Month: May 2022

Michael Owen will be Punt Casino’s new global ambassador, appearing in various commercial and online ad campaigns for the casino. The new partnership will highlight Punt Casino’s crypto offering, which the business compared to what it called traditional ‘outdated’ methods.

Owen has over 25 years’ experience in professional football between playing and punditry. Playing for Liverpool as a striker, he made his Premier League debut in 1997. Since then, he earned a spot in Pelé’s FIFA 100 list of “greatest living footballers”, along with winning the Ballon d’Or in 2001.

In 1998 he was awarded 1998 UK Sportsman of the Year and Europe’s Footballer of the Year in 2001.

“I’ve been involved with crypto for some time now, so it’s great for me to stand side-by-side with Punt Casino” Owen said.

“Being involved with the best has always worked for me. Punt Casino is just that, and they really are changing the game with crypto.”

Alexander Bowring, head of marketing at Punt Casino, said: “Michael Owen is a football icon in every sense of the word, so to have him come on board as our brand ambassador is a major moment for us.”

“Since launching last year, Punt Casino has been changing the game, delivering exciting crypto casino action that our rivals just can’t match. Expect big things from Punt Casino in 2022 and beyond.”

Revenue for the 12 months through to 31 March 2022 amounted to €7.0m (£5.9m/$7.3m), up 25.0% from €5.6m in the same period last year.

Acroud said this year-on-year increase was driven by organic growth during the period as well as its acquisition of affiliate business The Gambling Cabin in April last year.

Revenue from the igaming affiliation business reached €3.0m, up 7.1% on last year, while the software-as-a-service (SaaS) segment generated €4.0m in revenue, an increase of 42.9% from Q1 of 2021.

Acroud also noted 5.5% increase in the number of new depositing customers (NDCs) during the quarter to 33,538. This, the group said, was driven by both its igaming affiliation and SaaS segments, with new depositing customers across these areas rising 4% and 7%, respectively. 

Turning to costs, operating expenses were up, mainly due to costs related the purchase of The Gambling Cabin. External expenses increased 31.4% to €4.6m, but personnel costs were reduced by 10.4% to €918,000, while other operating expenses reached €45,000.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at €2.2m for the quarter, up 57.1%, while after including €567,000 worth of depreciation and amortisation costs, this left an operating profit of €1.7m, up 54.7% year-on-year.

Costs related to financial items amounted to €412,000, meaning pre-tax profit was €1.3m, an increase of 58.3% on last year. Acroud paid €85,000 in income tax during Q1, leaving it with a net profit of €1.2m, up 64.9% from €748,000 in 2021.

“We have developed Acroud from a conventional player with comparison sites to a fast-moving challenger in the space of not only igaming affiliation but also B2B SaaS solutions,” Acroud chief executive Robert Andersson said.

“Representing renewed stability and profitability, Q1 2022 has been a solid quarter of harvesting the fruits of the strategic steps and well-executed plans implemented in the previous year; although admittedly it took longer than all of us wanted. 

“With a leaner and more agile team, the knowledge, assets, and cost base we have now in place, I’m excited to see that we have reached the desirable foundation to accelerate revenue growth and return to consistently positive performance.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the year and beyond, Acroud repeated its aim to generate between €8.0m and €10.0m in 2022. The group said it will aim to continue to grow EBTIDA organically by an average of 20% a year between the 2023 and 2025 financial years. 

During the period, Aristocrat attempted to acquire online gambling technology giant Playtech, only for shareholders to reject the deal. Following this, the business said it would continue to pursue online opportunities, and then announced the launch of a new online real-money gaming (RMG) arm of the business.

In its earnings report, Aristocrat outlined that its goal for this business was to be the world’s leading online gambling platform.

“Online RMG is a logical growth and diversification opportunity that is highly complementary to both the Aristocrat Gaming and Pixel United [social gaming] businesses,” it said. “It provides

further channels for the distribution of our world-leading content, and leverages our strengths, including our ability to attack attractive adjacencies through strong investment and effective operational execution.

