Thanks to the new deal, the brand will dig deeper into the North American regulated gaming market and continue the “outstanding strides” made in 2022 in the region. 

NeoGames Adds “Another Strong Casino Brand” to Its Roster of Partners

The announcement made by the technology-driven supplier of iLottery and online gaming solutions was discussed by president Tsachi Maimon. Maimon expressed NeoGames’ delight to be adding “another strong casino brand” to their list of prestigious partners. He acknowledged that 2022 brought success to the company and pointed out that throughout the year, it launched its leading content with new brands. The new partnership is expected to help the leading provider of iLottery solutions and services continue its strategic growth and expansion.

Resorts Digital Gaming’s chief executive officer, Ed Andrewes, explained that Pariplay’s Fusion platform mixes highly “innovative and exciting games” from a large number of top suppliers, including Wizard Games. Andrewes express their excitement to be allowed these offerings to their players.

The Fusion platform offers a unified and unique approach to delivering quality content via an offering comprised of more than 14,000 games created by over 80 studios. The same aggregation solution focuses on fueling gaming operators with better Return on Investment rates and higher levels of efficiency. 

What Can Be Expected from the New Deal?

Resorts Casino and Hotel’s online division customers will get access to highly praised games such as Wolf Riches and Spirit of Mustang, along with aggregated content belonging to some of the most reputable and successful gaming providers on the planet. 

The content is part of an impressive collection of proprietary as well as third-party gaming titles that New Jersey players are prone to appreciate. After announcing that it had secured certification from the World Lottery Association at the start of the year, NeoGames inked an agreement with Pollard Banknote, giving both companies the necessary flexibility to reap the benefits of a number of lottery opportunities either as partners or individually. 

The fresh joint venture agreement is set to strengthen the ongoing success of NeoPollard Interactive and its customers while offering both Pollard Banknote and NeoGames the chance to take their expansion on the regulated North American market a few steps forward. 

Cbet, a casino operator targeting the LATAM region, has further expanded its content offering thanks to an agreement with Lady Luck Games, a fast-growing casino games developer.

Cbet Secures Content from Yet another Provider

Under the agreement, Lady Luck Games will provide the operator with its acclaimed content, allowing it to engage customers with state-of-the-art games. Cbet will be able to offer a huge selection of new titles to its players, including hits such as Astro Anna, Beetle Bailey, Mr Alchemister, SpinJoy Society Megaways, The Treasures of Tizoc and Valholl: Wild Hammers, to name a few.

Thanks to this, Lady Luck Games will be able to engage more gambling enthusiasts in Latin America, thus expanding its ever-growing global presence. The renowned developer has been very busy in recent times, securing many key deals across multiple markets.

For example, in December 2022, Lady Luck Games made a foray into Italy after securing an agreement with Microgame, a leading aggregation platform. Earlier the studio joined Relax Gaming’s Powered by Relax program, further expanding its reach. In November, the company successfully received a UK license for its ReelNRG brand.

Likewise, Cbet has been keen on enhancing its content and cementing itself as a local powerhouse. Last month, the operator penned an important agreement with the French pro soccer club Paris Saint-Germain, under which Cbet became the team’s regional partner for LATAM. Earlier today, on the other hand, Betsoft, another provider of casino content, also agreed to power the LATAM operator with gaming content.

Overall, the agreement between Lady Luck Games and Cbet opens a new chapter in both companies’ respective growth journeys.

The Companies Are Happy to Join Their Forces

Rebecca Sotomora, Cbet’s chief commercial officer, spoke about the new agreement. She said that her team is delighted to add the content of yet another innovative provider to Cbet’s platform. Sotomora praised the studio for its exciting and diverse portfolio and noted that she is certain that Lady Luck Games’ titles will meet the operators’ players’ expectations.

Mads Jørgensen, the co-founder and chief executive officer of LL Lucky Games AB, Lady Luck’s parent company, also shared his thoughts. He expressed his excitement about working with a casino brand as established and trusted as Cbet. According to Jørgensen, the current agreement is yet another major step towards his company’s goal of standing out from its competitors.

Jørgensen concluded that he is glad to reinforce Lady Luck’s presence in the LATAM region. He is looking forward to offering seamless, differentiated and intuitive games to local customers.

Superbet will generate a complete digital payment experience for its customers, with special emphasis on the OKTO.WALLET alternative for betting terminals with self-service which has also been embraced by the operator. The OKTO mobile app and the cashless payment platform will now become available in Superbet’s retail network, following their attempt to create a unified payment experience using multiple points of contact. The new partnership is important for the group’s digitalization strategy meant to bring more comfort, security, and safety via advanced cashless payment solutions. 

1,000 Superbet Points of Sale and Counting

The new changes have been operated at all of the 1,000 Superbet points of sale in Romania. Future plans for expansion have electronic gaming machines at the center, in the context of the operator’s ongoing efforts to complete its fully-digitized strategy for simplified payments.

Superbet Group’s director for Romania retail and multichannel Ciprian Lazăr spoke about the group’s “global growth ambitions” while highlighting the need to keep up with their customers’ ongoing demands for the freshest technological advent. He called OKTO a “market-leading digital payment provider” that is expected to provide Superbet with “complementary solutions” to its strategy aimed at responsible gaming and legal compliance in all covered markets. 

OKTO.CASH e-Vouchers for Online Sports Betting

Superbet will supply online bettors with OKTO.CASH e-vouchers. This will be possible by integrating the platform with alternative payment methods from Nuvei. The Canadian company offers future-proof technology that enables businesses to embrace state-of-the-art payment solutions. 

