gazine
SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN/WINTER 2015
COVER STorY
LEO VEGAS BOSS JOHAN STYREN
FOUR CONFERENCES
Gamification, Affiliates, Payments, Regulatory
SiGMA15 - 4th-7th Nov Guest Speakers, Floor Plan & Schedule
NETWORKING EVENTS
Poker Tourney, Dinners, Drinks & Closing Night
GAMING IN MALTA UPDATE
Best Casino Operator of the Year! Totally Gaming Awards 2013
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issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Editorial & Contents | SiGMA
OFFICIAL PARTNERS
CONTENTS
Editorial Double the exhibitors. Double the delegates. Double the conferences. This pretty much sums up the feedback we had following last year’s baptism of SiGMA. We are truly humbled by the response and the good business this show has brought to many affiliates, operators and solution providers. Despite mixed reactions, we took off last year with the idea of bringing the whole industry, from affiliates to C-level executives, solution providers to operators, under one roof. We were often told to focus on one sector instead but we firmly believed that the three distinct pillars within the industry – solution providers, operators and affiliates - are coming closer together. Today’s affiliate, for instance, is fast becoming a successful operator within months, which is why we wanted a 360° iGaming showcase in Malta that reflected this trend. There’s never a dull moment in this industry, not only in Malta, but worldwide, and the SiGMA show couldn’t take place at a more pertinent time, with so many mergers and acquisitions, emerging markets, shifts in regulatory goalposts and other revolutionary innovations. In view of this, we decided to go with more focused, shorter conferences. At SiGMA15 each conference will only last half a day, giving delegates more time to hop from one stand to the other and network at the adjacent expo floor. From regulatory issues to payments, anti-fraud, security, crypto currencies, affiliates, SEO and gamification – there is a topic to suit every delegate’s interest. Finally, whereas last year we put most of our energy filling up the expo floor with booths, this year we’re spending most of our time attracting the right crowd - the crème-de-la-crème of the industry. We’re inviting to Malta some of the best 30 affiliates in Europe, responsible for real heavy traffic, no expenses saved, to an all-inclusive VIP treat. This alone should make operators and their affiliate managers go wild! We’re also bringing some of the best speakers, including the likes of Ory Weihs (XLMEdia), Michael Finderup (PMG), Itai Zak (SBTech), Justin Franssen (Kalff Katz & Franssen), Bradley Wiskirchen (Clickbank), Johan Styren (LeoVegas), Erik Bergman (Catena) and others. We’re distributing this very copy of SiGMA Magazine a month before the show kicks off to give any last minuters enough time to register. With some 300 gaming companies based in Malta and now also a yearly show like SiGMA it should be relatively easy to understand why SiGMA and Malta should earn a spot in your busy calendars.
The next generation in gaming regulation 07 The Conferences, The Speakers 08 Networking Bonanza 18 Floor Plan 20 Towards a resilient Maltese economy 22 Interview with Justin Franssen 27 Interview with Robin Reed, Guts 33 Interview with LeoVegas Boss Johan Styren 37 The increasing popularity of casino reviews 41 Interview with Michael Golembo 45 The 4th AML directive and your responsibilities 49 Interview with Jonas 55 Catchphrase Gamification 59 A surge in cloud based technology in Malta 65 The fundamentals for a successful sports book 69 The game is changing 73 Building a casino product for female gamblers 81 Interview with Allan Bjerkan, InstaCasino 85 Interview with Erik Bergman, Catena Media 91 Photo Gallery 97 Casumo Grand Slam announced for top affiliates 109 Rise of the machines 111 Employee benefits: small print and the bigger picture 115 Interview with Vahe Baloulian, BetConstruct 119 Armin Karu: a man who runs the game 127 Finding the right ‘calibre’ 128 SiGMA meets young entrepreneur Nikolai Livori 131 Prevention of DDoS attacks is better than cure 133 Who’s who in the Malta gaming industry 135
Editor: Eman Pulis Consulting Editor: Dennis Dyhr-Hansen Design: Nicholas Cutajar facebook.com/nicodesignmalta Sales: Jarek Górny Hand delivered to business in Malta, executive lounges, Maltese embassies and government institutions. The magazine is also delivered by post to 4,000 leading gaming companies worldwide. For information regarding promotion and advertising kindly call (+356) 2131 4191 or email info@maltaigamingsummit.com maltaigamingsummit.com SiGMAgazine is published by Viking PC Health Ltd., Sundial Court, 7, Victor Denaro Street, Msida. MSD1604, Malta All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without prior consent in writing. Opinions expressed in SiGMAgazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. All reasonable care is taken to ensure truth and accuracy, but the editor and publishers cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions in articles, advertising, photographs or illustrations.
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What has established our global reputation in the gaming industry? At the Malta Gaming Authority, our regulatory philosophy, organisational principles and culture are focused on player protection. Malta’s transparent legal framework and experience in regulating gaming has developed into a world class eco-system providing effective, innovative and efficient regulation. Our regulatory framework provides assurances both locally and internationally that fairness and transparency are at the core of everything that we do. To this effect, our licensees are associated with the highest levels of integrity and efficiency. Proudly recognised as a world class authority in terms of innovation, governance and diligence.
MALTA GAMING AUTHORITY Building SCM02-03, Level 4, SmartCity Malta, Ricasoli SCM 1001, Malta T +356 2546 9000 E info.mga@mga.org.mt www.mga.org.mt
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Gaming Regulation | SiGMA
The next generation in gaming regulation
By Joseph Cuschieri The global gaming sector and the remote gaming sector in particular, ARE as dynamic as they come. Product innovation, cost effectiveness and market access is the name of the game. Gaming is highly regulated in most jurisdictions. Specific regulation of remote gaming is evolving over time and Malta has been at the forefront of its development with the promulgation of the Remote Gaming Regulations in 2004. Malta is often grouped with the so called ‘off-shore jurisdictions’ owing to their isolated, limited domestic market features, providing more cost-effective homes to gaming operators faced with increased regulatory burdens emanating from the state-by-state, silo approach to regulation that is threatening the sustainability of regulated markets, if they continue to go forth unchecked. Malta’s development as a primary jurisdiction within the global gaming landscape is attributed to many key features that make it a gaming operator’s natural home. Off-shoring is not one of these features, but rather, it is and remains the jurisdiction of choice within Europe to shore up the otherwise unregulated gaming offers. It is the jurisdiction of primary establishment for many first tier operators holding licences from Malta and a multitude of other jurisdictions. The remote gaming industry today more than ever, understands that it needs to be ashore of a well regulated jurisdiction to mitigate its inherent and adjacent risks, flourish commercially without incurring avoidable regulatory and other costs hence releasing valuable energy and impetus to innovate. Malta’s attractiveness and enviable competitive position in the evolving gaming world are attributed to many features that make its full spectrum eco-system of support services and infrastructure unique. Furthermore, its regulatory structure is entering its next generation –
a regulatory framework that is conceptually designed to harbour the industry which is keen to grow within logically and well-thought out, evidence and risk based parameters. This is not to say that risks have remained static or unchanged over the years. Indeed as technology and markets converge, exposure to certain risks shifts and even becomes more complex. Gaming regulation needs to be technology and game neutral, but not risk neutral. While the objectives of regulation remain the same, that is to protect consumers and ensure integrity, their attainment and therefore the success of regulation cannot be measured by the degree of compliance of the operator base but by the performance of the measures employed. Regulatory and monitoring tools must be sharpened and, or modified or even totally replaced to ensure effectiveness in the business model and jurisdictional context in which they are applied and over time. The allegations made by the Italian authorities that lead to the arrest in Malta of six persons involved in three gaming companies in July of this year only added to our resolve that regulatory mechanisms and tools have a very short shelf life. Compliance is not sufficient. Measures and evidence of effectiveness are equally important. The next generation of gaming regulation Malta has embarked upon will be taking these factors and many others into account. The proposal for the new Gaming Act expected to be launched by the end of November, is a widely scoped framework which will empower the responsible Minister and the authority to implement tailored measures under one consolidated regime. My vision and the brief I have given is a clear one, aimed at future proofing our laws, opening up to innovation with smart and technology neutral regulation.
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SiGMA | Conference
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Gamification
Conference 1
08
NOVEMBER 5TH VENUE: InterContinental Conference Centre CONFERENCE 1: Gamification 8:00-9:05
Registration followed by welcome note from conference chair
9:05-9:15
Keynote speech Hon. Christian Cardona Multipurpose Gamification – engage new generation players, build loyalty, innovate and motivate your workforce Russell Mifsud (KPMG), Stewart Townsend (Zendesk), Johan Styren (LeoVegas), Mark Busuttil (Casumo)
9:15-10:15
Gamification engages people at an emotional level, which is often more meaningful than transactional engagement alone. This panel discussion will focus on the benefits of adopting new engagement models that best tap into the millennial generation by motivating them to achieve goals that they may not even be aware of. This session will also explore how Gamification can be used within the work environment itself to maximise employee loyalty.
Emerging trends of in-play sports betting Itai Zak (SBTech), Angelo Dalli (Bit8), Lennart Gillberg (Spiffx)
10:15-11:00
This panel discussion will provide an overview of what in-play is and how it correlates to the future of sports betting and the effects it has on a company (benefits). In-Play betting is one of the major direct contributors to the increase in growth of the global sports betting markets, as it has opened the market to new punters that were never attracted to the ‘non-immediate’ pre-match betting. Major Points to be covered: Future growth of in-play sports betting; Micro markets; Cashout; Mobile/ Tablet Devices; Second Screen Betting; Live Streaming; Increase in Revenue/Profit/Turnover; Larger Market to Target: Worldwide.
11:00-11:30
Networking Coffee Break hosted by MGA
11:30-12:15
Analysis of digital games of skill: finding the “Next Poker”: from daily fantasy sport to lotteries, financial betting, DFS/eGaming and e-sport Marc Lesnick (Utail), Frank Ravanelli (DFS/eGaming), Tal Itzhak Ron (Tal Ron, Drihem & Co.) Which are the eGaming trends you can leverage as an operator or affiliate in 2016? Can you create new opportunities for yourself? Can you add new revenue streams to your business?
Inbuilt v.s. outsourced gamification software: who supplies it? Will demand justify this new niche market? Adam Daniel (Playson), Angelo Dalli (Bit8)
12:15-13:00
13:00-14:00
The larger industry operators simply build it or buy it; the operators working under a major white label for all their content wait for their platform to supply it. What about the rest? If gamification indeed becomes a game changer in the online gambling industry, then as demand develops, the supply market will step in. Is there an opportunity for someone to introduce a 3rd party gamification engine to the market that, once integrated into a customer wallet, can retrieve enough data to provide usable functionality? Such scenario could introduce a new element in the value chain between game designers and players, and allows the developer of the tool to up-sell other products. The focus of this session is not on ‘how to use it’ or ‘why to use it’ but ‘how do you get it’ and ‘from whom’.
Lunch Break
Conference | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Gamification SPEAKERS
Mark Busuttil
Lennart Gillberg
Adam Daniel
Stewart Townsend
Games Producer, Casumo
Founder, Spiffx
Managing Director, Playson
Channel Director, Zendesk
Mark Busuttil is a producer at Casumo and will be speaking at SiGMA15 during the Gamification Conference on the 5th November, 2015 in Malta.
Lennart Gillberg is a serial entrepreneur and has been working with advertising and marketing since 1983. He started his first advertising agency in 1985. At the end of 1998 he was one of the founders of Netgiro AB, a global payment service provider, and was the CEO between 1998 and 2006.
Adam Daniel is the Managing Director of games developer Playson. His remit is to introduce Playson products into the market place, build initial commercial relationships, setup operational processes and work with our ownership to define our operational strategy…and have some fun with a great team of people along the way.
Sales and Business Development professional with over 15 years experience and a proven ability to develop strategic alliances, build new sales channels and lead business transformation. A skilled people manager, manager of alliances, and developer of new market opportunities.
In the beginning 80% of the Netgiro’s customers came from the betting and gaming industry. Netgiro was sold to Digital River in 2008. Since then he has been involved in several start ups. In 2010 Gillberg was one of the founders of Spiffx, an alternative betting exchange, and today he is still on the executive board.
Adam Daniel will be sharing his thoughts on a very interesting topic in the Gamification conference at SiGMA2015.
Being a dynamic self-starter, with a “can do” approach to work: energetic, enthusiastic, hardworking and a quick learner. My approach to business is that of a solution provider for both internal and external customers, ensuring both parties are satisfied.
Tal Itzhak Ron
Itai Zak
Frank Ravanelli
Russell Mifsud
Chairman, Tal Ron, Drihem & Co.
CEO, SBTech
Manager, KPMG
Advocate and Notary Tal Itzhak Ron is one of the most influential lawyers in the Gaming and Financial Entertainment legal industries. Tal graduated from Haifa University School of Law (LL.B.) and Faculty of Computer Science (B.Sc.), and further obtained a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Bar Ilan University (M.Sc). Tal established Tal Ron, Drihem & Co. Law Firm in 2003, focusing on Forex, Binary Options, Fin Tech, Online Gaming, Offshore Company Formation, Lotteries, Fantasy Sports, Affiliates, Hi Tech and Online Capital Markets, advising top-tier international clients in these fields.
Itai Zak is the CEO of SBTech, a leading online betting and gaming technology and service provider. Mr. Zak joined SBTech in 2011, bringing more than 15 years of experience in various senior positions in the online gaming industry. He is in charge of driving the company’s strategy and vision through the operational and commercial management of over 300 employees in the SBTech group.
Marketing Director, Tournament Trading
Christian Cardona
Johan Styren
Angelo Dalli
Economy Minister, Government of Malta
CEO, LeoVegas
CEO, Bit8
Johan Styren’s main experience comes from the online and mobile gaming industry. He has a wide experience in building and managing the complete sales funnel for online and mobile including marketing, payments and conversion. With over six years mid-high level management experience and two years at C-level management, Johan Styren’s specialities include: Online Marketing, Business Development, Mobile, Payments, Betting and Casino, and Telecommunications
As Bit8’s (www.bit8.com) chief executive officer, Angelo Dalli is responsible for leading the company’s product development, business and technology strategy. Angelo co-founded Bit8 with Keith Galea and Brian Fenech after identifying the need for an intelligent backend system that positively impacts the operator’s bottom line while providing an awesome player experience. Angelo has joined Bit8 as its CEO in 2013 and has led the company through its initial growth phase and its first external financing round.
Prior to his appointment as Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, Dr. Christian Cardona was a Senior Partner at CV Advocates, a legal firm recognized as one of Malta ‘s leading law firms. Prior his latest appointment, during the 2008 – 2013 legislature he served as the Labour Party Main Spokesperson for the Industry, Self Employed and Foreign Investment. In previous legislatures he even served as the Labour Party Spokesperson for Competition, Communication and IT. Dr Cardona served also as member in Malta EU Parliamentary Committee during the negotiation process of Malta ‘s application to join the European Union as full member.
Prior to his current role at SBTech, Mr. Zak served as Executive Vice President of eGaming Products at Microgaming, which saw him in charge of the mobile and retail division of the company.
Italian citizen and native speaker, Canadian PR, EU passport holder, Frank Ravanelli specialized in Affiliate Marketing Management, Affiliate Marketing, eGaming, Forex, Fantasy Sports, US eCommerce Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Programs Launch, Affiliate Marketing Consulting, Casino Affiliate Marketing, Email marketing, Performance Marketing. Frank has been a growth-driven online marketeer since 1995, and in eGaming since 2002. He worked as Casino Director, Head of Casino Operations, Casino Marketing Manager, Affiliate Manager and studied casino marketing and management at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas.
Russell is a Manager within the Gaming industry client sector at KPMG. He is specialised in servicing clients in both the gambling and digital gaming sectors. He strives to anticipate new trends on a global scale, in order to best advise entities about opportunities within the industry. Strategic initiatives, jurisdictional analysis, disruptive technologies, licensing, affiliate marketing, M&As and gamification are some of the aspects that he focuses on.
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SiGMA | Conference
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
AFFILIATES & SEO
Conference 2
010
NOVEMBER 5TH VENUE: INTERCONTINENTAL, BAY ARENA CONFERENCE 2: Affiliates & SEO Live Website Audit – Have your website reviewed by the experts. John Wright (Horseshoe Agency), Fili Wiese (SearchBrothers) 14:30-15:15
Affiliates attending this session enter chance to win a whopping €15,000 worth raffle! The experts, Fili Wiese, an SEO consultant with SearchBrothers.com and former senior Google Search Quality team member and John Wright, founder of HorseShoe Agency and Gaffg, review live sites, look into their search signals and answer any of your SEO or Google Search questions on the stage.
15:15-16:00
Emerging trends for big affiliates Victor Lerenius (Game Lounge) (moderator), Ory Weihs (XLMedia), Maayan M. Dana (Tal Ron, Drihem & Co.), Erik Bergman (Catena), Robin Reed (Guts)
16:00-16:45
Networking Coffee Break hosted by SMS Warriors
From the humble beginnings of many affiliates, be it as a poker player or a publishing startup, to going public listed, this panel of grizzled veterans will share some valuable insights, challenges and opportunities that affiliates may face along their journey.
Social media for commerce: monetize your social community and boost your SEO visibility Lukasz Zelezny (uSwitch) 16:45-17:30
Would you like to know how to deliver traffic and convert using social media? What types of people may follow you? Join this session and learn how to turn followers into customers, who are your social media personas, effective interactions with your consumers, monetization of your relationship, how to pull and motivate your customers, how to inspire and influence your community and, finally, how to stay fit using social media.
Email Marketing & CPC – best kept secrets uncovered Michael Finderup (Power Media Group), Yancy Naughton (HasTraffic/WantsTraffic) 17:30-18:15
Permission marketing is one of best ways to convert users into players. Michael will show how to collect the data and use it. For advanced email marketers there will be plenty of solid information to gather. Affiliates are expected to learn how to cut down sending costs, avoid blacklisting and increase delivery to inbox in this content-rich lecture.
18:00-19:30
Networking Drinks, Tapaz hosted by BetConstruct
DAY ONE: Panel Moderators
Marc Kenigsberg
Marc Lesnick
CEO, Jamworx
CEO, Ticonderoga Ventures
Marc Kenigsberg is an advocate for cryptocurrency and one of the world’s leading Bitcoin affiliates. The founder of BitcoinChaser.com, and a firm believer in Bitcoin, Marc also operates various Bitcoin websites and projects.
Marc Lesnick has been involved in the online gaming industry since 1998. He currently runs UTail.com. Marc Lesnick also organizes niche conferences for various industries, including the Daily FANTASY SPORTS Expo. As the President of Ticonderoga Ventures, Inc., he is a speaker at numerous conferences and writes for several publications.
Marc is a veteran of the gambling industry with 15 years experience in various marketing roles, including being responsible for marketing at some of the largest Playtech and Microgaming licensees.
Conference | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Affiliates & SEO SPEAKERS
Victor Lerenius
Maayan M. Dana
Fili Wiese
Ory Weihs
CTO, Game Lounge
Lawyer, Tal Ron, Drihem & Co.
SEO Consultant, SearchBrothers
Co-founder, XLMedia
Victor Lerenius, CTO of Game Lounge, entered the iGaming sector from e-commerce giant CDON Group (now Qliro Group). His experience from working within a holding company keen on both organic and inorganic expansion has now contributed to the growth of Game Lounge which has more than doubled the number of employees in the last year alone.
Maayan M. Dana, a seasoned e-commerce lawyer and entrepreneur has been involved in the online commerce industries for years. Prior to pursuing her legal career with Tal Ron, Drihem and Co., she has been with “Tadmor Levy (then Professor Yuval Levy & Co.) – one of Israel’s largest law firms, where she dealt with Israel’s largest payment institutions.
A former Google senior support engineer and Google Search Quality analyst, Fili Wiese is a renowned SEO expert for successful recovery of penalized websites, technical and international SEO consulting, in-depth backlink analysis and empowering clients with SEO workshops. As part of SearchBrothers.com Fili is on the DeepCrawl Advisory Board, acts as an official brand ambassador for Majestic and frequently speaks at online marketing events such as SEOktoberfest, BrightonSEO, SMX, SES, London Affiliate Conference and Performance Marketing Insights.
Mr. Ory Weihs co-founded XLMedia PLC in 2007 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Mr. Weihs leads the Group’s business development and key strategy. He leads the Group’s business development and strategy, focusing on expanding the groups reach and technological abilities. Mr. Weihs is an entrepreneur who has been deeply involved in the online gambling & digital advertising industries for over ten years. He has a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the Technion – Israeli Institute of Technology from 2007.
Michael Finderup
John Wright
Erik Bergman
Lukasz Zelezny
Co-founder, Power Media Group
SEO Specialist, Horseshoe Agency
CEO, JohnSlots
Acquisition Director, uSwitch
At SiGMA, Michael Finderup has agreed to share some of the best kept email marketing secrets. Permission marketing is one of best ways to converte users into players. Michael will show how to collect the data and use it. For advanced email marketers there will be plenty of solid information to gather. He will share his insights on how to reduce costs, increase delivery to inbox, mistakes to avoid and necessary steps to avoid blacklisting. This conference is expected to fill every corner of the conference hall.
John Wright has been working in the gaming industry for a number of years, focusing mostly on consultancy for search engine optimization, conversion rate optimization and user experience & user interface design. His strengths are with online casinos but does have experience in online poker and sportsbetting.
Erik Bergman, CEO of Catena Media will participate in the CEO panel speech about the bright future of affiliate marketing. Catena Media has grown from 3 employees in 2012 to 22 employees in 2014 and aim to keep the same high pace.
Lukasz Zelezny is the head of organic acquisition at uSwitch.com, a UK based price comparison website with offices in London. Leading his team, he is responsible for the uSwitch.com brand’s organic visibility, conversion rate, traffic and engagement. Lukasz is a handson person, he spends lots of his time keeping up to date with the changes in the technology of online marketing.
Robin Reed
Yancy Naughton
Managing Director, Guts
Founder, HasTraffic/WantsTraffic
Startup romantic, and entrepreneur at heart. Robin started with two empty hands in his early twenties. Founded Gaming Innovation Group (GIG) together with Frode Fagerli in 2008. These days, GIG is investing into startups and people within the iGaming industry. The mission is to create and obtain the most valuable knowledge in iGaming.
Yancy Naughton has been in multi-channel advertising for over 20 years, dating back to his founding of NSRS of PA, a software and print based school reporting service founded in 1992. He also was the founder and editor of Golfer Magazines and Services, a golf advertising and travel firm anchored by two print publications, The Scottsdale/ Phoenix Area Golfer and The Southwest Golfer.
John is also the marketing manager, affiliate coach and editor of Gaffg.
“We are reinvesting all our profits in the business and we are constantly looking for other affiliates that might be interesting options for mergers or acquisitions”, describes Erik. In May 2013 the site JohnSlots was founded. Already within its first year it became among the biggest online casino guides in Scandinavia and since then it has kept growing. In early 2014 the twin site of JohnSlots was launched, MrBet with the aim to duplicate the same journey,
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SiGMA | Conference
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
PAYMENTS & ANTI-FRAUD
Conference 3
012
NOVEMBER 6TH VENUE: INTERCONTINENTAL, BAY ARENA CONFERENCE 3: Payments, Security, Anti-Fraud & Bitcoin 10:00-10:05 Welcome note from conference chair
10:05-10:45
The potential for Bitcoin in Gaming & SWOT analysis of the traditional deposit player vs Bitcoin player Marc Kenigsberg (Jamworx) lThere are a number of reasons why operators are inclined to accept or decline bitcoin players. In this session we will carry out a detailed SWOT analysis about the current situation as well as likely scenarios for the future.
Boost Sales, Beat Fraud. Detecting and Stopping Fraud Before it Hurts Your Profits Don Bush (Kount) – Moderator, Nadia Pace (Centrecom), Monroe Schmidt (Amaya) 10:45-11:30
11:30-12:00
Over the past several years fraud has grown at an alarming rate, especially in online and mobile channels. Cyber criminals have more data, better tools and are more organized than ever before. When fraudsters hit a gaming site they steal from the company and make the experience for legitimate players frustrating. We’ll present what fraudsters are doing in today’s ecosystem to steal from online gaming organizations and what they can do to protect themselves, their customers and their reputation.
Networking Coffee Break hosted by Kount Today’s fraudster – what you can’t see, can hurt you Don Bush (Kount), Keith Briscoe (Ethoca)
12:00-12:45
12:45-13:30
Today’s fraudsters are sophisticated, well networked and faster than ever. What you can’t see in your operation can be hurting your profits and the experience of your players. We’ll look at what fraudsters are up to and how to detect and prevent fraud before it hurts your business.
Security and payments risks of a gaming operation and the available solutions Matt Helm (CFC Underwriting), Olga Finkel (Malta Chamber of Commerce), Graeme Newman (CFC Underwriting), Michael Darmanin (Melita) Security and payment risks are bigger and more complicated than ever before. Hackers have developed new tools and techniques for infiltrating and disrupting your operation in order to steal from an operator. A number of solutions help operators detect as well as cure any malicious attacks.
13:30-14:30
Lunch Break
DAY TWO: Panel Moderators
Justin Franssen
Joseph Borg
Partner, Kalff Katz & Franssen
Senior Adviser, WH Partners
Justin Franssen and his highly specialised gaming team joined Kalff Katz & Franssen attorneys at law early 2013. He worked as legal counsel in Amsterdam and New York for a leading gaming company, before he was admitted to the Bar.
Dr. Joseph F. Borg is currently a Senior Advisor to WH Partners, a law firm specialising in Gaming, Corporate, IT, Telecoms and Intellectual Property Law. He also lectures Gaming Law at the University of Malta. Before joining WH Partners he occupied the post of Chief Regulatory Officer of the Malta Gaming Authority.
Conference | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
PAYMENTS & ANTI-FRAUD SPEAKERS
Keith Briscoe
Don Bush
Michael Darmanin
Matt Helm
CMO, Ethoca
VP, Kount
Marketing Communications leader with nearly 20 years of proven results in the financial services, technology and software/services sectors. Strategic, results-driven and focused on delivering high-return marketing programs that develop new markets, acquire more valuable customers and create strong competitive differentiation. A creative thought leader and content expert with the ability to transform customer insights into profitable, cost-effective sales and marketing programs. Experienced corporate communications leader and mentor, with extensive experience managing corporate communications teams and diverse stakeholder audiences.
Don Bush is an experienced Marketing leader who has worked in several management roles within the technology segment for more than 20 years, spanning hardware/software manufacturers and as a partner in two top technology marketing agencies. Known for leading several successful product launches and marketing programs for dozens of companies around the world such as Citi, HP, IBM, Kodak, Motorola and Weyerhaeuser and co-authoring the seminar series, “Common Launch Disasters and How to Avoid Them.”
Director of Marketing & Business Services, Melita
Contingency Practice Leader, CFC UNderwriting
With a strong business background and twenty years’ experience in a commercial role, Michael Darmanin is a skilled strategic professional with a strong track record in enterprise sales and marketing. Prior to joining Melita, Michael served in various senior roles within Vodafone Malta, including Head of Customer Value, Head of Enterprise and until recently Head of Marketing.
Matt Helm has over 20 years London Market broking and underwriting experience, placing risks within both the Lloyd’s and wider general insurance markets. He joins CFC from PIMS-SCA, a global risk management company in the digital, gaming, lottery and sports markets where he was a board director and business producer underwriter.
Greame Newman
Bradley J. Wiskirchen
Nadia Pace
Simon Planzer
CIO, CFC Underwriting
Chairman, Clickbank
CEO, Centrecom
Partner, Planzer Law
Graeme Newman is the Chief Innovation Officer at CFC Underwriting, a specialist lines underwriting agency based in the UK and backed by a number of Lloyd’s syndicates. The company distributes its products through brokers in 20 countries around the world including America, Australia, Canada, and the UK.
Bradley J. Wiskirchen is the CEO of Keynetics and Kount and the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Clickbank. Wiskirchen joined Keynetics in 2005. His skills and experience in business, technology and law give Keynetics an edge in strategic planning and negotiation in the Internet sector. Under his guidance Keynetics has become one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest privately held technology companies. Kount has become the premier fraud prevention solution for card-not-present merchants, and affiliate marketing giant ClickBank has grown to be one of the world’s largest online retailers.
With a Bachelor of Commerce in Public Sector Management (hons) from the University of Malta and a Master of Arts degree in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Sheffield city college campus in Thessaloniki in her pocket, Nadia managed language schools in Malta and Cyprus, and units of the manufacturing industry in Thessaloniki Greece.
Dr Simon Planzer is founding partner at Planzer Law, a Zurich-based law boutique. Planzer Law’s teamprovides highly specialised services on all matters relating to Swiss and international gaming law and also advises on general commercial issues, such as relocations & establishment, IT and contracts.
