Gaming Archives

August 26, 2022

Cost of living represents looming crisis

iGB op-ed: Zak Thomas-Akoo argues the gaming sector should brace for a squeeze as macroeconomic conditions start to bite.

“Now is the winter of our discontent,” burbled Richard III, in the famous warning of what happens when a clever clogs lets ambition outstrip means. More prosaically, winter is certainly on the mind of those in the UK as the country braces for a potential triple threat of recession, energy price shocks and generalised inflation, all of which have direct industry implications.

A combination of supply constraints, fiscal and monetary policy, and energy disruptions have made inflation a worldwide phenomenon but it is most ferocious in the UK. In August, annualised inflation reached 8.5% in the US, 8.6% in Eurozone, just 6.5% in France – and 10.1% in Britain.

As our long, hot and doomed summer recedes into the middle distance, from Middlesbrough to Downing Street, Britain is blowing off its dusty old picture books of 1978 as it braces for the squeeze, and it’s not muc..

August 23, 2022

Rush Street Interactive: the exception that proves the rule

At a time when US sports betting operators are shifting focus to profitability rather than expansion, Rush Street Interactive believes it is a step ahead of the competition. Chief executive Richard Schwartz explains how a disciplined approach, online casino and its pan-American ambitions, will achieve this.

The early stages of the US betting and igaming market have been typified by a race to build as big a customer database as possible, at whatever cost. Each state that launches experiences advertising shock and awe, as operators bankroll vast campaigns to use each rollout as a land-grab for new sign-ups.

Rush Street Interactive (RSI), the business that listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2020, has looked to take a different approach. At a time when there is greater scrutiny of company spending, and investors query how long hefty losses can be sustained, it has managed to keep its spending in check.

While the push for profitability is still relatively new to the wide..

August 19, 2022

A lucky escape for Entain?

iGB op-ed: this week, the gambling industry was the subject of front-page news when gaming giant Entain paid a record settlement of £17m (€20.1m/$20.4m) to the GB Gambling Commission for a range of regulatory failings. Marese O’Hagan ponders whether another operator would have had its licence revoked outright.

News of the scale of Entain’s £17m regulatory settlement this week generally ignites sharp debate between anti-industry campaigners and those in support of the sector. And with social media playing such a large part in communication today, it is easier than ever to absorb both sides of the debate.

However, there was little sympathy for Entain on Wednesday morning when the penalty was announced.

In total, Entain has agreed to pay £14m for social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures carried out by its online gaming business LC International Limited – which operates 13 UK sites, including Coral.co.uk, Ladbrokes.com and FoxyBingo.com – and a further £3m for simi..

August 17, 2022

Entain to pay record £17m for wide-ranging failings in GB

The GB Gambling Commission has ordered Entain to pay a record £17.0m (€20.3m/$20.6m) after it identified a series of social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failings across its online and land-based businesses.

Entain will pay £14.0m for failings from LC International Limited (LCI), which runs Entain’s online brands including Ladbrokes.com, Coral.co.uk and Foxybingo.com.

The remaining £3.0m is for the Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited (LBG) land-based business, which operates 2,746 betting shops across Great Britain.

All £17m will be directed towards socially responsible purposes as part of a regulatory settlement, while the Commission will impose a series of additional licence conditions, with an Entain board member tasked with overseeing a new business plan for improvement.

In addition, a third-party audit of compliance with the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice will take place within 12 months.

As a result of the failings, Gambling Commission chief execut..

August 16, 2022

GiG sets €65m EBITDA goal for 2024 as Sportnco contributes to record Q2

Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) drastically upped its long-term targets – now aiming for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of around €65m (£54.7m/$65.9m) by 2024 – following a record quarter bolstered by the acquisition of Sportnco.

The results – for the second quarter of the year – were the first to include sportsbook supplier Sportnco. GiG acquired Sportnco for €51.3m (£43.2m/$56.7m at the time) as the quarter began after agreeing the deal in December.

The business set an all-time record in revenue with €22.1m, up 37.1% year-on-year. While the acquisition helped the business, GiG also noted the total was up by 24.0% organically.

Media – covering GiG’s affiliate brands – continued to make up the majority of revenue, with €14.8m, up by 35.1% year-on-year, and by 5.0% from the previous record high set in Q1.

Of this total, €9.8m came from publishing brands and the remaining €5.0m from paid media. New launches for the division included a brand focuse..

August 12, 2022

Flutter CEO: we are well-placed to “capitalise” on UK reforms

Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson said that he expects his business to ultimately be a winner from the results of the UK Gambling Act review, as Flutter’s scale will help it navigate changes while smaller businesses may exit the market.

The comments came during Flutter’s earnings call for the first half of 2022, following results in which the business revealed that its FanDuel brand had turned a profit during Q2.

Jackson (pictured) argued that in both the UK and Australia, Flutter’s businesses had “outgrown regulations”.

He discussed the introduction of point-of-consumption taxes in these markets as an example of a regulatory challenge that had a short-term negative impact, but made Flutter brands stronger in the long term.

“Our scale and operating leverage have allowed us to mitigate the impacts, both through operational efficiencies, and also through market share gains as smaller operators were required to exit from the market.”

