Month: December 2022

The plaintiff had participated in sports betting on Vulcanvegas.com between 2020 and 2022. This website is operated by Brivio Limited, which is based in Cyprus.

The plaintiff’s losses were estimated to be €14,000.

Unlike previous cases, which dealt with activity before the Fourth State Treaty on Gambling came into effect in Germany, this case included activity up to 2022.

Brivio Limited did not have a licence to operate before or after the Treaty took effect, meaning that its post-treaty activity was also illegal.

Reimbursement

The court said that the operator had violated the State Treaty on Gambling as it did not have a licence to operate.

The judgement was made by default as Brivio Limited did not defend itself against the lawsuit in court.

As well as being ordered to pay the losses, Brivio Limited must also pay the associated court costs.

This is one of several recent reimbursement cases in Germany where the court has ruled in the plaintiff’s favour, though most have dealt with online casino, which only became legal outside of Schleswig-Holstein last year.

Last month, the highest level of court in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen ruled that PokerStars must reimburse a player for €58,517.

At the 14 December meeting of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, it revealed that it had notified PlayUp that it intends to deny its application for an online betting management service provider licence, which would allow it to offer an online product in the state.

The operator had received conditional approval for its licence, but the regulator said that, during its investigation of PlayUp’s suitability to hold a licence, “staff uncovered information regarding potential illegal gambling activity by PlayUp”.

Read the full story on iGB North America

This is the first deal for Evolution in the Panama market.

Codere Online and Evolution already have a number of existing agreements, which cover Europe and other Latin American countries such as Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.

“We are proud of our long and successful partnership with Codere Online in multiple jurisdictions and delighted to have Codere Online as the first operator of our games in Panama,” said Mónica Umaña, head of operations, LatAm at Evolution. “The Latin American market is a very important for Evolution Group and this is another major expansion of our presence in this region.” 

Panama’s Gaming Control Board has already certified an initial group of Evolution’s games. More are expected to be approved in the coming months.

“We are very excited to bring players in Panama the best experience in online casino and slot games, whether that be live games that replicate the excitement of a visit to a land-based casino or innovative online slots with engaging themes and stunning graphics and gameplay,” said Salo Leder, regional manager for Codere Online in Latin America. 

Last month, Codere Online reported a 73% quarter-on-quarter increase in losses in its third quarter results.

If you ask local industry experts about gambling customers in South Africa, there’s a good chance you’ll hear the abbreviation LSM. 

It refers to the SAARF Living Standards Measure, which splits the population into 10 groups based on their living standards.

Many other countries have their own measures of social and economic wellbeing, but few of those measures would feature so prominently in discussions of betting customers.

Yet in South Africa, it speaks to the fact that economic differences play a large part in understanding the local market. The country is ranked by the Gini Index as having the highest levels of wealth inequality of any country, and customers at differing ends of the LSM spectrum tend to be very different gamblers.

It’s probably fair to say that there is then not one typical South African customer, but instead a number of typical customers.

“You have to segment the South African player,” Kiron Interactive co-chief executive Steven Spartinos says. “Your typical higher-LSM player will be playing traditionally within a retail casino. You’ve got the racing punters, also higher-LSM. So playing traditionally retail casinos and horse racing.

“And your lower LSM player was traditionally betting on the lottery and then, in greyer environments, on local games the guys would play. 

“And what happened was with the introduction of sports betting, that brought a new player to the South African market, a player that was traditionally not catered for. So sports betting attracted a lower-LSM group to gaming, which to a large degree was not catered for in the past.”

Online gaming: the great equaliser?

However, the rise of online gaming – facilitated by local regulatory boards as a type of fixed-odds betting in the absence of national regulation – appears to offer a possibility of convergence. 

“But what really changed things was introducing numbers games,” Spartinos continues. “The lower-LSM player, they want to go in, they’re looking at simple bets. When they’re betting on the outcome of a numbers draw they’re betting on one or two numbers.

“That audience is more interested in a more simplified numbers game. And looking online, they appear to be attracted to slots games as well.

“So the slots games are doing two things. They’re bringing that retail player – who is higher LSM – online. But then it’s also bringing in that numbers-style player that might be lower LSM.”

BetGames sales director for Africa James Everett notes that there may be reasons why South African customers may not be so keen on online, though, as practical issues such as the cost of mobile data will trump player preferences.

“The online player is different,” he says. “It can appeal to the lower LSM, but there are extra costs that players can be affected by, like data on your phone.” 

