Launched exclusively via bet365’s sports betting and online casino platform, the game will be available across several jurisdictions as players gain the chance to win an array of prizes. 

Every day, three tiles are revealed by players, each offering one of many symbols that correlate to prizes that can be claimed if a certain number of symbols are collected. The game grid will reset every Monday at 5pm. 

Prizes that can be claimed by matching identical symbols include free spins, golden chips to be used on live casino products and free bet credits for sports betting. 

Additionally, players can reveal a diamond symbol that immediately awards five free spins, with no symbol matching required. 

A representative from bet365 stated: “Yet again Incentive Games have delivered a brilliant free-to-play product for bet365. With customers able to uncover matching symbols and win free spins, golden chips or free bet credits, Prize Matcher becomes a welcome addition to our bet365 Games product platform.”

The game builds on an ongoing partnership between the two firms, having collaborated on several similar projects in recent years.

Ahead of the EURO 2024 championships earlier this year, Incentive Games produced another free-to-play game tailored to the football competition. 

Amy O’Donnell, Head of Product at Incentive Games, added: “We are incredibly proud of the work that has gone into creating this new bet365 Games product. Prize Matcher is a premium free-to-play game and is a testament to the years-strong partnership between Incentive Games and bet365. 

“The game’s new features not only enhance player engagement but also provide bet365 with a versatile tool for customer retention and cross-selling within their gaming portfolio.”

The post bet365 & Incentive Games launch daily free game Prize Matcher appeared first on CasinoBeats.

First off, can you explain the rationale behind launching Incentive Labs last year and how it fits in with the Incentive Games brand?

John Gordon: The scientists, led by Tiago here, were having a bit of an uprising and, as any good king knows, you want the masses on your side if you want to avoid being overthrown. So I met with him and his army of data experts, and listened to their demands.

Tiago Vieira: Or, back home from the world of make-believe, what really happened was that we realised that the value we’ve been adding to our clients’ experience – and have done since the start – called for a bespoke data division internally and a focussed channel for clients to tap into that information.

JG: Ah yes, that’s the one. Same same.

TV: The vision for Incentive Labs has always been clear. That’s why I joined the company. Data has always been at the heart of the Incentive Games offering. Labs unites the company’s diverse minds: engineers gather and collate millions of data points, analysts delve into daily performance to identify what works and what doesn’t; maths wizards optimise budgets; and statisticians develop innovative models for new games.

JG: Sorry. I just thought it would sound cool to compare myself to a King. I mean, look at King Charlie. He’s got his own range of quiche and all sorts. Literally, liquorice allsorts.

Tell us more about the team behind Incentive Labs, its qualities and how it works to make Incentive Games more than just a free-to-play games provider.

TV: Our team is a collection of highly-skilled, uniquely experienced industry leaders. We combine the best insights with cutting-edge game design, and expert real-time analysis. Why am I saying all this, it was your vision from the start…

JG: Just nice to hear from someone else, isn’t it? But, yes, Tiago’s quite right, we’ve intentionally created this standalone data division – an industry-leading R&D and data centre – which is stocked full of data scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Together, they pore over the most exhaustive set of touchpoints in the industry. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

You’ve said before that Incentive Labs offers a ‘treasure trove of live data to assess and address in real-time’. Can you expand on that and outline more of the advantages it brings to your partners?

TV: To put it simply, and that’s no mean feat really, so apologies if I fall short: we have a dataset that no one else has. We have seen people play our games for years, and tested all sorts of things to get to the heart of what works, and what doesn’t.

We can use data to figure out what makes people happy. We can use A/B testing to measure, for instance, how winning impacts the chance of a user returning to play.

Maybe we are interested in what is the right reward to the right person? What is the right time to reward someone? How can we optimise our client’s budget and leverage the answers to those questions to make the best game possible? How do we design the next game with these learnings? 

But, even if we know all these things, we need to guide the client through it. We collaborate with them and make recommendations, we track how we/they are performing and suggest changes and improvements. This is an iterative process and not just a simple dashboard like you’d get with most companies.

JG: In terms of research we are probably ahead of everyone else. There have been times in client meetings where we have had to explain metrics that they haven’t even thought of.

