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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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Kore Digital Mining Ltd Announces Additional 14 PH/s Bitcoin Mining Capacity
Kore Digital Mining Ltd, a UK based Bitcoin mining company, announces that effective 1st May 2024, an additional 14 PH/s mining capacity will be added to its existing infrastructure.
This additional capacity will be provided by a major Bitcoin mining corporation and will be operational until 30th June 2024.
Derek Nisbet, Kore’s Founder & CEO, said – “We are pleased to work with a leading Bitcoin Miner in securing a large amount of mining capacity, for a 2 month trial period. We look forward to hopefully extending this period and engaging more with major mining corporations offering Bitcoin hashing opportunities, in the future.”
This additional 14PH/s Bitcoin mining capacity adds to the existing 2 PH/s currently operational with Kore’s own infrastructure and an additional 4 PH/s is due to be added over the next quarter, totalling 20 PH/s.
The post Kore Digital Mining Ltd Announces Additional 14 PH/s Bitcoin Mining Capacity appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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William Hill Announced as Official Betting Partner of Qipco Guineas Festival
Leading bookmaker becomes official betting partner of first UK Classic meeting of 2024
William Hill has been announced as the new official betting partner of the Qipco Guineas Festival, the first UK Classic meeting of the season.
It’s the latest addition to William Hill’s spring racing roster, following sponsorship of The Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster, the Punchestown Champion Chase and its status as official betting partner of the Randox Grand National Festival.
The 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas headline the three-day meeting and the leading bookmaker will sponsor 15 races across the weekend with the Jockey Club Stakes, Palace House and Dahlia Stakes among the races now featuring the William Hill title.
Aidan O’Brien’s unbeaten superstar City of Troy is still all the rage for the 2,000 Guineas at 4/6 whereas Karl Burke’s Fallen Angel heads a competitive looking 1,000 Guineas market at 7/2.
“We’re delighted to become the official betting partner of the Qipco Guineas Festival, strengthening our relationship with The Jockey Club on the back of a fantastic Grand National Festival,” a spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps, said. “It’s brilliant for William Hill to be associated directly with such a prestigious event at Newmarket, the home of the thoroughbred, for this season’s first two Classics. The company has a close connection with the history of the 2,000 Guineas as William Hill himself bred the 1949 winner, Nimbus, who then went on to win the Derby.
“We’re excited to be involved at racing’s key meetings and see the Qipco Guineas Festival as the perfect sponsorship as the British flat season kicks into gear.”
Newmarket – 2,000 Guineas: May 4, 2024
City Of Troy | 4/6 |
Rosallion | 4/1 |
Notable Speech | 12/1 |
Henry Longfellow | 12/1 |
Night Raider | 16/1 |
Alyanaabi | 16/1 |
Ancient Wisdom | 16/1 |
Task Force | 16/1 |
Ghostwriter | 16/1 |
Iberian | 20/1 |
BAR | 25/1 |
Newmarket – 1,000 Guineas: May 5, 2024
Fallen Angel | 7/2 |
Ylang Ylang | 4/1 |
Dance Sequence | 5/1 |
Ramatuelle | 10/1 |
See The Fire | 12/1 |
Content | 12/1 |
One Look | 14/1 |
Pretty Crystal | 14/1 |
Buttons | 20/1 |
Purple Lily | 20/1 |
Porta Fortuna | 20/1 |
Star Style | 20/1 |
BAR | 25/1 |
The post William Hill Announced as Official Betting Partner of Qipco Guineas Festival appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Midjiwan Supports Reforestation Efforts With New Elyrion Tribe Skin In The Battle Of Polytopia
Midjiwan, the award-winning independent studio behind The Battle of Polytopia, is celebrating Elyrion (∑∫ỹriȱŋ) Tribe Week with a brand-new Midnight (₼idŋighţ) skin and donations to support reforestation.
Tapping into the Elyrion Tribe’s nature magic abilities, every purchase of an Elyrion item in the game will plant one real-world tree from April 22-28 2024. Midjiwan has teamed up with The Canopy Project, an organisation that works with global partners to reforest areas in urgent need of rehabilitation, combining The Battle Of Polytopia’s themes with a desire to make real change in the world. Previous years of Elyrion Tribe Week have resulted in the planting of over 12,000 trees.
The Elyrion Tribe is a mysterious group of elves, dedicated to defending their woodland home with their unique magic and connection with nature. Players using the Elyrion tribe have the ability to enchant animals into Polytaurs and summon powerful Fire Dragons.
Christian Lövstedt, General Manager at Midjiwan, commented:
“This is a hugely exciting partnership, allowing players to support the planet and contribute to reforestation whilst also accessing brilliant new content to use in The Battle Of Polytopia.”
Alongside donating to The Canopy Project, The Battle Of Polytopia also boasts a brand-new skin for the Elyrion Tribe! The Midnight skin allows players to create graves, build crypts, and summon demons in dark forests, all in service of the mysterious Shard of D’Naeh.
The Midnight skin re-skins the entire Elyrion Tribe as the Midnight Cult. Everything the Elyrion Tribe is all about – nature, enchantment, and sanctuary – is turned on its head, corrupted into a dark, twisted dystopia of itself.
Midjiwan has already invested €250,000 in solar power projects in rural areas around Africa, and other charitable projects. The studio continues to seek opportunities to combine its in-game creativity with real-world benefits. The Battle of Polytopia is available on Nintendo Switch, the App Store, Google Play, PC, and Tesla cars.
The post Midjiwan Supports Reforestation Efforts With New Elyrion Tribe Skin In The Battle Of Polytopia appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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