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Gaming in Central and Eastern Europe in focus at #EGC2020VE with +10 industry experts from the region
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Central and Eastern Europe in focus at European Gaming Congress VE (Virtual Edition).
#EGC2020ve – The CEE gaming industry has been in the highlights of many media outlets and believe it or not there is always something big happening in this region.
In the Czech Republic: Just one week ago, Czech Lawmakers have voted in favor of a new decree to ban all electronic and mechanical gaming machines in the Czech capital. The decree awaits a nod from the city council.
If it gets the council’s approval, it will mean the end of all legal slot machines and video lottery terminals in the Czech capital once the current licensing period completes in 2024.
In Austria: The Austrian Financial Police have carried out a total of 278 inspections on suspected black-market gambling venues since January, resulting in the confiscation of over 660 gaming machines. Over half of the seized machines were found in Vienna, the capital city of Austria.
In a statement issued on July 28, Austria’s financial police set out the progress it has made this year towards a reduction in illegal gambling in the country. It made clear that the majority of illegal gambling activity is taking place in larger urban centers such as Vienna and Linz.
In rural areas, illegal gambling has been largely reduced – for example, in the states of Burgenland, Styria and Vorarlberg combined, only two devices have been found since January.
In Poland: The new figures published by Poland’s finance ministry have revealed that while the gambling revenue decline for the year to date, newly regulated products helped mitigate the falls in online betting and land-based gaming.
The gross gaming yield projections provided by H2 Gambling Capital revealed that the total for the year to June 11 is expected to fall 9.5% from 2019’s figures. This is significantly lower than the 19.6% decline projected across all EU markets.
Poland’s lower projected decline was due to the development of newly regulated verticals such as online casinos and land-based arcades. Online casino revenue grew 96.7% for the year to June 11, aided by growth from Totalizator Sportowy’s Total Casino site.
Also in Poland, ace football striker Robert Lewandowski has signed an investment deal with Movie Games, in a Polish manufacturer of sports-related video games, which has gained publicity during the coronavirus lockdown.
According to Movie Games, Lewandowski will become a shareholder in a company that is going to be started in launched by September to develop sports video games.
Lewandowski said in a statement released by Movie Games: “I see a huge potential in this segment.”
In Bulgaria: The National Revenue Agency (NRA) has officially assumed the power of regulating the gambling industry in Bulgaria. The country’s National Assembly passed a resolution to this effect last month. It replaces the State Commission on Gambling (SCG).
NRA Director Galya Dimitrova, who has the option to nominate a deputy to oversee the regulated gaming market, will be in charge of all proceedings.
The previous licenses will remain valid until they expire. NRA will process license applications and renewals within six months.
SGC was dismantled from the gambling regulation responsibility following several scandals, leading to the resignation of Chairman Alexander Georgiev in February after he was questioned in connection to an investigation into Vasil Bozhkov, owner of Bulgaria’s oldest betting operator, Eurofootball.
The is plenty of news to share about the Hungarian, Slovakian and Romanian gambling industry as well, but we will leave that to the professionals who will join the 3 special panel discussions at the virtual edition of European Gaming Congress 2020.
The virtual edition of European Gaming Congress 2020 is taking place between 6-7 October and gathers top names of the gaming industry who will present their insights to create Europe’s largest gaming compliance gathering.
THE EASY AND FREE REGISTRATION PROCESS IS SPONSORED BY ALTENAR AND YOU CAN REGISTER FOR FREE HERE!
The conference will cover +28 jurisdictions and you have the opportunity to dive into quality information about the CEE region via 3 special panels.
The “GAMING REPORT: CENTRAL EUROPE (PART ONE)” panel discussion will focus on the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. The discussion will be moderated by Jakub Kolomicenko (Head of the legal department at Endorphina) and will be joined by Jan Rehola (Director at IFGR and Partner at PS Legal), Ewa Lejman-Widz (Head of Polish Desk at WH Partners), Anna Wietrzyńska-Ciołkowska (Legal advisor, Local Partner at DWF Poland), Jakub Myszkorowski (Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE) and Dr. Robert Skalina (Senior Advisor at WH Partners).
The “GAMING REPORT: CENTRAL EUROPE (PART TWO)” panel discussion will focus on Hungary and Slovenia under the moderation of Dr. Robert Skalina (Senior Advisor at WH Partners).
The discussion will be joined by Helembai Gabor (Attorney-at-law at Bird & Bird Hungary) and Jaka Repansek (Media and Gaming Expert, Partner at Hipther Agency).