For the past 15 years, Graeme immersed himself in the world of technology. From his early career as a consultant for Deloitte working on pioneering internet security projects with the UK Ministry of Defence to his most recent role at CFC working on insurance products for new technology and emerging risks.
Olga Finkel
Monroe Schmidt
Deputy Chairperson, Chamber of Comm
Director, Head Anti-Fraud, Amaya
Olga Finkel is widely regarded as an expert in gambling and technology law. For the past four years she has been named as one of the top internet and e-commerce lawyers in the world, and for the second year running she has been ranked a top lawyer in the Global Gaming and Gambling category by Chambers and Partners. She founded WH Law in 2006 which has progressed to become WH Partners. Olga provides advice on strategic, commercial and regulatory matters to businesses primarily involved in telecoms, software development, e-gaming, e-payments and e-money institutions, e-marketing, and e-auctions, among others.
His specialities include: Underwriting Prize Indemnity and Over Redemption for lotteries, promotions,casinos (online and land based) sports teams,clubs and promoters.
Between 2008 and 2013, she has been Business Development Manager of World Aviation Group. After a year as CCO of a leading insurance company in Malta, Nadia returned to take up her new role as CEO of World Aviation Group in October 2014.
An alumnus of the College of Europe who used to work with the legal service of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the EFTA Court, Simon Planzer has a strong background in EU law, EEA law and the trade agreements between the EU and Switzerland.He practices in English, German and French.
Monroe Schmidt is one of the directors of Amaya. The company recently hit world headlines for its majoy acquisition, Poker Stars. Mr. Schmidt has worked in an anti-fraud capacity within the online gaming industry since early 2007 and his experiences and training gained have equipped him with all the necessary tools and insights to battle crime cyber-crime.
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SiGMA | Conference
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
REGULATORY
Conference 4
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NOVEMBER 6TH VENUE: InterContinental Conference Centre CONFERENCE 4: Regulatory Update Staying afloat in turbulent times: remote gaming in Malta Joseph Borg (WH Partners) – Moderator, Hon. Jose Herrera (Government of Malta), Joseph Cuschieri (MGA), Anton Cristina (CSL), Lina Sennevall (Gambling Compliance) 14:30-15:30
15:30-16:15
16:00-16:45
The gaming ecosystem in Malta is facing new opportunities and challenges, with increased competition, increased compliance costs and regulatory frameworks. Is the Maltese government as well as the private sector doing its fair share to address such trends in a holistic way? A series of short presentations, followed by a panel discussion, will highlight the goals achieved to date and plans for the future.
New EU anti-money laundering rules: Challenges and opportunities for gaming operators Joseph Borg (WH Partners) – Moderator, Justin Franssen (Kalff Katz & Franssen), Simon Planzer (Planzer Law) It is only a decade ago that Europe was dominated by prohibitions and monopolistic gaming regimes. Ever since, an increasing number of jurisdictions has chosen to open their markets to licensed operators. This panel offers regulatory and business insights on markets that will soon be regulated.
Networking Coffee Break hosted by MGA Match fixing: a common threat for remote betting operators, sports organizers and law enforcement agencies Joseph Borg (WH Partners) – Moderator, Corinne Gatt (MGA), Chris Bonett (MFA), Nicholas Aquilina (Brandl & Talos Rechtsanwälte)
16:45-17:30
The Draft Convention at EU level has in the past explored the possibility of limiting high-risk betting. Issues such as the criminalization of match-fixing across the EU and the introduction of mandatory reporting requirements on officials of sports organisations and betting operators alike in cases of objectively suspicious parameters will be tackled. The role of sports organisations, operators and law enforcement agencies will be analysed in detail.
Compliance challenges in the current regulatory environment across Europe and beyond Joseph Borg (WH Partners) – Moderator, Alexia Smilovic (NetEnt), Trevor Degiorgio (Greentube), Wendy Zitzman (iGaming Academy), Martin Britton (GLI Europe and Africa) 17:30-18:15
18:15-20:00
Most European jurisdictions have either started regulating online gaming or are in the process of publishing regulations that will allow them to licence online gaming operators. This has driven compliance costs up significantly. Unfortunately, in some cases, instead of creating legal certainty it has actually resulted in more confusion. What is the future of online gaming in Europe? How important would an agreement between the various jurisdictions on common standards be, for the industry? What are industry associations doing to achieve this? What is happening beyond the European borders?
Networking Drinks, Tapaz hosted by iGame
Conference | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
REGULATORY SPEAKERS
Lina Sennevall
Martin Britton
Nicholas Aquilina
Steve Donoughue
Journalist, Gambling Compliance
Managing Director, GLI Europe and Africa
Associate, Brandl & Talos Rechtsanwälte GmbH
Consultant, Gambling Consultant
Martin Britton is the Managing Director of GLI Europe B.V., GLI Italy B.V., GLI South Africa and the GLI Test Labs España. In his current position he oversees the entire operation for GLI Europe with a key focus to customer satisfaction and service to regulators.
Nicholas Aquilina is an Associate at Brandl & Talos Attorneys at Law in Vienna, Austria. Having studied law at the University of Vienna and graduated in 2013, he specializes in international gaming, gambling and entertainment law, European Union law, Social Gaming, Payment, E-Commerce and consumer protection. Nicholas provides regulatory, commercial, general corporate and transactional legal advice to various leading international online and land-based gaming companies on a regular basis, including one of Brandl & Talos’ key gaming clients, bwin.party digital entertainment plc, which he has assisted in numerous licensing procedures across Europe and the US.
Chris Bonett
Corinne Gatt
Alexia Smilovic
Wendy Zitzman
Vice President, Head of Legal, MFA
Head of EU & International Affairs, MGA
Regulated Markets Product Owner, NetEnt
Senior Training Consultant, iGaming Academy
Alexia Smilovic is the Regulated Markets Product Owner at Net Entertainment and she will bring a wealth of experience to the regulatory conference at SiGMA 2015.
Set up the Malta FA legal department in 2010, which department incorporates the player registration and TMS unit, the club licensing unit and the disciplinary unit. Currently a member of the UEFA Control Ethics and Disciplinary Boday and a UEFA match delegate.
Corinne Gatt obtained her Masters Degree in Computer and Communications Law from Queen Mary, University of London in 2010 after graduating Doctor of Laws in 2009. Corinne has been working with the Lotteries and Gaming Authority since 2011, forming part of the legal department. She has been heavily involved in the regulation of online gaming and the drafting of legislation to ensure transparency within the Maltese sector and to safeguard players’ interest within a solid regulatory framework. Corinne has been instrumental in a number of legal and regulatory initiatives including the recent setting up of the Responsible Gaming Foundation.
Wendy Zitzman has worked in a fraud management and compliance capacity across the digital sector since early 2003. In 2008 she made the switch into iGaming and since then, has worked in several international companies. She is a specialist in establishing fraud teams, structuring procedures and designing in-house systems aimed at fraud detection and prevention. Having amassed a wealth of experience and knowledge in the management of fraud and related regulatory and legal requirements, Wendy is also an experienced trainer, having run several in-house training programs related to fraud management, regulatory compliance and anti-money laundering.
Jose Herrera
Joseph Cuschieri
Trevor De Giorgio
Anton Cristina
Parl.Sec. iGaming, Government of Malta
Executive Chairman, MGA
Managing Director, Greentube
Executive Director, CSL
Joseph Cuschieri is a certified public accountant and a fellow member of the Malta Institute of Accountants of Malta. He is specialised in management accounting & finance and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Henley Management College, UK. Throughout his professional career, he held various senior executive positions within the private sector mainly in the construction, services and hospitality sectors amongst others.
Dr Trevor De Giorgio is the managing director at Greentube Malta and also occupies the role of Head of International Legal Compliance with Greentube Austria. Prior to this he occupied the position of International Compliance Manager for Greentube. In his current role Trevor focusses on international regulatory and public affairs for Greentube. Trevor also looks into the different markets / jurisdictions which exist in the online gaming sector and following an in depth analysis pushes forward the projects associated with obtaining a license in a particular market and subsequently ensure full compliance, together with the compliance team, within such markets.
Anton Cristina took over the CSL business in October 2008 and transformed it from a traditional box shifter to a Services Business, which is today the leading IT Outsourcing provider in Malta. The company was a loss making garage company which employed 9 people and over the past 6 years it tripled its head count, turns over $10million a year and acquired a new client base of 100 + companies in the Gaming and Financial Services sectors.
Lina joined GamblingCompliance in 2012, and has since then specialised in reporting on European and African gambling markets. She has earned a reputation as one of the best reporters in the sector, and has spoken at a number of events in London. She graduated with a first class degree in journalism from Kingston University in 2012.
Dr Chris Bonett is a Maltese sports lawyer, currently serving as Vice President and Head of the Legal and Football Governance Department of the Malta Football Association.
Dr Jose’ A. Herrera is a member of the Maltese government. He is a lawyer and has served as a Member of Parliament for 17 years. In the 2013, he was chosen by the Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muscat to form part of his cabinet and, in 2014, appointed him a Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth, making him responsible for the iGaming sector in Malta.
Steve Donoughue has been a management consultant specialising in the business strategy and politics of the gambling industry for the last twenty years. Becoming KPMG’s gambling consultant after working at the University of Salford’s Centre for the Study of Gambling, Steve has been a freelance consultant for the majority of his career, working around the world on both online and bricks and mortar projects.
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SiGMA | Networking Events
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Networking Bonanza Casumo Boot Camp
Strictly by invite Wednesday 4th November, all day Various Locations Imagine Europe’s best igaming affiliates all together on a small island - an affiliate manager’s dream; an operator’s dream; our dream come true. Affiliates are flying in a day before the SiGMA15 show starts and no expense will be spared, thanks to a solid partnership with Casumo and MatchingVisions, to ensure they are treated like royalty.
Networking Poker Tournament All delegates by registration Wednesday 4th November, 22:00hrs – 00:30hrs
Following pre-registration drinks, a networking poker tournament will be held on Wednesday evening. A €30 fee applies, of which half the proceeds will go towards a charitable institution, the other half is put up for the winners. The elite affiliates will also be taking part at this networking poker tournament.
Coffee Breaks
All delegates Thursday 5th and Friday 6th November InterContinental Conference Centre
Pre-registration Drinks All delegates Wednesday 4th November, 20:00hrs-22:00hrs Portomaso, Hilton A day before SiGMA opens its doors; participants can enjoy some drinks, canapes and preregister for their badge during the networking reception, thus beating Friday-morning queues. Most of the delegates travelling for the Summit will be in Malta by this time.
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Four coffee breaks will be held in total. These coffee breaks are an excellent opportunity to meet fellow colleagues and exchange business cards.
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Networking Events | SiGMA
Networking Drinks
All delegates Thursday 5th and Friday 6th November, 18:00hrs-20:00hrs Tapaz Lounge At the end of each summit day, sponsored networking drinks will be held at Tapaz Lounge, outside the InterContinental Conference Arena.
VIP Dinners
Strictly by invite Thursday 5th and Friday 6th November, 20:00hrs-22:00hrs Portomaso, Hilton SiGMA is also renowned for its lavish dinners and VIP hospitality events for select C-level executives and elite affiliates. SiGMA is organising two private dinners, one in collaboration with Kount on Thursday and the other together with iGamingCloud on Friday evening.
LAST MINUTE DRINKS AND BRUNCH All delegates Saturday 7TH November, 11:00hrs-13:00hrs Paranga, St. George’s Bay
Participants will have their last chance to meet fellow delegates and exchange business cards in mild sunny weather at Paranga Beach Lido before heading to the airport.
SiGMA Closing Night
All delegates Friday 6th November, 22:00hrs-02:00hrs The Pavillion, Westin Dragonara What’s arguably one of the best igaming conferfence parties worldwide, the SiGMA Closing Night is held at a five star hotel and features a number of VIP tables and great attractions throughout the night.
#MoveWell with a view The two-level Westin Workout Fitness Studio includes: cardio machines; an Indoor Pool; a whirlpool; Saunas; Steam Rooms and outdoor Tennis Courts. westinmalta.com/westin-workout
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SiGMA | Expo Plan
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
P NETWORKING DRINKS 888
Nexus Guard
Call Credit
Exhi
Main Entrance
Casino Room
Energy Casino
Guts
Ego
iGaming Cloud
Endorphina
Tipico
iGame
CSL
Bit8
Has Traffic
Slots Million
Leo V Game Art
Isignthis
Boston Link
Centre com
E X P O Frosmo Matching Markets
Betn1
Side Kick
Kount
Melita
KPMG
Casino TV
iCentre
Fruity Casa
SMS Warriors
BAR
Media Hut
Wow Media
EVSG
iMovo
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Jamwo
iGSN
Join Games
Wiki Betting
Expo Plan | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
EXPO PLAN
ibitor
Spigo
Every Matrix
Gambling Insider
SB Tech
The Hive
Passage to Conference
MGA
Asia Gaming Brief
Country Profiler
Easy Payment Gateway
Trustly
Bet Construct
GPWA
Tom Horn Bonnier
Honest Partners
Bethard
Bet Games
MobilBet
Casumo
Cherry
ComeOn
THE FOUR CONFERENCES
Vegas Casino Heroes
Matching All in Extra Spel Translations Visions
FLOO R Isle of Man Post Office
Jamworx
Trade Thunder
Fairwinds VIP Lounge
Citadel
Scandi Airlines
Defined Branding iGB
Atlas
orx
Lotto Bird
Chetu
Azure
SMTP Provider
Betsson
Quinel
PMG
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BETTER GAMING MEANS BETTER BUSINESS
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Interview | SiGMA
TOWARDS A RESILIENT MALTESE ECONOMY Malta walked out of the recent economic crisis unscathed - the only Mediterranean state to do so. Moving forward, Eman Pulis met with the Hon. Chris Cardona, Economy Minister, to find out what steps are being adopted to further safeguard the island’s economic progress. Malta walked out of the recent economic crisis unscathed – the only Southern European state to do so. You have what’s arguably one of the most important portfolios in this cabinet. What are the challenges and opportunities facing Malta today? When compared to other European Union member states, the Maltese economy is doing very well indeed. According to the Spring 2015 European Economic Forecast, Malta’s real GDP growth stood at 4% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2014, the highest rate of growth since 2010. After reaching 3.5% for the whole year 2014, the Commission forecasts 3.6% in 2015. Malta and Ireland (also 3.6%) are expected to be the fastest growing economies in the Euro zone, followed by Luxembourg (3.4%) and Slovakia (3.0%). The European Commission commented that “job creation and the unemployment rate are projected to out-perform Euro-area peers”. It also stated that “employment growth surprised positively”. The European Commission forecasts that Malta’s unemployment rate in 2015 will be 5.9%. When compared with the other Euro zone countries, this places Malta amongst the top performers, with Germany (4.6%), Luxembourg (5.7%) and Austria (5.8%). In terms of success in keeping unemployment down, Malta has no peer in Southern Europe. Compare its 5.9% to Greece’s 25.6%, Spain’s 22.4%, Cyprus’ 16.2%, Portugal’s 13.4%, Italy’s 12.4% and France’s 10.3%. It is also expected to do well when compared to more northern member states, such as Slovakia (12.1%), Lithuania (9.9%), Latvia (10.4%), Ireland (9.6%) and Belgium (8.4%). All this, it must be underscored, is being achieved within the context of a further decline in the budget deficit. The promotion of Foreign Direct Investment, its attraction to Malta and all that is needed to keep it here, is a key component to my portfolio. This is what Malta Enterprise is responsible for, what it endeavours to do so as cost effectively as possible and what it is, in fact, succeeding in doing. Its success is due to the country’s pro-active approach. We do not wait for investors to knock on our door. We target specific potential foreign investors that are, for a variety of specific reasons, likely to consider a presence in Malta, and knock on their door. Also, we look beyond Europe, whilst leveraging the advantages of European Union membership, we work hard to diversify the sources of foreign investment.
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SiGMA | Interview
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
“Our priority is to reinvent ourselves and become more innovative. Like that the Maltese economy will become more resilient, maximising on the opportunities which the digital & ICT sectors represent amongst other industries.”
Tell us a bit more about Malta Enterprise. We witnessed a record number of approved projects in the last few years. What is the outlook for 2015 and beyond? Malta Enterprise leverages Malta’s location advantages in a broad range of engineering-based niches, in the more creative niches of information and communications technology (including synergies between ICT and the life sciences), in higher education and training for the regional and European markets, in innovative niches within aviation services, in the creative industries generally and the long neglected field of international logistics where we cannot simply be satisfied ourselves with having a vibrant marine Freeport. To this end, Malta Enterprise is leveraging the excellent reputation we have built within the world of shipping; we are after all Europe’s largest flag register and one of the world’s fastest growing ones. During 2015, Malta Enterprise kept pace with the amount of approvals of new FDIs. Malta Enterprise also negotiated a number of expansion projects by foreign companies in Malta; mainly Baxter, Aurobindo, Methode and Consolidated Biscuits. In March 2015 an agreement with Barts & the London School of Medicine and Dentistry was signed in Gozo in order for Barts to open a branch on the island. Malta Enterprise is currently dedicating its IP staff to attract more foreign universities to set up campus in Malta to cater for foreign students. We are leveraging Malta’s tradition of medical excellence and its historical reputation as “the nurse of the Mediterranean” to develop it as an international medical and health care hub. The Government has attracted potential investors in the healthcare projects including the refurbishing of St Lukes and Karin Grech and the Gozo General Hospital who shall be offering top-notch medical services. The life-sciences park in San Gwann is very near to completion and will soon be able to take in the first tenants 024
who started signing their contracts. The Park will also house innovative, leading edge projects in the production of digital games to create synergies with life sciences. The interest shown by companies in the life-sciences (local and FDI) to operate from LSP has exceeded expectations. The park will also house innovative, leading-edge projects in the production of digital games to create synergies with Life Sciences. What are the main priorities and challenges for the ministry at present and how do these priorities reflect on the gaming sector in Malta? Our priority is to reinvent ourselves and become more innovative. Like that the Maltese economy will become more resilient, maximising on the opportunities which the digital & ICT sectors represent amongst other industries. The Malta Gaming Authority is already undergoing a number of strategic reforms as announced in the MGA’s 2014 annual report by the Chairman. This includes an overhaul of the regulatory framework to make it more innovative and cutting edge for today’s realities, hence future proofing the industry. The aim of these reforms and the multitude of other initiatives currently in the pipeline seek to ensure a more effective and innovative regulation of the gaming sector particularly remote gaming. It is argued that gaming and the financial services combined represent a significantly large share of the economy’s GDP. Isn’t this dangerous in itself? Is the Ministry doing anything to diversify Malta’s portfolio? Over the past years, Malta has strengthened both the Gaming, as well as the Financial services sector, and today we can say that both these business sectors have a significant impact on our economy. The Government, and also my Ministry are totally aware of this, and are fully committed towards protecting these industries and ensuring they can thrive in a regulated way. This Ministry wants to make sure that Malta continues to strengthen its position as a centre of excellence for both the Gaming sector, as well as the Financial one; hence rather than seeing their strength as
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Interview | SiGMA
a threat/risk I see it as an additional responsibility and duty to make sure that these industries have the full Government support needed, to stay ahead of competing jurisdictions and be able to keep the pace of the dynamic industry they are regulating.
Business advisory services are provided with the aim to support undertakings identify strengths and overcome weaknesses in specific areas. A range of business advisors services are available and every effort is made to match the right advisor to the specific needs of the applicant.
Having said this, my Ministry is constantly on the lookout for new opportunities whilst strengthening other sectors which have traditionally always featured as an important contributor to our economy, such as the manufacturing industry. Although there has been a time where industrial production was on the decline, statistics show that since the beginning of this year, industrial production has increased on a monthly basis when compared to the previous year. In the first half of this year, a record amount of machinery intended for investment was also imported. This is a positive sign indicating that we may see our industrial production increased even further in the next months.
Micro Invest scheme provides support to enterprises that for the year in which the costs were incurred did not employ more than 30 persons (Full Time Equivalent) and had a turnover that did not exceed €10 Million. The support is provided via tax credits which are calculated as a percentage of specific eligible costs. This scheme is currently being updated and accordingly be available in the coming weeks.
I assure you that although we will be doing our utmost to safeguard important economic contributors like tourism, the gaming industry and the financial services sector, as I always say, we do not intend to put all our eggs in one basket and the economic results we are achieving are showing that we are working towards sectoral diversification which, in my opinion, is the best way to go for Malta. In this sense, we are focusing on attracting investment in areas where traditionally Malta had not put its focus, such as private education, health care, pharmaceutical manufacturing, research and development, energy production as well as developing and maximising the potential of our geophysical position for the logistics sector. The gap between the two distinct pillars of remote gaming and the digital games industry seems to be shrinking as time goes by, with the increased popularity of games of skill, e-sport, fantasy sport and others. Similarly, more and more online gambling operators are gamifying their process of acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. We are aware that Malta Enterprise is supporting such initiatives. Can you tell us a bit more about this? What kind of support is provided? How can start-ups benefit in terms of job creation, capital expenditure, etc. Malta Enterprise has been following the evolution of the digital sector which is now becoming a key enabler across all productive sectors, and not solely with the remote gaming sector. We are seeing very significant and encouraging developments with the introduction of gamification processes in the field of Life Sciences and Education for example, which will result in the generation of high-value added economic activities and high-end job opportunities. The current available schemes that can be consider are the following: For innovative start ups, Malta Enterprise can consider providing support via the Kordin Business Incubation Centre (KBIC). KBIC provides adequate space for start-ups so that during the initial years of the business activity they can be directly supported by dedicated Malta Enterprise personnel. Additionally can also benefit from specific funding. This funding, which is also available to other innovative starts that might be operating from other facilities, is through the scheme Business Start (or B.Start). The scheme will be available (as a pilot) until 30th June 2016 and a budget EUR 500,000 has been allocated. The support will be limited to EUR 25,000 per beneficiary as per applicable guidelines. Innovative start-ups that are also undertaking Research and Development activities can also be considered for specific R&D funding schemes. Other support that can be offered to more generic start-ups includes Business Advisory, MicroInvest, Micro Guarantee and Certify.
The Micro Guarantee scheme provides eligible undertakings with a guarantee of up to 80% on loans of up to €100,000 which may be used to finance projects leading to business enhancement, growth and development. The Certify scheme is a fiscal measure to encourage eligible undertakings to continuously improve the quality of their products, services and processes through the attainment of industry recognised certifications and Quality Marks. The scheme is intended to boost awareness of the added value that may be achieved through certification when competing in international markets. Europe is, without doubt, the biggest partner for Malta. There is also a lot of potential for investment is from outside the European Union. Which markets is the Ministry for the Economy focusing on? Malta Enterprise network operates in various countries around the globe, with offices or representations in embassies and consulates in Europe, Middle East, Asia and United States. Malta Enterprise has taken new initiatives to open doors to new markets in North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Right now it has commercial representatives in Algeria, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Dubai. Already these representatives have assisted a number of Maltese companies and business people to explore possibilities in these markets. There are also business opportunities and investors from these markets interested in Malta. Tell us a bit more about “Digital Malta” and how this will strengthen Malta’s position at the forefront of Europe. Digital Malta has been designed to foster a strong, competitive, innovative, ICT-enabled and export-oriented industry, able to flourish locally and compete globally. The citizens’ needs are central to the strategy. Citizens will be encouraged to benefit from the opportunities that ICT can offer whether this relates to their work or family commitments, leisure and lifelong learning, and in their role within the community. Understandably government has a key role to play, both in terms of simplifying its processes and interaction with citizens and businesses, as well as spearheading a number of national policy directions. Ultimately, this will result in further economic growth and a better quality of life for our citizens. I am positive that our national ICT strategy is instrumental for yielding results and contributing towards a strong national performance. Fitch Rating Inc. has recently graded Malta with an ‘A’ credit rating and a stable outlook. Our public finances continue to improve gradually and our deficit is expected to fall to 1.8% this year. Our unemployment stands at 5.6%, a record low; the tourists visiting Malta have increased by 6.7%. Closer to the digital world, we have ranked well and attained substantial improvements in the 2014 EU Digital Agenda targets which were issued in 2015. Digital Malta is not only one of the key enablers for my government to implement its political agenda, but also to help us be a driver towards the digital economy.
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issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Legal | SiGMA
INTERVIEW
with
Justin Franssen
The constant regulatory updates keep Justin Franssen and his law firm busy providing legal, regulatory and political advice to ultimately restore private-public equilibrium. SiGMA sat down with the experienced lawyer to discuss a number of pertinent issues; the single-market within the EU, in general, and, more specifically, the legal landscape in The Netherlands. 027
SiGMA | Legal
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
What is your exact position at Kalff Katz & Franssen, and what are the main goals in your work? I am one of the founding partners of Kalff Katz & Franssen attorneys at law. Kalff Katz & Franssen is conveniently located in the historic centre of Amsterdam, next to the world famous Concertgebouw (Royal Opera House) and close to the landmark Rijksmuseum. The firm has a solid international reputation in the gaming, media, sports, TV, music and entertainment industries. I am heading the gaming department which currently consists of 5 professionals who all focus entirely on the gaming sector. We act for blue chip online and landbased operators, software providers, payments service providers, affiliates, media companies, testing labs, manufacturers, investors and other key players in the gaming eco system. We provide advisory, transactional as well as litigation services to the sector and we are involved in regulatory issues and public afffairs. There are a number of goals in my work. First and foremost we aim to be the primary sparring partner for our international clients. We are the eyes and ears for many of our clients and aim to advice our clients in a proactive way by providing key legal, regulatory and political information as soon as reasonably possible so as to ensure our clients are always on top of things, which is especially important if such client has no physical presence or personnel in The Netherlands. Furthermore, we organise social and business events for our clients. The most well known event is our Annual Gaming Industry event in Amsterdam, which brings together key business leaders from the sector. At such
events we enable our clients to meet with business partners as well as key regulators in a very relaxed and intimate environment. Our general goal is thus to maintain very strong relationships with our clients and to simply provide them with the best possible service. Altough we will never rest on our laurels I am pleased to say we managed build up an extremely loyal and solid client base over the last 15 years. 028
A more specific goal in my work is to ensure the future regulatory regime for remote gaming is going to be as business friendly as possible. We are aiming to pursue the same when the landbased casino market as well as the lottery market open up for competition. So far we have managed to push through some major changes for improved regulation by leveraging our excellent contacts and
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Legal | SiGMA
of `Don Quixote of La Mancha` we got an important referral to the European Court of Justice in 2008 which resulted in a key victory for the sector in 2011. Ultimately, the highest administrative court in The Netherlands ruled that some of the incumbent licenses had historically been renewed in an illegal way. This case (the Betfair case) had considerable political impact in The Netherlands and wider ripple effects in other Member States. The outcome of this case -next to other significant developments- surely had its influence on a new political and regulatory equilibrium. When the government coalition agreement was published it referred specifically to the transparent allocation of gaming licenses and the first policy note of the State Secretary sounded like music to our ears. In essence the government announced the regulation of remote gaming, transparant allocation of gaming licenses, the privitization and sales of the state owned Holland Casino and the opening of the lottery market. In essence the government announced the most substantial regulatory change in the sector in 50 years, more than we we ever anticipated when we started our legal crusade. The positive outcome of this lenghty legal process also marked the start of a new equilibrium in terms of the relationship between the government and the remote gaming sector. Now that it was established that the current monopolies de facto held illegally issued licenses it became somewhat complicated to enforce the 1964 Gaming Act against f.e. Maltese operators who accept Dutch nationals. The outcome of our case marked the start of discussions and negotiations with the authorities surrounding enforcement policy and (under strict conditions) de facto toleration of cross border acceptance of Dutch players.
“The entire concept of mutual recognition of licenses seems to be a lost cause and has been systematically rejected by the European institutions and the courts alike.” reputation with the powers that be in The Hague. Most of this obviously happens in silent diplomacy. A final goal in my work is to ensure I attract and retain the best legal minds in the industry. Whilst it is difficult to source people who are not only technically excellent but also have passion for the gaming sector I believe we managed to build up the most experienced and rated gaming law department in The Netherlands. I am extremely proud of my people. How do you mark your own influence in the Dutch gaming policy? Where was your greatest influence / where are you most proud of? Me and my team litigated for close to a decade against the system of exclusive licenses in The Netherlands as well as against the way such licenses are allocated as we feel the current set up is against the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Treaty of Rome. For many years the national courts were reluctant to touch the gaming mopolies in The Netherlands and we literally lost case after case altough I always believed we had the better legal arguments. Finally, when I was getting close to feeling like the lawyer equivalent
The trend is for more and more states to become regulated, making universal license a thing of the past. What’s in store for the future? How do you see the industry evolving from a regulatory point of view? What is Is the Single Market for Online Gaming a Pipe Dream or is it Still Achievable? The entire concept of mutual recognition of licenses seems to be a lost cause and has been systematically rejected by the European institutions and the courts alike. A Maltese license does not suffice to ensure unhindered access to nationals in all other Member States of the European Union unfortunately. The era of .country regulation started a number of years ago and various jurisdictions have regulation in the pipeline. Ultimately the cost of doing business is on the rise which drives further consolidation in the sector. Whilst there are some initiates from the European Commission to get to a level of standardization (technical standards) and increased cooperation between regulators I am not hopeful a true single market for online gaming is achievable unfortunately. Whilst it is not going to happen anytime soon I also expect that the concept “grey markets” will become less relevant overtime. Like in the land based sector remote gaming operators will likely be forced to obtain local licenses in all jurisdictions where it is actively pursuing business. Final question: what do you expect of the SiGMA conference this year? The (young) organisation managed to attract not only an impressive line-up of speakers but also seems to attract a serious number of delegates which is quite an achievement given the fact that this sector has its fair share of established industry events already. I am looking very much forward to seeing a lot of industry clients, friends and contacts in Malta during this show.
