Month: September 2022

The research was carried out as part of a campaign to fight against stigma women may face while seeking problem gambling support.

It was completed between 11 and the 18 of August by insight agency Opinium, who conducted a survey of 1,606 women aged between 18 and 49 that had gambled in the last month.

It found that 24% of the women expect to up their existing gambling habits due to the rising cost of living in the next few months.

The research also revealed that 38% had spent more money on gambling than they initially intended, while 21% had chased money they’d lost.

As part of the research, each person was assessed on the problem gambling severity index (PGSI).

Among the women who scored an 8 or higher on the PGSI – which indicates the existence of problem gambling behaviour – 44% said they had gambled more frequently in the last year.

Of these women, 49% said they were trying to win money to assist with the rising cost of living, while 32% said they are trying to win money to attend to financial issues.

In addition, 21% of all participants said that gambling had caused health problems, such as stress and anxiety.

“This new research raises serious concerns over the potential growth in the scale of gambling harm over the coming months,” said Zoë Osmond, chief executive of GambleAware. “With such a stark warning sign, it is vital we help ensure more women are aware of the risks of gambling.”

“As financial hardships accelerate amid the cost-of-living crisis, and the number of women gambling online increases, we are concerned it is creating a perfect storm, which may lead to a rise in the number of women experiencing gambling harm.”

Dr Linda Papadopoulus, spokesperson for the campaign, said that stigma can play a major role in preventing women from seeking help for gambling harm.

“Gambling harms can impact anyone from any walk of life,” said Dr Papadopoulus. “It can cause a strain on relationships, affect work, and if not addressed, could lead to significant emotional, physical and financial burden.”

“We cannot underestimate the role that stigma plays in preventing women from seeking support for issues related to gambling.”

Earlier this month, GambleAware published its future commissioning intentions for gambling treatment body the National Gambling Treatment Service.

In the year since Most Influential Women’s 2021 campaign, the conversation around diversity and inclusion has only continued to develop. More corporations have begun to address the continuing impact on women of issues such as menopause and the Covid-19 pandemic, in the hope of providing a more balanced workplace for all. 

Maria Naveira Sund, senior vice-president of engineering at Kambi, says that Kambi has addressed key issues presented in the last year in order to address how the workplace has shifted.  

“The pandemic has meant that as a leader you need to understand how the drivers for employees might have changed, and also how to maintain our company culture – something of which we are very proud – in a hybrid setup.” 

She believes there has been an improvement in how businesses are addressing gender imbalances, but admits there is still a long way to go.

“The outlook for diversity and inclusion has certainly been improving in the time I’ve been in the industry, with more women than ever in senior leadership positions,” she continues. “There’s certainly still some distance to travel, but it’s great to see that as an industry we are moving in the right direction.” 

Melanie Gross, senior vice-president and head of product at Golden Heart Games, says that the journey to diversity and inclusion has been rocky and stresses that attitudes towards diversity and inclusion must change. 

“Like most areas in need of change, improvements ebb and flow,” she says. “There’s still unconscious bias. I still hear of women being passed over for jobs that should have been a slam dunk.” 

From the perspective of Sarah Blackburn, director at GameOn Marketing, discussions around diversity and inclusion have been ongoing. However, she says these discussions have not resulted in actionable change. 

“I think there is a lot of talk around diversity and inclusion but I’m not sure quite how much real action is going into empowering the women within businesses outside of recruitment, gender pay gaps and social gatherings,” says Blackburn. 

“I’m in PR and I understand its power. However, it’s crucial that it’s not just talk for PR purposes, but that they are truly making a difference to help shape our industry for the better when it comes to diversity and inclusion – and I’m not just speaking about gender equality.” 

Professional impact 

For many of last year’s Most Influential Women nominees, featuring on the 2021 list has had a lasting impact on their career development. 

Dr Sally Gainsbury, director at the Gambling Research and Treatment Clinic at the University of Sydney, says that appearing as a 2021 nominee helped to advance her academic career. 

