Month: March 2023

Betsson’s network aims to cultivate an inclusive workplace culture in Malta and elsewhere, to allow for dialogue on the topics of diversity and belonging. This is in order to foster an inclusive work environment for all.

The idea for the network stemmed from Betsson’s successful D&I conference in 2022.

The network’s launch event will take place on 22 March at the Betsson Group Experience Centre in Ta’ Xbiex, Malta. The event will include an open roundtable discussion, as well as presentations from Lena Nordin, Betsson’s chief human resources officer and Maria Loumpourdi, head of talent development.  

“We believe that diversity drives innovation and success,” said Nordin. “And we are excited to launch the first D&I network in Malta, where we can connect with others who share similar values and work together to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace culture that benefits all.” 

Positive year for Betsson

This news follows Betsson’s FY22 and Q4 results last month, with president and chief executive Pontus Lindwall hailing 2022 as Betsson’s “best year ever”.

The operator revealed it had a fourth quarter revenue increase of 40% to €220.6m, up from €157.5m in the previous year. In regard to full-year results, the company reported a revenue increase of 18% year-on-year to €777.2m.

“We can look back at the best year ever for Betsson with strong growth and profitability, driven by disciplined capital allocation, geographical diversification and investments in new markets, as well as continuous strengthening of the tech platform and product offering,” Lindwall said.

Over 50 organisations – led by All-in Diversity and Square in the Air – have joined forces to support this year’s International Women’s Day #EmbraceEquity campaign.

Major operators including BetMGM, Betsson, Entain and PokerStars are among those that have shown their support for this year’s campaign, under the #GamingAsOne hashtag. Elsewhere, the #AllintheRace hashtag has been used by organisations such as the British Horseracing Authority and Godolphin Racing.

Regulators such as the Malta Gaming Authority and the Massachusetts Gaming commissions have backed this year’s International Women’s Day, alongside companies including Better Collective and Clarion.

This marks another year of partnership for All-in Diversity and Square in the Air. Last year, the companies partnered for a video campaign ahead of International Women’s Day 2022.

This year’s partnership sets out to celebrate the many personal stories and achievements of women that have contributed to the industry.  

Tina Thakor-Rankin, co-founder of the All-in Diversity Project, said that the partnership with Square in the Air would differ slightly from last year’s video campaign.

“Last year, our International Women’s Day video campaign – delivered in close partnership with Square in the Air – sought to highlight the sometimes shocking personal experiences of women working in the betting and gaming sectors,” she said. “Into 2023, it is time for celebration and an opportunity to emphasise the amazing achievements of women in our industry.

“This campaign uses those feats to illustrate that not only does this industry seek to fully ‘embrace equity’, but that our different experiences make us stronger.” 

Ellen Kirby, creative director at Square in the Air, said that it was encouraging to see the industry support the campaign.

“We’ve been amazed at some of the incredible achievements that women worldwide have shared as part of this campaign, but more than anything it serves as a reminder that each of us has our story, our own experiences and a unique set of strengths to celebrate,” said Kirby.

“Under the #GamingAsOne and #AllintheRace hashtags, it’s heartening to see the biggest betting, gaming and racing organisations in the world unite to celebrate our strength in diversity.”

On International Women’s Day (8 March), the full list of the supporting companies, along with the achievements and experiences of the women appearing in the campaign, will be posted on social media.  

Under the agreement, PokerStars branding will feature on the halo of Red Bull’s cars during the 2023 campaign, as well as the inner cockpit and rear wing end plate, drivers’ race suits, and pit crew helmets.

PokerStars will feature behind-the-scenes footage of Red Bull Racing on its official YouTube channel, while PokerStars Team Pro Lex Veldhuis will run a series of live giveaways on his YouTube and Twitch channels.

The PokerStars Red Spade Pass, which was introduced last year when the two parties first linked up, will also return to offer fans the chance to win a range of prizes.

