Month: June 2021

Nargolwala steps into the role after his appointment as deputy chair of Singapore Pool in January 2021. He has over 40 years of previous finance experience in Europe, Asia and the US, and currently sits on the board of PSE International and Credit Suisse AG.

In addition, he is currently the chairman of 65 Equity Partners.

He replaces Koh Choon Hui, who stepped down after serving as the operator’s chair for eight years.

“Singapore Pools welcomes Mr Nargolwala’s appointment as Chairman for Singapore Pools and expresses deep appreciation to Mr Koh Choon Hui for his contributions to Singapore Pools,” the operator said.

As chair, Hui aided in developing responsible betting initiatives for Singapore Pools and supported the establishment of iShine Cloud, a charity that offers free cloud-based platforms to other charities.

Nargolwala holds a first class honours degree in Economics from the University of Dehli and was awarded the Public Service Star Medal (Bintang Bakti Masyarakat) in acknowledgement of his services to Singapore.

The company – along with its two managing directors Axel Holthaus (pictured above left) and Sven Osthoff (pictured above right) – was elected unanimously and will succeed Lotto Rheinland-Pfalz – and managing director Jürgen Häfner – which chaired the powerful industry association for the past three years.

Lotto Rheinland-Pfalz will relinquish its position on 31 December, 2021, allowing Toto-Lotto Niedersachsen to take over on 1 January, 2022.

Holthaus said: “We are very happy about the trust that all block partners have placed in us in Toto-Lotto Niedersachsen GmbH and its workforce. We will perform our tasks in the DLTB with commitment and responsibility and continue the successful term of office of Lotto Rheinland-Pfalz.

“Against the background of the State Treaty on the New Regulation of Gaming in Germany 2021 (GlüStV 2021), which will come into force on July 1, 2021, an essential task will be to strengthen the DLTB’s pooled lotteries in an increasingly digital environment.”

That state treaty, (Der Glücksspielneuregulierungstaatsverag), is due to come into effect from 1 July.

Osthoff added: “We are looking forward to being able to bring our digital expertise to the DLTB even more in the future. It is important to keep the common good-oriented lottery principle sustainable through digital transformation.”

Mads Birch is currently Head of Media Managed Services at GiG, having been in the industry since 2009. Mads has been self-employed and worked on the affiliate and operator side, and in turn, gained an in-depth understanding of igaming across different areas.

The Covid-19 pandemic has supercharged the popularity of igaming, providing new and much-needed revenue opportunities for land-based operators despite the risk of delving into the unknown. For those that were already in the online casino business, it means dealing with even more competition on the digital front.

This uncertain new landscape means that many land-based operators are actively seeking new opportunities to expand their offering. However, moving into the online casino business is not without challenge – this is why managed media services are transformative. So, even for land-based operators with no experience, managed services present a unique opportunity to make this transition.

Online casinos have become integral to the offering of more land-based operators during the pandemic. According to a figure released to iGB by the European Casino Association for a forthcoming iGB report, 63% of its members now operate an online casino. 

So faced with this increasingly competitive landscape, how can operators give themselves the best chance of success by maximising engagement levels with their digital offering?

Mads Birch Jespersen, Head of GiG’s Media Managed Services which supports operators with their digital campaigns, argues that to really hit the ground running, operators need a digital strategy in place that is conducive to long-term growth..

“GiG’s MMS is defined by our broad knowledge from every aspect of the online casino business – acquiring affordable players, but also making sure that the players acquired are well-converted and have a good lifetime value.”

“Media Managed Services address one of the two most important values when running an online casino – which are acquisition and retention.”

Creating player value

With constantly changing regulatory requirements and ever-evolving customer habits, even the most talented in-house marketing teams can struggle to keep up and align their marketing campaign accordingly.

With its rich industry knowledge, GiG’s Managed Services have the infrastructure to swiftly respond to key market trends: “We respond to any changes going on, whether it’s to do with regulation or a change in a specific market, it’s something that we can adapt to quickly. With an in-house team it’s much harder to adapt to the changes that are going on as you’re locked to that existing structure.”

“We work back and forth on both sides of the table over the years, meaning MMS has experienced both being a traditional affiliate, but also from the operator side of things, which leaves us with a huge amount of knowledge about player acquisition and also how to create amazing player value.”

Creating player value starts with targeting the right traffic. With GiG’s Media Managed Services, four main channels are targeted to provide the biggest reach including PPC, SEO, Social Media and Affiliation.

