Month: March 2022

As outlined by the Belgian Gaming Commission, changes to the original Royal Decree from December 2010 came into force on March 5 this year after being signed off on February 17.

That original decree had allowed newsagents to take retail bets. The new rules, however, will limit the extent to which betting can be a major source of income for these newsagents.

Under the new rules, newsagents will only be allowed to accept bets between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., while total stakes via each outlet must not exceed €250,000 (£209,000/$276,000) per year.

Additionally, newsagents must display at least 200 different titles of current daily, weekly and monthly publications, and must generate at least €25,000 per year in sales from these titles.

Each outlet should not present more than three square metres of advertising space dedicated to its betting offering in total, inside and outside the premises, and betting advertising should represent no more than 20% of the total advertising seen at the outlet.

In the actual newsagent, no more than one-fifth of the total retail space should be set aside for betting, which should not occupy more than 10 square metres in total.

Newsagents that already hold the required F2 licence have been given until January 1 next year to comply with certain rules. These include a maximum of four terminals or “computer applications” that can be offered for processing bets, a 20% cap on betting revenue in the context of the newsagent’s total annual turnover, and the new limits on advertising and betting space.

However, they must comply with the other rules immediately – including having a non-exclusive agreement in place with a betting operator that holds the correct F1 licence.

Outlets that will not comply have been invited to surrender their F2 licence “to avoid sanctions”.

According to the commission’s website, there are currently 1,543 newsagents that offer betting across the country, including more than 200 each in Brussels, Antwerp and the province of Hainaut.

Various types of F2 licences are awarded in Belgium, alongside those secured by newsagents, with betting shops, bookmakers and racing associations also able to apply. F1 licences are only held by betting operators, while F1+ licences are awarded to online betting operators.

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Revenue reached $7.0m in the fourth quarter – up from $4.8m in the third quarter of 2021. The company’s revenue was nil in the fourth quarter of 2020, with the soft launch of its new sports betting vertical only having happened in early August 2021 in partnership with operators like BetMGM and Circa Sports.

Playmaker said that operating income was $500,000 in the final three months of 2021 – up from an operating loss of less than $100,000 in the corresponding period last year.

Looking at the entire year, revenue reached $14.8m in 2021, again compared to nil the year prior, with $1.2m allocated for cost of sales.

However, with total operating expenses hitting $11.9m, the business reported an operating loss of $1.8m for 2021 – up from $240,000 in 2020. These expenses included salaries and wages totalling $5.8m and advertising, commissions and fees reaching $2.7m, with both figures up from negligible amounts in the previous year.

With listing and filing fees of $1.8m and transaction costs of just over $840,000 among other items on the balance sheet, the company’s $3.5m net loss was in comparison with a $266,000 net loss in 2020.

Playmaker pointed out, though, that pro-forma adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was $9.3m in 2021 – a 119% increase on $4.2m registered in the previous year. The amount the business held in cash and cash equivalents improved from $6.6m to $7.1m year-on-year by the end of 2021.

The company added that pro-forma revenue for the year had also increased by 91% from $12.5m in 2020 to $23.8m in 2021.

“Our pro-forma results for Q4 2021 and full year 2021 demonstrate the continued execution of our strategy,” said Jordan Gnat, Playmaker’s founder and chief executive.

“We are acquiring great companies and successfully integrating them to leverage the centres of excellence within each business for the benefit of the entire Playmaker ecosystem.

“Our audience numbers have grown dramatically. We are now generating over 200 million monthly sessions from more than 85 million unique users across Playmaker’s web properties, generating over 50 million monthly YouTube views and 550,000 monthly podcast streams, and reaching more than 100 million fans across all major social platforms.

“We have expanded our distribution channels to deliver relevant content to our fans when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it. Our organic growth has been phenomenal, and we have done it while maintaining a focus on profitability with a 119% increase in pro-forma adjusted EBITDA year over year.”

Over recent months, Playmaker has acquired numerous entities, including Mexican sports platform Cracks, Brazil-based Grupo SuperPoker, digital betting and media solutions provider Two-Up, Brazilian online football community Fanáticos Por Futebol and digital media property Yardbarker.

Lottery hardware sales made up the majority of AGTech’s revenue, with this total rocketing 129.1% to HK$168.0m. During 2021, AGTech won 27 lottery hardware tenders to supply lottery terminals in a number of Chinese regions, municipalities and provinces such as Hubei, Shanghai and Henan.

