Industry News
JohnSlots Announces its Mission to Review the Latest Popiplay Slot Games
JohnSlots and Popiplay are both on an upwards trajectory-two brands that have had a significant impact on the iGaming sector in their own ways. And now they’re coming together, as JohnSlots has just announced that it will review 40 Popiplay slots over the next year, covering the developer’s latest games and discussing their pros and cons for the studio’s growing audience of eager players.
Who are Popiplay and JohnSlots?
JohnSlots launched back in 2013 and quickly established itself as a trusted source for casino and slot reviews. It adopted a unique approach from the outset, hiring experienced writers and instructing them to follow a meticulous 15-point rating process that accounts for aspects such as:
• Gaming metrics—including the game’s RTP, payout frequency and maximum payout
• Gameplay—the enjoyability of the game and how easy it is to play
• Features—free spins, bonus rounds, jackpots, payline mechanics and other notable features
• Experience—how the game’s rules, features and paytable correspond to the actual gameplay experience
Every review is honest, and each one takes the writer about 16 hours to complete. Only when they are properly acquainted with the game will the writer start the review and provide their rating.
Popiplay & JohnSlots: What it Means
For JohnSlots, this partnership will provide its review team with 40 different titles, all released steadily throughout the next year. Some of these games have already been featured on the site, while others are in the works and undergoing that extensive review process, including September and October 2024 releases like Cultist, Baba Jam, Bubbles and Maxzilla.
Popiplay could also benefit, as it means the developer’s slots will be covered by one of the most experienced review teams in the sector. They will be subject to strict scrutiny, but if they emerge with positive ratings, it puts more eyes on those new releases.
Popiplay launched as recently as 2022, so it has only had a couple of years to make an impact. It has released a lot of slots in that time and is already making a name for itself, but a series of positive reviews could be a shot in the arm for this Scandinavian studio.
Its expanding portfolio already features at many online casinos, and as more operators and aggregators stand up and take notice, that number will increase. Collaborations like this one could help the studio’s reputation.
What it Means for Players
Online casino gamers are the ones who will benefit the most from this partnership:
• Honest and Transparent Reviews: There is no shortage of slot reviews out there, but JohnSlots adopts a different approach to the usual brief summaries. Every review is detailed and extensive, with a 15-point system that accounts for all important metrics and features.
• Free-Play Games: There are over 1500 slot reviews on the JohnSlots platform, and 98% of these host a demo game. The same will be true for most of the Popiplay titles that its team reviews, giving players a chance to spin them risk-free and make up their own minds.
• News on the Latest Popiplay Titles: Popiplay already has a substantial following, and those fans can read reviews of the latest slots shortly after their release. Despite spending over 16 hours on each review, the JohnSlots team works quickly and gets these reviews out while there is still plenty of buzz around the slot.
• A Cherry-Picked Selection: There are dozens of developers releasing hundreds of slots every year and giving players a seemingly endless selection. It can be overwhelming, but JohnSlots aims to narrow those releases down, highlighting the very best and showing players what makes them so special. It means that gamers can skip the filler and focus on the games that are actually worth playing.
The post JohnSlots Announces its Mission to Review the Latest Popiplay Slot Games appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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.
