W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M

F E AT U R E G E O L O C AT I O N E M B ATS C O M I N GIntel
Report 2021

B2B Winners~ 1X2 Network~ mkodo~ EveryMatrix~ MuchBetter~ Evolution~ Relax Gaming~ GiG~ Vaix~ IDNow~ Worldpay from FIS\ 001

Contents
Xwww.e g r m a g a z i n e .co m

12 14 17 19
An explosive growththat was worth
waiting for

How operators canmitigate the impact of
new regulations on UX

Kevin Reid and Rory
Kimber look at what made1X2 Network slot supplierof the year in its 19th yearof operation

Roger Tyrzyk of IDNow
considers what operators
can do to overcome
the challenges of new
regulations

Adapting throughout
challenging times

The innovative
supplier

Ebbe Groes, EveryMatrix
founder and group CEO,reﬂects on how the ﬁrm
has adapted its service
provision to meet theneeds of its customers

Fredrik Bjurle, director of
product at Evolution Group,
reﬂects on its awards win
and looks towards the
future21 23 26 29
A leading payments
partner for a reason

The full service
winners

Crucial optionality
and adaptation

A benchmark forthings to comeAlex Morgan-Moodie,
director of vertical growthat Worldpay by FIS Global,
explains what makes
Worldpay the right choicefor the industry

Martin Collins of GiG
discusses the company'sawards success

Stuart Godfree, managing
director and co-founderof mkodo, considers theﬁrm's recent awards win
and the factors which haveshaped its success

Simon Hammon of Relax
Gaming reﬂects on the
supplier's awards success

31 35
The smart payments
solution

Artificial intelligenceleaders

Israel Rosenthal
discusses the
MuchBetter eWallet,
which was recognised
as the best payments
solution at this year's
EGR B2B Awards

Jay Kanabar of Vaix
outlines what the ﬁrm
is doing with artiﬁcial
intelligence and why it isviewed as such a criticalcomponent of the platform
offering

3

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Introduction

Above and beyond
he EGR B2B Winners Report 2021 features best-in-class service
suppliers.
Throughout a year of extraordinary disruption across the globe, theproviders in this report had to adapt as never before in order to continue
servicing their partners.
Technology played a signiﬁcant role while betting shops, bingo halls andcasinos were shuttered, and this change necessitated a bolstering of theonline service provision – a development undoubtedly accelerated by the
pandemic and the conditions it created.
This report celebrates outstanding contributors, some of whom were
winners in multiple categories from the 2021 EGR B2B Awards.
Herein the contributors highlight how they have adapted and evolved tomeet the demands of their clients throughout this challenging period of time.

T

By Ross Law | Report editor

5

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

The EGR B2B Awards celebrate and reward the very best service
providers in online gambling, recognising the achievements ofsuppliers from all the major egaming disciplines
WITH THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
6HEADLINE SPONSORDIAMOND SPONSOREGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

\ Relax Gaming\ Kambi

7\ Betradar

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

\ Vaix8\ BetConstruct

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

\ This year’s award ceremony took place at York Lawns in Regent’s Park, London
9

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

\ Fresh Eight10\ NetEnt\ Better Change

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

\ Red Tiger\ EGR Global’s group head of content Niamh Gallagher on stage at this year’s ceremony

11\ Gaming Innovation GroupEGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: 1X2 Network

1X2 Network: explosive growththat was worth waiting for
Kevin Reid and Rory Kimber look at whatmade 1X2 Network slot supplier of the year
in its 19th year of operation

Kevin Reid

12

X Chief commercial
officer (CCO)
X 1X2 Network
Kevin Reid isapproaching a decadeas the chief commercial
officer of 1X2 Network.
He has a proven trackrecord in maximising
1X2’s distribution andallowing its range of
products to ﬂourish.

Rory Kimber
X Accountmanagement andmarketing director
X 1X2 Network
Rory Kimber is theaccount management
and marketing director
at 1X2 Network. He heldroles at Red Tiger/
NetEnt and Sky before
joining 1X2 Network
in 2020. He oversees
revenue from all current
customers and themarketing operation.

EGR Intel (EGR): Firstly, congratulations. What do you
think it is that made the judges crown you slot supplier ofthe year?
Kevin Reid (KR): Thanks! I believe it’s the diversity ofwhat we oﬀer within our portfolio. We’ve got a lotof diﬀerent types of games thanks to the two-studiosetup and that means we have a uniquely diversiﬁed portfolio with content that will perform well forevery diﬀerent operator.
We have to mention Branded MegawaysTM in particular. This innovative concept won EGR game of
the year 2020, and if you include the branded slots
we developed last year with the proprietary games
from Iron Dog Studios and 1X2gaming, we launched
91 titles, which is a remarkable achievement.
Rory Kimber (RK): I think the judges appreciatedthat we’re always trying to do something diﬀerent
and take risks. When you look at the growth we haveexperienced, it’s clear the approach we’re taking is
working. Joining forces with key operators has also
given us even more of an insight into player preferences and trends; we move with this 50% of the time
and then push the boundaries the other 50%.
Our position as a leading content distributor
played a part, too. Through 1X2 Network Partnerships, we have a platform that oﬀers 500+ slots,
casino, table and virtual games from small, cuttingedge providers that bring something diﬀerent. This
allows operators to diﬀerentiate and oﬀer players
the next generation of games.
EGR: Talking about growth, after operating as you havefor so long, what is it that pushed you on to another level?
KR: We have ﬁnally cracked the code when it comesto developing blockbuster content. 1 Million Mega-

ways BCTM was a real hit for us and came oﬀ the backof two other strong titles. Once you’ve got momentum, everything starts to fall into place.
We have also tweaked our internal processes sothat we generate a lot more feedback as we takegames from concept to launch, which has really
improved the quality of our titles. We have a newframework and Branded MegawaysTM has of course
really catapulted us.
RK: 1X2 has really matured as a developer. We havea clear understanding of what does and doesn’t
work, we have struck the balance between innovating while delivering quality content. We have incredible partnerships with operators, we’re certiﬁed in ahuge range of markets, have a powerful content delivery platform and aggregation, and simply have incredible momentum behind us.

Having such a long history means someof our relationships run extremely deep
– we have partners who have been with
us for over a decade, so trust builds up
beyond the normal supplier/operator
collaboration
Kevin Reid | 1X2 Network
EGR: It does sound like you’ve found a winning formula tocontinue to grow in the future. Would you agree that you’reon the right track?
RK: Yes, I think things are set up well. We’re making
strides forward every month and our client feedback
is constantly improving. We have also added some
big-name operators to our roster of partners andcontinue to push innovations such as Probability of
Money Back (PMB) which aims to change the way wethink about volatility.
With Branded MegawaysTM, we’ve got a game thatspends months in top positions in operator game

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: 1X2 Network

lobbies, but we’re always iterating the concept to improve the player experience.
KR: It’s all well and good having products like Branded MegawaysTM, PMB and the innovations we havedeveloped within our games, but we need to spreadthe word more. There’s still plenty more we could bedoing, and we also have the 1X2 Network Partnerships which is ﬂourishing but with plenty of potential still to unlock.
We got to where we are today by pivoting andboxing clever, so we’re not going to blindly follow apath just because it brought us success in the last
couple of years. We will remain focused moving forwards.
RK: He’s always like that.
EGR: The story of 1X2 Network is deﬁnitely one of themore interesting ones in the B2B gaming world. How doyou think your past has helped get you to where you aretoday?
KR: If you look at 1X2 Network across the years,
we’ve had many diﬀerent lead products including
Virtuals, Content Partnerships, Distribution agreements, Fruit Slots, 3x3’s, Premium Slots and now
Branded MegawaysTM. We talk a lot about the lessons
we learnt from each of these and believe we’re now
the best we’ve ever been in each of these areas.
Having such a long history also means some ofour relationships run extremely deep – we have partners who have been with us for over a decade, so
trust builds up beyond the normal supplier/operator
collaboration. This has really helped us understandthe needs of our customers and work to deliver thegames they are seeking.
RK: Coming in to such a tight knit group as an outsider, it was clear that 1X2 was on the cusp of something great. It felt like everyone was pulling in thesame direction and that there was a clear vision for
the future.
Branded MegawaysTM helped us to get more attention and went hand-in-hand with some great content
that left our production line at the same time. Oncethe ball started rolling, things moved quickly andwe were suddenly releasing games exclusively withthe likes of 888, Kindred, as well as Paddy Power. It
has taken us some time to get here, but we have an
incredibly strong foundation and unrivalled experience which will ensure we now stay in the top tier ofdevelopers.

