Bitcasino.io has pledged to fund the planting of 101,010 trees (at $1 per tree), through the viral #teamtrees movement.

The cause, which pledged to plant 20 million trees by the start of 2020 has been supported by high-profile figures in the tech industry like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, but so far Bitcasino.io is the only company of its kind to lend its support.

Through November Bitcasino’s players had the opportunity to donate their unused Loyalty Club points to the cause, and all contributions were matched Bitcoin-for-Bitcoin by the Bitcasino team.

Bitcasino rounded the total to the easily recongisable binary number of $101,010 to gain note with tech and cryptocurrency enthusiasts alike.

Commenting on the news Director of Casino at Bitcasino.io, Tauri Tiitsaar, said:

“It’s astonishing to see just how generous our players are, and we are happy to have been able to represent the crypto community in the #TeamTrees movement.

“By making just a small addition to our loyalty club, we were able to have such a big impact on a global cause, and want to take this as an opportunity to challenge others in our industry and community to stand together with us in raising awareness on the important topic of climate change.”

#TeamTrees was started by American YouTuber MrBeast, and quickly became one of the biggest fundraising challenges in the history of social media. In addition to Jack Dorsey the cause has also been supported by many social media influencers and entrepreneurs, including Jeffree Star, Pewdiepie and Elon Musk.

As 2019 draws to a close, the campaign has passed the 19 million mark. You can find out more about the campaign, and how you can get involved at teamtrees.org.

AYO.NEWS says:

Hats off to Bitcasino.io, both their players and their team! That is an impressive amount to raise in such a short time, and hopefully it will inspire other firms in the industry to get involved with similar projects.

AYO.NEWS just funded a batch of trees too 😉

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate has announced a new strategy against illegal gaming activities.

It has concluded the best way to combat the illegal gaming business is to encourage a form of self-regulation of the market, in which other entities in the market act to keep illegal actors out.

This means ensuring that subcontractors and payment service providers do not cooperate with illegal gaming companies. This approach is necessary because, as the Gaming Inspectorate itself admits, its opportunities to act directly are limited and will mainly focus on cooperation with other actors in Swedish and foreign authorities.

The Gaming Inspectorate does, however, have the opportunity to apply to the Administrative Court for the ability to block specific bank accounts.

A prerequisite for the goals of the new gaming regulation to be achieved is that those who conduct gaming operations in Sweden have a Swedish license “, states the Gaming Inspectorate in a press release sent out regarding the new strategy.

However, most of the illegal gaming activities over the Internet have their headquarters in countries outside Sweden and even outside the EU, which presents special challenges for Swedish authorities.

Providing illegal gambling or gambling without the necessary license is a crime in Sweden, as is the promotion of such activities. In this part, the Gaming Inspectorate needs to cooperate with police and prosecutors, along with other authorities such as The Consumer Agency and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

EveryMatrix’s CasinoEngine has entered an agreement with Flutter Entertainment (formerly Paddy Power Betfair), to provide its iGaming integration platform in several regulated markets.

The deal covers markets including Spain, Italy, Sweden and the UK, and will give Flutter access to an extensive selection of market-specific gaming suppliers, via a single integration.

UK-listed Flutter Entertainment plc currently serves more than six million players worldwide, operating major brands including Paddy Power, Betfair, Sportsbet, FanDuel, TVG and Adjarabet.

Commenting on the partnership Commercial Product Manager at Flutter, Jack Dinan, said:

“We have spent considerable time assessing potential B2B partners who could enhance our gaming proposition across International Markets. We are delighted to partner with EveryMatrix who have impressed us with their experience, professionalism, and reliability. We are incredibly excited by the imminent launch in Spain, which offers our customers a greatly enhanced portfolio of games and a seamless experience between products.”

While Group Chief Commercial Officer at EveryMatrix, Stian Hornsletten, added:

“Spain is the first market to tackle together with Flutter. To achieve their mission of bringing entertainment to life in a responsible way, Flutter offers players a unified experience across all gaming vendors by upholding total control over the gameplay window. CasinoEngine’s team, together with vendors, developed several features to comply with their strict requirements for user experience and responsible gaming.

“As such, our UI Communication Framework has been fully integrated with Flutter’s MARS Framework to collect the various in-game messages from different vendors and present them on the operator side in a unified way. This includes real-time balance updates, toggle audio across all vendors, stake updates, game load progress or game completion, for example. I believe that together we’ve created the most player-friendly and transparent casino experience in the industry and being their choice with our CasinoEngine Direct solution is an exceptional compliment.”

According to EveryMatrix, CasinoEngine Direct solution acts as an integration layer between the operator and casino vendor, on top of the gaming aggregation. This enables operators to quickly enter newly regulated markets with the most relevant country-specific content. The gaming library now includes more than 8,000 games and more than 140 game suppliers.