In addition, PokerStars will introduce with a programme of race weekend rewards including a new Chicane Cash Drop, Spin & Go Races, Odds Boost on Sports bets and a Casino Weekend Races Leaderboard.

“After an incredible first year racing alongside Oracle Red Bull, we’re delighted to be going into the 2023 season with even more rewards, content and epic experiences in the pipeline to take our partnership to the next level,” Flutter director of partnerships, PR and consumer engagement, Rebecca McAdam Willetts, said.

“This partnership has enabled both us and Oracle Red Bull Racing to reach audiences who share similar passions and interests. We still firmly believe that the team is the perfect fit for PokerStars.net, sharing our conviction that it is not just about what you offer fans, but the ethos and vision behind it.”

The 2023 F1 season began at the weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix. Red Bull secured a one-two finish, with Max Verstappen claiming pole and Sergio Pérez second.

Under the deal, Kambi will support Potawatomi Casino Hotel in Milwaukee with the opening of the first land-based sportsbook in the state. The new facility will feature 20 self-service kiosks, while additional kiosks will also open at the Carter Hotel & Casino in Carter.

Kambi’s full suite of sports betting technology and services will be available to customers for Potawatomi Casino Hotel’s initial retail sportsbook launch, with an on-premises mobile roll out, including live odds boards and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) technology, to follow.

Read the full story on iGB North America

Under the arrangement that was unveiled last June, Baden, which owns Canadian property business Midway Property, combined with NorthStar Gaming Inc and a wholly owned subsidiary of Baden.

This resulted in the reverse takeover by the former security holders of NorthStar, Baden changing its name to NorthStar Gaming Holdings Inc, and the de-listing of Baden common shares from the Canadian Stock Exchange.

Read the full story on iGB North America

Located in Columbus and planned in partnership with Columbus Exposition and Racing, the new Harrah’s Columbus, NE Racing & Casino facility would offer consumers both on-site casino gaming and horse racing wagering.

Caesars said the new thoroughbred racetrack would be the longest in Nebraska, while the 28,000sq ft casino would feature more than 500 slot machines, 14 tables and a sportsbook.

Read the full story on iGB North America

The acquisition means that the companies included within Camelot Lottery Solutions have become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Allwyn.

Allwyn said that there are no planned changes to Camelot Lottery Solution’s leadership team, and the business will continue as normal.

Acquisition finalised

The acquisition was finalised in January. The financial terms of the deal were never disclosed.

Camelot Lottery Solutions is the operator of the Illinois Lottery, through a private management agreement conducted through its Camelot Illinois LLC company.

When Allwyn first agreed to acquire Camelot Lottery Solutions, chief executive Robert Chvátal said that the deal signified the importance of the US market.

“We have always viewed the US market as an important part of Allwyn’s future growth story, and the acquisition of Camelot LS Group, is the right step,” Chvátal had said.

At the time, Wayne Pickup, chief executive of Camelot Lottery Solutions Group, said that the acquisition would be beneficial to the group’s operations in Illinois.

“Combining the resources, expertise and talent of Allwyn and Camelot LS Group will only strengthen the results we help the state of Illinois and all our customers achieve.”

In October 2022, Allwyn announced that is was in discussions to acquire Camelot UK Lotteries, the current operator of the UK National Lottery. An agreement was reached the following month.

Allwyn is set to replace Camelot as the operator of the UK National Lottery on 1 February 2024. Allwyn was awarded the fourth UK National Lottery licence in September 2022.

Considering Bet-at-home’s difficulties during 2022, revenue fell by just 9.7% year-on-year, compared to the full-year 2021 revenue of €59.3m.

Bet-at-home said that the revenue drop was due to a number of factors, namely the operator’s exit from the GB market.

Bet-at-home’s licence was suspended by the GB Gambling Commission on 7 July. The Commission said it would be carrying out a review of the business while the suspension was ongoing, amid concerns that “activities may have been carried out contrary to the Gambling Act 2005”.

The Commission specified that suspected anti money-laundering and social responsibility failings factored into the suspension of the licence.