Superbet customers will this way be able to top off their online accounts in a fast, safe, and efficient manner via the OKTO network which incorporates over 25,000 points of sale across Romania.

Superbet Group’s head of antifraud, payments & risk payments Luca Giancola explained that Innovation was in the group’s DNA, which is why it is mandatory to use “solutions that are coming from people who understand the intricacies of the gaming industry” and who rely on “advanced technology” for delivering superior payment solutions.

Giancola added that the group’s strategy was perfectly aligned with OKTO’s strategy. He also spoke about the “shared commitment” to keep investing “in the delivery of the best possible experience” on all channels and at all levels. 

OKTO’s chief commercial officer Simon Dorsen called the new partnership one that is “fully aligned with our mission not only to digitalize the physical payment experience” but also to offer customers the chance to seamlessly and safely complete transactions across multiple channels and touchpoints using a “unified payment experience”. 

In September, Evoplay announced it would further expand in Romania by signing a partnership with Superbet. During the same month, Hacksaw Gaming sealed a content partnership agreement with Superbet, allowing the provider of top-level slots and scratchcards to introduce its portfolio to players in Romania. 

The figure reached a new high compared to the H1 2021 decline registered by the same casinos. The same is true when compared to the previous high reached by this indicator in the first half of 2020.

What Triggered the Rise in MGA-Licensed Casino Players?

The increase in the number of players who preferred MGA casinos during the first half of last year can be mainly attributed to the record number of new online casino accounts that were created during that time. Namely, 8.9 million players decided to sign up for an account. Most of the new players were younger players, with a quarter having ages between 18 and 24. 

Plus, the gaming industry in the country also generated €573 million ($615 million) in gross value added for H1 2022. The figure represented 8% of the economy in Malta. At the same time, the gross value added total went up 12.4% compared to the H1 2021 numbers. 

The sector’s capacity to stay flexible and rapidly adapt to changes was best seen in the 10,861 new employees that joined the gambling industry as of June 2022, signaling close to 600 additional employees compared to 2021. 

As of the end of H1 2022, there were 357 online and brick-and-mortar casinos licensed by the MGA. The same companies held 363 gaming licenses in total, and 374 approvals to provide different types of games under their Business-to-Consumer licenses. 

MGA-Casino Revenue by Type of Licence 

Type 1 licenses which are licenses that cover online casino games and other similar verticals have created a new all-time high at 71.5% when expressed as a share of the overall revenue. Of the total, close to 80% was generated by slot games.

Type 2 licenses that cover sportsbooks generated a revenue drop, reaching 21.3%, while type 3 licenses that handle poker and similar peer-to-peer betting options remained well-balanced, representing 7.1% of the revenue.

In H1 2022, the MGA also gathered €39.8 million ($42.7 million) in the form of compliance contribution fees, consumption taxes, and levies. The number of land players that visited brick-and-mortar gaming venues in H1 2022 went up by 41.9% compared to H1 2021. 

In spite of the global developments in recent years, Malta has managed to preserve a steady and robust outlook on its gambling industry, while emerging in a stronger position. 

In December 2022, END 2 END reached an important milestone by obtaining a license from the MGA. During the same month, Octoplay was also given a license from the same authority. 

The Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), Germany’s new federal gambling regulator, promised to remain vigilant when licensing online gambling content and shared its plans to keep cracking down on illegal operators until the black market becomes unsustainable. The authority’s executive directors spoke about their vision in a new statement.

The GGL Now Controls Gambling in Germany

The GGL is now officially responsible for online gambling in Germany, as previously announced. The regulator is, therefore, now responsible for ensuring that the rules outlined in the GlüNeuRStv are followed. Boasting a team of 75 as of January, the new regulator plans to bolster its manpower to a target goal of 104 by the end of 2023.

Ronald Benter, co-executive director of the regulator, used the opportunity to thank the 16 federal states in Germany, which helped with the smooth transition of power from the previous authority to the GGL.

Benter also thanked the Darmstadt Regional Council for laying the groundwork for gambling regulation during the interim administrative period. The GGL co-executive director said that now that the GGL is fully functional, it is time to work.

Benter Talks Licensing

Under the new regulatory regime, the regulator has so far handed out 38 licensed sports betting licenses and 22 online gaming licenses.

There are many more applications that are not whitelisted yet. For reference, the GGL noted that it received a total of 78 applications for online gaming and poker but has so far whitelisted only 25 of them.

According to Benter, many operators do not submit individual games for inspection by the regulator, as required by German regulations. He noted that operators that fail to provide the required information will continue to be barred from the German market.

Benter also said that by the end of 2022, the GGL had approved 600 of the 3,500 individual online gambling game applications.

Schwanke Vows to Make Things Hard for Illegal Operators

Meanwhile, Benjamin Schwanke, the other executive director of the GGL, said that the regulator plans to double down on its efforts in the war on illegal gambling. As per the GlüNeuRStv, the director wants to turn Germany into a heavily supervised market where no regulation breach is tolerated.

In the market envisioned by Schwanke, operators must comply with the tech requirements of the LUGAS and follow the rules.

In addition, the GGL will employ everything at its disposal to curb unlicensed gambling. The regulator will use IP blocks when needed and will take matters to court if the need should arise. Schwanke’s end game is to make Germany an unsustainable market for illegal companies.