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Opera buys owner of GameMaker and starts a Gaming division

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Opera, the browser developer and consumer internet brand, announced its acquisition of YoYo Games, creator of the world’s leading 2D game engine, GameMaker Studio 2, for approximately $10 million. The tuck-in acquisition represents the second building block in the foundation of Opera Gaming, a new division within Opera with global ambitions and follows the creation and rapid growth of Opera’s innovative Opera GX browser, the world’s first browser built specifically for gamers.

Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera, said: “With Opera GX, Opera had adapted its proven, innovative browser tech platform to dramatically expand its footprint in gaming. We’re at the brink of a shift, when more and more people start not only playing, but also creating and publishing games. GameMaker Studio2 is best-in-class game development software, and lowers the barrier to entry for anyone to start making their games and offer them across a wide range of web-supported platforms, from PCs, to, mobile iOS/Android devices, to consoles.

Annette De Freitas, Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Opera Gaming, added: “Gaming is a growth area for Opera and the acquisition of YoYo Games reflects significant, sustained momentum across both of our businesses over the past year. Our new Opera GX browser hit 7 million MAUs in December, 2020, up 350% year over year, while YoYo Games’ GameMaker engine achieved 400K new registered creators in 2020. We’re tremendously excited by the opportunities the combination creates not only for our combined users, but also for the expansion of Opera’s gaming community.”

Stuart Poole, GM at YoYo Games who will remain with the business alongside technical lead Russell Kay stated, “For over twenty years, the vision behind the GameMaker engine was to not just create more games, but expand development within and beyond the game studio. We think the transaction with Opera – whose products are known, trusted and used worldwide by millions of people every month- represents a massive opportunity to accelerate fulfilment of that founding vision, during a period of exceptional growth for both companies.”

“We are very excited to start working with the team at YoYo Games,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. “We see the Game Maker Studio platform as being an ideal acquisition to complement our global ambitions in gaming, and to help drive awareness and traffic to our Opera GX gaming browser.”

Opera GX, YoYo Games and GameMaker will unite under Opera Gaming, focusing on innovating across the gaming, game development, and browser experience. “We look forward to further growing Opera GX and driving the growth of GameMaker as part of a broader ecosystem, making it more accessible to novice users and developing it into the world’s leading 2D game engine used by commercial studios,” continued Krystian Kolondra. “Opera Gaming will be focusing on accelerating the growth of this emerging ecosystem, combining the 7+ million highly engaged gamers using Opera GX with millions of GameMaker creators. We are also thrilled to continue realizing synergies between YoYo Games’ products and Opera GX.”

GameMakerStudio is an integrated game development software, performance-tuned 2/2.5D engine that fuels many games, including multi-million hits like Risk of Rain, Undertale, or Hyper Light Drifter on an extensive range of mainstream platforms. Starting to build games with Game Maker Studio requires little to zero coding skills. Due to its extensive functionalities and ease of use Game Maker Studio lowers the barriers to entry and empowers a variety of creative people to make their games come alive and share them with the world.

Kolondra explained further: “Performance is essential to even 2D gaming, and sustaining that performance across mobile devices and laptops as well as variable bandwidth and connectivity requires thinking outside of traditional application silos. The line between building good games and good browsers has been eroding for years – with gaming interactivity across internet connections ramping up and browsers growing more multi-function and sophisticated. Traditionally the two types of technology compete for hardware and bandwidth resources. But as Opera GX proved, there was a better way to address that competition and improve the experience across both functionalities. YoYo Games’ team, development expertise and studio relationships lay the groundwork for turning the Opera GX vertical into a new kind of horizontal. This horizontal opportunity is why we’re building Opera Gaming and its infrastructure – so that we can further integrate gaming and browsing in ways beneficial to both in terms of not only monetization, but also experience.”

