Month: February 2021

Under the agreement, Infront will acquire a minority stake in Squash Media & Marketing (SMM), a new PSA entity that will manage and exploit commercial rights for the PSA and its key stakeholders.

Infront will manage the monetisation of media, betting, sponsorship and digital rights of all SMM controlled properties until the end of the 2028-2029 season.

This will include rights associated with the PSA’s leading events, such as the PSA World Championships and PSA World Tour Finals.

The deal also covers a full redevelopment of SquashTV, the PSA’s wholly owned over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platform, while Infront will work with the PSA to help develop the sport at all levels around the world.

“Our ambitions have always been clear: we want to see squash at the top table of sport, and this new collaboration with Infront means we are taking big strides towards achieving that aim,” PSA chief executive Alex Gough said.

“This is a statement of intent from the PSA and we have no doubt that this modern structure combined with a long-term commitment from our new partner will usher the sport into a new era.”

Julien Ternisien, senior vice president for summer sports at Infront, added: “This new collaboration goes beyond a traditional agreement and we are investing in our belief that squash can further elevate itself to a broader audience.

“Our aim is to bring this dynamic and exciting sport to a wider community by combining our experience in traditional broadcast, OTT media, digital and sponsorship with PSA’s expertise in putting on world-class events.”

Canada’s Criminal Code currently only permits consumers to wager on at least three games or more in an individual bet, meaning that a wager on a single sports match or event is regarded as illegal.

However, a bill (C-13) introduced in the Canadian House of Commons in November last year, proposes amending paragraph 207(4)‍(b) of the Criminal Code to make it lawful to bet on a single sports or athletics event.

Provincial lottery operator the British Columbia Lottery Corporation has already voiced its support for the legislation, while media business Score Media and Gaming (theScore) and a number of major sports leagues have also backed single-event betting in Canada.

The AGLC has now joined this growing list of supporters, with acting president and chief executive Kandice Machado saying the bill would help to modernize gambling laws in the country.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Veikkaus halted all gambling activities in Kainuu on 13 January after the government determined the spread of Covid-19 in the region had moved from a low to accelerated phase.

Current regulations in Finland mean all slot machines must be switched off and gaming halls closed in areas where the spread of the virus is accelerated.

However, with measures having again been scaled back to basic levels, Veikkaus began switching on its slot machines in Kainuu’s kiosks, shops and traffic stations earlier today.

This is the second time Veikkaus has restarted gaming activities in Kainuu after a temporary suspension.

Measures in the region were relaxed in mid-December to allow slot machines to operate, but were switched off last month after restrictions in Kainuu were increased.

Last month, Veikkaus was again forced to suspend activities in Satakunta, after the region was moved to the accelerating phase.

In addition, under the agreement the club will educate its staff, players and fans about the risks associated with gambling.

Natalie Wright, director of the Office of Responsible Gambling, said the partnership aims to “address the normalisation of sports betting and raise awareness of gambling harm”.

“Attending a live sports event is a real ritual for many people in New South Wales, and we’re excited that different codes and teams are encouraging their fans to ‘Reclaim the Game’ and are turning down gambling advertising and sponsorship,” she said.

“We think you should be able to enjoy sport without betting. That’s why we’re working with sports codes and teams to ‘Reclaim the Game’ and get back to what sport is meant to be about.”

John Tsatsimas, chief executive of the Wanderers, added that the club has some of the most passionate and engaged fans of any team, and said: “We value those communities who have been such strong supporters, and one of the ways we aim to give back is by choosing partnerships that encourage community wellbeing.”

“We know that gambling is an issue that concerns many in our Western Sydney community, and we’re really excited to have this opportunity to raise awareness of gambling harm and reduce the amount of betting promotion that our fans are exposed to.”

The partnership follows on from the Office of Responsible Gambling’s latest deal with Cricket New South Wales, a two-year partnership spanning the four teams active under Cricket NSW’s leadership.

Under the deal, neither Cricket NSW or the teams are permitted to sign partnerships with a sports betting or gambling business.

The operator said the acquisition is subject to the receipt of all necessary regulatory, governmental or similar clearances, including from competition authorities and gaming authorities.

Entain has filed applications to obtain the necessary approvals, it said, but due to the timing of the review process, it does not expect that all such approvals will have been received during the acceptance period ending 18 February.

It has therefore decided to extend the acceptance period until 17:00 CET on 18 March, 2021.

Provided Entain can announce that the conditions of the offer have been satisfied or waived on 23 March, it said, settlement can be expected to commence on or around 30 March.

