Gaming Archives

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..

July 28, 2022

Flutter to lay off staff in UK and Ireland

Betting and gaming giant Flutter will make a number of redundancies in the UK and Ireland, following an internal review.

The business, which operates brands including Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet in the region, did not provide details of how many redundancies there would be or which roles would be affected.

However, a spokesperson did say that it expects the majority of those whose roles are eliminated to find new positions with Flutter. As a result, there would be only a “small number” of job losses.

“These proposed changes reflect the next phase of our integration, as we look to consolidate parallel operating models and position the business to continue growing against a more challenging operating environment,” the spokesperson said.

“While we have sought to minimise the impact this will have on our colleagues, with most employees affected being redeployed into alternative or newly created roles, the proposals may lead to a small number of job losses.

“We are communicatin..

July 27, 2022

XLMedia’s new focus on US betting pays off as H1 EBITDA exceeds $10m

A renewed – and acquisition-powered – focus on US sports betting helped drive XLMedia’s revenue up 39.2% to $44.5m, while earnings grew beyond $10m.

Since the prior year’s results, XLMedia changed the structure of the divisions within the business, as part of a wider restructuring effort.

Rather than a single sports betting vertical, the business split revenue related to betting into US sports and European sports. It was the US sports division that generated the vast majority of XLMedia’s revenue, with $30.2m, which was more than five times the total recorded in H1 of the previous year.

Much of this came from recent acquisitions such as Sports Betting Dime and Saturday Football Inc.

“The opening of new regulated markets and the signing of new media partnership agreements has allowed the US Sports business to capitalise on the full US sports calendar, in particular the Super Bowl, and deliver strong growth in H1 2022,” the XL board said.

The European Sports division, meanwhile, br..

July 20, 2022

Italy’s online sports betting revenue dips in May, while casino holds steady

Italy's igaming revenue declined to €276.4m in May from April’s €292.2m, mostly due to a dip in online sports betting.

Online sports betting revenue continued its downward trend, dropping below the €100 million mark for the first time since October 2021. This is compared to €153.5 million from May 2021. This drastic year-on-year drop is partially explained by restrictions that were in place on the retail sector in May last year, prompting more customers to bet online.

However, retail sports betting also suffered a sudden decline on a month-on-month basis after a period of stability, coming down from €83.5 million in April to €66.4 million in May.

In contrast to the betting figures, casino revenue ticked slightly upwards to €161.8 from €155.1 million. As a result, the igaming revenue product split swayed heavily away from sports betting, taking up only 35.3% of the market in May as opposed to 40.7% in April.

The drops in market share that the biggest four online casino operato..

July 20, 2022

Aspire prepares for a new era

Aspire Global has divested its B2C operations to become a focused B2B business which in turn becomes part of a formidable proposition now NeoGames has acquired the supplier. But that B2C heritage will be vital to ensuring it continues its rapid growth trajectory, says CEO Tsachi Maimon.

Tsachi Maimon was named chief executive of Aspire Global in 2013. At that time the business brought in about €25m (£21.3m) annually. Eight years later, it posted revenue of €213.3m for 2021.

When Maimon joined, he oversaw a B2C business which contributed the bulk of revenue. By the end of 2021, the company had sold off all its consumer-facing operations, which were snapped up by Esports Technologies in a €65.5m deal.

On 17 June, Aspire was then acquired by an even larger entity, with ilottery specialist NeoGames completing a public offer to take charge of the company for €402.3m.

This, Maimon says, is the result of “a series of carefully considered business decisions” that has ultimately taken it..

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Tag: Gaming