“This new business has crystalised its objectives and is implementing its plans at full pace, with an ambition to ultimately be the leading gaming platform within the global online RMG industry.”

The business will initially focus its online expansion on the US, planning to launch online products with two new customers in two jurisdictions before the end of the calendar year, with the aim of gaining a “significant share” of the US market within five years.

“Scaling in online RMG is a logical growth and diversification opportunity that is complementary for Aristocrat’s gaming and free to play mobile businesses,” Aristocrat chief executive Trevor Croker said. “It provides another channel for the distribution of our world leading content.

“Our first focus will be in North America given the scale of the opportunity and Aristocrat’s deep customer and regulator relationships.”

When asked if the US would be the sole focus for the online real-money division over the next five years, Croker said it would be the sole focus at first, but that there may also be opportunities in other markets such as Europe that arise in the medium term.

“I think you’ve got it right but I wouldn’t necessarily lock us into five years. We can see that there’s opportunity to be part of the US gaming market, in three of the six open markets by early 2023. 

“It wouldn’t preclude us from going into Europe and other markets, and I wouldn’t quarantine it to five years but we will be able to bui;d the capabilities and technology in North America and then scale it to other markets.”

The business reported strong results in H1, leaving $3.3bn in available liquidity, some of which Croker noted could be used to acquire businesses in the online real-money space.

Aristocrat’s revenue was up 23.1% year-on-year to AU$2.75bn for the half-year.

Pixel United – Aristocrat’s social gaming division – continued to be the largest contributor to revenue, bringing in AU$1.31bn, up by 10.0%.

Meanwhile, for Aristocrat’s gaming machine business, the Americas brought in $1.15bn, up 41.5%, up 281.0%. Australia and New Zealand revenue was $222.7m, up 6.5% while international class IIIl gaming added an additional $64.0m, almost four times the previous year’s figure, due to new, “large openings” in the Philippines.

Costs of revenue were up by 11.2% to $1.22bn. This meant Aristocrat’s gross profit was $1.53bn, up 35.3%.

Design and development costs were $312.8m, up 28.8%, selling, general and administrative expenses grew by 22.3% to $444.2m while finance costs grew by 154.6% to $178.0m.

As a result, Aristocrat made a pre-tax profit of $598.0m, up 29.7%.

After an $85.0m income tax expense, down 26.1%, profit for the half-year came to $513.0m, up 48.1%.

“Aristocrat delivered an impressive and resilient performance despite mixed operational conditions and challenges,” Croker said. “We took comprehensive action to protect our people and business, while investing strongly to accelerate our growth strategy going forward.”

Wind Creek Bethlehem, operator of Wind Creek Casino Bethlehem in Northampton County, received the largest penalty after it was handed a fine of $20,000.

This was in relation to a self-exclusion violation where casino staff failed to stop a consumer on the PGCB’s Self-Exclusion list from playing table games at the venue on a number of visits over a four-day period

PGCB regulations state that a casino must identify self-excluded patrons and refuse gaming privileges and other gaming-related activities.

Meanwhile, Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, operator of Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Dauphin County, was also fined $7,500 for a self-exclusion violation.

Here, the PGCB said a self-excluded individual who was able to gamble at slot machines and cashed a personal cheque at the Hollywood Casino facility, thus placing the venue in breach of PGCB regulations.

Finally, Underdog Sports was fined $8,000 for operating fantasy contests without securing the required licence in Pennsylvania.

In this case, the PGCB said Underdog offered games with two unlicensed shareholders that were required to undergo background investigations and be licensed. The PGCB added that five corporate entities created by Underdog were also not licensed during a time when the operator offered fantasy games in the state.

This week, it was revealed that Pennsylvania’s gambling market generated $461.6m in total revenue during April, marginally less than the monthly record of $462.7m set in March of this year.

Revenue slipped 0.2% month-on-month, but figures released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board revealed a 14.5% increase from $404.1m in April last year.

