Borgen brings twenty years of mobile product management and regulatory expertise

Ulrik Borgen, has joined Shape Games as Director of Account Management, bringing nearly 10 years of online gaming and regulatory experience to the executive team as Shape Games continues its expansion plans across the United States online gaming market and beyond, the company announced today.

Borgen is the former PMO Director of Danske Spil and led the transition of the state-run online gaming company as the Danish market opened to private competition in 2012. Danske Spil has maintained its market leadership in the face of competition from the major global online gaming companies. Borgen leveraged his decade at Nokia where he led mobile product development.

“Ulrik is a mobile product innovator who knows how to beat the competition by delivering what consumers want, even before they know they want it”, said Risom. “His expertise in being a public sector operator and developing industry-leading products within complex regulatory environments complements our deep bench of commercial gaming expertise.”

Borgen said: “Shape Games has a strong track record in the successful combination of innovative, seamless and customer focused user experience with the attention to compliance to give users peace of mind and security. I’m happy to be part of the exciting next phase of the company’s growth and bring my knowledge of helping companies navigate regulatory requirements to maximise their growth and user experiences.”

Shape is a leading consumer app developer for major global brands and recently created Shape Games to address the specific needs of the online gambling industry. Co-founders CEO Christian Risom, CIO Ole Gammelgaard, CDO Nicolas Linde and CTO Philip Bruce have created consumer apps for leading global brands including Apple, ebay, IKEA and Red Bull. Shape also has a long history with Danske Spil, Denmark’s state-run gambling operator of Oddset, the leading Danish online sportsbook and with whom the company has won several industry awards for innovation.

Microgravity Ventures Private Limited, a facilitator of world-class gaming hubs and eSports tournaments in India, announced the winners of Microgravity Gaming League – MGL Call of Duty: Mobile, Team Deathmatch tournament. The two-day eSports tournament was held on 25 & 26 September in partnership with Battlefy. Top Call of Duty Squads from across the country competed against each other in a single eliminator format-based tournament in 5v5 multiplayer mode. All the participants were above 18 years of age and included professionals, enthusiasts and casual gamers.

The mightiest Call of Duty squads had to go through three phases – Qualifier Phase, Battle Phase and Zero Hour Phase. All the qualified squads competed against each other across multiple rounds in the Battle Phase. This phase was held in a single eliminator format-based tournament in 5v5 multiplayer mode. The top 8 squads were shortlisted for the quarter finals, semifinals and finals under the Zero Hour Phase and competed in a best of 3 format. The top 2 squads – True Rippers Esports & Team SUPREMACY battled against each other in the grand finale with True Rippers Esports coming out on top to conquer the Microgravity Gaming League (Freedom Month Special) – Call of Duty: Mobile tournament. The eSport tournament also witnessed some exceptional women gamers who were named #GamerGoddesses for their mind-blowing gaming skills.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rahul Bhattacharya, Co-Founder and MD, Microgravity said “It was great to see squads from across the country participating and showing their best gamer skills in MGL Call of Duty: Mobile Tournament. The momentum and the quality of content backed with human interaction has taken this tournament to next level. We saw some intense competitions and some fantastic gameplays in all three Phases. We would like to congratulate True Ripper Esports, who conquered this league and all the other participants, including our GamerGoddesses who pushed their boundaries with great enthusiasm. India has some extraordinary talent and we are looking to continue hosting more such tournaments. We aim to enable gamers to become leaders in the gaming space while taking online gaming to a new high.”

