Category Games News

As an author and journalist, Maria Konnikova began research for a book about a year ago, looking at the role that luck plays in life. It seemed to the writer that poker was a great place to start. After learning more about game theory and being coached by veteran poker player Eric Seidel, Maria decided to spend a year playing the game on the live circuit. She knew nothing about poker at the time but has ended up earning over $200,000 from tournament gaming during the process and has now been signed as a brand ambassador with the largest online poker brand in the world, PokerStars.

Maria’s story is pretty amazing. Not only did she know nothing about poker, but she has seen great success during her time playing the game. Many people set out to learn more about poker, but few have the success that Maria has been able to achieve.

During the twelve-month time frame, Maria has been able to cash out in gambling areas like Las Vegas, Macau and Monte Carlo. The best finish came during the PCA National Championship in January when she won the event, outlasting 290 competitors to win $84,600 plus a Platinum Pass to the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship. This special event will take place this coming January in the Bahamas, with the best of the best coming to the felt. The Platinum Pass Maria earned has a value of $30,000.

When she won the pass, she was the first woman to do so and her story in poker began. Now, she will be working with PokerStars as well as continuing with her book. A new deadline has been made, with the book; ‘The Biggest Bluff’ still in the works. The book is set to be published by late 2019, giving Maria plenty of time to continue to compete, particularly in the PokerStars Players Championships next year and beyond.

Commenting on joining the team in a PokerStars Blog post, Maria stated: “I’m incredibly excited to be joining the PokerStars team. It’s been wonderful to be an unofficial ambassador with PokerStars for this past year, and I feel it’s a tremendous honour to be joining the team officially now.

“I never could have imagined poker becoming as big a part of my life as it has and joining PokerStars as an official ambassador offers me an incredible opportunity to take my game to the next level and to represent a brand that I’ve come to admire greatly. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the people I have the pleasure of working with at PokerStars are some of the nicest, smartest, and most fun I know.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share my passion for poker with the world and, hopefully, bring many new players into the game.”

These days, the eyes of the whole world are on South America. And no, we’re not talking about Argentina.   

Pragmatic Play is very successful in gaining new partners and conquering new markets. This time, the company decided to enhance its presence in Brazil, and to achieve that goal, it partnered up with Brazilian operator Galera Bet.  

Product available for Galera Bet’s players:  

The operator will gain a lot from this partnership – unique Pragmatic products will be available to all Galera Bet’s players in Brazil. Some of the titles included are the players’ favorites, such as the recently released Reel Banks and Fury of Odin. There are also some awarded titles, like Sugar Rush and Gates of Olympus.   

A special treat for Brazilian players is a crash game called Spaceman. This game is already available on the Galera Bet’s gaming platform.   

After the recent successful partnerships with some of the leading Brazilian providers such as Bingolar, Bet24Horas, and CrtPixBet, Pragmatic Play keeps strengthening its position in this valuable market while simultaneously maintaining its position its position as a leading content provider in the global iGaming industry.   

Latin America possesses the status of one of the most active markets on a global level, and Galera Bet’s partnership with Pragmatic Play can help maintain this position.  

Victor Arias, Vice President of Latin American Operations at Pragmatic Play, said: “We welcome Galera Bet and its players as the latest to benefit from our expanding range of games, and we thank them for further extending our reach into Brazil. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship.”  

Galera Bet Representative said: “We’re delighted to sign this deal with such a prominent supplier as Pragmatic Play and to see its games live. Its games are among the most popular in the country and having them at our disposal is a huge boost to our brand.”  

A story of success:  

Pragmatic Play is very active when it comes to releasing new games. Its primary focus is on thrilling and unique slot games with extraordinary mechanics, and they keep publishing up to seven titles every month, which is pretty impressive.   

The company’s portfolio also contains live casino, virtual sports, and bingo games. They are all part of the supplier’s multi-product portfolio which is globally famous.   

One of the most exciting things about its products is that all of its content is available through one single API, which drastically eases the whole process.   

One of the biggest UK sport betting operators with over 1,400 betting shops across the country, BetFred, has recently announced its latest partnership with Oxford-based casino game designers, Realistic Games (RG), that will see RG’s entire portfolio of hit games launched at BetFred’s online platform. The sport betting provider will now be offering a complete selection of games from both RG’s land-based and online offering, including their slot smash hits like the Super Graphics Upside-Down as well as their collection of virtual table games.

This partnership is yet another move forward for the UK operator, who recently massively expanded its land-based presence by buying 322 betting shops from Ladbrokes and Coral which were a prerequisite in a merger approval for the two companies. For this deal, Betfred undertook a £195 debt package to finance the shops and have since moved on improving their online presence as well with the help of a number of game studios, including Playtech and RG, who also power other high-profile betting/casino platforms.

Commenting on the partnership, CEO of Realistic Games, Andy Harris, said that the company was happy to be given the opportunity to power such a prominent and respected brand like Betfred. The people at RG also felt confident enough that Betfred’s users will find the games entertaining and engaging, no matter what platform they prefer to use, be it mobile, desktop, or tablet.

Betfred’s Commercial Director, Rusell Young, took the opportunity to comment as well and said that since the Betfred brand prides itself in providing their players with the largest selection of top game designs from the industry, the partnership with Realistic Game didn’t take much pondering. He also added that RG’s excellent slot designs and table games were a great supplement to their online offer and that he was certain it won’t take long before they become favorites at their online casino.

