Month: August 2021

The licence allows Yggdrasil to launch its game portfolio to players in the jurisdiction, under its newly revised online gaming regulations.

Reforms to the country’s regulations were passed by its parliament in October 2019, before being submitted to the European Commission in January 2020. The licensing process subsequently began in October 2020.

A wide selection of Yggdrasil’s games are now available to operators in the Greek market.

The supplier said it has already partnered with several major Greek operators, and further details about the deals will be announced in the coming months.

Björn Krantz, chief of global market operations at Yggdrasil, said: “It goes without saying that Yggdrasil is yet again walking the talk and we continue to deliver on our regulatory market strategy.

“To obtain the Greek licence – and to capitalise on our ISO/IEC27001 accreditation – is yet another milestone and achievement from the great team we have here at Yggdrasil. We would like to thank all local partners for their support in making a difference with Yggdrasil and our best-in-class portfolio of innovative games in Greece.”

The supplier joins other such as Playson and Play’n Go in receiving its supplier licence, allowing it to join the market where operators such as Bet365 and Betsson have also been licensed this year.

As a result, players will be able to use Jade Entertainment’s online platform through sportsbooks for the first time in the Philippines.

RPM Gaming has provided operation consultation and software to Jade Entertainment for the launch.

“We’re naturally delighted that PAGCOR has regulated to allow sports betting to go online in the Philippines, and that their flexible foresight in adapting to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic has resulted in this landmark licence for Jade SportsBet and our progressive portfolio of local retail partnerships,” said Joe Pisano, CEO of Jade Entertainment.

Players will be able to place pre-game and in-game bets on sports like basketball, tennis, football and boxing.

Pisano continued, “Although the migration from land-based to digital was already apparent before the coronavirus outbreak, Jade’s intersectional expertise, groundbreaking technology and trading teams have really put us in the driver’s seat for giving customers the sports betting experience they’ve been craving throughout recent lockdowns.”

Earlier this year, PAGCOR permitted an online license for Okada Manilla. Previously, Philippine operators were only permitted to offer online gambling outside of the country.

In July, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte suggested that gambling should be encouraged, reversing his previous stance on the subject, in order to recover money lost during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Revenue for the six months to 30 June amounted to €37.7m, up from €27.8m in the first half of 2020 when, like many other businesses in the gambling sector, GiG was impacted by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

However, as GiG operates online, it was able to avoid major disruption, though cancellations and postponements of sports events last year did hit its sports betting business.

GiG noted €1.8m in sales costs and €26.0m in operating costs, which left €9.8m in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), up 188.2% year-on-year. 

After including €4.3m in depreciation and amortisation costs and €2.1m in expenses related to the amortisation of acquired affiliate assets, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was €3.4m, compared to a €6.9m loss at the same point in 2020.

GiG reported €3.3m in finance costs and €354,000 unrealised exchange gains on bond, this left a pre-tax profit of €467,000, up from a €9.6m loss last year.

The business benefitted from €1.8m in tax income during the half and after also accounting for a €113,00 loss from its discontinued operations and €86,000 in income from exchange differences on translation of foreign operations, this left a comprehensive profit of €1.7m, compared to a €9.4m loss in 2020.

Turning to the second quarter, revenue in the three months to 30 June amounted to €19.4m, up 16.2% year-on-year, helped by record a revenue performance by its media services affiliate business.

GiG reported €995,000 in sales expenses and €13.1m in operating costs, which resulted in earnings before interest, tax, depreciaton and amortisation (EBITDA) of €5.3m, up 89.3% year-on-year. After depreciation and amortisation costs and expenses related to the amortisation of acquired affiliate assets, EBIT stood at €2.1m, up from a €2.2m loss last year.

Financial costs reached €1.7m, while GiG also saw a €438,000 unrealised exchange loss on bond and €136,000 in other expenses, leaving a pre-tax loss of €223,000, an improvement on the €5.2m loss in 2020.

GiG paid €188,000 in tax and after including a €46,000 loss from discontinued operations and a €43,000 loss on exchange differences on translation of foreign operations, this left a €500,000 comprehensive loss for the quarter, compared to a €5.5m loss last year.

“The second quarter of 2021 has proved another success, our clear path for growth is being demonstrated and increasing capacity and strength in our offering across the business units continues to evolve positively,” GiG chief executive Richard Brown said.

“It is 12 months since GiG became a pure B2B offering and to deliver strong revenue growth combined with increasing EBITDA margin to deliver an 86% increase in EBITDA to €5.3m is a result we are proud of.

