Month: June 2021

As a member, Playtech will have access to information, webinars and training related to diversity, equality and inclusion within the gambling sector.

Playtech said membership of the All-In Diversity Project fits in with Sustainable Success’, its ongoing global sustainability strategy that aims to grow the business in a way that has a positive impact on its people, its communities, the environment and the industry.

“Partnering with the All-In Diversity Project will play an important role in supporting our efforts to promote an inclusive culture and accelerate progress on every aspect of diversity within the organisation,” Playtech chief operating officer Shimon Akad said.

All-in Diversity Project co-founder Kelly Kehn added: “Playtech’s timing could not be better. As we continue to grow and align our work with the needs of the industry, having the support of established industry leaders is key to driving impactful change. 

“This together with their commitment to the Project we are very much looking forward to their commitment and good work we can accomplish with their support.”

Last month, the Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA) and lottery betting operator Lottoland also signed up as members of the initiative.

The start of the ban is considered to be April 2021, meaning that both players won’t be cleared to return to competition until April 2024.

The incident occurred during a Resurgence vs BlackBird Ignis match during the Valorant Ignition Series on 22 September 2020.

The subsequent investigation into match-fixing allegations found that both Resurgence players conspired to bet against their own team, with Chung concocting the plan and Tan providing the funds.

Chung informed the rest of the team about the wager, although they refused to throw the match.

After Resurgence lost the match 2-0, Chung unsuccessfully attempted to pay off his teammates. The group disbanded shortly after.

A statement from Valorant said: “Maintaining the competitive integrity of our tournaments is our top priority and we take such matters extremely seriously.

“All players are expected to abide by the rules of fair play, agreed upon prior to participation in the tournaments. Violations of the rules of fair play will not be tolerated by Valorant Esports.”

In the role, Kusztos will be responsible for overseeing Playson’s commercial strategy, which includes the expansion of its footprint into more regulated markets around the world.

Kusztos joins Playson after a spell as head of sales and account management at Kalamba Games.

Prior to this, had a spell as senior account manager at Quickspin and also spent over a year as head of customer relationship management at Rizk.com.

Kusztos also previously served as casino co-ordinator at Betsson, as well as both casino and poker manager and casino and poker coordinator at GoldBet.

“By maintaining the company’s customised approach and extending its reach even further, I look forward to helping Playson build on the significant milestones it has achieved to date,” Kusztos said.

Playson chief executive Alex Ivshin added: “Tamas Kusztos is an exemplary professional with an impressive track-record who we are delighted to welcome to the team and look forward to working with. 

“Our newly-created CCO role will help us provide an outstanding service with a personal touch, and Tamas has the right skills to do exactly that for a partnership network that is rapidly extending.” 

The appointment comes after Playson last week secured a manufacturer’s suitability licence from the Hellenic Gaming Commission in Greece.

The licence will enable Playson to supply its content to the newly regulated Greek market and sign agreements with licensed operators in the country.

The regulations were drawn up by KRAIL last week, and released to the public yesterday. The rules define responsible gambling provisions for operators under the new re-regulated market, after Ukraine passed a bill to legalise a wide range of gambling verticals last year.

Among the rules is a major restriction on bonuses for existing players. Operators are “obliged to refrain from providing players with any bonus payments, and/or providing goods or services through incentives, the provision of which is directly or indirectly due to the losses of a player in a certain game”.

This rule would mean operators would be unable to offer a bonus to players because they have lost money, or to make a bonus contingent on losses.

In addition, all players must have the option to both self-exclude and set deposit limits. Players must also be allowed to see how much time they have spent gambling.

Operators must also train their staff to recognise the definition and possible signs of problem gambling.

Although KRAIL has already issued licences, Ukraine is also still drawing up legislation to tax gambling. Last week, the country’s legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, progressed a bill to set gambling taxes in the country to a second reading. However, a motion to pass the bill immediately with a single vote fell short of the required vote total, despite more Deputies voting for the bill than against.

The proposal – bill 2713-D – was first put forward by a legislative committee in February this year through amendments to an earlier proposal and would set tax rates at 10% of gross revenue for all verticals. Previously, plans for gambling tax in Ukraine’s newly-regulated landscape called for a rate ranging from 10% to 30% of gross revenue depending on vertical.

Hollywood Casino operator the Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association – a subsidiary of Penn National Gaming – was given two fines totaling $120,000. The first – worth $70,000 – was for allowing a self-excluded customer to gamble, become intoxicated and subsequently cause damage to other customers’ vehicles.

The second $50,000 fine was for the actions of two since-terminated employees, who “willfully funneled payments” to service providers so these providers would make inaccurate disclosures to the PCGB, resulting in lower licence fees.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The deal will run until the end of 2021 and see Dafabet become the first official partner of Palmeiras within the sports betting category.

Dafabet will receive a branding presence inside the team’s Allianz Parque home stadium, as well as the club’s football academy and across its social media pages.

Fan-focused activations are also planned, while supporters will have access to a range of exclusive promotions and bonuses on Dafabet.

“This partnership between the biggest champion in Brazil and the Libertadores winner, and one of the biggest online betting companies, in the world is just the beginning of a great story,” Dafabet’s Brazil and Latin America executive director Kasper Trier said.

