Specialist virtual games provider Kiron has become the first supplier to provide online virtual content in South Africa.

South Africa-based Kiron’s Jika Sports brand, which offers localised versions of the supplier’s virtual football and horseracing products, was first launched with South African retail operators in September 2019, but will now be available to online players at major brands including Hollywoodbets, Supabets, Betway, and World Sports Betting.

Jika soccer is available in English, Italian, and Spanish league formats, while Jike Racing features Kiron’s market leading suite of racing games, including horse racing, motor racing, jumps, and greyhounds. 

Discussing the news co-CEO of Kiron, Steven Spartinos, said:

“Being the first to go live online in our home country with Jika Sports is a great milestone for us and our team, giving testament to the value proposition presented by our strong games portfolio and localised offering.

“South Africa has a long established and successful track record as a key regulated market internationally and the positive uptake of Jika Sports demonstrates the growing demand for fresh content among both players and operators locally.”

Kiron was also the first virtual supplier to go live in the Spanish online market, launching with R. Franco Group’s online brand Wanabet in November 2019, and just last week became the first to introduce virtuals to the Colombian market, going live with Betplay. 

AYO.NEWS says:

With the real-life sports still severely disrupted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in many regions, and the real prospect of further outbreaks and lockdowns, virtual sports are becoming a necessity for operators, and Kiron seems to be leading the pack. 

‘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

Betsson has announced plans to launch online sports betting in the US state of Colorado, after entering an agreement with Dostal Alley Casino. 

Expected to launch in the first half of 2021, it will mark the operator’s US online sports betting debut. The partnership with Dostal Alley Casino covers an initial period of ten years. 

Discussing the news CEO and president of Betsson AB, Pontus Lindwall, said:

“I am very excited to reach this milestone, further expanding Betsson’s global reach by entering a new continent through the fast-growing online market in the US.

“We have followed the development in the US closely since the possibility of a repeal of PASPA and have carefully considered ways to enter the market. We are now looking forward to exploring the potential with our proprietary sportsbook.”

While CFO of Dostal Alley Casino, CinDee Spellman, added:

“As a company with over 28 years in the gaming business, we are thrilled to welcome Betsson to the US as we partner with them for online sports betting in Colorado. With their decades of experience in online gaming we are confident that they will bring the very best experience to players in the Centennial State!”

Betsson has been finding the going tough in Europe recently, especially the problematic re-regulated Swedish market, with its full-year revenue for 2019 down 5% year-on-year to SEK 5.16 billion, and operating income tumbling 38% to SEK 865 million. 

On May 1st 2020, Colorado became the 18th US state to legalise online sports betting. With almost six million residents, the state is a wealthy tech and sports hub, so offers a potentially lucrative market for betting operators. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Like so many other sports betting and casino operators, Betsson is slowly but surely shifting attention across the Atlantic, realising the vast potential of the regulated US state markets. Of course, the sports betting side of things will likely be affected by COVID-19 for some time yet, with further waves of infection and lockdowns increasingly likely over the coming months, and maybe even years. 

‘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

Sportbloggare.com is one of the biggest sports blogging sites in Sweden and attracts a lot of traffic.

The visitors have a large interest in sports, and in some cases also sports betting. Sportbloggare.com has been around for a long time in the Swedish sports news field but has just recently made an update to cater more to sports bettors as well. This doesn’t mean that the site has taken the focus away from the sports blogs, but rather added a new section for people into betting.

“Sports-interested and sports betting-interested audiences overlap, and as we get a lot of people interested in sports to our site we started to think about a way to monetize this traffic. This led to a big update of the site where we added online betting subpages,” says Mattias Folkesson, manager of Sportbloggare.com

Sportbloggare.com is a Swedish blog portal for sports blogs. It was started with the ambition to be a good blog portal for sports blogs, where people that are passionate about sports have the opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions.

Sportbloggare.com consists of an editorial team of sports journalists as well as other passionate sports bloggers who have chosen to start a blog with the site. In addition, they highlight other blogs who they think are good through a section for external bloggers. 

Anyone is welcome to apply to start a blog at the site, or be highlighted if they have an existing blog. 

It was also important for the team behind Sportsbloggare.com to separate the betting section from the regular content, so that the ones that just come to read the new blog posts don’t get scared by the new design. It wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish without messing with the content design previously on the site, and at the same time keeping loyal visitors satisfied.

“Sportbloggare.com consists of internal and external bloggers all gathered in one place. A one-stop-shop for anyone looking for interesting reads on more or less any sport. Our main focus remains on the blogs and original articles from our talented writers. But for the ones interested in sports betting there’s now also a section for them. You can read about betting online and find a good betting site to play with,” says Folkesson

This isn’t the first time Leadstar Media has tried to monetise the large amount of traffic to the site.

