Bwin.party digital entertainment

Groupe Partouche has reiterated that it has nothing to hide following allegations of tax evasion from the French government. A La Tribune article quoted by eGR reports that Partouche CEO Frédéric Payre said in an email: “The tax office seems to have been convinced [that online activities in Gibraltar are consistent with company financials], as no action has since been taken following this ‘investigation’. Groupe Partouche had and has nothing to hide.”

The proof is in the pudding as La Tribune report the subsidiary involved, Partouche Interactive Gibraltar, recorded revenue of €4 million in 2009 and 2010 before it dropped to just €35,000 in 2011. It also showed their new subsidiary, Partouche Gaming France, had revenues of €840,000 from when the market opened in 2010 and then €3.4 million in 2011. The authorities argue they didn’t immediately produce “evidence of the presence of human and material resources” on Gibraltar when asked.

Partouche Interactive has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Worldlink Group under which it will become the firm’s gaming partner. The Groupe Partouche subsidiary announced the agreement and it will see the French company’s poker and casino platform offered alongside Worldlink’s odds comparison betting service. It follows Worldlink announcing a partnership with Napdaq just last week.

Business News

Bwin.party digital entertainment

Betfair is on the verge of launching their fixed odds betting in conjunction with OpenBet. The Daily Telegraph reports the service will be up and running later this summer and the aim is it will limit the loss of customers to traditional bookmakers offering in play and “ante-post” wagers. Nick Hagen, Betfair’s sports operations director, explained: “We know from our own research that we lose 30pc of our customers’ sports betting wallet to the competition. Why should customers have to go elsewhere and why would we willingly let this large chunk of business walk out the door?” The service has undergone testing in Cyprus and Ivor Jones, analyst at Numis, said it will “dramatically expand the range of bets available”.

France’s football league has signed a new agreement that will see content broadcast across a number of digital channels. The digital media rights agreement, reported by Gaming Intelligence, is for four years and covers goals, highlights and interviews from Ligue 1 matches. Dailymotion.com, L’Equipe.fr and YouTube will all carry the package and it begins with the 2012/13 season.

Business News

Bulgaria

Denmark has published the first set of figures for the country’s regulated online gambling industry with gross gaming revenue (GGR) reaching DKK 470 million in the first quarter. This was made up of DKK 285 million from sports betting and DKK 185 million from online casino and the figures were based on tax paid by firms. It means no actual revenue figures came from the companies themselves and the Danish Gambling Authority themselves admitted the figures are far from completely accurate. Q1 figures were used to reach estimates for the entire year of DKK 1.135 billion for betting and DKK 735 million for online casino meaning a figure for the whole market of DKK 1.87 billion.

The country’s land-based market stayed stable with some small gains seen in both the casino and gaming machine sectors. GGR for machines was DKK 460 million for Q1 (DKK 440m in Q1 2011) with the market expected to hit DKK 1.840 billion for the year – comparing favorably with DKK 1.785 billion for 2011. Casinos posted GGR of DKK 80 million for the first quarter (DKK 75 million last year) with the entire year likely to stay steady at DKK 320 million.

PokerStars has invited two groups of players to a meeting in which they will outline their plans for the regulated Spanish market. Poker-Red reports that both they and affiliate site Educapoker have been invited to send two representatives to a meeting in Barcelona on May 21. In that meeting PokerStars will communicate plans for the market with the subjects including the PokerStars.es VIP club, cash tables, MTT, promotions, Sit ‘n’ Go’s, Stars Poker Tour and anything else they deem appropriate to discuss. Spain will start to hand out gambling industry licences from June 1 with PokerStars likely to be very interested.

Business News

Mobile betting has increased in popularity over the past year, with the percentage of sports bettors wagering on the go more than doubling (from 7% to 15%) and almost quadrupling for poker players (from 4% to 15%), spurred by France’s recent approval of gaming apps from a variety of operators. The mobile surge wasn’t enough good news for operator Société Jeux 365, who decided last week that it had had enough and requested that ARJEL revoke its gaming license. Of the 41 operators who once held French gaming licenses, 32 are still holding out.

