Industry News
Playtech and Stoiximan/Betano launch industry-first Live Cashback Blackjack
Playtech, the world’s leading gambling technology company, has partnered with Stoiximan/Betano, the leading Greek operator and one of the fastest growing in Europe, to launch an exclusive new scalable Live Blackjack variant, Cashback Blackjack Live.
Previously available as an RNG game, the new scalable Live Cashback Blackjack variant is an eight-deck game open to an unlimited number of players. In this game, players can choose to “cash out” during any action round instead of taking an action, placing a dynamically determined cashback amount depending on the round. Continuing the All bets Blackjack line, Six different side bet options are available to players and add to the excitement. This unique scalable Blackjack variant is the recent addition to the growing portfolio of scalable Blackjack games available from Playtech live and marks the fifth variant after Unlimited Blackjack, Quantum Blackjack, All bets Blackjack and the recent Majority Rules Speed Blackjack.
Stoiximan/Betano chose to work directly with Playtech to produce the industry-first live dealer version of Cashback Blackjack, adding a new collaborative dimension to an already successful relationship.
About the game
Players begin by placing their main bet, plus any additional side bets.
Six different side bets are on offer: 21+3, Buster Blackjack, Dealer Pair, Lucky Lucky, Player Pair and Top 3. Buster Blackjack (dealer’s hand) has the biggest win potential – a result of 8+ cards and player’s Blackjack pays out at 2000:1.
In the action rounds, players have five choices – Cashback, Hit, Stand, Double or Split. If a player chooses to Split during an action round, Cashback is offered for both hands. If a player chooses to Double, Cashback is not offered. The Cashback amount is calculated based on the cards on the table and may change for each action round. Cashback only applies to the main bet, with side bets resolved and paid out separately.
Edo Haitin, CEO, Playtech Live, comments: “The development of Cashback Blackjack Live has been a truly collaborative effort, and takes our partnership with Stoiximan/Betano to a new level. Stoiximan/Betano is already one of the leading operators in the Greek market, and we’re committed to working closely with them to not only build on this position, but also extend that success into further territories.
“Thanks to a fantastic initiative from our friends at Stoiximan/Betano group and a great effort from the development teams on both sides, we’ve been able to deliver a dynamic new experience for players in record time, which emphasizes our strategy of equipping our partners with scalable dedicated solutions while still providing players with a fun and personal game experience. The Cashback concept is of course well-established in Sports betting, so we’re very interested to see how players will respond to it in a Live Casino setting, where there’s interaction with a dealer and other players. We’re confident players will find Cashback Blackjack Live a highly engaging experience”.
Christos Mavridis, Live Casino Manager at Stoiximan/Betano adds: “Product innovation, wide game offer and an optimum customer experience have always been among our priorities at Stoiximan/Betano. We’ve already seen a fantastic response to Cashback Blackjack as an RNG game, so are very much looking forward to delivering a new experience for our players with the first Live version. Having worked closely with Playtech for some time now, we were well aware of their track record in producing innovative new content and game variants. As such we felt they were the ideal partner for the development of Cashback Blackjack Live, and we’re sure our players will be just as impressed with the finished product as we are”.
About Playtech:
Founded in 1999 and premium listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, Playtech is a technology leader in the gambling and financial trading industries.
Playtech is the gambling industry’s leading technology company, delivering business intelligence-driven gambling software, services, content and platform technology across the industry’s most popular product verticals, including casino, live casino, sports betting, virtual sports, bingo and poker. It is the pioneer of omni-channel gambling technology through its integrated platform technology, Playtech ONE. Playtech ONE delivers data-driven marketing expertise, single wallet functionality, CRM and responsible gambling solutions across one single platform across product verticals and across retail and online.
Playtech partners with and invests in the leading brands in regulated and newly regulated markets to deliver its data-driven gambling technology across the retail and online value chain. Playtech provides its technology on a B2B basis to the industry’s leading retail and online operators, land-based casino groups and government sponsored entities such as lotteries. As of June 2018, through the acquisition of Snaitech, Playtech directly owns and operates the leading sports betting and gaming brand in online and retail in Italy, Snai. Snaitech operates a B2B2C model as a service provider, allowing franchisees to utilise the Playtech technology stack in the retail environment while operating the leading brand, Snai, directly online as a B2C business.
Playtech’s Financials Division, named TradeTech Group, is a technology leader in the CFD and financial trading industry and operates both on a B2B and B2C basis.
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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