Highway Kings

What is Highway Kings?

Bill Beatty, our Editor-in-Chief, was my guiding light. I learned to think of journalism, the gambling industry, and even life, in whole new ways thanks to him, and I’ll always count on him as one of my mentors.

But I couldn’t have accomplished half of what I did without all of my colleagues, past and present. Our talented team of writers, editors, web site development guys, production team, on screen reporters, Human Resources, Accountants, everyone. It took the whole team to make sure we put up the latest news and opinions every day, and everyone deserves their fair share of the credit.

To all of those I met at the handful of conferences I attended before Covid-19 sent everything to digital, and all of those I met over email or Zoom since, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope we get the chance to meet again when all of this is over, and you can reach me at any of my contact details listed at the bottom if you want to catch up in the meantime.

What is Highway Kings?

Strip away the language of contracts, order books and event trading and Bernard Marantelli has a blunt description of what is happening inside US sports prediction markets. “Kalshi is a sportsbook that’s just not allowed to have an in-house risk team,” says the founder of White Swan Data, one of the specialist firms now making markets on prediction exchanges.

The difference is all about the risk function. A sportsbook employs traders to price bets and manage its exposure. An exchange provides an API through which firms compete to quote prices and supply liquidity.

“Here’s an API. Bernard and 88 other people can market-make all these request-for-quotes (RFQs),” Marantelli says. “Some people might come in and just do esports because they’re esports experts. Others do everything. Some focus on same-game parlays. But it’s a sportsbook.”

What is Highway Kings?

Play’n GO’s own framing points to the commercial logic behind the choice. “The Coin carries the game. It pays on the spot, it locks into Hold & Spin, it builds multipliers in Bonus Spins. Operators get a game players read quickly, and GO Ultra changes what the wheel can land,” said Magnus Wallentin, Games Ambassador at Play’n GO.

The observation about readability is the strategic point. Feature-dense slots can overwhelm newer players, and a shared trigger reduces the number of mechanics a player must track before understanding how the game rewards them.

The Coin also does more than open features. Six Coins open Hold & Spin with three Re-Spins, where Coins are the only symbols that can land. In that mode they lock into place, reset the respin counter with each new landing, and pay out their collected values when the respins run out. It’s a familiar Hold & Win framework kept intact rather than reinvented.