Latest News
Mobile apps developer and publisher Homa Games raises a record $15 million, the largest European Seed round in 2021
Homa Games, a mobile developer and publisher with more than 30 apps in its portfolio, has raised a record $15 million Seed round from Idinvest Partners, e.ventures & renowned business angels.
Since its foundation in 2018, Homa Games has chosen HyperCasual as its main focus and has created multiple worldwide game hits of the genre such as Tower Color, Sky Roller and NERF Epic Pranks!. Combining in-house made tech and its own creative studio, Homa Games provides the service of unique excellence to its studio-partners with the focal point on automation and optimization at every step of app production and publishing.
GROWING EXPONENTIALLY EXPONENTIALLY DESPITE COVID RESTRICTIONS
The company’s rapid growth fell on the world-turning pandemic, making it one of the only startups in France actively hiring during the national lockdown. Homa Games quadrupled its team in the past year, expanding the offices to Toulouse, Lisbon and Skopje with the HQ remaining in Paris, and absorbed free-to-play mobile Toulouse-based studio IRL Team. In the same span of time, the company’s milestones were topped by reaching 250 million lifetime downloads, with one of the biggest contributors being NERF Epic Pranks! – one of the first IP HyperCasual games on the market and the company’s first licenced game in collaboration with Hasbro.
“Resilience, task ownership and teamwork are the basis of Homa Games culture, and what allowed us not only to be fully operational during the lockdown, but succeeding in innovation and growth.” shared Oliver le Bas, CRO and Co-founder.
By 2021 Homa Games consolidated its growth by hiring key management figures, including VP of Operations, Julien Bourhis, previously project leader for Boston Consulting Group, Naveen Mewani, Head of Growth Strategies and Romain Levrini, VP of Finance.
DISRUPTING THE CONTENT CREATION PROCESS TO RELEASE LEADING MOBILE APPS WORLDWIDE
“HyperCasual is paving the way for a new production flow to release fun games at a very fast speed. At Homa, we are creating technologies to push this vision a step further, and our goal is to disrupt the content creation process to release the most entertaining apps to a massive audience. We unlock the creativity of developers around the world. This Seed round will enable us to invest further in talents, IP licensing, and products.” Daniel Nathan, CEO & Co-Founder Homa Games.
IDINVEST PARTNERS AND E.VENTURES SUPPORT WILL ACCELERATE HOMA’S GLOBAL EXPANSION AND IMPACT ON THE MOBILE INDUSTRY
In the ever growing mobile industry Homa aims to further diversify and expand their portfolio, innovate and create new tech in User Acquisition and Monetisation, and prototyping and development. The company will combine its expertise with the experience of Idinvest Partners, a European venture capital firm and holder of the Venture 2020 fund prize by Private Equity Magazine, and e.ventures, a leading early-stage early-stage American venture capital fund which invested in Farfetch, Sonos, Scopely, Blinkist and Gopuff among other companies. OneRagtime, a French venture capital fund is also participating in the round. Renowned business angels invested in the company including Jean-Marie Messier (ex-Vivendi CEO), Vladimir Lasocki (Managing Director and Co-Head Carlyle Europe Technology Partners), John Cheng (ex-GM Data Products at Unity) & Alexis Bonillo (Co-Founder of Zenly).
Benoist Grossmann, Managing Partner at Idinvest Partners, and Jonathan Userovici, Partner at e.ventures are joining the board of Homa Games.
Benoist Grossmann declares: “The world of mobile games is booming. Homa is already becoming one the leading players in the space with an exceptional team innovating at a crazy pace.”
“Homa built its own proprietary technologies and tools over the past years, making its end-to-end platform one of the most efficient and successful worldwide. The team is building better and better apps & games, reaching hundreds of millions of users and building long-term playful relationships with this audience” adds Jonathan Userovici.
Welcome to our weekly roundup of American gambling news again! Here, we are going through the weekly highlights of the American gambling industry which include the latest news and new partnerships. Read on and get updated.
Latest News
This month The Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise honoured 186 of its total 1200 team members for reaching significant employment milestones including 15, 10 and 5 years of service for the enterprise. The event at Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort in Flagstaff, Ariz. showcased the impact and journey of each hard-working team member, with a special highlight for 29 employees who have served for 15 years.