Lottery distribution services revenue rocketed by 75.3% to HK$42.9m while games and entertainment revenue was up 22.9% to HK$21.6m.

In addition, the business made HK$21.6m from non-lottery hardware. This was a new revenue stream for 2021, enabled by the business branching out into point-of-sale terminals for retail stores in China.

Looking at revenue geographically, mainland China brought in HK$235.1m, with the remaining HK$18.1m coming from the rest of the world. Rest-of-world revenue was predominantly games and entertainment revenue from India and payment-related services in Macau.

AGTech also noted that three customers each made up more than 10% of its revenue, bringing in HK39.3m, HK$32.1m and HK$25.3m, respectively. While three customers also made up 10% of revenue in 2020, two of those customers were different for 2021.

In addition to the HK$253.2m in revenue, AGTech made a further HK$16.0m – up 46.9% – from other income, plus HK$13.3m in other net gains.

Despite the increase in revenue, employee benefit expenses declined by 34.7% to HK$116.8m.

However, the business also incurred $119.8m in costs related to purchases of inventories. This was up 166.2% from 2020.

Depreciation expenses were down by 13.5% to HK$20.6m while other operating expenses were up 35.5% to HK$91.2m.

As a result, AGTech made a $65.8m operating loss for 2021, almost exactly half of its operating loss in 2020.

The business made a further $18.6m loss through changes in the fair value of its financial assets, but made $17.2m in other financial income.

This led to a pre-tax loss of HK$67.2m. The pre-tax result in 2020, meanwhile, had been impacted by a HK$69.6m gain due to not having to make certain contingent consideration payments, as well as an $83.2m loss from businesses in which it owns a non-controlling stake. As a result of these, the business had made a $100.6m pre-tax loss in 2020.

After a $4.2m income tax credit, AGTech made a loss of $63.1m, down 43.4% from the prior year.

After also accounting for a $14.8m gain from currency exchange changes, the business made a final net loss of $48.2m.

During the year, AGTech announced that it had agreed to acquire patent business Macau Pass Holdings. At the time, AGTech said the acquisition would create “tremendous” synergies to its existing business, particularly in terms of its mobile games and entertainment and the supply of non-lottery hardware businesses.

Last week, AGTech received all relevant regulatory consents and approvals to proceed with that deal. In its earnings announcement, it said the deal would allow for further diversification of its operations.

“With the recent announcement on the acquisition of Macau Pass Holding Ltd, the group will continue to dedicate our commitment and support to grow our business to further capitalise on diversification opportunities,” it said.

The licence awarded by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) confirms Kambi as a gaming-related supplier from April 4, when regulated online single-event wagering will open up to licensed operators in Canada’s most populous province.

Under the registration, Kambi will be able to provide its sportsbook technology and services, including its “Bet Builder” capability and ice hockey product.

Kristian Nylén, Kambi’s chief executive and co-founder, said: “I am delighted that Kambi has become one of the first sportsbook providers to obtain registration from the AGCO.

“This landmark achievement is a testament to Kambi’s expertise and exemplary track record in compliance, and we are excited to be in a position to deliver our market-leading sportsbook technology to our partners’ customers in Ontario from day one.”

The AGCO said last week that all businesses that apply for approval in Ontario’s igaming market must cease operations in the province from the moment their registration is rubber-stamped, until launch day. These companies must also “terminate any association they may have with another company that operates in the unregulated market in Ontario” after receiving their registration.

The likes of PointsBet, theScore, Rivalry, Rush Street Interactive, Bet365 and 888 have been issued with operator licences by the AGCO ahead of the market opening.

The provincial government first revealed plans to scrap the lottery’s online gambling monopoly nearly three years ago, and legislation to pave the way for a licensing regime was introduced in 2020. The province published its final standards for online betting and gaming in September 2021, but some legal experts have expressed doubts about whether the provincial government’s approach conflicts with the Criminal Code of Canada.

The Class II licence from the Romanian National Gambling Office (ONJN) comes less than a week after Leap secured a licence from the Spelinspektionen regulator in Sweden.

Under the Romanian licence, Leap will be allowed to provide virtual sports and casino software solutions to B2C and B2B operators in the country.

Leap described the latest licence as “another step on Leap’s expansion path into regulated markets, for scalable distribution of its state-of-the-art virtual sports, slots and table games”.

The provider has been broadening its horizons in recent months by gaining a foothold in various European markets.

In February last year, Leap entered Italy through a partnership with GoldBet, and in November, the provider sealed a provisional licence in Greece.

