Category: News

The permit will allow SoftSwiss to work with licensed operators in Nigeria and deploy its igaming software in Africa’s most populous country.

SoftSwiss said the new licence forms part of its ongoing strategy to focus on growth in regulated markets around the world.

“Entering the Nigerian market marks an exceptional turning point for SoftSwiss, as we’re expanding our global presence to a brand new continent,” the supplier’s founder Ivan Montik said.

“Nigeria is considered one of the most fast-paced igaming markets in terms of growth and we cannot wait to begin providing our services there.

“Nigeria is a great achievement for us and we’re planning on moving even further into other regulated markets.”

The licence comes after SoftSwiss last week announced the launch of Affilka, a new affiliate marketing platform designed for sportsbooks.

The MGA licence will allow ESA to distribute its collection of mobile gaming products, aimed at increasing player engagement and allowing for cross-selling across sportsbook and casino players, to a range of new operator partners.

The company’s EasySwipe products are lightweight, HTML5, mobile-first games that can be integrated into sportsbooks, allowing bettors to engage in casino play without disrupting the sports betting experience.

“The accreditation of our products by the MGA marks a very exciting step for us as we look to continue our upward trajectory,” said Zorica Smallwood, the supplier’s chief executive.

“Being granted our MGA licence is vital for us as we continue to gain partners across a number of jurisdictions, while also allowing us to maintain the highest level of compliance with our products.”

In addition to its new MGA licence, ESA already holds certifications for the Italian and Colombian markets.

In October, the supplier signed a deal with Sportingtech, whose partners were subsequently granted access to ESA’s portfolio of EasySwipe titles.

In January, the MGA confirmed that it had appointed Dr Carl Brincat, previously the regulator’s chief legal and enforcement officer, as its new chief executive.

Brincat took over from Heathcliff Farrugia, who announced he would stand down from the role in October 2020.

Alina Yakirevich at CMO of Fonbet with extensive experience in all marketing areas – TV, Digital advertising, BTL-communications, printed and radio advertising, PR, SMM, SEO and context, content and native advertising, as well as B2B marketing. Yakirevich has reorganised and set up the work of Fonbet’s marketing team in all divisions and established KPIs that reflect the most important business goals of the company.

In the current climate, people’s focus seems to be firmly on the future – but in this people can forget their roots. 

Knowing where you’re going is one thing, but the strongest strategies are built on learning’s from the past. With this in mind, iGB spoke with Alina Yakirevich, CMO at Fonbet to learn about their origins, and what lessons they picked up on the way.

Founded in 1994 by a chess grandmaster who saw an opportunity in gambling, Fonbet’s roots are firmly in sports fanaticism. Yakirevich says: “Due to the interest of just a single founder, we grew into the largest and most recognisable betting company in the CIS. If you do what you love and you’re good at that, then you’re bound to succeed.”

Setting up for success

The early days established a strong sense of independence in the team at Fonbet, with Yakirevich saying they always created their own odds.

Today, this strategy has paid off, allowing Fonbet to pivot quickly in times of crisis, such as its esports focus in light of COVID-19. Yakirevich continues, explaining that generally, Fonbet handles a lot of its business in-house: “One of our main competitive advantages is that we have our own development and marketing teams. Our business is quite complicated and niche, so we feel it is important to help our staff grow from within.”

However, the journey has not been without its challenges – despite this, Yakirevich says the company always strives to turn difficulties into opportunities: “For example, more than a decade ago, when our main business was offline, a new law on user verification was passed in Russia. 

“Players used to be able to just come to betting shops, place bets, pay for them and get a receipt. There wasn’t any requirement to show ID. However, the new law required customers to verify their identity by showing their passport.”

With fears that this might damage the market due to players valuing privacy, Fonbet innovated around this regulation and developed a procedure where customers only needed to confirm their identity once.

“We also developed our own betting terminals and were the first in Russia to launch them. When customers log on, they instantly verify themselves with their Fonbet card and can bet as much as they like.” 

The introduction of betting terminals and Fonbet player cards helped the brand increase average bets, says Yakirevich: “If this law had never been adopted in Russia, then we probably would have never implemented these changes, or only done so much later.”

Maintaining focus

The mission for Fonbet has always been leading with a balanced and customer-friendly product. 

