Digital growth leads to 2% revenue increase at Rank in Q1

In a trading update, Rank said like-for-like net gaming revenue for the three months to 30 September was £165.6m (€189.2m/$183.6m).

Rank’s Grosvenor Casino land-based business contributed the highest amount to this total, though the £75.3m generated during the quarter was 5% lower than in the previous year. 

The operator said this was despite an increase in the number of customer visits, with the group reporting lower spend per visit. Rank said this was more than offset by a 17% revenue decline from its venues outside of London, where customer spend levels were weaker. 

The Mecca Bingo venues business experienced a 2% year-on-year rise in revenue to £33.3m, with a 4% rise in customer visits offsetting a 2% drop in spend per visit. Rank also noted that revenue from its Enracha venues in Spain jumped 24% to £8.2m.

Turning to online, revenue from Rank’s digital operations was 13% higher at £48.9m, helped by a 13% increase in revenue from online activities in the UK and a 12% rise in Spain.

Grosvenor online revenue jumped 25%, with Rank saying the brand continued to perform well following its successful migration onto the proprietary RIDE platform at the start of September.  

Mecca digital revenue climbed 1% and revenue from the remaining UK digital business was up 23%, with Rank noting particularly strong growth across the Stride brands on the RIDE platform.

“It is pleasing to see increasing visits in this new financial year together with strong growth in the digital business, where we are starting to see the benefits of investments in our proprietary technology platform and our cross-channel offering, with encouraging growth in both the UK and Spain,” Rank chief executive John O’Reilly said.

Looking ahead, Rank said consumer discretionary expenditure is expected to remain under pressure this year with inflation likely to remain high for some time, despite the positive impact of the energy price cap in the UK, and the impact of rising interest rates

Rank said it welcomed the recently announced Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which, as a result of its implementation for the six months between October 2022 and March 2023, the group expects energy costs in the current financial year to be approximately £34m, compared to £23m in the previous year.

This, Rank said, makes the assumption that no further support will be offered after March next year and that the group will be exposed to market prices for the final three months of the financial year. Rank added that it has put in place a number of efficiency programmes to help reduce future energy consumption.

Aside from this, Rank said other inflationary pressures continue to present an increasing challenge, particularly in its venues businesses, noting that wage inflation, food input price increases and supply chain pressures will all push up costs. 

In addition, Rank said expenses for FY23 will be higher due to the non-recurring government support of pandemic-related rates relief and furlough payments received in the first quarter of the prior financial year. 

“Whilst it is a challenging trading environment and we expect this to continue in the months ahead, we remain committed to delivering Rank’s market leading, exciting and entertaining proposition to our customers,” O’Reilly said.

“The group has a number of key initiatives underway to improve long term revenues. These include some key refurbishment projects and new electronic roulette and jackpot games in Grosvenor; improving the gaming machine offering in Mecca; increased personalisation and a stronger live casino offering in the UK digital business and the recent launch of Yo Sports in Spain. 

“The group has the benefit of a strong balance sheet, enabling us to continue investing in the business through this period.”

Casino dashboard: October 2022

There’s something fishy going on… It’s been a while since we littered these pages with our scaly puns but this aquatic theme is not a fad – clearly, there must be something beneath the surface.

No new titles hit the charts this month and the nearest any came were the nibbles from yet more fresh and flappy friends. The established titles of Pragmatic Play, Evolution Gaming and Play’n GO swapped the odd place here or there, Playson hung on to a spot and the trusty 9 Pots and 9 Masks from Games Global crept back in. It was good to see the remastered Book Of Ra from Novomatic pay a brief visit to the charts, but otherwise, no real change to the top spots. Unless of course, you look at the sheer volume of fishy titles past, present and future.

Neither the first nor last, Reel Time Gaming’s Fishin’ Frenzy was perhaps the original franchise and launched some 8 years ago. It has been a consistent performer with partner Blueprint Gaming feeding off it ever since. Spin-offs keep coming and the most recent Big Catch Megaways is performing well, lending the usual uplift to its non-Megaways namesake.

Yet Pragmatic Play is now dominant with three of their four variations of Bass Bonanza in the top 10, no less. “There must be something to this theme”, muttered many a studio manager in their creative workshops a few months back – and they’ve been casting their nets ever since.

