

The world of SEO is never boring, and Bongers thrives on that. “The great thing about SEO is, what keeps it so challenging is you’re trying to reverse engineer an algorithm that is worked on by some of the best engineers in the world, and what worked in the past might not work tomorrow,” he said.

It took a while before Bongers got serious about SEO, but he’s been in the gambling industry one way or another for quite some time. “I used to be a poker player before, professional poker player, and we started a staking company,” he said. “We dabbed a little bit into affiliation, was mostly limited to the players that we were actually staking, tried SEO but it wasn’t really a full hearted attempt. And then I decided to quit that company, join Poker Stars for a short while and then I started at Blexr.”

Magellan Robotech “virtual trident” ready to be launched in Colombia market

Magellan virtual football Trident passed Gaming Laboratories International evaluation in Colombia and is ready to be integrated by any regulated operator in the market.

Liverpool, MARCH 26 – Magellan Robotech, the B2B brand of Stanleybet Group, a company that creates gaming solutions for gaming operators and virtual 3D games, announces that the popular virtual football “Trident” has been tested by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) and evaluated compliant with the requirements outlined by Columbia regulators hence the product is now ready to be launched in the market.

Made with full HD graphics, “Trident” allows users to follow the real-time results of 8 or 10 simultaneous events on the screens. Forty-one different markets available, including total goals, up to 7 red cards and first goal scorer. One round available every 5 minutes with 8 or 10 different events (16 or 20 teams) shown simultaneously.

The entire championship can be completed in an hour. In the online and mobile version of the product it is possible to play 4 games simultaneously on a single channel, allowing the player to switch between 3D and 2D viewing simply and intuitively.

Betting in face of COVID-19: Join the Online Event Dedicated to Operating a Betting Business During the Pandemic

The high speed of COVID-19 coronavirus spreading has led to initiation of the restricting measures in many countries. Quarantine, closing of entertainment events and rescheduling of public events are causing the immense influence on the economy and business. The crisis affected the betting market as well. Betting providers need to adapt to the situation and change their focus.

Betting in face of COVID-19 online conference dedicated to operating a betting business on the EU market during the coronavirus pandemic will take place on April 17.

Event will be organized in a unique format. In the online mode, speakers will discuss the latest trends and cases of successful crisis overcoming and provide their forecasts for the industry development, also answering the questions of the audience.

Betting in face of COVID-19 will feature presentations from the owners of betting companies, gambling operators, developers and providers of solutions for betting, members of the international sports associations and affiliates.

SIS moves into hibernation mode

Friday 27th March 2020 – SIS (Sports Information Services) has today announced the move to close down all non-essential services and to furlough a significant number of staff effective immediately.

With the suspension of almost all live racing worldwide, and the closure of a significant number of worldwide retail betting outlets, SIS has taken this action to protect its long term future and to be ready for the resumption of normal service for customers and partners when it becomes appropriate.

In this interim period, SIS continues to supply online content to operators while that content is live. All services to retail operators will be suspended.

Richard Ames, CEO of SIS, said: “SIS is moving into an interim period of hibernation in these extraordinary times. I am pleased to be able to confirm that our intention is to come back just as strongly as before and to be back up and running to serve the needs of our customers as soon as live racing content returns to action.

Player engagement in iGaming – Maximising FTDs with Conversion Rate Optimisation

This is a guest contribution by Rachael Sammut of Blueclaw Media Ltd. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Introduction

In today’s increasingly competitive and trying gaming market, maximising hard-won traffic is vital for operators and affiliates to succeed.

The battle to increase rankings is a long and trying one, requiring both effort and energy, alongside commitment to long-term results. In turn, operators and affiliates alike can sometimes hit a (usually temporary) ceiling when it comes to their growth, positions and rankings in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

FeedConstruct becomes data partner of the Belarusian Premier League

By partnering up with Belarus’s Premier League, FeedConstruct secures a multiyear contract with full rights to collect exclusive fast betting data from the matches. Accuracy of on-the-ground reporting combined with fast communication and technologies guarantee secure and fast delivery of reliable data to licensed sportsbook operators. The full-fledged scouting data will enrich bookmakers with premium content and wider variety of betting markets for their players fueling the interest towards the league as well.

George Arabatlian, Head of FeedConstrcut, says, ‘We are happy to start our cooperation with the Belarusian Premier League. Our collaborative work not only will extend the league’s reach and popularity, but support our network of operators with а first-had credible sporting data.’