Microgravity gave an overall prize pool of over Rs. 1,00,000 to the winners. The tournament winners, True Rippers Esports won Rs. 35,000 for their top-notch performance and for rising as the conquers of the tournament. The 1st runner up Team SUPREMACY and 2nd runner-up Bounty Hunterz won Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 15,000 respectively. ChieZze from True Rippers with 68 kills was the Top Fragger and took home a prize of Rs. 5,000. Oggy from Team SUPREMACY with 21 assists won Rs. 5,000 for the Most Assisted Kills. The #GamerGoddesses crown was given to DhruviOO7 and SnippetSnipe, who were the top-ranked women gamers and split the winning prize of Rs. 20,000. Additionally, 5 lucky viewers won a prize voucher of Rs.1,000 each for answering questions during the live feed and for showing their unconditional support.

On winning the Call of Duty: Mobile Tournament, Real Nimrod of True Rippers Esports added “I am really proud of my team who outperformed today and it was an amazing experience competing against several competitive squads across the country. This tournament is a great encouragement for the Indian gaming community and we feel honoured to be a part of it. We are very grateful to Microgravity for providing this opportunity to budding gamers and motivating them to do better.”

Microgravity has successfully organized three online gaming tournaments previously across PC, Mobile and Play Station which gained significant traction amongst online gamers. In May 2021, the MGL FIFA 2021 tournament was held which drew significant engagement from FIFA wizards with 3,000 registrations and 4 million impressions from across the country. MGL Free Fire was held during August and September 2020 with over 2.2 million impressions and over 20 thousand participants. Similarly, MGL Call of Duty: Mobile was organized in December 2020 and reported over 8 lakh impressions.

GAMSTOP, the free national scheme for self-exclusion from online gambling, has reported a 25% increase in registrations in the first six months of 2021, comparative to the same period in 2020.

The surge in registrations is a key finding of the first GAMSTOP bi-annual review, which has been launched to give greater insight into trends on the GAMSTOP platform, and broader insight into gambling behaviours across the UK.

The review found that:

• In total, more than 40,000 people registered with GAMSTOP in the first half of 2021, with March of 2021 the second biggest month for registrations on record.
• By the end of June 2021, the total number of GAMSTOP registrants was more than 218,000
• The gender split of those registered with GAMSTOP is 70% male and 30% female.
• Of those registered with GAMSTOP, 58% select the maximum exclusion period of five years.
• Younger people were most likely to register with GAMSTOP: 41% of registrants were in the 25-34 age bracket, a figure rising to 59% when taking into account the wider 18-34 age bracket.

Recent statistics from the Gambling Commission show that growth in online gambling remains the largest combined sector by GGY (Gross Gambling Yield). Online gambling makes up over 50% (52.3%) of the entire gambling market.

The first ever independent evaluation of GAMSTOP, conducted by research agency Sonnet, found that GAMSTOP is used by a broad cross section of ages, ethnicities and socio-economic groups, which suggests that people from all demographics are experiencing problems with their gambling. The survey of 3,300 registered users found that the ethnic makeup of GAMSTOP users corresponds with the broader UK population (89% white, 3% Asian, 2% Black, 1% Mixed).

The socio-economic situation of respondents also varied, with 29% living in households with a pre-tax income of more than £48,000 per annum and 48% in households earning more than £32,000 per annum. More than 75% were in full or part-time employment and 63% had no children in their household.

Fiona Palmer, GAMSTOP CEO, said:

“While it is encouraging to see that consumers are continuing to find GAMSTOP and use it as a crucial safety net in their recovery, this review reinforces the importance of continuing to raise awareness of practical tools that are available to those struggling with gambling-related harm.

Our evaluation results demonstrate that gambling-related harm is an issue that affects people from all walks of life, irrespective of income, location, or gender. It is imperative that we continue to reach people from across the UK, and to give them access to tools that can aid them in their recovery, or form an important preventative measure.”

Stacey Goodwin, a recovering problem gambler and GAMSTOP registrant, said:

“It’s encouraging to see that the number of registrations for a vital service like GAMSTOP is increasing, but it also shows the significant amount of gambling in our society. More needs to be done to support and get the word out about crucial safety nets and services, like GAMSTOP, to ensure that vulnerable people know about them, and most importantly that they use them.”