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Gazprom Football for Friendship 2021: Young Participants from 211 countries and regions to set new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title

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Gazprom launches the Ninth Season of the International Children’s Social Programme Football for Friendship, which will be held online on May 14-29, 2021. For the very first time, representatives of football academies and journalists will gather in Istanbul during the UEFA Champions League Final celebrations to discuss children’s football development at the Football for Friendship Ambassadors Forum.

This year, Football for Friendship will once again unite Young Participants, boys, and girls, from 211 countries and regions. Young Players aged 12-14 will unite into 32 Teams of Friendship to participate in the 2021 Football for Friendship eWorld Championship. The Championship will be held in the F4F World the football simulator available for free in 27 languages on MS Windows, Apple macOS, Android, iOS. Young Journalists will cover the events of the program in the International Children’s Press Center and share with their peers the key values of the program: friendship, equality, fairness, health, peace, devotion, victory, traditions, and honor. The official attempt to obtain the program’s third GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titles for the most nationalities in a football training session in history and the most users in a football video hangout.

On May 29, football experts and journalists from different countries will come together at the Football for Friendship Ambassadors Forum that will take place in Istanbul during the UEFA Champions League Final. Representatives of the football community will discuss the challenges of children’s sports development and share their experiences. Over the years, Football for Friendship has become an important international platform for discussing relevant issues of children’s sports and football.

The International Children’s Social Programme Football for Friendship is implemented by Gazprom since 2013. Over the previous eight seasons, the program has united over 15 000 participants from 211 countries and regions. Over 6 000 000 people have participated in sports, educational, and ecological events of the program. 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 over 50 national and international awards in the field of social responsibility, sports, and communications.

Carmen Pozo, co-founder of the Women’s Football Academy Las Superpoderosas, winner of the First International Football for Friendship Award, Bolivia: “The Football for Friendship program provides football experts with a platform for dialogue. This is especially important right now since we are facing new challenges in the development of children’s and youth sports. Exchanging experience and projects at the Football for Friendship Forum helps football academies and organizations in solving these issues.”

Robin O’Day, director of the O’Day Football Academy, Ireland: “Football for Friendship is a unique program that gives children from all over the world the opportunity to dive into an intercultural environment without barriers, make friends with peers from opposite parts of the globe, instills in them universal values and makes it possible to be heard. These are important elements in educating future world leaders.”

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SCCG Enters Strategic Arrangement with Vanguard Strategies to Advance a Breakthrough Digital Engagement Platform for the Global Lottery Market

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January 13, 2026

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SCCG Management, a leading advisory firm in the global gaming industry, today announced that it has entered into a strategic arrangement with Vanguard Strategies involving proprietary intellectual property designed to redefine digital engagement across segments of the global lottery industry, with an initial focus on the U.S. lottery market.

The intellectual property provides the proprietary foundation for a fully integrated, regulator-compatible digital ecosystem intended to modernize how lottery stakeholders engage players, distribute content, and unlock new revenue streams across both retail and digital environments. The platform has been architected to align with existing regulatory frameworks while enabling meaningful expansion of participation, engagement, and monetization.

While specific technical and commercial details remain confidential, the underlying framework is designed to address long-standing structural limitations within the lottery sector—creating the potential for category-level innovation and substantial incremental revenue generation at scale.

Under the arrangement, SCCG will provide strategic advisory support, market positioning guidance, and selective industry engagement to help evaluate opportunities aligned with the platform’s long-term vision. The initiative is intended to surface interest from qualified stakeholders across the lottery ecosystem, including operators, suppliers, strategic partners, and institutional participants.

“This initiative represents a rare convergence of regulatory compatibility, digital innovation, and market-scale opportunity,” said Stephen Crystal, Founder and CEO of SCCG Management. “The lottery sector remains one of the largest and most under-digitized segments of regulated gaming. Working alongside Vanguard Strategies, we are approaching this thoughtfully and selectively, with a focus on long-term value creation rather than short-term exposure.”

The U.S. lottery market is one of the largest regulated gaming markets globally, generating sales of over one hundred billion dollars annually while remaining structurally constrained in terms of digital engagement. Solutions capable of operating within regulatory guardrails while meaningfully expanding participation and revenue potential remain exceptionally limited.

Additional information regarding the initiative will be shared on a confidential, case-by-case basis following initial discussions.

The post SCCG Enters Strategic Arrangement with Vanguard Strategies to Advance a Breakthrough Digital Engagement Platform for the Global Lottery Market appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.

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ICE Barcelona

Paysecure’s Merchant Base Grows Fivefold; Company Targets Rapid Expansion in 2026