Clearly there’s some complex science going on behind the scenes at Incentive Labs. What part does AI play in all of this and how is it helping to improve the way you work?

JG: After a failed songwriting experiment, which my wife has only just forgiven me for, Tiago and his chums found a much more effective way to harness AI, which meant I still got to reference using it at my speed networking events with other corporate champions.

TV: Yes, luckily our Incentive Labs team actually understands the power and value add of AI. We began using it naturally, because our processes were getting complex, and we needed help. We were getting more and more clients (it never ceases to amaze me how many people go for John’s jokes) and needed to double the team just to keep up.

So we slowly started automating bits and pieces and, before we knew it, we had created a machine that could essentially do our job better than we could.

JG: The really sexy thing about our AI Machine – or about as sexy as it gets – is that we combine this with adaptive feedback loops. Which is ‘Tiago talk’ for how our AI constantly finetunes the rewards it is offering through continuous learning.
TV: To be clear, I have never, ever described AI as ‘sexy’. We are still experimenting with our Machine, and the best is yet to come, but we’re excited to open it up to our clients.

The post Incentive Labs: data is always at the heart of Incentive Games’ offer appeared first on CasinoBeats.

It’s a link that will see the operator elevate its free-to-play assets for the tournament in a bid to grow engagement. 

Victoria Harnett, Product Lead at Incentive Games, commented: “We’re so proud to once again join forces with bet365 to deliver bespoke and truly industry-leading gaming experiences to their users. This partnership is a testament to the power of collaboration and our shared vision of redefining free-to-play experiences, making them more engaging and, ultimately, more rewarding.”

Furthermore, the deal also seeks to grow personalisation when it comes to free-to-play games as the igaming sector increases the way it leverages AI to create a more engaging and rewarding experience for players. 

A bet365 spokesperson added on the deal: “With excitement growing for this summer’s European Championships and Copa America, we’re delighted to launch the ‘Group Stage Predictor’ game for each, in collaboration with Incentive Games. The latest in our portfolio of engaging free-to-play games, we’re confident that football fans will enjoy testing their prediction skills against fellow fans.”

The post Incentive Games deepens ties with bet365 ahead of EURO 2024  appeared first on CasinoBeats.

As a result of the collaboration, the operator will launch Match 5 as the firm looks to elevate the crossover from igaming to sportsbook. 

John Gordon, CEO and Co-Founder of Incentive Games, said: “We’re incredibly excited for the launch of Match 5. It’s a classic example of simple insight, easy accessibility, and engagement, giving players a way to make the weekend’s football even more entertaining. Combined with Sky Bet’s scale, this is a real game-changer.”

The game allows fans to visit the Sky Bet app each weekday to ‘collect’ a different Premier League team – selected for them at random – with up to £20 in free bets available depending on how many of their teams win at the weekend.

Dan Colton, Managing Director at Sky Bet, added: “Match 5 is the culmination of months of hard work from Incentive Games and Sky Bet; we can’t wait to see what customers make of it. The beauty of the game is that it’s a really creative way of rewarding football fans that replicates the thrill of an acca but is totally free to play.”

The game launched to all new and eligible customers in the UK and Ireland on Monday 12 February.

The post Sky Bet unites with Incentive Games for free-to-play player engagement  appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Igaming industry upstart Incentive Games has made a major new announcement this week – the official launch of its standalone data division, Incentive Labs. In a statement confirming the news, the company claimed that this is “just the latest proof-point of the global titan’s dominance, with its products being used in more than 100 countries globally”.

That’s a bold statement, but having initially built a reputation as a free-to-play provider, Incentive Games has emerged as being among the category leaders in the retention and acquisition capabilities it has offered from inception. And along the way the firm has partnered with most of the industry big names, including bet365, FanDuel, and Live Score Group.

That success, and the company’s key differentiator, has been built on its advanced harnessing of data, early adoption of tools such as AI, and targeted hiring of leading experts in the data space, long before – it claimed – the rest of the industry “cottoned onto the idea”.

The launch of Incentive Labs, Gordon said, marks a new chapter in the Incentive Games trajectory, underscoring its position as industry-leaders, and completing its journey from disruptor to leader.

