Month: March 2021

The research from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) with Professor David Forrest and Professor Ian McHale of the University of Liverpool examined 140,000 online betting and gaming accounts between July 2018 and June 2019. 

The 140,000 accounts came from random samples from seven different operators. The seven operators involved hold 85% of British online betting market share and 37.5% in gaming.

The research found that while 85% betting accounts spent less than £200 on betting and 90% of gaming accounts had either an overall win or loss of less than £500, a small number of accounts were responsible for a very large portion of overall losses.

It said that 0.7% of accounts used for betting and 1.2% of gaming accounts lost £5,000 or more in the year and 4% of gaming accounts lost more than £500 in a single session. This, it said, would represent 60,000 betting accounts and 47,000 gaming accounts nationally.

Similarly, the 5% of accounts with the largest losses generated 70% of overall gross gambling yield (GGY) in the sample. 

Among betting accounts, 0.1% lost £20,000 or more in the year and 0.2% between £10,000 and £20,000. A further 0.4% lost between £5,000 and £10,000. The 10% of betting customers with the highest stakes generated 79% of betting GGY.

While there was not a similar breakdown of extremely large losses for gaming customers, NatCen said that 0.3% of overall customers lost between £10,000 and £20,000; 0.1% lost between £20,000 and £50,000 and less than 0.1% lost more than £50,000. 20.5% of customers were net winners.

Of the total sample, 4% received some sort of social responsibility interaction, usually by email. This included 36% of customers who spend more than £2,000, with 0.8% of this group receiving a phone call because of social responsibility reasons.

While 94% of online betting GGY was from men and 6% women, 26% of gaming GGY came from women and 74% men. Accounts which spent more than £5,000 predominantly belonged to men, with the most common age category being in the player’s 40s.

Participation in online gambling was higher in more deprived areas than less deprived areas. However, gambling spend was similar across all deprivation levels.

Football and horse racing were by far the most popular sports for betting in terms of accounts playing bet and betting yield. The majority of gaming accounts and spend were focused on slots.

“This research was able to analyse and assess an unprecedented source of information on how people in Great Britain gamble and opens up numerous opportunities to further understand people’s gambling habits. These interim findings are just the first stage and future research will provide a greater opportunity to understand the risk factors associated with gambling behaviour.” 

PPC Monitor enables regular monitoring of desktop and mobile PPC adverts to detect non-compliant or misleading marketing practices by affiliates.

The new tool identifies affiliates bidding on client brand names, hijacking traffic and using their own tracking codes to intercept traffic.

Rightlander’s tool follows each link, analyses redirects looking for tracking codes and identifies all target landing pages.

The monitor can then determine which affiliates are using an operator brand to intercept traffic through their own tracking links or redirecting to third parties.

To complement the new PPC Monitor, Rightlander has also launched IGRG ‘Prohibited Terms’, which monitors UK desktop and mobile PPC ads to detect and identify affiliates bidding on the list of ‘prohibited terms’ provided by the Betting and Gaming Council.

“This area of marketing has long been a high revenue generator for affiliates and operators alike and it is not uncommon for ads to contain non-compliant copy, misleading information or even to deploy devious redirects,” Rightlander founder Ian Sims said.

“Often appearing at the top of search results, this content is highly visible and presents a significant risk to brands operating with affiliates in regulated territories.”

“The board of BetIndex Limited has consulted with external legal and financial advisors, and the [GB] and Jersey Gambling Commissions,” it said. “The decision has been made to suspend the platform.

“We are pursuing a restructuring arrangement to be agreed with our stakeholders including, most importantly, our community.  We are preparing this through an administration with insolvency practitioners Begbies Traynor, to seek the best outcome for customers with the goal of continuing the platform in a restructured form.”

It said any restructuring agreement may see customers receive equity in BetIndex, board representation for customers and a new management team put in place.

“The board have at all times been seeking the best way to sustain the platform as we believed a recovery was not only possible but also in the best interests of our customers,” it continued. “This decision is deeply regrettable, and is the outcome we were seeking to avoid by restructuring dividends. 

“However, we believe it is the most responsible route forward for our community given the situation as it has developed.”

Begbies Taylor will issue a statement in the next 10 days with more information on the administration process.

Football Index account funds are held in a standalone trading account separate from BetIndex’s general accounts. Trust arrangements are in place to offer protection of these funds but the operator said there is “no guarantee that all funds will be repaid in the event of insolvency”.

However, the operator’s terms and conditions say that the value of player shares purchased are “not stored in any account or otherwise protected as they are sums at risk”.

The Gambling Commission announced it suspended the operator’s licence after it conducted a review into the operator’s licence following changes to the operator’s dividend structure that it said were necessary to keep the platform “sustainable”. 

The Commission said it had “concerns activities may have been carried on in purported reliance on the licence, but not in accordance with a condition of the licence, and that Football Index may not be suitable to carry on with licensed activities.

“We have made it clear to the operator that as the investigation progresses, we expect it to focus on treating consumers fairly and keeping them fully informed of any developments which impact them,” it added.

Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $84.8m for the year, while depreciation and amortization cost the company a further $52.3m.

The cost of service and cost of product were $30.1m and $14.4m respectively, and acquisition and integration related transaction expenses accounted for a further $7.0m in costs. Stock-based compensation expenses amounted to $4.8m.

As a result, the supplier made a net operating income of $6.4m in 2020, compared to a net operating loss of $13.0m in 2019.

After interest and taxes, Inspired’s net loss for the year was $29.2m, down from $37.0m the year before.

Revenue in the fourth quarter amounted to $71.7m, up 8% year-on-year. Net operating income for the quarter was $19.3m, compared to a $2.1m net operating loss in Q4 2019, and its net income was $12.4m, compared to a $12.8m net loss.

Total company selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by 23% in Q4, to $24.1m. The decrease was driven by staff cost savings of $3.7m due to the furlough scheme, savings on facility costs of $1.0m, and a further $1.0m reduction in professional fees, while travel and expense costs decreased by $700,000.

Depreciation and amortization costs amounted to $12.4m for the quarter, while cost of service and cost of product were $8.3m and $4.5m respectively.

Stock-based compensations expenses came to $1.7m, and acquisition and integration related transaction expenses were $1.4m.

Its fourth quarter revenue includes $32.5m of VAT-related revenue, the result of a backdated VAT tax rebate received from one of its server-based gaming customers as part of its contractual revenue share agreement.

Adjusted EBITDA for Q4 was $34.9m, including $31.7m in VAT-related income.

The company said October saw the continuation of a sequential monthly growth trend from Q3 2020, before venue closures related to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic began in November.

By vertical, gaming revenue (related to gaming machines located in betting offices, casinos, gaming halls and high-street adult gaming centres) was $50.5m in Q4.

Virtual sports revenue increased 1.8% to $8.7m, interactive revenue was up 99.5% to $4.2m, and leisure service revenue was $7.7m, down from $21.8m in Q4 2019.

Total company selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by 23% in Q4, to $24.1m. The decrease was driven by staff cost savings of $3.7m due to the furlough scheme, savings on facility costs of $1.0m, and a further $1.0m reduction in professional fees, while travel and expense costs decreased by $700,000.

“October was a stellar month and indicated how quickly we could recover before our land-based businesses went back into lockdown in November and December,” said Lorne Weil, executive chairman of Inspired.

“Our October monthly Revenue of $21.2 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $6.8 million, or 32% of total revenue, was nearly 20% above October 2019 and the highest monthly levels we experienced in 2020, excluding the VAT-related income.”

Weil said that if lockdowns in the UK are eased according to the government’s schedule, the company expects its UK business to return to earning levels seen in Q3 2020, when it generated $17.1m in adjusted EBITDA.

The company said the integration of the Gaming Technology Group, which it acquired in from Novomatic UK Ltd in 2019, had produced synergies which exceeded its previously communicated guidance.

The regulations, published in the Corrientes government’s official gazette last week, will allow for online casino and bingo, as well as multiple forms of betting.

Alongside sports betting, residents of the province will also be able to wager on non-sporting events – though not politics – virtual sports and horse racing.

All forms of online gambling will be regulated by the Corrientes Lottery and Casino Institute (ILCC), which will also handle operator licensing and enforcement.

Advertising must not be aimed at minors or be “abusive, deceptive or unfair”, nor may it create “confusion regarding the nature of the game”.

Players must be able to set deposit limits and to self-exclude from gambling, and if they are logged in for more than three hours should receive an alert, with subsequent alerts for every additional hour.

Mild infractions such as failure to display licence information will result in a warning.

Serious infractions such as allowing self-excluded players to play will result in a fine.

Very serious infractions, including offering games not covered by a licence or licence-holders participating in gaming, may result in licence revocation.

Licence fees will be determined at a later date by the ILCC.

The province is located in northern Argentina, has a population of roughly 1m people and includes the city of Corrientes.

Argentina’s provinces are currently the process of regulating online gambling on an individual basis.

The province of Buenos Aires has issued online operating licenses to seven gaming operators.

Meanwhile the country’s capital city Buenos Aires – which is legally distinct from the province – gave Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) and local gaming and entertainment operator Grupo Slots approval to launch earlier this week.

SportsIQ will offer products covering a range of sports and competitions, including NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, with markets including in-game prop bets such as the result of the next at-bat in a baseball game.

The PlaySports platform is currently live in 16 states and is available to more than 40 gaming clients.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The VPF will be created through the Remote Gambling Act which comes into force in April 2021.

Three agencies have now been tasked with fulfilling three aims of the fund: the Human Assistance Network for Daily Support (HANDS), ZonMw, and The National Healthcare Institute.

The Remote Gambling Act has three key objectives for preventing and treating problem gambling using VPF funding.

It aims to facilitate the anonymous treatment of gambling addiction, support research into prevention and treatment, and create a national support service for problem gamblers and their loved ones.

The National Healthcare Institute will implement an anonymous online treatment service, designed offer remote and discrete services to problem gamblers.

