July 2022 - Bookiecity

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

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

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 28, 2022

Flutter to lay off staff in UK and Ireland

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

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

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

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..

July 27, 2022

XLMedia’s new focus on US betting pays off as H1 EBITDA exceeds $10m

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

A renewed – and acquisition-powered – focus on US sports betting helped drive XLMedia’s revenue up 39.2% to $44.5m, while earnings grew beyond $10m.

Since the prior year’s results, XLMedia changed the structure of the divisions within the business, as part of a wider restructuring effort.

Rather than a single sports betting vertical, the business split revenue related to betting into US sports and European sports. It was the US sports division that generated the vast majority of XLMedia’s revenue, with $30.2m, which was more than five times the total recorded in H1 of the previous year.

Much of this came from recent acquisitions such as Sports Betting Dime and Saturday Football Inc.

“The opening of new regulated markets and the signing of new media partnership agreements has allowed the US Sports business to capitalise on the full US sports calendar, in particular the Super Bowl, and deliver strong growth in H1 2022,” the XL board said.

The European Sports division, meanwhile, br..

July 27, 2022

UK Tote Group names Spencer and Holt non-executive directors

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Pool betting operator UK Tote Group has appointed Lord Spencer of Alresford and Mark Holt as non-executive directors to its board.

UK Tote said the double addition would support its ongoing growth plans, with the focus on product innovation, better value, improved customer experience and strong partnerships to create more liquidity and bigger pools.

Lord Spencer is an entrepreneur and founder of interdealer broker ICAP, which became a FTSE100 business in 2006, and its successor, electronic markets services provider NEX plc. He is also one of more than 150 investors in UK Tote.

In addition to acting as a board director of a small number of private businesses, Spencer became chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies in 2020.

Holt brings experience and knowledge from his time working in senior technology roles with a number of businesses. These included spells as chief technology officer at CPA Global and chief technology officer for Trainline.

He is currently chief product and engi..

July 26, 2022

Norwich City director: club will “never again” have betting shirt sponsor

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Norwich FC's commercial director, Sam Jeffrey, has said that the club will “never again” sign a betting shirt sponsorship deal, adding that the club must “almost self-regulate” when it comes to deals of that nature.

Instead, the club is set to sign a one-year sponsorship contract with Norfolk-based car manufacturer Lotus Cars.

The club’s latest home kit, which features Lotus, was released at the end of last month.

While Jeffery emphasised that the club must “assess all opportunities” for sponsorship, he stringently ruled out future betting deals.

“There were some [sponsorship] opportunities specifically in the betting space,” said Jeffrey. “These opportunities derived a higher partnership fee as is the case in industries such as betting.

“However, we believe this is the time, as a board and club-wide decision, to almost self-regulate when it comes to betting on the front of our shirts.

“So, certainly with the club in its current structure we will never again have a betting b..

July 26, 2022

Comtrade pens platform supplier deal with Stanleybet Romania

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Gaming software supplier Comtrade Gaming has announced a new platform deal with online sports betting and gaming operator Stanleybet Romania.

Under the terms of the agreement Comtrade will supply its iCore igaming platform to the Bucharest-based business.

Comtrade chief commercial officer Steven Valentine explained that the iCore platform integrates a number of features, including “real-time bonusing, dynamic segmentation, real-time push messaging, and many more player engagement tools.

“When someone decides to migrate their platform, they put a lot of trust of their existing business on you,” said Valentine.

“We have shown on many occasions that we are the smart choice for a growing operator. Having done many tier 1 migrations in the past, we have now made our igaming platform more accessible to small and mid-size operators who have outgrown their current solution.

“With our flexible approach to individual client needs, we are a very reliable choice for operators looking to impro..

July 25, 2022

Arizona sports betting handle reaches $461.5m in May

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Consumers in Arizona spent a total of $461.5m (£385.1m/€452.6m) on sports betting during May, while gross revenue for the month amounted to $55.2m.

The US state’s monthly handle, covering online, retail and limited event wagering operator licensees, was down 10.0% from $512.9m in April and some way off the record $691.0m set in March.

Of this total handle, $456.7m was bet online, while just $4.6m was spent wagering at retail sportsbooks across Arizona.

Players won $405.3m during the month, which left $55.2m in revenue, up 48.4% month-on-month from $37.2m in April.

After including $13.8m in free bets and promotional credits, taxable revenue for the month was $41.4m, a 151.5% improvement from $16.5m in the previous month.

FanDuel claimed top spot in terms of handle, processing a total of $152.4m in wagers, split $148.7m online and $3.6m for retail wagering. DraftKings placed second with $141.1m in online bets, then BetMGM with $84.2m worth of online wagers.

Turning to gross revenue..

July 25, 2022

DIY or third-party: the sportsbook technology debate

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

The debate over whether operators should build their own technology or use a third-party solution has raged for decades, but it appears to have grown more intense as the US market opens. However, as Daniel O’Boyle reports, it may not be a question with a clear answer

It’s said that if you want something done well, you should do it yourself.

That appears to be an adage many sports betting operators have taken to heart.

Hop on any earnings call for a US operator, and there will no doubt be plenty of mentions of “proprietary sportsbook technology”.

The demand among operators for in-house solutions is backed up by their money. In 2020, DraftKings merged with SBTech, valuing the supplier at $634.1m. Last year, Caesars acquired William Hill for $3.7bn, mostly for its proprietary technology.

Meanwhile, theScore announced a long process to build its own sportsbook technology, which surely played a major part in Penn National Gaming acquiring it for $2bn.

“I don’t want to get distracted b..

Month: July 2022