Month: May 2022

The operator said it accepted the resignations of Theodore, as well as chief casino officer Greg Hawkins, and chief legal and risk officer and company secretary Paula Martin.

Star did not disclose the reasons behind the departure of any of the three senior members of staff.

The three executives will work with Star’s executive chairman to transition their executive responsibilities and an executive search agency will commence the search for permanent appointments.

As part of this transition phase, Star has appointed Christina Katsibouba as its interim chief financial officer, while Geoff Hogg will serve as interim chief casino officer for New South Wales and Queensland.

The triple resignation comes after last month an independent review of Star and its land-based casino in Sydney was extended by an additional two months to allow for more witnesses to give evidence.

Led by Adam Bell SC, the review had been due to run until 30 June, but will now continue until 31 August after summonses were issued for further witnesses to appear.

The initial review launched in June of last year after concerns were raised about The Star Sydney’s interactions with junkets and money laundering prevention measures. This was then expanded in January this year to assess other entities within the group.

In March, Star’s long-serving chief executive and managing director Matt Bekier stepped down from both roles in respose to issues raised during the ongoing review of the Star Sydney casino.

Upon tendering his resignation, Bekier said as managing director and CEO, he is accountable for the “effectiveness and adequacy of the company’s processes, policies, people and culture”.

Star in April announced the appointment of John O’Neill as interim executive chairman with immediate effect. O’Neill will lead the business in his new role following the exit of Bekier.

The KSA issues operating licences for gaming machines, but venues also need a presence permit to confirm that the machines are located in a permitted place.

This means that gaming machines are only licensed if they are in locations predominantly visited by adults.

The regulator conducted inspections of a random sample of 290 catering locations with gaming machines. The 37 infringing operators have been notified by the KSA.

All operators in the investigation, with the exception of one, ceased the violations. The operator who remained in violation will face an order for a penalty.

Operaciones el Escorial S.A, which operates under the Enjoy Group, was first established in 2008.

The operator withdrew its application in a letter sent to SCJ.

Following this, the regulator issued an exempt resolution on 4 May which officially removed Operaciones el Escorial S.A’s application.

Operaciones el Escorial S.A applied for the licence under SCJ’s casino permit renewal process, which opened in September 2021.

After the process opened, SCJ made progress in issuing operating permits to the Enjoy San Antonio and Enjoy Santiago properties in the Valparaíso region.

The process saw a number of operators make applications for licences or licence renewals, before the deadline of 22 February 2022.

The evaluation of the proposals will end on 23 June.

SCJ said that it would continue to assess 12 other applicants, which were presented in October and November 2021 and in January this year.

The standard, Entain said, was awarded in recognition of its player protection and social responsibility processes across its online and land-based activities in Great Britain. 

The Safer Gambling Standard is an independent quality standard that assesses measures businesses have put in place to protect customers from experiencing gambling-related harm.

Entain becomes the largest operator to secure the highest level of accreditation – Advanced Level 3- for its online activities, and Advanced Level 2 for its land-based operations.

The group was assessed in 10 different areas and against up to 58 separate criteria including a review of its safer gambling strategy, policies, procedures and controls, as well as conducting interviews with Entain employees, website reviews and on-site visits.

“Sustainability, and with that – responsibility, is at the heart of our strategy and is fundamental to the way we do business,” Entain’s chief governance officer Robert Hoskin said. 

“We work hard to provide our customers with the safest and most trusted environment to play, whether online or in our shops, and are committed to continuing to lead the industry to the highest standards of social responsibility in the longer-term.”

GamCare’s head of industry standards Dan Whitlam added: “We are encouraged to see Entain achieve the Advanced level of the Safer Gambling Standard for its online and land-based activities, meaning they have adopted a wide range of safer gambling measures that go beyond the social responsibility provisions of their gambling licence.”

The standard comes after Entain in February joined forces with a group of other real-money gambling and gaming businesses to form the Global Gaming Alliance, a new forum that aims to address shared challenges as the market for real-money, free-to-play and console gaming evolves.

DraftKings, Facebook parent Meta, and mobile games developers 89Trillion and Habby are also supporting the scheme to create a fair and sustainable industry.

