Month: November 2022

Derek Stevens of Circa Sports is a gambling industry outsider. He built up a successful auto parts business in his native Michigan before moving into the casino business, purchasing the Golden Gate in 2008. He’s honest about what attracted him to the city.

“The key thing that brought me to Vegas was the fact there’s no income tax in the state of Nevada,” he says, bluntly. “I run an investment portfolio, so that was helpful.”

But, he adds, “I’m more of an operator”. He’s also someone who likes a challenge, acquiring a casino on the cusp of the Great Recession. Stevens “really fell in love with downtown Las Vegas” from that period renovating and expanding the Golden Gate.

“As far as downtown Vegas goes I’m a big fan of entertainment and music and really pushing the Fremont Street experience with more and more concerts and things like that,” he adds. “I thought it would be another way of bringing people there.”

He added to his portfolio in 2011 by acquiring Fitzgeralds. The name may not be familiar; the building is now the D – Stevens’ nickname and home city of Detroit – and then the tallest building downtown. 

Since Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon (named for Bill Harrah) was relaunched as The Cromwell, Stevens is one of two people to have a casino named for them in Sin City. 

Downtown’s first new build in 40 years

The D and Golden Gate were performing well, so Stevens and his brother Greg kept growing the business.

“This meant opportunities came up to purchase the Las Vegas Club, the Glitter Gulch and Mermaids, then a couple of other buildings downtown,” he says. “That’s when we decided we were going to expand and build a brand new property. 

While the D may be his namesake, Circa Resort & Casino may be his masterpiece. The property opened its doors in late 2020 – towering above the D – as the first hotel-casino construction project in the Fremont Street area since 1980.

“It was the first time we ever got to design something from scratch, so there were a couple of key elements that we wanted to add in,” Stevens says of Circa. 

“We wanted to create destination venues, destination experiences and that’s really how the world’s largest sportsbook evolved. That’s how Stadium Swim evolved. That’s how the Legacy Club evolved.”

If you’re looking for a vast screen above a pool area, Stadium Swim has you covered. You’ll even have to travel up Las Vegas’ biggest escalator to get there. The Legacy Club gives you views across the city. Fremont Street history is also on display; Vegas Vickie, a neon sign that previously loomed above the Glitter Gulch, now inhabits the property. 

Building something better

And for bettors, Circa confidently states its sportsbook is the biggest in the world. It has three storeys, a 78m pixel screen and a viewing capacity for up to 1,000 people. 

For Stevens, a sports fan and a bettor himself, the development was an opportunity to build something, well, better. 

“I’ve always thought that if we designed something that sports fans would like, the people would come,” he says. 

For the avid bettor, there are competitive odds and pricing. For the novice, there’s the wow factor of watching and wagering in something more akin to a cinema or concert auditorium. 

“We tried to create a different model,” Stevens says. Circa Sports doesn’t back away from the professional sports bettors. Instead it uses their information and it’s a good two-way street in his view. 

“So I like having an awful lot of people that make a million dollars a year. I like having a lot of people make six figures from Circa Sports because they help create the market, which helps us gain additional customers.”

And that on-property megabook is just the start. Before Circa Resort & Casino opened its doors, Stevens established Circa Sports, which took its first bets at the Golden Gate in 2019. 

Blending spectacle with smartphones

This venture operates the sportsbooks at Stevens’ Vegas properties, as well as off-property books in Nevada and mobile in Colorado and Iowa. This means Circa is designing an experience that can work across some of Las Vegas’ biggest screens and on a tiny counterpart in a player’s pocket. 

“You must have mobile to compete,” Stevens says. He cites changes in consumer behaviour and the growth of in-game wagering, while adding retail component remains important. “[Having] the world’s largest sportsbook helps our mobile business.”

There’s the obvious cross-sell opportunity, and mobile acting as marketing beyond Nevada’s borders. For someone who first headed to the Silver State because it had no income tax, choosing where to launch takes time. Sports betting tax rates veer from low to eye-wateringly high, after all. 

