The team’s mission is to provide 360° support to iGaming operators, enabling them to capitalise on opportunities to improve brand performance.

Tom Dyson is a knowledgeable gaming industry professional with significant expertise in team leading and management roles, having worked for companies such as Gambling Compliance, ProgressPlay, and Gaming Realms.

Covering multiple operational areas, EveryMatrix’s Managed Services division provides extensive support to clients’ executive teams, from acquisition and retention marketing to product and payments management.

As a result, the services provide a comprehensive outsourced option for running your online casino or sportsbook, offering expertise in specific areas such as Marketing, Affiliate, CRM & VIP, Product Management, Payments and Fraud, Bonus Abuse Monitoring, and Customer Support.

Stian Hornsletten, Chief Commercial Officer & Co-founder of EveryMatrix, said: “Our company is constantly evolving and developing, and with the addition of the Managed Services solution, we reached another important milestone. I am sure Tom Dyson will do a great job leading the talented and brilliant team responsible for this project.”

Tom Dyson, Head of Managed Services, added: “Marketing is among the largest costs for an iGaming operator so it’s vital that these businesses optimise the effectiveness of their marketing spend to achieve growth in one of the most competitive corners of the internet.

“Because of this, and the labyrinth of regulatory challenges presented to the modern operator, many traditional marketing agencies struggle to make the most of their client’s budgets. Our new team can solve this problem by combining our industry experience and unrivalled product expertise but most importantly through a shared measure of success with our clients.”

The country’s gambling regulator, Lotteritilsynet, says that despite repeated warnings SEOButler is still promoting illegal gambling to Norwegian consumers via four websites; Tjenpengeronline.no, Fotballreisetips.no, Finnstilling.no and Startsidendin.no.

Lotteritilsynet claims it first warned the company to cease marketing illegal gambling sites in December 2020, and then again in March 2021. SEOButler responded by blocking Norwegian visitors from some sites, but the regulator subsequently found the offending sites were still promoting offshore gambling to Norweign visitors. 

In a statement, Lotteritilsynet said: “SEOButler has on a number of occasions been made aware of breaches of the marketing and dissemination ban. Lotteritilsynet takes a serious view of repeated breaches of the regulations, especially after the actor is made aware of which specific cases are considered to be breaches of the rules. Furthermore, SEOButler has in several cases given the impression that it has complied with the orders to stop its illegal business.”

From 25 May, the company will be subject to a NOK2000 daily fine, up to a maximum of NOK200,000 (approx. €19,800). 

AYO.NEWS says:

Considering SEOButler is based in the UK, which is now not part of the EU or EEA (Norway is a member of the EEA), and there’s no legal gambling market to lose in Norway by annoying their regulator, we can’t see that the company is going to pay much attention to the deluded demands of an anachronistic regulator like Lotteritilsynet. 

The entire episode just further underlines why the Norwegian authorities need to drag themselves into the 21st century, and stop treating their own consumers like naughty children by denying them legal access to a fair, international digital marketplace. 

Staying with Norway’s insane gambling rules, last month Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), called on the Norwegian government to ditch their existing monopoly system and introduce a proper regulated market. 

Better Collective Makes Biggest Acquisition Yet

Copenhagen-based gambling affiliate, Better Collective, is set to acquire US media sports platform, Action Network in a deal worth $240M USD. The debt free, cash deal will represent Better Collective’s biggest acquisition to-date, and significantly expand the firm’s US footprint. 

Founded in 2017 and launched in 2018, Action Network provides sports news content, insights, odds, and betting data. It is expected to generate $40M in revenue this year, but Better Collective says it aims to up that to over $100M next year. 

Commenting on the news Better Collective CEO, Jesper Søgaard, said: “I am thrilled to welcome Action and its employees to Better Collective. This acquisition, which is the largest in Better Collective’s history, gives us a leading position within affiliation in the US and a strong foundation for profiting from the continuous regulation of the US betting market.

