Latest news with #Mixi
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Business Standard
05-08-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
GameRamp raises $5.4 mn pre-seed round to scale AI and launch tools
GameRamp, an artificial intelligence (AI)-native publishing operating system, has raised $5.4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons, Mixi, DeVC and angel investors. The capital will be utilised for expanding the company's engineering and applied AI teams in the United States and India. It will also accelerate the launch of two services. These include Sentinel, an AI platform offering real-time personalisation of in-game economies and monetisation through reinforcement learning; and Grow, an embedded financing layer that provides developers access to capital. The company claims that studios using its tools can drive a 40–60 per cent increase in revenue. 'It isn't just about improving existing processes; it's enabling a completely new level of experimentation and insight. Our partners across regions like Vietnam, India and Turkey are seeing strong results, and we are excited to launch globally in the near future,' said Vivek Ramachandran, co-founder and chief executive officer, GameRamp. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with a Bengaluru-based research and development (R&D) hub. 'As we kick off our deep focus on emerging markets, GameRamp stood out as the obvious partner for one of our first lead investments in the region. Their vision and execution gave us confidence to back them as a global fund,' said Anuj Tandon, partner at Bitkraft Ventures.
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australian bookmaker Betr accused of drawing more than half of January gambling profits from 20 customers
A major Australian bookmaker has been accused of generating more than half of its gambling profits from just 20 customers in January. The accusation was made to the Australian Stock Exchange by the gambling company Pointsbet, which is resisting a hostile takeover bid by rival company Betr, which was previously partly owned by News Corporation. On Wednesday, Pointsbet's directors rejected Betr's offer and encouraged shareholders to instead accept a competing bid from the Japanese company, Mixi. During early states of negotiations, Pointsbet and Betr agreed to conduct due diligence and share financial and operational details. Sign up: AU Breaking News email After assessing that information, Pointsbet told the ASX that Betr had a 'less valuable and volatile VIP heavy customer base' and that shareholders would be exposed to Betr's existing operations if the bid were accepted. In April, Betr was reported as having around 340,000 customers. Around 150,000 were considered active. Pointsbet alleges that more than 50% of Betr's net win in January came from a tiny percentage of that customer base. Betr and Pointsbet were both contacted for comment. Both companies declined to clarify whether the January 2025 figures cited by Pointsbet were representatives of Betr's longer term financial and operational position. Pointsbet declined to state whether the January figures were an outlier. In its note to the ASX, Pointsbet told shareholders there were 'meaningful risks associated with a VIP-heavy customer base' including greater 'compliance and regulatory risks'. In May, Pointsbet was fined $500,800 by the Australian media regulator and subjected to enforceable undertakings after breaching breaching spam and self-exclusion laws. The Australian Communications and Media Authority accused Pointsbet of sending 508 marketing messages to people who had self-excluded themselves from gambling. Two years ago, a landmark report by an inquiry led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy said gambling companies maintained 'VIP programs to incentivise people they regard as high value customers.' Financial Counselling Australia, which represents people who have been harmed by the gambling industry, told the inquiry that high value customers are often individually managed by bookmaker staff and encouraged to keep gambling. The group did not name Betr in its submission. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The Murphy inquiry also recommended the federal government ban all gambling advertising after a three-year transition period. So far, the federal government is yet to formally respond to that recommendation. The Albanese's government's plan to restrict gambling advertising was delayed until after the election in the face of strong opposition from sporting codes and broadcasters. On Wednesday, the communications minister Annika Wells told parliament the government had resumed consultation with broadcasters, major sporting groups and some harm reduction advocates. 'I know the minister for social services [Tanya Plibersek] and myself have been working together on this and we are committed to continuing the work of the previous ministers from the first term,' Wells told question time. So far, sources familiar with the consultation say it has focused on identifying the main objections and testing support for compromises. They say the government intends to act by the end of the year. Wells did not commit to implementing Murphy's recommendation to phase out all advertising for online gambling, but said 'the work continues' on the government's agenda to address gambling harms. Lobbyists for major gambling firms have also been seen in Parliament House this week.
AU Financial Review
30-06-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Master of the market comes in from the cold
The farrago around Pointsbet's $402 million sale to Japanese social media company Mixi has drawn its fair share of rubberneckers. Computershare botched tallying the shareholder vote last week, and missed rival Betr's attempts to block the deal. Betr wants to buy Pointsbet for itself. The brainchild of the bookmaker is the country's most famous bookmaker (and Melbourne Storm chairman) Matthew Tripp. And by swallowing up the ASX-listed Blue Bet last year, Betr became a public company.
AU Financial Review
29-06-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Computershare saves PointsBet from its own constitution
When PointsBet's proposed sale to Japanese entertainment company Mixi was waved through by 95 per cent of shareholders on Wednesday, co-founder and CEO of the gambling outfit Sam Swanell said he was ' pleasantly surprised '. No shit. It had been expecting Matt Tripp 's Betr to use its 19.9 per cent holding to block the deal, which needed a 75 per cent approval vote. But miraculously, according to vote tallier Computershare, Betr didn't vote. That's despite having its own acquisition offer on the table and publicly declaring it would veto the deal.
AU Financial Review
25-06-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Pointsbet's $400m scheme-meeting blow-up looks like a fat-finger farce
Bad blood, big egos and apparent user error have turned the contested takeover of ASX-listed bookmaker Pointsbet into a $400 million farce. Somehow, despite making legally binding 'truth in takeovers' statements – which require market participants to be accountable for their public statements made during a takeover bid – plucky rival Betr did not vote against a rival $1.20 a share bid, notionally sending the business into the arms of Japanese mobile games company Mixi.
