Month: January 2023

The operator’s non-executive chairman Lord Mendelsohn will become interim executive chair while the board of directors searches for a permanent replacement for Pazner.

His abrupt departure, after more than 20 years with the business, coincides with the operator announcing the suspension of VIP activities in certain dot.com markets.

An internal compliance review revealed anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer best practices were not followed for Middle Eastern Customers.

Pazner (pictured above) was appointed CEO of 888 in January 2019, having risen through the ranks during two decades at the company. As CEO, he led the business through a period that included the acquisition of the non-US business of William Hill in July 2022. He also oversaw expansion efforts across North America in both the US and Canada.

“On behalf of the board I would like to thank Itai for his significant contributions to the business over more than 20 years, including the last four as CEO,” interim executive chair Lord Mendelsohn said. 

“Itai has played a very important role in building a business with powerful proprietary technology and has overseen successful early stages to the William Hill integration process. We wish him well in his future endeavours.”

Earlier in the month the business also announced that its chief financial officer Yariv Dafna would be stepping down from 31 March. Dafna’s resignation came as 888 warned of a 3% year-on-year decline in revenue for its 2022 financial year. However, today the company have said that Dafna will now remain in place until the end of 2023.

VIP suspension

The suspension of VIP activities for Middle Eastern customers pending the outcome of an internal compliance investigation was announced alongside Pazner’s departure.

Following an internal compliance review, 888 said it had come to light certain best practices had not been followed in regard to know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes for 888 VIP customers in the Middle East region. 

While further internal investigations are underway, the 888 board took the decision to suspend VIP customer accounts in the region with immediate effect.

Should the suspensions remain in place, the impact would be less than 3% of group revenue. In addition, the board said based on its current understanding, the process deficiencies were isolated to the Middle East region.

“The board and I take the group’s compliance responsibilities incredibly seriously,” Lord Mendelsohn said. “When we were alerted to issues with some of 888’s VIP customers, the board took decisive actions. 

“We will be uncompromising in our approach to compliance as we build a strong and sustainable business.”

Shares in 888 Holdings have dropped 15.99% to 86.70 pence per share following the announcements.

Chibib has been an independent board member, chair of the audit committee and member of the compensation committee at PlayAGS for the past five years and will now take on the new position.

He replaces David Sambur, who recently stepped down from the board after serving as its chairman for the past five years.

Chibib is currently chief financial officer of Self Financial, while he also spent time as general partner at Silverton Partners, president and CFO of Multimedia Games and CFO of NetSpend Corporation.

He also held the position of CFO at TippingPoint, Waveset, BroadJump and Tivoli Software earlier in his career.

“Over the past five years, I have gained a great deal of respect for my fellow board members and the Company’s executive leadership team. I look forward to leveraging my previous experience in gaming and other industries to help guide AGS to the next level,” Chibib said.

PlayAGS president, chief executive and board member, David Lopez, added: “We are excited to welcome Adam as our new board chairman. He is an incredibly well-respected leader within the gaming industry, and his depth of experience has been invaluable to AGS throughout his years of service. 

“Adam’s guidance and leadership from day one of the company’s initial public offering has played a critical role in shaping who we are as a company today. I look forward to continue working with him in his new role.”

“On behalf of my fellow board members, I would like to thank David Sambur for his guidance and insights as chairman of the board and for his nine years of leadership at AGS.”

The appointment comes after PlayAGS last week signed an agreement that will see it supply its range of online games and content to Caesars Entertainment’s Sportsbook and Casino division in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Under the deal, which will run for two years and cover the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Betfair will serve as master sponsor of Cruzeiro and benefit from branding placement on the front of players’ shirts.

Betfair will also benefit from branding on the back of the club’s women’s team shirts, as well as on training kit, interview backdrops, in-stadium signage and the team’s official coach.

In addition, Betfair will work with Cruzeiro on a range of fan activities, offering supporters the chance to win range of prizes such as VIP match tickets.

The deal comes ahead of Cruzeiro’s return to Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top league of club football in Brazil, with the team having won promotion in the 2022 season.

“This historic partnership has a lot of strength and huge potential,” Cruzeiro chief executive Gabriel Lima said. “The club is going through a very special moment. Closing with Betfair, one of the giants in its industry, is an important step on Cruzeiro’s way back to its well-deserved prominent position in Brazilian football.”

