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UKGC: William Hill Group businesses to pay record £19.2m for failures

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Three gambling businesses owned by William Hill Group will pay a total of £19.2 million for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures.

WHG (International) Limited, which runs williamhill. com, will pay £12.5 million, Mr Green Limited, which runs mrgreen. com, will pay £3.7 million and William Hill Organization Limited, which operates 1,344 gambling premises across Britain, will pay £3 million.

Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive, said: “When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension.

“However, because the operator immediately recognised their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history.”

Today’s action comes just a week after the Commission fined two operators owned by Kindred Group plc a combined £7.2 million and is the largest enforcement case taken on by the regulator. The previous largest was £17 million action taken against Entain in August last year.

Since the start of 2022 the Commission has concluded 26 enforcement cases with operators paying over £76 million because of regulatory failures.

Mr Rhodes said: “In the last 15 months we have taken unprecedented action against gambling operators, but we are now starting to see signs of improvement. There are indications that the industry is doing more to make gambling safer and reducing the possibility of criminal funds entering their businesses.

“Operators are using algorithms to spot gambling harms or criminal risk more quickly, interacting with consumers sooner, and generally having more effective policies and procedures in place.”

Social responsibility failures at William Hill businesses include:

    • Having insufficient controls in place to protect new customers, and to effectively consider high velocity spend and duration of play until the customer may have been exposed to the risk of substantial losses in a short period:
      • One customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £23,000 in 20 minutes without any checks.
      • Another customer was allowed to open an account and spend £18,000 in 24 hours without any checks.
      • And a third customer was allowed to open a new account and spend £32,500 over two days without any checks. (Mr Green)
    • Failing to identify certain customers at risk of experiencing gambling related harm and failing to carry out checks at an early stage in the customer’s journey – one customer lost £14,902 in 70 minutes. (Mr Green)
    • Failing to identify risk of harm or intervene with certain customers earlier enough – one customer lost £54,252 in four weeks without the operator seeking income evidence, carrying out adequate checks, or using any other effective method to identify risk of harm. (WHG (International) Limited)
    • Having insufficient controls which exposed new or returning customers to the risk of substantial losses in a short period of time – one customer opened his account and lost £11,400 over the first 30 days without being subject to sufficient checks and another customer did not have a telephone interaction until losses reached £45,800. (WHG (International) Limited)
    • Failing to apply a 24-hour delay between receiving a request for an increase in a credit limit and granting it – one customer was allowed to immediately place a £100,000 bet when his credit limit had been set at £70,000. (WHG (International) Limited)
    • Ineffective controls allowed 331 customers to gamble with WHG (International) Limited despite having self-excluded with Mr Green. (WHG (International) Limited)
    • Failing to identify changes in the customer behaviour which should have provoked consideration of whether the customer was experiencing harm – a safer gambling interaction was conducted only after he had placed and had accepted an £18,000 bet (William Hill Organisation Ltd (WH Retail))
    • Having insufficient controls in place to protect new customers, and to effectively consider high velocity spend and duration of play until the customer may have been exposed to the risk of substantial losses in a short period:
      • After its retail premise re-opened following the Covid pandemic lockdown, the operator allowed one customer to lose £10,600 in two days without a safer gambling interaction.
      • Despite being unknown and staking £42,253 in 130 bets over a three-day period, staff did not identify one customer as being at risk of experiencing harms associated with gambling or undertake any customer interactions. (William Hill Organisation Ltd (WH Retail))

Anti-money laundering (AML) failures include:

  • Allowing customers to deposit large amounts without conducting appropriate checks – one customer was able to spend and lose £70,134 in a month, another to lose £38,000 in five weeks and another to lose £36,000 in four days. (WHG (International) Limited)
  • Allowing customers to deposit large amounts without conducting appropriate checks – one customer deposited £73,535 and lost £14,068 in four months (Mr Green)
  • Customers were able to stake large amounts of money without being monitored or scrutinised to a high enough standard – the operator failed to request Source of Funds (SoF) evidence when one customer staked £19,000 in a single bet, did not obtain documentation from a customer who staked £39,324 and lost £20,360 in 12 days, and did not obtain SoF evidence from a customer who staked £276,942 and lost £24,395 over two months. (William Hill Organisation Ltd (WH Retail))
  • Policies, procedures and controls lacked guidance on appropriate action to take following the results of customer profiling and how its findings should be used to establish the appropriate outcome. (WHG (International) Limited) and (Mr Green)
  • Procedures and controls lacked hard stops to prevent further spend and mitigate against money laundering risks before customer risk profiling is completed. (WHG (International) Limited) and (Mr Green)
  • AML staff training provided insufficient information on risks and how to manage them (WHG (International) Limited) and (Mr Green)

All £19.2 million will be directed towards socially responsible purposes as part of a regulatory settlement.

