Month: June 2022

The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Philadelphia, alleged while employed at Penn Interactive, David Roda was given confidential information about Penn National’s interest in acquiring Canada-based theScore along with admonitions not to trade on that information.

In breach of his duties, Roda was found to have purchased 500 out-of-the-money call options on Score Media in the weeks and days leading up to the announcement of the acquisition, which was finalised in October last year after first being announced in August.

Roda also tipped his friend Andrew Larkin, who then purchased 375 Score Media shares. Larkin was also charged by the SEC in relation to this activity.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Score Media’s stock price increased nearly 80% after Penn National and Score Media publicly announced their deal, following which Roda and Larkin sold their holdings for profits of $560,762 (£460,873/€538,199) and $5,602, respectively.

The SEC complaint charged both Roda and Larkin with violating the antifraud provisions of the securities laws.

Roda agreed to be permanently enjoined from violating those provisions and also agreed to pay disgorgement, prejudgment interest and a civil penalty to be determined by the Court at a later date. 

Larkin neither admitted or denied the allegations but agreed to be permanently enjoined from violating the antifraud provisions of the securities laws and to pay more than $11,000 in disgorgement and penalties. 

In addition, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced criminal charges against Roda.

“As we allege in our complaint, Roda was entrusted by his employer with critical, market-moving information, and he betrayed that trust by using the information to trade and also tip his friend so they could both profit,” co-acting regional director of the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office, Scott Thompson, said.

“When employees like Roda misappropriate and trade on confidential information, it erodes market confidence. The SEC remains committed to finding, investigating, and charging those who engage in insider trading.”

Investigations into Star by the state’s police and casino regulator have been ongoing, but Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman this week announced that the review would also take place due to concerns over money laundering and integrity.

Fentiman said investigations would continue while the independent review takes place. Star currently operates The Star Gold Coast land-based casino in Queensland. 

“The Palaszczuk Government takes the allegations of money laundering and integrity issues very seriously,” Fentiman said. “Investigations by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation into The Star are ongoing, and they are continuing to work with the Queensland Police and Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

“There will also be an independent expert review into the suitability of The Star to keep its casino licence.”

Star is already the subject of a similar review in neighbouring New South Wales. This review had been due to conclude on 30 June but was extended to the end of August to allow 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.

Public hearings into Star’s activities, which are ongoing, have so far heard a series of claims, including that Star allowed junket operator Suncity to operate its own cage at the Star Sydney casino, where it exchanged chips for cash, despite this contravening the New South Wales Casino Control Act.

The case also asserts that Star’s representations about policies being in place to mitigate risks such as money laundering, corruption, bribery, insider trading and restrictions on the use of gambling products were misleading or deceptive.

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

Star appointed John O’Neill as interim executive chairman, but was replaced less than two months later by Geoff Hogg, who assumed the role of CEO on 1 June.

The operator also suspended domestic and international VIP player rebate systems across all its casinos and reiterated that it will not deal with junkets as the review into The Star Sydney continues.

Responding to confirmation of the Queensland probe, Star said it would cooperate fully with the review. Queensland’s government will publish the scope of the review at a later date.

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Go-live date (expected):21/06/2022Game special features:Super SpinNumber of paylines:243Number of reels:5RTP% (recorded/theoretical):96.16%Variance/volatility:HighNumber of symbols to trigger feature/bonus?N/ACan feature be retriggered?N/ANumber of free spins awarded?N/AStacked or expanding wilds in normal play?N/AStacked or expanding wilds in feature play?N/ANumber of jackpot tiers?0Auto-play function?Yes

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Candy Gold gives players the opportunity to buy boosters for the gameplay to increase the chance of mega wins. The Buy Booster gives six different boosters to choose from, including the Candy Rocket which will grant sky-high wins. Three or more wild symbols award 10 free spins with a minimum of 2x and a maximum of 8x the value.

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Go-live date (expected):23/06/2022Game special features:Buy BoosterNumber of paylines:Cluster PaysNumber of reels:7×7 layoutRTP% (recorded/theoretical):94.48%Variance/volatility:HighNumber of symbols to trigger feature/bonus?3Can feature be retriggered?N/ANumber of free spins awarded?10Stacked or expanding wilds in normal play?N/AStacked or expanding wilds in feature play?N/ANumber of jackpot tiers?0Auto-play function?Yes

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Go-live date (expected):Already live!Game special features:– Clusterbucks mechanic
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Marketing technology provider, Snipp Interactive, announced today that Adi Dhandania has been tapped to join the company’s board of directors. Bally’s Corporation nominated Dhandania after investing $5 million in Snipp in April of this year.