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The Affiliate Program
Interview | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Interview witH
Mr. Robin Reed by Dennis Dyhr-Hansen A startup romantic, an entrepreneur with no clear boundaries between personal and working life; Robin Reed met with SiGMA to explain what lies ahead for Guts since its relocation to Malta in 2010.
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SiGMA | Interview
Why Malta? Was your decision to relocate Guts to Malta in 2010 based on one main reason or a number of factors? When we started out we were doing peer-to-peer poker affiliation. We quickly grew and evolved into a technology driven company through our social media platform for Poker, www.Donkr.com. As such we took great interest in the tech start-up scene. How they believe in technology as an enabler for increased efficiency, their value driven customer orientation, and people oriented strategies for human capital, really inspired us. Following a visit to Malta we discovered the large and very passionate, skillfull gaming community here. We identified it as as growing hub for the industry, yet still underdeveloped in terms of the drivers for success we had observed in the tech scene. We saw great benefits for our company in relocating closer to the companies and people here, and likewise felt we should be contribute to the development of the industry through the values we believe in. More and more EU states are introducing their regulatory frameworks, asking for specific licenses to operate in that particular jurisdiction. Is this trend paving the way for an eventual relocation to another jurisdiction? RR: Our group of companies is employing more then a 100 people spread across six different countries. We are quite acquainted with the challenges and benefits that come with geographical diversification. While our headquarter will remain in Malta, we believe in making ourselves available on
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the terms of the clients and frameworks we operate in. We will there for certainly capitalize on the opportunities there is in connecting with emerging local iGaming communities. Guts started in 2013. Can you take us through a journey in time, shedding light on some of the most remarkable moments, challenges and achievements in Guts’s history? I think the pivotal moment for Guts came when we decided why we were doing it: our story is about bringing true customer orientation to the world of iGaming and people believed us. When we launched then people spread the story and for the first few months we had so much organic traffic despite no marketing budget. After less than six months we had a million in revenues and a year later we won the best global casino players award. The most important achievement happened lately when we did a flawless migration onto our proprietary platform - iGamingCloud. What we’ve seen is immediate improved player values and increases in conversion. However, more importantly, we are finally on a flexible platform and we can now innovate going forward. Has the company seen a sporadic growth in employees? And has this growth slowed down creativity and increased red tape? We saw a steady increase in employees until October last year. After becoming an operator and a technology company, we finally could unleash the operational and creative power within the community at our workplace. From this moment on we saw a surge with some 60 people recruited over the last
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6 months. We are very conscious about our recruitment as a fear is hiring ourselves into meritocracy, and have a clear idea of skill sets, personality types, and the level of passion needed. As such, more resources is actually an enabler, particularly for product innovation and marketing capabilities.
“No bullshit. Just less is more and a very good user experience.” In terms of the end user, what distinguishes your brand from the many competitors out there? No bullshit. Just less is more and a very good user experience. On an employee level, what makes employees stay with the company? I think a lot of the purpose in life is to have the best stories to tell at the retirement home. When you put smart people together then beautiful things happen. I think we have created a community of some of the smartest and most passionate people in iGaming, and then stories are bound to happen. We have an In-House chef creating daily lunch, a massage room, FIFA and ping-pong. Our goal is to remove as many hurdles as we can from your life so you can focus on making those stories happen.
Interview | SiGMA
E-sport, daily fantasy sport, binary; has any of these buzz words made it to the Guts board room yet? Are there plans to delve into these markets? Well for me they are not buzzwords but a part of life. When I was younger I played a lot of Starcraft, and for a while I was topping the rankings in the online MP games of Civilization. I did poker for a living for many years and as such I see these E-Sports as something highly interesting. We are talking a lot about DFS and are contemplating a play, which if we do it, will be very unique and awesome. Gamification is the new buzz word which is attracting the attention of many. Are there attempts by Guts to incentivise new customers and retain existing ones through Gamification? I think it is all about data and engaging customer experiences going forward. Before one talked about the brand as the greatest differentiator but these days it is all about gamification. With the move to iGamingCloud we could finally couple the amazing data we have with gamification. We are creating an open platform where you can tie most customer engagement with rewards whether that is cashback, automated freespins or deposit bonuses. The visual presentation and effects is up to the client and our first approach to this is a new brand launching in Q4 called Rizk. It is an all gamified casino “A start up romantic” - we’ve had the pleasure of meeting with you a few times. Tell us a bit more about yourself, Robin. What are your passions outside the office environment? How do you spend leisure time in Malta outside work? RR: Thanks. My life has been pretty varied since I was very young. I have seen the highs and lows and experienced life with such a wide range of people. Therefore it takes a lot to engage me. I try to find those special places, moments, people that can stand out. I seek the intellectual edges be it an amazing TED video or a friend with a great story. I think the lines between work and life are pretty blurred for me actually I never work.
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Cover Story | SiGMA
INTERVIEW WITH LEO VEGAS BOSS
JOHAN STYREN From a workforce of 170 today to some 300 by mid 2016, Johan Styren is at the helm of what’s arguably the fastest growing operator in Malta. In an interview with SiGMA the charismatic CEO discusses the success behind LeoVegas and its exciting plans for the future. 037
SiGMA | Cover Story
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LEO VEGAS ABOUT SiGMA
“As a fast growing gaming venture licensed in Malta we are happy to see a dedicated gaming conference established down here. We are looking forward to participating and exhibiting at SiGMA.” Johan Styren, CEO, LeoVegas
The LeoVegas brand has grown massively since its inception in 2012; which factors do you attribute to your success over the years? First of all we have an amazing product. Having a mobile casino in itself is not unique, however the way we have been able to innovate and stay ahead of the competition is. We have kept our focus on product as well as marketing and that has kept us in the lead. On top of that we have constantly been able to find the most talented and hard working people: I can’t stress enough what a difference that has made. LeoVegas has always been at the forefront on mobile gaming; where do you see mobile gaming heading in the next few years? First of all it will keep on growing: people are still moving from offline to desktop and from desktop to mobile. That transition is far from over. Im expecting new devices to play a bigger part of the mix, including the new I-pad pro and 038
the new version of the I-watch. We always look at new tech releases, and specifically apple for new inspiration and opportunities. LeoVegas has been involved in some of the biggest ever mobile jackpot wins this year; Can you tell us a bit more about them? The year started off in the best possible way with LeoVegas handing out the biggest mobile win in history, a Mega Fortune Jackpot of €5.6 million. While that record stills stands some amazing jackpot wins has fallen out including 4,6 million Euro on Mega Fortune Dreams in July. Few things can compare to hearing the stories of the lucky winners, what they were thinking when they won and how they will spend the money. The long awaited trip abroad is popular but also a lot of winners want to share money with friends and family. One of our absolutely biggest winners
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Cover Story | SiGMA
“The year started off in the best possible way with LeoVegas handing out the biggest mobile win in history, a Mega Fortune Jackpot of €5.6 million.” You also partnered with primetime UK TV show Celebrity Juice. Can you tell us a bit more about how that came about and what you have planned there? The reasoning is simply that it’s a primetime channel and show which is very much followed by the UK nation. It also shares the same demographic which makes it a perfect fit. The sponsorship begins when the hit show returns to screens in September and covers all episodes, including the Christmas Special. The deal will also see LeoVegas branding appear online and on mobile, including the show’s website and catch-up content on ITV Player and ITV.com. The creative, entitled ‘Dress Like a Lion’, has been produced by NOW Advertising and focuses on LeoVegas’ lion mascot, Leo, as he tries on an array of flamboyant outfits, like those worn by the show’s host, Keith Lemon. With such a crowded market in the UK, do you have any aces up your sleeve to make you stand out from your competitors? It’s all about the product and that’s where we differ from all other brands. As usual, we have an array of activities going on in the UK as we continue to grow stronger in presence. The next quarter will see LeoVegas expand rapidly with both above and below the line activities to keep us top of mind.
wanted to thank us for changing his life and decided to buy all of Leovegas, at that time around 120 people, a dinner at a nice restaurant. I just found that gesture absolutely heart warming. All in all we are extremely pleased with these wins and we can proudly say that there is nowhere better to play jackpot games than LeoVegas. You were recently granted your UK licence and are investing heavily there. Can you tell us why you chose the UK market over others? I think it’s fair to say that the UK license regime is one of the most successful we have seen in Europe so far. That plus the sheer size of the market made it a very attractive place to invest. What scared a lot of other companies is naturally the significant competition. We did, however, feel that we had something unique to offer and a positioning that was not claimed in the market. Looking back at the success we have had I’m more than pleased with that decision.
You’re based in sunny Malta. Can you tell us a bit about office life behind the scenes? Malta has been a great environment for us to grow, we really wanted to go the extra mile when it comes to office environment to create the Google kind of atmosphere. In the end we found an amazing offices in Sliema that has it all - terraces with amazing view, space for table tennis, videogames and you name it. The combination of Mediterranean weather and a fast pace working environment has created a great environment for us to attract talent. What do you think the future holds for LeoVegas? Our ambition is to keep on growing and even accelerate what we do. It’s a huge challenge and we need to constantly reinvent ourselves to keep ahead of the competition. I think it’s fair to say that we have gone from merely a start-up to the respected leader in mobile casino in a very short time and this is just the beginning.
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Casino Reviews | SiGMA
The Increasing Popularity of
Casino Reviews in iGaming By Mark Debono
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SiGMA | Casino Reviews
With the number of online casinos and sportsbooks always growing, people are finding it increasingly hard to choose whether to sign up with one site over another. In an ideal world, they’d play at every casino in existence, but, limited bankrolls being an inevitability, it always boils down to a handful of choices which players revisit again and again. Until you get bored—then the cycle starts all over. 7 reasons why long-form interviews are so popular In such a cluttered marketplace, long-form reviews have emerged as the surest and most definitive weapon affiliates can use to sway an audience in favour of one operator rather than its competitors. Welcome bonuses are just the cherry atop of the cake; what people really want to make sure of is that there actually is some delicious cake underneath to satisfy their hunger after the cherry’s gone. That said, here are seven reasons why long-form interviews are an essential weapon in an affiliate’s arsenal: They guide players’ through the different stages of awareness or indecision that characterise the journey from
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doubt or distrust, to depositing real money They provide SEO benefits to websites who take the trouble to create an archive of original and well-written reviews They tend to follow a logical and orderly structure which can be replicated They can come in different forms, giving affiliates the chance to dominate more than one distribution channel and give wider exposure their brand They can be easily outsourced to a content writing agency or freelance writers They can become a point of interaction for visitors on your website They are a powerful incentive and a sign of credibility in affiliate marketing Guiding the player’s journey Not all players are created equal and treating them as they were is probably the biggest mistake affiliates make in their marketing strategy. In fact, players can be laid out across a spectrum of awareness or indecision towards a specific gaming operator or the igaming industry in general, and therefore content should be designed to address specifically the questions and concerns of people at a given state, as well as offering incentives that move them in their journey to becoming paying customers. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll split players into three categories: distrusting, doubting, and depositing. Distrusting players may have never heard about your site, have heard bad things about it, or never played at an online casino before—you need to familiarise them with the offering
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Casino Reviews | SiGMA
and begin converting them into fans. Doubting players are on the fence, so soothing their specific worries and giving them a relevant offer is the best way to get them off it. Depositing players are spending their money elsewhere or have signed-up to your site already, so your job is to either establish the superiority of your site in their minds or keep reminding them about it to encourage them to deposit and play more. Needless to say, long-form reviews, adapted for each segment by changing the emphasis of the content, are the best way to create a complete and compelling argument that satisfies the needs of all three types of players. SEO benefits of publishing igaming reviews Filling your site with original, authoritative and substantial content is still the best way to gain prominence on Google’s ranking and work your way to the coveted #1 spot. Reviews give your site plenty of “hooks” to which it can link to external sites and, conversely, for others to link back to yours. However, with the increasing bias towards mobile optimisation, it is important that long-form content is optimised for smaller screens, namely by breaking it up into smaller sections (see below) and turning them into dropdown segments similar to the Wikipedia mobile site. Components of an igaming review Perhaps what discourages affiliates most from creating longform reviews is the sheer length that is involved. A typical review is at least 1,500-3,000 words long and this may seem like a tall order for some people. In reality, long-form reviews can be logically and reliably broken down into 10 smaller and more manageable sections of 200 words each (or 80 seconds of scripted audio/video at an average speaking rate): Casino overview: welcome bonus, operator background, pros and cons First impressions: layout, accessibility, and compatibility Registration process General review: site review, promotions, and loyalty programmes Games: breakdown of different categories or verticals offered Mobile gaming Banking: currencies available, deposit and withdrawal methods, fees, and timeframes Customer support Responsible gaming Final verdict: overall opinion, expert score, player score, testimonials and comments Different types of reviews A lot of affiliates are plain lazy when it planning the type of content they will offer to their audience. In fact, most websites carry text-only reviews with the occasional game demo video thrown in. This approach overlooks the idea that copy should serve as a model that is—go figure—copied onto different channels, and even different formats. Websites that offer text reviews only are scratching the surface, and the potential of long-form review is truly unlocked when the original material uploaded as a blog post or web page is s adapted into other formats, such as e-newsletter series, directories, infographics, podcasts, and videos. Hiring an agency to write your reviews With a bit of planning, affiliates can put the creation of long-form reviews on auto-pilot. The whole process, from researching a piece, writing, editing, adapting it to different formats, and uploading it can be outsourced entirely to a content writing agency or a team of freelance writers.
Affiliates can choose to exercise as little or as much creative control as they like, depending on how closely they wish to associate their brand with their persona. Outsourcing the creation of reviews allows affiliates to free up large chunks of time and efforts which can be spent growing their brand further, or enjoy the fruits of their work. Crowdsourcing interviews and improving visitor engagement A long-form review is a work that is perpetually in progress. Rather than a static page on your website, it should be regarded as an organic entity that allows for a two-way interaction between readers and creators. Many long-form reviews are substantially improved after they are published thanks to comments left by the readers, who should be encouraged to leave their comments, scores, and personal reviews of a website. Comments signify that a site is alive and well targeted, both to readers and search engine crawlers. Using reviews in affiliate marketing Long-form igaming reviews can become the cornerstone of an affiliate marketing plan by providing a rich source of original content that shapes an affiliate brand’s voice, positioning, and relationship to its audience. In the hands of a creative entrepreneur, reviews can be used for customer acquisition, nurturing, conversion and retention. In a nutshell, this is achieved by drip-feeding new players with relevant information and offers that hook them to a particular site, slowly familiarise them with it, then lower their defences to incite that first deposit, and finally make them a regular player. Key points Review should be targeted to new players at different stages of awareness/indecision, from distrusting, to doubting, to depositing. A great review should tackle at least the ten basic aspects of a casino website. Reviews needn’t come in written form only. Try shooting videos or screencasting. You can save a lot time and effort by hiring an external agency or freelancers to create your reviews. Get your audience or community to share their experience and improve on your reviews. Mark Debono is Director of the internet marketing firm Systemato. A seasoned online marketing consultant, consultant copywriter and freelance writer with a penchant for technology, Mark <3s the internet, blogging, copywriting and faultless grammar. 043
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Interview | SiGMA
INTERVIEW WITH
Michael Golembo With over ten years experience, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s safe to call Michael Golembo a veteran in gaming. SiGMA met with the SkillOnNet and EGO CEO for his insights about past, present and future for both companies specifically, and for the industry in general.
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SiGMA | Interview
You’re considered one of the grizzled veterans in gaming. Tell us a bit more about how it all started for you? Not sure about the grizzled part but I guess you could call me a veteran after nearly 10 years in this business. I first used a computer to play poker before even knowing how to send an email!
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market each group individually and locally to the benefit of our affiliate partners. Thirdly, we are very different in our processing. We specialise in payment methods in a localised format and have actual gameplay in about 10 of the largest currencies. This allows us to really attack a lot of different markets.
My first job in the digital space was to try and convince second hand car salesmen to buy a website we developed for them and then pay to advertise their cars on our marketleading portal.
We have licenses in Denmark, Malta, Schleswig Holstein and the UK, so all our white label partners get immediate access to these markets as well.
As you can imagine this proved to be an excellent training ground for what was to follow. That was convincing affiliates to promote the poker room I began my gaming career at, which was one of the very first poker rooms to launch.
However, the most important feature is that’s we make money for our partners. We have years of CRM experience, a full retention and outbound team with over 90 in-house support staff who are fluent in 22 languages.
Ever since, I have been marketing and selling brands to affiliates and, in a lot of cases, the second hand car salesmen were easier to deal with!
And because we own our own software we can offer the most competitive royalty deals for white label operators.
But things really took off for me when I was asked to launch a brand new poker room in 2006, during the early days of the poker boom. I said yes, and RedKings was launched in January 2007. What unique features belong to EGO and SkillOnNet and why should a potential operator choose SkillOnNet as a provider? Firstly, SkillOnNet is one of the leading software providers in the industry, producing over 80 slots, table games and a host of others like scratch cards and backgammon. We have a number of well-known white label brands promoting our games and using our software, which is regarded as one of the best for scalability and differentiation. We pride ourselves on our flexibility that allows us to tailor our services to individual casinos, and the speed at which we get a new project off the ground. Exclusive content is increasingly the game changer for many casinos. The online casino marketplace has developed a very low barrier to entry recently, new casinos are springing up every week with the same looking lobbies, same games and same looking websites. It seems as if you can get your own casino for 30 euro these days! Yes we have great content from some of the leading third party suppliers like Amaya, NextGen, WMS and NetEnt but our own proprietary games are great money spinners in a number of countries around the world too. We know what works and what doesn’t and how to market and promote these games to the benefit of our white label partners. Additionally, all our games are compliant with the regulated markets we work in but, most important of all, we don’t have long lists of restricted territories like most third party suppliers do. So in Countries where you cannot see Amaya or WMS we are there with our unique 3D games that go far in delivering great revenues for our Partners. A second unique feature is how we package and market our games in conjunction with EGO via our sales and marketing arm. I don’t want to go into too much detail here to be read by our competitors, but what I will say is we don’t just pump out games hoping they will stick. We theme our releases and 046
In terms of EGO, we know that trying to be unique in the affiliate business is not easy, so we pride ourselves on doing what most good affiliate platforms should do – only better! We have in-house stats and great live reporting We specialise in localised promotions We supply good creative material We provide great brands to with which to work We make payments on time, every time We have good affiliate managers available 24/7 And again, because our parent company owns the casino software, we have the best affiliate deals without having to deduct admin fees and royalties. In addition to software ownership, in-house capabilities and better margins, we also control our servers so we don’t suffer third party server crashes. So given all the points above I would say EGO is unique because we manage to do things better than most which means our affiliates are in a better position than most! We know that EGO have adopted NetEnt Games recently. How important is this move? NetEnt have some of the finest games around and appeal to many players all over the World. Adding their games to our EGO casinos made the brands even more appealing for our players and helped in future acquisition so we definitely expect to see an increase in conversion and revenue. Essentially, this fine catalogue of popular games allows us to compete at all levels, in all markets, which we intend to do with some vigour. Hello Sweden!
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Interview | SiGMA
“Exclusive content is increasingly the game changer for many casinos. The online casino marketplace has developed a very low barrier to entry recently, new casinos are springing up every week with the same looking lobbies, same games and same looking websites. It seems as if you can get your own casino for 30 euro these days!” What are your predictions for the future in terms of barriers for growth? Without careful planning there are indeed potential obstacles in the road ahead that could affect our plans for growth. The largest of which by far is regulation. Many people are eyeing up the U.S. market, but before it fully opens, there are many other areas closer to home that could hamper the growth plans of many if the regulation changes unexpectedly. Outside of regulatory issues our growth will only be limited by the ability of our partners to find success in their home markets. Much of this depends on marketing. We are confident in our ability to continue to produce proprietary games and offer 3rd party games that perform at the highest levels in the industry, but even the best content falls flat without a well thought out marketing plan. Overall, we’re confident of significant growth in both B2B and B2C areas over the coming months and years ahead. It’s an exciting time at SkillOnNet and EGO. What do you see as the biggest changes the industry will face over the next 3-5 years? Mobile, Mobile, Mobile. Everyone should know by now that you must have a full mobile and download solution for your site to have a realistic hope of success. However, the next three to five years will see operators rushing to implement sophisticated mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) systems integrated into their software. This new software is plugged into the backend of apps to deliver a wealth of knowledge about players and their habits, which in turn can be used to create long playing sessions and enhanced player engagement. Integral to any mCRM strategy is the use of highly-targeted messaging. It’s now possible to interact with players in real time, or use push messaging to attract them back to your mobile properties. The trend in the coming years will be personalisation. Every mobile player will start to experience gaming as if it were designed just for them. Games they like or have used will be pushed towards them, while ones they didn’t will fade into
the background. Offers of free spins and deposit bonus will be tailored to their gaming habits, often in real time. If done well, a strong mCRM strategy will produce better financial results and a more loyal and engaged consumer base. National licensing is a big issue these days. SkillOnNet have acquired a Danish licence for their white labels – in which other regions would a licence be acquired if needed? We are committed to providing the best service for our partners and we will acquire licences as and when they come up. We will evaluate each country that regulates and decide if it’s a market we wish to enter. We have just launched our brands in the UK and it’s going to be an interesting few years to see how it transforms our marketing practices. For an affiliate platform like ours getting it right in different markets is something we are passionate about. What is the outlook for the iGaming industry in general? From an operator’s point of view, do you foresee any major changes? Many people like to look so far into the future they forget to live in the present. You’ve probably heard colleagues talking about wearable tech devices and their implications for the iGaming industry, for example. I don’t believe operators need to worry about if their website works well on google glass just yet. So before we all run out and start designing holographic slot machines that pop out of our smartwatches on voice command, there is still much to do back here on earth. I believe the iGaming industry has an enormous potential for growth in the next few years even without industry-defining regulatory changes. Operators should be thinking about how much they can tailor their offering to individuals. If a player likes slots and plays nothing else then the screen they are viewing, be it smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC, shouldn’t be filled with anything but slots! And the slots offered should be the same or similar to the ones that player likes or has played before. I think the iGaming industry is just at the very beginning of a very rewarding journey.
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AML | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
The 4th AML Directive and your responsibilities:
How do we create a successful, compliant AML solution for our business? By Wendy Zitzman
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SiGMA | AML
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“It is a safe assumption that an increase in enforcement can be expected from the MGA, especially following the license suspensions of July, 2015 of several operators in relation to money laundering arrests made by the Italian authorities.” The prevention of money laundering and its implementation within the iGaming industry may have been ambiguous in the past, but this may finally be rectified by the release of Directive2015/849. The EU 4th Anti-money laundering directive clarifies the standing of the gaming industry to a large degree, and presents a number of recommendations to member states, who have until 26 June 2017 to implement these requirements into their laws. With the release of this directive on June 26, 2015, it is more vital than ever before to ensure that you are compliant with the various antimoney laundering regulations, laws and requirements. Therefore, having a robust Anti-money laundering strategy for your company is a necessary requirement and such a strategy has several key aspects, of which staff training is a vital part. While many member states and gaming regulators already incorporate many of the requirements, we can expect to see some amendments to regulations and laws for the Gaming industry in regards to anti-money laundering over the next 2 years. It is also a safe assumption that an increase in enforcement can be expected from the MGA, especially following the license suspensions of July, 2015 of several operators in relation to money laundering arrests made by the Italian authorities. The FIAU’s [Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit] Implementing procedures, Part I, are an excellent starting point in designing your strategy, and provide valuable insight into the expected approach. While Part II of the Implementing procedures is in progress for several sectors, there is still no section planned specifically for the iGaming sector. Creating and implementing a companywide anti-money laundering program may become an enforceable requirement, and will require advance planning to execute
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successfully. As we are all aware, compliance related issues can often come up at a moment’s notice, and may be disruptive to the operational and commercial aspects of our business. Therefore, taking a pro-active approach the planning and implementation of AML strategies, policies and other requirements will greatly benefit your organization in the long run. While there may have been some questions regarding the requirements of compliance for iGaming operators in the past, the 4th Directive effectively removes the main concerns, which include such examples as: • iGaming operators, as providers of gambling services are obliged entities. • Therefore, subject to all requirements of obliged entities, or as specified. • As an obliged entity, an annual compliance report must be filed with the FIAU • The submission date may be subject to interpretation depending on whether the ‘providers of gambling services’ will be grouped with Casinos – 30th of April every year – or with ‘other categories of non-financial subject persons’ – 31st of May every year. •Due diligence must be conducted in the event of occasional transactions in the amount of €2,000, whether carried out in a single transaction or several transactions. • In the event where this due diligence, verifying the identity of the customer has not been conducted for other reasons previously, this will indicate the checkpoint at the lifetime total of €2,000 on the account. • An AML program, including policies, training, record keeping, on-going monitoring and risk assessments to determine the level of due diligence is likely to become a factor for review by the relevant competent authority. Other considerations There are certain parts of the directive which may cause concern to operators licensed under the MGA. The impact of these issues on the industry will depend on the interpretation by Maltese law makers, and any amendments made to the Remote Gaming Regulations.
AML | SiGMA
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www.igacademy.com The 2 examples below could have wide spread impact on the industry, depending on the final implementation approach: • Section 2, Article 45 (3): • In the case of credit and financial institutions and providers of gambling services, competent authorities shall have enhanced supervisory powers, notably the possibility to conduct on-site inspections. Will the MGA remain the competent authority for the industry, and will AML-audits become the norm? • Recommendation (13) of the Proposal preceding the directive: • In order to mitigate the risks related to the sector and to provide parity amongst the providers of gambling services, an obligation for all providers of gambling services to conduct customer due diligence for single transactions of EUR 2000 or more should be laid down. Member States should consider applying this threshold to the collection of winnings as well as wagering a stake. Most European regulators already address the potential of this recommendation by requiring a registration process that includes the verification of identity prior to any deposits being accepted or bets being placed. Should the MGA choose to go in a similar direction, or even just extend the €2 000 amount to include lifetime deposit amounts, operators will have to review their current KYC procedures, especially in regards to the processing and verification of documentation. Risk based approach and strategy The 4th directive has also placed an increased emphasis on the risk based approach to deciding the level of due diligence required on customers and business partners/ suppliers.
These requirements or equivalent requirements will need to form a part of an Anti-Money laundering strategy, whether the jurisdiction in which the company is licensed or registered in Malta, UK, US or any other EU member state. In conclusion, while there is still no clear central standard or single application of these requirements for the iGaming industry, we may see a more homogenous approach from the regulators following the release and implementation of the 4th EU Anti-money laundering directive. As a Senior Consultant with the iGaming Academy, Wendy is a leading adviser to gaming companies on the delivery of critical and complex learning initiatives covering topics such as Anti-Money Laundering, Customer Due Diligence and Fraud Prevention.
About the iGaming Academy The iGaming Academy is a leading training provider to the lotteries and gambling industry. We deliver a wide range of training solutions that support personal, professional and regulatory requirements of companies. Our portfolio of face-to-face and online training programmes include topics such as AML, Responsible Gambling, introduction to iGaming and sportsbook, Online Casino Management, Anti-Fraud & Payments Handling, Social Media Marketing, PCI DSS Compliance and many more. Many leading gaming companies with thousands of employees trust us to implement their most critical and complex learning and strategic communication initiatives.