EGR: It’s great to hear about how your past played into thepresent day, but what about the future. What’s next?
RK: It’s no secret that branded games are a key focus
moving forward as operators look to stand out fromtheir rivals. We’ve produced the highest numberof branded games over the past 12 months, with
62 titles going live, and we expect to surpass that
number in the coming 12 months. Of course, thiswon’t be limited to just Branded MegawaysTM either,but I can’t say too much yet!
That we can manage such a high volume showsthat our branded games process is the smoothest in
the industry, and we’re keen to leverage this to provide options and content to our partners.
We also watch our rivals closely to ensure that our
portfolio of games remains competitive and that
we oﬀer all the features that players have come to
expect. This means adding new features and formats, and this will be a key focus over the coming
months; we will, for example, be launching high-end
Hold and Win content.
KR: The real answer is ‘Who knows?’ – and that’s
what makes working at 1X2 Network such great fun.
What I do know is this: we have got some exciting
partnerships and market entries to be announced
in the very near future. Once these have been announced, it will be very clear what the plan to push
us to the next stage of growth is.
We’ve never been afraid to take risks or makestep changes. I can promise that the next 12 months
will be a hugely important chapter in our incredible
story. X

13

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: IDNow

How operators can mitigate theimpact of new regulations on UX
Roger Tyrzyk of IDNow considers what
operators can do to overcome thechallenges of new regulation

R
Roger Tyrzyk

14

XDirector of UK/
Ireland and Global
GamingXIDNow
As director of UK/
Ireland and global
gaming at IDnow,
Roger Tyrzyk enables
customers from various
industries to easily andsecurely onboard newcustomers. He has
deep-rooted expertisein digitising identity
and software services,
particularly within thegaming and ﬁnancial
sectors.

egulations are a fact of life in many industries.
For the gaming industry, complying withregulations is as much a part of doing businessas having the right online platform or developing
the right games. That doesn’t mean the changes
brought in by the UK Gambling Commission makedoing business easier. The new regulations are
aimed at making gambling safer and fairer, with
one of the key changes being increased strictness
around age veriﬁcation. That means new systems,
new checks and new costs for gambling operators.
At the same time, operators are faced with changing customer expectations. Users expect services to
be available within minutes, not days, having spent
the last year seeing more and more of their lives
move online. Gambling operators must now provide
an experience that is not just as good as competitors, but that rivals the likes of Amazon, Netﬂix andother digital pioneers.
Yet the new regulations make that hard to do so.
Operators are now required to verify customer age
before the customer is able to deposit funds, gamble
using their money, use a free bet bonus, or accessany ‘free-to-play’ versions of gambling games. Thisis a fairly signiﬁcant shift, as operators could previously take 72 hours to verify customer age, with players using the platform during that time (although
pay-outs could not be issued until veriﬁcation wascomplete). This, among other changes, has had ahuge impact on website operations, creating several
issues that require signiﬁcant work to overcome.

Increased barrier to entry
One of the biggest obstacles the new regulations
have caused is increasing the barrier to entry forcustomers. Previously, potential users could sign up

to a website and instantly place bets, play games, orpartake in any other activity.
Now, however, operators are required to verify age
before providing access, meaning it is impossible
for users to instantly play. While this was part of theregulations’ aim of improving gambling safety andfairness, it does have a dramatic impact on user experience. Players now have to deal with struggling
to provide the required information, waiting forveriﬁcation or even forgetting a website they signed
up for altogether. At a time when users have morechoice than ever before on how they spend theirtime and money, the net eﬀect could well be a dropin the number of users signing up, and a similar
impact on the overall conversion rates of signup tobets placed or games played.

Aside from the new gaming regulations,the events of the past 18 months has
meant that the implementation anddeployment of digital ID veriﬁcation
tools has become ever more important,as the need for user-friendly and fast
digital processes increases
Roger Tyrzyk | IDNow
Higher operating costs
It’s not just players that are feeling the eﬀects. New
regulatory requirements means new increases in operating costs, both indirect and direct. The former
is when the previously mentioned experience issues
hit customer signups, while the latter covers the additional expense of implementing new methods of
veriﬁcation. Yet, the latter has to happen – players
will no doubt ﬂock to websites that can verify theirinformation the quickest, meaning speed will be key
to attracting new customers.
With every customer having to be veriﬁed on
signup before they can place a deposit, it will be inEGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: IDNow

every operator’s best interest to make the process as
quick and painless as possible. For operators, that
presents a choice – either hire more staﬀ to manually verify player applications, or invest in a platformthat can do the job for them.
Man versus machine
Hiring staﬀ may seem like a quick solve – simply appoint new teams and staﬀ them up to verify details.
Yet human agents are expensive – as well as renumeration packages, there are also the equipment
and training costs. Plus, there is the increased riskof human error, particularly if teams have been hired
quickly and shortcuts taken when it comes to training and upskilling.
That leaves implementing a veriﬁcation platform.
Increasingly, this looks like the way regulators would
prefer operators to go, with the UK Gambling Commission recommending the use of artiﬁcial intelligence or biometric applications to identify players.
How does it work? AI checks security features
on ID documents, with a key focus around security
and uncomplicated application for the customer. It
makes the process as straightforward as following
simple on-screen prompts and completing veriﬁcation within minutes, boasting a conversion rate ofover 90%.
It might sound like science ﬁction, but it is avery real and practical solution. Aside from the
new gaming regulations, the events of the past
18 months have meant that the implementationand deployment of digital ID veriﬁcation tools has

become ever more important, as the need for userfriendly and fast digital processes increases.
Using an AI-driven veriﬁcation platform, operators could sign up and verify users within minutes,
with players guided every step of the way by thesystem.
Of course, security is important. Any veriﬁcation
process needs to be manipulation-proof. Combining artiﬁcial intelligence and machine learning, platforms can use biometric facial recognition and optical security feature veriﬁcation, alongside dynamic
video streaming. This process produces hundreds ofimages versus a single static image.
In addition, while there would be no need to manually check documents, platforms should also havespecialists available for ad hoc, quality control reviews to ensure the algorithm is getting the processright every time. This can include qualiﬁed agentsmaking sure a customer really is who they say they
are with video calls.
Delivering growth in regulated environments
Veriﬁcation platforms can help gaming operators
adapt to new regulatory regimes without incurring
signiﬁcant costs and still deliver an exemplary customer experience. The use of advanced technologies
such as artiﬁcial intelligence, machine learning andbiometric analysis can reduce error rates and speed
up response times to drive user sign-ups and improve conversion rates. In other words, deliver exactly what gaming operators need to continue to growin a highly regulated, volatile environment. X

15

Online Gambling in anever-changing regulatory world- how to win as a Gaming
operator?
Scan the QR code and watch
the panel discussion now

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: EveryMatrix

Adapting throughout
challenging times
Ebbe Groes, EveryMatrix founder andGroup CEO, reﬂects on how the ﬁrm has
adapted its service provision to meet theneeds of its consumers
EGR Intel (EGR): The past year has forced sportsbooks
to swiftly adapt to the challenging market conditions. How
has OddsMatrix managed to keep its position?
Ebbe Groes (EG): The biggest challenge of Covid19 was the consequential halting of live sport. Our
response was to invest massively in esports andthis has turned out to be a positive move with along-lasting impact. Since the return of live sporting events, when some may have expected esports
betting to gradually fall away in popularity, it has
instead maintained its strong position within the
OddsMatrix Sportsbook.
Take FIFA, for example. Today, it occupies a placein the top-ﬁve best-performing sports on our platform. It is easy to see the attraction of FIFA andNBA2k as betting propositions, as they mimic regular sports but at a much faster pace. What is particularly interesting is that sporting simulations
within esports are consistently outperforming virtual sports in online betting. We have high-quality streaming for almost all esports events we carrymarkets for, so the user experience is diﬀerent
from regular sports like football or tennis when theavailability of streams is more sporadic, or virtual
sports where the human element is lacking.
In adapting quickly to the huge changes in themarket, not only in oﬀering new betting markets
but also by restructuring our entire sportsbook, wehave managed to align our business with the demands faced by the modern operator.
EGR: Let’s talk data. The judging panel said it was “easyto understand [your] dominance in many areas” in naming
you sports data supplier of the year. How did you gain suchan advantage in the areas they are referring to?

