Month: July 2022

Earlier today Sands reported $1.04bn in revenue for the second quarter of 2022, down 10.9% year-on-year as restrictions in Macau hindered its growth. Revenue at its properties in the Special Administrative Region dipped across the board. These locations are currently shut, as the region rides out another wave of Covid-19, and are due to reopen on 23 July.

Conversely, revenue at Las Vegas Sands’ Singapore property, Marina Bay Sands, more than doubled to $679m. The revenue jump at Marina Bay Sands was be mostly attributed to casino revenue, which grew by 124.2% year-on-year. Food and beverage revenue, along with convention, retail and other revenue, also doubled.

Goldstein attributed this strong growth to the loosening of Covid-19 measures in the Singapore, and says he expects further growth if online gambling becomes legal in the country.

“The relaxation of pandemic related restrictions in Singapore and many of its source markets has enabled this encouraging improvement in the financial performance at Marina Bay Sands,” said Goldstein.

“We expect more robust recovery over time as Singapore comes online and further relaxation measures in the region are implemented.”

He added that the company’s $1bn investment at Marina Bay Sands will allow it to cater to “premium customers”. This has seen it develop new suite products and amenities targeting those high-end consumers.

“More offerings will be added throughout the remainder of 2022 and 2023,” Goldstein said. “And this one has the properties appeal to premium customers seeking the highest level travel experiences.”

“Singapore remains in an outstanding market for additional investment.”

Grant Chum, chief operating officer at its Sands China subsidiary, added the operator is committed to “long-term investment” in Singapore, stating that Marina Bay Sands presents the company with a unique opportunity.

“I think one thing that’s important to note is that we view Marina Bay Sands as the best building in the world,” said Chum. “And in our mind, it’s just an unbelievable opportunity to continue invest and operate the building and grow it over time.”

Chum also said that Las Vegas Sands feels positive about potentially redeploying its products for the growing “premium mass” segment in Macau, amid the wider shift away from junkets.

“I think Macau overall may be looking at how each operator redeploys their assets,” continued Chum. “But as far as we’re concerned, especially with the new products that we’ve developed over the past two years, we feel pretty positive about redeploying a lot of those gaming spaces for the premium mass segment.”

In terms of marketing and acquisition outside of Singapore, Patrick Dumont, group COO, said that the business is focusing on building “from the ground up”.

“You may have heard us in the past say that our highest and best use of capital is new development from the ground up,” said Dumont. “If you look at the history of the company and its success, the way it’s delivered outside shareholder returns is exploiting a strategy of building large scale integrated resorts in new jurisdictions.”

“That’s what we’re focused on.”

The Commission was formed to regulate gaming in the state, which involves addressing and settling disputes between operators and players.

Previously, Chakravartty [pictured] held the role of vice president of commercials at Markor Technology – formerly known as Nektan PLC – where he headed expansion in emerging markets across Asia and Africa.

Before this, he worked at Ingenuity Gaming. He has also held executive roles at Ladbrokes, 32Red and Cozy Games.

The state is one of the most advanced in India when it comes to gambling regulation, having passed the

Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Ordinance, following Sikkim and Nagaland in developing a legal framework.

“Meghalaya Gaming Commission is India’s first and only Gaming Commission and it is a privilege to be chosen to be part of this,” said Chakravartty. “It is the vision of the Honourable Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma, and Honourable Minister James Sangma to ensure player’s rights are protected, and we will create a vibrant gaming ecosystem which will generate revenue for the exchequer.”

“I am looking forward to playing my role in this.”

Last month, India’s government stated that operators “should refrain” from advertising online betting platforms.

The results came alongside the announcement of a new shareholder distribution policy which includes £150m ($179.3/ €175.9) in share buybacks.

Total revenue was up 16% for the financial year to £973.1m, compared to the previous year’s £837.6m. This left a profit before taxation of £477m, a 7% increase year-on-year.

Accounting for one-time hedging financial maneuvers associated with the group’s acquisition of trading media business Tastytrade, the total revenue was £967.3m.

IG Group CEO June Felix pointed to the acquisition as helping develop the Group’s US presence.

“Acquiring Tastytrade last year enabled us to accelerate our strategy to expand into exchange-traded products and better establish our presence in the US, the largest retail financial market in the world,” Felix explained.

