Month: May 2021

Backed by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), Bingo Association and British Amusement Catering Trade Association (Bacta), the project launched in 2017 as Responsible Gambling Week before being rebranded as Safer Gambling Week last year.

This year’s event will again see a wide range of safer gambling messages displayed online and in land-based venues across the UK, with the aim of sparking a nationwide conversation on how to bet and gamble responsibly.

The 2020 event led to 19 million social media impressions, up 19% on the previous year despite the closure of betting shops, casinos, bingo clubs and amusement arcades across the UK due to novel coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions.

Visits to the Safer Gambling Week website during last year’s campaign were also up by 18% year-on-year, while operators reported an increase in the number of customers using safer gambling tools such as deposit limits and self-exclusion.

“Last year’s event was a huge success despite the pandemic and, with the prospect of betting shops and casinos being open when this year’s takes place, I’m sure Safer Gambling Week 2021 will be even better,” BGC chief executive Michael Dugher said.

“Our members already demonstrate their commitment to safer gambling through things like increased funding for research, education and treatment, the whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting commercials during live sport and strict ID and age verification checks.

“Safer Gambling Week is a great opportunity to highlight this fantastic work and emphasises the difference between the regulated industry and the unlicensed and illegal online black market, which has none of the safeguards which are commonplace among our members.”

Bingo Association chief executive Miles Baron also backed the initiative, saying that Safer Gambling Week is a key part of the bingo industry’s commitment to social responsibility.

“As venue-based businesses, the sector recognises the important opportunity we have to promote safer gambling messages and engage directly with customers,” Baron said.

John White, chief executive of Bacta, added that the initiative brings customer focus to the tools that are available to them if they their gambling is becoming problematic.

“Those tools continue to grow as we learn more about safer gambling and form part of our ambition to cement social responsibility at the heart of our offer to the consumer,” White said.

The team said it had teamed up with Abios to get the esports data needed to create additional value for engaging its fans on social media.

Given its active rosters across several esports titles, Gambit said it understood that some fans might want to follow specific rosters or games, and therefore partnered with Abios to create a detailed match calendar detailing all of its upcoming matches and tournaments, divided by title.

The calendar gives fans results from past matches as well as a clear schedule of upcoming matches, which Gambit said made it easier for fans to follow all the rosters in the team.

The calendar is powered by Abios’ Rest API, using normalised data from each title. Alongside the calendar, Gambit also uses Abios data and statistics to create content for its Twitter, Instagram and Facebook profiles.

It said that the granularity of esports data makes for interesting facts that work well on social media, such as information about which player has thrown the most flash grenades during a CS:GO match, or which player has killed the most enemies with a particular weapon in Valorant.

All of this content increases engagement and adds value for fans, the team said.

“Our goal is to provide unique content and this partnership should ensure that our fans are more involved with what’s happening with the team,” said Nikita Koroteev, head of media at Gambit Esports.

“Integration with a great and comfortable API went smoothly due to Abios’ willingness to help.”

Jacob Howard, key account manager for Abios, added: ”Abios is happy to support Gambit Esports with anything necessary in their quest to create additional value for their esports fans.”

“Our journey together has only begun and we look forward to seeing which other verticals we can explore to create an even better experience for the esports fans and supporters through engaging data-driven content.”

Earlier this year, Abios explained to iGaming Business how providing access to fast, reliable and accurate data can revolutionise the esports betting market, as part of the ICE 365 content series.

The complaint arose over whether a claim of “0% margin” in the two paid-for Facebook advertisements was misleading.

Following its review, the ASA concluded that Marathonbet did not breach CAP code rules 3.1 and 3.3, which target misleading advertising, and 3.9, which focuses on qualification.

The first Marathonbet Facebook advertisement in question, dated 12 August 2020, stated: “We’re offering 0% margin on the Champions League” and offered a link. It also included an animation of a football player holding a trophy, with text stating “0% margin and best prices on the Champions League”, and smaller text below stating: “Margin applies to certain pre-match markets only. Exact margin subject to fluctuation around 0%”.

