Alderney-licensed online gambling operator Sky Betting & Gaming has inked a social gaming deal with San Francisco developer OpenWager. The new Sky Hollywood Slots social casino is now available on both Android and iOS devices, featuring a variety of original slots titles. The game is hosted by ‘talent manager Sid Sharkey,’ who invites players to participate in a variety of gigs in a quest to become movie stars.

Sky Betting’s head of social games Bruce Bale celebrated the company’s initial foray into the social casino world, which he said offered the company the chance to “engage with new customers, particularly in Western Europe, the US, Canada and Asia.” OpenWager CEO John Cahill said his firm’s platform would provide Sky’s existing customers with “an entirely different type of experience” and would allow Sky to build “a proven social-mobile stream of revenue.”

MAN U TEAMS WITH KAMAGAMES

English Premier League mainstays Manchester United have struck their first social gaming deal by signing on with Dublin-based developer KamaGames. The multi-year deal will see the launch of mobile and online platforms featuring the team’s iconography and social casino games like blackjack and roulette and KamaGames’ popular Pokerist: Texas Poker title. Man U have around 659m online acolytes while KamaGames have 70m registered players and 1m daily active users.

Man U group managing director Richard Arnold said the team understood “the importance of engaging with and entertaining our fans,” something KamaGames will allow the team to do “in new and exciting ways.” KamaGames CEO Danny Hammett said his firm was “proud and honored to be associated with such a great team and iconic brand” and vowed to build a strong relationship with the team’s fans.

INSPIRED GAMING ACQUIRE WE R INTERACTIVE

Virtual sports outfit Inspired Gaming Group has acquired UK social game developer We R Interactive, the company behind titles like We R Football and I AM PLAYR. Inspired CEO Luke Alvarez said the acquisition “reinforces our leadership in virtual sports on mobile and opens our content up to a new group of gamers.” The “passionate, smart and forward-thinking” We R Interactive staff are being retained as Alvarez found them to be “a great fit with Inspired and our culture.”

Amaya Gaming Inc. have once again been recognized for their achievements, this time being on the receiving end of awards from the Canadian technology magazine Cantech Letter.

The recognition and rewards keep rolling in for the stars of online gambling, as Amaya Gaming Inc. receive yet more awards for their sterling performance in 2014.

Cantech Letter is an online magazine that focuses on Canadian technology. It was founded in 2008 by Nick Waddell and was once described by Canadian Business Magazine as: ‘one of Canada’s premier technology newsletters.’

Each year, a select band of Cantech Letter analysts, and readers, honor the very cream of Canadian online technology, and Amaya Gaming Inc. rose to the top of that discussion to be named the TSX Tech Stock of the year. Their youthful CEO, David Baazov, was also recognized for his due diligence by being awarded the mantle of TSX Tech Executive of the Year.

It seems PokerStars and Full Tilt’s puppet master can do no wrong in the eyes of the Cantech Letter award issuance panel. Amaya were also handed the TSX Venture Stock of the Year award in 2012 & 2013, with Baazov also picking up the same award during an identical timeframe.

“It is an honor for Amaya to have received this award three years in a row, and it reflects the ongoing dedication of our employees and the sound guidance provided by our board of directors,” said Baazov.

Baazov, 34, is one of the youngest CEOs in the game and lives in Montreal with his wife and four children.

The hearts of online poker players were all-a-flutter Wednesday afternoon following messages that seemed to indicate that Amaya Gaming’s Full Tilt had been cleared to offer services in New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market. However, hopes were soon dashed after it turned out to be a digital cockup.

The confusion began when poker player Dennis Lopez (@DLO_Rican) tried logging on to Full Tilt’s free-play dot-net site on his iPhone. Lopez was presented with a splash screen indicating that Tilt’s software had been “fully licensed by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, offering real-money gameplay on a fully regulated online gaming platform.” The notice went on to invite users to download said software and log-in with their current Full Tilt account details.

Lopez posted a screenshot of the message, which quickly circulated through the US online poker community. Sadly, Lopez found himself unable to download the advertised software and PokerStars spokesman Eric Hollreiser soon deflated hopes like so many New England footballs, saying the message was “an error” and that Amaya was investigating what had happened. (We’re looking at you, North Korea.)