Bruce Smith Enterprise and The Cordish Companies have been selected by the City of Petersburg, Virginia to codevelop a $1.4 billion Live! Gaming & Entertainment District, anchored by Live! Casino & Hotel Virginia. The Petersburg City Council unanimously approved Bruce Smith Enterprise and The Cordish Companies as the City’s preferred development partner on the transformative mixed-use project. The proposed project will generate billions of dollars in economic benefits and spinoff development, create thousands of new jobs and benefits to the local community and become a major new tourist destination for the City and the Central Virginia region.
CT Interactive’s LATAM team, led by Diego Verano Ponce and Ana Ruth Farías, attended SIGMA Brazil from April 23 to 25, 2024. The company’s decision to participate in the event underscores its commitment to expanding its presence and strengthening relationships within the region. The presence of Diego Verano and Ana Ruth Farías at SIGMA Brazil provided an excellent opportunity for CT Interactive to engage with industry stakeholders, discuss emerging trends and explore potential partnerships in the LATAM market.
The Colorado Division of Gambling has launched a new illegal gambling awareness campaign. The “Play Legit. Gamble Only Where Legal.” campaign aims to educate the public about the risks associated with illegal gambling and the importance of supporting regulated gaming venues. The campaign emphasises legal gambling options, including casinos in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek, as well as online sports betting and off-track betting.
Lottery.com Inc. announced the restart of its sweepstakes operations in conjunction with the WinTogether Trust, a registered 501(c)3 charitable organisation. The proceeds from the sweepstakes will benefit Street Child United. The sweepstakes had a soft launch on April 3, 2024, and is available at http://donateto.win, the successor to Lottery.com’s WinTogether.org platform.
Partnerships
Hard Rock International, Seminole Gaming and Royal Caribbean Group brands, Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, unveiled a global partnership that will benefit both vacationers and team members of the brands. Travellers around the world can take advantage of accommodations, meals, discounts and more at Hard Rock and Seminole casinos, hotels and cafes, and on Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises vacations based on the milestone announcement made by two of South Florida’s largest private employers.
SCCG Management has signed a contract with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), the B.C. Crown corporation which conducts and manages commercial gambling in the province, including lotteries, casinos and online gaming. This partnership aims to undertake a comprehensive assessment and strategic enhancement of BCLC’s diverse operations. The work between SCCG and BCLC will involve a thorough review of technological infrastructures, strategic market positioning and the integration of various gaming modalities.
The post Gaming Americas Weekly Roundup – April 29-May 5 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO)
Soft2Bet strengthens integrity monitoring with IBIA membership in Ontario
Soft2Bet, a leading casino and sportsbook platform provider, has joined the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and activated its membership in Ontario, Canada, following its licensing in the Canadian province.
Soft2bet obtained its Certificate of Registration from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) at the end of March, where the company’s Ontario-focused brand Tooniebet.com will now feed into IBIA’s world-leading sports betting integrity monitoring platform before worldwide implementation in the coming months.
IBIA includes over 50 of the world’s leading sports betting and gaming companies, who operate over 125 sports betting brands. Soft2Bet’s decision to join the association further strengthens its own internal betting integrity protocols and IBIA’s position as the world’s leading sports betting integrity monitoring body.
David Yatom Hay, General Counsel at Soft2Bet, commented: “Soft2Bet is delighted to be joining the IBIA as we strengthen our own betting integrity monitoring processes and play our part in furthering the IBIA’s long-standing work on this key issue. Ontario is a world class iGaming jurisdiction; it will be the first market where we will implement our IBIA membership and we look forward to deploying the monitoring infrastructure worldwide in all the other markets in which we operate.”
Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “Soft2Bet is a very welcome addition to IBIA, further strengthening our position in the Ontario market. The operator’s decision to join IBIA demonstrates its desire to utilise the best integrity protection available for its sportsbook product. The association is delighted to be able to integrate Tooniebet within our integrity monitoring system and looks forward to working closely with Soft2Bet to maintain the high integrity of its sportsbook.”
