Month: August 2021

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The Indiana Gaming Commission revealed in September 2019 that the Pokagon Band had opened negotiations on a Class III compact the previous month. This compact was then signed and approved in April of this year, allowing the tribe to offer casino-style games like slots and table gaming.

Under the new compact, the casino now offers 16 table games, including blackjack, roulette, craps and baccarat.

The casino currently offers slot-like electronic bingo games, and operates 1,400 of these machines. It will now upgrade these to full slot machines in a process that it says will “take months to complete”.

Read the full story on iGB North America

By Josh Walfish

As esports have grown in popularity worldwide, some of the biggest international brands have dipped their toe into esports sponsorship. Marvel, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are just three of the dozens of major companies that have sponsored an esports team or tournament over the past two years as they try to connect with new audiences. Even though all three have very high brand awareness, they needed to reconnect with their audience and make themselves relevant again.

The reason why these companies chose esports is the growth potential in the industry. A data analysis from Hive in 2020 that compared brand sponsor presence and prominence across different sporting events showed that the broadcast of an esports event displayed fewer than half the number of brand sponsors than the traditional NBA broadcast. That means there is more space for brands to dominate the sponsorship and the eyeballs in esports events.

Of course, it isn’t all about the views because most of these companies are already well-known among the esports crowd. However, these sponsorships are part of them trying to provide value to the esports fanbase, which esports fans recognise far more than the traditional sports fan. A YouGov survey found that nearly three-quarters of esports fans notice whoever is sponsoring the event or their favourite team, and more than half of those fans “loved” when their favourite team had a “cool sponsor.”

Big brands’ approach to esports sponsorship

The bigger brands have had to learn on the fly when it comes to sponsoring esports entities. One chief marketing officer told a reporter that he didn’t want to add value, he wanted to receive it, but of course, that is the opposite approach to take in esports. The most successful larger companies understand that to connect with this younger esports audience, they need to add value to the space if they want to receive it.

The growth of esports since March 2020 is not lost on these major companies, who have seen their other marketing sources take a dip. Whereas traditional sports and other marketing spaces had a tough time in the early parts of the pandemic, esports began an exponential rise that companies wanted to jump on. So they did their research and made sure to make the biggest impact they could on the industry.

A 2020 report from McKinsey & Company identified the need for authenticity for the non-endemic brands joining the esports space. The most successful brands are adapting to the ever-changing flow of the industry and building expertise about esports to help them make decisions. This knowledge makes these companies more authentic to esports fans and helps build the necessary credibility and reputation for success.

Who is engaging with these sponsorships?

One of the largest sectors of growth for esports sponsorships is the esports betting platforms. Betway, an esports-focused sportsbook, partnered with Paris Saint-Germain to sponsor some of their teams. Meanwhile, 1xBet entered an exclusive partnership with ESL to become the first betting operator to hold exclusive rights to an event. 1xBet is the exclusive global betting partner of the ESL Pro Tour CS:GO and ESL One Summer and Winter Dota 2.

Those are just the most prominent examples of esports betting operators joining in the sponsorship arms race. All of these sportsbooks realise the power in being first into the scene as the popularity of esports rises, and the revenue from betting on esports begins to climb as well. The hope is that those who adapted early to the growing esports betting trend will become the premier outlets for esports fans looking to bet on their favourite video games.

It is not a coincidence that the betting operators who took the first plunge are the ones who specifically wanted to focus on esports as their main offerings. 1xBet, Betway, Parimatch and more are all trying to home in on the esports demographic and know that sponsorships are the best way to get their name out there for esports fans. It is why all of these betting operators have jumped at the chance to partner with teams – or in some cases, leagues themselves – to expose their brand to more esports fans.

The figure is an increase of $92.5m from 2020, when the operator made a loss of $23.6m amid venue closures because of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Bally’s also enjoyed the single largest revenue quarter in company history, recording revenue figures of $267.7m – 826.3% higher than this time last year. $132.4m came from the East segment whilst the West segment generated $127.9m.

The easing of Covid-19 restrictions aided business, with all venues operating at full capacity by the quarter’s end. This is in contrast to 2020 when properties were closed between March and June.

Operating expenses for Bally’s reached $187.2m, rising 275.5% from last year. General and administrative costs were the largest expense, shooting up to $101.2m.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

As part of the partnership, O’Neal will take on a strategic consultancy role within WynnBet.

He will also feature predominantly in WynnBet media, including TV, print and digital.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

iGB: What is Sportsflare? 
Kenny Jang: Sportsflare is the betting division of Tidal Gaming Group, an esports platform company operating in betting, content, competition and media. As a startup, we work with sportsbooks and igaming-related businesses on products that are innovative and ultimately enticing for the end customer. We offer a wide range of products ranging from an esports odds feed, Betbuilder, widgets and insights, to our new Bet-on-Yourself infrastructure, which allows casual gamers to place bets on their own games for the very first time. 

iGB: What is your esports Betbuilder, and how does it bring value to esports betting operators? 
KJ: A one-of-a-kind in the industry, our Betbuilder is a betting tool that allows bettors to create a singular bet composed of numerous correlated markets within a single match with boosted odds. Correctly pricing the dependencies is only possible thanks to our numerous underlying machine learning and statistical models. From our research, we know esports bettors are avid supporters of their favourite professional players, so we worked hand-in-hand with bettors to create a range of player performance markets such as ‘most kills’, which can now be bet on as a singular bet or combined with more traditional markets such as H2H winner through our Betbuilder. Using our Betbuilder, betting operators can allow customers to put their knowledge to the test, offering limitless market combinations for any esports match at a profitable price. 