Top 20 games by distribution

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Fishin’ Pots Of Gold and Fishin’ Loaded Pots (Gameburger Studios) were a nice combination of the theme plus trusted mechanic and their latest Fishin’ Bigger Pots of Gold is making waves. Red Tiger’s contribution to the genre is promising: not content with a generic fishy theme, they have gone for the more specific Bass Boss, though a Bass is actually a collection of species – according to Wikipedia, that is.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, an imitation of an imitation of something that was not exactly original in the first place is more herd (or shoal) mentality. But innovation and originality come with risk and at a price, so sometimes it’s about doing what works, and better than the rest. Not so much who did it first but who can make money out of it.

Of the 4,800 games launched by 600 studios last year, less than 1% have a fishy theme and yet they outperform all others. 4ThePlayer’s new top game is 4 Fantastic Fish and for Wizard Games it’s Fisherman’s Bounty Deluxe.

So what is it with our love of fish? Fish and bass in particular have cultural symbolism across the globe which include strength, luck and fertility. The metaphor is at work too, whereby the catching of fish is associated with winning or hitting a jackpot.

Across Asia, fishing/ shooting games (as opposed to fish-themed slots) have been popular for years. They combine the RNG of a slot game with the FPS mechanics of shooters, albeit with the illusion of a skill component. With the growing crossover between esports, multiplayer mechanics and casino gaming, these fishing games have potential. They share that same choice/action component with the popular crash games, for example. So… our prediction for 2023: fishing/shooting games: a ‘newish’ and on-trend game type, which rides the wave of a popular theme.

Biggest studio dealmakers

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On the deals front, aggregators PariPlay and 1Click Games are busily expanding their portfolio of studio content, whilst the likes of Beter and G, never too shy to fish for compliments, have ambitions to rein in Apparat Gaming, which remains the biggest studio dealmaker over the last 6 months.

Biggest aggregator dealmakers

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* Please note these are live charts which update every month so please ensure the month of September 2022 is selected in the drop-downs to match the analysis

**The interactive games chart at the top excludes live games and table games. Game rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 2,000 casino sites. To access many other charts including game rankings, live and table games, positions on subpages or to filter game performance by game theme, game feature or by operator type, get in touch with our partner, egamingmonitor.com. Egamingmonitor covers 41,000 games, 1,300 suppliers and 2,100+ operators. 

***Data on deals by month was collected from April 2020 onwards and the rolling chart reflects current dealmaking performance, i.e. how many deals were signed over the last 6 months. Note that only deals either a) on company websites or b) in the gaming press or c) reported to us by studios and aggregators, are collated. Deals between studios & aggregators (and aggregators & operators) from all time are available via egamingmonitor.com.

ANJ revamps Evalujeu self-assessment tool

Launched in 2015, Evalujeu is a gambling-harms evaluation tool that offers users the opportunity to self-assess their risk-level through a questionnaire, suggests next steps, and offers devices to manage their activities. The test is based on the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI) measure which screens a person for signs of harmful gambling activity using a 31 item test.

Depending on a user’s results, Evalujeu produces personalised advice to maintain their recreational habits, regain control, or else quit entirely. The site also offers a suite of tools including deposit limits, betting limits, budget planners, game time limits and automatic withdrawal thresholds.  

After seven years, the ANJ has revamped Evalujeu in order to improve the user-experience. This has included reworking the site’s branding and visual identity to accompany the new features. Users can now adapt the evaluation questionnaire according to different gambling habits, for example a sports bettor during the World Cup will be able to find a survey dedicated to sports betting.

The site will also feature new multi-media content, including videos of healthcare professionals who specialise in gambling addiction speaking on topics relevant to users, as well as podcast testimonials from those who have experienced gambling harms talking about their journey and the support options available.

According to the ANJ, the population of moderate-risk gamblers is in the region of 1 million people, compared to around 370,000 high-risk players. This has increased from 200,000 in 2014. This happens in the context of French gambling revenue increasing 6.9% year-on-year to €5.26bn in H1 2022.

In April, the regulator approved an action plan for casinos and race tracks to strengthen problem gambling monitoring.

Cooke to begin tenure as Star CEO on 17 October

Star in July revealed that Cooke would be taking on both roles within the group, though it was not confirmed when he would actually join the business.

He has now received requisite regulatory approvals in Queensland to take the top job at Star, while approvals in New South Wales remain pending.

Cooke was most recently CEO of Tyro Payments but is better known for having served as managing director and group CEO of lottery business the Tatts Group from 2013 to 2018, leaving soon after its sale to Tabcorp closed.

Upon assuming the role from next week, Cooke will be the fourth person to serve as CEO of Star this year.

