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Mobile apps developer and publisher Homa Games raises a record $15 million, the largest European Seed round in 2021

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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.

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Stake unveils new Stake Engine: Build. Launch. Earn. The Engine Is Yours

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Stake, the world’s largest online casino, today announced the launch of Stake Engine — a next-generation Remote Gaming Server (RGS) built to give developers the tools, infrastructure, and audience they need to succeed on their terms.

Backed by the technology behind 300 billion bets and a global community of over 20 million players, Stake Engine offers an instant path to revenue with full end-to-end game development tools and the most developer-friendly commercial model in iGaming: 10% GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue), paid monthly.

Whether you’re an indie creator or a full-scale studio, Stake Engine offers everything you need to build, deploy, and grow games on your terms.

Studios are already winning.
Over the past 12 months, games built on Stake Engine have generated $3.31 billion in turnover. In the most recent quarter, three titles ranked among Stake’s top 50 games by total bets: Massive Studio’s Jawsome at #17, Serpentina at #23, and Twist’s Samurai Dogs Unleashed at #25.

Who can build?
Any developer. From math devs and indie studios to full-stack teams, if you can design and deliver engaging games, you’re welcome here.

What can you build?
Anything your imagination allows. Slots, wheel mechanics, card-based logic, original IP, Stake Engine has no templates, no restrictions, and no gatekeeping. If it plays well and meets our standards, you can build it, launch it, and own it.

Why build on Stake Engine?
Stake Engine gives developers everything they need to launch faster, without the barriers that slow down traditional game development.

No need to build your own infrastructure, negotiate publisher deals, or spend months integrating with legacy Remote Gaming Servers (RGS). With Stake Engine, you can go from idea to live game in days.

Stake handles the infrastructure, distribution, and visibility, so you can focus on what matters: building great games. There’s no pitching, no storefront politics, and no delays.

Behind the scenes, Stake Engine powers everything with a full front-end SDK, integrated math engine, balancing toolkit, and real-time analytics dashboard — putting real performance data at your fingertips.

And once your game goes live, you get paid monthly, with 10% GGR royalties and zero lockups.

Proven at Scale

  • Over 300 billion bets placed on Stake

  • 10 billion monthly wagers processed

  • Stake is behind 4% of global Bitcoin transactions
    Capable of handling 1 million+ bets per second

    Stake Engine: Key Features

  • Stake Engine delivers unmatched scale and performance, supporting over 1 million bets per second and powered by the same infrastructure behind the world’s most popular crypto casino.

  • It offers a full end-to-end developer stack, including a front-end framework, integrated math engine, and balancing toolkit — everything needed to build rich, interactive games quickly and at scale.

  • Developers have complete creative freedom with no templates or restrictions. Build any game, upload it, and launch directly to Stake’s global audience.

  • Instant deployment tools allow developers to upload, test, and go live in minutes, with full versioning and real-time testing capabilities.

  • Stake Engine provides transparent analytics, offering real-time insights into game performance across players, markets, and engagement cohorts.

  • It features an industry-leading commercial model with 10% GGR perpetual royalties — the most aggressive terms in gaming, paid monthly without delays or hidden fees.

  • Stake Engine is built by developers, for developers. Created by the engineers behind some of iGaming’s top studios, it is focused on speed, control, and fixing everything broken about legacy game launch processes.

  • Stake also handles all positioning, marketing, and growth — giving developers full visibility and freeing them to focus purely on building great games.

Brais Pena, Chief Strategy Officer at Easygo, the technology powerhouse behind Stake, said: “Stake Engine is built for creators, with speed, freedom, and scale baked in.”

“Stake Engine is more than just infrastructure, it’s a launchpad for the next generation of iGaming creators. We’ve taken everything we’ve learned building the world’s most popular online casino and packaged it into a platform that removes barriers, unlocks creativity, and delivers scale from day one.”

“Stake Engine is what happens when the biggest operator in iGaming builds for the builders. It’s not just a platform. It’s our commitment to the next generation of game creators.”

