Aspire Global is carefully monitoring the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) across the world. Pro-active measures have been taken to reduce the risk for the staff and to ensure business continuity.

Aspire Global Group is a leading iGaming supplier that provides platform and casino game services for operators across the world. The Group has offices in Malta, Bulgaria, India, Israel and Ukraine. Aspire Global Group holds twelve iGaming licenses in Europe and the US.

Aspire Global is a truly online Group where working remotely and meeting virtually are established ways of working. In order to protect the well-being of its more than 300 employees, Aspire Global two weeks ago banned all travelling. From early last week most employees work from home. By these actions, supported with its robust technology platform, Aspire Global has managed to secure a continued high service level towards customers both in the B2B and B2C segments.

Aspire Global’s operations are directed towards mainly the casino vertical. Sports betting represented approximately 5% of total revenues in the fourth quarter 2019, including the casino games studio and aggregator Pariplay which was acquired in October 2019. The casino operations have not been impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19. Up to yesterday evening, the daily trading in March has been higher than the daily trading in January and February 2020, which is in line with the Group’s business plan.

Registrations are open for the leading conference in the CEE region, CEEGC Penta Budapest and CEEG Awards 2020

European Gaming Media and Events, (part of Hipther Agency) presents the 5th edition of the most popular conference in the CEE region and which takes place yearly in September.

CEEGC Penta will take place on the 28th of September at the already traditional base, Ritz-Carlton Budapest, and will follow the tradition of the earlier editions and bring a plethora of information via the most interesting talks and panel discussions while also offering quality networking opportunities.

You can register here and catch the Early Bird Rate!

The response actions to COVID-19 outbreak cause massive shutdowns of gambling hotspots for the safety of both visitors and casino employees leading to significant revenue drops. Fortunately for on-premise casino owners, this isn’t the end of the world.

Live Casino is probably the most unique online entertainment. While being far from any casino location, by simply logging in to a gaming account a player still gets the true flare of Vegas and Macau and enjoys the game elevated by the live communication with a dealer.

BetConstruct, the igaming software giant, urges land businesses to unearth the potential of online operations. With this, the company offers to extend casino brands to digital medium by utilising the existing physical resources. Online Solution for Land-based Casinos is essentially a live streaming of casino games from the venue integrated onto a dedicated gaming platform. The solution opens up a number of opportunities both for the owners and players let alone providing solutions to multiple problems that a casino venue can face. With no need for physical expansion, online setup brings an unlimited number of players to an online casino. This is a highly profitable solution which allows to raise player convergence via targeting new online audiences and converting the existing casino visitors into online players.

BetConstruct covers three main aspects of the setup: technical support, programming and training of dealers. Apart from on-site assistance from our professionals, we provide all necessary software and hardware to bring your online casino to life.

• Ahead of the upcoming film – 2Pac: The Great Escape From UMC, a brand-new survey asked people whether they believed Tupac is still alive

• 5.3% of the UK believed the conspiracy theory. Extrapolated, that’s 2.8 million people in the UK.

• The survey also found strong support for the flat earth theory among millennials

To tie in with the upcoming film, 2Pac: The Great Escape from UMC, a brand new UK survey sought to find out just how many Brits believe the theory that Tupac never died.

On March 11, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has issued a statement intending to initiate the quarantine procedures in the country starting on March 12, aiming to stop the spread of COVID-19. On the same day, Kyiv city council officially announced the limitations imposed in the capital.

According to the data of WHO, as of March 13, coronavirus has been diagnosed for 132,567 people globally, and this number is constantly growing. Due to the quick spread of the infection, many countries impose the anti-epidemic measures and restrictions. For example, quarantine has been enacted in Italy; Israel now has mandatory 14 days-long quarantine for everyone entering the country; the USA, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Austria, Angola, Serbia and many other states have set restrictions for crossing the border.

Currently it is unknown when the situation will stabilize. Also, there’s no a single date for the end of the quarantine in Kyiv and in other regions of Ukraine. That’s why Smile-Expo – a company organizing Ukrainian Gaming Week 2020 is forced to shift the event to a later date. This would allow to secure guests, participants, speakers, sponsors and partners of the event from the danger of infecting.

New dates of UGW: 16-17 of June.

Malta, 19th of March, 2020 – Viral Interactive Ltd, a part of the Finnplay Group has made the decision to withdraw from its white label business and marketing partnerships in regulated markets, including Sweden and the UK. The Finnplay Group joins a growing list of iGaming platform technology providers choosing to exit the traditional white label business in these markets. The move is being made in response to worsening market conditions and increasing operational costs.

Martin Prantner, founder of the Finnplay Group says, “We regret the decision to close our white label operations in these markets, especially after having successfully co-launched many exciting brands over the years. However, being realistic, market conditions are not favorable for smaller operators in an ever-tightening regulatory framework resulting in diminishing profitability. In the months to come, we will review our strategic options and restructure our business accordingly.”

Viral Interactive LTD is the Finnplay group’s B2C multi-channel casino and betting solutions provider and holds multiple licenses in regulated markets.