Betfair International managing director Kimberley Daly added: “This partnership is a demonstration of Betfair’s commitment and investment in the club’s professional men’s and women’s teams, without losing focus on what is most precious to Cruzeiro: the fans.”

Cruzeiro becomes the latest Brazilian football team to secure a partnership with a gambling operator. In recent weeks, MrJack.bet, Blaze, Parimatch, Esportes da Sorte and Pixbet have all agreed new partnerships. 

The new venue marks the first Caesars Sportsbook location in downtown Las Vegas.

The sportsbook offers three betting windows, a number of self-service betting kiosks, an LED TV viewing wall and several odds boards.

Downtown Grand celebrated the opening of the sportsbook with a ribbon cutting ceremony and an appearance by author and professional gambler Anthony Curits.  

“We’re known for delivering elevated hotel experiences and the new Caesars Sportsbook is no exception,” said Andrew Economon, general manager of Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino.

“We know our guests will enjoy the exceptional offerings of this all-new sports betting venue.”

Last week, Caesars Entertainment entered into a sports betting partnership with Raynham Park in Massachusetts.

Under the terms of the deal, BetConstruct’s platform will integrate SIS’s offerings, starting with its 24/7 Live Racing Content.

This comprises of over 35,000 horse races and 38,000 greyhound events, taking place at over 170 racecourses across five continents.

SIS said the deal with the London-headquartered supplier represents an important step within its stated ambition of further developing relationships with leading platforms.

Andy Kelly, SIS’s commercial manager for UK and Europe, said: “We’ve been extremely open that SIS has a strategic goal of strengthening its partnerships with platforms and distributors.”

“BetConstruct has an excellent global reach that allows for significantly more operators worldwide to have access to the best racing products on the market. It has also been a pleasure working with the BetConstruct team and I am looking forward to a long and successful partnership.”

In addition to racing, SIS offers over 180,000 esports events a year through its Competitive Gaming product, and provides over 200,000 Live Numbers draws annually.

All racing content is supplied as an end-to-end solution including live streamed pictures, data, commentary, on-screen graphics with betting triggers along with a range of markets and prices.

The news follows today’s announcement that the group CEO Itai Pazner would be resigning with immediate effect, as the business revealed failings in its know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes relating to VIP schemes in its Middle Eastern dot.com operations.

The business also said that non-executive director Andria Vidler would be taking over as chair of the ESG committee, replacing Jon Mendelsohn.

Mendelsohn – who was also previously a non-executive director – will be stepping in as interim CEO until a permanent replacement can be found.

According to a media report published by CTech on 25 January, 888’s Tel Aviv office had laid off “dozens” of the site’s 590 employees.

Since the opening of the markets, 888’s share price has fallen 27.7% – the largest single drop in the company’s history.

Dafna exit

On 13 January, the online gambling operator had said that it would experience a 3% year-on-year decline in revenue.

888 announced on the same day that Dafna would be leaving his position of CFO at the company following the operator’s publication of its full year results in late March.

888 said Dafna’s exit was a mutual decision.

“The board and I would like to thank Yariv for the contribution he has made to 888 including playing a crucial role in the completion of our transformational combination with William Hill and leading the recent successful financing of 888’s external debt,” Pazner said at the time.

“On behalf of everyone at 888, I wish him the very the best in his future endeavours.”

VIP scandal

Pazner’s resignation comes in the wake of an internal compliance investigation which found that certain best practices have not been followed in regard to its AML and KYC processes for VIP customers in the Middle East.

As a result, 888 have decided to suspend VIP accounts for customers in the region immediately, a decision which the company estimates will reduce overall revenues by less than 3% if the suspension proves permanent.

“Based on the board’s current understanding, the process deficiencies identified are isolated to this region only,” said 888 in a statement.

A supporter of the scheme for two years, the team has committed to eliminating sports betting advertising within its Sydney Cricket Ground home stadium at both men’s and women’s home matches.

The club will also continue to educate fans, players and staff about the risks associated with gambling.

The Swans’ backing of the initiative has been largely supported by Swans fans, with seven out of 10 fans believing gambling should not be a part of experiencing sport, and nine out of 10 supporters agreeing that there is too much gambling advertising.