The hope, though, is that this type of player will continue to come online as costs decline. Iain Gutteridge, managing director for new entrant LulaBet, noted that this type of customer would be a key part of LulaBet’s strategy because their online presence should only grow.

“You’ll see we’re aiming with our live product and our slots product at a slightly younger, more fun market,” he said. “And those players will make up the bulk of the market in the future.”

Data challenges in South Africa

That data challenge is one that Everett says tripped BetGames up at first. As a live games supplier, it found there were customers that wanted to play its games but couldn’t watch them being streamed.

“When we launched our games we didn’t have an option for you to turn off the livestream,’ Everett says. “But some of the feedback we got was that people wanted to place a bet but they constantly had the draw going on in the background and using up all of their data. 

“So it’s very much mobile-focused, and that’s not just in South Africa: that’s all of Africa. Players are very much affected by the cost of placing bets and a lot of operators have had to adjust to that and use apps rather than live sites because they’re less data-heavy.

That was one localisation effort that Everett said BetGames eventually adopted, but he noted another one related to live dealer games, which have been popular as they were the first form of online casino to gain regulatory approval – is considering the choice of presenters for these games.

“A lot of operators use suppliers that are based in Europe, and so a lot of them will just have almost all white, European presenters,” he says. “It’s not really an issue but it definitely appeals more to the majority of the market if you have African presenters visible. 

“So from our point of view we’ve started to employ a lot more African presenters. These small things make a big difference.”

South Africa: A destination, not a gateway

Those localisation efforts might resemble those for much of the rest of Africa, but that does not mean that South Africa necessarily acts as a “gateway” to the rest of the continent.

“Our position is that it’s its own distinct market,” Spartinos says. “If guys think they’ll get into the South African market and then it opens the rest of the continent, I think that is wrong. I think South Africa is much more – from a regulatory perspective – more developed there.

“I can’t say that we look at the South African market and say ‘that’s replicated in Kenya, or Nigeria, or Tanzania.’ There are marked differences between them. There are certain common elements, but to a large degree I believe they’re very different. 

“Our business, we have a very different strategy in South Africa to the rest of Africa.”

Everett shares a similar sentiment, noting that success in South Africa does not mean much to customers beyond its borders.

“It does definitely stand alone,” he says. “A lot of South African operators are now looking to move into the African market. Betway are already in a lot of markets, HollywoodBets are about to move into Kenya and into Malawi. But if you talk to the betting public in these regions, they’re loyal to their own brand and many of them wouldn’t have even heard of these South African operations. 

“So I would certainly say that South Africa at this stage is very much a stand-alone betting region in Africa compared to the rest.”

Multiple choice

One area where there might be similarity to the rest of the continent, though, is the popularity of multiples.

Everett adds that for many customers, accumulator bets at extremely long odds are the key product. The low LSM customer, he says, is not as likely to put their weekly betting budget down on a single bet, especially not something at relatively short odds like a match winner market. Instead, they’d rather shoot for ambitious multiples, the type that could transform their lives in the slim chance they come through.

This, he says, works well for bookmakers, because even when they have to pay out, the free publicity helps to recoup some of the costs.

“So the lower LSM is very much a social kind of punter that walks into a shop,” he says. “They’ll place multiple bets on 40 or 50 different outcomes. It’s amazing how some of them win these bets. You can spend one rand and win millions. It’s really crazy and the operators love those wins because it’s great marketing.”

However, Amelco business development manager Brandon Walker notes that while multiples are extremely popular in football, that’s less true in sports like cricket and rugby.

“There are still some very sharp punters in South Africa, especially around the cricket and rugby,” he says. “So there’s definitely a different aspect to the game in South Africa versus the rest of Africa. 

“But, you know, it is still quite heavy on the accumulator betting in the same breath.”

Market share shake-ups

So who are the operators that are on top in South Africa? Gutteridge notes that there has already been a recent shake-up in terms of market leaders, and that this could happen again.

“Betway arrived in 2017, and they’ve basically taken over a large share of the market,” he says. “They share the lion’s share with two other operators: Hollywoodbets and WorldSportsBetting. 

“But that’s changing very quickly. The major books coming into the market at the moment are Betfred, 10Bet, Boylesports and, at some point, Betking, so the market is going to get congested very, very quickly.

“It will grow significantly, through slots. It’s an interesting space at the moment. It’s exploding and everyone is climbing into it. I think a lot of the existing smaller operators will fall by the wayside and I think some of the newer entrants will have a difficult experience in this market because it’s very saturated and very competitive.”