To achieve this, Fonbet committed to building a fast, reliable and convenient product: “Betting companies usually focus on and prioritise a single area, while neglecting other promising opportunities.”

“Fonbet employs more than 400 traders and offers a very fast, customer-friendly product with good marketing. We’re proud of our fast payouts and high betting and withdrawal limits. Our company is focused on the mass market customers, but we also offer a special programme for VIP players.”

Now, Yakirevich says, the road to success is in expansion, with plans to add to its list of licenses in legal markets: “Fonbet is currently developing in Kazakhstan and Belarus, with plans to expand to Ukraine and other countries as well, since our brand is already well known in these markets.”

“A lot of the marketing tools we already use in Russia also work well in the CIS. This market feels like home for us, and we expect a quick ROI. The people who live there share a similar mentality to us. However, CIS countries have certain drawbacks, including weak currencies and unstable legislation.”

New markets, new opportunities

To keep momentum and build long-term prosperity, Fonbet is also looking beyond the CIS region: ”We’re already operating in Cyprus, and also currently launching in Greece and other new markets. These European countries have a more stable currency and economy.”

Of course, with new markets come new challenges. In addition to legislation, there are also differences in marketing and development strategies: “The local mindset needs to be considered, and a new team of local specialists need to be hired to help understand all the nuances. 

Part of this is in the art of letting go: “It’s crucial to understand which processes can be carried out from the main office, and which need to be delegated to the regional level. You need to rely on local partners and employees because they’re the ones out there in the real world. 

“There’s nothing wrong with admitting a mistake and going back to the drawing board to see how to fix it. Keep your eye on the numbers and know that reports are king.”

Additionally, strategic sponsorships are key to Fonbet’s strategy: “When we enter a new market, we focus on helping to develop local sports. Our partner in Kazakhstan is the Barys ice hockey team, and we’re also currently in negotiations with top Belarusian clubs.”

“We partner with world football leaders, including Real Madrid, Milan and PSG, to help our brand reach a broad global audience. “

“In Russia, our overall strategy is to sponsor leagues and national teams (KHL, VTB United League, the Russian national football team). This ensures our media presence and helps build trust. In addition, we wanted to strengthen our presence in football and hockey, so we also partner with PFC CSKA and collaborate on KHL projects with Spartak and Avangard.”

The scheme, first agreed at an extraordinary general meeting in June 2020, will run between 1 March and 30 April, with the aim of returning excess cash to shareholders.

Kindred will be able repurchase up to 2,000,000 of its own shares, but must also ensure its holding does not exceed 10% of total outstanding shares in the group.

Share repurchases will be made on the Nasdaq Stockholm in Sweden, with the operator only permitted to spend up to SEK190m. Payments must also be made in cash.

Following the programme, Kindred intends to cancel the repurchased shares, subject to approval at its annual general meeting in May.

The current total number of outstanding shares in Kindred is 230,126,200, with the operator only holding 2,971,358 shares.

Confirmation of the programme comes after Kindred last month reveal that its full-year revenue in 2020 passed the £1bn mark for the first time, thanks to new highs in active customers and major growth in new markets.

Full year revenue grew 23.9% to £1.13bn for the year.

Total revenue for the month amounted to $3.7m (£2.7m/€3.1m), up from $3.3m in January 2020 and also 48.8% higher than the $2.5m recorded in December last year.

Mobile betting accounted for $2.1m of all revenue in the month, while land-based revenue, split between the Twin River Casino and Tiverton Casino, amounted to $1.6m.

Players wagered a record $39.8m on sports during the month, up 48.0% year-on-year and also 74.6% more than in December 2020.

Some $21.9m was wagered on mobile in January, compared to $17.9m at the two land-based sportsbooks at the Twin River Casino and Tiverton Casino.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

The latest figures from the Chinese special administrative region’s regulator the Direcção de Inspecção e Coordenação de Jogos (DICJ) show that February revenue came to MOP7.31bn (£655.7m/€759.4m/$915.4m). 

This was up significantly from February 2020, when casinos were ordered to shut their doors five days into the month as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is the first time that revenue has risen year-on-year since September 2019.