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Amusnet

Amusnet Wins “Best Software Provider” Award at the AskGamblers Awards 2026

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Amusnet, a leading international provider of advanced casino solutions, has won the prestigious Best Software Provider title at the 9th edition of AskGamblers Awards 2026. Hosted at the St. Regis Belgrade, the gala ceremony brought together top-tier industry players in the Serbian capital to honour standout achievements. This accolade arrives at a momentous milestone for Amusnet, marking a decade defined by continuous growth, technological evolution and commercial success.

Dejan Vukosavljević, Country Director at Amusnet Serbia, attended the high-profile event as the company’s official representative to accept the accolade.

“This award validates the team’s dedication to our software platform and inspires us to further raise our standards of quality and product excellence. Securing this title is a fantastic achievement and a true honour, especially given our strategic partnership with AskGamblers. As we celebrate Amusnet’s 10th anniversary, our focus remains on global uniqueness, with the ambitious goal of expanding our footprint to more than 100 markets worldwide over the next ten years,” stated Vukosavljević.

As one of the industry’s premier affiliate platforms for casino reviews, boasting a vibrant community of over 1,000,000 active players, AskGamblers has been a key partner for Amusnet since the beginning of the year. Receiving this recognition from such a player-centric platform underscores Amusnet’s strong market resonance and deepening industry ties.

By combining technological innovation with creative excellence, the company is actively shaping the future of digital entertainment. This milestone ensures that Amusnet’s localised, high-performing content continues to captivate and engage audiences on a truly global scale.

The post Amusnet Wins “Best Software Provider” Award at the AskGamblers Awards 2026 appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Artificial intelligence

QCI Launches QCI Resorts, the Unified Intelligence Platform for Resorts

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Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI), a leading provider of gaming and hospitality technology, announced the launch of QCI Resorts, a unified intelligence platform designed specifically for modern resort operations.

For decades, the resort industry has pursued a vision of operational unification through integrations, data warehouses, and interconnected software systems. While these approaches connected information across departments, they also created increasing complexity, duplicated data, delayed decision-making, and limited the ability of organizations to fully leverage artificial intelligence.

Built on the QCI AGI Platform, QCI Resorts delivers a single operational environment where hospitality, food and beverage, point-of-sale, marketing, loyalty, guest engagement, operations, and enterprise intelligence operate from one unified intelligence layer. Rather than moving information between disconnected applications, QCI Resorts enables resort operations to function within a shared real-time platform designed for intelligence-driven decision making.

The launch marks a significant milestone in QCI’s vision for the future of resort technology—one where unified operational intelligence replaces fragmented software stacks and where agentic systems can operate with a complete understanding of the enterprise.

“After more than two decades building data warehouses and integration platforms, generative AI enabled for another approach. Instead of connecting more systems together, we can now deliver most resort operations through a single real-time software stack. Gaming remains integrated where regulations require it, but hospitality, marketing, loyalty, food and beverage, operations, and intelligence can operate from a unified platform. That foundation is what makes true agentic resort operations possible,” said Andrew Cardno, Co-Founder and CTO of QCI.

Unlike traditional resort technology architectures that rely on multiple vendors, extensive integrations, and centralized data warehouses, QCI Resorts operates from a shared data model, shared workflow architecture, and shared intelligence layer. This approach enables real-time operational intelligence across the enterprise while providing the foundation required for AI agents to understand, coordinate, and execute actions across resort operations.

“QCI Resorts is not another integration platform. For decades, the industry has pursued the vision of a unified resort platform. The goal was right, but the technology wasn’t ready. Today, advances in AI and agentic systems make it possible to deliver what operators have always wanted: a single real-time operational system where hospitality, marketing, loyalty, food and beverage, operations, and intelligence work together as one, with gaming integrated where regulations require. QCI Resorts is that system,” said Ralph Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of QCI.

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the hospitality industry, QCI believes the next generation of resort technology will not be defined by how many systems can be integrated together, but by how effectively intelligence can operate across the entire enterprise.

