Betting News – Page 55

April 25, 2024

CFL suspends three-time Grey Cup champion Lemon for betting on own team

Shawn Lemon has become the third professional athlete playing for a Canadian team to be suspended for breaking sports betting rules.

On Wednesday (24 April), the Canadian Football League (CFL) announced that it is suspending Lemon – who played on three Grey Cup winning teams during his career – indefinitely.

Lemon, a South Carolina native, unexpectedly announced his retirement on 10 April, which would coincide with the time during which the league was conducting its inquiry.

The CFL suspension comes a week after the NBA banned Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter for sharing confidential information and betting on the league. The Ottawa Senators’ Shane Pinto was also suspended for 41 games for violating league betting rules.

According to a CFL press release, the league found “clear and irrefutable evidence” that Lemon violated league policy, but it says there is no indication of match fixing.

Integrity of the game “of the utmost importance”

The CFL discovered that Lemon bet on league ..

April 25, 2024

IBIA reports 64.7% increase in Q1 suspicious betting alerts

The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) received 56 alerts of suspicious betting during Q1, up 64.7% on the final quarter of 2023.

Additionally, the IBIA’s Q1 figure was 12.0% above the revised total of 50 alerts from the same quarter last year. The alerts came from six sports across 21 countries and five continents.

The IBIA looks at suspicious betting activity to establish potential sports corruption. The IBIA’s members include over 50 companies and more than 125 betting brands. This makes it the largest integrity monitor of its type across the globe.

IBIA chief executive Khalid Ali believes the rising number of alerts is another indicator of ongoing match-fixing problems.

“The first quarter saw an increase in reported alerts highlighting the ongoing challenge our members, sports and regulatory authorities face from corrupt activity,” Ali said. “IBIA’s alerts are supported by detailed global customer account data only available to IBIA and its membership, which con..

April 25, 2024

Horse racing growth drives ATG revenue up to SEK1.3bn in Q1

Sweden’s Aktiebolaget Trav och Galopp (ATG) has pointed to growth in its horse racing sector as the key driver in reaching SEK1.3bn (£95.7m/€111.7m/$119.8m) in net gaming revenue (NGR) during Q1.

Revenue is the highest ATG has ever recorded in a Q1, as well as a 9.2% increase on the same quarter last year, when it reported SEK1.19bn in NGR.

That revenue growth was primarily down to increases in ATG’s horse racing sector, which was responsible for SEK968m in NGR, or 74.5% of the company’s Q1 total. That figure was also 13.3% ahead of the SEK854m in NGR accumulated by the horse racing sector in Q1 2023.

Casino also saw an increase of 13.8% year-on-year, with SEK165m in NGR generated from the sector in Q1. The growth in horse racing and casino helped to offset decreases in sports betting, which reported SEK173m in NGR, 10.8% behind last year’s Q1 figure of SEK194m.

ATG attributed poor sports betting performance down to “player-favourable” sports results during the quarter.

Lotta Nil..

April 25, 2024

iGB releases inaugural LatAm gambling market report

Produced in partnership with Sportingtech, our new LatAm Gambling report examines the biggest opportunities in the industry’s latest growth market.

Our goal with our new iGB LatAm report is to offer the industry the most comprehensive source of information for one of the world’s hottest emerging regions.

Home to some 650 million people, and with a total gambling market projected to reach $30bn annually by 2028, all eyes are on LatAm in what will no doubt be this decade’s biggest growth opportunity.

As regular readers of iGB will know, a long and occasionally fraught process to regulate gambling in Brazil came to a close in December 2023. With the signing of Bill 3,626/2023 into law, we’re about to see one of the most hotly anticipated markets come online after more than a decade of parliamentary process.

What’s in the iGB LatAm gambling report?

Of course, Brazil is the big opportunity in the region, but we’re covering far more in our first LatAm report.

BRAZIL, ARGENTINA AND..

April 25, 2024

Time running short for Alabama gambling expansion

Alabama lawmakers told the media earlier this week that a conference committee brokering a deal for an expansion of gambling would meet on Wednesday (24 April) at 2pm local time. But as early as Wednesday morning, the meeting had fallen off the legislative calendar for the day.