Amaya has been anxiously awaiting a positive sign from New Jersey regulators as to if/when it might be allowed to take advantage of PokerStars’ nearly two-year-old online poker deal with Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino. Two weeks ago, state Sen. Ray Lesniak suggested Stars would be out of the starting blocks by March, but he offered few specifics as to how he’d arrived at this timeline.

SPORTECH TO LAUNCH NEW JERSEY ONLINE CASINO IN FEBRUARY

A more definite Resorts online launch has been promised by SNG Interactive, the joint venture of UK-based pools betting operator Sportech and Stockholm software outfit NYX Gaming. The JV partners inked an online casino deal with Resorts last June and have now scheduled a soft launch for February.

Sportech CEO Ian Penrose told eGaming Review that the casino site was still awaiting regulatory approval but that things were progressing “really well.” Penrose believes there’s “definitely room for more brands” in New Jersey and SNG remains “very ambitious’ about its ability to carve out a “strong position” in the market.

Former 888Poker star, Shane Warne, has hit the headlines after a 43-year old mother-of-two sold a warts and all sex story about meeting the Aussie cricket legend through the dating app Tinder.

The former 888Poker star, and Australian cricket legend, Shane Warne, has hit headlines worldwide, after a 43-year old mother-of-two sold a warts and all sex story to Woman’s Day magazine about a romp with the man she described as ‘one of the best lovers’ of her life.

When will people in the limelight ever learn?

Kim McGrath has spilled the beans over her alleged sex romp with Warne, where she says the former 888Poker pro asked to ‘devour her’, after the pair met on the dating app Tinder (or shagging app as it apparently seems to be known). Now that’s quite some allegation from a man who doesn’t seem to be able to devour much without spilling it all over his chops.

In the McGrath interview, she describes how she met Warne through the dating app where he proceeded to send her a series of text messages, and the obligatory selfie, before the pair met up for a little bit of slap and tickle.

Warne’s mug is more than capable of filling the pages of most national tabloids, so one wonders about his George Michael style of cloak and dagger.

“Can I trust you? Are you private? This has to stay between us? X” He allegedly texted to the mother-of-two.

Cubits, one of the latest additions to the world of Bitcoin marketplaces, is dedicated to bringing a blend of speed, simplicity and security to the buying, transferring, and shopping with Bitcoin.

One of the very few Bitcoin firms based out of Europe, designed and built with German engineering and fully supporting 17 currencies, Cubits is making its mark with the Cubits Wallet for everyday users and Cubits Pay for merchants.

Cubits is proud of recently agreed partnerships in the online gaming industry. Cubits will co-sponsor Europe’s biggest gaming exhibition this year, ICE Totally Gaming, where CEO Tim Rehder will share both insight and experiences in light of the firm’s recent achievements in the gaming industry. Furthermore, together with SoftSwiss CEO Ivan Montik, he will elaborate on their integration process and explain the ease of integrating Bitcoin into existing gaming platforms and operators. “With Cubits, we have found a strong partner for fiat-bitcoin payments, connected not only by language, but also a common ideology of bringing customers the highest degree of quality and innovation.” – Ivan Montik.

SoftSwiss is one of the largest online B2B casino companies, with over 14 online casinos to their credit. Cubits will begin handling the Bitcoin payments for BitStarz, one of SoftSwiss’s biggest and most successful online casinos, BetChain, a hugely popular Bitcoin casino, and finally, their newest addition, Princess Star. When it comes to choosing our partners, Cubits places an extremely high level of attention to KYC policies. Cubits knows all of its partners adhere to the highest standards in legality, security, and fair business practices. BitStarz, BetChain and Princess Star, as iterations of SoftSwiss, are all fully licensed.

For these online casinos, Cubits has added 2-Way deposit functionality. This helps customers simplify the way they deposit Bitcoin into their accounts, regardless of whether they have a Bitcoin wallet or not. Cubits handles the deposit of regular currency, instantly buys Bitcoin on behalf of the customer and transfers the Bitcoin amount to their gaming account. This streamlined system helps online casinos move quicker into the Bitcoin arena while at the same time slowly integrating everyday players into using Bitcoin, but without pushing it on them.

