Strategy Archives

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..

July 27, 2022

Underdog raises $35m to pursue sports betting

Paid fantasy sports operator Underdog has raised $35.0m (£29.0m/$34.5m) during a Series B funding round to support its plans to expand into sports betting.

The round included funds and accounts managed by BlackRock as well as Acies Investments and valued the business at $485.0m.

BlackRock and Acies join existing investors including billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, professional basketball player Kevin Durant, American football star Odell Beckham Jr, and former Paddy Power Betfair chief executive Breon Corcoran.

Underdog said the funds would go towards its plans to begin building licensed sports betting products, while it also intends to hire more than 100 new employees as part of its wider expansion plans.

“Since the start of Underdog, we’ve believed that building quality products and putting customers first is a winning recipe,” Underdog president and chairman Jeremy Levine said.

“We’re excited to continue to innovate and build new experiences from the ground up in fantasy, sp..

July 27, 2022

Kambi pivots to modularisation as DraftKings exit continues to hit Q2 revenue

Betting supplier Kambi will increase its focus on modularised products rather than its full sportsbook solution – and may seek to make acquisitions – after key client DraftKings’ migration away from Kambi’s sportsbook continued to affect its earnings in Q2.

Revenue for the supplier for the quarter ended 30 June was down by 18.8% from Q2 of 2022 to €34.7m (£29.2m/$35.2m), a change the business said was due to the migration of US betting giant DraftKings away from Kambi’s platform and onto the SBTech product it acquired in 2020.

While DraftKings has already completed its migration, two other key clients are also taking steps to move away from its platform in favour of in-house options. Unibet operator Kindred has been building its own platform, set to launch when its partnership with Kambi ends in 2024.

If DraftKings – which produced 25% of Kambi’s revenue the prior year – is excluded, revenue was up 16% from Q2 of 2021.

Penn National gaming, meanwhile, acquired theScore last year, ..

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..

July 13, 2022

BallyBet launches in New York six months after initial approvals

Bally’s has launched its mobile betting product in New York, six months after the market launched and almost nine months after being announced as one of its nine licensees.

The operator was one of nine approved to launch through the state’s tender process, after the state approved two bids which each included a group of operators. The first operators in the state were approved to launch in January, with others following in February.

However, amid competitive marketing and the state’s 51% tax rate, Bally’s chair Soo Kim said the business was waiting until things looked more favourable before it would launch.

Now, though, the business has officially started taking bets in the empire state via its BallyBet sportsbook, powered by the Bet.Works platform it agreed to acquire in 2020.

“We are live and taking bets in the big apple on all the major sports,” Bally’s said. “NY-area sports bettors can now download our app on Android or iOS and start wagering today.”

New York is the sixth stat..

July 8, 2022

Entain shares slide amid concerns online slowdown continues into 2023

Entain’s share price dropped by more than 10% this morning, amid concerns its slowing online performance may continue through the rest of the year and beyond, before a rebound late in the day.

The business reported an 18% year-on-year increase in net gaming revenue for the first half of the year.

However, online revenue was down 7% year-on-year.

Entain said this was due to a weaker macroeconomic environment, leading to customers spending on average 5% less during the period than they had the year before.

“As a business, we are relatively resilient to cyclical macroeconomic effects,” chief executive Jette Nygaard-Andersen said. “However, no business is completely immune.

“We’ve seen some moderation in the rate of spend by customers, resulting in lower underlying growth across many of our markets versus our expectations earlier in the year.”

Chief financial officer Rob Wood noted that online revenue was “ultimately behind our expectations from earlier in the year, due to a couple ..

July 1, 2022

888 completes £1.95bn acquisition of William Hill assets

Online operator 888 has completed its acquisition of William Hill’s non-US assets from Caesars for £1.95bn (€2.25bn/$2.35bn), and has announced the group’s new leadership team.

888 had initially agreed in September 2021 to acquire the non-US business of William Hill. This came soon after US operator Caesars acquired the entire William Hill business for approximately £2.90bn, with the intent to dispose of all but its US assets.

Originally, the purchase price for the deal was £2.2bn. However, 888 and Caesars agreed to reduce the purchase price to acquire the assets by £250m, with the cash portion of the deal now set at £584.9m instead of £834.9m.

This, it said, was due to a “change in the macro-economic and regulatory environment”, but at the time it also revealed that the William Hill business’ licence to operate in Great Britain was under review.

After receiving shareholder approval last month, the deal has now closed today.

“I am delighted to announce the completion of our trans..

July 1, 2022

GiG pens new deals in Portugal and Spain

Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has signed two new agreements with operators in Spain and Portugal, supplying its platform services to both.

Under the deals, GiG subsidiary Sportnco will sign with Caravel Entertainment Limited in Portugal – which operates online casino brand Moosh – and an unnamed online operator in Spain.

GiG acquired Sportnco in April of this year, in a deal worth €51.3m (£43.2m/$56.7m).

Caravel will then use the Sportnco sportsbook for the moosh.pt website.

“We are very proud to sign this contract with Moosh, a new GiG customer in the demanding and attractive Portuguese market,” said Hervé Schlosser, managing director of Sportnco. “Moosh.pt has great ambitions domestically and there is no doubt that we are perfectly positioned to be able to respond positively to the new dynamics of this growing Portuguese operator.”

Martin Bengtsson, CEO at Moosh.pt, said that the deal will allow the operator to upgrade its sportsbook offering.

“It has been a long process to fin..

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Tag: Strategy