“It really comes down to the regulatory framework, the size of the market and our business model,” Stevens says of Circa Sports’ market expansion strategy. 

“For example, we run a lower hold business model. So there are some states where our model wouldn’t work; it wouldn’t work in the state of Tennessee, which has a mandatory hold percentage,” he explains. “For us, it’s really looking at how our business model fits within the framework of each jurisdiction.

“We felt good about Colorado, felt good about Iowa. We feel good about us getting into Illinois. But I would also say we wouldn’t want to be in Tennessee or New York. Insane tax rates don’t work with the low hold models.”

Bringing the Circa Sportsbook to Illinois

The expansion plans don’t end with devices – the full in-person experience will be exported around the US. 

Circa is launching mobile and in-person betting in Illinois, in partnership with Full House Resorts. American Place in Waukegan will host the operator’s first retail sportsbook outside of Nevada. 

“So for us, this is just a new jurisdiction, but it’s the blend of retail and mobile that makes us pretty excited.” The business aims to get up and running in Illinois during Q1 2023 and then Stevens is looking for opportunities in other states. 

“We’d certainly like to grow into a few more states,” he says. “Big states like Michigan and Ohio, or New Jersey are out there.”

Sports betting, he adds, is in its infancy and will grow “tremendously”. 

“I believe that all the sportsbook operators out there today, plus additional sportsbooks can thrive in this space,” he adds. “There’s an awful lot of room for everyone to grow because the market’s going to grow significantly.”

But is betting recession-proof?

His optimism is infectious, but with an all-but-inevitable recession on the horizon, the situation could change rapidly. “I’m old enough that I weathered a lot of recessions here,” he says with a laugh. 

“I would say when you have a situation like what we’re seeing here in the United States with the rising interest rates and you see some of the macroeconomic worries, the inflationary worries, the way you handle it is trying to make sure you protect your balance sheet. 

“Make sure that you’ve got enough free cash flow and free cash to be able to weather a storm.”

It certainly worked for him in 2008 when reduced land prices facilitated his entry into casino ownership. 

Since then he’s created a downtown empire in Las Vegas and with Circa has created the sort of property that wouldn’t look out of place on the Strip. 

Having revitalised Fremont Street some pollsters have even speculated he could have turned his attention statewide – he was even cited as a wildcard candidate for Nevada governor in the 2022 midterms but nothing came of it. 

And his final thoughts certainly suggest he’s thinking about what might come next: “When a recession comes, remember that sometimes the greatest opportunities come during that time period too. 

“We’re trying to prepare for the next steps of growth if something like that were to happen.”

All images courtesy of Circa Sports.
Main image: Tom Donoghue Photography
Circa Resort & Casino exterior image: Ryan Gobuty
Stadium Swim image: Rum Tongue

MGM Resorts International, Galaxy Entertainment Group, Las Vegas Sands, Melco Resorts, Wynn Resorts and SJM Resorts were all awarded a concession, each of which will run for a period of 10 years.

However, a concession application submitted by GMM, a subsidiary of Genting Malaysia, was not successful.

The government’s committee for the gaming concessions public tender will now negotiate with the six successful applicants on the specific details of their concession contracts. This process is expected to complete by the end of the year, with the new concessions due to come into effect from 1 January.

Macau gaming operator reactions

Sands China chairman and chief executive Robert Goldstein said that the operator was “honoured” to be able to continue running its casino in Macau.

“Our commitment to Macau has never wavered and we are honoured to continue the partnership we began with the government and people of Macau 20 years ago,” Goldstein said. “In the coming decade and beyond, we will remain steadfast in our strategy of continuous investment in Macau – in its economy, its people and its community. 

“Macau’s future as an international tourism destination remains bright and we look forward to furthering our leadership role in helping it reach its full potential.”

