Betting News – Page 6

August 29, 2024

Betano named new official sponsor of two major Uefa competitions

Kaizen Gaming-owned Betano has signed a three-year agreement to become the official sponsor of Uefa’s Europa League and Europa Conference League football competitions.
Kaizen’s Betano brand will sponsor the two Uefa competitions until the end of the 2026-27 season. Meanwhile, Kaizen’s Stoiximan brand will be the sponsor of the Europa League and Europa Conference League in Greece and Cyprus, the two countries in which it operates.

The move follows Betano’s sponsorship of Uefa’s Euro 2024 tournament over the summer as the competition’s first ever betting partner.

The new deal was signed in Monaco ahead of the draws for the two competitions, with the Europa League and Europa Conference League set to get under way on 25 September and 3 October respectively.

Kaizen Gaming deputy CEO Aris Dimarakis said he is excited to continue working with Uefa after the success of its Euro 2024 sponsorship.

“During Uefa Euro 2024, we formed an impeccable partnership with Uefa, elevating the experience..

August 28, 2024

AGA survey: US responsible gambling efforts improving, especially for sports betting

Ahead of September's Responsible Gaming Education Month initiative, the American Gaming Association (AGA) on Wednesday (28 August) released new research showing that RG efforts are improving in the US, for both land-based casinos and sports betting.
The survey, conducted online by Kantar between 31 July and 9 August, featured responses from 2,000 nationwide voters. Its results, the AGA said, highlighted several positive developments with regards to consumer trust with the casino and sports betting industries.

Overall, 75% of respondents said that gaming “behaves responsibly in the communities where it operates”. With sports betting specifically, 90% of respondents felt it was an acceptable form of entertainment and 75% support having legal sports betting in their state of residence. Sports betting is currently legal in 38 states plus Washington, DC. No new markets have legalised wagering so far this year.

The main theme of the AGA survey was responsible gambling – 65% of over..

August 28, 2024

DraftKings agrees to buy in-play betting company Simplebet

DraftKings on Wednesday (28 August) announced that it has come to terms to buy Simplebet in an effort to punch up its in-play betting capabilities and boost its AI game.
The acquisition will be DraftKings’ second major purchase this year, after it completed the purchase of digital lottery company Jackpocket in May. DraftKings earlier this year also acquired SportsIQ Analytics and sold VSiN back to its original owners.

DraftKings, founded in 2012 in Boston, is the second-biggest US sports betting company by market share.

Details of the deal were not released and are pending regulatory approval. The boards of directors for both companies have approved the acquisition, according to a DraftKings press release.

The Simplebet deal would allow DraftKings to integrate Simplebet’s machine learning models into its platform and offer customers “highly accurate betting opportunities during every moment of a game”. By adding Simplebet’s technology, according to the press release, DraftKings ..

August 27, 2024

Yield Sec report: Illegal US gross gaming revenue continues to significantly outpace legal GGR

A new Yield Sec report shared exclusively with iGB shows that the US gambling market reached $39.9bn (£30bn/€35.7bn) in gross gaming revenue (GGR) in the first half of 2024. The company said $29.1bn of that GGR came from illegal platforms between January and June 2024.
Yield Sec uses predictive analytics in its report. The report is for sports betting and online gambling only and reveals $10.8bn in GGR on legal platforms. According to the report, there were 892 illegal operators working in the US in the first half of 2024. In addition, 651 affiliates were promoting illegal platforms.

In 2023, Yield Sec predicted that the US market was $40.9bn in GGR for the year. It appears the 2024 numbers will easily eclipse that. Two new US states entered the live US market in 2024 – North Carolina and Vermont. No US jurisdictions legalised wagering in 2024. North Carolina is the ninth-biggest US state by population and the sixth-biggest legal betting state by population.

Through its first five ..

August 27, 2024

Survey estimates 10% of Brazil population has suffered gambling-related financial issues

A survey by market research specialist Hibou has revealed 10% of the population in Brazil has endured financial problems from gambling ahead of regulation coming into force.
The survey, which included 2,839 respondents in Brazil from all social classes, studied the prevalence of gambling in the population.

The study found 68% of Brazilians gamble, with around 16% of respondents stating they had suffered from financial issues due to their gambling.

