Latest News
Anzu Completes $48 Million Series B Funding Round From Bandai Namco and Others
Round brings new investors on board, including Emmis, PayPal Ventures, Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, Evolution, and Simon Equity Partners
Anzu, the most advanced intrinsic in-game advertising solution, announced a $48 million Series B funding round, significantly increasing its valuation and adding several new high-profile investors. The new round will also include converting the SAFE notes and investors exiting with a 10x valuation increase.
The funding round was led by Emmis Corporation, one of America’s most respected media, sports, and entertainment companies, with additional investments from PayPal Ventures, Evolution, Simon Equity Partners, and Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, a corporate venture arm of a Japanese multinational entertainment company, Bandai Namco Entertainment. Existing Anzu investors include Sony Innovation Fund, NBCUniversal, WPP, Bitkraft, Samsung Next, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) Ventures, Axel Springer and Marquee Ventures — the venture capital fund anchored by the parent company of the Chicago Cubs.
In-game advertising continues to grow as more advertisers and developers become aware of the enormous opportunity it presents to reach a new market of gamers. On the heels of Anzu’s recent hire of Nerissa MacDonald, EVP Global Sales, the company will use the funding to continue to build out its global leadership team. Anzu will also seek to grow its U.S. footprint by developing teams across the country. The funding will allow Anzu to remain independent and fully focused on its mission to make advertising in games better.
“We are thrilled to close our Series B funding round and bring some exciting new investors on board,” said Itamar Benedy, Co-Founder and CEO of Anzu. “We are confident that in-game advertising has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar market, and Anzu is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this huge opportunity. Over the past year, we have achieved some significant milestones towards our vision, and have connected with more exclusive AAA games and premium content, expanded our measurement capabilities for advertisers, and secured patents for our unique intellectual property.”
On the new funding, Emmis Corporation Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Smulyan said: “In-game advertising is ready to become the next major advertising category as marketers connect their brands with billions of cloud, PC, console, and mobile gamers worldwide. We look forward to partnering with Anzu as it delivers the technology and business system to make in-game advertising a large part of every marketer’s media buying plans.”
PayPal Ventures Managing Partner James Loftus said: “As the clear market leader in the nascent space of in-game advertising, Anzu brings highly sophisticated advertising into complex, 3D environments. We’re excited to support Anzu as they build on their proprietary technology, broaden their robust ecosystem of partners and expand their team in the U.S. and globally.”
Boomerang Partners
Overtime begins: Boomerang Partners launches the final stage of the Golden Boomerang Awards 2026
The Golden Boomerang Awards 2026 by Boomerang Partners is moving into its decisive phase. The third and final stage of the tournament – titled “Overtime” – will run from 20 July to 31 August. It marks the last opportunity for participants to reshape the leaderboard and compete for the season’s main prize – an exclusive private dinner with a football legend in September 2026.
Overtime mechanics: points allocation
To intensify competition during the final stretch, Boomerang Partners is introducing an updated scoring system. From now on, affiliate teams will earn 3 points for every FTD generated on any partner brand from the Agency’s clients’ portfolio. In the previous stage, participants received 3 points for each sports FTD and 1 point for each online casino FTD. Now, the value of all FTDs is identical.
Overtime mechanics: performance boosts
Within the Overtime stage of the Golden Boomerang Awards 2026, a set of performance boosts remains active. These mechanics give participating teams the opportunity not only to catch up but also to overtake the leaders.
- Welcome Boost – x2 points for the first 14 days after entering the stage
- Lucky Five – +5 points for achieving 10 Casino FTDs per week
- Last Minutes Winner – x3 points during the final 7 days of Overtime
Martin Černý, CEO at Boomerang Partners said: “Overtime brings the Golden Boomerang Awards 2026 to its most competitive stage. At this point in the tournament, every result can influence the leaderboard, and teams still have the opportunity to improve their positions. We expect the final weeks to bring strong competition and determine the final standings.”
A final stretch where every day counts
With fewer than 40 days left in the GBA 2026, the competition enters its most volatile phase. The leaderboard remains open, and even small performance shifts can significantly alter final standings. Participants are now entering a stage where strategy, timing, and consistent activity define the outcome – and where the final push may determine the season’s ultimate winner.
Overtime has begun. TIME TO WIN THE TITLE.
About Boomerang
Boomerang Partners is a rapidly growing global marketing agency offering a wide range of services. In 2024, it launched the inaugural Golden Boomerang Awards – a global tournament for affiliate teams. More than 400 affiliate teams participated in the second season of the tournament in 2025. Martin Černý – Boomerang Partners’ CEO since June 2025.
The Agency’s clients’ portfolio contains brands offering affiliate and entertainment services across multiple markets in compliance with local regulations. These products provide incentive programs and 24/7 multilingual support.
