Omni-channel iGaming platform provider TG LAB has helped the launch of the Belgium National Lottery’s improved Scooore sportsbook brand, ahead of Euro 2020. 

TG LAB signed a multi-year agreement with the Belgian National Lottery (Loterie Nationale), after the company was selected to be the  platform technology partner for its sportsbook business.

TG  Lab incorporated an agile, modular and scalable iGaming platform together with Kambi’s deep sportsbook integration. Scooore’s website has been significantly upgraded by TG LAB and Kambi, enriching its online offering and transforming the UX.

Since the Belgian National Lottery launched Scooore in 2012, is has grown to become one of Belgium’s most popular sports betting brands. Today the brand operates both online and in over 300 retail locations across the country, and is one of the main sponsors of the Belgium National Football team.

Ugnius Simelionis, TG LAB CEO, said: “Loterij National is one of the largest and most reputable lottery operators in Europe. We are super proud to have been entrusted to provide our platform and website solutions to them. Together with Kambi we have delivered a truly superb online sports betting site for Scooore, which will enable it to increase its competitive advantage in the Belgium market.

Kristian Nylén, CEO, Kambi, commented: “We are very proud to have been selected to become the sports betting partner of the Belgian National Lottery. The lottery has ambitious plans to grow its sports betting footprint, and we look forward to helping unlock those ambitions with the power and flexibility of the Kambi sportsbook.”

Jannie Haek, CEO of the National Lottery, added: “The National Lottery is delighted with the Kambi and TG LAB partnership that has relaunched the sports betting offering through its Scooore brand. We are looking forward to making this a great success together.”

English Premier League football club Norwich City has announced Asia-focused BK8 Sports as its new principal partner for the 2021-22 season. 

The deal will see a bespoke colourway of the BK8 logo feature on the front of both the first team match and training kit shirts. A range of activations for supporters are also lined up for the course of the partnership. 

Malta-registered BK8 has indicated it will be using the partnership with Norwich City to promote awareness of crypto betting in particular. Last year, BK8 launched its cryptocurrency payment gateway, supporting digital currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT. 

Ben Kensell, chief operating officer at Norwich City, said: “We’re delighted to welcome BK8 as our new principal partner. It is excellent that they see the value in working with Norwich City. BK8 will undoubtedly be a new brand for City fans, however, they’re a well trusted name across Asia. The Premier League has an accumulative TV audience of over three billion and is broadcast into over a billion homes – a huge proportion of these Premier League fans are based in Asia.

“Supporting BK8 in marketing to this global Premier League fanbase equally affords us as a club the opportunity to further our own exposure and commercial efforts into those markets.Both the club and BK8 are committed to supporting the ongoing review into betting and sports sponsorship. The club continues to adhere to both an internal code of conduct, as well as the policies and guidelines put in place by the Betting & Gaming Council, when carrying out marketing campaigns with betting and gaming brands.

“The industry continues to provide a valuable source of revenue to the club that makes a meaningful difference to our wider objectives as a club.”

Norwich City legend Darren Eadie has joined BK8 as brand spokesperson, helping support and drive engagement both nationally and internationally for the global development of the business. On behalf of BK8, Eadie said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with one of the most driven and forward-thinking teams in English football.BK8 shares the club’s aspiration to seek continuous improvement. It is the undying desire to achieve greater heights in an unforgiving environment that brought us together. We’re all really looking forward to the season ahead with Norwich City back where they belong, in the top-flight.”

AYO.NEWS says:

As we’ve said many times before, the COVID-19 crisis has underlined how reliant UK and European football clubs are on gambling sponsorships. And, although clubs are starting to explore other ways to monetise – through Fan Tokens, for example – it’s clear that any ban on such deals would lead to a very serious financial cash flow crisis for many clubs.

LVBET has signed former Liverpool and Republic of Ireland footballer Jason McAteer as brand ambassador for the UK and Ireland. 

McAteer, who appeared at the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups for Ireland and won 52 caps for his country, will collaborate with LVBET on content, including giving his expert insight and match previews exclusively via LVBET’s channels, starting with UEFA Euro 2020 and continuing through the 2021-22 season. 

Further content will include interviews focusing on McAteer’s experience from over 400 career appearances with the likes of Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers, and Sunderland. 

Commenting on joining LVBET, McAteer said: “This promises to be a thrilling summer of football, and I’m very much looking forward to linking up with LV BET during the Euros and giving my views on the great players on show and the fabulous matches we are anticipating. It’s an exciting time, with fans returning to stadiums, so I am thrilled to be sharing my thoughts on the game we all love ahead of the Euros and into the 2021-22 season.”

Marcin Jablonski, CCO of LVBET, added: “Jason is a valuable addition to the LV BET team as a brand ambassador, bringing a wealth of expertise from a playing career that lasted more than 15 years. Having played at two World Cups and spent almost a decade in the Premier League, our followers can look forward to hearing his views on the Euros and throughout next season’s football, both domestic and international.

“Our customers will benefit from being able to engage with Jason’s match previews and opinions and interact with Jason during the partnership. Teaming up with Jason will enhance our credibility in the UK and Ireland market and increase brand awareness.”

Staying with LVBET and British football, the brand is also the official betting partner of England’s Vanarama National League. 

In mainland Europe, LVBET has previously sponsored the German national ice hockey team and Kölner Haie, a team from the Deutsche Eishockey League, and is the main sponsor of Wisla Krakow and Slask Wroclaw in Poland, and sponsored the European Volleyball Championship – EuroVolley Poland 2017.

