This week we are excited to cover the annual SiGMA Europe event, often known as “the world’s gaming festival”. Taking place in Malta from 15th-19th November, and hosted by SiGMA Group, SiGMA Europe will feature a range of in-person panels, sessions and award ceremonies.
SiGMA Europe has been a physical event taking place every year since 2014. Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic forced the event to be online-only, this was only a one-off, with the week of in-person events returning for this year.
SiGMA likes to speak of itself as “the biggest in-person event in the gaming industry.” And, given the scale of this event, it’s hard to argue with them, with thousands of gaming and tech-savvy executives in attendance at SiGMA Europe, alongside operators, suppliers, affiliates, regulators, tech companies, and other industry stakeholders.
This year also features a bit of a twist on the usual format – this year SiGMA Group is bringing four different shows together in Malta – and this includes the Gaming Conference, the Affiliate Grand Slam, the Al, and Blockchain Summit, and Med-Tech world.
When it comes to the gaming-focused SiGMA Europe event, the agenda features a range of panel discussions and talks hosted by experts in the gaming industry, scuh as Betsson Group Affiliates, iGaming Colombia, FBMDS, GG Poker, Play’n Go, soft2bet, platform, and Utraplay.
After the first day featured a number of talks and events, including the prestigious Europe Gaming Awards, Day Two of SiGMA Europe had plenty more in store for those attending in-person, or following along online.
Wednesday’s Highlights
Day Two of SiGMA Europe, part of the wider Malta Week festival, was host to panel discussions, talks, and a number of other events, including the SiGMA Startup pitch and the official SiGMA closing party in the evening. Star of today’s show was Akon, who was there to talk about his new blockchain initiative – Akoin.
First, let’s take a look at some of the sessions that take took place on Wednesday:
First up on the final day of sessions, we were exploring the world of immersive technology – made popular by tech such Augmented and Virtual Reality, and the startups that are looking to bring them to the mainstream. Whilst this particular sector has seen a rapid rise in popularity over the last few years, it is perhaps not as dominant as it could be. Therefore, in this panel, the question was: “Is 2022 the breakthrough year?” Daniele Marinelli, CEO at DTSocialize Holding, a FinTech company that focuses on Financial Services, Blockchain and Big Data, led this talk.
Next, we delved into the latest Esports trends and Opportunities, in a talk hosted by Marcel Sema, Founding Partner, Wolfpack Management, who are a premier esport and gaming consultancy firm. Also taking place was a discussion that explored recent and emerging financial crime risks in online gaming, a panel which featured Simon Planzer, Partner, Planzer Law and Manfred Galdes, Director of Strategy and Managing Partner at ARQ Group.
Finally, there was a panel discussion that centred around the latest hot topic – the Metaverse. Facebook may have started this conversation, but plenty of other companies are very interested in this concept. On the main stage, and talking all things Metaverse, was Dam Mapes, President of Verses Technologies, known for developing advanced Artificial Intelligence technology and Spatial Networking protocols in order to create WEB 3.0, and Romy H, Athena group of companies, a fintech-focused international conglomerate.
Announcements
Throughout Day Two, panel discussions and talks were mixed in with some of the latest announcements and product updates from those companies in attendance.
One of these was the number-one gaming token, FUNToken, which is being showcased throughout the week in Malta. Core members of the FUNToken team will be there to share the advantages and opportunities of FUNToken and XFUN with investors. The team will also meet with casino operators at SiGMA to broaden FUN’s utility and facilitate its mission of becoming a ubiquitous payment method in the iGaming industry.
Given FUN’s proven utility as an entertainment token, its deflationary nature, its ever-growing base of over 290,000 FUN HODLers and its presence on major exchanges, there is certainly much to talk about.
As timing truly is everything, XFUN – the layer 2 token on the Polygon network – is set to launch as an upgraded version of FUN. Bringing increased performance and lowered latency, this development opens more doors for FUN in the form of potential new gambling ventures and avenues in the first half of 2022.
Such new ventures will complement FUN’s existing casino, DPLAY. Also, notably, FUNToken has over 200,000 investors at FreeBitco.in.
Stealing much of the thunder during Day Two of SiGMA Europe was Akon, the renowned singer known for songs like ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Lonely’ – the singer-turned-businessman who is set to build a $6 billion city in Senegal named Akon City was on the island to talk about his new cryptocurrency Akoin.
Akoin is a cryptocurrency, powered by a marketplace of tools and services to fuel the dreams of entrepreneurs, business owners, and social activists. Akoin helps them connect and engage across the rising economies of Africa and beyond.
The recently published Akoin whitepaper elaborated that the goal is not just the creation of a cryptocurrency token but rather that of an ecosystem of tools and services designed for entrepreneurs, with Akon describing how “there will be many tools and services available in the Akoin Wallet and ecosystem – everything from education to commerce, savings and even entertainment,” and that they will “be partnering directly and onboarding a multitude of innovative DApps and Apps each wanting to provide their solutions to Africa and willing to trade in and out of Akoin to do so.”
Some of the major partners that Akoin has already got onboard include the launch of the Akoin Card with partner Baanx, Mastercard-enabled, and a public-facing wallet that’s built on partner Fireblocks wallet-as-a-service provider technology.
Final day: Thursday
First up on the final day of sessions, we were exploring the world of immersive technology – made popular by tech such Augmented and Virtual Reality, and the startups that are looking to bring them to the mainstream. Whilst this particular sector has seen a rapid rise in popularity over the last few years, it is perhaps not as dominant as it could be. Therefore, in this panel, the question was: “Is 2022 the breakthrough year?” Daniele Marinelli, CEO at DTSocialize Holding, a FinTech company that focuses on Financial Services, Blockchain and Big Data, led this talk.
Next, we delved into the latest Esports trends and Opportunities, in a talk hosted by Marcel Sema, Founding Partner, Wolfpack Management, who are a premier esport and gaming consultancy firm. Also taking place was a discussion that explored recent and emerging financial crime risks in online gaming, a panel which featured Simon Planzer, Partner, Planzer Law and Manfred Galdes, Director of Strategy and Managing Partner at ARQ Group.
Finally, there was a panel discussion that centred around the latest hot topic – the Metaverse. Facebook may have started this conversation, but plenty of other companies are very interested in this concept. On the main stage, and talking all things Metaverse, was Dam Mapes, President of Verses Technologies, known for developing advanced Artificial Intelligence technology and Spatial Networking protocols in order to create WEB 3.0, and Romy H, Athena group of companies, a fintech-focused international conglomerate.
