Month: May 2021

Elys’ revenue came on turnover of $243.2m, up 109.4%. Of this total, the vast majority, $231.3m, up 148.6%, was from online betting. The remaining $11.8m, down almost exactly 50%, came from retail bets.

“As illustrated by record revenue of $14.2 million for the first quarter of 2021, a 39% increase in revenue over the same period last year and on a combined record quarterly wager turnover of approximately $243 million in Q1 2021, the disciplined growth strategy we previously set out has been executed extremely well,” chief executive Matteo Monteverdi, appointed in November 2020, said.

The business then paid $225.8m in winnings for gross gaming revenue of $17.4m, up 48.8%. Of this total, $15.7m was made online, up 149.0%, while land-based revenue declined 69.7% to $1.7m.

After paying $3.3m in tax to the Agenzia delle dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) and receiving $92,000 in betting platform service fees, it was left with $14.1m in net gaming revenues, up 39.2%.

However, the business incurred costs and expenses of $14.8m, up 64.4%. Of this total, $10.7m were selling expenses such as commissions to sales agents. As this commission is based on handle rather than revenue, lower margins made these expenses more significant.

A further $4.1m of costs were classed as general and administrative expenses, with a 47.1% growth largely reflecting an increase in stock-based compensation and corporate salaries, many of these related to expansion in the US.

This led to an operating loss of $650,000, compared to a $1.1m profit in 2020. However, after other income including gains on securities, this loss was reduced to $221,000.

Elys then paid $339,000 in tax for a $610,000 net loss, compared to a profit of $158,000 the year prior.

After accounting for foreign currency changes, Elys reported a comprehensive loss of $954,000, compared to a $46,000 profit in 2020.

“We are more encouraged than ever by the outlook for the business both in Europe and as we plan our expansion into North America, especially as and when the pandemic begins to wane and land-based operations resume,” executive chairman Michele Ciavarella said. “Given the successful track record in Italy, we believe that we are ideally positioned to become a competitive player as regulations evolve, opening up new markets across North America and Europe.”

The deal, which is Betway’s first betting partnership with a professional sports league in North America, will see the operator become an official sports betting partner of the NHL.

Betway will receive brand exposure via a corner in-ice brand position and camera-visible dashboard. Signage placements will be for all games of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs – which begin tomorrow (May 15) and Stanley Cup Final, and will continue throughout the duration of the partnership.

The operator will also receive a corner in-ice brand position at NHL tentpole events, including the NHL Winter Classic, NHL Stadium Series and NHL All-Star Weekend.

In addition, Betway will have the rights to use NHL marks, logos and official designations, as well as access to a portfolio of NHL-controlled media assets including custom digital, social and email marketing campaigns.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The tournament, which is due to take place from 22 to 25 May at Europa Sports Park in Gibraltar, will now be known as the Dafabet World Pool Masters.

Dafabet also title sponsored the competition in 2017 and 2019.

“We’re very happy to be the title sponsors of this year’s tournament,” Dafabet’s head of sponsorships John Cruces said. “It’s the third time we’ve sponsored the event and we’ve always been happy with the coverage we’ve received.”

Matchroom Multi-Sport managing director, Emily Frazer, added: “We are thrilled to have Dafabet on board again for the World Pool Masters. We always enjoy working with the team and their support of the event helps us to continue to push boundaries and take pool to every corner of the globe.”

Dafabet has a whole host of other sports sponsorship deals in place, including agreements with Scottish Premier League club Celtic, Spanish La Liga team Cadiz, and Norwich City, which recently won promotion to the top-tier English Premier League.

Intralot currently holds an 80% stake in the Intralot do Brasil operation, while Saga owns the remaining 20%.

Should the deal gain the relevant approvals, Saga would take full control of the business, but Intralot would continue to provide its gaming technology to Intralot do Brasil.

Intralot said the Brazilian operation contributed 0.5% of its group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in 2020.

As reported earlier this month, Intralot’s EBITDA in 2020 amounted to €66.2m, while revenue for the year reached €292.9m and gross profit €75.3m.

The deal comes after Intralot in February also completed the sale of its 20% stake in Intralot de Peru SA to private equity firm Nexus Group.

The original deal saw Nexus agree to pay $21.0m to take ownership of the stake, but after taxes and transaction expenses, the final value of the transaction was $16.2m.

NeoGames’ revenue totaled at $13.3m, a $4.3m rise from $9.1m in the first quarter of 2020.

However, expenses came to more than $11m, up 42.3%. Distribution expenses, at $2.6m, rose 108.8% year on year. Development expenses came to $2.2m, an 18.8% increase compared to Q1 2020.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The bill allows for in-person sports wagering to take place at licensed racetracks, however the most recent amendment excludes the placing of wagers on in-state collegiate sporting events in which an in-state collegiate team plays.

