Sports betting regulation – Page 6

March 7, 2024

IBIA report highlights role restrictions play in supporting unregulated market

A new report from the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) has highlighted the effect overly-restrictive regulation has on driving players offshore.

The IBIA study, The Availability of Sports Betting Products: An Economic and Integrity Analysis, was prepared by H2 Gambling Capital and developed in partnership with betting assoications in Brazil, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. It used data from 12 markets where sports betting is regulated.

The research analysed the effects that restrictive and liberal regulated regimes have on player habits. These centred around consumer protection, regulatory oversight, sports integrity and taxation.

The report found a strong correlation between the availability of sports betting products and the proportion of consumers wagering with onshore regulated operators. In markets where players faced few restrictions, the channelisation towards the legal market stood at 90% or more.

Rather than preventing consumers from betting, Kh..

March 5, 2024

LaLiga clamps down on “nefarious” betting behaviour with US Integrity link

LaLiga has announced a new partnership with sports wagering monitor US Integrity as it looks to cement its “preservation of integrity in sport”.

The deal will provide LaLiga with the services of ProhiBet, the prohibited betting solution launched in February 2023. ProhiBet is a joint venture between US Integrity and Odds On Compliance.

US Integrity offers wagering monitoring services to sporting stakeholders, analysing datasets to identify suspicious betting behaviour. Odds On Compliance, meanwhile, is a compliance technology and consultation firm in sports betting and gaming.

LaLiga will benefit from analytical insights that will aim to ensure Spain’s top two football leagues are played in a fair manner. Suspicious betting activity will be detected with “nefarious” behaviour acted upon thanks to monitoring alerts.

Javier Tebas, LaLiga’s president, said: “This partnership with US Integrity represents a significant milestone in our efforts to safeguard integrity and transparency in p..

March 5, 2024

AI roots out 73% of suspicious matches in Sportradar’s 2023 Integrity Report

Sportradar’s annual Integrity Report revealed it had detected 1,329 suspicious matches during 2023, with AI helping to uncover nearly three quarters of all questionable activity.

Sportradar monitored close to 850,000 events during 2023 – spanning 70 sports, with a total of 1,329 suspicious events occurring across 11 of those sports.

Despite the rise in the number of detections, the actual rate of suspected manipulation remained stable at 0.21% when taking Sportradar’s enhanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into account. The 1-in-467 manipulation rate was almost level with the 1-in-473 events total from 2022.

Overall, 99.5% of events had no suspicious betting take place, while no sport had a suspicious match ratio higher than 1%. Both of those statistics were the same as last year.

As per Sportradar’s expectations, football and basketball led the way for detections with 880 and 205 suspicious matches respectively. Table tennis was third with 70.

Sportradar’s integrity w..

March 1, 2024

North Carolina issues eight online sports betting licences ahead of launch

With less than two weeks to go until online sports betting goes live in the state, the North Carolina State Lottery Commission has awarded eight interactive sports wagering licences to operators.

Sports betting will launch in North Carolina on 11 March. This is after the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, signed House Bill 347 into law last year.

Among the approved licensees are heavy-hitters such as FanDuel and DraftKings. Fanatics, Bet365, BetMGM, ESPN Bet and Underdog are also set to launch in the state.

Operators who sought approval to offer sports betting in the state had to partner with a sports team, league or venue within North Carolina. That led to a flurry of deals as operators looked to secure entry into the state.

For instance, DraftKings partnered with stock-car racing series Nascar, while BetMGM teamed up with the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the state. ESPN Bet gained entry to North Carolina by signing a major PGA Tour deal to become the official betting operators of the W..

February 28, 2024

Georgia moves closer to sports betting after bill passes senate

Georgia looks set to have a referendum on whether to legalise sports betting after a bill successfully passed through the state’s senate.

Senate Resolution 579, which seeks to approve sports betting in Georgia, passed by 41 to 12. This was easily enough to meet the two-thirds majority needed to amend the state’s constitution through a referendum.

SR579 is led by Senator Bill Cowsert, who submitted the ultimately unsuccessful Senate Bill 172 in 2023. In a largely unchanged form, though, SR579 looks more likely to end up passing.

Earlier in February, Senator Clint Dixon’s Senate Bill 386 was adopted after passing with a vote of 35-15. Enabling legislation SB386 looked to establish a framework of regulation in the state and was amended so that the support of 38 senators was needed to pass.

Cowsert’s proposals would see 80% of tax revenue attributed to the lottery’s education fund. Some 15% would go to public education on problem gambling, while 5% would be given to the Sports Promotio..

February 27, 2024

Netherlands regulator KSA presents 2024 supervisory agenda

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the gambling regulator in the Netherlands, has presented its supervisory agenda for 2024, citing four areas of focus.

Looking to achieve its mission of “safe gaming”, the KSA says it will increase its protection of vulnerable players in the Netherlands by looking to prevent addiction. The country took measures to do this in 2023, including the introduction of a ban on most forms of advertising.

The KSA is also looking to combat illegal online offerings, aiming for at least 90% of players to gamble with legal providers in the Netherlands. In a December article for iGB, Yield Sec chief executive Ismail Vali noted how the KSA’s current approach appeared to lack clear success in actual enforcement terms.

The KSA is vowing to further support partners, including the police and tax authorities, on investigations in the physical domain. The regulator hopes this will lead to less “undermining” between different organisations.