Some other requirements that must be included in a complete AML strategy include: • Assigning an MLRO [Money Laundering Reporting Officer] fitting the FIAU’s profile requirements for this role. • Staff training that covers an awareness of the provisions of the directive, recognition of potential money laundering activities and how to proceed in such a case. • Having a Suspicion Action/transaction reporting procedure to be followed internally which will ensure that the necessary reports are made to the relevant FIU. • Appropriate due diligence measures on the identification of customers, partners, suppliers etc. • A special emphasis on the identification of UBO’s (Ultimate Beneficial owners) • Having a clearly defined Customer Acceptance Policy 051
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Interview | SiGMA
JONAS INTERVIEW WITH
Cederholm
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SiGMA | Interview
How did you begin your journey into affiliation and what was the driving force behind it? I’ve always been interested in online marketing and started my career within igaming more than 10 years ago. I started as a poker player and quite quickly found my way into online poker affiliation. I think the industry and the products were interesting and online gaming was an untapped business for many.
“Starting up your own company is exciting but also stressful from time to time. It requires your full commitment and focus. ” What was the hardest part about setting up your affiliate company from scratch? Starting up your own company is exciting but also stressful from time to time. It requires your full commitment and focus. Five years ago, when we started Game Lounge, there were already many great affiliates in the market and the competition was tough. I think the hardest part was not to set up the company, but more of growing it and deciding on its strategic direction. What are the main challenges you faced during the early years? We were one of the first Scandinavian online gaming affiliates to focus on brand building through mediabuying. In the beginning we did not get much support to our ideas but we kept believing in them and our strategy ended up being successful in the end. Another big challenge throughout the years has been Google and the SEO developments. What do you think was the key to the success of Game Lounge? We’ve always been proud of what we do and humble for what we have achieved. The competition is fierce and we 056
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acknowledge that. I think the combination of being proud, humble but even a bit paranoid for the competition is a good mix for success. But believing in what you do is the most important ingredient. You were recently acquired by Cherry Group. How did you decide it was the right time to go ahead with the sale? It was the perfect timing. Game Lounge had been growing rapidly and we had been discussing about starting our own whitelabel for quite some time. Our strength within SEO and affiliation and Cherry’s long experience with running online casinos felt like a good match. For us it was also important to be able to continue working with what we know best. Maintaining 49% ownership of our company was a cruicial part of the deal. How did you find the experience being acquired and do you have any advice for companies in the same position? Really think it through. What are the reasons why you want to sell and what would you want to do after the sales? It is important not to rush into something this life changing. Once you have made the decision to sell, find an advisor or a mentor who has been in a similar situation and can help you with taking right decisions. How has your role in the company changed since the acquisition? Not much. We continue working as a team, striving towards common goals. What does the future look like for Game Lounge? We will continue to grow organically and through acquisitions. Our focus will remain on producing top quality content to our readers and to send high value traffic to our partners. We will also be employing new talents to our growing team in Malta.
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Gamification | SiGMA
Catchphrase: Gamification By Russell Mifsud
What is Gamification? By the age of 21, a typical young American would have spent around 10,000 hours playing computer and video games. As writer Malcolm Gladwell has famously suggested, people who practice a skill for 10,000 hours by that age are likely to become expert at it. So it is easy to understand why airlines, armies and healthcare providers are using game mechanics to engage with people in new, more efficient and effective ways. This phenomenon is called Gamification. It is growing in appeal as it continues to ride the wave of the digital sector. It is a strategic tool used by businesses to help create unprecedented engagement with customers and employees and is expected to play as crucial a role in transforming internal processes, behaviour and organisational outcomes, as social media has had in revitalising customer interaction. The science of motivation highlights how extrinsic and intrinsic rewards affect our behaviour. Extrinsic rewards provide a short term boost but are not sufficient to sustain engagement. Gamification, in contrast, uses intrinsic rewards. It sustains engagement as it involves people at an emotional level, whilst extrinsic rewards motivate people on a transactional level, which strives to leverage people’s natural desires for competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, and closure.
At its core, Gamification is a marketing tool. It is a combination of gamified design leverages, smart loyalty programs and behavioural economics. It is essentially the process of taking all the fun things out of games and applying them to areas of life that are not primarily game-related. Take the Volkswagen team who transformed the stairs of a Stockholm subway into a giant functioning piano keyboard. The aim was to encourage commuters to exercise more by making climbing the stairs a note-worthy experience. The car company noted a 66% increase in people choosing to use the musical stairs over the escalator. ‘Fun can obviously change behaviour for the better,’ a VW spokesman said. Gamification is increasingly being used as a tool in business, education and social media to better engage clientele, build up loyalty, spur on innovation and as a means of tapping into the capabilities of a changing workforce. Gartner predicted that by 2015, 40 percent of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations. In fact, the gamification market is expected to grow from €1.7 Billion in 2015 to €4.8 Billion by 2018. Besides the obvious solutions offered, gamification can potentially reap significant ROI, alongside the evident solutions that Gamification offers the Remote Gaming sector. It is apparent that few operators are fully embracing Gamification’s potential. When we look at the recent industry happenings within the Gambling sector, which have translated into heavy hits on bottom lines, the need to roll out effective strategies to effectively cut through the consolidated noise and create a work ethos that performs at optimal heights, is imminent.
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SiGMA | Gamification
Why is it relevant? Your business success is dependent on how well you can capture and maintain your market’s attention, in tandem with the input and enthusiasm that is derived from your internal workforce. As a result of a series of changes in technology, demographics and the economy as a whole, organisations are increasingly turning to play and games as a way of radically reinventing themselves. Global giants such as Sony, Cisco and Google are strategically aligning themselves and further investing in the art of Gamification. Consumer brands like Nike+ use gamified feedback to drive over five million players to beat their personal fitness goals every day of the year. Casino operators such as Casumo, Casino Saga and Casino Room are successfully using gamification to help drive engagement in the marketplace and tap into the mindset of the new generation of millennials. It has been predicted by Gartner and Research that by the end of 2015, more than 50% of corporations will be gamified. ‘Millennials’ is the term coined for the generation that reached adulthood by the year of the millennium and beyond. This generation has been brought up in a different world compared to its predecessors. Millennials have a unique worldview, shaped by a modern socialisation influence, through the technologies that have become ever more prevalent in our rapidly evolving world. Millennials have been brought up in the era of game consoles and rapid game development. Research conducted on millennials has backed up the theories that they have higher expectations from life itself. They are considered to be more optimistic, are better able to make sense of matters of chaos, but, generally, have a shorter attention span. They require close supervision and constant feedback, reassurance and praise. The millennial world has come to expect additional means of being rewarded and unless classic business models are adapted to meet these growing expectations, then this may likely underutilise its evolving workforce and capture brand loyalty. A survey by Right Management, the talent and management subdivision of the staffing behemoth Manpowergroup, suggests that worker disaffection is looming and growing. Managers in the USA have confessed that over 50 % of the workforce are not content with their current jobs. Ongoing studies suggest that there is an accelerating decline in satisfaction and engagement since the global financial crisis of 2008.
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Identifying the traits that make up your organisation’s marketplace and workforce and tailoring a structure to cater for your target market characteristics, will help provide an organisation with a strategic tool, to further drive performance, satisfaction, loyalty, recruitment, efficacy and innovation. The use of gamification helps facilitate the connection between employee motivation and company success – it changes how we think about managing people and how we think about our own performance. Gamification for loyalty purposes Gaming operators have begun to shift from an aggressive acquisition strategy to one that is more focused on customer retention. The lack of player loyalty that often looms above online casino offerings is an obstacle that is well understood. Using Gamification to add to the experience of a player journey can psychologically provide players with the feeling that their presence alongside the brand is part of a bigger picture that carries more significance. This is one way that gamified operators have emotionally captivated their audience and entice interest: what’s going to happen next? Take Casumo’s Casino Adventure along with their Casumo character, where time and energy are invested into progressing through the immersive narrative; levelling up, winning trophies and collecting items, all whilst bringing a sense of purpose that runs in parallel to that of their casino offering. The Casumo team have managed to engage their audience to create a more meaningful experience for the player that goes beyond being solely a platform for gambling. Take another gamified example that can be used in conjunction with data analytics from a sportsbook perspective. An operator may wish to pack in a punch by developing innovative solutions to cradle and reward player loyalty. Rather than offering costly reload bonuses to regular bettors, having punters level up into a threshold that will automatically reward the player with better odds, than a less active punter or new sign up would be provided with straight off the cuff. You are rewarding loyalty through an innovative means, whilst also compelling your player to stick around. It will help deter a regular bettor from seeking short term gains through a bonus hunt across the competition. Offering an individual a sense of purpose and recognised importance are two of the strongest intrinsic motivators that the human mind is hard coded to embrace. Successfully tapping into the behavioral economics of your target audiences’ mind, is a sure way to increase loyalty levels.
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Gamification for training and innovation Engagement matters because it predicts superior outcomes. The Future Strategy Group (FSG) state that “games bring the competitive landscape to life.” The more realistic a scenario feels to the participants, the better it will perform. Studies have proved that increased game playing is strongly correlated to improved performance in the health industry. A study conducted by Dr James Rosser from Beth Israel Hospital, concluded that the top one third of game-playing surgeons made 47% fewer errors and performed 31% faster on a test of their laparoscopic skills. Gamification is currently flourishing in the educational sphere as it taps into the mindset of the generation using well thought-out game mechanics and a well-defined strategy. In fact, the medical industry has taken to applied games (a serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment) to help train students through simulated surgeries. However, serious games are not necessarily just used for in-house purposes, they can also be used to tap into the global capabilities of gamers, such as in the serious game called ‘Fold it’. The purpose of this game was to offer regular gamers the opportunity to solve a ‘puzzle’ that had stumped doctors for the past 15 years. Scientists had unsuccessfully been trying to find a way to maximise the surface area of an Aids virus protein structure. ‘Fold it’ was created to provide players over the internet, with basic but realistic building blocks, to try and solve the ‘puzzle’. Within ten days, a gamer, who was not from the medical profession, was able to solve the puzzle and find a solution to the 15 year old study. Gamification for the Recruitment process Gamification could set your organisation apart in the eyes of the (available) talent pool, by making the recruitment process more thrilling and inventive. It may also prove to be a means of upping the quality of the applicants that apply for the opening in the first place. This can be done by embedding smart game mechanics to screen applicants’ input, which will be in the form of measurable game progression. Many organisations are taking advantage of gamified means of spurring on job applicants. Take KPMG UK who wanted to stand out from the crowd when offering summer internships to students’. A platform called ‘Race the World in 80 Days’ was created to engage players to compete and circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon in the quickest time, having successfully completing 10 challenges along the way. The best performer (which was reflected by score) was awarded the internship, along with a thousand pound travel voucher. There are countless ways to take advantage of the digital sector’s reach, but one gamified recruitment idea, that is thought to be one of the smartest means of innovatively engaging an audience, was with Google back in 2004. Google booked a billboard out in Silicon Valley. The billboard was blank, with no mention of the Google brand, instead there was the following message: {first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com. This is not an easy answer to decipher, but it tapped into the psychological mind of engineers and mathematicians and subconsciously challenged potential candidates to rise to the challenge. Upon successfully solving the puzzle and following through to the URL page, they were then faced with yet another mathematical conundrum. If the candidate cracked the code once more, they were directed to Google Labs webpage and
Gamification | SiGMA
were presented with the following message “one thing we learned while building Google is that it’s easier to find what you’re looking for, if it comes looking for you. What we’re looking for are the best engineers in the world. And here you are.” Google was successfully able to source a pool of clearly competent candidates by differentiating itself from the standard recruitment processes and by subconsciously motivating its target audience to complete the challenge. Google also saved on the commissions that would otherwise have been passed on to recruitment agencies. (The answer is 7427466391.com, in case you were wondering!). Gamifying the Recruitment and Learning and Development departments is becoming increasingly more enterprise class. It is changing the nature of performance management – it changes how we think about managing people and how we think about our own performance. Gamification for Acquisition purposes Competition in the remote gaming industry is rife. Winning over your audiences’ attention is crucial to securing your acquisition strategy. Your brand image is key to cutting through the noise; make it fun and gamify it. Be social to the core and incorporate surprise and delight throughout. If you have a story, then tell it! These are brand traits that will help captivate your market. Take Casumo’s mission to eradicate boredom where they humanised their objectives in the marketplace to the extent that gamblers and non-gamblers alike are able to relate to the cause. As a result, the social aspect kicked in and people began to talk about the brand, thus giving a sense of purpose. ‘48% of Finnish people think that aquarium fish are the most boring pets – let’s change that’ was another campaign that took place over a one day live event, where Casumo put a charismatic goldfish into an aquarium and gave Finland the opportunity to give him a voice and conscience. People from all over the country could type in what they wanted the goldfish to say or think over social media, by sending through scripts directly to the aquarium and using the hashtag #tuhoatylsyys. Casumo experienced a 220% increase in customer acquisition - keeping content fresh is the means to monetising loyalty. Conclusion The gambling sector is an ideal test bed to capitalise on gamification’s potential. By bringing in the fun and social aspects of games and branding into gambling, then that may also help realign stances towards the social gaming aspect, which has yet to prove to be a long-term area of interest for the sector. While gamification may seem edgy or complex today, no doubt there are already pockets of expertise inside your organisation that are using or thinking about using gamification. What they need in order to drive the company to the next level is a clear strategy that makes engagement a priority. By seeing the potential of gamification today, your vision will help your organisation adapt to a future in which fun and engagement are no longer considered a competitive advantage, but an effective standard. From automobiles to finance, entertainment to education, the number of industries experiencing a tectonic shift is underway – driven by social, mobile, and game like technologies – is immense.
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Event | SiGMA
Sports, Trust & Knowledge â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Joint Company Launch SBTech, Quinton Trust and iGaming Academy will be hosting the first joint iGaming Launch in Malta at The Villa, Main Street, Balluta Bay, St. Julianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, on Wednesday, 11th November, starting at 18:30. This event presents a new opportunities to learn from some of the leading operators and service providers on the island as well as an excellent networking occasion. The event is FREE of charge and food and drinks will be served throughout the evening.
How to book There is no charge for attendance but you must have a confirmed reservation in order to attend. To register for a place, please visit www.igamingacademynews.com/events.
Sponsors:
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Data Centre | SiGMA
A surge in cloud-based technology in Malta
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Eman Pulis caught up with Anton Cristina at CSL’s modern company offices, located off a busy thoroughfare in Birkirkara, to ask him what he thinks of the cloud computing revolution, the main advantages it offers to forward-thinking organisations, and how it has revolutionised the workplace in Malta and abroad.
It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to chat with an entrepreneur and business leader who, after over a decade travelling around the world working for IBM, returns to Malta in the midst of the worst economic crisis the world has experienced in recent times, only to transform a lossmaking garage into a cutting-edge data services provider that turns over $10 million every year. That’s exactly the story of SiGMA15 speaker Anton Cristina, owner and executive director at CSL, who took over the existing business in October 2008 and over the past six years tripled its head count, multiplied its revenues, and built a client base of 100+ companies in the Gaming and Financial Services sectors. What is your perception of the take-up of cloud services in Malta? “The speed at which companies are changing and transforming their way of thinking and adoption of new business models is unprecedented in Malta. Five years ago, the market doubted the Cloud as the local market has a tendency of being very cautious in embracing change. Having said that, with Millennials entering the workforce and 066
taking leadership roles within business, we are seeing an accelerated rate of adoption of cloud computing. Millennials are changing and transforming the Maltese economy as they want services to be faster, better and cheaper, and presented to them in a simple way. “Millennials do not over-complicate or over-analyse things— they want to work fast and be able to do more during their lifetime, and they understand that cloud computing can help them achieve this.” What are the main advantages that cloud services offer to organisations that measure productivity against the bottom line with a focus on control, security and costs? “Work from anywhere, anytime,” is Anton Cristina’s simple, mantra-like answer, quoting the title of a recent Forbes article about the benefits of flexible working arrangements. He elaborates further, “The sense of adventure that characterises Millennials has created millions of want-tobe Magellan’s who are excited to learn more about other cultures through travel without sacrificing their jobs. This new generation of business leaders don’t want the experience of traveling to be hindered by their bank accounts. Their goal in
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Data Centre | SiGMA
life is to maximize the time one is able to spend in their lives with their loved ones. Cloud-based technology is giving us all an opportunity to achieve these goals.
“Customers today want things faster, better, cheaper, and our model delivers exactly that” “Looking beyond our personal goals, there are great benefits for the organizations we serve in having this kind of flexibility. Not only does it create higher levels of engagement, it increases productivity as well. Everyone has moments during the day where their focus is at its peak. There are a few hours in the day where you’re coming up with your best ideas, and your efficiency then is absolutely insane. Having the ability to access our resources from anywhere gives us the ability to take advantage of these ‘pockets of efficiency’.” Cristina reels off three more reasons why organisations find cloud solutions so appealing: “More than 50% of information technology will be cloud-based within 5–10 years. Moreover, companies save money on infrastructure costs, software licenses, technical support and system management by moving to the cloud, and—more significantly—they gain speed. Finally, the cloud computing industry has grown from $46 billion to over $150 billion from 2008–2014, and here in Malta we are seeing an upward trend in cloud services adoption, which is changing the way we work and live.”
the big players. Besides being more affordable, we also provide technical support to our customers during the onboarding stage and steady-state stage, whereas Big Cloud Players simply provide a portal through which customers can access the VMs and then they have to set up everything themselves. “Also, our billing model is easy to understand and keeps customers in control of their monthly charge and its content, plus their data is stored here in Malta, at our data centre, so our customers know exactly where the data resides and that is in the Maltese jurisdiction, which is governed by Maltese law and offers them quicker and easier access.” Anton Cristina will share his insights and experiences from 15 years working in the IT industry about how technology continues to change the face of the iGaming industry at SiGMA15. Book your ticket online to Malta’s largest iGaming show.
As a local company that offers cloud services, how do you compete against bigger players such as IBM Softlayer, AWS, and Microsoft Azure? “Customers today want things faster, better, cheaper, and our model delivers exactly that,” Cristina affirms. “Three years ago I restructured the business, took over a 2,000 m2 building, and built three modular N+1 Carrier Neutral Data Centres, through which I created a private cloud services model and a shared cloud services model that I had baptised Project Laya, after my daughter. “Today, ProjectLaya hosts 200+ VPSs and 2,000+ Hosted Exchange mailboxes at rates that are 25% cheaper than
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issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Fundamentals | SiGMA
THE Ten Fundamentals for a Successful Online Sportsbook Operator
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SiGMA | Fundamentals
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Industry trends are created and adapted through various success stories and global developments. In recent years, Online Sportsbooks have become globally renowned and highly competitive within the Gaming Industry. Today’s state-of-the-art technologies and resourceful tools, enable sportsbook operators to be innovative and unique with their offering. goes hand-in-hand with in-play betting and with micromarkets; the excitement of placing a bet on what will happen in the upcoming minute and then watching it as it happens. 4. Cash-in on Cash-out Cashout, in all its variations, is important mainly due to the fact that it increases turnover as it multiplies the amount of time funds are being ‘rolled’. Cashout also acts as a ‘stop loss’ for potential losing bets as well as allowing the punter to cash his winnings to reduce risk; the punter is more comfortable placing bets due to the option of changing a betting strategy depending on the developments of an event. Partial cash-out allows the punter to feel more secure and loose with their bets. If the punter regrets his betting decision, according to the development of the match/event, the partial cash-out enables the punter to retract his bet.
While strict regulations and restrictions within the Online Gaming Industry create various challenges and obstacles that make it difficult to become a successful Online Sportsbook Operator, with the right tools, knowledge, dedication and ongoing developments, success as an Online Sportsbook Operator can be achieved. In order to further enhance the customer experience and succeed as an Online Sportsbook Operator, one must consider the ‘must–have’ elements and the innovations to expect in the future: 1. Enhance Your Offering Given the dynamic nature of in-play betting it is important to offer a wide variety of in-play events with a large selection of bet markets; catering to customers preferences worldwide. By strategically arranging the order of each bet market and placing what is most relevant for the punter at the top, creating an easy and quick page navigation. The more in-play events you will offer, the more turnover you will generate. 2. Settle All Bet Markets Immediately In both pre-match and in-play betting, all of your bets should be settled up to three minutes after each goal, set, quarter, period, half, etc. Settling all bet markets and pay-outs immediately encourages the customer to continue betting the winning trend. 3. Live The Live Game – Micro Markets & Live Streaming Micro-Markets, also known as Fast-Markets, are today’s most exciting bet markets which create a new thrill for the punter minute by minute- ‘You live the live game’. These bet markets are considered ‘quick bets’ – bets made during a live event i.e. betting on who will get the next corner kick in a soccer match or whether the next serve in tennis will be an ace. As the results are immediate, the game becomes more exciting for the user and their betting pattern will increase. The punter will increase the rollover of his funds per session as he is betting throughout the entire 90 minutes of the game while enjoying the game on the live streaming box (aside from being a great acquisition tool). Live Streaming 070
5. Be ahead of the curve – eSports & More Innovation introduces many exciting additional trends. Betting on non-traditional sports are becoming popular and will continue to get bigger in the future i.e. TV shows, Political Campaigns as well as eSports. eSport betting is betting on video gaming competitions- a very popular and growing trend within the Asian Market. 6. Trade Your Events 24/7 Although you might use a lot of bookmaking automation– the value of live qualified traders/bookmakers at all times is immense. Traders who hold the know-hows and knowledge to make the best real time fast decisions in regards to in-play trading, can analyze customers, monitor operations, manually oversee bets and submit customized counter offers. The more you invest in live trading the more you will increase your margins. 7. Don’t Block Your Customers - Analyze & Execute Custom Limitations Like every operator you will encounter ‘Bad’ punters – the customers which are constantly winning through various
Fundamentals | SiGMA
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ways of ‘cheating’ the system. Majority of online sportsbooks block these player or limit them to £5 per bet across the sportsbook. The more efficient and correct way to handle these players is to analyze them as well as their betting patterns and develop a custom tailored strategy for intelligent limitations/ restrictions for example - If a punter is betting on fixed matches you might want to block him on certain leagues in Eastern Europe but you should permit him to bet on Chelsea as he wishes. Another example- If a punter is betting immediately on the goal (a mobile bet from a punter in the stadium) then you should increase his approved waiting time and not limit his amounts. Same applies for arbitragers, movement punters, etc. 8. Factor your Risk Risk management is a major factor and should be highly measured. Even with strong bookmaking automation, the value of live qualified traders/bookmakers is immense. It is more valuable and efficient to analyze and execute customer limitations/restrictions than to block customers; of course taking into consideration all customer playing behaviors.
TOM JOHN LIGHT Biography
If a ‘Recreational Player’ will place a bet of 1,000 EUR on a certain selection it will move the odds by 0.1%, while if a ‘Professional Player’ will place the same 1,000 EUR on the same selection it will move the odds by 0.5%.
Tom John Light was born and presently resides in Tel Aviv, Israel. Tom has lived and traveled worldwide and is highly knowledgeable and experienced working in various global regions.
Traders who acquire the ‘know-hows’ and knowledge in making real-time quick and accurate decisions, in regards to in-play trading, can skillfully analyze customers, monitor operations, manually oversee bets and submit customized counter offers; margins will increase with more time invested in live trading. 9. Look at the World from an Omni-Channel View Invest in creating a harmonic experience across web, mobile, tablet & retail. Today, in-play betting platforms are available for punters wherever they are; sitting on the sofa watching a game on TV or watching the game at a bar with some friends – just one click on the mobile and the bet is placed. The second screen coincides with our fast paced world; ability to place bets anywhere at any time. Second screen betting has become widely accepted worldwide. While the combination of mobile and in-play betting creates a new betting experience, both mobile and in-play betting allow punters to place bets immediately and from any location. The act of mobility creates a more interactive user
Tom has been working in the gaming industry for many years with a focus on casino operations and sports betting. Currently Tom acts as Head of International Business Development at SBTech. He is renowned for his role as Vice President of Business Development at FashionTV. Additionally Tom has successfully served as CEO for several online gaming companies such as 7Red Casino and 1King Casino.
experience as punters feel that they are part of the live game. On the retail front, through premium and state-of-theart features the players experience is enhanced: • • • •
Premium sports products created specifically for betting shops/kiosk requirements. Advanced agent and betting shop systems. TV screen management applications. Single account through online, mobile and retail; via a single platform.
10. Factor your Risk The number of operators who believe in the single-product approach is dramatically decreasing. Even brands who are completely branded as a sportsbook, such as Bet365, understand the value of crossing product verticals. Adding various RNG offers to your sportsbook will allow you to maximize player value and ‘milk’ more lifetime GGR by using side games, wallet2wallet or seamless integrated casino products and various RNG products as well as allow you to increase acquisition streams for non-sports players. On the Casino operators side, adding a sportsbook product will enable them to develop a stream of cost effective acquisitions with CPA costs lower by over 50% while having a great ‘hook’ for the marketing team.
