Month: January 2023

Shark77, which is also based in Malta, was ordered to pay €900,000 (£789,089/$975,368) for offering games of chance in the country. This is deemed illegal under the Betting and Gaming Act if the operator does not hold the required approval.

KSA first investigated Shark77 in December of 2021 and followed up with further probes in January and February of last year, discovering that the operator was offering both sports betting and online casino games on its 18bet.com website.

The regulator said that no technical measures in place to stop Dutch players from accessing these offerings. The site was accessible via a Dutch IP, while the Netherlands was offered as a player’s country when registering for an account.

After being contacted by KSA, Shark77 responded by denying it was intentionally targeting the Dutch market, adding that it was offering games in accordance with the licence it was issued by the Malta Gaming Authority and that KSA should not impose a fine.

However, KSA said Shark77 had breached Dutch rules by offering games and that even though it held a licence in Malta, this was not enough for it to allow Dutch customers to access its gaming and was then operating in the country illegally.

KSA also reiterated the lack of procedures in place to stop Dutch players from accessing the website, adding that users were able to deposit and withdraw directly from a Dutch bank account.

As such, KSA said Shark77’s counter arguments did not hold up and there was no reason to waive a fine. The KSA ordered the operator to pay the €900,000 in full.

“A licensed provider of online games of chance has costs that illegal providers of online games of chance do not have to incur,” KSA said. “In addition, illegal providers do not pay any tax in the Netherlands and are not restricted in the conduct of their business by the strict rules of the Betting and Gaming Act and the associated licensing regulations.

“This allows illegal providers to offer a different offer, for example by offering games of chance that are prohibited for licence holders.”

KSA chairman René Jansen added: “These providers can thus have an attractive effect on players and jeopardise the channelling to the legal offer. We consider this serious and highly undesirable. 

“Dutch players deserve the good protection of providers with a licence from the Gaming Authority.”

The business said its December operating results exceeded objectives, with its global betting handle having reached CAD$3m (£1.8m/€2.1m/US$2.2m) by the end of the fourth quarter.

Other stand-out figures from December included that monthly revenue increased 120% and total player deposits were up 420% since the group first shared key performance indicator data in August of last year.

Real Luck added that its player acquisition efforts in December 2022 and into January 2023 exceeded management expectations, with over 30,000 newly registered players joining the platform over the six-week period.

In addition, the group said it reached a number of other milestones in December, including having over two million bets accepted and placed on the Luckbox platform, and offering over 900 live games via its casino portfolio.

Real Luck chief executive Thomas Rosander said the operator hopes to build on this in 2023, with the launch of its new B2B product, details of which are yet to be revealed, to help the group secure further growth.

“We ended 2022 with a record-breaking December, delivering on our 2022 targets and demonstrating our 2023 potential,” Rosander said. “Not only are our December results encouraging, and a promising glimpse of our future growth potential. 

“Looking ahead, we’re eager to attain profitability, scale up our brand awareness, and reveal our new B2B product in 2023. We believe our game changing B2B product will unlock huge potential in a new vertical.”

Revenue was at its highest since the state opened its legal online wagering market in January of 2022, surpassing the previous monthly high of $28.4m in March.

The December revenue total was also in stark contrast to the $27.6m loss reported during November, which came as a result of US businessman Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale winning a number of large bets on Major League Baseball’s World Series.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The approval means that the Swedish-based affiliate can now legally promote and market online gambling to Michigan residents.

Leadstar will enter the market with its two US products Sportsbooksonline.com and Unitedgamblers.com.

Eskil Kvarnström, CEO of Leadstar Media, said that the approval is an important step forward for the company.

“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to enter the Michigan market. This licence will allow us to provide even more value to our partners, and we are confident that this will be positive for our company.

“Our team is dedicated to providing the best products for our visitors and in turn helping them to find the right operator. We have achieved this in other markets and are confident that we can replicate that success in Michigan as well.”

Leadstar, which now holds all licences needed where necessary in the US market, said that it is committed to only working with reputable and trustworthy gambling providers.

