Month: June 2021

Under the agreement, OlyBet will serve as the official sports betting partner of the NHL in the Baltic region.

OlyBet will be able to use official NHL branding to promote the partnership in nearly 100 casinos, hotels and food and beverage locations across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as across its digital assets.

The betting operator will also receive marketing opportunities across the NHL’s social and digital media assets, while OlyBet will leverage promotional opportunities in connection with the NHL’s marquee events, including regular season games, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final.

The partnership was also supported by Sportradar, the official global data distributor for the NHL. The league uses ad:s, Sportradar’s data-driven marketing solution providing, it with digital marketing services to develop sports betting partnerships outside of North America.

“There are legions of loyal and passionate NHL fans in the Baltics, and partnering with OlyBet, the top sports betting brand in the region, provides a terrific opportunity for the NHL to further fan engagement in this part of Europe,” NHL vice president of international business development and partnerships, John Lewicki, said.

Olympic Entertainment chairman and chief executive Corey Plummer added: “Ice hockey is very popular in our markets and our customers will now have more opportunities to engage with the NHL through live broadcasts and games, local events, social media and the best betting experiences in Europe.

“The combined brand power, excitement of the sport and live experiences is a proposition that our customers love and will have more of with the NHL partnership.”

Smart&Applied, which has worked closely with Stakelogic for the last three years, will rebrand to Stakelogic Serbia as part of the deal and relocate to a new office in Belgrade.

Stakelogic, who appointed a new chief commercial officer back in April, see the agreement as a way to further enhance its in-house game development capacity.

Stakelogic chief executive Stephan van den Oetelaar said: “The acquisition of Smart&Applied really strengthens our in-house development capacity and will allow us to continue to grow at pace while delivering new content to the market on a regular basis.
“Personally, I am really excited that Igor will be managing Stakelogic Serbia. We have become great friends over the years and his knowledge and experience is second to none. This really was a natural acquisition for us and one that I believe will deliver tremendous results over the coming years.”

Stakelogic Serbia general manager Igor Marinkovic added: “I am thrilled to become part of one of the fastest-growing game suppliers in the industry and to play my part in ensuring the business continues its rapid rise over the coming months and years.
“The relationship between Smart&Applied and Stakelogic has become incredibly strong as we have been working hand in hand on a daily basis for many years. An acquisition was the next obvious step, and I am pleased my team can continue to focus on game development under the Stakelogic name.”

The live video notification function will automatically create live video highlights from the WSC Sports machine-learning platform, delivering media to customers’ mobile app via push notifications.

As short event clips are delivered in real-time, WSC Sports and Sportradar said that this will encourage both active and inactive users to view and engage with the app.

The proprietary WSC Sports AI platform creates personalised automated highlights for 17 different sports for over 150 leagues and broadcast partners around the world.

The Live Video Notification service will feature content from Sportradar’s portfolio of media rights, which includes top-tier football competitions from Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well tennis and basketball events.

WSC Sports and Sportradar added that this will be the first in a full suite of products that they will co-develop, with new in-app integrations and other video-based features also set to be released.

“We are thrilled to work with an industry leader like Sportradar and look forward to building out a full portfolio of engaging products that will help betting operators differentiate themselves with personalised content while better utilizing streaming rights,” WSC Sports’ head of betting Yuval Benyamini said.

“Live video notification offers users a unique experience that delivers videos of in-game action directly to mobile phones in near real time – creating an entirely new way to engage and experience the action.”

Sportradar’s global director of video and streaming products Patrick Mostboeck added: “As the market is continually moving forward, we are constantly looking to provide our clients with new and innovative ways to engage with fans. 

“Live video notification is a game changer, providing top quality video highlights in near real-time to deliver a higher betting conversion through this new and unrivalled fan engagement feature.”

Sportech is currently trading its shares at 20 pence each on the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority but has proposed applying for admission to the LSE’s AIM.

In order to delist, Sportech would require the approval of at least 75% of its shareholders who vote in person or via proxy at its general meetings. As such, Sportech plans to hold a general meeting on 29 June to discuss the proposal.

