By: Abi Khan

You most likely have no idea who these companies are, why their alliance matters and what this has to do with iGaming at all, but trust me, it’s kind of a big deal. AutoRek is a pretty big provider of financial and operational advice, having won several award for their specialized software, which appears to be quite popular among various businesses worldwide. According to their website, they seem to be quite versed in the world of iGaming, having written a solution paper with tons of advice for people who want to get into the industry or strengthen their business (and are giving it away for free, which is pretty nice of them). Basically, they know a thing or two about iGaming and have some pretty good financial controls software. Tottenham & Co is a consultation company specializing in… Well, a whole lotta things, but one of their most interesting expertises is in regards to iGaming in particular. They’re commonly referred to as THE specialist when it comes to international gaming consultancy, and Eleanor Ramsey, our own editor-in-chief who has plenty of experience with iGaming consulting, claims that they’re pretty good.

So, what happens when these two giants combine? Well, in order to fully understand that we need to mention that by the end of the year the EU will enact new data protection laws which will override the equivalent laws in all EU countries, including the UK. It’s a pretty big deal, because the way online casinos and betting sites store customer information and financial details is going to have to change significantly. We’re talking major architectural changes in the way that some sites operate, with the process being made as transparent as possible. All money exchange becomes crystal-clear and easily verified by a third party should the need arise, and all user data will be stored more securely and can be deleted entirely at the request of the customer. This is actually a very good thing – remember back in 2011 when hackers stole 2.2 million credit cards of PlayStation users? This actually happened in part because you couldn’t really delete your information form the PlayStation servers due to the way in which they were structured – “deleted” information was just branded differently, but was still there and was recoverable, with enough digging. The new security laws aim to prevent stuff like that from happening.

So, coming back to our previous question, what exactly is the point of the alliance between AutoRek and Tottenham & Co? It all has to do with the transparency I mentioned. AutoRek’s software is great, even really great, but it’s not particularly suited for iGaming use, as those sites work very differently from others. Imagine, for example, a site that sells shoes. The profit of all the shoes that have been sold is a constant number, at the end of the day – if the shop has sold $5,000 worth of shoes, that number can’t suddenly drop to $3,000 at the drop of a hat. As such, financial software only has to take into account three numbers – the price of running the store (rent, staff payment, tax, etc), the cost of the raw product (the shoes being bought by the manufacturer) and the income that came from the sales in order to calculate the profit, which is very easy to do even if two of those variables change day to day. Running an online casino, on the other hand… That’s a bit more complex. You can have a profit of $5,000 which suddenly falls to $3,000 because some guy won a $2,000 jackpot 5 minutes ago. Or maybe someone deposited $2,000 only to withdraw them a few days later without playing because he realized he wanted to spend them on something else. And we’re talking about dozens, if not hundreds of these “plus” and “minus” transactions happening every single day. Normal financial software just isn’t equipped with handling this sort of thing, which is why it’s often handled internally, by employees and/or by a combination of different software. But all of a sudden the EU says that that’s not going to work anymore, and that every transaction needs to be processed clearly by a machine leaving a very obvious trail that can be traced should that be necessary. That’s exactly what AutoRek’s new software aims to do.

Now, keep in mind that I don’t actually know all the details – the information above is just speculation based on what has been announced and my own knowledge of how online casino infrastructure generally works, so I may be slightly off on some of the details. In any case, we’re going to get more information during this year’s EiG convention in Berlin on October 20th till October 22nd, where AutoRek and Tottenham & Co. will take the stage in order to explain exactly what their new software will do and how it will be useful, as well as give more details about the law and its requirements for tighter financial control. So until then, all we’ve got is some basic information and the world’s most generic press statements (“We’re so excited to be working with [insert company name here], they’re so great and fantastic and sexy and yada yada yada”). One thing seems pretty certain, though – if everything goes great and the software performs as advertised then everybody would win. The EU would be happy, online casinos will be doing less work and their customers’ transactions will be more secure. Here’s hoping that everything is as good as it sounds!

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By: Abi Khan

As some of you may know, the huge gaming company Konami has apparently ceased production on all of its console titles in the wake of the (relatively) disappointing release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Following a very troubled year in which the company faced multiple controversies and cancelled projects, including the highly anticipated collaboration between Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro Silent Hill as well as reports that its staff is being forced to work in an Orwellian dystopia, Konami will (according to sources) no longer develop any console titles with the exception of the moderately successful (and rather cheap to produce) PES series. If you’re worried about their iGaming division, though, don’t – their numerous online slots are going stronger than ever, and it was recently announced that they would be partnering with Spin Games in order to bring their slots to various online casinos.

You might have heard about Konami – they’re a company that can be only defined as an industry giant, with fingers in all sorts of pies. Founded in 1969 as a jukebox repair business, in only a few years they had refocused their efforts to developing arcade games, with the 80s bringing them tremendous success with arcade hits such as Frogger and Scramble. With the release of the NES (which, for those of you not quite familiar with your gaming history, is probably the most important system ever made, selling over 60 million units and single-handedly pulling out the industry from a crash) Konami found even greater success, creating hit after hit after hit – Contra, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Gradius and many, many more – all of which are names that are still relevant to this day. It seemed that Konami had found its place in the world.