For that month, revenue came to MOP3.10bn, despite operations resuming from 20 February. Since February, social distancing requirements on properties have been in place, with travel to and from Macau heavily restricted. 

This meant that revenue for February 2021 remained far behind results for non-Covid years. For example, Macau’s casinos reported revenue of MOP25.37bn for February 2019. 

This year’s February total was also down 8.9% compared to January 2021, when revenue for the market came to MOP8.02bn. 

Looking ahead, there is some scope for optimism. On 23 February, the Macau government lifted the 14-day quarantine requirements for the cities of Shijiazhuang in Hebei province and Suihua in Heilongjiang province. 

This meant that for the first time since February last year, no travellers would be required to self-isolate upon entering Macau. These controls had largely cut off tourism to Macau, and its casinos’ main customer base, resulting in revenue falling 79.3% to MOP60.44bn for the year. 

However, the Chinese government is also ramping up efforts to limit citizens’ gambling. It is looking to impose financial and travel restrictions on citizens that travel abroad to gamble, and crack down on illegal junkets to destinations outside the Chinese mainland, especially over the Lunar New Year holiday.

The operator said the main reason for the decrease was disruption to the business caused by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which saw slot machines closed entirely or in part for a total of around five months.

Gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the year was €1.26bn, down 25.5%, and the operator said the pandemic had reduced its GGR by more than €300m throughout the year.

Of the total GGR, 56.6% came from the points of sale of the operator’s retail network, while 43.4% came from its digital channel, up 11.6%.

The increased share attributed to the digital channel occurred as a result of a drop in the share of point-of-sales gaming following slot machine closures, the operator said.

Of the total gaming figure, 58.1% was authenticated, using ID checks. The proportion of slot gaming which was authenticated was just 11.5% after the operator piloted ID requirements for slots from October. In January of this year, it rolled this requirement out nationwide.

The total Finnish gambling market saw GGR of €1.59bn, down 21%, meaning Veikkaus’ market share was around 80%.

The operator’s share of the total online market was around 63%, and the total amount wagered on Veikkaus games was around €8.20bn.

The average prevalence of problem gambling in the country, according to two surveys commissioned from the Taloustutkimus market research company, was around 2.5%.

Veikkaus said that even when slot machines were open, outside the four months of closure in spring and again in large parts of the country from November, a smaller proportion of the machines was allowed to open, in order to ensure a safe distance between the machines as required by Covid-19 safety measures.

In addition to the slot closures, revenues were affected by the lack of professional sports worldwide which caused a reduction in the availability of betting markets.

“We had to take major, even difficult, decisions, on a tight schedule at Veikkaus due to the coronavirus epidemic in 2020, in order to protect the health of our staff, customers, and retailers,” said Regina Sippel, the operator’s chief financial officer.

“To Veikkaus, just as to many other companies, the year of the coronavirus was challenging; however, it was also a year of positive, remarkable solutions that have enabled the building of a more responsible gaming environment.”

The operator’s strategy and CSR programme were updated in 2020, with a focus on player responsibility.

“The updated strategy is based on an even safer and more responsible Gaming environment, said Hanna Kyrki, SVP legal affairs and CSR.

“Despite the challenges and insecurity caused by the epidemic, we made major decisions to work on the building of a more responsible gaming environment in 2020.”

One of the major changes made to its policy was a reduction in the total number of slot machines on its retail network, by around 8,000, or 40% of its machines. The maximum number of machines permitted in one location is now 4, whereas previously the largest retail units could have up to 15 slot machines.

The operator also began to prepare for the compulsory identification of players across all of its games in 2020, which it hopes to enforce by 2023.

It has been estimated that the introduction of compulsory authentication for players will reduce player losses by around €300m each year.

The operator also introduced a €500 maximum daily loss limit for “fast-paced online games” such as online lottery games, slots, bingo and table games, with an exception for poker. The loss limit is expected to remain in place until at least March 2021.

Made by Sport will manage the distribution of funds to clubs struggling with the financial impact of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The £4.8m donation being made by Flutter is the amount it benefitted from as a result of business rates relief, which was put in place from March 2020 to March 2021 for its shops in England.

Flutter’s Cash4Clubs initiative launched in 2008 and has given almost £800,000 to clubs over the past 12 years, including £165,000 in grants in 2020.

