Month: November 2021

This was a rise of 182.4% compared to the third quarter of 2020, as in-person operations were able to resume as Covid-19 controls were eased.

AESE launched 110 events in the third quarter, comprising 39 proprietary events, and 71 organised for third-parties.

Bookings for third-party events rose 51.0% quarter-on-quarter, which AESE attributes to a 89.0% rise in events booked at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas.

There was a 24% rise in players competing in both online and in-person tournaments compared to Q2.

The third quarter revenue brings the overall revenue for the year to $3.0m, up by 32.3% year-on-year.

“The third quarter was a very productive period for AESE highlighted by a strong quarter of growth from our esports business,” said chief executive Libing (Claire) Wu. Wu was appointed CEO in July, replacing Frank Ng.

“This growth was driven by a sharp recovery of the in-person pillar of our esports business with the US economy almost fully re-opened, coupled with a steady climb in Las Vegas foot traffic and the return of live entertainment events.”

Most of the revenue came from in-person attendance which totaled $1.4m, up 144.4% from Q3 2020. The remaining $229,961 was generated by multiplatform content, up by $229,010.

Multiplatform content generated a 24% rise in followers for AESE on Twitch in Q3, after its 24-hour content strategy stream saw 3.2 million views.

Total costs and expenses for the quarter came to $5.6m, up by 27.3%. General and administrative expenses, at $3.1m, were the largest outgoing, up 40.3% year-on-year. Costs related to its in-arena operations came to $1.2m, up 95.1%.

Depreciation and amortization expenses totaled $806,137, a decrease of 10.9% year-on-year. Stock-based compensation also dropped, from $508,268 in Q3 2020 to $151,220 in Q3 2021. Selling and marketing expenses grew by 66.2% to $87,755, while other operating expenses also grew by 8.3% to $37,462.

Multiplatform content generated $87,373 in costs, with no comparative figure available for Q3 2020.

The expenses left the total operating loss at $3.9m, a further decrease of $115,738‬ year-on-year.

Other financial items, including a $912,475 gain on forgiveness of payment protection program loans, decreased Allied’s overall losses. This, along with other income at $54,434, compared to a $2,973 loss in the prior year, offset interest expenses of $11,809.

This reduced its loss from continuing operations to $2.9m, down by 57.7% year-on-year.

Loss from discontinued operations at $3.5m further affected the total. However, the gains on AESE’s $105.0m sale of its poker business World Poker Tour generated additional income of $80.4m. The sale to Element Partners was confirmed in January.

This meant Allied’s income from discontinued operations totaled $77.2m, a $76.7m year-on-year increase.

As such the total net income for Q3 came to $74.3m, compared to a $6.5m loss for Q3 2020.

“Since the completion of the WPT transaction this summer, we have made good headway in evaluating opportunities to invest our cash and exploring strategic alternatives for our esports business as we look to maximize value for AESE shareholders,” continued Wu.

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Amounts wagered across Elys’ online gaming and retail outlets in Italy were up 13.9% to $163.7m over the three months to 30 September. This was staked almost entirely online, which accounted for $162.5m of the total, with a further $1.2m wagered in-person.

Payouts for the quarter increased 15.9% to $153.4m, of which $152.3m was web-based and $1.0m was land-based. This left gross gaming revenue of $10.3m, down from $11.4m in 2020.

After gaming taxes of $2.5m, net revenue came to $7.8m. Additional service revenue brought the total net revenue to $8.0m, down 17.5% from last year.

Expenses for the company increased from $10.3m to $11.1m for the quarter, of which $6.1m was related to the sale of its product and solutions, and $5.1m was general expenses.

Operating losses for the quarter were $3.1m, up 416.7% from last year. Losses for the year so far are more than three times higher than last year, increasing to $6.4m from $1.5m. Other expenses amounted to $699,838, mostly consisting of $200,000 losses on marketable securities and $569,076 from a change of contingent purchase consideration.

Pre-tax losses were $3.8m. With the $284,636 worth of income tax, net losses came to $3.5m – up from $1.2m last year.