As the 80s came to an end and the 90s rolled in, Konami managed to not only find new success on the PlayStation, but also surpass their achievements on the NES – Castlevania: Symphony of the Night managed to revitalize the decaying Castlevania series, forging its course for the next 10 years and helping to solidify the “Metroidvania” genre, which is popular even today; Metal Gear Solid proved once and for all that games could tell a deep, compelling story, and the high quality of its writing and voice acting set course for gaming in general, and Silent Hill is still one of the most recognizable names in the horror genre overall, not just in games. Once you reach the top you can only fall down, and fall they did.

While Konami did enjoy tremendous success during the early-to-mid 2000s, with sequels to its three main franchises (the aforementioned Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill) selling millions and being very well received by both critics and fans, in 2005 Konami decided to disband Team Silent, the development team behind the Silent Hill series, citing the poor sales of Silent Hill 4: The Room as the reason. Since then, the series has been handed to a myriad of developers, with mostly unremarkable results. A year later, in late 2006, a Konami decided to enter the pachinko market, using its knowledge of arcade machines to its advantage. Pachinko are a form of pinball machine that are basically the Japanese equivalent of the slot machine – as gambling is illegal in Japan, pachinko machines are about as close as Japanese gamers can get to playing slots. Naturally, soon afterwards the company decided to create some actual video slots which would be exported overseas. They were successful. Like, VERY successful.

All of a sudden, Konami realized that slots and pachinko machines are actually really, really easy and cheap to make, and they bring in a whole lot of money. As such, almost all of their franchises slowly disappeared from view. Contra hasn’t been heard from since 2007’s Contra 4 – which was a portable title. Meanwhile, the Castlevania series was taken from the hands of Koji Igarashi, the man who facilitated its modern success almost single-handedly, and given to an obscure Spanish studio in order to be rebooted into Castlevania: Lords of Shadow which, while well-received by critics, was highly disliked by most fans of the franchise, causing its sequel to heavily underperform. Only Metal Gear has been going strong, in no small part thanks to its creator Hideo Kojima’s efforts to make the best game he can make, budget be damned. This resulted in the latest game in the series, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to have a development budget of over $80 million – and considering the fact that the game has made appearances in every major gaming convention in the last few years, we can safely assume that the marketing budget is even bigger than that. The ever increasing budget, the constant delays (MGSV was 7 years in development, which is a lot for an industry that’s less than 50 years old as a whole), caused Hideo Kojima to be fired from the company earlier this year, which also resulted in the cancellation of Silent Hills – the highly anticipated revival of the Silent Hill franchise.

But hey, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is getting great reviews, right? Well, unfortunately, while reviews are important, they’re not everything. Players have been very divisive when it comes to the game, with a lot of them expressing their disappointment over the lackluster story and the lack of proper conclusion. Most likely rushed by the departure of Kojima and all the scandals surrounding it, about 15 out of the game’s 50 missions are simply rehashes of previous ones with increased difficulty, and about 80% of all missions are not essential to the story, which – considering the fact that Metal Gear is a series that pioneered Hollywood-style storytelling in games – left people hoping for more. It also didn’t sell very well, which is pretty much the only thing that Konami cares about at this point. Considering Kojima’s departure and the low sales, a sequel is extremely unlikely – what we’re most likely to see in the near future is a Metal Gear slot, in the vein of the Silent Hill slot that was announced recently.

So, what does this all mean for Konami? Nothing good if you, like me, are a gamer who grew up with Metal Gear, Castlevania and Silent Hill. By all accounts, these series are going to be canceled at best and turned into Japan-only mobile titles at worst. But there’s plenty of hope for gamblers – as Konami is shifting its focus from traditional gaming to iGaming, they will be able to allocate more of their resources (budget and development team) to them. My prognosis, and it is one shared by quite a lot of people, is that in the near future (2017-2018) we’re going to see an increased Konami presence in various online casinos. We know for a fact that licensed slots are way more popular than non-licensed ones, and with the star power of Konami’s greatest franchises behind them, it’s only a matter of time before you’re able to play a Metal Gear slot from your browser. Is that what gamers want? No, it isn’t. But at least it’s good to see that the legacy of these great series will survive in some form.

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M4 iGaming Forum is an online magazine specializing in covering the ever expanding iGaming market, featuring interesting material that might be interesting to enthusiasts regardless of whether they’re players, business investors, online casino owners, with years of experience in the field or have literally just found out about it right now. Our team, while small, has lots of experience in the iGaming industry on every level – writers, editors, even site designers have worked on certain online casinos in the past.

What is iGaming?
iGaming is a term commonly used to refer to gambling that heavily involves technology. Most often it’s used in relation to online gambling (online casinos), but it also encompasses things like video slots and online betting. While iGaming has been around for about 20 years now, it’s only in the last 5-10 years in which it has started to gain significant prominence in a lot of markets around the world, mostly due to regional laws regarding online gambling becoming looser and more accommodating as time went on.

What iGaming Coverage Can You Expect From Us

• Editorials – Top 5 lists, standalone articles on various topics as well as non-reporting commentary on recent news and developments in the iGaming business
• News – The latest of the iGaming world. If a significant (or perhaps not-so-significant) event has happened that could be affecting some of your favourite online casinos (like, for example, a merger) then we will absolutely report on it as soon as we have all the details.
• Reviews – These will be a little rarer, as at our core we’re not really a review site (there’s a lot of very good ones out there already), but that doesn’t mean that we will not review a site or service if we feel like it’ll be interesting or of use to our readers.
• Resources – From time to time we might share interesting articles created by other sites and online publications that we feel will provide insight and/or will benefit our readers.

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