Leap’s entrance into Romania comes just days after the ONJN added 26 domains to its blacklist of unlicensed gambling websites. The ONJN launched its blacklist back in 2015, prior to the country opening its regulated online gaming market in 2016. It has regularly updated the list since, including in August 2020, when 20 websites were blacklisted.

The state’s 14 commercial and tribal internet casino gaming and sports betting operators reported a combined $145.28m in total gross internet gaming receipts and gross sports betting receipts in February.

While total receipts fell 6.8% when compared with January’s record of $155.9m, they were up by 62.9% compared to the $89.2m posted in February 2021 – the first full month of legal online sports betting in the state.

February internet gaming gross receipts were a Michigan record $122.78m, exceeding the previous record of $121.8m set in December 2021. The figure was also up by 53.8% compared to $79.7m in February 2021.

Gross sports betting receipts totalled $22.5m, down 35.2% on January 2022 but up 136.7% year-on-year from $9.5m.

Combined total adjusted gross receipts – which account for promotional spending – came to $106.6m. This included $110.6m from internet casino gaming and a $3.95m loss for internet sports betting. Monthly internet gaming adjusted gross receipts were 1.3% higher than in January.

Total handle at $398.4m fell 19.8% compared with January numbers, but was up 32.0% year-on-year.

The operators submitted $22m in taxes and payments to the State of Michigan during January including internet gaming taxes and fees of $21.6m. The three Detroit casinos – MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino and Penn National’s Greektown Casino Hotel – reported paying the City of Detroit $6.2m in wagering taxes and municipal services fees.

Compared with February 2021 results, monthly internet gaming adjusted gross receipts were up 47% and internet sports betting adjusted gross receipts rose 63.4%.

Michigan recently reported revenue figures of $1.40bn for the entirety of 2021.

Kentucky House Bill 606 would allow online and in-person sports wagering, fantasy contests and online poker to be legalised in Kentucky.

It was primarily sponsored by representative Adam Koenig, who previously filed legislation attempts to legalise online sports betting in January 2021.

Other sponsors included Alan Gentry, Michael Meredith, David Osborne, Kimberly Banta, Rachel Roberts, Thomas Huff and Cherlynn Stevenson.

The bill was initially introduced in the middle of February, and was passed by the Committee for Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulation on 16 March. It will now go to the House Rules Committee.

Bill 606 is identical to a bill going through the Senate right now, Senate Bill 213. This Bill permits wagering only in the state at licensed racetracks, professional sports venues or on a mobile app, for which in-person registration will be mandatory.

Tracks and venues are only allowed to partner with one provider at a time, using a format available in both a retail and online capacity.

Sports betting licencees will be subject to a 9.75% tax rate on adjusted gross revenue from retail bets, while online bets will be taxed at 14.25%.

This registration requirement will then lift from 2024, when players aged 18 and above will be able to download an app anywhere.

AGTech first announced details of the deal in October last year, setting out how Macau Pass would become a wholly owned subsidiary of the business.

At the time, AGTech said the acquisition would create “tremendous” synergies to its existing business, particularly in terms of its mobile games and entertainment and the supply of non-lottery hardware businesses.

The series of approvals, including written approval from the Monetary Authority of Macau, clears the way for the deal to proceed.

AGTech said the acquisition would close following fulfilment or waiver of all other closing conditions, with further announcements to be made in due course.

“Macau Pass is a well established and leading payment service provider in Macau with a strong position in physical payment card, e-wallet and acquiring services; it is an excellent investment opportunity for AGTech to realise its strategy,” AGTech said at the time of the original announcement in October.

“The integration with an e-wallet operator will provide the group with its own platform to enhance the potential economic benefits of its games and entertainment business.”

Hillside, operating as Bet365, secured a licence in Ontario, along with Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel and Unibet.

Other recent named licensees include Annexio Limited, which will operate as Lotogo, Coolbear, Fitzdares and NSUS Limited, operating under the WSOP brand.

In recent weeks, LeoVegas, Rush Street Interactive, Rivalry, theScoreBet and 888 have also secured approval to launch in Ontario.

Licences were issued by iGaming Ontario, which will oversee the province’s market when it formally launches on 4 April.

Each of the licences will run from the day the market opens, through to 3 April 2024.

Earlier this week, new guidance from the AGCO warned operators in the process of securing a licence to cease activities when the province’s igaming market opens next month.

Companies will be required to shut down any activities Canada’s largest province, or face having their application for registration rejected by the regulator.