The launch will be held from 10:30 to 19:00 at the Institute of Digital Games, where Silvio Schembri, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation will inaugurate the premises. Furthermore, Gabriel Robert, Lead Gameplay Programmer at Ubisoft will be speaking on the impact research has on innovation in games.

The institute will explain the key focus-areas of its education and showcase research on digital games done by their faculty and the University of Malta more broadly, which is critical for economic development as evidenced by the national video games and eSports strategy, says the press release. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the institute’s main research areas, which overlaps with aspects of Malta’s National AI Strategy. 

A series of workshops covering musical behaviour in games, the player-avatar relationship in virtual reality, and affective computing (emotion AI) will be open to the public from noon on. Quick-fire talks on digital game-related work and research done throughout the university as a whole will follow. 

Local game industry studios such as Dorado Games, Exient, Playmagic and Might Box will present projects that they are currently working on and will answer questions on practical aspects of career guidance. 

“We’re excited to see a growing and dynamic games industry in Malta that our students can participate in and contribute to. Our inauguration gives us an opportunity to highlight this and we’re proud to show the educational and research role of our Institute to the general public,” said Prof Georgios Yannakakis, Director of the Institute of Digital Games.

Registration for the whole-day event is required as space is limited.

The post UM’s Institute of Digital Games to open new premises on 25 September first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“With this licence, we gain the opportunity to offer our product and passion for esports betting to the Swedish market. Moreover, we have added a truly exciting casino experience that we know customers will appreciate. This springboard in Sweden will also position us for continued expansion internationally,” says Eirik Kristiansen, CEO of Pixel digital Ltd.

“During a year when we focus on strong growth but also cost efficiency, it is inspiring to see that pixel.bet are developing well and that we as a Group can benefit from our economies of scale with the sharing of resources and knowledge between our companies,” adds Gustaf Hagman, CEO of LeoVegas Group.

Pixel.bet is an aspiring brand in esports betting, also offering casino and live casino. While Sweden and the Nordics are considered to be the primary markets in focus, LeoVegas maintains a clear potential to grow further internationally.

LeoVegas’ technology development is conducted in Sweden, while operations are based in Malta. LeoVegas offers casino, live casino and sports betting, and operates two global and scalable brands – LeoVegas and Royal Panda – as well as a number of local brands in the UK. The company’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

The post LeoVegas launches new brand ‘Pixel digital’ in Sweden first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“Binance DEX is a decentralised exchange with a decentralised network of nodes, where you hold your private keys and manage your wallet,” says Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance. “With Binance DEX, we provide a different balance of security, freedom, and ease-of-use, where you take more responsibility and are in more control of your assets,” he adds.

Binance Chain is a new blockchain and peer-to-peer distributed system developed by Binance and the community. Binance says DEX is a secure and native marketplace built on its blockchain, allowing the exchange of digital assets that are issued and listed on the DEX. “Matching happens within the blockchain nodes, and all transactions are recorded on-chain, forming a complete, auditable ledger of activity,” the press statement says.

Binance Coin (BNB), currently an ERC20 token, will be migrated to Binance Chain to become the native asset. Traders will be able to issue, send and receive new tokens on the blockchain, and also propose new trading pairs to list.

“Binance Chain has near-instant transaction finality, with one-second block times. This is faster than other blockchains today,” says Mr Zhao, noting that ether takes about 20 seconds and bitcoin averages 10 minutes for network confirmations, with the possibility of rollbacks that do not occur on Binance Chain. “With the core Binance Chain technology, Binance DEX can handle the same trading volume as Binance.com is handling today. This solves the issues many other decentralised exchanges face with speed and power,” the CEO says.

Binance DEX was announced to support proven secure and decentralised software and hardware wallets. Binance says that its Trust Wallet is fully integrated with the DEX, as well as the Ledger Nano S. The company says more wallets are planned to be supported over time.

“We’re working toward decentralised accessibility to cryptocurrency,” says Viktor Radchenko, Founder of Binance’s Trust Wallet. “We want users to have full control over their private keys, and easy access to decentralised applications, to maximise the potential and mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency. Binance DEX is one step further to realising our vision for greater freedom of money,” Mr Radchenko adds.

Binance was launched in July 2017 and is based in Malta.

The post Binance launches DEX Testnet first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.