Speaking to CasinoBeats, Gordon said: “We’ve always said that our best asset was our team. It’s why we moved to a fully-remote workforce, while retaining an office if you wanted to come in. It’s why we adopted a four-day working week. It’s why we pay well and treat them well – because we genuinely care about our staff.

“That process has paid off massively, and now we have a workforce stacked high with brilliant minds, with data scientists, chemical engineers, mathematicians, even one lad with a marketing diploma. Bless.

“Incentive Games has always been more than just a free-to-play game provider. It took people a while to understand that, really, we’ve always been an extensive customer acquisition, retention, and management system. An engagement specialist.

“It has always been a part of our offering, but formalising Incentive Labs marks the next step in our growth. We are working with the most exhaustive set of touchpoints in the gaming industry, overseen by an expert team boasting decades of experience. This thing is a superpower.

“What we used to find was clients would see what we did, and assume they could just get an intern or two to replicate it internally. They very quickly found out that our portfolio offers unparalleled depth, experience, and expertise. Nobody else can do what we do – and Incentive Labs is the pinnacle of that.”

According to Gordon, Incentive Labs users can harness the completely-customisable dashboard to gain real-time insights into game entries, while configuring games and products swiftly and effortlessly. It offers, he said, a treasure trove of live data to assess and address in real-time.

In a nutshell, Incentive Labs comprises The Hub, the command centre for users; Insights, an innovative, real-time tool for immediate implementation; Segmentation, analysis-based guidance; and AI Rewards, a signature AI tool, offering effortless, automated customisation to tailor incentives with precision

Gordon added: “A key part of Incentive Labs is our signature tool, AIR, which reduces waste, drives efficiencies, secures cost savings, and ensures proper rewards allocation.

“Our suite of tools can supercharge the impact of a free-to-play game as an all-round engagement approach – both as an acquisition tool, and also as a powerful retention device, too, for both new and existing customers.

“Each game we make is considered, and not just the same thing repackaged – they are bespoke feats of engineering, taking thousands of hours to craft, on average. And they create more engagements than a series of the Kardashians.

“We might not be turning water into wine, but we are turning acquisition into retention, and data into insights. Other deities are available, of course. And by that I’m not referring to myself. Honest.”

The post Incentive Labs marks new chapter in Incentive Games’ trajectory appeared first on CasinoBeats.

The necessity of building and maintaining a strong network is a familiar construct among numerous industries, and is certainly one that is not lost in the gaming community.

However, among the multitude of strategies and expert tutorials on how best to achieve such a goal, is the question of: how much do you know about your network? With this in mind, CasinoBeats is aiming to take a look under the hood, if you will, and has tasked the 100 Club to help out.

Next up, discover the journey of John Gordon, CEO and Co-Founder of Incentive Games, who begins the conversation by travelling back to a goal of becoming a chemical engineer while at University in Edinburgh.

“I basically just researched what the best paying job was in the UK and at the time chemical engineer was in the top three,” the conversation begins, with time at Heriot-Watt University leading to a successful career and a Lead Engineer position for BP in Trinidad and Tobago.

However, after seeing FanDuel and DraftKings adverts for fantasy sports while in the Caribbean, Gordon used to write algorithms for himself and friends to compete against each other.

“I would create competitions for people that I knew at BP and such and we would bet thousands of pounds. In conjunction with what I used to play fantasy football for what was the Barclays Premier League at the time, I thought ‘well I could do this and we could do fantasy betting in the UK and Europe’, because FanDuel and DraftKings were focusing on the US. 

“So, I left my job in the Caribbean and came back to the UK to Scotland, and started my original company around nine/ten years ago.”

Despite being forthright in stating that “we had no idea what we were doing,” future developments saw the fantasy app become number one in the UK app store for a while as various licences began rolling-in before the receipt of advice saw a pivot from B2C to B2B occur.

“…we just doubled down on the fact that sport will come back, we’re on to something here”

After learning of an upbringing within a gambling atmosphere, Gordon delves into a passion “to mix maths and engineering with football, in the first instance, and trying to write algorithms to beat bookmakers”.

As talk turned onto obstacles encountered during the life of Incentive Games, the uncertainty that organisations across all industries have encountered during recent years is an inevitable starting point.