“The Swans have already partnered with us for two seasons, and we are excited to extend the partnership for two more years,” NSW Minister for Hospitality and Racing Kevin Anderson said. “Excitingly the partnership will also cover the Swan’s AFLW team bringing the program to a new audience and even more fans.”

In addition to recommitting to the initiative, the Swans women’s team extended its partnership with GambleAware.

“As a football club we believe it is extremely important to provide education to staff, players and fans about the risks associated with gambling,” Swans chief executive Tom Harley said.

“We’re thrilled to be extending our partnership with GambleAware to continue our important work in this area. This partnership supports our ambition to provide a more family-friendly sporting experience at our home matches for both our men’s and women’s teams.”

Reclaim the Game also has partnerships across Australia’s A-League, National Basketball League, National Rugby League and cricket competitions. 

According to figures released by iGaming Ontario (iGO), the body that manages online gambling in the Canadian province, total gaming revenue of CAD$457m shows a 71% increase over Q2, while there were 910,000 active player accounts, which represents a 45% increase over Q2.

Average monthly spend per active player account of CAD$167 in Q3 was up 18% on Q2.

Total wagers during the three months to 31 December 2022 were CAD$11.5bn ($8.6bn/€7.9bn/£7.0bn), which was up 91% over the previous quarter.

iGaming Ontario said there were 36 operators, which is a 50% increase over Q2, and 68 gaming websites, a 62% increase over Q2, by 31 December.

The figures cover all businesses that operate under the purview of iGO, so it does not include Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s offering.

iGO is a subsidiary of Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and is responsible for conducting and managing igaming when provided through private operators.

Ontario officially launched its legal and regulated online gambling market in April 2022.

Under the deal, First Look Games will support Bragg with affiliate and B2C game promotion for its in-house studios such as Atomic Slot Lab and Indigo Magic, as well as selected partner studios.

Bragg Gaming will be able upload game sheets, logos, images, videos and demo games for each of its slot titles to a dedicated library, which can then be downloaded by affiliates that are approved by First Look Games, either individually or in bulk.

The provider will also have control over what information it shares with affiliates and when this is made available to them, as well as have access to a suit of compliance tools such as a free age-gate for relevant markets and automatic accuracy monitoring of published content.

“This is an important step for Bragg Studios and for our studio partners from the Powered by Bragg range, allowing us to ramp up the visibility of our rapidly expanding games portfolio to an even bigger audience,” Bragg’s director of product marketing Niklas Mravlje said.

“Competition for player attention is incredibly fierce among studios, and First Look Games will help us to be heard above the noise being made by our rivals and to drive awareness of the Bragg name, our collection of studios and the thrilling titles that we produce.”

First Look Games founder Tom Galanis added: “Bragg Gaming is a major iGaming content provider, and we’re thrilled to be helping to ramp up the promotion of games developed on its remote gaming server via our network of 800+-plus approved publishers.

“Affiliates present a massive opportunity for studios to drive awareness of their titles among huge audiences of engaged online casino players around the world. First Look Games does much of the heavy lifting, allowing the likes of Bragg to engage this significant audience easily and cost-effectively.”

In her new role, Catania will play a key role in developing new content for SG:certified on safer gambling issues including training, assessments, recommendations of best practices, benchmarking and research digests. 

Catania joins SG:certified after more than 14 years with Kindred, most recently as the head of responsible gaming and research for Kindred. She stepped down from the position in December last year but remains head of responsible gaming research for the group on a freelance basis.

Catania’s other roles during her time with Kindred included head of player sustainability research and integrity team, integrity analytics manager, fraud and responsible gaming manager, and fraud analyst.

Before joining the gambling industry, Catania worked in drama, including a spell as a drama tutor at the Masquerade Theatre Arts School and drama animator at St James Cavalier.

“SG:certified’s company ethos is to do well and make a great social impact, which is something I always try to live by in my personal life,” Catania said. “So, this company was a natural fit for me.

“I can’t wait to get started and help other companies get the benefits of the platform and build out safer gambling processes resulting in the implementation of better SG strategies.”

SG:certified chief executive Laura Da Silva added: “I have admired Maris and how passionate she is about safer gambling for many years, so I am delighted that she is joining us as a safer gambling senior consultant. 

“With her expertise and knowledge of the industry I believe we can really make further positive change on the industry.”