Is pre-regulation gambling causing social issues?
That equates to around 10% of the Brazilian population. While this may cause concern it is important to note it covers a period before the legal online market launches. The first legal bets will be placed on 1 January 2025, with 113 operators applying for a licence during the initial 90-day window of preference.

Of those who had endured financial problems from gambling, 32% stated they had sold assets to make up for their losses. Additionally, 29% borrowed from friends or family, while 25% ..

August 27, 2024

LiveScore CEO on overregulation and users’ “endless” demand for sports content

LiveScore Group chief executive Sam Sadi says the business may turn to generative AI to satisfy sports fans’ insatiable demand for content and admits the operator would not have entered the Dutch igaming market today.
“Betting has moved towards the recreational, socially acceptable way to consume sports,” Sadi tells iGB. “Maybe 10 years ago, people would be betting on one or two types of markets, the winner market or number of goals.

“Now we see a wider distribution of bets into more entertainment-like products [such as] bet builders and SGPs (same game parlays), as [users consume] different types of statistics. People follow the sports in a much deeper way than they used to.”

With this evolution of betting behaviours, users have developed an almost insatiable demand for content Sadi explains. “Producing this, almost to individual needs, is expensive to be able to deliver at scale.”

Like others, LiveScore sees generative AI as a solution to satisfying that consumer demand.

Can g..

August 27, 2024

Rumblings begin anew for legal wagering in South Carolina

South Carolina lawmakers have barely seriously considered legalalising sports betting but, in 2025, the discussion could get more serious.
South Carolina is the opposite of a gambling mecca. The deep red southern state has no land-based casinos, no horse racing and it has some of the strictest gambling laws in the US. Despite those issues, at least one person who studies gambling expects a push toward wagering legalisation in 2025.

“The success in terms of the tax revenue generated already in North Carolina will be enticing,” Stephen Shapiro of the University of South Carolina Department of Sport and Entertainment Management told Statehouse Report earlier this month. “I would imagine that we’re going to see more of those types of [sports betting] bills and that there’s a good chance it would be legalised in the next couple years.”

South Carolina is among the last group of US states to consider legal wagering. To date, there has not been a serious push for it. During the 2024 legisla..

August 26, 2024

With NFL kickoff approaching, US sportsbooks gear up for ‘No 1 acquisition” opportunity

Fanatics Sportsbook and FanDuel are the first major US sportsbooks to announce marketing offers ahead of the NFL season. Both are revisiting past successful campaigns in an effort to land new customers.
The lead-up to NFL kickoff is the biggest customer acquisition opportunity of the year for US sportsbooks.

“Football is always the most competitive season,” FanDuel CEO Amy Howe told Yahoo Finance ahead of the 2022 NFL season. “It is the number one acquisition moment for, candidly, all sports betting operators.”

Traditionally, the NFL season accounts for 35% of US sportsbook revenue, according to multiple sources. It is then, by definition, the time of year with the highest customer-acquisition spend. For the period of 1 September 2023-26 December 2023, the Public Gaming Research Institute reported that US sportsbooks spent $237.8m on television advertising. For the same time period, Pennsylvania’s wagering operators claimed about $117m in promotional credits.

Fanatics Sportsbook ..

August 26, 2024

Weekend Report: Addabbo sounds off about NYC casino process, DraftKings stymied in court, Aristocrat’s new UK deal

Welcome to the Weekend Report, where iGB covers the news that you may have missed over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This week, we look at an FBI arrest in DC, as well as a California bill that would allow tribes to sue cardrooms.
Frustration continues over NYC casino bid process
New York Senator Joe Addabbo continues to push for and vent his frustration about the status of three downstate NYC casino licences. Per Action Network, Addabbo was vocal during the Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga, NY earlier this month.

“Why not codify the timelines? Why not give definitive answers to why we’re not doing this on a timely basis when we did three licences upstate in a fraction of time?” Addabbo asked during a conference panel. “Because we’ll have this same panel here five years from now.”

At issue is the timing of awarding three casino licences. Eleven entities are bidding for the licences, which are currently scheduled to be awarded in the middle of 2025. Casinos would be able to op..