AYO.NEWS says:

Given the sheer scale of Flutter’s operations, this is a major deal for EveryMatrix. Just last week AYO.NEWS reported that Spanish content had been integrated into the CasinoEngine platform (read more). Staying with Flutter, in November the company reported strong revenue growth in Q3 2019, largely driven by the nascent US markets (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Slovenia-based ORYX Gaming, a Bragg Gaming Group Company, has expanded its footprint in the rapidly growing Colombian market, going live with FullReto.co.

The partnership sees ORYX provide Grupo Vinnare, the company that runs FullReto.co, with a full turnkey solution including its iGaming platform, proprietary sportsbook, and access to a wide range of casino content, including ORYX proprietary titles and games from suppliers including Gamomat, Amatic, Isoftbet, Microgaming, EGT, and MGA via the ORYX Hub.

Operator of a significant number of land-based casinos and a retail network of more than 250 locations, in September Grupo Vinnare became the 16^th operator to receive an online permit from Colombia’s regulator Coljuegos.

Discussing the news Managing Director or ORYX Gaming, Matevz Mazij, said:

“This deal is an important milestone for us as we have provided all the components to ensure a streamlined and painless launch of the FullReto.co website. This year we have significantly grown our presence in Latin America, and we believe Colombia is a market that has great potential for us business-wise. Our partnership with FullReto.co will enable us to grow further in Colombia.

“Our turnkey solution provides Grupo Vinnare with all the tools and features they need for a smooth and successful start of the online operation and offers their customers an exciting betting and gaming experience.”

While General Manager of FullReto.co, Juan Pablo Barahona, added:

“We are very excited about launching our online sportsbook and casino and partnering with ORYX has provided us with a comprehensive solution that supplies us with all the elements we need in order to offer our customers top gaming experience while being fully compliant.”

ORYX says it has adapted its iGaming platform to fully comply with Colombian regulations, and has also provided Grupo Vinnare with the option of setting up their financial and reporting processes. ORYX entered the Colombian market in 2018 with Wplay.co (read more).

The Norwegian gambling regulator, Lotteritilsynet, has confirmed amendments to the unlicensed operator payments ban will be in effect from 1^st January 2020.

Though there has technically been a ban on payments to unlicensed gambling operators since 2010, it is estimated that around NOK6bn ($659.9m) is still being spent with offshore operators, so Lotteritilsynet has requested sweeping new powers.

The new amendments will give the regulator the power to request transactions are blocked based on company names and account numbers, and also cover payment intermediaries.

Discussing the new powers Lotteritilsynet lawyer and advisor, Gram Skår, explained:

“The foundation of the Norwegian gambling model is to help protect vulnerable groups from becoming gambling addicts. Good public control of gambling offsets both crime and gambling addiction. We see the effect of work we are doing today, but the purpose of the changes is to make the payment service ban more effective. This means we can, to a greater extent, prevent gaming companies from accepting deposits from Norwegian players.”

The regulator estimates around 250,000 Norwegians currently gamble with unlicensed offshore operators.

AYO.NEWS says:

If this payment ban is effective it is bound to sting quite a few operators and affiliates who’ve grown used to relatively high spending Norwegian players.

Coupled with the strict new regime in Sweden, it seems the Nordic countries are becoming decidedly less appealing to gambling operators – many of whom are looking across the Atlantic to North and South America, as well as emerging markets in Africa and Asia, for future growth.  

Just last week we looked at the state of the Norwegian gambling market – see GAMBLING IN NORWAY – A MONOPOLY OR FREE MARKET?

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Swedish media is reporting that Zimpler has accused Trustly of abusing its position in the gaming market in Sweden, and has reported it to the Competition Authority.

According to Di Digital, Zimpler has informed the Swedish Competition Authority that Trustly has locked gaming companies into exclusive and expensive agreements, preventing them from adopting other services.

Because of this, Zimpler believes that Trustly is stopping them from doing business with gaming companies with Swedish gaming licenses. Zimpler claims to have obtained evidence of the strategy through conversations with several gaming companies.

Zimpler have been struggling to get new gaming companies in their portfolio since they launched their service back in 2017. The company says that it now believes operators in Sweden are not signing contracts with them out of fear they will lose their relationship with Trustly.

In early 2019, Trustly bought the company Entercash, which also had a similar service, and gained an even larger market share.

Responding to the Swedish Competition Authority, Trustly asserted that Zimpler’s picture of the competitive situation is incorrect. The company believes that it is not possible to look solely at the part of the company that deals with payments from company accounts to private accounts, as it is only a minor part of Trustly’s total operations.

Trustly say that they do have exclusivity agreements with gaming companies who use the Pay N Play service, but that this is a limited number.

Last year, Trustly Group had sales of close to SEK 900 million and made a profit of SEK 447 million, with over 85% of the Swedish market. Zimpler had a turnover of SEK 39 million in the same year and posted losses of SEK 677,000.