Month: April 2022

According to the campaign, football players are regularly subjected to online abuse and accused of purposefully causing bettors to lose wagers they had placed.

A number of athletes have spoken out about this, after they had received abuse online after appearing in football matches.

The new campaign has been promoted by a video, which shows empty football kits on a pitch saving and scoring goals during a match. The bodies of players are not visible, reminding viewers that real football players are not “invisible men” that they can bully online without consequence.

The match sequences in the video are styled after matches from Ligue 1, which is sponsored by Uber Eats, and Ligue 2 BKT, which is sponsored by Balkrishna Industries.

The video also features a commentator describing the match, but using terms derived from sports betting and not football play.

The campaign launched today (6 April) and features on the ANJ and LFP social media accounts.

The operator’s total distribution for good causes was NOK6.29bn, which was 1.9% more than in 2020.

Of this total, NOK5.50bn was distributed using the country’s fixed distribution formula (Tippenøkkelen) for funding for general social causes, also up 1.9%. This included NOK3.29bn distributed to sport and NOK926.1m each for culture and charities. In addition, NOK351.8m went towards health funding.

In addition to the Tippenøkkelen funds, Norsk TIpping distributed a further NOK737m towards grassroots initiatives, plus NOK36m in bingo profits towards good causes – as required for all Norwegian bingo operators. 

In addition, it distributed NOK17m towards an action plan to combat gambling addiction. On top of this distribution, the Ministry of Culture and Gender Equality has decided to add an extra NOK8m.

“Tens of thousands of Norwegians are destroying their own finances and inflicting great problems on themselves and their families as a result of a difficult relationship with gambling,” Minister of Culture and Gender Equality Anette Trettebergstuen said. “We are now strengthening our efforts so that the total allocation for measures against gambling problems is as much as NOK2m.”

Trettebergstuen added that work to combat gambling harm was particularly important following the results of a study which estimated the total cost of gambling harm in the country to be NOK5.14bn per year.

“These are worrying figures, which I take very seriously,” she said. “Therefore, I am glad that we in Norway have regulated gambling within an exclusive rights model, which offers gambling in responsible forms to limit and prevent gambling problems. 

“Then the profits from gambling can also go to sports, culture and volunteering, and not in the pockets of private actors. The NOK25m for measures in the action plan against gambling problems goes, among other things, to voluntary organizations that work with problematic gambling behavior, so that they can run help services, run prevention and spread information.”

Last year, Norway’s government introduced a new Gambling Act that would – among other things – require Norsk Tipping to put at least 0.5% of its profits towards preventing gambling harm. However, this requirement would not come into force until 2023.

“This is too long to wait for those who struggle with gambling problems,” Trettebergstuen continued. “These are individuals who experience being in a crisis, and who have families and relatives who are also affected by this. Fortunately, there are organizations and research environments that do an invaluable job in the fight against gambling addiction, but these need increased funding to be able to continue and intensify this work. 

“Therefore, we will increase the level already from 2023, by now putting NOK8m on top of the NOK17m that has been set aside from Norsk Tipping’s profit.”

Wachtmeister previously held the role of executive vice president at Kambi, which she took up in 2019 after joining the company’s executive management team.

Before her time at Kambi, Wachtmeister spent 25 years at telecommunications company Ericsson AB, where she held a number of senior management positions across sales, business development and strategy.

In her new role, Wachtmeister will lead three Kambi senior vice presidents that have recently been promoted – Sarah Robertson, Jamie McKittrick and Veena Dhesi.

Robertson has been named as senior vice president of sales. She has over 10 years worth of experience in the industry. McKittrick is senior vice president of commercial operations, having moved from the role of group head of commercial at Entain in 2021.

Dhesi moved from research and advisory company Gartner to the role of senior vice president of partner success. At Gartner she most recently held the role of director of sales growth programs.