Palmeiras’ executive director of marketing Roberto Trinas added: “We are grateful for the trust and hope that this partnership will bring results and benefits for the parties involved, especially for the millions of fans in Palmeiras.”

Dafabet has a number of other sports sponsorship deals in place, including agreements with Scottish Premier League club Celtic and Spanish La Liga team Cadiz.

Earlier this month, Dafabet was replaced as the main sponsor of English Premier League club Norwich City by Asia-facing betting operator BK8 Sports. However, Norwich terminated the deal just days later after negative reactions from fans and other partners.

The tool uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to read and understand the sentiment behind reviews written by all of the affiliates that have signed up to and used the First Look platform.

Each affiliate review is then given a sentiment score from one, the lowest score, to the highest score of five, with the average score for each game measured and shared with the studio. Studios can also receive an average score for the sentiment across all of their games.

First Look will use the sentiment scores as part of its Game Index, which ranks all of the games listed in its library. The Index is currently based on the number of game reviews made by affiliates, games’ audience reach and the number of free-to-play demo sessions played.

The tool is an extension of First Look’s Accuracy Management Service, a tool designed to identify inaccurate reviews of games and automatically communicate corrections on behalf of the developer.

Tom Galanis, managing director of First Look Games, said that since the platform’s launch, its game studio partners have been looking for ways to improve the reviews they receive from affiliates.

“Sentiment Analysis is a great addition to our suite of tools that allow our studio partners to have a clear understanding of how their games are being received by affiliates and players,” Galanis said.

“Combined with the other tools and services we provide such as the Demo Game Server, Accuracy Management, First Look Premium and our Coverage Reporting, Sentiment Analysis is another piece of the technical innovation puzzle that makes our platform – and the affiliates we work with – the ultimate vehicle to market online casino games.”

Overall revenue for the US state’s market was significantly higher than the $95.9m posted in May 2020, primarily due to the impact of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions in New Jersey last year.

New Jersey’s land-based casinos were closed for all of May 2020, while sports wagering options were limited due to the cancellation and postponement of almost all major sporting events.

However, as the Covid-19 situation continued to ease in the US and restrictions are eased, the state continued its recovery, with this also reflected by a month-on-month increase in revenue from $352.2m in April.

Sports betting revenue rocketed 434.3% year-on-year to $52.9m, while the amount bet by consumers in New Jersey also hiked 591.3% to $814.3m. A total of $734.7m was wagered online, compared to $79.6m at retail sportsbook locations.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Venues including gaming halls, betting shops and casinos were able to resume operations from 15 June, having been closed since 9 November last year.

The regulator said the reopening of facilities would be contingent on operators abiding by certain rules related to Covid-19, including social distancing measures and capacity limits.

Venues will also be able to operate between the hours of 6am and 10pm until Covid-19 rules are relaxed further in Latvia.

The reopening marks the end of the second period of closure for gambling venues, with facilities having first closed their doors on 6 April last year, not opening up again until 9 June.

In the early days of the pandemic, Latvia also banned all online gambling while the country was in lockdown.

Signed by the country’s president Egils Levits, the initial version of the country’s emergency Covid-19 bill left the status of igaming unclear. It called for a prohibition on gambling and lotteries “except for interactive gambling, numerical lotteries and instant lotteries”.

However, in the next article of the bill, it said that the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Authority “shall suspend all gambling licenses for physical gambling venues […] interactive media and/or via electronic communication services”.

Janis Ungurs, director of the legal department of the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Authority, later clarified to iGB that all online gambling sites were obliged to halt operations.

The most recent set of data published by the country’s government yesterday (16 June) showed 156 new cases of Covid-19 and 11 related deaths.

The group, which owns brands such as Betfair, Paddy Power, PokerStars and FanDuel, said the committee has been formed to enhance the board’s awareness of employee matters within the decision-making process. Independent non-executive director Mary Turner will chair the new committee, with members including Flutter chairman Gary McGann, and directors Nancy Cruickshank, Nancy Dubuc and Richard Flint.

The Workforce Engagement Committee’s duties will include ensuring Flutter maintains appropriate workforce engagement policies, processes and communication channels throughout each division, encouraging participation in and evaluating feedback received from workforce engagement initiatives, and keeping fully informed on issues identified by employees and other stakeholders as having a material impact on the group’s workforce and communicating such issues to the board.

The new committee, which will represent employees from 75 different nationalities speaking 62 languages, will replace the Employee Voice Forum that was formed in accordance with the recommendations of the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code.

Flutter chair McGann said: “As a diverse international group, we recognise the important role our workforce plays in our success. The establishment of the new Workforce Engagement Committee will provide a clear mechanism for the board to listen to the views of our workforce and take account of these views in the board’s decision-making process.”

Meanwhile, Flutter subsidiary FanDuel Group has announced that its new technology campus will be located at Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Georgia.

The technology hub will house software engineering, product development, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) teams.

FanDuel said it plans to grow its Atlanta-based work force to approximately 900 employees over the next five years.

“Ponce City Market is the perfect location for our new technology campus and reflects our commitment to becoming a central part of the Atlanta corporate footprint,” said Sarah Butterfass, FanDuel’s chief product officer.

“This historic building offers our employees a blend of old-world charm, cutting edge sophistication and modern amenities that will deliver an unmatched working environment. Additionally, its location allows us to build deep ties to Atlanta’s diverse pipeline of talent coming from its many top-flight universities.”