Month: April 2021

How did you come up with the idea for the business, and what in your view makes you set up to succeed?

Over the past decade I have had a huge interest in the gambling industry. Something which first came as a hobby to me soon became a successful income for many years. During my time sat on the other side of the fence as a customer, I noticed an ever-changing landscape occurring and operators were fast becoming lambs to the slaughter.

Tighter regulatory guidelines without detailed legislation, combined with a lack of trust from customers, has stigmatised the gambling industry in many jurisdictions’ eyes – and none more so than the UK.

With the benefit of TruBet being built for the players by the players, this gives us an edge regarding the way in which we can develop the solution. We can be confident that legitimate customers will be happy to engage with operators and share the specific information required to eliminate bonus abuse, multi-accounting and associated fraud while understanding customer affordability and lowering the risk of problem gambling. All without increased exposure of their personal information.

We have a great management team with experience of running their own companies, some of which have already undergone successful exits. Most recently we have received investment from US technology giant Accubits, who will also be assisting us with the development of our technology. Leading on from this we are in discussions with an array of industry-leading C-suite executives who are interested in coming on board to add further value and help us to execute our plans.

Talk us through how it works and explain how it differs from existing competitors.

TruBet will be a fintech payment solution with a built-in affiliation model shaped entirely for the igaming space. Currently all affiliate traffic comes from a variety of unverified sources, which puts operators at risk of multi-accounting, bonus abuse and elements of fraudulent activity. The risks associated with traffic from these sources will be removed for customers using our solution.

The traffic that will come through TruBet will be fully verified in advance, leveraging AI, 3D facial recognition and voice recognition and removing the possible exposure of offers to multi-accounting and bonus abusers. Customers will be restricted from accessing our exclusive operator offers before completing their full KYC and AML requirements within the app. Verification of players will be performed via our blockchain solution, which will speed up the customer onboarding process and reduce the risk of personal documentation falling into the wrong hands.

The data, which is collated through the application from customer/operator interaction in terms of accounts usage, deposit volumes and frequency, will enable TruBet to build out detailed industry affordability scores. These can be partly shared with operators, similar to how the finance sector leverages Experian. This solution is made possible by adopting interoperability into the industry, something which hasn’t happened so far due to the lack of willingness between operators sharing data with their competitors on customers habits and expenditure.

With TruBet being a completely unique offering and no operator preference or B2C model, this puts us in a position to bring these industry-changing solutions to life.

Who do you see as your target customer?

We will be targeting operators as our clients but effectively the demand will be driven from the appetite of customers wanting to access exclusive offers which are over and above anything currently on the market.

Talk us through your growth plans – and what milestones do you need to hit to achieve these?

Our target market will be the UK initially, but the solutions we are developing are ones which can grow exponentially across a magnitude of jurisdictions. With the Gambling Commission constantly turning the screw on operators, it makes sense for us to focus our attention here first. We fully believe that once the solutions are built and the benefits can be demonstrated to operators it will cause a snowball effect as we make our name as the de-facto affiliate, payment and affordability provider.

What are the key challenges you face on this route?

Making sure the solution is designed in a user-friendly package and that it is a very attractive offering for customers to sign up to. Once we have the customers on board, naturally the clients [operators] will follow.

Have you raised external funding? How did you find this process?

We have recently raised funding from US tech giant Accubits, via their venture capital arm Future Tech, topping up the initial money invested from seed investors.

What is your view on innovation in the gaming industry? Is there appetite among investors and consumers for disruptive new ideas, or more focus in incremental innovations that are accretive to earnings in the short term?

From the technology I have seen and worked with, most of this is very outdated and innovation is something which hasn’t been forthcoming until recently.

With the transition towards Open Banking and digital currencies on the horizon, I believe that further adoption towards innovation is inevitable. In terms of investment, I don’t think there are many better opportunities out there.

We have an industry with problems in abundance. It is worth billions yet hated by millions, and in order to remove the cloud casting a shadow over the gaming industry a change is required. This will happen, one way or another, and we plan to make an everlasting impact for the better.