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January 13, 2026

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Paysecure, the innovative payment orchestration firm, has reported a notable increase in merchant partners and a series of new senior appointments in December to accommodate a considerable rise in demand.
The company is swiftly expanding as the demand for payment orchestration solutions increases, especially in the worldwide iGaming industry.
In 2025, after the introduction of its main payments orchestration platform, Paysecure experienced a five-fold growth in the number of merchants utilizing its technology. This demand mirrored the rising competition in e-commerce markets, heavier regulatory requirements, and worldwide consumers seeking quicker checkouts.
To support the expanding international companies they have newly acquired, Paysecure has launched a comprehensive partner integration initiative throughout the year, achieving over 150 integrations, along with significant partnership announcements with WorldPay, DECTA, and Approvely. Top payment providers have acknowledged Payescure’s superior platform, which experienced enhanced acceptance rates, better transaction recovery rates, and increased profitability for merchants through additional redundancy features.
This commercial achievement has triggered a surge of new senior appointments to enhance the firm’s payment and sector-specific knowledge, signifying a pivotal year for the company. Total headcount rose by 131% in 2025. In the Senior Management Team, Sam Milton has come to Paysecure as Head of Sales from Paytently. He has dedicated the last ten years to iGaming and ecommerce payments with companies like Trustly and Vyne. Moreover, iGaming and payments specialist Jessica Rhodes has transitioned to Paysecure as Marketing Director from BR-DGE.
Viktoriia Degtiarova, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Paysecure, said: “We’ve had a transformative 2025 and we’re excited to carry this momentum into 2026. We have built a powerful payments ecosystem that covers the entire payments lifecycle and offers a broad range of functionality for operators of any scale. Paysecure thrives in some of the most complex and fragmented markets, enabling our clients to launch faster and scale with confidence. Our clients grow alongside us, and this strong momentum is the clearest indication that the market is demanding independent, flexible, and technologically advanced payment orchestration.”
Product development
The growth of the business was supported by the robustness of Paysecure’s orchestration solution suite and further boosted by the introduction of Dynamic Cashier in 2025. The Cashier module enhances customer revenue by enabling infinite customization and customer segmentation during the payment process.
Alongside Paysecure’s fundamental orchestration services, featuring its AI routing system, redundancy and resilience capabilities, real-time analytics, and improved payment integration, these solutions have significantly contributed to positioning Paysecure as a top orchestration provider in the iGaming industry.
As regulatory complexity grows in localized markets, orchestration solutions have equipped operators with the necessary compliant and advanced technological options for a contemporary iGaming business, enhancing their risk decision-making abilities and payment clarity. As regulators in 2025, including those in the UK and Germany, require more stringent KYC procedures and Brazil enforces a ban on third-party payments, payment orchestration has evolved from a straightforward task into a crucial aspect of customer satisfaction and managing business risk.
With an eye on 2026, Paysecure is enhancing its capabilities to satisfy the growing need for smart, data-driven payment solutions. AI-enhanced functionalities such as real-time outage detection, automated recovery of transactions, and smart payment method selection will bolster merchant resilience in intricate markets while providing a more personalized and competitive customer experience. These developments solidify Paysecure’s role as a versatile, forward-looking orchestration ally.

Next stop ICE

Paysecure will participate in ICE Barcelona from January 19 to 21, sharing space with top payment organizations and operators atstand 4G30, showcasing its orchestration platform, which offers extensive market intelligence and tailored solutions for operators. Visitors can enjoy Payscure’s Crack the Code Game at its booth and interact with one of the leading orchestration solutions available today.
Data represents the future of all sectors and is the vital lifeblood of AI. Within iGaming, various groundbreaking uses of AI are currently reshaping the player experience, enhancing transactions, and facilitating comprehensive, real-time risk management.
The Paysecure orchestration platform serves as an intuitive data center, and in 2026, we will enhance its functionality to assist operators in visualizing their data, improving analytics, and utilizing AI for more effective smart routing and risk management at both transactional and business tiers.
Amit Hooja, Co-Founder and CEO at Paysecure, said “Our vision is to reshape the global payments landscape, empowering the world’s most ambitious digital businesses to scale globally and perform locally through seamless, intelligent payment orchestration. We have ambitious growth targets and we are well placed to meet them in 2026. I look forward to meeting the industry at ICE in Barcelona to discuss the future of payments and how Paysecure is at the forefront, leading the innovation.” 

The post Paysecure’s Merchant Base Grows Fivefold; Company Targets Rapid Expansion in 2026 appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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Forbidden Alchemy

PG Soft mixes magic and sorcery to create potent Forbidden Alchemy slot

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2 hours ago

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January 13, 2026

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PG Soft, a world-class digital mobile games company, has concocted its new game, Forbidden Alchemy, blending the perfect quantities of magic, sorcery, and win-driven excitement.

PG Soft’s latest hit is a 5-reel, 3-row video slot featuring high-paying symbols that may transform into Wild symbols and multipliers. Unfolding in a shadowy alchemist’s chamber, amongst glowing potion jars, arcane symbols, and mysterious ingredients the game pulses with energy. A broody, tension-laden soundtrack hums beneath the action, deepening the sense of mystery and pulling players further into the alchemist’s world, where every spin feels like another step into the unknown.

Key to the main game is the Wild Transformation feature that can be randomly activated on any spin. During the Wild Transformation Feature, one or more high-paying symbols may be randomly selected and transformed into Wilds. Each transformed symbol increases a multiplier at the top of the reels, and once the feature is complete, all wins are multiplied by the combined total of these multipliers.

Three scientist Scatter symbols on the reels will trigger the Free Spins feature that starts with 12 free spins. Four Scatters will launch the feature with 15 free spins and finding five Scatters will award players with 20 free spins.

During the Free Spins Feature, any multipliers gained through the Wild Transformation Feature remain active for the duration of the round. Whenever the feature triggers on a winning free spin, all wins are multiplied by the combined total of the active multipliers.  Landing two Scatter symbols at any point during Free Spins awards three additional free spins, with the feature fully retriggerable.

PG Soft’s spokesperson commented: “Forbidden Alchemy blends together inventive mechanics, big win potential, and striking graphics, all set against the backdrop of a shadowy laboratory. The Wild Transformation delivers a powerful element of tension and excitement, making it a game to suit all players’ tastes.”

The post PG Soft mixes magic and sorcery to create potent Forbidden Alchemy slot appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

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