All other terms and conditions set out in the offer document will continue to apply throughout the extended acceptance period.

Entain tabled its offer to acquire Enlabs on 7 January, in a deal worth £250m (€285.1m/$345.7m). The cash offer would see Entain pay SEK40 (£3.48/€3.97/$4.81) for each of Enlabs’ 69.9m shares.

The operator said the acquisition is directly aligned with its growth strategy of entering locally regulated markets where it does not yet have a presence.

When announcing its rebrand from GVC to Entain, the operator made a commitment to generate 100% of its revenue from locally regulated markets by 2023.

Enlabs’ position as the leading operator in Latvia, second largest in Estonia and one of the top five in Lithuania, meant the acquisition was therefore directly aligned with Entain’s strategy, the Bwin and Ladrbokes Coral operator said.

Full details of its bid to acquire Enlabs were put forward on 20 January, and Entain announced it had no plans for material change to the business’ operations, management or employees.

While Entain’s board and shareholders owning 42.2% of Enlabs have backed the deal, shareholders representing 10.7% of Enlabs have rejected the bid, saying that it “materially undervalues” the business, and concluding that the acquisition represented a good deal for Entain, but not for Enlabs minority shareholders.

iGB’s February Casino Dashboard review is just in!

January was understandably a quiet month for dealmaking with just 23 partnerships announced. But it wasn’t wild lockdown parties for all, as the studio/aggregator EGT was able to onboard 3 new studios, bringing them into contention for the rolling 6-month crown, alongside Gamingtec, SoftSwiss and Blue Ocean Gaming. Pronetgaming and Qtech join Everymatrix and PariPlay as the busiest aggregators in recent months.

Biggest aggregator dealmakers

Evoplay Entertainment still leads from the studio front over the last six months, notching up another distribution deal in January, as too did our runner up Skywind Group. Habanero have been twiddling pencils rather than their thumbs too, signing a couple of new distribution contracts.

Biggest studio dealmakers

On the games chart, there’s no change to our top three, with Starburst, Bonanza and Book Of Dead all sitting comfortably on the podium they seem to own. There are though some exciting new contenders…

Top 20 games by distribution

The funky new Hyper Strike by Gameburger Studios has joined their lucky number 9 games and two other Microgaming titles in the top half of the charts. NetEnt has added two new entrants Twin Spin Megaways and the catchy but not quite so catchily-titled Riches of Midgard: Land And Expand, so a few variations planned for the theme, perhaps. Caps duly tipped again to Big Time Gaming, for holding the candle in the conception of Twin Spin Megaways.

Just the one Christmas title retained a place in January’s charts, Betsoft Gaming’s Take Santa’s shop, which meant the return of some non-seasonal titles such as Blueprint Gaming’s Eye of Horus and Play’n Go’s Legacy Of Dead. Just a tad older than our top 3, Barcrest’s Rainbow Riches continues to deserve its place in the kaleidoscopic-light.

About the data

• Top 20 games by distribution ranks all games (excluding live games and table games) on operator sites by the number of operators that feature those games on their main casino page. Rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 1,000 casino sites. To see other charts including live and table games, or to filter by operator type and size, see our partner’s site, egamingmonitor.com.
• Biggest studio dealmakers covers B2B deals between studios and aggregators while Biggest aggregator dealmakers covers these same deals but from the aggregators’ perspective. Data on deals per month was collected from April 2020 onwards. Deal relationships between companies from all time are available on other charts, just not available monthly. Note that only deals reported on company websites or in the gaming press are collated.

.About eGaming Monitor
For 80 more charts with plenty more data, biggest dealmakers of all time, studio/operator deal analysis, game rankings by position on operator pages, table game comparisons, market shares by brand, country, domain and more, see our official data partner’s site at www.egamingmonitor.com

Egamingmonitor data supports three key supplier decisions: how to increase the number of operators and aggregators distributing games, how to achieve better exposure on sites where you are at least ‘listed’ and how to add more and/or better performing games to your portfolio.

Egamingmonitor also has a set of operator reports, which allow sites to benchmark their game portfolio with peers: how many (and which) studios or games do other operators have, and, of these which seem to perform best? Does this vary by game type, by country and so forth?

Known as Senet Assure and Senet Assure Premium, the accreditations aim to protect gaming organisations and venues, their customers and communities, the advisory said.

As well as safeguarding corporate reputation and minimising the risks of gambling harm and financial crime, achieving accreditation would demonstrate an organisation’s commitment to responsible gambling culture, said Paul Newson, regulatory and gambling specialist at Senet.