“We add three new, very well-positioned US sports media brands to our portfolio and welcome around 100 new colleagues, together representing an invaluable pool of knowledge and expertise on the US sports betting media market. By all accounts, this is a great day for Better Collective.”

Action Network CEO, Patrick Keane, added: “Today marks a great achievement in the history of Action. In just a few years, our team has managed to build a leading sports betting product and media business in the US market, making us attractive to a leading international player. I am thrilled about this outcome for our employees and investors, and we look forward to continuing to forge great relationships with our league, media and sportsbook partners.

“Under Better Collective’s ownership, we become part of a company with many years of experience and all the resources necessary to further grow our position and develop our offering, to ultimately enhance the betting and entertainment experience for sports fans. We gain new colleagues, career paths and perspectives. I’m looking very much forward to the journey ahead.”

Action Network joins casino affiliate brand Atemi Group and esports site HLTV.org in a string of major acquisitions for Better Collective. 

Catena Media splashes $39.6M on Lineups.com 

Meanwhile, another European gambling affiliate company has also made a major US acquisition. Catena Media has said it will be acquiring 100% of the shares in US sports affiliate Lineups.com, in a deal worth $39.6M – paid in three installments over two years. 

CEO, Catena Media, Michael Daly, said: “The acquisition of Lineups.com strengthens Catena Media’s leading position in the growing US betting market with a complementary product that fits perfectly into our existing US portfolio. It gives us a second, even stronger, national sports betting affiliation site, alongside thelines.com.

“This will allow us to capture more market share across North America, as well as to take advantage of shared tools across multiple Catena Media sites. Sam Shefrin, the seller and founder of Lineups.com, will bring his industry and technology focus to the Catena Media team and will work with us for the near future as an exclusive consultant to the business.”

AYO.NEWS says:

In the immediate post-PASPA period, it seems very much like many European affiliates, suppliers, and operators were singularly failing to grasp the sheer magnitude of the long-term opportunities inherent in the United States. However, Better Collective was a notable exception, making some very smart early moves. Of course, over the past year we’ve seen reality dawn and what seem like daily mega mergers and acquisitions, as firms scramble to secure their positions and build market share.

Luckbox now offers esports fans the opportunity to bet on a wide range of markets across all major esports, with live streams of popular games including CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, FIFA, and NBA2K. The platform also recently added wagering for over 100 traditional sports, including football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and tennis. 

Luckbox says its affiliate program will leverage Income Access platform’s robust reporting features to make data-based marketing decisions to more effectively promote its products. It will also be leveraging the Income Access Network, which provides access to qualified advertising partners and content marketing support. 

As previously reported, Luckbox also recently integrated Paysafe’s Skrill and NETELLER payment options, making its product more accessible to more customers. 

In addition to Luckbox’s core product offering, affiliates will also be able to promote various player promotions, including event-specific free bet opportunities, combo bet cash back offers, and other initiatives to attract new players and encourage customer loyalty. 

Affiliates will also have access to a support team providing guidance and delivering strategic creative assets to drive customer engagement. 

Quentin Martin, CEO at Luckbox, said: “We are delighted to formally launch our affiliate programme and know that the Income Access platform will introduce Luckbox to thousands of players.

“Affiliate marketing is a proven, cost-effective channel in the igaming industry and, as a leading name in the esports betting industry, we will work to ensure our affiliate programme is also the best in the business, both for our partners and our players. We look forward to working with Income Access, the existing network and new affiliates as we rapidly scale our customer acquisition efforts throughout 2021.”

Tara Wilson, Chief Operating Officer at Income Access, Paysafe Group, said: “We’ve been eagerly anticipating the launch of the Luckbox affiliate programme and are excited to see our platform and full suite of services drive the brand’s growth. By bringing together our comprehensive affiliate solution with Luckbox’s array of exciting products, we know this partnership is poised for long-term success.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Considering Luckbox’s incredible organic growth thus far, we expect the rollout of a strong affiliate program like this, powered by a well-proven platform, will significantly accelerate growth further. For affiliates, it’s also a great opportunity to capitalise on the insane growth in esports betting we’ve seen over the past year. 

