Online Gambling News

Gamers on the go have yet another new mobile game to enjoy; Microgaming’s Reel Thunder is now live on the HTML5 platform.

Players will have the ride of their life with Reel Thunder, a 9 payline, 5 reel slot. The game has both Scatter and Wild symbols with a maximum winning jackpot of 10,000 coins.

Reel Thunder is the latest addition to Microgaming’s expanding HTML5 mobile collection which now boasts 40 great games and has expanded every month throughout 2013. In a bid to develop games designed to cater for the ever growing number of mobile and tablet devices, HTML5 has been a key platform for Microgaming software as it supports the broadest number of screen sizes and resolutions.

Neill Whyte, Head of Product Channels at Microgaming, comments: "We are very proud of our mobile achievements in 2013; we’ve released 21 HTML5 games, all of which are designed meticulously to provide the best possible mobile experience. We have spent years perfecting the art of creating graphically appealing, immersive and compelling games for PC, so why would we give the mobile player a different experience? Our commitment to our mobile product will continue in 2014 with a more aggressive rollout of games, as well as the release of some exciting features designed to maximise the player experience."

In addition to enhancing its HTML5 platform, Microgaming has added HTML5 capability to its Download App which means that its HTML5 games can now be released to both the HTML5 platform and Mobile Download platform concurrently. As such, Microgaming has added the recently launched HTML5 games Pure Platinum, Halloweenies and Big Top to its Mobile Download platform as well as Playboy which has been designed specifically in an Air-based application for Android devices.

William Hill and NetRefer are pleased to announce their partnership to enhance William Hill Online’s Affiliates United program through NetRefer’s Performance Marketing suite.

Rated by EGR Magazine as one of the most powerful gaming operators on the planet, William Hill Online is a significant partner and an exciting addition to NetRefer’s growing client base. This partnership continues to assert NetRefer as market leaders in affiliate management and performance marketing.

William Hill Online’s new affiliate programme will offer state of the art functionality including fully managed online hosting, advanced media tracking, dedicated customer support and account management, flexible reward plans, attractive affiliate commissions, on time payments, and extensive reporting along with other industry leading marketing tools. This will empower the business with all the necessary functions to support CMOs, marketing and affiliate managers and affiliates effectively and efficiently.

William Hill Online has always enjoyed a very strong brand image, and through the implementation of their new affiliate platform, this will encourage further growth for their online business, a key objective for all NetRefer’s online gaming partners.

Anat Errell, Head of Marketing Operations for William Hill Online, said: "This is a very important chapter in our business, and we are very excited to be working with the industry leaders in affiliate marketing to ensure all our esteemed affiliates and marketers are provided with the leading edge solution in the business. We are proud to have selected NetRefer as trusted partner for our marketing solutions".

Julian Buhagiar, CEO of NetRefer Malta, said: "It has been a pleasure to work closely with the marketing and technical teams at William Hill Online to ensure they are provided with all the latest marketing tools to fulfil their requirements. Our goal is to ensure all the affiliate team as well as their affiliates are provided with a fully configurable rewards engine, clear and flexible reporting, in-depth analytics as well as user friendly dashboards available in over 99 languages to ensure market reach and localisation for William Hill’s entire online brand."

When a job is done well it is natural to praise the persons or business that did the job well. This is the natural order of things. When we first played a Net Entertainment game, we were enchanted, thrilled and yes… very well entertained. All those years ago we predicted meteoric success for this company.

This prediction has come true, and no… we are not fortune tellers. The simple fact of the matter is that this dynamic software development firm has continued to challenge its own boundaries, and excel at everything single thing they do.

Net Entertainment has become a powerhouse in the online gambling industry where innovation is king. This innovation shows in the games that they produce, as well as on their bottom line. Third quarter results have seen revenues increase by a massive 25% to SEK 153.1 million. The Swedish firm has therefore seen operating profits climb to SEK 44.5 million, and is also enjoying big profits after tax.

There are now another nine online casinos that have launched with this award winning software, so that is nine more places for us to choose to play these fabulous games. Agreements have also been inked and signed with five more clients, so, if you favourite online gambling brand happens to be William Hill or Ladbrokes, these are two of the new signees.

These two operators are also best of British brands which operate off the Playtech platform, which tells us they are hoping for better performance by adding or switching to Net Entertainment.

We are also not entirely sure of the nature of these agreements. But then the largest gaming operators in the world cannot be wrong by choosing this brand. Ladbrokes has struggled in the past to get their online gaming operations profitable, but with NetEnt gaming on board, perhaps this will change for them.

