Month: December 2021

Player spending on sports betting in the month amounted to $287.2m (£217.2m/€254.7m), beating the previous record of $280.9m set in October of this year by 2.2%. The November amount was also 229.4% higher than the $87.2m wagered by consumers in the same month last year.

Online betting accounted for $260.4m of the total wagers placed during the month, while players also spent $26.9m betting on sports at retail facilities across the state.

Consumers won a total of $267.5m from betting on sports in November, which left $19.7m in revenue, a new monthly-high for Iowa, surpassing the previous record of $13.5m set in March this year by 45.9%.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Players wagered a total of $463.7m (£350.6m/€411.4m) in November, narrowly edging out the previous record of $461.1m set in October this year by 0.6%. The total was also 84.4% higher than $251.5m in November of last year.

Football was the most popular sport to wager on during the month with $136.3m in bets, marginally ahead of basketball on $132.1m, then baseball with $1.4m. Players also placed $120.0m in parlay bets and wagered $69.1m in other sports.

The Indiana Gaming Commission also revealed new record adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of $47.7m, surpassing the previous record of $33.3m set in September this yearby 43.3%, and also increasing 88.5% year-on-year.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The property currently donates 0.1% of revenue to the safer gambling funding body, but will increase its contribution to 1% of gross yield from next year.

Les Ambassadeurs said this reflected its commitment to reducing the risk of gambling harms, by supporting the research, education and treatment commissioned by GambleAware.

“We trust that GambleAware’s expertise and robust commissioning strategy will deliver measurable outcomes,” Les Ambassadeurs chief executive Kevin McGowen said. “This shows that we are determined to go above and beyond the letter and spirt of the Gambling Commission’s licensing guidance in this respect.

“Les Ambassadeurs is wholeheartedly committed to championing safer gambling practices and helping to raise standards across the industry to offer support to anyone at risk of gambling harm.”

McGowen added that the operator would continue to make charitable donations to organisations and good causes providing services both connected and unconnected to the industry, as part of its wider corporate social responsibility strategy. 

GambleAware chief executive Zoë Osmond described Les Ambassadeurs’ increased contribution as “a significant step in the right direction”.

“Commitments such as this play a vital part in supporting GambleAware’s delivery of its new strategy, which is working towards the overall vision of a society safe from gambling harms,” Osmond explained. “We hope this move will encourage others in the industry to make similar commitments going forward and provide further support for the prevention and treatment of gambling harms.”

In October, GambleAware revealed that it received a total of £10.6m (€12.5m/$14.1m) in donations during the first half of its fiscal year, with bet365 accounting for more than one third of all pledges.

The amount donated during the six months to the end of September surpassed the £2.3m pledged during the same period last year by 360.9%, though operators in the first half of 2020 were impacted by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), resulting in a decrease in amounts donated.

In November, Tracy Damestani, chief corporate affairs officer for Les Ambassadeurs parent Ambassadeurs Group, was named an official ambassador of Clarion Gaming’s ICE London conference.

“Tracy defines the role of ‘critical friend’ and her contributions will help ensure that Clarion Gaming continues to serve as a progressive custodian of the brand.”

The licence will enable ESA to distribute its range of mobile gaming products to licensed operators in Greece, including its portfolio of EasySwipe-branded HTML5 mobile-first titles.

ESA also holds certifications in Portugal, Italy and Colombia, as well as a supplier licence issued by the Malta Gaming Authority.

“Receiving our Greek licence is another exciting moment for us in our step towards our global expansion,” ESA chief executive Zorica Smallwood said. “The Greek market has huge potential and we’re eager to see how our titles are received by both operators and players.

“It is another important milestone for us this year as we’ve gone from strength to strength.” 

ESA is the latest supplier to secure a new licence in Greece, following BGaming earlier this month.

Yggdrasil, SoftSwiss, iSoftBet and Oryx are among the country’s other recent licensees.

The process to obtain a licence in Greece opened in October 2020, one year after Greece’s parliament passed reforms to its gambling law in October 2019. Two types of supplier licences were made available – one to offer online betting technology and another to offer online games of chance.

The new regulatory system requires operators and suppliers to abide by strict operating conditions. Online slots – which an earlier draft of the regulations had sought to ban – are capped at €2 per spin, with a three-second spin minimum and a maximum win of €70,000 per round.     

In a blog post today (13 December), Grant outlined the operator’s progress in increasing customer safeguards, following the UK Gambling Act review’s launch in December 2020.