“To put this in context, the US has 14 million active traders across options, futures, and cash equities. This market of self-directed, ambitious investors has over 100 million accounts at the main US brokerages.”

Felix said the positive results were due to a company strategy that allowed IG Group to take advantage of new market opportunities and industry trends.

“This year’s record results show how we have achieved consistent, strong financial performance while we continue our journey to become a more diversified, innovative, global fintech,” she said.

“Our forward-looking strategy has positioned us well to capitalise on a significantly larger total addressable market and to take advantage of the ongoing shifts towards self-directed investing. We are now operating on an entirely new scale.”

However total operating costs increased to £501.9m from £393.4m in 2021 – a 28% increase. The business blamed M&A pressures for the number.

“Statutory operating costs were £501.9m, 28% higher than FY21, reflecting the inclusion of Tastytrade’s cost base, one-off and recurring non-cash costs in relation to the Tastytrade acquisition and integration, and costs relating to the sale of Nadex and Small Exchange,” the report stated.

Another potential blackspot was the number of total active clients – while the number increased from 291,200 to 381,500, a 31% increase; a pro-forma account that adjusts for M&A changes amounts to a 2% reduction from the previous year.

IG Group reported similar positive results in Q3 this year.

This was an increase of 9.5% compared to H1 2021.

Most of the revenue consisted of that from casino gaming tables, which totaled at $181.8m- 7.6% higher compared to half H1 2021.

Revenue from electronic casino gaming machines was $55.5m, a rise of $36.5m yearly. Income from hotel rooms, food sales and other sources made up the remaining $5.6m, which was five times the corresponding revenue recorded in H1 2021.

Revenue from Nagacorp’s mass market segment accounted for $158.8m of the overall revenue, more than three times the mass market revenue in the first half of 2021. Premium mass market revenue for the half was $61.3m – once again, more than three times the $18.8m recorded in H1 2021.

The referral VIP market, at $17.3m in revenue, and non-gaming revenue at $5.6m make up the remaining amount.

Gaming tax amounted to $14.2m, more than double that in the company’s H1 2021 results. However, cost of sales fell by 34.5% to $36.5m.

This resulted in a gross profit of $192.2m for the year, more than two-and-a-half times the gross profit of $68m recorded in H1 2021.

Other income saw $2m added to the total. However, administrative expenses at $25m and other operating expenses at $97m resulted in a profit of $72.1m from operations alone.

Finance costs fell slightly to $18.1m, which left the profit before taxation at $53.9m. After income tax of $1.2m, the total net profit was $52.7m. This was up by $129.9m from the same period in 2022.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the half topped $130.1m, explosive growth compared to the EBITDA of $4.5m recorded in the first half of 2021.

Meanwhile, revenue in Q2 totaled at $127m, up by 15.3% from the first quarter of the year.

All three of Nagacorp’s business segments also saw quarter-on-quarter growth. In Q2, the mass market revenue was $9.6m, a rise of 15.9%. Premium mass rollings also rose, by 14.5% to $8.6m, while referral VIP rollings doubled year-on-year to $3.9m.

EBITDA came to $69m for the quarter, up by 13.1%.

For the 90-day rolling period from 21 March to 16 June, Kindred said 3.3% of gross winnings revenue came from high-risk players, down from 4.3% in the second quarter of 2021 and the same percentage as the opening quarter of the current year.

Kindred also noted that the percentage of customer that displayed improvement in their play following intervention from the operator reached 84.7%, compared to 76.6% last year and 83.1% in Q1 of this year.

During the quarter, entered into a new collaboration with QuitGamble.com, an online community for people who wants to stop gambling addiction. This partnership will run alongside existing agreements with Gamban and RecoverMe, with further support for players from Kindred’s own set of responsible gambling tools.

Kindred said partnerships with responsible gambling groups and organisations would help continue its push to achieve 0% of revenue from harmful gambling activity. 

“Even though the share from high-risk players is flat between the first and second quarter, it is good to see an increase in the improvement effect after interventions which validates our early intervention approach,” Kindred chief executive Henrik Tjärnström said. “However, we still have work to do to further decrease the number towards our ambition of 0% revenue generated from harmful gambling.

”Our focus continues to be on increasing efficiency and speed in detecting and engaging with customers at risk, as we know early intervention is critical in preventing a harmful behaviour. 

