slotegrator’s-apigrator-solution-is-certified-in-sweden

Slotegrator’s APIgrator solution is certified in Sweden

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APIgrator, one of Slotegrator’s most popular solutions, was certified in Sweden. For the company and its clients, it means expanding into a significant new market.

Since 2019, when the new Gambling Act was first introduced, Sweden has been a regulated market of great potential: 56% of Swedes gamble at least once a year, and the country’s total gross gambling revenue in 2020 was SEK 24.7 billion (roughly $2.3 billion). Such a promising jurisdiction has a clear draw for operators, and now they can offer players an amazing array of games with Slotegrator’s game integration solution.

The key advantage of APIgrator? Providing seamless and easy integration of a variety of games from the industry’s leading developers, including slots, live dealer games, poker, card games, casual games, and virtual sports. The technical solution allows operators to quickly add games to any platform. Instead of wasting time and money by concluding contracts with a long list of game developers, online casino operators sign a single contract for access to an unimaginable variety of gaming content.

APIgrator is growing. It includes over 15,000 games from more than 100 developers from all over the world, including all possible variations and themes of slots, table games, live dealer games, bingo, lotteries, virtual sports, and other popular games. APIgrator enables one-session integration of all the games from the company’s portfolio, as well as on-time updates and new releases. APIgrator is constantly expanding its list of available titles and markets of operation, so being certified for Sweden is great news.

This move is another achievement and further proof of the quality of the solution. Yana Khaidukova, Managing Director at Slotegrator, commented: “Expanding into key world markets is crucial for international gambling providers like Slotegrator, and we keep searching for new opportunities to contribute to our clients’ growth.”

In 2022, APIgrator was also certified by authorities in Lithuania, opening the doors to the Baltic region.

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Pollard Banknote Awarded Instant Scratch Ticket Contract By Norsk Tipping

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Pollard Banknote Limited is pleased to announce that, following a competitive procurement process, it has been awarded a primary contract from Norsk Tipping, Norway’s national lottery, to supply instant scratch tickets. The three-year contract commenced December 1, 2022 and will automatically renew for one additional year.

This is the second consecutive contract where Pollard Banknote has been named primary supplier, marking the continuation of the long-standing partnership between Pollard Banknote and Norsk Tipping. Most recently, Norsk Tipping achieved notable sales success with the launch of several products featuring Pollard Banknote’s industry-leading innovations, including Scratch Tab™, featured in the best-selling holiday game, Flax Julekalender. Offering big value in an oversized ticket, Flax Julekalender continues to be a player favourite at Christmas every year. The Lottery has also leveraged Pollard Banknote’s Scratch FX™ innovation, which adds sparkle and shines brightly at retail, to drive record-setting sales that benefit good causes across Norway.

Pollard Banknote also shares the Lottery’s commitment to raising funds for good causes while providing products and services responsibly and ethically. Throughout the duration of the contract, Pollard Banknote will continue to work alongside Norsk Tipping to ensure it upholds sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

“Pollard Banknote has been a trusted partner for many years and through this new contract we look forward to leveraging more of their industry experience and expertise, including strategic marketing services, as well as exciting product innovations,” said Hans Erland Ringsvold, Head of Gaming Operations, Norsk Tipping. “We are excited to continue to work together to offer our players instant scratch tickets, both retail and online, in an innovative and sustainable manner that grow revenues to the benefit of sports, culture, and humanitarian organisations in Norway.”

“We are thrilled to continue our successful relationship with Norsk Tipping,” said Julia Cloutier, Senior Director, Sales & Marketing, Pollard Banknote. “The Lottery has leveraged many of Pollard Banknote’s exciting product innovations over the years, including Scratch FX™, Iridescent FX™, and Scratch Tab™. This new contract will allow us to continue to work with the Lottery to offer our latest innovations and sustainable, market-specific strategies to ensure growth that benefits good causes across Norway.”

bos-op-ed:-“svenska-spel’s-betting-company-must-be-sold-by-the-state”

BOS op-ed: “Svenska Spel’s betting company must be sold by the state”

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Dagens Nyheter – Sweden’s largest morning paper – today published an op-ed signed Gustaf Hoffstedt, Secretary General of The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling. Hoffstedt is urging the government to sell the betting and online casino part of the governmental gambling operator Svenska Spel.