“Lack of funding is not a new issue for community clubs which is why we originally set up our Cash4Clubs programme,” Flutter group chief executive Peter Jackson said.

“But now help is needed more than ever and working with Made by Sport to provide a fund for ‘Clubs In Crisis’ is a great way for us to pass the benefit of business rates relief straight into the communities where that funding is most needed.”

Made by Sport chairman Justin King added: “With a quarter of all sports clubs in the UK facing permanent closure, community sport is facing a crisis. As we look to the future and rebuilding our communities, the role of grassroots sports in helping to tackle some of the key social issues exacerbated by the pandemic will be ever more important.

“This fund will reach some of the smallest and hardest hit clubs, and for many this will be the difference between permanent closure and the chance to continue the great work they do to address the social inequalities that exist in our communities.”

Last week, the Betting and Gaming Council appealed to Chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend business rates relief for a further year, saying this would support betting shops and casinos that have been forced to close for much of the pandemic.

Introduced in March last year, this relief meant retail, leisure and hospitality businesses were exempt from paying business rates for 12 months. This initially did not apply to gambling business, but was eventually extended to the industry.

MediaTroopers has been operating in the US state via an interim licence granted in June 2020, and the new permit will allow it to continue working with licensed operators in West Virginia.

The agency is also licensed and operates in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa, while it was approved to go live in Virginia in January.

MediaTroopers specialises in digital media, mobile advertising and customer acquisition strategy for online gambling operators in the US.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

Why have you decided to introduce a new vision and mission now? What’s behind the timing?
Nir Elbaz: The combination of the company entering a new phase of growth and maturity as well as the shift we have seen in online products in the last year led us to re-evaluate our approach and positioning and create a new brand manifesto which embraces all those elements. This is encapsulated within our new creative expression of ‘Serious Fun’ which outlines our commitment to delivering fun experiences in a professional way. 

I’ve been in igaming for a long time and learned that trends change in the online world at lightning speed. If you don’t adapt, then you will be left behind very quickly. We are now in a great position to grow even faster and more efficiently across an even wider range of products and markets and our renewed focus puts us in pole position to achieve our goals. 

Tell us more about the cultural shift you are rolling out throughout the business? Why have you brought this in and what do you hope to achieve from the new mission, vision and values you have set out? 
We have recruited heavily in line with growth across our games development, GAP platform, and business intelligence teams. We have also bolstered our executive management in HR, marketing, technology and product, and business development. It therefore felt like the ideal time to re-examine our strategy, purpose and positioning within an increasingly competitive industry and the role we play in that global ecosystem.

I repeatedly talk about our journey but that is exactly what we are on, and to stand out from the rest of the industry we need to have a clear vision of where we are heading. Our goal is to create an outstanding company culture and our new brand manifesto places our employees, our partners and their players at the core of our success, growth and sustainability.

Our vision is to create a great place to work built on a foundation of our values: respect, curiosity and passion. A rewarding culture with a clear purpose that provides room for personal growth to make iSoftBet stronger. 

What does the shift from ‘Simply Play’ to ‘Serious Fun’ mean? 
It shows just how far we have come, how much we have grown and how central we are to the success of large parts of our industry. 

Our new creative expression captures our three core values within two memorable words, showcasing our professional approach and high quality. It equally emphasises our role within the entertainment industry and that fun is central to everything we do and deliver. This is often forgotten in igaming, but I really believe it should be key to everything not only we do, but also the rest of the industry. 

You have ambitious plans for the year and the longer-term future as well. Can you outline what your strategy is for 2021 and beyond? 
Our global growth is being driven by the introduction of best-performing game IP, for example, our partnership with Big Time Gaming and their Megaways titles where we have seen huge customer appetite. Equally, the growth of our Hold & Win games such as Gold Digger and combining them with other popular features such as Megaways, entwined with the continued success of proprietary products like ‘Twisted Tales’, have meant we clearly stand out from our competitors and regularly appear in the best performing content. This has also been augmented by the growth of our GAP platform, its unique features and player engagement solutions such as iNgame. We have also made great strides in game and platform development and operators are really responding to what we’re doing. 