Additional licence conditions will also be added to ensure a business board member oversees an improvement plan, and that it undergoes a third-party audit to assess that it is effectively implementing its AML and safer gambling policies, procedures and controls.

 

George Miller (Gyorgy Molnar) started his career in content marketing and has started working as an Editor/Content Manager for our company in 2016. George has acquired many experiences when it comes to interviews and newsworthy content becoming Head of Content in 2017. He is responsible for the news being shared on multiple websites that are part of the European Gaming Media Network.

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GG.BET launches Bet Builder for a new way to bet

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Customers can now use Bet Builder, a format that lets them build their own set of markets on one match into a single bet with higher odds. Bet Builder is available for both esports and sports events. You can try out the new feature with a deposit bonus of up to 150% and a free bet worth up to $50.

Customers can now place a combined bet on a single match by picking various options for how events in the match will play out. For example, in CS2, customers can choose which team will win on a specific map, how many kills a specific player will rack up, how many rounds will be played on a single map, and so on.

To place a Bet Builder bet, pick an event that hasn’t started yet, press the ‘Bet Builder’ button, put together your selection of markets from those available, get higher combo odds, and finish placing the bet in one click. At this initial stage, GG.BET is offering Bet Builder on football, basketball, hockey, CS2, Dota 2, LoL, and VALORANT, with more sports and disciplines to be added down the line.

GG.BET has always been known for embracing unconventional markets and elaborate betting options. Bet Builder is there to meet customer demand for more interesting formats in a single match. The ability to make predictions right down to a specific round and any other tiny detail of a match is what gives users variety and improves their skills,” the GG.BET press office explained.

GG.BET is offering customers the opportunity to test out the Bet Builder format with a deposit bonus of up to 150% and a free bet of up to $50.

The post GG.BET launches Bet Builder for a new way to bet appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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POLYTOPIA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 BREAKS RECORD PARTICIPATION AS FINALS DRAW CLOSER

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Celebrated strategy game The Battle of Polytopia confirms its first ever World Championships has exceeded expectations with over 10,000 sign-ups in its qualifying rounds. While no stranger to tournaments, previously hosting smaller scale, local tournaments called ‘Polysseums’, developer Midjiwan’s first step into global esports has been met with extreme success. The inclusive esports event has a $10,000 prize pool and will conclude on 6 December 2025, 14:00-21:00.

The finals will take place in front of a live-studio audience, with expert commentary and a chance to peek behind the scenes at Midjiwan itself. First place will receive $4,000, the runner-up will take away $2,000, the third and fourth place finishers will get $1,500, and the fifth and sixth place $500.

The Polytopia World Championship 2025 is being hosted by eSports platform, Challengermode, who Midjiwan has relied on for its monthly local tournaments since 2022. Midjiwan also partnered with Black Molly Entertainment to help organise and manage the event. Black Molly Entertainment have years of experience managing eSports tournaments, with notable events including the Geoguesser World Cup and CS:GO Pinnacle Cup Championship.

Midjiwan has worked closely with its community to ensure engagement is high with each round, building a bespoke ‘Spectator Mode’ into the game so fans can watch each game live through the game itself. In the spectator mode the viewer has visibility of all players simultaneously, with stats on how many cities, technologies, kills and more available for quick access.

Christian Lovstedt, CEO of Midjiwan commented:
“Polytopia has always been about welcoming all kinds of players into the world of 4X strategy. That’s why our championship is open to everyone – not just pros with sponsors. We’ve been thrilled at the amount of interest this tournament received from our community, reaching participation numbers way beyond our expectations. We’re excited to bring the finalists to Stockholm and can’t wait to see the strategies that emerge.”

