Gambling in the USA
INSIDE THE POCKET LAUNCHES FREE-TO-ENTER $100k PRO FOOTBALL SURVIVOR GAME TO PROMOTE BROADER INDUSTRY ADOPTION
Inside The Pocket (ITP), the world’s only free-to-play and pay-to-play (F2P & P2P) aggregation platform, has launched Pro Football Survivor, an exciting new F2P game that offers industry professionals a jaw-dropping $100k prize ($50k to the winner, and a further $50k to their nominated charity) ahead of the upcoming 2023/24 Pro Football season, which gets underway on 7 September.
Pro Football Survivor is aimed at engaging all businesspeople at the intersection of sports betting and business, media and igaming, alongside a wider ecosystem – from leagues to agencies, across hospitality providers, caterers and even restaurants.
The popular Survivor format simply asks all participants to pick a non-reusable team to win every week throughout the entire Regular Season and the Playoffs. This ease of play is the reason for its recognised acquisition and retention strengths around repeat visits and improved dwell-time (as players routinely return to check results and their respective standings against colleagues and friends on the leaderboard, which is settled and updated after each game day).
The competition rules are as follows:
- Register at: https://itpsurvivor.io/survivor/
- Each week during the Pro Football season and playoffs, you must pick the winner of a game.
- You can only choose each team once throughout the entire season, including the playoffs and the Pro Football Championship game in Las Vegas.
- Only the final results at the end of regulation time will count. If a game you select is tied at the end of regulation, the selection will be deemed to have lost, regardless of overtime.
The game is now open to entries and industry peer-to-peer sharing across an evolving landscape of diverse players and companies which represent a wide spectrum of commercial intersectionality. ITP continues to stand alone in the F2P and P2P content market in that, via a single integration, it opens up an entire market of 20+ free-to-play and pay-to-play content providers to satisfy sports and casino needs around the world, irrespective of the data environment.
Hussain Naqi, Founder and CEO of Inside The Pocket, said: “No matter what Al Pacino said in Any Given Sunday, it’s actually a game of inching along, surviving week-by-week, and outlasting your rivals. So, join us for Pro Football Survivor and stand a chance to win big while also supporting a great charitable cause! It’s a fun way to learn more about America’s favourite sport, or flex your bragging-rights if you know the game well. It takes under a minute each week, and hopefully you’ll be coming back every week to play!”
“We’ve launched Pro Football Survivor to help people understand how we’re different. And it’s a broad church out there whom we want to engage, shining a light on the wide-ranging solutions that our unique platform can provide when it comes to acquisition and retention.
“We’re focused on B2B clients, whether that’s in sports media, the betting and gaming space, the hospitality industry, the restaurant sector or any other party amongst a varied Venn Diagram of interconnectivity. At ITP, we want to house many new potential partners under this same roof, such is our platform’s ability to target specific recreational player-groups and fulfil nuanced acquisition and retention goals.
“At ITP, we don’t view the landscape merely in terms of games. Rather, we think about the space as an entire ecosystem and strategy which we specifically cultivate as a flexible and ever-evolving piece of content for an overlapping and interdependent chain of companies to whom we can now demonstrate the multifaceted solutions of ITP.
“We have content of our own. We have an aggregation layer where we’ll put competitors side-by-side. We offer best-in-class data deals. In short, our unique platform drives new levels in acquisition and retention through its multiplicity of games, bespoke localised strategies and a quick-fire integration which averages just under three weeks in duration. This allows our partners to plan globally but think locally, mitigating regulatory risk from the patchwork quilt of state-by-state regulation in North America to LatAm, Africa and APAC.
“Perhaps our biggest challenge is to make people understand that variety is our touchstone. You can’t just back one horse, lest it become a flogging horse. Instead, companies need to be rolling out a variety of different products. We want our registrants to come to see this Survivor game as a sticky and intuitive free-to-play product that reliably gets people coming back each week. It has that crucial repeat-engagement attribute where everyone can quickly see the value proposition.”
PENN Entertainment announced that its stand-alone Hollywood Casino app has launched in New Jersey. The new Hollywood Casino platform is available on Android, iOS, and desktop and can also be accessed via the ESPN BET app. Customers can login to Hollywood Casino using their ESPN BET credentials, allowing for a seamless experience across PENN’s online betting and casino platforms.
Ranked by Eilers & Krejcik as the #2 overall iCasino product in the US, Hollywood Casino offers a variety of online slots, table games, and live dealer content, including original titles from PENN Game Studios, the company’s in-house casino game development studio. Hollywood Casino also includes bespoke live dealer tables and exclusive games such as the recently launched Devils Blackjack, an original title leveraging PENN’s partnership with the New Jersey Devils.
“We’re thrilled to introduce our dedicated, casino-first experience to customers across New Jersey. Hollywood Casino delivers a best-in-class experience with an extensive game library, seamless gameplay, and exclusive content from our in-house studio. This launch builds on the strong momentum we’ve gained since introducing our enhanced standalone app in December,” said Aaron LaBerge, Chief Technology Officer of PENN Entertainment.
