National Lottery

Sportingbet has confirmed that it will pay €17.2 million to settle its back-tax bill with the Spanish government. The payment amounts to €14 million plus surcharges and interest that come to €3.2 million for past activities in the country. The same release stated that they expect to be issued with a licence during the first round and will then “immediately apply to Commercial Court no.10 in Madrid to cancel the current injunction over its Spanish facing business”. No time for a siesta there then!

Malta’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority won’t be able to help anyone adversely affected by the closure of Purple Lounge. A statement on the authority’s website said they “cannot assist players having issues with the aforementioned operator following the date of termination of the licenses”. It added that “there were no pending complaints and that the licensee was compliant with the Remote Gaming Regulations”. Purple Lounge was shuttered by Media Corp late last month along with a barrage of excuses as to why it was being closed.

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Sportingbet

Betfair has unveiled its piece de resistance ahead of Euro 2012 with a brand new iPhone app designed with the tournament in mind. Released today it lets you peruse various match previews, team guides, score updates and…get this…it even lets you place bets. It’s also being designed to push their fixed odds offering, which will be available to customers for the first time in the lead up to the championships.

Boylesports are another sports betting firm that will be singing the praises of Apple after their mobile app was permitted into the App Store. The offering is available on both iPhone and iPad with all bases covered including football, horse racing and rugby. It also has news, fixtures, promotions and those all-important results from a number of different events. It follows them signing a deal with Buzz Sports just last week and signals an emphasis on in-play.

Sportech has been granted licences for its Vernons and Littlewoods brands in Alderney. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission awarded the category 1 and 2 licences covering “the organisation and preparation of gambling operations” and “the effecting of the gambling transaction including operational management of a gambling platform located within an approved hosting centre” respectively, according to eGR. Mobile gaming operator OMIgaming has also submitted a licence application to try and obtain a Core Services Associate Licence.

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They followed this up by adding: “We’ve also refunded all outright bets on @brianpaddick! The were only 12! #justicerefund”.

It comes after Betfred paid out on Manchester United winning the league and it’s a move that right now looks as though it’ll be cost Fred quite a bit of money.

Britain’s best bookmakers were last night rewarded for their services to the punters at the annual Betview Awards. Online company of the year went to SportingBet with in-store Team of the Year going to Paddy Power’s branch in Hayes. The highest accolade of the evening was the Bookmaker of the Year award, bestowed upon the veteran bookie William Hill. They also took home Chain of the Year and there was even a lifetime achievement award given to former Gala Coral head Neil Goulden.

Paddy Power has blamed human error after a retweet got through the net. The company’s Twitter account reposted a tweet from @beardogbear saying: “Can u place bets On Player heart attacks at football matches @paddypower #mufc”. This courted controversy as it was just weeks after Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest during an FA Cup match at Tottenham Hotspur. Ken Robertson commented to Marketing that the mistake was “simply one of human error in which one of our team misinterpreted the original tweet and mistakenly published it”.

Business News

Concerns over the nation’s fondness for pokies have led Anglicare Tasmania CEO Chris Jones to call for laws that would force pokie players to stand while playing. The welfare agency head thinks an erect posture will prevent players from becoming “mesmerized” and “captivated” by Satan’s shiny playthings. The Mercury quoted Clubs Australia spokesman Jeremy Bath describing Jones’ plan as “bizarre” and “punitive.” Bath wondered what effect such an upright stipulation would have on the elderly, the disabled or the vertically challenged. What we want to know is, if they’re really on methamphetamine, how can they sit still long enough to play the pokies?

TABCORP AND TATTS NOT AMUSED BY VICTORIA
But has the pokie phenomenon peaked? Number crunchers at the Roy Morgan Gambling Monitor claim pokie spending has fallen significantly over the past year. In the 12 months to March 2012, Aussies spent $10.3b on video poker, compared to $12.3b in the 12 months to March 2011. Bad news for pokie operators, to be sure, but betting outfits Tabcorp and Tatts Group hope to offset this drop in pokie revenue by cashing in a $1.3b marker with the state of Victoria.