EG: Firstly, it was fantastic to get this win against
some very tough competition within the categoryof sports data supplier. It is also positive in that itmatches up with a strong focus we are placing on
this area. We have recently released a completely
new website for our OddsMatrix Sports Data Feedproduct, which explains exactly what we can do for
operators.
When major projects are up and running, it canbe very diﬃcult for some companies to change direction quickly. When you have a company that candevelop fresh technology on the go, as we have,then your in-built agility gives you an advantage
when dealing with major disruptions in the market.
We were able to pivot to esports more quickly thansome of our competitors for this reason. In times ofturbulence, sometimes the up-and-coming company has a better chance against the incumbent.
EGR: Data needs of operators are continually evolving.
What improvements have you made since rewriting thearchitecture of the sportsbook and what impact havethese changes made?
EG: The sportsbook architecture we have today
is quite diﬀerent to what we had 10 years ago. In
completely redesigning the platform, the biggest
change we implemented was to modularise theentire structure. We ended up with one module forodds creation and another for settlement, to give
just two examples.
The new architecture also means that any changes that we make to our sportsbook automaticallygoes out to our feed clients too. This happens without us having to undertake any sort of development work at all. For example, when we signiﬁcantly upped our esports oﬀering, it automatically improved the feed product.
The new architecture also means that there is aseparate feed for settlement. A lot of work goes into
this, as it means collecting results from all aroundthe world, 24/7, from multiple sources, and trans-

Ebbe GroesXFounder and group
CEOXEveryMatrix
Ebbe Groes,
EveryMatrix CEO,is a quick-thinking
entrepreneur witha successful trackrecord in launching
online ventures. Groes
founded the company
in 2008, and sincethen he’s grown thebusiness from a startup to an establishedcompany, catering toseveral tier-one casino
and sports betting
operators in the igaming
industry. EveryMatrix
is a private company,
currently employing
over 600 staff across its
nine offices in Europe,
America and Asia.

17

Featuring: EveryMatrix

EG R B 2 B AWA R D S R E P O RT 2 0 2 1

lating those results in real-time into winning andlosing bets.

18

EGR: What impact are new short-form sports havingon the sports betting industry and how can theseopportunities help bring in a younger audience?
EG: The task of capturing a new audience is very
interesting. Some sites are trying to do this, but it
is proving diﬃcult to ﬁnd the right formula. In myview, it is important to start from scratch and rethink things completely. Many operators cannot
do this within their existing websites and have to
put out a sub-brand, in a similar way to specialised
poker and bingo sites. You need to become relevant
to any sub-culture to gain its interest, and this applies to esports as well.
There is no simple solution, and the industry is
still ﬁnding its feet in this regard. As a B2B provider, we interface with many diﬀerent operators,
each with their own needs and demands. This provides us with valuable insights on what is needed ina modern sportsbook. Every time you implement a
feature for one client, multiple other clients get it at
the same time, for the beneﬁt of all. You could describe it as the wisdom of a crowd. We are on a journey towards picking up new audiences, but it will
not happen overnight.
EGR: How can added functionality at no extra cost, forexample the ability to tweak odds and cash-out margin,
beneﬁt operators?
EG: If you look at the modern-day sportsbook, there
is a schism among operators: are you going to sit on
your own tech and own all of it, or are you going touse a third-party? One of the main reasons opera-

tors want to own their tech is that they need to beable to control the user experience and make surethat it diﬀers from everyone else on the market. As
a provider, our job is to make sure operators canenjoy the same ﬂexibility when using our softwareas they could if they owned it outright.
This is where the beneﬁt of odds tweaking andcustomisation comes in. If you look at two EveryMatrix clients and compare them side by side, evenan expert eye would not have a clue they were bothworking with us.
It is tempting for those who have in the past run
a successful B2C sportsbook to oﬀer it around tovarious clients with minimal changes other thana fresh colour scheme. We don’t start from a B2C
premise. Instead, we hand over control to our partners to set their own odds, should they, for example, choose to oﬀer the best price in the market fora Premier League match one weekend as part of apromotion. We can also do the same with pay-outs
where we can, for example, monitor all competitor odds to make sure a client is oﬀering the best
margin for the end user.
Flexibility sits at the core of our platform, andthis enables operators to easily stand out in themarketplace.
EGR: Finally, looking towards the United States, some
big operators have brought sports betting technology inhouse. As states continue to roll out legal sports betting,how much of the overall market remains open to a provider
like yourselves?
EG: We have a team already assembled in Miami
and we see the US as containing great potential fora provider that can oﬀer the ﬂexibility and competitive advantages mentioned above.
Nothing is ever simple when entering new markets and of course, there are adjustments to makewithin a sportsbook going from a European audience to a US audience. However, these changes
pale when placed next to the changes that Covid-19
brought about. With esports, we had to suddenly acquire all sorts of background information that wasneeded on the front-end of the sportsbook, such asteam logos and pre-game stats. The planned, gradual transition to catering for a US-based audience is
not quite on the same level.
With the sports data supplier award in the bag
and given our growing presence in the US, it’s clearthat there are plenty of good things happening at
EveryMatrix, and we’re looking forward to sharing
them in the years to come. X

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: Evolution GroupThe innovative supplierFredrik Bjurle, director of product at
Evolution Group, reﬂects on its awards win
and looks towards the future
EGR Intel (EGR): Evolution won awards for bothinnovation in RNG casino software and live casino
supplier. What does this mean to the business?
Fredrik Bjurle (FB): To win the live casino supplierof the year for the 12th year in a row is a remarkable achievement and one that we are all immensely
proud of. Similarly, this is the ﬁrst year we have won
the RNG casino software award, and it’s an honour
that we were recognised for our First Person RNG
table games.
We took our 15 years’ experience and knowledge from creating live dealer games and added
the latest 3D graphics to create the most authentic
casino experience you can have outside a brick-andmortar casino. We have worked tirelessly on improving these games over the last 12 months. The
uptake has been fantastic as our operators have theability to replicate their live casino environments,
and the players love the recognisable user interface,which mirrors the live dealer version, as well as the
GO LIVE button that takes the players on a unique
journey to the live game.
This year is unique as it is the ﬁrst time we havecelebrated additional wins from our NetEnt and
Red Tiger brands in the following three categories:
XInnovation in slot provision – Joint winners
NetEnt and Red Tiger for collaboratively developing Gonzo’s Quest Megaways™, Kulta-Jaska Megaways™ and Dragon’s Fire INFINIREELS™
XMobile gaming software supplier – NetEnt
XMobile supplier – Red Tiger.
We thank all our partners for their trust in us,
by constantly pushing, promoting, and playing ourgames, for without them, none of this would havebeen possible.

EGR: What key factors do you believe have led to yourawards recognition?
FB: Our mission starts and ends with the players. This year, we have taken lots of time to review
and perfect our product portfolio, ensuring thatevery element of the game is tailored to our players’
needs. We have looked at the product process andimplemented changes without setting any limitations on budget nor time, in order to get the best results and ensure a ﬂawless player experience.
Additionally, we have revamped our First Person(RNG) range of games, combining the best of RNG
and live casino, by adopting the same strategy from
15 years’ experience in live games. We looked atevery detail in each game and utilised the best aspects from land-based to create the most authentic
experience for RNG players. We created a consistent

I feel it is our innovative approach
which diﬀerentiates us from thecompetition and helps us pave a newroad in the world of online casino
Fredrik Bjurle | Evolution Groupuser interface and shortcuts so that players would
be able to switch easily between RNG and live. Additionally, we wanted to give players complete control. One example, in First Person Baccarat, iswhere players can shuﬄe the shoe and sort tables
by the longest streak to reset the scores for a single
table or all tables.
Lastly, I feel it is our innovative approach which
diﬀerentiates us from the competition and helps us
pave a new road in the world of online casino.
EGR: How do you think M&A has impacted youroperations and how you innovate?
FB: We have rapidly reinvented ourselves as a single
organisation that oﬀers operators ﬁve exception-

Fredrik Bjurle
XDirector of productXEvolution Group
Fredrik Bjurle, director
of product at Evolution,
has been instrumental
in the game creation
process. Bjurle has astrong backgroundwithin IT and softwaredevelopment, working
as head of games at
GTech before joining
Evolution Gaming in2009. He is responsible
for overseeing theportfolio of Evolution’s
games and theirfunctionality.