Described by ClassyBeef as the world’s “first true esports superstar,” HeatoN was with Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) when it won the CPL World Championship way back in 2001, and won the Counter-Strike gold medal for Sweden at the 2003 World Cyber Games.

He went on to develop his pro esports career with SK Sweden, before he and the rest of SK Sweden cut ties with SK Gaming and re-formed NiP (Ninjas in Pyjamas). Though he quit playing Counter-Strike for NiP in September 2007, to join Championship Gaming Series (CGS) as general manager, Christensen returned to Ninjas in Pyjamas and managed the organisation from 2012 until October 2018.

Despite his undeniable Counter-Strike skills, Christensen is no stranger to controversy. In September 2015 he, along with two other former NiP owners, were charged with misleading an auditor about NiP’s finances during its sale to Digilife. He was found guilty of fraud – though the judgement specified it was due to careless accounting rather than any intentional plan to deceive – and has since faced further allegations of financial misconduct from former NiP players. 

With more than 130,000 followers on Twitch, ClassyBeef is best known for streaming casino and slots games, and has announced an upcoming event featuring HeatoN, called the HeatoN Wars – Gambling Tournament.

Commenting on the news Co-Founder of ClassyBeef, Joel Petri, said:

“We are super thrilled to be presenting one of the biggest names in the esports industry. HeatoN has a fascinating background and we are more than happy to have him signed as a brand ambassador.”

While Emil ‘HeatoN’ Christensen himself added:

“I am happy to be joining a company that works hard to educate viewers on responsible gambling, while making gambling fun and accessible for the community. It’s exciting to see what the future holds.”

You can catch the livestream at ClassyBeef’s Twitch channel on 9 January at 19:00 CEST. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Although esports and gambling have a strong relationship thanks to legitimate esports betting operators, the world of slot streamers still generates a lot of controversy. But, considering HeatoN’s past, we doubt a few more raised eyebrows will bother him, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. 

‘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.

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.

The Malta-based company has added the feature to enable operators to easily identify what language a website is promoting their brand in. The new feature will help operators achieve compliance with regulatory requirements in specific markets, like Germany, where strict new rules regarding marketing are being introduced soon. 

Commenting on the new feature CCO at GiG, Ben Clemes, said:

“We are continuously improving and advancing on our products not only to ensure they reflect what is happening in the market but also so that we can continue to meet the needs of our partners. The new language feature not only helps to ensure that our partners are ahead of the game and are fully compliant in newly-regulated markets, but it also enables them to do so effectively and efficiently via a fast and automated process.”

AYO.NEWS says:

With marketing rules tightening across many regulated markets, it’s never been more critical to remain compliant, so anything that can automate some of the process will be welcomed by operators. Obviously, this kind of tool will work well for languages that are only used in a handful of markets, like German or Italian, but will be less helpful for more widely used languages. 

Staying with GiG, last week the company announced it was resurrecting its Betspin.com brand as a live casino-focused affiliate site. 

‘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.

Betspin.com was founded way back in 2015 and operated as a casino until its closure last year. Now, it has been rebranded and relaunched as an affiliate casino site, focused exclusively on live casinos. 

The new site offers players a guide to live casinos, highlighting bonuses and promotions for blackjack, baccarat, roulette, and poker, and providing how-to guides for those who want to learn how to play. 

Commenting on the news Managing Director of GiG Media, Jonas Warrer, said:

“We are extremely excited to see Betspin rebranded and repositioned as a live casino affiliate website. It’s our first website that is exclusively dedicated to live dealer games, a highly valuable segment of online gaming that is expected to see further growth in the future.”

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

Atemi Group is one of the world’s largest companies specialising in lead generation for iGaming through paid media (PPC) and social media advertising, and the acquisition represents a major strategic move for Betting Collective, and presents significant synergistic opportunities. 

Founded in 2015, Atemi Group has mostly been focused on traffic acquisition towards iGaming (online casino, bingo etc), but has more recently pivoted towards building and investing in sports betting comparison platforms. 