“Agentic AI achieves its greatest potential when it operates within a complete understanding of the business. The future belongs to systems that can understand the entire resort, not just individual departments. That is the vision behind QCI Resorts,” added Cardno.

QCI Resorts is being introduced as the industry’s first unified intelligence platform purpose-built for gaming and hospitality operations, enabling operators to move beyond fragmented architecture toward a real-time operational intelligence model designed for the era of agentic AI.

The post QCI Launches QCI Resorts, the Unified Intelligence Platform for Resorts appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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Best Bets TV

VSiN Launches 24/7 FAST Channel, Best Bets TV, Introducing Award-winning Content to New Broadcast and Streaming Audiences

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VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, announced the launch of its new Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) channel, Best Bets TV, powered by VSiN to reach more sports fans. Leveraging podcast and live content from across VSiN’s platforms, the new 24/7 channel delivers actionable sports betting content to a broader audience — combining highlights from its live linear programming, original analysis, and video podcasts in a free streaming format.

Best Bets TV provides broadcast and streaming services access to the full 24/7 channel or blocks of programming that can be integrated into daily schedules. The full 24/7 Best Bets TV channel is currently streamed exclusively on the OrkaTV platform within its sports category now streaming on Roku, Fire TV, Google Play, Android OS, tv.orka.tv, and coming soon on all Smart TV platforms.

“VSiN programming for Best Bets TV is a unique offering in FAST, with specially curated clips and three hours of live programming each weekday. As viewers increasingly turn to streaming for live television, Best Bets TV represents the kind of dynamic content that we’re focused on bringing to the OrkaTV platform. In partnership with VSiN, we’re creating a compelling destination for sports fans who want insight, analysis, and live coverage throughout the day,” said Mike Woods, Founder and CEO of OrkaTV.

In addition to the exclusive launch of its 24/7 channel on OrkaTV, select Best Bets TV sports betting content airs on Anthem’s Game+, available across North America through major IPTV, cable, and satellite systems, as well as Marquee Sports Network, available directly and via providers like Hulu+ Live TV, FuboTV, DIRECTV and various cable providers.

“VSiN continues to grow its distribution footprint across every major platform to reach more sports fans in more ways with its award-winning sports betting content. With the launch of Best Bets TV, we have an incredible opportunity to introduce VSiN content to millions of new viewers, while leveraging some of the content we’re already creating. We expect to continue this rapid expansion to make sports betting information accessible to every fan, by providing the credible insights, expert commentary, and entertainment that make VSiN the leading voice in sports betting,” said Miles Gwyn, chief operating officer at VsiN.

The launch of Best Bets TV leverages VSiN’s daily output of more sports betting content than there are hours in a day and underscores the network’s commitment to delivering credible, high-quality sports betting programming wherever and however fans consume it. The new channel curates the most timely, engaging, and informative segments to give millions of new sports fans access to the network’s programming on free-to-watch platforms.

The new channel taps a mix of AI clipping through a partnership with TVU Networks and manual clipping to generate more than 150 new video clips each day. The network’s partnership with Zype for content organization and management enables deep content customization through rich metadata. VSiN’s Amagi collaboration uses metadata to build shows with dynamic themes and content, while prioritizing the most recent clips. This first-of-its-kind system helps VSiN curate content to deliver the most relevant and timely programming to sports fans everywhere.

Programming on Best Bets TV draws from VSiN’s leading podcasts, including “The GM Shuffle,” “Fade Us Sports,” “The College Football Betting Podcast,” and “Pod to the Futures,” alongside up to three hours of live content daily such as “VSiNLive on Mad Dog Radio,” which simulcasts weekdays on SiriusXM. The channel also features clips from VSiN’s live linear shows, packaging key betting insights, expert analysis, and daily highlights in new ways to help fans make more informed wagering decisions.

The post VSiN Launches 24/7 FAST Channel, Best Bets TV, Introducing Award-winning Content to New Broadcast and Streaming Audiences appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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