Betting News – Page 151

August 2, 2022

Scout shareholders to vote on 90% share dilution next month

Scout Gaming Group shareholders will vote next month on a share issue that would dilute existing holdings in the business by 90%.

Fantasy provider Scout announced that it would conduct a share issue in order to save the business in June, after it identified a SEK17m ($1.7m/£1.4m/€1.6m) commitment in its finances which it said it was previously unaware of.

The commitment will impact cash flow for third quarter of this year and have a negative effect on profit and loss in the quarter of around SEK5.5m.

As a result of the new cost, Scout leadership took drastic action to save the business, including laying off 68 employees, between its offices in Bergen in Norway and Lviv in Ukraine.

As well as the layoffs, Scout said it would issue 202.7 million new shares, diluting existing shares by 90%.

The board has now revealed more details of the share issue. Each shareholder will be offered the opportunity to buy nine more shares in the business, at SEK0.50 per share.

Scout said that the iss..

August 2, 2022

Gaining altitude or experiencing turbulence?

Robin Harrison talks to the local operators and lobbyists involved in the early stages of the Netherlands’ regulated igaming market.

Online gambling regulation in the Netherlands was discussed as far back as 2009 yet only launched in October 2021.

And the operators licensed were different to what the industry had expected. The local incumbents, Nederlandse Loterij (NLO) and Holland Casino, were among them as were international brands such as Bet365 and Tombola.

A host of high-profile names were conspicuous by their absence. The likes of Entain, Betsson, 888 Holdings and Kindred Group pulled out, having passively accepted bets from local consumers.

This led to a “deluge” of players coming to Holland Casino, according to director of digital transformation Jeroen Verkroost.

“We were over the moon but completely understaffed and had to shift from first to fifth gear almost immediately, which came with some teething problems,” Verkroost recalls.

Sam Depoortere, business director for N..

August 1, 2022

BetRivers launches retail sportsbook in Maryland

Rush Street Interactive (RSI) has partnered with Bingo World to launch the BetRivers retail sportsbook in Maryland today.

The 3,000 square foot sportsbook features 12 self-service kiosks and three over-the-counter machines.

The sportsbook is set to open at 12:00 EST today (1 August), in a ceremony that will feature Qadry Ismail, former player for the Baltimore Ravens, BetRivers B2B services director Adam Glass and Maryland state Senator Pamela Beidle among others.

Read the full story on iGB North America.

August 1, 2022

Rhode Island betting handle surpasses $500m in 2021-22

Consumers in Rhode Island spent more than $500m on sports betting during the 2021-22 financial year, while the US state’s betting revenue amounted to $39.7m.

Total handle for the 12 months through to the end of June 2022 was $517.2m, an increase of 46.5% from $353.0m in the previous financial year, according to figures published by the Rhode Island Lottery.

Some $290.5m was wagered via mobile during the year, while players also spent $226.8m at retail sportsbooks, split $164.9m across the Twin River casino and $61.9m at the Tiverton Casino.

Combined online and retail revenue for the year was up 9.7% from $36.2m in 2020-21 to $39.7m.

Online betting accounted for $122.1m of total revenue for the financial year, with $17.7m coming from retail. Twin River was responsible for $11.7m of all retail revenue and the Tiverton Casino $6.0m.

Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Lottery also published figures for the final month of the year, with handle for June climbing 29.1% year-on-year to $34.2m. H..

August 1, 2022

Holding back the tide

René Jansen, chair of Dutch regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), speaks to Daniel O’Boyle about the challenges involved in fighting on two fronts since the country launched its regulated online gambling market. On one hand he’s keeping the unlicensed market at bay, on the other he’s working to ensure the licensed sector moderates its advertising

After eight years of anticipation, it could have been difficult for the launch of the Netherlands’ online gambling market to fulfil expectations.

For Jansen, chair of regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the launch did indeed live up to what he anticipated.

“It’s been a success in several aspects,” he says.

But going as expected is only a good thing if the predictions are optimistic. And it’s hard to miss the fact that one aspect of the market launch went exactly as Jansen predicted, in exactly the wrong way.

Advertising turmoil

In May 2021, the KSA chair warned of an advertising “bombardment” when the legal market opened.

Looking at..

August 1, 2022

AGTech secures further terminal tenders in China

Beijing AGTech GOT Technology, the Chinese arm of lottery solutions platform AGTech Holdings, has secured a series of tenders to provide more sports lottery terminals across the country.

AGTech GOT will supply terminals in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, as well as in the Yunnan, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Hainan and Hubei provinces.

The latest tender wins expand AGTech GOT’s presence in the Chinese sports lottery terminal market, with the business having in place a wide range of similar deals.

These included agreements signed in January this year to supply technology and services in the Gansu, Zhejiang, Henan, Hebei and Jiangsu provinces, as well as the Shanghai and Tianjin municipalities.

“AGTech GOT has won many tenders in various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across China, which reaffirmed the hardware division’s continued dedication to and leading position in China’s sports lottery terminal marke..

