The renewed agreement – which extends a deal signed in August 2020 – will run for three years, with Sportsbet.io to remain as the team’s main front-of-shirt sponsor.
The deal represents the biggest sponsorship agreement in the club’s history and also includes the option for the club to be paid certain performance-based bonuses in Bitcoin at the end of each season.
Aside from the shirt sponsorship aspect of the agreement, Sportsbet.io will also continue to work with the club on local community initiatives and responsible gambling campaigns.
“In a short timeframe, Sportsbet.io has proven to be innovative, forward thinking and extremely supportive of the club, our fans and the wider community, and we’ve welcomed the opportunity to develop and promote safe gambling messages together,” Southampton’s chief commercial officer David Thomas said.
“As such they have become valued partners and we look forward to the next chapter together.”
Coingaming Group chief executive Maarja Pärt added: “Our first season as Southampton’s main club partner has already exceeded all expectations. We’ve been inspired by the passion of the club and its fans, and it was an easy decision for us to extend our partnership with the Saints for another three years.”
“From the beginning, Southampton have been a perfect match for the fun, fast and fair way we do things at Sportsbet.io. We can’t wait to continue this journey with the Saints, and we’ll be doing everything we can to support the team and its community into the future.”
Shore will lead GAN’s investor relations and capital markets efforts, including strategic engagement with the investor community and analysts around the gaming technology provider’s positioning in the digital gaming space.
Shore joins GAN from Scientific Games, where he had served as senior director of investor relations and corporate finance, a role in which he was involved with the initial public offering of the SciPlay subsidiary.
Prior to this, Shore spent more than a decade in equity research at Wells Fargo, Union Gaming and Susquehanna International Group, where he covered gaming technology companies and operators
“There is clear excitement and momentum in digital gaming, and I am eager to further contribute to GAN’s leadership position and operational excellence in this segment,” Shore said.
Sportradar will be responsible for providing bet monitoring to the organisation and reporting on football, basketball and darts events played in the country, which the supplier said could involve over 1,500 matches this year.
Alongside its bet monitoring services, Sportradar will provide the NOC*NSF with information about the established global betting markets on domestic Dutch sport.
Risk analysis will also be provided throughout the partnership, in order to inform the organisation’s strategic decisions to protect sport from integrity risks.
Sportradar said the agreement is the first of its kind to work under the so-called Macolin Convention, or the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, a multilateral treaty effective from September 2019, which aims to prevent, detect and punish match-fixing in sport.
“In order to work in line with the Macolin Convention, this pilot agreement with Sportradar Integrity Services is an essential project in understanding the betting exposure that is afforded to Dutch sport,” said Gerard Dielessen, chief executive of the NOC*NSF.
“Through ongoing bet monitoring of our domestic sports competitions, and analysis of the latest betting trends surrounding them we will have insights that will help inform what the most effective and efficient long-term strategy is to protect against integrity risks.”
Managing director of Sportradar Integrity Services, Andreas Krannich, added: “By signing this agreement, the NOC*NSF have shown their crucial proactivity in protecting sports competitions in the Netherlands from integrity risks such as match manipulation.”
“This is the first project of its type within the structure of the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention, and it should be viewed by other nations as a blueprint of what bet monitoring looks like at a national, multi-sport level.”
In February, Sportradar revealed plans for a new Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS), to be offered free of charge to all sports federations and leagues later this year.
The supplier said the system, which was developed by Sportradar Integrity Services and has been backed by the International Olympic Committee, was created in consultation with its existing fraud detection partners, and will help strengthen the integrity of global sport.
Khan’s manifesto promises that his current Underground ban on junk food advertising will be extended to include “harmful gambling advertisements”.
“I’ve already banned body-shaming advertisements and advertisements for foods high in fat, salt and sugar on the TfL network because of their impact on the health of Londoners,” it read.
“Given the devastating way gambling addiction can destroy lives and families, I’ll instruct TfL to bring forward plans to extend the ban to harmful gambling advertisements on the network.”
The so-called whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling advertising was praised last year by the Betting and Gaming Council after its implementation cut the number of gambling advertisements seen by children by 97%. Earlier political attempts have been made to pull focus to problem gambling and gambling ads in the UK. Before the 2019 General Election, Khan’s Labour party pledged to reduce gambling advertising in sport as part of its call for new gambling legislation, while the Conservative party announced that it would conduct a review of the 2005 Gambling Act if elected into government.
As previously announced by Governor Cuomo’s office when the Governor and legislature came to an agreement on a state budget, the state Gaming Commission will issue a request for proposals to select at least two platform providers to operate sports betting. These two platform providers will receive licences and together offer at least four betting skins.
The Commission’s request for proposals will open no later than 1 July, with winning bids selected no later than 150 days after this.
The Commission will develop a scoring system to determine the best bids. While this system has not yet been created, extra points will be awarded to any operator with a revenue-sharing agreement with one of New York’s Native American tribes.