“We believe that in order to achieve the best possible approach to reducing harmful gambling, we need to collaborate with different stakeholders across our industry. For this reason, we are pleased to be promoting QuitGamble.com to provide additional support to those in need.”

QuitGamble.com founder Anders Bergman added: “QuitGamble.com is an online platform for those who want to stop gambling. We support people with gambling problems through our community, video courses, mobile apps, guides, and a self-assessment test. 

“We are proud of the collaboration with Kindred. It’s a quality assurance, and the collaboration will help us to support more people.”

Tsachi Maimon was named chief executive of Aspire Global in 2013. At that time the business brought in about €25m (£21.3m) annually. Eight years later, it posted revenue of €213.3m for 2021. 

When Maimon joined, he oversaw a B2C business which contributed the bulk of revenue. By the end of 2021, the company had sold off all its consumer-facing operations, which were snapped up by Esports Technologies in a €65.5m deal. 

On 17 June, Aspire was then acquired by an even larger entity, with ilottery specialist NeoGames completing a public offer to take charge of the company for €402.3m. 

This, Maimon says, is the result of “a series of carefully considered business decisions” that has ultimately taken it to the cusp of becoming a leading supplier in the market, one he believes is poised for growth across North America.

Building the foundation

It all started with a platform. 

“We felt that if we improved the platform for our partners, we would better service the B2C segment and scale from there,” Maimon explains. “Quickly, we determined that the platform was strong and understood that our future success would be within B2B in regulated markets, with the ownership of our own products.”

This desire to take more control of the value chain has seen Aspire punctuate the past few years with new acquisitions, building out from the platform into a multivertical solutions provider. 

The purchase of casino specialist Pariplay in 2019 was followed by a deal for sportsbook technology business BtoBet in 2020, while 2021 saw Aspire take a 25% stake in bingo supplier End 2 End.

This activity, Maimon adds, is far from opportunistic. “In recent years, we have closely followed the expansion of regulation across the globe and the emergence of new territories,” he says. “Many of these have introduced stricter requirements that make it more difficult for operators to meet. 

“Often this heavy burden falls on the shoulders of operators, but this is where Aspire Global steps in and provides the specific solutions to enable operators to continue being profitable and sustainable.”

There is ample evidence of this approach paying off: its sportsbook client base includes a number of high-profile industry names, such as Betfair and William Hill in Colombia, ITSP in Germany, and soon BoyleSports in the Netherlands. 

Maimon argues these deals act as a “stamp of approval” for its Neuron 3 platform, which has also recently secured the GLI-33 standard, making it fully certified for North America.

Time has also been taken to ensure the different acquired businesses interact with one another. Neuron 3, acquired through the BtoBet deal, has now been integrated with the Pariplay Fusion platform. This means that not only does it aggregate casino games – US clients include Rush Street Interactive, BetMGM, Golden Nugget and Caesars Digital – but also verticals. 

“Pariplay Fusion is the first aggregation platform to offer sportsbook, casino games, live games, virtual sports, esports and bingo seamlessly within a single API, with no additional integration-related work necessary,” Maimon points out. If it’s only to be used for the aggregator, it offers more than 12,000 titles from over 100 developers, supported by gamification and retention tools. 

Coupled with the AspireCore platform, and the addition of bingo games from End 2 End, he feels the supplier is in a “unique position” for growth. “Furthermore, we own the roadmaps and do not rely on third parties to supply us with specific products,” he says. “Ultimately, we can offer several products under one contract, making it far easier for operators to expand their core offering within regulated markets.”

An end, followed by a beginning

This ultimately led to Aspire selling off its B2C operations. Comprising the Karamba, Hopa and BetTarget brands, among others, Esports Technologies closed its deal to acquire the business in December 2021. For Maimon, the sale of the B2C assets was “the last piece of the puzzle”. 

“As a pure B2B business, we knew that this would give us the best chance of continued growth,” he says.

Not that the B2C experience hasn’t left an impression – in fact, he sees that heritage as giving the business a competitive edge in the market. 

“With over 16 years of experience within the global industry as both an operator and provider, we can deliver top-level insight into the challenges that operators may encounter, as well as supply the best possible solutions that are developed with our customers in mind,” he explains. 

