Month: April 2023

In a trading update, Entain said NGR was 22% higher year-on-year when including its 50% share in the BetMGM business in operates in partnership with MGM Resorts International in the US. Excluding US operations, NGR was still up 15%.

BetMGM NGR was up 94% to approximately $470m (£379m/€429m), in line with guidance of between $1.80bn and $2.00bn in revenue for the full year.

Entain said BetMGM had a 28% igaming market share and sports betting market share in the state where the brand is active, helped by successful Super Bowl and March Madness events and strong customer acquisition during the quarter.

Based on its ongoing performance, Entain said BetMGM remains on track to deliver positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the second half of 2023.

Wider growth

Looking at the wider business, excluding the US, total online NGR was up 16%, which Entain again said was in line with expectations and demonstrated “strong” momentum.

Online gaming NGR jumped 25% year-on-year, while internet sports betting NGR was up by 8m, helped by a 3% rise in sports wagers. Entain also noted record levels of active customers in Q1, with this figure rising 19%.

Turning to retail, NGR for this segment was up 14% from Q1 of 2022, with sports bets rising by 17%.

“2023 is off to a strong start, with continuing underlying momentum across our operations around the world. We are delivering both financially and strategically, with a record number of active customers enjoying our products, and we are executing on growth opportunities to further diversify and expand across regulated markets,” Entain chief executive Jette Nygaard-Andersen (pictured) said.

“In the US, BetMGM continues to grow in line with expectations and enjoyed a successful quarter which included the Super Bowl and March Madness.

“Looking ahead, we remain confident that our customer focus, diversification and proven ability to grow organically and through M&A will enable us to demonstrate further progress against our strategy.”

Q1 highlights

Other stand-out achievements in Q1 included Entain agreeing a long-term strategic deal with Tab NZ, the sole holder of a betting licence in New Zealand. Entain will support Tab NZ with delivering wagering and broadcast functions in the country for a period of 25 years.

Entain also completed its acquisition of Dutch operator BetCity for €450m and agreed a deal to purchase Tiidal Gaming NZ, the company behind esports betting developer Sportsflare.

In addition, Entain announced it would exit any markets “where it no longer sees a path to domestic regulation”. 

The group in 2020 set out plans for all revenue to come from locally regulated markets and said that it intends to be 100% regulated by the end of 2023. While it withdrew from many unregulated markets in the following years, it remained in certain jurisdictions that it described as “regulating”, such as Brazil.

Entain said it would “accelerate this process by exiting its few remaining markets where there is no clear path to market liberalisation via domestic regulation”. However, it will remain in “a small number of markets where it expects changes in regulation will enable it to obtain domestic licences in due course”.

The collaboration will involve the Malta-based affiliate becoming Lee Enterprises’ exclusive partner for online sports betting and casino gaming content for three years. The US publisher currently operates in 77 markets in 26 states, with a focus on local news.

The deal will also include Catena working with Lee Enterprises’ betting brand, Frontpagebets.com to publish editorial and advertorial betting content, which will be supported through the US publisher’s social media channels.

The affiliate has said that the deal will help create growth opportunities in existing igaming states as well as “provide a springboard in other states ahead of potential market launches”.

Ryan Harper, vice president of Catena North America, believes that the deal will be beneficial for both companies. “Lee Enterprises is one of the largest publishers in the US and we are excited to work with them to bring high-quality editorial and advertorial betting content to their readers nationwide,” said Harper.

“The partnership with Lee allows us to continue to grow and bring our content to a broader audience,” the vice president of Catena North America added. “Our mission is to make sports betting and casino gaming more accessible and engaging for players, and this new collaboration aligns perfectly with that ambition.”

Joe Battistoni, Lee Enterprises’ vice president of sales and marketing said that the partnership with Catena Media “enables us to expand our offerings in this space.” He went on to add that the company “look forward to working with Catena Media to provide readers with insightful and informative content on online sports betting and casino gaming.”

North American growth

Most recently, Catena announced that North American growth helped the company return to net profit in 2022, following a 24% year-on-year increase in revenue from North American operations.

Catch the Moment was an instant cash lottery, while Penalty was a monetary numerical draw lottery. Penalty had been operating in Ukraine from 15 September 2018

The notice of suspension for both lotteries was published in Ukrainian lottery newspaper Zigzag Udachy, as well as the Ukrainian National Lottery website.

