Month: September 2022

The conglomerate has been linked with expansion into the sports betting market for some time, with Chapek last month saying Disney remained in talks with a number of platforms in regard to potentially launching an app.

Chapek previously said Disney’s sports broadcasting arm ESPN was the “perfect” channel for the business to move into sports wagering.

Speaking at Disney’s D23 fan event this week, Chapek said sports betting remains a focus area for the business, adding that it is “working very hard” on an app.

“Sports betting is a part of what our younger, say, under-35 sports audience is telling us they want as part of their sports lifestyle,” Chapek said according to Bloomberg.

Chapek added that he had received as many as 100 inquiries from parties interested in the business. He said: “If you have a house that you’re gonna put up for sale and you have a hundred buyers, you probably got a pretty cool house.”

Disney already has a presence in the sports betting market through ESPN, which in September 2020 entered a deal with DraftKings and William Hill, the latter of which has since been acquired by Caesars.

Under this agreement, ESPN has been promoting DraftKings’ daily fantasy sport updates, while with the William Hill agreement, which transferred to Caesars through the acquisition, ESPN has been showing the bookmaker’s betting odds.

Net gaming revenue for the esports-focused operator was up by 144% month-on-month during August, while player deposits almost tripled.
This came as the business entered a player acquisition phase, having previously focused on building out its operations. As a result, the business reported minimal revenue during its results for 2021 and for the first half of 2022.

“The initial growth since transitioning to customer acquisition gives us increased confidence that our offerings, strategy, and financial forecast are on point,” Real Luck Group CEO Thomas Rosander said. “Behind this success lies our platform’s capability to localise language variations, payment methods and marketing campaigns in a granular way.”

Rosander added that there was an especially strong focus on “micro-betting” products, which are fast-resolving in-play bets. This area, he said, would be a focus for Luckbox.

“We have also seen increased interest for high margin, micro-betting products,” he said. “This is the core of our long term strategy, and we have invested significant effort and resources to develop the new, proprietary products that will transform the market. 

“This key differentiator product, combined with our short term organic growth and strong balance sheet, hasn’t gone unnoticed by industry participants. We will continue to share more details, insights and progress, including at future industry events.”

This was revealed in the MGA’s annual report for 2021.

In total, the MGA cancelled seven licences in 2021. This is significantly less compared with the 14 licences the regulator cancelled in 2019, and 12 in 2020.

This trend of fewer enforcement actions can also be seen in its suspensions for the year – the MGA did not suspend a single licence in 2021, compared to the 11 and 3 suspended by the MGA in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Instead, the regulator has made better use of warnings and administrative penalties. It enforced 31 administrative penalties in 2021, as opposed to 24 and 28 in the previous two years.

The total number of official warnings for the year was 64, compared to just 20 in 2019. However, this is below the 70 the regulator issued in 2020.

“In 2021, a total of 210 cases were discussed by the Compliance and Enforcement Committee (CEC),” read the report. “The latter’s decisions in such cases relate to the evaluation of enforcement recommendations with respect to the non-compliance breaches.”

The regulator further elaborated on the value that enforcement brought.

“Enforcement is crucial for the authority; it helps us fulfil our mandate as a regulator. It is not only a necessary tool in our arsenal to achieve the mandate set out by law, but also essential as a measure of fairness towards licensees that are compliant,” the report continued.

“We ensure that our enforcement processes and procedures are streamlined and effective, with adequate room for adaptation wherever necessary.”

MGA inspections

The regulator additionally conducted a large number of land-based inspections and evaluations in 2021 – visiting 5,901 licensed casinos.

The MGA also inspected 2,215 gaming parlours, 1,537 lottery booths, 92 commercial bingo operations and 64 non-profit tombolas.    

The report also explained the steps it took in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of inspections in 2021, as this had an effect on the number of inspections that could be carried out.

“The temporary closure of gaming premises during 2020 and 2021 resulted in a drop in the number of inspections we carried out in casinos, gaming parlours, commercial bingo halls and non-profit events. During the months in question, our efforts were invested in collaborating with the various gaming establishments,” it stated.