19

Featuring: Evolution GroupEG R B 2 B AWA R D S R E P O RT 2 0 2 1

20

al brands that represent the pinnacle of online
gaming: Evolution and Ezugi for live casino games,
and NetEnt, Red Tiger and Big Time Gaming for thevery best in online slots. By broadening our product portfolio, utilising the NetEnt IP to reinvent
some of our games and leveraging the newest innovations to attract the next generation of players, weare building games which simply were not possible
prior to the acquisitions. Additionally, another positive impact is that we are now a one-stop shop for
all of the suppliers’ gaming requirements. As we area collection of individual brands that provide differed services, we are working towards an integration API where our customers can have access to all
our brands at one time, in one place.
We are also lucky to welcome many new colleagues to the Evolution family, especially within
the product team, which has increased the amountof expertise in this area, something that will andalready has impacted the rate of innovation, as themore creative brains we have, the more new ideas
we generate, something we are very excited to see
bloom.
Lastly, another positive impact of the acquisitions is an expanding customer base, as the new
brands become a part of our business, we are forming relationships with new customers that we didn’t
have previously. By working together with ourpartners, great ideas are born, which pushes us toensure we stay ahead of the competition.
EGR: What have been your key highlights from the pastyear?
FB: In the past year, we have expanded from agroup with two specialist live casino brands, tonow having ﬁve brands, covering world-leading
live dealer gaming from our Evolution and Ezugi
brands, and some of the industry’s most successful slots from our NetEnt, Red Tiger and Big Time
Gaming studios.
In North America, we have expanded with two
new studios this year in the US, in Pennsylvania
and Michigan, and in Canada we have entered into
agreements with some of the largest gaming providers in the country. We are determined to continue
this trend and hope to be the ﬁrst provider in every
new state as they open.
In terms of products, we have revolutionised live
casino with the creation of Evolution’s ﬁrst everslots-inspired live casino game, Gonzo’s Treasure
Hunt™ and NetEnt has recently launched Starburst
XXXtreme™, the long-awaited sequel of the all-timeclassic, with new features and functionality!
EGR: What are you going to focus on in the next 12months?
FB: Over the course of the next few months, we willcontinue to innovate and expand our product portfolio, bringing new games to an even broader spectrum of players. Our next big game is a unique addition to the live dealer game show category, a totallynew concept that will thrill players and take themto exciting new heights with Cash or Crash!
Additionally, the increasing popularity of ourgames across the globes means we will continue toexpand our range of games catered to Asian players,
with three new live dealer games launching before
the end of the year. Although we cannot divulge theexact details now, keep your eyes peeled for someexciting new games. X

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: Worldpay from FIS

Worldpay, a leading payments
partner for a reason
Alex Morgan-Moodie, director of vertical
growth at Worldpay by FIS Global, explains
what makes Worldpay the right choice forthe industry

platforms to ﬁnd the right solution within thegaming space. This knowledge and expertise meanthat we can work to understand the unique challenges of each business and we will do what we canto solve them.

F

Initial development to long-term support
Very often, you’ll buy what you think is the rightproduct or service for you, then you’ll never hearfrom the supplier again. We don’t think that’s thebest way of doing things. We work with our customers from the initial development and consultation, ﬁnd the best solution for them, then ensure it
is implemented properly. Throughout this process,customers have a single point of contact they canspeak to at any time, to ensure everything is exactly
how they want it.
We’re there to answer any questions, present results at quarterly reviews, handle operational support and suggest ways to optimise results, based on
best-in-class analytics, modelling and benchmarking. Our position as the largest global payments
partner to the industry gives us and our merchants
unique insights that enable them to drive the rightoutcomes. Put simply, if there’s a way to improve abusiness’ sales conversions, we’ll ﬁnd it.

irst of all, let me start by saying thank you.
We’re thrilled to be recognised as EGR’s
payments company of the year for 2021. We
have a long and close relationship with gaming
businesses, both online and oﬄine, which is
reﬂected in the fact that this is the third year in a
row that we have received this accolade.
Working alongside major players, along withsmaller challenger companies making a name forthemselves, has really set us up as a close partner ofthe gaming industry as a whole. And to know that
we’re a respected name in the industry continues tomean a lot to everyone who puts the hard hours in.
So, what exactly do we oﬀer the gaming market,
and why were we once again chosen for this award?

The world’s larger acquirer and the industry
leader for gaming
One of the biggest factors behind our success is thewide-ranging nature of our relationships within thegaming industry. We work with hardware and software partners, plus industry-leading merchants
across all sub-verticals, and enjoy strong working
relationships with all key regulatory bodies, industry organisations and card schemes. This means
we can react to changing regulations quickly, while
giving our customers the maximum level of control.
Our award-winning team of in-house, vertical experts have decades of experience. Many come fromwithin the sector itself, which helps give Worldpay
unique insights into merchant needs. And every
one of them is deeply committed to delivering thebest for gaming companies.
They’ll advise on individual scenarios and take
into account the sheer breadth and depth of our

Research and expertise leader
We are genuinely passionate about the industry,
which is reﬂected in our approach and continued
investment. We also keep our ﬁnger on the industry’s pulse, commissioning research and generating reports that help drive understanding across all
markets.
We’re heavily invested in thought leadership inareas such as consumer payment habits, as we seek
to understand and share insight that’s designed tohelp power payment strategies and attract, convert
and retain customers. For example, if you keep an
eye on the industry, you might be familiar with ourannual Global Gaming Payments Report, in which weAlex MorganMoodie
XVertical growth
director
XWorldpay from FIS
Alex Morgan-Moodie
joined Worldpay in
September 2020 and
is currently the directorof vertical growth,
gaming. He spent thepast 11 years working
for one of the world’s
largest online gaming
operators and has held
various positions withinboth the payments
and corporate strategyfunctions, where
he developed his
understanding of the
key role payments playin driving international
e-commerce andworked with theexecutive team todevelop and deliver key
growth initiatives.

21

Featuring: Worldpay from FIS

EG R B 2 B AWA R D S R E P O RT 2 0 2 1

22

tomer loyalty, reduced cases of fraud and a reduction in merchant handling costs for gaming businesses.

take a closer look at changing trends across 19 different markets. This annual guide is free, tailoredspeciﬁcally to the gaming market and packed with
useful insights and developments regarding payment trends in diﬀerent regions.
The report draws upon Worldpay’s decades of experience in providing global gaming e-commerce
solutions to hundreds of gaming operators in multiple countries. It asserts Worldpay’s own view ofthe market, based on internal expertise, our own
research, and third-party vendor data. This report
also beneﬁts from the strength of our growing teamof payments and gaming experts based in the US,
the UK, and around the globe.
From how optimised payments journeys can alleviate some of the challenges faced by increasing regulatory complexity in Germany, to the riseof digital wallets in Latin America, the most recent
report can help businesses adapt to trends and differentiate themselves from rivals. As a result, thisreport has become a highly valued asset for many
senior leaders and has helped many businesses
shape their decisions for the years ahead. You candownload it for yourself at https://www.ﬁsglobal.
com/en/insights/merchant-solutions-worldpay/research-and-reports/global-gaming-payments-report.
Fast, ﬂexible payouts
Quick payment, from and to your customers, is critical. Nobody wants to wait around for three working
days in order to see their money. That’s why we’ve
incorporated a variety of fast payment methods thatkeep businesses attractive and moving at the necessary pace.
Our own FastAccess system has led to a drop in
declines for insuﬃcient funds, while our incorporation of systems like Visa Direct and Mastercard
Send can result in faster payment, increased cus-

We have you covered in disputes
Disputes are an unpleasant but essential part of thegaming payment trade. With chargebacks growing,
and often proving too expensive to be worth ﬁghting, we’ve developed a system that ensures gaming
businesses are fairly represented and protectedagainst ‘friendly fraud’ chargebacks.
Our intelligent dispute management platform
combats chargebacks. The disputes portal makes it
easy to monitor any and all chargeback claims andsubmit evidence, while disputes deﬂector and defender oﬀer services to prevent chargebacks, recover revenue and decrease operational costs. We also
use smart analytics to spot chargeback risks before
a payment is even made, giving businesses a further
layer of protection against friendly fraud.
Support for gaming APMs and mobile wallets
Across large parts of the world, mobile wallets likeApple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are becoming a hugely popular, convenient and unrestricted
way for users to pay quickly, safely and conveniently, without needing to type in their bank details
every time. We support a wide range of regional andnational APMs, so customers always have access totheir preferred method of payment.
Essentially, our support extends to wherevergaming transactions are supported, and we workwith our partners to increase their geographical appetite to the sector.
Here’s to 2022 and beyond
We’re proud to use our expertise to advance the successes of our customers’ businesses and have no intention of slowing things down for the future.
We know gaming, we’re experts in the regulatory
requirements and we’re fully aware of the challenges faced by those within the industry. We also recognise that gaming continues to evolve, and keep
fully up to date with the industry to oﬀer the services and the insight that’s required.
It is this agile approach that contributes to what
we achieve. And, as we celebrate this latest award,
we’re looking forward to continuing to be a successful payments partner and hopefully winning morein years to come.
Thank you once again, and we look forward to
helping shape the future of gaming. X

