Malta-based online casino operator Videoslots has gone live with games from slots supplier Playzido. 

Videoslots’ players can now enjoy exclusive Deal or No Deal™ games, and recent titles Elephant Gang and Buffalo Wild, among others. 

Commenting on the news Head of Commercials at Videoslots, William Ahlberg, said:

“Playzido has been on a radar for some time now and we’re very pleased to have their content live in the lead up to Christmas.

“They provide high quality games which will be a great addition to our portfolio and I’m sure our customers will enjoy playing them.”

While Managing Director at Playzido, Stuart Banks, added:

“Videoslots and its catalogue needs no introduction and we’re very excited that our games will take their rightful place among the industry’s largest selection of slots.

“We have some exciting plans for 2021 and we look forward to cementing this new partnership with some great new games in the coming months.”

Staying with Videoslots, last month the operators launched a permanently visible responsible gaming bar in the UK market. 

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

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A building with weak or cracked foundations is a disaster waiting to happen. Eventually the building will fall apart – and no fancy mouldings or shiny new roof will be able to hide it. 

Likewise, hosting is the absolute foundation of your business structure, and iGaming operators especially should keep that in mind when choosing a provider. Because, at the end of the day, if your website is down due to a DDoS-attack and lack of customer support, what difference does everything else make? What’s the point in having the best games and a fantastic looking site, if no one can access it?

Internet Vikings is an established provider of advanced digital solutions, boasting a long history of deep involvement with the online gaming industry. So, here are 5 key reasons why iGaming operators really should consider Internet Vikings as their hosting provider. 

We’ve deliberately left out all the complicated tech talk, because for a premium global HSP, it’s a given. Of course, if you want to find out more on that side of things, everything is available at the Internet Vikings’ website. But, for now, we’ll focus on the iGaming side of the question.

1. Experience in the industry

Internet Vikings have been focused on iGaming as their primary market since 2015. Over the past 5 years, the company has identified the most important areas for iGaming providers regarding hosting, and consistently excelled in them. Here’s what the Chairman of Internet Viking’s board, Jesper Kärrbrink says:

“An iGaming operator is like a bank. If players don’t trust it, they  don’t use it. So as a hosting company, we can’t be down and can’t let down our partners. Then there is also flexibility, the ability to move with the customers into new markets. Being innovative in finding new solutions for our customers to grow and to reduce the cost. I think we have our strengths in all those areas.”

2. Global presence 

As a company focused on iGaming, Internet Vikings has offices in key industry hubs, like Stockholm and Malta. The company also has branches in Germany, South Africa, and Ukraine. Even better, their state-of-the-art data centers can be found on every continent (except Antarctica), in carefully chosen locations, that allow the Vikings to reduce latency to key markets to minimal values. Co-founder and CTO Victor Jerlin explains:

“If you have customers in Asia and hosting in Sweden, it adds 250 ms just because of the speed of light – it can’t go faster. That’s why we opened up in Taiwan, that is why we opened up in Amsterdam, that is why we are going to open up in other strategic locations for iGaming.”

3. Regulatory compliance

There’s no doubt that regulatory compliance is a very hot topic for the iGaming industry. The Vikings certainly have their house in order in that regard – all their data centres have ISO 27001 certification. But there’s more. Because the ‘Privacy Shield’ framework for transatlantic exchanges of personal data has not been valid as of July 16, 2020, using US-based cloud service providers can become a major security issue for companies. This is because US authorities now have the right to demand personal and other data from US-based providers. Given this, migrating to a European provider ASAP could save your company a whole lot of hassle and potential liability. As a European provider Internet Vikings is 100% compliant with, and fully protected by, GDPR.

4. Compatibility 

This is something that is often overlooked by iGaming operators. Perhaps no one can explain the significance of compatibility better than the co-founder and CCO of Internet Vikings Rickard Vikström: 

“There is an issue in working with giants of the hosting industry such as AWS, GCE, or Microsoft Azure. It works well when everything is good, but if there is a problem you don’t want to work with a player that is so much bigger than your company. Internet Vikings is specialized in hosting for the iGaming industry and as we are on the same level with our customers and care about them. I would say that this is one of the main things.”

5. Trust from operators and game developers 

Operators and developers all over the world trust Internet Vikings to handle their most valuable data and support their demanding operations. The client portfolio of the company includes Green Jade Games, BetHard Group, GameLounge Ltd, and many other companies related to the industry. This is no surprise when you consider that Internet Vikings have consistently demonstrated stability throughout their history. In the words of Peter Ekmark, Internet Vikings CEO: 

“This company has a legacy. It didn’t start just yesterday. It has been growing slowly but surely for 12 years. In a nutshell that means, we were there yesterday and we’ll be here tomorrow.” 