Betbuilders are typically very attractive products in traditional sports due to high margins and customer participation. Operators can expect to run our version at margins above 15%, which significantly outperforms single-betting. Through our pilots with various bookmakers, we have had great success in increasing both pre-match betting volume and turnover by over 30%, so it’s getting a lot of attention from bookmakers looking to bolster profitability and differentiate themselves from competitors. 

iGB: What are micromarkets, and how does they bring value to esports betting operators? 
KJ: Esports micromarkets are something I personally see as one of the most exciting developments in the industry. Micromarkets are ‘ultra-live’ in the sense that betting markets are created for almost any single in-game action throughout a live esports match, rather than just the final game outcome. For instance, Sportsflare’s micromarkets cover a wide range of positional markets such as ‘where will the next kill occur?’, and ‘next tower to fall’ so that anyone tuning in to a live match can engage in this new play-by-play betting format. Esports micromarkets are a fast-paced, second-screen experience that will transform the UX of live esports betting that we know today. 

Sportsflare’s micromarkets add unparalleled value to operators by simply giving bettors more betting opportunities throughout any given esports event. As an example, we are able to produce more than 4,000 markets for a single CS:GO match and over 1,500 markets for a single match for both League of Legends and Dota2. This means that over a calendar year, operators offering our micromarkets will essentially have provided their users with well over one million extra in-play betting opportunities. With micromarkets, esports betting operators can offer the opportunity to bet, settle and repeat this cycle hundreds of times during just a single live match. 

iGB: Where do you see esports betting in the next 3-5 years? 
KJ: With the esports fanbase rapidly growing year-on-year and accounting for an increasingly meaningful amount of handle, operators have realised the importance of having a strong esports offering. This is only going to become more pronounced. There are almost three billion gamers worldwide, and only a fraction of those gamers engage in esports betting today. I think forward-thinking operators will look to future-proof their business by finding ways to target the massive opportunity which lies with the gamer population. Personally, I believe esports won’t be just another sport on a sportsbook’s list. It will be a dedicated portal or sub-brand to appeal to this vastly different audience. Products that work for sportsbooks today may get disrupted by new betting experiences that aren’t possible in traditional sports. 

Sportflare’s Bet-on-Yourself product is getting a lot of attention at the moment, and I think that’s a testament to the direction of growth in the industry. Operators are realising that by lowering the barrier of entry to esports betting through a medium with which gamers are familiar, they have access to a lucrative and untapped new market. While gamers may be hesitant to place bets on outcomes they have no control over (as in regular esports betting), gamers will be happy to put a wager on an outcome of their own games of Fortnite, FIFA or Mario Kart. Additionally, these kinds of products can also be offered as a free-to-play customer acquisition mechanism. 

I hope to see a lot of innovation in the industry in the next few years. As a team, Sportsflare will remain focused on delivering groundbreaking products to push the esports betting industry forward for operators and consumers alike.

Revenue came to $880m (£634.2m/€748.1), a significant increase compared to its revenue of $539m in Q2 2020.

A total of $367m of the revenue came from gaming, while $266m was generated from Scientific Games’ lottery offerings. The remaining $247m was derived from SciPlay, Scientific Games’ digital games developer, and digital play.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

An initial complaint was filed to Facebook as a result of the advertisement. However, when this was not addressed, King’s Resort owner Leon Tsoukernik filed a lawsuit claiming CZK 500,000,000 (£16.6m/€19.6m/$23.1m) worth of damages in April.

In a win for King’s Resort, a court in Prague has ruled that the Czech courts have jurisdiction to handle the case. Generally, most lawsuits against Facebook are managed in their headquarters in Ireland.

In addition, the false advertisement did not include a reference to gambling addiction prevention. It is a requirement for all Czech casinos to include such references on their advertisements and online homepages.

DraftKings will pay 0.365 newly issued shares for each common share of Golden Nugget Online Gaming.

GNOG’s chairman, chief executive and largest shareholder, Tilman Fertitta, who owns approximately 46% of the business, has agreed to continue to hold the DraftKings shares he will receive – worth more than $700m – for at least a year.

Fertitta – who will continue to own the Golden Nugget land-based business – will also join the DraftKings board.

Read the full story on iGB North America

The agreement will run for the length of the 2021/22 season and will see the Intouch logo featured on the back of the men’s first team shirts.

Intouch’s most successful brand, mFortune, will also have its logo featured on the men’s first team away and third shirts during the season.

“Intouch Games have had a remarkable success story in such a short space of time, and we’re delighted that we can work closely with such a successful Black Country-based business,” said Simon King, chief commercial officer at West Bromwich Albion.

“They are a big employer in the region and we can’t wait to work closely with the Intouch team to develop our relationship.”

King went on to say that although the organisations have signed a one-season deal, both sides acknowledge that the partnership has the potential to continue in the longer term.

Intouch has also agreed to change the colour and style of its mFortune logo in order to better preserve the design of Albion’s kits, a compromise for which King said the club is grateful.

Simon Wilson, founder of Intouch Games, added: “It is a real bonus for a local business our size, that was started in the Black Country and still operating here, to be able to sponsor the local football club.

“Not many clubs nowadays are sponsored by local businesses. Everyone at Intouch Games is really excited about this opportunity. We are all looking forward to a long term relationship with West Bromwich Albion and hopefully bringing them a winning streak and back to the Premier League.”