“In December 2021 I was promoted to professor from associate professor, which was a major achievement as this occurred just 11 years after my PhD was awarded, which is a rapid progress to this most senior level within academia,” she says. “I was able to include receiving this recognition on my promotion application which was terrific evidence to support the influence of my research and my work on the broader field at an international level.” 

For Charmaine Mabuza, chief executive officer at South African lottery firm Ithuba, her appearance on the 2021 list brought about a greater sense of drive and motivation – and developed not only her career, but also the trajectory of Ithuba. 

“Being featured in Most Influential Women 2021 has influenced my career from a motivational perspective,” she says. “It has fuelled the drive to excel even further, and to do more, to continue to grow not only in the gaming sector, but in the larger socio-economic sphere.

“However, more importantly, the Most Influential Women feature has also opened doors for me to represent Ithuba at international conferences and to be part of a team of gaming business experts on panels to discuss pertinent lottery-based conversations; therefore the international recognition has definitely opened many doors.” 

Wider influence 

Being featured as one of the Most Influential Women in gaming has allowed last year’s nominees to see the scope of influence it brings to others. Laura McAllister Cox, chief compliance officer at Rush Street Gaming, says that the recognition has had an impact on women around her. 

“I would say more than influencing my own career, being selected as one of the Most Influential Women 2021 has made me realise how much my career is influencing other women,” she says. “So many female colleagues reached out to congratulate me and say how inspiring it was to see what I’ve achieved in an industry that is dominated by male leadership.” 

While those featured last year have felt the positive impact of Most Influential Women on their lives and careers, it will soon be time to announce the 2022 nominees.  

In the spirit of passing the baton, McAllister Cox has two women in mind for Most Influential Women’s 2022 list. 

“Tammi Barlow, director of corporate social responsibility, Rush Street Interactive, and Lauren Seiler, associate VP of investor relations and development, Rush Street Interactive,” she says.

“I have tremendous respect for both of these women, not only for the wealth of experience and knowledge they bring to RSI but also their strong leadership skills.” 

Like McAllister Cox, Gross had a similar experience after being featured as a nominee. 

“It was a joy to see the outreach from my family, friends and professional network who wished to celebrate and share the achievement,” she said. “They’ve supported my igaming journey for 20 years and have all played a part on the path to where we are today.” 

In turn, Gross names FanDuel CEO Amy Howe as her top pick for Most Influential Women 2022. 

“I’ve been impressed by Amy and her focus on the path to profitability, responsible gaming and improving diversity throughout gaming,” she says. “That diversity initiative spans across hiring, equality for female athletes, and the encouragement of women participating in sports betting.” 

Claire Osborne, vice-president of interactive at Inspired, agrees that featuring on Most Influential Women was beneficial to both her career and personal development. 

“It’s been great for rekindling relationships with old contacts as well as introducing me to a whole range of new people who may not have heard of me or Inspired previously,” she says. “I’ve also had more opportunity to get involved with people generally promoting women in the technology industries.” 

As for whether the conversation surrounding diversity and inclusion has improved since 2021, Osborne sees a gradual improvement, which she believes will have positive outcomes for the industry.  

“I think it keeps gradually progressing forwards. There are more and more women at the top which will always be beneficial, especially for those aspiring to emulate their success.” 

Nominations for iGB’s Most Influential Women 2022 close on 14 October. Nominate someone here.

Sharing of links or referral codes to promote slots, roulette and dice games had already been banned since August 2021. However, Twitch said it had “seen some people circumvent these rules and expose our community to potential harm”.

As a result, the streaming platform has now made the decision to ban streams to websites offering these games if they don’t meet certain regulatory thresholds.

The platform said it would provide full details of the policy soon so that “everyone is clear on our new rules before they take effect on October 18th”.

As of now, though, Twitch simply said it would “prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette or dice games that aren’t licensed either in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient customer protection”.