“The directors believe that AIM is a market and environment which is more suited to the company’s current size and strategy and AIM will offer greater flexibility with regard to corporate transactions and should therefore enable the company to agree and execute certain transactions more quickly and cost effectively than a company on the official list,” Sportech said.

The proposal comes after Sportech in April announced a loss of £12.8m (€14.9m/$18.1m) in 2020, while revenue was also down 40.6% year-on-year to £20.0m.

During 2020, Sportech sold both its Global Tote business and the Bump 50:50 lottery brand, with chief executive Richard McGuire describing the year as extremely difficult due to the impact of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

In March, Sportech also announced that chief commercial officer Julian Bewley had stepped down from his role to pursue other opportunities.

Playmaker is trading under the ticker symbol PMKR on the TSXV as part of plans to expand its presence in the wider North American market.

The listing comes after Playmaker in April finalized its first acquisition in the form of Futbol Sites, a digital sports media group that connects brands and sports betting operators to fans across Latin America and the US. Playmaker said it will now seek further acquisitions as part of is wider expansion plans.

This strategy also saw the business bring in Cassaday as chief operating officer. Cassaday was previously a partner at Relay Ventures, a North American venture capital fund and the lead investor behind Playmaker

Cassaday, who spent six years at Relay Ventures, has been heavily involved with Playmaker since its inception, helping build its strategy, raise capital and carry out initial acquisitions.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Senate Bill 247, if signed into law, will require facilities to hold gaming licenses in order to offer sports wagering, regulate gaming license recipients and authorize wagering limitations.

According to the bill, 20 licenses will be issued to operate a sportsbook in the state. The Louisiana Gaming Control Board will first consider applications from the one land-based casino, 15 riverboats and the four racetracks operating in the state.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

By Kenneth Williams

Match betting is the bread-and-butter of most esports betting sites, but fantasy esports are quickly gaining popularity. While a match wager only heightens the experience for a single game, fantasy leagues let fans engage with their favourite players and teams for an entire season. Online fantasy esports competitions can be played for both digital points and real money.

Ideally, a betting service should offer both options. However, offering fantasy isn’t as straightforward as simply swapping some values over – stats have to be collected on a player-by-player basis and combined on the backend. In addition to programming and maintenance, betting operators will need to create or update advertisements for fantasy esports. The length of fantasy events can also be challenging to determine, though most sites limit drafts to a single event or organised season.

It’s a lot of work, but implementing fantasy drafting will attract a whole new audience to your site. Despite the demand, very few operators offer both match bets and fantasy drafts so most fans have to go to dedicated sites such as DraftKings or DraftBuff to get their fix. Having both options is a great way to differentiate yourself from the crowd, and the digital nature of esports gives plenty of room for innovation.

Why users may enjoy having both options

The biggest reason to offer fantasy esports is the distinct split between match bettors and fantasy drafters. While there is some overlap, the two groups are looking for separate experiences. We can make some inferences on esports fantasy bettors based on their traditional sports counterparts. Drafters prefer their system for three major reasons:

• Social experience – Fantasy drafts are a group activity. Players are more likely to be social when engaging in fantasy esports. Friends and family can monitor players and teams across events, especially at esports watch parties.
• Skill-based results – Successful drafters perceive their victories as being a result of their knowledge. This is true for match betting but the social element and effort of fantasy put bragging rights on the table.
• Closer to the sport – Fantasy drafting demands a holistic knowledge of a competitive scene. Having your favourite players on one team creates a relationship across multiple squads and regions and gives a reason to watch the whole event play out.

Bookies looking to offer fantasy should keep those three traits in mind when expanding their websites. Embedded streams allow players to monitor their drafts and watch matches without leaving their sportsbooks. They’ll further appreciate customisable multi-streams and support for Twitch alternatives such as YouTube and Facebook. 

An in-house stats database is another very sought-after feature. Drafts often need filler to take up the remaining budget, but no one wants to feel like they’re picking names out of a hat. Operators with existing esports data partnerships will have a much easier time implementing embedded stats.

