iGaming Business – European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) secretary general Maarten Haijer has warned Sweden that it will be referred to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission unless it changes its current gambling legislation. In November, the commission told Sweden to comply with EU rules on the free movement of services with regard to the regulation and supervision of its gambling monopoly after having already issued a “reasoned opinion” in 2007. “Evidently the best option for all concerned, and especially for Swedish consumers, is that Sweden will commit to re-regulate its market and allow online operators…

iGaming Business – Online betting platform provider BetConstruct has signed Belgian gaming group Goldenpalace.be and will provide the Belgian-licensed operator with its latest sportsbook technology and services so it can target Belgian punters in the run up to the World Cup in Brazil this June. BetConstruct will provide prices, markets, back-office, affiliate and agent systems, content, marketing and risk management tools to Golden Palace. For Frédéric François, marketing and business manager at Goldenpalace.be, the company “is now equipped to deal with its “football-mad” betting public. Alongside Brazil and Spain, Belgium is one of the favourites for the trophy and has…

The parent company of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars is hoping to enter into the world of sports betting. Full Tilt was recently expanded to include roulette, blackjack and other casino games and now the Rational Group is planning on adding a sportsbook to the site. When this is done it will make Full Tilt Poker the first Rational owned site to offer a complete range of gambling options. A spokesperson for the Rational Group said that the company is “exploring opportunities to enter global sports betting markets to enhance our online gaming offerings.” At present Rational is talking to…

Herald Online – Fitch reaffirms its 2014 forecast for New Jersey online gaming revenues in the $200 million – $300 range as we expect meaningful sequential growth to continue throughout the year. The New Jersey gaming regulator reported $9.5 million in gross gaming revenue for the month of January, a 28% improvement from December’s $7.4 million. Although the January figure annualizes to only $114 million, we think the 10% sequential growth rate needed to reach achieve the low end of our estimated range is achievable. Several factors will drive sequential growth. The primary driver will be the ramp-up in players’…

Las Vegas Review Journal – Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s interactive subsidiary has acquired an Israel-based social gaming business, the company’s fourth deal in the past few years to expand its presence in the growing free-to-play gaming market. Caesars did not disclose financial terms to acquire Pacific Interactive, which owns the slot machine-style, free-play application House of Fun. Social gaming has become a growing business for several gaming companies, including Caesars, which owns the World Series of Poker and Playtika, and International Game Technology, operators of DoubleDown Casino. The activity is free to play on Internet platforms, including Facebook, but customers often…

iGaming Business – GamCrowd, a new crowd-funding and sourcing platform that aims to help start-up companies in the gambling industry, has opened its registration site for potential investors. The service launched in December, as previously reported by iGaming Business. “We are launching in two phases,” GamCrowd chief executive Chris North said. “We are taking registrations from start ups and investors now but won’t start matching the two groups for a month or two. “We need some time working with the start-ups to ensure they are ‘GamCrowd Fit’. Once we have a sufficient number of quality start-ups and a pool of…