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Marcus & Martinus starring in game M&M Beat Hop developed by Azerion & Telenor

AzerionxMMBanner

Amsterdam – October 5th, 2021 – Azerion, the digital media platform and Telenor, are happy to announce the new generation music rhythm game Marcus & Martinus Beat Hop featuring Norwegian super stars Marcus & Martinus. Beat Hop is exclusively available in Norway through the online portal Spill fra Telenor, on mobile via the Telenor Spill app in Google Play Store and the Apple Appstore as the result of an exclusive partnership. Players who join now will have two months free access to Marcus and Martinus Beat Hop and to more than 500 games on the premium game platform Spill fra Telenor. Moreover, those who set high scores in the game will have a chance to win a meet and greet with the Norwegian superstars!

New Exclusive Game: Marcus & Martinus Beat Hop Marcus & Martinus Beat Hop is a multiplayer music rhythm game where players compete to break the high score on their favorite songs of Marcus & Martinus to become their biggest fan and win a meet and greet with the Norwegian superstars! Players can play the game by fully customizing the authentic outfits, unlock their characteristic dance moves and enjoy the favorite Marcus & Martinus songs. In the brand-new rhythm game players have the opportunity to get the highest scores on the leaderboards and earn surprises from Marcus & Martinus. Beside the multiplayer mode, players have the ability to enjoy the game in single player mode too. Azerion has developed Marcus and Martinus Beat Hop together directly with Marcus & Martinus and their fans to deliver an experience as authentic as possible

This is the first time ever that the Norwegian pop stars appear in a video game with their famous songs. We are very happy and proud that we can finally share our own unique music game with our fans in these difficult times. Thanks to the fantastic collaboration with Azerion and Telenor we can deliver the game we love to play and bring it to our fans. We can’t wait to hear the reactions of our fans! say Marcus and Martinus.

With Spill fra Telenor, children get access to over 500 exciting game titles for young and old children from suppliers such as Disney and Cartoon Network, all in a safe environment. The platform has no advertising and no opportunity to buy anything unexpected, says mobile director of Telenor, Ric Brown.
The collaboration between Azerion and the pop stars from Norway is part of Azerion’s strategy to bring high quality and relevant content to local markets. Music rhythm driven games is a fast growing genre. We are happy to bring a new format of interaction with the music to Marcus & Martinus fans in NorwayNorway is an important market for us so it’s wonderful to develop bespoken content for local players. says Yuliya Nabieva, Director Content Licensing and Production at Azerion.

Marcus & Martinus Beat Hop
Marcus & Martinus Beat Hop is now available via Spill fra Telenor on Google Play Store, Apple Appstore, Spill fra Telenor’s website and even via smart TV’s. Players who join now have two months free access to Azerion’s brand new music rhythm game and over 600 games on Spill fra Telenor. Players who join now and set a high score in Marcus & Martinus Beat Hop have a chance to enjoy the surprises or win a meet and greet chance with Marcus and Martinus.

About Premium Game Platform: Spill fra Telenor
Spill fra Telenor is an unlimited mobile gaming platform which provides premium digital gaming experience across all demographics. From action to adventure, education to simulation, 600+ high quality games are available from top brands such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Atari. Up to 5 profiles can be created for family members to provide age related content in safety. Via parental control features, parents can control availability of games to their children and follow customized dashboards which reflect some information on play time, played games of each family member. To start playing games on Spill fra Telenor, users need to log-in with their Telenor number on telenorspill.no and start a monthly subscription. All Telenor users will have a chance to try Spill fra Telenor for two months free-trial option and they can continue their subscription paying 79 NOK/month via their Telenor bills.

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing pan-European digital gaming and monetisation platform. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetisation features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

Sublime reinforces its analysis and contextual semantic targeting capabilities with Sirdata

Paris

PARIS – September 28th, 2021 – Anticipating the deprecation of third-party cookies scheduled for 2023, Sublime an Azerion Company, enhances its products and services through the contextual and semantic technology of Sirdata, leader in addressability. The impetus of this direct integration is to strengthen Brand Suitability and Semantic Intelligence for each campaign operated by Sublime’s teams.

Owing to the activation of the optional contextual functionality of Sirdata’s ADS API (“Addressability Dynamic Solution”), Sublime ensures advertisers’ continuity to reach their most valuable audiences. By virtue of this direct integration, Sublime’s team sewed up the creation of the most relevant and contextually targeted socio- demographic audiences, excluding any unsuitable terms for the brand’s strategy, ruling out the need to appeal to the pre-built categories from a third-party marketplace.

Indeed, both Sublime and Sirdata are undergoing growth in their businesses. Sublime, which has recently been acquired by the Azerion Group, offers impactful, tailor-made and unobtrusive advertising experiences in France and abroad. It delivers them, at scale, within its publishers’ partner network, ensuring full visibility for either global, pan-European or local campaigns. In response to all the regulatory and technical changes to which Adtech and Martech companies are adapting, Sirdata and its technologies underpin each player in the advertising field – brands, agencies, media companies, platforms – enhancing their knowledge and optimising campaign reach, with or without cookies, in the strictest compliance with industry standards, user choices and regulations in force.

Concretely, according to brands and media agencies specific objectives, Sublime independently creates contextual probabilistic targeting according to its clients’ criteria (socio-demo, intent, interests detected through its network), and, then, combines them within its Video and Display formats. The first semantic contextual segments – via Natural Language Processing (NLP) – created by dint of this agreement are able to be activated now, in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Asia. Additionally, Sublime will be able to bank on Sirdata’s advanced capabilities of Brand Safety to continue to ensure the delivery of its advertising formats in safe environments tailored to each advertiser’s objectives.

Due to the approaching end of third-party cookies, we are required to find the best answers to maintain reaching advertisers’ target audiences in the right place. This new partnership will allow us to develop original and exclusive targeting solutions internally that increase the consideration, engagement and perception of our advertising solutions, says Andrew Buckman, Sublime’s CEO.

This agreement allows us to keep up with structural changes in the digital advertising market, whether regulatory or technological, and to facilitate campaign reach. Thanks to Sirdata, the teams of this key European player can easily benefit from a true vision of the content and categories that are representative of the websites in its network, according to the editorial context specific to each medium and country, and are able to support their clients precisely so that Sublime’s high-impact formats can fit in, says Naima Conton, Sirdata’s COO.

About Sublime
Sublime (Azerion Group) creates and distributes Creative Solutions for brands looking for effectiveness. With its high-impact advertising solutions that combine leading technology with a top-notch creative approach, Sublime simplifies the delivery of premium, non-intrusive formats while respecting the user’s experience. Our commitment is to combine creativity and technology while offering the highest level of service and support. Founded in 2012, the company is headquartered in Paris, with offices in the UK, Spain, Italy and Singapore, and delivers multi-device campaigns in direct sales or programmatic across the globe.
For more information: www.sublime.xyz.
Press contact:
Estelle Reale, Marketing Director: estelle@sublime.xyz – T: + 33 6 20 62 35 05

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing pan-European digital gaming and monetisation platform. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetisation features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About Sirdata
Sirdata’s guarantee to its clients is reaching captive or purchase intent audiences via a targeting that is mindful of users’; choices, whether through contexts and its cookieless predictive tools and/or through tracers and consent management. For nearly a decade, Sirdata’s technologies have analyzed, structured, processed and made activatable audiences and signals useful to the advertising and content industry.
For more information: www.sirdata.com
Press contact:
Nathalie Harding, Marketing and Communication Manager: nha@sirdata.fr – T: + 33 6 88 19 58 34

Sulake Enters the Blockchain by Launching 12,500 Unique Habbo Avatar NFTs

Helsinki

Fans of Habbo and digital collectors will be able to own a piece of Habbo Hotel

Helsinki, 27th September 2021 – Sulake, an Azerion company, announced today that it will be releasing its first line of NFTs, backed by Ethereum. The NFTs will feature unique randomly generated Habbo avatars that fans of Habbo and digital collectors can purchase and wholly own as part of their portfolios. Sulake is also working on integrating the NFTs into the Habbo experience.

As well as reinvesting the revenues from the sale of the NFTs back into the game, the team behind Habbo has also decided to reserve 1000 NFTs for the community and details of how the NFTs will be distributed will be announced in the near future. The technology behind the NFTs provides tremendous security, giving greater control and a more defined ownership over digital Habbo merchandise, said Valtteri Karu, CEO of Sulake. Fans of Habbo can now own and collect items that embed themselves within Habbo’s history and infrastructure. This is a natural evolution of the collection of digital items that has been an integral part of Habbo since the game first arrived on the internet over 21 years ago.

In addition to the upcoming NFT collection, Sulake has entered into partnership with Offsetra to offset the increased carbon footprint associated with NFT minting, confirming Sulake’s and its parent company Azerion’s strong commitment to ecological stewardship and actions to combat climate change and its impacts. Offsetra will measure the carbon emissions from the NFT minting transactions and then offset these emissions through a variety of ecological initiatives and programs, such as tree planting projects and renewable energy development.

Check out Sulake’s Offsetra profile page: https://offsetra.com/profile/sulake

The first edition of Habbo avatar NFTs consists of 12,500 unique, randomly generated pieces.The NFTs will be available this week from the dedicated webstore https://nft.habbo.com/

how_avatars_are_made_image

For more information on the Habbo NFTs:
Follow Habbo on Twitter: @Habbo
Join our channel for the latest updates: https://discord.gg/tCy9T5gNus
Press images of the NFTs: https://bit.ly/3lFBgNx
For more info on Habbo’s work with Offsetra: https://offsetra.com/profile/sulake

About Habbo and Sulake
Sulake is a social entertainment company focused on providing a safe and fun online service for self-expression through its games, Habbo and Hotel Hideaway. Sulake was founded in 2000 by a small team of passionate people and now after 21 years, Habbo is still one of the largest virtual communities in the world, reaching players all over the world each month. With paying customers in over 115 countries and over 850,000 active users a month, Habbo continues to be a hugely popular and globally recognised brand. Sulake’s mission is to enable its users to meet new people, make friends and give them a place to create and share their user-generated content in fun virtual surroundings. Sulake is a leader in ensuring online safety for children and was acquired in 2020 by Dutch media and technology company Azerion.
www.sulake.com

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European monetization platform. The entertainment organisation develops and operates a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. The integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach millions of people across the globe that play games from Azerion and use the entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty, and drive e-commerce.
Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 900 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

roadmap

Sony Music is hosting a virtual concert in Hotel Hideaway with Sam Fischer

Amsterdam

Hotel Hideaway partners with Sony Music for the first time hosting a virtual concert with Sam Fischer on September 24th.

Watch the announce trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGwoNb7Qri4

Amsterdam, 24th September 2021 – Azerion, the leading European monetization platform, proudly announces that Hotel Hideaway partners up with Sony Music for the first time and is hosting a virtual concert with famous singer-songwriter from Australia Sam Fischer on September 24th in the popular social online 3D virtual hotel.

Partnership with Sony Music
Thanks to the new partnership with Sony Music, Sam Fischer, who is famous for his latest songs: What Other People Say with Demi Lovato and Pick Me Up with Sam Feldt, will perform virtually in the social online 3D world on Friday September 24th exclusively for players of Hotel Hideaway. Players will exclusively get the opportunity to enjoy a meet and greet backstage together with the virtual avatar of Sam Fischer after the show. Furthermore, every concert visitor in Hotel Hideaway will receive an exclusive branded pin for attending the show. We are very happy that we are hosting the first of many concerts together with Sony Music says Madelon Smittenaar, Business Development Manager of Azerion. We are very excited to have a rising star like Sam Fischer in Hotel Hideaway and give our players an amazing experience. It’s great to see that we are even officially part of Sam Fischer’s tour which shows the impact we have with this concept.

The virtual concert
Hotel Hideaway is a social online 3D hotel where players can create an avatar, make friends, and furnish their own rooms. The game is developed by the creators of Habbo Hotel and has become an increasingly popular hangout with more than a million users visiting each month worldwide. With this concert Sam Fischer will follow in the footsteps of DJ Luuk van Dijk, Sydney Samson, DJ Mark Sixma, Trixie Mattel, Cookiee Kawaii and Fly by Midnight who performed earlier this year in the game. Interested in attending the show? Download the game via the Apple App Store and join the virtual concert of Sam Fischer on September 24th at 7 PM CET / EDT / PDT / GMT+7 in Hotel Hideaway.

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European monetization platform. The entertainment organisation develops and operates a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. The integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach millions of people across the globe that play games from Azerion and use the entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty, and drive e-commerce.
Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 900 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About Hotel Hideaway
Hotel Hideaway is a social online 3D world, situated in a lively, virtual hotel. Visitors can create their own avatar, furnish their own rooms, make friends, visit parties and more. About a million users aged 17-25 visit the hotel every month (35 percent from Asia, 25 percent from Europe, 25 percent from the US and 15 percent from rest of the world) of which 60 percent are female and 40 percent are male. Hotel Hideaway is growing fast and comes from the creators of the Habbo virtual community, who have experience with live content. Artists like Gorillaz, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga have collaborated with Habbo in the past.

About Sam Fischer
Sam Fischer is an Australian artist that has garnered incredible attention since he first introduced himself with his Not A Hobby EP. Touring North America with his friend Lewis Capaldi, he wowed crowds with his buoyant personality and pure love and talent for songwriting. Now based in LA, he not only has received acclaim for his own work, but he continues to solidify his spot as one of the hottest current writers, having worked with global pop superstars including Ciara, Lennon Stella, Louis Tomlinson, Elle King, Jessie J, Virginia To Vegas and many more.

Voidu is the new esports sponsor of Fortuna Sittard

– The sponsorship is part of the long term commitment from Azerion to create a high-quality fan experience by integrating offline and online services

– Voidu commits to Fortuna Sittard and brings fans, gamers, and the club closer to each other with esports and exclusive fan experiences

Amsterdam, 22nd September 2021 – Voidu, the official online game distribution platform owned by Azerion, announced today that it is the new esports sponsor of Fortuna Sittard. With this brand new sponsorship Voidu is bringing fans, gamers, and the football club closer to each other via esports, digital events and exclusive fan engagement and experiences.

Fortuna Sittard esports

With this sponsorship Voidu commits to the football club from the Eredivisie and invests heavily in the Fortuna Sittard Esports team that ended 7th in eDivisie’s last season rankings. Esports games are a very important part of our business, so it makes perfect sense to grab the opportunity Azerion has given us and partner up with this amazing football club to reach esports players and gamers in The Netherlands, says Cem Temur, Director at Voidu. We are very happy with this sponsorship, and we are committed to helping Fortuna Sittard reach the top of the eDivisie. Furthermore, as our first deed, I’m happy to announce the very strong new line-up of Fortuna Sittard’s esports team including Tim van Doleweerd, and Marc Groenland. We can’t wait for the start of the season.