Remember, the ICE 365 Tech Futures special is just the start of Clarion Gaming’s Pitch ICE content for the year. Find out how your startup can get involved, compete and participate in the year’s ICE 365 content series.

TruBet at a glance:
Product or service: Affiliate and fintech platform
Founded: 2021
Founders/management: Gavin Berry (founder and CEO)
Launch date: Q3 2021
Target markets: Sportsbook and casino operators / affiliation and payments
Website: trubet.io

As previously announced by Governor Cuomo’s office when the Governor and legislature came to an agreement on a state budget, the state Gaming Commission will issue a request for proposals to select at least two platform providers to operate sports betting. These two platform providers will receive licences and together offer at least four betting skins.

The Commission’s request for proposals will open no later than 1 July, with winning bids selected no later than 150 days after this.

The Commission will develop a scoring system to determine the best bids. While this system has not yet been created, extra points will be awarded to any operator with a revenue-sharing agreement with one of New York’s Native American tribes.

Read the full story on iGB North America

Khan’s manifesto promises that his current Underground ban on junk food advertising will be extended to include “harmful gambling advertisements”.

“I’ve already banned body-shaming advertisements and advertisements for foods high in fat, salt and sugar on the TfL network because of their impact on the health of Londoners,” it read.

“Given the devastating way gambling addiction can destroy lives and families, I’ll instruct TfL to bring forward plans to extend the ban to harmful gambling advertisements on the network.”

The move would fit into a broader trend of reductions on gambling advertising across the UK. In October 2020 the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice put forward a consultation proposing that gambling advertising should not have a “strong appeal” to under-18s and irresponsible gambling advertising, such as money back offers, should be reduced.

The so-called whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling advertising was praised last year by the Betting and Gaming Council after its implementation cut the number of gambling advertisements seen by children by 97%.
Earlier political attempts have been made to pull focus to problem gambling and gambling ads in the UK. Before the 2019 General Election, Khan’s Labour party pledged to reduce gambling advertising in sport as part of its call for new gambling legislation, while the Conservative party announced that it would conduct a review of the 2005 Gambling Act if elected into government.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling-Related Harm, meanwhile, called for an end to all advertisements for gambling.

The testing is part of the Convene with Confidence program, which outlines health and safety protocols for hosting events in person.

MGM Resorts says the plan has already helped it host close to 300 meetings since the pandemic started.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

According to figures supplied by Ficom Leisure to iGB, revenue across all online verticals ticked up 4.6% from January to €351.2m, just behind the record set in December 2020. Compared to February 2020 – the last month before Italy went into lockdown – revenue was up 94.8%.

That month-on-month revenue growth was due mostly to a significant increase in sports betting revenue to a record high of €185.5m, as betting made up more than half of Italy’s total online revenue.

The closure of all retail betting shops across the country played a large role in this growth, but online betting revenue was also up 29.4% from January, which also had no retail betting.

Bet365, PlanetWin365, Snai, Eurobet, Goldbet and Sisal remained the six largest operators with more than 10% of the online betting market each, but there was significant change within that group. Goldbet became the market leader again, after holding that spot in December, with Sisal and Snai following, while Bet365 dropped from third to sixth.

Even without any revenue from the retail sector, overall sports betting revenue was level with February 2020, as the vertical recorded its second-best month since the first lockdown began, behind October 2020.

Turning to online casino, revenue was down 12.3% month-on-month but up 83.1% year-on-year to €143.0m. While in absolute terms this was the third-best month ever for online casino in Italy, the vertical had its lowest share of revenue since December 2017 at 40.7%.

PokerStars remained the top operator, though its share of revenue fell to 10.4%, while Sisal closed the gap as its market share grew to 9.5%. Snai, 888 and Lottomatica followed with more than 7.5% of revenue each.

Poker revenue was down from the prior three months but still well above February 2020, with tournaments bringing in €9.8m, up 43.4% year-on-year, and cash games €6.7m, up 33.5%

PokerStars continued to dominate the market, but its share of tournament revenue slipped below 50% for the first time since iGB started publishing data in 2017. This came as Sisal, Snai, Eurobet and E-Play 24/7 all saw their market shares increase.

