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UK Gaming Charity SpecialEffect to Receive Special Award at 20th BAFTA Games Awards

Published

2 years ago

March 28, 2024

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BAFTA has announced that UK gaming charity SpecialEffect, will receive the prestigious Special Award at the 20th BAFTA Games Awards. The award, which recognises outstanding contributions to games, film and television, is one of the highest accolades bestowed by BAFTA. Dr Mick Donegan MBE, founder and CEO of SpecialEffect, will pick up the Special Award at the annual BAFTA Games Awards ceremony on Thursday 11 April.

In 2007, Mick Donegan founded SpecialEffect to help people with even the most severe physical challenges to access video games. The organisation uses specialised technology to enhance access to video games and creative self-expression for people with a wide range of Disabilities.

SpecialEffect’s success began as a result of the collaboration between Mick, a specialist in assistive technology and his son Bill, a keen gamer with a background in product design. Since its creation, the charity has grown to thirty employees, raising all their own funds, and has provided specialist one-to-one assessments and support to severely disabled people throughout the UK and beyond.

Dr Mick Donegan MBE, SpecialEffect founder and CEO, said: “With a background in special education, I realised how much people with severe physical disabilities were missing out by not being able to play. I started SpecialEffect not only to help individuals to play video games but also to collaborate with the games industry to make their games more accessible ‘at source’. Since then, we have been privileged to be invited to share our ideas with more and more developers all over the world. Now, 17 years since SpecialEffect began, it’s an absolute honour for SpecialEffect’s work to be recognised by BAFTA.”

Emma Baehr, BAFTA executive director of awards and content, said: “SpecialEffect’s work is essential to the games world and is hugely deserving of a BAFTA Special Award. Their innovative and supportive approach to making games accessible drives progress within the industry, collaborating with developers and studios on new technologies to make games within reach to more people. We look forward to honouring their contribution to games at the ceremony on Thursday 11 April.”

Throughout the years, SpecialEffect has been involved in collaborating with Xbox, Sony and Logitech, to help design accessible controllers and a switch kit, enabling thousands more severely disabled players to access their games using a wide range of control devices. They have also worked with games studios and developers to help make their games more accessible. The organisation also developed EyeMine, a freely downloadable gaze-controlled interface to enable players to enjoy Minecraft through gaze-control alone.

Later this year will see the rollout of their EyeGaze Games (currently available on PC only) onto Android and iOS, games designed to be fully accessible for people with physical disabilities, whether they use gaze control, joysticks, switches or gamepads.

The post UK Gaming Charity SpecialEffect to Receive Special Award at 20th BAFTA Games Awards appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Contributors Program

Gamblers Connect names Gali Hartuv as seventh 2026 Contributors Program voice

Published

5 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Wladimir P.

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The Playa strategic advisor will publish on VIP operations, segmentation and retention, starting with an anonymous VIP Operations Survey 2026.

Gamblers Connect has confirmed Gali Hartuv, Strategic Advisor at The Playa, as the seventh voice to join its 2026 Contributors Program.

The independent B2B iGaming media platform said the programme will reveal one senior industry voice per month throughout 2026, with contributors publishing under the Gamblers Connect Contributor Editorial Code.

Gamblers Connect said Hartuv has more than 15 years’ experience in VIP management, including designing and optimising VIP programmes across more than 50 operator brands, and training “hundreds of professionals” now working in VIP roles across the industry.

Hartuv will publish across four areas: building VIP programmes that drive long-term value; AI-powered VIP identification and player segmentation; hyper-personalisation and retention strategy; and scaling VIP operations across different markets and cultures. His first contribution is a VIP Operations Survey 2026, an anonymous survey intended to benchmark how VIP teams work across iGaming operators, including portfolio sizing, tools, qualification thresholds, workflow standards and where time is spent during the week.

Partnerships and Operations Lead, Luka Dimitrijevic, said: “VIP management is where a great deal of an operator’s value is won or lost, and very few people can speak to it with Gali’s depth. He has spent his career turning high value player relationships into a discipline rather than guesswork, and he is refreshingly candid about what works and what does not. Through the Contributors Program he will share practical insight on VIP strategy, retention, and the smart use of AI, with content grounded in real results rather than recycled best practices.”

