Betting News – Page 30

August 2, 2024

Betsson bolsters betting tech with Sporting Solutions acquisition

Betsson Group has agreed a deal to acquire Sporting Solutions’ trading, pricing and sports betting risk-management offerings from FDJ Group.
Announcing the deal, Betsson said it would integrate Sporting Solutions’ advanced pricing feeds for both pre-match and live betting, strengthening both its B2C and B2B sportsbook offerings.

Established in 2007, Sporting Solutions is a UK-facing business but also operates in Canada and South Africa, working with several major operators and lotteries including 888Sport, Ladbrokes Coral, SkyBet, William Hill and Norsk Tipping and Betsson, who have partnered with the platform for over 10 years.

Sporting Solutions will continue to provide services to its B2B betting partners, it said in a statement on LinkedIn.

The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals and certain other conditions. Once the deal gains the necessary clearance, as expected by both parties, the acquisition will close. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed..

August 1, 2024

Ohio: FanDuel passes DraftKings to retake the lead in June

Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel retook the lead in the Ohio online sports betting market in June, a month in which statewide revenue and handle fell to a calendar-year low.
Players in Ohio spent a total of $529.8m (£413.6m/€490.7m) across online and retail during June. This is 46.4% ahead of last year but 13.4% behind May and lower than any month so far in 2024.

Online betting accounted for $516.1m of all bets in June, with retail contributing $13.7m.

Players won $473.6m while $5m worth of wagers were voided. This left $51.2m in gross gaming revenue, up 57.1% from last year but 24% less than May’s total.

Of all gross gaming revenue in June, $50.5m came from online betting and $724,376 retail sportsbooks.

June’s results mean for the year-to-date, gross gaming revenue in Ohio stands at $435.6m. This includes $428.5m from the online market and $7.1m the retail sector.

FanDuel leads the Ohio pack in June
Looking at individual operators, FanDuel recovered from its second-placed finish ..

August 1, 2024

Nebraska lawmakers seem unprepared to consider digital wagering; it’s not clear they must

A Nebraska legislative committee late on Wednesday (31 July) heard testimony on five bills about an expansion of gaming in the state. Committee members appeared uneducated on the subject, which may already be legal.
In 2020, Nebraska voters approved an expansion of gaming when they passed an initiative that made “games of chance” legal. At the time, there was some question as to whether or not a game of chance includes sports betting. But the legislature later determined it does. That fact begs the question as to why the legislature feels it needs to pass laws that would make digital sports betting legal.

In 2022, Nebraska’s Racing and Gaming Commission declined to include language about digital betting in its regulations. Stakeholders asked the commission to include such language. The current law defines a gaming device as any “electronic, mechanical or other device which plays a game of chance when activated by a player”. It goes on to explain that sports wagers may be placed on “..

August 1, 2024

UKGC data: Record quarter for online gambling activity in Britain

Great Britain’s online gross gambling yield (GGY) increased by 12% year-on-year to £1.46bn (€1.73bn/$1.87bn) in Q2, with the total number of bets and spins reaching a record high for the second consecutive quarter.
Players in Britain placed 24.5 billion bets and spins in Q2 (April to June), representing an increase of 11% on last year and a new quarterly record since the UKGC began publishing player data in 2019.

Breaking down the UKGC data, online slots were the primary source of GGY at £642m, noting a rise of 10% from last year. May proved the busiest month for online slots gaming with GGY hitting £217.9m.

Consumers placed a total of 22.4 billion spins during the quarter, which is up 12% on last year. However, slot session length was marginally shorter at 17 minutes, compared to just under 18 minutes in the previous year.

As for how many people were playing online slots, total active players in this segment hit 13.3 million for the period. This represents a year-on-year increase..

August 1, 2024

Bally’s execs tout online growth, Chicago casino progress during second-quarter earnings call

Executives from Bally's Corp. were triumphant on Wednesday (31 July) in their presentation of the company's future prospects in Chicago, Las Vegas and online. The company reported $622m in overall revenue, a year-on-year increase of 3%.
Bally’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday featured optimistic presentations from CEO Robeson Reeves, president George Papanier and CFO Marcus Glover. Of its three verticals, two reported year-over-year growth in Q2. Its casino operations and North American digital segments posted gains of 3% and 95%, respectively. Its international interactive division declined 7%.