Entain is also continuing with efforts to extend its ARC responsible gambling initiative, with player protection trials taking place in more international markets in order to open up the service to more players around the world.

In her current position as chief operating officer at Transavia, de Ruiter is responsible for business operations together with the CEO and CFO of the aviation group. She has also worked in various roles at Air France-KLM since 1998.

She will begin her new role at Holland Casino in September this year, subject to necessary background checks, and will join chief financial officer Ruud Bergervoet and chief operating officer Malinda Miener in its management team.

She replaces Erwin van Lambaart in the role, who stepped down in April to become CEO of Casinos Austria, a job he discussed in the ICE365 Live studio at ICE London last month.

“Hospitality is in the DNA of all employees at Holland Casino, a crucial and differentiating value, which is also vital in my current job,” de Ruiter commented. “Whether online or offline, every guest simply wants to feel seen, heard and valued. Holland Casino is a cordial, responsible and leading entertainment company with 3,500 employees who want the best for all guests every day.

“I look forward to personally getting to know many new colleagues from the venues and from the online casino business – after all, they are the face of our company,” she added. “I am grateful to Transavia and all colleagues for the past years. At the same time, I am also very much looking forward to this new role and this great challenge.”

When the Netherlands launched the regulated online gambling market last year, state-owned Holland Casino was among the first 10 licensees.

Willem Bröcker, chairman of the supervisory board described de Ruiter’s expertise and knowledge of developing a high level of experience for guests and operational excellence as making her “an excellent match” for Holland Casino.

“With our 14 locations and now an online [offering], we work in a highly regulated sector and operate in a complex stakeholder field. Proven expertise is of great importance.”

In April, Holland Casino reported an 8.7% year-on-year decline in revenue to €304.2m for 2021, as the launch of online gaming was not enough to offset the continued impact of the venue closures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report was commissioned by operator association Branscheforenigen för Onlinespel (BOS), and complied by Dr Nima Sanandaji. It examines the positive contribution made by gaming industry to Swedish society, and how this can be optimised.

This positive, Dr Sanandaji claimed, was being undercut by restrictions on licensed online gaming operators limiting efforts to channel players away from unlicensed gambling options.

Citing official data, the report noted that there were 4,200 permanent roles at licensed gambling businesses across the country, with the sector making a contribution of just under SEK10bn (£804.9m/€940.4m/$995.3m) to Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The industry also contributes approximately SEK800m in sponsorship to Swedish sports, and operators pay around SEK4bn in tax each year.

However these operators are being undercut by the offshore market, which Dr Sanandaji estimated to generate revenue of SEK21bn between 2021 and 2025.

By making the regulated market more attractive, there would be a positive impact on Swedish society, the report claimed. If the rate of channelisation increases from 80% to 90%, this could create 460 new jobs, while the industry’s contribution to Swedish GDP would rise by an estimated SEK1.1bn.

Key to this would be incentivising players to gamble via licensed outlets, by allowing them to use bonuses to acquire and retain players, the report explained. Currently licensees can only offer players one bonus upon sign-up.

“Sweden has everything to gain from reviewing gaming regulation in order to ease some of the restrictions that drive most gaming consumers to the unlicensed gaming market,” Dr Sanandaji said.

The Swedish government put a number of temporary measures – including an SEK100 cap on bonuses and a deposit cap of SEK5,000 – in place during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. These measures were extended several times. In January this year the government released plans to reintroduce some measures, which was scrapped later that month.

“The rigid bonus ban stands out, [as it] does not offer any benefit to loyal gaming customers,” Dr Sanandaji explained. “Sweden pays a high price for that regulation in terms of lost players who instead choose unlicensed play.”

Gustaf Hoffstedt, secretary general of BOS, stated that the report highlighted “untapped opportunities” in the country’s gaming market.

“It is our hope that this report will get more people interested in the gaming industry’s contribution to Sweden, as well as the still untapped opportunities that exist for politicians who work for an inclusion of the gaming industry in Sweden’s business policy,” Hoffstedt said.