A closer look at France’s numbers reveals a generational divide taking place, with younger bettors increasingly choosing to wager with online operators not sanctioned/burdened by French regulators. Horseracing, which has never quite caught on with younger bettors, saw the number of active accounts rise 9%. But the number of active sports bettors fell 3% overall, and betting with regulated online operators fell 44% among the 18-24 age demographic. Poker accounts held by this same age group dropped to 230k from 340k in 2011. Players under the age of 35 now constitute 55% of the total pool, compared with 61% in 2011.

Business News

French pari-mutuel betting operator France Pari has been granted a fixed-odds and in-running betting license by national regulator ARJEL. The company released a statement confirming that the new offering – “coupled with one of the highest sign-up bonuses available and a generous loyalty programme” – would be available in April. Earlier this month, France Pari announced it was teaming up with Groupe Partouche on the re-launch of a UK-facing sportsbook, Livebetting.com.

The much-maligned French gaming market is showing signs of life, at least, according to figures revealed by ARJEL execs at the iGaming France conference in Paris this week. Year-to-date figures through March 20 show sports betting wagers up 11% and horseracing up 15%. Poker cash bets declined 3%, but tournament buy-ins rose 28%. The sports betting figure is a significant turnaround from Q4 2011, which showed a 23% decline in wagers.

But ARJEL’s figures show that companies have been resorting to some desperate measures to shock the patient back to life. Bonuses and friend referrals had risen to 50% of marketing costs, which even ARJEL president Jean-Francois Vilotte admits “is something the companies can’t sustain for long.” But Vilotte defended the French system’s onerous 7.5% tax on internet betting, reminding execs that the country’s gaming laws were devised primarily with the goal of protecting consumers, not enriching gambling companies.

PokerStars France director Alexis Laipsker struck a more pessimistic tone, describing the level of growth in the French market as “not much.” Gambling Compliance quoted Laipsker as saying things were so bad, Stars CEO Isai Scheinberg had talked about following the lead of so many other online gaming outfits by pulling out of the market. Barriére Poker’s Johnathan Strock said he thinks French authorities are starting to grasp there will be no dramatic improvements until there was some change in the French gaming laws. “It’s not in the interest of the French market if the market dies. I think they realize they will do what it takes to make it better.”

Business News

Spain will formally join the MOU next week with Vilotte stating the Southern European country will become the third to enter the agreement. It’s unlikely that liquidity will be shared straight away but it’s a big step in that direction. If France also takes a leaf out of the UK’s book in terms of regulation, we might even have to bust out the Tricolore.

NetBet will be France’s newest sports betting brand after the French regulator approved it. Parent company Itechsoft will operate the brand via netbet.fr, netbetsport.fr and netbetpoker.fr. The company is also after one of the much sought after Spanish licences and has filed an application.

Sporting Solutions has extended its baseball coverage ahead of the new MLB season. The B2B software and data services part of the Sporting Index Group has expanded its offering to 45 in-play games per week. In addition, there will be fixed odds prices for 25 markets on the games in real time. Ronnie Whelan, business development director at Sporting Solutions, commented: “The demand for US sports continues to grow, and many more punters are now betting in-play on these sports. As we did with the start of the NFL, NBA and NHL seasons, we have significantly extended our baseball coverage and we expect this to prove very popular with our existing and prospective partners.”

Business News

French gaming interest Groupe Partouche is to relaunch its French-facing online poker site after a drop in turnover. Partouche Interactive contributes a pitiful 1.3% to group turnover with a year-on-year decrease of 16.7% in interactive turnover not helping matters. Their move into Belgium should help matters and it hasn’t affected the group as a whole where turnover was up 1.4% for the four months to 31 January.

888 is teaming up with Ryan Air to offer a gambling service via the latter’s website. Customers visiting the low-cost airline’s site can now play online casino games, poker and place sports bets with the aim to win flight vouchers. Stephen McNamaras, communication’s director at Ryanair, said: “Ryanair already delivers Europe’s lowest airfares and with 888.com we now deliver the best online gaming entertainment to half a billion annual visitors to Ryanair.com.

“The world’s first poker tournaments featuring Ryanair flight vouchers as prize money are sure to excite gaming and travel fans throughout Europe who will also find casino, bingo and sportsbetting on Ryanair.com.”