The second advertisement, dated 11 October 2020, featured text that read: “We’re offering 0% margin on various matches”, “0% margin on various matches” and “Margin applies to certain pre-match markets only. Exact margin subject to fluctuation around 0%”.

A single complainant, who the ASA said “understood that small margins may apply”, challenged whether the ads were misleading.

Marathonbet responded in support of the claims, stating that the “0% margin” claims were not misleading as further text explained that the margin only applied to particular pre-match markets, and the margin would fluctuate around 0%.

To demonstrate the margin fluctuation, Marathonbet supplied time-stamped odds for a Champions League game, on 15 August, that the ASA selected. Bets on the result of the match featured margin fluctuation between 0.0011% and 0.0052%.

The ASA considered that inexperienced bettors may be misled by the claim of 0% margins, to believe that they were going to receive more favourable odds.

However, advice from the Gambling Commission allowed the ASA to rule in favour of Marathonbet. The regulator said that in order to accurately express odds that totaled to a whole number, as would be required for 0% margins, the odds would need to be expressed by three or more decimal points.

The ASA ruled that offering odds to three decimal places could cause further confusion to customers, and that no further action was necessary.

“Because we considered that consumers would not be materially misled by the fluctuating margins, we considered that the claim in ads (a) and (b) ‘Margin applies to certain pre-match markets only. Exact margin subject to fluctuation around 0%’ was sufficient to qualify the headline claim of 0%,” the ASA said in a statement,

“We therefore concluded that the ads were not misleading.”

Roughly half, €2.8m, of the revenue total came from Acroud’s igaming affiliate segment, which is 12.5% less than last year. Of this igaming total, €1.6m came from casino revenue, €816,000 was generated from poker, and sports betting contributed €359,000.

The remaining €2.8m of the revenue total came from Acroud’s B2B software services segment, enabled by the acquisition of the PMG Group.

Acroud’s expenses for the quarter totaled €4.8m. External expenses were €3.5m, personnel expenses were up 11.3% to €1.0m, and depreciation and amortisation came to €354,000.

As a result, total earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was down 17.6% to €1.4m.

Operating profit came to €1.1m, down 31.7% from €1.6m in the first quarter of 2020. Gross profit also saw a 71.1% decrease to €822,000. After accounting for €74,000 worth of tax, net profit for the business amounted to €748,000 for the quarter.

Acroud CEO Robert Andersson said: “When I took over as CEO I expected that it would take around 12 months before we would harvest the initial fruits of the extensive change management work. Therefore it is extra gratifying to see the results for the first quarter confirming this.

“Through the change management work, the original iGaming Affiliation segment now shows growth sequentially, excluding acquisitions.”

2021 has seen multiple business acquisitions for Acroud, including PMG, an unnamed US tipster business and TheGamblingCabin.

Andersson said further acquisitions may still be on the cards, but Acroud now intended to focus more on its core business and is unlikely to acquire at the pace it did over the past six months.

“We will continue to pursue an opportunistic acquisition strategy where we evaluate new potential acquisitions, primarily focusing on SaaS [software as a service] solutions and sports betting, but we will not be as aggressive as the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021,” he said “Priority will be on organic growth in our base portfolio, integration of completed acquisitions, while we will step by step reduce net indebtedness over time.”

The company said Hawa’s responsibilities will include the implementation of compliance management policies and best practices, in order to ensure that areas of risk within products and services are monitored and applied effectively.

Hawa has held several senior compliance positions during his career, most recently as director of risk, fraud and compliance investigations at online operator Casumo.

He specialises in regulatory crisis management, compliance, marketing, player and affiliate risk.