Last month Geoff Hogg resigned as acting CEO of Star after just under four months in the role having taken on the position on a temporary basis in June this year.

Matt Bekier stepped down as CEO and managing director in late March in connection with issues raised during the review of Star’s operations in New South Wales, while John O’Neill, who replaced Bekier, also left after less than two months as executive chair.

Hogg came in as acting CEO at the same time that Ben Heap was named as interim chair of the business, but will now step down from the role and all other positions at Star.

With Cooke taking on the role on a full-time basis, executive chairman Ben Heap will return to his non-executive role within the business.

The appointment marks the latest event in what has been a turbulent year for Star, with the group earlier this month having been found “unsuitable” to hold a licence in Queensland, following an inquiry into its operations in the state.

The review, which was announced in June, examined a range of issues and unearthed a host of institutional failings.

The findings were broadly aligned with those uncovered by Adam Bell SC’s report into Star’s activities in New South Wales, which also found the operator unsuitable to hold a licence in the state.

Indiana sports betting handle continues to climb in September

Total handle for the month was $382.5m (£342.8m/€393.4m), up 60.7% from $238.0m in August of this year and 7.6% higher than $355.4m in September 2021.

Football overtook baseball to become the most popular sport to wager on in Indiana, with the start of the new NFL season helping draw $148.6m in bets. Baseball ranked second with $52.9m in wagers, then basketball on $5.2m, while $92.0m was bet on parlay betting and a further $52.2m on other sports.

Turning to taxable adjusted gross revenue (AGR) for the month and this reached $51.2m, which was more than double the $25.4m posted in August and also 51.0% higher than $33.9m in September last year.

Blue Chip Casino and partner FanDuel once again claimed top spot for the month in terms of revenue, posting $16.7m in AGR from $108.5m in bets,

Ameristar Casino and its DraftKings sportsbook processed more wagers – $134.0m – but its AGR was lower at $14.2m. Belterra Casino, another FanDuel partner, placed third with $5.5m in AGR from a handle of $39.2m.

The state was also able to collect $4.9m in sports betting tax during the month.

The latest set of monthly results comes after a report commissioned by Indiana’s Gaming Commission last month estimated that in its first year, online casino gaming could bring in revenue of $469m.

Currently, sports betting is the only type of online gambling allowed in Indiana. It was signed into law in 2019.

However, the Indiana state government commissioned Spectrum Gaming to provide a report on the impact of online casino in the state.

The report projected that revenue could reach $469m in the first year after launch. In its third year of operation, revenue could reach $830m.

CBWG founders to leave XLMedia as earn-out period ends

The affiliate giant acquired US-focused sports gaming and sports betting business CBWG in December 2020, paying an initial $12.0m (£10.8m/€12.4m) in cash and issuing 7,954,546 new shares at an aggregate value of $3.5m.

The purchase enabled XLMedia to establish a presence in the US sports betting market, with CBWG serving as the platform acquisition for XLMedia in the country.

At the time, it was confirmed that Laskowski and Ziernicki would remain with the group in newly created roles, continuing to support the acquired business and share their expertise and experience.

However, with Laskowski and Ziernicki now nearing their earn-out targets, both will soon exit the business.

“It was important for Kyle and Jason to join the business and ensure a successful integration into the XLMedia business and transfer of knowledge,” XLMedia chief executive David King said. “As entrepreneurs it is understandable that they are looking to move on, but they leave behind a highly talented team committed to growing XLMedia’s US business. I wish them the very best for the future.”

Laskowski added: “As a founder you build a brand not knowing what the future holds, in our case, it was joining XLMedia. We are very proud about what we and the team were able to build at XLMedia, while pioneering the North American sports market’s media partnership model.

“But the time is right for us to move on, and we feel confident we are leaving the business in good hands.”

Ziernicki also said: “The last two years have been both challenging and rewarding as we’ve watched the business expand. As two of the company’s larger shareholders, we wish nothing but success for the company going forward.”

Meanwhile, XLMedia also announced the appointment of Kevin Duffey as vice president of North America sports, with responsibility for all sports content in the region.

Duffey had been serving as vice president of sports media and is the founder of Saturday Football, one of XLMedia’s brands.

Arabmillionaire licence suspended by MGA

The business’s B2C – Gaming Service Licence is suspended from 12 October, meaning that the company will no longer be able to carry out gaming operations, register players or accept new deposits under the MGA’s licence.

Arabmillionaire is still required to retain and provide access to all registered player accounts, as well as refunding all funds still active on the site.