In the last twelve months Net Entertainment has signed a total of twenty-two new customers, so, no wonder financials are revealing dynamic results. But not only results for NetEnt, for their customers too! This firm has also broken records for giving away the largest progressive jackpot prize money of any other developer globally.

For players to get their hands on the share of the big bucks they give away, check out the MegaFortune PJP networked games, these are the best games to play to win big. New slots games release also include “Secret of the Stones”, set in Stonehenge, and "Magic Portals" in its Touch™ catalogue.

While we normally concentrate on gambling news from the UK, one of the furthest of the old British Colonial outposts happens to be New Zealand, so, we thought we might share this little snippet with you. The "Green Party" has proposed some rather strange measures to combat what they perceive as problem gambling. The Greens want mandatory gambling limits to be proposed for electronic gaming machines, which we would have to assume, would also include gambling online?

John Key – the Prime Minister understandably responded to this proposal as being completely unrealistic. He also said it is a ‘nice’ idea, but people are people, and it might work in a casino, but games can go to one of thousands of online casinos and gamble away as much as they like from the comfort of their own home.

At least Key, like the Government of the UK, can see that it is impossible to restrict online gambling, because players find ways to get what they want. The best thing to do is regulate this industry, thereafter taxes earned may be used to help problem gamblers who want help. Gambling is not the problem, people are the problem.

The report from Radio New Zealand is actually nothing short of being quite mad. They want the "introduction of pre-commitment cards", and player tracking. Why don’t they just have people micro-chipped, and programmed – its farcical, crazy? These so-called pre-commitment cards would require gamers to insert their spending limit, as well as a time limit, and stick to these. Graeme Ramsay of the NX Problem Gambling Foundation seems to agree. He insists this would be a harm-minimisation measure, rather than recourse for treatment.

Mr Key says it might be a nice idea, but people would find other ways to bet where there are no such limits, like online gambling. While online casinos, bingo room, poker sites, and sports betting facilities have tools for self-exclusion, and or setting time and bankroll limits. The onus is upon the player to activate these. A gambler with a problem, never admits that they are the problem, and will continue to gamble, and blame the gambling facility. It is only when they realise “they” are the problem that help is sought out and given.

Supporters of this proposal, need to take a look at all the other addictions which plague the human and their conditions. Are they going to regulate the amount of beer or booze that can be purchased in a supermarket or bottle store – we doubt it!

We don’t really know what online payment method was the first to come along, but have a suspicion that it might have been Neteller or Paypal. We suppose if we researched this we would know who came along first. But the online gambling industry has seen a great many of these virtual wallets come into being. Some are specific to certain countries, while others such as PayPal are global, now we find a new payment method that has been specifically designed with the mobile gambler in mind.

There is nothing that precludes us from making use of any of the normal payment methods that we have traditionally used to gamble online, when gambling on the go. We are talking about Skrill (which used to be Moneybookers), InstaDebit, EziPay, ECO, Clickand Buy, and so on, there is a very long list, as long as my arm. But this particular method called PugglePay only requires a Mobile number in order to make a deposit.

The design comes from Scandinavia, and we are pretty certain that it is going to be popular as well as reliable. Most software products and solutions that come out of this cold corner of the world, are of an incredibly high quality. Many people from Scandinavian countries are huge fans of gambling online, so, it makes sense that they would also be keen on the mobile form of these games. Must be the snowy cold weather, and dark long winters that keeps players in-doors, and needing to be entertained!

Now mobile entertainment has been made so much more simple to pay – PugglePay is an über secure payment method for funding mobile, and even online gambling accounts. It is an instant cash device – virtually speaking – for phones which allow us to transfer funds at any time, from any place without requiring private data or the use of credit cards, debit cards or other e-wallet. FYI – a “Puggle”, is baby echidna, if this means anything at all to you.

Some forward thinking casinos online have already taken up this product, and rolled it out to their customers, we believe it is only a matter of time until others follow suit. Both Betsson and Mr. Green have partnered with this new payment solution, understandably so, as both of these casinos offer gaming to the UK and Europe, but enjoy an extra high market share in Scandinavian countries.

This socially responsible payment system works with simple information that the user already knows – money is deposited with a few clicks on the keypad of the mobile device, and the payment pops into the mobile gambling account. The user is identified only by their mobile number, with no cost to the phone account. The invoice is confirmed by an SMS code, and the gamer can go on to play and win.