Both suspended lotteries stopped accepting bets at 11:59pm on 24 March. The suspension officially took effect from 3 April.

No reason was given as to why Catch the Moment and Penalty had been suspended.

In December 2022, KRAIL cancelled licences belonging to three online gaming companies that were operated by Russian nationals,

Last week, KRAIL voiced support for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, specifying measures that it would implement to ensure its success.

Overseen by newly created German regulator Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), the list includes operators that have been approved to operate in Germany.

Jackpot50’s listing covers the approval for the operator to offer the Jackpot50.de, German-facing website in the country.

Among the other operators on the whitelist are Bet-at-Home, bwin, Ladbrokes, Interwetten, Tipico and SkillOnNet, the latter of which has approval to operate a large number of sites.

Also featured on the list is 888, which last month rolled out its Mr Green brand in the country.

The GGL last month also released an analysis of 2022 tax data, that shows that 95% bets are made with legal providers.

The regulator published the analysis in response to a press release issued by the sports betting trade association Deutsche Sportwettenverband (DSWV). In the statement, the lobbying organisation used its own figures to argue that the regulated market was much reduced in 2022 compared to the previous year, arguing that this was a result of the rise in popularity of unlicensed operators – itself a product of overly punitive regulation. 

The regulator said that this conclusion “does not correspond” to its own findings.  

Instead the study outlined two potential options for lawmakers in Finland. The first option, based on the Norwegian model, would be to grant the regulatory authorities significantly more power to prevent consumers from accessing unlicensed gambling from abroad. Among other measures, this could involve blocking orders, advertising bans and new policies to interrupt payment processing.

The second option – as implemented by a number of Finland’s neighbours – would be to establish a licensing model of gambling regulation. According to the study, the introduction of this system would “significantly improve” the channelisation of users to legal offerings.

“On the other hand, it is very difficult to reliably assess the likely effects of the introduction of the license system on the prevalence of gambling problems,” said the study. “The increase in competition following the introduction of the license system may, in principle, increase the total consumption of gambling and thus also the disadvantages of gambling.”

Principles of reform

However, the study argued that this would not be the case. It said that – based on the research literature – monopoly and licensing systems “do not differ” from each other in terms of the prevalence of gambling harms or the total amount of activities.     

The document concluded by saying that any decision to introduce a licencing system for Finland would be guided by the main principle of reducing gambling harms. In practice this would mean restrictions on gambling marketing, the creation of a well-resourced gambling regulator, as well as “comprehensive arrangements for the entire licensing system” to protect users from gambling harms.

These could take the form of mandatory identification for all players, a centralised self-exclusion scheme, and “effective measures” to prevent the continued existence of unlicensed gambling from abroad.

Finland has already proposed a number of restrictive measures intended to strengthen the functioning of the monopoly system. Many of these are connected with the amendment of the Lotteries Act, which will go into effect this year. However, the study said that the issue with such measures is how they are relatively easy to technically circumvent.

“The regulation of payment bans on gambling activities that go beyond the current exclusive system would probably require a law prohibiting gambling on websites other than Veikkaus, or that the regulation of payment conditions could be justified in the government proposal more strongly than in the last amendment to the Lottery Act,” said the study.

The preliminary study

The preliminary study into alternatives to the current system in Finland was a project launched by the country’s Ministry of the Interior on 5 January. While the Lottery Act has been reformed several times over the previous decade, it has always done so within the context of the exclusive rights system, wherein state-owned gambling monopoly Veikkaus has the sole authorisation to offer games of chance.

“The goal of the project has been to assess the current state of Finland’s exclusivity system in relation to the goals laid down in the Lotteries Act, to examine the gambling systems in use in countries relevant to the preliminary investigation, and to evaluate the societal benefits and disadvantages of various gambling systems,” said the report.

The report said that the number of players who bet on unlicensed offerings outside the monopoly system has remained stable in recent years at 5-6% of the total population.

Despite the relatively small size of the country’s unauthorised segment in number of users, it is large in financial terms – costing in the region of €500-550m per year, equating to around 50% of the total market.  

To provide an international comparison, the study examined the national gambling systems of five reference countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and France. Of these, only Norway maintained a similar monopoly system for its gaming market.

