Industry News
Bragg Gaming Group Announces Closing of Oryx Gaming Acquisition and Will Debut on the TSX Venture Exchange Under the Symbol ‘BRAG’
Completion of the recently announced Oryx Gaming acquisition and rebranding to Bragg signals a new strategic direction for the former Breaking Data Corp.
Breaking Data Corp. (to be renamed Bragg Gaming Group Inc.) (TSXV: BKD) (“Bragg” or “the Company“) will make its trading debut on the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV“) on December 27, 2018 under the ticker symbol “BRAG”. With the completion of the recently announced acquisition of Oryx Gaming International LLC (“Oryx“), the company formerly known as Breaking Data Corp. will now be known as Bragg Gaming Group Inc. The change represents a significant shift in strategic direction for the Company, including a new executive team and board of directors.
Bragg’s new executive team will be led by renowned gaming executive Dominic Mansour as CEO, and will include CFO Ashkay Kumar. Matevz Mazij will remain as CEO of Oryx. Mr. Mansour will also join the Board of Directors of Bragg Gaming Group.
“We’re taking the next step in the evolution of the Company,” said Dominic Mansour, CEO of Bragg Gaming Group. “We have an elite team in place and we’re already seeing success in our transformation into a next generation gaming group. The acquisition of Oryx has reinvigorated the business, with multiple new clients signing and going live since the announcement, including a momentous content partnership with GVC, one of the world’s largest sports betting and gaming groups.”
“We’re also excited about the launch of our new GIVEMEBET platform,” continued Mr. Mansour. “It just completed beta and is now live. We’ve initially launched in the UK market, and based on our very positive initial findings, we anticipate expanding GIVEMEBET in the near future.”
Bragg will leverage this audience to increase overall media revenue and to introduce over 1.1 million of GIVEMESPORT’s UK-based users, who also visit betting sites every month, to Bragg’s betting site GIVEMEBET. Bragg has also sold the unprofitable AI division, saving over C$1.2 million annually, and has closed down its branded content division, Formation, realizing C$.75 million in annual cost savings. These changes are not expected to have an adverse impact on sales.
Release of Escrow Funds
Bragg now has funds on deposit previously held in escrow, resulting from the closing of a brokered best efforts private placement offering (the “Offering“) of subscription receipts (each, a “Subscription Receipt“). On closing of the Offering, the Company issued a total of 27,058,802 Subscription Receipts at a price of C$0.51 per Subscription Receipt for gross proceeds of approximately C$13,800,000. The completion of the Offering was previously announced in a press release of the Company dated November 29, 2018.
The Amalgamation and Oryx Acquisition Details
On December 20, 2018, the Company completed the acquisition of AA Acquisition Group Inc. (“AAA“) effected via a “three-cornered amalgamation” of AAA with a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company (the “Amalgamation“). On closing of the Amalgamation, the Company acquired of all of the issued and outstanding securities of AAA in exchange for the issuance to AAA shareholders of 20,999,994 common shares of the Company on a pro-rata basis. Upon completion of the Amalgamation, the amalgamated entity continued under the corporate name “Bragg Oryx Holdings Inc.” with all of the property, rights, privileges and assets of AAA.
AAA is a special purpose vehicle incorporated on April 12, 2018 under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario), with the primary purpose of acquiring the share capital, trade and assets of Oryx and its two wholly-owned subsidiaries – Oryx Gaming Ltd., a company incorporated in Malta on March 11, 2013, and Oryx razvojne stortive d.o.o, a company incorporated in Slovenia on April 4, 2014.