Days later, on 12 July, Bet-at-home announced that it would permanently exit the GB market, stating that it had “surrendered” its licence. In this announcement, Bet-at-home said customers had not been able to place bets with the operator since 6 July.

Later that same month, on 28 July, Bet-at-home announced that it would cut up to 45 jobs as a result of its outsourcing of certain services to EveryMatrix. At this time, the operator projected that its 2022 earnings would be affected by the layoffs.

In September, Bet-at-home warned of an increased risk in liquidity brought on by its exit from Austria.

Full-year 2022

Turning to its full results, Bet-at-home’s revenue was vastly made up by its online sports betting segment. This segment generated €49.0m of the total revenue, a fall of 13.4% yearly.

Revenue from online games – consisting of casino games and virtual sports products – made up the remaining €4.5m, a significant jump of 60.7% year-on-year.

After considering betting fees and gaming levies at €11.3m, which fell by 2.9%, as well as value-added tax, which doubled year-on-year to €99,000, the net betting and gaming revenue for the year was €42.0m. This was a decline of 11.6%.

Other income added €3.4m to the total. Bet-at-home did not specify what this other income consisted of.

Other operating expenses rocketed by 128% to €16.2m. Bet-at-home said this was due to several reasons, including an increase in legal and consulting fees, higher costs from expenses associated with the liquidating Bet-at-home Entertainment Group, and transaction costs.

The operator explained that transaction costs for the year were high due to the fact that it can no longer charge certain costs to its “discontinued operations”.

Advertising expenses also grew, but by a significantly smaller 14.8%. Contrastingly, personnel expenses dropped by 27.4% to €13.5m.

This resulted in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €2.1m, a drop of 83.9%.

Following depreciation and amortisation costs at €2.2m, the profit came to a loss of €105,000. Costs labelled “financial results” brought the earnings before tax to a loss of €690,000.

However, a positive contribution of taxes on income and earnings at €1.2m brought the earnings from continuing operations to €551,000. This was a drop of 94.8% yearly.

Combined with results from discontinued operations at €11.3m, the total consolidated net result was €11.9m for the year.

The year ahead

Bet-at-home said that it would focus on increased outsourcing, revenue growth and the “corresponding adjustment of key processes” in 2023.

Interestingly, the operator said that it wishes to expand in its “core markets” of Germany and Austria during the year – despite it winding down online casino operations in Austria during 2022.

In terms of financials, Bet-at-home said it expects gross betting and gaming revenue to be between €50m and €60m for 2023.

It also projected EBITDA between a loss of €3m and a positive contribution of €1m.

NeoGames took ownership of Aspire Global in an SEK4.3bn (£341.7m/€385.8m/$412.2m) deal that completed in June 2022, with Aspire Global now operating as a subsidiary of the business.

While the acquisition incurred additional expenses for NeoGames, pushing the business to a net loss for the year, the deal had a significant impact on revenue in 2022. Revenue more than trebled year-on-year, despite Aspire Global having only becoming part of the business halfway through the year.

NeoGames chief executive Moti Malul (pictured) said the acquisition and performance of the wider business in 2022 means the group is well-positioned to achieve further revenue growth in 2023.

“We are proud of the tremendous progress we made during 2022, further solidifying our ilottery leadership position in a continually expanding market,” Malul said. “In addition, we made some truly transformational strides advancing our strategic goals.”

“We significantly evolved our business through our acquisition of Aspire Global, expanding beyond our position as a leader in global ilottery solutions, and propelling us to becoming a global leader in providing technology and content solutions across ilottery, online sport betting and igaming.”

“During 2022, we grew revenue across all business lines, and we believe that we remain well-positioned to continue to deliver profitable growth into 2023 and beyond.”

Fourth quarter

Analysing NeoGames’ performance and beginning with the fourth quarter, revenue for the final three months of 2022 amounted to $69.2m, an increase of 462.6% on the previous year.