We are very excited about the new sponsorship with Voidu. They understand gamers and esports players and this will allow us to perform on the highest level says Marc Groenland.

Exclusive events and fan engagement

On top of the esports sponsorship, Voidu is organizing several fan engagement activities exclusively for fans of Fortuna Sittard soon. We are not only aiming to be successful in the eDivisie but we also would like to bring the football club, players and fans closer together by offering digital entertainment and events, says Cem Temur, Director at Voidu. We are planning to organise exclusive events where fans and the players of Fortuna Sittard can play exclusively together in FIFA. Furthermore, fans of Fortuna Sittard will have a chance of receiving discounts on our platform and they’ll be able to compete in unique giveaways to win games.

It’s wonderful that Voidu is our new partner and brings not only a lot of fan engagement and entertainment but also strives to win with our new esports team adds Jordy Joosten, eSports responsible at Fortuna Sittard.

www.fortunasittard.nl
www.azerion.com
www.voidu.com

About Voidu

Voidu is an official online digital distribution platform. All the products available on our website come directly from official sources i.e. developers, publishers or distributors. Our services and products are available around the clock, 365 days per year. We’re working together with hundreds of publishers to give you the greatest catalog possible. Voidu is for gamers, by gamers.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization company. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About Fortuna Sittard

Fortuna Sittard is the pioneering player of professional football in the Netherlands. The club was established in 1968 from a merger between RKSV Sittardia and Fortuna ’54 and can therefore call itself the very first professional club in the Netherlands. Highlights of the team’s success include winning the National Cup in 1957 and 1964, becoming first division champions in 1995 and achieving promotion into the Eredivisie, first in 1982 and again in 2018 – the division where they currently compete.

Azerion enhances digital games distribution with the integration of GENBA™ platform

Amsterdam, 14th September 2021 – Azerion, the fast-growing digital gaming and monetisation platform, today announces the new addition of Genba Digital, the British digital distribution company, and owner of the GENBA™ platform, an award-winning automated API-driven digital logistics platform that connects content owners with prominent retailers around the globe.

Erol Erturk, Executive VP Games & Strategic Partnerships at Azerion, said: We have been working with Genba’s team for a long time now, they are well-respected specialists with in-depth expertise in digital insight, technical guidance and revenue growth in digital distribution of premium video games. Genba’s platform will allow us to offer content owners a whole new world of sales channels, and to connect quicker and more efficiently with our media publisher partners, by offering innovations like white-label stores of premium PC games.

The benefits of the integration of the GENBA™ platform technology with Azerion’s Improve Digital environment are two-fold. First, it will enable Azerion to attract more game developers by ensuring more efficient and secure distribution of their games to a worldwide network of specialist games e-tailers. Second, the platform will provide its network of online retailers with increased access to Genba’s extensive catalogue of video games and software content.

Matt Murphy, CEO of Genba Digital, further comments: Since 2015 we’ve worked tirelessly to build up a portfolio of 90 leading video games content owners and 300 sales channels. We are excited to be part of the Azerion Group as it gives us the potential to build on the Genba proposition with new technology services for our content owners and our retailers, whilst opening up new video games sales channels.”

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing pan-European digital gaming and monetisation platform. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetisation features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About Genba Digital

Genba Digital connects digital content owners and sellers to deliver efficient distribution and revenue growth. Launched in 2015 in Leamington Spa, UK, we had a vision to provide game-changing distribution to a range of clients around the globe. Today, we are proud to have developed an industry-leading platform, GENBA™, that sets the standard in transparency and security. Originating in PC, we now apply our expertise and insights across geographical regions and platforms, providing access to a huge catalogue of quality digital content. We work with 90+ publishers and 300+ retail partners across 195 countries. From securely widening retail networks for games and software publishers, to providing digital stores with fast access to the best content; we build close, collaborative relationships that deliver the best possible results.

Azerion increases European advertising offering with the acquisition of Sublime

by integrating Sublime’s unobtrusive advertising capabilities into Azerion’s technology stack we further improve the user experience and advertising performance of the platform simultaneously

Amsterdam, 3rd of September 2021 – Azerion, the fast-growing digital gaming and monetisation platform, today announces the acquisition of French digital advertising company Sublime. Sublime delivers creative and effective tailor-made programmatic advertising solutions to premium brands and publishers worldwide. As part of the Azerion ecosystem, this acquisition will bolster the company’s programmatic and monetisation offering across Europe.

With the acquisition of Sublime, we further strengthen our digital advertising platform. Since their launch in 2012, their impactful, user-friendly and scalable formats have changed the digital advertising industry. Sublime’s DNA aligns perfectly with Azerion’s multicultural values and European approach. Therefore, we expect Sublime to add immediate value to our platform and help execute premium creative content on behalf of the brands we work with across Europe., says Sebastiaan Moesman, Chief Revenue Officer of Azerion.

Sublime’s proprietary ad technology helps advertisers respond to the pressing issue of viewability, engagement and performance by delivering premium, user-friendly digital ad formats to highly targeted audiences. Its creative solutions help advertisers and top tier brands generate high impact ad campaigns whilst protecting the user experience.

Andrew Buckman, CEO at Sublime, adds: After nine years growing into a reputable European player with a global ad network of 4,000 leading publishers and more than 2,000 premium partner brands, we are really excited to be growing the company further by joining one of the world’s leading platforms. Azerion’s dynamic environment will give us the opportunity to scale up our operations and continue to develop our top-notch adtech technology whilst accessing a wider network of brands and publishers.”

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing pan-European digital gaming and monetisation platform. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetisation features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About Sublime

Sublime creates and delivers Creative Solutions to brands looking for effective advertising. We offer high-impact solutions where market-leading technology combines with a creative-first approach. Sublime simplifies the delivery of premium, meaningful & user-friendly brand ad experiences. We are committed to breaking the mould in creative innovation, while delivering the highest level of service and support. Founded in 2012, the Paris-based company has offices in the UK, Madrid, Milan, Lyon and Singapore, and delivers direct and programmatic advertising campaigns across the globe. For more information, please visit www.sublime.xyz

Sublime Key Figures

A global Ad network of 2,000 premium brands and 4,000 leading publishers
Serving all verticals (auto, FMCG, Retail, Consumer Electronics…)
2bn monthly impressions

 

Azerion further strengthens its European platform by acquiring Swedish Keymobile

Amsterdam, 25th of August 2021 – Azerion, the fast-growing digital gaming and monetisation platform, today announces the acquisition of Keymobile, the Swedish mobile advertising company. The addition of Keymobile to Azerion’s platform affirms the company’s ambition to offer the most comprehensive and integrated advertising offering to publishers and advertisers in Europe.

This is the third Swedish acquisition completed by Azerion since January 2021, after Strossle and Delta Projects, using the proceeds of the €200-million bond listing issued by the company on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange. The issuance had attracted a great deal of interest from Nordic and North American institutional investors.

Commenting on the acquisition, Patrik Fagerlund, VP Nordics at Azerion, said: The integration of Keymobile on our platform will support our efforts to provide our customers – whether they are media buyers or sellers – with a greater choice of adtech solutions and content across the Nordics and beyond, creating new synergies with our existing offering. We hope that this new acquisition will best help our advertisers reach their goals.

Johan Näslund, Keymobile CEO says: Mobile advertising is a well-recognised and effective advertising channel : we browse more on our mobiles than on our computers. This creates great opportunities for advertisers to engage with their audiences; while it is paramount to respect end-users by having a well-thought out mobile strategy. We believe our expertise in mobile advertising will effectively support Azerion’s ambitions to offer the best and most comprehensive advertising offering to its customers.

Keymobile’s advertising offer can be purchased both through direct purchases, where specific target group packages ensure that the ads are visible in the right context, or through a well-thought-out programmatic setup via some strategically selected DSPs available on the market. Keymobile also assists with the development of new, creative mobile formats that engage the recipient and enable successful mobile advertising.

Azerion in the Nordics

Sweden historically represents an important country for Azerion. Keymobile is the 5th investment in Sweden in the past three years, after the acquisition of adtech companies Widespace and Sellbranch in 2018, and Delta Projects and Strossle earlier this year. The company opened its first “Azerion campus” in Helsinki earlier this year, following the acquisition of Sulake Oy, the developer of flagship social game Habbo Hotel.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing pan-European digital gaming and monetisation platform. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetisation features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 955 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

About Keymobile

Keymobile was founded in 2014 and is today one of Sweden’s leading players in mobile advertising. The company has been profitable since the start, and today generates revenue for 350 Swedish premium sites and helps Sweden’s largest advertisers with their advertising. Keymobile supports brands reaching their target groups through mobile advertising, and assists publishers in monetising their mobile traffic more effectively.

Simple, transparent and relevant – Keymobile’s know-how creates security for advertisers. Our experience working on thousands of campaigns means that we know which ad formats to use depending on the campaign’s purpose and target group. We also help to develop unique formats – all to achieve the best possible results.

Adverty partners with Azerion to further strengthen in-game advertising’s programmatic reach

The partnership with Azerion’s premium advertising platform (Improve Digital), designed to enable more advertisers to leverage its market-leading programmatic in-game offering.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – August 23rd – Adverty, the leading in-game platform for advertisers, agencies and game developers, has announced a partnership with Azerion’s premium advertising platform (Improve Digital), which will increase its programmatic reach for brands and advertisers looking to enter the increasingly influential world of gaming.

Adverty delivers unobtrusive advertising which connects brands and audiences through its revolutionary and patented technology, built specifically for gaming. The partnership with Azerion and its platform integration with Improve Digital will allow buy-side clients to access Adverty’s innovative In-Play and In-Menu ad formats in mobile games at scale. The partnership has already activated in-game advertising campaigns with brands such as Calvin Klein, and will launch in full during October 2021, once the technical integration of platforms is complete.

Daan Boekestein, VP Product at Azerion, comments: With this exciting partnership we are able to provide even more opportunities for brands to effectively reach and engage with premium gaming audiences through new and innovative in-game ad formats. Azerion’s growing ecosystem is providing additional monetisation opportunities for media businesses whilst vastly improving reach for advertisers.

This news follows Adverty’s unprecedented growth on the supply-side recently, having signed partnerships with TapNation, Mamboo Games, Lucky Kat Studios, Goldtown Games and Playducky. With interest in in-game advertising soaring, not to mention Adverty’s collaboration with Oracle’s Moat for third-party ad verification and its recent US patents granted for its work around in-game viewability, the collaboration comes at an exciting time.

About Adverty

Adverty, the leading in-game advertising platform, delivers seamless In-Play™ and In-Menu™ ads to connect brands and people through its revolutionary and patented technology built for games. The platform offers true in-game ad inventory at scale and allows content creators to monetise the complete experience with unobtrusive, easy-to-integrate, immersive ads. Founded in 2016, Adverty has offices in Stockholm, London, New York, Madrid, Helsinki, St Petersburg and Lviv and works with advertisers, agencies and developers to unlock audiences and gaming revenue streams. More information at www.adverty.com.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing, pan-European company, leading the way in digital gaming and monetisation. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best elements from our business for each of our brands and users. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 955 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

Play along with Miffy, including 15 Miffy games now available worldwide

Dutch collaboration Azerion and Mercis launch the game app Play along with Miffy worldwide, which playfully teaches children letters and figures in the world of Miffy

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – August 17th – Play along with Miffy, a new educational app for children, is now available worldwide. The app is developed by Azerion, the leading European gaming and monetization company, in collaboration with Mercis, Miffy’s global rights owner.

Brand new app including 15 Miffy games

The app Play along with Miffy bundles 15 Miffy games that allows young children to playfully learn numbers, shapes and letters in the wonderful world of Miffy. On top of that, children can enjoy fun games which feature coloring, cooking and making music. Play along with Miffy has the iconic style and vision of famous Dutch author, illustrator and graphic designer Dick Bruna, the creator of the well-known and beloved character Miffy.

Now available

Play along with Miffy is now available worldwide as part of a subscription service on HUZ, through Telecom operator partners such as Telenor, Italia Online and Ooredoo, and as a premium game via the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Users will get the first 3 games for free and can unlock all 15 games for € 4,99. Both the free and paid version of Play along with Miffy are ad-free.

Strong Dutch partnership

Yuliya Nabieva, Director Content Licensing and Production at Azerion, says about the collaboration with Mercis: We are very proud to collaborate with the people at Mercis and to work with one of the biggest and most famous brands for children. Thanks to this strong partnership we are able to launch this beautiful game today. As a company which originated in The Netherlands, it makes it even more special that we have partnered up with Mercis to create this app starring Miffy.”

Frank Padberg, Business Development Manager at Mercis, continues: Our mission is to make sure the legacy of Dick Bruna lives on in the beautiful world he has created with Miffy and look for new opportunities to stimulate children to develop and express themselves in this wonderful world. It’s an honor to add this brand-new game, together with Azerion, alongside the many books and TV series that have been released for children all over the world.

For more information about Play along with Miffy, Azerion and Mercis, please visit www.azerion.com, www.miffy.com or contact: info@mercis.nl

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing, pan-European company, leading the way in digital gaming and monetisation. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best elements from our business for each of our brands and users. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 955 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

About Mercis BV

Dick Bruna’s illustrations and IP rights are globally managed by Mercis bv, through highly integrated business units in the fields of publishing, media and licensing. Dick Bruna’s philosophy forms the basis of Mercis bv’s work; respect for the world of a child. The child in all of us.

Azerion strengthens its gaming and advertising platform by striking an exclusive partnership with SOFTGAMES

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – August 9th – — Azerion, the leading pan-European digital gaming and monetisation company, today announces an exclusive partnership with SOFTGAMES, the well-known German instant gaming company developing casual, truly social games.

With this major deal, Azerion now provides advertisers an extended reach with 300 additional premium web games through its platform (including the popular Garden Tales franchise) and a crossword puzzle platform designed by SOFTGAMES. This boosts Azerion’s offering in key regions and adds to their younger audience segments and, with the crosswords, reaches more mature players.

The two companies have established a long-term relationship in which Azerion publishes games on the web already developed by SOFTGAMES, as well as those still to be developed in the future. By these means, Azerion’s platform continuously evolves, offering clients an even more tailored audience reach.

In addition, Azerion takes over all of SOFTGAMES’ business operations in the web browser games segment. Historically, SOFTGAMES has formed steadfast partnerships with some of the biggest agencies, advertisers and media companies and their sites (Tribune Content Agency e.g. Chicago Tribune and Reach Plc. e.g. Mirror.co.uk).

Erol Erturk, Executive VP games & strategic partnerships at Azerion said: This deal offers SOFTGAMES’ partners the ability to leverage Azerion’s growing ecosystem and technology providing additional and long-term monetisation opportunities for media companies while improving reach for advertisers.

