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ByteDance Restructures Gaming Business, Emphasizes Stability
On March 14th, according to Chinese media outlet Jiemian News, ByteDance announced through an internal letter that after strategic positioning adjustments, its gaming business will return to the incubation stage. The core of the next phase is to patiently manage stable operations and continue to explore with a mission and vision in a manner consistent with industry development laws.
In terms of organizational structure, ByteDance’s human resources head, Hua Wei, will serve as the head of the gaming business, managing UGC (user-generated content), Moonton, and Nuverse. The former head of Nuverse, Yan Shou, will be transferred to the company’s finance department. UGC is a newly established secondary department, with Luo Ji serving as the department head, reporting to Hua Wei. The former heads of the Block project, Dai Junyi, and the Cell team, Sky, will report to Luo Ji. The former head of ONE distribution studio, Hector, will continue to be responsible for Nuverse’s agency products, with former game technology head Jeffrey and former global business head Rachel Lin reporting to Hector. Hector also reports to Hua Wei.
ONE distribution studio is a studio established by Nuverse in 2022 after integrating domestic and foreign businesses. The heads of Oasis Studio, Wang Kuiwu, and Youai Division, Hu Bing, both report to Hua Wei. This studio evolved from ByteDance’s early “Oasis Plan”, focusing on RPG (role-playing games), strategy, shooting, European and American casual, and card sports games.
The new structural adjustment signifies the end of the “Yan Shou era” in ByteDance’s gaming business.
Yan Shou joined ByteDance’s strategic investment department from Tencent in 2015 and became the head of the business when ByteDance entered the gaming business in 2019. He later served as the head of Nuverse. Since then, the entire ByteDance’s self-developed and agency gaming business has been managed by Yan Shou.
The newly appointed head of the gaming business, Hua Wei, joined ByteDance in 2014, was in charge of investment business, later took on human resource management work, and was responsible for the company’s organization and culture building.
Established in 2019, Nuverse is ByteDance’s game development and distribution business brand. Like ByteDance’s emphasis on globalization, Nuverse also started the internationalization process early. Its overseas releases “RO Wonderland Legend: The Birth of a New Generation” and the Marvel IP card mobile game “MARVEL SNAP” have achieved some success, with “MARVEL SNAP” even winning the 2022 TGA Best Mobile Game Award.
In the domestic market, “Crystal Core”, launched by Nuverse in July last year, is considered its first “hit” self-developed game. Qimai data shows that “Crystal Core” achieved nearly 70 million yuan in revenue on the iOS platform in the first week of its launch and dominated the top ten best-selling list of the App Store for nearly a month.
Unexpectedly, four months later, Nuverse began a large-scale business contraction: seeking to divest games that had been launched and performed well while ensuring operations; for projects that have not yet been launched, except for a few innovative projects and related technical projects, all were shut down.
According to a person close to ByteDance, the contraction action was a decision made after Yan Shou and ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo had discussed it for a long time. Liang Rubo believes that although the gaming business has achieved some success, it has been pursuing “big and complete” for the past few years, with unfocused projects and scattered resources. It should invest energy and resources into more basic, more innovative, and more imaginative projects.
Moonton is a game company that ByteDance acquired for about 4 billion US dollars. After Nuverse’s significant contraction, there were rumors that ByteDance was seeking to sell Moonton Technology for no less than 5 billion US dollars and hired Goldman Sachs as a financial advisor to help find and contact potential buyers.
An insider from Moonton told Jiemian News that Moonton is currently not for sale and is still a wholly-owned subsidiary of ByteDance. Even with the structural adjustments, Moonton still maintains independent operations, and its business has not been affected.
Source: Niko News / pandaily.com
The post ByteDance Restructures Gaming Business, Emphasizes Stability appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Poppleston Allen bolsters Gambling Team with specialist commercial law consultant
Leading licensing law firm Poppleston Allen is delighted to announce that betting and gaming industry stalwart Tom Grant is joining their Gambling Team as a consultant solicitor, bolstering its offering by advising on commercial contracts.