Business News

French online sports bettors

80 people will be without work when the handover of TOTE Tasmania is completed late next month reports The Mercury. Tatts is taking the firm off the government for $103million and is getting rid of staff in areas where they already have capacity. Staff members were briefed in small meetings and one of those surrendering his position could be chief executive Craig Coleman. Tatts spokesperson Michael Mangos did confirm: “It is our intention to retain most of the customer-facing staff, the retail sales management and a number of corporate and broadcasting functions.”

State Premier Lara Gittings was on hand to answer questions and confirmed why the positions were being lost.

“As part of the sale agreement, the State Government sought a binding commitment that Tatts would continue to operate the Tasmanian retail network, along with the call centre and radio network, however, I regret that there will be some job losses in duplicated areas of the business,” she said.

Plans for pokies pre-commitment would allegedly have gone up in smoke had Kevin Rudd become Australia’s Prime Minister. Clubs Australia claims that Alan Griffin, a Labor member and Rudd’s chief numbers man, told them back in November that Rudd is sympathetic to their cause. A clubs Australia statement read: “It was made clear at that meeting that Kevin Rudd was sympathetic to the concerns of clubs and that as Prime Minister he would kill mandatory pre-commitment.”

The news comes after foreign minister Rudd resigned from his position to concentrate on a fight for the country’s leadership.

Business News

“iGB France will give you two days to really immerse yourself in the French market” stated Alex Pratt, head of iGaming Business and co-organisers of the event. “We’ve brought together the most successful players in this market, each concentrating on their own expertise – whether that’s the president of ARJEL explaining their regulatory mandate or the director for regulatory and business affairs for bwin.Party making their stance clear on sporting integrity, this is a unique chance to make your views known and speak to the leading experts successfully working in the French market.”

Noteworthy sessions include a comparative case study between France and Italy, with the attorney-in-law and consultant for the Italian government on Corporate Management & Tax leading the session, an overview of the French affiliate market with the biggest and most successful affiliates in this sector and the now famous CEO and SEO panels, with key insights for delegates.

Day one is set to give an overview of the challenges and opportunities and day two will provide market-specific affiliate and acquisition strategies for France. Although the event will be in French, live translation will be made available ensuring anyone interested in this market can learn from the conference session.

Full conference schedule can be found on: http://www.igamingfrance.com/conference/en/

END

For Press Queries contact:
Marit von Stedingk
iGaming Business
Marit@igamingbusiness.com
+44 (0)2079543417

About iGaming Business
iGaming Business has been involved in the iGaming sector for over 8 years. They specialize in publishing and providing high level information to the iGaming sector through magazines, events, websites and intelligent reports. With over 16,000 affiliates, operators and vendors regularly reading our information off-line and 75,000 online iGaming Business is the biggest publishing company within the sector. Please visit www.iGamingBusiness.com for further information.

About the iGaming France: The Conference
Following on from the resounding success of the iGaming France Conference on 2011 (400+ visitors over two days), iGamingFrance and iGB Affiliate have partnered once again to organise the second edition of the iGamingFrance Conference in 2012. The conference is the only B2B-affiliate event that provides the best insights and networking opportunities on the French market and those looking to work in it.  Held on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 March 2012, the first day of the event will feature major industry figures talking about key industry issues. The second day will be focused on affiliates and acquisition. Standard entry is €349 + tax (19.6%), but affiliates, publishers, agencies & media owners’ admittance to the event is free.

Press Releases

Of course, now that some companies are getting the official pat on the back, others are getting the official bitch-slap. As it was welcoming Stars into the fold, the BGC simultaneously published the first edition of its “blacklist” of non-licensed operators. The list features 10 names: 888.com, Everestpoker.be, Titanpoker.be, Chilipoker.com, Casino.com. Myglobalgames.com, Bingo-round.com, Jackpotcity.com, Casinoriva.com and Megacasino.com. The country’s major internet service providers will now be expected to block access to these sites.

The French Competition Authority has received yet another complaint about the ongoing stranglehold of the horse betting market by former monopoly Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) This latest complaint was filed by rival operator Betclic, following comments in French newspaper Les Echos attributed to Jean-Francois Vilotte, president of French regulator ARJEL. Vilotte was commenting on the latest gaming industry figures that were almost wholly negative, save for horseracing, which was up sharply. Vilotte noted that PMU’s chief competitor, ZeTurf, held only a 10% share of the horse betting market, and the combined rest of PMU’s competition was “marginal,” leaving PMU holding an 85% slice of the horse betting pie.