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: GiG

The full service winners
Martin Collins of GiG discusses thecompany’s awards success
EGR Intel (EGR): What speciﬁc developments do you
believe have led to your award recognition for full service
platform of the year?
Martin Collins (MC): Over the last 18 months, we havebeen concentrating on placing more focus on building stronger relationships with our partners andon advancing our technology and skills to ensure
we are continuously improving our oﬀering to ourpartners.
Ultimately, we have always believed that we have
had a market-leading solution, but our main goal
has always been to help our partners to overcome
some of the main challenges within the industry
via our technology. The igaming industry is a fastpaced industry, which is ever changing. We understand that it is not enough to launch a product. In
order to achieve a market-leading solution, it’s imperative that your product is adaptable, ﬂexible andtimeless. That is not something easy to achieve,and doing so is not solely about creating innovativetechnology; having the right team and company
culture in place are equally as vital.
Initially, we mapped out a strong vision andworked to ensure that vision was valued companywide and ﬂowed through everything we do fromour main strategy, bringing retail operators online,
within regulated markets, to advancing and improving on all of our solutions.
At GiG, our people are encouraged to challenge
the norm to go the extra mile to ensure that when
we build or advance on a product, every angle andscenario has been considered to ensure it is thebest it can be. Research and development and customer feedback is a huge part of our processes.
Without feedback on what you are doing wrong or
what can be improved, it is not possible to create aleading solution that achieves what it was intend-

ed to do. We don’t always get things right, but wealways ensure that when we don’t we learn from it,
adapt and improve.
Ultimately, I believe that we had a solid base to
begin with, but this company-wide focus provided
a freedom to understand where we were going with
our platform solutions and what positive upturn we
could deliver on behalf of our customers. I think
this focus, coupled with the freedom of thought,
was welcomed and, consequently, our platform andservices have become very popular.
EGR: How did the pandemic impact the company overthe past 12 months and what innovations does GiG offer
the industry?
MC: The pandemic certainly helped to accelerate
our strategy. Retail to online was always a component of our outlook with successes like Sky Cityin New Zealand and Hard Rock in New Jersey andIowa. However, I believe that the pandemic not only
gave retail concerns the opportunity to consider
online, but also increased the requirement of theregulators to deliver their process more eﬃciently.
On the back of having more focus online, we certainly became a platform and service provider thateveryone wanted to discuss their turnkey solutions
with and our pipeline hasn’t settled since.
At GiG, we recognise that there is no ‘one standard’ for all land-based operators, when launching
an online operation, there is more to think about
than the initial digital set-up. There are many processes that will diﬀer from that of a pure landbased operation and that is where our suite of managed services come into play, oﬀering everythingfrom 24/7 customer support and content management to media support. This is something we haveseen a growing demand for, especially from retail
operations moving online for the ﬁrst time. Having
the support and security of an extension to yourteam is deﬁnitely an aspect of our oﬀering which
has gained a lot of traction lately.

Martin Collins
X Director of businessdevelopment
X GiG
Martin Collins has over
20 years of experiencein digital markets withexpertise in driving
strategic growth andinnovation. During histime at GiG, throughboth internal andexternal strategic
analysis, he has driven
positive improvementin performance, as wellas helped identify andclose new business
opportunities.

23

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: GiG

In terms of innovation, we are continuously striving to drive operational eﬃciency through our innovative tech. There are two key product aspects toconsider when purchasing GiG’s platform solution:
logic and data.
Logic is a rules engine that allows you to action
any decision against any data feed and automate
much of your operational process. This could be
across your entire ﬂow, from compliance to marketing campaigns and segmentation. Across allareas of your business you can drive automationand subsequent operational eﬃciency without theneed for coding knowledge or a developer. It works
by absorbing messages by reading what players are
doing both oﬄine and online through any API callor stream.
For example, if a player spins a game or makes
a deposit, logic reacts in milliseconds to whatever that player is doing. The front-end allows operators to drag and drop rules and building blocks ina ﬂow chart-style design, allowing them to build
their logic within these messages and tailor themto their players.
Data is our ‘real-time’ solution that genuinely
allows clients and any third-party providers, likecustomer relationship management (CRM) or afﬁliate platforms, to take action instantly and drive
KPIs like conversion, lifetime value, as well as
margin. When you couple the technological datasolution with some of the artiﬁcial intelligencemodels they have built, not only does it help monitor your brand’s performance but it can highlightissues with KPIs and actually take steps to mitigate
any issues immediately without any human interaction. When you combine both logic and data, youhave a scenario that is only limited by your imagination.
From a services perspective, we have a ‘crack’team across media acquisition, CRM and business
operations, that deliver innovation on a daily basis,
combatting diﬃcult regulatory scenarios and, ultimately, being the number one advocate of our technical solution, utilising the innovation to drive customer revenue.
Indeed, via our media team in Denmark, we deliver industry-leading acquisition on behalf of ourcustomers. The CRM and casino team create customer journeys and touchpoints that drives loyalty,
and the business operations team are the glue thatbrings it all together and consistently works on a
positive ‘customer experience’ via operational excellence when they have to interact with the brand.

\ GiG was awarded full service platform of the year in the 2021 ceremony
EGR: GiG recently signed a long-term agreement withPlayStar Casino to enter Pennsylvania, can you share yourplans for expansion in the US?
MC: The US and all of North America is of signiﬁcant strategic importance to GiG. Having operated
in New Jersey with Hard Rock since 2018 and having
since expanded into Iowa, we have learned a lot
about positive delivery across the various markets
in the US. We believe this gives a fantastic competitive advantage to help brands like PlayStar expand
positively into markets that will help them growand expand quickly and eﬃciently.
As with our overall strategy, we want to remain
focused and believe our unique retail to online solution, oﬀering full ‘digital transformation’ with
our turnkey platform and managed services, will
add value to any retail concern considering moving
online.
EGR: What makes GiG’s offering stand out from the rest?
MC: What makes GiG stand out is our people (GiGsters) and their uniquely positive approach to delivering an incredibly complex scenario to our customers. As regulation increases and complexity
endures, uncertainty will commonly wreak havocon the delivery of a project. However, armed with a‘can do’ attitude and willingness to work across theentire organisation and with the expertise within
the customer, we truly believe we deliver an experience that is unique and worthwhile, building along-lasting, fruitful relationship that is built upon
adversity and can deal with any bumps in the roadwith strong positivity and a smile.
What makes GiG unique is our people, a unitedeﬀort and strong company culture are imperative tothe success of any business/product, but this is noteasy to achieve, however at GiG we are very proud tosay that we have that. X

25

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: mkodo

Crucial optionality and adaption
Stuart Godfree, managing director andco-founder of mkodo, considers the ﬁrm’s
recent awards win and the factors whichhave shaped its success

Stuart Godfree

26

X Managing director
and co-founder
X mkodoStuart Godfree ismanaging director andco-founder of mobile
technology specialist
mkodo. He started
the company in 2001
together with Sue
Yoxall, and has decadesof experience fromworking with mobile andinformation technology
services. In previous
roles, he managed
several projects for blue
chip clients, including
PwC, DaimlerChrysler
AG and The Economist.

EGR Intel (EGR): mkodo won the mobile services
supplier category at the EGR B2B Awards 2021. Could
you tell us what it is you do for your clients?
Stuart Godfree (SG): We deliver world-class apps anddigital products for mobile, online and retail environments in the lottery and gaming sectors. Mobile
technology moves fast, and we move with it. Committed to connecting forward-thinking businesses
with ever-changing mobile technology, we focus onconsistently delivering high quality, engaging products and user experiences to the market. Our clients include The Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casinos
and Mecca Bingo brands, Canada’s British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), Ontario Lottery and
Gaming Corporation (OLG) and Western Canada
Lottery Corporation (WCLC). We are honoured tohave won this award and we are so proud of our fantastic team, who work hard to help our clients oﬀer
outstanding web and app experiences to their customers.
EGR: What makes for a successful app?
SG: The most fundamental thing is that an app
needs to have a purpose and a cause. Once you’ve
identiﬁed that need, you have to create a beautiful
user experience. A successful app needs to have ameaningful user journey, be functional and task-oriented. This is the same for any industry, and if you
look at the banking sector, their apps are extremely eﬃcient and make it easy for customers to perform the task they came for without having to ﬁlter
through a lot of unnecessary information. Where
gaming diﬀers is that developers are also trying to
make that functional product enjoyable. We arestarting to see animations and other nice touches

to lift the apps to a new level. Creating eﬃcient user
experiences while also being enjoyable is the sweet
spot that we always aim for at mkodo when we build
products for our clients.
An app should ideally be native rather than awrapped version of a website as this signiﬁcantly
enhances the overall user experience. Functionality
must be elegant, navigation paths need to be obvious, and performance must be exceptional as people
don’t have the patience anymore to wait around for alaggy product. This is where the middleware comesin which is a crucial part of app building, especiallywhen ensuring data can be downloaded to the app
without delay, ensuring faster performance.
Digital products need to be built with a longterm strategy in mind to ensure that changes can bemade when needed without breaking existing features. We always say that our developers don’t justAn app should ideally be native rather
than a wrapped version of a website as
this signiﬁcantly enhances the overall user
experience. Functionality must be elegant,navigation paths need to be obvious, andperformance must be exceptional
Stuart Godfree | mkodo
write code, they write products, which encompasses
all the components and features associated with anapp – this delivers the future-prooﬁng that is essential in everything we create.
Beyond this, an app needs to be compliant withApple and Android guidelines as well as being inline with the ever-evolving gambling legislation andregulations. It’s vital that developers stay on top of
this evolution and adapt products where needed.
EGR: What does mkodo offer that supports an excellent
user experience?