“This system is a valuable tool for online casinos and online merchants alike, because it creates a seamless checkout process when making deposits and payments. We are very excited to launch this service with SoftSwiss”, says Tim Rehder. One of the most exciting features of this payment functionality is the ability for customers to sign up with Cubits and acquire Bitcoin instantly, all the while maintaining their merchant’s purchase window live and intact. In a few easy steps, not only has a customer made a satisfactory purchase, but is now also a Bitcoin user through Cubits wallet.

When making online purchases, going through numerous extra steps like navigating away from the merchant’s page can often cause a timeout, which could lead to lost business. Cubits new integrated payment functionality not only avoids these potential losses, but helps grow the Bitcoin-using community, therefore generating more business for Bitcoin-accepting merchants.

In this week’s confessions series, Lee Davy, gives the readers an insight into how the universe sends him his writing ideas.

Where do you get your ideas from?

That’s a question I get asked a lot, although I never used to understand why? Ideas came naturally to me, so I didn’t understand why it could be a problem for people? I now understand that people who have this problem are stuck in a perpetual loop of mind-fucked inaction because of the way they think. The thought of generating ideas is difficult for them, and so by thinking that, it becomes their reality. So, my first piece of advice is stop thinking like that.

If you open your mind a little. If you can believe that your thoughts generate your reality, and use that to your advantage by asking for writing ideas to trip you up as you walk down the road – it will happen. Your problem will vanish.

Here is an example of how numerous ideas have come my way since last night. This is not a milestone blog post. It’s a snapshot in time, and I will repeat this process when I think it will be beneficial to readers.

One important note before I blab on any further. You can expand this way of thinking, and incorporate it into any area of your life. Shit man, you can make this way of being the core of your life. I know that I do.

I am having a conversation with myself about Facebook. It’s pissing me off. It used to be a forum where I could catch up on my friend’s lives. Now it’s a relentless reel of video content that momentarily gives me motion sickness.

Casino junket operator Gold Moon Group is closing one of its VIP gaming rooms in Macau in order to focus on other regional markets. After nearly three years in operation, Gold Moon’s VIP room at Sands China’s Sands Cotai Central is closing, leaving the company with four remaining rooms in Macau.

Gold Moon director Chiu Siu Fung said there would be no staff redundancies as a result of the closure. Affected staff will be offered work at Gold Moon’s remaining 70 tables located at the Wynn Macau (12 tables), Galaxy Macau (14), Melco Crown’s Altira (35) and Macau Legend Development’s Pharaoh’s Palace Casino (9) at the Landmark Hotel, which operates under a SJM Holdings license.

Speaking to GGRAsia, Chiu acknowledged that the room at Sands Cotai Central “has not been doing really well” but insisted Gold Moon remained “stable” and focused on a number of expansion plans. Aside from gaming, the company operates a Hong Kong-based food souvenir business as well as restaurants – and soon a travel agency – in Macau.

Gold Moon is determined to boost its presence in markets outside Macau. Chiu says the firm has been luring clients to markets like Australia, Vietnam and the Philippines for “about a year” and expects business will ultimately be generated “half-and-half” between Macau and international markets. But Macau will “absolutely remain as our major market.”

The David Group junket is also putting increased emphasis on international markets. Last weekend, the operator announced it would close three of its seven VIP rooms in Macau, keeping them in ‘hibernation’ until the declining VIP market rebounds. With a travel company and planes of its own, David Group is eyeing the same markets as Gold Moon, with South Korea thrown in for good measure.

The two junkets will have lots of overseas company, including the Hengsheng Group, which saw VIP revenue take a tumble in 2014 and has since struck deals with the Crown Casino in Da Nang and the Walkerhill in South Korea. iGamiX analyst Ben Lee said junkets were embarking on their “biggest expansion phase ever” in a bid to replace the lost revenue in Macau.

Ambrose So, CEO of SJM Holdings, told the Hong Kong Economic Journal that there was little evidence that Macau’s VIP room closures had gone viral. So said Macau’s junket industry wouldn’t “jump on the bandwagon” and that any closures would “depend on the financial statement of individual enterprises.”

Yuval Ziv, COO at payments technologies provider SafeCharge, takes a look at some of the payment trends and challenges which companies trading online in 2015 will face and how to combat them.