Founded in 2008, Finnplay is a privately-owned Nordic-based iGaming platform provider, which specializes in regulated tailored gaming solutions for the online and mobile gaming industry.

Leading 24/7 multi-channel supplier to increase number of live greyhound racing fixtures

Wednesday 18th March, 2020 – SIS (Sports Information Services), a leading supplier of 24/7 betting services to retail and online operators globally, has today confirmed an extension to its greyhound service with additional races, to temporarily replace the British horse racing fixtures that were suspended by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) from 17th March following the COVID-19 outbreak.

The rescheduled service has been crafted to offer more racing at peak retail times, and from Monday 23rd March there will be a revised SIS greyhound schedule in operation (Monday-Friday).

There will be an increase of 54 races to 532 per week and a repositioning of fixtures to optimise events in the 12pm-5pm slot from all of SIS’s British and Irish tracks.

This week Steam hit an all-time record with more than 20 million concurrent online users and almost 6.5 million of them actively playing a game.

According to data gathered by LeagueOfBetting, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was the most popular game among the Steam users, hitting a record high peak of 1,023,229 concurrent players on the leading online game platform.

The Average Number of Steam CS:GO Players Jumped Over 580,000

The statistics show the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive monthly peak number of players on Steam has been constantly growing for the last eight months. In July 2019, it reached over 578 thousand. In the next five months, the figure jumped to over 760 thousand and continued growing. Since January, the peak number of concurrent CS:GO players on Steam has been increasing by 100,000 players per month.

LONDON, March 3. STICPAY, the award-winning fintech company, announces a safe, convenient payment solution for merchants to connect with customers on the Asian market. With a yearly growth of over 300%, a user-friendly customer approach, and partnerships with local financial institutions, STICPAY – named by Payments Awards as the Best Digital Wallet of 2019 – is an attractive solution for users in Asia and beyond, serving customers globally across 200+ countries, including Japan, China, Indonesia, France, and the United Kingdom.

A global player at heart, STICPAY is centered around its clients’ needs and prized for its simplicity and reliability, offering 24/7 worldwide customer support and featuring over 15 languages on its platform, with further ones to be added soon. While the fintech payments solution is gaining popularity among end-users from all over the world, a growing number of merchants are utilizing the e-wallet service in industries, such as eCommerce, FOREX, online gaming.

Regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), STICPAY offers a next-generation digital wallet service to customers that reduces their costs and creates a fast, convenient solution for international payments by eliminating intermediaries and forming strong partnerships with local Asian banks and financial networks. In addition to the cost-efficient domestic bank wires featuring one-business day withdrawals in ten countries – currently available in Japan, South Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Vietnam, with support for additional countries coming soon – and the support of 28 different local currencies (merchants have access to all currencies with one account), STICPAY customers can also select from a wide variety of payment methods, including credit cards (Visa, Mastercard), UnionPay China, and cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum) – STICPAY charges a competitive, 1% fee for crypto currency payments.

STICPAY’s services are available through multi-platform apps, using API connections to facilitate frictionless transactions. In addition to featuring an FCA-regulated UK license, STICPAY guarantees the safe storage of user savings in segregated accounts, with uninterrupted access to their funds, and a possibility of immediate withdrawals to external accounts. To facilitate low-cost currency conversions, the fintech e-wallet solution utilizes USD as the base currency, providing an advantage over competitors that use EUR. While there is a fee for currency conversions on the platform, STICPAY users pay approximately half the costs of exchanging currencies than at competitor services.

SlotCatalog announced today the introduction of new expanded online casino markets of Canada, Belgium, Latvia, and Lithuania to its growing roster of real-time industry slots popularity and performance analytics coverage.

A SlotCatalog company spokesperson said: “With ongoing challenges and headwinds affecting the industry as a result of the continued coronavirus pandemic, it has had an unprecedented effect with the cancellation of sports events, shutdowns in the land-based casino industry and more. Digital data insight is now more pivotal for operators as they seek to empower their business decision making in marketing and product for online players.

The digital casino landscape is ever-changing, and while none of us within the industry could have foreseen such a black swan event as the Coronavirus, we believe the addition of analysis of 90 casinos in the Canadian market, 22 in Belgium, 8 in Latvia and 5 in Lithuania increases the depth and breadth of market insight on our platform covering 1,700 online casinos..

Our team remains committed to providing a data-driven intelligence platform for slot games and the iGaming industry and we invite our visitors, players, casino operators, and game and software developers’ seeking detailed data-analytics to reach out with any requests to continue our market coverage in the challenging months ahead.”

The global aggregator platform BlueOcean Gaming is pleased to announce it is integrating the suite of games created by newcomer Woohoo Games.

BlueOcean set out to relieve casino and betting operators the time consuming, resource draining, workload of game integrations, operations and maintenance.

They take away the risk, and the complexity, of finding the best new innovations in the space allowing operators to concentrate on brand building, safe in the knowledge their RNG games suite is second to none.

The addition of Woohoo’s bespoke and enticing products is the latest evidence that BlueOcean has their finger on the pulse and ear to the ground of what is new in the world of RNG games.