In 2008, Victoria surprised operators by announcing it would offer pokie entitlements to clubs and pubs rather than re-tender the existing licenses held by Tabcorp and Tatts. After picking their lower jaws up from the floor, the two companies pointed out that there were clauses in their existing agreements that called for the reimbursement of their original license fees if the government awarded the licenses to anybody else. In response, the Labor government of the day hired some lawyers to find a way to say “no, it doesn’t” and considered the matter closed.

But like the famous queen, neither Tabcorp nor Tatts was amused by Victoria’s magic eraser tactic. The existing licenses expire August 16, and both companies insist they’ll be taking the matter to court shortly thereafter. Tabcorp figures its owed $686m, while Tatts claims a mere $598m. The current governing Liberal/National coalition was not in power when the licensing decision was made, but after 18 months in office, it has yet to formally state its own opinion on whether or not compensation is due.

BOOKIES WARN RUGBY LEAGUE ON BETTING RIGHTS FEE
Sportingbet is warning the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) to back off its plans to impose a betting rights model based on turnover rather than gross profit. The ARLC is proposing a shift from a pure 5% gross profit model to a hybrid model that would incorporate a percentage of bookies’ turnover. The move follows the High Court ruling in March that upheld New South Wales racing bodies’ right to charge betting outfits Betfair and Sportsbet a 1.5% turnover levy for race field data. When that verdict came down, Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys predicted it would have “ramifications for other sporting bodies.” Now the ARLC wants its pound of bookmakers’ flesh.

Sportingbet CEO Michael Sullivan told the Sydney Morning Herald that a turnover model was “not a viable proposition for us.” If the ARLC went ahead, the betting company would rethink its sponsorship of the Brisbane Broncos and Sportingbet subsidiary Centrebet would rethink its sponsorship of Manly and the Penrith home stadium naming rights. Sullivan said Australian rugby had no better friend than Sportingbet, “but if there is going to be a tax imposed that is going to be overbearing to our business then we’ve got to review [sponsorships].” (Classic divide and conquer strategy: make individual clubs sufficiently concerned over the possible loss of sponsorship cheddar that they’ll lobby their own governing body to back off.)

Still smarting from its High Court loss, Betfair is predicting further anarchy if the ARLC piles on. Head of legal and corporate affairs Josh Blanksby suggested betting exchanges would be hit particularly hard by a tighter squeeze on the already much smaller margins of rugby league betting compared to horse racing. “What a 1.5% turnover fee equates to for the majority of bookmakers is about 30% of revenue.” Like Sullivan, Blanksby warned that companies would “redirect advertising and sponsorship money to other sports.” At least, until those sports’ governing bodies decide to put the arm on bookmakers.

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Across the pond, Sportingbet has announced it will challenge the injunction brought against the company’s Spanish-facing operations by local gaming operator Codere. Late last year, Codere filed for injunctions against multiple online gambling operators, alleging the sites had been operating without authorization prior to the state issuing a call for license applications, which gave them an unfair competitive advantage over companies only now getting their online feet wet. While Codere’s efforts mostly came to nothing, the Commercial Court in Madrid granted an injunction against Sportingbet’s Spanish-facing sites Miapuesta.com and Miapuesta.es. Sportingbet argued against the injunction, but to no avail, and the ban was to take effect March 27.

Sportingbet released a statement on Tuesday saying that following consultations with its lawyers, the company “firmly believes that Codere’s injunction application was based on erroneous information presented to the court and is a blatant attempt to disrupt the market in the run up to the issue of licenses.” Sportingbet spokesman George Hudson subsequently told Reuters that Codere “has an axe to grind about supposed unfair competition, which is blatantly wrong and misleading.” Sportingbet has already applied for a Spanish gaming license, which the company expects to be awarded by May 25.

Next door in Portugal, Betclic is the latest company to feel the wrath of local betting and lottery monopoly Santa Casa de Misericordia de Lisboa. As Portugal moves toward opening up its online gambling market, Santa Casa has been increasingly aggressive against rival companies. Santa Casa has now convinced Lisbon’s civil court to prohibit Betclic from advertising its Malta-based online sites in Portugal, which spells doom for Betclic’s sponsorship of Portuguese football clubs. Economia Publica reports that Betclic was also ordered to pay €50k for each breach of the country’s online gaming laws and the country’s telecom guardians have been ordered to block Portuguese punters from accessing Betclic’s sites. Betclic has a month to decide whether to appeal the decision.