“Another rewarding quarter for GiG, with meaningful growth for the group in revenues, EBITDA and EBIT as well as underlying business dynamics/ KPIs, but also meaningful progress towards our business growth and expansion strategies, improving delivery and future position of the group.”

The business has not yet revealed the number of shares it will issue in the offering, nor the price per share. However, in its registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it said the proposed maximum amount it would raise if all shares are sold would be $100m.

After the offering is complete, Sportradar will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol SRAD.

J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank will be the lead book-running managers in the IPO, while Bank of America Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies and Canaccord Genuity will act as additional joint book-running managers.

In a letter to potential investors included in its SEC filing, Sportradar chief executive Carsten Koerl said that sports data has become more important than ever, thanks in part to the rise of live betting.

“Data and technology have never been more valuable to the sports and entertainment ecosystem,” Koerl said. “We’re grateful to all of our customers who choose Sportradar to power their offerings. We’re humbled to play a part in helping them grow and are committed to innovating alongside them. We are also honored to partner with some of the biggest sports leagues around the world to help them understand and harness the power of their own data.

“Since the founding of our business we have always cared deeply about the integrity and fairness of competition,” he continued. “We partner with leagues and sports around the world to advance our vision of fair and transparent competition. Our latest innovation in this sector is a revolutionizing analytical system to support anti-doping agencies globally.”

The filing reveals that Sportradar recorded revenue of €404.9m in 2020, up 6.4% year-on-year and making it the industry’s largest sports betting solutions provider. 

Of this total, €34.4m came from the United States. Meanwhile, €235.0m came from betting in the rest of the world and €105.9m came from rest of world audiovisual services.

It paid €89.3m costs of purchasing services and licences, personnel costs of €121.3m, other operating expenses of €41.3m, depreciation and amortisation costs of €106.2m and €35.2m in impairment charges. However it also made a €5.6m profit on financial items.

This led to a pre-tax profit of €22.1m. After tax, its profit stood at €14.8m.

As of 30 June, 2021, Sportradar had assets of €1.01bn and liabilities of €799.6m.

Much of these assets are the licence rights for major sports events. As of 30 June, these totaled €167.1m, which was a decline from €201.7m on 31 December.

In the first six months of 2021, Sportradar’s revenue was €272.1m, up 42.0%, of which €28.9m was from the US.

Koerl added that the growing US market would remain a major part of Sportradar’s future.

“Sitting here today, I see numerous opportunities for growth, especially as new sports betting markets such as the US accelerate and our customers turn to us for new products and continued innovation,” he explained. “We are living in a transformational time. At Sportradar we are focused on constantly improving our company and its services. Machine learning and artificial intelligence, in particular, will help us to get brand new insights around team and player performance. 

“Cloud computing gives us the GPU power, combined with low latency connections to all our clients around the world, to serve the next generation of analytical and entertainment products.”

The indefinite closure begins at 11:59 today as the affected regions enter Covid-19 alert level 4. The measures follow a single positive Covid-19 case in the Auckland community.

Auckland and Coromandel are expected to remain at level 4 for seven days, while the rest of New Zealand will be at the same level for three days. SkyCity’s Auckland hotel will remain open in order to accommodate existing guests.

The company’s Adelaide property in Australia – which underwent its own temporary closure last month – will be unaffected by the changes, and will continue to operate while maintaining social distancing and hygiene requirements.

Prior to the venue closures, SkyCity had forecast an increase in profit for its 2021 financial year.

The revenue came from turnover of $463.3m, up 120.2%.

The vast majority of this turnover was online at $451.2m, a 247.8% increase, while retail brought in the other $12.0m, a decline of 56.9%.

Michele Ciavarella, Elys’ executive chairman, said the land-based division continued to be affected by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, but that he hoped for stronger results from that segment in H2.

“We are very pleased with the remarkable growth Elys achieved during the first six months of this year, particularly since the Covid pandemic continues to restrict certain business activities affecting our land-based operations,” he said. “We expect that some land-based betting shops could re-open by the beginning of the 2021-22 European soccer season which may provide additional B2C growth in Italy for the remainder of 2021.” 

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Bolting into the charts this month was Thunderstruck Wild Lightning by Stormcraft Studios and joins stable mate Thunderstruck II. Also new under the Microgaming umbrella is Coin Bash by Snowborn Games, the resemblance of which to the 9 Masks and Pots titles matches its performance.

Starburst Xxxtreme didn’t quite make the charts but could well be a contender in September, especially as NetEnt titles can follow a slower but longer burn. Testament to this longevity is Twin Spin (NetEnt), which made a return to the charts with its more recent companion Twin Spin Megaways not that far behind.

