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INSIDE THE POCKET LAUNCHES FREE-TO-ENTER $100k PRO FOOTBALL SURVIVOR GAME TO PROMOTE BROADER INDUSTRY ADOPTION
Inside The Pocket (ITP), the world’s only free-to-play and pay-to-play (F2P & P2P) aggregation platform, has launched Pro Football Survivor, an exciting new F2P game that offers industry professionals a jaw-dropping $100k prize ($50k to the winner, and a further $50k to their nominated charity) ahead of the upcoming 2023/24 Pro Football season, which gets underway on 7 September.
Pro Football Survivor is aimed at engaging all businesspeople at the intersection of sports betting and business, media and igaming, alongside a wider ecosystem – from leagues to agencies, across hospitality providers, caterers and even restaurants.
The popular Survivor format simply asks all participants to pick a non-reusable team to win every week throughout the entire Regular Season and the Playoffs. This ease of play is the reason for its recognised acquisition and retention strengths around repeat visits and improved dwell-time (as players routinely return to check results and their respective standings against colleagues and friends on the leaderboard, which is settled and updated after each game day).
The competition rules are as follows:
- Register at: https://itpsurvivor.io/survivor/
- Each week during the Pro Football season and playoffs, you must pick the winner of a game.
- You can only choose each team once throughout the entire season, including the playoffs and the Pro Football Championship game in Las Vegas.
- Only the final results at the end of regulation time will count. If a game you select is tied at the end of regulation, the selection will be deemed to have lost, regardless of overtime.
The game is now open to entries and industry peer-to-peer sharing across an evolving landscape of diverse players and companies which represent a wide spectrum of commercial intersectionality. ITP continues to stand alone in the F2P and P2P content market in that, via a single integration, it opens up an entire market of 20+ free-to-play and pay-to-play content providers to satisfy sports and casino needs around the world, irrespective of the data environment.
Hussain Naqi, Founder and CEO of Inside The Pocket, said: “No matter what Al Pacino said in Any Given Sunday, it’s actually a game of inching along, surviving week-by-week, and outlasting your rivals. So, join us for Pro Football Survivor and stand a chance to win big while also supporting a great charitable cause! It’s a fun way to learn more about America’s favourite sport, or flex your bragging-rights if you know the game well. It takes under a minute each week, and hopefully you’ll be coming back every week to play!�
“We’ve launched Pro Football Survivor to help people understand how we’re different. And it’s a broad church out there whom we want to engage, shining a light on the wide-ranging solutions that our unique platform can provide when it comes to acquisition and retention.
“We’re focused on B2B clients, whether that’s in sports media, the betting and gaming space, the hospitality industry, the restaurant sector or any other party amongst a varied Venn Diagram of interconnectivity. At ITP, we want to house many new potential partners under this same roof, such is our platform’s ability to target specific recreational player-groups and fulfil nuanced acquisition and retention goals.
“At ITP, we don’t view the landscape merely in terms of games. Rather, we think about the space as an entire ecosystem and strategy which we specifically cultivate as a flexible and ever-evolving piece of content for an overlapping and interdependent chain of companies to whom we can now demonstrate the multifaceted solutions of ITP.
“We have content of our own. We have an aggregation layer where we’ll put competitors side-by-side. We offer best-in-class data deals. In short, our unique platform drives new levels in acquisition and retention through its multiplicity of games, bespoke localised strategies and a quick-fire integration which averages just under three weeks in duration. This allows our partners to plan globally but think locally, mitigating regulatory risk from the patchwork quilt of state-by-state regulation in North America to LatAm, Africa and APAC.
“Perhaps our biggest challenge is to make people understand that variety is our touchstone. You can’t just back one horse, lest it become a flogging horse. Instead, companies need to be rolling out a variety of different products. We want our registrants to come to see this Survivor game as a sticky and intuitive free-to-play product that reliably gets people coming back each week. It has that crucial repeat-engagement attribute where everyone can quickly see the value proposition.�
Carlo Santarelli
Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. Names Carlo Santarelli Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations

Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. announced that Carlo Santarelli has been appointed Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations, a new position at the Company. Mr. Santarelli will begin his new position on August 18, 2025 and will report to GLPI President and Chief Operating Officer, Brandon Moore.
Mr. Santarelli brings over 25 years of Wall Street experience in Equity Research and Investment Banking to his new role and joins the Company from Deutsche Bank where he was Managing Director of Gaming & Lodging Equity Research. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Mr. Santarelli held similar positions at Bear Stearns, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. He consistently ranked highly in Institutional Investor and other sell-side analyst research polls as a thought leader in the space, providing unique perspectives on industry events and trends with his data-driven approach and stock picking talent. Carlo Santarelli graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Economics in 2000.
Peter Carlino, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GLPI, said: “We’ve known and respected Carlo’s research work on the gaming, lodging and gaming REIT sectors for many years. Carlo brings to GLPI an in-depth knowledge of the industry and its participants, having experienced GLPI’s original formation of the gaming triple-net-REIT structure from a research analyst and capital markets perspective. We value his deep network of contacts among institutional investors, sell-side analysts and a wide range of gaming industry operators and we look forward to the value of his contributions.”
In his new role, Mr. Santarelli will work with Mr. Carlino and GLPI’s senior management to develop and evaluate growth opportunities and strategic relationships, and will oversee investor relations interactions.
The post Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. Names Carlo Santarelli Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
Industry News
VIP Play Announces Departure of Chief Financial Officer

VIP Play, a technology-driven leader in interactive consumer engagement, announced that Jim Mackey, the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, will step down from his role, effective August 8, 2025.
The Company has initiated a transition process and is in the process of identifying a successor. Mackey will assist in an orderly transition over the coming weeks.
“We thank Jim for his contributions to the Company, particularly during a transformative period for our business. We remain focused on executing our strategic priorities, including financial visibility, operating efficiency, and delivering value to our stakeholders,” said Les Ottolenghi, CEO of VIP Play.
The post VIP Play Announces Departure of Chief Financial Officer appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
eSports
Esports Charts Becomes Official Viewership Analytics Partner of StarLadder Budapest Major 2025

Esports Charts, the leading esports viewership analytics provider, has partnered with StarLadder, a pioneering tournament organiser. The Budapest Major 2025 marks a highly anticipated comeback for StarLadder, as it is their first Counter-Strike Major since 2019 and a significant return to the top-tier esports arena.
As the official analytics partner of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, Esports Charts will provide comprehensive, real-time audience data and insights throughout the event. This will empower organisers, teams, sponsors and fans with unparalleled transparency and a deeper understanding of the tournament’s global reach.
Artyom Odintsov, Co-founder and CEO of Esports Charts, said: “We are thrilled and proud to provide viewership analytics for StarLadder for the Budapest Major 2025. Since both Esports Charts and StarLadder are Ukraine-born companies, we share similar values and deal with similar challenges, which brings us even closer.
“It’s genuinely exciting to follow how viewership will develop at this Major. But knowing the expertise, drive, and passion that the organizers are bringing, I have no doubt we’ll witness some incredible things happen in Budapest.
“Esports Charts has always been driven by a mission to provide the esports community with accurate, actionable data, and we look forward to showcasing the impact and audience engagement of this world-class event.”
StarLadder has been a driving force in global esports for almost 15 years now, since hosting its first tournaments in 2011. Renowned for its innovation and reliability, the company has organised some of the industry’s most iconic events. These include the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, which accumulated over 44 million hours watched and remains in the top 10 CS events by this metric, and the legendary StarSeries tournaments which started back in 2012.
Viacheslav Shcherbakov, Sales and Partnerships at StarLadder, said: “We’ve been working with Esports Charts since their founding and have always valued their professionalism and integrity. In a market where reliable data is essential, Esports Charts provides honest, transparent numbers, exactly the kind of insights sponsors and stakeholders rely on when assessing the potential reach of a World Championship event.
“We’re confident that this partnership will result in a high-quality analysis of our tournament’s performance and the audience data we’ll report to our partners. It’s a collaboration built on trust, shared values, and a deep understanding of what it takes to elevate esports to the next level.”
The Starladder Budapest Major 2025 will be held from November 24 to December 14 in Budapest, Hungary. The event will bring together the world’s top 32 Counter-Strike 2 teams to compete for a $1.25 million prize pool and one of the most prestigious titles in esports.
The post Esports Charts Becomes Official Viewership Analytics Partner of StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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