“With a market-leading product and partner-first focus, it’s no surprise Kambi has enjoyed great success in recent years,” said Wachtmeister. “Even though we are on a steep growth trajectory, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible which is why I’m looking forward to working with my talented commercial team to ensure Kambi can capitalise on the many exciting opportunities that lay ahead.”

“It has already been a busy start to the year with the signings of MaximBet and NorthStar Gaming and I am confident we have the right team and product in place to build on this success in 2022 and beyond.”

Caesars will become an official sports betting partner of the team, which will allow for integrations with the operator’s VIP programme as well as marketing opportunities at Mets games.

In addition, the operator will open a new 13,000 square-foot sportsbook at Citi Field at some point during the 2022 season. The sportsbook will include a multi-tiered dining room and outdoor patio seating.

The deal comes soon after New York launched its online sports betting market, with Caesars being one of only nine operators permitted to do business.

“New York is a key state for us following the successful launch of our Caesars Sportsbook app in January,” said Chris Holdren, co-president of Caesars Digital. “The Mets’ fanbase is one of the most loyal in baseball and this partnership offers us the chance to treat those passionate fans like Caesars. 

“We look forward to opening our space at Citi Field during an exciting time for the franchise.”

In February, consumers in New York staked a total of $1.54bn (£1.17bn/€1.42bn) on internet sports betting, while gross gaming revenue from online wagering reached $91.7m.

Revenue also dropped from $765,092 to $98,135, signifying an 87% decrease since the beginning of the year.

Players won a total of $5.1m across the February, with 160,742 wagers being placed during the month.

Delaware’s handle also was down 28.7% from February 2021, when players placed $7.3m worth of bets. Revenue was down 86.1% year-on-year.

Dover Downs was the state’s leading operator in February, with net revenue of $44,305 across the month from 43,683 wagers. Compared to February last year, this is 4,652 less wagers and $104,313 less in revenue.

Revenue from January’s leading operator, Delaware Park, was down 91% month-on-month in February. The operator recorded $35,200 in net revenue, compared to $391,000 in January. This was spread across 81,778 wagers – 36,350 less than the previous month.

Meanwhile, Harrington Raceway took in the least money in both months, recording $18,000 in revenue across 35,281 wagers as compared to $164,009 in February 2021, across 45,316 wagers.

The rules will be added to the CAP Code, which all marketing communications must abide by, from 1 October.

Previously the rules stated that advertisements must not be of “particular appeal” to children or young persons. Under this definition, an ad could be banned if the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) judged that it appealed more to people under 18 than to adults.

However, the rules have been changed to now also ban ads that have a “strong appeal” to young people.

“Marketing communications / advertisements for gambling must not […] be likely to be of strong appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture,” the new code says.

This means that any ad that could be considered popular with young people may be banned, even if it is also popular with adults.

In particular, the CAP said that this means operators may no longer use “top-flight footballers and footballers with a considerable following among under-18 on social media”, or “sportspeople well-known to under-18s” in their ads.

In addition, “references to video game content and gameplay popular with under-18s” will also be banned. 

The CAP did note, however, that sports – particularly football – and esports could be said to have a strong appeal to children given “high rates of participation and engagement among under-18s”, and that a stricter reading of the rule could ban all marketing of betting on these sports.

As a result, it added that “this rule does not prevent the advertising of gambling products associated with activities that are themselves of strong appeal to under-18s (for instance, certain sports or playing video games)”.

Also unable to appear in ads are “stars from reality shows popular with under-18s”, with the CAP highlighting Love Island as an example.

“The days of gambling ads featuring sports stars, video game imagery and other content of strong appeal to under-18s are numbered,” CAP director Shahriar Coupal said. “By ending these practices, our new rules invite a new era for gambling ads, more particular to the adult audience they can target and more befitting of the age-restricted product they’re promoting.”

The new rules follows a consultation on how to ensure minors are protected from the effects of gambling advertising, which itself followed a report by GambleAware on the subject.