Amber Gaming’s managing director, Jade Zorab, said: “I am proud to welcome Ali to the Amber Gaming family. Ali is a highly respected specialist in the gaming compliance space and embodies our culture of responsibility matched with pragmatism and fun.

“His plans to enhance our regulatory compliance offering are already well underway and we look forward to sharing these with our partners soon.”

Zorab went on to say that regulatory compliance is at the heart of Amber Gaming’s operations, and is more vital than ever in the current climate. Hawa’s appointment will stand the business in good stead to support its clients and partners, she concluded.

Ali Hawa added: “I believe my experience in the industry will contribute to additional growth of this business through providing valuable compliance advice and services to many of our clients and future partners and will complement the existing team and their skills.”

“My colleagues at Amber Gaming are inspirational and their positive attitudes make this a very exciting place to work, so I very much look forward to being part of the team.”

As announced on April 13, the same day the merger details were made public, Gamesys made a total of £197.8m in revenue this quarter, a 27.3% increase from the first quarter of 2020.

The remainder of Gamesys’ first quarter results for 2020 were unavailable, meaning comparisons for expenses and final profit could not be made.

However, costs lowered revenue significantly for Gamesys. Distribution costs came to £107.7m, while administrative costs amounted to £58.0m. Severance costs at £800,000 and transaction costs at £1.9m brought expenses to £168.4m.

Foreign exchange changes resulted in a £4.2m expense for Gamesys, bringing the total costs to £164.2m.

This left earnings before interest and tax at £33.6m.

Interest expense totalled at £5.3m, bringing revenue down further to £23.8m. Tax expense, at £4.5m, brought Gamesys’ total net income to £23.8m in Q1.

The Bally’s-Gamesys merger agreement will see Bally’s pay 1,850 pence per Gamesys issued and outstanding share capital in an acquisition via Permier Entertainment, its wholly-owned subsidiary.

The agreement will also see Robeson Reeves, Gamesys’ chief operating officer, and Jim Ryan, non-executive director, join the Bally’s board.

Last month, it was announced that Bally’s had raised $671.4m through a share offering to help fund the acquisition.

Bally’s acquisition of Gamesys is set to close in Q4 of this year.

The measures were first put in place in July 2020 after being proposed in April of that year, with the intention to last until the end of the year.

However, the country’s government opted to renew the controls until June 2021, citing the fact that the levels of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country were going “in the wrong direction”.

Last month, the government announced plans to extend the measures further, as the rates of the virus remained high.

While the SEK5,000 monthly deposit limit for online casino, and a similar loss limit for land-based slots, is the most significant measure involved, the rules also make it mandatory for players to set limits on playing time with online casinos and on gaming machines. Bonuses, meanwhile, must be capped at SEK100.

The latest extension was put out for consultation in April, with a closing date of 3 May. In its consultation response, the cap was criticised by industry association Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS), which had opposed the measures since they were first proposed.

“It is only the black market that has reason to rejoice at the government’s proposal for continued restrictions for Swedish-licensed gambling companies,” BOS chief executive Gustaf Hoffstedt said.

Regulator Spelinspektionen, meanwhile, which must enforce the limit, raised concerns of its own. It argued that while the government’s reasons for the extension made sense, further clarity around the deposit cap was required is it was to be extended. 

This followed a decision from the Administrative Court in Linköping to overturn sanctions against Kindred regarding a loophole with the deposit cap that meant Kindred players could spend more than SEK5,000 on casino games. The loophole involved players setting a high limit – which causes online casino games to become unavailable – depositing more than SEK5,000, then lowering their limit – therefore making casino available again – and playing casino games with this money.

Spelinspektionen have appealed that decision, arguing that under the court’s interpretation, the cap “loses its significance as a consumer protection provision” and allow operators to “easily circumvent the deposit limits”.

However, despite these objections, the measures have been extended without any change.

“We see that the spread of covid-19 is still high in Sweden,” Minister for Social Protection Ardalan Shekarabi said.

