Month: August 2022

Despite a federal ban on online gambling on election results, the CFTC’s no action letter had granted PredictIt an effective licence to operate subject to certain conditions due to PredictIt’s status as a not-for-profit project ran by the Victoria University of Wellington, a New Zealand-based research institution. As a result, it was effectively the only regulated political betting site in the US, as well as the only cross-state betting exchange regulated in the US as others would be banned by the Wire Act.

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In the role, Tyrrell lead the group’s UK strategy and seek to establish new partnerships with operators and media organisations in the market.

Tyrrell has been with Checkd since it acquired online sports betting hub Oddschanger in August 2017. During this time, Tyrrell has served as content manager, head of commercial, head of content and head of marketing.

Having founded Oddschanger in July 2011, Tyrrell also spent time working as a social media consultant for Ear to the Ground and an account manager at Mojofuel.

“The past five years at Checkd Group have been exciting both personally and for the wider company, as we have continued to develop new and existing partnerships,” Tyrrell said.

“I am very much looking forward to taking on this new role, leading the UK strategy as we aim to continue to innovate in order to serve both our partners and our sports-mad communities with highly engaging content through a wide variety of channels.”

Checkd managing director Alex Beecham added: “While we have made great strides already in the US, the UK market remains a clear focus of ours as we aim to build on a series of successes in recent months and years. 

“The director of UK media role is a key one as we aim to enhance our existing partnerships while also expanding to take advantage of exciting new possibilities domestically.

“Will has proven to be a major asset of ours in the five years he has been with us across, leading our teams within several important roles. His industry know-how and innovative approach will serve us well as we prepare to roll out our strategy ahead of a unique new football season.”

Tyrrell’s appointment comes after Checkd in April also named former Rank Group and Sky Betting & Gaming executive Ben Warn as its new non-executive chairman.

ESIC said it received two appeal requests on 5 July from two players, Alessandro “Apoka” Marcucci and Nicholas “Guerri” Nogueira.

Apoka and Guerri were two of 37 coaches who received suspensions after the spectator bug investigation began in September 2020, which found that 37 coaches had abused a bug that appeared in CS:GO’s spectator mode.

The investigation unveiled three variants of the spectator bug – static, third-person and free roam. Each version allowed players or coaches to view aspects of the game map they would not normally be permitted to see, to varying degrees.

Each of the offenders received a certain number of ESIC demerits as punishment for their involvement. The amount of demerits related to how many times each person exploited the spectator bug.

Game published Valve – which is not an ESIC member – then implemented its own sanctions determining how many major events a player or coach could miss based on the number of demerits received.

However, appeals from those affected argued that the Valve sanctions had “compounded” the sanctions already put in place by ESIC.

Although it noted that the appeals had been made outside the appeal window, ESIC said that the additional Valve sanctions “had distorted the intended effect of the ESIC sanctions such that they were no longer proportionate nor within the scope of ESIC’s intended outcome when the sanctions were determined and issued.”

As a result of the appeals, ESIC’s calculations used to issue demerits has changed. ESIC said it had communicated this change to Valve – which has no obligation to adhere to the change. It added that the initial response from Valve suggested the publisher was not receptive.

“ESIC has conveyed the results to Valve in the hope that the publisher would adjust their sanctions in line with the recalculation, but Valve’s initial response indicates that they will not make that adjustment,” read the statement. “While this is a matter for Valve, ESIC has asked Valve to reconsider their stance.”

In May this year, ESIC made the decision to issue a further 97 charges to as many players after it discovered more instances of the bug being used.

Davis takes on the role having most recently served as chief information officer and vice president for business technology at the BCLC, leading the refresh of the organization’s technology platforms and enabling the delivery of its digital strategy.

Prior to this, Davis spent time working in leadership in enterprise architecture and program management, while he is also a member of the Chief Information Officer Council of British Columbia.

Davis replaces Lynda Cavanaugh, who has been serving as interim president and CEO of the BCLC since January. Cavanaugh replaced Greg Moore, who was appointed to the same interim role in September 2019 when Jim Lightbody went on medical leave and subsequently stepped down in December 2021.

“Pat brings a wealth of knowledge in both the technology and gambling industries,” BCLC board chair Greg Moore said. “We are confident his experience combined with his dedication to integrity, player health and serving the best interests of our players and our province will further propel the advancement of BCLC as a social purpose company that operates with the highest standards.