“We’ve tried some different approaches over the years but we are now confident that this will work very well for us. We acquire a lot of links naturally and have high authority which made it easier to rank on Google quickly. With some content updates and fresh subpages about betting we’ve managed to transition smoothly,” says Folkesson

The site is owned by Leadstar Media and this move ties in with the company’s overall goal to send NDC’s to their partners.

888 Holdings has revealed that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (AEBITDA) for 2020 will be ahead of previous expectations.

The London-listed company has emerged as one of the strongest performers on the FTSE 250 index, with average daily revenue for the year-to-date 34% higher year-on-year. 

888 attributes the success to an increased level of customer acquisition in the second half of 2019, and its shift towards online gaming – which was significantly accelerated during the COVID-19 crisis over recent months.

Reflecting on the performance Chief Executive of 888 Holdings, Itai Pazner, said:

“We are pleased with 888’s trading during the year-to-date which has resulted in the board now anticipating that adjusted Ebitda for 2020 will be significantly ahead of its prior expectations. This performance builds on 888’s strong customer acquisition during 2019 and our continued focus during recent years on entertaining a greater number of recreational customers.

“888 is well positioned to continue to benefit from a potential long-term shift towards online services that we have seen accelerate across several consumer industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

However, the Gibraltar-based operator did sound a note of caution, pointing out that a prolonged period of global economic uncertainty could lead to lower discretionary spending by consumers. 

Staying with 888 Holdings, last week the company announced a global partnership with Betgenius, covering both in-play and pre-match content. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Given the unparalleled damage the COVID-19 crisis has wreaked on most industries, it’s encouraging to see this announcement from 888. It also underlines the wisdom of some of the changes the company made in the run-up to the crisis, which put it in a much better position to weather the storm than some of its rivals. 

Of course, we would have to concur with the warning about a prolonged economic crisis. After all, though online casino, virtual sports, and esports betting is doing very well right now, we should bear in mind that many workers haven’t actually lost their jobs yet due to companies getting emergency government support – especially in Europe. When that support is withdrawn, the true economic picture will emerge…

‘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

Multi-channel supplier of 24/7 betting services, SIS (Sports Information Services), has acquired the full shareholding of 49’s from GVC and William Hill. 

SIS will take ownership of 49’s live draws product and its virtual horseracing brands Portman Park, Sprint Valley, and Steepledowns, plus virtual greyhounds from Brushwood and Millersfield. 

The acquisition has expanded SIS’s product portfolio and fits within its existing 24/7 racing channels that have proved successful with both retail and digital betting operators. 

SIS says it is also developing a range of new numbers and virtual content which will be part of the 49’s brand, and that acquisition complements its progress in launching new products, including its esports competitive gaming product that recently launched with bet365. 

Discussing the acquisition CEO at SIS, Richard Ames, said:

“49’s has a long history of supplying high quality, market-leading content to UK and Irish bookmakers and the product range is much loved by consumers. Over recent years, SIS has successfully extended the brand worldwide and it makes perfect sense to now take the further step of acquiring the business. We have great plans for the brands and will announce shortly a range of new and extended products as part SIS’ numbers product strategy.”

While Chairman of 49’s Limited, Mike Jones, added:

“We’ve worked in partnership with SIS for the last 20 years and they are uniquely positioned to be able to further expand the 49’s brand internationally. We look forward to seeing how they build on the excellent work the team has done over the last few years to position 49’s as a leading numbers product.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Despite the gradual resumption of live sports, it’s clear that many companies have been spooked by the COVID-19 crisis, and the spectre of more waves and lockdowns, and are keen to invest in expanding their virtual and non-live sports offerings. 

‘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

888 has entered a global partnership with Betgenius, covering both in-play and pre-match content. 

Gaming and entertainment solutions provider 888 Holdings plc has partnered with Betgenius to provide in-play and pre-match content for its sportsbook brand, 888sport, globally. 

The agreement will see Betgenius provide data and pricing services for a range of major sports, and integrate the supplier’s automated same-game accumulator product, BetBuilder. 

Content provided will include live football, tennis, basketball, and volleyball pricing, with most in-play content powered by official data from more than 300 sports competitions globally. 

Commenting on the agreement SVP Head of B2C at 888, Guy Cohen, said:

“We are delighted to partner with Betgenius and believe its flexible technology solution will enhance 888sport through high quality and wide-ranging in-play and pre-match data and content.  We look forward to developing our relationship in the coming months.”

While Chief Commercial Officer at Genius Sports Group (parent company of Betgenius), Jack Davison, added:

As 888 takes further control of its sportsbook with the move to a new platform, offering the right content and trading strategy is a huge opportunity to differentiate in every market. It’s testament to the quality of official data and flexible technology that 888 has selected Betgenius to be part of that journey.”

Staying with 888 Holdings, in April the group reported a record USD $560.3M revenue for 2019. 

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