Category: News

The total subscription amount totalled SEK216.0m and corresponded to what Stockholm-based Fantasma said was an “unexpected” subscription ratio of 1,269%.

Fantasma will add 1,000 new shareholders as a result of the IPO, with 700,000 shares 560,000 warrants of series TO1 issued via the offering.

Approximately 68% of the offer was submitted by the Fantasma board and its management, while the IPO also attracted investment from the likes of Betsson chief executive Pontus Lindwall, investor Christian Rasmussen, KL Capital AB and Mangold Fondkommisison AB.

Following the offering, Fantasma will list on the Nasdaq First North exchange from tomorrow (23 March).

“We feel incredibly inspired by the great interest we have seen from investors in our listing issue where more than 4,000 investors have requested subscriptions,” Fantasma chief executive Björn Kjellsson said.

“Together with the rest of the team at Fantasma, I look forward to bringing both old and new shareholders into the next phase of our development which promises to be incredibly exciting as we take the business to the next level.”

The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the Tennessee Education Lottery, which acts as the state’s regulator.

The operator informed the Lottery of suspicious activity from Action 24/7 accounts. The Lottery’s sports betting investigator Danny DiRienzo looked into this activity, and found evidence of one player who made 184 different deposits – some of more than $10,000 – from seven credit cards, none of which used his name, before withdrawing after “very little gameplay”.

“This was clearly a case of money laundering,” he said. “It was clearly a case of aggravated identity theft, clearly a case of wire fraud.”

Read the full story on iGB North America

The revised offer has been accepted by shareholders holding a total of 65.9m shares, approximately 94.2% of the total number of shares and votes in Enlabs.

All conditions for the completion of the offer have been satisfied, Entain said, and the operator has therefore declared the offer unconditional.

Payment for the Enlabs shares tendered by 18 March is expected to occur on or around 30 March, 2021.

The offer does not include warrants issued by Enlabs and acquired by employees under the company’s incentive programme.

In a separate offer, Entain has proposed acquiring all interests owned by the warrant holders at a price equal to the see-through value of the warrants on the basis of the offer price.

This separate offer has been accepted by holders of 1.35m out of a total 1.4m warrants allotted and transferred to participants in the incentive programme.

Entain has decided to extend the acceptance period until 1 April, 2021, to give remaining Enlabs shareholders more time to accept the deal.

This means the acquisition is expected to close around 13 April. Entain has said it will not extend the acceptance period further.

The operator now intends to initiate compulsory acquisition proceedings relating to Enlabs shares not tendered in the offer, and to request that the Enlabs board applies for a delisting of the shares from Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

Entain’s offer to acquire Enlabs was first put forward in January, with the operator offering to pay SEK40 per share for the business.

Full details of the offer were published later that month, with Entain explaining that the deal would help Enlabs expand into newer markets such as Ukraine and Belarus. The offer was subsequently increased in March, with Entain increasing the price from SEK40 to SEK53 per share, after which the majority of shareholders in Enlabs backed the offer

Blackstone has offered Aus$11.85 for each share in Crown for 90.1% of shares it does not currently own.

Crown said it is yet to fully review the proposal and has launched an assessment of the offer, during which it will engage with relevant stakeholders, including regulatory authorities.

The operator added that its shareholders do not need to take any action at this stage, saying there is no guarantee the offer will result in a transaction.

Crown has appointed UBS as financial adviser and Allens as legal adviser for the acquisition proposal.

The private equity group already owns a 9.99% in Crown, having acquired this from Asian gaming giant Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited in April 2020, at a price of $8.15 per share.

Melco had originally agreed to purchase a 19.99% stake in CPH Crown Holdings in May 2019 for approximately $1.76bn. With the deal to be conducted in two tranches, Melco purchased an initial 9.99% stake soon after it was agreed.

However, the deal gave rise to allegations about the businesses in the Australian press, which led to the New South Wales Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority launching an inquiry into Crown.

The inquiry was intended to examine whether Crown was a “suitable” licensee for a new integrated resort at Barangaroo in Sydney, and if not, what changes would be required to make it suitable.

The Authority also looked into whether Melco was suitable for its status as a close associate and whether the deal was a breach of the Barangaroo licence.

Shortly after the inquiry began, Melco delayed purchasing the second tranche of shares in Crown, then ultimately pulled out, selling the stake that it had already purchased to Blackstone.

The inquiry went on to find evidence of money laundering, both through the accounts of subsidiaries owned by Crown and at Crown’s own facilities.

Owner James Packer was also found to have undue influence on the business given he was not a director, including personally agreeing and executing the sale to Melco without approval from the board. As such, directors were unable to ensure the deal was not in breach of Crown’s Barangaroo licence.

The inquiry concluded that the evidence regarding money laundering alone was enough to determine that Crown was not a suitable holder of the Barangaroo licence.

However, it may still be permitted to operate the venue if it institutes certain changes.

Recommendations put forward by the Authority included that Crown continue to avoid dealing with junkets unless they are licensed by the Authority, while Packer should stop “remote manoeuvring”, referring to his practice of effectively running the company despite not sitting on the Crown board.

In addition, it was advised that Crown’s board be restructured.

Total stakes grew 41.6% year-on-year to $29.6m in February 2021, while handle was up 75.6% to $2.6m. However, turnover was down 15.0% and GGR was down by 30.6% when compared with January 2021.

In total 27,840 active players, up 22.7% placed bets at an average of $29.43 per player. This comes as the number of overall bets grew 29.6% to 1.0 million.

A majority of bets were placed pre-match, coming in at 659,054 compared to 346,560 live bets.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The two operators combined to bring in $1.3m on bets worth $15.3m.

Gambet, operated by the DC Lottery and powered by Intralot, saw players place 124,362 wagers, worth a combined $4.2m, down 19.7% from January. 