Meanwhile, the BCLC has announced that Dan Beebe and Sandra Austin will take on the roles of chief operating officer and chief people officer, respectively, on a permanent basis.

Both Beebe and Austin had been serving in the positions on an interim basis for a number of months but will now take on their roles full-time.

Players bet $108.6m on sports in July, up by 22.2% from $88.9m in the same month last year but 11.3% lower than $122.4m in June of this year.

Of this total, $98.4m was spent betting on sports online, while $10.2m was wagered at retail sportsbooks across the state.

In terms of revenue, this increased by 57.7% year-on-year from $7.1m in July 2021 and was also 33.3% up from $8.4m in June this year despite the lower handle. Online sports betting generated $10.1m in revenue and retail $1.1m.

Breaking the monthly performance down by individual operators, Diamond Jo in Dubuque, which has a FanDuel sportsbook, was the clear leader with $2.6m in revenue from a $26.6m handle.

Wild Rose in Jefferson, which operates in partnership with DraftKings, placed second with $1.1m in revenue and a $12.5m handle, while the Grand Falls Casino Resort and Betfred was third with $1.1m in revenue, despite a relatively small handle of $2.3m.

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission also revealed that regulated sports betting activity in June generated $754,292 in tax revenue during the month.

Also last month, Swedish igaming hosting business Internet Vikings announced the launch of operations in Iowa.

The roll-out means Internet Vikings can now work with licensed operators in the state and support them with their igaming offerings.

Iowa marks the latest US state in which Internet Vikings has launched its igaming hosting operations, with the business also operating data centres in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Consumers in the state wagered $28.5m on sports during the month, up 60.0% from $18.2m in the corresponding month last year but 16.2% lower than $34.0m in June of this year.

Gross gaming revenue from sports betting reached $2.7m, which was 22.7% ahead of the $2.2m in July 2021 and also 8.0% up from $2.2m in June this year, despite the higher handle in the previous month.

All revenue was generated by DraftKings, with Scoreboard posting a small loss of $190 for the month. The Oregon Lottery’s Scoreboard online sportsbook has been phased out and replaced by DraftKings, but still pays out on bets placed before this process began, meaning small negative revenue totals are expected.

Baseball again proved the most popular sport among consumers, drawing $14.0m in total bets, leading to $1.7m in gross gaming revenue. All this activity took place via DraftKings.

DraftKings also took $3.2m in bets on soccer, with revenue at $251,804, while tennis wagers also hit $3.2m and revenue $215,644. Bets on other sports amounted to $5.6m and revenue $465,506.

Scoreboard only processed $349 in total wagers – $20 on tennis and $329 on other sports – and the only revenue was $20 from tennis betting, with other sports betting generating a $120 loss.

Looking at bet types, DraftKings took $21.0m in single and teaser bets and $7.5m worth of parlay bets. For Scoreboard, $320 of bets placed were single and teasers, while just $29 in parlay wagers were processed during the month.

The claim of a no-risk sportsbook – brought about by a collaboration between RPM Gaming and software provider Atlas-IAC – may raise some eyebrows: after all, sportsbooks are all about risk. But the concept can be explained rather simply.

“The idea is, if you are a casino operator, we will integrate as an iframe into your platform – but we will underwrite all the risk,” says Richard Thorp, director of RPM.

“So the simple pitch is: take the frame, plug it in, and we’ll run a sportsbook as another vertical kind of product.”

In taking away the fear of losses resulting from bad trading, Thorp says the product has a clear appeal to operators who are used to games where the house can’t lose.

“It would mainly be for casino operators, bingo operators, lottery operators – operators who have perhaps got a poker network, but don’t want to lose betting customers to other operators during major sporting events.”

“If you have a losing month or a losing week or losing day, it won’t be on the operator, it’ll be on Atlas-IAC. Atlas will cover those costs,” explains Thorp.

Along with being no-risk, the sportsbook also has the ability to spot integrity issues. This, he says goes hand-in-hand with the underwriting, as a sportsbook that struggles to identify potentially suspicious bets always risks generating large losses.

“So, whatever previous concerns may’ve been – betting just before an event starts, betting at a time where there potentially is a dodgy feed, we know we have the tools to spot that and correct it,” he says.

“As a result, for us, underwriting isn’t really a big challenge, but we are willing to do that on a revenue-share model.”

Eliminating the risk

The product was created partly due to what Thorp describes as a lack of knowledge about the betting sector, which he says has permeated the industry.

