Month: March 2021

The agreement from the four operators means that every BGC member that offers greyhound racing bets is now donating to the fund.

The BGRF cares for active racing greyhounds and also supports the Greyhound Retirement Scheme, which ensures that retired greyhounds are received by suitable rehoming organizations.

Each year the Fund spends around half its revenue contributing to animal welfare schemes. During the pandemic, the Fund made an additional £600,000 available in this field.

“It’s fantastic news for the whole of the greyhound industry that all of the Betting and Gaming Council members who offer bets on greyhound racing, both in retail and online, are now supporting the Fund,” Joe Scanlon, chairman of the BGRF, said.

“Once the country returns to normality, this added funding will result in a huge boost to the welfare of racing greyhounds. Despite all the challenges of the past 12 months we’re feeling positive about the future of this excellent sport.”

The affiliate programme launch will see Luckbox use the Income Access platform, offering reporting features which allow it to make data-based marketing decisions, the operator said.

Luckbox will also use the Income Access Network, providing access to advertising partners and content marketing support.

Alongside its core product offering, the operator said that affiliates will promote a variety of player promotions, including event-specific free bets, combo bet cashback offers and other initiatives to attract new players and encourage customer loyalty.

“We are delighted to formally launch our affiliate programme and know that the Income Access platform will introduce Luckbox to thousands of players,” said Quentin Martin, chief executive of Luckbox.

“Affiliate marketing is a proven, cost-effective channel in the igaming industry and, as a leading name in the esports betting industry, we will work to ensure our affiliate programme is also the best in the business, both for our partners and our players.”

Tara Wilson, chief operating officer at Income Access, added: “We’ve been eagerly anticipating the launch of the Luckbox affiliate programme and are excited to see our platform and full suite of services drive the brand’s growth.”

“By bringing together our comprehensive affiliate solution with Luckbox’s array of exciting products, we know this partnership is poised for long-term success.”

The launch of Luckbox’s affiliate programme comes after the operator recently integrated Paysafe’s Skrill and Neteller payment solutions to its platform.

Earlier this month, Luckbox completed an upsized and oversubscribed private placement of special warrants, providing it with aggregate gross proceedings of around CAD$17.8m (£10.3m/€11.9m/$14.2m).

The operator has been providing traditional sports betting alongside its esports offering since February, after adding a range of live sports through a partnership with B2B supplier EveryMatrix.

Expected to close in the second quarter, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals, Sportradar said the acquisition will extend its product suite and help broaden relationships with sports organisations worldwide.

Sportradar highlighted Synergy’s partnership with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in particular and the FIBA Connected Stadium, scheme, which provides teams, leagues and federations with an end-to-end technology platform offering automated video production and graphics.

In addition, Sportradar said it will build on Synergy Automated Camera System, Synergy’s video technology, by layering on top its own video and OTT product suite, enabling deeper technology-focused relationships with sports bodies.

“Adding Synergy Sports to the Sportradar family will expand our product offering into US college sports data and video analytics and further cements our relationships with the major sports organisations in the US and around the world,” Sportradar Group chief executive Carsten Koerl said.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Introduced in January, Senate Bill 44 amends existing laws, allowing players in Deadwood to place legal sports bets in Deadwood, the only area of the state where any form of gambling is permitted.

Consumers must first register in-person at a licensed casino in the city, after which they will be able to bet via mobile from within the casino premises.

Sports wagering services provider licenses will cost $2,000, with operators also required to pay an annual renewal fee of $2,000 to retain this permit.

The bill did not state how much tax operators will have to pay, nor how many licenses would be awarded. The South Dakota Commission on Gaming will be responsible for regulating the market.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The total subscription amount totalled SEK216.0m and corresponded to what Stockholm-based Fantasma said was an “unexpected” subscription ratio of 1,269%.

Fantasma will add 1,000 new shareholders as a result of the IPO, with 700,000 shares 560,000 warrants of series TO1 issued via the offering.

Approximately 68% of the offer was submitted by the Fantasma board and its management, while the IPO also attracted investment from the likes of Betsson chief executive Pontus Lindwall, investor Christian Rasmussen, KL Capital AB and Mangold Fondkommisison AB.