The proven acquisition model tracks player journeys, providing real-time insights to operators. This not only enhances acquisition, but provides a robust strategy for retention as operators can better understand the needs of their customer base. This has the added benefit of supporting companies’ overall brand strategy, providing the insights and the tools necessary to better understand their customer base.

“We follow these players through with our other managed services to make sure that they are some of the most valuable players on the market.”

Using the data provided, operators can make more informed decisions around their digital marketing and campaigns more widely, achieving a truly seamless experience.

Birch highlighted that it’s much faster to implement changes to your online casino than it is for a land-based site, and the data provided gives a swift and accurate overview of player behaviour. This also allows a closer relationship with casino users, as operators can engage with users more easily, with a better understanding of their needs. With improved brand recognition and a better understanding of the customer journey, these insights can then help to drive decisions on the land-based side.

Stay in control

Being able to rely on managed services to drive acquisition and retention saves operators and their marketing teams valuable time. This doesn’t mean eliminating their input though, as the process is very much a collaborative one.

Flexibility also remains focal to MMS, reflective of the huge variety of scale, needs and creativity of the businesses that make up today’s igaming space. There is certainly not one solution that fits all.

For land-based operators with little to no igaming experience, this gives them the opportunity to have as much or as little support as they need.

“Every service that we deliver is 100% transparent. We have operators that we speak to once a month and some that we speak to daily, depending on the type of approach they want – some prefer a hands-on approach, we also have some that have their own media teams and we function just as some added support to that, but combine our knowledge with the strength of the people that they have hired,” he says.

While some operators opt for more involvement than others in their digital campaigns, MMS empowers online casinos to increase their online presence effectively and efficiently.

“One of the main advantages for operators using managed services in general is that there’s an established team right there, who are ready to start up your project from day one. You have the tools, you have the strategies, you have the industry knowledge.”

Mads concluded by highlighting the power of MMS used in conjunction with GiG’s operations and CRM services. “ To make the most of their services, we do recommend that they have the right combination between the managed services to support their online casino. With the combination of managed services, they work together to make a full manageable and trackable player experience.”

The purchase was worth $1.0bn (£721.3m/€839.3m), with a deal brokered in January this year seeing IG Group agree to pay an initial $300m in cash and also issue 61 million new IG Group shares at a price of $11.47 each.

IG Group has now received all the necessary regulatory and anti-trust approvals and also satisfied necessary pre-conditions to complete the deal, with the operator having made an application for the new shares.

The issued shares will be placed in the premium listing segment of the Official List of the Financial Conduct Authority and trade on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange.

Admission is expected to become effective and unconditional today (29 June), with dealings in the shares expected to commence on the same day.

Subject to admission, the total number of ordinary shares of 0.005p each with voting rights in issue will be 431,299,455.

“This transaction marks another important milestone in the delivery of IG’s growth strategy, diversifying our product offering and significantly strengthening our global franchise,” IG Group chief executive June Felix said.

“I am thrilled to welcome Tastytrade to the IG family. Tastytrade is an innovative, high growth, high margin business giving us immediate scale in the largest retail options and futures market in the world.”

Tastytrade consists of two brands: media brand Tastytrade, which offers education to traders about options and futures markets; and brokerage platform Tastyworks, which boasts more than 105,000 active accounts.

“Tastytrade will significantly enhance our client proposition, broadening choice and opportunity while providing products, tools and educational resources to empower financial decision making,” Felix added.

Revenue across the overall regulated igaming market rose to €328.5m last month, up 14% on April’s total and 94% on last May, albeit the latter was heavily impacted by the pandemic.

After falling for two consecutive months while casino revenue moved in the opposite direction, it was the sports betting vertical that led the market upwards last month.

Despite the continuing impact of retail closures, sports betting GGR rose to €153.6m in May, with all of the revenue coming from online.

The May total represented a huge 48.3% jump on April and put betting back on par with casino, which pulled in €155.1m in revenue last month, a slight 3.8% drop on April but still an impressive 32% rise on last May.

The change in fortunes pushed the country’s two main verticals close to parity again, with casino accounting for 47.22% of the market and betting 46.74% last month.

Interestingly, betting brands with a retail presence continued to fare better than online-only operators even without stores open. Despite having always been online-only in the market, Bet365 does not seem to be benefiting from online being the only option – its share of the market continued to fall last month, dropping to its lowest level for four years at 8.9%.

Sisal led the market with a share of 13.1%, up from 12.8% the previous month, while Goldbet was not far behind at 12.8%, up from 11.8% the previous month.

Similarly, in casino the online-only Pokerstars continued to lose market share, albeit it narrowly clung to its lead with a market share of 9.82% in May. Sisal was close behind with 9.10%, while Lottomatica came in third with 7.99%.