The MGA listed five specific provisions that were breached by the operator. According to the Authority, Arabmillionaire failed to comply with orders issued by the MGA, failed to complete its regulatory obligations, has failed to discharge financial commitments for its operations, breached the regulator’s rules on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, as well as failed to pay “in a timely manner all amount due to the Authority.”

Arabmillionaire now trades under the Playfooz.com brand, which still lists its suspended MGA licence registration at the foot of the site.  

In the MGA’s 2021 report it was revealed that the Authority had opted to use a softer touch, issuing fewer licence cancellations and suspensions, rather making better use of administrative penalties and warnings to discipline licence holders.

The MGA cancelled seven licences and did not suspend a single licence in the 2021 period, compared to the 14 cancelled and 11 suspended in 2019.

“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,” stated the report.

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

The MGA recently warned customers about the number of illegal sites operating in the country; referencing 18 domains, many of which were ran by the same operator.

Two operators withdraw from Dutch market after cease-and-desists

LCS Limited received the cease-and-desist order in early September. This followed an investigation that took place between March and July.

The investigation revealed that players were allowed to play on the Sons-of-slots.com website, despite LCS not having a licence to operate in the Netherlands.

The investigation into MKC took place between May and August. It found that the operator had been offering games in the Netherlands through the website www.betworld247.com, and had been accepting bets from players in the country.

Because LCS and MKC complied with the cease-and-desist orders, they do not have to pay the penalties that were initially imposed. This would have been €55,000 (£47,883/$55,445) per week for LCS, which would have been capped at €165,000, and €28,000 per week for MKC, up to a maximum of €84,000.

The KSA said that it would continue to monitor both operators to ensure this did not happen again.

Operating in the Netherlands without a licence violates article one, section A of the country’s Gambling Act.

Earlier this week René Jansen, chair of the KSA, reflected on the year since the Netherlands’ igaming market opened.

Kindred to donate shirt sponsorship space to Safer Gambling Week

Bespoke branding will appear on the shirts of English Championship team Middlesbrough and Scottish Premiership club Rangers in games taking place during Safer Gambling Week 2022, which runs from 17-23 October.

The ‘Zero % Mission’ branding will replace Kindred’s Unibet logo on both teams’ shirts.

As part of its Zero % Mission strategy, Kindred is aiming or 0% of revenue to be generated from harmful gambling by the end of 2023. The latest data released by Kindred showed that 3.3% of revenue was derived from high-risk players during the second quarter.

Middlesbrough players will wear the special shirts during Championship matches against Wigan Athletic on 19 October and Huddersfield Town on 22 October, and Rangers for the Scottish League Cup quarter-final clash with Dundee on 19 October.

Additional digital ‘Zero % Mission’ branding will also be visible across official club channels including website and social media, LED advertising and other screens.

“We’re committed to implementing a new kind of sponsorship model together with the clubs and communities we support,” Kindred’s UK general manager Neil Banbury said. “As we enter Safer Gambling Week, it’s a good time to reflect on the continued progress we have made in terms of protecting customers, as well as the improvements we continue to make through advances in our technology and processes. 

“We are on a journey and still have further to go, but we are confident that our approach is delivering results.”

Acroud completes £5.1m acquisition of unnamed business

Acroud AB, which previously announced the deal in a 15 June press release and the company’s Q2 report on 11 August, has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire 60% of the business’s total shares. The deal comprises of igaming affiliation assets and technology, and Acroud said that it expects the company to contribute north of €9m to the business’s revenue and €4m to the company’s EBIDTA annually.  

Acroud has referred to the acquired business as Acroud Media, which was registered with the Companies House in June, five days after the deal was first announced, suggesting the acquired business will lead a new media arm within Acroud. Its singular listed director, Gary Gillies, is also the sole director of Riae Media Ltd, which Acroud AB acquired in 2020.

Acroud AB said that the transaction will support the business’s expansion into the sports betting space, adding recurring sportsbook revenue to the company from large sportsbook providers, of which 80-85% comes from historic revenue share agreements.

The affiliate business also states that the deal will also guarantee the delivery of a high number of new depositing customers (NDCs), more than doubling the company’s current intake numbers.

“This acquisition is another piece of our puzzle to establish Acroud as a diverse player in the advertisement and affiliation space based on intelligent solutions. It will blend very well into our existing product portfolio, and with the new bond in place, the company is entering a new period of growth,” said Acroud CEO and president Robert Andersson.