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Exclusive Q&A with Alex Morgan-Moodie, Senior Director, Worldpay
We talk here with a passionate gaming industry professional, mainly about the risks of fraud.
Alex Morgan-Moodie, who currently holds the position of Senior Director, Vertical Growth focusing on Gaming Vertical at Worldpay, offers insightful and precise answers about various facets of fraud.
Q. We usually start with a quick bio. Our readers love it. Could you briefly narrate how you landed in the gaming industry and progressed?
A. I started in the gaming industry back in 2009 when I joined PokerStars as an analyst in the payments team. I was soon learning about payment trends and regulatory complexity from Europe to the US, Latin America and other emerging markets. From there I was hooked and after roles in product delivery and corporate development (including working on the integration of Sky Betting & Gaming into the group in 2018 and preparation for the company’s subsequent acquisition by Flutter) I moved to Worldpay to lead our global Gaming vertical strategy. The role felt made for me and I haven’t looked back. My role may have expanded since I joined, but the gaming industry remains my passion.
Q. You joined Worldpay Gaming in September 2020. Could you describe your role and responsibilities?
A. As I mentioned, my role entails defining the strategy for Worldpay’s presence in the Gaming industry together with my team. We support the commercial teams by defining our value proposition, keeping them abreast of trends and developments, and partner with our account managers to support our tier-1 customers in mid to long-range planning. We also work with Legal and Risk to explore new markets and help Product to define the gaming-specific product roadmap. Finally, we are the team that ensure Worldpay shows up at key events – ICE, G2E or our own merchant workshops for example. As you can see, it’s pretty varied but the vertical itself is hugely important to Worldpay – we’ve been supporting customers here for over 20 years and have masses of experience working within operators themselves as well as being payments partners.
Q. You are talking about global digital fraud in London ICE – especially about how digital fraud in the gaming sector increasing even while the incidence of overall global fraud shows signs of decline. What do you think are the reasons why the gaming sector seems particularly vulnerable to fraud?
A. I think the story around fraud is an interesting one because we see fraud attempts in ecommerce increasing generally across the globe, driven in part by the shift online as people have reduced their in-person spending and usage of cash, so with more transactions online, there is more data. With that said, the increase of fraud in the gaming sector appears to be driven by the competitive nature of new, emerging markets and the types of bonus offers we’ve seen, such as in the US in order to gain market share. This leads to ‘friendly fraud’ or ‘bonus abuse’ where opportunists will attempt to create several accounts in order to take advantage of multiple offers. Thankfully, operators in general manage large teams and develop bespoke tools that go some way to managing that risk – but it is certainly a drag on growth.
Q. What are the challenges and opportunities in front of gaming entrepreneurs in balancing the risk of fraud versus the need to provide an amazingly seamless end-user experience?
A. Gaming consumers are savvy and demanding, and this means their expectations around user experience are high. Seamless and real-time are the key tenets and any additional checks – whether they are regulatory requirements, for fraud or in order to protect players for safer gambling purposes – need to fit into that seamless experience as far as possible. This means identifying tools that can operate in real-time whilst minimising the need for manual intervention. Thankfully payment solutions have come a long way since I first joined the industry and we are now able to offer solutions to ensure how a player pays or withdraws winnings is seamless and real-time wherever possible – something our research tells us drives loyalty for customers, which is essential when the marketplace is as competitive as it is.
Q. Now, tell us about the recent Worldpay FIS Global Gaming Payments Report. What are the key insights from that report that explores payments habits in over 40 markets and real-time payment trends?
A. The GGPR is a much-anticipated round up of industry trends and payments information. So it’s a pleasure to be responsible for its delivery after years as an avid reader. This year, as well as the usual country profiles on key established and emerging markets in the industry, we’ve also done deep dives into trends such as the emergent fraud challenges mentioned above, as well as the opportunity presented by omnichannel gaming as users have returned to physical stores and suddenly operators want a single view of their customers across all of their physical and online stores. We also tackle the opportunities presented by improvements in virtual reality technology that will potentially give rise to gaming metaverses of the future, and our thoughts on how the industry is adapting to cryptocurrency/blockchain technology.
Q. Could you talk about the innovations and strategies Worldpay has adopted or planning to adopt to curb the growing fraud in the gaming sector?
A. At Worldpay, our role is to develop tools that augment operators’ in-house solutions and provide yet more data points to help them identify and prevent fraud. We have seen huge success in the sector with our new Fraudsight tool, which uses machine learning to review the billions of transactions Worldpay is processing per annum and continuously update a set of configurable fraud rules for operators to help flag and prevent fraud, providing yet another layer of protection. This is already in the market with significant adoption in the gambling industry, and we’re continuing to find innovative ways of curbing fraud in the gaming sector.
Q. New Neural Language Models (NLM) applications are emerging after the news-making launch of OpenAi’s ChatGPT. How do you view such developments in the machine-learning sector with respect to the risk of fraud in the gaming sector?
A. As mentioned above, Fraudsight is already harnessing machine learning to improve how it identifies fraud. Beyond that, I think the possibility to harness AI technology advancements to refine existing tools and identify new ones is almost limitless. We invest in product innovation teams that are focused on identifying exactly that; so there are lots more to come!

