For the second year running, ’The best dissertation on gaming’ was awarded during a ceremony hosted by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority on Tuesday 26th September 2011.
The second edition of the award which was supported by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority, The University of Malta, The Malta University Student Council (KSU) was sponsored by Betsson.
A good number of high quality university dissertation submissions related to gaming from various disciplines were received. All submissions were then reviewed by panels of independent experts. The top three submissions overall were forwarded to the next stage of the competition which was a presentation of their research in front of a second expert panel.
This year’s finalists were: Julia De Marco whose dissertation was ‘A Comparative Analysis of the Place of Supply Rules: The Future of Online Gaming in Malta’. Renzo Galea with ’Modelling Football Data’ and Karl Gonzi with ‘a Critical Analysis of the Remote Gaming Regulations 2004 and Suggested Improvements by Reference to Local and Foreign Legislation’
The Betsson awards winner of 2011 is Mr Renzo Galea with ‘Modelling Football Data’ which investigates the Bayesian modeling performance for football data. Mr Galea used real data from the Italian Seria A championship to illustrate the Bayesian modeling performance and proofed the possibility of predicting outcomes.
Reuben Portanier, CEO of the LGA stated, ”The LGA supports all initiatives that promote research in the field of gaming, whilst we also embrace Industry to Academia initiatives such as this, as it creates an opportunity to bridge academic research with business realities”.
Dr. Anton Bartolo on behalf of the University of Malta commented that the University of Malta welcomes this initiative by Betsson, as well as the collaboration with the Lotteries and Gaming Authority on the award. It is in line with the University’s continued endeavour to engage with industry and Government to ensure that education and research at the University are relevant to businesses and to Malta’s socio-economic development. The gaming industry has a strong and growing presence in Malta, and the University welcomes collaboration in this sector, particularly in supporting social responsibility.
Henrik Persson, CEO of Betsson stated that Betsson aims to play an important role in the future development of the gaming industry in Malta. The company views a long term relationship between the University, private enterprise and the Authority as an obvious requirement for continued positive development of the industry. Henrik Persson said that the company took a long term strategic decision when investing in Malta and those initiatives such as this award scheme are to be continued and extended to other areas of the business. The Betsson CEO concluded that the company considers itself privileged to have participated in the setting up of this initiative.