The payments world is rapidly advancing technologically and globally, giving rise to many future payment possibilities for users and similarly allowing merchants to attract and connect with others around the world. It is now possible for a user to make payments on the move via mobile devices, enjoy access to multiple payment methods and currency options and feel secure in the knowledge that their sensitive data is protected due to new tools being developed to combat fraudulent activity.

Localisation of payments. A borderless world gives rise to countless global payment opportunities. By introducing multiple alternative payment methods and currencies, merchants are able to increase their global presence. What is key for merchants is the management of currencies and enabling their end-users to pay / checkout and withdraw funds globally. An example is the current economic situation in Russia where the Rouble has hit an all-time low. A merchant operating in Russia has a number of expenses which needs to be settled in Roubles, however if the merchant is paid out in Dollars, a second conversion to Roubles will result in a loss due to currency fluctuations. A merchant that uses the expertise of a payments provider partner will be able to make use of a few currency features; Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) offered within the payment page allows the merchant to select his preferable currency, and the settlement feature which gives a merchant the opportunity to settle in like for like currency, i.e. Rouble to Rouble, therefore not needing to depend on currency changes. These features enable merchants to reduce their risk to currency exposure.

Mobile payments. Paying via mobile is not new, however more advanced tools for mobile payments have recently been introduced making online payments easier and simpler. These new payment tools lead to a higher conversion rate. Mobile hackers have become a new threat and although not yet particularly sophisticated, it will only be a matter of time before systems are cracked and sensitive data compromised.

Identifying and combatting new fraud trends. A number of fraud trends can be identified;

Identity Fraud – Recently new fraudulent trends have been identified. There is a growing occurrence of users in some countries obtaining credit cards from the US illegally. They then use multiple cards and rack up high amount transactions. Another case is when stolen credit cards from the US pass complete authentication for 3D Secure.

Fraud Rings – Fraud rings are increasingly prevalent, and especially in online poker as there is the opportunity for a group of fraudulent players to collude together to defraud a legitimate player, or for a group to launder stolen credit card funds onto a genuine credit card or into an anonymous e-Wallet.

Casino operator Mohegan Sun has joined the city of Revere in its lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC). The suit, which was filed in October, accuses the MGC of giving preferential treatment to Wynn Resorts, which beat out Mohegan Sun for the lone Boston-area casino license in September.

The Connecticut-based Mohegan Sun’s filing claims the company has been “substantially harmed” by the MGC’s “numerous violations of its statutory obligations and its arbitrary and capricious actions” during the application vetting process. In reaching its decision, the MGC cited the higher number of jobs Wynn’s $1.6b proposal would create, as well as the higher percentage of revenue Wynn planned to draw from out of state gamblers than that envisioned by Mohegan Sun’s proposal in Revere.

Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority CEO Mitchell Etess told the Associated Press that the company had never previously launched a legal action protesting the awarding of a casino license but the company felt it was “really not treated fairly” during the “gravely flawed” approval process.

The lawsuit alleges that Wynn was given preferential treatment by the MGC, which allowed Wynn to revise and resubmit significant portions of its proposal, an advantage denied to Mohegan Sun. The suit also claims that the MGC let Wynn’s application slide on a dozen legally required conditions, including neighboring community obligations.

Those community obligations were a constant complaint of Boston mayor Martin Walsh, who felt Wynn was offering his city far less than Mohegan Sun had offered to offset the effect the new casino would have on regional traffic. Boston filed its own lawsuit against the MGC earlier this month and has refused to accept a $1m payment from Wynn.

STEVE WYNN’S PAY PACKET SHRINKS … OR DOES IT?

Speaking of Wynn checks, the company recently revealed it had cut the annual salary of CEO Steve Wynn (pictured). A Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed that Steve’s pay packet had been reduced from $4m to $2.5m. Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver said the company was making “significant changes” to its executive compensation in a bid to put a more definite link between pay and company performance.

UK bookmakers have launched a new £2m responsible gambling campaign intended to remind punters to curb their impulses when gambling stops being enjoyable. The Senet Group, whose ranks include Coral, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill, have debuted a pair of new TV adverts centered around the message that: “when the fun stops, stop.”