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: mkodo

SG: We have a fantastic user experience design teamwhich is invaluable. We analyse the market and stay
on top of trends to ensure we constantly improveand enhance our clients’ digital product oﬀerings
with the end-user in mind. One thing that the industry has been rather lacking in, and that we havebrought focus to, is accessibility. A huge portion of
the population has some kind of impairment suchas movement, hearing and vision diﬃculties thatmakes it harder for them to use digital products.
The user experience becomes so important for thisgroup of people and the industry could do more toensure they do not alienate them. There are a lot of
diﬀerent design and usability elements to consider,from the colour contrast ratios and navigation tools
to the font size and voiceover options, that could all
help customers with certain needs.
EGR: What’s next for mkodo in terms of the beneﬁts it canbring to its clients?
SG: A key advantage that we have is in being able toutilise our expertise in creating products that oﬀer
a rich user experience, functionality, high performance and elegant UI, while also making the apps
enjoyable and fun to use.
Another important area of strategic focus for
mkodo is the creation of what I call the digital
bridge, joining the digital online experience to thatof the traditional retail experience. Retail is under-

taking a seismic change to ensure survival. In our industry, many operators still have a large retail presence, such as bookies, casinos, bingo halls and lottery resellers. Often there is no connection between
an operator’s retail and online business and a player
can be a customer of both without a visible link. The
retail sector needs to evolve and customer activity
must be wedded to some form of digital element.
In lottery, for example, there is often no association between the land-based and digital operations
and, to many operators, their players are not known
to them. Lotteries therefore spend a lot of time andeﬀort trying to understand who their customers are,which is crucial for any business. With an online element, it is easy to collect permission-based data
to build a digital ﬁngerprint of their customers. As
most of us now carry a mobile device everywhere wego, the industry has the opportunity to create a connection between retail and online with the mobile
phone acting as this bridge I refer to. This is where
mkodo can help. For example, by oﬀering features
such as the ability to build a ticket on your mobile
and generate a barcode for in-retail purchase, or by
utilising Bluetooth and beacon marketing technology within the retail environment.
Strategic deployment of these features and technologies helps operators increase customer engagement and transforms the way players interact withlottery and gaming brands. X

27

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: Relax Gaming

A benchmark forthings to comeSimon Hammon of Relax Gaming reﬂects
on the ﬁrm’s awards successI

t’s been another year of growth and driving
diﬀerentiation for us all at Relax, and our recent
clutch of EGR B2B awards makes us hugely proudof everyone that is part of the Relax team. It’s
humbling to have been awarded such accolades,
but it also serves to reinforce the importance of
our longstanding company ethos of providing
the products that people want, in a manner thatsuits the fast-paced nature of a hugely competitive
industry.
How we operate takes no small amount of talent,
tenacity and insight, and there are many vitally
important cogs in the overall machine, but at its
core, what we do isn’t overly complicated: froma bedrock of technical excellence, we deliver adiverse, top-tier selection of products, at speed andin a simpliﬁed manner.
With awards across all our current verticals,
bingo, poker and casino, we feel our achievements
this year have set a benchmark for things to come.
Among many highlights last year, the success of
Money Train 2 and its incredible performance
was immensely rewarding. By far one of our mostsuccessful titles ever, a follow-up to the original,
which was hugely well-received, conﬁrmed that our
feedback-centric approach to gaming is key.
Our commitment and application of player
demands is a signiﬁcant part of what we truly
believe sets us apart as we continue to drive
diﬀerentiation.
Iron Bank has been another such milestone,
as we were selected for this custom build by
CasinoGrounds, one of the leading platforms
within the increasingly inﬂuential aﬃliate
community. The game was devised for slot
streamers as well as players, and designed
according to CasinoGrounds’ detailed requests.

Effective localisation approach
The feedback loop was invaluable here as we wereable to draw inspiration and insight from people soclosely linked to our players. We ﬁrmly believe thatto create a great game, you must listen to criticism
and be humble enough to take it onboard. End-users often identify ﬂaws much more clearly than the
producer, which is partly why this collaboration has
proved so valuable.
We’ve taken this customised approach to every
part of our business – and localised eﬀorts are a
key part of our relationships with our Silver Bullet
and Powered By Relax studio partners. Now standing at more than 50 studio partners from aroundthe world, we know that being faster, smarter andmore eﬀective works for both sides, and is the driving force behind our class-leading portfolio available to operators.

Providing our growing number ofoperator partners with an awardwinning library of more than 2,000
online casino games, at speed and withsimplicity has allowed us to increase
our market expansion at a pace largely
unmatched
Simon Hammon | Relax Gaming
Our aggregation model was also celebrated forits performance throughout the year, which was
further developed in 2021, resulting in our newly
launched Relax Apex product. Providing our growing number of operator partners with an awardwinning library of more than 2,000 online casino
games, at speed and with simplicity has allowed us
to increase our market expansion at a pace largely
unmatched.
Moreover, bingo was also recognised for its efforts in 2020, as it continued its upward trajectory

Simon Hammon
XCPO
XRelax Gaming
Simon Hammon,
CPO of Relax Gaming
since 2018, hasbeen instrumental
to the success ofthe company’s
aggregation services
and proprietary content
portfolio. Under his
leadership, Relax’s
casino proposition has
cemented a strong
reputation for driving
studio and partner
growth, delivering
unmatched speed tomarket along with rapid,
simple integration.

29

Featuring: Relax Gaming

EG R B 2 B AWA R D S R E P O RT 2 0 2 1

30with vertical-wide innovations such as Bingo Clubs.
This latest project takes users on a journey frombeginner to advanced levels, giving them tips andtraining as they go – a ﬁrst for the vertical and a
success among its players.
Poker also showed fantastic results in 2020. We
believe that our personal-best ﬁnancial results stemfrom the agility the team has shown, with a record
amount of last-minute required software changes
that called for immense technical know-how andprowess.
Equal to pandemic challenges
As a result of high playing rates, many sites experienced overloads and downtime during the ﬁrst
peak of the pandemic. In contrast, our systems enjoyed 100% uptime regardless of the soaring numbers. Our teams, even while working remotely, succeeded in increasing server loads and refactoringbottlenecks in the systems before they escalated
and became problems.
However, the performance wasn’t limited to thatalone: we were fast to migrate our partner’s Unibet
Open live tour to online, even managing a catchy
slogan “From IRL to URL!”. Additionally, following
the postponement of the Euro 2020 tournament,

we quickly launched another set of promotions andfeatures to make up for the loss, making it our mission to devise a safe way for family, friends, poker
clubs and other enthusiasts to enjoy online play together during lockdowns and social distancing.
But perhaps one of the most exciting developments was our release of Relax Apex™, a next-generation aggregation overlay designed to revolutionise the delivery of content while signiﬁcantly diminishing QA and compliance eﬀorts for operators. It’sa game-changing development. As a company renowned for its technological architecture, we’re exceptionally proud of what we’ve achieved with it.
The core goal for Relax Apex™ is to mitigate thefragmentation that the industry currently endures
and not only does it provide a tool to cut throughthese complex challenges but it’s also a living product that will constantly evolve to meet whatevershifts the industry experiences in the future.
Such thinking is what we plan to continue tobring to the table over the next decade – and we’re
proud to be a company that is dedicated to elevating the industry with a model that is truly diﬀerent. We’re delighted to have been recognised for our
hard work – and we’re excited to continue driving
diﬀerentiation for the next 10 years. X

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: MuchBetter

The smart payments solution
Israel Rosenthal discusses the MuchBetter
eWallet, which was recognised as the best
payments solution at this year’s EGR B2BAwardsS

ince its launch in 2017, MuchBetter has become
an industry name synonymous with innovative
payment solutions, solving many challenges facedby merchants, including fraud, KYC, and regulatorycompliance by creating a seamless experience forusers without compromising security.
With its latest innovation in payments solutions
win at the EGR Global B2B Awards under its proverbial belt – its second in as many years – MuchBetterhas proved itself to be the preferred banking alternative for the B2B community as much as it has for the
B2C retail environment.
Meeting the cashless demandWith an increased demand for cashless transactions, eWallet usage is enjoying a meteoric rise:
mobile wallets attract 140 million new users every
year, with the industry’s market size expected toreach £10trn by 2022. But this shouldn’t come as asurprise, as eWallet services oﬀer a more convenient, innovative, and cost-eﬀective way to pay for everyday transactions in comparison to more traditional methods.
It’s not surprising then that eWallets – with their
extra layer of security protection for players and operators – are the fastest-growing segment for payment processing in the igaming industry, having
well-surpassed credit and debit card transactions.
MuchBetter’s eWallet app enables operators toprocess faster payments with eWallet payment gateways, and fees and transfer costs for the operator are
much lower. Similarly, security is strengthened, andrisk is signiﬁcantly reduced because MuchBetter
completes full KYC on their customers before anytransactions can be made to or from a gaming site.