The best possible solutions Aspire will be able to offer are set to significantly expand, with NeoGames having now completed its €402.3m acquisition of the business. When the public offer was announced in January this year, NeoGames said the combination would result in a “leading global provider in interactive content, proprietary technology and operations across all elements of ilottery, online sports betting and igaming verticals”.

Maimon views it as a key next step for Aspire’s growth plans for two reasons. 

“Firstly, NeoGames will accelerate our access to new and existing jurisdictions across the US and Canada,” he explains. “The organisation is firmly established within North America, and we expect their contacts and expertise to speed up our ambitious expansion plans. 

“Secondly, it means our offering is now available to the ilottery sector and helps us get closer to providing our products and services to the full circle of the global industry. NeoGames is a leader in the digital lottery space and presents us with significant new opportunities to expand our footprint.”

Ilottery, he argues, offers “enormous” potential, especially as the lottery sector makes its belated switch from retail to digital. Sports betting, for example, has quickly proliferated from state to state, growing to revenue of $1.58bn in Q1 2022 alone. 

Online lottery, on the other hand, represents only “a small fraction” of a market worth $105bn, he says. While other markets are more advanced, they have significant room to grow, and Maimon is confident that NeoGames’ customers will increasingly seek turnkey solutions encompassing all product verticals. 

This, he adds, creates further scope for growth as companies lacking online expertise seek out experienced partners. 

Essentially, the NeoGames deal is simply a further acceleration of Aspire’s growth story, rather than an entirely new chapter for the business.

Maimon points out that while Pariplay is active in North America, the GLI certification will allow it to deploy its platform, sportsbook and managed services for US and Canadian customers as well. 

And the prospect of further M&A activity shouldn’t be ruled out, either. “[We] can never shut the door on bringing in companies that we believe will help drive our growth,” he says. “That said, we are also extremely happy with the assets that we now have in place and I believe that we can offer our operator partners globally the most comprehensive, flexible platform solution available on the market.”

And with all this work still to do, Maimon has no interest in bowing out following the acquisition.

“We are now in a strong position to become established as a leading igaming provider in North America,” he says. “At this juncture, my story at Aspire Global has plenty of chapters remaining.”  

This comes one day after Great Britain’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced that it would not take legislative action on loot boxes, two years after it opened a call for evidence.

The department instead urged video game developers to address the presence of loot boxes in games to protect young people from exhibiting gambling behaviours and forming unsafe habits.

This will involve the DCMS creating a new group of developers and regulatory bodies to protect players.

DeSouza said that clause six of the Gambling Act should be expanded to include loot boxes, and therefore subjecting them to regulation.

“The current legal definition of gambling, under the Gambling Act 2005, falls short of capturing loot boxes, as the prize cannot be converted into real-world money,” said deSouza. “Clause six of the Gambling Act should be expanded to capture loot boxes, bringing them into the scope of regulation.”

She added that the government must take “firm action” on loot boxes, and not leave the responsibility to parents or the industry.

“The Children’s Commissioner believes that the Government should listen to children and parents to take firm action to prevent under-18s from buying loot boxes,” said the Commissioner. “Relying on voluntary industry action and on parental controls will leave many children exposed to the financial and psychological harms of loot boxes.”

The Commissioner also said that loot boxes encourage “harmful behaviours” among young people, an estimated majority of whom play video games.

“Online games occupy a significant part of most children’s daily lives – it is estimated that 93% of children in the UK play video games,” said the Commissioner. “Therefore it is concerning that some online games contain inappropriate features such as loot boxes, which promote harmful behaviours among children.”

Grant will leave the business before the end of the year for a planned career break to spend more time with his family after more than 20 years in the online gambling sector.

He has been CEO of Flutter UK and Ireland since July 2020, following the merger of Flutter and The Stars Group, shortly after the latter acquired Sky Betting & Gaming, where Grant worked at the time.

Grant joined Sky Betting & Gaming in August 2010, first serving as its head of sportsbook product management before going on to hold a number of other roles including managing director for Sky Gaming and chief operating officer of the business.

Brown (pictured) will join Flutter in September, assuming responsibility for the Paddy Power, Sky Betting and Gaming, Betfair and Tombola brands in the UK and Ireland.

He joins the operator after a spell as chief executive of tech service owner UKFast, prior to which he was CEO of Booking.com’s Trips division, which includes the Rentalcars.com brand.