Alexander Krug, CEO & Co-Founder of SOFTGAMES, said: Over the last decade SOFTGAMES has built a unique and massive ecosystem around the distribution & monetization of HTML5 casual games across the web. As the web games market has reached maturity and our focus has shifted more and more towards Instant Games in the past years, the deal with Azerion is the next logical step for us.

Andre Krug, COO & Co-Founder of SOFTGAMES, said: This strategic partnership allows us to unite our workforce, vision and focus on Instant Games. We are now well positioned to grow even faster to become the leading developer on that exciting new platform.

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing, pan-European company, leading the way in digital gaming and monetisation. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best elements from our business for each of our brands and users. Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 955 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

About Softgames
SOFTGAMES is an instant gaming company. We develop casual, truly social games that can be played instantly across all devices. We partner closely with Facebook, Samsung and more to craft the next generation of Instant Games that billions of people can play together. Founded in 2006 with currently 90 employees, we are operating out of Berlin, Germany and Toronto, Canada.

Azerion continues its European expansion by acquiring Swedish advertising specialist Strossle

Strossle brings deep expertise on contextual advertising through continued close collaboration with publishers

Amsterdam, 7th July 2021 – Azerion, the fast-growing digital gaming and monetisation technology company, today announces the acquisition of Strossle International AB (“Strossle”), the Stockholm-based media tech company. This acquisition is designed to further strengthen Azerions position in the Nordics and Central and Eastern European countries (CEE). This development follows the acquisitions of Swedish programmatic advertising company Delta Projects and German gaming veteran WHOW Games over the past two weeks. Both transactions were funded using the proceeds of Azerion’s successful 200-million euro bond issuance completed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange in April this year. These deals support Azerion’s ambition to become a major gaming and monetisation platform in Europe. Besides, the company continues to develop and execute its funding strategy by exploring further capital markets options, including a potential IPO in the not-too-distant future, to fuel growth, expand its platform and to ultimately realise its vision.

Commenting on the acquisition, Patrik Fagerlund VP Nordics at Azerion, said: “Strossle’s award winning contextual and native advertising platform, is expected to expand Azerion’s portfolio and support our clients in the Nordic markets and CEE countries.  We see Strossle as an strategic acquisition in a cookieless world where web tracking is increasingly relying on consent. Services like content recommendation and native solutions allow advertisers to reach their audiences without involving user data and contextual advertising is rapidly gaining traction. Together we can create more value for advertisers and develop services and tools that respect users’ right to digital privacy.”
Azerion is the perfect match for Strossle”, says Strossle CEO Håkon Tillier. “As part of Azerion, we can take the business to the next level and grow our presence into larger European markets. Within the Azerion group, there are many opportunities to develop  adtech and a fast growing native programmatic space, thanks to the company’s culture of performance and cross country collaboration.This is a very exciting day for European publishers and advertisers alike. I’m so proud of the Strossle team who have been critical in creating the amazing company we have today, and I can’t wait for the next chapter of our journey in partnership with Azerion.

Strossle and native advertising

Strossle is a leading content discovery platform in Northern Europe. Through partnerships with more than 350 publishers in eight European markets, Strossle estimates it is part of the reading experience on 500,000,000 articles per month. As a leading player in the field of contextual advertising, Strossle is the distribution platform of choice for hundreds of advertisers across Europe, and Strossle’s native ads have generated millions in revenue for its media partners since operations began in 2014. In 2018 Strossle was announced as winner of the EMEA fast 500 award by Deloitte and has launched services such as self-service marketplace for advertisers, API integrations and house-ads solutions for publishers with their own content marketing studios.

“Native” ads are commercial messages that are designed to blend seamlessly into the reader experience of an online news site or magazine. The European market was estimated to be €16.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to increase to more than €77.5 billion by 2025. With increased focus on reader privacy and the forthcoming deprecation of cookies and third party data. Advertisers are increasingly seeking out privacy safe, non-intrusive advertising formats. Strossle services like the content recommendation and native solutions play into this trend because they allow their advertisers to reach their audiences without involving user data.

 

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital entertainment and media platform. Our integrated platform provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce. Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

European digital gaming and monetisation company Azerion expands Nordic presence with new Swedish acquisition Delta Projects

Amsterdam, 1st July 2021 – – Azerion, the fast-growing digital gaming and monetisation technology company, today announces the acquisition of Delta Projects, the Swedish innovative programmatic advertising company. This acquisition is designed to further strengthen Azerion’s gaming and advertising platform.

This development comes a few months after Azerion’s successful completion of a €200-million bond listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange and is the second company Azerion has acquired in as many weeks, after gaming veteran WHOW Games in Germany.

Commenting on the acquisition, Joost Merks, CIO of Azerion, said: We are very pleased to welcome Delta Projects’ teams into our Group. The Swedish tech industry is renowned worldwide for its creativity and the excellence of its services – Delta Project is a perfect example. The integration of Delta Projects’ advanced programmatic technology will support our ambitions to provide the best customer insights to our partners along with safe, optimised execution of their advertising campaigns.

Delta Projects has developed a platform that predicts target audiences and how to reach them, using customer insights and real-time adjusted data. The technology will prove useful to Azerion’s clients as they seek to execute highly efficient and targeted advertising campaigns across Azerion’s extensive gaming offering. The technology is expected to enable Azerion to identify new audiences in a more accurate and timely manner, thus dramatically increasing the volume of impressions of advertising content to users.

John Lilja, Founder and CEO of Delta Projects further adds: We believe our platform will be a perfect fit into Azerion’s thriving ecosystem. The synergies between Azerion’s existing adtech offering and our technology create a unique proposition to advertisers, locally and internationally. The European market, with its many markets and its rapidly changing legislation calls for a new approach. As part of Azerion, we can bring to the market a new and sustainable solution for programmatic advertising. This can be of great importance for the local advertising industry, both agencies, advertisers and publishers have needs that can be better met.

Sweden historically represents an important country for Azerion. The Delta Projects deal represents the 3rd investment in Sweden in the past three years, after the acquisition of adtech companies Widespace and Sellbranch in 2018. Thanks to these acquisitions, Azerion already enjoys a strong presence not only in Sweden but across the Nordics. The company opened its first “Azerion campus” in Helsinki earlier this year, following the acquisition of Sulake Oy, the developer of their flagship social game Habbo Hotel.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization company. Azerion develops and operates a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Its integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach millions of people across the globe that play its games and use its entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.
Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 980 employees across 20 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About Delta Projects

Delta Projects is a pioneer in programmatic advertising, an Adtech company with an independent full-stack programmatic platform for campaign execution and management, DSP, DMP, ad-serving, machine learning and analysis – combining audience insights and real-time adjusted bidding strategies into one comprehensive platform. The customer base comprises agencies as well as advertisers that brought programmatic in-house. The company was founded in 2002 (Stockholm) and operates today across the Nordics, the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the Benelux.

Azerion Announces Partnership with Sanrio to create a Multimedia Entertainment Experience for Hello Kitty and Friends Around the Globe

Amsterdam

Azerion Moves Beyond Games to Provide IP-Driven Multimedia Content for Hello Kitty and Friends within Azerion Platforms

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – July 7th – — Azerion, the leading pan-European digital gaming and monetisation company, and Sanrio, the global lifestyle brand recognized worldwide for its universally beloved pop icon Hello Kitty, today announced a three-year partnership to provide fans of the popular Japanese character with a series of casual games.

Through this partnership, Azerion will launch five Hello Kitty and Friends-branded games as web-enabled versions powered by HTML5. The games will be accessible to a wider audience on both web and mobile devices.

Azerion is planning a series of joint marketing initiatives to introduce the new Hello Kitty and Friends games across its diverse platforms to its audiences across the globe. Multimedia promotional events and community engagement through social media channels, featuring video trailers and other assets will be developed and distributed by Azerion. Promoting and activating its audience to drive awareness for the new Hello Kitty and Friends experience will enable Azerion to reach new audiences on publisher and user side and offer new entertainment content for existing Sanrio fans no matter where they are or what device they use.

Silvia Figini, COO of Sanrio- EMEA, India and Oceania, Mr. Men – Worldwide said: We are extremely glad to partner with Azerion on this new project. The combination of the global appeal of Hello Kitty and the great experience of Azerion in developing and publishing high quality engaging games will generate the perfect formula to deliver fantastic gaming experience to our worldwide audience.

Erol Erturk, Executive VP games & strategic partnerships at Azerion said: Azerion’s partnership with Sanrio’s Hello Kitty and Friends supports the iconic brand in becoming a fully fledged media franchise. Azerion will give Hello Kitty and Friends cross- and multi-platform reach, specifically with customized concepts for our publishing partners. We are honoured to have Sanrio’s trust in this and are thrilled about the possibilities.

With a series of games to rollout within the coming years, the first games include: Hello Kitty Pinball, and Hello Kitty and Friends Jumper.

About the games

Hello Kitty and Friends Jumper

Choose your favorite Hello Kitty and Friends character and jump up on the platforms! Every few seconds a new floor will appear and you have to time your jump correctly. Play as Hello Kitty, My Melody, Kerokerokeroppi or Bad Badtz-Maru and explore different environments. Jump as high as you can and set a new high score!

Hello Kitty Pinball

Enjoy a classic Hello Kitty pachinko pinball game and obtain the highest score by shooting yellow, green, blue and pink balls! Unlock the bonus and Hello Kitty will throw in some special bonus balls. You have ninety seconds to set the highest score!

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing, pan-European company, leading the way in digital gaming and monetisation. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best elements from our business for each of our brands and users. Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 955 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

About Sanrio
Sanrio is the global lifestyle brand best known for Hello Kitty who was created in 1974, and home to many other beloved character brands such as My Melody, LittleTwinStars, Cinnamoroll, Pompompurin, gudetama, Aggretsuko, Chococat, Bad Badtz-Maru, Kerokerokeroppi and the British icons Mr. Men Little Miss. Sanrio was founded on the small gift, big smile philosophy – that a small gift can bring happiness and friendship to people of all ages. Since 1960, this philosophy has served as the inspiration to offer quality products, services and activities that promote communication and inspire unique consumer experiences across the world. Today, Sanrio’s business extends into the entertainment industry and includes the operation of a number of theme parks. Sanrio boasts an extensive product lineup of around 50,000 products, which are available in over 130 countries and regions around the world. To learn more about Sanrio, please visit www.sanrio.eu and follow us on FacebookInstagram and Twitter.

Azerion accelerates European Growth with major acquisition in Germany

Amsterdam, 24th June 2021 – Azerion, the fast-growing digital gaming and monetization company, today announces the acquisition of WHOW Games, a top German gaming developer and well-known publisher of online free-to-play social games.

This major deal – after the company’s successful EUR 200M financing announcement in April– will expand Azerion’s already extensive gaming portfolio and is expected to open up new exciting investment and production content opportunities for advertisers and publishers in the premium gaming segment*, in the DACH region and globally.

WHOW Games enjoys historical partnerships with some of the biggest agencies, advertisers, TV broadcasters and media companies in the DACH region. With strong revenue and profit growth in 2020, WHOW Games represents the biggest gaming acquisition for Azerion so far in 2021.

This acquisition offers WHOW Games the ability to take advantage of Azerion’s growing ecosystem while giving publishers the opportunity to expand their game communities, increase their in-game monetization and strengthen their game development capacity.

WHOW Games’ high-quality social games are expected to be integrated by Azerion publishing partners in their own digital environments. They provide added entertainment value within such partners’ environments for users, while providing additional and long-term monetization opportunities from these environments. The deal should provide Azerion advertisers with access to the premium publishers network from WHOW.

With the acquisition of WHOW games, Azerion makes another huge leap to accelerate its growth strategy. This is a strategic acquisition for our premium segment, it is expected to bring added value for our ecosystem due to the increased number of games and publishers our partners can work with. Azerion strives to become a one-stop-shop for digital games distributors, content providers and advertisers. Together with WHOW, we will take our game distribution platform to the next level, says Atilla Aytekin, CEO of Azerion.

After years of stellar growth, WHOW Games today occupies a leading position within the German market. Our prime position and partnerships in the region and Azerion’s expertise in long-term monetisation both companies are expected to supplement each other. We see this deal with Azerion as the logical move in our development, as the company is poised to further expand its presence in the DACH region and become an European champion, comments Heiko Hubertz, Founder & Executive Chairman at WHOW Games.

*premium gaming segment: Highly engaged and loyal user base that creates revenue mainly through in-app purchases.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization company. Azerion develops and operates a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Its integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach millions of people across the globe that play its games and use its entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.
Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 980 employees across 20 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About WHOW Games

WHOW Games is a leading developer and publisher of online free-to-play social games. The company, based in Hamburg, Germany, has been bringing highly engaging social games to the web browser and app stores since 2015. Its innovative social gaming platform is a fast growing gaming destination in Europe and serves millions of users with long-lasting fun.

Azerion and Anzu Partner to Make Blended In-Game Advertising Programmatically Available to Advertisers Globally

Amsterdam

Anzu.io, the world’s most advanced in-game advertising platform, announces a new partnership with Azerion, a leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization platform that offers casual and social games, videos, as well as digital marketing services for both publishers and advertisers. Azerion will now offer Anzu’s market-leading blended in-game advertising solution across the world through its proprietary programmatic platform; Improve Digital, generating more than 1.6 trillion transactions per month.

The integration with Anzu’s in-game advertising platform will give Azerion’s advertisers the ability to programmatically serve IAB-recognized in-game video and banner ads at scale across mobile, PC, and console platforms. Fully GDPR, COPPA, and CCPA compliant, Anzu’s innovative SDK technology is integrated into games and delivers high-quality direct traffic with full control over ad placements and first-party data.

In an effort to boost advertiser confidence in gaming as a media channel and to show its value, Anzu has brought existing digital marketing standards in-game, together with advertising giant WPP. Anzu partners with trusted AdTech providers such as Moat, Comscore, Nielsen, and Kantar to ensure fraud-free and brand-safe environments and to measure ad viewability, brand lift, and audience verification. A recent pilot with Cheq showed an increase of 23% in ad viewability using Anzu over traditional 2D digital advertising. Clients include top global brands American Eagle, 7-Eleven, Samsung, and Vodafone and game studio giants Ubisoft, Virtuverse, Lion Castle, and Vivid Games.

Azerion already has a strong foothold in the gaming industry, with an extensive and diverse catalogue of more than 16.000 game titles attracting in excess of 1.5bn content views per month. The company offers safe and valuable ad placement (display ads, video, rich media, mobile web, and InApp) around its owned inventory. By partnering with Anzu, Azerion adds a new dimension to its offering by providing a scalable solution for advertisers to seamlessly blend their ads into gaming environments, reaching the vast and diverse gaming audiences in an alternative way.

