Tag: UK

Heart Bingo customer kicks off the new year with record £2m Make Me a Millionaire win.

One lucky Heart Bingo customer made a start to the new year that they’ll never forget by winning Heart Bingo’s Make Me a Millionaire jackpot just days into 2022.

The 37-year-old winner from the West Midlands wishes to remain anonymous after landing an incredible jackpot win of just over £2m from a 40p spin. This is the biggest win ever on Heart Bingo and the first time that the jackpot has been won before, which had been accumulating since 2017.

Once the bonus round was activated, it took just 80 seconds for the progressive rounds to play out and our winner to be crowned a millionaire.

• £2,042,957.68 Jackpot won – the biggest ever at Heart Bingo.
• 40 pence stake enough to take home the jackpot.
• On this stake, the return was over 5,000,000/1.
• The jackpot has been accumulating since 2017.

Global’s Director of Enterprise, Joel Stern has said:  

“The crowning of a brand-new Millionaire on Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire is always a highlight for us at Heart and we’re thrilled that we’ve now been able to crown the UK’s latest millionaire on Heart Bingo thanks to our great new Make Me A Millionaire Slot Game.”

Lee joins the technology, media and content company to expand its technology capabilities

Spotlight Sports Group (SSG), a world-leading technology, content and media company, announced Rob Lee as its new Senior Vice President of Technology. Lee will be responsible for rapidly growing the senior technology team at Spotlight Sports Group and delivering increasingly ambitious B2B and B2C technology.

Most recently, Rob was a director of technology at Sky Betting and Gaming. Rob played a pivotal role in helping the business to grow rapidly over the last five years.

“We’re constantly looking to push the boundaries with our technology and Rob adds huge industry knowledge, experience and ideas to our team,” said Nikos Kryvossidis, CTO of Spotlight Sports Group. “Rob will begin overseeing all engineering activity across the business with a focus on ensuring that levels of performance are consistently high. He will establish a best practice that is shared across teams, both internal and external, with the goal of creating a world-class engineering function across the group.”

Lee’s addition shows Spotlight Sports Group commitment to delivering world-leading products for their B2C and B2B audiences across Europe and the U.S. With the recent announcement of a joint venture with Diario AS and the continued success of their B2C platforms, in particular, Pickswise and Racing Post, Lee’s experience will heighten the level of quality the team can deliver.

“Spotlight Sports Group has a history of producing top-class technology. Having transformed the business in recent years from a print to a digital-first business, it’s an exciting time to join the team,” commented Lee. “We have some huge projects to deliver on in the short and long-term as well as an exciting, ambitious team to work with. On both sides of the Atlantic, our products are industry-leading and I’m looking forward to getting involved.”

AstroPay, the global leader in online payment solutions, has further strengthened its partnership with Burnley Football Club by becoming Burnley FC Women’s front of shirt sponsor for the remainder of the 2021/22 season and sponsoring the newly installed dugouts at Turf Moor.

The strategic partnership was established at the beginning of the 2021 Premier League campaign, with AstroPay becoming Burnley FC’s official sleeve sponsor. The new partnership with the women’s team further strengthens the company’s positive relationship with the club.

As sponsor of the women’s team, the AstroPay logo will be displayed on the front of Burnley FC Women’s home and away shirts, with the range available to purchase in the Clarets Store soon. In addition, Turf Moor has undergone a range of stadium developments and AstroPay have committed to sponsoring the newly installed dugouts, with their branding visible on headrests and in the technical area.

Mikael Lijtenstein, AstroPay CEO said: “We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with Burnley Football Club, through these new sponsorship deals.

“As two innovative organisations, we share a similar ethos of being forward thinking and creative, which is why the prospect of becoming Burnley FC Women’s front of shirt sponsor was so appealing. The club are making great strides in women’s football, and we wanted to be a part of the journey.

“We very much look forward to continuing to develop our partnership with the club and achieving great things together.”

AstroPay, which is also the Official Payment Solution Partner to Burnley Football Club, was founded in 2009 and since then has been successful in providing efficient, secure and reliable digital payment solutions for business and individual customers across Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Carl Sanderson Head of Business Partnerships at Burnley FC said: “We are thrilled that AstroPay have further strengthened their support by becoming front of shirt sponsor for the women’s team and by sponsoring the new dugouts.

“The club are committed to growing the women’s game, as is demonstrated through exciting partnership and sponsorships such as this. Women’s football is on the rise and is reaching more people than ever before, it’s an incredibly exciting area to be a part of which is why we are pleased to collaborate with AstroPay on this deal.

“We’re also incredibly proud of the developments within the stadium in recent months and are pleased AstroPay, as a valued partner of Burnley FC, have committed to sponsoring the dugouts too. We look forward to continuing to work closely with them throughout the season.”

The Rank Group Plc is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Harris as Group Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) and Board director with effect from 1 May 2022. As announced on 17 November 2021, Simon Hay, currently Director of Group Finance, will be interim CFO with effect from 1 January 2022 and will continue in that role until Richard joins the Group.

