Asia
Crazy Sports Set to Secure a Leading Position in Trillion-yuan Sports Market in China
V1 Group Limited has announced that the Group’s business reorganisation has been completed. Its new Board members had undergone a smooth transition in early January.
Since initiating its business restructuring, the Group has been accomplishing one major milestone development after another. At the beginning of 2021, V1 Group’s Crazy Sports unit secured approval from authorities to establish in Hainan a sports tournament platform and reward points system, through which quiz games on major sports events are conducted and winners will receive reward points to be redeemed into goods and services to stimulate tourism consumption in Hainan. Crazy Sports later secured official authorization from Fédération International de Footballeurs Professionels (FIFPro) to launch a soccer E-sports mobile game “Ace Soccer” featuring renowned international star soccer players from 54 countries and leagues, and names and portraits of professional players, attracting reservations from more than 1 million users. With the IP official authorization for China Super League secured earlier, Crazy Sports leveraged edges from the sports tournament platform in Hainan and launched a “Dream Super League” game under the “Fantasy” football game community. These are populating into a collection of excellent sports games in football, basketball, tennis, bowling, motor racing, etc., contributing to nurturing of Crazy Sports’ leadership in feature sports IPs, core fan base and sports channel interconnectivity and global sports game development support system.
By end-January, Crazy Sports reached strategic cooperation with Lakala (Beijing) E-Billing Technology & Service Co., Ltd. (E-Billing). In the next three years, E-Billing will become a cooperation partner of Crazy Sports’ sports lottery sales business, accelerates landing of Crazy Sports’ new lottery retail business on brick-and-mortar retail points of sales, but also provides more convenient and intelligent lottery purchase services for the large lottery user base in China. Boosting Crazy Sport’s reach to more than tens of thousands of retail outlets, installation of sports lottery terminals will gather pace in convenience stores in different provinces and cities to offer lottery players more convenient access to the services.
In early February, Crazy Sports participated in the signing of the “two districts” under Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and thereby becomes a key enterprise introduced to the science and culture integration project segment of the “two districts” (namely “Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone National Service Industry Expansion and Opening Comprehensive Demonstration Zone” and “China (Beijing) Free Trade High-End Industrial Pilot Zone”). It is eligible for special financial support and green channel treatment for game version number registration from the Beijing Economic Development Zone’s technological innovation research, key equipment research and development, and high-end talent introduction. This accomplishment injects momentum into the further development of Crazy Sports’ businesses.
Crazy Sports has developed a sports community and lottery business ecosystem that comprises Crazy Red Insights APP and Crazy Sports APP online and that integrate streaming dataflows and data sources to constitute an online content entertainment platform spanning the three major areas of sports, games, and lottery, serving a base of more than 200 million users. For offline presence, on the foundation of traditional specialty retail outlets, Crazy Sports continues to expand its network of chain convenience stores bundling terminal installation in pursuit of asset-light operation. The goal is to reach more young lottery players and establish a closed-loop of online sports lottery and entertainment services.
The Group will continue to accelerate the establishment of its nationwide network of sports lottery retail outlets; strengthen its leading position in paid content; leverage its core platform edges to develop new online games; invest in technology and data capabilities; implement marketing strategies to increase the brand awareness of Crazy Sports; and cross-selling between online and offline sports community lottery e-commerce ecosystems to improve cash conversion. Combining with big data accumulation of the Group’s sports lottery entertainment community, Crazy Sports is set to secure a leading position in the trillion-yuan sports market in China, with robust profitability for 2021. It is set to become the most bullish stock in the Year of the Bull.
The renaming of the Group as Crazy Sports Group Limited is expected to be approved in a forthcoming shareholder meeting in May, setting a strong note for its businesses and profitability to escalate to the next level in the years of major international sports events in 2021 and 2022.
Asia
Indonesian Govt to Form Task Force to Tackle Online Gambling
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has chaired a limited meeting which discussed the efforts taken to eradicate online gambling in the country on Thursday 18 April, at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. Minister for Communication and Information Technology Budi Arie Setiadi, in his press statement after the limited meeting, said that the Government will form a task force to counter online gambling.
“It has been decided that within a week, we will formulate measures to form an integrated task force in order to eradicate online gambling,” Budi said.
Minister for Communication and Information Technology mentioned that forming a cross-ministries/institutions task force is aimed to handle online gambling more thoroughly, collaboratively and efficiently.
“Gambling is an illegal act based on regulations. So, we need to impose measures effectively to settle it,” Budi stated, adding that his ministry will focus on handling online gambling websites and contents, while the law enforcement officers will enforce the law.
“Our authority is only to take down the websites, while the Financial Services Authority (OJK) blocks their financial accounts, and then followed by law enforcement officers, police officers, and the public prosecution service officers,” he remarked.
Similarly, OJK’s Chairperson of Commissioner Board Mahendra Siregar also highlighted the importance of holistic measures in eradicating online gambling in Indonesia.
“Some online gambling activities are not conducted in Indonesia, some are cross-borders, some do not use bank accounts, some needs to be tracked and traced through bank accounts, including transfers and so on. So, the next layers must also be addressed, and that way it leaves no empty rooms,” Mahendra explained.
Mahendra said that according to the institution’s authority, from the end of 2023 to March 2024, OJK has blocked around 5000 bank accounts that indicate its relation to online gambling.
“So far, we have cooperated closely with Communications and Information Technology Ministry. So, if we receive a list of bank accounts suspected to be used or are being used in online gambling activities, we immediately block them, and it has reached up to 5000 bank accounts,” Mahendra mentioned.
Asia
Team ATK Oshun excels at 2024 Online Championships held on 13 April 2024
Mind Sports South Africa’s (MSSA) 2024 Online Championships held on 13 April 2024 showed sterling results.
