While there have been positive performances, such as those of Betsson, 32Red and most recently 888, for the most part iGaming companies have struggled to make a significant impact on the opinions of financial analysts and the wallets of traders.

Many suggestions have been put forward with regards to reasons for the stock market performance of some of the public gaming companies. One that can’t be ignored is that most are simply not operating at their optimum. Barring this, there are many which all contribute to the repeated stock market failings that have been seen in the past 18 months.

The case with almost all of these reasons is that there appears to be an underlying theme – one of instability.

Unfortunately for those involved, instability as a public iGaming company is fairly easily achieved. It can come as a result of any number of changes, many of which may even be necessary.

From any company’s first day as a public company they’re bound to not be operating at 100%. This is due to the focus placed on their IPO, a necessary but timely activity that distracts key employees from fulfilling their usual roles. Financial services company Ernst & Young explain that when preparing for an IPO, the CEO’s and CFO’s roles assume a new balance between time spent managing sharemarket relations versus managing the business.

Recently David Yu, CEO of Betfair, admitted that his soon to be former company had gone off the boil as a result of preparing the company for IPO.

However, a more permanent risk is that of key employees departing the company. While this is an issue which faces all companies, it is highlighted in the gaming sector as staff tend to change roles and even companies regularly.

Another risk that is common across all businesses is the consistency of the products offered. Unfortunately for gaming companies this an issue that is known all too well. Be it website downtime, software glitches or even a rogue bot, there are many potential ways that online gambling products can falter.

All of the above are only some of the internal issues affecting company stability. Those which are external are considerably more hazardous, none more so than the regulation, legislation and taxation of different geographical markets.

However this is a risk which could be subsiding as discovered by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC). Research conducted by GBGC has shown that for the first time ever revenue generated in Europe from regulated markets will outweigh that of unregulated markets in the continent.

The figures show the rate at which European online gambling regulation is spreading with the percentage of revenues from regulated markets standing at just 37.2% in 2008.

It is predicted that 2011 saw this figure increase to 51% but it’s not going to stop there with the percentage rising further to 60.1% by the end of 2012 and 63.8% in 2013.

In a statement released by GBGC director Lorien Pilling explained: “The founding pillars of the “golden age” of internet gambling in Europe are crumbling and 2012 will be a defining year in that process.”

The increased regulation may be even more significant for public gambling companies making 2012 a make or break year for them. For some, the ability to enter new markets with greater ease is a major advantage of becoming a public company and as such one that they should now be putting to good use.

Ed Ware, CEO of 32Red, explained late last year that the ease with which license applications can be made was important for him. He said: “We believe our status [as a PLC] will be of assistance as we look to apply for licenses in newly regulated markets.”

Surely then, more regulated and stable markets will lead to more stable iGaming companies and more stable share prices. After all, isn’t that a major supposed reason for their constant fluctuation and in most cases underperformance?

There certainly are some valid arguments for this being the case as Lorien Pilling explains.

He agrees: “Shares of companies who operate in regulated markets should be more stable because investors shouldn’t wake up to the news that a CEO/Executive has been arrested, e.g Unibet’s Petter Nylander in Holland, Bwin CEOs in France.”

“Investors dislike uncertainty and regulated markets bring more certainty.”

However, unfortunately for the companies in question, regulated markets are far from a saving grace.

Pilling explains the other side of the coin: “Even in regulated markets governments can still change their mind on a whim – perhaps withdrawing a previously permitted gambling activity without much warning, or imposing a new tax without consultation.”

He also draws attention to the fact that a change in government can create uncertainty and uses France as example. There the result of the upcoming Presidential election is likely to have considerable connotations for the online gambling industry with sides taking differing views on its regulation.

This is also the case in Germany where the common changes in stance by the states have a habit of making a chart of Bwin.Party’s shares look comparable to a heart monitor.

But the bad news keeps coming in the form of the fact that even if market regulation continues to increase across the board and does stabilise iGaming share prices, it still doesn’t guarantee high share prices.

Pilling points out: “Stability does not necessarily mean a rising share price – regulated markets mean increased costs and tax, which means lower profits for listed firms.”

So while an increasingly regulated gambling landscape may allow the industry to continue to professionalise and certainly has other benefits, for public companies it isn’t the saving grace it could be.

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We’ve rated each jurisdiction from one to five stars. In determining our rankings, we used a combination of sensible tax rates, low barrier for entry, market restrictions on where gambling operators can accept wagers, the available talent pools and technology infrastructure. What makes our rankings unique is that they include Calvin Ayre’s personal weighting and opinion. His uses a personal formula to determine the business value of the licence.

The business value of the licence ties directly to revenues and a few other factors that go into his secret formula. His formula comes from his personal experience as the only online gaming industry analyst who is also the founder and former CEO of a major global online gaming brand.

When you click a jurisdiction, you find a brief description of the gambling regulatory regime and what makes the regime unique. We’ve included information on the type of company structure required, corporate tax rates and additional gambling taxes required, licensing fee and duration information, security and software testing requirements, anti-money laundering policies, restrictions on where firms can take wagers from and contact information for each Gambling regulatory regime.

