Following a deal with Spike Games earlier in the year, the firm’s founder Rob Anderson stated “the potential of blockchain technology in the online gaming industry is enormous”.

In the aftermath of FunFair’s Fate of Thrones launch earlier in the week, CasinoBeats has been speaking to Jez San, founder and CEO at FunFair Technologies, regarding the multitude of blockchain benefits for online casino and what the future could hold for the relationship.

“Existing blockchain titles… are essentially not fit for market”

CasinoBeats: You state that Fate of Thrones “pushes the boundaries of what a casino game on the blockchain can offer,” how does it do this?

Jez San: “While there are existing blockchain titles out there, they are essentially not fit for market as they don’t provide the user experience that consumers have grown to expect from the industry. While they offer increased fairness and transparency, they sacrifice commercial level gameplay and we don’t see this as necessary.

“We’ve spent the past two years building our proprietary ‘Fate Channel’ technology which bridges the existing gap in the industry. This means we can build games such as Fate of Thrones, with the transparency and fairness that the blockchain offers while maintaining exceptional graphics, sound effects and speeds that players expect in the more mainstream slots sector.”

CB: Blockchain has become increasingly more commonplace in recent times, in general terms what potential does the technology have in the online gaming environment?

JS: “Currently, two thirds of UK gamblers do not trust operators, according to the latest UKGC research. This therefore allows huge opportunity for companies to increase their competitive advantage, by proving to their customers that their gambling services are inherently fair. Blockchain provides the assurance of a fair online gaming experience through the use of cryptography.

“Thanks to the nature of the public ledger, blockchain brings an added level of transparency to the processes that power gambling, for instance, proven random number generation. Smart contracts allow both the operator and player to produce half of the random number each, rather than solely the operators generating numbers. These are then immutable and open, meaning anyone can validate the fairness of the game at the end of a session.”

“The decentralised nature of blockchain technology could improve on current standards”

CB: How does/would the technology enhance a users playing experience? What benefits would entice completely new players?

JS: “The technology that FunFair uses enables players to have full control over their funds, held in a wallet controlled by private keys only available to the user. The player would only need to commit to the funds they specify each gambling session in a smart contract.

“Their funds are never at risk, as the player never has to deposit, and therefore the commonly criticised withdrawal restrictions and other issues such as dormant account processes are replaced by instant payouts into the players secure crypto wallets. This is an attractive advantage, to any player, regardless of knowledge and experience with cryptocurrency.

“Responsible gambling controls have been scrutinised for as long as memory serves. Again, the decentralised nature of blockchain technology could improve on current standards by requiring a player to commit to sign up and KYC processes just once, then proliferating this information on the blockchain across multiple operators.”

CB: Gaming and new technologies are quite often at the centre of fresh innovations, what does the future hold for the online casino/blockchain relationship?

JS: “Within the casino industry, it is evident that blockchain is the next big disruptor leading the way in resolving issues and providing major benefits for both the players and operators. Regulation will be key in ensuring that the wider adoption of the technology is properly integrated across territories.

“Once standards are agreed and cryptocurrencies become more commonplace in society, people will naturally gravitate towards crypto casinos as a source of leisure, cementing the casino/blockchain relationship.

Simply put, why would a player choose a traditional casino over a far more secure, fair and fast blockchain casino which can offer the same quality of content and user experience.”

The post FunFair’s Jez San – Blockchain’s online casino invasion appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Initially launched in partnership with mobile identity platform Yoti, alongside global identity data intelligence specialists GBG, who will be the first to integrate into FunPass, more are set to follow as improvements to flexibility are undertaken.

Jez San, FunFair founder and CEO, commented: “FunPass is bringing player registration into the 21st century. KYC procedures are typically clunky and slow for players, and needlessly expensive for operators, but by using blockchain technology, we’re making it quicker and easier for players to choose where they want to play.

“We’re ensuring that players aren’t put-off by a needlessly long sign-up process, and improving our socially responsible gaming provisions, which all of our operators will benefit from in future.”

Harnessing the blockchain to reduce costs for operators as well as speed up players’ registration process, FunFair details that FunPass lowers “the barriers for them to seamlessly jump between FunFair-powered casinos”.

FunPass enables users to go through the KYC procedure just once to be able play on any FunFair-powered casino, while operators “will have a choice of provider dependent on their regulatory requirements and personal preference”.

Following successful registration their Ethereum wallet is tagged on the blockchain with approval for a FunPass, with FunFair detailing that “this is the only user data held on the blockchain, with minimal personal information held in a private FunFair server for regulatory purposes”.