The TV spots (viewable below) follow a print and online campaign that launched earlier this month and were created by marketing firm The Corner. The ads – one targeting users of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) and the other targeting sports bettors – both involve a take on Ram Jam’s legendary 1977 rendition of Leadbelly’s blues standard Black Betty. In each spot, a losing gambler is shown throwing a bit of a tantrum, after which everyone else breaks into song, warning the punter of the dangers of ‘Bad Betty’ behavior.

The Senet Group was formed in the wake of relentless efforts by some of the UK’s more hysterical media outlets to paint FOBT as mechanical manifestations of the Antichrist. At the same time, local councils were becoming increasingly antagonistic towards the opening of new betting shops. Figuring they’d best act before government imposed even stricter controls, the bookies agreed to rid their shops of FOBT marketing, to dedicate a portion of shop windows to responsible gambling messages and to launch the new TV campaign.

Former Civil Service Commissioner Wanda Goldwag has been named the Senet Group’s chair and independent standards commissioner. Speaking at the campaign’s launch this week, Goldwag said she’d soon be paying a visit to Gibraltar in the hopes of encouraging additional online betting operators to join the Group’s founding four members.

CRACKS EMERGE IN UK COALITION OVER GAMBLING ADS

Meanwhile, delays in publishing the UK government’s review of gambling ads are causing rifts in the ruling coalition. In a letter leaked to the Daily Mail, Liberal Democrat MP and Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander urged the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to get a move on because betting ads were taking over television.

Alexander said it had “become almost impossible to watch any kind of sports event without being bombarded by highly solicitous advertising.” Alexander scorned the “grubby deal cooked up by the last Labour government” that permitted gambling ads to run in sporting events before the 9pm ‘watershed.’ Alexander has yet to weigh in on the appropriateness of the Senet Group’s ‘Bad Betty’ ads, which will also run alongside major sporting events.

Multi-player mobile bingo, YouTube sports channels and the world’s first crowd lottery among 20 businesses to pitch at ICE Totally Gaming 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2014 (London, UK) – GamCrowd.com and Clarion Events has announced the final line-up of entrants for Pitch ICE, to take place at Stand N7-460.

Presented by GamCrowd.com, Pitch ICE is a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas in front of attendees and potential investors at ICE 2015.

The final 20 start-ups will each have a 15 minute slot to sell their business or concept on the show floor over the three days of ICE 2015, at ExCeL London from February 3-5. A wide variety of companies will be present, incorporating social gaming, online casino, online poker and more.

“This is a unique opportunity for start-up gambling businesses to get their idea off the ground in front of key industry decision-makers and potential investors at ICE Totally Gaming,” said GamCrowd CEO, Chris North. “The response to Pitch ICE has been incredible. As delegates will see, the programme is diverse, with concepts that could have an impact on many different areas of the gambling industry. We believe there are numerous stand-out ideas that have the potential to be very successful.”

Asylum Labs is one of the companies shortlisted. The innovative company aims to re-invent classic casino games for the 21st century by making them more social and focusing on online communities. Their key product, Wild Party Bingo, is a multi-player bingo game that allows players to join friends and either co-operate with or compete against them. Unique in-game features and a focus on social interaction could change the way that bingo is played online and on mobile in the future.

Sporting Savvy is a global network of YouTube channels across a variety of sports, including horse racing, Formula 1 and rugby. The channels focuses on reviews, insights and sports betting knowledge from respected experts who bring a dedicated audience with them. YouTube has over 1 billion unique users each month[i] and Sporting Savvy is one of the site’s original premium partners, meaning that the company can also create sponsored and branded content that many other channels cannot do.

Daily fantasy sports site FanDuel has reported its revenue numbers for the fourth quarter of 2014 and as can be expected from a site that has seen its exposure in the US market explode, FanDuel’s revenues in the last quarter of the year has skyrocketed up to $37 million, a significant improvement from its revenue numbers in the same time last year when it posted $7.4 million. For the entire year of 2014, FanDuel reported earning a total net revenue of $54 million.

The popularity of FanDuel’s daily fantasy format has even forced the company to address the challenge of the demand growing too fast, thus the need to expand its own business operations. “[FanDuel] is proving so popular that our main challenge now is meeting customer demand, we have over 125 staff split between offices in New York and Edinburgh and are planning on opening an office in Glasgow soon,” founder and CEO Nigel Eccles said, as quoted by the Herald Scotland.

