Month: March 2021

Ackerley’s report is based on evidence from Food Alert and examined venues including Grosvenor Casino locations in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In the report, Ackerly said casinos appear to be safer than hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants.

“The casino industry has responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by embracing the need to implement a full range of stringent measures to keep staff and customers safe,” Acklerley said. “In my opinion, this industry’s response has resulted in it being as safe, if not safer, during the pandemic than many others, for example some other parts of the hospitality sector, where socialising and alcohol consumption is the norm.”

Although casinos may reopen at the same time as pubs and restaurants in England, with the earliest possible reopening date set for 17 May, in Scotland, pubs and restaurants may reopen in regions under level three, but casinos must wait until regions reach level two.

“I find that there is no reason for the casino industry to be treated more harshly in terms of lockdown measures than the rest of hospitality; in fact, it can be seen that the measures taken by casinos actually offer more protection to staff and the public. 

“There seems no logical or scientific reason why the casino industry should be closed where pubs and restaurants are allowed to open in Scotland.”

Jonathon Swaine, managing director of Grosvenor Casinos, said the Scottish Government should change its reopening plans in order to treat casinos and other hospitality businesses similarly.

“Dr Ackerley’s findings provide objective, scientific evidence that casinos have been treated unfairly and the time has come for the correction to be made,” Swaine said. 

“It clearly concludes that forcing casinos to remain closed in level 2 regions, whilst other hospitality businesses can open, is absurd.

“We’re now appealing to the First Minister and the Scottish government to pay heed to this compelling evidence. When parts of the country return to level 2 status, casinos must be allowed to open and the industry deserves to be treated with parity and fairness. 

“All we ask is for an equitable approach to hospitality, based on the highest quality evidence that exists.”

BGC chief executive Michael Dugher said the restriction would cause unnecessary harm to those who work in the casino industry.

“Ordering the closure of casinos in level 2 areas in Scotland was a needless blow for the 700 hardworking men and women that they employ,” Dugher said.

The BGC chief added that members of the Scottish Government had not visited any BGC casinos to see how the venues were working to limit the spread of the virus.

“Despite repeated invitations, it is regrettable that no Scottish Government official has even visited any of our members’ casinos to see for themselves the excellent anti-Covid measures which they have put in place.

 “As Dr Ackerley’s report confirms, casinos are as safe, if not safer, than many other hospitality venues, such as pubs and restaurants, so why are they being treated differently? In England, casinos will be rightly safely reopened when the rest of the hospitality is.

 “It is not too late for the Scottish government to think again, follow the evidence and allow casinos to safely re-open in Level 2.”

A qualified accountant, Stevenson (pictured) joined the business as finance director in 2007, after previous roles as managing director of the Newspaper Licensing Agency, and group financial controller of Trinity Mirror Plc.

He replaces Richard FitzGerald, who left the role of CEO in September. Stevenson had previously been acting CEO when FitzGerald left the post.

“I am extremely excited and honoured to take up the position of RMG CEO,” Stevenson said. “I look forward to working even more collaboratively with our 34 racecourse shareholders, whose media interests have been entrusted to RMG.”

“RMG has been a phenomenal success story since its inception as Racing UK back in 2004, having posted year-on-year increases in licence fees payable to its racecourse shareholders nearly every year of trading. It shows what can be achieved via a collective approach to commercialising our racecourses’ media and data rights.”

Stevenson also said that the company would continue to innovate its output, and be creative and forward-thinking in its approach to commercialising racecourse content.

Roger Lewis, Chairman of RMG, added: “On behalf of the RMG Board, RMG’s racecourses and all the RMG staff, I am delighted to announce Martin as the new CEO of the Group.”

“Martin’s vision for RMG is bold and imaginative. His relationship with our shareholder racecourses is very special and Martin is passionate that RMG can, and will, deliver the best returns for racing.”

Lewis described how the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic had tested the company’s business model over the past year, but said it had demonstrated great resilience.

He said the business is now slowly emerging out of the pandemic and that Stevenson is undoubtedly the right person to lead it into its next phase of growth over the coming years.

The operator lodged an initial bid in January, but after some minority Enlabs shareholders rejected the offer, saying it “materially undervalued” the business, Entain last week upped its bid to SEK3.7bn (£312.1m/€364.3m/$432.9m).

A total of 51.0% of shareholders with shares and votes in Enlabs have backed the improved offer, including Entain’s board and shareholders that own 42.2% of Enlabs.

Entain has now also secured necessary approvals from the relevant competition and gambling authorities. The operator had been required to obtain these approvals in order for the acquisition to move forward.