From these wagers, players won $3.6m, leaving $600,305 in revenue, down 25.6% month-on-month.

Read the full story on iGB North America

Spelinspektionen launched an investigation into Bayton and its registration and identification methods in April 2020, to ensure it was operating in line with new regulations introduced in Sweden in January 2019.

Malta-based Bayton, which holds a Swedish online gaming licence for its Jackpot City Casino, Ruby Fortune and Spin Casino brands, said it had been using BankID, alongside SPAR, a register of all people living in Sweden, to identify customers and ensure they were resident in the country.

Players who registered without BankID could only use a temporary account for up to 30 days without verifying their account with an ID document like a driving license or passport, as well as household bill or account statement that showed their registered residential address.

If a player had not verified themselves by this date, their temporary account with Bayton would be shut down.

However, Spelinspektionen said the existing setup potentially left the door open for players living outside Sweden to register and gamble with Bayton.

Spelinspektionen said while correspondence with SPAR and the use of BankID was in line with regulations, it raised concerns over the use of domestic bills and account statement to identify players. It said that these documents were not sufficient proof the customers were resident in Sweden.

Instead, the regulator said Bayton should request customer provide an identity card issued by the Swedish Tax Agency, as this would provide proof of their permanent residence in the country.

“It is not possible to assess whether one person is registered or has resided in Sweden for at least six months based on one documentation that only consists of a single invoice, bank statement,” Spelinspektionen said.

“Against this background, the Spelinspektionen considers that Bayton’s routines for ITS KYC process is deficient because there is a risk that the company will register customers who are not resident or permanently residing in Sweden within the meaning of the Gaming Act.”

Spelinspektionen ordered Bayton’s to undertake a review of its KYC procedures and make the required changes before reporting back to the regulator by 1 June this year.

Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that English betting shops would be able to resume operations alongside other non-essential retail as part of the country’s roadmap out of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) lockdown.

However, adult gaming centres, alongside casinos and bingo halls, will not be permitted to reopen until the next stage of the roadmap on 17 May, when a number of other Covid-19 restrictions will be eased.

However, Gauselmann (pictured) has written to the Prime Minister, as well as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng, to outline his concerns over the plans.

Gauselmann called for a review of the decision, setting out his “disappointment and regret” that adult gaming centres will not be able to reopen alongside other non-essential retail next month, saying the two venues are similar in terms of size and customer turnover.

The Gauselmann Group operates the Cashino chain of adult gaming centres in the UK through its Merkur division. There are 174 Cashino locations in the country.

“Our venues attract comparably small numbers of customers who do not stay for long,” Gauselmann said. “For this reason, we cannot understand the decision which permits betting shops to open even though they operate the same gaming machines. 

“This puts us at a great competitive disadvantage and we fear a long-term loss of loyal customers as a result.”

Gauselmann added that any further delay in reopening could harm any planned future investment by the Gauselmann Group.

“I am very concerned about the stress this recent decision places on our business and whether we can continue to invest as we had planned,” Gauselmann said.

“We appreciate the government has to make very difficult decisions, but cannot see why, in terms of infection protection, entirely unproblematic businesses should be prevented from opening.” 

The initial invitation to interested parties saw five companies put themselves forward, with this quintet all invited to submit initial questionnaires. 

With two of the five now cut, the three to move forward are Casinos Austria International, Oshidori International Development and its partner Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, and Niki Chyau Fwu Group. 

Niki Chyau Fwu Group comprises Japenese commercial real estate developer The Niki Group and Taiwanese construction business Chyau Fwu Group, also known as Parkview Group.

The two that have failed to progress are One Kyushu, a consortium led by Japanese conglomerate Pixel Companyz and featuring France’s Groupe Partouche, and Current Group. 

Current Group comprised junket operator Guangdong Group, Japan’s Current Corporation, Get Nice Holdings, property investor Success Universe Group and Hong Kong-listed ITC Properties. 

The trio that move forward will now be required to complete a second set of questions about their plans for the venue, which will be located on the site of the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo. 

They will also have to undergo an audit by an independent investigator to ensure the business is fit to run an integrated resort, with a view to selecting the final partner by August this year. 

The Japanese government’s selection process to choose three integrated resorts sites is also still to run, though the Nagasaki prefectural government expects that to be finalised in summer or autumn this year. 

Construction on the property would then be subject to consent from the citizens of Sasebo, with construction unlikely to begin before 2023, and the venue not expected to open for years after. 

There are currently a number of cities in contention for one of the three IR sites alongside Sasebo. The capital Tokyo, Yokohama, Okinawa, Osaka and Wakayama could also host one of the facilities. 

The project was greenlit by the government in July 2018, and aims to encourage tourism with sites featuring multiple commercial and cultural attractions. 

Legislation states that the resorts can dedicate no more than 3% of their floorspace to gambling, while local citizens will be required to pay an entry fee.

Vainiomäki takes on the role having previously worked for Danske Bank, where she was country manager for Finland and also spent time as head of business banking in the country.

Prior to this, Vainiomäki spent time with Nordea and has also served on the boards of a number of organisations, including Finance Finland, Varma and Danske Bank Russia.

Vainiomäki’s appointment was approved at this week’s annual general meeting, where it was also announced that Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will continue as chair of the board.

Veikkaus also confirmed that Christian Cedercreutz, Pekka Hurtola, Anne Larilahti, Juha Pantzar and Hanna Sievinen will continue as members.

Jukka Gustafsson will continue as chairman of Veikkaus’ supervisory board and Jani Mäkelä as deputy chairman.

Earlier this month, Veikkaus published its results for the financial year 2020, showing a total profit of €680.2m (£580.8m/$809.2m), down 32.6% on the previous year.