Sports betting – Page 4

October 31, 2024

This weekend’s Breeder’s Cup truly a global event; Japan enters a record 19 horses

In the mid-1980s, Kentucky horseman John Gaines established the Breeder’s Cup as an international thoroughbred race. More than 40 years later, the event is living up to the vision.

Horses from nine countries and five continents will compete in the Breeder’s Cup, 1-2 November, at Del Mar in California. Horses and trainers from Argentina, Canada, Chile, France, Ireland, Japan, the UK and US all return. South Africa will compete for the first time.

But Japan dominates the field, with a total of 19 entrants. Forever Young from Hokkaido’s Northern Farm is among the contenders to win Saturday’s $7 million (£5.4 million/€6.4 million) Longines Classic, along with Irish-trained City of Troy and US favourites Fierceness and Next.

Japan contingent “exceeded expectations”

In 2021, Japan sent eight horses to Del Mar and came away with two trophies: Loves Only You in the Filly & Mare Turf and Marche Lorraine in the Distaff. That momentum is now a tsunami.

The volume and diversity of Japanese en..

October 31, 2024

Former Brazil finance ministry advisor warns against banning online betting

José Francisco Manssur, former special secretary of the Brazil ministry of finance, has cautioned that a ban on online betting would be a backwards step for the country.

On 21 October, Senator Sérgio Petecão proposed Bill 4,031/2024 to ban online betting in Brazil over concerns it is driving fiscal debt and gambling addiction.

The bill is the latest in a string of initiatives by politicians to restrict online betting in Brazil, which is set to launch its legal market on 1 January 2025.

Manssur played a key role in Brazil passing its online betting legislation over the line, before he left his position as an advisor in February of this year, subsequently becoming a partner at law firm CSMV Advogados.

With 269 companies having so far applied for a betting licence ahead of the January launch, Manssur says there is clear evidence the industry supports the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets’ (SPA) regulations and deems them sufficient in protecting players.

In an op-ed for Poder 360 dat..

October 30, 2024

Sweepstakes aren’t “clear cut” and that’s a problem, AGA executive says

Chris Cylke just wants clarity. As the American Gaming Association (AGA) joined Indian Country in a discussion of how to handle an unregulated, untaxed form of gambling, the key is understanding where it sits in a legal sense, he said.

Cylke, the AGA’s SVP for government relations, joined Indian Gaming Association (IGA) conference chair Victor Rocha and IGA executive director Jason Giles on Wednesday (30 October) in another unique moment in the short history of legal sports betting in the US. Rocha is hosting a five-part educational series on what sweepstakes are and how the regulated industry can fight their proliferation.

“If sweepstakes gaming were as clear cut as those involved with it are saying, we probably would be doing it,” Cylke said AGA members have told him. “But it’s not worth putting (their) gaming licences at risk.”

Yes, sweepstakes have a politics problem

Cylke called the status of sweepstakes “murky.” And Giles said it falls into the category of other currently o..

October 30, 2024

Arizona: Sports betting revenue and handle rise in August

Sports betting revenue and handle in Arizona increased year-on-year during August, while the state also saw player spending reach its highest monthly total since May.

Total handle for August hit $496.6 million (£382.8 million/€458.4 million). This is 38.4% ahead of last year and also 21.1% above the amount bet in Arizona in July this year.

Some $473.8 million was spent betting on online, while a further $22.8 million was bet at retail sportsbooks across the state.

Data from the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADoG) also shows adjusted gross revenue for August topped $37.3 million. This beats last year by 17.7% but falls 12.2% short of July.

After deducting $14.9m worth of free bets and promotional credits, adjusted gross revenue (AGR) hit $22.4 million. This surpasses last year’s total by 4.7% but is 22.8% behind July this year.

Online betting accounted for $22.2 million of all AGR after deducting free bets. The remaining $210,108 came from wagering at retail sportsbooks in Arizona…

October 30, 2024

Brazil ministry of finance agrees partnerships with match-fixing monitoring bodies

On Tuesday (29 October), Brazil's ministry of finance announced it has agreed to partner with four industry monitoring and integrity organisations to aid the fight against match-fixing.

The Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), which sits within the ministry of finance, penned Technical Cooperation Agreements (ACTs) with Genius Sports, Sportradar, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and the Sports Integrity Global Alliance (Siga and Siga Latin America) to counter fears over match-fixing in Brazil.

The partnerships will last for five years, with the collaborations aiming to strengthen the safety network surrounding the manipulation of sports in Brazil. They will consider the bodies’ learnings and experience in more mature markets like England and Australia.

The agreements will also serve to help the SPA gain knowledge of the betting market in Brazil, educating SPA teams on how to monitor the legal sports betting sector, which is set to go live alongside igamin..

October 29, 2024

Jontay Porter effect could be just the beginning of banning bets

Major sportsbooks have done away with certain NBA player props and the potential ramifications go far beyond that.

Jontay Porter is unlikely to ever take the court for an NBA team again.

Still, this player with a career average of 11.2 minutes per game is a central figure in one of the league’s biggest storylines of the new season.

A number of national sportsbooks such as BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, ESPN Bet and FanDuel won’t be posting NBA player prop unders for those on 10-day or two-way contracts. The rationale? These players have less financial security than those under contract for the season. Because of that they could be enticed to purposely tank their performances.

Call this the Jontay Porter effect.

Porter did exactly this – exiting games early due to supposed injury or illness, ensuring under bets on his props would win – a season ago as a member of the Toronto Raptors. This scheme led him to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was also banned for life f..