Entertainment has become central to people’s lives and it is mostly taking place online. Our vision is to make digital entertainment better, safer, and more reliable for our stakeholders. That way everyone can enjoy the basic human need to play in a carefree environment, and advertising and publishing businesses can thrive. Anzu is a great partner for us to help make this happen says Daan Boekestein, VP Adtech at Azerion.

Gaming is the next major media channel, says Yaniv Rozencweig, Director of Business Operations at Anzu.  Since blended in-game ads respect the gamer and don’t interrupt gameplay — and even enhance gameplay by adding fun realism — gamers are welcoming of these types of ads. The partnership with Azerion brings the power of programmatic blended in-game advertising to brands around the world, who will now be able to easily and confidently reach previously hard-to-reach audiences.

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing, pan-European company, leading the way in digital gaming and monetisation. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best elements from our business for each of our brands and users. Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 900 employees across 19 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

About Anzu
Anzu is the world’s most advanced in-game advertising solution. Operating across mobile, PC, and console platforms, Anzu blends real-world brand ads directly into video games, esports tournaments, and live streams. The only solution of its kind to bring real-time analytics and existing digital industry standards in-game, Anzu’s patented, adaptive technology features blended, yet highly viewable IAB-compliant ad formats. Anzu’s full suite of one-of-a-kind AdTech integrations includes ad viewability, brand lift measurement, audience verification, data enrichment, and fraud detection in partnership with industry leaders such as Moat, Comscore, Kantar, and Nielsen.

Anzu has raised $17 million to date from investors including WPP, Sony Innovation Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, and HBSE Ventures. Global partners include advertisers such as Pepsi and Samsung and game studios such as Ubisoft and Nacon. Learn more at https://www.anzu.io/

Azerion paints the world Smurf in an epic casual games partnership with IMPS/Lafig

Amsterdam

IMPS/Lafig and Azerion — together we’ll Smurf it!

Amsterdam, June 1st – Azerion will launch a series of Smurfs games to tie in with a new TV show launching this autumn

Azerion, the leading pan-European digital gaming and monetisation company, announces today that it will be the casual gaming partner for IMPS/Lafig, the firm which manages the Smurfs IP.

Five new Smurf games will be developed and distributed by Azerion over the next year. The games will be available globally within Azerion’s distribution channels, including on web portals with a reach of 220 million unique players. In addition to this, selected games will be exclusively available on the gaming subscription channels and telecommunication services.

The games will be released at the same time as a new Smurfs TV series to be aired around Europe and in the US later this year. The casual games developed by Azerion will add to its various platforms’ appeal for the pre-school and tween demographics.

Azerion’s developers will build on positive Smurf values for players. They will emphasise such ideas as teamwork, skills development and environmental awareness.

We are more than thrilled and honoured to be working with these iconic characters, says Umut Akpinar, Azerion’s co-CEO. The Smurfs are among the funniest and most-loved comic book personalities ever created. Featuring them in our games portfolio will boost our engagement with players around the world.

The addition of such an iconic IP to the portfolio is expected to add to user engagement levels for Azerion’s publisher partners and improve reach for advertisers targeting this type of audience.

I am very happy with this beautiful partnership, says Véronique Culliford, President and founder of IMPS, and daughter of Peyo, the Smurfs’ creator. I have always played online and the idea of having five games specifically featuring my little Smurfs enchants me. I’m sure they will appeal to all Smurf fans, everywhere.

About the Smurfs, Peyo, their creator, and IMPS/ Lafig (International Merchandising Promotions & Services)

IMPS is the official licensor of the little blue-skinned characters ‘The Smurfs’. Since 1984, IMPS has worked in close collaboration with their agents worldwide to develop successful licensed merchandising programmes, retail and co-branded promotions, publishing activities, broadcasting deals, theme parks, live shows, video games, online games, and Smurf music. These have secured the everlasting success of the Smurfs. IMPS is run by Véronique Culliford, the daughter of Pierre Culliford, the creator of the Smurfs, who is better known under his pseudonym Peyo.

About the new Smurfs TV series

The Smurfs is a Peyo Productions and Dupuis Audiovisuel production, in co-production with KiKA, KETNET and RTBF, with the participation of TF1 and with the participation of Wallimage (La Wallonie), of Screen Flanders, of BNPPFFF and with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Government and the participation of the CNC. Season 1 – 52 episodes / 11 minutes / 3D CGI © Peyo Productions – Dupuis Édition & Audiovisuel – Dargaud Media – KiKA – KETNET – RTBF.be – 2021

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing, pan-European company, leading the way in digital gaming and monetisation. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best elements from our business for each of our brands and users. Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 900 employees across 19 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

Azerion key facts:
220 million players 16,100 games 1.5 billion content views per month 2000 publishers

Hotel Hideaway Unveils Virtual Music Concert with Cookiee Kawaii to Celebrate 15 Million Member Milestone

Helsinki

HELSINKI, Finland — May 26, 2021 — Hotel Hideaway, a 3D social virtual community, unveiled plans today for a virtual music concert with emerging artist Cookiee Kawaii, while celebrating its 15 million member milestone. Taking place on May 28, the concert will be an online event not just for Cookiee Kawaii fans, but for all music fans around the world. Over the past year, more audiences have moved online for connecting with friends and seeking entertainment, and Hotel Hideaway is embracing this movement by bringing this upcoming virtual concert and many more events to life throughout 2021. Hotel Hideaway is operated by Finnish gaming company Sulake, which was fully acquired by digital gaming and monetization company Azerion earlier this year.

Valtteri Karu, CEO of Sulake, creators of Hotel Hideaway, said: We’re so excited for Cookiee Kawaii’s upcoming performance, which will surely delight and entertain our fans worldwide. With a 15 million user milestone under our belt, we’re now seeking out unique, leading artists who will help bring authentic concert experiences into Hotel Hideaway.

Cookie Kawaii rose to international fame last year when her “Vibe (If I Back it Up)” became a sensation on the social platform TikTok. Cookiee Kawaii said: I’ve been a fan of Habbo since a kid so it’s an honor I get to headline as a part of the brand new virtual concert for Hotel Hideaway celebrating 15 million members.

The virtual concert will be free to view in Hotel Hideaway beginning on May 28 at 9:00 a.m. EDT / 6:00 a.m. PDT, 5:00 p.m. EDT / 2:00 p.m. PDT, and 1:00 a.m. EDT (May 29) / 10:00 p.m. PDT, followed by a Meet & Greet and live Q&A with Cookiee Kawaii on the Hotel Hideaway Youtube channel. Hotel Hideaway will unveil more upcoming virtual concert details at the end of the concert, so fans will want to tune in for more upcoming collaboration surprises. The virtual community also plans to offer unique ways for artists to engage with their fans that only a digital experience can provide.

Hotel Hideaway has become an increasingly popular hangout among young people from across the US, Europe and Asia. Its virtual concerts recently began with piloted events in February, March and April featuring artists DJ Luuk van Dijk, DJ Mark Sixma and Sidney Samson that drew more than 70,000 concert-goers per event who viewed and danced through the 30-minute performances, and purchased concert merchandise, including clothing featuring the headlining artists’ brand. To cover all major time zones, Hotel Hideaway arranged three events during a 24-hour period. Additionally, the platform has scaled up its server support for events with the growing number of virtual concert goers expected to attend and increase over time. To stay up to date on all the latest news as Hotel Hideaway celebrates 15 million members, fans can download the app and join the concert conversation online.

Jurriaan van Teunenbroek, VP Games and Content at Azerion, said: This is only the beginning of what we hope will become a central feature of our game. The concert series we have planned will shine a spotlight on emerging and established talent from all genres. Our goal is to bridge the gap between gaming and music. As a gamer herself, Cookiee Kawaii is a natural fit for this mission.

Hotel Hideaway & Cookiee Kawaii PR images:
Link

Concert promo video:
Video

App Store:
Link

Google Play:
Link

Follow Hotel Hideaway:

Instagram: @hideaway_official
Twitter: @HotelHideaway
YouTube: Link

 

About Hotel Hideaway

With over 15 million downloads, Azerion’s Hotel Hideaway is a 3D social virtual community full of opportunities to meet new people and make new friends. The Hotel is a lively and vibrant world full to the brim with social adventures and fun activities! Dress to impress and stand out from the crowd with an abundance of stylish clothing, items and accessories. Customise your room with a variety of furniture items and decorations. Learn secret gestures and dance moves – and then party into the early hours inside unique public rooms. No matter what you like to spend your time doing, Hotel Hideaway is the place to be. There’s oodles of fun to be had and secrets to discover, so jump in and make sure the other guests recognise your name!

 

About Cookiee Kawaii

Cookiee Kawaii is an international artist from Irvington, New Jersey. Her love for anime, comic books & video games shows in her high energy base knocking music. She has a variety of different sounds from Jersey Club to Hip Hop.

Azerion strikes an exclusive pan-European agreement with Dailymotion

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, 18th May – Azerion, a fast-growing leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization platform, today announced its appointment as exclusive partner to Dailymotion, a Vivendi-owned video platform and content monetization solution. Dailymotion’s display, in-stream and out-stream ad inventory in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, the Nordics (Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) and Luxembourg will be exclusively available via Azerion through its proprietary programmatic platform, Improve Digital.

With more than 300 million monthly viewers, generating 3 billion views per month, Dailymotion is one of the most used video streaming platforms in the world. Since 2015, Dailymotion pivoted its strategy to provide users with trusted content sources, contracting multiple Triple A content providers like Universal Music, CNN, MBC, Vice etc. Major efforts to improve the user experience on the platform have also been conducted to reflect the quality of this new positioning.

Dailymotion now offers advertisers the ability to reach their desired audiences with massive scale in a brand safe environment through engaging video inventory. By means of this exclusive partnership, Azerion reinforces its strong position in the entertainment and digital advertising industries, taking its offerings to the next level for advertisers and media agencies.

Azerion through Improve Digital, its proprietary programmatic platform, will enable Dailymotion to increase ad monetization of both its display, in-stream and out-stream inventory through its direct sales teams as well as via Azerion’s premium and local demand.

Through this programmatic platform, buyers can directly access Dailymotion’s premium inventory and its +2,000 Publishers’ partners, distributing high-quality content with the Dailymotion player. Azerion allows them to connect in real-time with highly engaged audiences while delivering real and scalable outcomes. With more than 100.000 advertisers and thousands of publishers, the programmatic platform manages more than 1.6 trillion transactions per month.

 

This partnership represents our belief in providing marketers with direct, exclusive and brand safe audiences. Having Dailymotion being accessible via Improve Digital SSP and Azerion’s commercial footprint present in these markets, allows us to better support our clients and drive simplicity in the overall buying process. We are thrilled to be joining forces with Dailymotion! said Sandra Yassaka, VP Demand Product & Partnerships at Azerion.

We are thrilled to start this strategic and exclusive partnership with Azerion. Together, we’ll help brands grow their businesses through engagement, innovation and measurement. Our premium contents, creative formats and marketing services will enable best in class experiences for users and clients. said Thomas Alombert, VP Sales Global Business at Dailymotion

About Azerion
Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and monetization platform, headquartered in Amsterdam. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech. Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users. Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities.

About Dailymotion
Founded in 2005, Dailymotion is a global video streaming service that connects over 300 million entertainment-seekers to their personal world of news and entertainment. Built on a clever player, intuitive algorithm, and on carefully-selected recommendations made by our experts who really (really) love great videos, Dailymotion is the one-stop place for enjoying stories by/from the best creators around in one heightened video experience. Dailymotion is currently owned by Vivendi and headquartered in Paris with offices in New York, Singapore and Marseille.

Dailymotion for Advertisers
About Dailymotion

 

Press contact – Dailymotion
https://about.dailymotion.com/en/press/
press@dailymotion.com

Azerion raises €200 million in eye-catching expansion deal

Amsterdam, April 26th, 2021 – Investors recognise Azerion’s huge potential in online games and user engagement.

This second significant financing in two years will pave the way for Azerion to become a major platform player.

Azerion has attracted much investor interest with a new funding package aimed at accelerating the company’s growth.

The new funds will be used (among other things) to finance multiple acquisitions across its platform, adding both exciting new gaming content as well as creating revenue opportunities. These acquisitions help us in our mission to bring a wide range of entertainment content for consumers while enabling content providers to engage with users in a safe, reliable and meaningful way.

This new issue will refinance a €100 million bond issued on the Frankfurt exchange last year. It is rare for a private company to raise these levels of capital, but Azerion’s track record of exponential growth supplemented by acquiring gaming and monetisation technology companies and quickly building their revenue has grabbed investor attention. Last year’s bond was met with significant investor interest and the company has experienced a similar response to this new bond.

Online entertainment has become central to people’s lives, says Atilla Aytekin, Azerion’s co-CEO. It has enormous business potential. Our vision is to make digital entertainment better, safer, and more reliable. That way everyone can enjoy the basic human need to play in a carefree environment, and advertising and publishing businesses can thrive.

Since it was founded in 2015, Azerion has worked hard to create a digital entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. This has been supported by an active acquisitions strategy, adding to the Azerion family 38 companies in the digital entertainment and technology sectors. Azerion layers these acquisitions on top of its existing business into a single, coherent platform. Within this ecosystem, these businesses have grown organically and work seamlessly with each other.

This has seen Azerion become a powerhouse in online entertainment providing a broad range of content to users and monetising it through in-app purchases and advertising — through a proprietary platform that provides safety, reliability and efficiency to all stakeholders.

The gaming business represents a total annual market of US$175 billion,  Atilla explains. We’re well on our way to becoming the biggest platform in Europe with our vision to serve that market. Our goal is to create a safe, connected and intelligent ecosystem (enabled through our technology) that will accelerate the growth of European companies connected to our operations.

The new bonds are expected to be listed on Nasdaq exchange in Stockholm.

ItaliaOnline to launch Libero Fun – New games portal supported by Azerion

Amsterdam

The largest Italian internet company Italiaonline partnered with Azerion to launch a subscription based games portal – Libero Fun. A single subscription of € 2.99 per month gives access to a catalog of 300 games for all ages, for multiple users, which can be used on a PC, tablet or smartphone

Italiaonline, the largest Italian internet company and owner of the Libero.it brand, launches a new premium games portal ‘Libero Fun’ with over 300 titles. With a subscription of 2.99 euros per month, players have access to the entire catalog to play via browser, on a PC, tablet or smartphone, wherever and whenever they want. The platform was created in partnership with Azerion, Europe’s leader in casual online games.

