Tag: Industry News

GameArt has entered the Swiss regulated online gaming market with Casino777.ch, the iGaming brand of Switzerland’s Casino Davos.

Players in Switzerland can enjoy a range of GameArt’s most popular slot titles, including the hugely popular Chili Quest, mesmerising Battle for Atlantis and classic African Sunset, along with 15 other stunning titles.

“We’re proud to be entering the Swiss market with Casino Davos – one of the country’s most recognised and popular casinos. Our slots are sought by players all over the world thanks to their premium production values and engaging gameplay, and we’re confident that players at casino777.ch will absolutely love them,” Almir Kudic, Head of Commercials at GameArt, said.

“GameArt are a great match for Casino777.ch and we’re excited to bring the best of their titles to our Swiss customers,” Leonard Huguenin, Online Casino Manager at Casino777.ch, said.

Kaizen Gaming has won award in the “Best Omni – Channel Customer Experience” category at the National Customer Service Awards 2020.

The National Customer Service Awards were organised for the 11th year running by the Hellenic Institute of Customer Service, in order to promote and reward companies, organisations and executive staff who make customer service their priority and demonstrate best practices.

Since its founding, Kaizen Gaming has set forth Customer Service as one of its main competitive edges by creating an internal and self-governing customer service model, which has been promoted and integrated by all countries of operation (Cyprus, Germany, Romania, Portugal, Brazil).

“At Kaizen Gaming we always look through the lens of our customers. In this context we have invested all these years in the continuous strengthening and development of our technological tools that warrant the best service experience for thousands of people who have chosen and relied on us for their entertainment. We seek and have managed to a great extent to have developed a strong relationship and a meaningful interaction. Our goal is to achieve a strong two-way commitment with perspective, since we are aware of the fact that such relationships need to be cultivated with confidence over the years. However, we have not only invested in tools but also in our human resources. In people who are committed to providing the best possible service experience for our customers. This efficient combination has created a crucial competitive edge for us, a fact corroborated by the overall satisfaction of our customers,” Stathis Loverdos, Director of Services at Kaizen Gaming, said.

BetConstruct has entered into a white label agreement with online operator BetShah.

With this agreement, a huge selection of 45,000+ monthly live matches, 10+ casino games played in real time with skilled dealers and thousands of slot games integrated to a single BetConstruct platform are available now to BetShah and their players.

Additionally, the operator receives supportive promotional tools for the casino to grow and strengthen their player base and overall website engagement.

BetShah team comments, “The King of Kings in online entertainment deserves outstanding and meticulously crafted software. That’s why our choice of provider fell on a company that delivers all-inclusive software and services. We are excited to meet BetConstruct and bring their state-of-the-art live casino games and robust sportsbook to our players.”

The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) has elected new president and officers.

David Lucchese, executive vice president of sales, marketing and digital at Everi, is the new president. Previously an AGEM’s vice president, Lucchese replaces Luke Orchard as president for a two-year term, while Orchard, senior vice president, chief compliance and risk management officer at IGT, moves to a vice president position for a one-year term.

One-year terms were also approved for: vice president Elaine Hodgson (president and CEO, Incredible Technologies), vice president Thomas Jingoli (executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Konami Gaming), vice president Bob Parente (senior vice president and chief revenue officer, gaming, Scientific Games), secretary Eric Fisher (senior vice president and GM, Crane Payment Innovations), treasurer Hector Fernandez (president – Americas, Aristocrat Technologies and) general counsel Daron Dorsey (senior vice president and general counsel – Americas, Ainsworth Game Technology).

Sports data specialist Stats Perform has entered into a partnership with Live Graphic Systems (LIGR) to deliver rich statistical broadcast graphics for sports leagues and broadcasters looking to streamline production costs while maintaining professional standards and commercial integrations.

The partnership highlights more than three years of cooperative projects between Stats Perform and LIGR, including customers like Gravity Media, Cricket Australia, Football NSW, and Queensland Rugby League. The partnership brings together Stats Perform’s industry-leading event and tracking data and deep storytelling expertise with LIGR’s best-in-breed live sports broadcast graphics platform, including access to LIGR’s out-of-the-box professional graphics templates and their industry-leading sponsorship modules for easy upload, display and reporting of commercial in-game inventory.

“With Stats Perform’s world-class data and advanced storytelling resources, sports broadcasters and leagues will be able to utilise LIGR’s platform to produce large volumes of data-enriched broadcast experiences with world-class graphics in a streamlined, cost-efficient production workflow. This next generation workflow is self-serve, in the cloud, out-of-the-box, and up and running in minutes, even for the most unskilled user. This is extremely exciting for sports leagues and broadcasters who have struggled to produce professional broadcasts with real-time data integrations under limited budgets, away from traditional broadcasting solutions. Now more than ever, cloud-based and automated, data-driven workflows will be a key driver for the sports and broadcast industry to move forward while live sports content is still king,” Luke McCoy, Co-founder and CEO of LIGR, said.