This reduction in fraud and security risk enables operators to maximise their acceptance rates for transactions.
MuchBetter views eWallet trends from two perspectives: the player and the operator, although
there is signiﬁcant overlap. For players, user experience is king. For operators, there is an increasing
demand for their trusted payment partners to act
as payment hubs, solving more challenges for themand opening more doors to new opportunities. Thisis the future for eWallets, which will only grow inimportance in igaming.
Compared with jurisdictions such as North America and Asia, the use of eWallets enjoyed modest
success in Europe until recently, with the market for
eWallet solutions growing by 37.1% in 2020 alone.
Whether this is due to an increased preference foronline shopping, mobile-ﬁrst purchasing, or contactless payments, the potential for wallet solutions
in Europe is vast and is something that MuchBetter
has tirelessly pursued.
While wallet technology has taken oﬀ in the B2C
retail environment, it’s clear that its success haspiqued the interest of the B2B community and how
it’s reacting to the demands for corporate payment
systems. The B2C community is demonstrating ever-increasing demand for the security of digital payment systems, and B2Bs are starting to seize similar
prospects for their own corporate payment systems,
citing user experience as a catalyst.
What it boils down to is that MuchBetter’s systems are designed for people, irrespective of whether they’re a consumer or a B2B customer. Technological advancements are being made to make experiences more accessible for people, and that’s where
MuchBetter excels; streamlining processes for individuals and those working for igaming operators.
As consumers drive trends and innovation, theigaming sector has begun to take notice, answeringto the same demands in its own payment systems
space. By embracing these trends, MuchBetter is at

Israel Rosenthal
XCEO and founderXMuchBetter
Israel Rosenthal is the
CEO and founder of
MuchBetter, the smart
payments app. Prior tosetting up this gamechanging eWallet,
Rosenthal served over
10 years at PokerStars,
including as the group
COO.

31

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: MuchBetterthe vanguard of facilitating robust corporate payment systems and tools that enable players to pay
operators and vice versa.
The next-generation eWallet
Purpose-built for the online gaming industry, MuchBetter’s next-generation eWallet app meets the demands of operators and players alike. Available forAndroid and iOS, MuchBetter allows customers tosign up for and fund an e-money account on theirphone within minutes, making payments with justa ﬁngerprint: no passwords or security questions toremember.
It’s this innovative B2B payment network – designed by payments industry veterans from the igaming sector – that connects players and operators
to deliver simpliﬁed, low-risk payment executions.
MuchBetter ensures maximum player/operator engagement by providing a standardised, balanced approach across the igaming supply chain, prioritising
operator payment performance to increase customer
conversion and retention while driving higher commercial success.
MuchBetter’s unique net deposit pricing model
can reduce payment-processing costs by up to 100%,as they only charge fees on the net deposit amountevery month. For example, if a user deposits £10,000
to a gaming site and then withdraws £7,000, MuchBetter only applies a fee to the £3,000 net deposit.
While fraud remains a hot topic under the European PSD2 regulations, MuchBetter’s digital payments solutions present an easier way for shoppers
to identify themselves during transactions, utilising
best-in-class technologies such as tokenisation, 2FA
authentication, biometrics, and dynamic tokens on
e-money rails.
Along with this, its own patented technology (adynamic CVV number built into the MuchBetterapp that, unlike every other bank card in the world,changes every time it’s used) has created a secondgeneration eWallet product that has been designed
to eliminate typical fraud patterns experienced bymost other wallets.
All MuchBetter mobile accounts are paired to aplayer’s phone number and device, creating a trusted environment between app, phone and phone
number, and because all transactions are authorised
within the app and on the device, this prevents account takeover scenarios, as well as the abuse of bonuses, since fraudsters are unable to create multiple
illegitimate accounts.
Through MuchBetter’s open-API, the merchantsends the payment request to the customer’s MuchBetter-app. All the customer has to do is simply
approve the transaction with Touch-ID, and theirmoney moves to the merchant in real-time. There
are no passwords, no security questions, no email
registration, no usernames, no redirects, and no
faﬀ: just a seamless customer payment journey thatoﬀers strong SCA-compliant customer authentication.
All merchants must balance security with usability. High-friction user experiences inevitably result innegativity and lost business, while eliminating friction often means compromising security. Yet MuchBetter’s approach to innovation has always been
to create a seamless payment journey that’s highly
secure, convenient and quick, without compromising on the user’s experience or security processes.
To make it easier for customers around the globe
to make payments, they oﬀer unique payment options tailored to each country’s governing regulations and legislation. There’s also a dedicated support team available 24/7, and MuchBetter merchants
have access to an exclusive merchant portal that enables users to track customer spend across the siteand push exclusive oﬀers to customers via MuchBetter’s unique in-app feature, CashDuster.
With over one million sign-ups across 185 countries and 17 languages, MuchBetter is fast becoming
the preferred payment app within the B2B market. X
To learn how to make a winning payment strategy with
MuchBetter, contact business@muchbetter.com

33

CREATE A
WINNINGPAYMENTEXPERIENCE
For your players with Worldpay from FIS
Worldpay from FIS is a leading payments
technology company with unique capability
to power global integrated omni-commerce,
processing over 40 billion transactions
annually through more than 300 payment
types across 146 countries and 126
currencies.
With industry-leading scale, Worldpay from *Ȃ -.*+ -/*-.*(+- # ).$1 .0$/ of products and services globally, delivered
through a single provider. Our strong andreliable platforms serve operators across their
payment needs and we can process for large
volume events – with a capacity of up to 1000
transactions per second.

We understand your business, as our clients include
industry leading Casinos, Sports Books and Lotteries
operating on a global scale, and we help operators:
Increase acceptance rates
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Optimize business cost vs. risk
Improve the speed of payouts to less than
30minutes
Find out more at‫ݦ‬."'*'ю*(Ѷ )ѣ"Ѷ( -#)/ѣ.*'0/$*).ѣ2*-'+4© 2021 FIS. Advancing the way the world pays, banks and invests™ Worldpay, the logo and any associated brand names are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of FIS. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This content is for information purposes only. We have taken care in/# +- +-/$*)*!/#$.$)!*-(/$*)0/2$'')*/ - .+*).$' !*-)4'*..*-(" $)'0$)"'*..*!+-*‫ݦ‬/.я$)$- /я.+ $'*-*). ,0 )/$''*..-$.$)"
as a result of any information in this document or reliance on it. The content of this material may not be reproduced without prior consent of Worldpay.
This material may include information on third parties and their services. The reference to these third parties is for information purposes only and does notconstitute an endorsement or recommendation of the third party or their service.

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Featuring: Vaix

Artiﬁcial intelligence leader
Jay Kanabar of Vaix outlines what the ﬁrm
is doing with artiﬁcial intelligence and why
it is viewed as such a critical component of
the platform offering
EGR Intel (EGR): What aspects of Vaix’s proposition
earned you the title of AI and data partner of the year?
Jay Kanabar (JK): Vaix was ﬁrst to market regarding
artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) in igaming! As a result of
being ﬁrst to market, we have the mileage in terms
of knowledge, use cases and data collection. Whenit comes to AI, data and the mileage to experimentand optimize is everything; the more data you havetrained and retrained the models on, the betterand more accurate the results become. Think about
Tesla! Why are they the most popular self-driven
car? Because they did it ﬁrst.
Over the last ﬁve years, we have had many challenges. The ﬁrst was in getting operators over the
hurdle as to the fact AI works and is not just a gimmick. We have proven and demonstrated throughseveral case studies that AI does not only improveuser experience but increases proﬁtability, too.
What we, as daily consumers, use in our day-to-day
lives with applications such as Netﬂix and YouTube
can also be transferred to igaming.
EGR: The judges commented that Vaix’s product was
relevant to any operator, and it addresses the most criticaluse cases all operators need to focus on. Can you give us
some more details on the top four use cases?
JK: Of course. Let’s review the use cases now.
Use case 1: Personalisation on the front-end
Personalised start pages and apps are the standard
in almost all industries around us. Online gaming
is ﬁnally following suit. Not only because it increases user betting, but fulﬁls a list of objectives:
XUsers ﬁnd new leagues and sports they may nothave bet on before.