Brown will work with Grant for a short period to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities.

“I have followed the impressive story of Flutter and its brands for many years now, and I am delighted to be joining the UK&I business in September,” Brown said. “Flutter has a fantastic portfolio of iconic brands and I look forward to helping develop their leadership position in the online entertainment space.”

Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson added: “I am delighted to welcome a leader of Ian’s calibre to our executive team. He brings with him broad experience leading online businesses from a range of sectors, including travel, hospitality, business services, and financial services. 

“He has been responsible for successful transformations in multiple large businesses, including global brands Booking.com and Rentalcars.com, building scalable tech platforms and organisations with a deep customer focus on ease, accessibility and safety to drive growth.”

Grant welcomed the appointment of Brown, saying the business will be in good hands moving forward.

“I have been immensely proud to lead the UK&I business through such a momentous period for both Flutter and the wider industry,” Grant said. “Flutter’s market leading brands, talented team and approach to safer gambling are what sets the business apart. 

“I have no doubt that the business is in good hands and I look forward to seeing it continue to grow sustainably and responsibly into the future.”

Jackson added: “I would like to thank Conor for his significant contribution to Flutter. His work on the strategic vision and direction of our UK&I business has set us in great stead for the future, and his passion and determination to put our customers’ safety at the heart of what we do has anchored our industry-leading Play Well strategy. 

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Conor and will personally miss his sound commercial judgement and keen eye for business opportunities. I’m sorry to see him leave but wish him well for the future.”

The new proposed rates are a 3% on withdrawals below RON10,000 ($2,070/ €2,023/ £1,725), a 20% tax on amounts between RON10,000 and RON66,750 with an additional RON300 fee, and a 40% withdrawal tax on amounts exceeding that with a RON11,650 fee.

The tax will apply to income received from game of chance such as lotteries, slot machines and poker games.

This represents an effective decrease in the tax burden from the initial proposed law, but an increase on the current situation:

The Romanian online gambling trade association, the Association of Remote Gambling Organisations (AOJND), gave a sanguine statement in response to the changes: “The Romanian Government passed legislation to amend the existing legal framework for gambling.”

“Major changes include an advertising fee, increased annual fees including for software manufacturers and a scale to tax players based on their winnings. Amid these major changes we remain cautious, and we closely monitor the market and its reactions to this new reality.”

Previously, the AOJND criticised the change in law, predicting that the new regime would bring in 50% less in tax due to reduced activity.

At that time AOJND president Odeta Nestor said: “I have often emphasised that Romania is a success story in terms of gambling legislation. But this situation depends on the ability of the authorities to maintain an attractive legislative and fiscal framework.”

The ban was backdated to the start of a provisional suspension, which began on 31 March 2022, and will run until 30 August 2029.

The 29-year-old, who had a highest ATP ranking of 664, and admitted receiving money for fixing scores in matches in 2018, while he also failed to report corrupt approaches to the ITIA.

Specific breaches of the 2018 edition of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) included Section D.1.b, which says players must not solicit or facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any event or any other tennis competition. 

Vernier Quinteros was also found in breach of Section D.1.d, covering soliciting or facilitating any player not to use his or her best efforts in any event. The ITIA also cited Section D.1.f, which states individuals must not solicit or accept money, benefit or consideration with the intention of negatively influencing a player’s best efforts.

In addition, the ITIA highlighted Section D.2.b.i, which relates to a requirement for covered individuals to report any approaches related to match-fixing, including requests for inside information, to the ITIA as soon as possible.

The case was dealt with under the 2022 Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) ‘Proposal for Disposition’ framework, with the player also being fined $15,000 (£12,504/€14,662), $7,500 of which was suspended.

The ban comes after the ITIA last week issued a provisional suspension to Italian chair umpire Francesco Totaro over allegations of match-fixing.

Also this month, lengthy bans were handed to three Tunisian chair umpires after they were found guilty of match-fixing charges.

Majd Affi, a green badge chair umpire, was banned for 20 years after being found guilty of 12 charges relating to events between 2017 and 2020. 

Mohamed Ghassen Snene, also a green badge chair umpire, and Abderahim Gharsallah, a white badge chair umpire, were both banned for seven years after being found guilty of four charges relating to an event in Tunisia in 2020.