Month: December 2022

Under the agreement, Sports.com’s branding appeared on a range of surfaces during the recent FIA World Touring Car Cup event at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Sports.com said this placement of adverts set the foundation for the future establishment of a joint venture and content distribution partnership as part of the new strategic deal.

“Saudi Motorsport Company sees the potential to partner with our new platform, which we believe will revolutionise fan viewing and interaction within the fast-­‐changing sports entertainment industry, and we look forward to concluding further similar agreements around major sporting events with broadcasters and rights owners around the world,” Lottery.com chairman and Sports.com president Matthew McGahan said.

Saudi Motorsport Company chief executive Martin Whitaker added: “We warmly welcome the opportunity to partner Sports.com. Saudi Arabia is fast becoming established as a motorsport destination, with events in the Kingdom broadcast globally, and now attracting a massive following. 

“We are therefore very pleased to have announced this partnership, which introduced the Sports.com brand, from Jeddah, to millions of viewers around the world.”

Sports.com is the newly established subsidiary of Lottery.com and last month also struck up a partnership with sports content provider Data Sports Group. The brand was only launched in November, as confirmed in an update to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lottery.com troubles

The formation of Sports.com came towards what has been a turbulent year for Lottery.com. Much of the troubles began when, after sacking its president and CFO in July in response to 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.

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

However, the investor demanded 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.

In November, 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, McGahan was announced as chairman and Sohail Quraeshi as chief executive on a full-time basis.

Quraeshi was brought in on an interim basis in October 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.

In her new role, Barsby will assume responsibility for 888’s technology integration following the combination with William Hill earlier this year.

888 acquired William Hill’s non-US assets from Caesars for £1.95bn (€2.27bn/$2.39bn) in July 2022. This came soon after US operator Caesars acquired the entire William Hill business for approximately £2.90bn, with the intent to dispose of all but its US assets.

Barsby has overseen a number of digital transformation and integration projects during her career. Her roles included chief technology director at Morrison Supermarkets and chief information officer at Halfords.

She also spent time at TUI Travel, Aviva and Sainsbury’s, while in more recent years, Barsby founded and serves as managing partner of management consultancy Tessiant.

In addition, she is currently non-executive director at Cumberland Building Society.

888 William Hill integration

888 chief executive Itai Pazner said Barsby would play a major role in the integration of William Hill into the group.

“We are delighted to welcome Anna to our new executive leadership team, where she will play a pivotal role in driving forward the key area of technology integration as part of our transformational combination with William Hill,” Pazner said.

“Her significant experience and expertise will be invaluable as we seek to unlock the significant potential of our two highly complementary businesses, and we very much look forward to working with her.”

The findings were released in the Office’s 2022 Annual Report on organisations in Ontario. These included the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).

From May 2021, OLG made it mandatory for land-based casinos to check the source of funds for all players who make single transactions of CAD$100,000 (£60,747/€70,677) – however, providing proof of these source-of-funds checks was not required. Also, it is specified in OLG’s AML policies that winnings must be verified before any cheque worth more than CAD$3,000 can be issued.

The lack of AML checks were discovered when, during its audit, the Office found that it could obtain cheques after very little play and no casino winnings.

Low suspicious transaction reporting in Ontario

In addition, the audit revealed that the level of suspicious transaction reporting was low across the board. The value of reported suspicious transactions was less than 1% of revenues for 19 of the 27 casinos operating in the province.

Elsewhere, the audit found that OLG’s responsible gaming tools are not being used frequently by those that play online. The use of casino loss limits tools has fallen, from 33% of active players in June 2017 to 11% of active players in June 2022. The report also noted that those that had self-excluded from OLG’s website could still access private operator sites regulated by iGaming Ontario, after the province opened its online gambling market earlier this year.

Last week, Ontario’s regulator the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario ordered all operators within the province to no longer accept bets on the Ultimate Fighting Championship with immediate effect, due to integrity concerns.

Virginia’s monthly handle was comfortably higher than $427.3m in October last yearand also 28.4% ahead of the $411.3m wagered by consumers in September of this year.