The post Stake unveils new Stake Engine: Build. Launch. Earn. The Engine Is Yours appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs

PENN Entertainment Announces Plans for New Land-Based Hollywood Casino to Replace Riverboat Gaming Operations in Council Bluffs, Iowa

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PENN Entertainment Inc. announced plans for an expected $180–$200 million project to relocate its Ameristar Casino Hotel Council Bluffs (Ameristar) riverboat casino operations to a new, state-of-the-art land-based property to be rebranded as Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs (Hollywood Council Bluffs). The proposal is approved by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission in conjunction with a 15-year extension of Ameristar’s partnership with the nonprofit Qualified Sponsoring Organization (QSO) Iowa West Racing Association. All commercial operators in Iowa are required to have an operating agreement with a QSO licensed to conduct gaming operations.

Under the proposed plan, the new Hollywood Council Bluffs is expected to include roughly 125,000 square feet of new development with approximately 58,000 square feet of gaming space. The new facility will complement the existing ESPN BET sportsbook, 160-room hotel and dining options in the landside portion of the current infrastructure. The existing riverboat, which presently offers gaming spread out over three levels, will be vacated upon opening of the new property.

“We are pleased to add another landside relocation to our pipeline of development projects. This project will enhance the quality and efficiency of our Council Bluffs location and significantly improve the property’s competitive positioning in the greater Omaha market. PENN’s diversified portfolio of casino properties is core to our omni-channel approach to entertainment, which combines our best-in-class retail operations and a database of more than 32 million PENN Play members with our robust interactive and media footprint. We thank the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission for their approval today and are grateful for the continued collaboration with our partners at the Iowa West Racing Association,” said Todd George, Executive Vice President of Operations for PENN.

“We are thrilled with the exciting development plans for the new Hollywood Casino Council Bluffs. For nearly thirty years, the Ameristar riverboat has been providing not only dining and entertainment, but thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in support of our community. PENN’s commitment to reinvesting in Council Bluffs is laudable and we are grateful for our ongoing partnership,” said Brenda Mainwaring, President & CEO of the Iowa West Racing Association.

Construction of the new facility is expected to take approximately 18-24 months following the design and permitting approval process. The Company is entitled to obtain financing for the project from Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. (GLPI) of up to $150 million at a 7.10% cap rate, which may be structured at PENN’s option as either rent or a 5-year term loan that is pre-payable at any time without penalty.

The post PENN Entertainment Announces Plans for New Land-Based Hollywood Casino to Replace Riverboat Gaming Operations in Council Bluffs, Iowa appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.

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PrizePicks Teams Up with San Francisco Giants as Official DFS Partner

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PrizePicks, the largest daily fantasy sports operator in North America, announced that it has been named the Official Daily Fantasy Partner of the San Francisco Giants. The new partnership strengthens the DFS leader’s presence in professional baseball and features digital and in-park activations at Oracle Park.

“We are thrilled to team up with a legendary organization like the San Francisco Giants. PrizePicks is committed to bringing unique experiences to our players around the country and is excited to strengthen our connection with baseball fans in San Francisco and across the United States,” said Mike Quigley, Chief Marketing Officer at PrizePicks.

As part of the multi-year partnership, PrizePicks branding will be showcased prominently throughout Oracle Park with rotating signage behind home plate and LED signage on each baseline. PrizePicks logos will be featured across the K-Counter in right field, creating an interactive experience for fans in the ballpark. Fans seated on top of the right field wall near the strikeout counter will have the opportunity to flip over the PrizePicks branded signs, revealing a “K” for each strikeout earned by a Giants pitcher.

When Giants pitchers combine for 12 strikeouts in a home game, fans can participate in a text-to-enter promotion with the chance to win a $12,000 free PrizePicks lineup and tickets to a future Giants game at Oracle Park.

“The Giants are always looking for innovative ways to enhance the fan experience. Partnering with PrizePicks provides our fans with new ways to engage with us and deepen their connection to both the Giants and baseball,” said Jason Pearl, Chief Revenue Officer at the San Francisco Giants.

The post PrizePicks Teams Up with San Francisco Giants as Official DFS Partner appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.

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