Following the offering, Fantasma will list on the Nasdaq First North exchange from tomorrow (23 March).

“We feel incredibly inspired by the great interest we have seen from investors in our listing issue where more than 4,000 investors have requested subscriptions,” Fantasma chief executive Björn Kjellsson said.

“Together with the rest of the team at Fantasma, I look forward to bringing both old and new shareholders into the next phase of our development which promises to be incredibly exciting as we take the business to the next level.”

The bill – Senate Bill 165 – was introduced by Senator Ben Kieckhefer. It has been heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee, though the Committee has not yet taken any action.

SB165 states that hosts and participants of esports events must register with the Commission, give the Commission any necessary information, and pay a fee set out by the Commission in order to organize an event with a prize exceeding $1000.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The business – which currently trades over the counter – plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GMGI, with Kingswood Capital Markets being the sole bookrunner on the deal. Details regarding pricing are as of yet undisclosed.

The social gaming solutions provider had over 3.5 million registered players as of January 2021, as well as over 400 casino and live game operations.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The two-year deal is effective immediately and will see the stadium renamed as the BlueBet Stadium.

The Panthers currently sit third in the 2021 NRL table, having won their first two games of the new season.

The team finished top of the 2020 NRL, but lot 26-20 to Melbourne Storm in the grand final.

“For a number of years Panthers intentionally retained the naming rights to our home ground,” Panthers chief executive Brian Fletcher said. “However the significant and ongoing financial impact of Covid-19, combined with the considerable investment from BlueBet, made this a fantastic opportunity we simply couldn’t pass up.

“We’re excited to welcome BlueBet to the Panthers family and look forward to giving our members and fans plenty to cheer about at BlueBet Stadium.”

BlueBet founder and executive chairman Michael Sullivan added: “We’re putting our money where our mouth is and backing this team to go all the way as evidenced by our investment in BlueBet Stadium.

“We understand how special the club’s spiritual home is to the Panthers family and we take great pride in having our name and our brand associated with it.”

The revised offer has been accepted by shareholders holding a total of 65.9m shares, approximately 94.2% of the total number of shares and votes in Enlabs.

All conditions for the completion of the offer have been satisfied, Entain said, and the operator has therefore declared the offer unconditional.

Payment for the Enlabs shares tendered by 18 March is expected to occur on or around 30 March, 2021.

The offer does not include warrants issued by Enlabs and acquired by employees under the company’s incentive programme.

In a separate offer, Entain has proposed acquiring all interests owned by the warrant holders at a price equal to the see-through value of the warrants on the basis of the offer price.

This separate offer has been accepted by holders of 1.35m out of a total 1.4m warrants allotted and transferred to participants in the incentive programme.

Entain has decided to extend the acceptance period until 1 April, 2021, to give remaining Enlabs shareholders more time to accept the deal.

This means the acquisition is expected to close around 13 April. Entain has said it will not extend the acceptance period further.

The operator now intends to initiate compulsory acquisition proceedings relating to Enlabs shares not tendered in the offer, and to request that the Enlabs board applies for a delisting of the shares from Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

Entain’s offer to acquire Enlabs was first put forward in January, with the operator offering to pay SEK40 per share for the business.

Full details of the offer were published later that month, with Entain explaining that the deal would help Enlabs expand into newer markets such as Ukraine and Belarus. The offer was subsequently increased in March, with Entain increasing the price from SEK40 to SEK53 per share, after which the majority of shareholders in Enlabs backed the offer

The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the Tennessee Education Lottery, which acts as the state’s regulator.

The operator informed the Lottery of suspicious activity from Action 24/7 accounts. The Lottery’s sports betting investigator Danny DiRienzo looked into this activity, and found evidence of one player who made 184 different deposits – some of more than $10,000 – from seven credit cards, none of which used his name, before withdrawing after “very little gameplay”.

“This was clearly a case of money laundering,” he said. “It was clearly a case of aggravated identity theft, clearly a case of wire fraud.”

Read the full story on iGB North America