“It was really challenging to say the least,” it is noted, with no government help or revenue and a roster of staff to pay, personal assets had to be sold to fund wages “but we just doubled down on the fact that sport will come back, we’re on to something here,” Gordon continues.

Adding: “We could’ve rolled over and said ‘oh well we tried,’ but we did the opposite. We created virtual games, so we, given our engineering background, turned the algorithm that I used to use to beat the bookmaker into a virtual product.”

As the conversation ebbed towards a conclusion amid talk of futher challenges encountered during his time within the industry, we end in our usual way of tasking the 100 Club and wider industry with one key question. “How tall do you think I am?” Gordon gleefully responds.

If you would like to tell your story, or be considered for the CasinoBeats 100 Club, please email us at craig@sbcgaming.com.

Launched to give a voice to the industry on a range of key issues, the 100 Club tackles the tricky questions and shares members’ views across the CasinoBeats network. Have your say by joining the 100 Club.

The post CB100 pathways through gaming and beyond, with John Gordon appeared first on CasinoBeats.

The appointment will see Vieira take the mantle of Head of Data, and move the company forward to focus on generating reports and insights for their operator clients on how the games contribute to their acquisition cost and retention metrics. 

“In a very short space of time Incentive Games has established itself as the global leader in the field of free-to-play games, and I’m hugely excited and intrigued to join a remarkable team,” explained Vieira on his new role. 

“Their products are now generating huge amounts of incredibly rich data that are being harnessed to develop a phenomenal roadmap of upcoming products. The challenge of helping elevate those games to the next level was one I couldn’t resist.”

Incentive Games states that data analysis has been the “heart” of the company’s success. It is said to be used to analyse player behaviour, feature performance and user experience. Up until recently, the game’s data has mainly been used to improve design and user experience. 

“We’ve been aware of Tiago’s remarkable talents for a while now and have taken our time to get this key hire in place,” stated John Gordon, CEO of Incentive Games. “By the end of this year Incentive Games products will have over 100 million active monthly users and be generating many billions of data points, and we believe few companies in the industry have a deeper knowledge of customer behaviour in our space. 

“Whilst those learnings have already been used to improve game design and user experience, we’re now focusing on specific customer insights and state-of-the-art, real-time reporting advances that, we believe, will revolutionise the industry’s acquisition and retention strategies.”

The post Vieira calls new Incentive Games role a challenge that he ‘couldn’t resist’ appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Ahead of the summer blockbuster period, and coming off the back of probably the most controversial Oscars moment in the Academy’s history, we thought this would be the perfect moment to ask our 100 Club members their most favourite film scenes that involve casino. 

I will kick start us off with my worst and best casino scene:

The worst casino scene by far, and probably the worst within the franchise, is in Star Wars: The Last Jedi where Finn and Rose go to the desert world of Cantonica to find the code-breaker who is located within the casino city called Canto Bight. 

Though visually stunning, that section of the film is just a narrative cul-de-sac and, if removed from the film, the outside would more or less be the same. 

Now the best scene has to be from 1996’s Swingers, starring Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn where two wannabe actors attempt to show their worth at the high rollers table as they sit down at the blackjack table and lose $300 in one hand.

Henrik Fagerlund, COO at Raw iGaming, stated that, for him, it has to be a James Bond film and stated that there is “no more iconic casino scene than in 1983’s Octopussy.

He explained: “While we are used to seeing Bond flex his muscles to beat his enemies, in this scene, it is his intellectual might and his understanding of the rules of backgammon that allow him to outwit villain Kamal who had been using loaded dice to defeat other opponents. Bond uses a quirk of the game whereby you can use an opponent’s dice to defeat Kamal. 

“There is nothing like beating someone at their own game and no one does it with more style than James Bond who in Octopussy is played by the legend that is Sir Roger Moore.”

Another one of our members, Allan Petrilli, VP of Sales & Growth at Intelitics, noted that Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone, has endless great casino scenes, yet highlighted the cowboy scene. 

He commented: “For me – it’s the scene in Casino when Robert De Niro has the cowboy kicked out of the casino for being disrespectful.”