In the presentation, Flutter also noted that ..

August 11, 2022

Entain to buy SuperSport, prepares for wave of Eastern Europe acquisitions

Online giant Entain has agreed to acquire a 75% stake in Croatian market leader SuperSport for €690m, in what it expects to be the first of many acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe.

Entain will partner with Czech investment firm EMMA Capital to create a new venture named Entain CEE, in which Entain will own a 75% stake.

This new business – intended to make acquisitions in Central and Eastern Europe – will then acquire SuperSport, which is the largest betting and gaming brand in Croatia.

While Entain cited SuperSport’s 54% market share as one reason for doing the deal, it also suggested that the deal will just be the start of a flurry of M&A activity targeting Central and Eastern Europe.

The Entain board said the business would create “an exciting platform” in this region, led by SuperSport CEO Radim Haluza.

“The combination of Entain’s global scale, access to capital and content, EMMA’s regional knowledge and connectivity, alongside the expert local operational knowledge o..

August 9, 2022

Kenyan government orders all operators to close for election day

Operators in Kenya have suspended their services today (9 August) in line with a directive that ordered them to cease activity to allow citizens to vote in the 2022 Kenyan general election.

The order was handed down by Kenya’s Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).

It took force at midnight today, and will end at 5pm.

A number of operators released statements about the order. Sports betting brand SportPesa placed a statement on its website which read, “Thank you for interacting with SportPesa. Our services are currently unavailable in compliance with BCLC’s directive to suspend all gaming operations to enable you to vote.”

“Our services will resume immediately after 5pm on Tuesday 9th August 2022.”

Betsson-owned sportsbook and online casino operator Betsafe released a similar statement.

“Our gaming services will be suspended from Monday midnight until Tuesday 5:00pm,” it read.

“During this period, you will not be able to place bets or transact. We apologise for the inconven..

August 5, 2022

RSI still on track for long-term earnings goals despite higher Q2 losses

Rush Street Interactive (RSI) said it still expects to achieve its longer-term earnings targets despite posting an increased net loss and negative adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) during the second quarter and first half.

Speaking after the business published its results for the two operating periods, RSI’s chief executive Richard Schwartz said that the operator continues to move towards becoming profitable.

Schwartz said RSI experienced profit across six of its markets during the second quarter of its 2022 financial year, with the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan, along with Colombia in South America, being profitable in the quarter. In addition, West Virginia also turned profitable after only four full quarters of operation in the state.

“We are continuing to build a global business,” Schwartz said “With the recent launches in Ontario in Canada and Mexico, we are now live in a total of four countries. This give..

August 4, 2022

GB gambling revenue drops in June as almost all sectors struggle

Gross gambling revenue in Great Britain dropped by 13.6% month-on-month in June, new figures from the Gambling Commission show, as almost all types of gambling experienced a significant decline.

The regulator published data based on reports from operators making up 80% of the GB online gambling market and 85% of the retail betting shop market, building on its earlier online-only reports launched in 2020. As such, the absolute figures reported do not include the entire market within these verticals.

Month-on-month, online gross gambling yield was down by 13.2% to £370.2m in June. The total was also a drop of 20.0% from the highest monthly total of the year, recorded in January. Revenue was, however, higher than March, when sports betting revenue experienced a sharp drop that was likely related to special officers around the Cheltenham Festival.

At the same time, revenue from retail bookmakers was down as well, by 5.6% to £181.7m.

Revenue from almost every single gambling vertical wa..

August 2, 2022

Gaining altitude or experiencing turbulence?

Robin Harrison talks to the local operators and lobbyists involved in the early stages of the Netherlands’ regulated igaming market.

Online gambling regulation in the Netherlands was discussed as far back as 2009 yet only launched in October 2021.

And the operators licensed were different to what the industry had expected. The local incumbents, Nederlandse Loterij (NLO) and Holland Casino, were among them as were international brands such as Bet365 and Tombola.

A host of high-profile names were conspicuous by their absence. The likes of Entain, Betsson, 888 Holdings and Kindred Group pulled out, having passively accepted bets from local consumers.

This led to a “deluge” of players coming to Holland Casino, according to director of digital transformation Jeroen Verkroost.

“We were over the moon but completely understaffed and had to shift from first to fifth gear almost immediately, which came with some teething problems,” Verkroost recalls.

Sam Depoortere, business director for N..

August 1, 2022

Holding back the tide

René Jansen, chair of Dutch regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), speaks to Daniel O’Boyle about the challenges involved in fighting on two fronts since the country launched its regulated online gambling market. On one hand he’s keeping the unlicensed market at bay, on the other he’s working to ensure the licensed sector moderates its advertising

After eight years of anticipation, it could have been difficult for the launch of the Netherlands’ online gambling market to fulfil expectations.

For Jansen, chair of regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the launch did indeed live up to what he anticipated.

“It’s been a success in several aspects,” he says.

But going as expected is only a good thing if the predictions are optimistic. And it’s hard to miss the fact that one aspect of the market launch went exactly as Jansen predicted, in exactly the wrong way.

Advertising turmoil

In May 2021, the KSA chair warned of an advertising “bombardment” when the legal market opened.

Looking at..

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Tag: Gaming