“Quite a lot of people – especially in previous roles I’ve had – often looked at sportsbooks as being a high-risk offering, a volatile kind of area to operate in,” he says. “The idea behind it is mainly aimed at casino operators or other single-product operators, especially ones that aren’t used to a sportsbook solution itself.”

“For example, they wouldn’t want to have a trading team; they wouldn’t understand any risks involved in running a sportsbook.”

Both Thorp and Efimenko emphasise a seemingly critical point of the product: it doesn’t require monitoring,

“You literally don’t have to burn any fuel managing it,” says Thorp. “We’ll be looking after everything. And if there is any downside, we’ll underwrite that.”

Efimenko agrees, and ponders why casino-first operators don’t simply add a sportsbook to their offerings.

“We’re here to question why some operators who have, let’s say, casino or lottery poker, don’t now add a sportsbook,” says Efimenko. “We have the tools and track record to make it a seamless reality with no downside.”

“We can deliver an attractive, additional vertical which is both complementary and profitable to their businesses – and we don’t need to do much for integration. In fact, we already have examples of existing partners successfully integrating inside three days – not even three days, three nights.”

Underwriting the effort

Advertising any product as no-risk is a bold move. But Thorp remains confident in the sportsbook product, relying on its testing as proof.

“The tools are tested and proven,” he says. “We’re confident in the automation, we’re confident in knowing how to manage your customer base, premised on their history and the patterns of behaviour.”

This confidence is part of why the partnership between RPM Gaming and Atlas-IAC was formed in the first place. Efimenko says reputation was a critical part of the union.

“When you speak to people, when you do business with people, you need to understand their background,” says Efimenko. “It’s a small industry, so you can ask around.”

“When you get transparent honesty and a clear understanding of all the processes, trust and efficiency naturally ensue.”

While trust forms the crux of any deal, the product in question must also be viable in the market. When asked whether he believes this will be a competitive product in the market, Efimenko shows full faith in the no-risk sportsbook.

“Yes, primarily because of the peerless automation we offer in risk-management,” he says. “In short, we are a secure proposition. Accordingly, we can bring security and peace of mind to any company that partners with us, taking the typical pressure points and management concerns out of the sportsbook process.”

When asked the same question, Thorp agrees, but notes that the business is in uncharted territories.

“I do. I also feel nobody’s really done this before as well – at least competently – from what I can see,” he says.

The state legislature passed a bill to permit sports betting last week, in the final hours of the year’s legislative session, ending months of deadlock after the House and Senate had each passed their own bills with major differences between the two.

Under this bill,  any operator of a land-based casino or racetrack in the state may receive a licence, and there will be an additional 7 online-only licences. All of these will carry a $5m licence fee.

Betting on college sports will be permitted, with the exception of matches involving in-state teams. Online betting will be taxed at 20% and retail at 15%.

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In New Jersey, the operator has secured market access through a partnership with Caesars Entertainment – which, as a land-based operator, can offer three online betting “skins”. 

Under the agreement, Novibet will be able to offer its services via Caesars’ licence for ten years.

Novibet already has market access in the state of Pennsylvania, also for 10 years, and plans to launch in both sites next year.

Elsewhere, the operator also secured market access in Mexico through a partnership with Big Bola Casinos, a major land-based operator in the country. It plans to launch in the country in before the end of this year.

Finally, the operator has submitted its licence application in the Canadian province of Ontario. If approved, it plans to launch in Ontario in the fourth quarter of this year.

“The expansion of our icasino platform into new regulated markets, including in North America, is a major pillar of our growth strategy,” George Athanasopoulos, chief executive officer of Novibet, said. “We’re pleased with our progress against this initiative as evidenced by our expanded partnership with Caesars Entertainment that now provides us with market access to New Jersey and Pennsylvania to address the significant OSB and igaming opportunities in those states, as well as our new partnership with Big Bola to introduce our highly regarded iGaming and OSB products to players in Mexico later this year.”

The agreements and licence application come as Novibet prepares to become a publicly listed business. The operator agreed to merge with special-purpose acquisition company Artemis Strategic Investment Corporation in March, with the combined business set to list on the Nasdaq exchange. Not long before this deal was announced, Novibet pulled out of the GB market.

Levy will act as the company’s CEO while Paul takes the role of president. They are both named as co-founders.

Betr will allow customers to bet on smaller aspects of a game – including pitches and at-bats during baseball games, and plays and drives during football games. A Betr app is to be released in the coming weeks, which will be free-to-play initially, as the operator does not yet have any licences.

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