The games are divided into various categories: arcade, action, adventure, cards and pawns, racing, educational, puzzles, simulation and sports. Games and the characters inside the service are among the best known and appreciated on the market today from Cartoon Network (Ben10, Paw Patrol …), Nickelodeon (SpongeBob), Rooplay (Garfield) and Atari (Arcade Games)

Libero Fun is for the whole family: a safe environment even for the little ones thanks to the parental control functionality and the ability to create KIDS profiles that will only allow access to selected games. The service can be activated free of charge for the first 7 days.

In the last year, the Home Entertainment segment and subscription streaming have experienced extraordinary growth and the prospects for growth are still very high. Libero Fun is an on-demand gaming service that can count on a very rich catalog and very famous titles, suitable for all age groups, from children with many games related to their favorite characters and educational games, to teen-agers and also to adults. Security, flexibility, catalog quality, unlimited access and fun at low prices, these are the key features of the new service that further enriches the portfolio of transactional services offered on our portals. Domenico Pascuzzi, Marketing Director Publishing Italiaonline said.

Gaming entertainment has become more popular than movies and music, and smart brands and publishers are using the strength of the channel to further monetize their audiences. We are delighted to work with Italiaonline to provide such a wide range of games, across all demographics says Carlo Poss, Country Manager Italy at Azerion We have carefully selected the games, making sure they are all family friendly. Italiaonline understands Italian consumer habits better than any other company, so we are very pleased that they are our first partner in Italy.

Azerion Campus Helsinki opens its doors, cementing the company’s presence in one of the gaming capitals of Europe

  • Azerion continues its fast-pace growth in 2021, increasing its footprint across Europe.
  • Azerion’s vision is to play a key role as a leader in the gaming industry and introduce new audiences to the world of gaming.

Amsterdam – March 30, 2021 – Azerion, the leading European gaming and adtech company, proudly announced the opening of its first Campus in Helsinki. Initially, the campus will be occupied by the Sulake team, and in the long term, Azerion aims to support new ventures to unlock their potential and help expand their business globally.

The Azerion Campus

The new campus of Azerion is located in an original printing house at Dagmarinkatu 6 in Helsinki and has an outstanding accessibility with its central location in the city to enjoy a wide range of restaurants, hotels and shopping centres. The printing house was completely refurbished and upgraded to a modern office with an authentic and historical look and feel by the Finnish architect Kari Lappalainen.

Support local game industry

With the opening of the campus in Helsinki, Azerion wants to create a local footprint in one of the gaming capitals of the world and prepare for future growth. The Azerion Campus Helsinki will become a development center that will support business expansion globally and develop game products and services. This is a new milestone for Azerion. We are looking forward to seeing our social gaming division flourish in the Campus, and we have confidence they are working well to grow the existing games and communities. The opening of the campus allows us to expand our audiences and introduce them to the world of gaming via activations, brand partnerships and real-life events such as concerts. The first occupant Sulake is a symbol for a great celebration of the opening of the Azerion Helsinki Campus now that this team is fully part of Azerion says Jurriaan Van Teunenbroek, Vice President Games & Content at Azerion.

First occupant Sulake

The recently acquired game developer Sulake will be the first occupant of the brand new campus:  This is a space that fits our needs to develop the quality products we are known for, We are really excited about our new space we’ve developed together with Azerion. We now have a workplace that fulfills all our wishes. says Valtteri Karu CEO at Sulake.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and adtech company. The entertainment organisation develops and operates a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. The integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach millions of people across the globe that play games from Azerion and uses the entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.

Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 900 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

Dutch DJ Luuk van Dijk the first in the world to perform in 3D social game Hotel Hideaway

Amsterdam
  • Hotel Hideaway hosts online set from DJ Luuk van Dijk on 26 February 17.00 CET
  • Hotel Hideaway aims to offer artists a virtual stage where any of their fans with a mobile device or tablet can join and experience their concert, from anywhere in the world.

 

Amsterdam – February 24, 2021 – Azerion, the leading European gaming and adtech company, proudly announces that Hotel Hideaway will host its first online performance for players with young and upcoming Dutch DJ and producer Luuk van Dijk on February 26th. The DJ from Amsterdam will be the first in the world to perform in the popular social online 3D virtual hotel, created by the makers of Habbo Hotel. The event is supported by UBERKRAFT studios who will support the live performance with beautiful visuals. Hotel Hideaway has become an increasingly popular hangout among young people and has over over a million users visit each month, from across the US, Europe and Asia.

An online live performance during COVID-19

Azerion gives, with the live performance of Luuk van Dijk in the social online 3D world, something special to the one million players of Hotel Hideaway and fans of Luuk van Dijk in these difficult times with the COVID-19 pandemic. Concert visitors and users will have the opportunity to Meet & Greet with the artist ‘backstage’. This shows the endless possibilities for having a good time together via new innovative ways: With the COVID-19 pandemic we know that a lot of people have difficulties with their social lives, said Jurriaan van Teunenbroek, Vice President Games & Content from Azerion. People are unable to go to concerts with their friends in real life, so we wanted to give players a fun and social alternative by giving them the opportunity to go to a concert online. And Hotel Hideaway is the perfect online 3D world to do so. Most of our players are young people so it makes perfect sense to organize a live set with a popular DJ and it’s an honor that young upcoming DJ Luuk van Dijk will be the first to perform

World Premier

Young and upcoming DJ Luuk van Dijk (24) is the first in the world to perform live in Hotel Hideaway. The DJ from Amsterdam is one of the new emerging names in the house scene and is well known for his distinctive infectious energy, baseline grooves, good vibes and a clear old skool edge. Luuk is thrilled to be the first to perform online in Hotel Hideaway: Hotel Hideaway is a place where people come together and is becoming more and more popular amongst my peers. I want to be present in online environments where my fans are coming together in times where I can’t perform on stages and meet my fans in real life. Hotel Hideaway is the perfect place to engage in social activities with my audience.

February 26th

Luuk van Dijk will perform on February 26th at 17:00 CET in a special developed virtual concert hall where tens of thousands of people can enjoy the live set of the Dutch DJ in the popular game. Hotel Hideaway has more than a million players and is becoming more popular with a younger audience. The game, developed by the makers of Habbo Hotel, is a social online 3D hotel where players can create an avatar, make friends and furnish their own rooms. For more information please visit: Luuk van Dijk, website, Instagram and Hotel HideAway website or join Hotel Hideaway now!

Luuk van Dijk – website – instagram – facebook – youtube
Hideaway Hotel – website – instagram – facebook – youtube

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and adtech company. The entertainment organisation develops and operates a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. The integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with Azerion to reach millions of people across the globe that play games from Azerion and use the entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.

Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 900 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About Hotel Hideaway

Hotel Hideaway is a social online 3D world, situated in a lively, virtual hotel. Visitors can create their own avatar, furnish their own rooms, make friends, visit parties and more. About a million users aged 17-25 visit the hotel every month (35 percent from Asia, 25 percent from Europe, 25 percent from the US and 15 percent rest of the world) of which 60 percent are female and 40 percent are male. Hotel Hideaway is growing fast and comes from the creators of the Habbo virtual community, who have experience with live content. Artists like Gorillaz, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Lady Gaga have performed virtual performances in the Habbo world.

About Luuk van Dijk

Besides basslines, grooves and good vibes, the clear old skool edge is what gives Luuk van Dijk his signature sound. That sound has made him one of the emerging new names in the house scene in a short time. Van Dijk has performed at a range of local and international clubs and festivals, including Paradise, Awakenings, elrow, DGTL and Cocoon, playing alongside artists such as Jamie Jones, The Martinez Brothers, Sven Väth, Joseph Capriati, Patrick Topping and Kerri Chandler, to name a few. His productions have already been picked up by labels such as Hot Creations, Eastenderz and Solid Grooves and in 2019 he decided to set up his own label Dark Side Of The Sun to release house in the broadest sense of the word from him and others.

2021 gets off to a flying start for Azerion

Amsterdam, February 19th, 2021 – Just a few weeks after the acquisitions of Finnish game developer Sulake Oy, the well-known developer of hit social game Habbo Hotel, and international software company Triodor, we were proud to announce the completion of a new bond issuance last week, reaching an outstanding amount of EUR 100 million in capital raised since the beginning of last year.

This third bond issuance, the last of a series of successful capital raises, met the renewed interest of informed investors from Continental Europe, the Nordics and the United States, including a large share of new investors. The swift completion confirms the investors’ confidence in the stability and attractiveness of our group, one of the fastest-growing companies in the sector.

Yet, this third round was just another step in a long-term ambitious plan for our company. The net proceeds of the bond issue will be used to finance future acquisitions and fuel our organic growth ambitions, as we lay the financial and operational foundation for our growth trajectory.

As we grow, we stay true to our commitment to offering an ever-more diversified offer with quality services within a connected and intelligent ecosystem to our partners and clients around the world. Although we had already witnessed a growing appetite for our products in the past few years, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend, creating a new public, more diverse, more demanding, looking to connect and engage with others within a safe community.

By focusing on innovation, we want to set the standards for a safer, sustainable and inclusive online social gaming and entertainment model, for people of all ages and all backgrounds to enjoy. We aim to cater to our partners’ and customers’ needs by providing top-notch, up to date technology services and adapting our infrastructure to media buyers and sellers.

In this buoyant context, Azerion stands ready to play a leading role in tomorrow’s thriving gaming sector and extend its influence internationally.

Azerion acquires Triodor

Amsterdam, January 28th 2021 – Azerion has acquired Triodor as of December 2020. Triodor is an established international software development company, and shares its founders with Azerion. Triodor is headquartered in the Netherlands and has a software development center in Istanbul. The acquisition will strengthen Azerion’s presence in Turkey.

With this acquisition, Azerion’s software development capacity increases and its technology know-how benefits. Azerion Turkey fully benefits from Azerion’s growing ecosystem, and is integrated seamlessly from an operational perspective.

Triodor has been involved in game development and customer support for Azerion since 2015. Azerion now strengthens its development capacity by including Triodor within Azerion’s organisational structure.

Azerion aims to own multiple development and technology centers across Europe. Turkey is a country with high skilled engineers, where Azerion can build an efficient developers community.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and adtech company. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.

Founded in 2015 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Azerion employs more than 800 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About Triodor

Triodor Software is an international technology company with a versatile expertise in ICT and high tech development. Our company introduces unique innovation-driven business models and develops high-technology solutions for different sectors worldwide.

The Triodor story began in 2003, when entrepreneurs of Turkish origin living in the Netherlands realised their dream of establishing a software sourcing company. Nowadays, after a rapid growth, it counts more than 120 employees covering diverse fields and specialisations and has set up partnerships with many companies worldwide.

The sales, business consultancy and board-level management are handled at the Headquarters in Amsterdam, whereas research and development operations are conducted in Istanbul. Among various other awards, the Development Center in Istanbul has been awarded to be Turkey’s Best Software R&D Center many years in a row.

Azerion acquires remaining 49% stake in 20-year-old Finnish game studio, Sulake Oy

Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM – January 25, 2021 – Azerion Holding B.V. (Azerion), a pan-European gaming and adtech company, reached an agreement with its co-shareholder, Elisa Oyj, to acquire the remaining 49% shares in Finnish game studio, Sulake Oy.

The studio is best known for publishing popular social games including Habbo and Hotel Hideaway, which have a monthly active user base of close to 2 M across 115 countries.

Azerion has held a 51% stake in the game studio since 2018 and has been helping to drive revenue growth, which has increased by 46% on average year-on-year (January 2019 – December 2020). The transaction will enable Sulake to take full advantage of Azerion’s growing ecosystem. It will ensure the publisher can expand its global game communities, increase ingame monetization and strengthen its game development capacity. The deal also means Sulake’s gamers will be able to leverage promotions provided via the Azerion network, which continues to grow through acquisitions like Spil Games’ Portal business and Woozworld.

Umut Akpinar, co-founder and CEO: Sulake has proven to be a great fit for our gaming and adtech platform and Elisa has remained a very loyal and supportive partner over the past years. Together, we re-energised the game studio, which is now a profitable and flourishing business.

We have full confidence in the current Sulake team. They are working well to develop a pipeline of new games while continuing to grow their existing games and communities. We support the decisions they are making and are committed to helping them achieve future plans.

Valtteri Karu, Sulake CEO: Azerion has been supporting us to grow and develop Habbo and Hotel Hideaway for over two years now so this acquisition feels like a natural continuation of our partnership. We’re happy to continue our journey with Azerion as there is a lot of synergy with Sulake and all the Azerion businesses.

With Azerion’s help and support we were able to modernize Habbo and to ensure its future, whilst working as an independent unit having full control over design and development decisions. This year we look forward to adding features and expanding Habbo and Hotel Hideaway. We will also be looking at possibilities to develop new games utilising our current game technology.

The complete Sulake leadership and team of 96 will remain in place. The game studio will continue to operate from its base in Helsinki, Finland with full responsibility for existing games and improvements. This means that nothing will change for the Sulake game communities as a result of this acquisition.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and adtech company. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.

Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. In 2019, the company generated EUR 183 million in revenues. Azerion employs more than 800 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

About Sulake

Founded in 2000 by a small team of passionate people, Sulake is a social entertainment company focused on providing a safe and fun online service for self-expression through its products, Habbo and Hotel Hideaway.

After more than fifteen years, Habbo is still one of the largest social hangouts in the world, reaching users all over the world each month. In 2018, Sulake launched Hotel Hideaway, a brand new 3D virtual world developed for iOS and Android devices.

Sulake’s mission is to enable its users to meet new people, make friends and give them a place to create and share their user-generated content in a fun virtual surrounding.

Azerion to distribute classic Microsoft casual games

Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM – January 12, 2021 Azerion to be distribution partner for iconic casual games available to 2000+ web publishers worldwide.

Games like Microsoft’s Solitaire Collection, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, are now available as part of the Azerion portfolio together with Mahjong, Jigsaw, Bubble Shooter, Crosswords, Sudoku, and others. Microsoft Solitaire Collection alone attracts more than 35 million players a month and sees more than 100 million hands dealt every day.

We are very proud of having a giant of the industry trusting us to distribute their games to millions of players around the world and to extend the desktop experience to an online cross-platform one, says Erol Erturk, Executive VP Games & Strategic Partnerships at Azerion. Microsoft’s casual games portfolio is timeless, recognised by players of different age groups, and we are looking forward to launching the games in the GameDistribution network.

For Microsoft Casual Games, the Azerion network of sites represents an opportunity to scale globally with the most efficient investment in integration, says Frank Cartwright, Microsoft Casual Games Program Manager.

News publishers, broadcasters, telecoms sites and others see enormous benefits in adding games to their offering. Azerion’s GameDistribution provides an easy and reliable way to do that, along with access to the best quality games. GameDistribution also enables publishers to effectively monetise games and other content within their sites.

