Month: April 2021

Under the agreement, ComeOn will launch Playtech’s content across its entire brand portfolio, which includes ComeOn!, Mobilebet, Sunmaker and Snabbare.

Playtech’s casino games range includes a wide selection of slot titles, while its live casino offering features a number of table games, all of which will be made available to ComeOn customers.

“ComeOn Group is going through an exciting period and we have a strong position in the market where Playtech will play a key role moving forward,” ComeOn chief executive Juergen Reutter said.

“ComeOn will continue driving product innovation on its proprietary casino platform and we believe that this new collaboration will take things up a notch.”

Playtech chief operating officer Shimon Akad added: “With a continued focus on growth in existing and newly regulated markets, Playtech’s core strategy is to offer long-term sustainability for operators and a safe, enjoyable environment for players.

“This new partnership with ComeOn is a great example of Playtech’s commitment to partnering with the right companies to bring an entertainment-led experience to international audiences across key regulated markets.”

The deal comes after Playtech last month reported a 25.1% year-on-year drop in revenue to €1.08bn (£938.0m/$1.30bn) as retail closures due to Covid-19 had an impact on both the supplier’s business-to-business and business-to-consumer operations.

The operator runs the Caesars, Harrah’s Resort and Tropicana Atlantic City facilities in the city, with all three facilities set to benefit from the new investment.

Phase one of the project will see $170m spent on guestroom and suite upgrades at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City, with the upgrades to be unveiled this summer.

This work will include revamping approximately 600 guest rooms and suites in the Caesars’ Centurion and Ocean Towers, as well as Harrah’s Atrium Tower.

“These exciting plans over the next three years will revitalise Caesars’ brand of hospitality, and will continue to position Harrah’s, Tropicana, and Caesars Atlantic City as leading resorts in the market,” Caesars’ president and chief operating officer Anthony Carano said.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Last month, Bally’s Richmond Casino Resort was named alongside Live! Casino & Hotel Richmond from the Cordish Companies and One Casino + Resort from Maryland-based media business Urban One as the three proposals that the City of Richmond was considering to run the casino.

However, after the City Council’s Evaluation Panel held negotiations with the three finalists, it reduced its shortlist of potential operators, with Bally’s missing out on the final cut, leaving only Live! and One Casino + Resort.

The Panel has set a target of recommending an approved operator and site to the Council in mid-to-late May. Should the recommended operator be selected by City Council, residents will vote on its proposal in a referendum.

“We appreciate Bally’s interest to develop a resort casino project in Richmond,” director of Richmond’s Department of Economic Development, Leonard Sledge, said. “The Evaluation Panel is no longer considering the Bally’s project or the Parkway Crossings site for a resort casino due to concerns about site access, environmental factors, and required approvals from non-city entities that may not be granted or extend the project timeline.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

While the lottery did not reveal the amount of revenue generated, $1.5m was paid in taxes by operators in the state during the period, with $38,095 going to the Problem Gambling & Treatment Support Fund.

Given the state’s 15% tax rate, this suggests adjusted gaming revenue – after accounting for promotional spend such as bonuses – of $10.2m. Operators spent a total of $30.0m on promotions between January and March, suggesting that gross gaming revenue was roughly $40.1m.

Of the approved operators, Flutter Entertainment-owned Fanduel – the first to launch in the state – took the majority of the market share, at 53%. DraftKings is the state’s next largest operator with 24% of the market share, followed by BetMGM with 14%, Caesars with 8% and Rivers with 1%.

WynnBet, having only started taking bets on March 9, does not hold a significant market share of the wagers placed from January.

Fanduel also accounted for the largest share of promotion spending, at 43%, which DraftKings at 23%, Caesars 20% and BetMGM, Rivers and Wynn spending 10%, 3% and 1% respectively.

BetMGM made the largest tax contribution of all the operators, at $700,025 between January and March. This suggests adjusted revenue of roughly $4.7m, and after accounting for promotional spend, suggests gross revenue of around $7.7m.

Fanduel followed on $547,886, all of which was paid in March, suggesting $3.7m in adjusted revenue, or roughly $16.5m in gross revenue when accounting for promotional spend. DraftKings contributed $275,919, also in March.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Almost half of CDI’s revenue came from land-based casino gaming away from the Churchill Downs site, up 4.1% to $152.0m from the first quarter of 2020, the final weeks of which were impacted by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. 