Special Offer for All New Cloud Hosting Accounts

Considering Internet Vikings as the HSP for your websites? You might like to check out the special offer they’ve prepared for all new cloud hosting accounts. You can find out more about how the Vikings can help you protect your business by getting in touch with one of their expert account managers today. 

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AYO.NEWS says:

The Internet Vikings have raised some interesting points there. Latency, especially, is becoming a major issue for iGaming, and even more so video gaming and esports, companies. Never underestimate how long a split second can seem to an impatient customer, or how annoying a fraction of a second lag can become. And, of course, as data demands grow, latency issues will only get more critical. So, having your customers served by local data centres can be a very wise investment. 

Likewise, the US issue deserves serious consideration. Though the European Union has often been criticized for over-regulation, its laws, like GDPR, actually afford a much greater degree of privacy protection than those in the US, and handing over the data of European customers to US authorities could potentially land operators in all sorts of hot water – even if they are legally obliged to stateside. Considering this, it’s probably smarter to just avoid those headaches all together. 

‘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.

European gaming and monetisation tech company Azerion has concluded a €12.5M add-on capital raise, as it aims to continue growth through 2021. 

The latest funding brings the total raises in senior secured bonds to €72.5M, under its existing €100M bond issue framework. 

The company says the funding will allow it to continue its fast-paced growth in 2021, through acquisitions and platform innovations to increase its footprint, and improve experience and security. It is also exploring the potential of an IPO to boost growth and platform expansion. 

Azerion says its vision is to play a key role in creating a safer and more positive digital destination, that eliminates the risks of user-generated, negative or fake content. 

Discussing the latest funding and future plans, co-founder and CEO of Azerion, Attila Aytekin, said:

“Our successful initial EUR 60 million bond issue in March this year was a unique deal in many ways. We were a non-listed Dutch company issuing bonds to institutional investors for the first time and doing so in the Nordic market, which remained closed for the next two months due to the pandemic. We were the last ones to issue bonds successfully here, which revealed a high level of investor confidence despite dramatic market circumstances.

“This strong investor appetite along with the positive feedback we received during our roadshows this year confirm our strategy and vision. We intend to use this strong position in digital gaming and adtech to grow and expand our platform with adjacent services. Ultimately, we want to create a safe, connected and intelligent ecosystem around Azerion that will accelerate the growth of European technology companies connected to our operations.

“We’re proud to have grown fast and responsibly in a more closely regulated market, with transparent products and services that are built in line with fair business principles and user protections. We are in the process of sharpening our long-term funding roadmap to ensure that we continue our fast-pace growth for the coming years and ultimately realise our vision.”

AYO.NEWS says:

With so much negative economic news dominating the mainstream headlines, it’s fantastic to see companies like Azerion are bucking the trend and continuing to attract investment. 

‘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.

Crypto casino and sportsbook Cloudbet has added support for the Link, Pax, and Dai.

The latest additions bring the total number of cryptocurrencies added this year to six, meaning customers can now bet with nine cryptocurrencies. 

Commenting on the news a Cloudbet spokesperson said:

“We’re making good on the pledge we made back in April when we introduced Tether: To add features and coins that matter to our customers and the crypto community. That’s our main priority, and we’re not done yet.”

Earlier this year, Cloudbet added USD Tether, USD Coin, and Pax Gold in quick succession, coinciding with a new website and range of new features including esports, politics betting, virtual sports, social media bet sharing, and credit-card coin purchases. 

The site has also been localised into more than seventeen languages, and a new Argentina-focused service was launched just last month. 

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

bet365 and LeoVegas won the main operator categories at the SBC Awards 2020, as a record 41 different companies were honoured for their achievements in the sports betting and gaming sector at last night’s virtual ceremony.

The event boasted a strong footballing pedigree as it was broadcast live from Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge with sports presenter Kirsty Gallacher hosting alongside Champions League winner Petr Cech, and a guest appearance from footballing legend turned Hollywood actor Vinnie Jones, who also writes a regular column for EasyOdds.com.

Over 800 guests from around the world witnessed bet365 winning the coveted Sportsbook of the Year trophy for a seventh consecutive year, having already retained the Best Affiliate Program prize earlier in the evening.

LeoVegas was again the judges’ pick in the prestigious Casino of the Year category, seeing off competition from the highly-commended Wildz Casino to record a third successive win. 

The Leader of the Year trophies were won by Parimatch’s Sergey Portnov and BetGames.TV’s Aiste Garneviciene, while their companies picked up the Employer of the Year (Operator) and Live Casino Supplier awards respectively. 