October 29, 2024

Plenty of support for Missouri legal wagering initiative, but fate unclear

While Caesars has backed down on its “no” on Amendment 2 contributions in Missouri, on 24 October FanDuel added another $4.6 million in support of the legal sports betting initiative.

FanDuel’s latest deposit brings the total contributions to the “Winning for Missouri Education” campaign to $40.7 million (£31.2 million/€37.6 million), according to Missouri Ethics Commission records. That total alone would make the campaign the priciest in Missouri history. Before deciding to “focus our efforts on grassroots outreach and community conversations” and pulling $1 million worth of scheduled television advertising earlier this month, Caesars had funded the “no” campaign with more than $14 million.

The two biggest newspapers in Missouri have endorsed Amendment 2. But the Kansas City Star editorial board did so “with some hesitation” on 10 October. In an editorial, the newspaper outlined concerns about addiction.

Whether or not the initiative will pass is unclear. The most recent polling..

October 29, 2024

Summer of sport fails to halt betting activity decline in Belgium

Fewer consumers in Belgium were active online and betting on this summer’s UEFA Euro 2024 national football team tournament than during the 2022 Fifa World Cup, according to new data from the country’s gambling regulator Kansspelcommissie.

Published this week, the ‘Summer of Sports 2024’ report details players’ betting activity throughout this summer. This period includes major events such as Euro 2024 and the Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Kansspelcommissie released figure for new players, with the average number of new online users during Euro 2024 at 1,031. This is lower than both the 2022 World Cup (1,487) and Euro 2020 (1,175). New online accounts fell from the 3,961 daily average at the 2022 World Cup to 3,298 this year. However, this did surpass the 3,022 daily average during Euro 2020.

Euro 2024 fails to match betting heights of World Cup 2022

Stand-out findings include a decline in the average number of online players active per day during Euro 2024. This stood at 196,95..

October 29, 2024

Tekkorp Capital eyes Africa for “rapidly-growing” investment opportunities

Global betting and gaming investor Tekkorp Capital is actively looking for investment opportunities in the African gambling space as it is a high-growth market with promising opportunities.

Gaming investment fund Tekkorp Capital believes Africa offers some of the industry’s most exciting growth opportunities and is seeking out locally led businesses to turn them into regional leaders, it said.

It also aims to shine a spotlight on the market to encourage more businesses to move into the African gaming space.

In targeting Africa, Tekkorp said it aims to support its investors across operational, technical and strategic matters and provide access to capital. This includes product solutions, media partnerships, payments and legal expertise.

Tekkorp founder and chairman Matt Davey expects to see strong growth at a significant pace in the market. “This will encourage more operators to enter the space and that’s why we believe the time is right to get ahead of the coalescing trends and cr..

October 28, 2024

West Flagler stands down in Florida and announces partnership with Seminoles

After multiple years of legal challenges, Florida's Seminole tribe announced a new partnership with West Flagler and Associates on Monday (28 October) to promote jai alai on the tribe's Hard Rock Bet app.

The announcement came four months after the US Supreme Court declined to hear the West Flagler case against the US Department of Justice (DoJ). That decision allowed an appellate court decision to stand. At its heart, the ruling made it legal for the Seminoles to offer digital sports betting anywhere within Florida.

West Flagler and the Seminoles agreed to “refrain from engaging in any future litigation with respect to the Seminole tribe’s gaming operations”, according to a release. The announcement is a stunning reversal for the two sides. West Flagler, owners of two Florida pari-mutuels, spent three years and untold dollars in federal and state court battles in an attempt to declare the 2021 Seminole-Florida compact invalid.

“As I said when this litigation first star..

October 28, 2024

Jordan Maynard officially named Massachusetts gaming chair

On Monday (28 October) interim Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) chair Jordan Maynard was appointed to a permanent role by the state's governor.

Maynard has been serving as the interim chair since former MGC chief Cathy Judd-Stein retired from public service in March. Governor Maura Healy also appointed former Melrose mayor Paul Brodeur as the agency’s fifth commissioner, according to a press release. The MGC had been down a commissioner since Judd-Stein’s retirement.

“He has proven to be a consensus builder who has a deep understanding of the agency and strives to do what’s best for the people of Massachusetts,” Healy said via press release.

Maynard was first appointed to the MGC in August 2022 and was part of the MGC when it developed rules and launched digital and in-person sports betting in 2023. The state’s general assembly legalised wagering in August 2022.

“I wish to congratulate Jordan Maynard upon his designation by Governor Healey as chair of the Massachusetts ..

October 28, 2024

Weekend Report: Operators criticised for research tax credits in Australia, McGregor banks €7m in betting winnings

Welcome to the Weekend Report, where iGB looks at the news that you may have missed across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This week: Australia treasurer blasts gambling operators over research tax credits, personnel changes at Aristocrat and SkyCity and Connor McGregor banks €7m in betting winnings.

Australia government mulls changes to research tax credits in gambling industry

Firstly this week, the Australian government could change the rules for gambling and betting operators that want to receive government research tax concessions. This comes after it emerged they claimed almost AU$90 million (£45.8 million/€54.9 million/US$59.5 million) in one year.

According to the Guardian, figures from the Australian tax office show four major gambling companies claimed $86.5 million in credits between them in 2021-22. These include Tabcorp, which received $39.5 million, Aristocrat with $22.2 million, Ainsworth Game Technology at $15 million and PointsBet $10 million.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers h..

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Tag: Sports betting