How did you come up with the idea for the business, and what in your view makes you set up to succeed?
Over the past decade I have had a huge interest in the gambling industry. Something which first came as a hobby to me soon became a successful income for many years. During my time sat on the other side of the fence as a customer, I noticed an ever-changing landscape occurring and operators were fast becoming lambs to the slaughter.
Tighter regulatory guidelines without detailed legislation, combined with a lack of trust from customers, has stigmatised the gambling industry in many jurisdictions’ eyes – and none more so than the UK.
Gavin Berry, TruBet
With the benefit of TruBet being built for the players by the players, this gives us an edge regarding the way in which we can develop the solution. We can be confident that legitimate customers will be happy to engage with operators and share the specific information required to eliminate bonus abuse, multi-accounting and associated fraud while understanding customer affordability and lowering the risk of problem gambling. All without increased exposure of their personal information.
We have a great management team with experience of running their own companies, some of which have already undergone successful exits. Most recently we have received investment from US technology giant Accubits, who will also be assisting us with the development of our technology. Leading on from this we are in discussions with an array of industry-leading C-suite executives who are interested in coming on board to add further value and help us to execute our plans.
Talk us through how it works and explain how it differs from existing competitors.
TruBet will be a fintech payment solution with a built-in affiliation model shaped entirely for the igaming space. Currently all affiliate traffic comes from a variety of unverified sources, which puts operators at risk of multi-accounting, bonus abuse and elements of fraudulent activity. The risks associated with traffic from these sources will be removed for customers using our solution.
The traffic that will come through TruBet will be fully verified in advance, leveraging AI, 3D facial recognition and voice recognition and removing the possible exposure of offers to multi-accounting and bonus abusers. Customers will be restricted from accessing our exclusive operator offers before completing their full KYC and AML requirements within the app. Verification of players will be performed via our blockchain solution, which will speed up the customer onboarding process and reduce the risk of personal documentation falling into the wrong hands.
The data, which is collated through the application from customer/operator interaction in terms of accounts usage, deposit volumes and frequency, will enable TruBet to build out detailed industry affordability scores. These can be partly shared with operators, similar to how the finance sector leverages Experian. This solution is made possible by adopting interoperability into the industry, something which hasn’t happened so far due to the lack of willingness between operators sharing data with their competitors on customers habits and expenditure.
With TruBet being a completely unique offering and no operator preference or B2C model, this puts us in a position to bring these industry-changing solutions to life.
Who do you see as your target customer?
We will be targeting operators as our clients but effectively the demand will be driven from the appetite of customers wanting to access exclusive offers which are over and above anything currently on the market.
Talk us through your growth plans – and what milestones do you need to hit to achieve these?
Our target market will be the UK initially, but the solutions we are developing are ones which can grow exponentially across a magnitude of jurisdictions. With the Gambling Commission constantly turning the screw on operators, it makes sense for us to focus our attention here first. We fully believe that once the solutions are built and the benefits can be demonstrated to operators it will cause a snowball effect as we make our name as the de-facto affiliate, payment and affordability provider.
What are the key challenges you face on this route?
Making sure the solution is designed in a user-friendly package and that it is a very attractive offering for customers to sign up to. Once we have the customers on board, naturally the clients [operators] will follow.
Have you raised external funding? How did you find this process?
We have recently raised funding from US tech giant Accubits, via their venture capital arm Future Tech, topping up the initial money invested from seed investors.
What is your view on innovation in the gaming industry? Is there appetite among investors and consumers for disruptive new ideas, or more focus in incremental innovations that are accretive to earnings in the short term?
From the technology I have seen and worked with, most of this is very outdated and innovation is something which hasn’t been forthcoming until recently.
With the transition towards Open Banking and digital currencies on the horizon, I believe that further adoption towards innovation is inevitable. In terms of investment, I don’t think there are many better opportunities out there.
We have an industry with problems in abundance. It is worth billions yet hated by millions, and in order to remove the cloud casting a shadow over the gaming industry a change is required. This will happen, one way or another, and we plan to make an everlasting impact for the better.
TruBet at a glance: Product or service: Affiliate and fintech platform Founded: 2021 Founders/management: Gavin Berry (founder and CEO) Launch date: Q3 2021 Target markets: Sportsbook and casino operators / affiliation and payments Website:trubet.io
The case dates back to April 2019, when ANJ’s predecessor for regulating the online market, L’Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) took action against a number of operators.
These licensees were found to have breached France’s Consumer Code, by offering unfair terms and conditions to players. ARJEL warned that these companies could face legal action as a result.
However, AFJEL disputed this, arguing that the Consumer Code did not apply to gambling. AFJEL also sought to secure €4,000 in damages from ARJEL.
The Council ruled that operators may be considered as “professionals”, and players as “consumers”, meaning online gambling may be considered a consumer service, as covered by the Consumer Code.