The big spike in digital was due mainly to the company’s March launch of igaming in Rhode Island. Internationally, Reeves said that its UK performance was strong but lagged elsewhere, mainly Asia, leading to the overall segment decline.

The trio did not comment on or field questions about Bally’s biggest development, last week’s takeover from Standard General. There was..

July 31, 2024

Bill to repeal US gambling excise tax filed

On Wednesday (31 July) a pair of US senators filed a bill calling for the repeal of the US federal excise tax on gambling. The 0.25% excise tax on the amount of any legal wager is levied above and beyond state taxes.
Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (Mississippi) filed the bill. Called the “Withdrawing Arduous Gaming Excise Rates Act,” the acronym is “the WAGER Act.” The American Gaming Association (AGA), a trade group, almost immediately came out in favour of the bill. The legislation, the AGA said, would save operators tens of millions of dollars per year in taxes.

“The federal sports betting excise tax was enacted more than 70 years ago as a tool to prosecute illegal sports betting operators,” the AGA wrote in a statement. “Today, with sports betting legal in 38 states and Washington DC, this antiquated tax puts legal operators at a competitive disadvantage and rewards illegal offshore bookmakers that pay no federal or state taxes, offer no responsible..

July 30, 2024

Nebraska lawmakers could be first in US in 2024 to legalise or expand gambling

Nearly seven months into the year, no US jurisdiction has legalised or expanded gambling. Will Nebraska be the first?
Nebraska’s state legislature started a special session last week and, on Wednesday (30 July), the general affairs committee will debate five bills that could legalise digital sports betting and daily fantasy sports.

At the heart of the move to legalise digital sports betting is Nebraska’s high property taxes, which fund education. According to one of the bills, the state ranks among the top 10 in the US in “property tax burden” and “relies more heavily on local property taxes to support public education” than other states. The goal is reduce property taxes by using online sports betting revenue to defray the costs to homeowners.

Nebraskans approved an expansion of gaming in November 2020. At that time, it wasn’t clear whether or not that expansion included sports betting – retail or digital. But lawmakers eventually decided that in-person wagering met the criteria. ..

July 30, 2024

Analysts: Sports wagering calendar gives insight to markets, revenues

The US sports betting calendar is the same every year and handle and revenues typically follow suit. But there are other trends to be gleaned from the cycles as well, analysts said on a webinar on Tuesday (30 July).
The session, entitled “A Year in the Life of Sports Betting”, was presented by Geoff Atkinson and Matt Roob. Atkinson is the marketing research manager for Management Science Associates and Roob is senior vice-president of financial analysis for Spectrum Gaming Capital. Throughout the presentation, the analysts used graphs and data compiled using the Spectrumetrix data service.

Atkinson began the discussion by breaking down graphs from states that report wagering figures for individual sports. The examples included Illinois, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, Oregon and Montana.

Overall, the states showed similar patterns according to the US sports schedule.

Totals are lowest in the summer when baseball is the only major sport in season. Then in the fall, the start o..

July 30, 2024

PrizePicks reportedly considering M&A, funding options

PrizePicks has tapped investment bank Moelis & Co to explore potential mergers and acquisitions, according to industry sources.
The Atlanta-based company – and the self-proclaimed largest daily fantasy sports (DFS) operator in North America – isn’t actively seeking a full-scale sale. It’s evidently keen on expanding and strengthening its footprint through strategic partnerships or acquisitions and potentially has an eye on raising a war chest to compete in regulated online sports betting with the likes of market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel.

Bloombergwas the first to report the rumour involving Moelis & Co’s involvement, although so far it’s light on details.

PrizePicks stands out in the DFS landscape with its unique approach to gaming. Unlike traditional DFS platforms where users draft entire teams, PrizePicks allows users to predict the over/under on individual player statistics and fantasy scores. PrizePicks recently found its way back into several regulated markets, which could..