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Operators rally for US national and state lotteries to go digital

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Operators rally for US national and state lotteries to go digital

 

From Oregan to Maryland, state lottery operators are rallying their respective officials to allow online ticket sales as a new normal of decreased retail footfall descends on towns and cities across the US. After helping many national lotteries around the world go digital over the past few months, Ade Repcenko, CEO of Spinola Gaming, believes that an upgrade to online sales is indeed the only way forward for the US lottery sector.

Lottery operators across the US are calling for their state officials to digitise the sale of tickets in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the last few months, only a handful of states were able to legally offer digital lottery ticket sales during their respective lockdowns: Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, North Dakota and Virginia. Many of these states revealed that they experienced a surge in online ticket sales, with New Hampshire registering a 38 percent jump in first-time online players during this period. All other states require players to purchase a lottery ticket in person from a retail outlet, and all saw sales and revenues tumble drastically during the pandemic.

Despite a determination to go digital now being shared by a majority of key lottery figures in the US, state operators still require regulatory changes to take place before they can make the shift. Unless these regulatory changes happen fast, the US market will lag behind the rest of the world, as LATAM, Africa, Asia and Australia all already possess the legal ability to sell online. The online commercialisation of US government and state lotteries is long overdue, and Covid-19 has given those in favour of digitization real tangible data to support their long-standing arguments. State lottery operators’ interest in going digital is now stronger than ever, as the pandemic clearly highlighted the severe limitations of the retail lottery business model.

Barry Pack, director of the Oregon State Lottery, stated that retailers in Oregon lost 70 percent of their customers due to the lockdown. “The recovery from this pandemic is going to force a digital transformation in our industry a whole lot more quickly than we might normally have seen it come,” he said. “When the legislature reconvenes next week, they’re facing a billion-dollar shortfall. Their opinions about mobile gaming will change. I think there will be less resistance.”

Gordon Medenica, director of the Maryland Lottery shares Pack’s views: “We’ve been pushing a digital transformation and online selling ever since I’ve been in this industry, over the past 10 to 15 years,” he said. “In Maryland, they passed a law three years ago banning sales on the internet. I think we’ll see a dramatic change and I’m looking forward to it.”

And in a Lottery Commission meeting, Massachusetts Lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney said their lottery faced “a significant threat of becoming somewhat obsolete”.

The extreme drop in lottery sales due to the pandemic and shelter-in-place orders was also a key pain point for most participants of the SBC Digital Summit’s lottery discussion titled, “State of Play – US Lotteries During the Coronavirus.” Many state lottery veterans shared the opinion that the pandemic should be a wake-up call for lottery officials and state legislatures, with one participant stating that the pandemic exposed state lottery’s inadequate retail business model and that it might not be sufficient for the new normal. Speaking recently Ade Repecnko, CEO of Spinola Gaming, agreed with that assessment. His company has helped many national lotteries around the world go digital over the past few months, giving them a steady stream of income to sustain their operations during the pandemic.

“Retail operators need to take a look at the post-Covid19 world and its impact on player needs and expectations, and think about what it means for the future of lotteries.” said Ade Repcenko, CEO of Spinola Gaming. “Digital is the way forward and is set to play a huge part in our industry over the coming years. Solutions like the ones offered by Spinola Gaming provide land-based operators with a holistic solution that helps operators make the move to digital, while still maintaining their traditional retail operations through one seamless interface. The software allows operators to monitor all lottery ticket sales and track all online and offline purchases in real-time, complete with a myriad of marketing functions and analytics available at the touch of a button. The system is available across all markets, currencies and languages and is fully customisable.”

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Masters Betting: Drive for Show, Putt for Dough

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The phrase “drive for show, putt for dough” is a long-standing mantra in golf that emphasises the importance of putting over driving – specifically driving distance – in winning golf tournaments. But is it true?

While the saying has a clear implication, modern data from professional golf paints a more complex picture.   Using the Shots Gained (SG) metric we can compare different parts of a player’s game to see if there really is a formula for winning.

Driving test

Using shot data gained from datagolf.com we can compare the top players in the world (according to the Official World Golf Ranking) over the last 12 months.

Comparing “shots gained off the tee” with “shots gained putting” seems to turn the myth on its head – the top players gain a higher proportion of their shots off the tee than from putting.  For players ranked in the Top 10, nearly 0.8 shots are gained from driving as opposed to around 0.3 for putting.  Whilst the differential narrows as the players’ ranking decreases, for players ranked 90 – 100, driving still gains more than 0.2 shots more putting.

This ability to reliably gain strokes through driving gives top pros an edge, setting them up for better scoring opportunities throughout a tournament. Over a whole season, this advantage compounds and allows them to stay at the top of the leaderboards.

The long and the short

However, since “shots gained off the tee” includes par 4 and 5s, the metric is not necessarily just a measure of the importance of driving distance, but also a measure of accuracy.  So, whilst driving matters, is it the distance or the trajectory that is most advantageous for winning tournaments?

Again, using the top ranked players, it appears that distance stands out as a key factor for success, with Top 10 players on average gaining nearly 10 yards per drive compared with those outside the Top 100 throughout the year. This extra yardage translates into shorter approaches and better chances to attack pins throughout the season.