The Polytopia World Championship 2025 kicked off in September, with its ‘Battle of the Tribes’ qualifying round – weekly battles where players competed to be the best in each of the game’s 12 tribes. After an exciting six weeks, the top player from each tribe faced-off, reducing the qualifiers to six finalists. These six winners are listed down below.

Tribe

Qualifying Player

IMPERIUS

ArthurL248

BARDUR

slimmingboy

OUMAJI

Dreamlander3000

HOODRICK

Theetat

XIN-Xi

LeLiberateur

LUXIDOOR

Meisterlampe

 

Recaps of each round of the tournament prior to the finals can be watched on the official Battle of Polytopia YouTube channel.

 

  • Part 1: Polytopia World Championship 1st Qualifiers Wrap-Up – BARDUR, IMPERIUS, KICKOO, ZEBASI

  • Part 2: Qualifiers Wrap-Up – Oumaji Hoodrick Yadakk & Quetzali – World Champoinship 2025

  • Part 3: Final Qualifiers Wrap-Up – Xin-Xi, Luxidoor, Ai-Mo & Vengir – World Championship 2025

  • Face-off stream: https://youtube.com/live/GnU6mWPoJiY?feature=share

To watch the finals live on December 6,visit here: https://polytopia.io/stream/

To stay up to date on the Polytopia World Championship 2025, or purchase one of the limited tickets for the live event, visit the official website or join the Official Polytopia Discord.

The post POLYTOPIA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 BREAKS RECORD PARTICIPATION AS FINALS DRAW CLOSER appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Second Prize Drop of N1 Puzzle Promo: Top Affiliates Score Porsche, Cartier, Leica & Apple for Driving High-Quality Traffic

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N1 Partners is wrapping up the second lottery of the N1 Puzzle Promo! From September 1 to November 30, partners were actively collecting puzzle pieces for FTDs and climbing the rankings to secure their place among the winners.

A notable trend this season: the Top-5 leaders by traffic and collected puzzles differ from the main leaderboard. This means some partners slowed down, while others pushed harder — and now have every chance to boost their position in the overall standings by the end of the promo.

Five luxury prizes will be awarded to partners with consistently strong performance who entered the Top-5 by puzzle count during the second mini-lottery period.

Which prizes did the leaders receive?

1st place — MacBook Pro

C*** *****h

2nd place — Porsche eBike Sport

A***********t

3rd place — Cartier Santos Medium watch

T****** ****d

4th place — Leica Q2 camera

P******k

5th place — Apple Vision Pro

S** ****s

The promo is entering its final stretch — a crucial checkpoint for the entire N1 Puzzle Promo, where the fate of the leaderboard may be decided,” notes Alexa Bond, Head of Affiliates at N1 Partners. “With one month left until the end, even those who joined later still have a chance to make a breakthrough, while the leaders can strengthen their positions and widen the gap. N1 Puzzle Promo isn’t about luck — it’s about consistent work and mutual trust between partners and the affiliate program.”

The Grand Finale in Barcelona Is Getting Closer

The race continues: the more puzzle pieces collected throughout the promo, the higher the ranking — and the greater the chance to fly out of Barcelona in your very own helicopter!

On January 20, 2026, in Barcelona, during iGB Affiliate and ICE, N1 Partners will host the final N1 Puzzle Promo party, where winners will receive exclusive gifts — and the grand prize: a Robinson R22 Beta II helicopter.

Guests of the event can also expect:

  • Exclusive prize ceremony;
  • Live performance by top artists and the evening’s headliner (announcement coming soon)!
  • Activities and surprises from the N1 Partners team;

Still Not Too Late to Join

N1 Puzzle Promo runs until December 31, 2025, and partners still have time to collect puzzle pieces, climb the leaderboard, and compete for the grand prize and additional rewards. Traffic from Tier-1 GEOs counts toward the ranking, and only registered N1 Partners partners can participate.

All details and registration are available at: https://n1.partners/puzzle_promo

There’s still time! Collect your puzzle pieces, level up in the leaderboard — and your team might be the one taking home the Robinson R22 Beta II right off the stage in Barcelona!

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