It said that AFJEL’s challenge was therefore unjustified. As a result, the ANJ has the power to take legal action against licensees which continue to include unfair terms and conditions for players.
“ANJ, which makes the protection of players a central axis of its work, welcomes this decision of the Council of State which will allow it in particular to initiate action in the event that it observes violations of consumer law that undermine the protection the state grants to the player in his capacity as consumer,” the regulator said.
Since its creation, the ANJ has put a particular focus on responsible marketing. In its first annual marketing review, it said it had “serious concerns” about the marketing strategies of lottery operator La Française des Jeux (FDJ) and racing monopoly Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU).
In 2020, online gambling revenue in France came to €1.74bn, as the market recovered strongly from the disruption of the opening six months of the year in H2
Entain will now use Synalogik’s Scout solution to enable automatic checking and risk-scoring of thousands of customers.
Entain said this will significantly improve response times the end user. Its security processes would now take seconds rather than hours or days, the operator explained, while still ensuring full compliance with regulatory and data protection requirements.
In addition, Entain said that it has carried out all of the relevant privacy risk assessments to ensure the new system maintains a high level of privacy for customers.
Entain will initially launch the new system across its brands in the British market.
“This delivers on our vision of leveraging innovation and technology to create the best experience for every customer whilst delivering the highest standards of compliance effectiveness and corporate governance,” Entain’s director of customer protection Brendan MacDonald said.
Entain joins Betway in partnering Synalogik. The supplier’s current clients include law enforcement agencies, while it also has clients in the cybersecurity, insurance, telecommunications and banking sectors such as NatWest and Telefonica.
Synalogik chief executive Gareth Mussell added: “We are delighted that Entain is using our Scout system to support its compliance and governance processes.
“This unique solution provides an enriched customer view, in near real-time, drawn from multiple data sources, which enhances decision making and delivers significant efficiency and cost savings.”
The partnership marks the latest step in Entain’s ongoing strategy to strengthen its customer protection methods.
Last week, Entain launched what it described as a “pioneering” affordability checking model for British customers, as part of the Advanced Responsibility and Care (ARC) initiative that will be fully implemented in the market this summer.
Entain said these new checks will help it to identify players at risk of running into financial difficulty as a result of their gambling, and implement staking limits and tighter affordability checks.
Launched in November as part of its rebrand from GVC Holdings to Entain, ARC was developed to deploy the group’s proprietary technology platform and behavioural play data to provide end-to-end player protection and interaction across its network.
The operator is also looking to harness new technology for its core products. In December it announced a partnership with media and technology giant Verizon Media to develop new interactive sports and entertainment products.
The partnership aims to act on findings from research commissioned by polling specialist YouGov and commissioned by Entain, which revealed that technology use is shaping gaming and entertainment consumers’ behaviour. It will see the pair collaborate on the launch of a virtual reality product that incorporates betting elements into the sports viewing experience.
According to figures supplied by Ficom Leisure to iGB, revenue across all online verticals ticked up 4.6% from January to €351.2m, just behind the record set in December 2020. Compared to February 2020 – the last month before Italy went into lockdown – revenue was up 94.8%.
That month-on-month revenue growth was due mostly to a significant increase in sports betting revenue to a record high of €185.5m, as betting made up more than half of Italy’s total online revenue.
The closure of all retail betting shops across the country played a large role in this growth, but online betting revenue was also up 29.4% from January, which also had no retail betting.
Bet365, PlanetWin365, Snai, Eurobet, Goldbet and Sisal remained the six largest operators with more than 10% of the online betting market each, but there was significant change within that group. Goldbet became the market leader again, after holding that spot in December, with Sisal and Snai following, while Bet365 dropped from third to sixth.
Even without any revenue from the retail sector, overall sports betting revenue was level with February 2020, as the vertical recorded its second-best month since the first lockdown began, behind October 2020.
Turning to online casino, revenue was down 12.3% month-on-month but up 83.1% year-on-year to €143.0m. While in absolute terms this was the third-best month ever for online casino in Italy, the vertical had its lowest share of revenue since December 2017 at 40.7%.
PokerStars remained the top operator, though its share of revenue fell to 10.4%, while Sisal closed the gap as its market share grew to 9.5%. Snai, 888 and Lottomatica followed with more than 7.5% of revenue each.
Poker revenue was down from the prior three months but still well above February 2020, with tournaments bringing in €9.8m, up 43.4% year-on-year, and cash games €6.7m, up 33.5%
PokerStars continued to dominate the market, but its share of tournament revenue slipped below 50% for the first time since iGB started publishing data in 2017. This came as Sisal, Snai, Eurobet and E-Play 24/7 all saw their market shares increase.
In cash games, PokerStars increased its market share from January to 44.4%, with Lottomatica a distant second and third with 6.8% and 6.3% of the market, respectively.
All data and figures from the regulator are processed by leading European corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, a specialist in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.
