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Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has entered into a new commercial partnership with News Corp UK & Ireland Limited. News UK serves millions of online readers through its premium media websites, The Sun and talkSPORT.

GiG and News UK will join forces to deliver sports betting, casino content and exclusive offers to users in the vast UK market. The content and exclusive offers will be featured on a special section of The Sun and talkSPORT’s websites, making it easy for readers to find everything related to betting in one separate hub. The deal’s key drivers are the combination of News UK’s large user base and premium content, partnered with GiG’s unique technology and specialised iGaming marketing knowledge.

GiG expects to go live on The Sun and talkSPORT’s websites to take advantage of the FIFA World Cup.

Tim Reynolds, Director of Betting & Gaming at The Sun said: “The partnership and new betting hub adds to The Sun’s growing digital portfolio and bolsters our suite of betting products. The collaboration with GiG will increase our content output and support The Sun in continually delivering excellent results for our bookmaker partners.”

Gareth Williams, Director of Betting & Gaming at talkSPORT added: “We are delighted to be partnering with GiG to help grow our iGaming affiliate business. GiG’s expertise combined with talkSPORT’s wall-to-wall sports coverage is a compelling proposition.”

Jonas Warrer, Chief Marketing Officer at GiG added, “A collaboration of this magnitude will allow us to provide added value to our partners in the sports betting and casino sphere, reaching new heights while showcasing our abilities to operate at a top-tier level.”

Jeremy Wilson’s book, Beryl: In Search of Britain’s Greatest Athlete, Beryl Burton, has been crowned the 2022 winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award at an official ceremony today (1 December), at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, in London.  

Wilson, whose book pays homage to the remarkable life of champion cyclist Beryl Burton, capturing her life through family, friends and fellow competitors to reveal an incredible story about one of the greatest cyclists of all time, collected the Award trophy and a £30,000 prize.  

A panel of judges from the world of sports and journalism, chaired by author and journalist, Alyson Rudd, concluded a four-month judging process, whittling a record 158 entries down to the winning book.  

The Judges praised the book for its “exhaustive research” and “superb writing” including its opening paragraph “laced with righteous fury” on why the public has not heard more about Beryl Burton. The cyclist dominated her sport as much as her male contemporary Eddy Merckx, but with added longevity that surpasses sporting legends like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams and Sir Steve Redgrave.  

On receiving the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, Jeremy Wilson said: “I followed this award in the 1980s and 90s and must have half the previous winners on my book shelves. It’s inspired me to read sports books and write one.  I felt such a responsibility to tell this story, Beryl made history and delivered this incredible story and I was fortunate to tell it. I share this award with her.” 

Alyson Rudd, Chair of the Judging Panel for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, said: “Too few biographies focus on sports women, but this book helps to alter the balance. It is quite simply a tour de force and leaves the reader emotionally drained but also uplifted. Beryl deserved for her story to be told in style and Jeremy Wilson achieves that while also charting the more controversial elements of her extraordinary life.” 

“This was a tough year for the judges, having had a record 158 entries. We had five incredible books on the shortlist, and selecting a winner was no mean feat. Congratulations to our other shortlisted authors and everyone who entered.”  

The four authors on the shortlist , alongside Jeremy Wilson, receive £3,000 and a leather-bound copy of their book. They are: 

• Be Good, Love Brian: Growing Up with Brian Clough by Craig Bromfield 

• God is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling’s Great Wasted Talent by Andy McGrath 

• My Hidden Race by Anyika Onuora 

• Expected Goals: The Story of how Data Conquered Football and Changed the Game Forever by Rory Smith 

Jeremy Wilson is the 34^th winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award and joins an impressive list of past winners, including last year’s champion Michael Holding, three-time winner Duncan Hamilton, as well as the likes of Nick Hornby, Brian Moore and Marcus Trescothick.   

The Award, which first took place in 1989 and is now the longest-established competition in the industry, is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing, providing authors and publishers with a platform to showcase and promote their books.  

Entry to the 35^th William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is now open. For more information about the Award and to enter, please visit: https://news.williamhill.com/sport/sports-book-of-the-year/

QTech Games, the number-one games distributor across Asia and all emerging markets, has penned its latest provider partnership with innovative games studio, AvatarUX, enabling its platform partners to access the supplier’s multi-faceted slots catalogue.