While streamers await further clarity on exactly which sites will be banned, Twitch singled out four cryptocurrency casinos as being impacted: Stake.com, Rollbit, Duelbits and Roobet, suggesting the crypto gaming sector at a whole will likely be the main target of the ban. All four operators are licensed from Curaçao, meaning Curaçao licensees in general are likely to be impacted by the rules, but the status of sites licensed from other point-of-supply markets may be less clear.

Twitch added that it will “continue to allow websites that focus on sports betting, fantasy sports and poker”. 

However, its focus on websites rather than the games themselves suggests that streaming of these games could still be banned if they are being played on a website that Twitch deems to be casino-first. 

Australian internet service providers (ISPs) have been requested to block access to sites such as Spin Oasis, Fab Spins, RB Carnival, The GoGo Room, Velvet Spin, Zenith Slots, Slots of Wins, Latinbet24, Hell Spin, Sky Crown, Blue Leo, Wolf Winner, Bizzo Casino, Wabo88 and Ozbet88.

The ACMA issued the requests after an investigation found the websites to be operating in breach of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.

Since the ACMA made its first blocking request in November of 2019, a total of 614 illegal gambling and affiliate websites have been blocked in Australia, while more than 180 illegal services have pulled out of the country since the ACMA began enforcing new illegal offshore gambling rules in 2017.

“The ACMA is reminding consumers that even if a service looks legitimate, its unlikely to have important customer protections,” the ACMA said. “This means Australians who use illegal gambling services risk losing their money.”

The latest batch of blocking orders come after the ACMA last month also named another six gambling and affiliate websites it ruled were operating illegally in Australia.

ISPs were requested to block Casino Moons, Winnerama, Extra Vegas, Win Paradise, LegitGamblingSites.com and Gamblers Lab.

The regulator determined that the Super Group-owned brand was marketing on the children’s pages of the West Ham United Football Club’s website, breaching Commission rules on socially responsible advertising.

The Commission said that the operator’s logo – which linked to its website -appeared on a page on the West Ham site which offered the option of printing off a picture of a teddy bear for children to colour in. It was visible on this page between 14 April 2020 and 6 November 2021.

Additionally, between 24 October 2021 and 15 November 2021, a similar logo that linked to Betway’s homepage was featured “Young Hammers at Home” page of the club’s site.

GC director of enforcement, Leanne Oxley, said the regulator had no reason to believe Betway was targeting children deliberately, but that the rule breach was still serious.

“Protecting children from gambling harm is at the heart of what we do,” she said.

“Although there is no suggestion that the operator was deliberately targeting children, or that children had been allowed to gamble, we take the breach of any rules aimed at protecting children extremely seriously.

Betway said the logo appeared on these pages because of an error and that it takes the issue of marketing to children very seriously. The operator then removed its logo from the page after the issue had been brought to light on social media.

“As a responsible, licensed operator Betway has zero tolerance with marketing to under 18s,” the operator said. “As one of the first betting operators to remove our branding from under 18s kit and supporter merchandise, we feel very strongly about our responsibility in this area.

“On this occasion, the Betway logo – owing to a technical error – appeared on a restricted section of the West Ham United website. As soon as we were made aware of this error, we took immediate action to get it removed.

“Nonetheless, we accept the fine and will continue to work closely with the club to ensure this does not happen again.”

“We note the remedial actions since taken by licensee but advise all operators to learn from this case and ensure that they take responsibility and have the correct processes in place so that websites directed at children do not include advertisements for gambling,” Oxley said.

This is the second regulatory action that the Commission has undertaken against Betway. In a March 2020 decision, the regulator discovered “systematic historic failings” relating to the operator’s anti-money laundering and problem gambling practices. In that instance, the business paid a £11.6m settlement, which at the time represented a record amount.

The deal will run for a period of three years, with LeoVegas.News to serve as the club’s new “infotainment partner”.

LeoVegas.News branding will appear on pitchside LED advertising board inside the team’s San Siro home, as well as on surfaces at the club’s Suning Training Centre facility.

The partnership is in line with Italy’s strict rules on gambling-related marketing, with all gambling advertising effectively banned in the country under the so-called ‘dignity decree’.