This consultation drew 27 responses, with some calling for much stronger rules, including an outright ban on gambling ads.

The responses included one from the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC). The industry body noted its own efforts to reduce youth expose to gambling ads, such as the creation of an AdTech forum to work on technological solutions to the issue, as well as its members implementing a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling ads during live sport.

“Against this backdrop, CAP’s desire to move towards a more restrictive regulatory regime for an industry which, for the most part, is meeting and often exceeding the expected standard appears unnecessary,” it said.

The BGC added that the key change from existing rules would be around the use of sports and particularly sports personalities in gambling ads. The ban on the use of major sporting personalities, it said, would be “a step too far”.

“Betting is intrinsically linked to sports, sports have a universal global appeal,” the BGC said. “Any restriction on the use of a sports personality under the proposed strong appeal test would

therefore have a huge impact on gambling operators. The current particular appeal test and supporting guidance could continue to be effective in restricting advertising content. Restricting the consideration of appeal to solely an under 18 audience, with no reference to the same content’s appeal to an adult audience (as proposed in the strong appeal test), is a step too far.

“We perceive this lack of proportionality exists as: (a) it cannot be stated with certainty that the appeal of a particularly sports personality to a child or young person will affect their view of gambling; and (b) there are many ways in which ads can be targeted at audiences very effectively, but which may not qualify for the age-verification exemption given it’s ‘highly robust’ metrics.”

The BGC also said that it would appear that marketing betting on goalscorers would not fall under the exemption and would therefore be banned. In the final version of the rules though, the CAP clarified that these would be allowed “with text or audio references to a specific player alongside generic footballing imagery”, rather than a picture of the player.

In a statement, the Board said that it had identified several “violations” of licensing procedures, which had caused confusion for operators.

These included other government authorities issuing licences and permits to allow businesses to offer gaming in the country, in violation of Tanzania’s Gaming Act No.4 2003.

The Tanzania Gaming Board is the only body that is permitted to issue gambling licences in the country.

The Board reminded operators that licences will only be issued if the recipient undergoes, and passes, a thorough background check.

The purpose of the clarification, read the statement, is to “eliminate the recurring confusion between operators and some business officers, cultural officers and police officers in various parts of the country”.

The confusion in who issues the licences, the statement continued, “significantly affects the operation and management of the gaming industry in the country by causing inconvenience to operators and thus depriving the government of revenue.”

In November last year the Board released a proposed code for gambling advertising in Tanzania, with a focus on encouraging responsible gambling.

Revenue for the 12 months to 31 December 2021 amounted to $68.5m, a significant increase from $7.5m in the previous financial year.

Lottery.com put this growth primarily down to the sale of $47.1m worth of LotteryLink credits for prepaid advertising, prepaid lottery games, marketing materials and product development, while increased B2C sales also contributed to revenue growth.

In October of 2021, Lottery.com completed its business combination with special purpose acquisition company Trident Acquisitions Corp, which allowed the business to go public on the Nasdaq exchange,

Lottery.com owner AutoLotto and New York-listed Trident had signed a binding letter of intent to acquire the broker in November 2020, with the combined group estimated to have a post-business combination enterprise value of approximately $526m.

Shortly after the year-end, Lottery.com also reshuffled its senior management team with a series of new appointments. These included Ryan Dickinson moving into the role of chief financial officer and president, Katie Lever as chief operating officer and chief legal officer, and Matt Clemenson as chief revenue officer.

Looking at costs for the year, total operating expenses jumped 378.1% to $39.2m, with the main outgoing being personnel costs, which hiked 380.0% to $21.6m. After excluding certain costs, revenue growth meant adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBTIDA) turned from a loss of $3.1m to a positive of $31.1m.

However, Lottery.com also noted $18.1m in interest expenses and $2.9m in other costs, which left a pre-tax loss of $10.9m, compared to a $5.8m loss in the previous year.