“In nominating Adi to our Board, Bally’s Corporation continues to demonstrate its support and commitment to the ongoing commercial relationship between the two companies,” said Atul Sabharwal, Snipp chief executive & founder.

“We look forward to building a long standing and mutually beneficial relationship with Bally’s Corporation.”

Previously Dhandhania was the chief operating officer for North America at Bally’s Interactive where he gained experience in the gaming and technology industries. Snipp said it hopes he will bring expertise in corporate strategy, M&A and business operations to the company’s board.  

Additionally, Tom Burgess has also been chosen as president of SnippMedia, a new division of the company that will work in the payments media network. Burgess will be moving on from his role as Snipp director to become a member of executive management as well as scale his new division.

“We would like to thank Tom for his service to the Board over the last three years and we welcome him to our executive team to spearhead the launch of our latest offering, SnippMedia” said Sabharwal.

“Client media budgets are a multiple of their current spend on the program execution, which means we have a real opportunity to rapidly grow our average campaign size and overall revenues as we scale this offering. Tom’s deep experience in this space and long standing relationship with Snipp makes him the perfect candidate to lead this effort.”

Under the deal, 3,166,227 shares of Elys common stock will be offered at a purchase price of $0.9475 per share through a registered direct offering. 

The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or around 15 June, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

In addition, Elys also agreed to issue to the investor warrants to purchase up to 3,166,227 shares of common stock through a concurrent private. 

These warrants have an exercise price of $0.9475 per share, are exercisable six months from the date of issuance and have a term of five years from the initial exercise date.

Gross proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $3.0m (£2.5m/€2.9m), before deducting the placement agent’s fees and other offering expenses. 

Elys said it intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

The offering comes after Elys last month reported revenue of $12.2m in the first quarter of 2022, down 13.5% compared to the same period in 2021.

Betting turnover for the quarter came to $217.5m, down by 10.5%, while gross gaming revenue was $15.3m, a decrease of 11.9%. 

EstrelaBet branding will feature in the main sponsor space on the front of player’s jerseys for Athletico Paranaense and Internacional for at least the remainder of the 2022 season.

In the case of the Internacional deal, this will apply to both the men’s and women’s teams

The operator will also work with both clubs on a series of joint activations targeted at fans.

EstrelaBet has similar sponsorship deals in place with a number of other Brazilian clubs, with the latest agreement part of its ongoing strategy to strengthen its presence in the country.

The brand is also partnered with lower league teams Portuguesa, Resende, Remo and CRB.

Internacional is currently fourth in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, one point ahead of Athletico Paranaense, after 11 games of the 2022 campaign.

Craib (pictured below) joins from Gaming Innovation Group (GiG), where she spent three years leading marketing for its B2B division, developing and implementing its brand strategy and promoting its platform, products and services.

Her role spanned lead generation, event and conference planning, as well as GiG’s digital strategy. Before joining the supplier Craib worked in a number of in-house and agency-side marketing roles, with more than 10 years worth of experience in total. 

“I am delighted to welcome Rhea to the Flows team and for the business to benefit from her incredible talent and experience of deploying successful marketing campaigns and activities in the gambling sector and beyond,” Flows chief executive James King – who also previously worked for GiG – commented. 

“Having worked with Rhea in the past I know exactly what she is capable of, and this will make her a valuable asset to Flows and the wider team. She joins at a time when we continue to push forwards with new ideas and innovations, and this makes it the perfect time for her to shine.”

Her new employer Flows is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider that helps automate igaming business’ digital processes, allowing them to build new features and applications using a no-code building solution. It launched in late 2021, supported by former GiG CEO Robin Reed’s Happyhour.io accelerator.

The business signed up CasinoFriday as its first client in January 2022, which was followed by an agreement with Pretty Technical in February.

As Flows’ head of marketing, Craib will be responsible for developing a marketing strategy that lets it scale, with a focus on developing the company’s tone and voice, and rolling out a content marketing strategy to support increased SEO activity. 

“I am really excited to join the team at Flows, many of whom I have worked with in the past,” she commented.

“Flows is such an innovative product with endless potential and has already set a solid footprint within the industry. I am looking forward to supporting the team in growing the business and capturing new opportunities. There are some exciting times ahead.”