The championship was yet another chance for many esports athletes to qualify for MSSA’s National Team Trials to be held on 25 May 2024 at which the team will be selected to officially represent South Africa at the African Qualifiers which lead up to IESF’s 16th World Esports Championships to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in October and November 2024..
All Registered Players who have finished in the top three places, or the top 20% – whichever is greater, are entitled to enter trials.
However, it must be remembered that all players must have a valid passport to participate in the National Team Trials.
It was indeed exciting to watch just how much all the female teams have improved.
Team ATK Oshun (ATK Club Sport) being a female team astounded all with their skill and sportsmanship. The team demolished all ATK Club Sport opposition to ultimately won the premier event overall and qualify for the National Team trials to be held on 25 May 2025.
IESF’s 15th World Championships will be played to the following titles:
- Counter-Strike 2
- Counter-Strike 2 – Female division
- DotA 2
- eFootball
- Mobile Legends, Bang Bang
- Mobile Legends, Bang Bang – Female division
- PUBGM
The high standard of play saw 37 Registered Players from six provinces being awarded Provincial Colours. Only Limpopo, Free State, and Northern Cape did not have Registered Players who did not earn provincial colours.
Title | Name of player/team | Club | Provincial Colours awarded |
Clash Royale – Premier | Johan Coetzee | Middies | Mpumalanga |
Clash Royale – High School | Aryan Maharaj | PR0NHS | |
Counter Strike: 2 | ATK Oshun | ||
Kaylee Ludick | ATK Club Sport | Gauteng | |
Jessica Eleez Greeff | ATK Club Sport | Gauteng | |
Christin Brazier | ATK Club Sport | Gauteng | |
Megan van der Westhuizen | ATK Club Sport | Gauteng | |
Kayhla Rose Calder | ATK Club Sport | Gauteng | |
DotA – Premier | ZAG DOTA 1 | ||
Suhail Khan | ZAG Academy | Gauteng | |
Travis John Waters | ZAG Academy | Western Cape | |
Mark Kilian Lehle | ZAG Academy | Gauteng | |
Mohammad Dhooma | ZAG Academy | Eastern Cape | |
Nicholas Dammert | ZAG Academy | Gauteng | |
eFootball – Premier | Aslam Parker | PES Society | Gauteng |
FIFA 24 – High School | Daiyaan Hendricks | PES Society | Western Cape |
Mobile Legends – Premier
|
Mavericks | ||
Matthew Tatalias | Mavericks | Gauteng | |
Damian Bransby | Mavericks | Western Cape | |
Preshan Pillay | Mavericks | Gauteng | |
Mohammad Azhar Ansari | Mavericks | KwaZulu Natal | |
Taygan Gabriel | Mavericks | KwaZulu Natal | |
Luke Green | Mavericks | Western Cape | |
Mobile Legends – Premier – Female
|
AHG | ||
Je’nielle Cavanagh | PES Society | Western Cape | |
Inez Pringle | PES Society | Western Cape | |
Salma Parker | PES Society | Western Cape | |
Ra’isha Prout | PES Society | Western Cape | |
Fatimah Prout | PES Society | Western Cape | |
Mia Anthony | PES Society | Western Cape | |
PUBGM
|
Team uEnvy | ||
Richard Henry | ZAG Academy | Eastern Cape | |
La-eeq Arendse | ZAG Academy | Western Cape | |
Kyle Dudley | ZAG Academy | Western Cape | |
Clayton Leak | ZAG Academy | Western Cape | |
Rocket League – Premier – 1 v 1 – Premier | Nathan Strange | Hoërskool Klerksdorp | |
Rocket League – Premier – 1 v 1 – High School | Luther Peens | Hoërskool Klerksdorp | |
Street Fightter V – Premier | Marnus van der Merwe | Hoërskool Klerksdorp | North West |
Tekken 8 | Stasch Cloeta | Team PlayBell | Western Cape |
Valorant – Premier
|
TuksValorant | ||
Tapiwanashe Keith Matema | TuksEsports | Gauteng | |
Kyle Halvorsen | TuksEsports | Gauteng | |
Jaden Connor Swarts | TuksEsports | Gauteng | |
Ronald James Tyler Wheeldon | TuksEsports | Gauteng | |
Alejandro Luca Sartini-Kruger | TuksEsports | Gauteng | |
Armand Pierre van der Colf | TuksEsports | Gauteng | |
Sportsmanship Award | Je’nielle Cavanagh | PES Society |
Asia
PAGCor Welcomes Lawyer Wilma Eisma as New President and Chief Operating Officer
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCor) today welcomed its new President and Chief Operating Officer, lawyer Wilma Eisma, who took her oath of office before Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in Malacanang this morning.
“We are happy to welcome Atty. Wilma Eisma as PAGCor’s new President and Chief Operating Officer,” PAGCor Chairman Alejandro Tengco said. “We know she will be a great asset and her vast experience in both the government and private sectors will surely be put to good use here.”
Tengco said he witnessed Eisma’s oath-taking in Malacanang this morning. She then immediately joined her first PAGCor board meeting in the afternoon as the agency’s first ever woman President and Chief Operating Officer.
A lawyer by profession, Eisma earned her law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Development Bank of the Philippines before joining the state gaming firm.
Prior to that, she also served as the first woman Administrator and Chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
Her private sector stints include leadership roles in PMFTC Incorporated, the Philippine affiliate of Philip Morris International.
She also held key positions at the Department of Trade and Industry where she worked at the Office of the Secretary and in the Office of the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, among others.
Eisma succeeded Atty Juanito Sanosa Jr who resigned as PAGCor President and Chief Operating Officer last January.
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