In cash games, PokerStars increased its market share from January to 44.4%, with Lottomatica a distant second and third with 6.8% and 6.3% of the market, respectively.

All data and figures from the regulator are processed by leading European corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, a specialist in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.

Ficom Leisure also provides monthly figures on the New Jersey online market in the New Jersey iGaming Dashboard, Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania iGaming Dashboard and Iowa in the Iowa iGaming Dashboard, all of which are available on iGB North America.

It also provides quarterly figures on the Spanish online market in the Spain iGaming Dashboard and the Portuguese market in the Portugal iGaming Dashboard.

Entain will now use Synalogik’s Scout solution to enable automatic checking and risk-scoring of thousands of customers.

Entain said this will significantly improve response times the end user. Its security processes would now take seconds rather than hours or days, the operator explained, while still ensuring full compliance with regulatory and data protection requirements.

In addition, Entain said that it has carried out all of the relevant privacy risk assessments to ensure the new system maintains a high level of privacy for customers.

Entain will initially launch the new system across its brands in the British market.

“This delivers on our vision of leveraging innovation and technology to create the best experience for every customer whilst delivering the highest standards of compliance effectiveness and corporate governance,” Entain’s director of customer protection Brendan MacDonald said.

Entain joins Betway in partnering Synalogik. The supplier’s current clients include law enforcement agencies, while it also has clients in the cybersecurity, insurance, telecommunications and banking sectors such as NatWest and Telefonica.

Synalogik chief executive Gareth Mussell added: “We are delighted that Entain is using our Scout system to support its compliance and governance processes.  

“This unique solution provides an enriched customer view, in near real-time, drawn from multiple data sources, which enhances decision making and delivers significant efficiency and cost savings.”

The partnership marks the latest step in Entain’s ongoing strategy to strengthen its customer protection methods.

Last week, Entain launched what it described as a “pioneering” affordability checking model for British customers, as part of the Advanced Responsibility and Care (ARC) initiative that will be fully implemented in the market this summer.

Entain said these new checks will help it to identify players at risk of running into financial difficulty as a result of their gambling, and implement staking limits and tighter affordability checks.

In February, Entain completed the initial stage of its ARC customer protection strategy, extending the behavioural indicators it uses to identify users potentially at risk of gambling-related harm.

Launched in November as part of its rebrand from GVC Holdings to Entain, ARC was developed to deploy the group’s proprietary technology platform and behavioural play data to provide end-to-end player protection and interaction across its network.

The operator is also looking to harness new technology for its core products. In December it announced a partnership with media and technology giant Verizon Media to develop new interactive sports and entertainment products.

The partnership aims to act on findings from research commissioned by polling specialist YouGov and commissioned by Entain, which revealed that technology use is shaping gaming and entertainment consumers’ behaviour. It will see the pair collaborate on the launch of a virtual reality product that incorporates betting elements into the sports viewing experience.

Aronson previously worked as a director for SGDigital, the online branch of Scientific Games Corporation, and as the director of operations for the NYX Gaming Group before it was acquired by Scientific Games.

As operations director Aronson will be responsible for managing Concsious Gaming’s PlayPause product and working with state regulators and platform providers. She will also serve as chief of staff when needed as a member of the service delivery and conscious gaming teams.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The regulator issued injunctions against both the Spooniker business and former monopoly ATG in December 2020 after discovering that players could potentially deposit more than SEK5000 for online casino play in a month at Kindred and ATG sites.

When asked about the limit, Kindred said it made all players set a deposit limit as is required by Swedish law. Those with a limit of more than SEK5,000 were only permitted to use the operator’s betting offering. If they wished to play casino games, players would be required to set a limit under this amount.

However, Spelinspektionen pointed out that a player could simply set a high limit, deposit more money and then lower their limit and play online casino games with more than SEK5,000. 

As a result, it issued an injunction, with an order to pay a fine of SEK1m each week until the loophole was corrected.

