White label iGaming services provider Soft2Bet has launched online casino and sportsbook brand Irokobet, targeting New Zealand and Africa. 

The new offering is Soft2Bet’s 20th white label partner launch, following on from brands like CampoBet, Wazamba, and Frumzi, and is targeted at New Zealand and several African markets.

Soft2Bet is providing a fully tailored B2B solution with a full suite of casino games and sportsbook wagering, virtual content, and live casino games. 

Additionally, Soft2Bet has said it intends to expand its software licensing agreements, with the company currently having accreditation from Sweden’s Spelinspektionen, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), and Curacao’s Gaming Control Board. 

Commenting on the news CEO at Soft2Bet, Boris Chaikin, said:

“With a world class selection of casino, live casino and sportsbook offerings, Irokobet is a highly advanced B2B solution, tailor-made for operators looking to expand their player base.

“Soft2Bet has gone from strength to strength in recent weeks with an impressive succession of unique launches. Armed with a cutting-edge product suite utilising state-of-the-art technology, we’re here to deliver for partners across the globe.”

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The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has warned gambling operators to comply with age restrictions or face consequences.

In a new report, the ASA says it identified four unnamed gambling operators running a total of 70 betting adverts on eight websites that are accessible by minors. 

According to the ASA, it employed “CCTC-style” monitoring tools to look for online advertising related to gambling, along with alcohol, tobacco, weight control, and other “adult” products and services. 

In total, 159 adverts, placed by 35 advertisers, across 34 websites and five YouTube channels, were deemed to have broken the ASA’s rules. Gambling ads were the second worst offenders, after high fat, sugar and salt edibles (HFSS). 

Discussing the findings ASA chief executive, Guy Parker, said:

“The ASA is using technology to proactively monitor online ads to help build a culture of zero tolerance for age-restricted ads appearing on websites aimed at children.

“We expect advertisers and the parties they contract with to use the sophisticated tools available to them to target their ads responsibly. This is just one part of a wider set of initiatives we’re undertaking to ensure children are protected online and we’ll report on our further work in this area in the coming months.”

The ASA did not state if the offending gambling operators were licensed with the UK Gambling Commission or not, but said it will be contacting each of the companies in question and warning them that it will not tolerate any future infractions. 

A further three such monitoring exercises are scheduled to take place over the next year. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Out of all the ‘Nanny State’ agencies in the UK, the ASA has most frequently demonstrated a flagrant disregard for logic, fairness, and consistency in its comments and rulings, so it’s incredibly hard to take anything it says seriously anymore.  

One of the major issues here is how the ASA defines “accessible by minors” – because pretty much EVERY single website is accessible by minors. And, we have to remember, this is an agency that thinks under 25’s should be virtually classified as ‘minors’ when it comes to gambling! 

Furthermore, given the complete lack of understanding of all things internet and website-related the ASA has demonstrated in the past, we can’t even be certain if the operators in question were targeting minors at all, or if the ads were simply mistargeted due to technical issues. 

In reality, if the offending parties aren’t even UK-licensed, there’s probably not going to be much the ASA can do about it, except roll around on the floor, throwing a tantrum like the snowflakes they are. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Casino games developer and distributor Galaxy Gaming has completed its $12.4 million acquisition of Progressive Games Partners.

Las Vegas-based Galaxy Gaming has closed its $12.4 million acquisition of all Progressive Games Partners’ equity interests. PGP, which was founded in 2003, owns the exclusive worldwide online rights to a suite of proprietary casino table games, including Galaxy’s. 

Commenting on the news Galaxy president and CEO, Todd Cravens, said:

“The world has changed dramatically since we signed the purchase agreement for this deal back in February.

“Our casino clients in the physical world have been very hard-hit by the COVID-19 crisis and are generally struggling to get back to business levels they enjoyed before the lockdowns. By contrast, the iGaming business was a significant beneficiary of the shutdown, with US revenues in the second quarter of 2020 increasing 250% over the prior year.

“We believe that more US states will consider legalising iGaming as a way to prevent the tax revenue losses that occur when brick-and-mortar casinos are closed.”

While PGP CEO, Chris Reynolds, added:

“Galaxy has a great opportunity with the acquisition of PGP. Many of the titles that are in the PGP portfolio originated in the US land-based world. Since US iGaming operators will want to offer to their online patrons many of the same games that are popular in the physical world, there should be good adoption of the PGP content in the US.

