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Football for Friendship holds expert discussion on sports development during pandemic

Published

5 years ago

November 25, 2020

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Experts of the international online discussion “Motivation and training in the context of the pandemic: the impact of Internet technologies on sports” reached the mutual conclusion that the pandemic will boost the development of e-sports and broaden the way sports are perceived in the world. It’s expected that the existing trend will strengthen: over the past 3-4 years, the audience of e-sports events has grown 5-6 times.

The discussion was initiated by the Gazprom International Children’s Social Programme Football for Friendship, which has, for the first time, brought the entire season online in 2020. Meanwhile, the annual World Championship for Young Participants from more than 100 countries is held in the new football simulator Football for Friendship World. In the future, the app will become a gaming platform where anyone can train, join mixed international teams, and play their favorite game in the Football for Friendship format without leaving the comfort of home.

The guest experts — football players and e-sports players — shared their views on how the pandemic is affecting the training process, and whether e-sports will be able to fully replace traditional sports in the future. Alexey Smertin, adviser to the President of the Russian Football Union and Ambassador of the Football for Friendship programme, and Alexandra Kosteniuk, grandmaster, three-times winner of the World Chess Olympiads, and European Chess Champion, spoke about the impact of the pandemic on professional sports. Igor Bugaenko, head of the Special Projects Department of the Russian eSports Federation (RESF), spoke about the development of Russian e-sports. The discussion was attended by representatives of FC Schalke 04: head of the e-sports division Tim Reichert, League of Legends coach Dylan Falco, and professional FIFA player Tim Schwartmann (“Tim Latka”). The discussion was moderated by Euronews TV host Andy Robini.

Igor Bugaenko expressed his conviction that the pandemic can also have a positive impact on sports: “Despite the cancellation of many offline sporting events, we are doing our best to maintain the quality and spirit of the competitions that are currently held online. The pandemic has affected how people spend their free time. I think the main achievement of this period has been to broaden the way sports are perceived, enabling people to re-evaluate the role of e-sports in the world”. The expert also noted that Russia was one of the first countries to officially recognize e-sports. According to Bugaenko, in the last 3-4 years alone, the audience of e-sports events has grown 5-6 times.

However, according to Alexey Smertin, e-sports are hard to compare to traditional sports, with their “physical overcoming of oneself, pain and hard-to-achieve results”. On the other hand, if we take a professional approach, in both traditional and e-sports it’s important to focus on achieving results; so, in this sense, there’s no difference between them.

Tim Schwartmann (Tim Latka) has a similar view: “If young people want to be successful — be it in e-sports or traditional football — they have to work hard, train a lot for the game, and never rest on their laurels”.

Today, many football clubs are developing e-sports as a separate area. “In recent years, the popularity of e-sports has become evident. By investing time and effort into developing e-sports, we hope to establish a dialogue with the younger generation of football fans”, explains Tim Reichert, head of FC Schalke 04’s e-sports division. Reichert expects that self-isolation will accelerate the merging process of traditional and digital sports several-fold. In his opinion, e-sports and traditional sports already have many things in common: league structures, competitions, psychological demands for players, and regular training.

Alexandra Kosteniuk noted that the past months have become a landmark in the history of sport: “The pandemic has opened up a real Pandora’s box for chess players: if earlier, part of our competitions were already being held online, now it’s the most convenient format for both the audience and participants”. As she explains, the pandemic has stimulated an increased interest in online competitions over the past few months, “even in the case of chess, which is not the most popular sport among viewers, not to mention the world of e-sports in general”.

About the programme:

The International Children’s Social Programme Football for Friendship is implemented by Gazprom since 2013. Over the previous seven seasons, the programme has united over 6 000 participants from 211 countries and regions and over 5 000 000 supporters.

Young Players and Young Journalists are the participants of the programme – boys and girls aged 12 including children with disabilities. Young Players represent different countries and cultures united in the mixed teams. They show that nationality, gender, and physical abilities aren’t a barrier to becoming a team. Young Journalists cover the events of the programme in the International Children’s Press Center. All participants become Young Ambassadors of the programme and continue to share their Football for Friendship experience and promote universal human values: friendship, equality, fairness, health, peace, devotion, victory, traditions, and honour.

