Mark Gibson, Business Development Director at mkodo, says that an effective user interface can make an operator stand out from the crowd. The online sportsbook market is a relatively mature one and, certainly, a competitive one. Market advantage for operators is hard-won and probably even harder to maintain with substantial pressure being placed on user-loyalty through the widespread use of …

One of the lead researchers on the Responsible Gambling Trust’s investigations into problem gambling on machines has warned against applying its findings from loyalty cards to the whole machine gaming public. Heather Wardle, Research Director of NatCen Group, stated that the identified problem gambling rate of 23% found in its sample could not be comfortably extrapolated to every gaming machine player …

David Clifton, of gambling consultancy Clifton Davies, looks at the latest challenge to the Gambling Commission’s decision making process. A Decision Notice delivered on 8 December 2014 by the First-Tier Tribunal, quashing the Gambling Commission’s refusal to grant Greene King a bingo operating licence, has been reported in the pub industry press (The Publican’s Morning Advertiser) as “opening the door …

888.com has signed a deal to use iGaming Business‘ new Social Monitor product to measure and analyse its social media presence and that of its competitors. Created iGaming Business and social media monitoring company SCRM Cloud, Social Monitor is a managed enterprise-class solution for bespoke social media monitoring, analytics and engagement needs. The tool is entirely customisable and can monitor any iGaming brand …

Gaming supplier Vermantia has won the Gold Award in the category “Extroversion & Competitiveness in International Markets” at the E-volution Awards ceremony, organized by Boussias Communications, ELTRUN, the Laboratory of Electronic Commerce and Athens University of Economics and Business. Established in 2007, Vermantia specializes in the creation, management and delivery of innovative & immersive gaming content. Through its proprietary gaming …

The Gambling Commission has been named as the competent authority for Alternative Dispute Resolution Entities who handle disputes relating to gambling under Europe’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive which will be implemented by July 2015. This means that all ADR entities that handle, or wish to handle, gambling disputes will have to: demonstrate to the Commission that they meet the …

In a sudden change to its senior management, Scandinavian gaming firm Cherry AB has made Fredrik Burvall Acting CEO, replacing Emil Sunvisson. Burvall has been with Cherry since 2006 serving as Vice President and CFO, while Sunvisson has served Cherry in the capacity of CEO and as a member of the board for eight years. The company revealed that Sunvisson …

CVC Capital Partners is to spend a potential £720m to buy a controlling stake in online bookmaker Sky Bet. Under the agreement, Sky will receive £600m on completion of the deal, and further deferred and contingent payments of up to £120m, while Sky will retain an equity stake of 20% in Sky Bet, with which it has entered a long-term …

The Football Pools has officially launched MatchXtra, a new pool betting opportunity with a fixed-odds betting twist.  MatchXtra uses innovative pools technology from Longitude LLC, a New York-based technological solutions company, to offer exceptionally competitive odds on Premier League and other matches throughout the world. With MatchXtra, customers are able to bet on fixed odds-type markets, such as home/draw/away, correct …

One of the key partners on the recently published research on FOBTs has said that limiting the size of stakes is not the way to deal with problem gambling issues. Featurespace, the Cambridge-based technology firm commissioned by the Responsible Gambling Trust to conduct the most thorough investigation into problem gambling yet undertaken, analysed almost seven billion interactions between gambling customers …