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GB gambling revenue drops in June as almost all sectors struggle

Gross gambling revenue in Great Britain dropped by 13.6% month-on-month in June, new figures from the Gambling Commission show, as almost all types of gambling experienced a significant decline.

The regulator published data based on reports from operators making up 80% of the GB online gambling market and 85% of the retail betting shop market, building on its earlier online-only reports launched in 2020. As such, the absolute figures reported do not include the entire market within these verticals.

Month-on-month, online gross gambling yield was down by 13.2% to £370.2m in June. The total was also a drop of 20.0% from the highest monthly total of the year, recorded in January. Revenue was, however, higher than March, when sports betting revenue experienced a sharp drop that was likely related to special officers around the Cheltenham Festival.

At the same time, revenue from retail bookmakers was down as well, by 5.6% to £181.7m.

Revenue from almost every single gambling vertical wa..

August 3, 2022

OpenBet acquires Multi Builder ahead of sale to Endeavor

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B2B sportsbook supplier OpenBet has acquired betting technology and trading business Multi Builder ahead of OpenBet’s own acquisition by sport media conglomerate Endeavor Group.

The deal comes soon after OpenBet owner Scientific Games slashed the sale price of OpenBet by $400m (£328.4m/€392.83), in order to ensure the deal closes smoothly.

Multi Builder was founded by industry veterans Oliver Preston and Jonathan Smith, with the business’ trading technology operating under the brand “Sportsbook Models”. The goal will be for the services to be integrated into OpenBet’s existing product portfolio.

Smith also founded sportsbook training company “Sportsbook Training Services Limited” and will provide training services exclusively to OpenBet as part of the deal.

Commenting on the deal OpenBet chief product officer Nikos Konstakis emphasised the value to clients of deeper market understanding.

“This deal marks another significant milestone into the development of our pricing and trading..

August 2, 2022

GiG reveals Betsson as first Colombia sportsbook partner

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Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has revealed Betsson Group as its first sportsbook partner in Colombia, after only initially releasing partial details of the deal.

In June, GiG said its Sportnco subsidiary had signed its first Colombia-facing sportsbook deal with an unnamed ‘tier-one’ operator.

GiG has now revealed it has been working with Betsson in Colombia for the past year, with the country the third regulated market in which GiG provides both software and services to this client.

The deal, GiG said, ratifies a partnership that was initiated more than 12 months ago when Betsson completed the takeover of regional operator Colbet.co in June 2021, shortly after which it agreed to migrate onto GiG’s Sportnco’s platform.

Betsson, which operates both online and via retail in Colombia, said that its presence in the country increased significantly over the past year as a result of using GAN’s player account manager.

“As part of our rebranding in Colombia, we migrated to GiG’s platform ..

August 2, 2022

Scout shareholders to vote on 90% share dilution next month

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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 1, 2022

BetRivers launches retail sportsbook in Maryland

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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

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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..

July 29, 2022

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

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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

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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

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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

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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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