For the year to date, comprising the nine months to 30 September, handle was up significantly, climbing 77.2% year-on-year to $626.9m. Again, online dominated, accounting for $613.7m of the total, with land-based contributing $13.2m.

After total winnings of $584.3m were paid out – $573.0m for online and $11.4m for land-based – gross gaming revenue for the first nine months of the year amounted to $42.6m. Accounting for $9.1m of gaming taxes, net revenue for the year to date stands at $33.4m – a 35.8% increase from 2020.

Operating expenses for the year came to $40.3m, with other expenses adding a further $472,990. Subtracting that from the year to date revenue of $33.9m and $8,136 of income tax, net losses for the year currently stand at $6.9m.

2021 has also seen Elys complete its acquisition of Nevada-based sports betting services provider Bookmakers Company, in a $12.0m deal in July – which was cited by executive chairman Michele Ciavarella as a “key milestone” in the company’s financial performance.

The company also launched its new betting platform in conjunction with Churchill Downs Incorporated, as well as launching a retail sportsbook in Washington DC.

Ciavarella also stated that the company’s US expansion plans were furthered through a partnership with New Jersey’s Ocean Casino Resort, in addition to reaching an open market sales agreement with investment banking firm Jefferies Group.

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Total sales for the six months from 1 April to 25 September were 2.7%, or £107.3m, higher than in the corresponding period last year. The operator credited this growth to a record digital performance and innovations that raised interest in its draw-based games, as well as a strong brand presence around UK coverage of the Tokyo Olympics.

Draw-based games accounted for the bulk of Camelot’s sales in H1, rising 3.6% to £2.23bn, aided by year-on-year growth across all products in the portfolio.

Despite fewer rollovers for the EuroMillions, there were a number of ‘must be won’ draws for Lotto, which activated Camelot’s ‘rolldown’ feature. This sees a jackpot shared among all prize winners, if it is not won in a certain period, resulting in higher payouts for all winning players. 

Turning to National Lottery scratchcards and online instant win games, sales were up 1.6% to £1.73bn for the half. Camelot put this down to a strong retail as novel coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions in the UK were eased.

As such, in-store scratchcard sales were up 6.7% year-on-year while sales of online instant win games were down 8.8%. However, Camelot also noted that scratchcard sales remain down on pre-pandemic levels as shopping habits continue to evolve

Expanding on this, Camelot said total retail sales across all products for the period reached £2.34bn, an increase of 4.5% on last year, and consolidating the channel’s position as the National Lottery’s largest. Retailer commission increased 5.1% to £133.0m over the period.

Camelot works with approximately 44,000 retailers across the UK, and expanded its network further in H1 by forging new partnerships with supermarkets Aldi and Iceland. These two partnerships meant National Lottery draw-based games were made available at checkouts in approximately 1,900 stores across the UK.

Digital sales, meanwhile, reached a record £1.62bn. This represented a year-on-year increase of just 0.2%, though this followed a particularly strong first half for digital in 2020, when sales were up 39.1% as a result of Covid-19 shuttering retail outlets and players shifting online.

Mobile sales were up 1.8% to an all-time high of £1.15bn, which Camelot said reflected a wider trend of an increasing shift to shopping via smartphones. This growth was aided by over 795,000 new online registrations.

The National Lottery awarded £2.27bn in prize money to players during the half, up £30.6m on last year, and created 184 new millionaires in the process. Approximately 1% of sales were retained as profit by Camelot under the terms of its licence, while 4% was spent on operating costs during the period. The vast majority of money left after prizes and operating expenses was allocated to good causes, with the six month contribution of £884.5m representing a 2.4% increase in the prior year.

Returns to Good Causes since the National Lottery’s launch in 1994 have now exceeded £45.0bn.

“With National Lottery sales up across the board and very high levels of public participation, we’ve once again proved that our strategy of offering great consumer choice in a safe and convenient way continues to deliver vital contributions to Good Causes across the UK,” Camelot chief executive Nigel Railton commented.

“Lotto is a great barometer for the overall health of the National Lottery so I’m really proud that, as a result of the series of Lotto enhancements we’ve made, we continue to be one of the only major operators in the world to be growing sales of our flagship game.”