Thom White, future technologies lead at Yoti, stated: “We’re delighted to be working with FunFair Technologies, to make the gaming experience better for operators and players with Yoti’s digital identities.

“FunFair shares our dedication to transparency and building trust between businesses and consumers – the FunPass solution uses Yoti to provide a simple, private and secure way for people to prove their identity on all FunFair powered casinos.

“KYC is traditionally a long and arduous process, that involves sharing passport copies and waiting days and sometimes weeks for verification. Yoti and FunPass will streamline the process with pre-verified identities, helping people onboard in seconds.”  

FunFair details that its new solution is to have the capacity to link to national self-exclusion databases moving forward, through its bank of approval player wallets across operators, allowing a consistent and accessible process for stakeholders within its ecosystem.

Adam Doyle, global gaming sales manager at GBG, added: “We’re incredibly excited to partner with FunFair to develop an industry-leading KYC solution, that benefits blockchain casinos and their players.

“We are always looking to help businesses make smarter decisions, and with GBG, FunPass will be able to verify the identity of over 4.4 billion of the world’s population in seconds, providing not only tangible monetary savings to businesses, but improving the players’ experience.”

The post FunFair Tech to streamline registration process via FunPass solution appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Promising to go beyond the limitations of other casinos in offering the fairest experience possible, using the decentralised nature of the blockchain and fate channels, FunFair’s proprietary version of generalised state channel technology, all under the ‘Famous for Fairness’ tagline.

Further detailing the new entity’s offering, FunFair stated in a media release that “player protection and provable fairness are guaranteed at CasinoFair.

“It will never hold custody of player funds, with all gaming session funds held in escrow and distributed immediately to the player and house when the game ends, while its FairChecker feature ensures provably fair gameplay, preventing either party from tampering with the outcome.”

CasinoFair will initially be launched to a limited number of markets, and run by TTM BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the FunFair group.

This has been done as a means to expedite the platform’s commercial and marketing learnings, therefore ensuring a better product for future external partners.

Jez San, founder of FunFair, stated: “FunFair continue to lead the way in delivering a viable, quality blockchain casino with the launch of CasinoFair on our first-gen platform.

“Building our platform on blockchain technology allows us to deliver the levels of security and fairness that players demand, going beyond what is currently understood as provably fair, and CasinoFair will be the first of many FunFair partners changing the face of casino gaming for the better.

“With additional games, increased functionality and usability in the FunFair pipeline, CasinoFair will only get bigger and better, as we evolve from offering a service to the crypto community to disrupting the gaming mass market.”

Users accessing CasinoFair are to use fun tokens to play a growing range of premium games built on the blockchain, directly funded from their crypto wallet.

The licensed casino, it is stated, “will be the first blockchain casino to offer a wide range of fun, fast and fair games,” thanks to the platform’s fate channel technology that helps overcome some of the scaling limitations of existing blockchains.

Amongst the games included on the new offering are FunFair’s latest titles Fate of Thrones and FunDice, along with popular casino games such as European Roulette and Blackjack.

The post FunFair Technologies launches “first and only truly fair casino experience” appeared first on CasinoBeats.

The organisations founder Jez San, fresh off the back of an appearance on the “Blockchain Roadblock” panel at last month’s CasinoBeats Summit, has been speaking to CB about these developments, and what exactly are the short and medium term goals for both FunFair and CasinoFair.

“It’s important to note that we are still primarily a B2B company, and this will continue to be the group’s priority”

CasinoBeats: How integral was the launch of CasinoFair for FunFair Technologies?

Jez San: “CasinoFair is a major milestone on the FunFair roadmap. It’s the first live use case of our platform, now available to a global audience, and the first truly fair online casino in the industry.

“It’s important to note that we are still primarily a B2B company and this will continue to be the group’s priority, but having a live, direct to consumer operation offers us so many learnings for this side of our business, in terms of the marketing requirements of future partners and the player behaviour that we can craft our platform around.”

CB: Could you provide a little more information about the FairChecker feature? Why is it so important?

JS: “FairChecker is the productised extension of our provably fair technology. The feature gives players at CasinoFair, and future partner casinos, an ergonomic means of checking whether what they are seeing is exactly as it should have been.

“In-game, this means a non-intrusive, but clear, icon on-screen that players can click on to access the history of game events from that session. They can see what was staked, won and lost, on each round of betting, and whether it was verified by the smart contracts that ensure that both house and player can’t cheat.