August 1, 2022

Tab NZ misses June revenue and turnover budgets

New Zealand’s Tab NZ fell short of both revenue and turnover budgets in June as a result of ongoing “softening economic conditions” in the country as consumers continued to adjust to the rising cost of living.

Wagering turnover for the month reached NZ$197.3m (£102.0m/€121.5m/US$124.2m), which was 3.9% or $8.1m below budget.

Net profit amounted to $11.0m, some $1.7m below a budget of $12.7m, with betting profit $1.5m under budget at $9.3m and gaming profit also $200,000 off budget at $1.7m.

However, Tab NZ did note that operating expenses for the month were $200,000 below an initial budget of $10.0m, amounting to $9.6m, while code distributions and other payments were $100,000 above budget at $13.2m.

Analysing its monthly performance, Tab NZ said the primary reason for it missing budgets was due to consumers not spending as much as initially anticipated amid the rising cost of living in New Zealand.

Retail and hospitality was able to operate without capacity restrictions despite t..

July 29, 2022

Entain takes 1.5 million online bets on Women’s Euro 2022

Entain revealed it has processed 1.5 million online bets on the Women’s Euro 2022 national football team competition, with 14% of these wagers being placed by female customers.

Of the bets placed across Entain’s brands, 46% have been from punters in the UK, ahead of 22% by German customers and 16% Brazil.

In the UK specifically, Ladbrokes and Coral have experienced a five-fold increase in the total number of bets placed on the tournament, up to and including the semi-final, compared to the Women’s Euro 2017. Entain also noted a six-fold increase in bets placed by women.

Almost 60% of outright bets from the UK have been on host England to win the tournament, with this figure being the same for outright bets from Germany.

England will face Germany in the final at Wembley Stadium on 31 July, with 72% of bets placed with Ladbrokes Digital UK being for England to win the match in 90 minutes.

Entain said the increase in betting rates on the Women’s Euro 2022 comes amid an increase in wa..

July 29, 2022

Churchill Downs considers turning TwinSpires into B2B product

US gaming business Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) has announced plans for its online betting platform TwinSpires to offer B2B support for sportsbooks wishing to add a horse racing vertical, following the Q1 announcement that CDI would be exiting the online sports betting and casino businesses.

CDI chief executive officer William Carstanjen made the announcement in the company’s Q2 earnings call to investors where he outlined the TwinSpires B2B horse racing strategy.

“We intend to be a leading distributor of horse racing content, either directly to convert to customers of TwinSpires or under a B2B model that enables the online distribution of horse racing content to millions of new customers who have opened online sports wagering accounts.”

Carstanjen pointed to the retail horse racing operator’s extensive institutional knowledge of pari-mutuel wagering as a key USP for the business:

“Given our expertise and extensive knowledge of pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing, we have th..

July 29, 2022

iGB op-ed: the Premier League should jump before it’s pushed

iGB op-ed: Zak Thomas-Akoo argues that the Premier League should make concessions now on gambling shirt sponsorship deals, rather than being forced into it.

This Tuesday, the barons of English football met in an undisclosed location for one of their once-in-a-while shareholders meetings – which according to reports included some rather striking ideas for “a new deal for football”.

Apparently this is some sort of grand bargain between the Premier and lower leagues, as well as more importantly a big old bash at new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s house.

Great stuff, but wasn’t there supposed to be something in there about a voluntary betting shirt sponsorship ban? Last week, it was reported that there was enough support for such a ban, subject to a transition period and certain conditions, to pass the necessary 14-vote threshold.

Kicking the can down the road

While the machinations of the big clubs are a bit of a black box, it’s probably the case that, as speculated in the press, the c..

July 28, 2022

Flutter to lay off staff in UK and Ireland

Betting and gaming giant Flutter will make a number of redundancies in the UK and Ireland, following an internal review.

The business, which operates brands including Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet in the region, did not provide details of how many redundancies there would be or which roles would be affected.

However, a spokesperson did say that it expects the majority of those whose roles are eliminated to find new positions with Flutter. As a result, there would be only a “small number” of job losses.

“These proposed changes reflect the next phase of our integration, as we look to consolidate parallel operating models and position the business to continue growing against a more challenging operating environment,” the spokesperson said.

“While we have sought to minimise the impact this will have on our colleagues, with most employees affected being redeployed into alternative or newly created roles, the proposals may lead to a small number of job losses.

“We are communicatin..

July 28, 2022

German state of Bremen shuts down all bookmakers amid AML concerns

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen – the smallest state in Germany – has announced a full closure of all bookmakers following a statewide investigation into money laundering.

The announcement affects the four operators that offer retail betting services in Bremen – Tipico, HappyBet, Tipwin and XTiP – which between them operate 32 betting shops.

A total of 24 of the operators’ franchises were “tolerated” in the state before the shutdown came into effect, according to a statement on Bremen’s state website, but were awaiting full approval.

Now, however, Bremen has issued rejection letters to all 32 betting shops after the four operators were unable to prove where their funds originated from, leading to concerns about money laundering.

Once the rejection notices were issued, it became illegal to bet in any of the bookmakers in Bremen.

The announcement came from the Bremen Landtag, after Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer conducted a press conference explaining the closures.

“Basically, it..

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