Microgaming is ringing in the New Year with several new great games.

Celebrate the New Year’s good fortune with Lucky Twins. Boasting charming imagery, Lucky Twins is the latest release from Microgaming following the Asian theme. The rhythmic sound of the gong sets the mood for this relaxed and easy-to-play 5×3 reel slot, with 9 selectable pay lines. Representing protection, the Fortune Children symbol acts as the Wild, and players are wished good luck throughout the game by the iconic Meneki Neko waving cat. Lucky Twins launches on download and flash.

Joining Lucky Twins for January release is Peek-a-Boo, a comical and colourful 5×4 reel, 40 payline ghost-themed game. Amongst other features, Peek-a-Boo’s special symbol – the quirky kid – zaps ghosts on the reels to award cash prizes and free spins. Using his ray gun on reel three, when quirky kid captures 10 ghosts in the ghost meter, the free spins feature is triggered – up to 13 free spins! During which, the slot expands to 1,024 ways to win. Peek-a-Boo launches on download and flash.

Peek-a-Boo slot game:

Launching on mobile in January is Untamed Giant Panda, a highly popular instalment in Microgaming’s Untamed slot series. The five reel, 243 ways to win game features three bumper features: Collect a Wild™, Lucky Nudge™ and Your Gamble™.

Last, but certainly not least, Multi-player Mermaids Millions is set to make a splash with players in January. The well-known 5×3 reel, 25 payline slot has been converted for multi-player (in download and Flash), injecting social elements to game play. Up to six players can enter a virtual room where they can view each other’s play, chat and share the action of the bonus rounds.

Neill Whyte, Head of Product Channels at Microgaming, comments: "2015 was a busy year for our Casino Games

team, launching nearly 40 games to market, including blockbuster hit Bridesmaids™ and the stunning Hot as Hades. And for mobile we launched over 30 HTML5 games including popular multi-platform releases Basketball Star and Happy Holidays. As we enter 2016, this January we are bringing diversity to our portfolio with an Asian-inspired game and a spooky classic."

All games go live to Microgaming and Quickfire operators today, 6th January 2016.

Microgaming announces a record-breaking jackpot win on its millionaire-maker slot, Mega Moolah.

Known for its massive pay-outs, and life-changing wins, Microgaming’s Mega Moolah has created another instant millionaire, but this time it’s larger than ever before.

On October 7th 2015, just after midnight, UK Betway player Jonathon Heywood hit the mega jackpot, winning £13,213,838.68. Using the exchange rate on the day of the win, this is the equivalent of €17,879,645.12*, making it the largest ever online slot win. As with all Microgaming’s progressive jackpot wins, the astonishing amount will be paid out to the player in a lump sum.

Jonathon, a 26-year-old soldier from Cheshire, couldn’t believe his luck when the life-changing figure splashed up on his screen. But he still managed to make it in to work just hours later!

The lucky winner, Jonathon Heywood, commented: "It’s all so surreal, and I can’t come to terms with it just yet, I just kept staring at my screen and seeing this huge number in my Betway account".

Betway’s spokesman, Alan Alger, added: "We are delighted for Jonathon and having met him the day after his win we can honestly say that it couldn’t happen to a nicer young man. We hope he really enjoys the World Record win".

Roger Raatgever, CEO of Microgaming, commented: "We have the longest-standing progressive jackpot network, having launched the first internet progressive jackpot in 1998, as well as the biggest, having paid out over half a billion euros to date. Our progressive jackpot network has set many records since its inception, but I’m absolutely overjoyed to say that our software has generated the world’s largest ever online jackpot win. Many congratulations to Jonathon on this life-changing and historic win!"

Microgaming is set to release its Rabbit in the Hat online slot in April.

Rabbit in the Hat is a 5×3 reel, nine line game with a magical theme, featuring bright and bold graphics and plenty of entertaining features.

The base game springs to life when a colourful magic hat appears at random on reel five; the stage is then set for wondrous wins. During each subsequent spin, the magic hat will bounce one reel to the left. If a wild lands on the reel below a hat, a prize is awarded. Prizes comprise a wild hat (turning up to three reels wild), cash hat (awarding a random cash prize), free spins hat (delivering 10 free spins) and a mystery hat (awarding any one of the three hat prizes at random).

In addition, during the free spins feature, hats will appear above every reel, offering massive reward potential. On each free spin, a new hat will land above reel five, moving the hats along the reels to the left. Again, whenever a wild lands on a reel above a hat, a prize will appear like magic. Players can retrigger up to 50 free spins, with wins of up to 90,000 coins!

Watch the Rabbit in the Hat game promotional video:

Mike Hebden, Head of Casino Games at Microgaming, comments: "Rabbit in the Hat is a fast-paced game with a host of appealing features, including a new style free spins feature. It’s an exciting addition to our ever-growing portfolio of casino games, which now exceeds 800."

Rabbit in the Hat launches to Microgaming and Quickfire operators on the flash and download platforms on 8th April 2015. Rabcat’s premium five-reel video slot Dragon’s Myth™ will also launch to Microgaming operators on the same day. And there’s several new mobile games launching in April: Boogie Monsters, Harveys and Rhyming Reels Georgie Porgie.