Adjusted gross gaming revenue for October, defined as total bets minus winnings, bonuses and promotions and other authorised deductions, rocketed by 364.3% year-on-year from $9.8m in October 2021 to $45.5m this year.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The state’s monthly handle was higher than the $491.5m spent by players in October 2021 and also 17.0% up from $450.2m in September of this year.

Of this total, $521.8m was bet online, while just $4.8m was wagered at retail sportsbooks in the state.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Yield Sec founder and CEO Ismail Vali said that, in this role, Zarb-Cousin would mostly focus on helping clients such as governments and regulators understand the risk posed by illegal gambling.

“I am pleased and proud to welcome Matt to the team – across his focus with regulatory and government outreach, I know his insight and experience will help our legal stakeholder clients to understand, combat and defeat the existential threat presented by illegal betting, gaming, and lottery activity, and its insidious impact upon our commerce and communities,” he said.

Zarb-Cousin said that he was “delighted” to be joining the Yield Sec team and that he will look forward to helping legal stakeholders drive out crime that will help safeguard tax revenue lost to unlicensed offerings.

“Yield Sec presents solutions for all legal stakeholders to optimise their positions in the marketplace and allow them to work effectively, together, whilst shielding and protecting revenue, taxation, and consumer safety measures so that legal gambling can deliver benefits for each jurisdiction.”

The campaigner also outlined what he believed was the malign influence of certain stakeholders in the discourse around illegal gambling.

“The debate around online gambling’s black market has for too long been impacted by those with a vested interest in maintaining inefficient licensing and regulatory models, rather than by those who wish to see the contained, commercial marketplace work to the benefit of our commerce and communities,” he said.

Yield Sec

Yield Sec is an actionable intelligence platform that is designed to help the legal industry, government, regulatory agencies and advertisers combat illegal gambling.

The business said that there have been large increases in unregulated and illegal betting activity during the 2022 Fifa World Cup. Yield Sec says that, in many jurisdictions monitored by the platform, black market traffic, engagement and commercial conversion have doubled year-on-year.  

“Matt is known for his forthright and pioneering viewpoints and work across tech and the public good,” said Vali. “Where he and I found shared thinking on Yield Sec is upon the sole partisan line that our platform holds sacred: the line separating all legal stakeholders in a regulated jurisdiction from criminal, black-market infiltration.”

Under the arrangement, Genius will utilise its Watch & Bet service and augmented live video betting products with major sports wagering operators in the US.

The NFL appointed Genius as its exclusive worldwide distributor of real-time official play-by-play statistics in April 2021, granting Genius the rights to distribute low latency video feeds to operators in key international markets. This has now been expanded to include the US.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

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The programme offers 14 gaming entrepreneurs the opportunity to demonstrate their solutions and products to an audience of industry investors and visitors attending ICE London.

Gaming sector startups interested in participating have to submit an entry and two-minute video to be part of the 2023 Pitch ICE initiative.

Pitch ICE voting

Voting will be available to the industry, with each individual casting up to 10 votes for the companies they would wish to see pitch at ICE 2023. Once public voting closes, the finalists will be selected by a panel of industry professionals.

The successful companies will secure a free-of-charge pod on the Pitch ICE Pavilion for the three days of the show, as well the opportunity to take to the Pitch ICE stage and explain their concepts to potential investors at a dedicated time.

“Clarion Gaming has a proud track-record of promoting start-up businesses by using the influence of its brands to help make the connections that all businesses need,” said ICE London event director Andy Ventris.

“In fact, we have been providing start-ups with a gateway to industry investors and strategic partners since 2009, with many securing important investments and acquisition partners as a direct result of their pitch presentations.”

Ventris outlined that the startups must be at a certain level of development for them to qualify for the scheme.

“Pitch ICE is for new companies that are beyond the ‘concept phase’. There must be a demonstrable product and we are looking for propositions that are built on solid technology and that are scalable. Pitch ICE is about recognising the extraordinary entrepreneurial talent that exists within this industry and helping them on their journey.”

ICE London will be open from the 7-9 February, at ExCeL London. It is the biggest B2B gambling industry event in the world and features games creators, distributors, operators, retailers, innovators, trade associations, strategic bodies and regulators – representing every gaming vertical.

Hit the reels in the Richness Factory and transport yourself to a winter wonderland.

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