Each page includes a brief summary of our opinions of why the regulatory regime received its rating in our regulators section. You will notice this summary in the “CalvinAyre.com says…” portion of the page.

We aim to make this the preeminent source for regulatory information in the online gambling industry as we detail the various requirements that make each jurisdiction unique in the global marketplace. This is a living document and as such, we’ll continue to update with new regions, jurisdictions and changes in policy often.

If you have information to add about a particular jurisdiction or if you would like your regulatory body added to our iGaming Regulators section, feel free to contact us through our “Ask or Tell” page on our website.

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Check out the second part of Becky’s interview with the lawyers regarding online gambling regulation in Costa Rica here.

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In Christie’s statement, he talks up the importance of the gaming sector to New Jersey’s economy but he leaves us few details other than, he disagrees that the legalization of internet gambling would continue the revitalization of the Atlantic City tourism industry and it would contravene the state constitution.

While the explanation is a little surprising, the veto shouldn’t come as much of a shock. We are a little suspicious of Christie choosing to rebuild tourism rather than take the tax revenues and thousands of jobs the bill passage would have provided.

The constitutional issue should have been raised last month when he signed the bill allowing exchange wagering in the state.

Perhaps it’s because the opponent with the most lobby money was Harrah’s Entertainment who felt that any state Internet gambling regulation would hurt their chances at federal regulation. Why take a piece of the pie when you can take the whole pie?

It’s no secret that Governor Christie has presidential aspirations, with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum forming exploratory committees and Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin hocking as many books as they can before forming their own. It has to have Christie itching to throw his hat in the ring.

Even though he’s a big Tea Party favorite, as we’ve seen recently, the Tea Party isn’t as cool with personal freedoms as they led the electorate to believe. Then there is always the specter of the religious right in America and more importantly in the Republican Party. If Christie wants to be president, he needs to appease the Republican’s Bible toting masters. Being the first politician to regulate online gambling in the US won’t win him many friends in the Bible belt.

Chief supporter of Bill S490, Ray Lesniak promises to keep bring new legislation to the Governor but until Christie’s presidential aspirations or Harrah’s Entertainment’s national regulatory dreams come to fruition, New Jersey gamblers, job seekers and state coffers will be left in the cold.

New Jersey’s failed attempt will do little to stop the state-by-state march as they push towards a Canadian model of Internet gambling regulation.

Governor Christie may have put his career ahead of his state but other governors won’t deny their state the revenue or the jobs that regulation could bring.

We will see a state successfully regulate online gambling in 2011. With Iowa, Florida and California all more than willing to do what New Jersey couldn’t, it’s likely we won’t be waiting too much longer. Once the first state regulates, any pipedreams of federal regulation are toast.

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Couple this with the continual criticism of the country’s night spots, you know the ones where you sit in the sun and then drink until you’re sick. Pretty good, right? – Well apparently not according to the Western media. Now the Mediterranean peninsular seemingly has nowhere left to turn.

When all looked like it was lost, and they might have to look into enlisting the help of a bunch of cockney loan sharks offering rates of 3000% interest, oh no that was just Wonga.com, there was a glint on the shimmering horizon.

That glint was a superhero dressed in the European flag coming to explain to the people of Greece there’s life beyond houmous and feta cheese. Other European countries have been bitten by the online gambling bug, and it’s provided them with tax money to help them out of the global recession – even America’s getting on board.

It’s no surprise then that Greece is finally looking to go into the barely legal, XXX market that is online gambling.

No stranger to the odd Eurotrip, Betfair could be one of the first to operate in a newly regulated market in Greece, which could be finalised as early as May next year.

We caught up with Susannah Gill from Betfair, who commented: “It’s been on the cards for a many months that Greece have been planning to do something regarding the gambling sector, so it’s obviously exciting that things are now moving forward.

“[Betfair] will be submitting a response to the consultation and we will also be undertaking further work with the Greek government to help construct the best proposals for the sector.”

But before Betfair start to think of drink fuelled holidays in Zante, Zakynthos, or any other Greek island, there’s obviously the fact that it’s only draft legislation, and therefore a long way to go until it actually becomes a reality.

She continued: “I think what’s noticeable about the current consultation is how vague some of it is. So it’s clear that they haven’t formed their ideas yet, so we’ll be looking forward to seeing what responses are made to the consultation, and what comes out of it.”

The fact that the consultation is rather vague may be put down to them being both slightly naïve about the whole thing but also not wanting to make a hash of it all, as the tax money they’ll be able to take from it will help their economy out no end. They may even be able to start paying back Germany and the rest of the Eurozone after the disastrous houmous-gate episode of the last year or so.

It’s clear that Greece are going down a slightly similar road to France, where legislation has worked out well for Napoleon and his government, and where companies such as Pokerstars have been left dans la merde, as far as customer relations are concerned.

Betfair wont be making any rash decisions on the market in Greece until the facts are known and the “regulatory landscape is clearer.” This all while Mr Betfair (you know, the guy who gets smashed round the jaw in the adverts) takes part on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and walks away with £1000, and all three lifelines still intact. Not even Chris Tarrant could persuade him to continue.

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