However, Kindred appealed this at the Administrative Court in Linköping. The court ruled that the law refers only to a player’s deposit limits for online casino, rather than their actual deposits. As a result, the fact that players could deposit more than SEK5000 did not mean Kindred were in violation of the regulation, and so the injunction was overturned.

The deposit cap was implemented last July and although it was intended to last only until the end of 2020, it is now set to be extended until June 2021.

Located in Stateline, Nevada, the MontBleu facility features a land-based casino with 418 slot machines and 17 gaming tables, as well as a 438-room hotel and 14,000sq ft of convention, meeting and exhibition space.

The acquisition was agreed in April 2020, when Twin River Worldwide brokered a deal to purchase the casino from Eldorado Resorts.

Twin River Worldwide acquired the Bally’s brand from Caesars in October 2020, in a deal that saw it rename its business as Bally’s Corporation.

Eldorado acquired and merged with Caesars Entertainment Corporation in July last year, in a deal that created the largest casino and entertainment business in the US.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

By Kenneth Williams

On 17 February, the Canadian House of Commons voted to approve the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act of 2021. The bill still needs to be formally approved by the rest of parliament to become law, but overwhelming support from the Commons points to a swift enactment.

The Act specifically regulates single-game betting, which is currently illegal in several Canadian provinces. The majority of gambling legislation in Canada is regional, but the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act will set national precedence and federally approve single-game bets. Several regional laws currently restrict single-game betting, often demanding parleys or combo bets if allowing them at all.

In addition to their traditional counterparts, esports are formally recognised in the wording of the bill. The announcement has already elicited responses from some of the biggest names in esports gambling, with the Esports Entertainment Group among many other major sportsbooks quickly announcing its intention to pursue Canadian customers.

Canadian betting will explode in 2021

The SRSBA passed through the House of Commons by 303 votes to 15. The bill received overwhelming unilateral support from both the Liberals and Conservatives. The economic incentives of regulating sports gambling have become even more attractive after the pandemic. Judging by standard Canadian political timelines, match bets will likely become legal towards the end of the year. 

Canada is a very sought-after market for oddsmakers. The country has a rich competitive history across several winter sports, a vested interest in professional USA leagues and a long history of excellence in Valve esports. Some of the most famous players in Dota 2 history hail from Canada, including Artour ‘Arteezy’ Babaev, Jacky ‘EternaLEnVy’ Mao and Kurtis ‘Aui_2000’ Ling. Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken and Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic are both very popular among tactical FPS fans.

Many Canadian sports fans already enjoy esports betting thanks to provincial regulation. Opening up the entire country would remove many of the logistical hurdles and grey areas currently keeping operators at bay.

A lot of provinces only offer sports betting through a national system known as the Pro-Line, which the Atlantic Lottery maintains. Bettors must make multiple bets at a time in most regions, sometimes being forced to parlay. The SRSBA formally legalises single-match bets placed outside of the Pro-Line. This change will start a competition between sportsbooks for millions of new bettors.

What esports betting operators should consider

Canada is an exciting market and one that is similar to the United States, which many sites consider a top priority for expansion. Sites that already operate in legal provinces will significantly benefit from their previous expansion efforts, but new sites shouldn’t pass up such a big opportunity.

Many bookmakers will jump on the chance to enter Canada, but it won’t be as straightforward as simply adding .ca to the end of your website. There’s a general consensus among marketing experts that Canada and the US must be treated differently, but their opinions often conflict when it comes to exactly how. It’s best to follow the marketing examples set by existing Canadian bookies. Particularly eager sites could immediately enter the existing Canadian market in preparation for regulation at the federal level.

Existing betting operators, meanwhile, will enjoy a big advantage when the markets open. An existing user base will be a powerful tool in gaining nationwide popularity. Some betting operators might have Canada on the backburner due to its scattered legality, but a handful of promotions and an advertisement bump could go a long way to establishing a presence. The Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act timeline implies that it will be formally enacted this winter, right in the midst of Canada’s most iconic sports seasons and the return of LAN esports.