“Once the game session ends, this schedule is then saved to the blockchain and accessible within their accounts page on site. Saving the session to the blockchain allows players to delve into the data and ensure that the RNGs and outcomes were correct and ultimately, provably fair.

“Traditional operators currently need to be trusted that their random gaming events are fair. There is no way of checking that they were because actions are processed on private servers, hidden from the players view. FairChecker removes this opaqueness and brings full peace of mind to the player.”

“…We hope to deploy CasinoFair and other partner casinos in as many of the major global gambling hubs as possible”

CB: It was stated that the launch is to initially be to a limited number of markets, why is this? And are there plans for a roll-out across an increasing number?

JS: “Although we’re extremely confident in the technology and its viability from launch, CasinoFair is very much a first generation of the type of casino that the FunFair platform will eventually be able to offer.

“To this end, the decision was made to start with a select few territories that have a propensity to gamble and have a significant blockchain demographic, namely Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Canada.

“We will then open up to new jurisdictions over time as we learn from a managed go-live process, giving more and more players access to the only provably fair gambling experience on offer.

“In the medium term, we’ll also be looking to add to our Curacao licence, and with constructive discussions ongoing with other regulators in Gibraltar and Malta, we hope to deploy CasinoFair and other partner casinos in as many of the major global gambling hubs as possible.”

CB: Recently, the launch of FunPass took place, how does utilising blockchain technology allow for an improved registration future?

JS: “FunPass is game changing for player registration and KYC procedures when looking at the wider gambling industry. With it, players need only sign-up once to access each and every FunFair-powered casino.

“…players can hop seamlessly between FunFair’s casino partners…”

“There’s no need for long, intrusive registration processes which require unnecessary information, which the casino is then entrusted to hold responsibly.

“Instead, players provide a proof of address, which is verified by our identity platform Yoti, and this is linked to their unique crypto wallet, with the ensuing FunPass then hashed to the blockchain, with only basic and legally necessary information held on private servers.

“This means players can hop seamlessly between FunFair’s casino partners, with each verifying the previously-acquired FunPass from the blockchain, opening up a more flexible world of fair gaming for all.

“The FunPass road-map will also look to integrate directly into wider self-exclusion schemes, allow for deposit and loss limits and could feasibly have the scope to work across a variety of functions and industries.”

CB: What are the short and medium term goals for both FunFair and CasinoFair?

JS: “Short-term certainly isn’t our mentality for either the FunFair platform, or the wider white-label service which CasinoFair demonstrates the first generation of.

“However, CasinoFair will be looking to build on the successful launch, with a greater understanding of player behaviour and the reporting and bonusing facilities required of it.

“We’ll also look to port as many of the existing FunFair community to CasinoFair’s own, and ramp up its marketing presence across the board, both targeted at individual territories and with a wider view going forward.

“At FunFair, it’s business as usual as we continue to improve the platform and its user journey, expanding the games library, all while working in-house and with various partners to ensure greater functionality, and so making it easier for mass adoption.”

The post FunFair Tech: Major milestones, game changing launches and global growth appeared first on CasinoBeats.

FunFair’s first external white label, Crypto Casino, is set to tap into the “rapidly growing millennial blockchain casino audience,” with FunFair stating that the sector has already seen the equivalent of a billion dollars wagered in 2019 alone.

The brand is to also gain instant access to FunFair’s audience of 65,000 fun token holders, along with its “vast” player base cultivated via its affiliate program.

Karim Wilkins, founder and CEO at RakeTheRake, commented: “Becoming FunFair’s first white label with Crypto Casino gives us great satisfaction. We’re extremely confident in our brand, the platform and the innovative affiliate technology, and we can’t wait to take Crypto Casino and its players to the moon.”

Crypto Casino is RakeTheRake’s first foray into both the online casino space and blockchain, as it strives to demonstrate how FunFair’s platform can offer those, who may have previously been deterred, a low-cost, easy to integrate and successful casino operation.

Encapsulating FunFair technology alongside its ever growing suite of titles, Crypto Casino has set an overall ambition to “raise the standard of blockchain gaming”.

Jez San, co-founder at FunFair, explained: “Crypto Casino’s launch is a major landmark on the FunFair roadmap, and we’re excited to partner with expert marketeers in RakeTheRake who will drive further adoption to our gaming ecosystem.

“We continue to update our platform to ensure it’s as user-friendly for those with and without crypto knowledge, and working on the next steps with RakeTheRake and its Crypto Casino players will confirm our position as the leading blockchain gaming provider.”