There appears to be no danger of the poker giant losing its crown when it comes to poker in Italy, with its share standing at 48.36% for tournaments and 42.01% for cash games last month.

That’s unlikely to provide much comfort to Stars, however, given the Italian poker market’s continuing decline. Last month both tournament and cash game GGR fell back on the previous month, by 21% and 16%, respectively.

The decline was even worse when compared against May last year, with tournament revenue down 42.2% and cash revenue 36.4%.

All data and figures from the regulator are processed by leading European corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, a specialist in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.

Ficom Leisure also provides monthly figures on the New Jersey online market in the New Jersey iGaming Dashboard, Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania iGaming Dashboard and Iowa in the Iowa iGaming Dashboard, all of which are available on iGB North America.

It also provides quarterly figures on the Spanish online market in the Spain iGaming Dashboard and the Portuguese market in the Portugal iGaming Dashboard.

Usoftgaming-operated PH.casino, Gammix-owned Locowin.com, Pro Xenon Mediathek’s Kajot-Casino.com and Westcasino.com from Goldwin all now feature on the blacklist.

First published in February 2012, the blacklist includes websites deemed to be operating in Belgium illegally without the relevant licence.

Operators that continue to run gambling sites without a licence faces fines of between €100 (£85.91/$119.20) and €100,000. Players who gamble on these websites could also face criminal charges and fines ranging from €26 up to €25,000.

In April, the Commission also added Dixcasino.com, Gamdom.com, Stake.com and Fastpay-casino.com to the blacklist. This came after a group of 15 domains were added to the list in March.

William Hill, Bet365, Betfair, Betvictor, Winamax and 1xBet are among the other brands that feature on the blacklist.

In his new role, Leigh will be responsible for defining XLMedia’s long-term technology roadmap, leading its technology vision and driving value creation across its portfolio of publishing websites.

Leigh joins XLMedia having most recently served as chief digital technology officer at UK multimedia organisation JPIMedia for two and a half years.

At JPIMedia, Leigh oversaw a reshaping of the organisation’s digital assets, structures and commercial propositions, including rebuilding its entire technology stack.

Prior to this, he spent almost four years with media business Johnston Press and prior to that, almost nine years with Telegraph Media Group.

“I am very pleased to be welcoming Nigel to XLMedia’s leadership team,” XLMedia chief executive Stuart Simms said. “Nigel’s hiring is a key part of our continued commitment to become a more data-driven business, build faster and more efficient operations and to forge closer links with our consumers.”

The appointment comes after XLMedia last month forecast a year-on-year revenue growth for its 2021 financial year, despite expecting “ongoing weakness” in its European casino business.

Revenue is likely to reach between $65m (£47m/€55m) and $70m, with the lower end of this estimation representing an 18.2% year-on-year increase on the $55m posted in 2020, and the upper end of the forecast a 27.3% rise.

There is perhaps an irony that Malta, the leading European hub for dot.com or point of supply activity in many grey markets, should have found itself being placed on the grey list of the global money-laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

The press report ahead of the action from the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) had pinpointed the gaming sector and the country’s push to be known as blockchain island’ as being prime culprits for the predicted bad news.

Such were the rumours that analysts at Redeye in Stockholm issued a flash note ahead of the panned FATF press conference to suggest that Malta being added to the grey list “seems to be related to the EU (deciding) on a new definition of ‘illegal sports-betting’ and/or crypto-related. We may know more after the press briefing.”

Well, we do indeed, now know more and unsurprisingly at no point was illegal sports-betting mentioned during the press conference. Meanwhile, the head of FATF Marcus Pleyer was also quick to dismiss the rumours about blockchain, pointing out that the government’s plans in this direction were announced after the FATF investigation has been completed.

The press conference comments from Pleyer also dispelled speculation that the decision was related in some way to Malta’s lower (5%) rate of corporation taxes or government policy with regard the buying of citizenship.

But the news on where Malta had actually failed to satisfy the FATF investigators was perhaps more unsettling – and certainly more harmful to the country’s standing as a hub for business activity of any type.

Fail often, fail harder

Pleyer confirmed that Malta was being grey-listed because “strategic deficiencies” in three main areas where the country’s financial system and oversight was lacking.

The first was the area of information about the lack of information available or inaccuracies about the beneficial ownership of companies based on the island. The second is in the area of the use of financial intelligence by the government’s own tax investigation authorities and the last was to give more support for criminal prosecutions for tax offences. 

None of these, Pleyer seemed to suggest, would be the hoped-for quick fixes that previous commentary had suggested might be the case.

