The Garden State hosted an exciting eSports betting trial which took place over the weekend. The event lasted for two days and all eSports fans and enthusiasts were given a great opportunity to place wagers on the twenty-four teams which compete in the League of Legends World Championship Finals.

The LOL World Championship is held every year by Riot Games. This annual event brings together professional League of Legends teams from all over the globe. The event is actually the culmination of every League of Legends professional seasons in which teams compete for the Summoner’s Cup and of course, a great money prize. Back in 2018, the event was watched by almost 100 million people which broke 2017’s record.

In addition to great games played, the last year’s event was also praised for amazing ceremonial performances and it received global attention to stunning emotional and dramatic series. What is even more, the last year’s event also saw a donation of $2 million which was raised through the LOL Worlds Championship skin.

The LOL World Championship Gaining Tremendous Popularity

As the popularity of eSports grows, the League of Legends World Championship is gaining massive success. In fact, as of 2018, the championship is among the most-watched, most prestigious eSports tournaments that make League of Legends the most popular game. Due to the game’s rather tremendous success and rise in popularity, the entire eSports scene has become more prominent and reputable. What is even more, the eSports industry may become an Olympics event that surely speaks of its reputation.

When it comes to the biggest eSports event, League of Legends World Championship, it rotates across different states and areas every year including Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, and East Asia. The ninth season’s World Championship was held between the 2^nd of October and the 10^th of November in Berlin, Madrid, and Paris. Twenty-four LOL teams participated in the event based on their placement within regional leagues and based on their international play.

The Finals of the event was played on the 10^th of November between G2 Esports and FunPlus Phoenix as AccorHotels Arena. The ultimate winner was FunPlus Phoenix which defeated its opponent by 3-0. The third-placed is SK Telecom T1 followed by Invictus Gaming, DAMWON Gaming, Griffin, Splyce, Fnatic, J Team, Royal Never Give Up, Team Liquid and Cloud9.

NJ’s Sportsbook Accepting Wagers on the LOL WC Finals

After the state’s sportsbooks were granted the opportunity to accept wagers on the twenty-four teams which were competing at the LOL World Championship 2019, eSports fans rushed to place their wagers. According to one report released by the EGR North American news outlet, this two-day betting trial conducted by the state’s sportsbooks came complete with caveats that encompass an important provision that barred the state’s sportsbooks from accepting eSports-related wagers that go over $1,000.

Even though the state of New Jersey became home to fully legalized and regulated online sportsbetting market back in June of last year, the industry’s rules prevent regulated and licensed sportsbooks and operators from accepting wagers from customers on sports events which include participants who are under the age of eighteen. While this rule was designed to prevent wagering on high school sports events, it also rules out real-money betting on eSports events as participants in such events are most under the age of eighteen.

Despite this prohibition remaining active, the NJDGE or New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement decided to run an experiment for two days which involved the League of Legends World Championship Finals. This has proven to be the right move to make considering the revenues generated.

As reported recently, Iforium has been granted regulatory approval by the NJ Division of Gaming thanks to which it can finally offer its service and product at the United States gambling market. This is one of the major milestones as well as landmark deals for the Isle of Man-based online casino software company. This also means that Iforium can finally hit New Jersey’s, newly regulated gambling market in a big way.

Following the news, the company’s official press release states that under the agreement terms, all of licensed and regulated New Jersey gaming operators will have access to the company’s Gameflex gaming platform through one of its latest subsidiaries named CCAG NJ. The official press release also details that the inaugural partnership is only several weeks away before New Jersey residents can try the Gameflex slots.

Rich Gaming Platform Delivering Powerful Gaming Experiences

Iforium is one of the prominent online casino software development companies which has been present around since 2006. Considering the fact that the company was nominated the Rising Star of the Year both in 2013 and 2014, there is no wonder why its gaming platform delivers a spectacular gaming experience to every single customer. This award-winning company has been always committed to authenticity and innovation when it comes to its games’ design.

Moreover, Iforium has also been invested in delivering a very powerful, yet very flexible gaming platform which will appeal to players of different calibers with different preferences and bankrolls. In fact, the company is fully dedicated to making moves towards challenging its major competitors as well as moving the boundaries with innovations and uniqueness.

Since its beginnings, Iforium’s key people have been focused on the development of a first-class, state of art gaming platform which is easily customizable as well as easily accessible offering high-quality games from the leading developers in the industry. The company operates out of the major gaming destinations, the Isle of Man. Iforium is best known for its two gaming platforms including WagerFlex and GameFlex.