Victor Pronk, CCO at Incentive Games, also remained in Las Vegas and highlighted The Hangover scene where Zach Galifianakis enters down the escalator and, well, we all know the rest.

He stated: “That is easy. The Hangover where Alan (Zach) looks like Rain Man coming the escalator.”

Helen Walton, Founder and CCO at G.Games, went in another direction to our members and, though still a casino game, it took place outside of Vegas and a legitimate brick-and-mortar property and went to the dark backdrop of a back alley boxing ring in the middle of London. 

She concluded: “Is it just casino? It has to be the poker game in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – best high drama card playing ever put on film in my view!”

The post CB100: <br> lights, camera, action! appeared first on CasinoBeats.

With the event scheduled to take place on April 12-14, following the cancellation of the event in 2021 due to the pandemic. In the first of two articles, we checked in with our 100 Club members to unveil what their expectations are for the igaming conference. 

We asked: What are you expecting from ICE this year? 

Martin Hodges, Director of Marketing, Vivo Gaming

I’m expecting to see a lot of familiar faces that I haven’t seen in far too long. I’m also excited to meet people I haven’t seen in real life yet but have only interacted with through email or on video calls. It’s going to be interesting to find out how tall everyone actually is! 
 
Of course, reconnecting with our partners and clients will be a huge priority for us throughout the week.

Sarah Blackburn, Founder at GameOn

I’m expecting there to be a huge buzz and for it to be filled with people excited to have meetings and presenting new products and services. 

Although the timing of the event isn’t ideal, I think it will make people more selective as to the meetings they have and taking a more focused approach to their own business development strategy.

Abby Kimber, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Digital IOM

After what feels like a very long time, I’m expecting an exultant atmosphere at ICE this year. Although things are slowly getting back to normal, I think we all recognise that international travel might still be a little tricky depending on where you are located so I’m expecting a little less traffic but that means that we’ll get the chance for some more meaningful, in-depth conversations.

Joe Hall, Co-Founder/Chief Executive Officer at Gift & Go

We’re expecting to show both the online and offline gaming sectors how integrating Gift & Go technology into their player reward programmes and user journeys can increase the key metrics for operators acquisition and retention teams.

Michael Pedersen, Chief Commercial Officer at Livespins

I look at ICE 2022 very positively, finally the show is back in action, the wait is over. Will it be a different show this year? “Clearly, however, the fact that some exhibitors have pulled out or morphed into hospitality instead only equals opportunity for the brave and bold and we believe Livespins fits perfectly into that category of companies.

James King, Chief Executive Officer from Flows

For Flows we expect two things, the first is the opportunity to really push brand and product awareness to the largest face to face audience of the year and demonstrate to as many as possible the power of Flows. 

Secondly it’s to meet with current partners as well as those we’re already in talks with in person both on stand as well as at our hosted dinners.

Kevin McGinnigle, Founder of Positively Distinctive Media

I have no expectations for two reasons; 1) I’ve never exhibited at ICE before and have only ever been part of the crowd and 2) having moved the dates, I’ve no idea what to expect in terms of attendance. 

Of those who do attend, I would imagine they’ll be excited to get out of their houses and or/offices and put in some facetime. We’ve all been locked up far too long and it’s nice to be able to get back to some sort of normality. I know I am.

Suzanne Jiggens-Johnson, Marketing Director at Slots Temple 

We’re hopeful ICE will be just as exciting as previous years. It’s an important opportunity for us to reconnect with our partners, as well as discover new technologies and services. 

Being able to fully immerse ourselves in all the exciting developments happening in the industry at the moment is really important for us to be able to stay at the forefront of where the gambling industry is heading.

Oliver Niner, Head of Sales at PandaScore

We’re expecting great things from ICE after it’s long hiatus, particularly how much growth and success esports has experienced since the last conference, including PandaScore’s contribution to this.

Contributing to the ESIC conference running in tandem is a great opportunity to continue building greater integrity in esports and how the gambling sector engages with these competitions.

And seeing the global iGaming community together again and striving for further exciting product innovation is always fantastic.

Victor Pronk, Chief Commercial Officer of Incentive Games

With the event running up to the start of the Easter Holiday period, the ongoing uncertainty with regards to the pandemic, the situation in the Ukraine and the additional and continuously changing travel requirements we have already seen several big exhibitors that have withdrawn. 