The KSA’s final area of emphasis is..

February 26, 2024

Affordability checks: Everything you need to know

With parliament to debate the introduction of affordability checks today (26 February), here’s everything you need to know about the proposals so far.

The long-awaited release of the Gambling Act white paper in April was the most transformative review of UK gambling in 18 years. It marked a key landmark in how the market will be regulated in the future – with affordability checks a key part of that discussion.

The government has already introduced some measures, such as the establishment of stake limits for online slots. However, other resolutions are also being worked upon as the UK government and the Gambling Commission (GC) looks to ease concerns over gambling harms in the country.

The strongest industry response to these proposals has been towards the potential implementation of affordability checks. They have met fierce opposition from operators and trade bodies.

With parliament set to debate financial checks this week, let’s take a look at how we got here.

White paper’s rele..

February 26, 2024

Ohio bans player prop bets on NCAA games

The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) has banned player prop bets on college sports after granting a request from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The OCCC’s decision came after NCAA president Charlie Baker sent a letter to the commission’s executive director Matt Schuler, requesting a ban to be implemented on player-specific prop wagers for its games. The letter was also endorsed by Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine.

Bettors will no longer be able to wager on markets such as a quarterback’s passing yards or a basketball player’s points for NCAA games. Operators have until 1 March to introduce the restrictions.

In the OCCC’s announcement, the commission stated it would become the 25th state to either prohibit or limit player-specific prop bets on NCAA contests. The ban’s aim is to protect NCAA athletes against potential harassment from bettors, as well as curb match fixing.

Ohio only launched legal sports betting in January 2023. In July, the state passed a law t..

February 26, 2024

Sturgis’ review of Gambling Commission’s survey stoking the fire

The Gambling Commission (GC) recently lauded its Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), after it was endorsed by Professor Patrick Sturgis in an independent review. However, that backing is far from comprehensive, even from Sturgis himself.

Sturgis, a professor at the London School of Economics, did label the study “exemplary in all respects”. However, as has been the case in the past with the GC, its tendency to produce unreliable statistics was a noticeable theme for Sturgis, who cast doubt over the accuracy of the GSGB, which is due to be published this summer.

Sturgis said: “Until there is a better understanding of the errors affecting the new survey’s estimates of the prevalence of gambling and gambling harm, policymakers must treat them with due caution, being mindful to the fact there is a non-negligible risk that they substantially overstate the true level of gambling and gambling harm in the population.”

Hardly the glowing endorsement the GC has made out, Sturgis’ concer..

February 20, 2024

PFL strikes regulatory compliance partnership with ProhiBet

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has partnered with ProhiBet to strengthen betting compliance.

The PFL will use ProhiBet’s technology to help improve sports integrity and ensure compliance with state-specific betting regulations.

The partnership aims to prevent PFL individuals, such as athletes and coaches who are banned from placing bets, from wagering on the league’s events. ProhiBet will use its cross-monitoring and notification platform to achieve this.

Matt Heap, managing director of ProhiBet, said the deal would see the PFL and ProhiBet strengthen compliance within sports betting.

“We are thrilled to partner with the PFL,” said Heap. “The combination of ProhiBet’s state-of-the-art encrypted data transfer system and the PFL’s dedication to upholding the integrity of sports will undoubtedly enhance the transparency and trustworthiness of sports betting activities.”

ProhiBet’s role with the PFL

ProhiBet is a joint venture between US Integrity and Odds On Compliance. US I..

February 19, 2024

Brazil ban on celebrity sports betting ads to be considered

A potential ban in Brazil on celebrities being used in betting advertising is ready to be included on the senate’s agenda in 2024.

Brazil is expected to finally have a regulated sports betting market in 2024. This is after Brazil’s chamber of deputies voted to approve Bill 3,626/2023 in December. There have been plenty of ups and downs and the topic of advertising is still proving contentious in the country.

Bill 3,405/2023 seeks to prohibit the use of celebrities in sports betting advertising, with Senator Eduardo Girao, who has long been against gambling in Brazil, presenting amendments that would ban anyone considered to have influence being involved in marketing of gambling.

In Girao’s view, Bill 3,405/2023 would protect Brazilian citizens from the risks of gambling harms, both emotional and financial.

Similar advertising bans worldwide

sports betting advertising is coming increasingly under fire

In August 2023, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario announced a ban on athl..

February 16, 2024

Alabama gambling bills passed by the house

Alabama voters are a step closer to deciding whether sports betting will be legalised in the state after a bill was passed by lawmakers.

The Alabama house passed two bills on Thursday which envisage the expansion of commercial gambling in the state.

Bills HB151 and HB152, both sponsored by Representative Chris Blackshear, must still be passed by the state’s upper house. The former, as a constitutional amendment, also requires confirmation by the public and would be added to the ballot in November.

Governor Kay Ivey, who would then have to approve both bills, said in a statement on Thursday that the bills “in their current form” have her support.

“The proposal passed by the house will clean up and crack down on the rampant illegal gambling and will give Alabamians the opportunity to have their say on regulated, limited forms of gaming,” Ivey said.

What the gambling bills include

On Thursday, HB151 was passed 70-32 by the House, with HB152 passed 67-31. The House Economic Developme..

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Tag: Sports betting regulation