Melco chairman and chief executive Lawrence Ho expressed a similar sentiment.

“We are honoured to have been selected and granted a provisional award for the concession to operate gaming in Macau and would like to thank the Macau government for running a smooth and transparent process,” Ho said. 

“We are committed to Macau and its development as Asia’s premier tourist destination.”

New concession goals

MGM China, meanwhile, spoke of its plans to fulfil the goals of the new concession process: helping to diversify the Macau economy and bringing in more customers from countries other than China.

“We are fully devoted to the Macao SAR,” the operator said. “We will continue to develop the city with our strengths and contribute to the non-gaming industry, meanwhile making vigorous efforts in expanding the tourist markets from foreign countries.”

Wynn Macau pointed to its history in the special administrative region and said it would work to help Macau gaming rebound after Covid-19 -related lockdowns and travel restrictions had a major negative impact on the sector.

“Over the past two decades,” Wynn has worked together with Macau society and all citizens to make positive efforts for the prosperity and stability of Macau, the business said.

“Facing the future, Wynn is full of confidence in the prospects of Macau, and will do its best to support Macau’s integration into the overall development of the country, help the diversified development of industries, expand overseas tourist source markets, enhance Macau’s international reputation, consolidate Macau’s positioning as a world tourism and leisure centre and continue to serve Macau as a whole.”

Macau gaming bill

The new concessions form part of an overhaul to gambling in Macau, following the passage of a gaming bill last year. Earlier versions of the bill had considered changing the number of operators permitted to do business in the market, but the published version kept the number at six.

Besides rules governing the concessions, the new bill also includes a maximum number of gaming tables and machines for each operator – depending on revenue – and limits junkets to one concessionaire each. The bill will also the region’s Chief Executive power to grant tax breaks in order to attract foreign customers.

The committee opinion came in its report on a gambling reform bill aimed at reducing harm and improving channelisation.

Initially the government had considered a ban on “high-risk” gambling ads between 6am and 9pm.

However, in the version of the law published by the government, it opted not to implement a ban. Instead, it said that gambling ads should be subject to “adjusted moderation”.

The government determined that both channeling and media revenues could be adversely impacted by a daytime ban, while many at-risk people would continue to be exposed to ads.

The standard of adjusted moderation, it noted, would not be the same as “special moderation”, which is the standard in place for alcohol and was proposed for gambling in 2021.

The adjusted moderation rule would involve advertisements being subject to different levels of moderation depending on the type of gambling involved.

However, the bill did not offer specifics, and trade association Branschföreningen för Onlinespel (BOS) noted that the rule was extremely ambiguous.

Gambling risk classification by the back door

The Culture Committee, though, rejected the new standard.

It did not agree with the principle of setting different standards for different types of gambling, arguing that the rule was “an attempt to implement a risk classification by the back door”.

This, it said, “further risks eroding the regulated market for those actors who have a loose license, pay Swedish tax and maintain a high level of consumer protection and who, with an adjusted requirement, do not have the opportunity to market their products to a wider extent”.

The committee also argued that, with the licensed gambling market being less than three years old, it was too early to make major changes to marketing rules. 

“In addition, the committee considers it too early to implement changes in the field of marketing as the practice has just been established,” it said.

The committee also said that a risk classification should not be applied in a more direct manner. It determined that there are too many factors at play for the risk of different gambling products to be looked at on anything other than a case-by-case basis.

“When re-regulating the gaming market, it was judged to be difficult to divide the forms of gaming into more or less risky games in a long-term sustainable way and let this alone be the guiding principle for the design of the regulation,” it said. “There is no reason to make a different assessment now.”

“Risk factors also change over time and are affected by, among other things, what the offer on the gaming market looks like. It will thus continue to always be necessary to carry out a risk assessment based on current knowledge and research in each individual case when drafting laws and regulations.”

B2B supplier licences

Perhaps the most notable part of the government bill, though, is its requirement for B2B software providers to obtain licences. The government aimed to use these licences to improve channelisation by preventing licensed suppliers from working with black-market operators.

The committee said it agreed with the proposal to bring in B2B supplier licences.

“The committee welcomes the bill’s proposal that a license requirement for software be introduced into the Gaming Act with the aim of excluding unlicensed gaming,” it said. “It is important to prevent unlicensed actors from operating in the Swedish market.”

Sweden election 2022

The report from the culture committee is among the first major actions related to gambling taken by the new Swedish legislature following the 2022 election.

In the election, the centre-left coalition led by the Social Democratic Party lost its majority, being replaced by a new right-leaning coalition. 

Following the election, BOS secretary general Gustaf Hoffstedt said he was hopeful that the new government would be more friendly to the industry, particularly on matters such as bonuses. Currently, Swedish operators are only permitted to offer players one bonus, which is limited to a value of SEK100 and must only be granted on sign-up.

What’s next for Swedish gambling reform bill?

Following the committee’s input, the bill is now set to be considered by the legislature. 

If it is approved and becomes law, the requirement for B2B supplier licences will come into force on 1 July, 2023. Although the bill is not yet law, regulator Spelinspektionen is already taking steps to prepare for the new requirement, planning to open licence applications on 1 March.

The regulator is also set to hold an information session on the new law next month.

Other aspects of the bill that require more simple changes will come into effect from 1 January.

The KSA said Toto Online – owned by Nederlandse Loterij – sent advertising messages to its entire customer base between 1 October 2021, the date the country opened its legal online gambling market, and 1 February this year.

The adverts featured a range of details about Toto Online and its online gambling offering, including information about bonuses available to customers. 

However, Dutch law states licensed operators cannot send any form of advertising to young adults between the ages of 18 and 23, even if they are registered with the operator.

KSA also noted that promotional emails were sent to both current and existing customers of Toto Online.

As Toto Online sent the adverts to its entire customer base and did not filter out players in the young adult age bracket, this was regarded as a breach of regulations and KSA opted to issue the fine.

“The law says that vulnerable groups, including young adults, must be given extra protection,” KSA chairman René Jansen said. “The brains of young people are still developing. As a result, they are extra vulnerable to developing gambling addiction. 

“Gaming providers must fully respect the rules intended to protect vulnerable groups. That did not happen here and that is why there is a fine.”

Pre-World Cup warnings

The ruling came after KSA last week also took against a number of licensed operators after ruling they breached various rules and regulations. KSA said that the offences took place in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup.

Two operators were warned for offering bets on the number of yellow cards in football matches. Dutch law prohibits betting on certain events in games as they are regarded as being sensitive to match-fixing.  

Another operator was issued a warning for violating a ban on using roles models to promote gambling. A number of well-known Dutch people featured in an ad that promoted an event, with the operator’s logo featured throughout the advert.

The regulator did not disclose the identity of any of the operators that breached the rules.

The comments were made during a speech at the Gambling Commission’s CEO Briefing 2022 on 25 November.

In it, Rhodes laid out plans for how the Gambling Commission is set to operate over the next few years, and specified which elements of the industry are the regulator’s responsibility and which elements are not.

Not the Gambling Commission’s job

He said that the Gambling Commission was interested in how operators are promoting safer gambling, but not necessarily in judging how much people are spending.

“I’m not saying these operators are getting everything right and I’m not saying the regulator wants to see people in general spending less on gambling either – our role is to permit gambling as long as it is safe, fair and crime free, not to make a moral judgment on how much money is spent on gambling,” said Rhodes. “But operators looking to move their customers away from behaviours that present a higher risk to the licensing objectives is something that we are watching with interest.”

“Our view, as the regulator, is that these are your choices to make.”

NFTs, cryptocurrency and gambling

Rhodes also commented on “emerging products”, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency – topics he has discussed in detail before – but added that he would not “dwell” on them.