The third panel discussion is going to focus on the updates from Romania and Bulgari and is titled “GAMING REPORT: EASTERN EUROPE”.
The discussion will be moderated by Ana-Maria Baciu (Managing Partner Simion & Baciu Law Firm) and will be joined by Dan Iliovici (Vice President of ROMBET – Romanian Gambling Organizers’ Association) and Georgi Dimitrov (Legal counsel at EGT Interactive Ltd).
You can find more details about the speakers’ and moderator bios below.
AS MENTIONED ABOVE THE EASY AND FREE REGISTRATION PROCESS IS SPONSORED BY ALTENAR AND YOU CAN REGISTER HERE NOW!
The HIPTHER FESTIVAL includes a full week of conferences that are designed to bring together innovation with compliance via several talks and discussions in multiple industries and will run between 5-9 October.
The festival includes the following conferences:
- PICANTE Marketing Summit (#MS2020ve) – 5 October
- European Gaming Congress (#EGC2020ve) – 6-7 October
- PICANTE TECH Conference Europe (#TCE2020AutumnVE) – 8-9 October
The registration is free and you can attend all three conferences with just one registration!
You can find more details about the Agenda here or you can register here!
For further inquiries about the speaking/sponsoring options, make sure to send an e-mail to Andrada Marginean (B2B Sales Executive at Hipther Agency) or subscribe to the weekly newsletter on the following link.
For media-related inquiries, please contact Alexandru Marginean (Marketing Specialist at Hipther Agency).
Ana-Maria Baciu – Managing Partner Simion & Baciu Law Firm
Ana-Maria Baciu is a regulatory and intellectual property lawyer, assisting clients in various industries, including gambling, IT, e-commerce or pharmaceuticals, for more than 20 years.
In the gaming field, Ana-Maria has been guiding betting & gaming companies, solution providers, marketing affiliates, other companies with an interest in this sector and industry-relevant associations, on the full range of regulatory and operational gaming aspects.
Ewa Lejman-Widz – Head of Polish Desk at WH Partners
Ewa is heading the Polish Desk of WH Partners as part of the strategic partnership under the WH Partners brand with Izabella Żyglicka and Partners, a very well reputed full-service law firm in Poland and a member of Ally Law.
Ewa is a business lawyer with over 12 years of experience. She assists clients on matters related to gaming and gambling, contract law, M&A and IT service market law.
Anna Wietrzyńska-Ciołkowska – Legal advisor, Local Partner at DWF Poland
Anna Wietrzyńska-Ciołkowska is a corporate lawyer dealing with M&A transactions focused on the gambling and insurance sectors.
She advises clients from the gambling sector on setting up a business and obtaining a permit to run a gambling business in Poland, providing gambling services to Polish residents from other jurisdictions, organising promotional lotteries, organising betting transactions, distributing gaming machines, gambling components in computer games or lotteries, acquiring gambling companies and structuring cooperation between partners in such companies, outsourcing of gambling functions, restrictions on making payments or advertising activities in gambling, as well as matters related to gambling tax.
Jan Řehola – Director at IFGR and Partner at PS Legal
Jan Řehola has over eight years of experience in the gambling field, both from the public and private sector.
He holds a Master’s of Law from Charles University in Prague. Jan worked for four years for the Ministry of Finance – the Czech gambling regulator; firstly, as a Head of the Legal Unit and later, as a Director of Gambling Department. In his work for the Czech gambling regulator, Jan was responsible for all gambling policy issues, including the drafting of new legislation, the issuing of gambling licenses and cooperation with other European regulators as a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Online Gambling.
After leaving the Ministry of Finance in 2014, Jan became a member of Petroš Sedláčková Legal and co-founder of the consultancy company BetOnSkill Consulting, a full-service international gaming consultancy.
Georgi Dimitrov – Legal Counsel / Compliance Manager at EGT Interactive
Georgi Dimitrov is a legal counsel at EGT Interactive Ltd., with a focus on legal, regulatory and technical compliance matters related to the iGaming industry. He specializes in international gambling regulation and provides guidance on licensing and certification frameworks, policy drafting, and compliance processes. His line of work involves communication with focal stakeholders in the business such as testing labs, regulators and operators.
Gábor Helembai – Senior Associate at Bird & Bird Budapest
Gábor is a Senior Associate in the Corporate and Commercial teams in the Budapest office of Bird & Bird. He advises on both domestic and cross-border transactions and investments in various industries. He has a special sector focus on gaming/betting, advising major online and land-based operators, and slot machine manufacturers on regulatory matters.
