Pragmatic Play, the iGaming content provider, has donated over €40K to good causes in Malta, Gibraltar, and Romania, in the third quarter of 2021. 

• In Romania, Pragmatic Play continued its support of the Homeless Animal Hospital, near Bucharest, with another €7,000 donation, and made a €10,000 donation to the ANAIS Association, which promotes respect and defends the rights of abused women, children, and young people. 
• In Malta, the company donated €5,000 to Step Up for Parkinson’s, which helps raise awareness and support for those suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and contributed €10,000 to the YMCA Malta to help the homeless and socially disadvantaged. 
• In Gibraltar, Pragmatic Play gave Calpe House £11,000 to help provide accommodation and support for patients and escorts sent to the UK under the Gibraltar Health Authority. 

Julian Jarvis, Pragmatic Play Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The past 18 months have been a leveller for people from all walks of life, but none have suffered more than the homeless community.

“With mental health being put in sharper focus than ever before, YMCA Malta is a fitting destination for our donation, appreciated for the wide range of services they provide to disadvantaged people.”

Pragmatic Play currently has business offices in Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, and Malta, along with development and operational offices in the United Kingdom, Serbia, Romania, Argentina, India, and Ukraine,  

ZBX, a cryptocurrency exchange for individual and institutional traders that offers fiat-to-crypto and banking services, will list TON Crystal (TON). This will allow ZBX users to buy and sell TON for fiat and other cryptocurrencies.

ZBX, the exchange offering banking services and Fiat to Crypto trading whilst operating under a European regulatory environment has reached partnership with FreeTON and will list TON Crystal (TON). This will provide easy and secure trading access to TON and give many a first taste of the diverse financial options available on FreeTON.

FreeTON is a multithreaded, multicore blockchain platform capable of scaling to process millions of smart contract executions per second. Unique features of Free TON include infinite sharding paradigm, instant hypercube routing, proof-of-stake mechanics to validate new blocks, ability to configure network parameters by voting, and more. FreeTON blockchain is designed to facilitate the widespread adoption of decentralized solutions by millions of users through an unprecedented combination of reliable security, industry-leading scalability and decentralization. 

ZBX CEO Dave Pulis said: “ZBX will only list projects which meet our stringent criteria. We list projects that provide real value for their users. ZBX users will have a say over which projects are listed and we will ensure that there is enough liquidity for any pair listed on the exchange.”  

Over this past summer, FreeTON has kicked development up a gear. Broxus, one of the development teams that is working on the project and is part of the FreeTON DeFi Alliance, launched the first FreeTON Bridge, linking the network with Ethereum. The Bridge, and its corresponding token, joins the other features of the FreeTON ecosystem, including a DEX, a Crystal wallet and more. 

About FreeTON: 

As a development built off of the Durov brothers’ original TON concept FreeTON is a fast, secure and scalable network with near-zero fees, which can process up to a million transactions per second thanks to its unique dynamic sharding technology.The ecosystem features a number of products, including a DEX and bridges with other blockchains.

About ZBX:

ZBX exchange offers fast, easy and secure trading for the most popular and in-demand cryptocurrencies. European users are able to trade, buy and sell cryptocurrency in various different pairs and against fiat. 

ZBX is currently one of the world’s leading exchanges powering many industries as well as retail clients.

Snoop Dogg has entered The Sandbox, recreating his mansion in the metaverse, allowing players to experience gigs and parties, and even play as the Doggfather himself. 

The legendary rapper, actor, songwriter, entrepreneur, and entertainer has partnered with The Sandbox, an Animoca Brands subsidiary, to bring his own unique flair to the popular decentralised gaming virtual world. 

In addition to setting up his mansion on his own virtual land, Snoop Dogg will also be launching an NFT collection, which will include player avatars and a limited ‘Snoop Dogg Private Party Pass’ giving owners VIP access to concerts, events, Q&As, and dedicated NFT drops. The 3D avatar collection will enable players to create games using virtual ‘Dogfather’ items like his personal car collection, dogs, statues, memorabilia, and more. 

Snoop Dogg is no stranger to new technologies, having invested in telemedicine and launched his own esports tournament series, the Gangsta Gaming League, in 2019. In April this year, he dropped A Journey with the Dogg NFT collection, which offered a look into his live and included the exclusive track NFT. 

To mark Snoop Dogg’s arrival in The Sandbox metaverse, a special LAND sale will be held on 30 September, 2021, at 1pm UTC, allowing fans to buy LANDS adjacent to Snoop Dogg’s property, making them the Doggfather’s metaverse neighbours. 