“I’m not going to dwell today on either products based around online illegal gambling sites or emerging products,” he said.

He said that the Gambling Commission will make efforts to distinguish illegal sites and practices, although he believes black market risks are not as serious as they are made out to be.

“The illegal market will always continue to evolve and is difficult to eliminate, so our efforts will increasingly be further upstream to seek to disrupt these illegal sites as much as possible,” continued Rhodes. “We cannot condone bad practice in the legitimate market and I think you would all agree with me on that.”

“I think the risks from the so called black market are overstated, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think they exist.”

Gambling Act review

Rhodes also gave a nod to the upcoming Gambling Act white paper, stating that the government has a critical role to play in balancing safe play and freedom to bet.

“Whilst I don’t accept that you can’t balance protecting people from harmful or unfair outcomes with freedom of choice, clearly, government has a big role to play in making the judgment about where that balance should be sought,” Rhodes continued. “It will be an important step for everyone in this room when a white paper is published for the Gambling Act Review.”

“But that hasn’t stopped us at the Gambling Commission taking action where we have felt it necessary to make gambling fairer and safer and whilst the review progresses, and it won’t going forwards either.”

Rhodes concluded that the Gambling Commission’s outlook is one that prioritises customer freedom and extinguishes crime in the industry.

“As a regulator, we are here for all 22 million consumers and that means we will do some things differently,” he says. “Putting people first, doing the right thing and regulation that works for all: these will be the guiding principles for the Commission in the years to come.”

“We want to work with a compliant industry to take this forward and make gambling fairer, safer and crime-free.”

Rhodes’ speech occurred on the same day the Gambling Commission released its yearly data for the period between April 2021 and March 2022, which revealed that gross gambling yield had recovered to almost £10bn in the time period.

Weerwind answered questions from Michael van Nispen of the Socialist Party and Mirjam Bikker from the Christian Union, both of whom raised concerns that some operators were paying out faster than other licensees.

Though Weerwind acknowledged that some withdrawal requests are processed faster than others, he said that it is the responsibility of national regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) to monitor operators to ensure they are paying out in an appropriate time.

However, he also said that to date, the KSA has not yet reported any incidence of operators holding on to player’s funds for an “unnecessarily long period of time” and as such licensees are paying out in line with regulations.

“The speed with which payment is made depends on the circumstances of the case,” Weerwind said. “For example, it may be necessary to carry out a check for fraud and money laundering or a check in which the provider checks bonus conditions before a bonus can be paid. One gambling provider may be faster than the other. 

“The standard remains “without undue delay”, supervised by the KSA. There is currently no reason to intervene.”

Reverse withdrawals

Weerwind was also questioned over the option for players to cancel a withdrawal after they have made such a request, and instead use the funds to carry on gambling. Bikker and van Nispen raised concerns as to whether operators would be likely to agree to this as it would benefit their own revenue models.

In response, Weerwind said any withdrawal cancellation requests should be considered in line with an operator’s duty of care to protect players and prevent gambling-related harm such as addiction.

“Providers must be constantly alert to signs of problematic gaming behaviour and intervene decisively if there are signs,” Weerwind said. “Usually, the one-off cancellation of a payment order will not be problematic but must be viewed in relation to the entire gaming behaviour of the player in question. 

“The implementation of the duty of care by providers counteracts the risk that someone continues to play for too long, as is also intended with the warning text cited above. The KSA supervises that providers comply with their duty of care.”

Reverse withdrawal ban

Weerwind also responded to a proposal to make it mandatory that once a withdrawal request has been made, it would not be possible for a player to cancel or reverse this.   

While Weerwind said that players should be given full control over their funds in gambling, including being able to change their mind and cancel a withdrawal, he added that operators should always monitor consumers’ behaviour to ensure their gambling habits are not becoming problematic or potentially harmful. 

“Participants in games of chance must be able to control the amount in the gambling account,” Weerwind said. “Part of being able to take control yourself is also the possibility to still be able to cancel a payment order. 

“The risk of someone playing on for too long is counteracted by the implementation of the duty of care by providers.”

All sanctions were issued after Spelinspektionen criticised “shortcomings” in the operators’ approached anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures. Each investigation began in autumn 2021.

Kindred subsidiary Spooniker received the highest possible fine Spelinspektionen could issue, at SEK10.9m. ATG was issued with a SEK6m fine, and PinBet received a SEK2m fine.

Spelinspektionen chose customers that had been active within certain time periods with the three operators. The time periods in question were between 1 January to 31 March 2020 for Kindred and ATG and between 1 January and 31 March 2021 for all three operators.

The regulator chose 13 customers from ATG, 12 customers from Kindred and 12 customers from PinBet. The customers’ activities were then analysed.

A number of failures were identified across the board. In one instance, a customer playing with Spooniker deposited SEK80.8m between 1 January 2019 and 2 February 2022 over 813 occasions. When the customer’s taxable earnings were checked bin May 2020, they were found to be SEK3.9m for 2018.

In the full ruling, Spelinspektionen noted, “The customer’s gambling then regularly generated alarms in the system, but when the customer was found to be winning the game, no action was taken.”

The customer was asked to provide information on funds on multiple occasions. During this time the customer was reclassified from medium to high risk, as the origin of funds could not be identified. Eventually the risk was lowered to medium again after a due diligence report revealed information about the customer’s company and a SEK135m inheritance, which provided sufficient origin of funds.

For ATG, Spelinspektionen found that a grand majority of customers investigated “have made deposits amounting to large amounts without the origin of the funds being checked until long after the deposits were made.”

The regulator asserted that “ATG has only collected information on taxable income for three of the customers – customers 4, 5 and 8. In the case of customer 4, however, information on the taxable income was collected only after the Gambling Inspectorate began supervision.”

In the case of PinBet, Spelinspektionen said that only seven of the investigated customers had been flagged by the operator’s warning system, which indicates that the customer must be looked into as at-risk. Each of the customers generated warnings for high depositing, along with other issues, between seven months and one year before PinBet took action.

Today (23 November) Kindred responded to the fine, by asking for further clarity from Spelinspektionen as to the nature of its offence.

“According to the SGA [Spelinspektionen], Kindred has failed in its enhanced due diligence requirements and has not taken sufficient measures to assess the risk of its services being used for money laundering and terrorist financing,” read the statement. “Kindred fully shares the SGA’s ambition to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.”

“Anti-money laundering is a priority in Kindred’s compliance and sustainability framework. Kindred would welcome increased clarity from the SGA and the legislation on what objective and effective AML risk parameters should be to consider when assessing a customer’s risk profile.”

Kindred also revealed that it was considering an appeal of the warning and penalty fee.

Flores will exit her role and leave the GAN board of directors with effect from 25 November. She served as CFO for almost three years, having joined the business in January 2020.

Prior to her time with GAN, Flores was vice-president of financial planning and analysis at Alorica, while she also spent time as senior director of financial planning and analysis at The Walt Disney Company.

Flores also worked for Maker Studios, Myspace, Napster, Microsoft and The Clorox Company.

GAN said it had already commenced a search to identify a replacement and has appointed its senior vice-president and corporate controller, Brian Chang, as CFO in the interim. 

“Karen’s leadership and financial acumen have been critical parts of GAN’s evolution to a US-listed public company as well as our, at times, complex acquisition of Coolbet in early 2021,” GAN chief executive Dermot Smurfit said. “I am deeply appreciative of Karen’s dedication to GAN and wish her all the best for the future.”

The news comes after GAN earlier this month announced that it was to suspend its revenue guidance for the 2022 financial year due to uncertainties in the market and the Fifa World Cup.

This came despite GAN revealing that Q3 revenue remained relatively flat year-on-year at $32.1m (£26.6m/€30.8m).

Ace Games was founded in 2020 by chief executive Hakan Bas, who also co-founded Peak Games, the developer of the Toy Blast and Toon Blast titles.

Content within the Ace Games portfolio includes casual mobile games Fiona’s Farm and Match-3.

Playtika chief executive Robert Antokol said the investment was an “important milestone” for the business and would support its ongoing growth and expansion strategy.

“The talented team at Ace has built a best-in-class and innovative product on the ‘Match-3 and Meta’ game model,” Antokol said. “Playtika can greatly complement Ace with our LiveOps and Digital Studio capabilities, leveraging our enhanced monetisation and game operations leadership in mobile gaming.”

Ace Games CEO Bas added: “Playtika has an unrivalled reputation for delivering superior in-game experiences, scaling mobile games to global dominance in their respective categories.

“We are excited to be teaming up with Playtika as an investor and partner that will help us continue to grow this title, and possibly others, into leading mobile game franchises.”

The investment comes after Playtika earlier this month posted revenue of $647.8m in the third quarter of the year, up by 1.9% compared to Q3 2021.

Speaking at the time, Antokol said that the results reflected Playtika’s position in the market and bolstered its future plans.

Under the multi-year agreement, Sports.com will be able to provide sports content from Data Sports Group to digital publishers around the world.

The partnership will mean Sports.com can offer content from major sports events such as the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, PGA golf, the Olympic Games and a range of esports contests. 

Coverage will include in-game scoring, results, league standings and tables, schedules and team rosters and more. Sports data content will be available for both web and mobile and be available in multiple languages.

“We have a long history and strong expertise in providing lottery results to publishers and content aggregators around the world and look forward to building on this capability as we work on our offering of a ROI-focused sports data solution that fills a void in the marketplace,” Lottery.com chief executive Sohail Quraeshi said.

“Our ability to bundle solutions also puts us in a position to strengthen both the Lottery.com and Sports.com brands.”

Data Sports Group chief executive Sowbhagya Shett added: “Lottery.com has demonstrated to us that they understand the tremendous value of sports results and sports content across the global digital content sector. 

“We are excited to provide their extensive list of existing digital media clients around the world with world-class sports data and information, as well as to their potential new clients in the USA and internationally through the Sports.com brand.”

The news comes after Lottery.com yesterday (23 November) confirmed the formation of the new subsidiary, announcing Sports.com in an update to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sports.com was formed on 15 November and initially registered in Texas on 19 November, though Lottery.com said it intends to file additional assumed name registrations under this name in other US and international jurisdictions.

Lottery.com has been through a turbulent time during recent months, with a number of key executives, senior staff and board members having left the business.

Much of the troubles began when, after sacking its president and CFO in July in response to discovering instances of non-compliance with state and federal laws, the business also found that its cash holdings were overstated by $30m.

Further struggles followed when it said it was not able to pay employee wages and admitted in an SEC filing that as of 29 July 2022 it owed $425,000 in outstanding pay.

In an attempt to improve its situation, Lottery.com recently attempted to obtain funding from Woodford Eurasia, a subsidiary of investment firm United International Holdings Netherlands BV.

This investor demanded that four of the five remaining members of the Lottery.com board resign as part of the terms of the loan. This led to two board members quitting in protest after claiming the company deliberately “thwarted” attempts to look into “red flags” raised regarding the new investor.

It was amid this turmoil that Armanino resigned as auditors and was replaced by Yusufali & Associates LLC last month.

This month, Richard Kivel resigned as chairman of the business, saying it had become “impossible” to perform as an independent director as his efforts to turn round the fortunes of the business had been “aggressively obstructed”.

Shortly after this, Matthew McGahan was announced as its new chairman and Quraeshi as chief executive on a full-time basis.

Quraeshi was brought in on an interim basis last month and had also been serving on the board of directors. He will now take on the role permanently.

McGahan joined Lottery.com as an independent director of its board in October.