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BLAST teams up with Fortnite for third year and will operate the entire 2023 Fortnite Champion Series
BLAST has teamed up for a third consecutive year with Fortnite, and this year will produce and deliver the entire 2023 Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) with a combined prize pool of $10 million on the line.
As part of the collaboration, BLAST will work with the Competitive Fortnite team to deliver three Majors and bring FNCS to an epic conclusion for the year when the Global Championship takes place in-person from Copenhagen, Denmark in late 2023 with an eye-watering $4 million on the line.
The new FNCS format consists of three Majors played across February and March (Major One), April and May (Major Two) and July and August (Major Three). All three Majors will see the European and North American regions produced and broadcasted from BLAST’s Copenhagen studios with broadcast talent on-site and players playing remotely.
The announcement strengthens and deepens the esports entertainment company’s relationship with Competitive Fortnite, after having delivered the entire 2022 FNCS schedule and the long-awaited return to Fortnite in-person events in Raleigh, North Carolina last November for the FNCS Invitational.
BLAST first teamed up with Fortnite in 2021, when delivering the FNCS All-Star Showdown and FNCS Grand Royale events.
Leo Matlock, MD of Development at BLAST, said: “Extending and expanding the BLAST and Competitive Fortnite partnership into a third year is testament to the brilliant progress that has been made with FNCS over the last few years. We are really proud of the journey we’ve been on with the Competitive Fortnite team and how we have been able to support them in elevating the FNCS fan experience by focusing on player-led storylines and fan-first production techniques. 2023 is turning out to be another thrilling year, Major One has already been completed from the BLAST Copenhagen studios and we’re excited to deliver the remaining three FNCS events with a combined prize pool of $8 million on the line.
“We look forward to building on last year’s unforgettable return to Fortnite in-person events for the FNCS Invitational in Raleigh, North Carolina by bringing the year-defining FNCS Global Championship to our hometown of Copenhagen, Denmark for fans and players to enjoy later this year.”
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TVBET enters distribution agreement with Golden Matrix Group
The live games provider TVBET has signed a partnership with Golden Matrix Group, a deal which sees the company incorporate the provider’s top-notch live games into its offering.
TVBET is a provider which offers easy and smooth API integration of TV games based on odds. Its games are a perfect product for casinos and bookmakers, both online and offline. TVBET games are well-known card games and lotteries adapted for online streaming format. Since its launch in 2016, TVBET’s major idea has been to create and then maintain top-shelf and up-to-date content for partners that will literally «glue» any player to their computer’s, tv’s, or smartphone’s screen.
The partnership with Golden Matrix Group strengthens TVBET’s position in the igaming arena and delivers its content even wider.
Golden Matrix Group is an established gaming technology company that develops and owns online gaming IP and builds configurable and scalable white-label social gaming platforms for its international customers. The gaming IP includes tools for marketing, acquisition, retention, and monetization of users. The provided platform is unparalleled in both mobile and desktop website deployment, proving compatible throughout all major operating systems and web browsers.
Utku Sarper, TVBET Sales Lead, states: “We are entering a new win-win deal with a strong igaming representative — Golden Matrix Group. It is proud to welcome the B2B company among our partners, and we are sure the synergy of our companies will bring us mutually beneficial results!
TVBET will enhance Golden Matrix Group’s content offering, and for us, this deal will bring new growth opportunities in the market.”
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Hacksaw Gaming Signs Content Agreement with Sisal
Leading iGaming studio Hacksaw Gaming has entered into a partnership with Italian-facing online casino operator Sisal.
Under the terms of the deal, Sisal players will gain access to a selection of popular Hacksaw Gaming titles, beginning with March 2020 release Cubes. Cubes was Hacksaw Gaming’s first 3D-styled release, proving so popular it went on to spawn a sequel with Cubes 2 arriving in February 2021.
Several Hacksaw Gaming games are scheduled to follow over the proceeding weeks, including slot favourites Hand of Anubis, Hop’n’Pop, and Aztec Twist, plus instant win games Mines and Coins, which recently turned one year old. Designed to reinvent non-traditional gaming, the Dare2Win series puts a modern twist on beloved arcade games and offers alternative casino entertainment for players everywhere.
Hacksaw Gaming’s latest partner, Flutter-owned Sisal, is a leading force in Italy with a number of product verticals among its portfolio. In addition to online slots, Sisal players can wager on sports, poker, and lottery games. Sisal’s wide range of lottery titles includes SiVinceTutto, Vinci per la vita – Win for Life, Eurojackpot, VinciCasa, and SuperEnalotto – Italy’s leading lottery title offered exclusively by Sisal since 1997.
Today’s news represents another step forward for Hacksaw Gaming as part of an ongoing strategy to bolster its footing in regulated markets.
Remarking on the partnership, Gabrielle Star, Hacksaw Gaming’s CCO, said: “Hacksaw Gaming goes from strength to strength in Italy following our market entry earlier this year.
“This deal represents a signal of our intentions as we continue to broaden our horizons in regulated markets. Sisal is a household name in Italy, and we’re delighted its players can finally get a taste of our award-winning games.”
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