Industry News
Digital Chain is a business statement. Iryna Kurochkina, Founder & CEO of DC, on the agency’s rebranding and ambitious plans
1. So, the first big gaming exhibition of the new decade, ICE London 2020, is here, and so is the crazy surprise: Digital Choo rebranding into Digital Chain! Tell us more about the idea and how long were you planning it.
The rebranding is a major change, and it came to us really naturally. Over the course of 3 years on the market we’ve developed an interconnected in-house infrastructure of services, won over great global companies as our clients, created many award-winning campaigns, and, in the end, we’ve changed. We have a larger grasp of understanding who we are and what value we present to our clients, partners, the advertising markets, and the world in general. So the aspiration for change came from the inside as a natural desire to match our external image with our internal values, the very essence of DC.
Digital Chain, ICE London 2020
What is Digital Chain? It is the power to break barriers and go above and beyond in pursuit of the outstanding results. It is intrinsically us — the international marketing agency that commits to using its complex knowledge and services to drive the process of brand establishment for every company that shares the same passion and beliefs with us.
2. Could you elaborate more on the practical implementation of the concept of rebranding?
The most obvious change is our brand identity embodied in all external branding, POS materials, merchandise and so on. However, Digital Chain is much more than visual changes. It is a business statement. It is about our plans, goals, and the services we bring to the market.
Every piece of our new image communicates exactly who we are and what value we carry to the world. Liquid metal is a key element of our renewed style: a symbol of the agency’s strength yet flexibility, the skills and expertise that complement the DNA chains of new strong brands that we help to create. Other new corporate colors add vibrancy to this philosophy, with Stark White to represent fearlessness, absolute freedom of action, purity of thought, the absence of chaos in our work processes, and Rich Black to reflect our passion for exploring the essence and solid, confident steps to conquer the unknown.
We are bold and daring in our aspiration to develop the international community, and this is essentially what the story’s about. In the near future, Digital Chain will connect even more markets all over the world, introducing its services to Asian and African clients. We will also contribute our expertise in niche verticals to the development of markets that have only recently adopted the global practices and undergo gambling legalization. And of course, we are about to expand our client portfolio both in niche and mainstream categories.
3. A general question on rebranding: If you are doing well, why should you rebrand? As they say in the US, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Isn’t this the mantra?
Change is the only constant thing in the world. To keep yourself in an old framework when you’ve grown, and become so, so much more, is simply wrong. True freedom comes from being sensitive – first of all, to yourself; from being honest; from accepting who and what you are and bringing the corresponding image into the world with responsibility and good intentions. This is how real difference is made- by being yourself to the fullest. It is exactly the same for businesses as for individuals.
4. A number of big companies have fallen off their hallowed perch in the last decade or so. Kodak, Thomas Cook, Nokia, the list goes on. Changing technologies played a big part in that. Do you think in this era of rapid emergence of disruptive technologies, just rebranding alone can help the companies to flourish?
In a fast-paced world that we live in today, visionaries and pathfinders set the reality that everyone else is battling to succeed in. So yeah, technological advancement must underlie any other changes, without a doubt!
Watching the global market closely, over some time you start to see the pattern of all sales, mergers, acquisitions – an ever-evolving live organism that aspires to reach its maximum potential. It is important to keep everything connected so if one part changes, the others naturally follow suit as well.
5. Specific to the gaming sector, how should a company go about rebranding? What should be the underlying factors a company should consider before making a decision to rebrand?
This company should answer a nominal question “Why?”. As indicated, one of the lasting trends in the gaming/gambling industry, which is highly relevant in 2020, is market oversaturation. Target audiences have difficult time telling companies apart from each other. You may ask if rebranding is the answer. It could be, but it also could not be the one. It is a combination of factors and external influences that have to be taken into account to decide whether rebranding is truly what a company needs.
During the process, you have to be true to your brand essence, consistent, and… there are really many ingredients to the development of a perfect rebranding. A reliable and proven marketing partner is highly recommended to ensure all the details are perfectly set, and that the new brand really stands out and communicates the right messages in the right tone of voice.
5W, one of the largest independently owned PR firms in the US, announced the expansion of its gambling PR and digital marketing services, helping iGaming operators, sports betting platforms, casinos, esports brands, and gaming studios prepare for the year ahead. The enhanced offering is designed to elevate brand visibility, build trust with players and partners, and drive measurable growth as the industry enters 2026.
5W provides integrated PR, digital marketing, and online reputation management solutions, including media relations, influencer partnerships, content creation, SEO, social campaigns, email marketing, event promotion, and crisis communications. For digital-first strategies, digital PR ensures brands reach the right audiences while strengthening credibility across search and social platforms.
“Our expanded gambling and gaming PR and digital marketing services are designed to help brands enter 2026 with momentum. By integrating PR, digital marketing, and reputation management, we help clients stand out, connect with audiences, and build trust that drives growth for the year ahead,” said Ronn Torossian, Founder & Chairman of 5W.
This expansion underscores 5W’s commitment to delivering results-driven communications and digital marketing solutions for high-growth and established brands in gambling, gaming, and esports.
The post 5WPR Expands Gambling and Gaming PR and Digital Marketing Services Ahead of 2026 appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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PayDo, a leading global payment ecosystem founded by Serhii Zakharov – who at just 25 became one of the youngest CEOs approved by the FCA to run an Electronic Money Institution in the UK, announced a series of strategic infrastructure launches designed to dismantle the costly complexity of modern payment stacks.