Other multiple winners included Betsson (Football Sportsbook of the Year and Socially Responsible Casino of the Year), Betradar (Sportsbook Supplier of the Year and Live Streaming Product / Supplier) and Betgenius (Sports Data Product and Live Betting Product).

Andrew McCarron, Managing Director of SBC, said:

“Huge congratulations to all the winners chosen by our independent panels of expert judges. We had a record number of entries this year and the standard was the highest we’ve seen since launching the awards back in 2014, meaning the victors had to be truly exceptional to see off the competition. 

“2020 has been a uniquely testing year for the industry but, from the evidence of the awards entries, there have been a lot of positives to take. The innovation demonstrated by suppliers in the development of new products and services, coupled with the commitment of the operators to drive up standards suggests that the industry will enter the new year in a strong position.”

A number of the industry’s other major players were honoured in the operator categories, with GVC (now Entain) named Socially Responsible Sportsbook of the Year, 1XBet winning Esports Operator of the Year, Kaizen Gaming recognised for Marketing Campaign of the Year, and Sportsbet.io picking up the Sponsorship of the Year trophy. 

The Rising Star in Sports Betting honour went to theScore, while the equivalent Casino award was won by Rabbit Entertainment. There were also victories for Novibet (Best Mobile Operator App), Wazamba (Innovation in Casino & Gaming Entertainment), and Fitzdares (Racing Sportsbook of the Year). 

In the affiliates section, AskGamblers triumphed in the hotly-contested Casino Affiliate of the Year category, while Better Collective took home the equivalent Sports honour and Oddspedia collected the Best Affiliate Product Innovation trophy. 

The overall quality of the entries was reflected in the supplier section of the awards, where the honours were shared between 21 different companies, including BetConstruct (SBC Industry Resilience Award) and Digitain (Employer of the Year – Supplier).

There were wins for FSB (Industry Innovation of the Year), Scientific Games (Platform Provider of the Year), Sportradar (Land-Based Betting & Gaming Product), Pinnacle Solution (Esports Supplier), Shape Games (Rising Star in Sports Betting Innovation / Software), SportCaller (Acquisition & Retention Partner), Golden Race (Virtual Sports Supplier), and Inspired (Virtual Sports Innovation). 

Relax Gaming clinched the keenly-contested Casino / Slots Developer of the Year title, while Evolution Gaming collected the Innovation in Casino Entertainment trophy and SYNOT Games triumphed in the Rising Star in Casino Innovation / Software category. There were also successes for Aspire Global (White Label Supplier of the Year), Pragmatic Play (Innovation in Mobile), GIG (Multi-Channel Supplier), NetShop ISP (Services Provider of the Year), and Square in the Air (Marketing Provider of the Year).   

The payments awards were shared between MuchBetter (Payment Solution of the Year), Trustly (Payment Innovation of the Year), Dimoco (Mobile Payment Solution of the Year), and W2 (Fraud & Compliance Solution of the Year). 

McCarron added:

“While we would have loved to have staged one of our lavish awards parties, the virtual ceremony was a great alternative in the circumstances and it was pleasing, with the help of our charity partner GVC, to raise some money for Harefield Hospital. 

“Events like this are made possible by the ongoing support of our sponsors and partners. I’d like to thank BetConstruct, Golden Race, Neosurf, Metric Gaming and BetInvest for being headline sponsors, as well as all the other companies that continue to work with SBC.”

Cloud hosting, domain management, and marketing solutions service provider, Internet Vikings, has welcomed industry veteran Andreas Soll to its team. 

Soll has been in the domain business since 1999, and was previously responsible for managing the Corporate Domain Business at Key-Systems GmbH. He will now be harnessing his extensive knowledge across a wide range of IT solutions and communications areas to lead the Internet Vikings’ Domain Management Department as Sales Manager.

Commenting on his new role Soll said:

“Internet Vikings is well-known in the domain management and services sector. The current product portfolio, along with the ecosystem of know-how and technology, uniquely positions this company on the market. I believe that our collaboration will bring a lot of value to our customers.”

While CCO of Internet Vikings, Rickard Vikström, added:

“Andreas’ broad customer experience, combined with his deep understanding of the product, market trends, and dynamics make him a great addition to our team.” 

And, Internet Vikings’ CEO, Peter Ekmark, noted: 

“Andreas has knowledge and skills we were missing to scale up our Domain Names Management business area. Andreas is the right person to help us accelerate and drive continued growth”.

Though 2020 has been a challenging year for most businesses, Internet Vikings has continued to scale, and has almost doubled its staff.