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Successful opening of ‘The Matchbook Straight Seven’ at Cork Racecourse with Irish Minister in attendance
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After trialling of the new ‘Matchbook Straight Seven’ took place at Cork Racecourse Mallow on 23rd April, the racecourse had a successful opening on Friday as part of the racecourse’s two-day ‘Race and Taste’ Festival. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD was in attendance for what was a landmark day for Cork Racecourse.
The first race over the straight seven was the valuable, Matchbook Straight Seven Handicap and was won by the Dennis Hogan trained and ultra-consistent performer Turbine. The mount of Killian Leonard kept on strongly in the driving rain to land the contest for the Boherna-based stable.
Former Mayor for County Cork, John Paul O’Shea said: “This is a great asset to the Racing industry and a great boost for the economy in North Cork. I look forward to seeing some good horses compete on this new track over the coming months.”
Groundworks began in 2017 to extend the existing six-furlong sprint track at Cork Racecourse Mallow, making it one of only two straight seven-furlong facilities in the country. The €500,000 development was funded through the Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) racetrack improvement scheme as part of the overall Capital Development Scheme.
Horses galloped over the Matchbook Straight Seven for the first time towards the end of April and trainer Aidan O’Brien commented: “It’s something really exciting. We never had a seven-furlong track like this in Ireland before, it’s a flat fast seven furlongs, horses don’t miss a beat down there, the ground was beautiful. I think it’s really exciting.
“It’s different class. This is a great track. Like I said, it’s real flat, fast. It dries out really well, the ground gets lovely and quick. We’re just very lucky to have it, a stand and facilities like this, stable yard, parade ring. It’s great for us to have it in this part of the country really.”
Fozzy Stack said, “It’s an exciting thing for everybody, straight tracks are at a premium in this country and it looks in fantastic shape, it’s great. I think it’ll be a big addition to racing in Ireland.”
Champion jockey Donnacha O’Brien said, “It’s lovely, it rode lovely, very very fair, obviously very even, not a single bump in it. Both horses I rode on were lovely and smooth, moved very well. I was delighted with it, it’s a great facility and I think it’ll be a big bonus to Irish racing. A lot of tracks in England and abroad are going to be straight sevens, straight miles, so it’s a great bonus to be able to have one here on our back door.”
Seamie Heffernan added, “It was a very good six-furlong track and they’ve redone the surface with an extra furlong. There’s only one other track that can match it in this country and that’s the Curragh, so it has to be a massive boost. I’m well used to riding on good tracks when I go to Britain, but the Irish tracks can be tight. This will be a good, fair track. It’s what racing needs.”
Chris Hayes said, “I thought it was beautifully presented, the soil has bedded in lovely, it’s a lovely fair track. There are no ridges or undulations, just a real wide, level, proper galloping track and I’m looking forward to racing on it in a couple of weeks.”
Mark Brosnan, CEO of Matchbook said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring The Matchbook Straight Seven, the new seven-furlong course at Cork Racecourse Mallow. This will be a unique addition to Irish racing and hugely positive development for Cork Racecourse.”
Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network
This is a Syndicated News piece. Photo credits or photo sources can be found on the source article: Successful opening of ‘The Matchbook Straight Seven’ at Cork Racecourse with Irish Minister in attendance
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UNIVERSITY Esports UK and Ireland launches its Spring 2025 Season: learn more about the games, schedules and signups
UNIVERSITY Esports is back for its Spring 2025 Season, which is open to students from universities across the UK and Ireland and brings with it five tournaments and six weeks of action across Overwatch 2, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and VALORANT. The tournaments will give students the opportunity to showcase their competitive skills against their peers, while also helping to build the grassroots gaming community – as participants play with their friends and make new ones.
This season of UNIVERSITY Esports follows high participation in the previous Winter 2024 Season, where over 600 teams and 3,000 players took part every week. UNIVERSITY Esports currently counts more than 20,000 people across more than 110 universities registered in the community.
Broadcasts of the Winter 2024 Grand Finals were produced by students from the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies (at Nottingham Trent University), in partnership with UNIVERSITY Esports staff to support the next generation of broadcasters.