The releases—Direct SEPA & SEPA Instant access, USD SWIFT Accounts, Dedicated C2B Open Banking Collections Accounts and Direct VISA and MasterCard Acquiring—are not standalone products, but integrated components of PayDo’s unified platform.
For the first time, online businesses can access this comprehensive suite under a single contract, one technical integration and with a dedicated account manager, eliminating the operational burden of managing multiple providers.
The launches directly address the primary pain points of payment fragmentation: high costs from intermediaries, slow settlement times, compliance overhead and loss of control. By securing direct memberships and building proprietary technology, PayDo now offers businesses enterprise-grade infrastructure with the agility of a FinTech.
The new services include:
• Direct SEPA & SEPA Instant: As a direct SEPA member, PayDo provides native European processing with no intermediary routing. This ensures faster, lower-cost euro transactions with immediate settlement capabilities via SEPA Instant.
• USD SWIFT Accounts: Online businesses can now receive dedicated USD account details via the SWIFT network, significantly reducing delays and fees associated with cross-border USD transactions, a critical need for a variety of cross-border operating online businesses.
• Dedicated C2B Open Banking Collections Accounts: A pioneering innovation, this service revolutionises how businesses receive payments. It enables instant, direct bank-to-business transfers from customers, offering an alternative to card networks with correct funds tracking and allocation, lower costs and real-time settlement. Functionality supports processing of +100,000 daily transactions.
• Launch of Direct Acquiring: PayDo is now a principal member acquirer for both Visa and Mastercard. This direct relationship removes a layer of intermediaries, reducing processing costs, improving authorisation rates and giving merchants greater control and transparency over their card payment flows.
These services are delivered within PayDo’s unified ecosystem, which also includes its signatory innovation – non-redirect E-Wallet checkout. This earlier innovation provided merchants with full friendly-fraud protection without any rolling reserve requirements. The new ecosystem approach allows companies in sectors like e-commerce, IT services, marketplaces, gaming and other Fintechs to streamline their entire financial operations, turning payment management from a resource drain into a competitive advantage.
Serhii Zakharov, CEO and Founder of PayDo, said: “For years, businesses have been forced to stitch together a patchwork of payment providers, each adding cost, complexity, and delay. We believe the future is not in more fragmentation, but in intelligent unification. These launches are not just new features; they are the foundational pillars of a coherent ecosystem. We are giving our clients direct control over the core rails of finance—from SEPA and SWIFT to card acquiring and Open Banking—all through one partnership. This is how we eliminate the hidden tax of fragmentation and empower businesses to scale globally with clarity and efficiency.”
PayDo’s ecosystem now processes over €5B annually for over 1000 businesses, leveraging its full regulatory compliance in the UK, Canada and the EU. The company’s direct infrastructure model is proving that the next wave of Fintech growth will be driven by consolidation and seamless integration, not further division.
The post PayDo Launches Unified Payment Infrastructure Suite for Digital Businesses appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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While prediction markets have recently attracted increased public attention across politics, finance and culture, Meridianbet, part of the Golden Matrix Group has supported user-generated real-world prediction markets for more than a decade through its proprietary product branded as Free Bet.
For the second half of 2025, customer participation on the Free Bet platform has recorded an 11.5% increase in ticket volumes, reflecting renewed engagement across prediction markets tied to major elections, entertainment outcomes, weather forecasting and novelty-event propositions. Free Bet continues to represent a relatively small and non-material portion of Meridianbet’s overall wagering activity.
Free Bet allows customers to propose wagers on measurable real-world outcomes across sports, politics, entertainment awards, weather forecasting, financial milestones and social statistics. Once a proposed market passes regulatory, settlement and risk review, Meridianbet acts as the professional market maker, prices the odds and takes the lay side of each wager within the Company’s licensed sportsbook framework. This single-market-maker structure enables the delivery of prediction-market-style wagering to mass-market users while ensuring regulatory compliance, operational stability and standardised settlement.
In practical terms, customers initiate Free Bet markets by submitting their own proposed prediction events through Meridianbet’s platforms or retail network. Each submission is reviewed to ensure that the proposed event is lawful, ethically appropriate, clearly measurable and capable of unambiguous settlement under applicable regulatory standards. Only after passing these checks is the event accepted and priced by Meridianbet’s trading operators, who establish odds and offer the market to the customer for wagering.
Top Prediction Markets on Meridianbet
Over the past five years, Meridianbet customers have created and wagered on thousands of custom prediction markets reflecting major real-world outcomes across political cycles, cultural awards, financial milestones, weather forecasting and social trends.
Based on internal ticket volume and platform engagement data, the following five prediction markets have ranked among the most actively played on Meridianbet during this period:
U.S. Presidential Election
Binary outcome markets and related propositions tied to the U.S. presidential election results.
Global Entertainment Awards
Custom markets associated with major award outcomes including Oscars Best Picture and BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Weather Prediction Markets
Seasonal and location-specific forecasts, including snowfall occurrence and temperature benchmark outcomes during late winter and early spring periods.
Social Outcome Markets
Demographic and statistical propositions connected to public milestones, including birth-gender distributions during peak holiday periods and other large-scale social outcome measurements.
Regulatory & Availability Notice
The Free Bet product and related prediction market offerings are provided strictly in accordance with applicable national and local regulatory requirements and are available only in jurisdictions where such wagering formats are duly authorised by law.
Availability, market scope and wagering features may vary by location and regulatory regime. Certain jurisdictions may restrict or prohibit participation in custom prediction-based wagering products.
The post Meridianbet Reports Renewed Engagement in Custom Prediction Markets in H2 2025 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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