Richard will join Rank from Foxtons Group plc, London’s leading estate agency, where he has held the role of CFO since June 2019. During his time with Foxtons, Richard helped navigate the business through the financial impact of the pandemic, led a broad range of M&A activities, and delivered significant cost improvement across the business. Prior to joining Foxtons, Richard was Group Financial Controller for Laird plc having previously spent 11 years at Marks and Spencer plc in a number of senior finance roles.

John O’Reilly, Chief Executive of Rank, commented: “I am delighted to announce Richard’s appointment as our incoming Group CFO. His extensive experience across a number of senior financial and operational roles will be invaluable as we continue to deliver the next phase of Rank’s transformation plan. I look forward to welcoming Richard into the Group in 2022.”

Richard Harris, incoming Group CFO, said: “I am delighted to be joining Rank at this exciting time in the Group’s journey. I have enjoyed meeting various members of the team and look forward to working closely with them, John and the Board to deliver the Group’s strategy.”

Racecourse Media Group (RMG), responsible for a range of racecourses’ media rights businesses, is delighted to be collaborating with HBA Media, the pre-eminent horseracing media rights agency, to market and distribute British and Irish horseracing to an international audience, as part of a three-year representation agreement.

The new arrangement means HBA Media, working closely with RMG, will globally showcase RMG’s British and Irish portfolio, including feature events such as the Randox Grand National Festival, the Cazoo Derby Festival, the Qatar ‘Glorious Goodwood’ Festival, the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival, Longines Irish Champions Weekend and QIPCO British Champions Day. The international showpiece events – the Dubai World Cup Carnival and the Bahrain International Trophy – are also among the portfolio.

The deal complements HBA Media’s existing commercial agreements with Ascot Racecourse that incorporates the Royal Meeting as well as all their Flat and National Hunt racing, plus the very best overseas contests, such as the Lexus Melbourne Cup, the Breeders’ Cup, the Pegasus World Cup and the richest race in the world – the Saudi Cup, which has been granted valuable Group 1 status.

This new portfolio of top-class events forms an unrivalled year-long international racing calendar and a one-stop shop for broadcasters looking for premium horseracing.

Henry Birtles, Chief Executive of HBA Media, said: “Our new alliance with RMG as distribution partner for their premier British, Irish, Dubai and Bahrain racing further bolsters HBA Media’s ability to package the very best events from around the world under one umbrella, to the benefit of all federations we are fortunate to work with and represent. Through this aggregation of global rights, we can look forward to leveraging the unique nature of each individual event, driving a higher commercial outcome for the collective. Our broadcast clients have been eager for one consistent package of racing that covers 12 months of the year. We are delighted to be teaming up with the highly respected RMG and believe that this collaboration not only adds further weight to our offering, but it completes the circle.”

Martin Stevenson, Chief Executive of Racecourse Media Group, added: “HBA Media has consistently delivered significant value from international media rights over a 15-year period and we are delighted that, through the combined packaging of both our content sets, British and Irish racing can reach a greater global audience. The broadcast landscape remains a competitive market and, for horseracing to thrive, the need for a month-to-month compelling sporting calendar is now stronger than ever and something that this collaboration can effectively deliver.”

In less than eight months OKTO has secured partnership agreements with a host of UK-based brands including Regal, Inspired, Bob Rudd, MERKUR Bingo and MERKUR Slots. 2022 will see it continue to engage with the domestic industry starting with a debut appearance at the UK’s flagship show – EAG.

Simon Dorsen, Chief Commercial Officer at OKTO, confirmed the brand’s business development strategy: “We have been involved in an intensive programme of meetings, product demonstrations and productive senior C-level discussions with a wide range of UK game creators, operators and retailers across the Single Site, AGC, Casino and Bingo sectors. The response has been phenomenal; even as visitors to ACOS we were able to connect with key figures from the industry all of whom have been impressed at how the OKTO solution enables consumers to deposit and withdraw funds on gaming machines in a safe, seamless and secure way using a licensed, omni-channel, open-loop mobile payment app.”

He added: “Operators are taking a progressive and integrated approach to the retailing of entertainment, and the OKTO cashless app enables winnings from gaming machines to be circulated through the business notably F&B. Modern consumers value freedom and choice and the OKTO solution enables them to spend their winnings at any other location where Mastercard payments are allowed using OKTO’s Mastercard which is linked to the OKTO account. On so many levels the OKTO digital wallet delivers the optimum digitalised customer journey.”

Dorsen, who has 16 years’ experience in both the gaming and payment sectors holding senior roles with GTECH and IGT where he established the company’s first omni-channel sales team, believes in the importance and value of championing safer gambling. “Every gaming regulator places social responsibility and protecting the small proportion of problem gamblers at the very top of the organisational agenda” he stated. “We believe in the fundamentals of safer gambling which is why the app has been designed to deliver a safer gambling tool-box including a profit and loss calculator, age verification, time-out periods, the ability to set gaming limits as well as access to helplines for problem gambling.”

“At EAG we will be bringing all of the energy, the drive and the vision that’s synonymous with the brand in order to achieve our key objective to be the architects of digitalisation in what is arguably Europe’s most important entertainment, leisure and gaming markets”

Members of the OKTO senior leadership team, including Chief Commercial Officer Simon Dorsen, will be present at EAG on the OKTO stand 295.