Shares will now be available as F shares listed under the ticker symbol LEOVF, and will run alongside LeoVegas’ current listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm Main Market list.
LeoVegas said that to qualify for trading on the OTCQX market, a company must meet high financial standards and comply with any necessary security laws – whilst adhering to best practices of corporate governance.
Under the deal, which begins from the current 2020-21 season, Sportradar will distribute coverage of the CBA League’s regular-season, postseason and All-Star game to broadcasters, streaming and OTT platforms in markets outside greater China.
The arrangement will enable fans to access short-form video content, as well as full game coverage throughout the season.
“We are delighted to partner with Sportradar and believe this partnership will provide enriched possibilities and further awareness for CBA League, given their extensive experience and recent track record,” a CBA League spokesperson said.
“By building up opportunities globally in this long-term partnership, we look forward to developing the continued growth of the CBA League and reaching out to new audiences around the world.”
Sportradar’s head of global strategic partnerships Steve Byrd added: “Chinese Basketball has been a traditional powerhouse in the international arena, and we are excited to be a part of expanding the reach of the top tier CBA to markets across the globe.
“Our data-driven approach and experience are what sets us apart in delivering the goal that leagues such as the CBA want, and we are excited to be partnering with them to deliver that.”
The deal comes after Sportradar earlier this month brokered a deal to acquire marketing personalisation platform Fresh Eight, through which it aims to enhance its digital marketing services offering for betting and gaming clients.
The Government’s digital department noted an increased number of businesses have been making initial enquiries about the jurisdiction, with service providers on the island reporting a significant uptick in interest over the last 12 months.
A 30% increase in demand for gaming licences sees the number of licensees to be supervised by the Gambling Supervision Commission now at 55, with others in the pipeline.
There has been an increase of 21 licensees in the last 12 months, compared to just 8 licence approvals in 2019.
“We are exceptionally busy at the minute processing a significant rise in the number of applications for online gambling operators,” said Steve Brennan, chief executive of the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission.
“Over the last 10 months, we have received or completed a considerable number of applications. By the time we have closed those out and added recent applications, we will have 60 licences to supervise.”
Jade Zorab, director of compliance consultancy Amber Gaming, which is based on the Isle of Man, added that the efficiency of the island’s regulator was a positive during a time of uncertainty.
“The future outlook is positive and it is no surprise that the Isle of Man is experiencing an influx of eGaming ventures, which we are proud to support,” Zorab said.
Recent Isle of Man licensees include 5Dimes, which received a licence as part of a pivot towards jurisdictions where online gambling is legal.
The office named Bally’s Richmond Casino Resort, Live! Casino & Hotel Richmond and One Casino + Resort as chosen by the City’s Evaluation Panel, citing their “powerful proposals” and “thorough financial and operational analyses”.
The City Council’s Evaluation Panel will now begin negotiations with the finalists, with a target of recommending an approved operator and site to Council in mid-to-late May. If this recommended operator is selected by City Council, residents will vote on its proposal in a referendum. If approved in that vote, the casino may be built.
Read the full story on iGB North America.
Bill C-218, first introduced in February 2020, passed the second reading in Canadian parliament last month. It is currently under consideration by the committee.
The bill was designed to reverse a ban on betting on single sporting events, first imposed in Canada’s Criminal Code in 1985. Under current laws, bets may only be placed on multiples consisting of three or more events.
Total revenue for the 12 months through to 31 December amounted to €46.4m (£40.0m/$54.8m), up from €26.6m in the previous year.
Bragg put this down to organic within its existing customer base, as well as the onboarding of new strategic customers in jurisdictions around the world. Some 89% of revenue was derived from games and content services.
The provider also noted the impact of new investment, which resulted in the full launch of the Oryx Hub, a new data analytics platform and customer engagement platform.
Players wagered a total of €11.8bn in 2020, up 73.5% during the previous year, while the number of unique users playing Bragg’s games and content rocketed by 113.6% to 5.9 million.
Bragg’s Malta operations accounted for €31.4m of all revenue, more than double the €14.8m generated in 2019. Revenue from its Curacao operations amounted to €8.8m, while Croatia revenue reached €1.6m. All remaining revenue was split between Germany, Romania, Serbia and other markets.
“We’re particularly pleased with the overall performance of Bragg during 2020 and believe we have built strong foundations to support future market share gains and new market entry,” said Bragg chairman Richard Carter, who was yesterday (24 March) confirmed as the provider’s new chief executive.
Carter will replace founder Adam Arviv, who had been serving as interim CEO since September last year.
“Adam and I have taken active leadership roles within Bragg to ensure the future success of the company,” Carter, “We’re aligned in our strategy to grow the group’s underling operating profit margin and to expand rapidly into new markets, particularly the burgeoning US market.”