State record igaming revenue

This news comes shortly after it was revealed that Michigan achieved record igaming revenue for the second month running in November 2022.

The result comes with the state also reporting a year-on-year decline in sports betting revenue.

Both divisions feature 16 teams with matches played between April and November and fixtures generally on Sunday nights.  

The long-term partnership will incorporate 485 matches across the two leagues and will help to build IMG’s global football portfolio. 

“This deal with Norwegian football bolsters IMG Arena’s football offering with another first-class property that will help sports betting operators increase their engagement with players throughout the year, while also enabling new touch points during the week” said Mark Wrigley, senior director of rights at IMG Arena.    

Knut Kristvang, CEO of Fotball Media added: “We are delighted to have secured this agreement with IMG Arena.

“It is a long-term partnership that allows us to strategically grow the profile of Eliteserien and OBOS-Ligaen and engage new audiences around the world”. 

Last month, IMG Arena acquired virtual sports and casino games provider Leap Gaming for an undisclosed amount.

Last month, the AGCO ordered all operators to stop taking bets on the UFC due to integrity concerns amid reports of suspicious betting patterns in other jurisdictions.

Since this announcement, the AGCO has been actively engaged with regulated entities and stakeholders as they worked to address the issues. This in turn led to the UFC updating its own policies and procedures.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

‘Strategy 2023 – Safeguarding Our Digital Generation’ focuses on the charity’s activities over the next three years, with its primary goal to prevent children and young people from experiencing gambling harms through awareness raising, education and research. 

To achieve this, YGAM said it will focus on three strategic pillars: Reach and Impact; Thought Leadership, Research and Innovation; and Digital Futures.

The Reach and Impact pillar, which covers growing and expanding its activities, includes continuing to deliver and build on existing education programs, expanding its geographical delivery footprint, adding new content and hybrid training options to its programs, introducing a YGAM Alumni Portfolio and rolling out interactive learning sessions.

In terms of its second pillar, YGAM said this will focus on sharing its opinions, best practice and evidence to encourage others to implement effective policy and practice.

To achieve this, YGAM plans to engage with those with lived experiences, develop research collaborations to build a robust evidence portfolio, encourage and capture knowledge and expertise with knowledge translation mechanisms, develop structures to share knowledge with policy makers, and introduce communities of practice to test, develop and share practice-based evidence for harm prevention.

Finally, the Digital Futures pillar centres on the impact of the digital world on children and young people, understanding the potential benefits and harms, and harnessing innovations to improve their digital future.

Here, YGAM will seek to bridge the gap between the experiences of children and young people and the knowledge and skills of those who can work to influence their behaviour. This will include establishing mechanisms to support engagement and coproduction, as well as develop its organisational digital thought leadership culture and build partnerships to help inform its practice moving forward. 

Enabling pillars

These activities will be supported by three enabling pillars, the first of which is Diverse and Sustainable Funding. This will seek to diversify YGAM’s range of income streams to ensure its budget is fully funded through multiple years, underpinned by sustainable and ethical fundraising models.

The second enabling pillar, Great Place to Work, will encourage everyone to contribute to a positive working culture, where people are valued and empowered to make a difference

Lastly, the Operational Excellence pillar will focus on enabling YGAM to succeed through professional and agile business support, including ensuring its staff have the necessary resources and support to do their job effectively.

“The digital world offers huge opportunities, but with those opportunities come risks, particularly for young people who live in an increasingly digitised world,” YGAM chief executive Dr Jane Rigbye said. “We have a clear purpose, we deliver evidence-based programmes, and we are focused on understanding and continuously improving our impact.”

Shadow Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Minister Jeff Smith MP, who was in attendance at a Parliamentary Reception where YGAM launched the strategy, spoke out in support of the plan and also called on the government’s delayed White Paper to support education and prevention efforts.

“It is absolutely vital that the White Paper gives a clear steer on funding for those in the sector, and we must also recognise that funding should not be limited to treatment provision alone,” Smith said. 

“We need to be focused on preventing harm as well as tackling it when it has been able to develop. That is where charities like YGAM really come into their own, and part of the government’s responsibilities in this White Paper is to address the concerns around the sustainability of their services and provisions.”

