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MPN’s Universal Championship of Poker returns this autumn

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MPN’s Universal Championship of Poker returns this autumn
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The Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) flagship tournament series, the Universal Championship of Poker (UCOP), returns for its fifth instalment this autumn, with €1 million guaranteed across 94 events.

Running from 15 to 29 September 2019, this year’s UCOP will feature a variety of formats, with buy-ins ranging from €2.20 to €320, hundreds of satellites, and a leaderboard with prizes worth more than €20,000.

Starting on 1 September 2019, seats can be secured to the UCOP series from as little as €0.01 in daily satellites running on all participating MPN poker rooms. The satellite schedule will include a €22 buy-in Mega Feeder on 29 September at 14:30*, guaranteeing 100 seats to the UCOP Main Event. A daily Freeroll Rebuy Feeder to the Main Event is scheduled to take place each day at 18:15, as well as direct feeder satellites to other UCOP events.

The €100,000 guaranteed Main Event on 29 September at 17:00, the €45,000 guaranteed High Roller on 29 September at 18:00, and the €30,000 guaranteed 6 Max Freezeout on 22 September at 18:00 are among the many highlights of this year’s UCOP tournament schedule. What’s more, from 1 to 29 September, players who complete certain achievements (outlined on the MPN UCOP webpage), will receive a €110 buy-in UCOP Main Event ticket.

Looking to defend his crown in this year’s series is UCOP 2018 Main Event champion, Mantas Urbonas, who comments: “UCOP is a two-week festival, and a €1 million guarantee in total prizes is a huge incentive not to miss any event. I really want to take down at least one of them! Of course, repeating last year’s success and winning the Main Event again would be fantastic, but I know the odds are very small! I am very happy that players can choose from small buy-ins to high rollers. I will try to play most of the events, even PLO. I have heard positive feedback from players so this will be my first time taking part in the whole festival.”

In addition to this year’s action-packed tournament schedule, the UCOP leaderboard will be running throughout the series. Whoever leads the pack at the end of the series will be crowned the ‘Greatest Poker Player in the Universe’, taking home the coveted trophy, a €1,550 Online Tournament Ticket package, €1,500 MPN Poker Tour (MPNPT) package, €1,000 in cash, and a Player’s Choice prize. The top eight players will also be eligible to select a Player’s Choice prize (a €1,550 Online Tournament Tickets Package, €1,500 MPNPT Package, or €1,000 in cash).

As if that weren’t enough, any player who wins a UCOP event will qualify to play in the Tournament of Champions on 6 October at 19:00, which will pay out the top eight players, including a Player’s Choice prize for first place.

For anyone looking to tune in and watch the UCOP action live, 29-year-old Betsafe player, Bobby James, will be streaming most UCOP events on his Twitch channel (‘The__BJP’). Bobby is a full-time poker professional who is well known in the UK poker community, and was one of the lucky winners from the recent MPNPT Birthday Boy or Girl competition, which gave away five special MPNPT London packages to celebrate the MPNPT’s fifth anniversary.

For further information on this year’s UCOP series, including the full tournament and satellite schedule, please visit the MPN website. For regular UCOP results and updates throughout the series, check out the MPN blog.

* All times in BST (UTC+1).

“With €1 million guaranteed across 94 events, we will be offering the biggest event series in the MPN’s history this September. We have introduced affordable lower-stakes tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from €2.20 to €320, so that players of all levels can enjoy the series over the two-week period and have the chance to claim UCOP victory. The team is looking forward to seeing all the action unfold over the coming weeks.” -said Alex Scott, Managing Director of Poker at Microgaming.

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Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal

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Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal
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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.

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Gaming Corps to launch with lotteries in the USA via EQL games deal

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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 KauppinenCEO 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 CummingsCEO 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.”

 

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Public Voting Starts for Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0

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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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