Both penalties dealt with self-exclusion tool Spelpaus, which all operators must be connected to, with both Genesis and Aspire performing manual checks instead.

Genesis received a warning and a SEK4m (£329,600/€382,000/$431,900) penalty fee in March 2019 after a number of consumers that had self-excluded informed the regulator that it had not been connected to Spelpaus for 33 days. The operator’s websites include Sloty, Play.com and Casino Joy.

Aspire – which operates sites such Karamba and Mr Play – received a SEK3m penalty fee after it had not been connected for nine days.

Like all penalties in Sweden, the payments in this case were based on both the seriousness of the offences involved and the annual turnover of the licensee that committed an infringement.

However, both operators appealed the decisions to the Court of Appeal in Linköping, which cut both penalties in half to SEK2m and SEK1.5m.

While the court agreed with Spelinspektionen that both operators had serious deficiencies in their self-exclusion practices, and thus must pay a penalty, it said the way turnover – which is used to determine the size of a penalty – was counted was wrong, and so the penalties were lower.

The two operators, though, both appealed the ruling again, this time to the Court of Appeal in Jönköping.

The operators both argued that the infringements were not serious and that therefore a only warning should apply. Each said that there was not enough proof of serious negative consequences of their failings to justify a penalty, but Spelinspektionen said the fact that self-excluded players were able to use their sites was enough of a consequence.

The court again said the infringements were serious, however.

“In general, the administrative court finds that it has been shown that the company has breached its obligation to deny self-sexcluded players access to play in the manner that follows from relevant regulation”

However, the court said Spelinspektionen was wrong in the way that it calculated the size of the penalty. While it said the regulator may base penalties on turnover generally, it noted that for these cases, it took the operator’s turnover for only January and February 2019 and calculated annual turnover from these figures. The operators both said this led to inaccurate figures, and as Spelinspektionen did not present evidence otherwise, the court lowered both penalties to SEK1m.

This decision may be appealed again, however, in Sweden’s Supreme Court.

This marks the second major defeat in a court of appeal for Spelinspektionen this week. A court also refused the regulator’s leave to appeal a case against Kindred concerning a loophole in the country’s SEK5,000 deposit cap for online casino. Under this loophole, players could potentially deposit more than SEK5,000 to spend on online casino by raising their deposit limit, depositing funds and lowering the limit again.

Both Genesis and Aspire also received penalty fees in 2019 over bonus violations. Genesis’ penalty was reduced on appeal, but Aspire’s appeal was rejected.

Welcome to the debut quarterly results review from Earnings+More which, suitably enough, covers the first-quarter results statements and earnings calls from the global listed sector.

We start with what may seem an obvious observation; namely the vast amount of commentary and earnings figures that are divulged about the sports betting and online gaming opportunity in the US. 

The number of listed entities in the US, Europe and Australia that now have something to say about the US has ballooned in the three years since the fall of PASPA and it means that come the quarterly reckonings, market participants and industry observers are not short of news and opinion.

Back in the old world, meanwhile, issues around regulating markets are also front and centre of the conversation. However, as we all know the atmosphere surrounding developments in Europe is very different from the US. Indeed, heading in the opposite direction is the phrase most often used.

But whether that brings clarity is a different matter. Here is a rundown of some of the areas of debate.

Everyone’s a winner

Another obvious point to make about the US right now is that no one is about to let slip that they are anything other than serious contenders in the burgeoning US market. Every mother believes they have the most beautiful new-born and similarly, every CEO involved in the US market believes they have the best brand, the best market opportunity and the best team to achieve success.

The momentum behind sports betting and online gaming stateside is now clearly compelling.

To take it from the top, one of the early market leaders DraftKings comfortably beat expectations for the quarter and raised its revenue guidance for 2021 to between $1.05bn-$1.15bn.

The prospects were so rosy largely because the evidence from openings during the quarter in Michigan and Virginia suggested that the revenue ramp as witnessed in the bellwether of New Jersey since launch might be considered “reasonable and even conservative.”

The positivity was matched by major rival FanDuel, whose parent Flutter Entertainment in the UK issued a trading update which spoke about US revenues soaring 135% in the first three months of the year.

