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SportCaller launches Free Or 4 with William Hill to ramp retention on UK football

Published

6 years ago

October 20, 2020

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Free-to-play specialist is recruited to help drive engagement with intuitive “easy-trigger” game prizes for players of Leeds-based operator

SportCaller, the leading free-to-play (FTP) sports-game provider, has rolled out its latest game, Free Or 4, for Tier-1 operator William Hill, debuting the new football FTP last weekend to an immediate and appreciable spike in engagement.

Free Or 4 simply asks players to select six games in which they reckon three or four total goals will be scored from the Saturday long-list of 3pm UK kick-offs. Make six successful selections, and all correct entries will receive £200 in free sportsbook bets. However, there are also smaller, easy-trigger consolation prizes up for grabs for any customer picking just five, or even four, matches correctly.

The weekly game represents William Hill’s first return to football free-to-play since its Football21 game in 2018 which offered a £10k jackpot each week. Free Or 4 demonstrates an important change in FTP focus, moving away from low-probability prize pots as a means of mass-market acquisition to a far greater level of sophistication and appeal via attainable prizes as a robust method of retention.

Free Or 4 has been built in partnership with William Hill and SportCaller to promote retention, boosting the user experience on a sport whose domestic UK leagues always have a strong bearing on annual revenues. SportCaller continues to innovate new ways in which to acquire and retain repeat-customers at low cost, optimising William Hill’s dynamic customer-base, as the football season rebounds with a digital vengeance from behind closed doors.

The Dublin-based supplier allows its partners to launch a wide range of FTP prediction, jackpot and more hyper-casual game formats with seamless speed across any sport, language or territory via web, iOS, Play Store, Facebook Instant Games or Twitch extensions.

Liam Barbour, Head of Customer Product at William Hill, said: “It’s fantastic to broaden our ongoing collaboration with SportCaller and get back to free-to-play on football, sportsbook’s perennial revenue-driver. We took our time developing Free Or 4, working in tandem with numerous focus groups, customer research and testing so that we could establish a straightforward concept whose intuitive playability instantly resonated with our thriving client-base.

“The results have been both immediate and encouraging and I look forward to seeing how our customers engage with the game throughout the domestic football season. As ever, SportCaller’s gameplay finesse has helped enhance brand loyalty and digital dwell-time, proving themselves versatile masters in the competitive “attention economy” of modern engagement.”

Cillian Barry, MD at SportCaller, said: “Flexibility in the ideation and deployment of FTP games came to the fore during the sporting shutdown, but we’re seeing that trend extend in sync with the new normal. William Hill understand these shifting sands of engagement, so it was a great experience to work alongside their dedicated team, coupled with some illuminating focus-group feedback, to create a game with simplicity, universal appeal and a core retention mechanic at its heart.

“The early engagement levels have been impressive, while the conversion rates to active users speak directly to the trust and brand recognition which these simple “winnable” games can readily foster.”

ELA Games

ELA Games releases Spirit of Savanna slot with player-choice bonus

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2026

Wladimir P.

ela-games-releases-spirit-of-savanna-slot-with-player-choice-bonus

The new 5×3, 10-payline title features Hold and Win or Free Spins selection and three jackpot tiers.

ELA Games has released Spirit of Savanna, a new online slot that introduces a player-choice bonus mechanic alongside Hold and Win, Free Spins, and three jackpot tiers.

Spirit of Savanna runs on a 5×3 reel grid with 10 paylines and is rated volatility 4 out of 5, according to the supplier. RTP is listed across two ranges: 93.98-94.16% and 96.01-96.12%.

The main differentiator is how a Wild symbol contributes to a winning combination. Instead of triggering a fixed feature, the game prompts players to choose between seven Free Spins or a Hold and Win bonus.

Both bonus paths include a Repeat Win feature that carries the value of the triggering win into each spin of the bonus round. The Free Spins feature can also retrigger using the same Wild-combination logic. The game includes three jackpot tiers, with the Grand Jackpot available either by landing two Antelopes or by filling an entire row with coins during Hold and Win.