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Webmaster | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
The Game is Changing
Don’t hate the player, hate the game John Wright talks to SiGMA about a number of pertinent topics; from old school SEO to change in technologies, need for speed, user experience design, hacking and security as well as emerging tools and resources. The article targets not only affiliates, but also operators, who can take away just as much information and apply it to their marketing plans. Being a webmaster means you are someone whom has to work hard and live in a constant state of change. You are the person your friends go to for advice on the latest trends for the changes in technology and for being the go to person for ranking a website. That said, it is also quite possible to spend your entire day doing research on all of these changes, trying them all and not really making much progress either. This information overload is what stops a lot of people from starting their own website and in other cases it intimidates other webmasters that are not sure they can keep up with the change. The people that were top of the affiliate game 10 years ago are not the same people that are #1 today. There may be a few exceptions but most would agree that some of the older sites that have been around for a long time are starting to fade away while some of the newer ones have been able to push through. In the past 5 years there have been so many changes that webmasters have had to react to that it could be the things that make a webmaster sink or swim. Renee Mate from Rewards Affiliates “I’ve been at Rewards Affiliates since 2005 and I’ve seen a huge mix of things in terms of which affiliates come and go. A few years after starting here there
were sites like LCB and Ask Gamblers who started from scratch and have gone from strength to strength. Small penalties might take them a few steps back but they always manage to get back on their feet and come back stronger than ever.” In the past 5 years, webmasters have had to endure: • Social Media • Mobile Phone • Numerous changes in Google’s algorithm Social Media Social media sites are some of the most visited in the world and are starting to make Google look small in comparison. Social media represents another way to collect followers to retain traffic, it represents another way to pull in more traffic. Most webmasters to date probably couldn’t answer how social media helps them and if it is worth the effort. Mobile Phones In the next few years, about 2 billion people will have smartphones around the world. There are many affiliate sites out there that are not responsive design at all or have any form of mobile experience for their users. If that wasn’t enough, mobilegeddon hit this spring as this 073
SiGMA | Webmaster
year Google warned webmasters they would give less traffic to sites that were not mobile ready. Google’s changes in algorithm You really should know your Pandas and Penguins by now as Google has unleashed a constant barrage of updates to their algorithm where many webmasters were simply getting shaken down for their traffic. The changes certainly did kill off many websites where the webmaster was content with the traffic and income previously but couldn’t overcome the losses after the fact. In short Your Panda updates targeted low quality content and duplicate content while Penguin targeted your link building. What worked 5 years ago for easy rankings definitely doesn’t work today. That leads us to our next topic of Old School SEO where webmasters are really struggling to adapt to a new environment and a new set of rules. Old School SEO The changes listed previously in Google’s algorithm really highlight where a lot of webmasters are really struggling today and in many cases are fading very fast. They struggle to understand the things that matter in SEO today which is what Google has been trying to push for many years, a focus on quality. If you are dealing with an SEO company that is trying to help, you’ll run into companies that are too focused on SEO where the SEO game has really changed a lot over the past few years. In the book called Driven, written by Robert Herjavec whom is a very successful businessman and is a regular on the hit show Shark Tank, his quote on consultants should resonate with a lot of webmasters:
“If the consultants are so adept at suggesting how to run your business, why aren’t they running one like it?” In my experience it is rare for me to hear sound solid advice from an SEO consultant. Quite often you’ll have someone with a website looking for an SEO to just find a way to turn things around and pay for it. What an SEO doesn’t want to do is to tell someone their entire website is shit and should be fully rebuilt or that it will take a year to recover. It is tough to make a living doing this. Times are changing If you focus too hard on SEO, you are going to struggle to find your way in a very competitive environment. For years Google has been screaming the word quality over and over again through all of their algorithm updates. Of course you need to always consider SEO when creating a website and growing it, but there are limitations. At the end of the day if you are focusing on quality content, making a quality website and focusing on your user then you are on the right path. Of course quality links as well are part of that equation. When you focus on quality and providing a good user experience and quality product or service, often you’ll find these Google algorithm updates don’t affect you at all and if they do, often it’s done in a positive way where you gain more search traffic as the expense of the low quality sites that are getting pushed down. The Need for Speed Having a very fast loading website is important for many reasons: • Google likes to reward fast loading websites • Faster loading means a lower bounce rate, retaining more traffic This is the technology side of things webmasters will need to focus on more. If your site takes longer to load, this is 074
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automatically costing you conversions. There are plenty of case studies showing the correlation between conversion rate & sales versus site speed. One example is Amazon losing sales by 1% for every 100ms delay on site speed. You don’t need more case studies to understand the logic behind it. Google does after all have their PageSpeed Tools as a means to assess your site’s performance and it gives back recommendations on how to improve your speed. This is of course one of my tests you can do and it’s important to know how fast (or slow) your site is and to identify ways you can make improvements on the load times. For the PageSpeed Tools you can visit them here: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/?hl=en In terms of how much would google reward your site for being fast, this is something Google has addressed at times over the years but in general state that a slow loading site would have a hard time getting ranked well. That said on a mobile device where page speed is going to be important, you’ll want a fast loading site let alone that it is mobile friendly. Change in Technologies Of course technology is changing all the time but I’m not so sure who’s ready or willing to change and adapt. Some of the early online gaming companies that started off 20 years ago used the programming languages and databases they had available at the time, not to mention the marketplace for programmers. In the past 10 years, some newer gaming companies have emerged where they used technology to their advantage. Using PHP and MySQL as a common denominator, this was the language and database of choice that started to appear everywhere and at one point PHP was like a sign you were ahead of the times where sites using ASP for example were slower and older. As of January 2013, PHP was used on 240 million websites and on 2.1 million web servers. No doubt PHP is still to have a long shelf life but for how long. PHP and MySQL were released in 1995 making them 20 years old. This combination of programming language and database made them stable but for sites that grew in a viral sense, the database structure just wasn’t ready for the scalability. On top of that with the rise in the iPhone and Android in the past 6 or 7 years has also lead to the development and acceleration of programming languages and databases. A new programming language should give you the flexibility of speed and scalability. With speed, you’ll have a website, programs or apps that use less code and should run faster. On top of this is the implied benefit of security. I will quickly review some of the emerging databases and programming languages that are new on the scene and in some cases are maybe even a year old. In the world or programming, the rate of change has never been greater. Of course this doesn’t mean you should always be updating and upgrading, but if you are on one of the older technologies and setups then maybe it’s time to consider something new. Databases There are a handful of databases on the scene and I won’t get into too many technical details either. The 2 main emerging players in the scope of databases are MongoDB and Redis. MongoDB Released 2009 Is a NoSQL database system that is used by some giant companies that include ebay, craigslist and FourSquare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MongoDB
Webmaster | SiGMA
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Redis Released 2009 Is also a NoSQL database system that is used by some big companies: craigslist, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat. The standout feature and use of Redis is that the data is stored in memory which means you get the fastest speeds possible on a consistent basis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redis
that link to it including social media like Facebook. Having newer technologies could in theory help minimize your risks but that said any popular platform will always be a target of hackers and people that can find ways to exploit your website. If we use one example of a Wordpress site, it is php/ MySQL and having more plugins just gives you too many ways of getting attacked as Wordpress is just too big of a target for hackers. Emerging Tools & Resources
Best Applications for Affiliates: MongoDB is probably more than suitable for any webmaster. If you have a large forum with a lot of activity, then Redis is definitely something to consider. Best Applications for Operators: Redis all the way. Players want their games and they want them fast, especially on their mobile phones. Programming Languages Javascript might not be something new but it is a pivotal language today with man branches coming out of javascript. Node.js Released 2009 Also written as NodeJS, this is becoming one of the go to languages that connects the database to the frontend. If you start to look up NodeJS and all the MVC frameworks with languages and databases it connects to, you’ll get a bit lost if you are not familiar. MeteorJS Released 2012 Meteor is an open source javascript web application and it’s very new but gaining a lot of fans in the programming communities. Meteor is something that also might be the most suitable for operators. User Experience Design (UX) User Experience Design isn’t one of those artsy flakey jobs that should be overlooked. Quite often they can be the most important people in any company or website and the reality is there simply aren’t enough of them around. Probably any website you visit there can always be something to pick apart of something that can be improved on the user experience whether on the menu, the homepage or any page for that matter. I could have written an entire section on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) but quite often that’s fully addressed when you focus your design around the user. If you focus on one, you indirectly address the other and vice versa. While most people are chasing SEOs to fix their website and rankings, not enough are paying any attention to UX. With UX you could take the same amount of traffic you have and make improvements that would increase the pages per session of the view, average time on site and that could easily beat improving your search traffic. In a nutshell, we all want more traffic, but if you already have traffic you need to ask yourself are you getting the most out of it? Igor from AskGamblers.com says “I often hear people are saying how easily they can find information on AskGamblers, comparing to other sites. It’s because that was our main goal when we did the last redesign. It’s not all about aesthetic. It’s also about something that’s not obvious, but makes the product or website useful and understandable.” Hacking & Security I think most can understand what hacking issues can do for any website. The consequences of it can do more damage than it has done before. Your site’s search traffic can be greatly affected by this and if your site has harmful files on it then it can be blocked more than just Google but other sites
Forum Softwares This area is changing very quickly and those changes are a result of the new technologies in place. For some webmasters, the forum is all of their content and the existence of their site. I think it won’t be long before these new forum softwares start to become more prominent. For some webmasters, the thought of having to switch software, content and databases is a serious risk not to mention logistical nightmare. For people just wanting to launch their new forum, a lighter solution would probably be more appealing. At the end of the day it is all about speed and using new languages, databases and software, you’ll achieve this. Two forum softwares that are available that have a clean design and are ultra fast are NodeBB and Muut. Muut Muut uses Redis and it’s insanely fast. I can say one thing I dislike about their software as a service is the idea that you can’t properly moderate posts, that is they like this idea of permanence. muut.com NodeBB NodeBB is great because it’s open source or you can use their shared hosting solution. If you self host then the software is free and you can choose from MongoDB or Redis for your database options. The forums are very fast and have a clean design and layout. Some features that different webmasters are used to are not always there but you can develop them yourself or wait for when they become available. nodebb.org Blogging and CMS: Ghost Open source like Wordpress or use their hosted solution. Ghost uses Markdown which makes Wordpress look complicated and bloated. If you don’t know what Markdown is look it up: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=markdown. Ghost was created by the former deputy lead for the User Interface team at Wordpress. http://ghost.io Jekyll Another open source CMS that uses Markdown. http://jekyllrb.com/ Meet Your New Competition To conclude this article I’d like to highlight there will always be competition but I think there will be the next wave of gambling webmasters to come through the door. I think many of them will be experienced webmasters coming from other industries and applying their work ethic and knowledge to the business. The topics I covered from UX design to technology are the tools the competition will use to their advantage. If you are a webmaster that is new to the gaming business then you should have the right attitude that despite tough competition that anything is possible. For those that have been in the business for a while and feeling things are stagnant, then it is time to revise the business plan and assess where your site is and where you want it to go.
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Why SiGMA16? Why Malta?
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DOUBLE THE EXHIBITORS AND SPONSORS
in 2015
from
55 in 2014
2,750 DELEGATES
in 2015
from
1,804 in 2014
DELEGATE TYPE
38% 32%
Operator
AFFLILATE
4% MEDIA
23% SOLUTION PROVIDER
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DOUBLE THE CONFERENCES SiGMA14:
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3%
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SiGMA is the only 360° showcase in Malta that brings affiliates, operators, solution providers and regulators under one roof. Between SiGMA14 and SiGMA15, the show witnessed double the exhibitors, double the sponsors and double the conferences. To discuss opportunities for SiGMA16, call +356 77773092 or email reservations@maltaigamingsummit.com 079
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issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Interview | SiGMA
Building a casino product for female gamblers As the gaming industry matureS, we see more and more operators becoming aware of the fact that the days of simply opening an all inclusive gaming venture might be over. Segmenting and knowing your customers is a key parameter in creating a successful operation. Eman Pulis met up with Mikael Strunge of Anna Casino for a talk about his female focused casino, product development and marketing to a clear segment within the gaming industry.
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While I have many things to discuss with the managers of Power Media Group over the course of my stay in Copenhagen, my first order of business is to sit down with Mikael Strunge, who spearheads Anna Casino, for a talk about his female focused casino operation. But before we get into specifics I can’t help but ask about the geographical challenges that Anna Casino might have, seeing that the operations is based in Malta while Mikael has his base in Copenhagen.
This year I decided that it was time to visit Copenhagen for the first time and I couldn’t have timed it better. It is early August, the birds are chirping and, besides the occasional gust of wind, the weather is fantastic in the Danish capital. This morning I check in at Tivoli Hotel but quickly vacate my room in an effort to get to my meeting on time. I make my way down Copenhagen’s narrow and historic streets and find myself surrounded by a mixture of trendy cafés, 18th century houses, modern architecture and flashy restaurants. I reach Rosenborg Castle and the Kings Garden and admire the historic landscape for a while before I make a left turn down Nørre Voldgade. Around one hundred meters and endless attempts at pronouncing the street name correctly, I locate the address, look for the Power Media Group sign and press the doorbell. I am buzzed in, enter the large door at the first floor and quickly get the feeling that I am in a classic Copenhagen office setting where old architecture meets a minimalistic Scandinavian office design. I am here to meet the Danish wing of Power Media Group, an organization that has established itself quite heavily in the gaming industry over the last couple of years. Power Media Group is originally a classic media company/agency, focusing on tailoring marketing plans for a wide variety of customers and I am positively surprised to hear that the agency part of the company actually has over 200 active clients in their portfolio at the time of my visit. The company has, however, grown sporadically in gaming in the last two years; first as a Scandinavian affiliate, then as an affiliate network (MatchingVisions), then by becoming a trusted media agent (MatchingMarkets) and now also as an operator (drum roll... AnnaCasino!).
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“With years of experience under his belt, Eero Villikka, our Affiliate Director and COO, ensures that our Malta base runs smoothly.. Additionally that, we are blessed with extremely talented and motivated staff members, which really limits the geographical inconvenience to verbal communication, which has to be conducted over the phone. The current structure is working so well that the need for my presence at the Anna Casino office is limited to a quarterly trip and when I am there it is pretty much business as usual despite for a few extra group meetings with the team.” I want to dig deeper into the reasoning for targeting a casino towards women and it quickly becomes clear that it might not be the first time that Mikael has been asked this this question as the reply comes promptly: “It is really quite simple. A large amount of the operators in the industry integrate several products into their brands and since some of these are heavily dominated by the male audience, they can’t really target the product towards the female segment of the industry. For a long time this spot in the industry has been largely dominated by bingo operators with only a few soft focused casino operators. We felt that there was certainly room for a brand like Anna Casino in the market.” I ask bluntly if Anna Casino has been a success so far. “Yes. The birth of a gaming operation is always tricky since the small player base, the large bonus costs and the continuous re-tweaking of your product dominates and creates swings in results during the early phase. But we have exceeded our player acquisition and activity budgets and we have proceeded with parts of our business plan, which was supposed to be launched during 2016. Overall we are well satisfied with the development of the product.” I noticed that Anna Casino recently dipped their toes into the realm of TV advertising and wonder if that part of the marketing plan is among the things that got pushed from 2016 to 2015.
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Interview | SiGMA
“Yes, we felt from the start that the brand and the virtues we wanted to communicate to our customers were well suited for the TV media and we got some great offers to start up small on TV. We are planning on expanding on that effort over the course of the next six months.” Why did you feel that the Anna Casino brand was so suitable for TV? “Marketing towards women really has a lot to do with emotions and TV is just the best outlet for creating brand awareness based on emotional triggers. Our first TV campaign has quite a clear focus on male-female stereotypes: the male is upset as his favorite football team loses whilst the female is enjoying her gaming experience in her cozy space. The advert sheds light, in a humorous way, on the reasons why men and women gamble, and our goal is to incite an emotional response among the female audience.”
“We still have a large pool of male players and...definitely have a much higher percentage of female players than the average online casino.” Aren’t you afraid of alienating potential male customers with this approach? “It was indeed a concern of ours since we want to be welcoming to everyone but at the end of the day we created a setting where we hope that the males watching can have a bit of a laugh recognizing themselves in the role of the sore loser. We are also quite aware of the fact that you can’t go down the emotional path if you want to hit a wide audience. Emotional triggers only work if they are clearly directed at specific segments.” “Is Anna Casino’s player base all female?” I asked, curiously. “No, we still have a large pool of male players and that will probably never change but we definitely have a much higher percentage of female players than the average online casino.” Do you feel like you needed to build up Anna Casino in a different way than other casinos in order to service your target audience? “I wouldn’t say that Anna Casino is built up in a different way than other online casino products but we definitely put an emphasis on elements that other operators might sacrifice to achieve other goals. The most obvious example of this, in practice, is the matter of simplicity. We see quite a few casino operators creating a journey
or path for the customer. By being active in a specific way the customer can achieve a certain set of goals, which grants the customer bonuses, free spins, custom wheel of fortune spins or similar types of rewards. These elements are great marketing and retention tools but they add a level of complexity to a casino, which increase the level of involvement needed from the customer. We have constructed Anna Casino with the clear purpose of creating a gaming environment that is as easy to use as possible. Being a regular customer at Anna Casino, you can access your favorite game in a matter of seconds and we had a clear “no scroll” mantra, when we designed the casino. Unless you want to dig deep into the game portfolio, you will never need to use your scroll wheel at all. The simplicity level also shines through in our retention where we focus on promotions that are simple, to the point and easy to understand. This focus obviously has to do with the fact that we are targeting a segment within the industry that has a more casual approach to gambling.” Speaking of product build up and development, what is your take on all the new innovations being brought into the online casino industry? “I naturally think they are great. Our industry relies on the development of interesting features. Gamification, for instance is fast gaining the attention of the gambling industry as a whole. It doesn’t cost the operator much, if anything, to switch on a new cool game or add a new feature to the gaming portfolio or retention effort which creates flexibility compared to a live casino operation where a sizeable investment is needed in order to expand or renew the games on offer. This fact gives the online industry a flexibility that sparks growth and innovation on a different level and I see no reason why the online casino market shouldn’t keep pulling away from the heavier live operations in terms of continuous innovation.” I had planned more questions for Mikael but our time was running out. I had the pleasure of having dinner with Mikael and the rest of the Power Media Group management team in Copenhagen’s meat-packing district later that evening and I am definitely planning another visit to Copenhagen within the foreseeable future.
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Interview | SiGMA
Interview with
Allan BJERKAN InstaCasino and Honest Partners From landing in Malta as a customer support agent in 2010 to becoming a co-founder of InstaCasino and HonestPartners, Allan BJERKAN is living proof that talent and hard work, coupled with being in the right place at the right time, are key to success. With HonestPartners’ emphasis on friendliness, transparency, and fairness, it is not surprising that these values are same ones cherished by the people behind the enterprise. It is in this spirit that I sat down for a candid interview with Allan, where we spoke about luck and hard work in business, the importance of happiness at the workplace, and how olives are an acquired taste. Why did you choose Malta as your base for working in online gaming? Malta is the place to be when you work in online gaming. We have a Maltese license; iGamingCloud, which provides our technical solutions, is based in Malta; there is a large community of iGaming people in Malta; and, on a more private level, it is lovely to live and work on a Mediterranean island. I moved to Malta in May of 2010 and started working as a customer support agent for one of the largest betting companies. Good fortune and the right acquaintances eventually put me in a position where I could co-found InstaCasino and its affiliate program, HonestPartners. How did you go about doing that? I’m sure everyone who starts working in customer support would love to co-found an online casino.
As in everything else in life, a professional attitude and clear goals takes you a long way. I have also found that great things can happen if I surround myself with the right people. A little bit of luck doesn’t hurt either! I take it that you enjoy living in Malta then? Very much so. I love the weather, the food, the atmosphere and how international it is. I even learned to like olives! I think it is very important to enjoy the place you live. Glad to hear! Where is your office in Malta? We have an office in Ta’ Xbiex. The office is centrally placed near the marina and is close to several of our competitors. How many people work at your company? We were a total of 12 people at the time of launch and we expect to continue expanding rapidly. It seems like you put a lot of emphasis on building long-lasting working relationships based on mutual trust – hence the name HonestPartners. Is there a stigma out there among affiliates that you are trying to overcome? I wouldn’t say stigma, but there is no hiding the fact
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that there are a lot of dubious characters in the industry. My partners and I have built a very strong network over the years and we are known as hard-working trustworthy people who always produce results in lightning speed. What is your experience with affiliates? Are they hesitant to trust new brands? How important is person-to-person contact? It obviously depends on both the brand and yourself. Having worked with all the largest affiliates for several years already we have established ourselves in the affiliate market. Therefore our experiences have been overwhelmingly
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positive with regards to InstaCasino and HonestPartners. The person-to-person contact is vital to create long lasting mutually beneficial relationships. What deals do you offer to your affiliates? We are extremely flexible. We understand that people work differently and have different comfort levels. Therefore we offer CPA, hybrids, flat revenue share and fixed fees. We offer up to 40% revenue share and we have no negative carryover. Our admin fee is a reasonable 23%. Payments are made by the 10th of every month.
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Interview | SiGMA
biggest things we had to decide were our core markets and which platform to choose. For the launch we decided to focus on Norway, Sweden, Finland, Australia and Canada. The Scandinavian countries because we have a lot of experience with them and know we are able to achieve results. Australia and Canada because they both have large English-speaking populations and healthy economies. Other markets will follow in the future. The second big decision was to choose software provider. We considered them all, but after seeing IGC’s systems it wasn’t a choice at all. Their system is head and shoulders above the rest. We are very happy with their software and the level of expertise they have in their company. The people behind IGC are also former colleagues from previous companies, so we got off to a very good start. Deals were made and contracts were signed. All that was left was to find an office, hire staff, and get the casino and affiliate program live. This might sound like a lot of work—and it is—but by working smart we managed in a surprisingly short amount of time. We finally went live on September 14th 2015. In terms of the end user, what distinguishes InstaCasino from the many competitors out there? InstaCasino offers practically every casino game on the Internet, so no matter what your favourite game is, we have it. We also offer a huge first deposit bonus that is specifically designed for each of our core markets. In terms of the website itself we have put a lot of thought into usability. We have an excellent understanding of what a casino player expects and demands from an online casino, and we have provided just that. The website is intuitive, so no one will ever get lost on the site. The website guides you along smoothly from registration to deposit to play to withdrawal. When you break it down, those four steps are all that is required from an online casino. The trick is to optimize those steps. We are proud to say that we have done exactly that.
“It would be silly not to consider such options, but for the time being we will not move into these verticals. We are better off focusing on what we have and know at the moment.” When did Honest Partners and InstaCasino start? Can you take us through a journey in time, shedding light on some of the most remarkable moments, challenges and achievements in their history? The idea of HonestPartners and InstaCasino was first conceived in the summer of 2014. For a very long time, we focused exclusively on the Norwegian market since both my partners and I are Norwegian. We did very well in Norway, so we felt that the next logical step would be to go international.
Every player receives relevant bonus offers on a regular basis. Our CRM team is doing an incredible job, which the players surely appreciate, even though they don’t see the inner workings of it all. On an employee level, what makes employees stay with the company? We treat our employees like adults who are able to make their own decisions. We strive to let people use their individual skills. As long as someone can use their skills, and are paid well, we believe they will be happy within the company. E-sport, daily fantasy sport, binary; has any of these buzzwords made it to the InstaCasino boardroom yet? Are there plans to delve into these markets? We are keeping a close eye on emerging markets. It would be silly not to consider such options, but for the time being we will not move into these verticals. We are better off focusing on what we have and know at the moment. We certainly hope to catch up over a pleasant dinner during SiGMA15. What are your passions outside the office environment? How do you spend leisure time outside work? You are cordially invited to dinner with the InstaCasino team! My passions include cooking, travelling, reading, and spending time with my girlfriend.
Once the decision to go international was taken we spent a whole year researching, planning and executing. Two of the
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Employment | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
ru itme uti nt Sol
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Social Media Manager - Malta
10x Customer Support Agent – Bulgaria
Group Legal Counsel - Malta
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Account Manager – London
Head of Quants - Bucharest
Software Engineer Team Lead- Malta
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Junior PPC Exec - London
Technical Project Manager - Stockholm
Bingo Business Dev Manager –London
Junior Reporting Manager - Malta
Telebetting Agent & Settlement X 2 – Malta
Casino Campaign Coordinator –Malta
M&A Manager –Malta
Turkish Sales Executive – Malta
Casino Shift Manager – Malta
Marketing Manager – Malta
VIP Manager - London
CFO - Malta
Mobile Marketing Manager – Malta
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Contract Manager–Malta
Motion Graphic designer –Malta
CRM & Project Manager- London
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Norwegian CS Agent - Malta
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Online Marketing Manager –London
Data Analyst – Malta
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Development Manager (Asian market) – Remotely
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Product Trainer- Malta
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Interview | SiGMA
ERIK BERGMAN Dennis Dyhr-Hansen met with Catena Media’s Erik Bergman on becoming the first affiliate based in Malta to head towards public listing on the stock exchange. A lot has changed at Catena Media in the last year. Tell us a bit about what’s been going on? Yes, for sure there have been a lot of things happening. Over the last year we have more than tripled our staff, gone from one floor in the office to four floors and made a handful of acquisitions. It’s been a ride full of challenges, but so far we have managed to conquer them all.
good deals that have helped us to reinvest into growth and taking the company to new levels and new markets.
The biggest challenge has been to grow the team at the speed needed and finding the right people. There have been a few bumps in the road but the team we have now is truly amazing.
Tell us more about the success story of Catena Media; how did it happen? I would say that a lot of the success goes down to the passion that we have always had for what we were doing. We loved creating the sites and we loved everything around it. When we partnered up with Optimizer Invest we also got the high ambitions, great contacts and the business mindset needed to reach very high targets.
We’ve also been very lucky when it comes to growing within the office, after moving around a lot the past few years we finally had some great timing. Once we felt that we needed more space our downstairs neighbours moved out and then the upstairs neighbours did the same thing so we could get access to the penthouse and finally we decided to take on a second floor below just to make sure we had some space to grow into.
Together with the Optimizer team, we put together a clear plan of where we wanted to go and then we just had to get to work. We invested everything we earned into people and technology and, to be honest, we almost got our bank accounts down to zero back in 2013, before our investments finally started to pay off. That year was definitely the toughest one and there were many times I felt like giving up.
What I’ve enjoyed the most is probably all the acquisitions though. There have been a lot of hours in negotiations but we have managed to strike several
Since then however, it’s been full speed ahead! We kept reinvesting in the business and we have not been afraid to acquire our competitors in order to grow faster,
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taking on both more websites and more staff on the way. We have always been curious about finding new ways to improve the business, try to scale up what we are doing as well as always increasing the quality of our channels. So far we have managed to do this very successfully.
We have never been afraid of going for it. If we believe in something, the decision has never been far away and sometimes the project has been started the very next day. What distinguishes Catena Media from your competitors? What distinguishes us the most from our competitors is probably the team we have built and the tech focus that we have. We’ve always made sure to teach our staff as much as possible and made big efforts to make sure that they enjoy what they are doing to be willing to walk the extra mile. The tech focus has helped us to scale in the best possible way. Getting more data and better tools saves time and increases revenues in a way that I believe few of our competitors can compete with. Without the heavy tech we would never have been able to hire at the speed we have been and we would never have seen the growth that we are experiencing. We have never been afraid of going for it. If we believe in something, the decision has never been far away and sometimes the project has been started the very next day. You’ve been quite prolific in terms of acquisition of affiliates this year. Do you plan to continue this trend into 2016? Yes, we will definitely keep our eyes open moving forward. It’s likely that 2016 becomes the year where we do a couple
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of acquisitions in markets that are completely new to us. We have a business model that scales very well and a platform that makes it very easy to merge new sites and I see no reason for us to slow down now. How does it feel to see that the company you created may be going public? Of course it’s a very exciting feeling! In five years we have taken this company from nothing to heading towards a big IPO without even raising any capital. Not many companies have ever done that before and that’s something I’m very proud of. Still, it feels a bit weird as well, we have always been very agile towards any changes and the time frame from idea to decision has been very short. In a public environment everything will take a bit more time and there will be a lot more things to consider with every decision. We will see how this will affect everything and I’m thrilled at where we are heading! You recently hired a new CEO for the company, how has that worked out for you? Yes, last Fall I started feeling that I couldn’t do everything anymore. There were too many balls flying around and I needed help to gather them. My passion was with the product and I was quite a young and inexperienced CEO, so I figured the best way forward was to hire someone to come in and take over the steering wheel. The process started sometime around Christmas and we received a surprising amount of really good candidates. Robert Andersson was the perfect guy for the job and he started in May. He had a great background as CEO of the Stockholm based digital marketing agency, River, with a strong focus on project management and high quality; exactly what we needed. He has taken a big part of my workload but I’m still involved with a lot of different things and I guess I haven’t really managed to let go. I love what I’m doing and this company is still my little baby. However, we get a long great, we have learned a lot from each other and I’m sure that we are the perfect team to take this company forward to new heights! What’s next for Catena Media? There are plenty of things in the pipeline right now. Of course one of the things is the IPO we are preparing for, but if we look ahead of that, our next big thing is what we refer to as Affiliate 2.0. This project is something that we are investing a lot of time in tech resources and is something that we truly believe will revolutionize the industry. It will probably take us at least another twelve months to get everything sorted, but it feels very fun and challenging to work on something that is completely different from where we are today. We will of course keep doing what we are doing now as well, but once this product launches it will be something truly special!
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Payment Solutions | SiGMA
Easy Payment Gateway Solutions – The Perfect Customer Journey Customers are getting more and more sophisticated, online tendencies are shifting from desktop browsers to mobile devices, new alternative payment methods are being requested daily and closed loop payouts are sometimes almost impossible to achieve. This is nothing new, statistics are posted all over the place. The important question is how do we keep these customers happy? How do we offer them the best experience to keep them coming back? How do we block fraud without blocking potentially clean and good customers? To solve these questions we need the ability create specific rules for each customer, or at least the ability to group customers and offer different rules and experiences to each one and it all starts with the payment customer journey. Businesses need to offer as many payment solutions as possible to their customers, that’s a fact. Why restrict your customers to just credit cards or one of the popular e-wallets? Not everyone has a credit card, not everyone knows about e-wallets. However, it is also very important that you don’t inundate your cashier with an endless list of payment solutions. Each payment solution should have its place, its list of currencies and countries that they will work for and not every solution is a viable solution for every product or market. Thus it is important to understand what solution works best for each customer, each market vertical and under what circumstances. If credit cards are the payment method of choice, then 3DS vs non 3DS is also an important decision that needs to be made. At EPG we strongly believe in dynamic 3DS configuration, which basically enables our merchants, create rules in real time to determine whether 3DS should be on or off. These rules can be based on the country of the customer, value of the transaction, risk, mobile vs desktop, age of the customer account or any other combination of parameters the merchant wishes to use. When it comes to fraud, it is important to use a fraud prevention tool such as the EPG Fraud Prevention Manager. This tool allows our merchants to dynamically add fraud scores to individual parameters in real time,
thus allowing them to enter fraud levels at which EPG can automatically block or defer a transaction so that it is captured or voided within a predefined time frame. In addition to this, black and whitelisting of data is also very important, giving businesses the ability to block a myriad of values for example, whilst allowing certain through based on precise rules and values. This kind of flexibility is exactly what businesses need in order to tweak and perfect the level of risk they are willing to accept or entirely block. Only by fine-tuning and analyzing data in real time is a business able to perfect their fraud prevention rules. EPG allows businesses to do this and is also intelligent enough to warn businesses of the effect a fraud rule change could have on existing traffic, thus preventing false positives. Another important factor is that the payment pages that you offer your customers need to be adapted and localized to each country you target. That means localization of the text, formatting, styling, even the colours you use are important for regions such as Asia. It’s also important to know the preferred device of choice for each region you cover. Is it mainly desktop or mobile? This leads to the importance of offering a good customer journey experience on both desktop and mobile versions of your site. Easy Payment Gateway (EPG) was developed by highly experienced software developers and payment specialists to overcome some of the most difficult issues faced by online businesses as well offering services and solutions that will allow non technical individuals manage and configure every single transaction and customer easily, all from within one simple and flexible platform. EPG solves all of these issues by understanding each payment solution and acquirer and by routing transactions to the right solutions based on country, currency and an endless array of complex rule sets and conditions. All of which can be configured in real time for any of your product offerings. EPG offers global and domestic acquiring globally as well over 100 alternative solutions, all accessible with our one of a kind, in house command center and cashier.