“I look forward to working with Todd and the rest of the Galaxy team in serving the rapidly growing US iGaming market while maintaining the strong relationships we have in the UK and Europe.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Again, we see companies come to the realisation that the COVID-19 crisis has probably forever changed the US gambling landscape – undoubtedly hastening the demise of many land-based casinos, while catalysing the growth of iGaming in the country. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Sweden’s Gaming Inspectorate (Spelinspektionen) has warned the country’s new casino deposit limits are effectively impossible to enforce. 

The ‘temporary’ restrictions, which include strict deposit limits, were introduced in response to a supposed explosion in online gambling due to the COVID-19 crisis, but are widely seen as nothing more than a political stunt by anti-gambling politicians, notably Iranian-Swedish politician Ardalan Shekarabi. 

A fairly obvious loophole

In July, Swedish online gaming trade association BOS said the emergency restrictions were causing “chaos” for operators, and last week Spelinspektionen joined the fray, saying the new rules were impossible to enforce. 

The regulator argues that, because the limits apply per license, users with accounts at more than one licensee can easily circumvent the SEK 5,000 weekly spending limit and SEK 100 bonus limit restrictions. 

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that problem gamblers are more likely to exploit this loophole than casual bettors – meaning the sum total of the ‘protective measures’ are likely to be nothing more than slightly inconveniencing problem or determined gamblers, while seriously frustrating casual gamers. 

Well, duh. 

Big brother wants to ‘protect’ you

As if the entire episode wasn’t already farcical enough, things then took a sinister turn when the totally non-creepy team at Jämlikhetskommissionen (Swedish Equality Commission) took it upon themselves to suggest the creation of a centralised database of gamblers. 

This would allow the Party’s Thought Police, sorry, ‘Equality Commission’, to see exactly how much each individual player spends across all licensed platforms – presumably it would also give them access to a raft of other behavioural information, all in the name of ‘safer gambling,’ of course. 

To its credit Spelinspektionen did respond with a small volley in defence of freedom, reminding the Equality Commission that ‘equality’ means equality for everyone (not just politically-approved minorities, the variously offended, identity confused, and their woke cheerleaders), and that even gamblers have privacy rights. 

Indeed, the regulator even reminded the Equality Commission that there are actual national and EU laws protecting privacy, data, and human rights… who’d have thought it, eh?

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Gaming platform provider GAN has reported a huge 99% year-on-year rise in revenue for Q2 2020, to $8.3m. 

Despite the impressive performance in the second quarter, the supplier had some disappointing news too, announcing it would cease working with Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel brand after August 2020. 

FanDuel, which had been responsible for a large chunk of GAN’s revenue, is deploying its own proprietary digital wallet for its sports betting business, hence “GAN does not anticipate sports gaming revenues from FanDuel after August 31, 2020.”

Mitigating the loss of FanDuel was the announcement that GAN has secured a major new North American customer, in the form of Penn National, but the company’s share price still took a 14% hit on the back of the news. 

GAN has been selected by Penn National to upgrade its B2B social casino offering, though the supplier has said it hopes the partnership may expand beyond that in the future. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Losing FanDuel is going to be rough for GAN, but was always likely to happen given Flutter’s own in-house resources. However, although Penn National’s initial deal with GAN covers its social casino offering, there’s no doubt plenty of room for potential growth as the US online casino vertical in particular goes from strength-to-strength.

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Sports betting software company Betgenius has entered a partnership with virtual sports supplier Kiron. 

The deal will see Betgenius add Kiron’s full range of virtual sports to its offering, including football, horse racing, greyhound racing, motor racing, basketball, and ice hockey. 

Betgenius’ partners will have immediate access to Kiron’s entire portfolio, subject to local regulations, via a fast and simple integration service. 

The service provides high-frequency, around-the-clock content for retail, online, and mobile, and automates the entire event lifecycle from market creation through to resulting.

Commenting on the partnership Head of Commercial at Betgenius, James McKiernan, said:

“Adding Kiron’s full range of virtual sports to our offering gives our partners direct, easy access to around-the-clock content proven to drive additional turnover. With a complete virtuals product a staple for sportsbooks across Europe, LatAm and Africa, the new feed supplements the existing data, trading and streaming content we provide.”

While Co-CEO of Kiron, Steven Spartinos, added:

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Betgenius, a true market leader in the sports betting space. This is an exciting deal which promises to realize a number of synergistic benefits for both companies. 

“The addition of our premium virtual sports titles to the Betgenius platform will complement its existing sports betting offering and create additional value for its significant customer base internationally.”

In June, Betgenius announced a global sports content partnership with 888, while Kiron became the 1st virtual sports supplier to launch in its home market of South Africa. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020