ZonMw, a government body which finances health research, will be tasked with coordinating gambling addiction research.

Finally, HANDS is to establish the national support which will come into effect from 1 October 2021. That date, six months after the Remote Gaming Act comes into force, marks the first the day operators can legally offer their services in the Netherlands.

Vie.bet will become a sponsor of Peruvian esports organisation Infamous Gaming. In addition, it has partnering the Movistar Liga Pro Gaming esports league, a competition managed by local organiser Live Media Esports Entertainment.

The deals comes after EEG last month added the Vie.bet and SportNation brands to its gaming service licence in Malta.

“Our Malta licence enabled us to pursue these great opportunities, and we look forward to further updates on expansions of Vie.bet moving forward,” EEG chief executive Grant Johnson said.

“Latin America is a big esports betting market. We are excited to work with top partners like Infamous and Live Media Esports Entertainment to accelerate the rollout of our Vie.bet brand in the region.”

EEG’s head of esports betting Bux Sayed added: “The exciting partnership between Infamous Gaming and our Vie.bet brand is a crucial first step in our expansion into Latin America.”

“Infamous is a well-known and popular Peruvian based esports team with rosters in titles such as Dota 2, CS:GO and Rainbow 6.”

Gross marketplace volume, meaning the total entry fees paid by users for contests hosted on Skillz’s platform, grew 80% to $1.59bn during 2020.

Total costs for the year came to $329.7m, with sales and marketing, general and administrative, and research and development costs accounting for $251.9m, $42.3m and $23.2m respectively.

This led to a loss from operations of $99.6m.

After a further $1.3m was lost in interest expenses and $21.4m in other expenses, net loss stood at $122.5m for 2020, compared to a net loss of $23.6m during 2019.

The fourth quarter saw the business bring in $67.7m in revenue, up 95% on the $34.7m earned in 2019, and 8% higher than expectations.

Gross profit for Q4 was $64.0m, up 95%. Net loss for the quarter was $44m following total costs and expenses of $111.0m, compared to a $9m net loss in Q4 2019.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The operator said its performance was driven by a combination of sustained and elevated levels of trading from existing clients, as well as continued high levels of client acquisition, with a record 230,100 clients active in Q3, up 60% year-on-year.

Over-the-counter (OTC) leveraged revenue was 57% higher at £210.5m in Q3, while exchange traded derivatives revenue was up 40% to £5.4m. However, the most significant growth came within IG Group’s stock trading and investment, where revenue rocketed 619% to £14.4m.

Breaking down this performance further, IG Group said revenue from operations in core markets reached £192.7m, up 67% year-on-year, while the total number of active clients in these market reached 191,700.

Other revenue came from its ‘Significant Opportunities’ portfolio, where revenue was up 55% to £37.6m, largely driven by a 50% rise in active clients to 40,100.

IG Group did not disclose any further details of its financial performance in Q3, but chief executive June Felix said that the operator made progress towards delivering on a number of its strategic goals during the quarter.

“The continued performance from the Significant Opportunities portfolio has been remarkable, and we anticipate substantially achieving the revenue target of £160m one year ahead of plan,” Felix said.

“The group is also continuing to grow the size of its high quality and loyal client base which represents a long-term asset to the group.”

In terms of its year-to-date performance, group revenue in the nine months to 28 February was £647.1m, up 66% from £389.7m at the same point in the previous year.

OTC leveraged revenue was up by 61% year-on-year to £599.7m, while exchange traded derivatives revenue increased 51% to £17.7m and stock trading and investment 369% to £29.7m.

Core markets revenue hiked 64% to £533.2m, with 224,900 active clients, while Significant Opportunities portfolio revenue increased 77% to £113.9m, with 60,700 active clients.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank our people for their continued hard work during the quarter,” Felix said. “Operationally, this has been one of the busiest periods in IG’s history, and our global workforce has responded with the kind of dedication, resilience and professionalism embedded in the IG culture.”

Meanwhile, IG Group also gave an update on its planned acquisition of brokerage and trading education platform Tastytrade.

Upon publishing its first-half results in January, IG Group revealed it had struck a deal to purchase Tastytrade for $1.0bn.

Tastytrade has two brands: media-focused Tastytrade, which offers education to traders about options and futures markets; and brokerage platform Tastyworks, which has 105,000 active accounts and makes up 1.3% of the entire US equity options market by trading volume.

IG Group said trading at Tastytrade was strong in Q3, with the Tastyworks arm accelerating its rate of active account growth in 2021 and reporting a 100% rise in the number of active trading accounts during February.

Tastytrade was able to grow its registrants by over 100,000 in the two months to the end of February to nearly one million.

IG Group has now secured certain regulatory approvals for the acquisition, with others pending, and hopes to complete the purchase in the first quarter of its 2022 financial year.

“Our planned acquisition of Tastytrade is progressing well and the outstanding client growth delivered in the period underlines the further, significant growth potential of this business,” Felix said.

“This accelerates our strategy to drive new sources of growth, while also expanding the group beyond its core OTC offering.”