Industry News
Cheltenham and Grand National 2025 start now
The madness of Cheltenham and Grand National has been and gone. Congratulations on surviving; you’ve made it through and live to fight another day. So, what’s top of the agenda for today? Preparation for the 2025 edition’s of the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National, of course!
Here are the six key planning and strategy points to consider in order to give yourself the best possible chance of success next spring.
The work begins now
Yes, Cheltenham 2025 is a long time away. But everything is fresh in your mind as of this moment. Many of the changes you may end up acting on could take a long time to execute, and there’s undoubtedly going to be countless foreseen and unforeseen priorities between now and the end of the year. Start now whilst 2024 performance is fresh in your mind and fresh within the wider business psyche. Keep the festival mindset running for as long as possible to maintain momentum and get flying out the stalls.
Involve all parts of the business
This is not just an exercise for the IT department. Every relevant stakeholder from around the business should be represented. What were customers saying to Customer Services? How did Trading cope when their bet tickers slowed down? What offers and promotions did Marketing take note of that they would like to offer next time? Bring in stakeholders from all business arms to create a holistic view of where the opportunities lie and what challenges need to be overcome.
Look at the data
Get hold of all of your performance metrics from every component of your systems and take the time to do a deep-dive analysis on those numbers. If you haven’t got all the metrics that you’d like to have to hand? Well, there’s your starting point for the list of ‘things to fix immediately’.
Be honest with yourselves
Getting business involvement, analysing all the data, and prompt planning is all well and good. But if you’re not going to be brutally honest with yourselves as an organisation, it may be all for nothing. Yes, it’s important to acknowledge everyone’s hard work and remember all the things that you did right. But you also have to be your own harshest critics about what didn’t go so well and what could be improved on. There’s really no point in doing all this if you’re not going to seriously challenge yourselves to do better.
Next year won’t be the same as this year
You’re going to be delivering a various new features and functionalities, as well as making many changes to your internal systems over the next twelve months. So the technical landscape that 2025’s Cheltenham Festival and Grand National inhabited will be very different to the one just gone. How will that fancy new bet builder widget in development hold up under the unique stresses of Grand National day? What will your new AI recommendations engine do when everyone’s betting on just one event? You don’t need to answer these questions right now, and it’s highly likely that you won’t be able to answer all of these questions now. But you need to bake in consideration of Cheltenham and Grand National to your non-functional requirements for every change you make in the coming months.
Get a high-level plan diarised
You need to start now but you can’t finish now. This is something you’re going to need to come back to periodically until those Cheltenham gates open. It’s a simple but powerful scheduling task: put the key staging posts in relevant team’s diaries now. You don’t want wake up in a cold sweat one morning in January realising that you’re two months out from the Greatest Show on Turf and haven’t made notable progress on the fixes required from this year’s festivals.
By: Graham Cassell, Partner at Circle Squared
The post Cheltenham and Grand National 2025 start now appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Brand Ambassador
Ronaldinho visits CreedRoomz Yerevan studio to front Marble Cup and Kickoff Roulette
CreedRoomz has brought footballer Ronaldinho to its headquarters in Yerevan, where the company filmed an “exclusive interview” with the former player in connection with two new live casino game shows, Marble Cup and Kickoff Roulette. CreedRoomz said Ronaldinho is the global ambassador for both titles.
In the interview, Ronaldinho said: “For me, it’s a great joy to be a part of this partnership. Since arriving here at the office, everyone has treated me with great affection. I already feel at home, very happy.” Asked to choose between the two games, he added: “Honestly, it’s difficult to choose one, both are wonderful, I loved them, so it’s very difficult to choose one, I think everyone will really like them, I think the whole world will really enjoy them.”
Ronaldinho also described his first impressions of the studio and gameplay: “I was surprised and very happy, everything is very beautiful, everything is very innovative, so I believe that’s why everyone will really like them, so I’m looking forward to everyone starting to enjoy them a lot.”
On why CreedRoomz expects the titles to gain traction, he said: “These are different games. I think that will attract attention, the fact that football is a global passion also helps, so I believe everyone will like it for those reasons.. and for the innovation of everything that is happening.”
CreedRoomz linked the interview to upcoming “World Cup and R10 Tournaments,” with Ronaldinho closing by telling fans: “A message of gratitude for the continued affection. I’m very happy and excited. for the next competitions for the next games, the games are all ready, I hope everyone enjoys them and everyone be very happy and have good times together.”
The post Ronaldinho visits CreedRoomz Yerevan studio to front Marble Cup and Kickoff Roulette appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Soft2Bet has launched MEGA Shoot, a football-themed gamification engine designed around the 2026 FIFA World Cup, aimed at helping sportsbook operators retain players during the tournament.
The product will be deployed across selected Soft2Bet brands including Betinia, Swiper, Campobet, ToonieBet and Elabet, with availability spanning markets including Denmark, Greece, Mexico, New Jersey, Ontario, Romania, and the rest of Canada, according to the company.
MEGA Shoot uses a player-versus-player best-of-five penalty shootout format. Players alternate between striker and goalkeeper, with the striker selecting where to shoot and the goalkeeper selecting where to defend. Each round resolves as a goal or a save before roles switch.
Soft2Bet said early internal results show 31.9% engagement among active players across selected brands, with 71.2% of MEGA Shoot players going on to play a second match. The company also claims a 13.5% player retention uplift.
Yoel Zuckerberg, Chief Product Officer at Soft2Bet, said: “The World Cup runs from 11 June to 19 July, so retention has to work across the full tournament calendar. MEGA Shoot gives operators a football game that players can understand quickly, with head-to-head competition tied to the sport they already follow. With almost 32% engagement among active players and about 71% converting into a second match, the early data shows how tournament-led gamification can strengthen sportsbook engagement during major football events.”
The post Soft2Bet launches MEGA Shoot World Cup gamification engine appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Kinetic Digital has published new jackpot data across its casino brands, showing more than €600,000 paid out across the top 10 progressive jackpot wins. The biggest single payout in the dataset was a €285,992 win by a Slingo.com player.
In the breakdown, Slingo.com, Mega Casino and Genting Casino Online accounted for all of the top 10 wins cited in the release. Kinetic Digital said Slingo.com delivered three of the 10 largest jackpots, including the €285,992 payout on Fluffy Favourites Mega Jackpot, while its second-largest win was “more than €70,000.”
Mega Casino recorded four of the top 10 payouts, making it the most frequent brand in the top tier. Its largest jackpot in the dataset came from 777 Strike (€63,254), and another player won €48,684 on Piggy Riches 2 Megaways.
Genting Casino Online contributed two entries, with wins of €40,683 and €37,438 respectively.
Kinetic Digital also pointed to a portfolio-wide trend: the biggest jackpots skewed toward long-running slot franchises rather than newer releases. The company highlighted titles including 777 Strike, Age of the Gods and Rainbow Jackpots as prominent among the largest wins, suggesting established mechanics and jackpot networks continue to drive progressive play.
The post Kinetic Digital data: Slingo.com tops €285,992 jackpot as classic slots lead appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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