The post Gamblers Connect names Gali Hartuv as seventh 2026 Contributors Program voice appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Alberta

St8 extends TonyBet partnership to Alberta after securing supplier registration

Published

6 hours ago

July 22, 2026

Wladimir P.

st8-extends-tonybet-partnership-to-alberta-after-securing-supplier-registration

St8 has extended its partnership with TonyBet into Alberta, expanding their Canada footprint following an earlier launch in Ontario this year.

Under the expanded agreement, TonyBet will use St8’s game aggregation platform through a single API integration. St8 said this provides access to its wider catalogue of casino content for players in Alberta.

St8 said the Alberta rollout follows its newly acquired registration to operate in the province as an iGaming Services Supplier, allowing it to provide aggregation services to licensed operators in the market. The company said its platform connects partners to more than 200 game providers via a single API.

David Fall, Business Development Manager at St8, said:

“Entering Alberta’s regulated market is a strong step for St8 that represents our continued efforts to bring our offerings to as many territories as possible, delivering top-tier results for partnerships at the local, national and international stage. We share this commitment with TonyBet, a company that we are very fortunate to be working with so collaboratively and closely as we continue to grow our presence across North America.”

Kiryl Liudvikevich, Head of Product at TonyBet, said:

“We’re proud that our work with St8 has enabled us to continue expanding across Canada. Through St8’s aggregation platform, we can seamlessly access games from the industry’s leading providers via a single integration, helping us scale efficiently while maintaining a strong focus on the player experience. St8 has cemented itself as our go-to partner for expansion into regulated markets, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration as we grow into new jurisdictions.”

The post St8 extends TonyBet partnership to Alberta after securing supplier registration appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Alberta

St8 continues partnership with TonyBet with an expansion into Alberta

Published

6 hours ago

July 22, 2026

GamingAmericas.com

st8-continues-partnership-with-tonybet-with-an-expansion-into-alberta

Casino game aggregation platform and full-service technology provider St8 has extended its ongoing partnership with TonyBet into Alberta, furthering both companies’ expansion into Canada.

As part of the extended agreement, Tonybet will benefit from St8’s next-generation platform via a single API integration, unlocking seamless access to a wide portfolio of games from the industry’s leading providers and enhancing its casino offering for players in Alberta.

The move is the latest in St8’s successful relationship with TonyBet, having previously launched in Ontario earlier this year in a bid to continually grow in regulated markets worldwide.

This expansion was made possible thanks to St8’s newly acquired registration to operate in Alberta as an iGaming Services Supplier, enabling St8 to provide its next-generation game aggregation services to licensed operators in the region, giving partners access to more than 200 premium game providers through a single API integration.

Featuring over 3,000 games from more than 60 providers, TonyBet, meanwhile, has gone from strength to strength in its 17-year history, establishing itself as one of the industry’s leading game studios by delivering engaging titles that combine player appeal with premium gameplay.

Holding licenses in 10 different jurisdictions including Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland and Estonia, among others, Tonybet’s partnership with St8 has seen them now launch in two separate territories in Canada, with both companies working collaboratively to explore the opportunities available in exciting new markets. This latest agreement reinforces St8’s strategy of expanding its premium content portfolio while helping operators simplify integration, accelerate market entry, and deliver engaging gaming experiences across multiple regulated jurisdictions.

Speaking on the expansion, David Fall, Business Development Manager at St8, said: “Entering Alberta’s regulated market is a strong step for St8 that represents our continued efforts to bring our offerings to as many territories as possible, delivering top-tier results for partnerships at the local, national and international stage. We share this commitment with TonyBet, a company that we are very fortunate to be working with so collaboratively and closely as we continue to grow our presence across North America.”

Kiryl Liudvikevich, Head of Product at TonyBet, had this to say: “We’re proud that our work with St8 has enabled us to continue expanding across Canada. Through St8’s aggregation platform, we can seamlessly access games from the industry’s leading providers via a single integration, helping us scale efficiently while maintaining a strong focus on the player experience. St8 has cemented itself as our go-to partner for expansion into regulated markets, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration as we grow into new jurisdictions.”

The post St8 continues partnership with TonyBet with an expansion into Alberta appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.