Bitcoin casino and sportsbook Cloudbet has unveiled a series of offers, and a fully-localised website, for German customers to coincide with Euro 2020. 

In addition to offering German players the chance to win up to €100 in free bets by placing pre-match bets on matches, the operator is also adding games from German provider Gamomat Slots, exclusively for German customers. 

A Cloudbet spokesperson commented: “We’re trying to provide German speakers with the best site to bet on the Euros with bitcoin. With Germany, Austria and Switzerland participating, there is tremendous interest in German-speaking markets.”

Since being founded in 2013, Cloudbet has established itself as one of the world’s most popular Bitcoin betting operators. Punters using the German site can now place bets with 12 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, USDT, Dogecoin, and Dash. 

Staying with Cloudbet, in April the site introduced several improvements, including granting customers and affiliates open access to its sportsbook API, and more bonus flexibility in the operator’s casino. 

These upgrades came after a milestone year in 2020, during which Cloudbet added features including esports, politics betting, virtual sports, social-media bet sharing and easy credit-card or SEPA transfer coin purchases.

Olympic Entertainment Group’s OlyBet has been named Official Sports Betting Partner of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the Baltic region. 

The deal will allow OlyBet to use official NHL branding across its operations in nearly 100 casinos, hotels, and food and beverage locations throughout Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, in addition to the brands’ digital assets. 

OlyBet will also benefit from marketing opportunities via the NHL’s social and digital media channels, and the league’s calendar of marquee events – including regular season games, the Stanley Cup® Playoffs and Stanley Cup® Final, and international events including the NHL Global Series™.

John Lewicki, NHL Vice President, Business Development and Partnerships, International, said:  “We are thrilled to welcome OlyBet to the NHL family. There are legions of loyal and passionate NHL fans in the Baltics, and partnering with OlyBet, the top sports betting brand in the region, provides a terrific opportunity for the NHL to further fan engagement in this part of Europe.”

Corey Plummer, Chairman and CEO, Olympic Entertainment Group and OlyBet Holdings, added: “This is the beginning of a great partnership with the NHL to promote the brands and the sport. Ice hockey is very popular in our markets and our customers will now have more opportunities to engage with the NHL through live broadcasts and games, local events, social media and the best betting experiences in Europe. 

“The combined brand power, excitement of the sport and live experiences is a proposition that our customers love and will have more of with the NHL partnership. Sport helps people connect with family and friends, the ambitious and the passionate. We live for these moments and could not be more excited to have this partnership.”

The partnership is also being supported by Sportradar, the NHL’s Official Global Data Distributor.

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced the first official digital collectibles partnership for an MMA organization in history. 

Digital collectibles provider Fanaply will produce and sell the first officially licensed Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Collection for the PFL, consisting of “one-of-a-kind” moments in two separate NFT products.

Debut Moments will represent the first time a PFL fighter competed for the PFL, while Championship Moments will present the winner of each weight class in the 2021 PFL Season.

The NFTs will each consist of 30 seconds of video, come with signed PFL MMA gloves, and a personalised inscription of the buyers choosing.

• The first PFL debut moment NFT will be Claressa Shields’ MMA debut on Thursday, June 10, 2021. This is the most highly anticipated MMA debut in history and the Claressa Shields NFT will drop the day after the fight on Friday, June 11.
• The second debut moment NFT will feature Rory MacDonald and will drop three days prior to his next Regular Season fight on June 17.  The Rory MacDonald NFT will feature his PFL debut fight on April 29, 2021, a first-round submission win.
• The third and final debut moment NFT is PFL world champion and rising super star Kayla Harrison. The Kayla Harrison NFT will showcase moments from her victorious PFL fight debut on June 21, 2018 and will be dropped three days prior to her June 25, 2021 matchup.

Minted on the Ethereum blockchain, and offered in limited editions of three, they will be sold via auction at Fanaply.com. 

Professional Fighters League CEO, Peter Murray, said: “PFL is all about innovation for MMA‘s 550 million global fans, and today, we mark another first in the sport with our NFT launches. Claressa, Rory and Kayla have achieved tremendous success throughout their careers and three lucky collectors will now be able to make history of their own when the debut PFL NFTs drop this month.”

Grant Dexter, co-founder and CEO of Fanaply, added: “Bringing limited-edition digital assets to PFL fans is central to Fanaply’s belief that NFTs are about so much more than speculation. They not only let fans commemorate amazing moments, milestones and experiences of fighters, fights and championships, but for the first time in history, fans actually have true portable digital ownership. 

“Our NFTs are inclusive, environmentally friendly and can seamlessly integrate into our partners existing sales, marketing and promotional strategies to create incremental revenue, real fan engagement and unlock digital and real-world rewards. Fans are telling us they want digital products, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with such an innovative, thoughtful, focused fan and community-driven group over at the PFL.”

Fanaply has the most environmentally friendly NFTs, with a proprietary system that dramatically reduces the impact of energy consumption, and boasts a diverse roster of partners across the music, sports and entertainment space. 

In 2021 alone, Fanaply has launched official NFTs for NASCAR teams 23XI Racing and JTG Daugherty Racing, the 2021 Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs Racetrack, Florida Georgia Line and most recently, the first official NFTs for a NHL team in history, with the New Jersey Devils.  

In 2019, Fanaply announced its first endeavor in the live events and entertainment space via a partnership with Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, powering their digital collectibles program.

AYO.NEWS says:

The PFL is certainly embracing NFTs and blockchain technology! In April, the PFL became the first MMA organisation to launch Fan Tokens on Socios.com, with the initial 250,000 FTO selling out in under ten minutes.