These findings are corroborated by Mark Broadie in his 2014 book Every Shot Counts, where he shows that for professionals, an extra 20 yards of driving distance is worth about three-quarters of a stroke per round.   Relatively speaking, for the rest of us amateur golfers, driving distance becomes even more important for scoring than driving accuracy.

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Putt to the test

While driving distance provides the groundwork for long term success – and is a characteristic that all the Top 10 players seemingly must possess – it doesn’t necessarily “bust the myth” that putting is more important for winning tournaments.  Indeed, looking more deeply into the metrics for the outcome of individual tournaments uncovers the fact that putting becomes more instrumental for who comes out on top.

If we look instead at the finish positions in PGA events over the last 12 months, rather than the World Ranking, putting comes to the fore.  For players finishing first, putting gained an average of 1.2 shots versus a gain of 0.7 for driving.  Even for players finishing 30th – 35th, putting is worth more than 0.4 of a shot on average compared to driving. The fact that top finishers in a given event typically post higher gains from putting rather than from driving underscores the vital role of putting during tournament play where players have to capitalize on scoring opportunities and avoid mistakes on the green to win.

 

The outcome

Fundamentally the relationship between driving and putting reveals a balanced formula for success. Driving creates opportunities and contributes to consistency while putting often decides who makes the best of those opportunities and ultimately wins on a given weekend. In a game of ever-increasing competition and precision, power and finesse must work together to elevate players to the pinnacle of the sport.

With all the attention on these extremes of golf, other aspects are often overlooked. Completing the same analyses and including shots gained for “approach” and “around the green” makes it clear that there is one area that consistently contributes to wins and ranking, making it arguably the most important aspect of a players golf game.

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Digitain Wins Sportsbook Excellence Award at SiGMA Americas Awards

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Digitain Wins Sportsbook Excellence Award at SiGMA Americas Awards

 

Digitain has been awarded the “Best Interactive Sportsbook Experience 2025” title at the SiGMA Americas Awards in São Paulo, Brazil, for its outstanding innovation and commitment to delivering advanced sports betting solutions.

Digitain, a leading provider of Sportsbook and iGaming solutions, has won in the “Best Interactive Sportsbook Experience 2025” category at the SiGMA Americas Awards. This prestigious recognition highlights Digitain’s relentless drive for innovation, excellence, and its ability to deliver state-of-the-art Sportsbook solutions to its partners.

The SiGMA Americas Awards took place on April 7 during the BiS SiGMA Americas event in São Paulo, Brazil. The awards celebrate the best and brightest companies, recognizing exceptional achievements, groundbreaking innovations, and significant contributions to the industry.

Iain Hutchison, Digitain’s Chief Revenue Officer, stated: “We are honored to receive this award, which marks our fifth major recognition this year. It’s a powerful validation of our commitment to innovation and the strength of the partnerships we’ve built.

At Digitain, we continuously strive to develop forward-thinking Sportsbook solutions that meet the evolving needs of our partners in a highly competitive global market. We remain focused on continuous improvement, ensuring that our partners have access to the best tools and solutions to drive their business forward.”

As Digitain continues its expansion across regulated markets, this award further strengthens its position as a trusted partner for operators seeking a competitive edge in the dynamic field of sports betting.

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EveryMatrix completes iGaming content launch with Caesars Entertainment

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EveryMatrix completes iGaming content launch with Caesars Entertainment

 

EveryMatrix online casino games content has gone live across five regulated jurisdictions with Caesars Entertainment, extending the technology provider’s reach in the regulated North American market.

EveryMatrix is now providing Caesars’ online casino players in New Jersey, West Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and the Canadian province of Ontario with access to online casino games from its in-house studios, including Armadillo Studios and newly acquired Fantasma Games via integration with SlotMatrix. New game titles are now live across Caesars Palace Online Casino, Caesars Sportsbook & Casino and Horseshoe Online Casino.

EveryMatrix, the industry’s fastest-growing iGaming technology provider, has secured commercial agreements with multiple tier-1 operators in the US, with delivery through SlotMatrix. This includes its first breakthrough aggregation agreement at the end of 2024.

SlotMatrix is the provider’s proprietary aggregation platform and the industry’s largest content library with more than 34,000 games from 350+ studios.

Using the full power of SlotMatrix, North American brands can offer their customers exclusive EveryMatrix games plus a host of best-performing, third-party live and slots content, further enhanced by EveryMatrix’s gamification and player engagement features including free spins, leaderboards and tournaments.

EveryMatrix has more than 300 global customers and holds North American licences in Ontario, New Jersey, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Erik Nyman, President, EveryMatrix Americas, said: “We’re very happy to be live on Caesars’ digital platforms across multiple jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, including Fantasma Games content that has proven to be a huge hit with U.S. players.

“It is an honour to partner with Caesars Entertainment, as their position and strong brand equity speak for itself. We have shaped a strong relationship with Caesars leading up to go-live that has carried over to the operational phase.”

“SlotMatrix is a casino aggregation platform not just with the largest portfolio of studios but also encompassing unique proprietary player engagement features that are a true game changer for brands, now available to Caesars’ online casino players.”

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Matt Sunderland, Senior Vice President and Chief iGaming Officer at Caesars Digital, said: “Completing this launch with our partners at EveryMatrix marks another milestone for our online casino players. We’re pleased to enhance our online casino platforms with an expanded catalogue featuring a variety of these new titles, which we believe will provide our players with an even more engaging and enjoyable gaming experience.”

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