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GR8_TECH
The World Cup Is Over. GR8_TECH Opens “The Locker Room” to Count What It Was Worth
The trophy has been lifted. Now comes the most interesting part for operators: counting the revenue, assessing what worked, learning from what didn’t, and deciding what to change before the next betting event.
On Thursday, August 20, at 4:00 p.m. CEST, GR8_TECH will host “The Locker Room: World Cup Numbers”, a closed-door benchmarking session created to help operators make sense of their tournament results and see how their performance stacked up against the room and the wider market.
Led by Dinos Doxiadis, Head of Sportsbook Business at GR8_TECH, the session will combine anonymized benchmarks with in-depth post-World Cup platform data on margin, player behavior, retention, and peak-load performance. It isn’t a tournament recap, but a working session built around deeper analysis than GR8_TECH releases publicly.
A First Look at the World Cup Numbers
Initial aggregated data from the GR8_TECH platform shows an average tournament margin of over 12%, alongside a significant increase in staking during the knockout stages.
Average stakes during the play-offs were 53% higher than during the group stage, while the average stake on the final was 89% above the tournament average.
Player interest was highly concentrated. Matches featuring Spain, Argentina, England, or France generated 42% of the total World Cup turnover. Argentina was the tournament’s most-bet-on team, accounting for 12.5% of all bets, although Spain finished only 0.09 percentage points behind Argentina by turnover.
The final also created one of the tournament’s most demanding operational moments. Within one minute of the final whistle, GR8_TECH’s platform settled more than half a million bets, demonstrating the level of processing performance required when a global audience reaches the same outcome simultaneously.
Inside The Locker Room, participants will examine what happened across:
- Live betting and bet builders
- Margin and staking dynamics
- Peak-load and settlement moments
- Acquisition compared with player reactivation
- Retention beyond the final whistle
- Unexpected geographic performance
- Operational, product, and campaign failures
- Priorities for the next major event
“The World Cup generates a huge amount of data, but the value comes from understanding what sits behind it,” said Dinos Doxiadis, Head of Sportsbook Business at GR8_TECH. “This session is about identifying the patterns operators might miss in their own reporting, challenging assumptions, and turning one month of World Cup activity into better decisions for future events.”
See How Your World Cup Stacked Up
Leave the session with anonymized benchmarks, exclusive GR8_TECH platform insights, and a clear view of where your World Cup performance led—or lagged—the market.
Turn the lessons into your next strategy. Join The Locker Room: World Cup Numbers on Thursday, August 20, at 4:00 p.m. CEST.
Register here to secure your place.
GR8_TECH. Platform for Champions
GR8_TECH is an award-winning provider, delivering high-performance sportsbook and iGaming solutions that empower operators to lead and win in competitive markets. GR8_TECH’s comprehensive portfolio includes the GREAT_TURNKEY and GREAT_CRYPTO TURNKEY solutions, GREAT_SPORTSBOOK, and GREAT_CASINO AGGREGATION.
With a geo-specific approach to solutions, a focus on practical innovations, and an operator-first mindset, GR8_TECH helps its clients achieve measurable results in their target markets quickly and efficiently. Trusted by top operators worldwide, GR8_TECH has over 100 successful cases and earned multiple recognitions, including the title of Platform Provider of the Year by SBC Awards 2025.
The post The World Cup Is Over. GR8_TECH Opens “The Locker Room” to Count What It Was Worth appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
ELA Games
ELA Games launches Age of Cleopatra slot with Hold & Win bonus
ELA Games has released a new slot, Age of Cleopatra, adding another ancient-Egypt theme title to its portfolio. The studio positions the game as a medium-volatility release and says it is available to demo now.
Age of Cleopatra runs on a 5×3 reel set-up with 25 paylines. ELA Games lists RTP at 93.75% / 95.73%, with Buy Bonus RTP at 93.8% / 95.9%. The maximum win is x5000, according to the company.
In the base game, a Collect Symbol gathers coin prizes visible on the screen, while “colored coins” charge pyramids that can unlock additional value, ELA Games said. The slot’s Hold & Win Bonus Game awards three respins by default (or four in an “Extra Respin” version), with modifiers tied to collected coins.
Features named by the studio include Multipliers, Extra Respins, and an Expand Grid mechanic that increases the layout from 3×5 to 5×5. ELA Games also states that multiple features can trigger at the same time.
“You can’t do justice to a legendary theme with just background art. Building a world around Cleopatra meant it had to feel truly authentic, a standard we apply to all our releases. At ELA Games, we consistently look beyond the visuals to craft an original universe, keeping storytelling through the mechanics at the center of our titles.” Marharyta Yerina, Managing Director at ELA Games.
The post ELA Games launches Age of Cleopatra slot with Hold & Win bonus appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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