We are pleased to bring you the English version of the editorial which you can read in full below:

Sell Svenska Spel

Since 2019, Sweden has had a licensing system for gambling companies. Anyone who wants to operate in the Swedish gambling market must have a state license. As of 2019, there are two types of gambling markets; partly a monopoly that mainly offers lotteries, for example, the popular Trisslotten. In this market, private profitmaking gambling companies are not allowed to operate. Partly a commercial competitive gambling market that mainly offers online casinos and betting, for example betting on horses and football. In this market, private commercial gambling companies can apply for and be awarded a license to operate in the Swedish gambling market.

Through Svenska Spel, the state is active in both of these markets, but now the time has come to divest Svenska Spel Sport & Casino, i.e. the part of the company that is active in the commercial, competitive gambling market.

Around 70 gambling companies are fighting for market share in the part of the gambling market that is open to competition and offers online casinos as well as betting on horses, football, other sports, and even who will win the next parliamentary election or Schlagerfestivalen. One of these companies is stateowned: Svenska Spel. It is difficult to find arguments for continued government commercial involvement in that market.

Normally, the state usually engages in business activities when the market itself has failed, above all in terms of competition. There may be too few players in a market and the few that exist may have too dominant a position for competition to function. Then the state steps in as a commercial actor with the ambition of countering that market failure. However, no one who has followed developments in the Swedish gambling market can claim that there is too little competition between the 70 companies that operate in competitive gambling. Competition is fierce and would remain so even in the absence of the state as a commercial casino operator and bookmaker in betting.

Another argument for conducting stateowned commercial gambling activities could be a desire to act as an example for all other companies on the market, for example in not producing as much gambling advertising as the competitors. Anyone who has followed Svenska Spel’s marketing since the reregulation knows, however, that the company is one of Sweden’s largest advertisers in all categories, i.e. including gambling but also other large advertising buyers such as grocers and car manufacturers. Svenska Spel’s extensive advertising purchases rather force the private gambling companies to make larger advertising purchases on their part than would otherwise have been the case.

“A stateowned gambling company that operates in direct competition with others is, in principle, like any other gambling company,” says the government investigation from 2017, which was the basis for the Swedish reregulation of the gambling market. That’s exactly how it is; Svenska Spel Sport & Casino has exactly the same license as other gambling companies. They follow exactly the same responsible gambling regulations, and they do it no better or worse than their competitors. They pay exactly the same gambling tax as all other gambling companies. Therefore, the logical consequence already became apparent to the Gambling License Investigation six years ago: “The conclusion is, according to the investigation, that the best alternative would be to divest the competition part.” [A reregulated gaming market, SOU 2017:30, p. 34]

So the only remaining question is why hasn’t the company been sold yet?

Perhaps an argument for keeping the company under state auspices could be its return to the state. But the idea is of course not for the company to be liquidated, but on the contrary to be sold to the highest bidder and then continue to be run, albeit privately. With the same requirement to pay gambling tax.

Not entirely surprisingly, there is a classic division here between political parties on the right and the left. Parties on the left view positively that the state owns companies and runs businesses, while parties on the right do not. This is also the case in this matter, and before the reregulation, the center-right parties had to waive stricter demands for the divestment of Svenska Spel Sport & Casino in order for the Social Democratled government to agree to introduce the gambling license system we have today.

Now that time is over and we have a new government, which together with the Sweden Democrats forms a majority in the Riksdag. The moderates have long advocated a divestment of Svenska Spel Sport & Casino, as have the Sweden Democrats. The voters who have given the center-right parties the power to rule Sweden have very reasonable expectations that the government will now move from words to action.

This is really nothing new for a center-right government. The last time Sweden had such a government, it concluded that the fact that the Swedish state had then become one of the world’s largest producers of alcohol was not in line with the government’s idea of what a state should do. Thus Vin & Sprit AB was sold in 2008, with the Absolut brand, for 55 billion kronor to France’s Pernod Ricard, which still runs the business for the benefit of Scanian grain farmers, among others.

It is now high time that our own contemporary anomaly, the state’s role as a casino operator and bookmaker, found an end. And unlike the longawaited introduction of gambling licenses, which took place at the initiative of the Social Democrats, it would be desirable for this to happen during a center-right wing government in power. What else should it have the power for, if not to implement what it said in opposition it wanted to do?

