Latest News

Optimove Acquires Kumulos to Expand Personalized Mobile Capabilities of Its Multichannel CRM Marketing Platform

Published

4 years ago

March 29, 2022

George Miller

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Acquisition will empower brands to natively orchestrate personalized mobile, web, and in-app messages

Optimove, the leading CRM Marketing Platform, announced its acquisition of Kumulos, a Dundee, Scotland-based provider of a personalized messaging platform for mobile applications. The acquisition furthers Optimove’s efforts to expand the native messaging capabilities of its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Marketing platform, which empowers brands to connect with existing customers and deliver personalized multichannel journeys, at scale.

Optimove helps data-rich brands across industries manage large-scale CRM marketing frameworks. By personalizing thousands of campaigns to hundreds of segments, Optimove allows brands to reach their customers with the right message on the right channel. Unlike other technologies that rely on common, rule-based orchestration, Optimove’s AI-driven solutions autonomously determine the next-best-action for each individual customer, eliminating the need for marketers to manually map every customer journey.

With a Customer Data Platform (CDP) at its core, Optimove offers marketing teams direct access to their customer data to build, test, and optimize hundreds of CRM campaigns weekly. The Kumulos acquisition bolsters Optimove’s AI engine, adding native mobile capabilities to allow brands to seamlessly orchestrate multichannel marketing journeys across web, email, and mobile channels.

“Our accelerated growth has been driven by building the most powerful orchestration ‘brain’ in the market on top of our CDP,” said Optimove Founder and CEO, Pini Yakuel. “To support our next stage of growth, we will continue to add expanded capabilities to help marketers reach customers in many different ways. We already do this in email and Kumulos was a natural fit to offer this across mobile marketing as they provide an easy way to build out sophisticated mobile and web campaigns.”

With the Kumulos acquisition, Optimove now empowers marketers to:

Re-engage customers with mobile push notifications that support rich media, templates, and deep linking, which are delivered based on each customer’s usage history.
Create customized in-app messages with on-brand overlays and inbox messages for onboarding experiences, customer-based messaging, and rich in-app communications that provide the ultimate personalized experience to every customer.
Maximize opt-ins and conversions with fully customizable permission overlays and soft prompts as well as personalized rich media web push messages that dynamically adapt to each customer’s on-site behavior.
Trigger higher-accuracy automated messages leveraging geofences and beacon technology combined with realtime behavior, customer attributes, and preferences.

Acquire new mobile app users from websites, emails, social media, digital advertising, out-of-home advertising, and more with award winning deferred deep linking powered by universal smart links and web-to-app banners that intelligently navigate each customer to a unique destination.

“We were already partnered with Optimove and share an open, collaborative culture, so integrating our technology into its UI as a fully native solution was seamless,” said Bob Lawson, co-founder of Kumulos, who will assume the role of Director of Mobile Offering at Optimove. “Kumulos brings a unique blend of mobile messaging and engagement features to enable personalized mobile-first experiences for brands. Customers will be able to build these mobile campaigns and journeys directly from within Optimove from day one.”

Kumulos co-founder Mark Petrie will also join Optimove, serving as the Director of Engineering for Mobile Services.

Today, Optimove’s CRM Marketing platform sends more than 81 billion optimized messages every year, helping brands grow their customer lifetime value by more than 33 percent. The company serves more than 500 brands – including Dollar Shave Club, Entain, BetMGM, Staples, JD Sports, Papa John’s, Pennsylvania Lottery, Family Dollar and others across sports, gaming, retail, telecommunications, and financial services. Kumulos’ customer base deepens Optimove’s penetration in retail and finance and extends its reach into other key verticals such as quick service restaurants (Subway, Pizza Pizza), logistics (CargoLux, UPS), travel and hospitality (Sandals and Beaches, Network Rail) and healthcare (Sanofi, Roche, Ellerca Health).

Over the past six months, Optimove has raised $75 million in funding to accelerate its platform development through M&A and strategic hiring, already increasing its workforce to 340 employees. On the heels of the acquisition, Optimove is set to invest in Scotland locations as an R&D center to complement the development locations currently in Tel Aviv and Ukraine. The team will leverage existing SDKs for all leading operating systems, including iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Cordova/Ionic, Unity, and Xamarin to bring differentiated mobile marketing solutions to market.

The Kumulos acquisition closed in March 2022. Optimove plans to continue its product enhancement through additional value-add technology acquisitions this year.

eSports

Esports Foundation names Faker Game Ambassador for EWC and ENC through 2028

Published

8 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Wladimir P.

esports-foundation-names-faker-game-ambassador-for-ewc-and-enc-through-2028

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Magnus Carlsen in the Esports Foundation’s Ambassador Program.

The Esports Foundation (EF) has appointed Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok as a Game Ambassador for the Esports World Cup (EWC) and Esports Nations Cup (ENC) through 2028, the organization said on July 15, 2026 in a statement issued from Riyadh and Paris.