“These sought to upgrade the gaming devices, the count for table games and the re-sealing of all pertinent gaming equipment in order to ensure that they were deemed fit and proper to welcome the general public following the lifting of restrictions in June 2021.”

FATF grey list

Another major event in 2021 was Malta being placed on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list. The FATF is a global anti-money laundering body.

“The placing of Malta in 2021 on the FATF’s list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring was undeniably an obstacle in our continued effort to retain Malta’s position as the place of choice for the establishment of a sustainable and well-regulated gaming business,” said Ryan C Pace, chairperson of the MGA.

“I believe that our achievements have contributed towards Malta’s removal from the FATF grey list, while the changes that have been implemented in the past months will continue to strengthen our jurisdiction.”

Sportradar will monitor key events, including matches in the European Championships, as well the as the men’s and women’s Champions League.

This will be done through Sportradar’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), its in-house bet monitoring system.

The UFDS is already active, having monitored the 2022 European Championships in Munich last month.

Through the system, a global team of integrity professionals will analyse the betting patterns of matches for abnormalities, allowing for suspicious activity to be flagged for further investigation.

“Protecting the integrity of European Table Tennis is a top priority, so it is vital that there are robust measures in place in to safeguard our competitions from match-fixing,” said European Table Tennis Union acting president Pedro Moura. “Through this partnership, men’s, women’s and youth events are all now being monitored through the UFDS.”

“Sportradar has a proven track record in the sports integrity industry, and their expert bet monitoring capabilities will play a crucial role in helping to protect the integrity of European Table Tennis events.”

Sportradar’s Integrity Services unit has detected over 7,500 suspicious matches during the past 17 years, with more than 800 taking place just in 2022. This compares with the 903 that the unit detected during 2021.

“We have witnessed ever-growing integrity threats over the years, particularly due to recent global events, as well as an increased betting interest in sports such as table tennis and are excited to have entered into this partnership with the European Table Tennis Union,” said Sportradar Integrity Services managing director Andreas Krannich.

“At Sportradar, we are fully committed to assisting our sporting partners’ efforts to detect and prevent such threats and look forward to supporting the integrity programme of the European Table Tennis Union in the years ahead.”

Earlier this month, Sportradar signed a similar integrity partnership with the Finnish centre for integrity.

Sam Daoud, aged 52, Nadia Daoud, aged 50 and Brian Shufeldt, aged 42 all pleaded guilty to one felony count each, pertaining to the illegally-run gambling operations.

Sam Daoud was placed on probation for 18 months and was ordered to pay $498 in costs. Both Nadia Daoud and Shufeldt were ordered to pay $798 in costs each.

Kim Green, aged 44, pleaded guilty to a high court misdemeanor of maintaining a gambling house for gain. She paid a fine of $978, served two days in jail and received six months on probation.

[Read full story on iGB North America]

The public tender offer worth $604m (£529m/€605m) was submitted in May this year. The proposal for MGM pay SEK61.00 in cash per share was unanimously backed by the LeoVegas board, while MGM also secured all necessary regulatory and governmental approvals.

Earlier this month, it was revealed 65.56% of LeoVegas shareholders, which represented 63,047,289 of the total shares in LeoVegas, had accepted the terms of the offer. 

MGM also said it had acquired 30,400,000 LeoVegas shares at prices not exceeding the price in the, increasing the total number of shares controlled to 93,447,289 shares, or 95.69% of the business.

During an extended acceptance period, which expired on 14 September, the offer was also accepted by shareholders with a total of 2,320,120 shares in LeoVegas, corresponding to approximately 2.38% of the total holding in the business.

As such, MGM now controls a total 95,767,409 shares in LeoVegas, which corresponds to approximately 98.07% of the outstanding shares in operator.

Settlement for shares tendered in the Offer during the extended acceptance period will begin around 22 September, while MGM said it would not not extend the acceptance period for the offer further.