Gustaf Hoffstedt
Secretary General, The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling

[Gustaf Hoffstedt is among the speakers of the Prague Gaming & TECH Summit which will be held between 29-30 March 2023. More details about the summit can be found here.]

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Update of the Danish Gambling Authority’s guide on responsible gambling

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The Danish Gambling Authority’s guide on responsible gambling has been updated on 6 December 2022 to version 1.4. The changes primarily include information for players and the duty to pay attention. In addition, there are minor changes to the general information on responsible gambling, for example figures from the latest prevalence survey on gambling have been added.

Information for players

The guide on the Danish Gambling Authority’s labeling scheme and on the information licence holders must provide to players has undergone an update. For online casinos and online betting, the information on deposit limits is detailed and for land-based casinos there is, among other things, additional guidance on information for players and marketing in case of self-exclusion from the casino.

Duty to pay attention

The section on the duty to pay attention and interventions towards players has also been updated, among other things the guidance on VIP programs and use of bonus offers has been expanded.

Finally, the guidance has undergone a general revision.

kindred-challenges-the-coercive-fine-in-norway

Kindred Challenges the Coercive Fine in Norway

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Kindred Group, via its wholly owned Maltese subsidiary Trannel International Ltd, has been informed that the Norwegian Gaming Authority has decided to reinstate the coercive fine against Trannel International despite the changes Kindred Group has undertaken.

Over the past month, Kindred has made wholesale changes to the brand to meet the compliance standards set out by the Norwegian regulator – which were detailed in a cease-and-desist letter handed to the subsidiary in 2019.

The changes included removing all Norwegian flags from the website and channels, changing the language on all sites from Norwegian to English, discontinuing all advertising and marketing activities in Norwegian and stopping the offer of talking to Norwegian-speaking customer service agents.

However, even with the new changes, the regulator is persisting with the “non-enforceable” fine, which Kindred believes has no legal basis and will challenge in the courts.

Kindred said in a statement: “Trannel firmly disagrees with the NGA’s assessment as it is entirely legal for Norwegian residents to access and use international gambling services, which are licensed in the EU/EEA area and offered within a safe and secure environment, Kindred will continue to accept customers residing in Norway passively.

“The NGA does not have jurisdiction over Trannel as the company is domiciled in Malta and duly licensed by the Maltese Gaming Authority. Therefore, Kindred is confident that the coercive fine cannot be enforced by the NGA outside of Norway.”

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Popok Gaming has received a Certificate for Sweden

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PopOK Gaming aims to expand its horizons and provide a high-level iGaming experience for new audiences. Sweden is the next destination; local players can enjoy 18 of our slots and the Progressive Jackpot already.

The well-known titles include Yummy, Lost Treasure, Hot Bar, Lucky Jungle, Magic treasures of Egypt, Los Apaches and many others. All mentioned above meet local industry standards and promise to keep local players interested.

So, PopOK Gaming’s Swedish partners can guarantee their players a top-quality iGaming experience.

PopOK Gaming CEO Karen Gulkanyan, commented, “The certification was rigorous in Sweden, and we are proud that our games met all requirements. This is a huge milestone for us, and we look forward to continued success in the Swedish market and building strong partnerships there”.

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BOS welcomes the new minister responsible for gambling policy

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The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS) welcomes the decision that Minister of Financial Markets Niklas Wykman is appointed to be responsible for gaming policy in the government.

We look forward to having a discussion with Niklas Wykman about how gambling policy can best be developed in Sweden. We will have three important messages in those discussions. Firstly, the licensed gambling companies must be protected at the expense of the unlicensed ones. Secondly, the state should concentrate on making laws that the rest of us must follow rather than acting as a commercial gambling company itself, and thirdly, it would be welcome if Wykman, as the first minister in any Swedish government, dares to highlight the gambling industry’s important business and political significance for Sweden and Europe, says Gustaf Hoffstedt.

ngdc-season-vi:-special-qualifier-announced-for-game-wave-festival

NGDC Season VI: Special Qualifier announced for Game Wave Festival

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We’re thrilled to announce a special qualification round of the Nordic Game Discovery Contest Season VI, giving Baltic-based developers a unique chance for a seat in the NGDC Grand Finals.