As the deal is focused on the LeoVegas.News brand rather than the LeoVegas gambling operation, it is compliant with these regulations.

“Our partnership is based on sharing a cultural approach to digital entertainment that engages and excites fans and football lovers in general,” LeoVegas.News chief marketing officer Niklas Lindahl said.

“Our goal will be to spread and highlight the values ​​and sporting heritage that binds LeoVegas.News to Inter to further excite the fans of the club.”

Inter Milan’s chief revenue officer Luca Danovaro added: “Offering exclusive and high-quality content to our international fanbase is one of the cornerstones of the growth strategy to increasingly become a global entertainment company and we are happy to have found the same attention and desire for growth in this area with LeoVegas.”

The deal comes after LeoVegas earlier this month entered into a partnership with English Premier League football club Manchester City.

For the most part, there is minimal product differentiation between wagering operators, with minor differences in user experience.

In our January 2022 newsletter, we discussed how wagering sites have maintained a consistent layout for decades, typically featuring promotions at the top, then providing high level navigation to the most popular sports, and then giving prominence to the ‘next to jump’ for the major racing codes. 

Consequently, with minimal product differentiation, marketing has always played a crucial role in attracting customers to operators.

Taking the Australian market as an example, there are around 100 bookmakers competing to win online market share.  In Australia, Sportsbet has already gained around 50% online market share. Last year, it generated US$820 million in revenue and spent US$143.5 million on marketing (17.5% of revenue).

In the US, marketing is particularly high compared to mature markets like Australia and the UK because in new wagering markets, operators compete to ‘land grab’ market share. For example, in 2021, FanDuel (Flutter’s US business) spent US$775 million (48% of its revenue) on marketing, while DraftKings spent US$929 million (72% of its revenue). 

Company2021 Revenue 2021 Marketing Cost Marketing as % of RevenueDraftKings$1.30bn$929m71.7%FanDuel$1.63bn$775m47.7%

In comparison, companies operating in most industries spend around 11% of revenue on marketing, which is significantly lower than the wagering industry in both mature and new markets.

Over the last 10 years, celebrities have been increasingly used in marketing campaigns. For example, last year, Ladbrokes released a television commercial with actor Mark Wahlberg. This year, the company reimagined the iconic Rocky II running scene.

Influx of influencer marketing

In recent years, we have seen a huge shift in the consumer paradigm towards creator-guided commerce.

The Covid-19 pandemic served to accelerate this trend – when physical retail stores shut down, consumers were restricted to their homes and the only way for a brand to reach an audience was through digital connection. Creators played a huge part in this narrative, ultimately providing brands with a new distribution point for sales. 

Creators bring net new customers to a business and provide a performance-based marketing channel that attracts highly engaged shoppers. 

Wagering companies are slowly adopting a new approach when it comes to their marketing strategy, with more and more businesses turning to influencers to spread the word. 

That’s not to say the value of traditional marketing has been lost; both have a role to play and both serve very different yet important functions. 

Traditional marketing is critical at a macro level to build brand awareness, reach mass audiences, and further brand alignment. On the other hand, Influencer marketing allows brands to connect more closely with their customers, creating a more subtle and meaningful way for businesses to drive sales.

While wagering operators have had sportspeople and celebrities as brand ambassadors for many years, they have been relatively slow to add influencer marketing to their tool kit. 

One brand ambassador is basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, who has a partnership with WynnBET in the US and Pointsbet in Australia. In a combination of celebrity and influencer marketing, Shaq recently danced with ‘The Inspired Unemployed’, an influencer with 1.5 million Instagram followers. By partnering with The Inspired Unemployed, Pointsbet is able to target a niche audience of mostly young Australian men. 

Influencers are seen as more credible and authentic than traditional marketing. They have highly personalised audiences and have a unique ability to describe product experiences and journeys in a way that is raw and human.

Today’s audiences want to connect with like-minded people rather than celebrities. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase from someone who they feel they know, whose tastes and interests align with theirs.