MGM also confirmed it had initiated a compulsory acquisition procedure in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act to acquire all shares not tendered in the offer, with LeoVegas’ application for delisting of the shares from Nasdaq Stockholm having been approved on 8 September 2022. 

The last day of trading in LeoVegas shares at Nasdaq Stockholm will be 22 September 2022.

This week’s investigation into land-based venue The Star Sydney in New South Wales (NSW) was typified by a single line: the Star is unsuitable to hold a casino operating licence in NSW.

The finding followed months of assessments carried out by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) which launched a review into the business in October 2021.

This inquiry, which was announced in September 2021, dealt with a number of troubling allegations regarding anti-money laundering measures and suspicious interactions between The Star’s Sydney casino and junket operators. In particular, many of the concerns dealt with disgraced junket business Suncity, which has faced a range of legal troubles itself over the past year, including the arrest of former chair Alvin Chau.

The journey to Bell’s final report has been arduous, consisting of tedious reviews of every aspect of The Star’s operations and thorough examination of senior Star staff – with each new twist more sensational than the last.

The finer details

Early stages of the investigation began behind closed doors. But on 17 March this year, hearings that would determine whether The Star was suitable to hold a licence in New South Wales began, bringing a number of failings to public light.

During this time the ILGA heard that The Star had purposefully provided “misleading” statements to its bank, in an attempt to disguise gambling-related transactions as hotel expenses. The investigation also heard that the operator had allowed one high-roller to gamble despite alleged links to organised crime groups.

The final version of Bell’s report concluded that The Star’s inappropriate conduct was wide-reaching. Failings occurred in both anti-money laundering – particularly at private Suncity gaming room Salon 95, where the junket operator ran its own cage – and in the realm of social responsibility, with the operator offering alcohol as an inducement to gamble.

Seeing double

But The Star is not the only land-based casino operator under a microscope in Australia. The Star’s investigation bears striking resemblance to the numerous inquiries into Crown Resorts, a rival operator.

The Bergin inquiry – a similar investigation into Crown – found that operator unsuitable to hold a casino licence in the state in February 2021, though it was eventually permitted to offer gaming at its newly built Sydney venue after implementing major changes.

Much like The Star, Crown’s saga has been long and disheartening. The Bergin Inquiry spawned a number of other investigations in other states where it did business, with each having the same outcome; Crown was found unsuitable to operate a casino in Victoria in October 2021 and in Western Australia in March 2022.

Many of the failings found at Crown venues were strikingly similar to those later uncovered at The Star.

Individual operators sometimes face scandal, but the industry as a whole has usually escaped the worst of the fallout. But in Australia, Crown and Star dominate the land-based sector, and now both have been found “unsuitable” to hold a licence following extensive reviews.

The path forward, therefore, is not simply about one operator attempting to restore trust. It’s about the Australian land-based sector as a whole.

In fact, it may even go beyond the land-based casino sector. Earlier this week, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) announced that it has launched an “enforcement investigation” into Entain, and that further investigations into bookmakers may follow. So these scandals may spread beyond the land-based sector, and hit the gambling industry as a whole.

A positive outlook

Although the perspective is bleak, The Star still has one trick left – it was given 14 days to defend itself from disciplinary action, up to and including its licence being revoked.

Authorities might not want to take the drastic action of revoking the licence of such a large land-based operation like The Star Sydney. But in the wake of such a public and embarrassing shaming, is it possible for The Star to truly reinvent itself as a trustful institution?

Yesterday (15 September), Ben Heap, chairman of The Star, acknowledged the contents of the report and vowed to recoup The Star’s former reputation.

“We have fallen short of expectations,” said Heap. “The people of NSW placed their trust in us as the holder of a casino licence, and we have not lived up to that trust. For that we offer a sincere and unreserved apology.”

Heap is one of a number of new faces in leadership positions at the business, after most executives and directors in leadership positions before the scandal came to light opted to step down.

Evidently, the report conjured anger among the Australian public and media, leading to calls for a nationwide gambling regulator as opposed to individual state-level bodies.