The strategy launch comes after YGAM was this month names as the new official charity partner of ICE London 2023. The organisation will also become the official charity partner at the iGB Affiliate London Awards.

Under the agreement, Betsson will serve as the official naming sponsor of the Chilean First Division football league, with the competition to be renamed as the Campeonato Betsson.

The partnership will also include collaborative efforts to promote responsible gaming and uphold fair play in the league.

Betsson said the deal builds on its existing relationship with the ANFP, having previously sponsored the Ascenso second division. The operator also worked with Colo-Colo, which plays in the Campeonato, while it was the official betting partner of the Chilean national team. 

“Through this latest collaboration, we are steadfastly reinforcing our commitment to support the development of football in Chile,” Betsson’s chief commercial officer Ronni Hartvig said. 

“It is evident that the advantages of this partnership are mutual, as these alliances allow the tournament to advance and flourish, while also enabling our brand to strengthen its preeminent position within the region.”

ANFP president Pablo Milad added: “We are pleased to sign this alliance with Betsson and are confident that the agreement will serve to enhance the promotion and development of Chilean football and of our tournament. 

“We look forward to the 2023 competition, set to commence this Friday, which we are sure will be a highly engaging and captivating experience for the fans, as a result of the high stakes and the clubs’ efforts to be the leading contenders.”

The deal comes after Betsson this week also extended its commercial partnership with Peru’s top football division Liga 1.

The deal will run for a further four years, with Betsson to remain as title sponsor of the competition and the corporate identity of the division to continue as Liga1 Betsson.

Betsson branding will appear on a range of official league visual and digital materials, while the operator will also continue to work with Liga 1 on activities to promote responsible gambling among fans.

During its Q2 announcement last year, the operator revealed Latin America was its largest market for the three-month period, generating record revenue in the region. 

The Belgium-facing operator will become the first company outside EGBA’s membership roster to join the group, which aims to promote industry cooperation on cybersecurity issues.

Launched by the trade body in March 2022, the organisation provides a forum where operators can share knowledge and expertise, as well as collaborate in identifying online security threats, rectify potential vulnerabilities and implement best practices.

Napoleon Sports & Casino executive director Tom De Clercq described the question of player trust and safety as one of “Napoleon’s strategic priorities.”

Strategic priorities

“Ensuring the security of their data is a critical element contributing to that objective,” he said. “Today’s increasingly complex and interconnected online gambling environment requires a coordinated response to prevent and respond to cyber-attacks.”

He added: “Napoleon joined EGBA’s cybersecurity expert group to exchange best practices and help drive initiatives within the industry that combat online threats and provide a safe, secure, and protected entertainment environment to players.”

Supported by a memorandum of understanding, the body is composed of cybersecurity experts from a number of European gambling operators, including EGBA members. Membership is open to all operators active in the EU, provided that they comply with the organisation’s cybersecurity principles.  

EGBA secretary general Maarten Haijer said the association was “delighted” to welcome Napoleon to the industry group on cybersecurity, in particular noting the operator’s expertise of the Belgium market.

“The group is a valuable platform for operators to share practical information and solutions about the latest cyber threats and vulnerabilities and contribute to a more joined-up industry approach to cybersecurity,” he said. “Interested operators should contact us if they wish to be considered for participation to the group.”

Kambi this morning revealed a €150m (£130.9m/$161.9m) earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) target for 2027, and in a capital markets day, executives outlined how the business intends to reach that figure.

The business also revealed that it expected revenue in 2027 to be between two and three times the size of its 2022 revenue. As the relative growth in EBIT would be larger than the relative growth in revenue, this suggested that Kambi hopes to increase its profit margins as it expands.

Now, the supplier has provided more detail of this, with a pivot towards more algorithmic trading helping to drive the projected increase in efficiency.

Kambi embracing algorithmic trading

Kambi deputy chief executive Erik Lögdberg described this pivot as “third-generation sports betting”. He said that currently, most sportsbooks are in what he called “generaiton two”, in which “humans drive algorithms”.