“I’m always on the look-out for new ways of connecting with fans and what we’ve created in The Sandbox is the future of virtual hangouts, NFT drops and exclusive concerts,” said Snoop Dogg. “We’ll have a fresh set of Dogg style NFTs that players can integrate into the game experiences to take this online experience to the next level for sure.”

“The idea of having hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg as your next-door neighbor in The Sandbox metaverse is mind blowing – and being able to have a unique Snoop NFT as your in-game avatar is even cooler,” said Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox. “By entering the next generation of entertainment where fans, creators, and players can connect and play-to-earn in a gaming virtual world, the Doggfather continues to be a pioneer. I can’t wait to attend the first Snoop Dogg live concert in the metaverse alongside our players!”

“We are building the future of entertainment where everyone will enjoy creating and sharing their very own virtual experiences,” said Arthur Madrid, CEO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox. “The Sandbox is bringing iconic culture with Snoop Dogg and enhancing it through innovation with NFTs and virtual experiences. Snoop’s LAND is decentralized; 100% owned by him to develop through his creative genius. I can’t wait to join his first private party in The Sandbox!”

“We are entering into a new age of creative potential that was never possible bound by the laws of the physical world and are excited to help Snoop continue to provide innovative entertainment for his millions of fans all across the globe,” said Alex Livian, Founder of Cultivate Studios, and representative of The Sandbox & Snoop Dogg collaboration.

Snoop Dogg isn’t the first big name from the music industry to acquire LAND in The Sandbox metaverse. Back in April, hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold staked their claim in the virtual world.

Blockchain-based virtual world Decentraland has made a strategic investment in Decentral Games, the metaverse-native GameFi DAO. 

The investment from Decentraland (MANA) in Decentral Games’ (DG) native governance token $DG, an asset that allocates governance votes within the Decentral Games DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and its nearly US$12 million in treasury holdings today, is aimed at helping the platform deliver free Play-to-Earn Metaverse Poker.

“The Decentraland Foundation is thrilled to support Decentral Games in its new play-to-earn gaming in the metaverse,” said Agustin Ferreira, Foundation Lead at Decentraland Foundation. “The free play-to-earn architecture has undergone phenomenal growth of late, and we believe it will enable the Decentraland platform and the community to continue on the journey of decentralized expansion. As a gaming pioneer in the metaverse, we believe Decentral Games is the ideal party to spearhead the next generation of play-to-earn.”

“This significant deal will enable Decentral Games to debut play-to-earn dynamics applied to a favorite household game, poker,” said Decentral Games Founder Miles Anthony. “Decentral Games is proud to have a trusted investment partner in Decentraland as we roll out metaverse play-to-earn ICE Poker. Decentraland has been a pioneer in building the first iteration of an open, decentralized metaverse, so it’s a no-brainer to launch our Play-to-Earn ICE Poker there.”

Decentral Games has also received recent investment from full-stack Ethereum scaling solution, Polygon, among others. In June, DG closed a $5-million funding round co-led by Collab+Currency and BACKED VC. 

Decentral Games has continued to execute, bringing play-to-earn to fruition, and announced the new GameFi product, ICE Poker, the play-to-earn and NFT game in September.

Decentral Games has previously worked with Decentraland, developing several signature games for on a white label basis before eventually establishing itself as an enterprise DAO.

Currently, Decentral Games runs multiple metaverse-based play-to-earn and NFT games, including co-branding and business-to-business (B2B) deals with the world’s most iconic brands, including gaming giant Atari, Amnesia Ibiza (the temple of electronic music), and Bored Apes Yacht Club (the iconic NFT series). 

Immutable, the Layer-2 scalability protocol for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum, has raised US$60M in a Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to US$77.5M. 

Similar to how leading payment platforms enable online commerce, Immutable has created the underlying technical infrastructure to power NFT trading for any business.

The Series B round was co-led by BITKRAFT Ventures and King River Capital, with participation from Prosus Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Fabric Ventures, Alameda Research, AirTree Ventures, Reinventure, Apex Capital, and VaynerFund.

Immutable says the funding will be used to expand the global engineering and sales team, and strengthen key partnerships with gaming companies. It will also be used to scale the growth of Immutable’s in-house published NFT games, Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians.

The market for NFTs surged to new highs in the second quarter of 2021, with $2.5 billion in sales so far this year, up from just $13.7 million in the first half of 2020. With 9,000 transactions per second, instant transaction times, and zero-gas fees for trading or creating NFTs, Immutable enables businesses to create and trade NFTs on the world’s most popular blockchain, Ethereum, while remaining completely carbon-neutral.