IBIA is a not-for-profit body that has no competing conflicts with the delivery of commercial services to other sectors and is run by operators and for operators to protect regulated sports betting markets from match-fixing. IBIA’s global monitoring network is a highly effective anti-corruption tool, detecting and reporting suspicious activity in regulated betting markets.
Through the IBIA monitoring network it is possible to track transactional activities linked to individual customer accounts. IBIA members generate more than $300bn in annual betting turnover (handle), accounting for approximately 50% of the global commercial regulated land-based and online sports betting sector, and in excess of 50% for online alone.
IBIA recently released a report on the Availability of Sports Betting Products which highlighted Ontario as a leading regulated gambling jurisdiction, with an expected onshore channelisation for sports betting of 92% in 2024 forecast to rise to 97% in2028. IBIA currently represents over 60% of the private sports betting operators licensed in the province. All online sportsbetting operators licensed in Ontario are required to be part of a betting integrity monitoring body.
IBIA’s Q1 2024 report detailed 56 alerts during the quarter. IBIA alerts contributed to the investigations and subsequent successful sanctioning of 21 clubs, players and officials in 2023, an increase on the 15 sanctioned in 2022.
In a thrilling display of fortune and skill, Tusk Casino announces a monumental win by Adelheid, a passionate player from South Africa, who secured an astonishing R189,000 from a mere R100 bet on the renowned casino slot game, Gate of Olympus. This remarkable achievement underscores the high-stakes excitement that Tusk Casino offers to its players.
Adelheid’s journey to this significant win was facilitated by his engagement with SouthAfricanCasinos.co.za, the premier online casino and gambling guide specifically designed for South African players. Since its inception in 2003, SouthAfricanCasinos.co.za has been a cornerstone in the online gambling community, offering expert reviews, trustworthy recommendations, and the latest gambling news, thereby guiding players like Adelheid to reputable and enjoyable online gambling experiences.
“I’ve always looked for the best in online casinos, and SouthAfricanCasinos.co.za has never let me down,” Adelheid remarked. “Their insightful reviews and dependable advice led me to Tusk Casino, where I’ve not only found an incredible array of games but also this life-changing win. It’s a dream come true.”
Tusk Casino is renowned for its vast selection of over 3000 slot games, provided by world-leading game developers such as Pragmatic Play, Yggdrasil, and NetEnt. The casino distinguishes itself with generous bonus offerings, including a 50 Free Spins No Deposit On Wheel of Fortune on Registration, and a R5,000 Welcome Bonus for first-time deposits, making it an enticing choice for both new and seasoned players.
Adelheid’s win is a testament to Tusk Casino’s commitment to providing a premier online gaming experience in the South African market. The casino’s elegant design, user-friendly interface, and substantial bonuses are designed to engage and excite players, promising an unmatched online gaming journey.
With the support of SouthAfricanCasinos.co.za, Tusk Casino continues to solidify its position as a leading online gaming destination, offering secure, engaging, and lucrative gaming experiences for South African players. This partnership ensures that players have access to reliable information, the latest industry news, and the best online gambling opportunities, fostering a safe and enjoyable casino online gambling ecosystem.
About SouthAfricanCasinos.co.za
SouthAfricanCasinos.co.za stands as South Africa’s largest and most reliable online casino and gambling guide, delivering unparalleled casino recommendations, unbiased reviews, and comprehensive gambling insights tailored to ZAR casino players since 2003. It remains a crucial resource for players seeking secure, high-quality, and rewarding online gambling experiences.
About Tusk Casino
As an established corporation with numerous ground casinos worldwide, Tusk Casino has successfully extended its reach into the South African online casino market, offering an exquisite blend of stylish design, player-centric features, and significant bonuses. Licensed and regulated by the Government of Curacao, it provides a diverse range of over 3000 slot games from leading global providers, ensuring a rich, rewarding, and secure online gaming experience for all South African players. With its impressive bonuses and comprehensive payment support, Tusk Casino is dedicated to delivering a distinct and superior online gaming experience.
Gaming Americas Weekly Roundup – April 29-May 5
Soft2Bet strengthens integrity monitoring with IBIA membership in Ontario
South African Online Casino Player Strikes Gold with R189,000 Win at Tusk Casino
South African Online Casino Player Strikes Gold with R189,000 Win at Tusk Casino
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