Consumers in Mississippi wagered $35.5m (£28.7m/€33.9m) on sports during the month, up from $32.9m in April 2021 but 25.9% down from $47.9m in March this year.

Revenue slipped 2.3% year-on-year to $4.2m, though this figure was marginally higher than $4.1m in March 2022 despite the lower handle. 

Coastal casinos remained the venue of choice for consumers, with these casinos generating a total of £2.5m in revenue from $23.5m in wagers.

Revenue from central casinos reached $941,421 for the month, with players having wagered a total of $6.6m. Northern casino revenue amounted to $747,476 from a handle of $5.5m. 

Basketball was again by far the most popular sport to bet across all regions in Mississippi, with $10.0m worth of wagers placed at coastal casinos, $2.0m in central venues and $2.9m at northern casinos.

The MGCB also noted that casinos across the state had a total win percentage of 11.9% for the month, down 17.1% on the previous year.

The solution is based on the T20 cricket game format and features a 3D animation engine.

It features 20 overs per team, along with super overs.

The solution is made up of data points from real cricket matches collated by cricket experts and data engineers from Sportradar.

This is the most recent of Sportradar’s cricket offerings, which utilises proprietary data collection tool Cricket Live Score Plus and data and audio-visual content from the International Cricket Council.

“The exponential growth of cricket worldwide has created unprecedented demand for associated content,” said Frank Wenzig, managing director, gaming at Sportradar.

“As cricket fans, and fans of sport more broadly, engage more deeply with data driven content, we are deploying the full extent our technological capabilities to deliver a unique fan experience that empowers our clients to engage around the clock with cricket lovers.”

Despite being a year-on-year increase, revenue was down 6.8% from the previous quarter.

Online betting and gaming made up most of this total, with revenue growing 7.2% to SEK4.20bn. This was also up 0.3% quarter-on-quarter.

The state lottery – run by Svenska Spel – as well as Svenska Spel’s Vegas brand of slot halls – brought in a combined SEK1.29bn, down 4.4% from Q1 of 2021 and down 23.6% from Q4.

Svenska Spel’s Casino Cosmopol brand of land-based casinos, meanwhile, brought in SEK103m, after no such revenue in Q1 of 2021, when these casinos were closed because of Covid-19. Compared to Q4, revenue was  down 28.5%

Charitable lotteries brought in SEK863m, which was very slightly up from the same period of 2021, but down 3.0% from Q4.

Restaurant casinos brought in SEK39m, up from just SEK5m in Q1, but down from SEK62m in Q4.

Regulator Spellinspektionen also revealed that at the end of the first quarter, slightly more than 73,000 people had self-excluded from gambling using the Spelpaus self-exclusion tool. Meanwhile, 91 companies had active licenses for the Swedish market, excluding charitable gaming licensees.

Today, Sweden’s government also published a new bill to amend the country’s gaming laws by introducing licences for B2B software providers and implementing a new standard of “adjusted moderation” for marketing, as had previously been proposed in January.

Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) said it was “cautiously positive” after publication of the bill, particularly as the government had opted not to limit the hours in which gambling operators can market. However, the body also said it needed more clarity about what the new rules for marketing mean in practice.

The tribe said the new business will focus on expanding the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s digital footprint. It will replace Mashantucket Pequot Interactive, which already manages the FoxwoodsOnline social product.

“The gaming and entertainment industry is evolving at an incredible rate, which has created innovative new opportunities for our players that we’re deeply excited about,” Jason Guyot, president and CEO of Foxwoods Resort Casino, said. “Wondr Nation will provide our guests with the interactive gaming experience that Foxwoods is known for with the flexibility and access that’s needed for the modern player.”

In addition to the Tribe’s own products, the business will partner with other Native American tribes and technology companies “to create engaging and unique experiences for players”.

“The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has always championed innovation and empowerment, which are core values incorporated into Wondr Nation’s foundation,” tribal chairman Rodney Butler said.