The broker received $1.6m in income tax benefit, which, after also accounting for a net cumulative translation adjustment of $655,000, meant Lottery.com ended the year with a net loss of $9.3m, wider than the $5.8m loss in 2020.

Looking at the final quarter of the year and revenue for the three months to 31 December 2021 was up 551.5% year-on-year to $21.5m.

Operating costs rocketed 679.3%, while net finance costs also rocketed by 1,154.1% from $802,600 to $10.1m. This left a pre-tax loss of $14.4m, far higher than $1.7m in Q4 of 2020.

Lottery.com received $1.6m in income tax benefit and also noted a cumulative translation adjustment of $655,000, meaning it ended the quarter with a net loss of $12.9m, compared to $1.7m in the previous year.

“In the fourth quarter and throughout 2021, we demonstrated our ability to execute our strategic growth initiatives across the business to generate strong revenue growth and gross profit,” Lottery.com co-founder and chief executive Tony DiMatteo said.

“B2C sales increased compared to the prior year period, despite no digital marketing spending. LotteryLink, our affiliate program, expanded and generated multiple revenue streams. 

“I am extremely proud of our team achieving these accomplishments while successfully closing the business combination and taking our company public.”

Sliede has over 10 years of industry experience, having worked with over 140 marketing campaigns, including working with streaming platforms across America and Europe as a Twitch premium partner.

In this role, Sliede engaged with a following of more than 80,000.

In his new role he will be handling digital media production across text, audio and visual for Green Jade Games multiple channels and publications, “ensuring consistent voice, tone, quality and style to deliver an authentic brand message.”

“I am delighted to welcome Janis to the team and for Green Jade to benefit from his incredible experience when it comes to content creation and especially for video and streaming,” commented Mark Taffler, CCO at Green Jade Games.

“It is great to also be able to leverage the understanding and learnings he has from outside of the industry so that we can apply it to our marketing efforts moving forwards, allowing us to better communicate the incredible player experience our games have to offer.”

Janis Sliede, head of content creation at Green Jade Games, added: “I am thrilled to be a part of the Green Jade team and to be a new face in the igaming industry.

“One of my main goals is to create a brand message and make sure that our story, through content, is being told in the best and most engaging way possible.

“Customers want to buy, support and align themselves with brands that are authentic, and it is my job to bring that authenticity to Green Jade’s content and marketing. It is a challenge I am looking forward to taking on.”

This news follows Mattias Lindahls’ appointment as new head of development last month.

Put forward by its nomination committee, the two proposed appointments will be discussed at Raketech’s annual general meeting on 17 May.

Based in Los Angeles, Cadena has expertise within igaming, affiliate marketing and M&A. He previously held senior roles within strategy and business development at anime video streaming business Crunchyroll, as well as at Caesars Interactive Entertainment.

Cadena currently serves as chief strategy advisor at SCCG Management, a consultancy that specialises in sports betting, igaming, technology, M&A, joint ventures, and governmental and legal affairs for the casino and igaming industry. 

Boynton has experience across a number of industries with major global brands including Unilever, KFC and Amazon, as well as highly regulated businesses such as RSA Insurance. 

She is an independent finance director at CFO, supporting early-stage businesses to plan and fund their growth. Boynton has also been proposed as the new chair of Raketech’s audit committee.

Meanwhile, Raketech’s nomination committee also proposed the re-election of Ulrik Bengtsson as chairman, as well as Johan Svensson, Erik Skarp and Magnus Gottåsas members of the board.

Annika Billberg and Fredrik Svederman, both current board members, have stated that they will not stand for re-election.

The proposed appointments come after Raketech in February reported a year-on-year rise in revenue and net profit for its 2021 financial year, helped by record performance during the fourth quarter.

Revenue for the 12 months through to 31 December 2021 was €38.5m (£29.9m/$39.3), an increase of 31.0% from €29.4m in the previous year, while net profit jumped by 26.8% to €7.1m.