The acceptance period for the offer is due to expire on 18 March, with Enlabs having extended this from an initial cut-off date of 18 February to allow enough time to secure all necessary approvals for the deal.

However, Entain said it could again extend this acceptance period to allow more time for all conditions of the offer to be met.

“Entain will be the best home for Enlabs, its employees and customers,” Entain chief financial officer and deputy chief executive Rob Wood previously said.

Confirmation of the approvals comes after Entain last week announced that its revenue in 2020 was almost exactly flat at £3.63bn, as online growth largely cancelled out retail declines.

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Game Type:	Video Slot
Go Live Date (expected):	11th March 2021
Game special features:	– Hold & Spin – Expanding Wild Symbols – Gamble Feature
Number of paylines:	5
Number of reels:	3 reels, 3 rows
RTP% (recorded/theoretical):	95,30%
Variance/volatility:	3/5
Number of symbols to trigger feature/bonus?:	3 silver and/or golden coin symbols on the middle reel triggers the HOLD AND SPIN FEATURE
Can feature be retriggered?:	The feature starts with 4 spins. On each spin the spin counter is decremented by 1. The value on the coin symbols that land anywhere on reels 1 and 3 will be added to the feature total win diplay (including each time the values on the middle reel). The spin counter is reset to 4 with each coin or diamond symbol in view.
Number of jackpot tiers?:	No
Auto-play function?:	Yes

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Game Type:	Video Slot
Go Live Date (expected):	March 25th
Game special features:	Symbol Swap respin – Each winning spin awards one re-spin. If winning symbol was a low, it replaces all other low symbols for the re-spin; if winning symbol was a high, it replaces all other high symbols for re-spin. Round always ends after the one re-spin, regardless of the outcome – one re-spin per round. Colossal Blocks – Wins on 4,5 and 6-of-a-kind combinations will have a reel with colossal blocks. Expanding Reels – 6-of-a-kind win in the base game additionally will expand the game machine to 8×6 with 55 paylines for the re-spin.
Number of paylines:	25-55
Number of reels:	6
RTP% (recorded/theoretical):	96%
Variance/volatility:	Medium
Number of symbols to trigger feature/bonus?:	3
Can feature be retriggered?:	No
Number of free spins awarded?:	None just respins
Stacked or expanding wilds in normal play?:	None
Stacked or expanding wilds in feature play?:	None
Number of jackpot tiers?:	None
Auto-play function?:	yes

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Game Type:	Slot
Go Live Date (expected):	Out now!
Game special features:	Cascading function
Number of paylines:	10
Number of reel:	5
RTP% (recorded/theoretical):	94,66%
Variance/volatility:	Medium
Number of symbols to trigger feature/bonus?:	3
Can feature be retriggered?:	Yes
Number of free spins awarded?:	10
Stacked or expanding wilds in normal play?:	Yes
Stacked or expanding wilds in feature play?:	Yes
Number of jackpot tiers?:	0
Auto-play function?:	Yes

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Game Type:	Video Slot
Go Live Date (expected):	11th March 2021
Game special features:	Infnity Reels, Lucky Re-Spins, Free Spins
Number of paylines:	Infinite
Number of reels:	3×4 (Infinity Reels)
RTP% (recorded/theoretical):	96.60%
Variance/volatility:	5/5
Number of symbols to trigger feature/bonus?:	3
Can feature be retriggered?:	Yes
Number of free spins awarded?:	12+
Stacked or expanding wilds in normal play?:	N/A
Stacked or expanding wilds in feature play?:	N/A
Number of jackpot tiers?:	N/A
Auto-play function?:	Yes

The sharp increase in revenue was partly due to 2020 being the first full year following Jackpotjoy’s acquisition of Gamesys, in which it took the Gamesys brand name. If a full year’s worth of activity from both operators is included, Gamesys’ revenue was up 29.0%.

More than half of Gamesys’ revenue, at £423.3m, came from the UK, up 97.3%. Asia brought in revenue of £218.3m, up 78.3% as Gamesys launched the new InterCasino brand.

Europe was the only location from which revenue declined, by 0.9% to £68.0m, largely due to “ongoing challenges in the Nordics”, such as the SEK5,000 (£428/€476/$540) mandatory weekly deposit cap introduced in Sweden in July.

Rest of world revenue – mostly in New Jersey – grew 90.5% to £18.1m.

“Our focus on recreational customers, our differentiated brands, proprietary technology and established market positions, have attracted record numbers of players in 2020 and we believe this foundation will allow us to continue to deliver sustainable and long-term growth in the year ahead and beyond,” Gamesys chief executive Lee Fenton said.