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Photo Gallery | SiGMA
PHOTO GALLERY SiGMA Press Conference: APRIL 17TH 2015 TAPAZ RESTAURANT, ST. JULIAN’s
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SiGMA | Photo Gallery
SiGMA Press Conference: APRIL 17TH 2015 TAPAZ RESTAURANT, ST. JULIAN’s
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Photo Gallery | SiGMA
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Photo Gallery | SiGMA
iGAMING POOL GATHERING: JUNE 27TH 2015 SHOWERS - CAFE DEL MAR, Qawra
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SiGMA | Photo Gallery
iGAMING POOL GATHERING: JUNE 27TH 2015 SHOWERS - CAFE DEL MAR, Qawra
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Photo Gallery | SiGMA
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Data Centre | SiGMA
The benefits of hosting your mission critical data within a data centre
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SiGMA | Data Centre
Data centre services Data centres are responsible for the entire online infrastructure of a company. An ideal data centre should consist of a well – constructed, sturdy building that hosts storage space for a company’s processing, distribution of large amounts of data, and server information. Connectivity via fibre is a must. Organizations are facing company server hosting challenges everyday ranging from lack of finances and resources, limited capacity and scalability, lack of security, limited connectivity to power issues. Hosting within a major data centre means huge time savings, freeing up internal workload and monitoring internal equipment more effectively.
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investments have to be done yet again. Collocating within a reputable data centre can help a company expand beyond current boundaries; helping it focus on investing money in areas which expand its business. Security is at the forefront when it comes to data and a serious data centre facility will have extensive measures, far more than a company not specialised in this field can ever have to ensure there will be no form of security breech and data is safely stored. Lastly, hosting data also means faster and more effective response times. Service Level Agreements and full time support by experienced staff ensures peace of mind at all time. Business continuity services and disaster recovery are crucial factors for businesses and this is handled by data centre service professionals. Deciding to host your equipment within a data centre is one of the most important decisions, because it can either make or break a business. Data centres create optimal conditions for data hungry sectors such as financial services sector or remote gaming companies which help them consider Malta as an ideal base for their operations.
What to look for in a data centre provider Trends in data centres The new age data centres are modular, allowing companies who host their data to grow at a pace they desire and require. The modern data centres also consume much less power, offering better prices for clients. Their growth depends on the demand for services. Continual improvements, testing and analysis are also at the forefront offering constant peace of mind to clients. A good data centre should have periodic back - ups and a strategy in place to audit the performance and identify places for improvement. Business continuity should also be assessed after new clients are signed to check load. Evaluating equipment and having a schedule in place for upgrades helps a data centre maintain and improve efficiency over time. Selecting the data centre to host your mission – critical infrastructure is no easy task, below are some elements which are essential to look for. Security An essential component for your data centre is higher levels of security; an absolute continuity of services and reducing the risk of disruption and blackouts. Companies are investing more in data centres as they offer the greater levels of security, flexibility and accessibility to data and information around the world. Data centres offer predictable environments by investing in cooling systems, maintaining appropriate humidity levels, fire suppression, air aspiration and power distribution.
Building one’s own data centre also means that in a few years’ time when there is a need to expand and install additional infrastructure this is not possible or huge capital 0106
Physical security is also an essential foundation of a reliable data centre. Server racks are kept under lock and key, access control and log ins are kept at every entry point, access is given only to authorized personnel and their logs
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are taken, a 24/7 security guard is in place, back- up power is activated, perimeter fencing and CCTV cameras are essential components to look for when choosing your data centre service provider. Customers’ data and transfer of data is protected with physical technology and the latest technologies in security.
“Data centres offer predictable environments by investing in cooling systems, maintaining appropriate humidity levels, fire suppression, air aspiration and power distribution.”
Data Centre | SiGMA
Reliability The reliability of your data centre service provider should not be taken lightly. A dedicated, skilled, professional team with certifications, on-site support and back up of that offers peace of mind. The financial stability, experience and testimonials of the company should also be looked at before selecting a data centre provider. A network presence located in the data centre offers greater efficiency. How efficient a company can process your request and offer scalability as your needs grow is also very important. A reliable data centre offers a high uptime of 99.999% and has duplicate equipment on standby ready to take over the role of the primary units and provide full uninterrupted power supply via battery racks and diesel generators. It is not only important to know that there are systems and back- ups in place but the ideal data centre provider should also audit such systems on a routine basis.
Scalability IT requirements tend to grow with time and storage needs increase. A reliable data centre allows for seamless scalability and does not become a limiting factor. It is very costly and sometimes not possible to have scalability if one does not use an appropriately selected data centre with sufficient expansion capacity to increase power, network, physical space, and storage. Temperature Cooling is by far the largest source of energy consumption in a data centre and temperature should constantly be monitored. It is important that equipment is kept in optimal cool conditions so it does not overheat. Due to the high level of concentrated computing power, the costs for cooling are considerable. An automatic gas fire suppression system together with an early gas aspiration system should also be in place to mitigate against possible fire related incidents. Location Data centres have to be safeguarded and protected against external influences. The position of the data centre is crucial, factors like the area not being in motor vehicle or flight paths and not adjacent to other buildings offers that extra security. The area is ideally also not prone to natural disasters like flooding. Lastly, the data centre has to be close to commercial areas meaning that there is a good connection to the power grid. Connectivity and redundancy Connectivity by means of a dedicated fibre – powered infrastructure offers excellent service. Multiple connectivity options via separate routes is also essential, this reduces the potential for carrier failure and ensures protection of critical applications. Service is dependable, reach is extended and latency is reduced. Ideally a data Centre provider should be carrierneutral, which means that it is not dependent on one network provider but offers the best fit your business and financial needs for your connection and internet bandwidth.
Michael Darmanin Michael Darmanin is the Director of Business Services at melita plc, a leading communications player in Malta. Michael has 20 years’ experience in the telecoms industry and previously held various senior commercial positions within Vodafone. With a strong business background, Michael’s role at melita is to grow the market share in the business sector and enhance the customer experience. Michael holds an MBA in General and Strategic Management from Maastricht School of Management.
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VIP Affiliates | SiGMA
Casumo Grand Slam Announced for Top iGaming Affiliates Hush up or you’ll jinx it, holy mackerel, give your mom a kiss, get a load of this! SiGMA has teamed up with Casumo and Matching Visions to bring together some thirty of Europe’s elite igaming affiliates for a Grand Slam that will be held on Wednesday, 4 November 2015, one day before the official start of SiGMA15. During this full day, affiliates will have the chance to bring their business practices up to date with the latest strategies and strengthen their professional network throughout various events planned by the organisers. VIP affiliates from the UK, Scandinavia, South Africa and Malta feature proudly on the guest list. The Casumo Grand Slam will include activities designed to give these elites plenty of opportunity to interact in a relaxed setting and, why not, find areas for collaboration between one drink and another. They will be treated like royalty to champagne breakfast on the beach, powerboat rides and adventure activities around Malta, a five-star dinner in a former prison camp, and finally escorted to a networking poker tournament in exotic sports cars.
“SiGMA proved to be a great event, bringing together many important figures in the gaming world. I look forward to attend this year.” - Ory Weihs, XLMedia “Imagine Europe’s best igaming affiliates all together under one roof—an affiliate manager’s dream; an operator’s dream; our dream come true,” is how Dennis Dyhr-Hansen described the idea for this Grand Slam. “Affiliates are flying in a day before the SiGMA15 show starts and no expense will be spared, thanks
to a solid partnership between SiGMA, Casumo and MatchingVisions, to ensure they are treated like royalty,” he added. A day after the Casumo Grand Slam, all elites will join the 2,500+ delegates attending SiGMA15.
“SiGMA is a nice place to meet business partners, old and new. Malta is the perfect place to hold a conference, simply because almost all Casinos operate from there and it is a great place to make ‘big business’.” - Tuomas Jauhiainen, Nordic Profit Media The organisers of the first edition of the Casumo Grand Slam for affiliates are: SiGMA, Malta’s largest iGaming conference; Casumo, the award-winning online casino; and MatchingVisions, one of the most prominent affiliate networks in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. The latter two companies will be exhibiting together with many other iGaming suppliers, vendors and service providers during SiGMA15 conference, which will take place on 5th and 6th November 2015 at the InterContinental Conference Centre. Registration to SiGMA is free for affiliates. A low €35 fee applies for all other participants.
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Marketing | SiGMA
Rise of the Machines By Keith Long, Product Owner & Head of Strategic Marketing at Tom Horn Enterprise
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SiGMA | Marketing
When a handful of North American bookmakers decided to start accepting phone betting from call centers located within the Caribbean in the late nineties, things in the betting industry became a lot funkier. Today’s compliance requirements, software testing, in addition to strict banking regulations, require that gaming websites have all the required endorsements needed to accept wagers and money; these are the fundamentals. These prerequisites are even more essential for operating legally throughout the relevant licensed markets, with the exception of 99% of the U.S. market – for now. Today’s successful remote gaming jurisdictions (RGJ) operate under far more scrutiny than they did nearly two decades ago. Back in the day, along with a few popular and trusted offshore operators, things were very different. Effectively, operators along with host jurisdictions were pioneering this Billion Euro industry, Malta included.
“Online betting, whether sports, casino or poker, has not always enjoyed an acceptable or tolerated presence in society and in many geographical locales, it still does not.” Know-your-customer (KYC) has been in place for well over a decade now. This policy along with continuously changing legislative and taxation initiatives have dramatically changed the game entirely. Online betting, whether sports, casino or Poker, has not always enjoyed an acceptable or tolerated presence in society and in many geographical locales, it still does not. Acceptability and recognition as a market force has always been under scrutiny from lobbyists’ and lawmakers alike. Anti-gaming doctrine notwithstanding, government regulators with twitchy fingers on the ever-changing “rule book” has been par for the course. 0112
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Many large online operations are listed on the major indices as publicly traded companies. These highly regulated stock markets where gaming companies are listed have provided a bounty of public and corporate fund raising, whether this has been for expansion reasons or acquisitions and mergers – raising public and corporate money comes with a few caveats to say the very least. First and foremost, this means the gaming industry also enjoys exposure to changes in economic confidence. In today’s world, it is not uncommon for billions and even trillions to be wiped from global stock markets in hours or a just a few days. Case in point is China during August this year. The global stability monitor is continuously on a sharp edge, time and time again. The strategies employed by the large well known operators is constantly under review. Strong and long-term relationships and partnerships are opportunistic and indeed paramount. This applies to location and Licensing Jurisdiction(s) equally. The prerequisite or endorsing icons of approval are displayed proudly on the most experienced and professional operators. This process does not come cheap. It never did back in the day either. Things have indeed become far more bureaucratic; however, transparency and player protection have been a necessary yield by these market driving forces and initiatives. With this new transparency have also come new costs. For many, restructuring or closure. For a few, a silver lining. For those who have had the good fortune, vision or funding to have been able to endure these changes or work through the pain as it were, compliance has generated far greater player loyalty and the ability to legally attract millions of new players. Market saturating commercials and sponsorships are the current status quo. Today’s online gambler expects similar standards of service and communication from their popular betting website as online shoppers would do from shopping at Marks and Spencer’s – perhaps even more. All online gaming operations willingly oblige nearly all enquiries by instant chat and/or phone. The few remaining using email only can be equally responsive – especially
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those with large bookmaking operations. Back in the day, players were drawn to the convenience of being able to place a simple bet on a game. Thereafter, casinos were integrated to popular bookmaking operations, then Keno, Bingo, virtual racing and, last but not least: Poker! Online Poker sent all and sundry scrambling for software – Everyone had Poker software in development even if it was always, 99% done, promise! Finally, live dealer and the latest new 3D gaming prototypes are being tested, albeit deployment and online playing experiences are nowhere near the mainstream for another few years at least. If you consider the history of the industry, it is the logical next step in the evolutionary cycle. It might surprise some readers to learn that first person shooter games were being converted into multiplayer betting games based on bullet purchases with potential Zillion Dollar progressive prizes in the Caribbean over a decade ago. Which brings me to product. Today – as was the case back in the late nineties – it was not demand that was a barrier to entry – it was product. Sports betting opportunities offered dozens of products or markets. Today’s sports betting operators offer thousands, many tens of thousands. New betting markets available to all players, whether they be novice or pro, are as common as shoes were to Imelda Marcos’s.
Marketing | SiGMA
pricing on powerful servers or Machines, bookmakers were taking call bets on the sides of race courses or in betting shops in Europe and Vegas or on the phone from the Caribbean. Some of these still remain today as their acts are simply that hard to follow. But be sure of one thing – all know the need for a strong and secure Remote Gaming Jurisdiction. Like many of the true pioneers, Malta pioneered the European Licensing process back in 2004. The lottery industry endured this scrutiny four years prior. If it is true that RGS are the fastest grown sector in Malta gaming, then they must be doing something right to attract the clientele that are licensed therein. Even a few of the truly old school innovators still around have switched Caribbean headquarters for the Med.
“Today’s online gambler expects similar standards of service and communication from their popular betting website as online shoppers would do from shopping at Marks and Spencer’s – perhaps even more.”
Before powerful applications, algorithms and artificial intelligence bots (AIB) were dynamically changing market
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Employee Benefits | SiGMA
Employee Benefits: Small Print & the Bigger Picture
Group life, personal accident and health insurance, collectively known as Employee Benefits Insurance are featuring more prominently in HR agendas as companies strive to attract, retain and reward talent. In this article, Citadel Managing Director Angela Tabone, focuses on the scope of employee benefits insurance, pitfalls to watch out for and also benefits of thinking outside the box when purchasing such covers. A conversation stopper A common gripe of practitioners in the industry is that the mere mention of insurance in social gatherings is a definite conversation stopper. Insurance is in the business of claims and claims are generally the result of some misfortune. So in this respect an allergic reaction to insurance is perfectly understandable. Legal wordings associated with insurance and the general suspicion with which policies are treated serve to further fortify this aversion.
Small print ‘Small print’ collectively refers to the ‘Get-out-of-Jail’ free cards that insurance companies use to allegedly dodge claims. Admittedly consumer and insurance regulation has largely made insurance more transparent (or less of a maze) to policyholders. Notwithstanding this, insurance is governed by the terms and conditions of policies that are issued and, therefore, clients or their brokers need to be conversant with the policies that they purchase.
One does however need to sometimes think of the inevitable, such as death, injury, illness, disease and the associated burden – whether on companies, families or individuals – that these events present us with. Admittedly the burden is not only a financial one. But a source of funds to eliminate or reduce the financial burden in such circumstances helps to also alleviate other emotional and psychological weight compounded by such misfortune. Viewed from this perspective the notion of a conversation on insurance becomes more palatable.
Bottom line, when the chips are down, clients expect an insurance policy to pay out. If it doesn’t then, it is probably too late to rectify the problem – be it a gap in cover, an inadequate sum insured, the application of an exclusion or breach of a condition – at the time of a claim.
This piece focuses on the scope of employee benefits insurance, pitfalls to watch out for and also benefits of thinking outside the box when purchasing such covers.
Within this ambit some understanding of how insurance works and the importance of correct policy design at the time of purchase are paramount. The bigger picture The correct planning of employee benefits insurance goes beyond insurance pay-out in the event of untimely demise, injury or illness of an employee. In addition 0115
SiGMA | Employee Benefits
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to enhancing the image of an employer in the eyes of an incumbent or prospective employee it can also serve as an incentive for employee retention, pension planning or covering increased cost of working in the event of temporary and/or emergency replacement of employees. The following are some considerations when planning for specific employee benefit policies. Group Life Insurance Group life policies are typically bought by employers to insure some or all of their employees. Other group life policies or variations of them include policies taken out by professional, trade or social associations to cover their members or financial institutions covering, say, credit or loan protection exposures. With the latter additional cover in the form of – say – accident sickness and unemployment is also built into the policy. The basic cover provided by a group life policy is payment of an agreed sum insured in the event of death. This is generally either a pre-agreed fixed sum or a multiple of one’s salary. Such policies are not restricted to natural death causes but also cover accidental death. Typically cover would be on a 24 hour basis. Additional cover, known as riders, on Group Life policies include: • Permanent Total Disability Cover: This allows for the waiver of premium as well as periodic benefit payment to the Insured in the event of an accident or sickness rendering the insured unable to work; • Accidental Death Benefit: In the event of death resulting from accident, the benefit paid out is increased. While death is always unexpected, this is even more so if caused by accident or misadventure. An increased pay-out helps to alleviate financial hardship as a result of premature death. There is a variation on this extension allowing for an increased and/or early pay-out also in the event of disability. • Income Protection: in the event of disability some policies also provide a periodic cash benefit proportionate to one’s salary payable out of the sum insured in the policy. With the development in private pension reform legislation there is now greater awareness in Malta for a supplement to one’s contributory state pension. A group life policy can be the vehicle used to contribute towards the so-called ‘tier 3’ pension. The traditional group life policy is a protection type policy where claims are triggered by death and/or disability. However, suitable amendments to and increased contributions into a policy can help build a savings fund per employee depending on their age and remaining years of service. If the policy allows for partial (i.e. per employee) withdrawal then these ‘saving pots’ would also be commutable with employees. Employees exiting a job would be able to ‘carry their savings with them’ or commute them into a new policy. A convertible element may allow them to enter into a new contract of insurance without the need for fresh medical examinations provided that the employee was not earlier subject to specific medical underwriting considerations. Conversely, changes in the benefits’ build-up 0116
can be designed by an employer in a way to reward longer years of service and reduce employee mobility. For example, an employer can ask for a higher sum insured to be paid to longer serving employees in order to enhance long term employee retention. One of the main pitfalls for employers is the application of a low ‘free cover limit’. With individual life assurance policies, insurance companies generally request medical tests to be undertaken based on, say, one’s age, medical history and/ or lifestyle as well as the sums insured that are requested. In group life assurance it is common for insurance companies to fix a monetary threshold (in terms of sums assured) below which they would not ask the client to undertake medical examinations irrespective of, say, their age. Medical tests are generally substituted by a declaration of good health. If free cover limits are set too low in comparison to the salaries and/or sums insured under a policy, this can present quite a burden on clients. This is even more so bearing in mind that the more senior employees commanding higher salaries or sums insured tend to be generally older and more susceptible to medical scrutiny. Therefore discussing free cover limits with the insurance company in line with one’s requirements is an essential part of planning before purchasing insurance. Accident [and Sickness] Insurance Group personal accident and sickness insurance policies are annual renewable policies where claims are triggered only by accident and/or sickness. Whereas under a life policy natural death causes are also covered, under a personal accident insurance policy a claim can only be triggered by accident. Furthermore, the basic cover under a personal accident insurance policy generally applies while an employee is at work or commuting to and from work. Life insurance policies tend to always offer 24 hour cover. Some argue that these limitations, when compared to a life insurance policy, make a personal accident insurance policy superfluous. This may be the case, especially if life insurance policies are extended to cover permanent total disability, but
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personal accident policies do then offer wider cover when it comes to disability of a more temporary nature. For example, if a policyholder suffers backache because of an accident, he may be totally (albeit temporarily) unable to work for say a period of 3 months. Whereas such an incidence triggers a claim for temporary total disability under a personal accident insurance policy it generally does not under a life insurance policy. Time excesses (the time one has to wait before they can claim under such policies, generally expressed in days, weeks or months depending on the policy) are generally longer under life assurance contracts when compared to those of personal accident and sickness policies. Similarly such an event would give rise to other costs – such as physiotherapy, nursing and or hospitalization costs that are typically not covered by a life insurance policy but that would be covered by a personal accident insurance policy. 24-hour cover, geographical extension outside country of residence, sickness benefits and disappearance are common extensions under a personal accident insurance policy. A common pitfall under a group personal accident policy issued by an employer is insuring irregularly employed employees. Irregular employment does not give rise to a legally recognised employment relationship. This also applies to life assurance and other classes of insurance. Private Health Insurance Private medical insurance although still not that common is one of the growing classes of insurance in Malta. This form of insurance traditionally emanated from personal accident insurance where – covering medical expenses related to accident and sickness – was a common extension under a personal accident policy. Private medical insurance eventually developed a life of its own and grew to become one of the largest classes of insurance globally. Private Medical Insurance is generally designed in standard ‘off-the-shelf’ packages ranging from basic compensation for in-patient treatment on a re-imbursement basis (with typical exclusions such as maternity, dentistry, alternative medicine etc.) for a restricted local network of health providers to a full reimbursement of out-patient and in-patient treatment, locally and overseas, for a wider range of ailments and traditional or alternative medicine. Some also include an element of routine health screening. Where dual health systems exist (i.e. public and private health sectors that are not mutually exclusive) it is not uncommon for an insurer to introduce no or low claims discounts for persons who do not claim under their private medical insurance. With group private medical insurance one of the main considerations is the rating method applied by insurers. These vary from individual, to experience or to community rating tariffs some of which can create significant volatility in rating from one year to the next depending on the claims pattern of a group. Probably the paramount factor to bear in mind is that insurers are not charitable organisations and would wish to earn a profit out of the service that they offer. Therefore increasing claims trends - whether triggered by the claims behaviour of clients or by increasing costs of health providers – would result in premium increases, imposition of limits or curtailment of cover. The aim of private medical insurance is primarily to cover the financial burden of intermediate or major unexpected health issues.
Employee Benefits | SiGMA
If it is used to bill for coughs and sneezes, pure cosmetic surgery or routine medical visits then the cost of insurance would escalate significantly. A counter tactic to reduce medical insurance costs by employers is to either introduce a co-insurance excess (i.e. the policy holder pays for a percentage amount of each claim), a higher monetary excess (this generally eliminates most of the out-patient visits) or limit cover under the policy in general. The secret for any HR manager is to identify the happy medium between the cover provided by a policy which satisfies most claims and the cost at which such insurance is purchased. A study of the employee demographic, ages, whether they are married or single and/or whether they have dependants that also need to be covered under the company’s medical insurance policy generally determine the type of insurance plan that a company should purchase and whether employees with dependants should be made to contribute towards it. It is not uncommon for a company to purchase different plans for different echelons of employees. Another distinction is between plans for employees normally resident in Malta and employees that are stationed overseas. One thing to watch out for in this respect is whether the policy contains a ‘normal and customary’ charges clause in the policy. For example, an employee may be ordinarily resident in Germany but insured under a Maltese policy. If reimbursement of private medical costs is limited to that which is ordinary and customary for a medical procedure in Malta, then the policyholder may end up out of pocket for surgery performed while he or she is resident in Germany. Another area to watch out for is the aggregate limit that a client may claim for in, say, any insurance period. This would not be an issue for regular claims but becomes a grave concern in the event of a critical illness, particularly cancer. It is important not to shortchange major claims when seeking to reduce premiums. If a company is keen on reducing premiums then it would probably be more worthwhile reducing or eliminating cover on the more sundry medical occurrences and leaving cover on the larger potential claims intact. Like life and personal accident cover, the ability for an individual to ‘commute’ a policy once they leave a company is also an interesting proposition. This reduces medical underwriting and the risk of higher premiums if one had to be rated afresh after leaving a company that was providing him or her with group medical insurance. Rating would still be dependent on the age at the time of commutation and earlier underwritten medical conditions would still be a determining factor on whether a client would be eligible for commuting cover from a group to an individual policy. Conclusion In an environment of an increasingly mobile workforce employers are constantly working on increasing staff retention. Recruiting and training a new employee is by far costlier than retaining a well-trained and content employee. Employee benefits insurance is one of tools in the hands of HR managers to achieve this. Peace of mind – and this is what insurance generally sets out to achieve – ranks very high in the mind of a motivated employee. For more information contact Citadel Insurance plc on info@citadelplc.com or www.citadelplc.com.
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SEO | SiGMA
“We prefer organic growth for BetConstruct, and without innovation it is not possible. I can confidently say that innovation is what BetConstruct is all about.”
Vahe Baloulian There hasn’t been a dull moment in BetConstruct’s recent past: from receiving a Maltese license to launching a new platform; from the company’s focus on mobile as well as more traditional land-based operations; SiGMA met with Vahe Balulian to discover more about the rise of BetConstruct on the global stage. You recently received a Maltese Class 4 license. Why it is important and what opportunities does it provide both you and your prospective clients? Many of our partners have asked to be regulated by the MGA because it provides the mechanisms and protections their players are looking for. It is not an easy license to be granted. We went through a thorough investigation. As to opportunities, the license permits our operators to work in certain markets and through particular marketing vehicles which require a license issued by an EU entity. With all its shortcomings, which the Maltese Gaming Authority makes every effort to eliminate, the Maltese license is the only worldwide license issued by a sovereign EU country. What are the latest developments at BetConstruct? All of us have recently heard about your new platform. What is new and innovative about it? BetConstruct is always on the move. By the time I tell you about the latest developments, they most probably will not be the latest anymore. The platform, which we christened Spring™, is an all-encompassing system including all tools an operator may desire and need, to successfully compete in any market. Spring gives operators of any size an opportunity to be better equipped than most of their rivals, an opportunity to one up the competition in our persistently consolidating industry. It offers an intuitive mechanism built not only to grow with the operator, but for them to remain one step ahead. We aim to provide a platform that will
reverse the roles of the user and technology, instead of the operator waiting for new ammunition, Spring will always be waiting for the operator to make use of its incessantly growing arsenal. BetConstruct recently developed and announced the BetCloud. What is it and why do you think it is important for your partner operators? The BetCloud was born as a result of our drive to have an immediate upward impact on our partners’ profitability. At first we didn’t expect the BetCloud to be an easy sell, but from day one it is proving to be one of those innovations that is driving growth beyond what we aimed for. In essence, the BetCloud is the first online marketplace allowing operators to accept larger bets than they would usually service due to now being able to share the risk with their fellow operators. The BetCloud also allows participating operators to take advantage of the bets sold by other partners since they can accept a certain fraction of them. It’s a very exciting alteration to the way the operators have been accustomed to dealing with the large bets. You recently added to your e-Sports offerings. Could you please provide your opinions relating to this development? We have been offering e-Sports for a few years now. Recently we started paying a lot more attention to this vertical by actively developing it. My opinion is that while e-Sports betting may not become as big
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SiGMA | SEO
“There are no perfect products, perfect services, and perfect employees on any level. This means that there is always an opportunity to do better. For me the growth of the company is not defined solely by growing profits. It is defined also by the growth of employees as specialists, as innovators, and as ethical business people. This is the only way to grow and evolve for a forward-looking company such as BetConstruct.” as is frequently predicted, it will certainly be big enough to warrant attention. It’s a game of skill which mostly matters to and is understood by e-Sports players who are part of the so-called millennial generation, and an affluent part at that. That’s a very significant, I would even say vital segment, access to which is being discussed and sought by gaming
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operators at most gaming conferences and publications. However, I really doubt it will gain the attention of the masses the way poker did in its heyday. I look at it as another group of sports with an important, dedicated fan base. Let’s talk about land based operations. What solutions can you offer for betting shop owners? Actually, BetConstruct was born over 10 years ago as a supplier to a land-based operator. Today we power thousands of betting shops offering both sports betting and wagers on virtual games. Our solution, specially developed for land based operation, is an attractive combination of high quality products, very affordable cost structures, and flexible payment systems. Although we don’t make the hardware for the betting shops, through cooperation with the manufacturers of terminals and other equipment, we often act as a one-stop shop, helping to put together the retail locations from design to complete set up. Aside from the betting shops, we are preparing to supply sports betting services to land based casinos in the U.S. state of Nevada. Mobile is fast growing niche. What does BetConstruct offer in the mobile/tablet sector? We have been treating mobile and tablet channels as mainstream for some time already, making most of our products available on both device categories. Obviously, at first we concentrated on the products. I think we were lucky to realize from the start that we can’t just shrink our sites to new sizes mandated by the hand-held devices and call ourselves mobile-ready. There were a lot of questions to be answered. What are the right choices - HTML5 or native applications, single app or multi-app suite, etc? As these
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SEO | SiGMA
We believe in everything we do. Of course, sometimes we can get carried away with crazy ideas that eventually will not come to life or will have a short lifetime for one reason or another. However, without these there is no development, no growth. The nomination you have mentioned is for the Free Play Sportsbook offered first in the U.S. market. As online sports betting is prohibited throughout the U.S., this product gives the Americans an opportunity to see and experience, albeit without real money betting, what bettors worldwide take for granted.
questions were being answered, the focus switched to marketing and strategy. Aside from our partners who operate only online, our land based partners are also offered an opportunity to utilize tablets as a very appealing part of the retail environment, providing more intimate, uninterrupted gaming experience. Does your company develop solutions specifically for the European market or are you focused on universal offerings? Universal was the answer in the beginning. And it worked well, although now when I think of it, I don’t feel calling what we offered in the beginning “universal” would be completely true. We were active in a small number of culturally and socially associated regions and our products were subconsciously tailored to them. With time, as we entered new markets and explored local requirements, we became smarter and more sophisticated in our approach. We began consciously diversifying our offerings to meet the expectations of our new partners and their players and we offered true localization of our products and services. BetConstruct treasures its customer-centric culture. Listening to our partners is an important and valued process which we never forgo. Our decisions and actions concerning the development of region and culture specific solutions are fully informed by this listening and discovering approach. Does BetConstruct develop any solutions that can be used in territories where iGaming is restricted? Do you have any social play products? As we were preparing to enter the U.S. market and had absolutely no desire to jump into the crowded and grueling online battlefields of Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey, we decided to develop solutions that could be offered across the country. The development and launch of Fantasy Sports and Free Play social gaming platform were the obvious choices. Also, we have started the development of Tribal. poker network, which will cater to the Native American gaming interests, providing them with marketing solutions they will definitely benefit from.