Cost of revenue for the year amounted to €26.2m, up 79.5% year-on-year, which left a gross profit of €20.2m, an increase of 68.3% from €12.0m in 2019.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) was also up 450.0% year to €5.5m, with Bragg noting improved profitability across its business.
However, selling, general and administrative expenses were also up by 54.6% to €22.8m, while Bragg also accounted for €9.3m related to pay-out settlements for its acquisition of Oryx Gaming. Details of the final €22.0m all-share payment were published in November.
As a result, operating loss for the year widened from €8.1m to €11.9m, and after also including €1.4m in interest and other financial charges, loss before tax was €13.3m, compared to €9.8m in 2019.
Bragg paid €1.2m in tax, leaving a net loss from continuing operators of €14.5m. When also including a €90,000 loss from discontinued operations, as well as translation adjustment, net comprehensive loss for the full year was €14.5m, compared to €12.1m in the previous 12 months.
The provider also published certain results for its fourth quarter, during which it experienced a record performance, with revenue climbing by 75.7% to €13.8m. Players spent a total of €3.2bn on Bragg games and content, up 50.1% year-on-year.
Adjusted EBITDA was up 70.8% to €1.3m, while net loss for the period remained level at €5.3m.
“Our extensive experience and wide-ranging industry networks within this constantly expanding market will add significant value for Bragg shareholders,” Carter said. “We are now extremely well-positioned to capitalise on the strong growth in the online gaming sector globally.”
Interim CEO Arviv added: “We’ve made extraordinary progress in 2020 and are very pleased with the substantial revenue and EBITDA growth that we’ve delivered.
“We continue to expand globally, enhancing our content portfolio and technology offering, and securing new customers across key geographies.”
The case concerned a training match played on 28 March, 2020 between Kronängs IF and Mariedals IK, for which Bet365 offered odds. A review of the match by Spelinspektionen showed that 24 of the 34 participants were under 18.
Chapter 8 section 2.2 of the Swedish Gambling Act says that betting may not be offered on “occasions where the majority of participants are under 18 years of age”.
Hillside contested that offering odds on the match was permissible, as it was not a match specifically for underage players. It added that it took immediate corrective action to ensure odds would not be offered on similar matches, including stopping betting on lower-division friendlies. All bets on the match were declared void.
“The fact that a majority of the players then turned out to be under 18 years was an unfortunate coincidence that could have occurred in any senior league at any time and which could not be foreseen,” Bet365 argued.
It added that if it was in violation of the Gambling Act, a warning was the only suitable action, as the offer was only for a single match and was due to error. It added that the violation was serious and that therefore the action taken should amount to more than a warning.
However, it also pointed out that Hillside’s action to prevent further underage betting and the fact that this was a one-off event were mitigating factors.
However, Spelinspektionen said that the Act was clear in prohibiting betting on events where the majority of participants are underage, rather than referring to bets on underage competitions.
The operator also disputed the base used to determine the sum of any penalty applied. Spelinspektionen argued that the penalty should be based on total stakes from Sweden, which for Bet365 totalled SEK11.2m for 2019. The operator argued it should be based on its Swedish revenue, SEK683.9m, but this was rejected.
Considering the mitigating factors, Spelinspektionen opted to set the penalty fee at SEK1m.
The warning and penalty follow a similar SEK10m sanction handed down in June 2019, as part of action against eight operators, all for betting on underage matches. Hillside appealed this decision in the Administrative Court, and after its first appeal was dismissed, appealed it again in the Court of Appeals.
In related news, Spelinspektionen also appointed its board for 2021-22. Fredrik Holmberg, who is currently a Spelinspektionen director, will take over as director general from Camilla Rosenberg, as Rosenberg leaves the board.
Per Håkansson, Håkan Wall, Madelaine Tunudd, Andreas Prochazka and Doris Högne Rydheim will all remain on the board, with no new appointments. Håkansson will continue to serve as chairman.
The Commission said that the Casumo player lost £1.1m over the course of three years, but the operator did not interact to ensure they were gambling responsibly.
Other players who did not receive an interaction included one who lost £65,000 in a month, another who lost £76,000 over seven months, one who lost £89,000 in a five-hour period and another who lost £59,000 within 90 minutes.
Social Responsibility Code provision 3.4.1 says that “licensees must interact with customers in a way which minimises the risk of customers experiencing harms associated with gambling,” adding that this includes identifying those at risk of harm.
Its AML failings, meanwhile, included a finding that customers could deposit “significant sums of money” without AML checks, while source of funds checks were found to be “insufficient” as payslips and invoices presented as evidence of funds were not corroborated with bank statements.
The Commission found that Casumo did not have internal spending limits based on known income, wealth or other factors.