WagerFlex and GameFlex Coming to New Jersey

The WagerFlex platform is the Iforium’s Player Account Management software platform through which operators can easily manage all of their backend facets such as affiliate marketing, player tracking, payment processing, and loyalty programs. The other software platform by Iforium named GameFlex is actually a rich software module which allows all kinds of games to be easily, hassle-free integrated from the most prominent online casino games developers.

The products have been tested numerous times and they work like magic with games from Quickfire, BetSoft Gaming, NetEnt, Evolution Gaming, 1X2 Gaming, and many others. Since the company uses the most recent HTML5 technology, its GameFlex games can be played in a number of gaming environments including mobile gaming accessible through the use of Android and Apple portable devices.

Currently, its gaming software includes games from more than one hundred online casino software companies, so its business partners and players have access to more than nine thousand games. Furthermore, the software developed by Iforium supports all sorts of bonus features as well as can be accessed in more than twenty-five languages. What is even more, this gaming platform delivers all sorts of loyalty bonuses, a unique GMS or Game Management System, various kinds of CRM tools as well as multi-channel, Omni channel and multi-currency support.

Sportsbook operator and online casino facility, Kindred Group has just announced that sportsbetting fans and enthusiasts located in New Jersey can invest real-money wagers on an impressive range of sports at NJ.Unibet.com. At the moment, Kindred Group which is formerly known as Unibet Group includes eleven different brands and among them Maria Casino, Unibet, iGame and 32Red.

The company is focused on offering all sorts of products and services to fans of online casino games and sportsbetting including online casino facilities, sportsbook platforms as well as online bingo and online poker websites. While the company is currently registered in Malta, it has offices in the United States, Stockholm, London, Gibraltar as well as smaller offices across Australia and Europe.

Going Strong Since 1997

Kindred Group has been present in the industry for more than twenty years as it opened its virtual doors in 1997. Some of the most important events for the company took place in 2011 and 2012 when Unibet gained one of forty-eight licensed for the Danish, newly regulated market. The next year was important as well when Unibet finally acquired a popular Danish sportsbook, Bet24. The next year, Unibet moved its online poker operations from the MPN networks to its independent poker website.

The very next year in April, Unibet signed another important deal this time with Thunderkick which made the platform the very first brand of this kind to include Thunderkick-powered games on its website. Later on, the company also purchased www.bingo.com domain for $8 million. The company’s acquisition trail continued in the following years as well including the acquisition of StanJames.com in 2015 and 32Red Plc in 2017.

Kindred Launching NJ.Unibet.com

The Maltese company in its official press announcement released by European Gaming Media and Events celebrated the recently-launched NJ online sportsbook which is powered by technologies from Scientific Games Corporation, Kambi Group, and Mazooma Incorporated. The platform comes packed with loads of first-class sportsbetting actions offered in a completely safe, reliable and secure gaming environment.

The company is already running numerous Ireland and United Kingdom-facing sportsbetting domains and online casinos while its recent actions mark its very first launch into the online casino industry of The Garden State. Following the announcement, the company’s Senior Vice-President Manuel Stan stated that Kindred has been preparing for this big step for a long time.

He also added that the establishment of NJ.Unibet.com actually represented another important step into what is likely to turn into the biggest betting market globally speaking. Thanks to the company’s latest efforts regarding the New Jersey gambling market, customers residing in this area can finally enjoy all sorts of thrilling online gambling adventures offered on a high-class technology platform.

Manuel Stan also added that this is the very first establishment in a line of many more to come reserved for the market in the United States. It should be noted that the company has previously partnered with SG Digital which allows them to use the Open Gaming System and Open Platform System while its Kambi partnership gives the company access to all sorts of other technologically-advanced sportsbetting-related services and products in New Jersey. In fact, Kambi and Kindred have a successful history together which both companies intend to nourish further and there is no better way of doing so than empowering the United States sportsbetting market together.

It has been reported that the New Jersey Attorney General has taken legal actions against the United States Department of Justice(DOJ) on accounts of not receiving explanatory information about the reinterpretation of the Interstate Wire Act of 1961. The Attorney General for New Jersey, Gurbir Grewal has revealed his concerns about recent revisions being influenced by individual business interests. These alterations will seriously affect the online gambling which to this point has been extremely beneficial for the New Jersey economy.