Consequently, AvatarUX, an emerging force in the igaming domain, is rolling out its immersive portfolio to operators across a series of untapped territories, showcasing a deep well of slot games. This includes an array of popular titles such as CherryPop and coming attractions, like HelioPOPolis, KokeshiPop and HipHopPop, each powered by its signature PopWins™ mechanics.

AvatarUX’s operates from a proprietary framework with tools that enable it to deliver feature-rich and audiovisually stunning games with short-course loading times. Its flexible approach, coupled with a powerful technical infrastructure, allows its team to focus on creating exciting customer-centric slots, underpinned by advanced mathematical models, immersive visuals and a strong user experience. AvatarUX’s success story has been accelerated by the aforementioned PopWins™ mechanics, which constitute a central feature in most of its available games. PopWins™ amplifies the slot experience and extends the length of the average spin session – meaning these games boast increased “win potential” and enhanced options for engaging gameplay.

This timely collaboration now sees QTech Games offer the popular PopWins™ alongside other original mechanics, such as MultiPop™, to its extensive operator network, furthering expanding the commercial potential for this award-winning studio, which was recently singled out as Rising Star at this year’s EGR B2B Awards 2022.

Incorporating this ever-evolving production line emphasizes QTech Games’ diverse range of gaming options, providing a definitive one-stop shop that has quickly become the “go-to” solution for worldwide operators across developing territories.

The agreement organically broadens AvatarUX’s geographic footprint, and creating new revenue streams along the way. As the fastest-growing distributor in Asia over the past few years, QTech Games’ platform offers the most expansive gaming portfolio around, localised for each region, with native mobile apps, powerful reporting and marketing tools, and 24/7 local-language support.

QTech Games CCO, Daniel Long, said: “It’s another ringing endorsement for our platform to have integrated more premium content from AvatarUX. Theirs is a growing and constantly innovating library, delivering consistent support to the growth of our broad gaming-vertical spread, courtesy of some high-quality graphics, gameplay and unique features.

“Together, we will continue to raise the bar and shape a localised experience for global players. We can’t wait to witness how these games perform across a range of untapped markets which, in most cases, break new ground for AvatarUX. They have brought genuine innovation to the igaming space through their immersive PopWins™ mechanic, and we can’t wait to make their games available to our partners.”

Nicola Longmuir, CEO at AvatarUX, added: “QTech Games is a natural habitat for our superior online casino games and player-engagement tools. We are widening our scope across developing regions and their market-leading platform provides a flexible gateway to widening our game distribution and reaching new players.

“AvatarUX’s mission remains steadfast: to become a market-leading game studio, with progressive global recognition recently received for our award-winning slot games. To achieve this goal, we believe in leveraging potential, via an agile workforce and the creation of beneficial partnerships, just like this one with QTech Games, in which we work directly with trusted global distributors to continue to support our rapid growth worldwide.

“AvatarUX continues to create top-tier slot games with well-balanced gameplay and unique features, framed by engaging visuals and immersive soundscapes. Needless to say, entering into this QTech Games agreement tracks our core strategy to fully leverage our reach, and we look forward to seeing how new audiences embrace our games.”

November 20 marked the kickoff of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. An event long anticipated by football fans and quite unique in several respects. This year, for the first time ever, the World Cup takes place in the Middle East, in winter, and… against the backdrop of the largest military confrontation in Europe since World War II.

While the stands of Qatari stadiums explode with applause, Ukrainian fans hear explosions in the streets of their cities, and the Ukrainian army bravely resists unprovoked Russian aggression on the several thousand kilometers of frontlines.

However, even in such circumstances, FAVBET and Kyiv-based creative agency Taktika found a way to engage Ukrainian fans and remind the world that football is not only about fighting, but also about unity and support that goes beyond the borders.

“The world will not see our team on Qatar’s football pitches, but for almost a year it has been watching our fight on a pitch of a different kind – the battlefield. And not only watching, but tirelessly supporting. England, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, the USA, France and many other countries have been supplying and training the Ukrainian military, providing shelter to our citizens and defending our interests on the diplomatic front. We decided that the World Cup is a great opportunity to say thank you to Ukraine’s allies for this unwavering support,” says FAVBET’s creative copywriter Mykola Bezkrovnyi.

The campaign is based on short videos shot on the streets of Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv. The centerpiece of the story are the Ukrainian fans with vintage scarves, which, many years ago, they waved during the matches of Ukraine’s team against our current allies. “We once held these scarves because we fiercely wanted to defeat you. We hold them now because we sincerely want you to win. Just like you want us to win too,” says the voiceover of the campaign’s manifesto.