“From lawmakers and regulators to community members and patrons, we’re deeply grateful and honored to continue sharing our Tribe’s ongoing passion for entertainment through the next frontier of interactive gaming.”

Wonder Nation will be led by Annika Howard, who was previously Foxwoods’ vice president for brand and digital. Howard also has experience with IGT as head of product marketing and Caesars as regional director for marketing in Southern Nevada. She will serve as CEO and president of the new venture.

“I’m proud and honored the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has entrusted me to lead this new venture and I’m very excited to share the vision for Wondr Nation,” Howard said. “With Wondr Nation, we hope to bring a fresh approach to what’s next for the gaming industry.”

The Tribe also operates online betting and gaming in Connecticut, both in partnership with DraftKings. This partnership was expanded last month, with a deal to allow the online betting giant to take bets in Puerto Rico through a sportsbook at Foxwoods El San Juan Casino.

Betting turnover came to $217.5m, down by 10.5%.

Gross gaming revenue was $15.3m, a decrease of 11.9%. Gaming taxes at $3.7m – $401,792‬ more than in 2021 – brought the net gaming revenue to $11.5m, down by 17.6%.

The addition of revenue from betting platform software and services at $655,661, resulted in revenue coming to $12.2m.

A majority of this, $11.7m, was generated through betting establishments. The remaining $484,720 was made up from betting platform and software services.

Costs and expenses amounted to $14.2m, a decrease of 3.4% year-on-year. This was mostly made up of selling expenses, which fell by 12.9% to $9.2m. The remaining $5.0m came from selling and administrative expenses, which rose by 20.8% year-on-year.

Changes in fair value of contingent payments came to $450,013.

Interest expenses were $3,859 – down by 50.8% – while other expenses were $1,070, a fall of $25,860 year-on-year.

Other income offset this slightly, at $39,749. This was significantly less than the other income recorded in 2021, which came to $281,344.

Gains on marketable securities amounted to $77,500. This was a decrease of $117,500 compared to Q1 2021.

‬After considering these expenses and income, the total net loss before income taxes was $2.3m, $2.1m more than what was recorded in the same period in 2021.

Following income tax of $156,893 – down by 59.6% – the total net loss for the period was $2.5m, $1.9m more than in Q1 of 2021.

“Elys continues to improve on its performance with another strong quarter achieving a turnover growth of $2.7 million over an already strong Q4-2021 performance,” said Michele Ciavarella, executive chairman of Elys Game Technology. “This growth was predominantly in our online betting channel in Italy while our Q1-2022 revenue also included an improvement in service revenues to $0.7 million from $0.6 million in Q4-2021.”

The review and consequent suspension, the Commission said, is because of concerns that Goldchip may have carried out activities contrary to the Gambling Act 2005.

The Commission did not disclose the specific details of these activities, but it did state that suspected social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings were key considerations in the suspension decision.

As such, the Commission said these activities mean Goldchip, which operates Goldchip.com, may be unsuitable to carry on licensed operations in Great Britain. 

The review will be carried out in accordance with Section 116 of the Gambling Act, while the suspension is in line with Section 118 (2) of the Act, which says that the Commission may suspend a licence while it conducts a review under section 116.

“We have made it clear to the operator that during the course of the suspension, we expect it to focus on treating consumers fairly and keeping them fully informed of any developments which impact them,” the Commission said. 

“The suspension does not prevent the operator from allowing consumers to access their accounts and withdrawing funds”

The suspension comes into immediate effect.

The ruling comes just a day after Commission also ordered two white label providers to pay settlements totalling £675,000 for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failings.

Jumpman Gaming, which operates 243 websites, and Progress Play, which runs 201, have been ordered to pay £500,000 and £175,718 respectively, in lieu of financial penalties.

Both sums will be directed to the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms.

In addition, Jumpman Gaming will pay £13,594 and Progress Play £12,466 towards the Commission’s investigations costs.