“There remain serious weaknesses and areas that must be addressed,” said Pleyer. “It is crucial for Malta to make sure that systems are in place that are strong enough to address money-laundering and the financing of terrorism and serious organised crime.”

He added that the Maltese government “must not downplay the importance of these measures.”

Neither should anyone be in doubt about how potentially damaging the grey-listing might be in terms of economic development. Pleyer referred during the press conference to a report from May this year from the IMF into the impact of grey-listing on capital flows which said that the evidence pointed to a “sharp decline” of a magnitude of up to minus 7.6% of GDP.

Moreover, from the point of the grey-listing confirmation, the IMF report found that foreign direct investment also falls on average by around 3% and other investment inflows declines on average by around 3.6%.

A shady place

Part of that investment story will be about the reputational hit, and it is in this area where the gaming sector will be playing close attention.

Many of Europe’s biggest listed firms have significant footprints in Malta, such as Evolution, Betsson and Kindred. Needless to say, the move by the FATF doesn’t sit well with their various commitments on money-laundering and proceeds of crime.

More than that, though, their commitment to Malta might now be the subject of some awkward questions from investors. Corporate statements in the area of environment, social and governance (ESG) issues are more than just window dressing. 

Of course, previous to the FATF marshals riding into town, Malta could hardly be said to have an unblemished reputation. To date, its usefulness to the online gaming sector as a point of supply jurisdiction within the EU have outweighed worries over allegations of corruption in high places.

But usefulness can change. The FATF’’s Pleyer made it clear Malta has its destiny with regard to regaining white-listing in its own hands. But even if its return is reasonably swift – and the expectations in that regard are for at least a year or more – the long-term damage to Malta’s reputation with decision-makers at the top of the gaming sector might already have been done.

Scott Longley has been a journalist since the early 2000s, covering personal finance, sport and gambling. He has worked for a number of publications including Investment Week, Bloomberg Money, Football First, eGaming Review and Gambling Compliance. Scott now runs his own editorial consultancy, Clear Concise Media, and writes for a number of online and print titles.

The FATF announced its decision in a 25 June press conference, with Malta one of four countries added to the list alongside the Philippines, Haiti and South Sudan.

Countries on the list are considered to have “strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing”.

With regards to Malta, the body said that the country’s government had made a “high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MONEYVAL to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime”.

The FATF presented Malta with an “action plan”, focused on three prongs, which the Maltese government has promised to implement.

Through this plan, the country will “demonstrate that beneficial ownership information is accurate and that, where appropriate… sanctions… are applied to legal persons if information provided is found to be inaccurate”.

In addition, it is set to rely further on intelligence from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and better clarify the role of this body when compared to the Commissioner for Revenue.

Finally, Malta’s government will increase the focus of FIU analysis on money laundering and tax evasion, allowing for law enforcement to take further action against these crimes.

The move follows a report from the country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) last month, warning that too many remote gaming operators only collect data that “add no value”. The report also found that all sectors, including remote gaming, saw an increase in suspicious transaction reports related to money laundering in recent years, but said that this was a positive as it showed greater transparency.

The Philippines, meanwhile, also agreed to a plan of its own to strengthen its AML and counter terrorist financing (CTF) policies, but this plan had seven action points, including one specifically focused on casino junkets.

The action plan included a requirement that the government use AML and CFT controls to “mitigate risks associated with casino junkets”.

The country’s government also promised to show “effective risk-based supervision” of designated non-financial businesses and professions, implement new registration requirements for money transfers and increase law enforcement access to beneficial ownership information. 

In addition, it must show an increase in the use of and following up upon financial intelligence information, take appropriate measures regarding nonprofits and introduce more targeted sanctions where required.

Spelinspektionen issued a warning and a SEK20m (£1.7m/€2.0m/$2.4m) penalty fee against Betsson last year after it alleged that Betsson’s sale of vouchers at Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven constituted the provision of games through unregistered gaming agents, an offence according to the Gaming Act, and Betsson therefore received unauthorised payments.

On 14 June 2021, the court dismissed the fine and concluded that the sale of the vouchers did not mean that Betsson was supplying games through unregistered gaming agents, or that Betsson received illegitimate payments.

In addition, the court did not believe that benefits offered to Betsson Mastercard holders counted as unauthorised bonuses.

In response to the overturning, the court nullified Spelinspektionen’s original complaint.

However, the regulator has opted not to appeal this further.

Last week, Spelinspektionen appealed a decision from the same Linköping court to lessen penalties it issued to Genesis Global and Aspire Global’s AG Communications, regarding the online self-exclusion tool Spelpaus.