The growing interest in the daily fantasy sports format in the US – it is legal there – has even given FanDuel the opportunity to leverage that popularity with partnerships with a variety of US pro sports teams, most notably in the NBA where it already has existing deals with the likes of the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, and most recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Fan Duel also has a four-year deal with the NBA, which recognizes it as the league’s official daily fantasy sports provider.

FanDuel’s reach in the US is evident based on numbers. According to the company, it accounts for 80 percent of the market and its fan base has exponentially grown from having 190,000 active paying users last year to well over 1 million this year. The company has even launched an iPhone app, which has been downloaded just under 900,000 times.

FanDuel also reported $371 million in player entry fees from October-December, which accounts for 69 percent of the market. That’s more than double than the $166 million in player entry fees its closest rival, DraftKings, earned in the same period.

FanDuel’s status as the clear no.1 daily fantasy sports site in the US is something even rival DraftKings seem to have accepted. The company’s CEO, Jason Robbins, seemed to admit as much, telling the New York Business Journal his “disappointment” over not getting enough gains in shares over its rival site.

All this shows how healthy the daily fantasy sports market is in the US. It’s going to be interesting how the two sites and the rest of the other fringe players can handle losing the NFL season – by far the most popular fantasy sport – but then again, the NBA is still around. That’s good for FanDuel because it can tap into its partnership with the league to continue to drum up interest in its daily fantasy sports offerings.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is taking steps toward ensuring betting integrity for all of its competitions after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS).

As part of the deal, the FIH can use the intelligence sharing digital platform and access a network of monitoring and data-sharing information, which could help the federation address issues pertaining to illegal sports betting while creating framework for transparency and confidentiality for all parties involved.

Before the FIH and IOC tie up, there are seven Olympic winter sports federations and a number of Olympic summer sports federations have already partnered with IOC in time for the upcoming 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“We are pleased to sign up to IBIS and to be working together with the IOC in the fight against corruption in sport,” FIH President Leandro Negre said in a statement.

“As the world governing body of hockey, it is our responsibility to ensure the integrity of the sport is upheld and protected from the threats that are match-fixing and corruption. We are confident that this partnership will help safeguard hockey and all other Olympic sports and see it as an excellent step forward.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s Serie B has struck a deal with sports integrity specialist Sportradar, paving the way for Italy’s second division to take full advantage of the latter’s famous sports security services. The agreement between the two sides will cover the rest of the current season, in addition to the next two seasons.

As part of the deal, Sportradar will be tasked to run workshops and supply e-learning packages for the league’s 22 clubs on both the senior and youth levels.

iGaming and sports betting platform and technology supplier EveryMatrix has announced the appointment of Diane Dalli as its new Chief Financial Officer, directly reporting to the company CEO Ebbe Groes.

An experienced iGaming executive, Dalli joins EveryMatrix, having spent more than twelve years in the industry, from gambling technology firm Evolution where she served as Group Finance Manager from 2013 to 2014.

She has held a number of high-profile financial roles before joining Evolution from Nordic Gaming Group, where she began as chief accountant before being promoted to the role of CFO. During her tenure, she restructured the operator’s accounting department and prepared the company for its acquisition by Betsson in June 2012. She also served as chief executive of white label solution provider Melita Gaming Network, financial controller of French-facing operator ZEturf, and assistant financial controller of Betclic Everest’s Expekt brand.

Dalli specializes in implementing cost effective and efficiency led financial strategies which will aid EveryMatrix as the igaming technology supplier looking to expand its services into new burgeoning markets.

“We are thrilled to have a highly experienced finance professional such as Diane join EveryMatrix. Her financial management expertise in the online gaming sector is exactly what our business needs in order to become even more responsive in meeting our customers’ needs and anticipating industry trends,” said Ebbe Groes, CEO of EveryMatrix.

London-listed mobile gaming platform provider Nektan PLC also announces David Gosen as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

As the new CEO, he assumes responsibility for the company’s day-to-day operations and implementing the business’ short- and long-term strategy, with a focus on European expansion and product development.

Casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG) has signed on to manage the biggest casino in Malta. The 2,700-square-metre Casino Malta project, which is slated to open before the end of the year, will cost €10m – of which €7m will be paid by OEG – and host over 250 slot machines, around 30 gaming tables and a sportsbook. The operation will be run by OEG’s wholly owned subsidiaries OEG Malta Gaming Limited and OEG Malta Holding Limited.