Influencer marketing has propelled US-based Betr to 116,000 Instagram followers in just 5 weeks. The company leverages the huge audience of its influencer co-founder, Jake Paul, who has 20.6 million Instagram followers and 16.7 million Tik Tok followers. 

As discussed in our October 2021 newsletter, Barstool Sportsbook leverages the fame of Barstool’s Founder, Dave Portnoy. Barstool has built its brand on the back of authentic personalities and unique content. Portnoy regularly gives his betting tips and posts his betslip, often with a link allowing the viewer to copy his bet automatically through their Barstool Sportsbook account.

In a demonstration of how quickly operators must adapt to regulatory changes, this year, the UK banned the inclusion of sportspeople, celebrities and influencers in wagering ads because of their appeal to youth. Despite this British regulatory change, we believe that influencer marketing could contribute significantly to operators’ customer acquisition on a global level by allowing them to target large niche audiences.

All the best,

Tom

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Currently, it is not known which domain Holland Gaming Technology will operate under.

However, once this has been made known, the domain will be published in the Kansspelwijzer, the country’s online gaming catalogue.

Holland Gaming Technologies is registered in Malta. Its director is listed as being Eddy Hultermans, who is a director of imaging supplier Holland Power Gaming. Holland Power Gaming does not yet have any B2C operations, however.

Its parent company is Holland Home Entertainment Malta Ltd.

The KSA has granted several online gaming licences recently, all under the Netherlands’ remote gambling act (KOA), which came into force on 1 April 2021.

KOA had been delayed numerous times, having been initially scheduled to launch on 1 June 2020.

Yesterday, the KSA granted a licence to Smart Gaming BV. Last week, ComeOn Group subsidiary Tulipa Ent received a licence, through which it will operate the ComeOn brand in the Netherlands.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that a paid-for Reddit ad promoting MrQ, which featured an image showing three cartoon Spiderman figures pointing, breached rules as it was likely to have particular appeal to children.

The image is a popular internet meme, usually to point out that two or more things are fundamentally the same.

The ASA, which began an investigation into the advert in June following complaints, ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained of. The body also told Lindar Media – which accepted the ad could appeal to minors – that it must ensure gambling ads do not have particular appeal to those aged under 18.

The advert, seen by complainants on 29 June, featured the meme of three cartoon Spiderman figures pointing at one another. A text box stating “MrQ” was placed over their heads. The complainants challenged whether the ad was likely to have particular appeal to children and therefore breached the Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code).

In response, Lindar Media said the ad had been placed by an agency which had followed audience targeting to ensure that it targeted people who were already interested in gambling and, because of that, the group believed it was unlikely to be seen by children or young people.

Lindar said that although its internal team had approved the copy, they had not seen the images before the ad was placed. Its marketing terms and conditions stated that agents should not use images of famous individuals or brands and it had terminated the relationship with the agency because the Spiderman imagery was used without its approval.

Reddit said it had not received any direct complaints about the ad. The social news aggregation site said that, in response to the complaint, it had amended its policy to exclude the use of cartoon characters in paid-for gambling advertising.

In upholding the complaint, the ASA said: “The ASA understood the ad was making reference to a popular meme. Nevertheless, we considered that a cartoon depiction of Spiderman, a popular comic book character, was likely to appeal more strongly to under-18s than it would to over-18s.

“We therefore considered that the ad, which featured three cartoon depictions of Spiderman, was likely to have particular appeal to children and concluded that it breached the code.”

During the 12-month period, players in the state spent $4.78bn betting on sports over the internet, as well as $59.7m at retail sportsbook facilities across Colorado.

Basketball was the most popular sport among consumers by some margin, attracting a total of $1.20bn in wagers over the course of the year. Football bets amounted to $768.6m and baseball $506.2m, while $872.5m worth of parlay wagers were also placed.

In terms of revenue, total gross gaming revenue from sports betting was $282.6m for the financial year. The majority of this came from online, with this form of betting accounting for $279.6m, while retail revenue reached just $3.0m for the year.

Read the full story on iGB North America