Breaking this figure down further, CDI’s racino at the Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans brought in more gaming revenue than any other site, at $38.3m, up 21.2%. Presque Isle in Maine followed, even though revenue declined to $23.8m. Ocean Downs, Riverwalk and Harlow’s Casinos also saw revenue increase, while it declined at Calder Casino, Oxford Casino and Lady Luck Nemacolin.

The recently rebranded TwinSpires online division, meanwhile, saw revenue increase 44.7% to $99.7m. The vast majority of this came from horse racing, which brought in $92.7m, up 39.2%, while sports betting and casino gaming contributed the remaining $7.0m, up 180.0%.

Read the full story on iGB North America

Under the acquisition deal announced in September last year, Caesars agreed to pay £2.9bn (€3.35bn/$4.04bn) to take ownership of the business, purchasing William Hill’s 1.08bn shares for £2.72 apiece.

At the time, Caesars stated that the target of the acquisition was William Hill’s US betting business and technology, with the remainder of the operator’s assets, including its UK arm, now set to be sold.

After the High Court of Justice in England and Wales this week sanctioned the acquisition, Caesars and William Hill were able to proceed with the transaction and completed the deal today (22 April).

The entire issued and to be issued share capital of William Hill, other than shares that were already owned by Caesars, are now owned by Caesars UK Bidco, the operating segment of Caesars that led the acquisition offer. 

Existing William Hill shareholders will receive their share pay-outs no later than 6 May, while applications have been made to the Financial Conduct Authority and the London Stock Exchange to de-list William Hill shares. This is expected to take effect from 8am tomorrow.

In relation to the completed deal, William Hill directors Roger Devlin, Mark Brooker, Jane Hanson, Robin Terrell, Lynne Weedall and Gordon Wilson have tendered their resignations and stepped down from the William Hill Board.

Completion of the acquisition comes after Caesars saw off a rival bid from Apollo Global, as well as a legal challenge from investment management fund HBK Investments, which had delayed the deal going from through on 1 April as initially planned.

HBK argued that shareholders were not correctly informed of the details of the deal, with particular concerns over William Hill’s 2019 joint venture agreement with Eldorado Resorts, which later acquired and rebranded as Caesars.

HBK stated Caesars’ ability to restrict counterbidders under the terms of this agreement was more limited than the scheme documents suggested.

The scheme court hearing to approve the deal was initially scheduled for 31 March, but HBK’s objection saw the deal delayed for three weeks.

Casino revenue made up most of the $1.20bn total, bringing in $865m, with mall earnings coming second with a total of $156m.

In terms of individual markets, Macau took the top spots with its Venetian, Plaza Macao and Four Seasons Macao, and Londoner properties taking in $340m, $170m and $137m respectively. Total Macao operation revenue came to $777m, down 4.5% from the first 2020 quarter.

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore was its top property overall, though, bringing in $326m.

However, operating expenses came to $1.292bn, meaning that Sands made a $96m operating loss. This compared to a profit of $6m for Q1 last year.

After interest and taxes, net loss from ongoing operations this quarter was $280m, a 204.0% increase from $92m in the first 2020 quarter.

However, these numbers exclude the Las Vegas properties, as Sands sold the operations to VICI Properties (including funds by Apollo Global Management) for $6.25bn last month.

The operator’s Las Vegas properties, including the Venetian resort, brought in £139m.

After including these discontinued operations, Sands made a $342m loss, almost seven times its Q1 2020 loss.

Sands hopes that the deal to sell the properties will close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

On an earnings call regarding the Q1 results, Sands CEO Robert Goldstein said he saw the sale as an opportunity for return.

“I think we continue to believe there’ll be something happening in Macao at some point in the future, which will enable us to reinvest in Macao on a non-gaming basis. We’re hopeful that’ll happen sooner than later. We continue to look at other large-scale Asian opportunities.”

In January, Goldstein revealed that Sands was exploring opportunities to expand into online gambling.

Goldstein took on the CEO role following the death of Sands founder Sheldon Adelson at 87.

Sachsen-Anhalt’s approval was crucial to the GlüNeuRStV’s implementation as it will host a new regulatory authority, based in the city of Halle. Work to establish this body is underway, and sources suggest it will be fully operational by the end of 2022.

