Month: June 2021

Under the deal, agreed with the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), FDJ will partner with the event for its debut edition next year, as well as the 2023 and 2024 events. 

The first Tour de France Femmes is due to begin on 24 July next year, marking the first ever official women’s edition of the event. The men’s Tour de France first took place in 1903.

FDJ has sponsored the men’s Tour de France since 2017, while the operator is also a partner of the FDJ – Nouvelle-Aquitaine – Futuroscope women’s cycling team.

“We have been campaigning for many years for the creation of this event; it was therefore natural that we should be a major partner,” FDJ Group chief executive Stéphane Pallez said.

“We have always wanted to contribute to the development of French races to offer greater visibility to the discipline and promote the practice of all. We were among the first sponsors of ‘La Course by le Tour’ and FDJ will be a partner of the first Paris-Roubaix Femmes.”

The regulator issued a consultation response today (18 June), after the country’s government submitted a series of potential reforms in a report, titled “Modernized Consumer Protection”, intended to strengthen consumer protection.

This report included a suggestion that marketing disruption fees – a form of penalty for certain violations of the Marketing Act (MFL) – be expanded to cover more violations.

Currently, the penalty applies only for infringing section 7 of the MFL, which deals specifically with “coercive” marketing.

However, the report said it should be extended to violations of sections 5 and 6, which would include fees for infractions of good marketing practices” if the marketing violation “appreciably affects or probably affects the recipient’s ability to make a well-founded transaction decision”.

This change was something the regulator said it supporter.

“The Swedish Gaming Inspectorate is positive about the inquiry’s proposal that the opportunity to decide on issuing a market disruption fee, according to section 29 of the MFL, shall be extended include violations of Sections 5 and 6 of the MFL,” read the response.

The inquiry into consumer protection suggested that the maximum fine should be 4% of an operator’s annual turnover. Spelinspektionen said it supported this was well.

Genius Sports has gained exclusive rights to distribute live data, including betting data, and broadcasts from more than 1,200 PPA matches per year. 

Pickleball combines aspects of tennis, badminton and ping-pong and is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S with over three million players.

The supplier has formed several partnerships over the last twelve months including with the DTP, Argentinian FA, Liga MX, and American Hockey League.

As part of the exclusive data deal, Genius Sports will broadcast the live streams, with each PPA event featuring eight courts of live streaming per day. 

Speaking on the new partnership, Sean Conroy, commercial director of Genius Sports, said:

“For more than 20 years Genius Sports has established an incredible track record of driving the growth of sports at every level, providing data-driven technology that connects them with fans around the world.

“Our long-term partnership with the PPA will combine our leading capabilities across live streaming, production, and regulated betting to accelerate their growth and expand their global reach.”

The new legislation unifies the country’s previous Lottery Act, Gambling Act and Totalisator Act while maintaining the market monopoly shared by Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto by ‘strengthening the exclusive rights model’.

This will be achieved, in part, by allowing the imposition of fines to any other operators who attempt to offer gambling in Norway.

The new gambling law was first proposed in June 2020, before the government notified the European Commission of the proposal in August of the same year.

Minister of culture and gender equality Abid Raja said the law would specifically crack down on operators who are not permitted to offer gambling in Norway.

“I am pleased to finally be able to present the new gambling law, which is a milestone in the government’s work to prevent gambling problems and ensure responsible gambling.

“We are tired of foreign gambling companies that do not respect Norwegian law, and that do not operate with proper accountability measures. Therefore, the new law provides the Norwegian Lotteries Authority with new tools for detecting, reacting to and sanctioning violations of the law.” 

Under the new law – which was criticised by sections of the Norwegian gaming industry when first proposed for continuing the monopoly system – marketing gambling without a Norwegian licence is prohibited. The government said that this would apply not only to operators, but also to those who “pass on” customers, such as affiliates.

“Violation of the ban can result in punishment,” the government said.

Furthermore, marketing gambling to children will be a criminal offence, and there is a blanket ban on gambling with credit cards so as to promote responsible gambling habits.

Any operators are also obliged to introduce accountability measures, and any marketing to self-excluded gamblers will be a criminal offence. Marketing must also “not go beyond what is necessary to attract players to the legal gaming offers”.

Raja added: “Things are happening in the gambling field in Norway. The government has worked consciously for many years with gambling policy and this is yielding results. 

“Foreign gambling companies and their payment intermediaries are withdrawing from the Norwegian market, their turnover is declining and advertising is no longer as easy to reach.” 

The government in May last year issued a decree significantly reducing monthly and weekly loss limits for online casino offered by Veikkaus on a temporary basis during Covid-19.

However, the measures have remained throughout the pandemic, with the rules having been extended several times, the most recent being until 30 June.

The government has now confirmed that the loss limits will become permanent. 

Players will only be able to lose maximum of €500 (£429/$596) each day while playing online casino games with Veikkaus. The limit was previously set at €1,000 per day.