Therefore we expect a smaller exhibition, that is more online focused and with a dominant UK/European visitor attendance. This is an opportunity for smaller innovative suppliers to step into the spotlight.

Tom Wood, Chief Executive Officer at RAW iGaming

ICE is an amazing opportunity for RAW iGaming to showcase for the first time our new, patent pending game engine, SuperSlice to a larger audience.  

We will also be revealing our up-and-coming SuperSlice games and new, secretive, patent pending innovations for selected operators. 

Lahcene Merzoug, Chief Executive Officer at PressEnter

There are some great conferences happening throughout the year like the SBC and CasinoBeats Summits and iGaming NEXT to name just a few but ICE is traditionally the biggest event of the year for igaming and where all the latest features and innovations are showcased. 

Although there will be less attendee’s than usual given that it is being held over the Easter holidays, we do anticipate more of the same, as many providers reveal new products for the first time and use ICE as the launchpad for their new offerings. 

We expect it to be a very busy event and our team is really looking forward to attending.

Nadiya Attard, CCO at Relax Gaming

I’m expecting to truly appreciate the value of face-to-face meetings once again. Technology has played a fantastic role in keeping business going over the last couple of years, but a Zoom meeting doesn’t hold a candle to the productivity of a group of like-minded people in a room together.

That being said, the gaming sector thrived in the adversity of the pandemic – innovating its way to success all the way through. This period of necessarily thinking outside the box will lead to some exciting new ideas, which always come to the fore at ICE. I wouldn’t miss this year’s show for the world!

Jeremy Coleman at Commercial Director at PearFiction Studio

A much smaller show with most of the big industry names missing. This is a shame but we cannot be surprised because the Easter/Passover week will be difficult for many attendees.

Lisa Karran, COO at Eminence

I expect it to be a very different event this year with more of a focus on getting together over huge exhibits on the expo floor. 

If people are not required to be manning large stands all day they will have more opportunity to attend educational sessions and networking. I’ve no doubt there will still be good attendance.

Helen Walton, CCO at G.Games

Reconnecting with some operators we haven’t been able to meet in person. We’re hearing a lot of negativity from some people about the event, but I think it will prove very effective still for the online gaming industry.

Paul Crisp, CMO at Symplify

A great event and a chance to get going. Meet face to face. Hear and understand challenges, present our vision in terms of creating solutions.

Gaming for us has always represented one of the most dynamic and fast moving industries, the more we get to speak to the people behind the curtains of the industry, the better.

Alberto Alfieri, Jada Gaming CEO and Co-Founder  

In a very hectic environment, due to the COVID emergency and more recently the international political turmoils, we expect ICE to represent a return to some sort of normality where meeting and getting together with colleagues and peers will be the most welcome novelty.

The post ICE 2022: What do CB100 members expect this year? appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Under the terms of the agreement, Incentive will provide FanDuel with a daily free game that is said to drive acquisition, retention, and reactivation for its igaming division. The title will be offered to players in states where the US brand offers its online casino products. 

“We have taken our time to choose the best partner for us in the US. It was clear from the first meeting that FanDuel was that partner,” explained John Gordon, CEO of Incentive. “They have a great culture, and we believe in their vision for the product. 

“We are delighted to be working with the FanDuel brand and company, and we hope this is the start of things to come.”

“Free-to-play games are a powerful tool when it comes to acquiring players and reducing churn, and our games will allow FanDuel to stand out from their rivals in a hugely competitive market.”

Echoing the thoughts of Gordon, Andrew Gradwell, VP of igaming Product for FanDuel, added: “We are always looking for ways to offer more engaging ways to deliver value to our players, and we believe Incentive’s daily free game mechanic will allow us to excel in this area.”

The link-up between the two entities follows on from FanDuel teaming up with Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment to open the former’s 11,000 square-foot sportsbook inside Mohegan Sun. 

Located in the old race book, the new Mohegan Sun FanDuel is home to a 140-foot video over, over 30 additional hi-res flat screens, a mezzanine level, and a full bar.

The post Incentive Games: FanDuel alliance was clear from the first meeting appeared first on CasinoBeats.