Tom has more than 20 years of experience in the gambling sector and has advised high-profile clients including Buzz Bingo, Cowells-Arrow, FSB and GAN as well as numerous growing businesses within the sector. Tom will work with the Gambling team drafting, negotiating, and advising on a range of commercial agreements that are essential to the growth of our clients’ business, such as sponsorship agreements, game development agreement, sports data rights licences, content licensing, platform agreements, affiliate terms, white-label agreements and customer terms and conditions.
Partner and department head Nick Arron comments: “I’m really looking forward to working with Tom. We’ve had a number of clients in common for years and our legal practices complement each other nicely. Tom’s expertise and understanding of regulatory frameworks and commercial challenges are fairly unique within the gambling sector, and allows us to offer additional services to our clients and reflects the opportunities we see in the gambling industry.”
Tom Grant said: “This is a great opportunity for both of us. The team has an outstanding reputation in the sector, and I look forward to contributing my expertise to help clients navigate the complexities of commercial agreements and achieve success in a competitive and dynamic market.”
Alongside his work with Poppleston Allen, Tom will continue to grow his own practice at Grant Legal.
The post Poppleston Allen bolsters Gambling Team with specialist commercial law consultant appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Altenar integrates Optimove’s Opti-X platform to deliver enhanced personalised content
Leading sportsbook technology provider adds dynamic layouts, real-time messaging and flexible experimentation tools
Altenar, a leading sports betting and iGaming software provider, has integrated Optimove’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP), Opti-X, to help operators boost engagement, personalisation and lifetime value from a player’s first visit.
Optimove’s DXP offers a Real-Time Messaging feature which allows operators to automatically trigger personalised messages across all marketing channels at the most opportune moments, ensuring timely and relevant communication that keeps players engaged.
Opti-X includes a Smart Search Engine powered by AI, which delivers lightning-fast, personalised search results. The engine tailors results based on a player’s past search history, platform behaviours, and betting preferences.
Altenar can now also offer more advanced end-to-end personalisation across all channels and platforms. Opti-X’s behavioural, historical, and predictive modelling equip operators to create detailed micro-segments, which promise more personalised interactions, fostering loyalty and increasing player value over time.
This strategic integration underscores Altenar’s commitment to continuously improving its offering and delivering innovative, player-centric solutions that have a significant impact for sports betting operators.
Diego Salas, Sales Manager at Altenar, said: “We are committed to enhancing the user experience and leveraging data to provide personalised content that offers clear benefits both to players and operators. Our partnership with Optimove allows our clients to better understand player behaviour and tailor their content to optimise their offerings and marketing messages.”
Adi Dagan, Senior Director of Partnerships at Optimove, said: “Altenar is a clear breakthrough leading sports betting software provider and being part of their solution is a true honour. This partnership is a boon for sports betting operators to ensure incredible personalised experience for each player. These are incredibly exciting times for online sports betting as we get to partner with an innovator like Altenar to take the industry to the next level.”
The post Altenar integrates Optimove’s Opti-X platform to deliver enhanced personalised content appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Spillemyndigheden Calls Attention to FATF’s Updated Lists of High-risk Jurisdictions
The Danish Gambling Authority has called attention to FATF’s (Financial Action Task Force) updated lists of high-risk jurisdictions: the Grey List (jurisdictions under increased monitoring) and Black List (call for actions). Among other things, gambling operators must include FATF’s lists of high-risk jurisdictions when assessing players’ risk.
Jurisdictions listed on the Grey List are Algeria, Angola, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Croatia, DR Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Mali, Monaco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen.
Jurisdictions listed on the Black List are Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran and Myanmar
Gambling operators are required to conduct enhanced customer due diligence (EDD) pursuant to section 17(1) of the Danish AML Act, if a player is assessed to impose a higher risk of the gambling operator being misused for money laundering or terrorist financing.
Gambling operators shall conduct this risk assessment based on Annex 3 to the AML Act (high-risk factors) which includes the FATF high-risk country lists (the so called black list and grey list)
It is not required that gambling operators perform EDD if a country is listed on the FATF’s list. EDD are only a requirement for players from jurisdictions listed in the EU Regulation of High Risk Third Country list pursuant to. 17(2) of the AML Act.
The post Spillemyndigheden Calls Attention to FATF’s Updated Lists of High-risk Jurisdictions appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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