These failings breached Licence Condition 12.1.1, which states that operators must have sufficient AML checks.
In addition, bank statements were not fully checked, and some incomplete statements had been approved. ID checks, meanwhile, were similarly found to be insufficient.
As well as the £6m fine, Casumo has received an official warning and must call in and pay for independent auditors to ensure that it keeps up with the licence conditions and codes of practice (LCCP).
Casumo said the failings were found in an audit conducted between October 2019 and 8 January 2020, when it was in its “start-up phase”.
It said any issues had since been remedied following the appointment of Shelly Suter-Hadad as chief executive.
“Since joining Casumo last year, my focus has been on putting in place a new senior leadership team and Personal Management License holders with extremely strong industry experience and the knowledge and expertise to ensure we are a compliance-led business” Suter-Hadad said.
“In addition, recognising that key processes fell short in the past, I took immediate action to implement fundamental operational changes so that Casumo is now a gaming group with compliance and responsible gambling at the heart of its business and culture.”
Casumo added that the Gambling Commission had acknowledged a “fundamental shift” in policies and processes in this time period.
“These efforts, together with our full collaboration, have been formally recognised multiple times by the Commission,” Suter-Hadad said.
Richard Watson, executive director of the Gambling Commission, said: “This case was brought about through planned compliance activity and every operator out there should be aware that we will continue to take firm action against those who fail to raise standards.”
Last week, the Commission fined online casino operator In Touch Games £3.4m after finding that the operator failed to implement its interaction policies and procedures for seven customers, despite concerns that their behaviour indicated problem gambling. The Commission also found that In Touch’s responsible gambling interaction guidance allowed bonuses to be offered for customers that verify their identity.
Earlier this month, Football Index operator BetIndex had its British licence suspended after the Gambling Commission conducted a review on the operator following changes to its dividend structure that BetIndex said were necessary to keep the platform sustainable.
The regulator expressed concerns that the platform was not suitable to carry on with licensed activities, and following the suspension the operator was also dropped by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) as a member.
Also this month, Neil McArthur stepped down as chief executive of the Gambling Commission with immediate effect. McArthur said that it was “the right time to step away” from the role.
Total revenue for the 12 months to 31 December amounted to $161.6m, down 7.7% from $175.1m in the previous year.
AGTech put this primarily down to a decline in lottery hardware sales to $31.4m, due to a fall in national lottery hardware tenders, slower tendering processes and hardware deliveries, as a result of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Despite the decline, AGTech won 16 lottery hardware tenders to supply lottery terminals in the Anhui, Shanxi, Hubei, Jilin, Guizhou, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Fujian, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Henan and Shaanxi provinces, accounting for over 21% of overall sports lottery traditional terminal tenders in China.
AGTech noted it did particular well with new android sports lottery terminal tenders, winning over 66% of these tenders during the year.
This decline was partially offset by an $8.8m increase in revenue from AGTech’s games and entertainment business, helped by a rise in in content provision revenue from the Paytm First Games platform in India.
AGTech also reported a $6.2m increase in revenue from its lottery distribution and ancillary services.
Other income amounted to $10.9m, while other net gains totalled $11.4m for the year.
“The group will proactively transform and build on our leading position within the Chinese lottery industry,” AGTech said.
“We will continue to partner with additional provincial lottery authorities of China in areas such as technology and business innovation, channel expansion and distribution, smart hardware terminals, data services, and other value added ancillary services.
“The group is also leveraging on our existing products and technology to innovate and improve on digitalisation of sporting content.”
Looking at costs for the year, AGTech was able to make savings across all areas, including employee costs – its main outgoing – where spending was lowered by 10.7% to $178.9m.
Reduced spending meant operating loss amounted to $131.1m, compared to $194.9m in the previous year.
Taking into account other income, including a $69.6m gain on derecognition of some debts and $44.1m on net financial income, as well as an $83.2m loss on certain investments, loss before tax was $83.2m, compared to $109.3m in 2019.
AGTech paid $8.8m in tax, resulting in a $109.5m loss, an improvement from the $113.6m loss posted in the previous year.
However, when also accounting for $33.6m in currency exchange differences, the group ended the year with a total los of $75.8m, compared to $124.7m in 2019.
Introduced in February by Representative Tom Walters, House Bill 0133 sets out plans to authorize online sports betting in the state.
Last week, the bill cleared the House of Representatives at the second attempt by a vote of 32-28, having initially being rejected by a vote of the same margin.
The bill then progressed to the Senate and was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which approved the bill by a vote of 4-1.
The only recommended amendment flagged by the Committee was to change the start date of the legislation from July 1 this year to September 1.
Approval from the Committee means the bill will now head to the Senate floor and, if approved, it will proceed forward to Governor Mark Gordon for signing.