Dan Iliovici – Vice President of ROMBET – Romanian Gambling Organizers’ Association
Dan Iliovici is the Vice President of ROMBET – Romanian Gambling Organizers’ Association, one of the most important associations of the industry.
With rich experience in the gambling industry, former President of the Romanian gambling regulator – The National Gambling Office.
Dr. Robert Skalina – Senior Advisor at WH Partners
Robert Skalina is a Czech Advocate as well as a Registered European Lawyer in Malta. He is based in Prague and works in Malta regularly.
He is a financial service and corporate lawyer and provides advice to a wide range of investment managers, advisors and funds, including private equity and hedge funds. Robert also regularly advises clients in the gaming/gambling industries and has vast experience in the area of mergers and acquisitions and complex cross border transactions.
Jakub Myszkorowski – Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE
With more than 10 years of experience in the professional sport and betting industries, Jakub is now leading the Sales and Marketing operations at STATSCORE, a Polish company aiming at becoming the Biggest Sports Data Center in the world.
As a former football UEFA A coach and soccer performance analyst, he merges the best sports practices into managing the staff.
Jaka Repanšek – Media and Gaming Expert, Partner at Hipther Agency
Jaka has worked for various TIME (Telecom, Internet, Media, Entertainment) companies since 1996. He is recognized as one of the leading experts on gaming, media and digital law in Slovenia. Jaka graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and gained his graduate degree from Cambridge University in England and Faculty of Law in Ljubljana (Diploma in European Community Law) and completed two-year MBA graduate studies at the University of Kansas in the USA.
Jakub Kolomicenko – Head of the legal department at Endorphina
Jakub Kolomicenko started his practice as a corporate lawyer and member of the Czech Bar Association but then he changed his focus and as an in-house counsel specializes in IP law and all aspects of gaming law
He is currently the Head of the legal department at Endorphina and works with a team that consists of highly qualified international professionals with many years of experience in online casino games creation.
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: Gaming in Central and Eastern Europe in focus at #EGC2020VE with +10 industry experts from the region
Editor’s Take
Why this matters: Belatra has been a steady hand in the slots world for a long time, but 2025 marked a distinct shift in strategy. By entering the Crash vertical with Goose Boom Bang and winning big at SiGMA Africa, the studio is clearly pivoting to capture the high-growth, high-frequency players in emerging markets. They are no longer just a “classic slots” developer; they are diversifying the portfolio to ensure relevance in regions like LatAm and Africa.
The Full Story
Belatra Games, the specialist online slots developer, has issued a strategic review of its 2025 operations, celebrating a 12-month period defined by entry into new game verticals, significant franchise expansion, and high-profile industry recognition.
The year was characterized by a dual strategy: deepening engagement in established markets while aggressively expanding its content portfolio to suit local preferences in emerging territories.
Portfolio Evolution: Crash and Battles 2025 saw Belatra move beyond its traditional slot roots. The company made its debut in the high-demand Crash game vertical with the launch of Goose Boom Bang, a title designed to tap into the fast-paced gameplay preference of younger demographics.
Additionally, the studio introduced a fresh game concept with the launch of Battles, a new format unveiled for the first time in 2025, with further development planned for 2026.
The ‘Mummyverse’ Expands For fans of classic slots, the highlight of the year was the aggressive expansion of the Mummyverse. Belatra nearly doubled the size of this franchise over the year, making it the most extensive game universe in their entire catalog.
The developer also focused on B2B localization, releasing a number of exclusive bespoke games created specifically for selected operator partners to meet specific local market tastes.
Awards and Recognition The company’s strategic shifts were validated by industry accolades. Belatra secured over 30 nominations throughout the year, with standout wins including:
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Best Slot Provider (awarded by BitStarz).
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Most Played Game of 2025 for Make It Gold at the SiGMA Africa Awards.
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Player’s Pick Award.
Management Commentary Misha Voinich, Head of Business Development at Belatra, commented on the studio’s momentum:
“This year has truly defined who we are as a studio – ambitious, creative and focused on building long-term partnerships. We’ve expanded our universes, launched new ones and entered exciting new markets that will all help us carry this momentum into the New Year.”
The post From ‘Mummyverse’ to Crash Games: Belatra Reviews a Landmark 2025 appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry Newsroom.
Editor’s Take
Why this matters: The “Instant Game” vertical (Crash, Plinko, Mines) is becoming crowded, but Ebaka Games is cutting through the noise with a distinct brand personality. By securing BMM Testlabs certification so quickly after launch, they are signaling to Tier 1 operators that despite their “chaotic” marketing vibe, the math underneath is solid and compliant. The backing of industry veteran Dmitry Belianin also adds immediate commercial credibility to the startup.
