BRUSSELS, 30 March 2020 – With increasing global concern about the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the health, safety and well-being of the general public is of outmost concern.

During this particularly concerning time for citizens online gambling companies should act socially responsible and ensure that those Europeans who choose to gamble online can continue do so in a safe and secure environment.

In this respect, we strongly oppose the apparent reference to the coronavirus in some recent gambling advertising and urge all online gambling companies to ensure that their:

• Advertising does not refer to the coronavirus, World Health Organisation (WHO) coronavirus-related statements and/or any other coronavirus-related developments.

SatoPlay is a BSV-based casual gaming platform. The project was launched in September, 2019, with its first two games coming online in December in the same year. Recently, SatoPlay just welcomed its latest game “Leap Day Birds” that was developed by third-party developer Momo Game Studio. This signifies that SatoPlay has officially entered the “open platform” stage, where third-party developers can integrate their games to the platform easily, be it web games based off Cocos/Laya or independent apps based on Unity/Unreal.

The team behind SatoPlay is located in Guangdong, China and consists of four experienced game designers and developers who have worked at large video game companies for many years. The project began with one single developer, Gu Lu, founder of SatoPlay. He had tried developing several games on blockchain prior, but when he saw the potential of infinite scalability of BSV, he decided to pour his energy into developing an open platform for games on the BSV blockchain and to create a new gaming business model.

Currently, SatoPlay aims at the casual mobile gaming market. gamers’ scores can be uploaded to the BSV blockchain and entered into a ranking competition. In addition to the in-game props are available for purchase as gamers progress in the game, rewards are given to gamers based on their daily ranking. The rewards come from the revenue that all the props being used during a day. This creates a intra-platform incentive cycle that makes the game more layered and more challenging for the gamers. The reward system also provides gamers with a measurable sense of achievement.

For the 3 months since the platform was launched, the number of registered users has exceeded 14,000, with a DAU of 500, many of whom are loyal users that log on every day. For users who already hold BSV, they can directly log into the platform and make purchases with their MoneyButton or DotWallet account. For those who are new to BSV, they can do so through SatoPlay’s built-in interface with WeChat Pay and AliPay. This enables a user experience no more different from the existing gaming platforms in the mainstream and helps lower new user’s entry barrier.

HandCash and Money Button – two leading wallets in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem – are collaborating to bring back true “peer-to-peer” transactions for Bitcoin, the way Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto intended. The original Bitcoin white paper announced Bitcoin as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”, but BTC protocol developers deviated from the “peer-to-peer” design nearly a decade ago. HandCash and Money Button will now send signed BSV transactions to each other directly, without third parties involved, restoring the true Satoshi Vision for Bitcoin.

The original Bitcoin software provided an option for users to “send to IP”. This method would allow a sender (Alice) to deliver a transaction directly to the recipient. (Bob), with no third parties involved. But the implementation for “send to IP” was not finished, so early BTC protocol developers removed the IP-to-IP functionality, removing the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin’s protocol.

Bitcoin SV’s mission has been to restore Satoshi’s original Bitcoin protocol and allow it to massively scale. HandCash and Money Button seek to lead the Bitcoin SV ecosystem back to the peer-to-peer design that Satoshi intended. The Paymail protocol (announced for Bitcoin SV in May 2019) brings back true peer-to-peer transactions. Paymail allows users to send Bitcoin transactions to an email address, providing for secure, end-to-end, encrypted communications and authentication via HTTPS.

Using the Paymail protocol, both the HandCash and Money Button wallets will now send all signed Bitcoin SV transactions to each other directly, without third parties acting as an intermediary. The receiving end will check if the transaction is valid instantly and broadcast it to miners directly, allowing both services to scale far beyond the limits imposed by status-quo. A peer-to-peer transaction system, as Satoshi intended, is much more scalable than how Bitcoin has worked for the past decade.

Simulated Reality draws on the company’s vast sports data and artificial intelligence know-how to generate a seamless user experience for sport fans and bettors

MONDAY 30 MARCH, LONDON, U.K. – In the ongoing absence of live sports, Sportradar, a global provider of sports content and intelligence, today has announced the launch of Simulated Reality, an AI-driven product for professional sports matches, which will be made available to customers within its existing portfolio of events.

In an industry first, Sportradar has tapped into its AI and machine learning capabilities to deliver a sports betting experience which is as close to real life as possible, seamless and with no integration needed.

Carsten Koerl, CEO, Sportradar, said: “We have listened carefully to our customers and the betting community who have made it clear there is an appetite for alternative means of betting during this time where this is a void in live sports action. Simulated Reality will give our sports betting partners seamless access to a highly unique product that is first to market at no extra cost and integration. As market leaders in the industry, we pride ourselves on our ability to quickly pivot our business strategy and redirect our resources towards delivering new and innovative solutions such as this.”

