Entain, the global sports betting, gaming and interactive entertainment group, has announced exclusive McLaren Racing content for Formula 1 fans. 

The partnership between the team and Entain’s PartyCasino and partypoker brands launched at the start of this year’s F1 season with the Monaco Grand Prix in May. The company will now be running international TV adverts until the end of the season in late December, and is promising customers “special access to the McLaren F1 team” through the two gaming brands. 

“We want Party to be a destination for customers around the world who enjoy games and sharing experiences around the sports and activities they love,” said Paris Anatolitis, Managing Director of Party Brands and Commercial Director of Entain. “This is about creating recreational content which encourages people to take a look and explore new ways of enjoying themselves with our brands.”

A range of new offers are also being launched to coincide with the new campaign, including Super Fan competitions, videos giving fans a look behind the scenes at McLaren Racing, and an exclusive free-to-play McLaren F1 game. 

Further exclusive content and experiences are also planned for 2022.

Dive deeper into the world of @McLarenF1 with Entain and even more exclusive content this #F1 season.🏁

To mark the next stage in our partnership, we’re unveiling new and exciting experiences to our customers that are exclusive to our brands.

Read👉https://t.co/211KBf9e4j pic.twitter.com/lDa0OfBk32

— Entain (@EntainGroup) October 28, 2021

Blockchain-powered fan engagement and rewards app Socios.com has partnered with Checkout.com to manage, process, and support its payment needs globally. 

Socios.com currently has over 1.2 million users and has partnerships with more than 90 major sporting organisations, including major European and South American football clubs, NBA franchises, MMA organisations, Formula 1 teams, cricket teams, and esports organisations. 

The platform offers fan tokens, collectible digital assets, in the form of NFTs minted on the Chiliz blockchain, giving holders special access to perks, rewards, merchandise, and experiences. Fan Tokens are purchased using the Chiliz ($CHZ) digital currency, which can be purchased on the Socios.com app or several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Binance. 

Checkout.com will now be providing a solution for Socios.com’s complex and rapidly growing global infrastructure.  

Béatrice Collet, head of operational business development and global payments at Socios.com, explained: “Fan tokens are an exciting way for sports teams to transform the way they interact with their fans. This has become increasingly important over the past 18 months with people unable to attend sports events and needing new ways to stay connected to their teams. Tokens are viewed as a source of new revenue for clubs — we generated almost $200 million for our partner clubs in 2021 alone.”

Max Rothman, head of digital assets & currencies at Checkout.com, added: “We have a complete suite of payment methods that lower the barrier to entry for millions of sports fans looking to acquire fan tokens. Checkout.com’s substantial domain expertise in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, supports the payments needs for companies operating in this space. We can ensure Socios.com maximises acceptance rates, enabling fans to join the Chiliz ecosystem and feel closer to the teams they love.”

Top flight Italian football club S.S.C Napoli has partnered with Chiliz to launch a $NAP Fan Token on the Socios.com engagement and rewards app. 

Holders of the $NAP Fan Token will enjoy unprecedented access to the club, including the rights to vote in interactive club polls. They will also be able to compete with other fans in games, competitions, and quizzes, to earn both digital and real-world rewards, benefits, and experiences. Additionally, fans will be able to experience Socios.com’s geo-location, augmented reality Token Hunt feature.

Commenting on the news, Serena Salvione, Chief International Development Officer of Napoli, said: “Partnering with Socios.com has a special value for us, being the brand more and more involved in global projects and driven by fans’ engagement objectives. We are constantly looking for new ways to make our fans feel part of the club in the digital environment and for them to have their voices heard on a daily basis. Socios.com will help us in doing that and we can’t wait to work closely with our new partner and come up with unique activation ideas”.

Napoli’s announcement follows last week’s from fellow Italian club Bologna FC, and makes it the sixth Serie A team to partner with Socios.com. Details of when the $NAP Fan Token will be launched, how much it will cost, and how many will be minted, will be announced soon.

More than 90 major sporting organisations have now announced partnerships with Socios.com, including major European and South American football clubs, NBA franchises, F1 teams, cricket teams and leagues, and esports organisations.

TopGoal, a blockchain-based football game centered around collecting and trading officially licensed football highlights, has announced a second round drop of NFT player cards featuring some of the biggest names in the history of the sport.

Football legends Alessandro Del Piero, Christian Vieri, and Gabriel Batistuta are the newest additions to TopGoal’s growing roster of superstars to be enshrined in NFT form through the platform. TopGoal’s first NFT drop was on Binance NFT in July, which included football icons Guti, Michael Owen, and Rivaldo. TopGoal has also partnered with Binance NFT for the second series.