He said the operator welcomed the review, and had not been “idly tinkering round the edges in the hope that the status quo can be maintained”.

“We have been looking at meaningful ways we can enhance customer protections – not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is vital for the sustainability of our industry,” he explained.

This was evidenced through its “Affordability Triple Step” system, which aims to take a risk-based approach informed by individual customers’ needs and circumstances.

The first step of this system begins at customer registration, where spend limits are allocated to each customer, while the second step involves continued monitoring through Flutter’s safer gambling controls. If these fail to flag a person experience gambling harm, the final step is implemented- a backstop that prevents losses from growing.

“We know that blanket measures are blunt instruments that will fail to tackle the issue,” Grant explained. “Each customer’s circumstances are different, which is why we need to take a risk-based approach to safer gambling and affordability.”

In the last 12 months the company’s responsible gambling initiatives have also addressed young people, specifically those under the age of 25. Grant pointed out that this age group had a higher risk profile, resulting in measures that would “cut right to the heart of their potential vulnerability”.

This has resulted in Flutter implementing net deposit limits of £500 per month for customers aged 25 and below. This is to come into force early in 2022.

At the time, Flutter stated that its own research had helped to implement the scheme, revealing that 78% of 18-24-year-olds polled supported the restriction.

A number of safer gambling restrictions have already been implemented in Ireland, emphasised Grant, including a ban on credit card usage in retail and online gambling and a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling advertising pre-watershed.

“Again, we have been clear that we will not wait for regulation where there is clear evidence to act,” he said. “And as we continue to evolve for the benefit of our millions of customers, we remain committed to driving meaningful change across the industry.”

Analysing feedback from exhibitors, sponsors and attendees at the event, which took place from 28 September to 1 October at the RAI in Amsterdam, the event delivered a result in the top 2% of any event ever measured by Explori.

Conducted on behalf of iGB Live! and iGB Affiliate brand owner Clarion Gaming, the Explori research also showed that the event had a high Net Promoter Score, which measures the likelihood of a participant recommending the event to a business colleague based on their at-show experience.

For visitors, the Net Promoter Score was +55, up from +36 when the event last took place in 2019 before the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, as well as +60 for exhibitors and sponsors, compared to +23 in 2019.

According to Explori the metrics and Key Performance Indicator ratings place this year’s edition of the co-located event ranked among the top 10% of events benchmarked with visitors, and in the top 3% for exhibitors.

“We were the first major gaming exhibition to return after lockdown which represented its own challenges, but which we were able to navigate thanks to the support of our customers, the team at the RAI and the ‘whatever it takes’ attitude of the Clarion team,” said Naomi Barton, Clarion Gaming portfolio director responsible for delivering iGB Live! and iGB Affiliate Amsterdam.

“I’m delighted that against every single metric researched by Explori we were able to build on the success of the 2019 editions. Our challenge is to take this momentum forward into February’s edition of iGB Affiliate London and in the process confirm its status as being among the top three international event brands for the industry.”

iGB Affiliate London will take place from 2-5 February at the ExCeL in London. For more information and to register, click here.

Crown says that “good progress” has been made on implementing the reforms outlined in the Bergin Report, which deemed the company unsuitable to operate a casino in Sydney’s Barangaroo region. These requirements included paying a AU$22.5m settlement to New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA).

Crown CEO Steve McCann said: “It’s fair to say that the reform programme was well and truly under way before I joined Crown, and we have invested a lot of time and effort since then to continue on that path. I firmly believe the business has turned a corner and has been materially de-risked over the last 6 months.

“We have seen significant progress on our remediation plan, we’ve had a significant overhaul of the senior leadership and board, we’ve had continued challenges through Covid-19 in terms of lockdown, but today we have all three resorts open and operating.”

Crown was also subject to an investigation from Victoria’s Royal Commission, which also deemed the operator unsuitable to operate a casino in the region. Meanwhile in Western Australia, an enquiry has been extended until March 2022 following a request from commissioners for more time to carry out their investigations.

Crown has developed a remediation plan to tackle the issues raised by various regulators. The plan focuses on key areas such as culture, responsible gaming, risk management, junkets, and VIP and significant players. In addition to an anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing plan, a change to Crown’s senior management was also recommended.

2021 has seen Dr Ziggy Switkowski named as the company’s new chairman, Simon McGrath hired as chief executive of Crown Sydney, and Danielle Keighery appointed chief corporate affairs officer and brand officer.