The Full Story
Ebaka Games, the fledgling studio that promises to bring “chaos and soul” to the iGaming sector, has outlined an aggressive growth strategy for 2026 following a landmark launch period in late 2025.
The studio, which officially debuted in November, reports that its initial rollout reached more than five million people worldwide. The launch saw its portfolio go live with the operator Menace, serving as the initial testbed for its mechanics and “Ebaka modes.”
The Product: Instant Games with Personality Ebaka is bypassing traditional slots to focus on the high-growth vertical of fast-paced, instant-win games. Their initial lineup includes:
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Plinko
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Mines
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Tower
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Limbo
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Crash
Differentiation is achieved through unique mascots and signature gameplay tweaks designed to offer high win potential and distinct visual identities, moving away from the generic interfaces often found in this genre.
Regulatory Milestone Crucially for its 2026 roadmap, Ebaka Games has confirmed it has secured certification from BMM Testlabs. This accreditation validates the fairness and integrity of its RNG (Random Number Generator) and game engines, removing a major barrier to entry for regulated markets. With this certification in hand, the studio plans to launch with a number of “major brands” in the coming year.
Management Commentary Vitalii Zalievskyi, CEO of Ebaka Games, commented on the studio’s unorthodox approach:
“It’s only been a few weeks since we first introduced Ebaka Games to the world. The feedback has been breathtaking, and it vindicates the decision for us to take a different path to the rest of the industry. You don’t need huge marketing budgets to grab people’s attention if you are building something truly innovative.”
Industry Backing The studio describes itself as being “created by players for players” but boasts significant industry firepower in its corner. The team includes Dmitry Belianin, a well-known figure in the sector who is the co-founder of Blask and Menace, as well as Managing Partner at Already Media.
The post ‘Chaos and Soul’: Ebaka Games Plots Global Expansion After Viral Launch appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry Newsroom.
Editor’s Take
Why this matters: British racing has a well-documented demographic problem; its core audience is aging. “Friday Night Live” is a direct attempt to fix this by blending high-stakes racing with the “experience economy” (DJs, nightlife vibes) that appeals to Gen Z and Millennials. Bringing SBK on board—a mobile-first, app-only sportsbook—is a perfect demographic fit, while the Racing Post adds the necessary credibility to ensure the actual racing product remains the focus.
The Full Story
Arena Racing Company (ARC) has unveiled the strategic commercial lineup for its upcoming Friday Night Live series, confirming SBK as the Exclusive Betting Partner and The Racing Post as the Official Media Partner.
Set to launch in January 2026, Friday Night Live is a new initiative created in collaboration with youth-focused events company INVADES. The series is designed to overhaul the traditional race day experience, featuring fast-paced fixtures under floodlights, DJ sets, and significant entertainment elements sandwiched between races.
The Commercial Deal
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SBK: As the exclusive betting partner, the Smarkets-owned sportsbook will take naming rights and on-course branding for all 35 races. Crucially, these races will be broadcast live on mainstream television via ITV Racing as well as Sky Sports Research.
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The Racing Post: As the Official Media Partner, the publication will provide content, coverage, and promotion across its digital platforms, aiming to bridge the gap between established racing purists and the new audience ARC hopes to attract.
A High-Stakes Experiment The series is not just a marketing exercise; it carries serious sporting weight. Each of the five scheduled nights will feature over £200,000 in prize money. The fixtures will rotate across three of ARC’s all-weather tracks: Wolverhampton, Newcastle, and Southwell.
Management Commentary David Leyden Dunbar, Group Director of Commercial Strategy at ARC, was clear about the target audience:
“We have been very clear that one of the aims of Friday Night Live is to engage the next generation of racing fans… Both [partners] have shown real enthusiasm to work with us… as well as using the platform that these fixtures will offer them to also engage with more established racing and sports fans.”
Adam Baylis, Marketing Director at SBK, added:
“Friday Night Live [is] a fresh and engaging concept that brings a new energy to British racing. SBK has always been built around sport… our focus is on enhancing the live race day experience in a fun, social and responsible way.”
The 2026 Schedule The series kicks off immediately in the new year:
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9th Jan: Wolverhampton
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6th Feb: Newcastle
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20th Feb: Southwell
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20th March: Wolverhampton
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27th March: Newcastle
The post Racing Meets Nightlife: SBK Backs ARC’s New ‘Friday Night Live’ Series appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry Newsroom.
From ‘Mummyverse’ to Crash Games: Belatra Reviews a Landmark 2025
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