The FCC emphatically declared that the bias of Mr Keller could not guarantee a fair process

FIFA and FIFA President Gianni Infantino welcome the decision of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (FCC) to remove Stefan Keller from his position as extraordinary Federal Prosecutor.

The FCC emphatically declared that the bias of Mr Keller, as demonstrated by his various media releases, repeated procedural errors, and consistent denial of rights, could not guarantee a fair process.

In particular, the FCC stated that by attempting to look into matters that had nothing to do with his mandate and then publicly raising his own personal suspicions about them without any objective justification, Mr Keller had clearly violated the presumption of innocence and damaged the standing of the FIFA President, contrary to his personal rights protected under the law.

The FCC underlined that for a public prosecutor to communicate distorting, injurious, misleading and factually incorrect information, as well as mere polemics and propaganda, is plainly inadmissible.

The FCC further noted that every party has the right to have his or her case decided by an impartial, unbiased and unprejudiced judge, acting in accordance with the principles of fairness and good faith. Given his pattern of conduct, in particular with regard to his various media communications, Mr Keller did not satisfy even these most basic of legal standards.

Taken as a whole, the impression was created that Mr Keller was preoccupied with casting himself in a positive light and engaged in one-sided reporting to the detriment of the FIFA President. The FCC found that, contrary to Mr Keller’s claims, this had nothing to do with objective communication that might have been justified in the public interest.

It was against this background that Mr Keller was removed from his position and ordered to pay the sum of CHF 5,000 to the FIFA President, to cover the costs of the proceedings.

As previously and consistently communicated, both FIFA and the FIFA President are fully available to cooperate with the authorities, whether that concerns meetings that the FIFA President had with the former Attorney General of Switzerland, or anything else.

Lucksome, the new games studio powered by Blueprint Gaming, has launched its first ever slot with the release of Divine Links. In this exclusive interview with European Gaming, Lucksome director Bryan Upton discusses the studio’s ambitions to deliver games that hand further control over to the player, as well as it plans over the coming months

Tell us more about Lucksome, how do you intend to differentiate yourselves?

Bryan Upton (BU): We intend to provide players with better game information, communicating clearly on how our games will feel to play and what they can expect from each Lucksome title. This gives the end user a more informed choice about our games. With Divine Links, the first release from Lucksome, players will find that there are options on how they want to play, which enables them to drive the action across the gameplay.

In addition, we’re localising games in key markets to provide more attuned gaming experiences, with translated game names for more familiarity for those players. Clean graphics, along with strong and bold presentation, are key characteristics of our slots for players to enjoy without feeling overwhelmed.

The first release includes new features Lux Reels™ and Lucksome Locks™. What was the inspiration behind these new concepts and how do they work? Will they feature in future releases?

BU: Lux Reels™ is a tweak on a popular mechanic, where we’ve added those nice and unique Money Scatter Wilds and that exciting feeling of landing either x2 Cash Upgrades, Extra Money Scatters or Free Spins Scatters. We wanted that never ending feeling from linking features, having them launching from each other for ultimate excitement. We’ll keep iterating on mechanics like these and taking them forward, ensuring players are receiving something new and interesting with each game.

Lucksome Locks™, if liked by players, will feature in most of our upcoming games. We wanted to introduce a cheaper cost alternative to a feature buy where there is still some excitement about triggering a hero feature or the bonus. Lucksome Locks™ absolutely achieves that, as there’s still some suspense as to whether the bonus will be activated or not.

Are there any particular markets you are targeting with Divine Links and future Lucksome games?

BU: The ambition of Lucksome is target global markets with our content, but some of our games will be aimed at specific markets or market clusters. We see differing tastes from Eastern to Western and Northern to Southern European countries, as well as further flung countries. You can be sure to expect games coming from us looking at clusters of countries with commonalities.

For a new games studio, how important is the support of Blueprint Gaming in elevating the reach of your content?

BU: It’s huge for us. Blueprint Gaming and the team have done an absolutely cracking job with their distribution, the technology and capabilities of the games development system. Small studios need strong distribution and support in order to achieve success. Blueprint has all of this with its ever growing network of operators.

They’ve been great people and partners to work with, as well as being incredibly supportive and understanding about the need for studios to have their own brand, identity and approach to game design. They’ve given us a playground to innovate within, so expect some great things to come!

What kinds of new games and features can we expect from Lucksome for the rest of the year?

BU: We only kicked off in September 2020 as a studio, so we’re just getting our first games under our belt and are really picking up steam and have come a very long way already.

Expect the quality within our games to increase, as well as the functionality and features to more innovative. We’re working on something very special at the moment. I can’t really say too much but with the support and collaboration of the Blueprint team, we’ll be announcing something truly unique, innovative and big this year.