Europe

Reigning champion Flat jockey Silvestre de Sousa has signed a deal to become brand ambassador for leading online sportsbook Betway for the 2016 Flat season. The 35-year-old jockey rode 132 winners last season, including the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York on 50/1 rank outsider Arabian Queen. He is 5/4f with Betway to retain his champion jockey crown. The deal …

MARCA, Spain’s most popular sports media brand has announced the re-launch of betting portal ‘MARCAapuestas.es’ in partnership with Playtech. The multi-year partnership sees Playtech services manage MARCA’s sports betting and igaming provisions on all digital platforms (desktop and mobile), with the Spanish media owner migrating its existing player base from the GTECH platform to Playtech solutions. Furthermore, Playtech management informed …

Posting its full-year 2015 corporate performance, Athens listed gambling and lottery technology provider Intralot SA declared a net earnings declined to €25.7 million, down 30% on FY 2014’s €36.5 million. Despite the decrease in group earnings, Intralot governance remained pleased with 2015 performance citing that the company had gained new contracts (US, Netherlands, Brazil and Morocco) in challenging market conditions. …

Seeing its active player numbers dwindle to around the quarter of a million mark, Scott Longley examines whether ‘The Football Pools’ can be updated for modern consumers. One of the UK oldest betting brands and the subject of multiple acquisition rumours, what role does ‘The Pools’ have in today’s industry.  We are a long way away now from the days when football …

Esports organisation ESL has opened a glittering new UK studio in the city of Leicester.  It is believed that ESL spent in the region of £800,000 on the facility called Studio 1 which features one of the largest LED video walls in the country at 10m by 3m. The studio also includes a production room with space for up to 30 …

Golden Race is living up to its name by committing to being a Gold Sponsor at this year’s Betting on Football Conference at Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC, on April 21st.  Based in Malta and with two development and support centres in Spain, Golden Race is an innovative product supplier to sports betting operators with a particular expertise in …

SBOBET has signed an agreement to become the official betting partner of League of Ireland Premier Division side Dundalk Football Club.  The terms of the agreement follows on from a sponsorship deal with Wexford Youths Football Club and will see the SBOBET brand promoted both on the Dundalk FC main site and during home matches at Oriel Park. Martin Connolly, General Manager at …

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that it has extended its data collection and distribution partnership with Opta for a further four years. Perform Group subsidiary Opta will continue to be official data and analysis partner to the ICC and its syndicated events including all levels of the ICC World Cup and Twenty20 tournaments. Opta extends its data partnership …

The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has signed a formal agreement with Microsoft Malta, which will see the technology developer create a customised ‘Customer Relationship Management’ (CRM) system, designed to ease licensing procedures. Creating a secure web portal, Microsoft will simplify the licensing process for all new Malta prospective operators. All MGA applicants will be able to follow in ‘real-time’ their …

Oslo-listed Gaming Innovation Group (GIG) continues its acquisition strategy confirming today that it has acquired Swedish-based affiliate marketing network Magenti Media. GIG is set to take control of Magenti’s industry portfolio which has ‘high-coverage’ positions targeting Swedish casino traffic. GIG governance further detailed that it would incorporate Magenti’s ‘highly experienced’ search engine optimisation team as part of its acquisition. Acquiring …