The operator received a sports bookmaker license by the Northern Territory Racing Commission in February, and took its first bets in Australia last week.

“We are very excited to bring Rivalry to customers in Australia,” said Steven Salz, Co-Founder and CEO of Rivalry. “We take a very different approach than traditional betting operators, and have been particularly successful among Gen Z and young Millennial’s across the globe. 

“We are very eager to start building our brand equity in Australia through a series of innovative activations and campaigns as we ramp up services throughout the remainder of 2022. As we do everywhere, servicing and helping to grow the esports and gaming community will be a priority for us.”

The launch comes just over a month after Rivalry launched in Ontario, as one of the initial operators to go live when the market opened on 4 April.

The business revealed last month that its revenue grew by 640.0% year-on-year to $11.1m in 2021 in what chief executive Steven Salz hailed as “a tremendous year by nearly all measures”.

Fennica Gaming will primarily focus on providing games services and products to corporate customers in markets around the world. 

The launch was made possible after Finland earlier this year adopted a new Lotteries Act, which enabled Veikkaus to expand its business and launch international B2B operations.

“The long and thorough preparations are now over, and we have launched the new business operations,” Fennica Gaming managing director Timo Kiiskinen said. “We are living historic moments in our industry. The new company enables us to commercialise the gambling industry expertise that we have in Finland.”

Fennica Gaming has already signed its first contract with Lotteries Entertainment Innovation Alliance, a joint venture launched last year by Veikkaus in collaborating with Denmark’s Danske Lotteri Spil, Française des Jeux in France and Norway-facing Norsk Tipping.

Norsk Tipping has since gone line with Fennica Gaming content, while games are also now accessible through Svenska Spel in Sweden.

“We are building up a new portfolio of games in an entertainment category we call Yezz, and the games from Fennica with innovative game play, modern Scandinavian design and interesting game logic are an important addition to this portfolio,” Norsk Tipping’s head of gaming Hans Erland Ringsvold said.

“This initiative supports our endeavours to encourage our players to adopt games involving lower risks of generating problematic player behaviour. It is, as such, also one of Norsk Tipping’s many effective measures to promote responsible gaming.”

Media made up a larger share of revenue than in Q1 of 2021, as revenue from this category grew by 40.0% to €14.1m. GiG chief executive Richard Brown said the media unit was the main reason for the overall success of the business in Q1.

“We have made some significant strides in the first quarter of 2022, delivering all-time high revenues for the second consecutive quarter, up 27% year-on year, driven by continued outstanding performance of our Media unit,” he said.

“Our Media division continues to move from strength to strength, delivering revenues of €14.1 million up 40 % year-on-year. The market expansion strategy and ever increasing improvement of product, the business continues to deliver strong organic growth.”

Breaking this media revenue down further, paid media services revenue was up 39.2% to €4.4m, while non-paid media revenue grew by 40.6% to €9.7m.

“Paid entered into four new markets in the first quarter, diversifying its portfolio and market risk,” GiG said.

Player intake from GiG’s media division reached 69,800, which GiG said was an all-time quarterly high.

“The strong growth in player intake implies a future increase in revenue as most players are generated on a revenue share contract,” the business added.

Platform services revenue, meanwhile, increased by 2.0% year-on-year to €5.0m. However, this was down 4.1% quarter-on-quarter. Since Q1 of 2021, operator Hard Rock left GiG’s platform, while a number of operators exited the Dutch market after a change in enforcement policy.

GiG noted that if the full operations of its sole Q1 white label client, SkyCity, were counted as revenue, the supplier would instead have brought in €9.0m in platform services revenue, and €23.1m in overall revenue. However, the share of revenue kept by the operator was removed first, leaving only the amount retained by GiG as per standard white label accounting practices, in order to provide a more comparable view.

Gross gaming revenue for GiG’s platform clients came to €90m in Q1, up 4.3% year-on-year.

The business then paid €29,000 in costs of sales, for a gross profit of €19.0m.

GiG also incurred €12.5m in other operating expenses, up 23.8%. This included €3.8m in marketing expenses, up 43.5%, plus €8.7m in other operating expenses, up 11.5%.

