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Our firm was chosen as one of the three best Israeli law offices providing services in the gaming and gambling industry by the InterGame 2016 directory. The InterGame is the ultimate portal for the coin-op amusement, casino and online gaming industries.

Increasing competition in the online gambling industry is motivating leading players in the industry to try to find new sources of income.

Following the declaration by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, regarding the possibility of opening for the first time of a casino in Israel, the exclusive Gambling Compliance Magazine interviewed us. Our Head of Internet Department states that: "There is a higher probability for this to succeed this time. The reason for that being that due to the economic situation in Israel (and generally in the world), the government is seeking additional sources of income, which a casino could bring."

We represented the leading gambling company, Stride Gaming plc, in its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of InfiApps Limited. Stride Gaming plc, which is listed on AIM, acquired the entire issued share capital of InfiApps Limited, a profitable Israeli internationally-focused mobile social gaming company. The total consideration payable for the acquisition is up to $39.2 million. Of this, an initial consideration of US$21.2 million in cash will be payable on completion, together with an additional earn-out consideration of up to $18 million payable in cash, determined by the EBITDA generated by InfiApps in the two years following completion of the acquisition.

Micky Barnea, Managing Partner and Head of the Technology department published an article in the IVC annual high-tech book. In the article, Micky asserts that although online financial trading is focused on financial tools, the ability to innovate is a key ingredient in the success of online financial trading companies. As such, they should be treated as high-tech companies.

Senior industry figures from a host of FX companies met top venture capital investors in Tel Aviv, Israel today at the conference hosted by Barnea and the IVC. To read more, please click here

Micky Barnea, managing partner of Barnea, and Koby Simana, CEO of IVC Online, in a joint interview focused on the area of financial trading platforms. In the interview Micky discusses the effects of the new Israeli regulations pertaining to the activities of trading platforms. These regulations will come into effect on May 26, 2015.

Barnea, IVC, and SpotOption invite you to "Online Financial Trading NOW" Conference. The conference will deal in opportunities, challenges, innovations and trends in the Online Financial Trading Industry. The event will be held on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 08:30-13:00 at Meirhoff Gallery, Dovnov 8, Tel Aviv.

360Law website published our Overview Of Gambling Law In Israel. In our overview we provide an analysis of  current laws in Israel and discusses innovations and possible future developments therein.

Recently, one of the most popular Facebook pages in Israel, by the name of "Twitting Statuses", was suspended and later permanently removed by Facebook. The reason for such action was that the operator of that page (the "Operator"), so it is understood, was paid to publish commercial content on that Facebook page, without going through the Facebook advertising system and without providing any due disclosure that such content was indeed paid for. It appears that the Operator offered various media packages to advertisers fixing prices based on different kinds of exposure on this page. After this manner of operation became public knowledge, Facebook suspended the page and a few days after that permanently removed it. Facebook stated that these actions were taken because the Operator had breached Facebook's terms and conditions. According to Facebook, the Operator received warnings about his manner of operation, but ignored them. Despite the Operator's efforts, which included going public with Facebook's actions and publishing a letter sent from him to the head of the Israeli office of Facebook, his efforts to change Facebook's decision were unsuccessful. Without getting into the legal spat between Facebook and the Operator, this turn of events proves the importance of following the terms and conditions of Facebook. All of the work and effort of the Operator will probably go down the drain, causing him substantial financial loss and diminution in value in connection with this Facebook page. And this is not something to trifle with - according to newspaper reports, the Operator, prior to this turn of events, asked to receive NIS 10,000,000 (approx. USD 2.5M) for the page and had 700,000 followers (and claimed to reach exposure of millions). Given the fact that this kind of business lives or dies on the existence of the Facebook page, and that it operates on a platform owned by a third party, it goes without saying that where the business is intended to generate followers and create value without adhering to the terms and conditions of the third party owned platform, it is reasonable to believe that sooner rather than later, such value will dissolve into thin air. Further,  where there are third party investors that are involved in such a business, this could establish a cause of action against the entrepreneur who used their investments for purposes of the business; where such a core fundamental element of the business is questionable, there is a possibility that the investors will seek to recover damages from the entrepreneur. So, entrepreneurs – pay close attention to the rules of any third party you rely on for the purpose of creating value for your business, failing which , you could expose yourself to financial difficulties on a number of fronts.

In 2014, the online gambling industry faced many challenges, mainly due to regulatory issues but also due unsatisfactory results in several jurisdictions with the US States of Nevada and New Jersey probably the most disappointing in this respect. According to our head of gambling practice, 2015 will probably be challenging as well. One reason for this is that the new legislation in England, which came into effect towards the end of 2014, requiring any online gambling operator offering is services in England to operate under an online gambling license issued by the local Gambling Commission, as well as pay a substantial gambling tax. For the full article, please Click here

Barnea has once again been chosen to be included in the 2015 InterGame Year Book Directory as one of the law firms advising the gaming and games industries.

We are the authors of the Israeli chapter in the International Comparative Legal Guide to Gambling 2015. The Guide covers a range of topics including: relevant authorities and legislation, application for a license and license restrictions, enforcement, liability and more. This publication is one of 38 ICLG guides published which cover all major practice areas and provide in-house counsel with a legal overview in different jurisdictions.