Publishers can add HTML5 games, giving their users access on a wide variety of platforms including PC and Mac, iOS and Android. Average session length for players on GameDistribution is over 30 minutes — that represents a huge step up in the length of time users typically spend on web sites. There are already more than 2000 web publishers globally who use Azerion’s GameDistribution.

About Azerion

Azerion (azerion.com) is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam.

 

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech.
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

 

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

Azerion’s GameDistribution

Azerion’s GameDistribution (gamedistribution.com) is global leader in web gaming distribution giving publisher clients access to more than 220 million monthly unique players, seeing more than 450 million monthly gameplays.

Azerion completes additional capital raise reaching EUR 72.5 million in issued bonds this year

Amsterdam

European-based gaming and monetisation technology company to establish global entertainment destination

  • Funds secured for continued fast-pace growth in 2021, through acquisitions and platform innovations that will increase footprint, improve overall experience and security of global userbase.
  • Company to step up its funding strategy and explore potential IPO route to boost growth and platform expansion.
  • Azerion’s vision is to play a key role in creating a safer and more positive digital destination that eliminates the risks of user-generated, negative or fake content.

 

AMSTERDAM – December 14, 2020 Azerion Holding B.V. (Azerion), a pan-European gaming and adtech company, has just concluded a EUR 12.5 million add-on capital raise. This brings the total to EUR 72.5 million in senior secured bonds raised under its existing EUR 100 million bond issue framework. The framework was set up in March this year, just before the first pandemic wave hit Europe. The company will use the proceeds to enrich its digital platform with an even wider variety of quality games, entertainment and monetization features, both organically and through acquisitions.

Atilla Aytekin, co-founder and CEO: Our successful initial EUR 60 million bond issue in March this year was a unique deal in many ways. We were a non-listed Dutch company issuing bonds to institutional investors for the first time and doing so in the Nordic market, which remained closed for the next two months due to the pandemic. We were the last ones to issue bonds successfully here, which revealed a high level of investor confidence despite dramatic market circumstances.

This strong investor appetite along with the positive feedback we received during our roadshows this year confirm our strategy and vision. We intend to use this strong position in digital gaming and adtech to grow and expand our platform with adjacent services. Ultimately, we want to create a safe, connected and intelligent ecosystem around Azerion that will accelerate the growth of European technology companies connected to our operations.

We’re proud to have grown fast and responsibly in a more closely regulated market, with transparent products and services that are built in line with fair business principles and user protections. We are in the process of sharpening our long-term funding roadmap to ensure that we continue our fast-pace growth for the coming years and ultimately realise our vision.

Growth performance

Azerion experienced fast growth from the beginning, with a CAGR of 125% between 2015 and 2019. Performance during the first nine months of 2020 was also very strong and underlines the platform’s power and propensity to drive growth. Revenue during this time period increased to EUR 139 million and this growth was almost entirely organic.

While overall growth was held back by lower digital advertising spend due to the pandemic, this was more than offset by the surge in gaming during lockdowns, which saw significantly higher contributions from in-game purchases, in-game advertising, subscriptions, direct downloads and partnerships. A prime example of such a partnership is Playtime, a new and secure family-friendly gaming platform joint venture with Talpa: Talpa Gaming, powered by Azerion.

Adjusted EBITDA came in at EUR 15.5 million (11% margin) for the first nine months of 2020. With the fourth quarter, which is typically the strongest quarter in the season currently underway, we expect full year 2020 group revenue and adjusted EBITDA to reach approximately EUR 215 million and EUR 25.5 million (12% margin), respectively.

Looking ahead

People around the world are increasingly seeking meaningful and fulfilling interaction through online connections, which will continue to provide tailwinds to Azerion’s platform. The company will continue to focus on increasing its user base and driving top line growth with a fast-pace expansion strategy that utilises both organic growth and acquisitions to scale.

Scale is the main driver of cross-selling opportunities, synergies and margin expansion. Acquisitions are initially focused on quality casual games and digital entertainment concepts, as well as digital advertising solutions that will enrich and expand the platform. Azerion will continue to invest in content, technological innovation, gaming platforms, and new markets in order to provide a safe, reliable user experience for people of all ages.

In 2021, the company will step-up the funding strategy and explore a potential IPO in the not-too-distant future, to fuel growth, expand its platform and to ultimately realise its vision.

About Azerion

Azerion is a fast-growing and leading pan-European digital gaming and adtech company. We develop and operate a safe and reliable online social gaming and entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. Our integrated platform includes monetization features and provides technology solutions to automate the purchase and sale of digital advertising for media buyers and sellers. Content creators, publishers and advertisers work with us to reach millions of people across the globe that play our games and use our entertainment concepts to increase engagement, loyalty and drive e-commerce.

Founded in 2014 by two Dutch entrepreneurs, Azerion has experienced rapid expansion thanks to organic growth and strategic acquisitions. In 2019, the company generated EUR 183 million in revenues. Azerion employs more than 850 employees across 24 offices and is headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk, the Netherlands.

AzerionOne reinforces its commitment to trustworthy and safe advertising solutions by expanding partnership with White Ops

New York & Amsterdam

NEW YORK & AMSTERDAM – December 1, 2020 – AzerionOne, a pioneering all-in-one programmatic platform for publishers and advertisers in Europe, today announced an expanded partnership with White Ops, the global leader in collective protection against sophisticated bot attacks and fraud, for a second consecutive year. With White Ops Advertising Integrity’s pre-bid capabilities, AzerionOne increases their protection on their full programmatic inventory—including native, video, desktop, mobile, and CTV—from the influence of sophisticated bots and fraud. This partnership reinforces AzerionOne’s commitment to providing a trustworthy and safe ecosystem for advertisers, agencies and publishers across Europe.

Committed to offering brand safe inventory to advertisers and front-running security to publishers, AzerionOne was determined to find the best solution that fits their vision. The choice of White Ops has been a long process where the programmatic platform reviewed all solutions in the market. Due to WhiteOps’ ability to successfully detect & prevent fraudulent sophisticated bot-based activity, AzerionOne decided to work exclusively with the company and deploy WhiteOps Advertising Integrity’s pre-bid capabilities throughout its ecosystem. Two years later, AzerionOne’s commitment is just as strong as when it started; focusing on ensuring transparent, high-quality and safe solutions for today and the future.

Marrying content, data and technology into a single company allows us to provide the security and reliability our stakeholders look for. Topics like privacy, brand safety, fraud detection and media performance are key these days and we have built an ecosystem that enables us to take ownership and responsibility on all of those. This makes us stand out and a trusted partner for many advertisers, agencies and publishers in markets across Europe. says Sebastiaan Moesman, Chief Revenue Officer at Azerion.

It’s critical that the advertising community work together to fight fraud across the digital ecosystem, said Tamer Hassan, CEO and co-founder of White Ops. The way we win is through collective protection: all of us need to commit to changing the economics of cybercrime, and preventing fraudulent interactions before they can happen is a key step in that process.

White Ops today verifies more than ten trillion digital interactions per week, working directly with the largest internet platforms, DSPs and exchanges. The technology uses a multilayered detection methodology to spot and stop sophisticated bots, incorporating technical evidence, continuous adaptation, machine learning and the Satori Threat Intelligence and Research Team. As a result, White Ops Advertising Integrity blocks non-human traffic across all platforms, from desktop and mobile web to CTV and mobile app.

About AzerionOne

AzerionOne is a pioneering all-in-one programmatic platform for publishers and advertisers in Europe. This programmatic platform is integrated into the Azerion ecosystem. Azerion is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam.

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech.
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

www.azerion.com

About White Ops

White Ops is the global leader in collective protection against sophisticated bot attacks and fraud. White Ops protects enterprises across the globe – including the largest internet platforms – from sophisticated bots by verifying the humanity of more than ten trillion digital interactions every week. The most sophisticated bots look and act like humans when they click on ads, visit websites, fill out forms, take over accounts, and commit payment fraud. White Ops stops them. The strength and scale of White Ops’ Bot Mitigation Platform to protect enterprises across the domains of cybersecurity, digital advertising, and marketing led them to receive an investment from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division and ClearSky Security to support the company’s next phase of growth. To learn more, visit www.whiteops.com.

Azerion lands in France with its unique combination of content, technology and advertising services

Levallois-Perret

Azerion is a leading global entertainment and monetization technology company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The company has built a trusted ecosystem combining content, technology and data for consumers, publishers and advertisers. Today, Azerion announces the launch of its activity in France.

  • Azerion expands its ecosystem to serve French advertisers and publishers.
  • Azerion offers French advertisers a unique, reliable and secure ecosystem of content, technology and data, allowing them to maximize their return on investment.
  • Publishers can access powerful tools to optimize their revenues and increase their user base through unique and exclusive content.

 

Azerion has experienced rapid growth since its inception in 2014 owing to organic initiatives as well as M&A track record including 37 acquisitions. The company currently employs ~850 employees across 19 European offices and reported EUR 183m revenues in 2019. By strategically combining and integrating its various product segments, Azerion efficiently monetizes its users whilst offering a compelling solution to content creators, publishers, advertisers and other third-parties; supported by carefully selected strategic partnerships. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Azerion continued to perform very well and reported solid revenue growth both in Q1 and Q2 of 2020, driven by its strong ecosystem proposition and positive impact from COVID-19 confinement on its gaming offering.

The company was already present in the French market through companies such as Improve Digital, Widespace, Zoomin as well as the ADUX Group, owner of Quantum Advertising and Admoove. These companies are now part of the Azerion ecosystem, consolidating its offer under one single brand and offering French clients a new way of addressing their audiences.

Content

With more than 80 million monthly active users on all its proprietary sites and applications, Azerion has established itself as a leading player in the online entertainment industry. The content segment includes casual and social online games as well as videos, accessible through a wide range of devices including smartphones, tablets and web browsers. The Group’s 16,100 game titles attract in excess of 1.5bn content views per month. The company has also partnered with various telecom operators and publishers to launch subscription-based mobile gaming services. This has most recently been the case in Norway with global mobile telecoms operator Telenor, Italian publishing giant Italiaonline and renowned multimedia company Talpa Network in the Netherlands.

Marrying content, data and technology into a single company allows us to provide the security and reliability our stakeholders look for. Topics like privacy, brand safety, fraud detection and media performance are key these days and we have built an ecosystem that enables us to take ownership and responsibility on all of those. This makes us stand out and a trusted partner for many advertisers, agencies and publishers in markets across Europe, says Sebastiaan Moesman, Chief Revenue Officer at Azerion.

Adtech

On top of its content proposition, Azerion offers state of the art advertising solutions to advertisers and publishers through its proprietary advertising platform which enables the buying and selling of video, display and native inventory across all digital media channels, i.e. mobile, tablet and desktop. This programmatic platform, one of the first in the world over a decade ago, allows Azerion to bring trustworthy and real, scalable results to advertisers while providing monetization solutions for publishers. With more than 100.000 advertisers and thousands of publishers, Azerion manages more than 1.2 trillion transactions per month.

About Azerion

Azerion (azerion.com) is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam.

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech.
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

www.azerion.com

Azerion Introduces New MONOPOLY Poker Mobile App

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, 18 August 2020: Azerion today announces the worldwide launch of MONOPOLY Poker, a new mobile game combining the immense appeal of the MONOPOLY brand with a great poker game play.

MONOPOLY Poker, available today for download from the Apple AppStore and Google Play, is a free-to-play, social, multiplayer Texas Hold’em game that includes elements from the iconic MONOPOLY board game. The game builds on Azerion’s proven publishing experience and leadership in the social poker category. MONOPOLY Poker combines the fun of a poker game, with a unique meta game that takes players around the MONOPOLY board on a quest for bonuses. MONOPOLY Poker is not a cash gambling game.

MONOPOLY, owned by Hasbro, is the world’s favorite family game brand and is enjoyed by more than one billion players in 114 countries across the globe.

That Hasbro has chosen to license the MONOPOLY brand to Azerion to create the MONOPOLY Poker game shows enormous confidence in our ability to deliver the highest quality games, says Jur van Teunenbroek, Vice President of Content at Azerion. We expect the MONOPOLY brand will introduce an awesome poker experience to a whole new audience.

Hasbro is committed to building mobile game experiences based on our brands that are unique and engaging to players, says Mark Blecher, Senior VP, Corporate Strategy & Business Affairs at Hasbro. We are delighted to have licensed the MONOPOLY brand to Azerion in order to bring the free-to-play MONOPOLY Poker game into the MONOPOLY family.

The MONOPOLY license is part of Azerion’s long-term strategy to license well-known brands from world class brand owners to the benefit of its player, advertiser and publisher clients. In the last few months, Azerion has also entered partnership deals with Ajax Esports and Talpa Networks.

The MONOPOLY name and logo, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board and playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment. © 1935, 2020 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. Licensed by Hasbro.

About Azerion

Azerion (azerion.com) is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam.

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech.
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

www.azerion.com

About Hasbro

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to Creating the World’s Best Play and Entertainment Experiences. From toys, games and consumer products to television, movies, digital gaming, live action, music, and virtual reality experiences, Hasbro connects to global audiences by bringing to life great innovations, stories and brands across established and inventive platforms. Hasbro’s iconic brands include NERF, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE, POWER RANGERS, PEPPA PIG and PJ MASKS, as well as premier partner brands. Through its global entertainment studio eOne, Hasbro is building its brands globally through great storytelling and content on all screens. Hasbro is committed to making the world a better place for children and their families through corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Hasbro ranked No. 13 on the 2019 100 Best Corporate Citizens list by CR Magazine and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere Institute for the past nine years. We routinely share important business and brand updates on our Investor Relations website, Newsroom and social channels (@Hasbro on Twitter and Instagram.)

Azerion and Atari® Join Forces to Launch Official Atari Classic Games on Mobile and Web Platforms in HTML5

Amsterdam

Mobile and browser gamers can now blast, dodge, and bounce their way through five classic Atari® arcade games including Asteroids®, Pong®, and more.

Atari® — one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and entertainment producers — today announced, in partnership with Azerion, the launch of five Atari classic games as web-enabled versions powered by HTML5. Original versions of Atari® classics Asteroids®, Breakout®, Pong®, Centipede® and Missile Command® are now accessible to a wider audience on both the web and mobile devices. This expands the reach of these cherished games to a global audience who can now experience the joy of Atari’s classics no matter where they are or what device they use.

We are thrilled to bring these immensely popular games to a new generation of players, says Jean-Marcel Nicolai, Atari Chief Operating Officer. The Azerion team perfectly captured what people have loved for years about our games while refreshing each title to work seamlessly on any web-enabled device, be it PC, Mac, Linux, or mobile.

Millions of people play HTML5 games every day, making it a smart way for Atari to reach a huge additional audience, says Erol Erturk, Executive VP Games & Strategic Partnerships at Azerion. Atari is huge in gaming and the fact that they have trusted us to recreate their iconic titles shows enormous faith in our ability to make HTML5 games successful. We’re thrilled to bring our expertise to this partnership.

