Latest News
Recognising excellence in game development: Nominations open for CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards
SBC is excited to announce that nominations for the Game Creation and Game People categories of the prestigious Game Developer Awards, returning to Malta for their third edition in May, are now open. The nomination period will last until 24 February.
The awards ceremony, which is part of the CasinoBeats Summit conference and exhibition, will take place at the InterContinental Hotel on 25 May. The lavish event that recognises and celebrates the creative and innovative game development teams behind the industry’s most successful titles will be attended by 400 guests.
The CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards will feature 19 categories that honour the top game studios, individual casino games, streamers and game elements as well as innovation and the people who have contributed to the success of the best casino titles of the year. The categories are divided into five main groups:
- Game Performance (Slot of the Year, Slot to Watch, Slot Debut, Slot Legacy Title, Slot Collaboration of the Year)
- Game Creation (Game Mechanic of the Year, Game Feature of the Year, Game Licensed Content, Game Retro-style, Game Design & Art Direction, Game Music/Soundtrack)
- Game Marketing (Streamer of the Year, Innovation in Marketing)
- Game People (Product Manager, Game Designer, Game Composer).
SBC has also once again teamed up with SlotCatalog, a casino game ranking and insights platform, to create three data-driven categories for the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards 2023.
These categories include Outperforming Game Studio of the Year, which will be presented to the three game studios (small, medium, large) whose slot rank has increased the most compared to their position a year ago; Game Studio of the Year, which will be given to three game studios with the highest slot rank over the last 12 months; and Rookie of the Year, which will be awarded to the new game studio that went from having no distribution last year to achieving the biggest impact over the past year
Rasmus Sojmark, CEO & Founder of the event organiser SBC, said: “The CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards are a truly special occasion in my eyes. This ceremony is an opportunity to honour the often overlooked elements of game development, such as the best soundtrack, innovative game mechanics, unexpected success, and the individuals who made it all happen. It’s an event that recognises and celebrates the creativity, fun, and entertainment that make our industry a great place to work.”
The shortlists for the Game Performance and Game Marketing categories of the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards will be selected by SBC’s independent panel of judges, and the winners will be chosen through audience live voting at the CasinoBeats Summit conference and trade show.
The Game Creation and Game People categories will be open for nominations from 12 January to 24 February and the winners will be decided by the independent panel of judges. The Game People category is a new addition to the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards that aims to recognise and celebrate individuals who have actively contributed to the success of a top casino product.
The SlotCatalog categories, which are purely data-driven, will not require nominations or go through a judging process.
Last year’s winners of the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards included companies such as Blueprint Gaming, Habanero, Peter & Sons, Playtech, Pragmatic Play, Relax Gaming and Stakelogic.
This year’s ceremony at the luxurious InterContinental Hotel will feature a welcome drinks reception and a lavish three-course dinner with complimentary beer, wine, and spirits. Tables and individual tickets are available to purchase here.
The shortlists will be announced on 21 March. Nominate here.
Powered by WPeMatico
GR8 Tech
GR8_TECH to showcase platform suite at iGB L!VE 2026 in London
The supplier is also shortlisted for Best Affiliate Management Platform at the iGB Affiliate Awards 2026.
GR8_TECH will attend iGB L!VE 2026 at ExCeL London on 1–2 July, where it plans to meet operators, affiliates, and industry partners and showcase its product portfolio across sportsbook, casino, turnkey, aggregation, and affiliate operations.
The company said it will present technology aimed at operators looking to “scale with structure” and improve performance, positioning the event as a key point for commercial and platform decisions.
GR8_TECH’s London appearance also comes with an awards shortlist. The supplier’s affiliate management platform has been shortlisted for Best Affiliate Management Platform at the iGB Affiliate Awards 2026. The company said the platform focuses on visibility, flexible commission management, scalable tracking, and tools designed to support affiliate partnerships.
“iGB L!VE is where operators come to make serious decisions,” said Sergey Ghazaryan, CRO at GR8_TECH. “We are coming to London prepared, focused, and ready to help ambitious operators build the kind of setup that wins under pressure.”
The company invited attendees to meet its team during iGB L!VE 2026 in London.
The post GR8_TECH to showcase platform suite at iGB L!VE 2026 in London appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Conferences
From Manila to Miami: Groove Brings Its Global Momentum to SBC Summit Americas 2026
Fresh from participating at SiGMA Asia, Groove is now setting its sights on the Americas. The award-winning platform and aggregator will touch down at SBC Summit Americas 2026, bringing a global strategy forged across three continents to the fast-growing markets of North and Latin America.
The event, running June 9–11 at the Broward County Convention Centre, will see Groove’s leadership team, including Co-Founder and CEO Yahale Meltzer and Business Development Director Giusy Campo, engage with operators, regulators, and affiliates from across the hemisphere. Their arrival in Fort Lauderdale is no mere conference stop. It is the next chapter in a year of deliberate, multi-continental expansion.
Groove enters Florida on the back of a transformative 2025. The company secured a license to operate in Brazil, established regulated activity in Argentina, and deepened its footprint across Europe, Africa, and Asia. Recent shortlistings validated a strategic pivot: from content provider to comprehensive growth engine. Now, the Americas beckon.