Business News

The latest set of ropey figures prompted ARJEL president Jean-Francois Vilotte to lead calls for the market to be reformed. The latest declines were “a cause for concern” due to the fact it could prompt players to return to unregulated or international sites. Many will say the regulators set themselves up for a fall by setting the taxes at such an anti-competitive level originally. One of the fiercest critics was former BetClic Everest chairman Stephane Courbit who commented that it “does not allow us to exist.” Certainly looks like the regulator’s starting to feel that way too.

Over the border in Italy, a strike in the country’s horseracing industry has seen revenues decrease by 50% at one firm, according to eGR. The stoppage, which began on January 1, was triggered by a cut in funding by the beleaguered government and has caused SNAI to hit the buffers. Since the strike they’ve been limited to take bets on foreign races and are unlikely to hit the ambitious earnings forecasts they posted last week, even though they included a warning over horseracing.

Business News

If you guys needed a logo idea...here ya go!

Pokerroom is back on the radar after bwin.party decided to bring the brand back after a three-year sojourn. Following the relaunch, a spokesperson told eGR: “We were using the Pokerroom.com name as an affiliate and it had started to pull in traffic so we then decided to switch it back on – it literally was a case of simply flicking the switch.

“It’s essentially a soft-launch at the moment and we will see what happens from there on in. We’re testing the waters to see what level of interest there is.”

The brand was a stalwart of early online poker and is added to the arsenal of brands under bwin.party’s offering and comes under the Ongame Network, despite the company trying to get rid of it

If the brand sways away from simply a dot.com venture one country it could look at is France, where the former monopoly Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) announced its latest set of results earlier today. For the full year turnover from online was up 45% as it tipped the scales of €1billion for the first time. €1.3billion of online turnover contributed to the group total of €10bn and was in addition to online gross gaming revenue increasing by 30% to €233m.

Neogames has released Go 777 as its newest scratchcard to fit into its portfolio of 3D next gen games. During each round the card features three slot machines with two scratch areas, the top area being the prize area and the bottom the reels area. A jackpot of up to £200,000 is up for grabs and it joins over 100 other games in the Neogames portfolio.

Business News

Sportingbet

Scientific Games owned MDI Entertainment has extended a licensing deal with the National Basketball Association (NBA). The deal, which has been signed for a further six years, allows the firm to offer branded content to lotteries featuring any number of NBA teams. Steve Saferin, president, properties group and chief creative officer for Scientific Games, told eGR: “There is an enormous demand for the NBA, and we are pleased to be able to offer a great assortment of NBA merchandise packages and licensed games featuring the team logos and player images for fans nationwide.”

Over the pond, Unibet has finally opened up its site for French customers at their dot.fr domain. Customers were able to use the site for the first time since the firm acquired Solfive, the owner of EurosportBet.

Business News

20minutes.fr report that ISPs will use “protocol blocking by domain name (DNS),” to ensure that users don’t get onto sites in a move that will see derision from firms on the outside looking in – and players won’t be pleased either. Good news for ISPs comes with the fact ARJEL is to foot the bill and as far preventing unregulated sites goes it’s the cheapest solution out there. Nothing like saving them pennies.

Trouble will come if the French failed to report the changes to the European Commission as Directive 98/48/EC stipulates you must report amendments on any draft text on services of the “Information Society.” There’s also the chance players will simply sidestep this ban by using IP spoofing services to get onto sites and it’s something that the country may find it hard to keep a handle on.

France first looked at IP blocking in August 2010; a short time after the country had decided to strictly regulate the industry. Back then they were going through the dirty laundry of non-approved international gaming industry firms as well as ordering the ISPs to do the hard bit and block sites. It’s unclear right now whether the new approach extends to sifting through drawers but their time may be put to better use providing the consumer with a more competitive offering by overhauling the gaming taxation system. It was over a year ago that leading French gaming industry voice Stephane Courbit called for the market to be radically changed and progress since then has been slow to say the least.