Currently, these HTML 5 versions of the games are available in Norway and the Netherlands. Dutch players can go to the gaming portal Playtime (the first product from Azerion’s joint venture with Talpa Network), while the games are available in Norway via the Telenor Spill mobile app. Azerion is the exclusive provider of both game services, and will be bringing its catalog, including the listed Atari titles to other territories in the coming months.

About Azerion

Azerion (azerion.com) is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam.

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech.
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

www.azerion.com

About Atari

Atari, comprised of Atari SA and its subsidiaries, is a global interactive entertainment and multiplatform licensing group. The true innovator of the video game founded in 1972, Atari owns and/or manages a portfolio of more than 200 games and franchises, including globally known brands such as Asteroids®, Centipede®, Missile Command® or Pong®. From this important portfolio of intellectual properties Atari delivers attractive online games for smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices. Atari also develops and distributes interactive entertainment for Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony game consoles. Atari also leverages its brand and franchises with licensing agreements through other media, derivative products and publishing. For more information: www.atari.com and www.atari-investisseurs.fr

The Atari shares are listed in France on Euronext Paris (Compartment C, ISIN FR0010478248, Ticker ATA) and are eligible for the Nasdaq International Designation program in the United States (OTC Market – Ticker PONGF).

Telenor partners with Azerion to offer games subscription service

Global mobile telecoms giant Telenor has partnered with Azerion to launch a subscription mobile gaming service in Norway – Telenor Spill.

Azerion provides content for the service and was selected by Telenor because of the quality and breadth of family-friendly games it has at hand. Among Azerion’s offerings are games from Disney, Sega and Atari. Telenor Spill is available for download from Google Play and the Apple AppStore.

This is the first gaming service to provide such a wide range of games, across all demographics, says Erol Erturk, Executive VP Games & Strategic Partnerships at Azerion. We’ve hand picked games for Telenor, making sure they are all family friendly, COPPA compliant and targeting Telenor’s audience groups.

74% of children play games for more than two hours a day on average, according to a Telenor survey [1]. Creating a safe environment for that gameplay was key for the new service.

We’ve launched Telenor Spill to make mobile gaming simple, safe and fun, says Ric Brown, Mobile Director at Telenor Norway. With this service, parents don’t have to worry about their kids running up huge bills with in-app purchases, downloading viruses or being exposed to inappropriate advertising.

Providing distinctive content for subscribers is vital for Telenor and adding games is an important part of that strategy. Almost three quarters of mobile phone users play games – the content is highly engaging and keeps them coming back to their devices.

Telenor’s mobile game app launches today in its home country of Norway. The service comes with a free two-month trial period, after which it costs NOK 79 a month. One subscription covers up to five people in a household. The service is expected to roll out globally in due course.

Amsterdam
Ten well-known games out of 300 available on Telenor’s game portal
  • Asteroids (Atari)
  • Breakout (Atari)
  • Pong (Atari)
  • Frozen (Disney)
  • Star Wars (Disney)
  • Ben 10 (Cartoon Network)
  • Power Puff Girls (Cartoon Network)
  • Garfield
  • Phase 10 (Mattel)
  • Dr. Panda

[1] Telenor surveyed 1000 parents and 540 young people aged 10 to 15. It found that:

  • 38% of children spend more than 3 hours a day playing games online.
  • 74% spend more than 2 hours a day playing games online.

 

Notes for editors

Azerion (azerion.com) is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam.

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech.
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

Telenor Group (telenor.com) is a leading telecommunications company across the Nordics and Asia with 186 million customers and annual sales of around USD 12 billion (2019). Connectivity has been Telenor’s domain for more than 160 years, and its purpose is to connect its customers to what matters most.

Brand soars with a shop in a virtual world

Partnership between Azerion and BALR. allows Hotel Hideaway players to punch up their style.

A quarter of a million items sold in the first two-weeks: integrating brand marketing within the playing experience gets a great response.

Amsterdam 11 May 2020: Imagine a virtual hotel where you can shop a real brand. This dream has come true thanks to a partnership between Dutch premium lifestyle brand BALR. and Azerion’s life simulator and social game Hotel Hideaway.

This is the first branded in-game store in the virtual hotel and represents a trend for brands to become part of the experience rather than relying on advertising that some perceive as intrusive.

Amsterdam

The campaign adds new clothes and home items to the playing experience all the time. The first two week period saw 25% of all Hotel Hideaway’s players buying something at the BALR. store. That adds up to a quarter of a million items sold.

In that time, BALR. white trainers peaked briefly as the best selling item within the game. Combined, players wore the trainers for 250 million seconds (nearly 8 years) within the game. All the BALR. items were worn for a time that added up to 1.5 billion seconds (nearly 50 years) in that first two weeks.

 

Gamers value brands that are an active part of their game, says Kim van Teunenbroek, Global Partnership Director at Azerion. “They feel like it adds to the experience and so they respond positively.”

In-game advertising has been shown to be extremely effective. This partnership takes things one step further, with players being able to browse BALR.’s fashion range and buy things to wear within the game.

The game simulates the experience of being in a top hotel; BALR. is running the hotel fashion store. The partnerships reflects the shared values of BALR. and Azerion, with both constantly exploring new ways to reach and engage a new audience.

Research from NewZoo shows that gamers are more receptive to brands, with half saying they use ads to keep up to date with products they want. Gamers are also 23% more likely to have purchase influence on their friends and family.

We’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to help partners engage users, says Kim. It’s technically complex to integrate a shop into a game but the rewards are huge.

Juul Manders, CEO of BALR. says: Typically players are spending more than 25 minutes per session with Hotel Hideaway and they come back time and again. By making BALR. a part of the experience, we get an amazing user response. And because players love that experience, they tell their friends and BALR.’s brand message reaches well beyond the game.

 

balr_logo

 

hotel-hideaway

 

Notes for editors

Azerion is a global tech company in the media and entertainment business, headquartered in Amsterdam. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our techPublishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content. Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

BALR. is a luxury lifestyle brand founded in 2013 by Juul Manders, Ralph de Geus and Demy de Zeeuw. Since its start, BALR. offers the life of a professional football player when he steps off the pitch. With an extensive range of apparel, travel items, accessories and footwear the brand covers all aspects of the life of a BALR. The brand ships to over 150 countries worldwide and is available in over 200 stores across the world.

Hotel Hideaway is a 3D virtual world, available on iOS and Android, where you can become who you’ve always wanted to be. Chat live and meet with other people from around the world. Visit unique locations and explore what the Hotel has to offer. Relax in the spa, party at the beach or hang out in the many other public rooms with your friends.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hotel-hideaway-virtual-world/id922825959 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.piispanen.hotelhideaway&hl=en_GB

Azerion acquires leading digital ad experts Collective Media Europe

collective-logo

Azerion amplifies its UK and pan-European presence in digital advertising and publisher solutions with the acquisition of Collective Media Europe from TI Media.

This is the tenth purchase Azerion has made this year, keeping it firmly on a monster growth trajectory and making it a major tech company in the media and entertainment business.

Collective is a perfect fit with our targets, says Sebastiaan Moesman, Azerion’s Chief Revenue Officer. Its expertise in tech, content and data for publishers and advertisers means it will immediately integrate into the existing Azerion ecosystem.

The acquisition brings with it some prestigious clients and an expansion of Azerion’s offering in creative digital advertising solutions in the UK and pan-European markets. Customers include Coca-Cola, Huawei, Heineken, Mars, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Tesco, Unilever, Vodafone and VW.

We work extremely closely with our clients to deliver best-in-market digital advertising campaigns, says Dominic Woolfe, MD of Collective. I’m really excited about leading the Azerion business in the UK and offering something new and innovative to our customers.

Collective Media Europe is already a leader in delivering integrated digital brand campaigns. The purchase by Azerion will give the company’s clients access to bigger, more sophisticated data resources.

Collective is an award-winning agency, widely recognised as the best in the business, says Sebastiaan Moesman. For us, they are much more than that. Their thinking on the interrelationship between consumers, advertisers and publishers is lock-step with our own. That means the two businesses will integrate seamlessly to create something even bigger and better.

Sam Finlay, Chief Revenue Officer at TI Media, adds: I’d like to thank Collective Europe for all they’ve achieved as part of TI Media. The talented team has contributed to award-winning campaigns for our clients and undoubtedly played an important role in us being recognised as the number one digital media owner in the two latest IPA surveys. However, as a home for the business, Collective Europe is better aligned with Azerion’s offering and while we wish them the best of luck for the future, we plan to maintain a close relationship and collaborate on upcoming activities.

Notes for editors

Azerion (azerion.com) is a tech company in the media and entertainment business.
Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech
Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content
Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.
Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

Collective Media Europe (collectiveUK.com) is a leading provider of premium digital creative solutions for advertisers and publishers. It is based in central London.

Azerion buys Spil Games’ portals business to become casual gaming leader

Amsterdam

Azerion has taken complete ownership of Spil Games, giving it the leading position in casual games across all platforms and dominance in its Netherlands home.

The mobile division of Spil Games, together with a 5% stake in its portals business, was acquired by Azerion last year. The latest move brings the remainder of the company into the Azerion family.

With 60 million monthly visits to its 30 gaming portals, Spil Games was the global leader in online casual gaming — that baton now passes to Azerion. The portals include such famous names as agame.comgamesgames.com and mousebreaker.com.

This acquisition is an excellent fit for our high-speed growth strategy, says Erol Erturk, Executive Vice President Content and Strategic Partnerships at Azerion who will also take over the running of Spil’s portals. Spil Games enriches the reach, monetisation and content aspects of our business.

Game Distribution, an Azerion company which offers publishers engaging content and revenue opportunities, will add more than 15,000 web games from Spil’s portfolio. At the same time, Azerion’s existing games will enhance the Spil Games portals, bringing new revenue streams and offering advertisers a major boost in reach.

Notes for editors

Azerion (azerion.com) is a tech company in the media and entertainment business. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech

Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities

Spil Games, based in Hilversum near Amsterdam, was established in 2004 and has grown around the world, with people in more than 150 countries playing its games. It has thousands of games across 30 portals.

Talpa Network and Azerion launch new Dutch casual gaming company

Amsterdam

Talpa Network and Azerion, the Netherland’s market leader in casual gaming, join forces from 1 December as they launch the joint venture Talpa Gaming, powered by Azerion. Gaming is the fastest growing form of entertainment among Dutch consumers. Over 8 million Dutch people play online games* and this number is increasing day by day. Talpa Network and Azerion are meeting this demand and with Talpa Gaming will provide the perfect place for the entire family to enjoy games in a secure and reliable environment.

* Source: Newzoo.com

The joint venture has a portfolio of over 9000 games which can be played on the popular websites Spele.nl and Funnygames.nlGovernor of Poker and Hotel Hideaway are among its best-known games. Talpa Gaming will develop new casual game platforms as the joint venture unfolds, where Dutch consumers of all ages will be able to enjoy high-quality games in a secure and reliable environment.

Louise van Nispen, until recently Director of Data at Talpa Network, has been appointed CEO of Talpa Gaming and together with Robbert Oomens (Vice President Product) and Age Sluis (Director Marketing & Sales) makes up the management team of the new company.

Peter de Mönnink, CEO of Talpa Network says: The number of Dutch people playing online games is massive and is growing rapidly. People come back to casual games time and again and so the online medium is a valuable contribution to building relationships with consumers. Because of this, online gaming is an essential pillar in the Talpa Network strategy. Being the biggest Dutch casual gaming company and having a portfolio that nicely matches Talpa Network’s target groups, Azerion is the perfect partner for conquering this market.

Umut Akpinar co-CEO of Azerion says: Gaming entertainment has become more popular than movies and music. Smart brands are using the strength of the channel to target a broad audience. Talpa Network understands Dutch consumer habits better than any other company, so we are very pleased to be involved in this joint venture.

About Talpa Network

Talpa Network is the name of the company in which John de Mol has consolidated his multimedia activities. Talpa Network consists of Events, TV (incl. SBS6, Net5, Veronica and SBS9), Radio (incl. 538, Sky Radio, Veronica and Radio 10), Social (Social1nfluencers, StukTV and Gierige Gasten), Digital (incl. KIJK, JUKE and VoetbalTV), LINDA. and the Ecommerce division (incl. VakantieVeilingen and Actievandedag). The ANP Dutch Press Agency is also part of the Talpa concern. All these parts of the company are supported by Media Solutions, Technology, and Creative. This extensive network means that the Dutch multimedia company is more than relevant for both consumers and advertisers.

John de Mol is well known for a number of worldwide blockbuster formats such as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, and The Voice. For the latter show he received four Emmy Awards.

 

His production company, Talpa Media, was incorporated by the British company ITV in 2015. John de Mol is still responsible for the creation and production of the television formats and multimedia concepts, as well as for their international distribution. The most successful production is The Voice, which was launched in 2010. Since then, there have been more than 65 local versions of this program and it has been broadcast in 180 different countries. About Azerion

Notes for editors

Azerion (azerion.com) is a tech company in the media and entertainment business.

  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos.
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Maria del Dado Alonso Sanchez named CFO of Azerion

maria-del-dado

Dado Alonso has joined Azerion as its CFO, starting immediately. She is a member of the company’s board and executive team. She will drive the company’s financial organisation ensuring its alignment with Azerion’s strategy.

Azerion is a bit of a best kept secret, says Dado. But with 1,000 employees, and 350 million unique users a month, people have started to realise we are a powerhouse tech company. It’s a thrilling time to join the team.

Dado held Global Finance Director roles at Naspers and Booking.com and was CFO of C&A Netherlands. Prior to this, she worked in different executive roles at Amazon, as well as Siemens in Germany and Spain. With a strong tech background and international financial experience, she is ideally suited to running finance across Azerion’s more than 18 European centres of operation.

Dado is originally from Spain. She holds a MA in Law and a MA in Business Administration from Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Spain), a MSc IT & Management from Sheffield Hallam University (UK), as well as a CMA from the US Institute Management Accountants.

Notes for editors

Azerion (azerion.com) is a tech company in the media and entertainment business. Hundreds of millions of people play our games and watch our videos. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content.

Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users.

Azerion acquires Gen Z video publisher Zoomin

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Azerion applies expertise in content/ advertiser/ publisher mix to jump video content producer to another level.

Zoomin adds massively to Azerion’s content offering, helping publisher and advertiser clients to get serious about video.

Azerion has purchased Zoomin (100%) from Modern Times Group MTG AB, broadening its content with premium video for consumers, advertisers and publishers. Video content continues to be vital, particularly for brands and publishers trying to engage Gen Zers. Zoomin produces 220 new videos each month covering a wide variety of subjects designed to appeal to its Gen Z target audience and using an army of freelance video journalists and other content creators.