About FeedConstruct

FeedConstruct is a digital content provider offering real-time data feed solutions perfectly tailored to capture and entertain any audience. Among our solutions is Friendship platform, an exclusive offer for federations and sports content providers allowing them to deliver streamings from events to 300+ betting operators to purchase. FeedConstruct’s Live Scouts’ reporting combines fast and secure communications to provide accurate and reliable information. Based on our scouts’ reporting, we also provide highly efficient Odds Feed service. For a wide variety of sports data we have Statistics service. To perfectly engage any audience, we provide Live Sports Video Streaming service.

Online gambling operator BetUS data hacked, published online

Online gambling operator BetUS has become the latest target of a shadowy hacking group that’s holding the gambling operator’s internal data for ransom.

Last week, the self-described ‘cryptoransomware’ group known as Maze announced a fresh batch of companies from which it claims to have obtained large amounts of internal data. These companies include (ironically enough) cyber security insurance firm Chubb, French firm Bouygues Construction, as well as Curacao-licensed online sportsbook BetUS.

The BetUS page on the Maze website cites three apparently compromised BetUS emails – [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] – and posted two ‘proofs’ of some of the data the hackers said they obtained from BetUS.

The proofs total nearly one gigabyte in size and include technical files relating to BetUS gambling software, as well as a much larger proof containing a wide range of internal company documents. These files include the minutes of board meetings, directorship changes, bank forms and even a few passport scans of company execs.

GVC introduces additional safer gambling safeguards and welcomes coordinated industry action led by the Betting and Gaming Council

GVC Holdings, the global sports betting and gaming group, welcomes today’s statement issued by the Betting and Gaming Council (“BGC”), setting out the industry’s coordinated approach to providing a safer betting and gaming environment during the current Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

GVC continues to lead the way in safer gaming initiatives and is pleased to announce further enhancements to its responsible gambling safeguards. Collectively they will help to ensure the Group’s products can continue to be enjoyed as a safe form of casual entertainment and do not lead to customers playing beyond their financial means.

With up to a quarter of the global population in some form of lock-down, there is a clear risk that house-bound individuals may become isolated, depressed or be in financial distress. GVC recognises the additional risk this presents and is deeply aware of its own responsibility to protect vulnerable customers from seeking to solve financial problems through gambling, or from developing other problem gambling behaviours.

To address the additional risk, and building on its Changing for the Bettor safer gambling strategy, GVC is taking a number of decisive actions:

Poker Central bring two new poker shows to home-based audience

With poker audiences remaining at home for the foreseeable future, those behind the release of poker content have two choices – down tools and wait for it all to blow over or seize the opportunity and provide the best collection of poker content the world has ever seen.

Poker Central haven’t just taken up the mantle, they’ve even made it so that fans can view the all-new footage for free for a month.

In two new shows, Poker Central are bringing back some very fond memories, with The Championship Run featuring highlights of iconic poker victories throughout the years. The first episode isn’t just a classic moment in poker history, it’s credited with being responsible for the poker boom – the Moneymaker Effect. Yes, it’s the 2003 WSOP Main Event, which was won, of course, by Chris Moneymaker.

With Jeff Platt fronting The Championship Run, the program delves into the era-defining events when Moneymaker turned the odds on their head and ripped up the rulebook to win a seven-figure score for the price of a family-size takeaway when he satellite in from an online tournament entry.

Skinbay sees Esports players trade skins in Bitcoin SV

If you play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Rust,Team Fortress or Z1 Battle Royale and want to trade skins, then you can now do so in Bitcoin SV. If you’re used to gaming and trading in Bitcoin SV, then you’ll know how easy and secure it is, but with 17,700 followers on Twitter alone, Skinbay are more popular than ever with their comprehensive website saving players a nice percentage on the cost of skins compared to Steam.

With the availability to buy and sell knives, rifles, SMGs, heavy weapons, gloves, keys and containers among other items, Skinbay offers users the ability to do so by using Bitcoin SV. Each game has plenty of items for sale, with over 100,000 trades possible in CS:GO alone.

There are some great offers on the website, but if you follow Skinbay on Twitter, then you’ll know that they’re not averse to a lucrative freeroll. This tweet, for example, gave one lucky follower the chance to nab some pretty cool pistol swag:

P250 | Asiimov – #CSGO #GIVEAWAY