Slots and table games supplier Realistic Games has signed a deal with Betfred to provide the bookmaker with its full portfolio of games. The deal will see the operator bolster its portfolio with Realistic’s market-leading versions of blackjack and roulette. Russell Young, Commercial Director at Betfred.com, said: “We pride ourselves in offering our players the widest selection of quality games …

The third round of the FA Cup gets underway at the weekend and whilst this means a shot at glory for those outside the Premier League, it means something different for the bookmakers. Does an FA Cup weekend mean more or less betting volume these days? How do you promote a weekend of games to a bettor who doesn’t know …

Coral has already started taking bets for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2017 and has made Anthony Joshua the 11-4 favourite to take the crown. Andy Murray won this year’s to become the first person to hit a SPOTY hat-trick but is priced at 4/1 to retain it once more next year. Joshua is set for a mammoth year. His …

In late December an announcement on the Lounges sites, CSGOLounge and Dota2Lounge, revealed that there will be a ‘money refund program’ for some of the sites’ users. It was CSGOLounge which was very much at the centre of the skins betting drama which kicked off last summer. Robert Borewik is the founder whilst ESForce Holding is an investor which came …

Superdata Research published its end of year report in December and in its assessment of esports it valued the betting sector at $58.9m (£47.9m). This was a significant but minor portion of the overall esports pie, which Superdata valued at $892m (£727.9m) currently with growth expectations putting it at a $1.4bn (£1.1bn) industry by 2019. You can read a full …

Midfielder Joey Barton has been charged by the FA for misconduct in relation to betting’ with the allegation that the Englishman placed over 1200 bets in the past decade. This is a familiar territory for Barton as it was only in November that the former Rangers man was charged by the Scottish FA for breaching its betting rules. In this instance …

Riccardo Mittiga is the CEO of Asap Italia, a company which recently launched DFS brand Sportito. With the pending merger of DraftKings and FanDuel, and some of the ‘smaller big fish’ in Oulala and Mondogoal opting to switch to strictly B2B in the latter part of the year we spoke to Riccardo about the state of fantasy in Europe, and …

William Hill is now taking bets on Virtual Racing at four of its Reno Sports Books in Nevada. This includes the voice of legendary race caller Tom Durkin and features a new race every five minutes. Punters can opt for Win, Place, Show, Exactas, and Trifectas on lineups that range from eight to twelve animated horses. The bookmaker trialled its Virtual …

A mystery Betfair punter made what must be one of the greatest cash outs of all time on Boxing Day which paid out a total of £223,000 from a £1 stake. The festive all football accumulator was made up of 21 legs and included Plymouth to beat Wycombe in a game that ended 3-3 with a 90th minute equaliser from …

Thomas Hogenhaven is the Chief Product Officer at Better Collective. In another of our end of the year series, we spoke to Hogenhaven about the launch of SmartBets, big data, esports and innovation in betting.   SBC: Having launched in June in time for the Euros, how has the latter part of the year been for SmartBets, and what has …