Does innovation play an important role in the development of products at BetConstruct? We prefer organic growth for BetConstruct, and without innovation it is not possible. I can confidently say that innovation is what BetConstruct is all about. This point is driven hard by our executive chairman and co-founder. New ideas, however insane they may seem, are always encouraged, discussed, analyzed and, if implemented, rewarded. The most important thing is that we know that we don’t know everything and that is why we are always eager to learn. We learn not only from our peers, but also from other industries. Discovering new methods, ideas, and approaches concerning everything from software development to customer service, from human resource management to executive education, and adapting these discoveries to what we do, is a defining part of our ethos. Which markets have you targeted for future growth? We operate from nine offices worldwide and target every area where we believe there is an opportunity. Licensed by many jurisdictions, including UK, Malta and Alderney, with three more licenses in the process, we are not restricting ourselves by territories and markets. Soon we’ll be opening our office in Asia, which is an extremely difficult, diverse, and electrifying market. BetConstruct branches in Los Angeles and Lima are actively growing our business in Americas and the Caribbean. In short, we are always ready and looking for new markets to tackle, recognizing and benefiting from the challenges and opportunities they bring along. What are the main areas in which the company can grow and evolve in the future? There are no perfect products, perfect services, and perfect employees on any level. This means that there is always an opportunity to do better. For me the growth of the company is not defined solely by growing profits. It is defined also by the growth of employees as specialists, as innovators, and as ethical business people. This is the only way to grow and evolve for a forward-looking company such as BetConstruct.
Although these were designed with the U.S. market in mind, the Fantasy Sports and the Free Play are attracting considerable interest from other areas where we can’t be active with our real-money offerings. What achievements have been a particular source of pride for you this year? Also, you have been shortlisted for the Digital Innovation in Global Gaming Awards 2015. For which innovation were you nominated? It is similar to asking which one of my children I love more. There is no differentiating answer that would reflect the truth. However, as in most families, the youngest child gets the most attention. Today it is the BetCloud and tomorrow we will come up with some other initiative that will move our industry forward and make our operators more successful. 0121
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Feature | SiGMA
the fourth casino in Malta set to open 2015 Eden Leisure Gaming recently signed a concession agreement with the government of Malta to open and operate the fourth casino in Malta. ELG in turn has signed a management agreement with leading casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group to operate this new casino. OEG currently operates in 7 European countries and is publicly listed on the Tallinn and Warsaw stock exchanges. OEG was also recently voted Best Casino Operator in 2013. Casino Malta is expected to be operational by the 4th quarter 2015. Spanning over 3,000m2, Casino Malta has been designed to the very highest quality standards in the industry. Located in St. George’s Bay the heart of Malta’s entertainment area, the casino also forms part of a large hospitality and entertainment complex, consisting of the InterContinental Malta and the InterContinental Conference Centre, Eden SuperBowl, Eden Cinemas, Cynergy Health and Fitness Centre, as well as a number of restaurants and bars. Luxury, quality and especially entertainment are the overlying concepts in the venture where the focus will not be on hardened gaming but on the overall fun and entertainment experience. Live music events on weekends, daily special offers, monthly car and cash lotteries, poker and slots tournaments, to name just a few.
For the most discerning guests there are two luxury VIP lounges available, with slot machines and with tables according to guest preferences. The game mix will include a variety of more than 300 slot machines and 2000 games to choose from, with denominations starting at 1 cent! A variety of different jackpots will add to the entertainment in a way unseen presently in Malta. Casino Malta has 3 entrances, one from St. Augustine Street, opposite the SuperBowl and Bay Street, another directly from within the InterContinental hotel lobby and a third from the comfort of the Eden car park which is open 24/7. The Eden Leisure Group is currently undertaking a number of projects amounting to €32 million of investment in the addition of its new HighLine Suites on three new floors on top of the InterContinental Malta, the new Holiday Inn next door and the casino. At the conclusion of these projects, the group will operate some 630 rooms and will be able to accommodate up to 1,500 people on site. The Casino is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the current tourism boom and the captive market within the properties as well as the significant walk by traffic in the area.
The large lounge area includes a large stage for live music and entertainment as well as a sizable bar area where one can follow sports/entertainment events from big screens or simply enjoy a quality drink with friends or colleagues. All major sport events will be broadcasted on big screens all over casino. Daily casino tournaments will be hosted within the casino and large events of up to 100 tables will be hosted throughout the year within the InterContinental Conference centre. The Casino poker area itself will accommodate up to 100 players and can be rearranged for private events.
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SiGMA | Casino
issue 3 AUTUMN/WINTER 2015
Armin Karu A Man who runs the Game
Armin Karu (50) was still in school when he made his first successful business deals. Remarkably, this was during the mid-1980s, when Soviet authorities still had a very tough stance against private businesses. He earned his first million in the perestroika era and over the last 22 years has built up a gaming empire that is now present in eight countries. A passionate yachtsman, he has invited me out for a trip while we discuss his rise, and in a sense he is like a modern casino captain overlooking businesses that stretch from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Seas. And there is more to come because Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG), which he manages, is a pioneer seeking maximum synergy between landbased and online gaming.
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Casino | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
For Olympic Casino and OlyBet, it is not important which one of them enters a new market first, but that both are present and can support each other in developing their business. “People wish to see variety and we can offer it to them without them leaving us – online today, live tomorrow, or the other way round,” says Karu, describing his vision of ideal synergy. But when will Olympic Casino expand to the next market? “Our customers, our team and our shareholders have always believed in Olympic Casino namely because we keep moving forward,” adds Karu, with pride in his voice. To make a point, he accelerates his luxury yacht to full throttle, breaking waves into half. This is also the end of the interview, but the adventure continues at full speed.
Rapid rise to stardom
In 1993 when Armin Karu opened his first casino on the edge of Northern Europe in Estonia, a country that had recently regained independence from the Soviet Union, he could only dream that one day there will be tens of Olympic Casinos in the region. “From the start, I had a very clear vision of modern casinos offering, under the same roof, a variety of entertainment – gaming tables, slots, live performers, bars – to name just a few key aspects,” explains Karu and adds that the model has been developed further over the years. “For instance, we organize major international poker tournaments and offer live sports betting,” Karu adds. By its 20th anniversary, OEG had experience operating in nine countries. Today it runs casinos on seven markets, has left Romania and Ukraine, for different reasons and is about to open its flagship casino in Malta. “We are accustomed to doing business in a transparent manner and this is possible only in a stable and well regulated business environment,” says Armin Karu, explaining the corporate values of the company. Lack of clear regulation was also the reason why OEG entered the online gaming market only at the start of 2010 when there were already tens or even hundreds of operators on the market.
Gaming industry’s new rules
The global gaming market has been transformed in the last dozen years. Karu believes that only operators that skillfully deploy different modern technologies can succeed. “We arrived on the online gaming market relatively late, and this forced us to work hard on our product,” noted Karu, operating on the online gaming market under Olybet brand. However, he has no doubt that the live component is here to stay. “Most online gamers are looking for more direct experience and will definitely find their way to live casinos,” adds Karu. As an example, he says that several large live poker festivals are organized exactly because customers of leading online operators also seek live experience.
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Even though we started in the online gaming sector relatively late, OlyBet has already become the market leader in Estonia and aims to achieve a similar position in Latvia and Lithuania. So far we have mainly been focusing on countries where Olympic Casino is already present, as the recognition and reliability of our older brother has supported our growth. The market is extremely competitive and only operators with a strong concept, will and structure will be successful. I am determined to rapidly increase the volume of our online operations and take the Olympic flag to entirely new markets.
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Olympic Entertainment Group 1993 – 2000: The first Olympic Casino opens doors in Tallinn, capital of Estonia, and the company establishes itself as a clear market leader 2001 – 2006: First expansion into other countries including Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus 2006: the group is listed on the Baltic Stock Exchange 2006 – 2008: Olympic Casinos are opened in Poland, Slovakia and Romania (now sold). 2010: OEG is issued Estonia’s first permit to organise remote gaming. In 2013 the company launches online gaming under the brand of OlyBet 2013: Olympic Casino wins the Best Land-based Casino Operator of the Year Award at Totally Gaming Awards in London 2015: OEG operates in 7 markets including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia and Italy 2013-2015: Expansion into Italy and Malta (flagship casino to be opened in the nearest few months) Spring 2016: The first Hilton Worldwide hotel and Olympic Casino’s new flagship casino is to open its doors in Tallinn, Estonia
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SiGMA | Feature
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
FINDING THE RIGHT ‘CALIBER’ In a one-on-one with Extraspel’s Anneli Nilsson, Dennis Dyhr-Hansen discovers how relatively easy it is for a white label operator to run a successful business from Malta. So, Anneli, you’ve been in igaming for a long time now. How did it start and where are you now? After working with recruitment in London, I needed a break and in Sep 2005 I accepted an offer to go to Costa Rica to act president for an investment company. It soon became too boring and after a few months, I found myself employing 12 people and running a business providing customer service, payment processing, fraud management, site management, retention, activation, translations and more… after 2 years in Costa Rica I had been through a lot of personal problems (I was robbed, got dengue fever and I no longer felt safe) and I decided to make my way back to Europe. My then biggest client offered me a job and I moved to Malta, reluctantly, to act Head of Affiliates for MariaBingo and a few more brands, which were procured by Unibet a few days before I landed in Malta. After just short of 2 years with Unibet, I moved to CaliberAffiliate in October 2009. We launched Extraspel. com the following year, and I am still there and loving my work situation and living in Malta as much as I enjoy the long standing affiliate and B2B relationships I’ve created over the years. What would you say makes Extraspel.com unique and what’s it like working with AspireGlobal’s software? Extraspel.com got started as a scratch card site for the Scandinavian market and was pretty much the first site out in Swedish, offering the games we could offer. We soon realized – as did the provider, NeoGames – that scratch
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cards were not in as high demand as casino games and they introduced a vast range of NetEnt branded games on the platform. This made a huge difference to us and to the performance of Extraspel.com, which has since been rebranded to a modern casino and with AspireGlobal, we offer games from 5 different suppliers today. What is unique about Extraspel.com is that we listen to our players and offer what they want rather than trying to persuade them to play the games we think they should play. We strongly believe in the relation between “demand and supply” rather than the standard “supply and demand”. We already had sites with other providers and we wanted to do something different. Working with AspireGlobal as our provider was really a no-brainer. They have delivered just as well as we imagined they would and we share the same vision: to deliver what the players want. They also hold a UK license and we can accept players from lots of jurisdictions; they are professional and negotiable and provide a very good service. We have a fully managed service from AspireGlobal, we only work with bringing the players to the slots. Do you have any exciting plans for Extraspel.com to share with us? New markets, new software? Extraspel.com will stick to the assumed strategy of listening
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to our players and we work closely with AspireGlobal to discuss and develop both markets and introduce games. Since Extraspel.com is a fully managed WL, we cannot introduce any exclusive software or games but we are very happy with the selection AG provides us with, and so are our players. We’re currently testing a few new markets and we are contemplating introducing more languages but that will be pending the outcome of the testing we are doing right now. Demand and supply is the rule! Where is your office and how many are you at Extraspel. com? Ooooh, tricky one! Since Extraspel.com is a fully managed WL, the only person actively working for the brand in Malta is me. We have a few other people abroad doing media buying and managing the sites but no one else works purely with Extraspel.com. Well, I don’t either, I manage CaliberAffiliate. com and Extraspel.com is our top performing brand, with the biggest selection of both languages and games. I don’t work from my actual office, it is a waste of time to go to sit alone in a room in Valletta… so I work from my home office and it suits me perfectly well. I am based only a few minutes walking distance from most of my clients.
“What is unique about Extraspel is that we listen to our players and offer what they want rather than trying to persuade them to play the games we think they should play. We strongly believe in the relation between “demand and supply” rather than the standard “supply and demand”
Feature | SiGMA
to many of my clients and partners here for face-to-face meetings, and despite being competitors, most of us work very closely together. On a personal note, Malta is the best that happened to me. I loved living in London but I find it too hectic, I was there for 8 years. I loved Costa Rica but that country hated me and tried to drown me in challenges and I had to give up eventually – sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on. As for Malta, it has welcomed me with open arms. I love the climate (apart from a few months at the start of each year) and Europe is easily accessible from here. Within 6h I can be at my mum’s house in Sweden, and that is including a 3.5h flight and travel to and from the airport. Alternatively, I can visit friends in London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona or anywhere else and it takes around 6h from door to door, which is excellent! OK there is one disadvantage with Malta. Traffic rules are not enforced and getting around this island can be hazardous but once you are aware of this, you just learn to assume that no one will follow the rules and you act thereafter. How do you spend your leisure time in Malta? Since I sleep no more than 35h/w, which is around 20h less than most people, I have a lot more time on my hands than the average person. I love both socializing and spending time on my own. I have 4 cats and 2 horses and I am deeply involved in the horse-riding community in Malta. I train and compete in dressage and show-jumping (on the horses, the cats are let off from strenuous training) and I run a website and a fb page to help horse lovers find horses and facilities for riding. This is pro-bona work, as is the work I do for the riding club my friends and I started 3 years ago. We arrange competitions and other events in Maghtab, where I keep my horses. You’ll find me frequenting karaoke bars and open mic nights. At home, I write music, play the piano and sing for a bit every day.
Can you share some of the most memorable achievements of the company since it started, and some of the biggest challenges faced in the past? I’ll respond to that with one response… The biggest challenge I faced – which is also my greatest achievement - was to persuade the owners to actively work with UK traffic, since they have always worked predominantly with Scandinavian traffic but I figure that a miniscule market share in the UK is as big as a huge market share in Scandinavia and I got the landing page up and running and went to work – we’ve now got a good flow of UK traffic and a good player value and the investment was very small – just the landing page and getting affiliates on board. What advantages and disadvantages do you see in being based in Malta? I am not getting this, I think? What do you mean with disadvantages? I love Malta and I cannot see any disadvantages of being here, all I can see are advantages and the list is loooooong! We all know that the company tax situation is advantageous for companies based in Malta, owned by European entities. Malta is also a hub for igaming, meaning I have access 0129
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Interview | SiGMA
SiGMA Meets Young Entrepreneur Nikolai Livori and rolled out in time. We hold a lot of proprietary technology and have a Class 2 license so it’s an obvious and natural move for us. We will act like a traditional bookmaker but we will be able to offer unbeatable prices on some markets thanks to our technology. The vision of Yobetit is ultimately to make use of the synergies that are formed when bringing together sports traders with punters.
A year has already passed since last years SiGMA show, what changes have you seen in the online gambling world? I of course keep up with all the news but now that Yobetit is gearing up to open Yobetit Sports and Casino I am following it much closer. The Paddy Power/Betfair merger could set off a string of other big name mergers...it will be challenging for mid level Bookmakers to compete in many ways but there is always an angle. Do you attend many industry events? Personally I am weary of the events and publications which pop up around and feed upon every industry. Each industry follows the same path in terms of conventions and advertorial trade journals. Look at the SiGMA event through the eyes of the stern doorman or glazed promotional model. They attend these events d ailyand to them they all blur into one long day full of sweaty men in suits scared to shed their jackets and reveal their pit stains. I mean to t hemSiGMA could be a carpet convention. But it’s not up to the organisers, it’s up tous; the attendees to really make the event. It’s up to us to share real ideas, debates and above all question ourselves about where we are as an industry. SiGMA is our opportunity to ask the hard questions. Last year on a SIGMA panel you made an appeal for the Maltese regulator to become more competitive. What are your thoughts one year on? The relationship between regulators and the regulated in a nyindustry should be a constant, open and even challenging dialogue. The Maltese government has done an amazing job at attracting overseas investment and building our economy but there are still many areas which need attention. I sincerely hope the recent discovery by Italian authorities relating to organised crime has not tarnished the jurisdiction’s reputation. Additionally, there are several up and coming jurisdictions which may pose a significant challenge. The Yobetit Surebet product has been operating for close to two years, why the move into traditional betting and casino? Our focus is sports betting first, the casino will be integrated
What’s your take on “social casinos” and “gamification”? Will Yobetit Sports move in those directions? To a degree yes but Yobetit Sports USP will be our SureBets and also our unbeatable prices on some markets. Gamification and social games in general are very close to my heart. I started out as a games developer and still am involved in hands on casino game creation through Zingzino, another company I own a stake in, and Gamtico a games development company based in Malta The term “gamification” was a buzz word a few years ago. however it seems like people are making more of a fuss about it right now. I think its definition has become increasingly blurred however and I have written various articles describing what gamification is and how it might be utilised in different industries. Yobetit is unique in that the majority of your staff are Maltese, how do you go about finding staff and why the focus on locals? We recently ran a successful Facebook campaign and we found some great talent but usually I prefer if the guys here in the office can recommend or vouch for a contact. I swore off recruitment agencies last year but I buckled and we are back using a couple. As anybody in management knows, recruiting and the interviewing process can be a massive drain on time and energy.I’m obviously biased towards Maltese as majority of my friends and classmates are from the island but we of course welcome any and all nationalities. Although I have heard from other businessmen in the iGaming industry that Malta is lacking resources, so they feel the need to employ fellow Scandinavians. I have been having a couple of meetings with the Minister of Education and MCAST regarding polishing their study curriculum to make them more ‘industryready’. However I have a strong belief that Malta is producing the right resources, and I have no issues in finding them. Of course we cannot expect to find a Scandinavian s peaking programmer, designer or accountant. You have emphasized the difference between Gambling and Gaming before. Why? I am passionate about creating games, and have invested in gamesdevelopment companies, whilst at the same time operating in the iGaming industry, for a decade. The misuse of the terms carries the taboos associated with the gambling world to the gaming world. I would love to see more games development company giants like Activision, Zynga or Acclaim even Capcom, Blizzard, Ubisoft relocate to Malta. Although we live on a small island, let’s think big!
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DDoS | SiGMA
Prevention of DDoS Attacks is Better than Cure It is no secret that gaming sites are among the most globally targeted of all sectors and any operator is at risk of a DDos attack. In the past couple decades the World Wide Web has made it possible for the gambling industry to flourish at an unprecedented rate, making it possible for millions to play from the comfort of their own devices. This revolution has brought new threats and challenges, one of which is DDoS attacks - Distributed Denial of Service – a constant concern that should trouble all operators, irrespective of size. DDoS attacks simply prevent regular users access to a site. Imagine, for a few seconds, the damaging effect of a DDoS attack on a sports book site. A loyal player has been committed to that sports book for years, only to be denied the opportunity to bet on his favourite sports team during a critically important match. The emotional damage to that VIP player may be irreparable. The trust and loyalty of such customers is priceless; certainly not worth losing over a DDoS attack.
be farther from the truth. Any gaming operator with some traffic is at risk. The more successful the operation, inevitably, the higher the risk. This is where Nexusguard, an internet security agency, comes in. True, a company’s IT department can be familiar with the daily inbound traffic of a site and this may help in early detection of abnormal traffic as well as to distinguish between legitimate traffic and DDoS attacks. However, with more operators reaching out to new players on different devices (commonly known as the IoT - the Internet of Things), and with DDoS attacks becoming more far more sophisticated and frequent, the need for expert monitoring and protection is certainly not worth gambling with.The mantra ‘prevention is better than cure’ could not be more befitting to this situation. Nexusguard, globally based with offices spanning from London to San Francisco, Hong Kong, Sydney and Singapore, is the leader in DDoS mitigation and cyber intelligence, protecting the world e-gaming space from malicious internet attacks since 2008. Schedule a meeting with our global representative at SiGMA - Lars Kollind - lars.kollind@nexusguard.com.
Hackers are becoming more sophisticated and will not rest until they uncover a loop hole in the system. It is no secret that the igaming industry is heavily targeted by hackers on a day-to.day basis. Yet, it is not uncommon for the less tech-savvy CEO of a small casino site to believe that his firm could afford to wait a bit longer before investing in malware protection, not fully comprehending that a day too late could translate in irreparable reputation damage. The notion that DDoS attacks only target the likes of Sony, Amazon or a Government body could not 0133
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Who’s Who | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
WHO’S WHO IN THE MALTA GAMING INDUSTRY Meny Monka Affiliate Manager
Since its inception in ’97, over 25M players have experienced 888’s exciting action, making it the largest e-gaming portal. The 888 Group headquarters are situated in Gibraltar and is operated by Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Limited under a license granted by the Govt of Gibraltar. In Sept ’05, 888 Holdings made a successful initial public offering of its shares, which were traded on the London Stock Exchange. www.888.com
Ingo Ernst VP Sales
AcuityTec is an all-in-one fraud prevention solution and proven acceptance rate booster for all e-Commerce businesses accepting credit card and other payment transactions. Our unique BIN intelligence researches do increase merchant transaction acceptance rates, while determining exposure to fraud and risks. www.acuitytec.com
Roy Pedersen Managing Director
All-In Translations is the official translation provider for SiGMA and the preferred language service provider for companies like Playtech, Betsson, Betclic, Neo Games, iGame, NYX and many more. Allintranslations.com has had gaming translations as their only focal point since starting up in Malta in 2008, but has added services like content writing, voice-over and language proficiency testing to cater for all the language needs of their increasing client base around the world. www.allintranslations.com
Eero Villikka Affiliate Director
Anna Casino is run by the Maltese company Anna Casino Gaming Ltd. and is operating under an MGA license. The casino caters to primarily the softer gaming audience and is presented with a soft color scheme and a clear female touch. The brand focuses on elements such as trust, security and high value offers for regular customers. Net Entertainment, Play N Go, Microgaming and Spigo products make up the game environment. Anna Partners, the affiliate brand of Anna Casino, offers high value deals to affiliates with a focus on growth through customized promotions based on the specific target audience of the affiliate. www.annacasino.com
Ros Wade Managing Director
Asia Gaming Brief is an intelligence service providing up to date information for worldwide executives on gaming market issues in Asia. Our services include a daily eBrief featuring the latest news and headlines across 22 jurisdictions in Asia, and weekly intelligence articles for AGB members that go indepth into specific markets or recent developments. Asia Gaming Briefings is our print magazine, published alongside the major global gaming shows, which provides essential jurisdiction updates as well as feature articles. www.agbrief.com
Catherine Calleja Managing Director
AXA PPP healthcare exercises a flexible approach to company health cover. A core of health insurance benefits and a range of options are available, allowing you to adjust your cover to match your requirements. This means that we can design a solution to suit your needs, and help to provide the most suitable cover for members at every level of your organisation. In addition to standard benefit tables which cover treatment of acute medical conditions, we are also able to quote for additional benefits relating to preventive care treatment and of course, uniquely in Malta, for dental insurance. www.atlas.com.mt
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SiGMA | Who’s Who
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Jon Grafton Creative Manager
BetConstruct is an award-winning developer and provider of online and land-based betting and gaming solutions. BetConstruct’s innovative and proven offerings include an wide range of market-leading vertical products including Sportsbook, Live Dealer Casino, RNG Casino Suite, Poker, Skill Games, Virtual Betting, Financial Betting and Fantasy Sports. BetConstruct powers the operations of more than 80 partners which are served 8 global offices. All partners benefit from the BetConstruct Spring™ platform which combines the vertical product suite, powerful back office tools and all-inclusive services that help operator costs. www.betconstruct.com
Aiste Garneviciene COO
While most of the companies are offering traditional software platforms with classic casino games in the offering, Betgames. tv is thinking outside the box, trying to develop a unique niche in an industry that could stand an infusion of fresh ideas. We have introduced a revolutionary approach to live casino gaming and are confident that our live games offer our partners the highest quality, the most authentic and entertaining live gaming experience and the widest choice of unique content. We are constantly working on adding new cutting-edge games unlike any other on the market today. www.betgames.tv
Ulrik Bengtsson CEO
Betsson is a unique venture of its own. Its story has become history in the Maltese iGaming sector. It is known as being the largest local employer in the sector and has an overwhelming story of success. Betsson has been welcomed in Malta and has become ‘Maltese’ throughout the years. The set up is done by skilled and professional individuals that contribute to its success. For Betsson, Malta is simply a great place to work and live in for skilled internet professionals. www.betsson.com
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Kristina Hambardzumyan Business Development Consultant
Affiliate Lounge and its brands Betsson, Betsafe, Casino Euro and Cherry Casino are all part of the public listed holding company Swedish Betsson AB. Betsson AB invests in companies who provide quality gaming services over the Internet. The demand for transparency and auditing practices employed in public listed companies guarantees that your commission is always fair and 100% right. With a dedicated staff and a comprehensive back-end system, affiliates have support and guidance at hand. Affiliate Lounge strives to be the best partner regardless of the size of your company. www.affiliatelounge.com
on s
Azure Malta provides Vacation Ownership opportunities, making dream vacations a reality. Azure tailors luxury club memberships to today’s demanding market and has fast become a worldwide leader in the Vacation Ownership industry. Providing exclusive membership opportunities at the prestigious Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands, Malta and with a member base of over 5,000 families at this resort alone, Azure offers flexible usage options and luxury vacation experiences in some of the most sought after destinations in the world.
