About this app
What is Samurais Katana?
As ever, I am indebted to too many people to mention, but Derek, Bill, Jasmine and every one of the Calvin Ayre team, as well as Calvin himself of course, have all shown a lot of faith in me to carry the torch and I hope I’ve done them all credit.
Finally, I really want to thank you, the reader who has kept coming back to find out what else I’m writing about each day, week, month and year. It is you to whom I write, constant reader, and if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, then feel free to follow me on Twitter, where a new destination will shortly be announced.
I’m as excited about my own future as the future of poker itself and while I’m changing seats, I’ll be staying at the table.
About Samurais Katana
Harrison Barrett, VP of business development, spoke to the iGB team at iGB L!VE 2026 to discuss the evolution of Soft2Bet’s MEGA platform, which started out as a purely gamification layer but has become “much more compelling than simply leaderboards, missions and point-based rewards”.
As Barrett puts it, MEGA is “ultimately a retention tool that helps our partners move away from heavy bonus and costs”.
With ice hockey and UFC-themed initiatives driving engagement in North America and a 45% lifetime value increase seen with the launch of MEGA Shoot, a player-versus-player simulation penalty shootout game initiative which launched during the World Cup, it is an exciting time for the Malta-based platform provider.
About Samurais Katana
Sportsbook operators have an inherent advantage over prediction markets in that the former can offer significantly larger sign-up and retention bonuses and gaming companies are leaning into those expenditures this football season.
Promotional spending is nice and has proven to be an effective customer acquisition tool, but both sportsbooks and prediction markets would do well to emphasize bespoke experiences for clients because they’re looking for customization.
“Twelve percent of respondents have switched platforms because another offered personalization aligned with their interests, while 9% said recommendations based on their interests would make them more likely to try a prediction market,” concludes Fullstory.
