Totem

About Totem

During the second half of 2026, prediction markets have endured the wrath of a plethora of state governors, most notably Kathy Hochul of New York.

As the NFL season begins, a state in close proximity to the New England Patriots became the latest to attempt to curb the influence of the trading platforms. On 10 September, one day after the Pats’ season-opening loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont addressed the growth of the markets during a speech in downtown Hartford. On the same day, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection issued cease-and-desist orders to nine unregulated operators, including Polymarket, Robinhood and Underdog Predict.

“Prediction markets have branded themselves as legal and safe, but the reality is they are not adhering to Connecticut’s consumer protection standards,” Lamont wrote in a statement.

About Totem

Looking back on my 11+ years with CalvinAyre.com, I’ve made life-long friendships, attended countless industry events, interviewed hundreds of leaders, made thousands of contacts, built deep relationships with organizers, even had the honor of delivering a DAF award or two back in the day (who remembers???!!) but best of all, had the pleasure of working with some of the most incredible colleagues along the way, many of which who I classify now as dear friends.

When I joined CalvinAyre.com in August of 2009, there was an enormous gap in the industry for an honest, transparent news site with regular, fresh video content. Over time, we grew from a tiny team of a handful of people to dozens, providing the industry with the juiciest breaking news and cutting-edge video coverage. 

Today we pass on the torch to our event organizing and media production friends who have more recently developed outstanding news coverage and video teams dedicated to the gaming space, hopefully who I’ll be seeing at CoinGeek Conferences in the future.

What is Totem?

At its heart, Demon Beats uses the familiar Avalanche mechanic, where winning symbols clear and get replaced by new ones until no further wins appear. That cascade ties into a climbing multiplier ladder; the ladder resets on empty spins and steps up to far higher values once free spins begin.

The more distinctive layer is the game’s use of 2×2 colossal symbols and a Battle feature, in which colossal and Wild symbols land to cover a Battle symbol after a non-winning spin. These additions don’t reinvent NetEnt’s math. They extend the cascade model with bigger blocks and a triggered mini-sequence, keeping the release familiar to players who know the studio’s earlier Avalanche games.

NetEnt also attaches its Elevate suite of paid bonus-entry and feature-boost options