As a result, the supplier’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was €6.5m, up 32.7%.

GiG incurred €2.5m depreciation and amortisation costs, up 29.2%, plus a further €1.1m from the amortisation of acquired assets, up 2.1%, for earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of $2.9m, up 52.3%.

After €1.7m of financial expenses, up 5.7%, plus €507,000 in unrealised currency exchange gains, down 36.0%, GiG’s pre-tax profit was €1.7m.

It paid €179,000 in tax – a major difference from Q1 of 2021’s €1.5m tax benefit – for a €1.6m profit from continuing operations, down 40.3%. Ater a €479,000 loss from discontinued operations and a €33,000 loss on exchange differences from foreign operations, GiG’s final profit was €1.0m, down 53.7%.

The day after the quarter ended, GiG closed its acquisition of sports betting supplier Sportnco for an initial consideration of €50.8m. GiG also assumed Sportnco’s existing debt of €19.2m, and could pay an earn-out of up to €23m, based on the supplier’s performance in 2022 and 2023. 

“With the acquisition of Sportnco now completed, the business is well-positioned to accelerate further towards its strategic objectives with a much increased near and long term growth in its addressable market and increasing strength in its product proposition,” Brown said. “Our focus turns towards the execution of the post merger integration plan which we believe will deliver both significant revenue and cost optimisation synergies.”

During Q1, Sportnco brought in €2.4m in revenue and €1.4m in EBITDA.

The ban would apply to advertisements for all games of chance currently available legally in Belgium across online and land-based facilities, with the exception of the country’s National Lottery.

The proposal was met with heavy criticism from local operator association Bago, which said the ban would not benefit the consumer and instead make it more difficult for players to distinguish between legal and illegal operators.

Referring to a recent survey from UGent, Bago said one in three operators that advertise games of chance on social media in Belgium do not hold licences in the country and are therefore operating illegally. 

As such, Bago said the ban on legal operators advertising could lead to an increase in the number consumers gambling with these unlicensed operators, which do not offer the same protection measures as those that are approved to offer gambling in the country.

Bago also noted that the ban would not apply to the National Lottery, which is also the largest advertiser of gambling Belgium, accounting for approximately 40% of all gambling ads in the country.

“Studies show, however, that no game of chance is without risk and that, for example, scratch games carry a risk similar to that of sports betting,” Bago said. “One can therefore wonder whether the government is really taking a decision here in which concern for the consumer is central.”

In addition, Bago criticised the government for not consulting with the gambling industry prior to forming the idea for the proposed ban, despite the Minister of Justice saying that the idea was discussed with legal operators.

Instead of an outright ban, Bago proposed developing a general legal framework to impose duty of supervision on the entire legal market in Belgium. 

This, Bago said, would include a requirement for operators to monitor the behaviour of players, proactively inform users of any changes in their behaviour and offer them the chance to set spending limits and take self-imposed breaks.

“Today, more and more legal operators are deploying algorithms and artificial intelligence to quickly identify emerging problematic gambling behaviours and offer solutions to players, including advising them to register on the EPIS [self-exclusion] list,” Bago president Tom De Clercq said. 

“If we want to fight gambling addiction effectively, this is the way to go.”

The proposal comes after Bago last month hit out at another proposal that would force Belgian players forced to register for separate online betting and casino accounts.

The proposal came in the form of an amendment to a bill first introduced in the Chamber of Representatives in 2019, to ban operators from offering different classes of game on the same website.

Originally, it would have allowed players to use the same account across different URLs with the same operator. However, the coalition government has now proposed banning the use of a single account for multiple game verticals.

In March, the Belgian government also introduced new restrictions on stakes, betting times and advertising for the country’s newsagents as part of a raft of new amendments.

This came after gaming operator Golden Palace acquired the retail network of national postal service Bpost, prompting concern about betting at newsagents.

As of 5 March, newsagents can only accept bets between the hours of 6:00am and 8:00pm, while total stakes via each outlet must not exceed €250,000 (£214,190/$264,026) per year.

Newsagents must display at least 200 different titles of current daily, weekly and monthly publications, and 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.