Bonusfinder.com data finds ‘channelisation’ strategy failing and growing numbers of players looking for black market sites

– Warning to German regulators to reconsider recent restrictive proposals

­­30th March 2020 – Almost a third of Swedish players are searching online for ‘unlicensed casinos’, with growing numbers turning to black-market brands due to the market’s restrictive gaming regulations, according to data produced by customer-first affiliate brand Bonusfinder.com.

Research carried out by BonusFinder.com monitoring the Swedish market since it regulated in January 2019 has uncovered a spike in Swedish players searching for a basket of black-market keywords.

The report highlights a wealth of statistics about the online community including demographics, spending and playing habits, as well as perceptions of regulation

[London, U.K., March 23, 2020] – WhichBingo, the U.K.’s number one, independent online bingo reviews website owned and operated by XLMedia, today issued its fifth annual online bingo report outlining the state of the U.K.’s online Bingo market. The report highlights a wealth of statistics about the online community including demographics, spending and playing habits as well as perceptions of regulation. The impact of regulatory headwinds on the industry revealed that the majority of users want responsible gaming tools that abide by regulations and safeguard their experience.

In 2019, regulatory changes imposed on, and operator-led initiatives taken by, the online gambling industry limited advertising windows, established tighter money-laundering prevention requirements, and enacted more stringent checks aimed at preventing a rise in problem gambling. As a result of these checks, bingo operators focused yet further on consumer needs and safety, which had a positive response from users. The most popular feature utilized was establishing spending limits, with seventy percent of those surveyed relaying that they had now set-up deposit limits to ensure they played responsibly.

“We are confident that the success and popularity of online bingo will continue to grow throughout 2020,” said Stuart Simms, CEO of XLMedia. “The emphasis placed on producing quality content and providing value for our users has been at the core of WhichBingo’s success in 2019. In 2020, we will be doubling down on this approach, as well as actively harnessing artificial intelligence and machine learning to further personalise the bingo experience. We will also continue to help brands adapt and meet new guidelines as further regulation in the market helps create long-term sustainability and greater profitability, and an enhanced overall experience for users.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

Following Parimatch’s success establishing itself as an exciting and trustworthy brand in Tanzania, the company has set its sights on the wider continent aiming for key launches across affiliate, mobile and sports betting in the near future. As the brand prepares to bolster its position in the market, Parimatch International’s CEO Anton Rublievskyi and CMO Dmitry Belianin discuss the industry’s growth on the world’s second-most populous continent…

Dmitry Belianin, CMO, Parimatch International

“Africa presents an excellent opportunity for affiliates,” according to Dmitry Belianin, CMO Parimatch International, highlighting how the region removes the issues of the overcrowded affiliate market and high cost advertising platforms which have become potential sticking points in Europe. 2020 will see the brand actively develop its status and the status of affiliate market in Africa as Parimatch prepares to expand its footprint on the continent.

“Since the African market is at an early stage of development, the affiliate model has not yet developed,” explained Belianin. “We are now working on this to attract existing affiliates outside the African market by sharing our experiences and case studies, and also providing training. Affiliates that have been involved in working with the African region are already seeing excellent results and their performance is even better than in some European regions. As the sector expands, we encourage all affiliates to work with reliable brands in the market, such as Parimatch.”

SBC Events is launching the SBC Digital Summit – the biggest ever online conference in the betting & gaming industry as it comes to terms with the deep impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

With travel and working restrictions severely limiting interconnection, the SBC Digital Summit will allow delegates to hear from the betting and gaming industry’s leading CEOs about how they are dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond.

Held across five days from 27 April – 1 May 2020, the SBC Digital Summit will feature more than 140 expert speakers examining the key opportunities for the sector and what tools operators can use to make the most of them.

The comprehensive agenda will provide insights on how to deal with the major challenges faced by the sector, in light of the disruption caused to businesses by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each day contains a different theme for discussion:

Vienna, 24th March 2020 – Greentube, the NOVOMATIC Interactive division, has made a donation to BetBlocker as part of its annual Research, Entertainment and Treatment (RET) contributions to support the organisation’s development of self-exclusion software.

Funded entirely by donations and officially approved by the U.K. Gambling Commission (UKGC), BetBlocker provides a free-to-use application that players can install on their devices to block access to a vast number of gambling websites. Greentube’s donation has been invested in improving the company’s iOS app and will allow users to restrict adult-rated applications. It also supports security system upgrades that make it more challenging to bypass the app’s protections.

Greentube’s RET donations are part of a voluntary funding model required by the UKGC through which it promotes work in advancing player protection measures and research into treatment of gambling-related harm. The company also donates to Gamble Aware.

“This RET donation from Greentube underlines our dedication to strengthening our player protection initiatives and ensuring that a responsible gaming focus runs through the core of our business,” said Trevor De Giorgio, Chief Legal Officer at Greentube. “We fully support BetBlocker’s commitment to providing their software free of charge to both users and operators. We will continue to work with the organisation to ensure that their appliFcation is as effective as possible in helping users control their access to online gambling.”