Its parliament is the fifteenth out of 16 to approve the Treaty, with Nordrhein-Westfalen the final state to hold out. A minimum of 13 were required to ratify the legislation, which occurred in March when the Sachsen and Schleswig-Holstein parliaments gave their blessing. Saarland then became the fourteenth state parliament to do so last week.

Speaking about Sachsen Anhalt’s ratification, DSWV president Mathias Dahms said: “This is the beginning of a new age of gaming regulation in Germany. After sports betting, the federal states are now rightly regulating more online gaming in order to finally control market activity.”

The GlüNeuRStV, which legalises online poker and slots for all eligible operators, and provides for a more limited range of table games, was first approved as far back as March 2020 by Germany’s heads of state. It was then notified to the European Commission in May, before being ratified by Minister-Presidents in the 16 states in November.

After the commission granted a standstill period until September 2020 for the treaty to be discussed, it has slowly made its way through the German states – 13 of the necessary 16 had ratified the proposal by March 2021.

Operators within Germany were given a transitional period from October 2020 to comply with new regulations, and the slow process of which caused concerned to the Deutsche Sportwettenverband (DSWV); it saw a mass migration of players to unlicensed sites, as well as a 75% drop in turnover after sporting events were cancelled and betting shops closed in 2020.

Sports betting, legalised through the 2012 State Treaty on Gambling (Glücksspielstaatsvertrag) has already started to take shape in parts of the country, with GVC, Gauselmann and Tipwin have all already been granted licenses by the Regional Council of Darmstadt.

After the GlüNeuRStV is implemented, states will be obligated to follow its terms until 31 December, 2028. After this date, states will have the option to withdraw from the Treaty provided they give a year’s notice.

Not all parts of the legislation have proved to be popular.

As well as a 5.3% tax rate on slots and poker turnover, slot games will have a €1 per spin cap, with a five-second average spin speed – changes which came into force from 15 December.

Table games will be kept separate, and the option to grant lotteries a monopoly for the product will be left to the discretion of the individual states.

Dahms added: “The new State Treaty on Gambling is an important step towards modern regulation, but there is also room for improvement: We consider the state databases for the complete monitoring of all consumers to be extremely questionable from a data protection point of view. possibly not allowed to play handball and tennis, completely misses the expectations of customers.

“This will have to be readjusted soon. We are placing our hopes in the new authority, which will shape and objectify the gambling policy debate in the future.”

Like-for-like revenue in the three months to 31 March was down 76% from Q3 of 2020, with venue revenue plummeting 98% and digital revenue 3%, though the operator did not provide absolute revenue figures.

All of Rank’s venues in the UK remained closed throughout the entire quarter, though nine of its Enracha sites in Spain were able to reopen towards the end of Q3 after restrictions were eased in the country.

The sharp year-on-year drop in venues revenue comes after Rank was able to operate its land-based sites for almost all of Q3 last year, with the facilities only being forced to close in the middle of March 2020 when new Covid—19 measures came into effect in the UK and Spain.

Turning to digital, though revenue was down year-on-year, Rank reported a 3% like-for-like in revenue compared to the second quarter of its financial year.

Revenue from the Stride business – which it acquired in October 2019 – was up 7% quarter-on-quarter, while Mecca Digital revenue also increased by 4% and Yo Bingo revenue 10%. However, Rank did note a 2% drop in revenue from its Grosvenor Digital segment.

Reflecting on the quarter, Rank chief executive John O’Reilly said the operator performed in line with expectations, and forecast growth in Q4 and beyond as the UK begins to reopen its land-based casino and bingo sector from next month.

Casinos, bingo halls and adult entertainment centres in England will be allowed to reopen from 17 May as part of the government’s exit from Covid-19 lockdown.

“We have ended Q3 broadly where we expected to be and are now very focused on the reopening of our UK venues from 17 May alongside continuing to drive digital NGR growth,” O’Reilly said.

“Our business has inevitably been heavily impacted by the pandemic but, with the strong support and dedication of our colleagues, we are now very much looking forward to reopening our casino and bingo venues, welcoming back our customers and providing the great entertainment and omni-channel service in a Covid-safe environment we know they enjoy.”

Meanwhile, Rank also published details of its liquidity at the end of the quarter, revealing £89.8m (€104.0m/$125.1m) in total cash and available facilities, ahead of its minimum liquidity covenant of £50.0m.