GAP has been a huge success due to its effortless, out-of-the-box integration making life easier for operators and, as more markets such as Greece and the Netherlands in Europe and countries in Latin America open to regulated real money gaming, we expect this to continue to grow. 

The supplier market is saturated. Where does the business really stand out and where do you see yourselves positioned in the market? 
There has been a ‘sea of sameness’ washing over much of the industry for some time and we believe we are the antithesis to this. Brands are desperate for differentiation and we offer precisely that creating highly entertaining and compelling content for engaged and diverse gambling audiences. 

We have exciting plans to accelerate our marketing strategy and activities over the course of 2021 across quarterly integrated campaigns, all of which will engage our audiences in new and exciting ways. 

We always strive to go above and beyond and our new campaigns will challenge the status quo, place amazing experiences and entertainment front and centre, and reaffirm our position in the market as a driving force in standout casino games and aggregation.

This is why we have launched our new manifesto and are committed to going the extra mile to achieving great results for our partners. 

What are the three key things you hope to achieve in the next 12 months? 
First and foremost, now we have set out a new brand manifesto we must live and breathe our values and work hard to implement these every day. 

Secondly, I want our values, and our mantra of ‘Serious Fun’ to touch everything we do and generate tangible results. You will see that shining through not just in our marketing and creative expression, but also in the games and products we release and our integrated quarterly campaigns. 

This kicked off with our Queen of Wonderland campaign last year where we involved every stakeholder in the launch including operators, streamers and the media to give them a fully immersive experience. This set the benchmark for the types of activity we will introduce and you will soon see another in Q2 with both our latest Twisted Tales Game, Moriarty, the arch nemesis of detective Sherlock Holmes. 

The third element I want us to achieve is to continue to drive the industry with best-performing games – continually developing our proprietary mechanics and features that have been so well received. We also have planned to make further strides within engagement solutions and platform development including enhancements to our iNgame tournament tools and introducing new verticals such as customised games and real-time features to name a few.

You have hired extensively during 2020, where have these roles been predominantly and what do you aim to bolster within the business as a result? 
We have hired continually throughout 2020, particularly within our product teams with an emphasis to developing more proprietary content and mechanics. We have worked hard to secure some fantastic talent and we are now in a position of huge strength from a development and customer service perspective. Now it is about empowering the team to own and deliver the new vision in terms of enthusiasm, commitment and expertise, and I’m excited to see this already being successfully put into place this quarter.

The C-level executive team has also seen several additions. What results are you seeing from their addition? 
We have also significantly bolstered our senior management team to further accelerate our growth with key appointments such as a new CMO from Microsoft, new Head of HR, new Chief Technology Officer as well as a new Head of Business Development, all of whom are committed to our new brand manifesto and who are pushing me and the rest of the team to innovate and achieve even more.

Since they have come in, the management team have really taken ownership of our vision and the drive and quality of output has been phenomenal. This is the result of strong recruitment. The importance of a great team around me has always been a major focus. I am very proud of the talent we have attracted and can’t wait to see the business unleash its full potential in the months and years to come.

Investment in content, technology and platform development has been noticeable in the last few months, what have you done in these areas and what benefits are you seeing and expecting to generate from this? 
Throughout 2020 and into 2021 we have kept at our commitment to increasing our games production values and offering game titles that players really want. This has been key, and we have seen some great results. 

We have also further boosted our already high-quality production values and our talented teams have worked tirelessly on improving our games framework. In addition, we have further broadened our data visualisation and analytics solutions products providing our partners with in-depth game and feature performance so they can understand player engagement levels and benchmark against the market. This is a great springboard for us to do bigger and better things into 2021 and beyond. 

The investment is already paying off and this is just the beginning in terms of our ability to rapidly support operators. They need to instantly launch in regulated markets and our powerful aggregation platform aggregation enables them to effortlessly do that.

Not only do our games benefit from this, but so do our third-party partners’ games. Every product is treated equally in terms of speed-to-market and access to added-value engagement tools. 

This year we will also get even closer to our people and players and fine-tune our new titles to give them the experiences they want. We have a strong pipeline of Megaways titles, Hold and Win games, further instalments in the Twisted Tales series and some top-secret new features. 

Our mission is to build quality gaming products that inspire, innovate and entertain, always placing players and our partners at the heart of everything we do.