All studios attending the upcoming Game Wave Festival in Tallinn (www.gamewave .eu) can submit their game to the NGDC when they register for the festival. A board of experts will then select the game which deserves the most to be discovered, and it will get status as NGDC Grand Finalist and be among the studios battling for the three seats at the live and hybrid NGDC Final 3 on 28 November.

“We’re very excited to announce this special qualifier”, says NGDC host and Nordic Game Program Director Jacob Riis. “The Baltic region has a great amount of talented developers, and it will be very exciting to see who will be selected as the finalist for the NGDC Grand Finals.” 

We are very happy to welcome NGDC to our event and to have such an important game-related event in the Baltics region. It will draw top game studio attention to our region and inspire new studio development and capacity building of experienced ones.” adds Ints Viksna, head of the Game Wave Festival.

The selected game will win a seat in the NGDC Grand Finals throughout November, as well as prizes from Tencent Games, Nordic Game, and PR specialists Games Branding.

Apply now! 

Are you developing or have you already developed a game that deserves more attention than it’s received so far? And are you attending the Game Wave Festival? If so, submit your game and prepare to participate in the special qualifying round of NGDC Season VI – and maybe go all the way to the Grand Final 3 Final on 28 November.

Here’s the submission form for the NGDC Season VI qualifier: https://forms.gle/bjpURRjV8pMgVAsk7Deadline is 14 October 2022

NGDC Season VI is sponsored by Tencent Games, and Nordic Game Ventures, in partnership with Games Branding.

g-loot-partners-with-riot-games-for-the-premier-g-loot-valorant-clash-tournament

G-Loot partners with Riot Games for the Premier G-Loot VALORANT Clash tournament

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Swedish esports platform, G-Loot, has announced that it has partnered with RIOT GAMES, Inc. for its Premier G-Loot VALORANT Clash tournament, the VALORANT Championship Tour OFF//SEASON.

“We are extremely proud to have entered a partnership with Riot Games for the VCTOFF//Season,” said Simon Sundén, G-Loot’s Vice President & Head of Esports.

The tournament will take place in three stages which will include Qualifiers, G-Loot Showdown, and the Grand Finals, and will run from October 19 to November 27. The G-Loot Showdown on October 28-30 and the Grand Finals on November 25-27 will be broadcast live from Stockholm with a team of professional casters and analysts.

G-Loot welcomes players from EMEA to sign up and get a chance to participate in the Clash tournament. Everyone can start their esport journey on G-Loot, and in the end, compete for $50,000 in the VALORANT Clash.

“Part of what makes G-Loot special is that we want to open esports up to a wider audience,” said Simon Sundén. “Our hope is that G-Loot VALORANT Clash will soon see even more new teams playing. We’ve seen a lot of players starting their journey on G-Loot to eventually become pros. We look forward to seeing underdog stories in this tournament as well.”

VALORANT was launched in 2020 and has quickly become one of the most popular FPS titles in the world, attracting millions of esports players and concurrent viewers each day.

“VALORANT has become one of the biggest esports titles after just two years since launch attracting millions of viewers worldwide. We are extremely excited to start working on producing high-quality tournaments for the EMEA region”, Simon continues.

The tournament is a part of a wider series of third-party events in VCT OFF//SEASON that is taking place after the CHAMPIONS. For more information about VALORANT esports competitions, please visit www. valorantesports .com

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Air Dice appoints iGaming Veteran Erkki Nikunen

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Air Dice Group, a game developer for the iGaming industry, which specializes in slots and strategy influenced money games, has appointed Erkki Nikunen as Company Partner and Chief Business Development Officer.

Sami Mäkinen, CEO of Air Dice said: “This is a very exciting time for Air Dice, as the company has been achieving robust growth in our core supplier market of Belgium and is now looking to accelerate our international expansion in regulated iGaming Markets.

The appointment of Erkki, as Partner and CBDO, given his over 10 years in B2B and B2C iGaming, with Finnplay, and Fortuity Holdings, and extensive commercial, sales, and marketing expertise will ensure our growth plans are achieved.”

Erkki Nikunen, Partner and CBDO, commented: “I’m delighted to join Air Dice, as they have an excellent track record of delivering quality products and services within the iGaming supply chain. It was an easy decision to join the company, as having worked with Air Dice during my time at Finnplay, their products were always packed with gaming expertise which is synonymous with quality, advanced technology, and business integrity. I look forward to developing and executing the brands’ growth plans in 2023 and onwards.”