On December 20, 2018, AAA acquired all of the issued and outstanding membership interests of Oryx (the “Oryx Acquisition“) for consideration in the aggregate of €7.5 million in addition to earn-out payments, as follows:
(i) After the first year following the Oryx Acquisition, a payment equal to 8 times 33% of the EBITDA of Oryx for that first year, subject to Oryx having achieved EBITDA of at least EUR2 million; and
(ii) After the second year following the Oryx Acquisition, a payment equal to 8 times 33% of the EBITDA of Oryx for that second year, subject to Oryx having achieved EBITDA of at least EUR3 million. The earn-out payments will be partly satisfied by cash and partly by the issuance of common shares of the Company based on the 60 day volume weighted average price of the shares on the TSXV, provided that the maximum number of common shares of the Company to be issued for the first earn-out payment will be two (2) million common shares of the Company and for the second earn-out payment will be two and a half (2.5) million common shares of the Company.
As a result of the Oryx Acquisition and the Amalgamation, the Company will carry on the business previously carried on by Oryx.
Shares for Debt
The Company has settled certain debts with directors and officers of the Company by the issuance of 1,128,386 common shares of the Company at an issuance price of $0.51 per share. The debts include unpaid directors and management fees, as well as severance expense for a departing officer. This issuance of shares was approved by disinterested shareholder approval at the Company’s shareholder meeting held on November 9, 2018.
About Bragg Gaming :
Bragg Gaming Group is a next generation gaming group, formed by a group of gaming industry veterans. Built on the foundation of the recently acquired Oryx, a turn-key gaming solution provider in a significant growth stage, Bragg will focus on the newly emerging area of legalized U.S. sports betting and the burgeoning e-sports industry, paving the way to become a global leader in the new gaming frontier.
Industry News
Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal
With Bitblox introducing an entirely new breed of crypto-based price prediction games to the iGaming industry, we talked to CEO, Brandt Page, to discover how combining elements of both chance and skill with lightning-fast betting rounds has helped improve their cross-market appeal.
When Bitblox was first established, our core concept was relatively simple; we didn’t just want to provide players with a new twist on an existing format like slots or casino games, but instead sought to create an entirely new vertical that combined elements of chance and elements of skill.
One of the main drivers behind this decision was the fact that we wanted our releases to appeal to as broad an audience as possible – and I think from the figures we’ve seen so far, we’ve already had some notable success on that front in terms of the players that are engaging with our games.
Funnily enough, I was recently talking to the Head of Marketing from one of the operators that we work with and they told me they were struggling to place our games optimally. Initially, they’d put them in with crash and instant win content, but they soon discovered a lot of their in-game traffic was coming from sports bettors. A move to the sports betting tab followed, but the exact same-thing happened with casino players, leading to the games eventually winding up on the front page.
As this was going on, our games were continuing to post solid numbers with the customers who bet on both sports and casino – and all of this engagement was coming without there being any additional promotion from us or the operator. So why was it that our games were performing so well across these different player segments? I believe there are a number of contributing factors.
First and foremost, having this hybrid model of games of chance and games of skill that I’ve already mentioned has placed us in a fairly unique position within the iGaming industry. On the one hand, the simple premise of our Bitcoin-based titles – coupled with their attractive designs and intuitive UI – makes them highly accessible to casino players who are just looking to have fun.
On the other, the fact that Bitblox games aren’t based on RNG and are instead pinned to the real-time movements of the Bitcoin market certainly resonates with a sports betting audience. As they have the ability to follow the charts and use this information to inform their decisions, they definitely feel they have more control over the outcome than if they were playing a traditional slot.
Another key aspect of our cross-market appeal is the fast-paced nature of all Bitblox releases. With casino players being accustomed to the quick wins and instant gratification of slots and crash games and sports bettors also showing a growing preference for in-play wagering, we’ve ensured each game round is resolved quickly and that there are multiple opportunities for betting.
When we first launched Up or Down?, which features one-minute betting rounds, we soon learned that even this timeframe is too long for some players. This resulted in us developing Up or Down? Turbo – a game which kept the same mechanics as its predecessor but reduced the betting window to 20 seconds – and this has gone on to become one of our most successful titles.
Keeping all this in mind, one of the things I’m most excited about is the upcoming release of our latest game, 3 in a Row, as I think this is a title that really ties everything I’ve talked about so far together. Designed to look like a slot machine, 3 in a Row challenges players to correctly predict how the Bitcoin price will move over three separate 20-second windows for even bigger payouts.