McCann made the statement at Crown Sydney, which he said should be open for gaming activity in early 2022. The venue is currently open for non-gaming activities.

Crown attests that the resort’s two gaming areas are ready for opening on a staged basis, subject to a determination of suitability by ILGA.

The staged opening is dependent on current staffing levels, with Crown planning further recruitment for gaming related roles.

The two gaming areas expect to have 160 table games and 70 electronic table games in operation by the time the floors are open to the public.

The hotel portion of the resort has been operational since November, welcoming 1300 employees during the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

All three of Crown’s domestic venues – Perth, Sydney and Melbourne – have reopened in some capacity with mandatory vaccination policies in place for customers.

Compared to the second half of 2020, Melbourne experienced a 75% increase in main floor gaming revenue and a 65% increase in non-gaming revenue for the two week period that ended on 5 December, while Perth saw an 8% increase in gaming revenue and a 31% increase in non-gaming revenue.

Crown has seen an increase in revenue derived from domestic business since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. 100% of revenue came from local customers in 2021, up from 87% in 2020. Revenue from the company’s VIP programme fell to 0% this year, down from 13% last year.

Crown has subsequently been the subject of a takeover proposal from private equity firm Blackstone, who values the company at approximately AU$8.46bn. Having rejected the offer due to a lack of compelling value, Crown has since invited Blackstone to make another proposal.

On the Blackstone bid, McCann added: “We do now have an offer. We’ve made it clear that we don’t think that the offer is compelling value. We’ll be looking at every alternative to try and maximise value, but the very first step is getting open in Sydney and making sure the market can see the value of these fantastic assets and get trading up post pandemic.”

This western-themed, five-reel, 20-winline game is now available for Greentube’s B2B partners! Discover more here!

Go-live date (expected):Already live!Game special features:– Free games feature
– Wild Ranger jackpots featureNumber of paylines:20Number of reels:5RTP% (recorded/theoretical):95.00%Variance/volatility:Medium

The updated title differs from its predecessor thanks to a set of sophisticated new features, including the Snowman Bet option, and is played on the unique field of hexagonal cells allowing six-way hits. Happily, it keeps the initial look and feel of the original – and the winning potential of up to x15,000.

You can play a demo of Christmas Tree 2 here!

Go-live date (expected):15/12/2021Game special features:– Clusters
Christmas Eve wishes come true when five or more identical symbols connected to each other form a winning cluster and grant prizes. If several clusters land at the same time, all the wins are added up and paid out.

– Miracle spins
The wonder of Miracle spins happens when three scatters appear out of the mystery symbols. Every subsequent scatter after the third awards an additional Miracle spin.

– Snowman
A merry Snowman is throwing snowballs onto the reels turning low and medium symbols into golden wilds.

– Snowman bet
A magical Snowman bet option makes the Snowman throw snowballs on every spin, immediately increasing your stake by 20x!

– Blizzard
With no clusters left on the field, a blizzard strikes out of the blue and magically transforms the Mystery symbols into random icons.Number of paylines:Cluster 5+RTP% (recorded/theoretical):98%Variance/volatility:Medium

BGC members such as Flutter, Bet365 and William Hill, have joined the project along with members of the Advertising Association and Lotteries Council. Tech platforms such as Google, Twitter, Meta and Snap have also agreed to contribute.

The forum will look build on the commitments made in the Sixth Industry Code for Socially Responsible Advertising, which demands that operators ensure all sponsored or paid for social media adverts are aimed at people aged 25 and over – unless it can be proved the adverts meet a standard of age targeting verified by an agreed upon third party.

The code also comes with a requirement that gambling ads which appear on search engines must make emphasise that these products are for those aged 18 and above. The adverts in question must also include safer gambling messages.

Michael Dugher, chief executive of the BGC, said: “I am delighted that the BGC has been able to co-ordinate the Adtech Forum, which I’m sure will come up with new ways of protecting young people and the vulnerable online.

“Since being set up two years ago, we have worked tirelessly to drive up standards and promote safer gambling, and this is proof of our determination to go even further.”

The BGC recently called on the government to put child protection at the “front and centre” of the upcoming Gambling White Paper.

The body itself has taken its own responsible gaming strides since being founded in 2019. These include the introduction of a social media code of conduct for football clubs and gambling websites, and its members implementing a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling ads during football matches.

Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association, added: “We welcome the proactive work by the gambling industry with tech platforms and advertising bodies. It is essential that gambling ads online and in social media meet the highest standards of social responsibility.”