The State Racing Commission will have regulation and enforcement over sports wagering and other gambling activities at licensed racetracks. It may issue fines of up to $5,000 in the event that a rule or regulation is violated.

As well as preventing bets on in-state college sports events, the amendment also allows for licensees to offer Keno.

Now that the bill has been advanced to enrolment, it can be placed on final reading, and if it passes this stage will be advanced to the state’s governor for signing.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Although the average number of daily active users (1.3m) and monthly active users (3.7m) of Playstudios products decreased for the quarter – by 21.9% and 18.4% respectively – the average number of daily paying users increased by 9.1% to 36,000.

Playstudios’ operating expenses were $66.5m, representing a 27.4% increase from last year.

Read the full story in iGB North America.

Revenue in April from igaming amounted to $874,012, up from $856,182 in the same month last year, but down 2.7% from $897,781 in March this year.

Video games were by far the main source of revenue, generating a total of $707,752, ahead of table games on $128,038 and $38,222 from poker rake and fees.

Spending was down from $28.5m in April of 2020 to $21.5m this year, while consumers won $20.6m from online gaming during the month.

Dover Downs was the most successful of the US state’s three operators in April, generating $369,258 in revenue from $7.8m in bets.

Delaware Park, which led the market in March, ranked second with $261,414 in revenue, despite players spending more – $8.5m – with the operator than at Dover Downs.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Revenue for the three months through to March 31 amounted to $111.8m (£79.5m/€92.3m), up from $35.2m in the same period last year and representing a new quarterly record for the operator.

RSI, which has generated record revenue in each quarter since Q2 of 2019, said ongoing growth within the business was primarily down to a sustained strong performance of its online casino division. The operator said online casino will continue to drive growth for the rest of 2021 and beyond.

Though RSI did not publish a full breakdown of revenue performance for its different divisions, it did state that online casino generated more revenue than online sports betting in three of its core states: Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In Michigan, online casino outperformed sports betting by 78.3% to 21.7%, while in New Jersey the split was 70.1% to 29.9% and in Pennsylvania 78.3% to 21.7%.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

However, it added that measurement of gambling-related harm should still generally should move to online surveying – adjusted through less frequent face-to-face “benchmarks” – due to high costs and sample-size issues in face-to-face surveys.

Authored by Professor Patrick Sturgis and Professor Jouni Kuha from the London School of Economics, the study looked at how methodological differences between surveys affect the accuracy of estimates of gambling harms.

GambleAware commissioned the research in response to a 2019 YouGov study, which it said found higher rates of gambling harms across Great Britain than previously been reported by the 2016 and 2018 Health Surveys for England. The charity said that this discrepancy led to concerns over the real level of problem gambling in Britain.

Researchers noted that the entire YouGov study took place through online surveys, while the earlier projects focused around face-to-face interviews. Other online-only surveys by Yonder and a further study by YouGov also produced higher problem gambling rates.

In their findings, researchers said the primary cause of this discrepancy was due to selection bias in online surveys, with these questionnaires skewed towards people comfortable using online technologies and who use the internet regularly.

“Selection bias is a particular risk for the online surveys because they either have low response rates, or use non-probability sampling,” the study said.

Researchers also said these people are more likely to be online and frequent gamblers, and as such, online-only surveys would tend to over-estimate gambling harm.

However, despite this finding, the researchers said online methods would prove to be the best research method moving forward, but only when combined with a programme of methodological testing and development to mitigate selection bias.

Researchers also noted that given the increasing cost of in-person surveys, online surveying would represent a cheaper option and, as such, more research and wider studies could be carried out to get a better idea of problem gambling levels. 

In addition, researchers said in-person surveying should not stop completely, suggesting probability sampling and face-to-face interviewing be used to provide periodic benchmarks.

“Our research has found that online surveys tend to systematically overestimate the prevalence of gambling harm compared to face-to-face interview surveys,” Professor Sturgis said.

“However, given the very high and rising cost of in person surveying, and the limits this places on sample size and the frequency of surveys, we recommend a shift to predominantly online data collection in future, supplemented by periodic in person benchmarks.”

GambleAware’s research, information and knowledge director Alison Clare added: “We want our prevention, treatment, and support commissioning to be informed by the best available evidence, and having survey data we can be confident in, within the constraints of data collection in an increasingly online world, is key. 

“GambleAware’s annual GB Treatment & Support survey is an important tool in building a picture of the stated demand for gambling harms support and treatment, and of the services, capacity and capability needed across Great Britain to meet that demand.”

The most recent edition of GambleAware’s GB Treatment & Support survey was published in March, suggesting an increase in the percentage of problem gamblers seeking treatment.

Carried out by YouGov, the survey found 63% of problem gamblers reported using some form of treatment, advice or support in the past 12 months, compared to 54% in November 2019.