Of this total, the majority ($54.8m) came from Aspire Global, while the remaining amount was generated by NeoGames’ existing ilottery business.

However, the addition of Aspire Global to the group meant operating costs were 305.0% higher year-on-year at $72.9m. Financial costs reached $5.9m, but NeoGames also noted $8.1m in profit from a joint venture.

As a result, pre-tax loss for the quarter stood at $1.4m, an improvement on the $4.9m loss posted at the same point in 2021. NeoGames also received $595,000 in income tax benefits, meaning it ended Q4 with a net loss of $793,000, compared to $3.6m in the previous year.

In addition, the group said adjusted EBTIDA for the quarter rocketed by 129.1% to $18.1m.

Full year

Turning to the full year and revenue jumped 228.1% from $50.5m in 2021 to $165.7m.

Aspire Global contributed $112.1m for the period from 16 June, the date that NeoGames officially took ownership of the business. On a full year pro forma basis, revenue at Aspire Global reached $207.0m.

Operating expenses jumped 268.4% to $190.1m, though $15.1m in financial costs were more than offset by a $22.1m profit from a joint venture and associated companies.

However, this still left a pre-tax loss of $17.4m, in contrast to a $5.0m profit at the same point in 2021. NeoGames paid $1.5m in tax, resulting in a net loss for the year of $19.0m, compared to a $4.7m profit in the previous year.

The group also noted that adjusted EBITDA improved by 63.2% to $54.5m.

“Each year the global gaming industry tends to expand further into the online channel, and each year the needs of our customers evolve to require a more integrated approach across lottery, gaming and sports betting,” Malul said. 

“In our view, we are well positioned as a leader to provide our customers, both regulated state lotteries and private gaming operators, a leading, full suite of solutions to meet all their digital gaming needs.”

NeoPollard Interactive venture

Shortly after the year-end, NeoGames announced that it had entered into a joint venture operating agreement with lottery solutions specialist Pollard Banknote with respect to NeoPollard Interactive (NPI).

NeoGames and Pollard Banknote have been running NPI as an online lottery solutions provider joint venture for a number of years, though the new deal and subsequent amendment to the parties’ Michigan Joint Venture Agreement will formalise this arrangement.

The agreements seek to reinforce the long-term approach aimed to ensure the continued success of NPI and the operations of its customers across a host of markets and jurisdictions.

The two parties also said the new deal would provide both businesses with the option to pursue future online lottery opportunities within the North American market either in partnership, as part of the joint venture, or independently.

Operations of NPI would remain unchanged, with. the NPI team to continue to provide player operations support, account management and professional services.

Brudno will oversee Playtika’s global human resources strategy, build talent strategies and advance employee experience to strengthen Playtika’s position in the market. 

An experienced human resources executive, Brudno joins the business having most recently served as chief people officer at BioCatch, while she also had a spell as vice president of human resources for SAP’s Global Services Sales Business.

Meanwhile, Monterisi will lead corporate and brand communications including reputation management, media relations, public affairs, corporate digital and content, and employee engagement, as well as serve as a strategic advisor to fellow executives.

She takes on the new role after having led corporate communications and brand at artificial intelligence business Dataminr. Prior to this, she led internal and external communications programs for companies including CA Technologies and Rockstar Games.

“Gili and Darlan bring tremendous experience and perspective to Playtika,” Playtika’s chief operating officer Shlomi Aizenberg said. “The strengths of these exceptional leaders will advance Playtika among our diverse set of stakeholders, helping propel us in realizing our ambitious vision.”

Development suspension

The double hire comes after Playtika last week announced it will largely suspend its new game development pipeline until the ROI on new games becomes “economically viable”.

The news was elaborated on in the company’s FY22 earnings call, where Playtika’s president and CFO Craig Abrahams outlined the decision against an “evolving” industrial landscape.

Abrahams said the decision was made as part of a wider project, with the aim of aligning “the company’s expense profile with revenue trends”, much of which has involved actively managing costs and streamlining the company at all levels.