Legal News

In a report by AFP, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Emmanuel Ludot, said the 37-year-old man from the city of Reims is suing after he registered with the interior ministry last year to be voluntarily banned from casinos and online gambling sites, but was still able to access them. He added that the ministry registered the man, whose identity was not released, under the wrong address when he asked to be banned, “which allowed him to continue playing”. At the end of the day, you’re responsible for your own actions. We don’t tell the government to put us on a list to ban us from eating cake when we’re on a diet – if we’re fat that’s out own fault.

The interior ministry refused to comment on the case because legal proceedings were under way. But is suing the government for making your own mistakes acceptable?

Over the English Channel, there’s news that an amended plan to convert a former National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) headquarters in Sheffield city centre into a 24-hour casino with bars and restaurants is set to be approved by council officials next week.

In a report by the Yorkshire Post, the proposals for the ’80s block next to Sheffield City Hall in Barker’s Pool have been put forward by Brook Leisure – who already operates a nightclub in the area – which says the new complex could create 130 jobs.

A meeting next Monday regarding planning permission will decide the final outcome. In the report set to go before the meeting, city planners described the NUM site as a “substantial and striking post-modern building, which makes reference to the neighbouring City Hall with its extensive use of stone and angular pillars.” Sounds pretty arty – any guesses what it might be called?

Speaking of new casino openings, across the pond in Cleveland, US, the new Horseshoe Casino Cleveland is scheduled to open come January and has begun accepting applications for over 750 new casino jobs.

In a report by ABC Channel 5 News Gina Morris of Downtown Cleveland Alliance, said: “A lot of the opportunities with the casino are administrative, which means people are going to be there from 9 to 5.”

The full-fledged Las Vegas-style casino will be located downtown on four floors of the former Higbee Department Store, the place where Ralphie asked Santa for a Red Ryder BB gun in the movie “A Christmas Story.” Remember that? Nah, neither do we.

Casino News

Unibet

The agreement states following a transitional period that ends on January 1^st, they lose the use of Eurosportbet and Eurosportpoker acquired from Solfive.

Intralot is bidding the French market adieu with ARJEL accepting their request to repeal a sports betting license with four years left to run. The Greek firm was awarded a five-year license with the option of an extension and it was a widely held thought they’d apply for further licenses. It comes after a disappointing set of Q3 figures that they blamed on having to raise payouts in order to attract punters.

Online sports betting purveyor France Pari is taking struggling horse wagering site BetNet.fr under its wing. Customers of the site, which was declared bankrupt, will transfer over to a new platform launching on Thursday. Patrick Barbe, president of BetNet.fr told Les Echos that “overwhelming competition” was to blame and the fact they’re not allowed to advertise at tracks hurt them a great deal.

Business News

Wilshere and Frimpong

England prodigy Jack Wilshere is in hot water with UEFA looking into claims that he may have put money on a colleague to score. The TWouble arose after Tweets sent by Wilshere during Arsenal’s midweek fixture at Olympiakos suggested that he had been having a flutter on teammate Emmanuel Frimpong. Wilshere’s first tweet read: “Champions league tonight come on the Arsenal! @Frimpong26AFC 1st goal is 150-1… worth a cheeky £10 right?”

Further suspicion arose with Wilshere tweeting: “Frimmy nearly won me some money there!” after the midfielder had hit the side netting. Wilshere since deleted the updates and tweeted: “I didn’t actually bet on the game. I know we’re not allowed to! I was only messing #justtobeclear.”

Betting on games as a player is against the rules and a UEFA spokesperson said: “All persons bound by UEFA’s rules must refrain from any behaviour that could damage the integrity of matches and competitions.”

“A breach of these principles is committed by anyone who participates directly or indirectly in betting or who has a financial interest in such activities.”

Wilshere is currently out with an injury for much of the season and it goes some way to explain why he’s constantly on Twitter. Not wanting to band all footballers in the same boat or anything but if there’s one sport where they’d blatantly flout the rules and post it on a social network then this is it. Putting a wager on a match while you’re injured is hardly the crime of the century but the rules are there for a reason and put in place to prevent any type of corruption infiltrating European sport’s highest level

It’s true what they say though – too many tweets make a tw@t.

