Category: News

Kontomerkos will officially move aside from the role on March 31, with current chief operating officer Ray Pineault to step in as interim chief executive, subject to regulatory approvals.

Kontomerkos joined MGE in September 2011 as chief financial officer, remaining in the role until October 2017, after which he went on to serve as CEO.

“During his tenure with the organisation, first as CFO and more recently as CEO, Mario played a critical role in the growth and success of the organisation,” Mohegan Tribe chairman James Gessner, Jr. said.

“We thank Mario for his many years of service to the Tribe and MGE, more recently navigating the company successfully through the ongoing global pandemic as well as a major refinancing earlier this year.”

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The merger, announced in December 2020, has a combined entity value of £6.8bn ($9.0bn/€7.4bn).

“We have assembled a best-in-class board of directors comprised of proven, high-calibre leaders with extremely relevant but diverse perspectives.” said Paysafe CEO Philip McHugh.

The new board will consist of 11 directors with decades of industry experience.

“I am very excited to work with the strong slate of directors upon merger completion.” added chairman William P. Foley. “Over the course of the last few months I have come to know Philip and the Paysafe team very well and am looking forward to continuing the journey, enhancing Paysafe’s growth trajectory through accelerated operational transformation and M&A.”

Other board members include Jim Murren, who was CEO of MGM Resorts International from December 2008 until February 2020, and Hilary Stewart-Jones, a UK lawyer that has assisted gambling companies and associated businesses since 1995 and has worked at law firm Harris Hagan.

The remaining new members are Anthony Jabbour of business analytics providers Dun & Bradstreet and Black Knight; former Morgan Stanley Frankfurt chief executive Dagmar Kollmann and Blackstone managing director Jonathan Murphy.

They join existing board members Philip McHugh, Matthew Bryant, Walter Macnee, Eli Nagler and Peter Rutland.

Guyot, who now becomes the first member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation to serve as Foxwoods chief executive, first took over in an interim capacity when John J. James stepped down last year after nine months in charge.

Prior to this, he was senior vice president of resort operations for the operator.

The tribe said that Guyot was “instrumental” in leading Foxwoods through the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which it said led to “one of its most challenging and difficult years”.

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Image: Folks at 137 at wikipedia

The news follows a similar agreement with Connecticut’s other exclusive gaming rights holder, the Mohegan Tribe, that was announced earlier this month.

The new agreement, covering both tribes, features some minor amendments to that deal.

Though online casino gaming was initially set to be taxed at 20% in the Mohegan Tribe’s deal, it will now be taxed at 18% for the first five years and 20% thereafter for both operators. Sports betting will continue to be taxed at 13.75%.

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The agreement will see Bally’s become an authorised gaming partner of MLB, with the operator gaining access to official MLB league and team marks, logos and data.

Bally’s will also include MLB assets as part of content it is creating for MLB fans. This will be integrated into live MLB game coverage across 19 regional sports networks that account for more than half of the US-based MLB franchises.

In addition, Bally’s and MLB will collaborate on best-in-class practices to protect the integrity of MLB games.

“The agreement between Bally’s and MLB offers exciting benefits for baseball fans nationwide,” Bally’s president and chief executive George Papanier said.

“We are honoured to have the opportunity to put the Bally’s stamp on America’s national pastime and look forward to providing an innovative and engaging sports betting experience.”

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Developed by Greentube subsidiary Bluebat Games, Greentube Pro 2.0 is built for brick-and-mortar casinos, allowing them to target players off-property. 

It features monetisation and retention mechanics, to enhance player engagement both in-app and for the land-based venue, as well as free-to-play variants of almost 200 real-money games. 

“Our focus from the beginning has been to improve the CRM and to offer our clients premium tools and features that will maximise their revenue and help boost player engagement,” said Bluebat vice president of product and managed services Miruna Bicoli. 

“We are very eager to see all our clients on the new platform and we look forward to releasing additional features that will ensure they can stay highly competitive in the social casino industry.”

