Europe

The £116 million acquisition of Talarius arcades by Novomatic Group (Novomatic) faces an ‘in-depth investigation over competition concerns’ by the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). Publishing an industry update, CMA officials detailed that following Novomatic’s acquisition of Talarius, the company would operate 264 UK adult gaming centres, which may harm sector competition conditions. Stating its concerns, the authority detailed …

England’s World Cup qualifying group has been subjected to claims of ‘suspicious betting’, after irregular patterns during Malta’s defeat to Lithuania three weeks ago were flagged up to FIFA. The world governing body was alerted to huge sums of money being placed on the match, which took place on the same night that England drew 0-0 in Slovenia. It has …

Following this September’s launch of its European headquarters in London, SBC caught up with Cole Sharp Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer of behavioural marketing specialist BounceX. BounceX one of the US’ fastest growing tech companies, wants to place data and behavioural insights at the heart of online betting marketing operations. Cole Sharp details his firm’s ambitious plans for SBC readers… ____________________ …

New York private equity firm, Hydra Industries (Hydra) has confirmed that it has been granted an ‘extension of the date’ by which it must complete its proposed £200 million acquisition of industry virtual games supplier Inspired Gaming Group (Inspired). The private equity firm has been granted until the 29 December to formally process its acquisition offer. Updating deal stakeholders, Hydra Chairman …

Damien Chazelle’s romantic musical comedy-drama ‘La La Land’ has been priced as the early market favourite (10/11) to win ‘Best Picture’ at the 89th Academy Awards (date – 26 February 2017). November sees movie studios begin to release their ‘Oscars contender’ catalogs. With La La Land securing top honours at the Toronto Film Festival, bookmakers believe that Chazelle’s imaginative comedy-drama …

German lawmakers appear to have reached an interstate agreement on the creation of a new national gambling framework which will abide with European Union business and competition laws. Last Friday, at its annual ministerial conference in Warnemünde, a press release was published detailing that Germany’s 16 states would work towards a treaty for gambling focusing on effective online gambling/sports betting …

US tech news sources have reported that fierce daily fantasy sports (DFS) rivals FanDuel and DraftKings are heading towards an ‘imminent’ merger. Following a tough year of legal and regulatory battles for both operators, it has been reported this weekend that the leaderships of both firms are studying a potential merger to fully takeover the US DFS market. A FanDuel-DraftKings …

At the back end of the 2015/16 campaign, Arsenal predictably clicked into top gear to deny North London rivals Spurs a second-place finish in the Premier League. As part of their 10-match unbeaten run to end the season, the Gunners drew 0-0 at Sunderland. The game also marked the second of a six-match unbeaten run for Sam Allardyce’s side, as …

UltraPlay, a market leader in eSports, has announced three new key hires in its management team to further develop the strategic and technical operations in the company. Metodi Zaburtov has been confirmed as the new Head of eSports Optimisation, after spending five years with Bwin as Live Betting Manager. Zaburtov, who was among the first to introduce live betting to …

Spanish gambling operator Grupo R. Franco (R. Franco) has announced the launch of its industry start-up accelerator program ‘Wanajump.’ The operator will run two incubator categories under the Wanajump program; ‘Incube’ and ‘Accelerate.’ Launching the initiative, R. Franco governance revealed that the company plans to support up to 30 start-ups per year. Its ‘Incube’ program will focus on initial stage …