Looking for Answers

The Attorney General for New Jersey, Gurbir Grewal, led by the inability to gain information through a Freedom of Information Act request with DOJ, decided to file a lawsuit against this federal executive department. Prior to a decision to take legal actions, in February, Grewal had made the official information request in order to gather more info on government’s decision to change parts of the Interstate Wire Act 1961 which refer to interstate online gambling. He also needed to uncover if Sheldon Adelson, a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Las Vegas Sands Corporation had any partake in the decision.

Futile Attempts

Even though standard time limit, set by FOIA is 20 days or a month, to this moment, there hasn’t been a response which left no other options for Grewal but to take legal measures.

According to him, online gaming has been legalized in New Jersey for quite some time, becoming extremely important in the economy of New Jersey, and now DOJ is trying to make it all go away. In his opinion, residents of the New Jersey state have the right to know why since it’ll affect them, especially if the decision was made due to a lobbying campaign by an individual, looking to protect his own business interests.

It is widely known that Adelson is a donor to Donald Trump’s campaign and an ally who publicly claims that online gambling will have negative consequences to his company, and cause major problems concerning gambling addictions. Allegedly, he’s been seeking out lobbyist, prepared to help in protecting his bricks-and-mortar operations against the threat which online gambling represents.

On the other hand, regulatory bodies have had an opportunity to use technology in order to thwart attempts by minor players to engage in gaming activities, locate such attempts, and apply money laundering laws.

Reinterpretations and Consequences

In November 2018, DOJ added their new revisions, saying that the Wire Act should be enforced on all online gambling activities and not just sports betting. In other words, it may involve all online gaming with interstate agreements. Previously, the Wire Act referred only to sports betting. However, with latest alterations which should come into practice starting with June 14, some serious damage will be done to iGaming, driving casino as well as poker sites out of business and disabling an opportunity to use shared liquidity, aggregated under various jurisdictions.

Since 2013 when New Jersey legalized online gaming to this day, it’s been revealed that this sector has accumulated $153.23 million in taxes with $2 billion revenues.

According to experts, if the DOJ’s new opinion is interpreted to the letter, it could result in costing states approximately US$220 million. That’s not all; the states will be left without scholarship funds, senior citizens’ services as well as other programs.

In 2015, NetEnt applied for New Jersey license, and by being able to pass preliminary background checks, given permission to operate under the transactional waiver. In the meantime, the vetting process for a permanent license has been in progress. Now, according to the press release, given by Erik Nyman, Managing Director at NetEnt Americas LLC, they’re pleased to have their first US online gambling license. For the Swedish developer, known for exceptional work, this is yet another successful step in expanding their operations.

Transactional Waiver and the License

Since September 2015, through NetEnt Americas LLC, their subsidiary, NetEnt has acquired a transactional waiver by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) while their license application was reviewed. Under these conditions, they were able to branch their games in New Jersey for six months and renew their terms upon the expiration of this time frame. Recent development has revealed they were finally granted a permanent Casino Service Industry Enterprise license by NJDGE.

In his statement, Erik Nyman, Managing Director at NetEnt Americas LLC has conveyed that the company is pleased to obtain its first permanent gaming license within the USA. He noted that this is yet another step in NetEnt’s expansion into the USA and that it is their hope to be licensed in other US states once online gaming is regulated within them. For the time being, Nyman thanked the New Jersey regulatory authorities, which NetEnt has worked closely with since 2015.

Future Plans for NetEnt in the USA

With the New Jersey license acquired, NetEnt continues with their US expansion which includes broadening their activities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania markets. Despite the opinion, issued by the US Justice Department this year in January about restricting online gambling, they move according to their plan.

Furthermore, in collaboration with Ozzy Osbourne, a famous musician known as The Prince of Darkness who first emerged with the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, NetEnt adds another slot in their rock series. At the same time, they’ve announced a release of Conan, a video slot about an intriguing fictional character, wielding a sword and sorcery.
Proving to be quite fruitful, it’s revealed the spring brings another game and more entertainment, and on this particular occasion, in cooperation with Peter Scudamore who is eight-times champion jockey.

Innovations and Progress

All in all, by managing to fulfill requirements for the permanent license in New Jersey, the brilliant provider with headquarters in Stockholm welcomes players to exceptional gaming solutions, offered in their rapidly growing portfolio. With an excellent team of developers, NetEnt keeps on looking for the optimum ways in order to entertain, innovate and make sure their products are high quality.

Due to their appearance on the US territory, they seem to be ready to spread their presence in other US states if the proper regulation conditions are set for such occasion. In the meantime, by launching new games, filled with compelling narrative, great audio, superb graphics and immersing animations, they confirm once again they are one of the best software providers out there.