“Sports broadcasts today rely on slick, fast, informative graphics that drive the game’s narrative, while breaking down vast data points and analytics in a visually appealing way that fans can digest. LIGR’s intelligent, out-of-the-box broadcast graphic tools integrate Stats Perform’s advanced event and tracking data to deliver a sleek, easy-to-use tool, that also makes overlaying advertising easy, generating new sponsorship revenue for our customers. We are excited to be working with LIGR to offer new tools to power any broadcast,” Wayne Ford, Senior Vice President of Global Partners and Channels at Stats Perform, said.

BtoBet has entered into a partnership with free-to-play sports-game specialists Imprexis Gaming.

The agreement will see BtoBet offer its partners Imprexis Gaming’s FTP games portfolio across sporting events in different markets, allowing them to register better results in terms of player acquisition retention and engagement.

Sabrina Soldà, BtoBet’s Chief Marketing Officer, expressed her satisfaction regarding the agreement reached with Imprexis Gaming, stating that its highly scalable multi-lingual FTP solutions will support BtoBet’s sportsbook partners across all markets and jurisdictions, allowing for a more localised and personalised approach.

Soldà further added that Imprexis Gaming’s FTP portfolio acts as an ideal acquisition gateway for all operators in the many markets where BtoBet is already present.

“The scalable platform and wide selection of content developed by Imprexis Gaming allow our partners to deploy games based on their territorial strategies, allowing for vastly improved acquisition and retention rates. Furthermore, the advanced analytical tools employed allow for in-depth reporting, facilitating game-management and campaigns,” Soldà said.

“We’re very excited to expand our partnership with BtoBet and give their Sports Betting Operators the edge in acquisition over their competitors. F-T-P jackpot games are now firmly established as the industry’s leading acquisition and engagement tool and with the ever-increasing regulations and restrictions on sign-up bonuses we can’t see this position changing anytime soon. Our products really make a difference, so we look forward to engaging with BtoBet clients and creating custom built, tailor-made solutions perfect for their markets,” Danny Thomas, Co-Founder of Imprexis Gaming, said.

Kindred Group has reported its strongest quarter ever with Gross winnings revenue at an all-time high of approximately GBP 365 million (Q4 2019: GBP 236.2 million), representing annual growth of 55%.

This has been achieved through continued strong activity across its markets and products, and record active customer numbers of 1.78 million, an increase of 11% compared to the same quarter in 2019.

Gross winnings revenue growth was also supported by a slightly higher than normal sports betting margin, which was approximately 10% (after free bets) for the quarter, compared to the long-term average margin of around 8.5%.

Underlying EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2020 is estimated to be approximately GBP 115 million (Q4 2019: GBP 30.7 million) which is significantly higher than the current consensus. The main contributing factors for this increase are the strong revenue growth, combined with Kindred’s continued focus on operational efficiency and costs.

The level of marketing investment has gradually increased during the second half of the year and during the fourth quarter, the total marketing spend was around 13% higher than in Q4 2019. Although marketing spends increased between the third and fourth quarters of 2020, the significant increase in revenue and improved marketing efficiencies have meant that marketing spend was approximately 21% of Gross winnings revenue for the quarter.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced that the reopening of casinos, among other businesses, has been postponed until at least the end of January.

The French PM announced that “all activities, facilities and premises closed will remain so until the end of the month. Museums, movie theaters, show venues, gyms and leisure centers are not to see measures eased off in the coming weeks. During this period of closure and limited work, the government will keep on financially support all sectors and players directly affected by our measures.”

After hoping they would be able to reopen on December 15, then on January 7, casinos have to wait until the end of January to know if they will be allowed to reopen in early February 2021.

Entain plc has announced that Shay Segev, Entain’s Chief Executive Officer, has given notice of his intention to leave the Company to become Co-CEO of DAZN, a privately owned global sports streaming platform.

Shay has a notice period of six months and will remain in his current role for that period or until a successor is in place. The Board, having considered succession issues on a regular basis, has a process well under way to find his successor.

Barry Gibson, Chairman of Entain, said: “We are sorry that Shay has decided to leave us but recognise that we cannot match the rewards that he has been promised.

“Entain has a wealth of talent across its leadership team and the business has never been stronger. The Company has delivered 20 quarters of double-digit online growth, and our future prospects have been substantially enhanced by our new strategy, which we set out in November. We have built a truly global business which is entirely based on our own technology and offers our best-in-class entertainment services in more than 20 nationally-licensed countries.

“I can confirm that this changes nothing with respect to the Board’s view of the recent proposal from MGM Resorts International to acquire Entain. The Board remains unanimous in our view that the proposal significantly undervalues the Company and its prospects.”

Shay Segev said: “I will be sad to leave the Company after five years but I have been offered a role which offers me a very different type of opportunity. Entain is in great shape after the successful launch of our new strategy. I also want to emphasise that the recent interest from MGM Resorts has had absolutely no bearing on my decision, and I fully support the Board’s decision to reject their proposal. Entain has a great team of leaders and an exciting future ahead through its growth and sustainability strategy, and I will do all I can to continue to support the Company.”