Europe

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 …

32Red has announced that leading jockeys Jamie Spencer, Bryan Cooper and Paddy Brennan have joined the company as racing ambassadors. Starting today, the jockeys will provide insight and analysis on both their rides and the big races, with daily blogs throughout the major flat and national hunt festivals. Each of them will wear 32Red-branded race apparel to support 32Red’s sponsorship …

While Hillary Clinton remains a clear favourite to win the 2016 US Election, trading at 1.21 on the Betfair Exchange (82% chance of winning). Betfair today revealed that the Democrats are faltering in the key ‘swing states’ of Florida, Iowa and Ohio. Detailing market insight on individual state outcomes, Betfair’s trading team revealed that the Democrats have seemingly lost their …

If you’re a marketing person, or an operator with an iOS application swimming away in Apple’s app store, the chances are that you’ve allocated time, resources and budget to improving your app’s rank in the ‘Free Sports’ category. For some operators out there, the answer to boosting app store visibility is Hollywood or sporting celebrities jumping onto would-be customers’ TV …