TopGoal partners with famous football players, clubs, and institutions to create officially licensed, blockchain-backed NFT collectable cards, which can be bought and traded so fans can build their ultimate fantasy squad, collect the greatest moments from their favorite players, and even play the NFT cards in blockchain-empowered games which adopt the latest play-to-earn economic model.

The surging popularity of NFTs has led to this entirely new play-to-earn gaming paradigm known as GameFi, which blurs the line between players and investors. Players can now earn tokens or NFTs for their gaming, which often have corresponding real-world value, and can also be used in-game to further increase their rarity or value, or help power a game’s community.

Alessandro Del Piero is widely considered one of the greatest Italian footballers of all time, currently standing as the second highest top-scorer in all competitions, with 346 goals. 

Christian Vieri was named in the FIFA 100 list, which includes the 125 greatest living footballers. During his career, Vieri was considered one of the best strikers in Europe, once holding the title as most expensive player ever, when Inter Milan paid Lazio €43 million for his services.

Gabriel Batistuta started his storied career playing in Argentina, but spent most of his playing days with Serie A club Fiorentina in Italy, where he remains their all-time leading scorer. He’s also the only player in football history to score two hat-tricks in different World Cups.

“Football is the most popular sport in the world and there are so many historical moments that deserve to be remembered. Bringing together NFTs and football can provide the chance for fans to collect these great moments of the players they support, build their fantasy squad and play the game with one-of-a-kind legendary football player cards. I’m excited to be a part of it,” said Del Piero.

“From what I know about NFT technology, it can help to easily validate the ownership of digital assets such as NFT game cards. One of the major problems with traditional cards is counterfeiting, as it can be very difficult to tell whether it is genuine or not. Even my autograph gets copied by counterfeiters and that’s not fair for fans! NFT technology can help to overcome this issue, while also allowing the cards to be used for playing games and other applications that support the technology. This seems very impressive to me. In my opinion, the combination of football with traditional star cards as well as the market for NFTs has got massive potential,” said ​​Michael Owen.

Staying with all things football and NFT, earlier this week we reported that Rangers FC had entered an NFT partnership with Sportemon Go.

SBC has announced details of its in-person events programme for 2022, with betting and igaming industry conferences and exhibitions scheduled for Malta, London, New Jersey, Barcelona, Kyiv, and Cancún.

The media and events specialist resumed its physical conferences in the second half of 2021 with a series of successful shows that provided the industry with new business opportunities and the much-needed chance to return to face-to-face interactions.

SBC will build on that by staging a programme of enhanced events in some of the gambling industry’s most-important markets throughout 2022, presenting businesses with the ideal platform from which to reach larger audiences of key decision makers. The events are:

• 26-28 April: CasinoBeats Summit – InterContinental, St Julian’s, Malta
• 7-9 June: Betting on Sports Europe – Stamford Bridge, London
• 12-14 July: SBC Summit North America – Meadowlands Exposition Center, New Jersey
• 20-22 September: SBC Summit Barcelona – Fira de Barcelona
• 18-20 October: SBC Summit CIS – Parkovy International Convention Center, Kyiv
• 1-3 November: SBC Summit Latinoamérica – Cancún, Mexico

Running alongside the conferences and exhibitions will be a programme of industry awards shows to recognise and celebrate the most innovative, creative and successful operators, suppliers, and affiliates in the worlds of sports betting and igaming. They include:

• 28 April: CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards – Malta
• 14 July: SBC Awards North America – New York City
• 22 September: SBC Awards – Barcelona
• 3 November: SBC Awards Latinoamérica – Cancún

Rasmus Sojmark, SBC’s CEO & Founder, said: “We’re delighted with what we have achieved so far with our 2021 events, which have been delivered in challenging conditions. The feedback from delegates, exhibitors, and sponsors has been overwhelmingly positive. 

“The experience has left us feeling excited about the potential for next year, when we will be able to stage enhanced editions of the shows and accommodate significantly larger audiences. So it’s great to be able to announce these six events for everyone to add to their   2022 calendars.” 

The highlight of the programme is the second edition of the global betting and igaming show, SBC Summit Barcelona, in September. Already established as one of the most important business opportunities on the industry calendar, the Summit will more than double in size in 2022.