UEFA, FIFA, football federations and the world’s leading football clubs, international charity foundations, famous athletes, politicians, and artists support Football for Friendship. The project has received multiple national and international awards in the field of social responsibility, sports, and communications, including the world record for the most nationalities in a football training session in history.

In 2020, Football for Friendship will be held in the online format. A special digital platform will unite over 10 000 players of all ages. It will become the home for international children’s competitions and a playground where anyone will be able to train, join into the international mixed teams and play their favourite game in the Football for Friendship format without leaving the comfort of their home.

Betting

LEON Esports announces partnership with GamerLegion’s CS2 team

Published

32 minutes ago

October 23, 2025

Zoltan Tundik

leon-esports-announces-partnership-with-gamerlegion’s-cs2-team

Reading Time: < 1 minute

LEON Esports is excited to announce a new partnership with GamerLegion’s Counter-Strike 2 team — a leading German esports organization ranked among the top 15 teams in the world, renowned for its consistent top-tier performances.

This collaboration marks a new chapter for LEON Esports, as the brand continues to expand its presence in competitive gaming. Over the years, LEON has become an active force in esports — supporting professional teams and hosting its own tournaments across titles like CS2, Dota, Free Fire and Deadlock.

Together with GamerLegion, LEON Esports aims to bring even more action and engagement to fans — with exclusive offers, special markets, social media giveaways, and more challenges made for true esports and betting enthusiasts.

This partnership follows LEON’s successful collaborations with other major esports organizations such as SAW (Portugal), FlyQuest (Australia), and NFA (Brazil) — strengthening its position as one of the key players in the global esports scene.

Get ready for the next level — follow the action on our channels:

LEON Esports Linktree

The post LEON Esports announces partnership with GamerLegion’s CS2 team appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Compliance Updates

SuperPot, the Unique Sports Betting Jackpot, Now Available in the UK

Published

2 hours ago

October 23, 2025

George Miller

superpot,-the-unique-sports-betting-jackpot,-now-available-in-the-uk

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Delasport’s groundbreaking sports betting jackpot game, SuperPot, has received full certification from GLI in the UK. With this authorization, SuperPot becomes a one-of-a-kind, dedicated Sportsbook Jackpot solution on the British market.

The news comes just days after the revolutionary solution became certified for Ontario and marked its debut integration there and soon will go live with several brands in the market. SuperPot gives players the chance to predict the outcomes of major sporting fixtures.

Each ticket purchase contributes to a growing jackpot, and the winner is the one with the most correct picks – even without a perfect score. This “Must-Win” mechanic sets the product apart from traditional sportsbook offerings, appealing both to sports bettors seeking new thrills and casino players looking for an accessible entry point into sports wagering.

Advantages for UK Operators

SuperPot introduces an always-awarded must-win mechanic: each round’s pot is paid to the top predictor – players compete against their peers, and the most correct predictions win. This sets it apart from The Tote and free-to-play predictors and broadens appeal beyond horse racing into football, basketball, American football, and ice hockey. UK operators gain an assured strong turnover margin, while players benefit from a guaranteed payout to someone every round.

In addition, licensed operators in the UK, SuperPot represents a new way to grow engagement and extend player lifecycles, while securing stable margins from turnover without added exposure.

“Securing approval in the UK marks a major step forward for us,” said Delasport’s Global Sales Director Reece Calderbank. “SuperPot blends the excitement of jackpots with the passion for sports, offering players an easy-to-understand, highly rewarding experience. It’s designed to stand out in a mature and competitive market and ensure risk-free high margin for Operators.”

Market Outlook

The UK gambling market remains one of the largest and most established worldwide. According to the UK Gambling Commission, the total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) in iGaming for April 2023–March 2024 reached £6.9 billion, with online Sports betting accounting to £2.4 billion GGY, driven primarily by football and horse racing.

The Tote pools enjoy durable racing liquidity is growing year by year to hundreds of millions and SuperPot gives operators that same mass-appeal mechanic as a paid, must-win product they control and extend it to additional sports and to new segments of players.