Earlier this year FunFair outlined its roadmap for the period ahead, emphasising a necessity to deliver a strong mobile offering, adding that games will be optimised for smaller screens along with the platform, KYC process and wallet.

The post Crypto Casino becomes FunFair Technologies’ first white label partner appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Designed specifically to heighten the user experience for existing and new players across its CasinoFair and Crypto Casino brands, it is hoped that the ERC20, non-custodial FunFair Wallet will mark “a significant step” forward in blockchain mass adoption.

Explaining the launch further still, in a media release it was commented: “Blockchain projects have so far struggled with on-boarding friction due to complicated funding mechanisms, security features which differ significantly to mainstream offerings and a lack of usability on mobile devices and certain browsers.

“The FunFair Wallet addresses these issues with the introduction of more identifiable sign-up processes and security features, while most importantly ensuring the wallet can run on any browser and any device without the need for any third-party plug-ins or apps.”

CasinoFair and Crypto Casino players will also engage with a far more social and “guaranteed fair” casino experience with an updated front-end, offering more intuitive access to titles.

Jez San, CEO at FunFair Technologies, said of the new wallet solution: “Since launch, we’ve maintained our position as the most progressive blockchain casino provider, and the launch of the bespoke FunFair Wallet and second generation platform interface will confirm this position as we strive for mass adoption.

“Onboarding has been a struggle across the wider decentralised sector but our new wallet, built specifically for use at our partner casinos, will fix this immediately with a seamless, recognisable sign-up process, straightforward security features and simple crypto funding choices.”

FunFair’s first live casino brand, CasinoFair, has also relaunched its brand identity in-line with the new wallet and user interface. 

Through this move it’s striving to increase appeal to the millennial blockchain audience, while also staying true to its ‘Famous for Fairness’ foundations.

The post FunFair aims for ‘blockchain mass adoption’ through new wallet solution appeared first on CasinoBeats.

RELEASE DATE

Out Now

THE PITCH

FunFair Technologies has launched its latest premium slot, Fate of Thrones, designed to push the boundaries of what a casino game on the blockchain can offer.

Via its Fate Channel solution FunFair aims to significant improve the user experience, by reducing the cost to players, with just one transaction cost per game session as opposed to every spin or deal, and bringing the blockchain gaming experience in-line with what mainstream players expect of an online slots title.

GAME DETAIL

Medieval-themed Fate of Thrones follows the successful Treasures from the Crypto slot, which launched earlier this year, offering high-spec 3D graphics, a premium soundscape and unique bonus rounds, coupled with immediate withdrawals and fair RNG’s.

THEY SAY

Jez San, Founder and CEO at FunFair Technologies, said: “Blockchain games have lagged behind the traditional online casino experience as developers and operators struggle to deal with scalability issues on the blockchain. Our Fate Channels solve this issue, as we’ve proven with slots Fate of Thrones and Treasures from the Crypto, and our numerous table and instant win games.

“Players on the blockchain have been forgiving of these flaws until now, but we think they deserve more, and as the technology continues on its mainstream trajectory, we’ll continue  to develop premium casino titles across all genres which will empower a new generation of casino operator to provide the best experience possible  to players around the world.”

The post Launch: Fate of Thrones – FunFair Technologies appeared first on CasinoBeats.

Creating new versions of titles for the FunFair blockchain casino platform, the joint statement stresses that players will “enjoy complete transparency and provable fairness.”

Jez San, CEO at FunFair Technologies, commented: “Spike has over 25 years experience developing high quality slot games and we are delighted to have partnered with them to lay the foundations for the next generation of blockchain games.

“By incorporating our proprietary Fate Channel technology with their rich experience, we can now give players the gameplay experience they are used to, with all the benefits that blockchain brings.”

Spike Games is to initially develop a new version of ‘Alice Cooper’s School’s Out for Summer,’ before collaborating on further content to be added to FunFair’s existing suite, featuring blackjack, baccarat and slots.

The partnership is designed to help refine the processes and APIs, to enable game developers to easily integrate game content on the FunFair platform moving forward.

Rob Anderson, Spike Games founder, commented: “The potential of blockchain technology in the online gaming industry is enormous and we are very excited to be partnering with FunFair at such an exciting time in its development.

“We believe in giving players the best possible experience and FunFair’s technology will ensure we can provide fast, beautiful, secure games to existing and new crypto players across the world.”

The post FunFair and Spike partner for blockchain games building initiative appeared first on CasinoBeats.