It will again see senior executives from sports betting, online casino, and lottery operators from around the world travel to Catalonia for a comprehensive conference covering every major regional market and vertical, along with a programme of networking activities.

SBC’s flagship event will also feature an 18,000 sq m exhibition space, complete with a Big Stage auditorium for major product launches, which will take place in front of an audience of decision makers and the most influential industry media.

Before that, the programme will open in April with the CasinoBeats Summit conference and expo. The event is part of Malta’s Spring iGaming Week, which SBC will deliver in conjunction with its partners at KPMG Malta and GamingMalta.

CasinoBeats Summit is the high-level event for the online casino sector and attracts an audience of senior teams from major igaming operators and affiliates to learn from the innovators and creative powerhouses driving the industry forward. It also provides an opportunity for games studios and tech suppliers to showcase their latest offerings to the product selection teams of both Malta-based and international operators, platform providers, and content aggregators.

The second major SBC event of 2022 is Betting on Sports Europe, the only conference dedicated entirely to shaping the future of the sports betting industry, which takes place in London in early June. It will see the leadership teams of the continent’s major operators gather to exchange ideas about crucial issues such as how to utilise next-generation technology, the impact of the latest regulatory changes, how to respond to changing player tastes, and strengthening player protection measures.

With senior executives from all the industry’s biggest brands in attendance, Betting on Sports Europe is the perfect place to connect with the decision makers and influencers involved in the selection of technology, content and services.

Having established itself as the must-attend event for the sports betting and igaming industries in the US and Canada, SBC Summit North America returns to New Jersey in a new July date. It will once again be a gathering of the management teams of operators actively expanding across the region, ensuring the expo is an unrivalled opportunity to showcase new products and high-value services to buyers.

After the global event in Barcelona, attention will turn to SBC Summit CIS in Kyiv in October. The first staging of the conference and exhibition in 2021 attracted delegates from the leading operators in territories such as Ukraine, Georgia, the Baltic states, Belarus and Kazakhstan, providing a forum to reach and engage with the major players in growing markets.

Rounding off the 2022 schedule in November will be SBC Summit Latinoamérica, which after its debut edition in Miami moves to its new home of Cancún. The show will again provide a forum for operators in the fast-changing markets in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Mexico to connect with the leading international suppliers.

For further details about SBC’s 2022 events programme, contact sales@sbcgaming.com for information about exhibition and sponsorship options.

The Game Day has launched a new Creator Program, to expand the company’s reach and further drive engagement with consumers digitally. 

A network of social media content creators and influencer partners across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, it will complement The Game Day’s existing brand and platforms, including its owned and operated social channels and programming.

This new initiative will include a diverse and multifaceted group of creators, delivering expertise and awareness across all major professional sports categories, the sports entertainment and lifestyle space, gambling and fantasy. Among the first group of talent to join The Creator Program are Two-Time House of Highlights Winner and Influencer Jenna Bandy; YouTube sensations, Frank Michael Smith; and Sports Dissected; Sports Animator, Rebound Rewind; Dallas Cowboys super-fan, Laws Nation, among others. 

Upon launch, The Creator Program reaches more than 2M Followers daily across all relevant social media platforms. The full list of creators and links to their social platforms can be found here.

“Based on the initial success that The Game Day is delivering for such advertisers and sponsors as DraftKings, BetFred, FanDuel, BetMGM and others, The Creator Program provides additional opportunities to engage with fans across a myriad of sports categories and audience interests,” said Steve Carey, Co-Founder and COO of The Game Day. “We are true believers in the value of authentic, original user generated content to reach and entertain the current and upcoming generations of sports fans, gamblers, and fantasy enthusiasts. The Creator Program is a win-win for all parties involved — additional monetary opportunities and amplification for our member independent creators and increased engagement, reach and awareness for brands and sponsors.”

Advertisers and sponsors have several category opportunities across the program including: presenting and segment sponsorships, custom integrations, product placements, and promotions and sweepstakes, just to name a few.

As a part of the partnership, The Game Day will remunerate creators monthly (based on size, engagement rate, and monthly growth of their respective channels). The program will enable creators to further build their audiences through integration with The Game Day’s broader network and existing platforms, as well as providing creators access to additional production resources to design content.

Spearheading this initiative is The Game Day’s Director of the Creator Network, Margaret McDonald. Having worked for the National Football League (NFL), Professional Bull Riders (PBR), and Team Whistle, McDonald brings countless years of expertise within the sports media space and most recently has worked with the world’s largest sports influencer, Dude Perfect.