A monthly loss limit of €2,000 for online casinos games will also remain in place, as set out by the new decree.

“The reduced maximum loss limit has been in use for a year,” Finland’s Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo said. “Loss limits are a good way to prevent gambling harm. 

“In addition to gambling problems, lowering the loss limit will combat over-indebtedness and livelihood problems, and I am pleased that the daily loss limit will be permanently reduced from €1,000 to €500.”

As part of the partnership, Liège-based Circus will continue several initiatives with the team, including the sponsorship of halftime shows and the extension of its role as Standard de Liège’s official esports partner.

“Renewing our partnership with Standard de Liège was an obvious choice for Circus, if only for our pride in our Liège roots,” said Emmanuel Mewissen, CEO of Circus.

“Like Standard, we use our presence in Belgium to develop our visibility internationally.”

In addition, Circus will continue to sponsor Standard de Liège’s shirts. Circus’ logo first appeared on the team’s kit in 2018.

“Betting on Circus was the winnings choice for us,” said Alexandre Grosjean, CEO of Standard de Liège. “We are happy to extend this dynamic partnership that has become a long-lasting relationship throughout the seasons,”

He added, “Our two institutions are committed to highlighting our local roots while developing a quality brand image on a national and even international level.”

In April, Gaming1 became a member of the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), which allowed Circus to partake in the IBIA global monitoring and alert platform.

Senate Bill 1352 was first introduced by Senator Louis Luchini in April, but was later amended to bring in a major change to who can receive a licence.

Initially, a commercial racetrack, an off-track betting facility, a slot machine or casino operator or a federally recognised tribe could be licenced, but the new version of the bill would limit licences only to casinos.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Under the deal, GAN will have the online rights to more than 110 games over the course of the agreement, with the supplier to immediately begin deriving online content licensing fees from Incredible Technologies’ existing online operations in New Jersey

GAN said the arrangement will add to the content acquisition strategy devised to increase its overall ‘take rate’ on B2B gross operator revenue from igaming, as well as secure a share of existing igaming revenues from B2C operators that are not already clients.

Content will be distributed through the GAN’s platform or Super RGS in the US market.

Incredible Technologies designs and manufactures electronic gaming machines in the US, with its slot machines such as Crazy Money and Money Rain operating on the retail casino gaming floors across the country and also available online in New Jersey.

“Today’s announcement is another exciting step toward building upon our strategy of establishing exclusive online access rights to the most popular retail US slot games,” GAN’s chief commercial officer Jeff Berman said.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Based at the Agnelli Foundation in Turin, the facility will focus on innovation and developing new ideas within the digital and artificial intelligence spaces.

The Innovation Lab will also be accessible to universities, research centres and start-ups.

Sisal said that the new Innovation Lab forms part of its ongoing economic and employment investment plan, through which it is aiming to bring new technologies to the market.

“Over the last few years, we have made great strides, created new gaming platforms with the desire to be a market leader in technologies, invested in data platform and artificial intelligence and revolutionised our digital offer,” Sisal’s chief information officer Mario Martinelli said.

“Today I am very satisfied with this new goal: the creation of a lab dedicated to innovation that will be able to dedicate itself to focusing on ideas, the enhancement of talents, experimentation and research will help the whole company.”

Sisal’s chief digital officer and project manager Davide Filizola added: “The Innovation Lab was created to combine a specific need and a common will: the first is to actively contribute to the training of young professionals, while the second is to attract new skills. 

“With this initiative, Sisal wants to create an external observatory on digital issues and at the same time a great incubator of ideas that can then be translated into concrete projects to be developed within the company.”

The launch comes at a time when Sisal is bidding for the tender for the fourth UK National Lottery licence. The operator has partnered with children’s charity Barnardo’s and telecommunications giant BT on the bid.

This marks the next step in Spain’s plan to bring together its self-exclusion registers, which are currently maintained separately in each of its autonomous communities.

The plan was first agreed in September 2020 at a meeting of the national Gambling Policy Council, chaired by Minister of Consumer Affairs Alberto Garzón.

In addition to the registers’ integration, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has also outlined two other regulatory projects; the draft royal decree on safer gambling environments, and the regulatory basis for the granting of subsidies in order to carry out research related to the prevention of problem gambling.

Once the proposal for the integration of its self-exclusion databases is approved, the local authorities responsible for gambling will proceed to work on the technological developments and necessary regulatory changes that will allow for the integration to take place.

The process will involve moving player data from locally maintained registers into the General Self-Exclusion Register (RGIAJ), which will be administrated by the nation’s central gambling regulator, the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ).

In January, Spain’s Ministry for Consumer Affairs set out its priorities for this year, with a focus on improving the strength of consumer protection in the industry.

The integration of the country’s self-exclusion registers was cited as a key priority for 2021.