Despite hailing the contents of Bell’s report as “no surprise”, Anthony Albanese, Australia’s Prime Minister, rejected the idea of a national regulator.

“I’m not in favour of regulation for the sake of it,” he said. “I think it’s pretty obvious that the state regulators are doing a pretty good job of holding the casino operators to account.”

Officially, The Star Sydney has 11 more days to defend itself from disciplinary action. But in terms of winning back the trust of the Australian public, Star Entertainment – and the sector as a whole – may face a much longer path to recovery.

Under the arrangement, CDI will purchase Ellis Park Racing & Gaming from Enchantment Holdings, an affiliate of Laguna Development Corporation, and take full ownership of the venue.

Located in Henderson, Kentucky, Ellis Park has hosted horse racing for the past 100 years, while the site also features a gaming facility venue with approximately 300 historical racing machines (HRMs).

The acquisition agreement also includes CDI assuming Ellis Park’s opportunity to construct a track extension facility at Owensboro’s Towne Square Mall. The new Owensboro Racing & Gaming site will also house an entertainment venue with 600 HRMs, a simulcast wagering centre, and multiple food and beverage offerings.

Over the next year, CDI said it expects the total investment in the Henderson and Daviess counties to be approximately $75.0m in addition to the purchase price.

The deal remains subject to certain working capital and other purchase price adjustments, as well as approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

“Our team is committed to building a summer meet at the ‘Pea Patch’ that keeps more Kentucky-bred horses and Kentucky-based trainers’ in their home state while attracting top horse racing talent from across the country to the Bluegrass State each July and August,” CDI chief executive Bill Carstanjen said.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear added: “This is an exciting announcement for the horse racing. CDI has proven it has the experience, resources, and desire to reinvigorate Ellis Park into a premier racing destination and provide unmatched gaming entertainment.

“This investment will ensure our Kentucky horsemen and women have the best year-round racing circuit in the country and create jobs throughout the region and state. Churchill Downs is a great corporate citizen and an important part of Team Kentucky.”

In March 2021, the KSA named ZonMw as one of the groups selected to develop the programme.

The new scheme follows the publication of a study on gambling addiction by Dutch knowledge institute Trimbos in December 2021.

The KSA stated that aim of the programme will be to gather new knowledge on the prevention and treatment of gambling addiction and gambling-related harms, so it can be formed into new treatment measures.

The first funding round for research proposals is expected soon. ZonMw will aim for a mix of both short- and long-term projects, that will lead to both quick results and long-term studies of gambling harms.  

Trimbos released a report following the review outlining in the direction in which future research should look:

“The research should focus on the prevention of problems and harm caused by gambling, better treatment of people with gambling problems and tailor-made solutions for vulnerable groups,” the report stated.

“It follows that research is also needed into the physical and digital context of gaming behaviour, including advertising, and the characteristics of gambling products themselves.

“Finally, partly because essential data is centralized within a financially interested party, the infrastructure in research practice also deserves serious attention.”

The programme is funded through the Addiction Prevention Fund. The fund was created under the provisions of the Remote Gambling Act, the law which legalised online gaming in the Netherlands.

The news comes in the context of a Dutch tightening legal regime, with the KSA chair, René Jansen, just days ago calling for the introduction of gambling spending limits .

PlayFallsview will allow players in the Canadian province to place online wagers on a range of sports, as well as access internet casino games.

As announced in May, Kambi will provide the online sportsbook for PlayFallsview, while Mohegan and Fallsview also onboarded partners such as Pala Interactive and Intelitics to support the platform launch.

Operated by Mohegan and based near to Niagara Falls, Fallsview Casino Resort is the largest land-based gaming resort facility in Canada.

“We’re thrilled to be launching playfallsview.com with the help of some of the most powerful technology in the industry,” Mohegan’s director of product Todd Stender said. “Our partnerships with Pala Interactive and Kambi’s powerful sports betting platform has allowed us to deliver a full suite of the best casino content.

“We’re excited to be offering the top slot games our customers know and love, in addition to live dealer games via Evolution, and expanded sports wagering content powered by Kambi.”