The pandemic that is affecting each and every one of us is not only a serious health hazard, but it has caused strain on many small businesses that have been closed due to lockdowns. At Casinomeister, we will try to do what we can to mitigate this stress that is unsettling not only to our members and friends, but to their families, and even to strangers.

Casinomeister, one of the most popular online casino information websites, has one of the largest and most active player communities on the planet. We have created a new section of the forum to allow small non-gambling related businesses to create threads and post links to their online or offline stores. There is global traffic at Casinomeister, and even a few visitors through these links might make a difference. Every little bit counts.

Bryan Bailey, director of Casinomeister stated, “We are doing what we can to ensure that small businesses that are affected by the Covid-19 virus restrictions can have a life-line to weather out this storm. Many of our members either work, own, or rely on small businesses for their livelihoods. If you are a shop owner or work in a shop, or you have close friends or relatives that fall into this category, please post whatever you like about the business to include photographs and links to its online store.”

Please visit this section of our forum for more details:

While the constant tie to technology may come in a way of artisanal, BetConstruct successfully marries the two in its Live Casino project for the international brand VBet.

Live Casino is perhaps one of the fewest igaming products which allows for the most room for artistic and creative expression. This goes to say that while the software is always there to deliver the games to end-users and guarantee the operator’s turnover, it takes an extra mile to secure a player’s interest in the first place. Here the aesthetic factor comes in.

Together with VBet, BetConstruct carried out the designer vision for their brand and implemented all decisions while constructing a dedicated live casino studio on the premises of its studio. The custom-made aspects of the hall include interior design with personalized details like neon signs and LED displays, dealer outfits, table cloth design, etc.

Another project under BetConstruct’s roof that received a special custom hall design from the developer is FashionTV Gaming Group. The band was successfully launched in 2019 attracting its following into igaming entertainment. BetConstruct is fully equipped and ready to offer the same services and more to any brand that wishes to obtain a live casino with professional staff and high-end design of their own.

EveryMatrix has enhanced its OddsMatrix Services to answer the sports betting market’s demand for finding new entertainment options for punters worldwide. New developments include launching a new bespoke Esports Hosted Solution, expanding coverage by almost doubling the number of events, and growing video streaming capabilities.

Initially launched in early 2019, OddsMatrix esports services have been expanded massively in recent weeks to support clients’ endeavours of exploring other sports business opportunities, after the cancellation of traditional sports events across the world.

Offering access to a market leading selection, including highly popular titles such as FIFA, NBA2k, CS:GO, LOL, Dota, among many others, OddsMatrix competitive coverage totals monthly more than 8,000 events with 5,000 live events, with video streaming available for over 90% of live events and a huge range of specialised betting markets specific to esports.

The new Esports Hosted Solution enables bookmakers to direct sports punters to esports by adding an extra tab or menu item with a very strong esports offering, fully hosted and managed by OddsMatrix. The new solution can be integrated with existing sportsbooks and mobile apps in two weeks.

EveryMatrix has enhanced its OddsMatrix Services to answer the sports betting market’s demand for finding new entertainment options for punters worldwide. New developments include launching a new bespoke Esports Hosted Solution, expanding coverage by almost doubling the number of events, and growing video streaming capabilities.

Initially launched in early 2019, OddsMatrix esports services have been expanded massively in recent weeks to support clients’ endeavours of exploring other sports business opportunities, after the cancellation of traditional sports events across the world.

Offering access to a market leading selection, including highly popular titles such as FIFA, NBA2k, CS:GO, LOL, Dota, among many others, OddsMatrix competitive coverage totals monthly more than 8,000 events with 5,000 live events, with video streaming available for over 90% of live events and a huge range of specialised betting markets specific to esports.

The new Esports Hosted Solution enables bookmakers to direct sports punters to esports by adding an extra tab or menu item with a very strong esports offering, fully hosted and managed by OddsMatrix. The new solution can be integrated with existing sportsbooks and mobile apps in two weeks.

U.K. licensed brand to initially offer CS:GO pool betting

Puntt (Puntt.gg) is the world’s first esports player betting site and launches in the U.K. today with betting pools on CS:GO in time for the ESL Pro League, one of the biggest online CS:GO tournaments in the world. This will be followed by Dota2 and other major titles later in 2020.

U.K. customers over 18 years old are now able to bet on CS:GO players, not just teams, for the first time in history. Innovative new markets are now available, including most kills. Puntt will offer leading odds on all tournaments in the CS:GO Major Championships

Serving a unique product for aspirational, future-thinking customers, Puntt’s pool betting product has been two years in the making. It has been built on a U.K. licensed proprietary platform and was built specifically to offer esports fans a fair, dynamic and well-regulated betting experience, as can be seen in the launch videos on Puntt’s YouTube channel here.