The operator’s costs and expenses were up 67.0% to £634.3m. Distribution costs were the largest expense, at £399.9m, up 86.9%. Administrative costs were up 51.2% to £221.5m.

Gamesys paid an additional £24.7m in financial costs, up 3.4% with £24.0m of these costs being interest expenses.

This left net income from continuing operations of £68.7m, up 475.3%. After paying £1.5m in taxes, Gamesys’ net income was £67.2m, up 638.4% year-on-year.

Gamesys incurred a further £7.1m in other expenses, mostly related to foreign exchange, resulting in a final profit of £60.1m, more than 30 times more than its 2019 profit of £1.9m.

“We are pleased to announce another strong set of results, particularly against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has impacted so many across the world,” Gamesys chair Neil Goulden said. “All our colleagues have done an incredible job in maintaining seamless business continuity throughout the year, while also enhancing our responsible gambling approach to ensure we remain a best-in-class operator in protecting our recreational players.”

The operator also announced that its chief people officer Tina Southall will join its board effective today.

Southall joined Gamesys as chief people officer in 2014. She previously worked as Vodafone’s diversity director.

“I am delighted to welcome Tina to the Gamesys board. She has been at the heart of establishing the Gamesys values, our DNA and a highly successful new way of working for the company during the current pandemic,” Goulden said. “I am confident that Tina will continue to evolve our culture as we face the future, bringing valuable insight and new perspectives to the board.”

Goulden said the appointment shows that Gamesys’ board recognises the importance of the operator’s employees.

“Our commitment to both employees and players is further emphasised with today’s 

announcement of the appointment to the board of our chief people officer, Tina Southall,” he said. “On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Tina and I’m sure she will add a very important new voice to our deliberations.”

From this total, Totalizator Sportowy donated PLN1.10bn in subsidies to sport and cultural activities in Poland, breaking 2019’s previous record figure by 0.2%. 

“Polish sport and national culture received more money than in 2019,” the operator said. “Thanks are due to Lotto players, without whom there would be no increase in sales, and thus no increase in funds going to these purposes.”

Of this figure, PLN827.5m went towards sport and PLN220.7m towards cultural activities.

This meant the operator’s revenue following these subsidies came to PLN15.38bn, up 55.5%.

In addition, Totalizator Sportowy paid PLN1.18bn in gaming taxes. This was up 9.2% year-on-year and meant that its overall contribution between subsidies and taxes was PLN2.29bn.

The year saw the operator introduce new products including live casino and opened 350 new slot arcades, making it Poland’s largest slot arcade operator with a total of 520.

IGT.BET acquired a 51% stake in the Livepools online fantasy platform in February 2021, and subsequently rebranded the product as Blitzpools.

The company said its new brand ambassadors would attract their large and ever-growing fan base to the app, and be an integral part of the 360 degree digital and offline campaign activation of Blitzpools.

In addition to the cricketer partners, and as part of its new brand launch, IGT.BET said Blitzpools has engaged celebrities and influencers with a total follower count in excess of 215m.

The company said that with the rebrand and recent injection of capital as part of its recent majority investment, customers can now expect the already market-leading product to deliver new and exciting features at a faster pace.

IGT.BET said that through the rebrand and brand ambassador announcement, Blitzpools aims to take the fantasy sports market in India by storm, with customers offered industry-leading bonuses, deposit and payout options, and a constantly innovating product.

The platform will feature a coin-based loyalty programme, with users rewarded with valuable coins as they increase their engagement on the app.

The coins will be redeemable against gift vouchers, meet and greet sessions, cashback, tickets for sports matches and other offerings.

Another feature will offer winners the chance to create their own closed personal pools with friends, and ultimately win prizes offering the opportunity to play cricket against Blitzpools’ new brand ambassadors.

“We are embarking on a new journey and through this exciting adventure, we aim to capture and captivate the minds and hearts of every Indian consumer involved in online gaming,” said Vickram and Gaurav Assomull, founders of Livepools.

“Through this rebrand, we want to create an interactive user experience and strengthen the product in the Indian market. Giving it a fresh look and feel, we are also delighted to announce Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar, Shreyas Gopal and Wriddhiman Saha as the new faces of the brand.”

“By the end of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, Blitzpools is confident it will be home to one of the largest fantasy sports player bases in India.”

An IGT.BET spokesperson added: “We are beyond confident our investment, partnership and brand positioning with Blitzpools will further establish a strong foothold in the Indian fantasy gaming market. Prioritizing our customer, we will continue to create a world-class product for the Indian audience.”