Top 20 games by distribution

The spin-off of a spin-off of Twin Spin proves once again that sequels not only perform well but also give a new lease of life to existing games. Two Fishin’ Frenzy games from Blueprint Gaming and two Rainbow Riches from Barcrest were in the top 20 this month, for example.

With so much content about, a familiar name stands out, whether licensed from a third party or established in-house. Given that sequels are easier to produce and do not require the same brand building budgets, the idea of turning a single performer into a game family is logical. To bodge a couple of sayings: “If it ain’t broke, milk it.”

On the deals front, SoftSwiss are still a comfortable gold medallist over the last six months although some of the largest aggregators such as Salsa Technology, SG, White Hat Gaming and EveryMatrix continue to build out their portfolios.

Biggest studio dealmakers

Gaming1’s B2B division are adding more third-party content to their platform and, from more humble beginnings, Dotworkers in South America are also hungry for product.

The studio/aggregator ESA Gaming tops the studio chart but Red Rake picked up the pace when adding three more distribution partners in July. Playtech were also busy but it’s the size of one of these, the Playtech-SG deal, that piqued our interest.

Biggest aggregator dealmakers

Operators often turn to existing partners when looking to add new games rather than dealing with 100s of studios. As a result, many studio/aggregator hybrids have emerged, which partner up and compete harmoniously. But you don’t usually see the big boys at the same table, unless there’s an acquisition in the offing. For now, it may just allow Playtech faster access into certain US states, but one to watch….

* Please note these are live charts which update every month so please ensure the month of July is selected in the drop-downs to match the analysis

**Data on deals by month was collected from April 2020 onwards. Deal relationships between companies from all time are available on other charts. Note that only deals reported on company websites or in the gaming press are collated.

***The games chart here excludes live games and table games. Game rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 1,000 casino sites. To access many other charts including game rankings, live and table games, positions on subpages or to filter by operator type and size, ask for our demo from our partner, egamingmonitor.com, which covers 32,000 games, 1,100 suppliers and 1,000 operators.

The Commission approved the rules unanimously during its August 16 meeting, after making some minor changes from the rules that were published in July alongside a request for applications for providers.

The rules explain that only platforms and operators approved by the state through the request for applications process may be permitted. The licenses granted through this process will then last ten years.

Operators must display responsible gambling information prominently on their websites and have a problem gambling plan they must submit to the Commission.

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Revenue from Caesars Entertainment-owned William Hill, DC Lottery’s Gambet brand and BetMGM was down from $2.0m in June, while DC’s handle fell from $19.5m to $12.8m.

William Hill, which runs an online mobile sportsbook in DC and a retail sportsbook facility at the Capital One Arena, saw gross gaming revenue from sports betting decline 25.0% month-on-month to $1.2m.

The operator’s handle also dropped 36.3% from $15.7m in June to $10.0m.

Gambet, which is operated by the DC Lottery and powered by Intralot, ranked second with $432,726 in revenue, down 16.5% from June following a 35.3% drop in handle to $2.2m.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The complaint was made by a company in Malta that runs secondary lotteries, through which players place bets on outcomes of lotteries themselves.

Court documents claim that Lotto Bayern posted a video on its YouTube channel involving a discussion on the use of lottery money for the promotion of sports.

Also featured on Lotto Bayern’s YouTube channel was a video titled “cool life” and a link to another YouTube channel named “EuroJackpot- EuroJackpot results.”

In addition, LOTTOBayern advertised a “lucky number horoscope” on its Facebook page, which encouraged participation in a pre-filled numbers game called “Lotto 6aus49”.

The lottery betting operator claimed that Lotto Bayern used unlawful advertising measures, alleging that the video clips on its YouTube channel contain inaccurate information as they encourage participation in the game rather than simply stating the chances of winning.

The plaintiff also alleged that the advertised winnings were highlighted in such a way that violated the State Treaty on Gambling, while the “lucky number horoscope” suggested an increased chances of winning and therefore went could be considered unfair business conduct.

The court concluded that Lotto Bayern’s videos violated section 5 (1) of the State Treaty on Gambling, which states that all advertising measures must adhere to strictly necessary methods of encouraging customers to partake in state-owned gambling.

The court also agreed with the claim that the videos presented gambling in a positive light, specifically suggesting that those partaking in the lottery can live a “cool life”.

In regards to the “lucky number horoscope”, the court found that the advertising methods violated fair trading law.