Channels including gaming, esports, stars and environmental news are distributed in10 languages via YouTube, social media and Zoomin’s publisher clients. The company’s content already attracts more than 3 billion views monthly.

Content is a crucial part of our trusted ecosystem, so this acquisition is a big deal for us, says Erol Erturk, Executive Vice President Content and Strategic Partnerships Azerion. Zoomin’s high quality video complements our gaming content which is already played by 180 million people a month. With this acquisition, we’re adding a significant new strand to the Azerion proposition, helping brands and publishers reach their target audiences even better.

The acquisition expands Azerion’s ecosystem adding over 2,000 publishers worldwide. These content owners can now make use of Azerion’s technology and services to optimise their ad strategy and maximise revenue from their inventory.

Zoomin is a great concept for engaging hard-to-reach audiences. says Roger Lodewick, Zoomin’s CEO. Azerion’s content knowledge, ad tech expertise and relationships with publishers give us the perfect combination of skills to take Zoomin to another level..

More than 100 employees, including 85 in Amsterdam will join Azerion as part of the transaction.

Ajax eSports and Azerion team up on mobile gaming partnership

Ajax Esports and Azerion have agreed a partnership lasting at least three seasons. Azerion will be the official mobile gaming partner of Ajax Esports. The parties will collectively develop a mobile gaming strategy and support each other in further international growth.

A match in the sporting and business cultures of the two organisations was key to making the deal happen. In Azerion, Ajax Esports has found a partner to help it further its objectives in the world of gaming.

Menno Geelen, commercial director of Ajax: Azerion and Ajax Esports have the same ambition: taking over the world with their propositions. This mutual ambition makes for a strong match between the two brands. Their insights have already helped us significantly. We look forward to going on this adventure together..

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Impact of gaming

Ajax Esports and Azerion recognise that mobile gaming has a huge impact on sports fans. Atilla Aytekin, co-CEO of Azerion: Ajax Esports and Azerion are natural partners because we share the same values. We want to inspire fans, players and staff by exhibiting ambition and courage..

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The partnership

Ajax Esports will help Azerion by creating visibility for their products and services with their target audience. Azerion’s name will be shown on the boarding during matches of the Ajax first team and a hospitality package has been purchased. In return, Azerion will provide advertising and expertise to help with the Ajax Gaming Academy app, due to launch soon.

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About Azerion

Azerion (azerion.com) is a tech company in the media and entertainment business. Hundreds of millions of people play our games. Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. We spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users. Azerion: content, reach, revenue, engagement — a million possibilities.

Azerion buys HiMedia Germany

  • Excellent fit grows content, advertiser and publisher markets across Europe

Azerion strengthens its offering with the acquisition of digital sales house HiMedia Germany.

Azerion has been on a stellar growth curve over the last four years, adding advertiser and publisher technology to its consumer content portfolio. It has acquired a number of related businesses and grown them primarily by improving customer satisfaction. HiMedia Germany is the latest company to join Azerion and an important acquisition for its position in Germany.

HiMedia Germany is a great fit with Azerion, with excellent growth potential, says Joost Merks, Head of Mergers and Acquisitions Azerion.

It is already a strong player in Germany with long-term business relationships and excellent market access. Being part of Azerion will allow HiMedia Germany to improve monetisation for our publishing partners and, for advertisers, to use our technology to reach a wider European market.

The acquisition expands Azerion’s German market share. HiMedia Germany adds 30 million monthly unique desktop and mobile users. It sells high-end tailored ads for publisher clients including WeTransfer, Rolling Stone, Computer Base and many others. It works closely with media agencies to offer advertisers highly targeted and creative solutions.

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Azerion offers a clever and efficient ecosystem which can be rolled out immediately as part of HiMedia Germany’s business, says Andreas Stietzel, CEO HiMedia Germany. I’m excited to be part of the Azerion family. I think it’s great that so many CEOs of the companies it acquires stay on to help develop the business further.

The Azerion deal allows HiMedia Germany to offer clients a complete package for the first time, with more substantial programmatic advertising (via Improve Digital*) and engaging games content (via GameDistribution*).

HiMedia Germany has been around for 20 years and its ethos of positioning brands distinctively while driving revenue for publishers fits seamlessly into the Azerion ecosystem.

One of HiMedia Germany’s great strengths is in native advertising where it works with brands to create campaign visions and tell their stories with tailored content.

Notes for editors
  • Hundreds of millions of people play our games
  • Advertisers reach massive audiences and targeted groups with our tech
  • Publishers earn top revenue with our tech and engage quality audiences with our content
  • Uniquely, Azerion works across these groups. Through an overarching product called AzerionOne, we spot synergies, find efficiencies and weave together the best strands from our business for each of our users

AzerionOne: content, reach, revenue, engagement – a million possibilities

* Improve Digital (improvedigital.com) and GameDistribution (gamedistribution.com) are products within AzerionOne. Improve Digital offers content owners a sophisticated programmatic advertising platform. GameDistribution allows publishers to add engaging content to their products.

Azerion previously indirectly owned a small share of HiMedia Germany. It has a minority stake in French advertising and user experience company AdUX which owned 45% of HiMedia Germany. As part of the acquisition, AdUX has sold its interest in HiMedia Germany to Azerion Holding. HiMedia Germany is now 100% directly owned by Azerion.

Azerion’s HQ is in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It has 20 offices around the World. Overall, Azerion now employs nearly 1000 people.

Azerion reaches 180 million gamers each month through its 13 500 games on the web and mobile devices.

Its advertiser technology is responsible for 300 billion transactions / month, reaching 350 million unique users / month.

AzerionOne: content, reach, revenue – one solution, a million possibilities

  • AzerionOne is a media product with strands that weave together to offer unique solutions
  • It brings together Azerion’s acquisitions into a single cohesive force

AzerionOne launches today, bringing the media industry a new platform of solutions in a single, modular package.

Azerion has been on a skyrocket growth curve over the last two years, adding advertiser and publisher technology to its consumer content portfolio. It has acquired a number of related businesses and grown them primarily by improving customer satisfaction. This means (for example) Improve Digital, GameDistribution, Headerlift and Quantum are now within the Azerion family.

AzerionOne brings together all these strands as part of a larger story, Sebastiaan Moesman, board member of Azerion. Uniquely, the synergies and cross-overs between the different parts of our business allow us to offer something that is far more than the sum of its parts.

Although the company is adding new product strands all the time, AzerionOne is built on some solid guiding principles, that benefit three user groups:

  1. Hundreds of millions of consumers get to play amazing high-quality games.
  2. Advertisers get reach – technologies that connect them with ever more massive audiences and highly targeted groups.
  3. Publishers get maximum revenue while maintaining transparency and optimising engagement, allowing them to concentrate on their products.

Uniquely, Azerion understands that these groups interact and interrelate – they are looking at the same story from different viewpoints. AzerionOne benefits everyone by building on the links between different users, spotting synergies, finding efficiencies and weaving together the best strands to fit the needs of individual users.

AzerionOne is a statement of intent. Already we’re pulling together the strands that make up a major media network, says Sebastiaan. Whatever part of the media you sit in, AzerionOne weaves together the right strands from our product portfolio to give you a solution that suits your precise needs.

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Consumer strands:
  • Azerion Games
  • Governor of Poker
  • Huz
  • Hotel Hideaway
  • Smeet
  • Habbo
  • Yepi
  • Hellokids
  • Hyves Games
  • Spele.nl
  • Funnygames
  • KiZi
  • BGames
  • Stratego
  • Woozworld
  • Operate Now Hospital
  • Agame
Advertiser strands:
  • AdMoove
  • Quantum
  • Summit
  • AdUx
  • HiMedia
  • Adpulse

 

Publisher strands:
  • Improve Digital
  • 360 Polaris
  • Headerlift
  • Sellbranch
  • GameDistribution
  • Plinga
  • Tubia

The Ozone Project selects Improve Digital as first European ad tech partner

  • Improve Digital is the first European ad tech company added to The Ozone Project’s growing roster of approved partners for Ozone Audience
  • The Ozone Project is a major initiative set up to create value for content creators across the ecosystem

Improve Digital, owned by Azerion, is the first European supply-side platform to become an approved activation partner for Ozone Audience. The collaboration will enable brands, buyers and publishers to transact with one-another cost-effectively, at scale and with complete confidence.

Established by the UK’s most trusted publishers, Ozone Audience offers brands access to large-scale ad buying capabilities across premium, fraud-free environments. According to Comscore, Ozone Audience reaches more than 44 million UK 18+ adults, surpassing Google or Facebook. Unlike these platforms, Ozone Audience allows brands to deliver campaigns exclusively within professionally curated content-environments, including The Times, the Guardian, The Telegraph and The Mirror.

Improve Digital’s footprint will help diversify The Ozone Project’s connectivity to European demand. It is a cornerstone of Azerion’s product family designed to create an ecosystem in which consumers, advertisers and publishers can thrive.

The synergy between our tech and The Ozone Project’s ecosystem will create a serious step forward in monetisation, says Sebastiaan Moesman, board member of Azerion.

Ozone plays a crucial role in offering brands and advertisers a viable alternative to the walled gardens, helping them reach consumers efficiently and at scale,” says Danny Spears, Commercial Director of The Ozone Project. “We are delighted to welcome Improve Digital as an SSP provider, giving brands and buyers’ greater control of their buying and helping publishers go about business with control, transparency and confidence.

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About The Ozone Project

The Ozone Project is the only transparent and brand safe platform in the UK for programmatic advertising, offering advertisers direct access to an audience of more than 44.1 million in premium environments across the UK’s most trusted publishers. Formed by Guardian News & Media, News UK, The Telegraph and Reach PLC.

www.ozoneproject.com/

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About Improve Digital

Improve Digital is an Azerion product, the leading European programmatic advertising platform for publishers, broadcasters and other content providers.

www.improvedigital.com/

Azerion acquires Woozworld Latest high-quality IP to bolster gaming content portfolio

Azerion has purchased Woozworld, strengthening its position as the biggest casual gaming company in the Netherlands and a major player in the global market. Azerion purchased the company from a group of Canadian shareholders led by Telesystem.

Woozworld is an industry-leading virtual game platform that provides teens and tweens a safe and fun environment. It is fully COPPA and GDPR compliant and entertains 500,000 active users on web and mobile each month. 26 virtual-gaming experts will transfer to Azerion.

Gaming is a crucial part of our trusted digital ecosystem for consumers, advertisers and publishers so this acquisition is a big deal for us, says Jur van Teunenbroek, vice-president games of Azerion. Woozworld significantly grows our user base and introduces a new demographic for our clients in advertising and publishing to connect with. Plus, the folks coming over from Woozworld bring extensive experience that will benefit our other virtual games such as, Habbo and Hotel Hideaway.

Woozworld will form an important building block within Azerion’s gaming content business which consists of acclaimed products like Habbo Hotel, Governor of Poker, Stratego, Operate Now: Hospital, Uphill Rush, GameDistribution.com and Kizi.com. Together these attract well over 125 million gameplays.

Azerion continues its stellar growth by welcoming Woozworld to the family. Other recent acquisitions which have been successfully integrated include: Improve Digital, Widespace, Sellbranch, Sulake, Smeet, Semilo, Adpulse, Adux and the mobile division of Spil Games.

Azerion will expand Woozworld’s audience throughout Europe.

We’re very pleased to join the Azerion team and introduce them to the large and vibrant Canadian gaming landscape, says Nicolas Lee, president and CEO of Woozworld.

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About Azerion

Azerion is a media, gaming and technology company that provides safe, reliable and valuable content and services. Its mission is to engage users while helping advertisers and publishers connect with them in a meaningful and valuable way. Azerion is headquartered in Amsterdam with a local presence in more than 15 European countries. This allows it to tailor advertising- and content solutions to every market and language while providing all the benefits of a pan-European scale of hundreds of millions of unique and valuable users every month.

www.azerion.com

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Azerion acquires Spil Games’ mobile division Sale delivers great mobile IPs to Azerion and heralds a strategic partnership with Spil Games

Media, gaming and technology giant Azerion today announces the acquisition of Spil Games’ mobile division, creating the biggest casual gaming company in the Netherlands and making it a major player in the global market.

Azerion also takes a strategic minority stake in Spil Games’ web portal business.

The companies will share technology and know-how to maximise user engagement and advertiser impact in the consolidating games market. Azerion will take over Spil Games’ mobile business, while Spil Games will concentrate on creating new opportunities out of its world-leading web game portals.

Azerion’s co-CEOs and founding partners Atilla Aytekin and Umut Akpinar agree that this acquisition and partnership fits perfectly into our strategy. We want to build a leading trusted ecosystem with content, technology and reach for advertisers, publishers and consumers. Working together with Spil Games gives us a step up in terms of our global profile.

The mobile games developed by Spil Games, including hits such as Operate Now: Hospital (45 million installs) and the Troll Face Quest franchise (144 million installs), dovetail well with Azerion’s content business which consists of acclaimed products like Habbo Hotel, Governor of Poker, Stratego and Spele.nl. Together these attract well over 125 million gameplays every month.

Azerion continues its stellar growth by welcoming Spil Games’ mobile division to the family. Other recent acquisitions which have been successfully integrated include: Improve Digital, Widespace, Sellbranch, Sulake, Smeet, Semilo, Adpulse and Adux.

The high-quality games coming over from Spil significantly bolster our mobile offering for our advertiser and publisher clients, says Sebastiaan Moesman, board member of Azerion. We get lots of engaged players from around the globe, plus awesome mobile technology that complements our other offerings.

Spil Games’ founders, Peter Driessen and Bennie Eeftink, remain the company’s majority shareholders (95%). I’m excited to be in partnership with Azerion, says Timm Geyer, Spil Games CEO. Gaming is a huge global market with massive potential rewards. But you need substantial resources to take it on. Together with Azerion, we will be a force to be reckoned with.

Brian Stengel, managing partner of Trebuchet Partners (based in New YorkCity)was the exclusive advisor to Spil Games on the cooperative deal.

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About Azerion

Azerion is a media, gaming and technology company that provides safe, reliable and valuable content and services. Its mission is to engage users while helping advertisers and publishers connect with them in a meaningful and valuable way. Azerion is headquartered in Amsterdam with a local presence in more than 15 European countries. This allows it to tailor advertising-and content solutions to every market and language while providing all the benefits of a pan-European scale of hundreds of millions of unique and valuable users every month.

www.azerion.com

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About Spil Games

Spil Games is based in Hilversum near Amsterdam and is the global leader in web games. It was established in 2004 and has grown around the world, with people in more than 150 countries playing its games. It has thousands of games across 30 portals. Its DNA in web games puts it in a unique position to grow in the ever-changing games industry.

www.spilgames.com