But despite predicting difficulties for some brands, Gutteridge says he’s confident his own one, using Amelco’s technology, will overcome those challenges.

“Both ourselves and Amelco have a lot of ambition in this space and we aim for the top five in the market,” he says. “We’ve got the team and technology to do it, and the commitment. We’ve got some very strong ambitions and no reason we can’t realise them.”

Four years have passed since senate of Brazil approved Federal Law No. 13,756/18, seemingly paving the way for the creation of a regulated online and retail fixed-odds sports betting market/. 

After an extension, the government was given a final deadline of 12 December to sign-off on the new regulations. That deadline has now passed, with the country’s outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro opting to leave the bill unsigned. 

Years of work – including the development of the entire regulatory regime by the country’s Secretariat of Evaluation, Planning, Energy and Lottery (SECAP) – now lie in tatters.

What happens next with sports betting in Brazil is yet to be seen. 

Status quo in Brazil

The news is unlikely to change things substantially for international operators licensed in jurisidictions such as Curaçao, and will instead only really affect local business’ abilities to set up operations – and the government’s ability to receive tax revenue from Brazilians’ betting acitivities. 

However, there remains a narrow window of opportunity to get the far more expansive gaming bill – Bill 442/91 – over the line this year. The bill would legalise a wide range of gambling products, from casinos to popular local lottery variant jogo de bicho to online gaming – as well as in general establish a regulatory framework for the sector.  

If the bill can get through the senate before the year’s legislative session ends, then the legislation has a very good chance of being signed by the incoming president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.    

Olê, olá, Lula!

The electoral contest between Lula and Bolsonaro was a nailbiter that grabbed the world’s attention – and may well have a long-lasting effect on the country’s gambling regulations. 

Lula’s electoral coalition lacks the militantly anti-gambling evangelical element which had complicated Bolsonaro’s relationship with the gambling lobby. As such, he’s likely to be more sympathetic to expansion efforts.

While in Brazil nothing is certain, this gives hope that the legalisation of Bill 442/91 would not be vetoed by the president. Lula was once a firm proponent of legalisation, including adding the reopening of the sector to his 2002 Workers Party manifesto.

However, a scandal during his first term as president has complicated his relationship with the sector.

The scandal led to Lula passing a provisional measure that outlawed bingo halls across Brazil. Since then, the new president has shied away from the issue.

Despite this, according to Brazilian news agency BNLData, Lula stated that he would respect the National Congress’s decision in legalising gambling.  

Now or never 

Amid the reportedly bitter transition process from one administration to the next, just six days remain of the legislative session to pass bill 442/91 in the senate.

 President Bolsonaro has withdrawn to the Alvorada Palace, and is rarely seen attending public engagements. However, this executive inaction may be a positive sign in favour of passage.  

Although the bill has seen little movement for most of 2022, the ongoing transition process has changed the landscape in a way that could be good bill’s prospects. According to media reports, Edinho Silva, Lula’s communication coordinator has announced his support of the bill, which may mean that the president-elect himself supports it too.   

The cited reason for supporting the bill was that the revenue raised by legal gambling revenue could go toward social or health projects. Right now, most governments are in desperate need of revenue sources – especially if the government wishes to fund new public programmes.  

Bolsonaro’s opposition to the bill was one of the main reasons that the legislation stalledafter passing in the Chamber of Deputies. With the president unengaged and due to leave in the not-too-distant future, it may be that he does not have the influence he once had within the senate. 

That’s no guarantee – but there is a small hope that the deadlock is close to being lifted. 

If a vote does not come to pass in the senate on the bill, or indeed it fails, then the legislature will break up and not reconvene until 2 February. With February of course being the month of Carnival, it may not be until towards the end of the month that any progress is made. 

By then a new senate makeup, more closely allied to the outgoing president and therefore the evangelical lobby, will take over the upper house, further complicating the passage of the bill. 

In practice, this could mean months or years more of malaise and paralysis as the republic continues to fail to collect tax revenues being swallowed up by untaxed, foreign operators. 

There’s a path to remedy this – but the senate has less than a week to see it through. 

For the last five months, Zackrisson has been advising Better Collective as an external consultant. She will assume her new role on 9 January 2023.

Zackrisson will be tasked with using strategic events to expand Better Collective’s presence and representation.

Previously, she served as chief strategy and business development officer at KaizenGaming. During her time there, she was responsible for driving international expansion and strategy development at the gaming technology company.