Intended to appeal to casual users and serious sports bettors alike, players can elect to either spin the reels for fun and select a random price sequence or use the bet builder feature to put together their own custom prediction. With the latter essentially functioning like an accumulator bet, players can select up to three possible combinations – i.e. Up/Up/Up, Up/Up/Down etc – and only one result needs to land for them to win, ensuring they stay engaged until the final seconds.
I believe that 3 in a Row can help build on the strong foundations we’ve laid down with casino and sports bettors and provide operators with another popular option that offers significant cross-market appeal. Based on what we’ve seen from previous Bitblox releases, the audience for titles that combine elements of chance and elements of skill is definitely out there – and I’m looking forward to our unique brand of crypto-based games being enjoyed by even more players in future.
Industry News
Gaming Corps to launch with lotteries in the USA via EQL games deal
In-demand content provider extends reach into largest iGaming market in the world with its full suite of games made available via iLottery aggregation platform
Gaming Corps, a publicly-listed game studio based in Sweden renowned for creating industry-leading games, has made its debut in the US market through a breakthrough agreement with leading lottery provider, EQL Games.
The distribution agreement will see Gaming Corps’ full suite of games made available to EQL Games’ powerful iLottery Aggregation Platform, developed to provide lottery operators across America with direct access to a portfolio of proprietary and third-party games.
Following the integration, EQL Games’ lottery operator partners will be offered proven Slots, Table Games, Multiplier Games, Mine Games and Plinko Games, as well as titles under Gaming Corps’ innovative and trademarked Smash4Cash™ series.
The deal and integration come at a time of growing demand among online lottery operators in the US for non-traditional content, a format that Gaming Corps has excelled in, especially with its Smash4Cash™ games, which have been a hit with players in global markets.
EQL’s aggregation platform has been developed to allow online lottery operators to quickly and easily access content from multiple game studios simultaneously through one integration and one commercial agreement.
Its iLottery Aggregation platform simplifies the process of adding new games to an online lottery brand across regulated states. In addition to the third-party content provided via its aggregator platform, EQL Games has a portfolio of in-house titles.
This includes games produced under licence with Team USA which were rolled out by several state lotteries for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this year, with new titles being planned ahead of the Winter Games in Milan (2026) and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles (2028).
Juha Kauppinen, CEO of Gaming Corps, said: “The USA has always been somewhat of the holy grail for game developers like us, which has been further emphasised as markets in several states have become regulated. The potential in the American market is enormous, and the impact for us is a bit difficult to assess, but we have great hopes for the collaboration with EQL Games, which has an impressive platform towards U.S. lotteries.
“We believe it will have a significantly positive impact on our revenues. I would like to personally take the opportunity to thank EQL Games and Brad Cummings for the collaboration, and we are now working hard to complete the integration so that all our games will be offered to EQL’s customers via their platform.”
Brad Cummings, CEO of EQL Games, added: “Including Gaming Corps as a supplier to the EQL Games iLottery Aggregator is an exciting step forward in our mission to offer unique, high-quality content to state lotteries. Gaming Corps’ expertise in iGaming, along with their unique game portfolio, fits perfectly with our vision of enhancing the lottery experience through dynamic and engaging content.”
Industry News
Public Voting Starts for Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0
The highly anticipated Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0 has officially entered the public voting phase as submissions are closed.
More than 70 game providers have turned in over 160 submissions, including Tom Horn Gaming, Pragmatic Play and RubyPlay. Public voting involves enthusiasts casting their votes to pick the winner of the Game of Public Choice category.
The Public voting phase ends on December 1st 23:59 GMT+4.
Concurrent to public voting, the first phase of private voting also starts during which all participants who have submitted entries get the chance to vote for one favourite in each category. An international auditing company oversees this phase to eliminate duplicate votes and self-votes. This phase ends on November 19, 23:59 GMT+4.
The second phase of private voting will also take place with a jury of industry experts making their decisions based on the shortlist picked by participants during the first phase.
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