Industry research indicates that the UK sports betting market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 11.4% between 2025 and 2030. Meanwhile, quarterly reporting from the Gambling Commission shows continued growth: in Q1 2025, online GGY rose 7% year-on-year to £1.45 billion, with record levels of active accounts and betting activity.

In such a competitive environment, a product like SuperPot has the potential to deliver an incremental ~2% revenue boost for operators who adopt it, further differentiating their sportsbook offering in the UK’s crowded marketplace.

The post SuperPot, the Unique Sports Betting Jackpot, Now Available in the UK appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Dominic Le Garsmeur Chief Product Officer at Fincore

How to get your product roadmap moving

Published

2 hours ago

October 23, 2025

George Miller

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Dominic Le Garsmeur, Chief Product Officer at Fincore, says product roadmaps often stall, but they don’t need to. Not if operators and suppliers design for adaptability and build on the right foundations.

Why do product roadmaps usually stall?

Product roadmaps are full of ambition – and rightly so. They capture bold ideas and big strategic bets; they’re the blueprint for the future of the business. But even the best plans can stall before they deliver real impact.

There are plenty of reasons. From shifting regulations to legacy tech, overloaded teams, or unclear ownership. The most damaging is outdated technology. Technical debt eats up development capacity, forcing teams to spend their time firefighting stability instead of building the next feature.

Fragmented ownership is another killer. When product, tech, compliance and ops aren’t aligned, there’s no shared direction. Work keeps moving, but what ships isn’t aligned to real needs—busy output rather than product that drives results.

What impact does regulation have on product roadmaps?

Regulation can force teams to switch focus, diverting resources from innovation to compliance. When every sprint turns into a regulatory emergency, progress halts.

That said, regulation doesn’t have to kill innovation. If an organisation designs for adaptability — with modular systems and clean architecture — it can absorb regulatory change without derailing strategic goals.

If a product roadmap stalls, what should operators and suppliers do?

Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Create forward motion now. At Fincore, we see four core tactics that make the difference:

1. Start with outcomes. Work backwards from the results you need, then design the tech strategy and architecture to deliver them.
2. Modernise surgically. Target the real bottlenecks — technical or procedural — and fix what unlocks the most progress first. Our modular IP components can be integrated quickly to deliver visible gains.
3. Automate with intent. Introduce automation where it frees up people and accelerates throughput.
4. Partner for momentum. Choose a partner that embeds with your teams. Not as a consultant, but as part of your delivery engine. That’s how we operate at Fincore: hands-on, aligned, and built to move things forward without disruption.

How can organisations prevent their product roadmaps from stalling in the first place?

Prevention starts with intent. Build your roadmap around adaptability, not just speed.

That means aligning tech strategy with business goals and reviewing that alignment often. Design systems for interoperability and flexibility, not minimum viable survival. Prioritise foundations such as clean data, seamless integrations and real-time monitoring. Deliver in tight loops to stay responsive and realistic.

When you do that, momentum accelerates. Teams move faster, releases land cleaner, and regulatory shifts stop being roadblocks. They just get handled.

What are the benefits of a product roadmap firing on all cylinders?

Momentum changes everything.

New features, channels and jurisdictions go live faster, without the drag of platform instability. Teams feel energised, focused, and proud of what they’re shipping. Regulatory changes stop being crises. Innovation becomes continuous.

And with that rhythm comes confidence across departments, across leadership, across the entire organisation. Everyone can see and feel progress.

How does Fincore help operators achieve this?

We don’t just unstick roadmaps. We build systems that keep them moving.

That starts with stabilising architecture and clearing technical debt. Then we go deeper: modernising code, streamlining processes, and aligning culture around delivery. Our modular software toolkit accelerates progress without risk. Clean integrations, real-time data, and automation that scales.

We embed alongside internal teams, taking ownership of outcomes and shipping value fast. The result? Sustainable momentum.

Unlocking a roadmap isn’t just about fixing delivery. It’s about reigniting progress and keeping it burning. Clean builds. Confident teams. Continuous flow. That’s progress done right.

The post How to get your product roadmap moving appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.