Though it has a global presence, its main market is the UK, and the company’s operations are headquartered in London. In 2019, Atemi Group generated revenues of €33M, and registered an organic growth of 70% compared to 2018. 

For 2020, Atemi Group is on course to send over 180,000 new depositing customers (NDC’s) to their partners, and has set a revenue target of >€40M, and operational earnings of approximately €8M.

Discussing the deal CEO of Better Collective, Jesper Søgaard, said:

“This acquisition is a very important step for us to reach our strategic target of becoming the leading sports betting aggregator in the world. Atemi Group has been on an impressive growth journey since the company was founded in 2015, and has reached the large scale it takes to be competitive and profitable within paid media. 

“We see many opportunities for expansion into new markets and for harvesting synergistic effects between our assets and competences. The acquisition will immediately bring Better Collective in the absolute leading position when in comes to customer acquisition for the online operators, with an estimated annual NDC level of of more than 600.000, and from a financial perspective Better Collective will take a leap of having proforma annual revenue of estimated more than 120 million EUR with high operational earnings and cash flow.”

While founder of Atemi Group, Richard Skelhorn, added:

“We built a very successful gaming affiliate business over the past five years at Atemi.  All credit goes to the amazing team and now we are thrilled to be joining Better Collective.  Atemi and Better Collective are both market leaders in their respective areas, and the combination of the two companies, creates a very strong force in gaming affiliation. I  am certain this will take us to the next level.”

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On March 14th, the Spanish government enforced the State of Alarm. This meant all economic activity came to a standstill, including sporting competitions. The situation lasted for over three months, up until June 21st, and in that period, a prohibition on gambling advertising was also in place countrywide. 

With neither national nor European sporting competitions in motion, and severe restrictions on ads that were only allowed to be shown four hours per day during the lockdown – specifically between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m – operators and affiliates operating in Spain could not develop any campaigns to attract bettors. 

In May, we saw the comeback of football in Europe, kicking off mid-month with the German Bundesliga. Since then, national leagues on the continent have resumed operations gradually, with the exception of the French Ligue 1. La Liga returned in June, but even so, the betting operators could not yet find any reason to cheer, as the State of Alarm was to remain in force for ten more days.

Change of course  

The plan was to lift the advertising ban on the 21st of June, the day when the State of Alarm ended in Spain. 

That was not the case, however, as ads were allowed again on June 11th – at any time throughout the day – coinciding with Sevilla FC vs Real Betis, the first match of LaLiga upon resumption.

The decision of lifting the ban ahead of schedule came from the office of Alberto Garzon, current Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs. When choosing to enforce the prohibition, back in March, he declared, “We are approving the banning of gambling advertising with the aim of protecting the most vulnerable during the lockdown, a period when overexposure to these sorts of ads threatens to create a public health problem with gambling”. 

But Garzon decided to end the prohibition as soon as Spanish football resumed. The gambling operators within the country received the decision with open arms and there was a big increase in interest from the Spanish population. 

This is clearly illustrated in the case of Miscasasdeapuestas.com, a bookmaker comparison site run by the affiliate company Leadstar Media. The site recorded its best numbers of the football season so far, as the resumption of La Liga together with the lifting of the advertising ban paved the way for players to return.

Commenting on recent weeks Eskil Kvarnström, CEO of Leadstar Media, stated: 

“In just twenty days, we’ve seen our numbers increase twofold compared to our best month in the 2019-20 campaign, and we expect further significant growth also in July as it will bring a full month of Spanish top-level football”. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Leadstar’s success since the lifting of the state of emergency gambling advertising ban clearly shows there was plenty of pent-up enthusiasm for Spanish football betting after three months in lockdown!

However, despite the good news for Spanish-facing sports betting affiliates, let’s spare a thought for Spanish football clubs and betting operators, who recently learned that, from the next La Liga season, all football gambling sponsorships, including shirt deals and naming rights, will be completely banned. 

Mind you, that may actually be good news for affiliates, as operators could well become more reliant on them for customer acquisition. 

‘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