“This campaign was Favbet’s idea, and our task was to find the best form and style for it. We realized that we once used to be opponents on the football pitch with almost all of our current allies. Now, the scarves from these matches are turning from symbols of our rivalry into those of unity. Many fans still have them at home as a memory. We decided to use thescarves as a powerful visual symbol and built a campaign around them,” says Roman Gurbanov, Taktika co-founder and creative director.

In addition to the manifesto, the campaign also includes videos dedicated to supporting particular Ukrainian allies like Poland and England. The videos were shot by Ukraine-based studio Digital Religion known for their advertising work for the world’s leading brands like Samsung, Visa, Pepsi, Uber, and others. Check out the videos on FAVBET’s YouTube:

Support those who support us

FAVBET’s new campaign is not only a token of gratitude to the allies, but also a reminder that the war, unlike a football match, does not end with the referee’s whistle. While the World Cup will wrap up in a few weeks, Ukraine will continue its fight against the aggressor that seeks to destroy Ukrainian identity and its need for support will remain as high as ever. That is why FAVBET Foundation is now accepting international donations so that football fans from all over the world can also contribute to Ukraine’s victory. Make your donation on the Foundation’s official page. 

As an international company with Ukrainian roots, FAVBET has been supporting Ukraine since the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, implementing numerous humanitarian initiatives and providing the Ukrainian military with the necessary equipment. Today, 95% of FAVBET Foundation’s projects are focused on helping the country’s citizens and the army, i. e. evacuating residents of frontline cities, purchasing ambulances and vehicles for the needs of the Armed Forces, as well as supplying high-tech communications equipment and drones.

Credentials

FAVBET

Head of Brand – Alexander Tarasov

Brand Manager – Anna Lytvynchuk

Marketing Project Manager – Yanina Baranetska

Creative Producer – Oleksii Marakhovskyi

Digital Content Producer – Iryna Kondratyeva

Creative Lead – Anatoly Simachynskyi

Creative Copywriter – Mykola Bezkrovnyi

Digital Religion

Director – Gleb Feldman

Taktika

Creative Director – Roman Gurbanov

Art Director – Illia Pochkun

Top 10 Games for December have been ranked in the Game Development World Championship 2022 (GDWC). All competing games are up for the monthly ranking by public player interest. Find results on the GDWC Youtube Channel here.

The Defense of Trewel Towers by a student development team Trewel Towers from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut has won the monthly games ranking for December. Congrats to the winning team!

The Defense of Trewel Towers, or Trewel Towers, is a VR tower defense game. It contains a story mode as well as a 1-4 player endless mode. Still in development with student team.

2nd place: Nerthus: Einar’s Fate by Tomato Rangers – Game Studio
Frenetic third person shooter.

3rd place: Light On Light off by DT Corp
Experience the dark and gory world of Light On Light Off Game

4th place: DarkenDerek the last fallen by ACTIONGAMES.c.l.r.
Arm yourself to the teeth and prevent aliens to kidnap our beloved woman.
Kick back invaders to their own galaxy or kill them all!
Will you be able to save all girls bringing peace again in Club City?

5th place: Kankerspokenjagers (Cancer Ghost Hunters) by 038Games
Kankerspokenjagers is a serious game which helps children (5-8yr) who have a parent with cancer. Through this mobile game they learn about coping with the feelings they might have and get to know more about the medical process through play.

6th place: Red Trigger 2 by Bold Spirit Game Studio
Red Trigger 2 is an FPS Puzzle Game inspired by Portal, Antichamber and more. Use a gun that can expand or retract red blocks, but you can only expand three at a time, so you’ll need to manage your energy wisely.

7th place: COGNAC – Bringing Real Life Photorealism to every gamer. by COGNAC TEAM
Cognac is The only game in the world that is bringing Photorealism to every gamer in every house in the world.

8th place: Game Of Seven by Game Of Seven
The 7 by 7 Heavenly Board Game for mobile devices and PCs. Command your 7 angels to capture the gates of heaven! Developed and published by Seven Interactive Ltd.

9th place: PHYAKH by SmileFrogGames
Story-driven, action adventure combining exploration with fast-paced combat games.

10th place: Dreams of Adventure by Farting Rainbow Production
Old school, retro, pixel and hardcore game. Game where choice maters and impacts your game depending on your decisions.

If you have a game and are interested in joining the championship, you can find more info, categories, and rewards on the GDWC 2022 site here.