Railton added that Camelot’s summer-long campaign, which highlighted the contribution of National Lottery players to funding Olympians’ and Paralympians’ training, was a key driver of engagement. This included two homecoming events at Wembley Arena for those involved in the Tokyo Games.

Camelot chair Sir Hugh Robertson pointed out that this boosted public perception of the National Lottery brand, to levels that matched its positive image in the wake of announcing funding commitments during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

“This record first half shows that The National Lottery continues to be in its best-ever shape as it delivers for Good Causes, players, retailers and Treasury,” Railton said.

“Following four years of sales growth, including record results last year, I am extremely grateful to my colleagues and the wider National Lottery family of Good Causes distributors and retailers for their role in this ongoing success story.”

We all know patches from our phones and computers – software needs to be updated from time to time, either to enable new functionality or to patch existing problems. 

In esports, the significance of patching goes way beyond that – particularly in MOBAs, patches are often introduced specifically to shake things up. 

A single patch can eliminate a building type, introduce new heroes, or change the old heroes so much that they are barely recognisable. 

There are also subtle, but important changes going on: A cool-down on an ability might drop by 5% or an item’s price might be tweaked.

How do these patches affect the gameplay? It’s hard to nigh impossible to say right away. Usually companies like Bayes Esports need to wait and see how professional teams adjust to the changing game rules and then follow their lead. A new “meta” game eventually develops – until the next patch goes live.

While this is what keeps the game interesting and fresh for spectators and players, it presents a significant challenge to anyone who wants to create betting odds. 

Side markets for MOBAs focus on objectives such as killing certain monsters, and these monsters’ properties and priority changes quite often with patches. If you just let your models run untouched, you’re exposing yourself to any number of clever punters.

The problem with fixing models, however, is that it takes time to generate new data. We cannot adjust to what we do not know – and we do not know how a patch will affect the meta. Sure, there are expert analysts dissecting every patch and offering their predictions, and human traders can often take over for a time, but human experts err often. 

Depending on how busy the season is, it can take up to several weeks to gather enough data to assert model quality for side markets. This is valuable time during which side markets cannot be offered or can only be offered at a higher risk.

Now imagine a piece of software that is fed patch notes and is able to predict meta game changes. This would be a game changer in the industry! There are several ways that this could be made possible, with self-play being at the top of my list. 

What if a computer steered two League of Legends or DotA2 teams who played against each other until they developed a new meta? 

Then we could compare the shifts in strategies and collect statistics from the games just like we would from real matches and use these to make new prediction models. Except that where we currently need to wait a week or two to collect enough relevant matches from top teams, we would now need mere hours.

This is not as futuristic as it sounds. OpenAI has already succeeded at teaching a machine to play Dota2 on a professional level. Modern AI is able to learn strategies, coordinate a team and optimise for long-term goals. 

Going from here to exploring patches is still a major step, but it’s a step that, in my opinion is reasonable and can be taken. It just needs a team dedicated to this task who has access to the best quality data like Bayes Esports provides. Who knows, maybe already a year from now we’ll be looking to an AI assessment of patch notes instead of the traditional expert opinion?

Dr Darina Goldin is the director of data science at Bayes Esports. She started playing competitive Team Fortress 2 in grad school. While no longer an active gamer, she is still an avid Esports fan. At Bayes, she has created numerous predictive models for Counter Strike, Dota2, and League of Legends. When not crunching numbers, you can find her at the gym training Brazillian Jiu Jitsu.

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Betway will receive brand exposure and TV-visible signage throughout the Devils’ Prudential Center home arena, including dasherboard, Zamboni tunnel and in-bowl staircase branding, as well as in-bowl LED ring and scoreboard advertising.

The operator also becomes presenting partner of the ‘Devils Starting Line-Up, presented by Betway’, a social post series supported and promoted across all of  the franchise’s official channels.

The deal means Betway now has marketing partnerships with 12 US sports teams, including the NHLs’ Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers, as well as National Basketball Association (NBA) franchises the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks.

Read the full story on iGB North America.