The post ELA Games releases Spirit of Savanna slot with player-choice bonus appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Games Global

Games Global launches Candy Combo 2 Power Combo with Slingshot Studios

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2026

Wladimir P.

games-global-launches-candy-combo-2-power-combo-with-slingshot-studios

Games Global has released Candy Combo 2 Power Combo, developed with exclusive studio partner Slingshot Studios. The new slot follows the original Candy Combo Power Combo and expands the title’s Link&Win gameplay and Power Combo mechanics.

The 5×3, 20-payline game is set in a pastel candy theme and uses five “candy jar” characters above the reels to collect matching symbols and trigger Link&Win modifiers. The Power Combo flow activates a Link&Win bonus played on a 5×4 grid, where cash coins remain in place as new symbols land.

Returning mechanics include Connector symbols with multipliers of up to 10x for completed rows, Collector symbols that gather visible cash values, and Jackpot symbols that award fixed prizes when four matching symbols are collected.

New features include Adder, which adds values to all other landed symbols, and Extender, which unlocks a second independent reel set to extend the Link&Win round. Games Global said up to five features can be active within a single Link&Win round, culminating in Super Power Combo, where all features are active at once. The game also includes Hot Mode, which adds extra feature symbols to the reels, and Upsizer, which offers an option to enhance the Link&Win feature at a cost before the bonus begins.

Richard Vermaak, Creative Director at Slingshot Studios, said: “Candy Combo 2 Power Combo builds on its predecessor – one of our most successful titles – by expanding how features interact within the Link&Win format.

“The addition of new jars and the ability to combine multiple mechanics introduces more variation across each round, while staying true to the core gameplay players recognise.”

David Reynolds, Director of Games Strategy and Partner Management at Games Global, said: “Slingshot Studios has done a brilliantly at evolving a well-established concept by adding depth and flexibility to its feature set.

“The result is a bright, engaging title that enhances a proven mechanic while offering players more ways to experience its core gameplay.”

The post Games Global launches Candy Combo 2 Power Combo with Slingshot Studios appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Acquisitions/Merger

LCKY Group agrees to acquire Denmark iGaming operator RoyalCasino

Published

2 hours ago

May 7, 2026

Wladimir P.

lcky-group-agrees-to-acquire-denmark-igaming-operator-royalcasino

LCKY Group has entered into an agreement to acquire RoyalCasino, an iGaming operator focused exclusively on Denmark. The companies said the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second half of 2026.

LCKY Group said the deal will expand its footprint in Denmark and increase exposure to what it described as “sustainable revenue streams in a well-regulated and stable jurisdiction.” The company also said the acquisition supports its multi-brand strategy in the Danish market.

LCKY Group expects the transaction to be immediately accretive, estimating an 18–20% increase in group revenue and a 29–31% increase in EBITDA.

Richard Brown, CEO of LCKY Group, said: “This is a highly strategic and financially compelling acquisition for LCKY Group. RoyalCasino brings both strong market presence and high-quality earnings in Denmark, a market that aligns closely with our focus on regulated, sustainable growth. The transaction enhances our scale, strengthens our competitive position, and provides clear opportunities to drive synergies and long-term value creation. We look forward to working closely with the RoyalCasino team to realize these opportunities.”

Per Petersen, CEO of RoyalCasino, said: “RoyalCasino is one of the largest online casino operators in Denmark, a market known as both well-regulated and high-value. Our industry is characterised by high levels of innovation and competition, and here we see the combination of RoyalCasino’s local expertise and LCKY’s international scale and iGaming pedigree as an excellent recipe for shared success. We look forward to introducing LCKY to our Danish customer base.” Partis acted as financial advisors to RoyalCasino on the transaction.

The post LCKY Group agrees to acquire Denmark iGaming operator RoyalCasino appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.