In March 2022, she set up her own consulting company to allow her to take on board positions and interim roles.

Driving growth

“I am pleased to welcome Petra to our management team where her focus will be on how to further scale our business,” said Christian Kirk Rasmussen, Better Collective co-founder and COO. 

He went on to add that Zackrisson’s time with the affiliate so far has already given her a deep understanding of their operations and objectives.

“There is no doubt that Petra’s expertise on how to drive growth and implement organizational change will become valuable to Better Collective,” he continued.

Zackrisson said that her appointment came at a time of development and growth at Better Collective.

“I am excited about this new opportunity and I look forward to joining the team at this stage of the group’s amazing growth journey,” said Zackrisson. “Scaling globally while supporting Better Collective in transforming its business to secure long-term sustainable performance are the types of challenges I excel at and am passionate about.”

“As a senior leader I find it important to bring in the diversity angle in my work. I look forward to continuing to raise awareness and make incremental changes so that Better Collective can become an even more diverse, profitable and sustainable business.”

In a trading update for the five months to 30 November, the Rank Group said like-for-like net gaming revenue (LFL NGR) was up 1% compared to the same period in the prior year, with like-for-like net gaming revenue growth in Mecca venues, Enracha venues and Digital offset by a decline in Grosvenor venues.

Rank said it expects underlying operating profit for the year ending 30 June 2023 to be in the range of £10m to £20m. The lower end of that estimate would be a quarter of the £40.4m achieved in 2021-22, which in itself was down on an initial estimate of up to £55m.

Grosvenor: “weaker than expected”,

Rank said the main variable within the estimate was the performance of its Grosvenor venues, due to the high operating leverage within Grosvenor and its relative importance to the group as a whole.

While there was some improvement in Grosvenor’s trading over the last few weeks, trading in Q2 was “weaker than expected”, with weekly average NGR of £5.8m being only marginally ahead of the levels seen in Q1.

Rank said it had expected Grosvenor venues to continue to improve throughout Q2 and then into the second half of the year, but this improvement has not yet materialised, driven by lower customer spend per visit. It added that the return to growth will take longer than previously expected due to the current challenging macro-economic backdrop.

Mecca Bingo

In the first five months of the year, Mecca customer visits numbers were up 4% on the prior year, with Q2 weekly average NGR in line with Q1.

There has been a recent weakening in weekly average NGR due to lower visit numbers, impacted by the FIFA World Cup and colder weather, as well as the ongoing cost of living pressure on consumers.

Rank said year-to-date performance in its Mecca venues creates a level of downside risk to the full year outturn for FY23.

Rank’s Enracha venues in Spain continued to perform strongly with NGR up 27% as investments into electronic product continue to deliver strong returns. The group said it expects the Enracha venues to continue to perform strongly for the remainder of FY23, with Spanish customers being less impacted by cost of living pressures than those in the UK.

Rank Digital

Rank said its Rank Digital business continues to deliver good growth, with NGR up 11%. The UK digital arm was up 10%, following the successful migration of Grosvenor onto its proprietary technology platform, while International was up 13% driven by continued growth in YoBingo and the launch of YoSports in October 2022.

In issuing its profit estimate, Rank said total known cost increases for the year remain broadly in line with its expectations at approximately £50m driven by wage inflation, energy inflation, other price increases and COVID-19 related Government support received in FY22.

Rank Group cost-cutting

John O’Reilly, Rank’s chief executive, said the group was planning on cutting costs.

“Weak consumer confidence and pressure on disposable income is resulting in a tougher-than-expected trading environment for our UK venues businesses, particularly in Grosvenor where we are seeing customers spending less per visit,” he said.

“Whilst we expect these challenges to continue to impact our recovery into the second half of the financial year, we have implemented a series of measures to deliver incremental cost savings and to drive revenues.

“We remain committed to our roadmap of investing in initiatives that will ensure the long-term recovery and prosperity of the Group. These include delivering new products in our UK venues, enhancements to the design and facilities of some of our casinos and upgrades to the table gaming and electronic offering.

“Our digital team is now fully focused on delivering the improvements available to our UK and Spanish business following the successful migration of all our brands onto our proprietary platforms.”

UK land-based weaknesses

Regulus Partners said Rank’s trading update provides more evidence of the UK land-based casino market’s vulnerability to consumer retrenchment in the current climate.