Arjel has concluded that there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding Lyon’s 7-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb. A statement from the regulator confirmed that there had been no questionable happenings in terms of betting that went on around the match, and added: “No irregularity has been detected concerning the total amount of stakes or the number of bets.”

UEFA added: “For the time being this system hasn’t shown any irregular betting patterns around [Wednesday’s] games or their outcome that would justify any enquiry on that front.”

The game was investigated after Lyon scored six second-half goals to swing goal difference in their favor and qualify for the knockout stages ahead an Ajax side that are now screaming conspiracy. If any fraud had taken place UEFA’s Betting Fraud Detection system, which monitors 29,000 game a season and data from 400 betting firms, would have caught it in their extensive net.

Sports News

Capello upon hearing the draw

England’s Euro 2012 winning bandwagon officially sprang into action earlier today as the home nation got a favorable draw for next year’s tournament. Fabio Capello’s Rooney-less charges face former champions France, Sweden and hosts Ukraine with all group games taking place in Ukraine – the only problem being that they’re based in Poland.

The country’s optimism would appear to be well placed. Don Fabio’s first game against France will evoke memories of Euro 2004 when Zinedine Zidane chucked his guts up all over the penalty spot before firing Les Bleus to a 2-1 victory. This time there’s no Zidane but the lowest seeded team in the group hasn’t lost in 17 games.

After that comes Sweden, a side that Capello’s men labored to a win over under a month ago. A lot will depend on whether the opposing manger persists with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and this time we don’t have Sven to hand them a cheeky draw so that he gets a bit of nookie with Ulrika. Does anyone else think we always seem to play the Swedes in tournaments? Maybe it’s just me…

Wayne Rooney’s return to the squad could take place in the final group game with hosts Ukraine, in Donetsk. The country has had a good record against the home of Andriy Shevchenko. Host nations are not who you want to face in these tournaments and without sounding too cockney “they ain’t no mugs.”

If England manages to negotiate the group stage, they’ll be met in the quarters by the runner up from “Group of Death v2” featuring Croatia, Spain, Italy and Ireland. Should Capello’s lads make the semi’s they could face the winner of “Group of Death v1” featuring Holland, Portugal, Germany and Denmark. The remaining group sounds positively simple compared to the rest with Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and Russia battling it out.

The great thing about tournaments is their unknown quantity and after the draw, England has already been shortened to 9/1 with some bookies to win it. We’d err on the side of caution and stick with some kind of novelty bet on the first England team member to be involved in a drinkin’ or sex scandal. Poland’s beer is mightily cheap and with Andy Carroll on the plane anything could happen. If you thought the dentist’s chair was bad back in the day then just wait for big Andy after 17.5 jagerbombs!

Sports News

Is this refinancing?

Ladbrokes has agreed to a deal that will refinance its debt to a more manageable level. The new five-deal deal is worth £540million and replaces the £560million facility that was set to mature in 2013. The new blended rate of interest for the group will be 7.5% in 2012 and chief financial officer Ian Bull commented: “We are pleased to have extended the maturity profile of our debt with these new facilities and welcome the support our lenders have shown in the business. The new arrangements, together with our proven track record for strong cash generation, mean the business is on a strong footing as we continue to invest in our plan to reinvigorate Ladbrokes.”

Sportingbet has announced that both three non-executive directors will stand down from their positions. eGR reports that former CEO Nigel Payne and Sean O’Connor will both stand down at the December 16 AGM with Brian Harris to stand down next year. Payne guided the company as CEO from 2001 to 2006 before handing over the role to Andy McIver after helping to put the firm up on London’s Stock Exchange. Marketing man Chris Moss and former investment banker Rory Macnamara will replace Payne and O’Connor.

Betclic Everest is set to release a woeful set of figures for the past six months. The losses, which, according iGaming France, could be up to €66.2m, are down to the treacherous conditions that the French market presents to anyone that relies on it. The news came after La Societe des Bains de Mer, which owns 50% of the group, saw losses increase to €33.1, in the first half of the current financial year. Former Betclic chairman Stephane Courbit, who loudly heckled France’s iGaming market last year, is being proved right and it shows the country’s market is in dire need of a change.

Business News

Poker News