Meanwhile the commentary from those lining up to take shots at the market leaders piled up, BetMGM, Penn National (with Barstool Sportsbook), Caesars (newly augmented with William Hill), Bally Corporation, Churchill Downs and Wynn Resorts (with its Wynn Interactive/Austerlitz SPAC spin-off) were among those which were keen to state their sports betting and online gaming ambitions. 

All see this as a once-in-a-generation chance for their businesses to potentially achieve similar valuations and multiples as those displayed by the tech giants.

“It is the way we look at the space,” Jay Snowden, Penn CEO said. “We were first mover in a lot of areas. The first REIT, first into social gaming, when we acquired Barstool that raised eyebrows. So, what we are saying is we’ve been disruptive, and we will continue to be disruptive. We like when it’s chaotic.”

The Germany hit

All this hope for the future stands in stark contrast with what was said about Europe and Germany in particular. This was the first earnings round after the so-called toleration regime came into force at the end of last year, whereby any operator taking bets in Germany had to conform to the rules that will be formally adopted in just a month’s time.

The data we have so far has been patchy. Flutter, for instance, said the impact of the new rules was “significant” and the hit to EBITDA would be in the region of £20m. Similar warnings came from 888 which said revenues had declined “around” 40-50% and from Entain which said that such “ballpark’ figures were correct. 

LeoVegas said revenues from Germany more than halved and as a percentage of total revenues, Germany now accounted for 6% versus 15% previously. CEO Gustav Hagman said Germany was now a “massive black market”.

“At the moment it’s the Wild West there, 70-80% of the players have shifted to the black market”, Hagman told analysts.

The declines are largely casino-led so it was perhaps not surprising that Bet-at-home, a company with a more pronounced sports-betting bias, was more upbeat. While gaming revenues for Bet-at-home were down 28.5% across the business as a whole (Germany represents circa 36% of total NGR), the company said the long-term benefits of being an “established provider with a high-profile in a core market” would “outweigh” the short-term hit. 

The post-Covid return

The divergent paths between the US and Europe are not just regulatory. In the land-based sector, US gaming is far ahead of Europe on post-Covid re-openings, helped by a combination of stimulus cheques and a lack of other entertainment options.

Typical of how the bounce back was being viewed was a note from analysts at Deutsche Bank published in the wake of Boyd Gaming’s all-time record results, which was titled ‘There are beats and then there are bludgeons; this is the latter.’

The comments from Full House CEO Daniel Lee somewhat summed up the mood. “We ended the quarter with a flourish and that continued into April. We hope the government will send out stimulus checks for ever.”

If only the same could be said in Europe where the gaming sector across many key territories is barely emerging from its enforced hibernation. Indeed, right at the end of the quarter Gamenet – which has recently completed the buyout of the Lottomatica B2C business – said revenues were down 61% due to the continued closures across its betting shop and slot hall estates. But CEO Guglielmo Angelozzi remained upbeat on the long-term prospects for the newly-augmented business.

“When you neutralise the Covid effect, it adds diversification and boosts our online presence to make us number one in Italy,” he said.

On the same day, Playtech released a trading update alongside the news of the sale of its financial trading arm and it likewise suggested that its online operations had benefitted even as the prolonged shuttering continued. Talking of Italy being an “under-penetrated” online market, CEO Mor Weizer said: “The pandemic has significantly accelerated Snaitech’s transition to the higher-margin online business and we expect the strong growth to continue.”

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In the role, Girvan (pictured) will support the A Game Above team with its response to demand for its campaigns, promotions and events across the betting and gaming markets, with a mandate to secure exclusive partnerships on a per product vertical and per state basis in the US.

Girvan, a columnist for iGB, will also introduce and develop relationships with tribal gaming operations, commercial gaming brands and B2B gaming suppliers and manufacturers.

He joins A Game Above having previously served as a managing partner for The Innovation Group, a research and advisory organisation focused on tourism, leisure, hospitality, entertainment and gaming.

Read the full story on iGB North America.