It features monetisation and retention mechanics, to enhance player engagement both in-app and for the land-based venue, as well as free-to-play versions of more than 183 real-money games. 

Australia’s Star Entertainment Group has become Greentube’s first client to roll out Pro 2.0, while all other clients using its social products will be migrated to the new product by the end of the third quarter. 

“With Greentube Pro 2.0 we want to provide land-based casinos with a social casino product that allows them to engage their players outside the brick-and-mortar properties with content that they wouldn’t be able to play unless they were on the casino floor,” Greentube chief operating officer Georg Gubo explained. 

“Our offering has never been more relevant with retail venues being forced to stay closed, but with Greentube Pro 2.0 and its features and tools aimed at increasing loyalty, operators can engage and retain players until they can return to the land-based properties.”

OPAP’s fully-owned subsidiary OPAP Investment Ltd will now enact sole control over SMGC with its 84.48% ownership stake.

This comes after a two-year process to secure control over Stoiximan. OPAP received Greek approval for acquisition of Stoiximan in November 2019, followed by a majority acquisition of 51% in August 2020.

This upped OPAP’s stake to 69%, as it already had an 18% holding.

OPAP then obtained an additional 15.48% stake in November 2020, bringing the total stake to 84.48%.

In the same month the operator announced plans to acquire the remaining 14.52% of SMGC.

Betsson’s Brazil-based customers will be given access to two types of daily fantasy sports game, free-to-play, and fixed buy-in, offering larger prize pools.

“In order to provide the largest network of pooled DFS operators we must ensure that we partner with the biggest names in the business and we undoubtedly count Betsson Group among these must-have operators,” said Joakim Renman, chief commercial officer at Scout Gaming Group.

“We are thrilled to see our games go live with its flagship brand and for its players in Brazil to be able to enjoy the fun and entertaining experience our games provide while also giving them the chance to win some truly incredible prizes.”

Ciara Nic Liam, commercial director for gaming at Betsson Group, added: “We go to great lengths to offer players at our brands the best possible experience and a major part of this is the content and games we stock in our lobbies. Fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports are tremendously popular and something our players are seeking.

“Of course, we wanted to be able to offer them the best Fantasy experience in the world and that is why partnering with the Scout Gaming Group was an absolute must. Its fantasy platform is undoubtedly the best and will prove to be hugely popular with our players in Brazil.”

Results published last month showed that Betsson posted a net profit of almost SEK1bn (£86.8m/€98.9m/$119.6m) in 2020, following an increase in year-on-year revenue driven by a series of new acquisitions.

Scout, meanwhile, reported a total loss of SEK54.6m in 2020, despite an 82.5% year-on-year increase in revenue. Overall revenue for the 12 months through to 31 December 2020 amounted to SEK46.9m, up from SEK25.7m in the previous financial year.

The companies have worked together since 2017, when they formed an agreement under which Scout Gaming would deliver a DFS platform, with Betsson able to offer the complete solution across its subsidiaries and to all customers.

The agreement will see Playtech supply content including live casino across the three brands’ online gambling offerings for their operations in markets throughout Europe.

Playtech will continue to provide exclusive dedicated studios for Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Casino for their live casino offerings, including the exclusive launch of Sky Vegas Live Casino.

“Over the years we have built a very successful partnership and are excited to continue offering our customers access to software from one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-quality gaming product,” Flutter UK and Ireland chief executive Conor Grant said.

Playtech chief operating officer Shimon Akad added Flutter is one of Playtech’s key strategic partners, and so this new long-term agreement to supply our innovative software and services across four key product verticals is significant.

“This is testament to the long standing and strong relations between Flutter and Playtech, and we look forward to continuing to work with Flutter in its core markets to support Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Casino over the next five years,” he said,

The bill, House Bill 0133, which is set to authorize online sports betting within the state of Wyoming, was defeated in a vote last week by a 32-28 margin, but on a second attempt it passed, also by a vote of 32-28.

The bill was introduced by representative Tom Walters.

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