Global esports organisation Gen.G Esports has announced a partnership with LG U+. The partnership comes on the heels of the two companies’ first collaboration to celebrate the 2023 LoL World Championship. The two companies will work closely together to strengthen fandom and innovate the customer experience. As part of the partnership, Gen.G Esports’ League of Legends pro team will feature the LG U+’s logo on their jerseys during the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Summer season.

“We’re thrilled to be able to renew our partnership with LG U+ in such an innovative way. By leveraging all the data we’ve collected across our pro players and the thousands of students at the Gen.G Global Academy, we’re able to offer an even superior customer experience through our YOUR.GG data analytics platform to the millions of gamers that are customers of LG U+,” Arnold Hur, CEO of Gen.G Esports, said.

Through this partnership, the two companies will provide LG U+’s Uth members with a variety of members-only benefits, including a monthly subscription to Gen.G Crew and YOUR.GG player reports, to enrich their gaming experience.

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Fans will be able to interact directly with the League of Legends players who have led the teams to victory through the Gen.G Crew b.stage platform, as well as receive purchase tickets to fan zones at domestic fan meets and matches. Champion play analyses and player reports based on comparative data will also be provided through YOUR.GG, League of Legends data analytics service.

The country’s integrated resorts and casinos remain as one of the main growth drivers of local tourism, in the process creating a multiplier effect across various industries, according to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

This was emphasized by Ma. Vina Claudette Oca, PAGCOR Assistant Vice President for Gaming Licensing and Development Department, during a panel discussion at the 1^st Philippine Tourism and Hotel Investment Summit held over the weekend.

Oca, one of the panelists on the topic, “Navigating Challenges and Opportunities for Casino Hotels in the Philippines”, said casinos are just a small component of the many attractions offered by integrated resorts in the country.

She said that this is because PAGCOR mandates all integrated resorts to offer more non-gaming attractions and resort facilities, including dining and shopping destinations.

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“In fact, they are only allowed to allocate 7.5% of their facility’s total floor area to gaming,” she said. “The rest of the floor area is allocated for non-gaming facilities such as hotel rooms, retail areas, dining and other attractions.”

Ms. Oca added that currently, integrated casinos employ over 20,000 Filipinos, helping provide livelihood opportunities to locals.

Meanwhile, close to 80% of PAGCOR’s revenues from regulated gaming are remitted to the government to fund significant socio-civic projects, she said.

Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco also graced the 1^st Philippine Tourism and Hotel Investment Summit as keynote speaker. The event was held at the New World Makati Hotel last June 21.

The event was co-presented by the Department of Tourism’s attached agency, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority along with PAGCOR and the Tourism Promotions Board as government agency sponsors.

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Fintech companies in Kazakhstan are urging greater scrutiny of a proposed law intended to regulate betting transactions in the country.

The submitted legislation, currently in its final reading, would form a monopoly entity, the Unified Accounting System (UAS), the firms said in a joint press release. The UAS would be used to determine market participants, process payments, maintain a single “electronic wallet” and make settlements with clients. A critical concern is that it could charge up to 1.5% in commissions on all market transactions, within a market where regulated transactions exceed KZT1.2tn ($2.6bn) annually.

Irina Davidenko, a spokesperson for Kazakhstan’s payments industry, commented: “The proposed legislation would be a step backwards for Kazakhstan, harming competition in the country’s vital payments sector and signaling to the outside world that necessary business reform is being driven by shadowy interests, rather than what’s right for industries and consumers.”

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The proposal, partly billed as a public health move against problem gambling, resembles a previous initiative, the Betting Accounting Centre (BAC). It was shelved in 2021 after a scandal involving a deputy minister who was dismissed for accepting bribes from BAC lobbyists, according to the press release.

The lack of transparency on the UAS structure and ownership as outlined in the legislation is another aspect of the change that is seen by critics as troubling.

The reintroduction of a UAS model occurred as late as the second reading of the legislation. If passed by parliament, it will become law without the comprehensive impact analysis and scrutiny typical for such significant regulatory change.

Observers argue the new regulation duplicates existing regulatory functions already managed by Kazakh state bodies and was proposed without the cooperation of the National Bank of Kazakhstan. The central bank has previously developed its own reform proposal that avoids introducing a monopolistic entity.

Opponents further contend that the regulation could cause “significant economic damage”. National Bank of Kazakhstan representatives and the payments industry have sounded alarm bells, but the issues have not been adequately addressed, the press release added.

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The concerned fintech and payment companies want the legislation to be reconsidered. They are advocating for it to be sent back to the lower house of the legislature for a full regulatory impact analysis and thorough examination to ensure that it does not adversely affect industry or the economy.

Ilya Efimenko, commercial director of the payment organisation PayDala, said: “I appeal to the Senators, who need to know the true purpose of why the UAS has made a comeback in the bill.

“This is a re-emergence of the ‘Betting Accounting Center’ (BAC), a strikingly similar entity that was withdrawn before, and behind which, as the deputy from the Amanat party Elnur Beisenbayev said, are the powerful forces of ‘Old Kazakhstan.’

“Before our eyes, a monopolist, a private operator, is being created. The emergence of monopolies such as the UAS threatens the principles of a Fair Kazakhstan. Now everything is being done to break the financial system of Kazakhstan, recognized by experts as one of the best in Central Asia.”