EF said Faker joins Cristiano Ronaldo, listed as the Foundation’s Global Ambassador, and Magnus Carlsen as part of the Esports Foundation Ambassador Program. The Foundation said Faker will represent “the perspective of esports players” across its international events, athlete initiatives, media engagements and leadership forums.

“You can’t talk about esports without mentioning Faker. He is the defining athlete of competitive gaming: a champion whose excellence, discipline and longevity have inspired an entire generation,” said Ralf Reichert, Chief Executive Officer of the Esports Foundation. “As our Game Ambassador, Faker represents something fundamental to the Ambassador Program: esports creates its own global sporting icons. Across EWC, ENC and NGSC, he will help ensure that the players who built this sport have a voice in shaping where it goes next.”

Faker said: “Competition has shaped my life, and I am proud to join the Esports Foundation as Game Ambassador. I want to continue competing for the biggest titles with T1 while representing the players and fans who have helped esports grow worldwide. Through the Esports World Cup, Esports Nations Cup and the Foundation’s wider platforms, I hope to inspire the next generation to pursue excellence, remain resilient and believe in how far competitive gaming can take them. There is still much more to achieve.”

EF highlighted Faker’s competitive record, describing him as a six-time League of Legends World Champion, EWC 2024 winner, two-time MSI champion and ten-time domestic champion with T1. The Foundation also said Faker became the first esports athlete to receive the Blue Dragon Medal in 2026, describing it as the Republic of Korea’s highest sporting honor awarded by President Lee Jae-myung.

The post Esports Foundation names Faker Game Ambassador for EWC and ENC through 2028 appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Brand Partnerships

Midnite signs as Middlesbrough FC principal partner for 2026/27 season

Published

15 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Wladimir P.

midnite-signs-as-middlesbrough-fc-principal-partner-for-2026/27-season

Midnite has agreed a partnership with Middlesbrough FC that will see the UK bookmaker become the club’s principal partner and front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2026/27 campaign, which Middlesbrough describes as its landmark 150th season.

The companies announced the deal alongside a fan activation at Riverside Stadium on Thursday, July 9, branded “This Season’s On Us”. The initiative offered supporters prizes including 2026/27 season tickets, 2026/27 shirts, match tickets, or a £25 club shop voucher, with fans required to answer Middlesbrough trivia and complete a football challenge.

Middlesbrough former players Craig Hignett and David Wheater attended the event, and, according to the company, took bonus attempts on behalf of participants who missed out.

Andrew Mook, Midnite’s Head of Brand Marketing, said:

“Middlesbrough have a storied history and we’re delighted to announce this partnership during such a monumental year with the club celebrating their 150th anniversary.

“It was great to see so many Middlesbrough fans at the “This Season’s On Us” activation, we hope they enjoyed taking part and meeting club legends, with David Wheater hitting top bins on several occasions and allowing fans to win big with season tickets.

“We can’t wait to get to Riverside Stadium in August to kick-off a new season and we’re excited to say that we have plenty of new and captivating campaigns planned.”

Lee Fryett, Middlesbrough FC Chief Commercial Officer, added:

“We’re delighted to welcome Midnite as our new Principal Partner.

“We’re looking forward to working closely with Midnite to develop engaging campaigns, content and unique experiences that bring our fans even closer to the club.

“We’re confident this partnership will provide real value for our supporters while supporting our ambitions both on and off the pitch.”

The post Midnite signs as Middlesbrough FC principal partner for 2026/27 season appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

AGCO

ThrillTech secures AGCO supplier licence for Ontario launch

Published

15 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Wladimir P.

thrilltech-secures-agco-supplier-licence-for-ontario-launch

ThrillTech has been awarded a Gaming-Related Supplier licence by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), clearing the company to launch in Ontario’s regulated market.

The licence allows ThrillTech to deploy its opt-in side bet jackpots technology with regulated online casino, sports betting and lottery operators across the province.

Benjamin Bradtke, Co-Founder of ThrillTech, said: “Securing our AGCO licence is a major step in our mission to transform how jackpots are delivered at scale across regulated markets. This latest certification is testament to our robust technology and trusted compliance frameworks, allowing us to continue our global growth trajectory. We are thrilled to bring our proven, compliant jackpot technology to Ontario, empowering locally licensed operators to uplift revenue without cannibalising existing spend.”

The company said its “ThrillPots” mechanics sit as an independent, player-funded side bet and do not alter the underlying game’s return-to-player mathematics.

ThrillTech said the Ontario approval enables its existing multinational partners that also operate in the province to launch its side bet jackpots locally, while it also holds talks with potential new operator partners. The company lists its regulated footprint as including the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Romania, Malta, Gibraltar, Brazil and Peru.

The post ThrillTech secures AGCO supplier licence for Ontario launch appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.