In December, the Maltese government awarded a new casino concession to hotel and entertainment outfit Eden Leisure, which controls the island’s Intercontinental Malta and Holiday Inn Express hotels, as well as a radio station, cinemas, health clubs and the Bay Arena.

After a competitive bid process for the right to manage the casino operations. Eden executive chairman Ian De Cesare said OEG was selected due to its “wealth of experience” and the fact that the two companies share “a similar ethos” with regards to customer service and entertainment.

OEG chairman Armin Karu said his company had been looking for opportunities to expand into “popular holiday destinations” and the Malta project was “a large step forward in making our expansion plans comes true.” OEG is primarily based in the Baltic region but also had operations in Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Belarus.

In its 2014 earnings report card, OEG reported full year revenue up 3.8% to €141m. Latvian operations rose 21.1% to €43.9m, Lithuania was up 3.3% to €20.9m and OEG’s fledgling Italian business nearly doubled to €6.4m. Things weren’t so rosy in Estonia, which fell 2.6% to €31.6m, while Poland fell 16.9% to €22.5m and Slovakia fell 3.4% to €14m.

MALTA LGA REBRANDS

In other Malta gaming news, the Lotteries & Gaming Authority has decided to rebrand under the moniker Malta Gaming Authority. Executive chairman Joseph Cuschieri said the rebrand was intended to provide “a better representation of the Authority’s heritage, pass successes, vision and values within the national agenda and in line with our strategic objectives.” The MGA has a new website at www.mga.org.mt.

Three small stories from the relatively new world of online cryptocurrency online poker sites, as GetLuckyPoker opens in beta mode; Winning Poker starts cashing out in Bitcoin, and Breakout Gaming goes quiet.

The future of online poker?

It’s just a shame that it all seems so damn complicated. Or maybe I’m a bit thick? After all, I did just admit to Jonathan Little that I don’t even understand the basic math that any poker player needs just to be ‘competent.’

But there are people out there that get it. And I’m glad. It keeps the grubby hands of the men in power away from our money, and I’m all for that. I better start learning what all the fuss is about. Get over my learned helplessness.

The Winning Poker Network (WPN) believes in the power of Cryptocurrency. The network that houses the likes of America’s Cardroom and BetcoinPoker has broadened their appeal by adding both deposit and withdrawal options in Bitcoin.

If you choose to deposit with Bitcoin the amount is immediately converted to U.S dollars. This removes the headache of managing price fluctuations in line with the market. The same then happens in reverse when it’s time to withdraw your funds back to your Bitcoin wallet.

It’s an obvious move for the American facing network. It keeps them deep in the grey area of legality by allowing them to claim that Bitcoin is not a recognized form of currency in the US, and therefore doesn’t fall foul to the laws that are preventing millions of people from playing online poker.

Australian Oliver Gill has taken the third gold ring at the 2015 Aussie Millions after defeating Tony Bloom, in heads-up action, in Event #3: $2,500 8-Game Mixed.

[Image Credit: PokerAsiaPacific]

It was a case of sixth time lucky for Oliver Gill. The Australian finally managing to snag an Aussie Millions gold ring after falling short during his previous five side event final table appearances.

Only 46 players turned up for the event, and at the end of Day 1 there were five players remaining in the contest, with the Brighton FC Chairman, Tony Bloom, leading the way.

It was a cracking final table. Final table chip leader Bloom sat down with over $1.6m in previous cashes in the Aussie Millions, including two runner-up finishes in the $100,000 Challenge (losing to David Steicke in 2009 & Sam Trickett in 2011).

Trying to pull the tail of The Lizard were four players who all had an interesting story to boot. Jonas Mackoff came into the final table in fine form. The Canadian finished fourth in the €1,100 EUREKA Main Event in Prague, and bagged a side event victory at the EPT/UKIPT London Festival in October, but he could only take fifth in this one.

Mikal Blomlie hit the headlines in 2013 when he turned a World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) Leaderboard victory into a 10th place finish at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event for £120,000. He also won the first-ever TonyBet Open Face Chinese Pineapple World Championships in Prague at the end of the year. The Norwegian finished fourth.