The news powers granted to the Norwegian Lottery Authority would mark the end of a process that began close to two years ago, when Norway first put DNS blocking unlicensed sites to consultation.

Nordal argued that unlicensed gambling sites represented a particular danger to Norwegian customers due to the “aggressive” nature of the games that make it possible to lose a large amount of money in a short time period.

Highlighting a 2019 population survey, Nordal highlighted that 55,000 Norwegians currently struggle with a gambling problem, while 122,000 are at risk of developing one. Subsequently, problem gambling costs the Nordic country KR5.0bn (£390m/$480m/€440m) per year in societal costs.

Protecting Norwegian consumers

Norwegian consumers also are less likely to know the difference between legal and illegal offerings than peer countries, with 50% of the population not aware or unsure about who is authorised to offer gambling.

“DNS blocking makes the riskiest gambling games less available and thus protects Norwegian players,” said Nordal. “It also means that many people are not aware of the risk in playing with the illegal gambling companies.

“With DNS blocking, the players will be notified and stopped when they are on their way to such a money game. This is an effective information measure that will also have a preventive effect.”

In addition, to the blocking Nordal emphasised other measures implemented to mitigate the unlicensed sector in Norway, including a ban on television advertising and a payment intermediary ban that led to a number of banks severing commercial relationships with the gaming businesses.

“We are getting more and more tools, and collectively we see that this has a good effect. We have advocated introducing DNS blocking as soon as possible, because it is a good measure,” said Nordal.

Regulatory action

Once the new regulations come into force in 2024, gambling businesses that do not cease from broadcasting unlicensed gambling into Norway will be subject to DNS blocking orders.

The Authority said that it intends to use the intervening time to conduct legal proceedings against such organisations with the threat of a compulsory fine if they do not halt their activities, as the regulator has imposed on Unibet and Betsson in the past.

“We will give this work high priority,” said Nordal. “When it concerns companies that intend to withdraw from Norway and have implemented measures that show that it is real, we will prioritise guidance over reaction and DNS blocking.”

Revenue was comfortably higher than $423.7m in March 2022 and also 2.8% ahead of the $412.2m generated in February of this year.

Land-based slot machines remained the primary source of revenue for operators in the US state, experiencing a 5.1% increase to $164.8m, while retail table games revenue was also up 6.7% to $63.9m, meaning overall land-based casino revenue was 5.6% higher at $228.6m.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The operator announced the temporary closure of its casino locations yesterday (April 16) as a result of the outage the details of which were not disclosed.

Gateway counts the Casino Rama in Orillia and Cascades Casino in Chatham among its casino properties in the Canadian province, while it also operates locations in Sarnia, London, Woodstock, Clinton and Hanover.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The licence will enable Octoplay to launch its games such as Pearly Shores, Heavy Anchor, and Hot Harvest with operators that are also approved to offer online gambling in the country.

Octoplay said the latest approval would complement its existing certifications in the UK, Malta and Romania.

“We are working towards having a licence in every regulated market on the planet, Sweden was a natural early choice and has been a key target since the company was founded,” Octoplay’s director of business development Ralitsa Georgieva said.

“We are proud to have secured the necessary approvals to supply our slots to Swedish casinos and to offer players there the excitement of our games for the first time.”

The latest licence comes after Spelinspektionen last week approved eight additional supplier licences for providers who wish to continue offering their services to operators after 1 July.

The gaming software licences are to be a requirement for any B2B business who continues its relationships with operators in Sweden. 

The new requirement – which was passed by the Swedish legislature in November – is intended to help throttle the development of the black market in Sweden by restricting the unlicensed operator sector’s access to providers.

This forms part of the FDJ subsidiary’s new strategy. The company, which produces and broadcasts lottery and Euromillions draws in France, will now extend its services to digital and event content with Wanneroy’s appointment.

The strategy will also see the recruitment of audiovisual and cinema producers and advertisers, as well as digital and video game players.

Previously, Wanneroy held the roles of administrative and financial director, deputy managing director and managing director of Reservoir Prod from 2005 to 2020. In 2021 he was appointed to establish and manage general operations of Mediawan’s television programmes.

In February, FDJ’s promotional ad strategy was rejected by French regulator l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ).