Online casino Archives - Page 10 of 13

New shareholder Corvex urges Kindred board to consider sale

Investment fund Corvex Management has urged Kindred’s board to look into sale or merger opportunities, soon after announcing that the fund now owns 10% of the operator.

The business led by Keith Arlyn Meister issued a statement last week disclosing that it now owns more than 10% of Kindred’s shares and voting rights, in accordance with Swedish regulations.

Now the New York-based hedge fund has outlined what it sees as the best goals for Kindred’s future.

“We are excited to be large shareholders of Kindred. To date, we have had constructive conversations with both the chairman of the board and senior management of Kindred,” Corvex said. “We believe Kindred has built a strategic position in the rapidly growing global online gaming space.

Corvex outlined that the business should retain an advisor to look at possible sale opportunities.

“Given recent developments, we believe the Kindred Board should immediately retain a leading, global financial advisor to evaluate strategic alternati..

April 29, 2022

888 shareholders to vote on WIlliam Hill acquisition on 16 May

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

888 shareholders are set to vote on 16 May to approve the business’ acquisition of William Hill’s non-US assets from Caesars.

As the William Hill assets are larger than the current 888 business, the merger – agreed in September 2021 – is considered a reverse takeover, and so must be approved by shareholders of 888. In a prospectus to shareholders, 888’s board outlined why it backed the deal, and provided more information about both William Hill and the effect of the Gambling Act review on the combined business.

Shareholders will meet at 10:00 am on 16 May in London to consider the deal. Those who cannot attend in person may apply for a proxy vote by 11 May.

The prospectus comes less than a month after 888 and Caesars agreed to reduce the purchase price to acquire the assets by £250m (€297.9m/$315.0m), with the cash portion of the deal now set at £584.9m instead of £834.9m.

This, it said, was due to a “change in the macro-economic and regulatory environment”. Most notably, it said t..

April 22, 2022

ComeOn approved for Ontario licence

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

ComeOn has secured approval for an Ontario sports betting licence, becoming the 31st operator to do so.

The operator’s registration by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) as a sports betting operator was effective yesterday (21 April).

The operator’s licence will expire in two years, in April 2024. This would make ComeOn only the 12th operator to be approved for a two-year licence, with most operators approved for only one year. Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, the provincial lottery operator, has a licence running until 2052.

Ontario launched its regulated market on 4 April of this year. Operators such as Unibet, theScore, BetRivers, 888, PointsBet, LeoVegas, Bwin, Bet365, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars all secured licences on launch day, April 4, while more recent licensees include Betway and North Star.

This market launch followed almost three years of work to open up the market, after the government revealed plans to end the lottery’s online gambling monopo..

April 8, 2022

Dutch withdrawal leads to 30% revenue drop for Kindred in Q1

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Kindred’s revenue has dropped by 30.0% year-on-year to £247.0m in the first quarter of 2022, with the operator putting the vast majority of its £105m drop in revenue down to its decision to withdraw from the Netherlands.

The drop in revenue was mostly due to the fact that Kindred agreed to block all Dutch customers from 1 October, when the country opened its online gaming market, until it receives a licence.

This came in response to a change in enforcement policy towards unlicensed operators in the Netherlands, which led to LeoVegas, Betsson, Entain and Casumo all also taking the same decision.

At the time, Kindred CEO Henrik Tjärnström said the operator believed it did not have to block customers from the Netherlands as long as it did not target them, but said Kindred would not accept Dutch customers until it received clarification. However, Kindred later announced that its sites would continue to be closed to players from the Netherlands until it receives a licence.

This, it sai..

April 5, 2022

Equipment sales help Novomatic revenue rise in 2021

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Austrian gaming equipment supplier Novomatic has reported revenue of €1.84bn (£1.52bn/$2.02bn) for 2021, despite a dip in gaming operations revenue.

This was up by €98.7m, or 5.6%, from Covid-hit 2020, when revenue was €1.74bn.

Revenue from gaming operations was €1.03m, down slightly from €1.07bn the previous year. This was attributed to closures of gaming halls- from January to June 2021, an estimated two thirds of Novomatic’s arcades closed temporarily due to the pandemic.

Revenue from the sales of gaming technology made up the remaining €806.2m in revenue. This was up by 20.3%. The company attributed this rise to its Ainsworth business, which saw its sales rise from €67.9m in 2020 to €118.3m in 2021.

Novomatic acquired Ainsworth in 2018.

Total turnover from operators using Novomatic equipment or software in Europe came to €102.91bn. Much of this came from its lottery division, with €35.48bn. Betting operator turnover was €24.17bn, followed by casino turnover at €20.98bn.

Turno..

April 4, 2022

Marathonbet to “temporarily suspend” UK site

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Marathonbet has temporarily suspended its services in the UK, due to “ongoing events in Europe”.

The business would stop allowing new customers to sign up immediately from today (4 April). Existing customers would then no longer be able to deposit or place bets until 14 April.

“As the Marathonbet brand is operated globally, recent and ongoing events in Europe have had a significant impact for us,” it said. “We regret to inform that we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend services offered on the marathonbet.co.uk website.”

The business did not give any indication of when the site may resume activity.

Both the Marathonbet.co.uk site and mbet.co.uk site will close. However, the Malta-licensed Marathonbet.com will continue to be active.

March 31, 2022

Spanish GGR dips despite 25.8% growth in stakes in 2021

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Spanish gross online gaming revenue came to €815m in 2021, down 4.2% from 2020, but stakes grew by more than 25%, suggesting the decline may be more linked to trading than the country’s marketing rules.

According to figures from regulator the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), this came despite the fact that players deposited €2.77bn during the year, which was 216% more than in 2020, while turnover rose by 25.8% to €27.17bn.

For the first time, casino was the largest driver of online GGR, bringing in €407.1m in 2021, up 16.0%. Online casino revenue has grown year-on-year in every year in which DGOJ has recorded data.

Breaking this online casino revenue down further, slots brought in €241.4m, up 23.0%, while live roulette revenue grew 18.6% to €120.6m. Blackjack revenue was €23.2m, down 5.7%, while for RNG roulette this figure dipped by 27.2% to €22.0m.

Revenue from betting, which was previously the leading vertical, was down 16.2% to €305.9m, the lowest figure since ..

March 30, 2022

ESA Gaming set to launch in Denmark after certification

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Online gaming supplier ESA Gaming has received certification to launch its EasySwipe titles in Denmark.

The business said its EasySwipe casino games act as an addition to an operator’s sports betting offerings, giving operators the opportunity to cross-sell from sportsbook to casino.

ESA Gaming reports that EasySwipe has seen a 20% conversion of sports players, a 5% increase in screentime and a 3% increase in sports revenue since its inception.

EasySwipe currently has seven titles, including Fruit Staxx and Goal Mine, with more to be added throughout 2022.

“We have had a fantastic start to the year, adding new games to our portfolio and boosting our presence in several markets,” said Zorica Smallwood, director at ESA Gaming.

“Through this certification we will be able to partner with Danish operators and introduce local players to our innovative content which offers lightweight design and easy game-play that enables operators to create a new vertical without impacting the sports b..

March 28, 2022

Unibet prepares for Ontario launch after securing igaming licence

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Kindred's Unibet brand has detailed its plans to launch in Ontario, having received a licence to do so.

This marks Unibet’s seventh licence in North America.

Kindred will launch its online gaming and sports betting products through Unibet under Ontario’s open regulatory model.

Ontario’s online gaming market will launch on 4 April and will be overseen by iGaming Ontario, a subsidiary of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).

“This is an exciting day and a significant milestone for both Kindred and Unibet,” says Amanda Brewer, country manager Canada, Kindred Group. “We are proud to have received permission to launch in Ontario on the first day the market opens and look forward to building long-term relationships with our customers and partners.”

Several other operators secured licences ahead of the market launch, including Bet365, Flutter-owned FanDuel and PointsBet.

“Ontario is full of sports teams and passionate fans, which is no surprise given the history and ..

March 25, 2022

KSA chair: Dutch online market may be smaller than expected

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

René Jansen, chair of Dutch regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), said that early data suggests the country’s online gambling market may be smaller than initially expected in terms of player numbers.

Jansen (pictured) commented on the regulator’s annual report for 2021, which was released last week and included data about player numbers, advertising and unlicensed play. In this report, the KSA noted that 634,000 online gaming accounts had been created between the vertical launching in October 2021 and the start of March.

Jansen noted that when multi-account play is considered, it suggested that the number of players may be lower than expected.

“Please note: this does not mean that there are so many players (on legal sites) in the Netherlands,” Jansen said. “An unknown number of players have an account with several providers. So there are (probably considerably) fewer than 634,000.

“This is an important insight, because earlier estimates have been made of approximately 1 million D..

Tag Archives: Online casino