A call to the Alabama house of representatives confirmed that the meeting was off for Wednesday (24 April) with no reschedule date. The legislature is now scheduled to close on 5 May. This will leave lawmakers a little more than a week to reach a deal for an Alabama gambling expansion. It will then require approval from the house and senate.

If approved, the decision to approve any gambling expansion would go to the voters. The house version of the bill would put the issue on the November ballot. The senate version would create a special election in September.

Historically with gambling, precious few bills that don’t have consensus relatively early in a session make it to a governor’s desk. Just this year, ..

April 24, 2024

Penn opens first ESPN Bet retail sportsbook in Detroit, ahead of NFL draft

As the NFL prepares to descend on Detroit for its premiere off-season event, on Wednesday (24 April) Penn Entertainment opened its first brick-and-mortar ESPN Bet sportsbook.

The new location at the Hollywood Casino at Greektown is less than a mile from the site of the draft and will host a variety of ESPN programming through the week, according to a press release.

ESPN Bet went live with its first digital platforms in November 2023 after Penn Entertainment cut ties with its previous partner, Barstool Sportsbook. The new platform is live in 18 US states. When Penn launched ESPN Bet, it did not reveal how or when it would rebrand its retail sportsbooks.

“This is an exciting week to debut Penn’s first physical ESPN Bet sportsbook as the city of Detroit hosts the NFL draft and its festivities,” Hollywood Casino at Greektown general manager John Drake said via press release. “Bringing ESPN Bet to Hollywood Greektown combines Penn’s premier sports media and sports betting offerings to ..

April 24, 2024

Skores Media secures Stags Participations and MI3 as shareholders

European digital sports media publisher Skores Media has announced investment holding companies Stags Participations and MI3 and minority shareholders in the business.

The transaction forms part of a primary leveraged buyout (LBO), with the aim of accelerating the company’s development. Stags and MI3 become minority shareholders alongside the founders of Skores Media.

Using this new financial backing, coupled with structured debt from banks Société Générale, BNP Paribas and BPI, Skores Media will work to further develop its offering. This includes pursuing the international expansion of its flagship brands, with the business counting SportyTrader and Skores among its products.

Founded in 2009, Skores Media is a website and mobile application publisher, focused on sports fans. It has over five million monthly unique visitors, 60 million visits per month and four million fans across social networks.

Based in Europe, Skores Media recently launched specific versions tailored for the Af..

April 15, 2024

New Hampshire sports betting handle halts decline in March

New Hampshire’s sports betting handle reached $72.6m (£58.2m/€68.2m) in March, ending a run of three straight months of decline.

In March, New Hampshire reported a 16.5% month-on-month increase in sports betting handle, likely boosted by the March Madness NCAA tournament.

New Hampshire had previously seen its handle drop for three consecutive months, even with the Super Bowl in early February.

New Hampshire’s March figures were aided by its mobile sector, with online accounting for $65.0m in bets taken, or 89.5% of the monthly total, having recorded a handle of $55.9m in February.

Retail handle also increased, jumping 18.8% to $7.6m from February’s figure of $6.4m.

New Hampshire revenue down despite handle rise

Although New Hampshire’s handle ended its slide, revenue continues to falter in the Granite State.

March’s gross gaming revenue stood at $5.6m, the third-lowest in its FY2024 and the lowest since August 2023, prior to the NFL season getting underway.

Consequently, the se..

April 15, 2024

FanDuel likely has two-year head start on competition in Washington, DC

Buried in the minutiae of a 10 April budget meeting, Washington DC's Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) revealed that it is preparing to ask the DC City Council to approve a two-year extension to its deal with lottery and sports betting operator Intralot.

To recap, the OLG in March alerted the DC Council that it would be unwinding its chronically underperforming sports betting platform, GambetDC. The platform is run by lottery vendor Intralot.

Under its existing contract, the agreement will expire on 14 July. In March, OLG approved Intralot’s request to subcontract online sports betting to FanDuel.

Now the agency will request a two-year extension for the soon-to-expire deal. If approved, the deal could mean that FanDuel would have a two-year head start on digital sports betting in the District.

That two years, lottery chief Frank Suarez told the DC Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development, would allow it enough time to issue an RFP (request for proposal). This ..