However, he said that, as the amount of data available to sportsbooks increases,  “down to the XYZ coordinates of every player and every ball”, it will make more sense for algorithms to play a larger role in creating odds.

“We have to change the process, it cannot continue around the human,” Lögdberg said. “We have to build the process around the algorithm itself.

“If we build it around the algorithm we can make it literally millions of times bigger than what we work with now. 

“And what we do is we bring in the human right at the end for the questions the algorithm can’t answer.”

Kambi CFO David Kenyon added that this might lead to higher costs in the short term, but lower spending by 2027.

“There will be a 2023 ramp-up in costs, but ultimately we think we will make savings in the long-run as we reduce the resources needed in trading,” he said.

“In algo trading there will be a growth in costs in 2023, but ultimately the costs in that part of the business will be more than offset by the savings we can realise.”

When asked about Kambi’s large staff of traders, Kambi chief executive Kristian Nylén directly addressed whether headcount in this area would decline.

“I think the message was quite clear,” he said. “We believe there are cost efficiencies to be done in the future.”

“We do all our pricing with what is relatively, quite a large number of people. And we expect that number to be lower in the future.”

Betting on new markets

New markets will be key to Kambi hitting its 2027 revenue target. Kenyon said that the supplier’s assumption of a $50bn target addressable market by 2027 includes the launch of regulated sports betting in Brazil, Texas, California and one of India or Japan.

“We need to be able to launch in one big regulated market in Asia before 2027,” he said. “Either Japan or India, or hopefully both of them.”

The launch of regulated sports betting in Brazil was set back earlier this month when outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro opted not to sign regulations to govern the vertical. 

In Brazil, Kambi agreed to partner with local fantasy sports leader Rei de Pitaco.

“Rei de Pitaco was our number one target in the Brazilian market,” Nylén said. “We had really struggled to find who would be the leading local heroes in the Brazilian market, but we think we have the leading partner. 

“They are the Brazilian DraftKings or the Brazilian FanDuel. They’re doing fantasy sports but we really expect that they will do big things in sports betting when that market opens.”

While operators based abroad and operating in the unregulated Brazilian market were largely unaffected by the setback for regulated sports betting, local businesses lost an opportunity to enter the market. Nylén made clear that in all of the markets it expects to regulate soon, Kambi planned to wait until local regulations were actually in place before entering. 

In India, meanwhile, there has been progress as the country’s Ministry of Electronics and IT in India published amendments to its Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules to address online gambling.

Under the rules, an online game is defined as any game played via the internet where a player “makes a deposit with the expectation of earning winnings”. If necessary, the Indian government may declare certain games to be covered by the rules.

Kambi modularisation strategy

Kambi also provided details of how it plans to execute its new strategy of selling modularised products – such as its bet builder product – rather than only selling an entire sportsbook solution.

This, chief commercial officer Cecilia Wachtmeister said, would allow Kambi to partner with more tier-one operators, which might do large amounts of trading in-house, but still look to third parties for specific products.

While Wachtmeister did not reveal specifics of whether any deals were in the works, she said that these top operators had responded positively to the new offering of modularised products.

“We have had active discussions with several of these operators, and it has been received positively,” Wachtmeister said. “We hope to be able to update you soon on that.”

In-house or outsourced?

In recent years, Kambi had faced difficulties because of a wider industry trend towards vertical integration. 

“When DraftKings did the SPAC with SBTech, suddenly a lot of things changed overnight and it became fashionable to have a vertically integrated sportsbook,” Nylén said. “So we need to be more humble about it in the future and have a product that fits all kinds of customers in all kind of environments.”

However, the Kambi CEO added that he expected this trend to reverse soon, with outsourcing again increasing.

“Why do we believe that outsourcing will increase? First of all, there are more and more regulated markets, and in regulated markets there are tougher conditions to follow,” he said. “For operators, that means more pressure on profitability. But for us, we like regulation. It gives us more opportunities.

“Second, the macroeconomic environment. We all know where it is: rising inflation, rising interest rates. Kambi can help with that as they can pay commission on revenues rather than fixed costs in house.”