“ The current situation entails great risks for consumers in the gaming market. 

“We therefore need to act to reduce the risks for the most vulnerable consumers.”

Yesterday, Spelinspektionen revealed that gross gaming revenue in the market came to SEK6.25bn in the first quarter of 2021, up 5.0% year-on-year, with SEK3.94bn from commercial online gambling, up 7.4% despite the cap. However, it did not break online revenue down between betting and casino games.

The House yesterday (May 19) passed the bill to enact the compact by a vote of 97-17, just one day after the state’s Senate also voted to approve the measure.

The bill will now move to the US Secretary of the Interior for approval and ratification, prior to it coming into law and opening up sports betting to the Seminole Tribe.

The compact, which was first announced in April, is set to exclusively permit the tribe to run sports betting in Florida, with permission to partner with the state’s pari-mutuel operators.

Florida Senator Travis Hutson introduced a bill to implement the compact last week, but this ran into trouble when lawmakers raised concerns over a provision related to online casino.

The original version of the compact stated that the state and tribe would “engage in good faith negotiations” within the next three years to allow the tribe to offer online casino gaming.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but GAN did confirm it would begin deriving online content licensing fees from Ainsworth for its existing online operations in New Jersey, with expansion also planned in Michigan and Pennsylvania this year.

As part of the deal, Ainsworth will expand its online library with an additional 110 games, with all content to be exclusively offered through the GAN Platform or via Super RGS in the US.

“This agreement ensures that GAN possesses differentiated and exclusive access to what we believe will be an ever-growing focus on recognized retail gaming content naturally sought-after by Americans engaged in playing online casino games,” GAN chief commercial officer Jeff Berman said.

“Our goal is to continue to build a leading portfolio of US casino games to benefit our diverse clients and establish ourselves as exclusive providers of premier US content.”

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Of this total, $39.0m came from betting technology, up 42.1%, $9.4m was generated from media technology (a 127.0% increase), and sports technology contributed $5.4m.

Gross profit also increased 76.6% to $13.6m, whilst net operating profit decreased 60.2% to £3.3m. Adjusted EBITDA saw a 414% year on year increase to $9.3m.

Operating expenses were up 17.6% to $16.7m. Although sales and marketing costs dropped to $3.9m, research and development costs increased 37.5% to $3.3m. Administrative costs reached $8.9m, whilst transaction expenses amounted to $689,000.

As a result, operating losses decreased 52.3% to $3.1m.

In terms of non-operating costs, interest expenses rose to $2.3m, foreign currency losses were $163,000., and other expenses came to $2.5m. Depreciation and amortisation amounted to $4.5m, while litigation costs totaled $878,000

Pre-tax losses totaled $5.6m, while after tax net losses came to $5.3m – down 29.3% from 2020.

Following the successful quarter, the business raised its rveenue guidance by 35%, from $190m to between $250m and $260m.

In a busy year for Genius, 2021 has already seen the supplier list on the New York Stock Exchange, completee a deal with FanHub, acquire Second Spectrum in a $200m deal, and sign a multi-year data partnership with the NFL.

“We delivered superb results in the first quarter of 2021, demonstrating our continued excellent momentum and solid execution of strategic commitments,” said Genius co-founder and CEO Mark Locke.

“There is a significant opportunity to utilize our leading portfolio of official sports data, supported by our unique technology, scale and growing network of industry partners. Our strategy of powering the global sports data ecosystem has supported our growth in the quarter, and we’re confident in our ability to continuously improve our end-to-end solution and deliver on our increased guidance for the year.”

Analyst Paul Leyland of Regulus Partners, however, said it still remains to be seen whether Genius can live up to the high investor expectations.

“The group is still very much in ‘investment phase’, but from a much stronger underlying position than just nine months ago.

“Like most US-facing business models, Genius will sink or swim on commercial drivers, technical competence and operational execution – not daydreaming about what the size of the US market might be in five years time.”