“Unless customers are prepared to spend more on gaming overall, something has to give, and it appears to be giving in the land-based casino market as well as in higher-spending bingo customers – the market and segment which happen to have the closest demographic overlap with higher-spending online customers,” Regulus said. “This is a bigger problem for Rank than the market overall because Rank’s share of UK land-based gaming is c. 14% whereas its share of UK online gaming is only c. 4%: channel shift hurts.”

Rank Group fine appeal

Earlier this week, Rank Group subsidiary Daub Alderney failed in its appeal of a fine handed down by the GB Gambling Commission in 2021.

Issued in September 2021, the Daub Alderney fine was in relation to a host of social responsibility and anti-money laundering shortcomings uncovered by the Commission during an investigation covering the period between January 2019 and March 2020.

Daub Alderney appealed to the First-Tier Tribunal on the grounds that the financial penalty was excessive, unfair and disproportionate.

However, after examining evidence from both sides, judge Jacqueline Findlay dismissed the appeal and ruled the financial penalty was a “fair and reasonable regulatory response” to the failings uncovered by the Commission.

The European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) creates a number of European Standards, which are used in trade across member states.

The European Standards include a number of specifications for certain products to be sold in the EU. 

EGBA has submitted a proposal to the committee, calling for a “reliable, standardised list of markers of harm”. 

The Committee is currently conducting a ballot of its members, the national standardisation bodies of European countries, to determine whether the proposal should be approved. These bodies must vote on the proposal by the end of the year.

A number of gambling harm academics have signed a letter in support of the standard. Among those signing were Professor Sally Gainsbury of the University of Sydney, Dr. Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University and Emily Arden-Close of Bournemouth University.

“As experts and organisations working to prevent gambling harm in Europe, reliable markers of harm are critical to helping us identify problem gambling behaviour and understand how it leads to gambling-related harm,” they said. “The types of gambling behaviours which are classified as markers of harm can vary across operators, harm prevention organisations and countries, which may mean that some prevention approaches are sub-optimal. 

“A well informed and shared list of markers of harm, incorporating best practices and the latest available research, would provide a trustworthy and reliable benchmark for accurately detecting risky behaviour across all game types and player contexts. 

“The creation of a standard would support a more efficient and quicker detection of risky gambling behaviour and with it help to achieve the policy objectives of national gambling authorities to protect their citizens from gambling harm.”

If the proposal is adopted, academics, health experts, authorities, operators and consumer organisations will all be consulted in the development of the standard.

Earlier this year, a study commissioned by the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and conducted by Dr Margaret Carran of City University of London, found “significant differences” in how different European countries monitor and flag instances of problem gambling.

The Toronto-listed gaming group said it expects to launch with micro-betting sports brand Betr soon after Ohio legalises sports wagering from 1 January 2023. FansUnite also expects to work with other new clients that operate in the state, which is projected to generate a sports betting handle of roughly $8.8bn during its first calendar year.

To read the full article, visit iGB North America.

Preliminary figures from Spelinspektionen showed gaming companies licensed in Sweden brought in combined revenue of SEK 6.77bn ($656.6m/€616.1m/£537.8m) during the three months to 30 September 2022.

This was an increase of 7.2% compared to the SEK 6.32bn generated in Q3 2021.

Online gambling revenue was SEK 4.31bn during the period, which was up 10.5% year-on-year. It was also up 2.1% on Q2 2022, previously the record quarter since Sweden opened its licensed gaming market in January 2019.

State-owned lottery and slot hall revenue of SEK 1.40bn, all from Svenska Spel operations, was up by 1.2% on Q3 2021 but down slightly compared to Q2 2022.

Land-based commercial gaming generated revenue of SEK 5.9m during the quarter, which was up by 23.0% compared to the same period last year.

Spelinspektionen added that at the end of the quarter, just under 81,300 people were excluded from gambling via Spelpaus.se. This was an increase of 5% compared to the previous quarter.

Sweden unlicensed gambling survey

Earlier this week, Spelinspektionen revealed that a survey it commissioned found that Swedish players’ awareness of how to identify licensed sites is still extremely low, with only 10% of gamblers saying that they know how to do so.

The survey found that 53% of past-year gamblers believe that there are advantages to playing with licensed sites, and only 2% said they had deliberately and knowingly played with an unlicensed site in 2021. Meanwhile, 31% listed an operator being licensed as among the most important reasons to choose an operator.

However, just 10% of gamblers said that they knew how to identify whether an operator is licensed. This was steady year-on-year, suggesting that there had been no progress in educating the public about the differences between the licensed and unlicensed sectors.

Overall, 72% of adults in Sweden had gambled during 2021. This was down slightly year-on-year.