Newson said the certification would only be awarded to operators who could demonstrate the highest level of vigilance.

“Our team has developed this accreditation based on our deep knowledge of the complexities and challenges in 2021 facing gambling operators committed to responsible gambling outcomes and staying a step ahead of criminal activity,” he added.

“The accreditation is a way for industry leaders to demonstrate they are meeting the highest standards of accountability and exceeding best practice in protecting their customers and their staff in cultivating a workplace culture of compliance and social responsibility.”

The announcement follows a warning put out this month by the New South Wales Crime Commission, that the Australian economy could become a greater target for financial crime following its successful management of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The commission also expressed concerns that poker machines would be exploited as a money laundering option for criminals.

The government of New South Wales launched a consultation on a series of proposed changes to regulations on gaming machines in September last year, including that clubs and hotels would be required to actively identify and assist players displaying problem gambling behaviour, rather than taking action only following a specific request for help.

A study published earlier this month by the New South Wales Office of Responsible Gambling showed that almost a third of 12-17 year-olds interviewed had participated in real-money gambling in the past 12 months.

To increase young people’s awareness of the risks of gambling, the Office said it was developing resources for teachers and partnering with sporting teams via the Reclaim the Game initiative, to help educate people around sports betting promotion.

Of its $5.16bn in revenue, MGM made the majority – $2.87bn – from casino operations, though this figure represented a 54.9% year-on-year decline.

Rooms brought in $830.4m, down 65.3%, while food and beverage revenue was down 67.6% to $696.0m and entertainment, retail and other revenue dropped 64.9% to $519.0m.

MGM made a further $244.9m in reimbursed costs, 43.9% less than in 2019.

The operator’s Las Vegas Strip resorts continued to be its main source of revenue, despite the properties’ contribution falling 61.5% to $2.25bn.

Its regional US operations were much more resilient, but revenue still fell 44.6% to $1.97bn.

MGM China saw the steepest drop in revenue amid particularly strict travel restrictions, with revenue down 77.4%, roughly in line with the overall decline in the Macau gaming market in 2020.

Read the full story on iGB North America

Figures published by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) show that the three casinos – the MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino and Greektown Casino – generated a total of $90.8m (£65.7m/€74.9m) in revenue last month, compared to $120.0m in the same month last year.

However, the January figure was some 279.9% higher than in December, though casinos were only open for nine days of that month, having been closed from November 18 to December 23.

MGM Grand Detroit and MotorCity Casino both held 38% of the Detroit market in January, ahead of Greektown Casino on 24%.

Table games and slots were responsible for €86.9m in revenue, down 27.7% on last year, with casinos currently limited as to how may patrons they can host at one time.

Gaming revenue at MGM was down 32.0% to $34.0m, while MotorCity’s revenue also fell 20.7% to $33.2m and Greektown 30.4% to $19.6m.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Full-year revenue of £11.2m would mean a 62.3% year-on-year improvement on the £6.9m generated in 2019. This would surpass its December forecasts, which suggested revenue would hit £10.7m, by 4.6%.

The supplier said this was down to a record month in December, driven by its content licensing arm, which saw revenue more than double during the year. 

Over the 12 months to 31 December it launched with 26 new partners, including DraftKings in the US, and Flutter Entertainment’s Sky Betting and Gaming and Paddy Power Betfair in Europe and Britain. 

As a result of this growth, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £3.1m are projected for 2020. This again surpasses the supplier’s December forecasts of £2.7m.

“We are delighted with last year’s performance, which illustrates both the popularity of our games and our ability to licence multiple different partners,” Gaming Realms chair Michael Buckley said. “At the same time, we have taken a significant step forward to becoming a global platform business with multiple games, all of which is testament to our talented and motivated team. 

“The combination of our excellent games portfolio, our existing distribution agreements with global partners and our strong pipeline of new partnerships, makes us optimistic about the significant opportunities ahead as we focus on our continued expansion and international growth.”

Gaming Realms said the licensing division’s momentum had continued into 2021, with its Slingo content launching in Italy for Goldbet and Sisal. 

It is also continuing to expand across the US, striking a multi-state contract with BetMGM, and securing a provisional supplier licence for Michigan’s newly-regulated igaming market. It is currently live in New Jersey, and in the process of applying for a Pennsylvania supplier licence.

The supplier’s full 2020 results are expected during the week beginning 19 April.

Shares in Gaming Realms were trading up 0.59% at 34.20 pence per share in London this morning (11 February).