During the quarter, Rank received a £13.4m duty refund following the Supreme Court’s decision in favour of another taxpayer on the treatment of free gaming chips, while the amount of deferred rent was reduced to £13.9m from £17.3m at 31 December 2020.

Since the end of Q3, Rank completed the sale of its Blankenberge casino in Belgium and received the associated £25.0m of cash sale proceeds.

Rank also noted it expects to make its scheduled £19.7m term loan amortisation payment on 31 May, while based on the government’s current timetable for venues’ reopening, it expects to continue to meet its banking covenants.

Sports betting becoming the new priority

It’s no surprise that sports betting has started to take precedence for various gaming commissions across the continent.

The popularity of the sports betting market is undeniable, and attracting those customers will be vital for other parts of the industry.

“We are seeing in conversations with operators across the US and North American general the need to make sure that you have an integrated product offering, so that you can utilize sports betting as an acquisition channel and move those customers across the other verticals.

With sports bettors becoming the main target, catering to them has become important for operators everywhere.

They have started to realise that across the board that it’s cheaper to acquire sports betting customers than other demographic, such as lottery or casino players.

The task moving forward is now for providers to create sports betting platforms that are easy for customers to understand and use.

“There’s traditional sports bettors that have been doing this for a very long time and enjoy a sophisticated system – parlay bets and prop bets and different things like that – but what we’re hoping for is something simpler, easy to use, with a very friendly interface for people that like to watch sports and may be new to betting.

“Over time, we imagine those betters would become more sophisticated in their betting techniques and we feel that that is a great way to start to bring those people into the fold of all the other wonderful things that a casino resort has to offer. We believe that we can trigger a lot of brick-and-mortar trips from there.”

The future of the market appears to lie in the hands of sports bettors, even if they may not be the most prominent source of revenue.

Several operators have had to reintroduce sports betting – despite it not being their biggest source of revenue – due to the sheer popularity of the format amongst customers.

 “We need to find out new avenues to reach out to them and this was the first step into the digital realm.

“So rather than focusing more on revenue, it was more focused on how do we get out there in this new day and age, instead of the old school lottery style we were used to.

“But the overarching goal for revenue is to transfer back to the state. We know that that’s not going to be for sports as large as what we have in our other offerings, but it is something additional that we can add in that helps overall company growth.”

New regulatory challenges

The new market is proving to be a steep learning curve for everyone involved, especially the market regulators.

Many were ready to launch iGaming initiatives as the market dictated, before sports betting started to rear its head.

Many find themselves starting from scratch, going from “being the expert to being the student all over again”, and while learning something new is beneficial in the long run, it provides its own set of challenges.

Whilst different states are trying to find out what works best for them, regulators are happy to borrow from each other in order to find the best solutions.

“As a regulator, I have to wait until some bits of information from the final legislated bill are actually handed down to me, so I have a working tool to start drafting the operations regulatory controls.”

“I think that the best practice is to look at what other jurisdictions are doing well, continue doing that and then some of the things that seem to be tragic or constrictive can be revisited. We can think of another method that we can use to accomplish the same compensating control without being so intrusive.”

Tribal governments vs commercial retailers

Whilst company growth and revenue may be top of the agenda for commercial retailers, tribal governments are looking at the big picture.

Operators who have had regular contact with both sides can see that the goals of the two differ greatly.

 “I would you have to think of tribal governments as more of a lottery model where you know the owners of the operation are the primary beneficiaries – so that would be the tribal government in this case.

“Those revenues trickle down into their social programs and the operation of government.

“It’s a little bit different than the commercial respect where everyone cares about profits, but they have to answer to different types of stakeholders, whereas tribal operators are just trying to take care of their community and their government.”

Due to the fact that tribal governments are so deeply entrenched into the communities they serve compared to commercial operators, they have no choice but to be thinking in the long term.

Tribal operators have to consider the benefits of the community within which they reside, meaning that the long term effects of sports betting are just as important as short term revenues.

 “We, we know that the sports betting industry is in its infancy, so there’s a big push around big multi state operators that are racing to the bottom. So what do you do to future proof your business that’s giving back to your Community over the next 10 to 20 years? It’s not just looking at that so we’re doing a lot of work with our partners around how to maximize that revenue across a longer period of time.

“It’s not just about the next two years, it’s how to have something in place that’s going to be of a long term benefit to communities.”