XUsers with diﬀerent interests get served what
they want, opposed to the regular punter whojust wants to see their top games at the top of thepage, bet and leave again. To the casual user who
does not know what’s going on in sports now, or
what new games have launched, choices are provided to help make up their minds.
X Users increase their choices in accumulators,
which drives the thrill of the bet and improvessportsbook margin.
X During low-peak times, when users cannot ﬁndanything they’re interested in, the operator can
ﬁnally provide the most relevant list of eventscurrently available.
XInstead of the same casino homepage with thesame games for everybody, personalisation creates a dynamic, relevant, constantly refreshing
start page from where users dive deeper based on
their levels of interest.

We have proven and demonstrated
through several case studies that AI
does not only improve user experiencebut increases proﬁtability, too. What
we, as daily consumers, use in our dayto-day lives with applications suchas Netﬂix and YouTube can also betransferred to igaming
Jay Kanabar | Vaix
Use case 2: Personalised email
In today’s world, email is the lowest common denominator of customer communication. Except
password changes, work and receiving your electronic Covid-19 vaccination, users are not paying attention to emails anymore, resulting in promotional mail click rates, in particular, to fall below 1%.
The issue isn’t email as a medium, but the myriadof marketing messages people receive.

Jay Kanabar
XCOO
XVaixJay Kanabar, COO, is
responsible for businessdevelopment, analytics
and operations. His
background is inbusiness intelligence
and CRM, bringing over
15 years’ experience ofbusiness analysis andover 20 years in online
gaming. His previous
roles include head ofpoker operations, where
he was responsible foranalytics and CRM.
That included VIPmanagement, retention
and reactivation for
poker, casino andsports products. Prior tothat, he was BI manager
at Full Tilt Poker, building
the poker pioneer’s ﬁrst
Customer Value Model
which included lapse
prevention.

35

Delivering world-class apps and digital products
to the betting, gaming and lottery sectors

Thanks to all our clients,
partners and the entire
mkodo team!

+44 (0) 20 7729 454

hello@mkodo.com

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

Use case 3: Churn prevention
In today’s competitive igaming world, it’s important to keep a hold of the customers that one has already paid big bucks for! The Vaix model produces achurn score at a player level. Each player is assigned
a score (percentage) chance of churning in the next
seven, 14 and 30 days.
Vaix models have shown through several casestudies that by using the Vaix AI Churn models, operators can prevent their active player base fromchurning by giving a player an oﬀer while active
rather than after they have already left the site.
Therefore, CRM teams can be proactive rather thanreactive when messaging their player base.
The teams can and should use the churn scoresat all stages of the customer lifecycle, including
the early life. The ﬁrst two weeks of a player’s life ismost important, and operators lose anything between 40%-60% of players in the ﬁrst two weeks.
Targeting these churn risk players early on can improve retention and increase player values in thelong run. An additional beneﬁt of targeting or oﬀering incentives at churn risk players is better bonus
management. We’ve seen operators reduce theirbonus costs signiﬁcantly and, as a result, improvetheir bottom line.
Use case 4: Return on marketing investment –acquisition marketing
Acquiring players is an expensive business. Every
operator is after the same player and wants to grab
market share. This means you may end up paying ahigher CPA than the lifetime value (LTV). First oﬀ,
we need to ask ourselves, how long is a player’s lifetime? In 2008, operators used to calculate a two- tothree-year LTV; fast-forward to today, and it’s probably less than 12 months!
The Vaix model calculates the LTV for each player
for the ﬁrst 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days, which gives
the operator ﬂexibility to choose a player value be-

tween 30 and 365 days. In addition to diﬀerent
output windows, the Vaix AI-driven model has many
advantages:
1. Player level values
2. High accuracies of 80%+
3. Predictions after the ﬁrst three active days
How can operators make use of Vaix LTV model?
Step 1: Deﬁne what is an acceptable timeline for a
return on your marketing investment for each campaign when you are planning the campaign.
Step 2: The key is knowing when to evaluate thecampaign using the daily predictions the AI produces. On average, it takes the model seven days
to start to predict with 85%+ accuracies. But if you
want to have less risks, then 14 days post campaign
will give you accuracies in the 90th percentile.
Step 3: Once you’ve determined the break-evenperiod and start using the model, you need to monitor the lifetime value versus the cost of the campaign. Typically, one would build a dashboard orreport and ﬁnd the good and bad campaigns.
Step 4: Stop the bleeding and re-evaluate and stop
any campaign that is predicted to not breakeven in
the timeline, is already set, or does not meet yourexpectations.
Step 5: Reinvest in the good deals.
Step 6: Repeat.
EGR: The company experienced an impressive year of
expansion during a worldwide pandemic and increased
competition. How do you navigate the shifting challenges?
JK: Vaix is in a fortunate position to have the agilityof a start-up company, the knowledge of an established industry heavyweight and a cohort of talented people at every level who make it all tick. Our development team has been critical to our expansion.
Their practical approach to evolving our technology stack, new models or approaches and delivery of
new use cases has more than exceeded our expectations. For example, we are now able to deploy a fully
ready production model in just 72 hours from receiving historical data. There are not many in-houseteams or other AI companies that produce such results in a short time frame.
2020 was a turning point for AI in igaming andthe competition from either other providers or inhouse teams helped us more than it ever hindered
us. In any industry we don’t think you want to be
the only one doing what you are doing; competitionmeans we are not the only crazy ones going down
the AI path.

Featuring: Vaix

Personalise email and users do pay attention,from Spotify discovering new music for you to aconcert announcement of that artist who is ﬁnallycoming back to town – everyone has that newsletteror mail update they look forward to opening.
With deeply personalised emails, operators canrevive their long-lost channel again. At Vaix, we see
click rates more than double if emails don’t just advertise the Premier League weekend games, but advertise the content individuals users are genuinely
interested in.

37

Featuring: Vaix

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2021

more marketing and CRM platforms we form partnerships with, the simpler the life of the operator
as they no longer have to use more than one tool todo their day-to-day jobs and are not required to do
the integration themselves. Not only do we want tointegrate with CRM platforms, but if we can form
relationships with advertising agencies or the likes
of Google and Facebook Ads, too, marketing teams
can start to automate the advertising and bidding
process using Vaix’s predictions.

38

EGR: What are you going to focus on in the future?
JK: Both short- and long-term goals are to improve
the time to deliver our products and expand ourpartnership programme, as well as work with more
platforms and marketing/digital platforms andagencies.
We’ve managed to get this down from sevenworking days to three, but we’d like to see it bemore of a plug and play application, where operators can go live straight away or, at a minimum, in
24 hours. The main reason to focus on this is thesimple fact that operators already have road maps
which are fully packed, and we want our products
to be as little of a burden as possible. The simpler
we can integrate our oﬀering, the higher chance wehave of operators working with us.
Platform integration is at the core of our strategy. We’ve learnt over the years, that all the integration is not only down to the operator, but often theplatform provider who is involved. This means thatthe more platforms that are part of our partnershipprogramme, the simpler the integration and quicker the speed to market.
Similarly, on the marketing and CRM side, the

EGR: Where is AI heading in igaming?
JK: AI should be the future igaming (we hope). I
mean, it’s almost part of our daily lives with otherservices and products including shopping, entertainment, customer service platforms. And otherindustries such as medicine are incorporating someform of AI, so why can this not be the case forigaming?
XPlayer safety: We’ve seen big moves by operators using AI/big data for player safety, but it has
a long way to go before it is fully automated. As
the industry and governing bodies start to work
together, using AI technologies will only help
solve the problem of protecting its consumers
faster, accurately, and better.
XTrading: The majority of trading teams today
create their own odds and manage liabilities
manually or with simple rules-based algorithms.
Throwing in a deep learning AI model to manage
both odds and liabilities will be a big gamechanger for the industry.
XReal-time personalisation: Taking the personal touch, not only where it matters (sportsbook
mail, casino homepage), but when it matters. A
simple example: it is an entirely diﬀerent proposition if a sportsbook sends each user a reminderwhen their favourite team plays versus the usual
Friday afternoon mail after what’s on during theweekend.
XPersonalised loyalty programmes and bonuses: A day-to-day task which all operations teams
must take on with lots of manual segmentationand decide what type of bonus to give and how
to give. This is a problem that machine learning
can solve and optimise how, what, when and how
much of a bonus a player gets. The advantage
for operators is not only saving man hours andbonus costs, but we are giving the right type ofoﬀer at the right time and should result in an increase in overall uptake and increase in retention
and lifetime value. X