UK Gambling Commission-authorised service is fast and impartial

Players at certain online gambling websites licensed by the UK Gambling Commission now have a useful facility in the event of a dispute with an operator which they have been unable to resolve for themselves – a free dispute resolution service operated by the London-based independent standards organisation and testing agency eCOGRA.

The company has been authorised to operate as an Alternative Dispute Resolution service provider by the UK Gambling Commission, which now oversees, licenses and regulates all legal operators accessing the British market in terms of new point of consumption-based remote gambling legislation.

eCOGRA has been part of the online gambling industry for the past 12 years, setting and monitoring high operational and player treatment standards for many of the leading operator groups in the business and acting as an impartial mediator in issues between players and operators.

The free dispute resolution service, which is accessed online through the www.ecogra.org website, is headed by Tex Rees, a Clear ADR Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator who since 2003 has been involved in the resolution of more than 8,000 disputes involving players at eCOGRA’s Safe and Fair accredited seal-holder sites.

eCOGRA chief executive Andrew Beveridge revealed this week that 355 UKGC licensed sites have already elected to use his company’s ADR service, including leading operators such as 32Red, 888, bet-at-home, BetClic Everest, Betway, bwin.party, Casino Rewards, Paf and Unibet.

"eCOGRA has developed a sophisticated software system to help manage and expedite the resolution of disputes with UKGC-licensed operators, and this, harnessed with the eCOGRA ADR team’s considerable experience in online gambling mediation, will help resolve most disputes within 72 hours," Beveridge said.

ADR head Tex Rees added: "eCOGRA has many clients using us for games testing in our capacity as an approved test house, and for performing annual security audits as required by the UKGC.
"We’ve included ADR in our service offering as we know how important it is to players to have an impartial mediator handling their issues with operators. From an operator perspective it is equally important that our clients can come to us for a full suite of services involving independent third parties as required by UKGC regulations."

About eCOGRA

Founded in 2003 to set and improve operational standards and player safety in the online gambling space, eCOGRA has amassed a wealth of experience in implementing international best practice standards and requirements and ensuring these are maintained through regular review and monitoring.

246 of the most established and successful internet gambling websites are accredited and policed by the independent, London-based company, which is staffed by professional auditors with Big 4 auditing firm experience, information system experts and responsible gambling specialists.

The company runs a free-of-charge dispute mediation service for players with complaints about its accredited operators, with an online submission channel at www.ecogra.org.
eCOGRA has been awarded the United Kingdom Accreditation Service’s (UKAS) ISO accreditation ISO/IEC 17025:2005 : General Requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, for the United Kingdom and Denmark.

In addition, eCOGRA has been approved as a testing agency with several online gaming jurisdictions.

Adjarabet has completed a full migration of its poker offering to the Microgaming platform; they are the first operator to use the revolutionary Babelfish API.

The project, a joint effort with Georgian development house Singular, involved Adjarabet building their own custom poker software. Using Microgaming’s Babelfish API, this software is ‘plugged in’ to Microgaming’s servers, giving Adjarabet a completely tailored, unique poker client with none of the hassle or cost of server-side development and hosting.

Adjarabet was founded in 1998 and has firmly established itself as the Georgian market leader in poker, casino, sports betting and skill games. The company made waves in 2013, when it was revealed that the Georgia-regulated operator was one of the world’s biggest standalone poker sites. In 2014, following a promotion giving away over 500,000 Georgian Lari, it was the third-largest poker room in the world.

"Adjarabet has generated a lot of interest in the last couple of years and naturally I am thrilled that they have chosen Microgaming and our Babelfish technology to take their poker platform to the next level," comments Alex Scott, Head of Poker at Microgaming. "It has been a pleasure working with Singular and Adjarabet to do something that has never been done before in poker, and I’m very excited to see how we can grow poker together over the coming years."

Adjarabet’s custom-designed software is available in both download and instant-play versions, with mobile coming soon. Adjarabet’s players will continue to play at tables in Georgian Lari, but because their software is running on the MPN systems, they can add network liquidity to their offering at any time with the flip of a switch.

"We were looking for a partner to help us grow and improve our poker offering; when Microgaming presented Babelfish we knew it was exactly what we needed," comments Alastair Ives, Head of Poker at Adjarabet. "The Babelfish API allows us to offer a product that is completely tailored to our customer base, eliminating the pain of migrating to a new software provider. We are very happy with how the process has been handled and with the results of the migration so far."

With Adjarabet live, Microgaming can also reveal that the MPN Poker Tour’s planned stop in Tbilisi, Georgia, will be run in conjunction with Adjarabet. Held at the Tbilisi Sports Palace from the 28th to 31st May 2015, the event will offer players a substantial guaranteed prize pool for a minimal $550 buy-in.

The launch of Adjarabet comes at an exciting time for Microgaming poker, with several other new operator signings to be announced in the coming months, and major changes to the poker software also on the way.