In what is the latest step in establishing their dominance in the online casino sector, GVC Holdings have recently revealed one of their biggest product updates this year – the Blackjack Pro and European Pro. Built in-house, with mobile players in mind, these two fresh additions to GVC’s online game portfolio are to bring a “complete refresh” to two of the most popular casino games, according to the company’s official newsletter.

Both games will be launched at the same time on all of their licensed platforms, including ones owned by their recent acquisition the B.Win brand, which operates popular platforms Party Casino and Party Poker. The games will be part of a complete line of “Pro” series, which will consist of games that were specifically tailored to be played optimally in mobile browsers, native apps, as well as desktop machines.

For this purpose, GVC have developed a intuitive interface with modern, smooth and professional design that can be played in any orientation, something which they believe makes the games the “perfect” mobile companions. One intuitive feature the game developers have built in their Pro version of European Roulette is a “drag-to-bet” option, which will allow users to drag their fingers across the screen to make a bet.

Speaking of the new products, Liron Snir, Chief Product Officer of GVC Holdings, said that the company was thrilled to be launching the new European Roulette Pro and Blackjack Pro, products they believe to be a massive step ahead in their table game department, especially their mobile table game offer. He also added that the products were designed by professionals from various sectors of the industry which were brought in-house to “boost” their development process, the proof of which can be found in their latest products.

Maltese online casino games developer Relax Gaming Limited has partnered with Australian associate Big Time Gaming to release its first new video slot of the year in the five-reel Kluster Krystals Megaclusters.

Headquartered in the Valletta suburb of St Julian’s, the innovator used an official Tuesday press release to declare that the fresh debut demonstrates ‘its continued momentum’ following a very fruitful 2020 and comes after it became the first outside firm to secure the usage rights for the Megaclusters mechanic from Big Time Gaming.

Prodigious portfolio:

Relax Gaming Limited offers iGaming operators access to a library of over 1,500 titles and stated that its new mobile-friendly Kluster Krystals Megaclusters is ‘packed with win potential’ as every one of the game’s spins presents punters with ‘the possibility of upgrading symbols’ to deliver ‘an incredibly rewarding player experience.’

Bountiful bunch:

The developer explained that its latest five-row video slot challenges online casino aficionados to amass at least eight segments into a cluster so as to double, triple or quadruple the value of all neighboring symbols. It detailed that this Megaclusters action also applies to the game’s many multipliers to potentially boost any rewards by up to three times their starting value.

Entertaining extras:

Simon Hammon, Chief Product Officer for Relax Gaming Limited, used the press release to pronounce that Kluster Krystals Megaclusters additionally comes complete with a trio of miniature games that ‘are guaranteed to trigger a sequence of six avalanches’ and give players the chance to further ‘enhance their game win.’ As if all of this wasn’t enough and the executive announced that the new title even has a bonus round to offer punters maximum rewards worth up to 9,921 times their triggering stake via as many as eleven free spins.

Read a statement from Hammon…

“Megaclusters is another headline-grabbing mechanic from our long-standing partner Big Time Gaming and we’re incredibly excited to be unveiling our first spin on the feature with Kluster Krystals Megaclusters. We’ve complemented the engaging mechanic with a fast-paced feature set and a dazzling theme that we believe showcase the incredible maths model at its core. This title has set the tone of the quality entertainment we’ll be bringing to players this year.”

Years of sports betting and poker come to an end this month as SkillOnNet makes the decision to pull the online sportsbook and poker products from its white label operation, RedKings, as of 28 April 2019. Customers have the opportunity to log in and settle bets, withdraw balances, etc. until 24 April 2019.

Initially part of the Ongame Network before making the switch to the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) in 2016, the brand now will move forward with a focus on the online casino following over a decade of sports and poker entertainment.  As part of this decision, SkillOnNet will pass the torch to a fellow MPN network site, BetSafe, with regard to the poker room promotional aspects.

Following the 2006 debut of the poker room, RedKings expanded its product offering to include a sportsbook in 2010, which runs on the OddsMatrix platform from EveryMatrix.

RedKings posted the following statement on its website regarding the closure:

“After nearly 13 years of shuffling cards at the tables, we regret to inform you that we are closing two of our products on RedKings (Poker and Betting).

“The casino will continue as normal and your account will stay active so you will be able to access your funds to play or withdraw at any time using your same log in details.

“You can also continue to play poker and finish your existing bonuses with RedKings until the 28th April, but new bonuses will no longer be issued and the monthly Chase and Point per Day promotions have now been stopped for April.

“So that you may continue playing your poker at MPN, we have arranged with our friends at Betsafe to take over our popular RedKings Promotions. We will send you the details next week.

“With regard to betting, please ensure all bets are settled by the 24th April.

“We thank you for playing Poker and betting at RedKings and we wish you good luck in the future.”

About SkillOnNet:

The company, established in 2005, has built a reputation in the industry as a provider of a range of turn-key solutions for iGaming businesses. Among its clients are brands such as PlayOjo, Lucky Niki and Slots Magic. The casino platform comes complete with more than 1,200 games from third party providers including big names like NetEnt, Bally Technologies, Amaya, Yggdrasil, Evolution Gaming, Scientific Games, Merkur Slots, Leap Virtual Gaming and many more.

In addition to its casino platform, the company develops a range of games geared toward the online market under the brand of GVG (Green Valley Games). The portfolio includes live casino games, slots, video poker and a selection of table games. Slots titles include Zombie Bar, Professor Bubbles, Vampires Feast, Wizard of Odds, Safe Hacker and Love Machine to name a few.