Giusy Campo, Business Development Director at Groove, who joined the company in 2025 to lead its charge into regulated markets, has been at the centre of this global push. She will be on the ground in Fort Lauderdale, continuing conversations that began at SiGMA Asia just days earlier: “When we move into a new region, we don’t arrive empty-handed,” said Campo. “We come with a platform built on structural resilience: predictive auto-scaling, atomic transactions, and a real-time compliance mesh that adapts to jurisdictional demands, not the other way around. Operators in the Americas face many of the same pressures as their counterparts in Asia: banking scrutiny, shifting regulations, and the need for flawless execution. Our ‘Unseen Architecture’ was built for exactly this moment.”
Campo will be meeting with operators seeking more than a game list. “They need a partner whose platform won’t introduce compliance or operational risk into their business,” she added. “That’s what we deliver. From Manila to Miami, the questions are the same. And we have the answers.”
Groove’s presence at SBC Summit Americas is the mirror image of its recent success at SiGMA Asia. In Manila, the company joined a high-stakes panel on regulatory resilience in the “Jurisdiction Jungle”. In Florida, the conversation shifts to the Americas, where the opportunities are vast, but the regulatory landscape is equally fragmented.
With over 15,000 games from more than 150 providers unified through a single API, Groove offers operators a powerful shortcut to market leadership.
SBC Summit Americas 2026 is expected to draw over 10,000 industry professionals and 400 exhibitors, covering regulation, product innovation, payment technology, cryptocurrency, AI, and cybersecurity. Groove will be positioned at the intersection of all of them, ready to show operators why the platform that just conquered Asia is now setting its sights on the Americas.
Yahale Meltzer, Co-Founder and CEO of Groove, framed the company’s back-to-back summit presence as a matter of strategic discipline: “We don’t do ‘one-off’ events. We build continuous relationships across the markets that matter,” said Meltzer. “Asia was about demonstrating structural resilience in the face of fragmentation. The Americas require the same rigour: a platform that can scale from a single operator in Argentina to a national lottery in Brazil without breaking compliance or trust. Our nomination in Manila wasn’t an endpoint. It was a signal. Now we take that signal to Fort Lauderdale, where the real work begins.”
Meltzer emphasised that Groove’s global footprint with offices in Israel, Georgia, and Malta, and a 24/7 multilingual support team, is the operational backbone of this expansion.
“When an operator in São Paulo has a question, they get an answer from someone who understands their market context, not just their technical issue,” he said. “That is the difference between a platform and a partner. We are here to be the latter, for the Americas and beyond.”
The post From Manila to Miami: Groove Brings Its Global Momentum to SBC Summit Americas 2026 appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
community
Score Queens launches with free-to-play World Cup predictor game Palace Picks
Score Queens, a new female-first sports gaming community, has launched with Palace Picks, a free-to-play daily predictor game created for this summer’s World Cup.
Palace Picks runs throughout the tournament and asks players to answer five multiple-choice predictor questions plus one score prediction linked to that day’s matches. Players collect “Jewels” through participation, which the company says can be used to unlock raffle tickets for the headline prize.
The product has been developed in collaboration with Two-Up, a digital agency focused on sports, betting and gaming experiences. Score Queens said the partnership combines its brand positioning with Two-Up’s product, UX and digital delivery work.
The launch prize, sponsored by Vision4Sport, is a Monaco Grand Prix 2027 experience for one winner and a guest. The package includes Friday attendance with two grandstand passes, two superyacht party tickets in Port Hercule with food and drinks, and £1,500 towards flights and accommodation. Score Queens values the prize at over £5,000.
Kitty Miller, Founder of Score Queens, said: “Score Queens came from a very simple frustration. Women are already watching sport, talking about sport and being part of the big sporting moments, but so much of the betting and gaming world still feels like it wasn’t built with us in mind.
“Palace Picks is our first step in changing that. It is free to play, easy to join, and designed to bring more women into the sporting conversation through play, prediction, culture and community. We wanted to create something that feels fun, social and accessible, without dumbing anything down.”
The post Score Queens launches with free-to-play World Cup predictor game Palace Picks appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
-
Compliance Updates6 days agoKingMidas Games Secures Peru Certification
-
Asia7 days agoEGT Digital wins Sportsbook Player Experience Innovation at SiGMA Asia Awards 2026
-
Canada6 days agoXSOLLA STRENGTHENS COMMITMENT TO ATLANTIC CANADA’S GROWING GAME INDUSTRY WITH EXPANDED EVENT PRESENCE
-
Brazil6 days agoGaming Corps rolls out full game portfolio with KTO in Brazil
-
Canada6 days agoSkillOnNet Goes Live with Ready Play Gaming Across Ontario, Mexico and Canada
-
Ben Scobie-Trumper Head of Sales at mkodo6 days agoGGPoker selects GeoLocs geolocation service for regulated Ontario market
-
Latest News6 days agoCrypto Platform 1win Welcomes Ilia Topuria as the 1win VIP Community Member
-
Business Development6 days agoXsolla expands Atlantic Canada event push with Game Invest East and XP Game Connect