Allister Bajada Head of Affiliates
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Kay Vella Head of Recruitment
Betting Connections is a leading provider of International IGaming Recruitment Solutions! With more than 30 highly skilled recruitment and career consultants, we provide the best and most personalised service in the industry. Utilising our unique ‘30 Step Recruitment Process’, which focuses on quality of communication, delivery of results and consistency of service, you can rest assured that all your recruitment needs will be met in a thorough, professional and timely manner. Your recruitment solution is our goal! www.bettingconnections.com
Angelo Dalli CEO
Offering intelligent gaming backend, built from scratch to cater to the current and future necessities of the modern gaming operators, Bit8 is a gaming platform company in a league of its own. The company’s backend is designed in a highly modular fashion that can adjust easily to any number of concurrent players. Operators can customize additional modules to achieve the precise system satisfying business needs. The design enables any number of third parties to integrate, with the backend providing “backend of backends” functionality across all game manufacturers, products and channels. www.bit8.com
Jonathan Caruana CTO
Bonus Vikings is an affiliate platform providing top rated CPA and revenue share offers in casino, poker, bingo, sportsbook as well as Forex and binary. The parent company is Viking PC Health Ltd which operates from Malta, offering antivirus software. www.bonusvikings.com
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Louise North Business Development Manager
Callcredit Information Group is expert in managing consumer data for businesses across every sector, from financial services, retail and utilities to public sector, telecoms, insurance and many more. The Group is focused on developing innovative products and services to help businesses make smarter, more informed decisions throughout the customer lifecycle. www.callcreditmarketing.com
Rebecca Liggero Reporter
The well renowned CalvinAyre.com is participating in the Malta iGaming Summit this coming end of October. The leading iGaming online publication has beenthe global destination for online gambling news, lifestyle information, conferences, industry shakers and event coverage since its inception. CalvinAyre.com is a non-profit website, aiming to be carbon neutral and encouraging other players in the online gaming industry to follow this philosophy. All profit generated goes to support initiatives of the Calvin Ayre Foundation. www.calvinayre.com
Kristian Svensson General Manager
CasinoRoom.com is run by Ellmount Gaming and licensed by Malta Gaming Authority and the UK Gaming Commission. An established brand offering its customers a innovative product on all devices. Operating out of offices in Sweden, Curacao, Costa Rica and Malta. One of the fastest growing online casino operators world wide in 2015. www.casinoroom.com
Magnus Alebo CEO
Casino Heroes, formerly known as Casino Saga, was the first casino brand from Hero Gaming. It was launched in June 2014 and immediately took off to become the fastest growing online casino world wide. By playing traditional casino games of their choice (currently from Netent, Play´n Go, Microgaming and Betsoft), the customers progress in the Casino Heroes adventure by fighting bosses and reaching new regions. www.casinoheroes.com
Who’s Who | SiGMA
David Wainwright Director
Right from your home, smartphone, or tablet. CasinoTV is an online gaming experience featuring live games that stream directly from the acclaimed Casino at Portomaso, Malta. CasinoTV isn’t just an online gaming company—we’re a real live casino in the online gaming business. When you’re at our tables, you’ll enjoy the same high standards, excellent service and peace of mind as you would while playing in any one of the Tumus Group’s world famous brick and mortar casinos. www.casinotv.com
Oscar Simonsson CEO
Casumo is an award-winning online casino based in Malta. By combining social and real money gaming, Casumo has built the world’s first casino adventure, where the player not only collects winnings, but also points and trophies for every round played. Through design, technology & innovation Casumo aims to disrupt a young but in many ways immature industry. Since the launch in 2012, Casumo is still one of the fastest growing online casino operators in Europe. www.casumo.com
Nadia Pace CEO
At Centrecom we are a multi-lingual International Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company offering back and front office services through our Contact Centre based in Luqa, Malta. Our contact centre is manned by native English speakers, as well as a multi-national team speaking more than seven languages – so that we can definitely speak your customers’ language. www.centrecom.eu
Elaine Gardiner Senior Affiliate Manager
Established in 1963, CherryCasino is famous for being one of the oldest and most trusted online gaming sites in the world. Ever since its inception CherryCasino has attracted players that love a classic casino ambiance. The company sees the importance of showing its players a good time. So whether players are new or experiences at CherryCasino they will find an online casino that is as authentic as it is glamorous with cash prizes to match. www.cherryaffiliates.com
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Joe Chetu Global Sales Director
Chetu is a 15-year old IT Solutions Provider specializing in Custom Software Development for the Gaming, Casino & Hospitality industries. Chetu’s Business Model provides value by combining the availability of over 1,000 Developers with the advantages of a Local, Technical Project Manager who handles daily collaboration and face-to-face interaction. Chetu can do an entire large-scale project, or, provide a simple staff augmentation. Chetu’s Developers span the entire IT Spectrum so whatever platform or technology you are currently using, they have the expertise to fill your requirements quickly. www.chetu.com
Angela Tabone Director
Citadel Insurance operates with a forward-thinking strategy built on its established reputation as a provider of high-quality and value-for-money insurance products and services for both individual and business customers. The company offers an extensive and flexible range of products comprising of motor, home, marine, travel, business, professional indemnity and life insurance including retirement and savings plans, besides other tailor-made products designed around customer’s requirement. www.citadelplc.com
Jesper Engels Affiliate Director
ComeOn! is a Casino, Sportsbook and Poker site running its operations from Malta, operating locally in 10 languages. With their main focus on the Nordic regions, ComeOn! is the proud betting partner of Liverpool FC in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Besides the outstanding Sportsbook, ComeOn! only works with the best Casino game providers including Net Entertainment, Microgaming, Playtech, Play n Go, Yggdrasil and Evolution amongst others. ComeOn are at the forefront of new design and industry leading product features. www.comeon.com
Anton Cristina Executive Director
CSL is a Systems Integrator with its own Data Centre Facilities, which are Tier 3 rated, Carrier Neutral and a very aggressive level of service for DDOS mitigation, with a total capacity of 2000 square meters of rack space plus a team of 24 technical resources skilled and experienced in delivering Cloud Services, Colocation, Managed Services up to OS level, plus BC&RS to our customers. We migrated many gaming customers to our data centre over the past 4 years and they will tell you that we can do it faster, better and cheaper. www.csl.com.mt
Who’s Who | SiGMA
Stephanie Fiteni Online Marketing Consultant
At Defined Branding we help our clients build strong, enduring brands that stand out and inspire loyalty. We believe in analytical research, strategy and creative digital solutions that engage the hearts and minds of your audience. We help our clients grow their businesses through sharp online strategies with a serious digital edge. We are a team of creative thinking ghost-writers and bloggers, branding creatives, content marketing specialists, online strategists, web developers, 2D & 3D artists and videographers. www.definedbranding.com
Jesper Engels Affiliate Director
Initially the affiliate platform of ComeOn.com, earn Affiliates nowadays gives access to 7 amazing brands, each targeting different geographies and player segments with their own unique brand identity and values. The earn Affiliates brands are: Comeon.com, Folkeutomaten.com, Mobilbet.com, Suomikasino.com, Casinostugan.com, Kasyno.pl and GetLucky. com. All brands are licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority and most brands hold the UK Gambling Commission license. www.earnaffiliates.com
Alex Capurro CEO & Founder
With over 15 years experience, EPG is the next generation one stop payment platform. We offer an online gateway with an ever growing list of over 210 different online payment methods and acquirers worldwide. EPG can offer any online merchant everything they need in order to process transactions online via one simple yet heavily secure API integration and a unique back office where non IT staff can maintain and configure payment accounts, create payment routing rules by drawing a flow chart on the screen using our custom built rules engine or prevent fraud. www.easypaymentgateway.com
Niclas Johansson Affililate Manager
Established in 2013, Energy Casino is deemed as thriving and briskly developing casino which offers a wide range of cutting edge games from the land-based slots manufacturer Novomatic. Soon its game portfolio will be updated with games by Netent and Microgaming. Licensed and operated by Probe Investments Limited which is registered under the laws of the European Union member state of Malta, EnergyCasino is backed my multiple languages, currencies, expeditious support and it invariably entices enormous throngs of customers. www.energycasino.com
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issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Michael Golembo Director
EGaming Online may be the only affiliate program you will ever need. All brands feature effective, workable promotions, solid player support, and conversion. The company guarantees that whether you are looking to promote one brand or all of them, EGO will work with you every step of the way. Their dedicated team of experienced affiliate managers provide 24/7 support in many languages. EGO offers buttons and text links in a variety of colors and sizes, along with free banners in a number of sizes, including custom made. www.egamingonline.com
Jan Urbanec VP Sales
Endorphina is a software provider that offers a wide range of Flash-based slot games for online casinos. Games provided by Endorphina are remarkable for the stability of the system, circumspect logic of the client side and versatile API which allows several types of integration, a full report with statistics sent to the Client’s back office, etc. Choosing Endorphina means choosing a trustworthy provider of PROFITABLE ONLINE casino software. www.endorphina.com
Bernard Mallia CEO
Equinox academy is the training and education arm of Equinox Advisory Ltd. It specialises in the delivery of high quality training programmes designed to improve on-the-job performance, and is backed up by the Corporate services arm of Equinox Advisory Ltd. which conducts, among other things, industry surveys in relation to skills gap, trainig needs analyses and HR Audits. www.equinoxadvisory.com
Elaine Gardiner Senior Affiliate Manager
EuroSlots offersone of the widest variety of the leading games available online. The company’s motto is: “If the games are not good enough for our customers we simply do not publish them.” www.euroslots.com
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Ebbe Groes CEO
An independent software development company providing the world class gaming products for the iGaming industry, EveryMatrix was founded in 2008 by a visionary team of people. Their story and journey are special and they will present it at the Malta iGaming Summit in detail. Some of their Awards are: EGR 2013 Award – White Label Partner of the Year, EGR 2011 Award – Sports Betting Rising Star, EGR 2010 Award – Innovation in Sports Betting. www.everymatrix.com
Benjamin Grech COO
Sara Grech founded her own Real estate company in 1985, following the experience she had with the first brokers on the island. The success of the company was rapidly noticeable as they became an established household name; by the year1999 Sara Grech Ltd. had offices located throughout Malta and Gozo. With the growth of the business Sara founded the magazine called, ‘Living it Up’. In 2013 a new company image was launched Engel & Völkers Sara Grech, a co-brand with an international renowned brand based in Hamburg. In the very same year Sara Grech also founded the NGO called Services Guide Dogs Malta Foundation. www.engelvoelkers.com
Patrick J O’ Brien Director of Communications
EXANTE Limited was founded in March 2011 with its headquarters located in Malta. EXANTE is a next generation award winning brokerage company that aims to give its clients access to a broad range of financial instruments and markets. Our aim is to design, produce and support cutting-edge infrastructure for greater financial market accessibility and pricing transparency.We believe in liberal financial markets. Our vision is to become a benchmark for transparency and market accessibility in the financial intermediary sector. www.exante.com
Adrian Sciberras CEO
Fairwinds Management Limited is a company formation and administration specialist offering a wide range of corporate, legal and financial services. Our customer oriented methodology helps us achieve the objectives of our clients within a cost-effective structure in order to maximise their profits within legitimate and transparent business structures. Whether you would like to start up a company to operate your business or would like to avail of our back office administration services, Fairwinds Management will offer you a level of service which will exceed your expectations. www.fairwindsmanagement.net
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Mikael Gummerus CEO
Frosmo was founded in 2008 in Helsinki, Finland where it is currently based. The company specializes in providing eCommerce Growth Management software and in-house professional service. Within the gaming industry Frosmo gives your operative team a fast and easy-to-use tool for iterative testing. It includes a user interface that allows senior management to easily see if their company strategy is being achieved online. This is essentially a way of transparently tracking which conversion optimisation actions are having real effects on the companies’ bottom line. www.frosmo.com
Boštjan Torkar Director of Business Development
GameART is an independent online casino software provider and developer, providing innovative games and cuttingedge solutions dedicated to online and landbased gaming operators. The company was founded in 2013 by a group of serial entrepreneurs who have had successful experience in the online and industry in the past 20 years and evolved into a premium B2B provider and developer with offices in Malta, Slovenia, Serbia and UK. GameART’s core business is the development of high quality slot games and gaming contents not only for online operators as well as VLT and casino industry in the regulated markets. www.gameart.net
Michael Corfman Director
With nearly 15,000 registered members, the Gambling Portal Webmasters Association is the only professional organization of its kind. We are committed to supporting the success of our members, and all of our programs are designed based on this objective. Membership in the organization is free and is made possible by the support of our sponsor affiliate programs. www.gpwa.org
Robin Reed Managing Director
Hailed as one of the most successful online casino launches in history, Guts.com has seen rapid growth since going online in 2013. Focusing on key factors such as 24/7 customer service, fast withdrawals, a wide selection of games and recruiting some of the business’ top professionals, Guts continues to be one of the fastest growing online gaming providers in the business. www.guts.com
Who’s Who | SiGMA
Yancy Naughton CEO
HasTraffic.com is the traffic monetization side of the platform. If you are interested in capitalizing on the increased margins available by offering Zero Click redirects to advertisers, but do not want to build your own bidding platform then HasTraffic. com can help. Offer your internet traffic directly to the end consumers of the traffic, avoiding the high margins demanded by the likes of Google, Yahoo, Bing and the Second Tier Networks. www.hastraffic.com
Magnus Alebo CEO
Hero Gaming is a Malta based rising star company operating Casino Heroes (Europe/World), CasiTabi (Japan) and providing Wuxia88 as a B2B partnership for China. The company was founded in 2014 by a group of passionate and experienced iGaming professionals. The company has a vision of creating WOW! experiences for customers and partners and having the most engaged and loyal customers worldwide. www.herogaming.com
Anna Jonson Affiliate Manager
Honest Partners is the dynamic affiliate program of InstaCasino. com. InstaCasino.com’s target markets include Scandinavia, Australia and Canada. The program is a highly converting brand with all the most popular game- and payment providers. www.honestpartners.com
Wayne Said Business Development Executive
SG Solutions Limited has pioneered Apple products and services in Malta and has successfully represented the brand locally for over 30 years. iCentre is the only Apple Authorised Service Provider in Malta. As Authorised Service Providers we specialize in MAC product repairs, data transfer and recovery, upgrades and support as well as MAC system and software deployment in homogeneous and mixed platform environments. www.icentre.com.mt
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Tommi Maijala CEO
To date our company is composed of 100 ambitious individuals working in Malta and Estonia. The iGame team consists of a wide range of nationalities and offers its services in several languages. We cooperate with industry leaders such as Microgaming, Net Entertainment and Relax Gaming and serve to date around 1 million customers all over the world. www.igame.com
Jamie Debono Director
The iGaming Academy is a leading training provider to the lotteries and gambling industry. We deliver a wide range of training solutions that support personal, professional and regulatory requirements of companies. Our portfolio of face-to-face and online training programmes include topics such as AML, Responsible Gambling, introduction to iGaming and sportsbook, Online Casino Management, Anti-Fraud & Payments Handling, Social Media Marketing, PCI DSS Compliance and more. Many leading gaming companies trust us to implement their most critical and complex learning and strategic communication initiatives. www.igacademy.com
Ed Grundy Sales Manager
iGB Affiliate is the biggest provider of information, insight and analysis for the iGaming affiliate market. The affiliate facing brand of iGaming Business, iGB Affiliate specialises in providing high quality information to everyone working within the online gambling affiliate industry, whether through our events, publications or online content. www.iGamingBusiness.com
Ben Clemes Managing Director
Who are we? We are entrepreneurs, innovators, iGaming enthusiasts with extensive industry experience. We have created and developed iGC using experts in each area to bring together a lean iGamingPlatform which we are proud to call iGaming Cloud. www.iGamingCloud.com
Who’s Who | SiGMA
Roderick Briffa Business Development Executive
i-GSN is a dynamic Network of Companies focusing mainly on i-Gaming Turnkey solutions, offering a vast range of products and services. Apart from accepting ad-hoc Development projects, i-GSN can offer a fully customizable and very user friendly Back office, Sportsbook and Poker platform. Through our direct collaboration with several providers from the industry we can offer several RNG Games, Live dealer studios & casinos, all integrated into one back-office using a seamless wallet. We have a large variety of payment providers integrated to us and you may choose the best option for your Operation’s needs. www.i-gsn.com
Pierre Mallia Managing Director
iMovo works with customers to face business challenges from all sorts of directions – whether it’s increased regulation in the financial services industry, an increased need for governance in the public sector or the need to improve customer services in the face of increased competition. iMovo helps organisations to take advantage of new business opportunities by strategically using technology and innovation. www.imovo.com.mt
Ciara Kaneen Key Account Manager
Isle of Man Post Office can help you drive customer acquisition and retention with an integrated approach, using the power of direct mail. Their mission is to meet your every need with a holistic range of secure services that bring you peace of mind. Their secure data management services make sure you and your customers are protected to optimise your investment. They hold international standards for security and quality. ISO/ IEC 27001:2013 and ISO 9001. Discover more about what they can do for your business with their first class services. www.iompost.com
Luigi Spina CEO
Join Games Malta Ltd is a new Software Casino Provider founded in 2014 by a partnership between 2 professional business manager who have ample experience in the gaming industry and who share the same vision of creating an innovative Slot Concept. The choice of the name “Join” symbolizes the union between different ideas of the team who together work to reach the same goal; that of becoming a renowed Casino Slot Provider for our creativity. www.joingamesmalta.com
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SiGMA | Who’s Who
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Ilan Nachmani Head of Affiliates
Karamba Affiliates brings the most innovative slot and casino gaming websites into the largest affiliate program. We’re 100% committed to bringing players to the best, fairest, and most trustworthy online gaming sites, and this is evident through the dedicated service we have always provided. We offer the leading slot & casino gaming brands, including Karamba.com and Hopa.com, as well as the dedicated Scratch2Cash.com gaming site, all of which feature an impressive portfolio of more than 200 slots, scratch cards, instant win, and casino games. www.karamba.com
Don Bush VP Marketing
Boost Sales, Beat Fraud with Kount Complete™. Kount helps online businesses simplify fraud detection and dramatically improve bottom line profitability. Our all-in-one, SaaS platform is designed for companies operating in all kinds of card-notpresent environments, including mobile. Merchants using Kount accept more orders from more people in more places than ever before. Kount Complete™ is easy to implement and easy to use. Kount’s proprietary and patented technology reviews billions of transactional data points every year and provides maximum protection for all size businesses. www.kount.com
Russell Mifsud Manager
KPMG in Malta is one of the leading providers of audit, tax and advisory services. KPMG is effectively the largest provider of professional services on the island. As we work with our clients, both international and local, we bring our experience and knowledge to bear for the purpose of inspiring confidence and empowering change. We continue to build on past successes thanks to a clear vision, rigorously maintained values and, above all, our people. KPMG has recently acquired Crimsonwing plc. This will see the Microsoft Dynamics and eCommerce workforce rise to some 350 staff, including a 200-strong highly skilled in Malta. www.kpmg.com.mt
Johan Styren CEO
LeoVegas is the innovation leader in mobile casino gaming. LeoVegas casino provides world-class game entertainment and offers over 500+ games on mobile, tablet and your computer. Multi-award winning LeoVegas casino offers a completely new standard for what you can (and should) expect from gaming on your mobile phone. www.leovegasaffiliates.com
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Connah Howell Publisher Manager
Matching Visions is one of the fastest growing affiliate networks in the industry and is offering its affiliates a long string of high value CPA and REV share deals with some of the best performing operators in the industry. Matching Visions also offers affiliates simplicity and security. Simplicity in the sense that affiliates will be able to promote a wide variety of gaming operators and receive only one summarised payment per month, directly from Matching Visions. Security in the sense that Matching Visions, through its large volume, has a large influence with operators, ensuring that affiliates get the best treatment and value available. www.matchingvisions.com
Karl Dukes Sales & Marketing Director
Mediahut are the leading supplier of specialist direct mail (physical mail) to the gaming industry. From initial acquisition and throughout the player lifecycle, we can print and personalise anything that drops through a letterbox. www.mediahut.co.uk
Michael Darmanin Director of Business Services
Melita is a diversified and advanced quadruple-play cable operator offering converged telecommunications services. Services are delivered to consumers and businesses across Malta via its nationwide converged mobile 3G (UMTS), HFC cable and advanced seamless Wi-Fi mesh networks to households and businesses in Malta. Likewise, the billing and customer relationships are managed through one converged system. www.melita.com
Joseph Cuschieri Executive Chairman
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) is the single, independent, regulatory body responsible for the governance of all gaming activities in Malta, both online and land-based. www.mga.org.mt
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Joseph G Cutajar Director
MIB is Malta’s largest insurance broker and risk management services firm, the local pioneer in this sector with over 35 years of proven track record serving some of Malta’s major public and private corporate entities. MIB is the independent broking arm of the MIB Insurance Group. Prize Indemnity covers contingent prizes on behalf of sponsors/promoters. The policy indemnifies the Insured against the Net Cost of supplying the prize. It enables companies to offer high-value prizes for a fraction of the cost. www.mib.com.mt
Gustav Cuschieri Director
Mobilbet was founded by 4 industry veterans that are driven by the ambition to make the game that little bit more exciting, accessible and user friendly. That’s why everything at Mobilbet has been crafted towards supporting a gaming experience that suits our customer’s lifestyle, timetable and game. Mobilbet. com – Win anywhere, everywhere! Mobilbet is licensed and regulated by the European Union member state of Malta safeguarding the highest security standards in Online Gambling worldwide. www.mobilbet.com
Enrico Bradamante Head of European Market Operations
NetEnt AB (publ), previously Net Entertainment, is a leading digital entertainment company, providing premium gaming solutions to the world’s most successful online casino operators. Since its inception in 1996, NetEnt has been a true pioneer in driving the market with thrilling games powered by a cutting-edge platform. NetEnt is committed to helping customers stay ahead of the competition, is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm (NET–B) and employs 700 people in Stockholm, Malta, Kiev, Gothenburg, Gibraltar and New Jersey, USA. NetEnt Americas LLC is a US subsidiary of NetEnt AB. www.netent.com
Xenophon Giannis Vice President, Sales
Nexusguard is the global leader in DDoS mitigation, protecting clients against a multitude of threats to ensure uninterrupted internet service. Nexusguard provides highly customized solutions for customers of all sizes, and also enables turnkey anti-DDoS solutions for service providers. Headquartered in San Francisco, Nexusguard’s network of security experts extends globally. www.nexusguard.com
Who’s Who | SiGMA
Niklas Hellberg Managing Director
Nickes.Com Sports & Concert Trips is a tour operator offering travel packages to sporting events. Since 1997, we have arranged packages to all major football leagues/tournaments around the world, Formula 1, Tennis and much more. Packages included event tickets and accommodation. Plus flights, local transports, events before/after game if required. www.nickes.com
Emmanuel Bonnici Director
Bookmakers offer thousands of pre-match and on worldwide events. The collection and updating of such data requires countless resources and substantial financial investment. Odds and More simplifies your daily work. Our betting solution allows bookmakers to externalise labour intensive tasks by providing all that is needed for creating, managing and closing a vast. Odds and More can be tailored for all types of businesses. By choosing us as your data provider you have guaranteed your business with continuous updates to keep your gaming business in the technological and market-lead! www.oddsandmore.com
Veiko Krünberg Managing Director
OlyBet is freshly established online operations of the Olympic Casino brand. OlyBet’s Casino Suit includes Playtech, NetEnt, Microgaming, WMS, Novomatic, Evolution and other games, whereas poker enthusiasts are served over MPN network. New players are welcomed with competitive bonus and retained by bespoke loyalty program which runs in parallel with our landbased establishments - Olympic Casinos. Olympic Entertainment Group operates more than 100 casinos in Europe and employs over 3000 people in 8 countries. www.olybet.com www.olympic-casino.com
Danny Trieger Affiliate Program Manager
Comprising top gaming brands, Prime Partners has the experience and know-how to be the most profitable affiliate program you’ll ever use. Become a Prime Partner and let us impress you! We have a dedicated team of international marketing, analysis and affiliate experts ready to work with you. Plus, to make things extra easy, we take care of your marketing, advertising, accounting and analysis infrastructure. www.primepartners.com
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We are a fast growing content and translation agency based in Malta. We are experts at languages and content based internet marketing.
We help casino companies compete in the tough SEO race by creating the high quality content necesary to generate organic traffic, lowering acquisition costs and increasing revenue.
SEO
We help affiliates scale up their businesses by giving them access to a huge network of competent writers and project managers, in different languages and different areas of expertise.
W e help casinos with high quality translations and proofreading, helping them succeed when launching in new markets.
To secure an awesome Content Sidekick for your own SEO team, please visit our website:
http://Sidekickc.com
Who’s Who | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Johan Friis Co-founder
PugglePay is a Swedish mobile payment service specializing in iGaming. Our unique service allows players to make deposits directly from their phone without any pre-registration or apps. PugglePay is integrated with most platforms such as DevCode, Easy Payment Gateway, EveryMatrix, Intelligent Payments, Playtech, PPRO, Safe Charge, SoftSwiss, TAIN and more. www.pugglepay.com
Johan Friis Co-founder
Quinel is an ISO/IEC 17025 independent testing facility and provides certification services for gaming. The company is located in Portomaso and operates in the EU regulated markets. www.quinel.com.mt
Itai Zak CEO
SBTech has been providing sports betting solutions to top gaming operators since 2007. We have a great deal of experience in the implementation and management of sports betting platforms and managed services to top online gaming operators and existing bookmakers operating both in regulated and traditional markets. We offer an innovative and dynamic suite of turnkey and fully managed online, mobile and retail/betting shop solutions which push the boundaries of interactive betting. www.sbtech.com
Tore Friskopp CEO
At Sidekick we strive to help those of you who work with online marketing to become even more profitable. Our clients include SEO agencies, Affiliates and E-commerce businesses. We have worked with online content since in 2009. The company is run by Tore Friskopp who has worked within E-commerce and Internet marketing since 2005. We have extensive experience in producing selling text and content for the internet. Not only do we know how to create such text, but we also know how it should be implemented in systems and used. www.sidekick-content.com
Michael Holm Affiliate Director
The poker software on Redbet.com is powered by Ongame Network Limited. Ongame Network Limited has been Licensed by the Government of Gibraltar and regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner. Third party gaming operators approved by Ongame Network may operate under this license. Redbet Gaming Ltd and thereby Redbet.com is an approved platform subscriber for poker. The live casino software provider Evolution Gaming is certified by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. Betsoft Gaming Ltd are subject to the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and are hence not under the supervision of MGA. www.redbet.com
Silvio Schembri Chairman
The Responsible Gaming Foundation supports good governance, awareness initiatives and enactment of regulations in order to protect vulnerable people in the gaming sector. The purpose of the Foundation is to collect funds for the promotion of responsible gaming through preventative and support measures. Hon. Silvio Schembri is currently the chairman of the Foundation. www.rgf.org.mt
Michael Golembo Director
SkillOnNet provides the best value entertainment of the highest quality for casino players and the most state of the art flexible, customizable and user -friendly online gaming platform for their B2B Clients and Partners. With a decade of front line online gaming experience SkillOnNet have a fully customizable turn-key solution for your online gaming needs . Powering over 21 successful Online casinos come and find out how their ‘Winning Formula’ software solution can work for you! www.skillonnet.com
Adnan Maslo Marketing Director
SlotsMillion.com, proudly presented by Affiliate Republik as a brand new casino owned by Alea Gaming Ltd, licensed and operated in Malta. SlotsMillion offers world’s largest choice of slots under one roof form the leading game suppliers and is also the world’s first Virtual Reality casino making a statement as a leader in new technologies. www.slotsmillion.com
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Who’s Who | SiGMA
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Pramod Kumar Singh Managing Director
SMTP Provider is one of the leading cloud-based email delivery service companies offering high quality & customized Transactional and Promotional email services with worldclass deliverability. We offer specialized services that enables our clients to keep track of sent & received emails, opens, bounces, unsubscribes, spam reports and more with the best deliverability, scalability and reliability. www.smtpprovider.com
Erik Hedberg Affiliate Director
Thrills Casino was founded by a group of casino enthusiasts with a clear goal: to bring colour and life to the world of casino entertainment. Our vast experience from the casino industry has taught us both what’s important to players and what could be done simpler and more exciting. The journey towards a more entertaining and colourful casino experience has started. www.thrills.com
Natasha Tikasz Director of Sales
Sending personalized, bulk SMS has never been so easy and affordable. SMSwarriors is a new and easy way to send local and international personalized, bulk SMS. We’be been in the industry for a long, long time and understand well what the marketer needs. We’e put a great deal of energy into making SMSwarriors simple, reliable and effective. Introduce bulk SMS in your marketing mix and enjoy better results! www.smswarriors.com
Kasper Kau CEO
Spigo® is dedicated to develop and deliver electronic entertainment of high quality. Our goal is to offer the best electronic entertainment within the areas our company operates in at all times, while outperforming all imaginable competitors. This includes emphasis on creating entertainment products with long lifetimes, having a wide target group and operating with uncompromising security. www.spigoworld.com
Mark Debono Director
Systemato is a boutique online agency, staffed by internet marketing professionals and copywriters. They do all kinds of internet nitty gritty. They are in the business to getting things done – making your website work for you. They plan and execute all kinds of internet marketing efforts, managing social media campaigns, handling email marketing from A-Z, and writing top quality and SEO friendly website copy. Founded and run by Mark Debono, an online advertising expert and copywriter, Systemato’s goal is to help you ensure you get your players to the click, sign up, and deposit, using powerful copywriting techniques and experience. www.systemato.com
Kevin Norville HR Director
Established in 2004, Tipico is the leading sports betting company in the German market. Headquartered at the Portomaso Business Tower in Saint Julians, Malta, Tipico offers a wide range of pre-live and live sports betting products delivered through cutting-edge mobile and online channels as well as through a top-class portfolio of approximately 1000 retail outlets predominantly in Germany. Tipico also offers a wide range of online Casino and table games. www.tipco.com
Ondrej Lapides Business Development Director
Established in 2008, Tom Horn Enterprise is a leading casino software provider for online and land-based gaming operators, with offices in Slovakia, Costa Rica and Czech Republic. The company offers a comprehensive list of game titles for desktops and mobiles developed in-house. Integration is easily done with a simple API ready for several types of operations and the robust back office system includes a complete set of tools for land-based operations. www.tomhorn.eu
Matt Lovett Managing Director
WOW Trk is a global affiliate network with over 400 direct and exclusive offers for affiliates to promote. We have offers available in a wide range of verticals; freebies, competitions, deals, gambling, gaming, dating and much more. Get paid per lead, action or click. We also offer a range of free tools to boost affiliate commissions such as tools to automate certain aspects of your ad space, automatically optimising ad space to get the best EPC or Conversion Rate. www.wowtrk.com
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SiGMA | Who’s Who
issue 3 AUTUMN / WINTER 2015
Ory Weihs CEO
Leading provider of digital marketing services XLMedia uses proprietary tools and methodologies to drive high value traffic to their clients’ websites.
Nikolai Livori CEO
Yobetit is an online gaming operator holding a class 2 licence authorized by the MGA and currently located in Malta. www.yobetit.com
XLMedia runs their operations across a variety of vertical markets with specific expertise within the online gaming sector where they team up with some of the leading brands and portals in order to deliver quality services to their clients. www.xlmedia.com
Mark Hothersall Business Development Manager
Wikibetting offers Social betting solutions that can be tailored to Operators specific requirements. Wikibetting is the first P2P social betting platform to be licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority under a class 4. The platforms tap into a new demographic of players and offer players a customised betting approach, where they can literally “Bet On Anything”. The revenue opportunity for the Operator is 100% risk free. It can also help with B.I, player acquisition and retention. The integration is a seamless streamlined process, which can be either a standalone setup or integrated into your current core platform as a product addition. www.wikibetting.com
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Stewart Townsend Channel Director
Zendesk is a customer service platform. It’s designed for companies that want to create customer relationships that are more meaningful, personal, and productive. It starts by helping companies provide great support and then mature with selfservice and proactive engagement. The software is now built all over the world, by a growing group of talented, charming people. www.zendesk.com