Innovative online operator extends Nordic reach with latest deal

Cyprus, Monday 16th March 2020 – Casino and sportsbook operator group Soft2Bet has launched its Yoyo casino brand in the Swedish market after securing a licence from the country’s gambling regulator, Spelinspektionen.

Having been certified by the BMM Laboratories agency, YoYo’s Swedish players now have access to almost 1000 casino games from top providers, along with a live casino section, and an array of welcome bonuses for new members.

With a huge selection of cutting-edge slots, a network of engaging tournaments and versatile bonus offers, YoYo casino has already proved hugely popular in various other regulated markets.

On April 29, Smile-Expo will hold Greece Gambling Conference aimed at discussing the development and prospects of the Greek gambling market. The event will involve well-known experts in online casino management and promotion, lawyers, SEO specialists etc.   

First five experts 

Christina Thakor-Rankin, a gambling specialist with 25 years of experience. Gaming Consultant at 1710 Gaming. Christina works with online casino operators and gambling regulators, focusing on the creation and integration of strategies, marketing and player protection.

Carlo Pagan, a specialist in casino branding and marketing strategies. Former Vice President of marketing at European Casino Association. Currently, he is a member of the Board of ЕСА.

Spinola Gaming is taking lotteries online for governments, state run operators and public/private partnerships (PPP) in emerging markets without the need for any change in their land-based operations.

As more and more governments regulate their markets, Spinola Gaming, the lottery solutions provider, has been working on delivering digital solutions to provide a new wave of opportunities for businesses in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the South Pacific who have traditionally operated in a paper environment.

The company’s solutions can integrate both digital and retail operations such as POS and in-store digital billboards, resulting in seamless lottery management solutions that bridge the gap between land-based and online operations.

“It’s been a topic for quite some time, but operators in various global markets are now facing a serious challenge to digitalise their products and start selling online in an effort to take advantage of new market opportunities that mobile brings,” said CEO Ade Repcenko “Due to the uptake in mobile transactions, especially in younger generations and in emerging markets, lottery operations across many parts of the globe are seeing the need to add online to their offering or fear losing out on a younger generation of players who traditionally don’t play lotteries or even frequent the outlets where such lotteries are sold.”

Based on developments in the last 24 hours, relating to the travel advisory issued by the Indian government dated 11 March 2020, which cancels all existing visas for foreign nationals except diplomatic and employment visas until 15 April 2020 to curtail the COVID-19 impact, Eventus International has concluded that unfortunately, it is impossible to continue with SPiCE India 2020 as per its current schedule of 25-27 March 2020.

We are, at this time, left with no choice but to postpone SPiCE India 2020, which will be rescheduled. New dates will be announced shortly after discussions with our stakeholders and advisors.

Expressing disappointment at the postponement, Yudi Soetjiptadi, Managing Director of Eventus International, commented, “Although our team was fully ready to host the event as per schedule and all preparations were done, due to recent developments and the most recent travel ban issued by the Indian government, it is impossible for us to continue with SPiCE India 2020 on schedule. We are evaluating the situation further and will discuss with our advisors and stakeholders before making an announcement on the new dates. Despite this postponement we look forward to welcoming all our clients to the third annual SPiCE India on its new dates. We hope everyone stays healthy and safe!”

The Eventus International team would hereby like to thank all SPiCE India 2020 participants for their support and understanding in the matter which is beyond our control. We would also like to give all participants the assurance that the event will take place on the new dates once decided, and Eventus International will continue to promote SPiCE India through our various channels for optimum brand exposure for all current sponsors and exhibitors.

iGaming veteran joins premium table and slot games developer to boost new business in emerging LatAm market

13th March, 2020 – Mobile-first games developer OneTouch is targeting further growth in Latin America following the appointment of Unai Concha Olabarrieta as its new Business Development Officer.

Concha Olabarrieta arrives with a wealth of experience within the industry having previously held several roles including LatAm manager at the Coingaming Group.

Based in Barcelona, he is tasked with growing the OneTouch content network within LatAm and Spain as it continues to create truly mobile-first slots and classic table games.

Costa Media is pleased to announce that it has recently secured a €550,000 equity investment round from two leading iGaming investors, Growth Box Ventures (GBV) and Dreamworx, which will fund the growth of existing assets and expansion to new markets.

Costa Media, founded in 2019, is an iGaming affiliate company with websites in Europe and Latin America. The new funding round will enable the Malta-based affiliate company to accelerate the organic growth of its core assets and invest into new opportunities in key markets.

The company has shown some early traction in Portugal with websites such as mistercasino.pt and oddsdesportivas.pt, and has plans to launch both brands in Spain, Brazil and Mexico in the coming months.

Gonçalo Costa, co-founder & CEO of Costa Media, believes this seed funding brings far more opportunities than just the investment, “We are very excited about having GBV and Dreamworx as investors and partners. Along with the investment, their entrepreneurial background, vast industry network and strategic support will help us take the business to the next level as we grow into different markets.”