Beyond competition
UNIVERSITY Esports, a grassroots esports organiser in the UK and Ireland operated by NUEL (a subsidiary of GGTech Entertainment), is about much more than just online competition, and also plays a big role in fostering communities and providing career opportunities and education.
Winter also saw the return of the UNIVERSITY Tour, an in-person series of events aimed at raising awareness of the esports community and building real-life connections between players. Nottingham Trent University and the University of Staffordshire hosted these face-to-face activities, with hundreds of students engaged about the benefits of participating in the esports community both professionally and to have fun.
Spring 2025 Tournament schedule
Signups are now open for the UNIVERSITY Esports Spring 2025 Season, and the tournaments will take place over February and March. Winning teams will be awarded with a shared £2,550 prize pool.
Key dates are as follows:
Overwatch 2
– Signups Close: Saturday 8th February
– Games Begin: Monday 10th February
Teamfight Tactics
– Signups Close: Sunday 9th February
– Games Begin: Tuesday 11th February
Women and Non-Binary VALORANT
– Signups Close: Tuesday 11th February
– Games Begin: Tuesday 18th February
League of Legends
– Signups Close: Monday 10th February
– Games Begin: Wednesday 12th February
Open VALORANT
– Signups Close: Tuesday 11th February
– Games Begin: Thursday 13th February
To take part, players need to verify their student status (if they haven’t already in Winter), and either create or join a team. Interested players can find out more information and register at universityesports.co.uk, and on the Discord.
The post UNIVERSITY Esports UK and Ireland launches its Spring 2025 Season: learn more about the games, schedules and signups appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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GGBET UA is the official sponsor of FC Dynamo Kyiv’s winter training camp
FC Dynamo Kyiv are continuing their winter training in Turkey, in preparation for the second half of the season in 2025. Their partner for the training period this year is GGBET UA.
The club’s CEO, Dmytro Brif, thanked GGBET UA for its support and underscored the importance of the training camp for the team’s future success:
“We are hugely grateful to GGBET UA for its partnership during this important period. Today, our efforts are focused on improving our game, working on our mistakes, and getting ready for upcoming matches. In the spring, we’re set on achieving the very best results we can in all tournaments.”
GGBET UA CEO Sergii Mishchenko stated that partnering up with Dynamo involves not just working together on the winter training camp, but also continuing with larger-scale joint projects geared towards the team’s fans:
“Within the partnership, we’re actively working with the club and are planning to create exciting content featuring the players and coaches. All of this helps to reduce the distance between the professional footballers and the regular fans, which is what we’re striving to do.”
Dynamo’s next winter training camp match will take place on 6 February at 17:00 in the Turkish city of Belek. The club will be facing off against KF Shkëndija, a team from North Macedonia. A live stream will be available on Dynamo’s YouTube channel.
The post GGBET UA is the official sponsor of FC Dynamo Kyiv’s winter training camp appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Blask integrates comprehensive licensing data
Blask, the AI-driven market analytics ecosystem, has added extensive regulated market data to its algorithm, which now analyses hundreds of reports from gambling commissions, tax authorities, industry experts and operators around the world.
The new input means Blask can deliver an accurate, multilingual, real-time picture of the regulatory situation in more than 40 iGaming markets, with many more to be added over the coming months.
By integrating verified data from regulatory bodies and gambling commissions, Blask can now provide:
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A market-by-market breakdown of local and offshore licence holders
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Tax rate insights to assess market profitability
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Advanced dashboards for strategic decision making
Max Tesla, CEO of Blask, said: “Regulated markets are evolving rapidly these days, and staying ahead requires accurate, real-time data. By integrating verified regulatory data directly into the Blask platform, we’re giving operators and other stakeholders the ability to make smarter decisions with absolute confidence. This is a huge leap forward in strategic market analysis.”
The new data has been seamlessly integrated into the Blask dashboard. Users can view details of the regulatory authority governing a market. For brands operating under local licences, Blask now features comprehensive licence information, including type and dates of issuance and expiration.
The Blask team has worked tirelessly to automate the analysis of hundreds of reports in multiple languages and from numerous different trusted sources. This includes brands that offer open data.
The post Blask integrates comprehensive licensing data appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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