The stand-alone Hollywood Casino platform debuted in Pennsylvania last December and is also available in Michigan.
Gambling in the USA
Bitline and Everi Announce Crypto Liquidity for Choctaw Casinos & Resorts in Industry First Development
Bitline, the only provider for casino chip access directly from cryptocurrency, has announced its first major collaboration in the U.S. casino market, teaming up with Choctaw Casinos & Resorts through its collaboration with Everi, a premier provider of financial technology and gaming solutions. This collaboration introduces cryptocurrency and digital assets as a new source of liquidity for casino patrons and marks the first time that such a functionality has been enabled within the American gaming industry.
Leveraging Everi’s CashClub’s comprehensive payment infrastructure, Bitline’s solution is able to efficiently board, screen and verify patrons looking to leverage their digital assets whilst also allowing patrons to move screened assets into custody within minutes. Bitline’s integration with Everi Cash Club, the leading financial access services suite for casino payments, will enable the technology for the benefit of Choctaw Casinos & Resorts, and is the first time that such a functionality has been possible in the U.S. regulated casino market.
Catering to the growing demand for greater cryptocurrency and digital asset integration within the casino industry, the collaboration between Bitline and Everi’s forms a transferable blueprint that offers casino operators and their patrons an alternative way to manage funds, access liquidity, and leverage the benefits of cryptocurrency and other digital assets.
This milestone reflects a strategic shift in how casino operators view and manage financial interactions with their guests. The introduction of cryptocurrency as a liquidity solution provides additional options for guests and lays the foundation for Choctaw Casinos & Resorts as it looks to the future of gaming sector finance, setting a new standard in financial accessibility and convenience.
“Working with Choctaw Casinos & Resorts and Everi to make this a reality is a historical moment for both the casino and blockchain industries. Bitline was conceptualized to advance the gaming sector and offer a wider variety of financial options for the casino industry,” said Richard Jones, CEO at Bitline. “We’re entering an era where digital assets can fundamentally enhance the gaming experience, providing casino operators with a future-ready financial framework that can expand and evolve as the industry does. This collaboration is just the beginning of our vision to modernize casino payment capabilities on a global scale.”
Victor Newsom, SVP Product Management, Payments Solutions at Everi comments “This unique integration combines BitLine’s additional payment accessibility options with Everi’s ability to enable seamless, secure, and regulatory compliant financial transactions for casino patrons. Designed from the ground up to exceed the rigorous compliance demands of the industry as well as the discerning expectations of gaming VIPs around the world, Choctaw’s patrons are now no longer limited to the access, times, amount, and speed constraints of the legacy financial systems. This also significantly reduces risk for our casino customers, such as Choctaw.”
“We are excited to be the first casino in North America to offer our guests another way to play,” said Thomas McDonald, Senior Director of Cage and Credit at Choctaw Casinos & Resorts. “Through our long-term relationship with Everi, a leader in fintech solutions, we will continue to invest in innovative offerings that provide the discerning gaming VIP access to funds in a safe and secure manner.”
The Choctaw Casinos & Resorts integration represents only the first phase of Bitline’s broader mission to bring cryptocurrency solutions to casinos and casino patrons worldwide. As cryptocurrency and digital assets continue to gain traction in the gaming sector, Bitline’s easy to integrate and patented payment model stands poised to become a key player in transforming gaming finance. Future plans include expanding services across other major casinos and gaming markets, both domestically and internationally, establishing cryptocurrency as a new standard feature of the gaming experience.
The solution is to be formally rolled out on March 7, 2025, with the first transaction taking place at Choctaw’s Durant, Oklahoma, location.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) has taken decisive action against five offshore online casinos, sending cease-and-desist letters for violating state gaming laws. These websites offer a variety of casino games, such as slots, poker, blackjack, Keno, bingo, and game show games, in addition to sports betting.
The following unlicensed operators are now under scrutiny following the MGCB’s action:
BetWhale Casino, Curaçao
Black Lotus Casino, owned by TD Investments Ltd., Belize
Coins Game Casino, Curaçao
Love2play Casino, Curaçao and Costa Rica
Orion Stars 777 Players, Sichuan Province, China
“These illegal platforms not only violate Michigan’s gaming regulations but also put consumers at risk by offering unreliable withdrawal options and lacking essential consumer protections. Our top priority is safeguarding Michigan residents by ensuring that all online gaming activities are conducted legally and safely. These operators must stop their activities or face additional legal consequences,” MGCB Executive Director Henry Williams said.
Investigations into these illegal activities have revealed that the operators are in violation of multiple Michigan state laws.
Despite offering various payment options like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin and Ethereum), these illegal operators impose strict withdrawal conditions, often requiring players to wager their initial deposits multiple times before they can access their winnings.
The MGCB has given these operators 14 days from the date of receipt of the cease-and-desist letters to halt their illegal activities.
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