Immutable X is the first Layer 2 scaling solution for NFTs on Ethereum, the most used blockchain globally for NFTs. As Ethereum network traffic has increased significantly, transactions are slower and costlier to execute, and security is increasingly important. Immutable X was created with these pain points in mind. The scaling protocol was built with StarkWare’s ZK-rollup, capable of massive scalability without compromising security. Last month, $600m was hacked on less secure scaling solutions which rely on centralized “bridges” for their connection to Ethereum, rather than zero-knowledge proofs. 

“NFT trading is a terrible mainstream user experience right now. It’s expensive, illiquid, and the only existing scaling solutions compromise on the most important thing – the security and user-base of Ethereum. We want businesses to create their game, marketplace, or NFT application within hours via APIs, with a mainstream user experience. No blockchain programming required,” commented Robbie Ferguson, co-founder at Immutable.

“We have been encouraged by the strong momentum around the Ethereum ecosystem, and are excited by the prospects of this next-generation scalability infrastructure broadening accessibility for a new wave of blockchain game developers. The future of asset trading is digital and in-game items and in-game digital assets will broadly move onto the blockchain. To support and accelerate this shift, the industry is in need of a scalable, fast, efficient and trusted blockchain layer. With Immutable we have found the best team and product in the market to make this industry shift a reality,” said Jens Hilgers, Founding Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures.

“Immutable is an exciting business, with a first class management team, and a transformative technology at the centre of a rapidly evolving market. We are delighted to be working with Immutable on this capital raising, which will give the business the financial support to further enhance its position as a market leader in gaming and other verticals, where the company already has a strong reputation and established user base,” commented Zeb Rice, a Founding Partner at King River Capital

From collectible trading card NFTs to fashion NFTs, Immutable’s technology partnerships span across multiple industries. Immutable is responsible for launching one of blockchain’s most successful games, Gods Unchained, which is led by Chris Clay, the former Game Director of Magic the Gathering Arena. 

Other notable projects include upcoming support on OpenSea (NFT marketplace), Mintable (NFT marketplace), RTFKT studios (fashion NFT artists), Ecomi / VeVe Collectibles (licensed collectibles), Medal.TV (world’s largest gaming clips website), HighRise (social sandbox), TokenTrove (collectibles marketplace), SuperFarm (defi NFT farm), and Epics.GG (whitelabel marketplace platform for NFTs).

Animoca Brands and Yield Guild Games (YGG) have announced the inaugural YGG Cup tournament in REVV Racing, the skill-based action arcade automobile racing blockchain game that gives players full and real-time first-person control of their car. 

The YGG Cup has a prize pool of US$150,000 and takes place 10-16 September 2021 at www.REVVRacing.com.

YGG is a play-to-earn gaming guild with more than 50,000 members that invests in yield-generating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in virtual worlds and blockchain-based games. The guild recently made headlines when its public sale of 25 million YGG tokens sold out in just 31 seconds on 27 July 2021. The YGG token is a representation of all YGG assets in the metaverse.

REVV Racing is the newest play-to-earn title in the REVV Motorsport metaverse of racing games, and is a milestone in Animoca Brands’ ambitious plan to develop blockchain-based games that have the quality, look, and feel of traditional video games. 

In REVV Racing, cars are NFTs and all play sessions are registered on blockchain – but the game looks and plays like the 3D car racing games familiar to millions of gamers all over the world.

Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG, commented: “With the goal to make NFT games accessible to more players, YGG is proud to sponsor the first REVV Racing YGG Cup. REVV Racing is setting the standard for the future of car racing in the rapidly growing play-to-earn category, providing players with the right to own, customize, share, and profit from their in-game NFT assets. This gives players more control than has ever been possible in the gaming world and that’s exactly the kind of empowerment we want to see as we continue our mission to onboard billions of players to the metaverse.”

Yat Siu, chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, added: “Gabby and YGG have been doing fantastic work to push the NFT gaming and play-to-earn movement toward the mainstream, so we are particularly excited to collaborate with them to bring the YGG community into REVV Racing and into the broader REVV ecosystem.”

REVV Racing is currently in alpha version for development and testing. It is built on Polygon (formerly known as Matic).

YGG Cup: $150k in prizes (10-16 September 2021)

The YGG Cup is a special tournament sponsored by YGG that will be held on 10-16 September 2021 in REVV Racing (https://www.revvracing.com). Players will compete for the fastest times using their car NFTs in a traditional first and third-person view racing game with complete control of their cars on track. 

The YGG Cup has a prize pool of US$150,000. There are 1,000 prizes in total, with the top prizes being $12,000, $9,000, and $4,500 for first, second, and third place. Prizes are paid out in REVV tokens (67%) and YGG tokens (33%). The top 3 players will also win a REVV Racing YGG Cup NFT (Gold, Silver, Bronze). 

A REVV Racing car NFT is required to participate in the YGG Cup. REVV Racing car NFTs are available for purchase on OpenSea.