In rejecting Betclic’s defense, the court noted that these same issues had already been decided at the European Court of Justice in 2009 in Santa Casa’s fight with Austrian betting outfit Bwin. In that case, Bwin was ordered to cease its Portuguese operations and curtail its sponsorship of football clubs, although Bwin continues to hold out hope that the ruling will be overturned on appeal. On a bright note for Betclic, the Lisbon court denied Santa Casa’s demand that Betclic pay its court costs, noting that Santa Casa had failed to conclusively establish a link between Betclic’s business and Santa Casa’s alleged lack thereof. Santa Casa is demanding Bwin pay €27m damages on similar grounds.

Legal News

888 Holdings

It has been confirmed by the company that Brian Mattingley has taken the helm and in his first results call since taking the job permanently he said: “I am delighted and proud to have officially taken the helm at 888. 2011 has been a phenomenal year for us, refocusing on our core product offer and the success of our Poker 6 platform has delivered exceptional growth across all key metrics. We are more than ready to take advantage of liberalisation in the industry.  We have a unique position in the US allowing the launch of a real money offering immediately as either federal or state based regulation is finalised and upon licensing by gaming authorities.”

The current year has started off well with average daily revenue up 2 percent compared with Q4 2011. Player recruitment has seen the biggest upturn in fortune with a rise of 15 percent compared with the last quarter.

Unibet will relaunch its French site it beta later today. The dot.fr is starting up to retain as many reactivated customers as possible after a “better than expected” performance from the rebrand of EurosportBET. Julien Brun, general manager of Unibet France, told eGR: “Having the former EurosportBET team working in France allows us to move quickly like a start-up so we have been able to launch the new site live in a short period of time.”

Sportingbet has made its last payment of $6 million to the US Department of Justice. Chief executive Andrew McIver confirmed in a statement: “This final payment formally closes any risk which the company may have faced from its former activities in the US.”

Business News

Sportingbet Group CEO Andrew McIver thinks the ongoing economic unrest in Europe has made the going there “bumpy” for all online gambling operators, but the fact that Greece and Spain – two markets in which Sportingbet is particularly strong – are among the hardest hit countries means McIver’s company is feeling the pain a little more than most.

With tightened belts – and confidence perhaps shaken by the implosion of sites like Full Tilt Poker – gamblers have adopted a ‘just in time’ approach to funding their online accounts. McIver says some of the company’s recreational players “had got to a point where they were depositing £10, betting, withdrawing, depositing, betting, withdrawing… The logistical cost of that is vast.” Hence Sportingbet’s recent decision to introduce a £1 charge on all deposits “to put them off that sort of behavior.” While there have been complaints, McIver said the protest “hasn’t been enormous.”

Sportingbet’s current plan for Europe is to simply “ride out” the downturn by continuing to provide punters with a good product. Growth will come from Australia already 47% of Sportingbet’s business and South America, “a much smaller part of our business but it is growing strongly compared to Europe.” Sportingbet’s first ports of call on the continent are Brazil and Chile. “Desktop research” indicated Brazil should be their primary target, based in part on its size, a strong football heritage and passionate people who love sport.

But it’s not all gravy. Unlike McIver’s UK customers, who grew up with betting shops on every corner, Brazilians “grew up in a lottery system. Fixed-odds betting is something they’ve had to learn, really.” Sportingbet’s Brazilian website had to undergo extensive redesign to incorporate “a much more educational piece” to the process: explaining probabilities associated with each wager, what it means in odds, what a successful result means in monetary terms, etc.

Chile’s Spanish-speaking populace appealed to a company that already has a big Spanish business. McIver also believes Chile could be the first South American country to regulate online gambling, although he offered this caveat: “I haven’t got this right yet.” Regulation is key to Sportingbet’s long-term strategy, which McIver says is “to be regulated wherever we can.” That said, the company is “prepared to take a gamble” that certain countries (like Brazil and Chile) will eventually introduce regulations. That scenario never looked likely in Turkey, which prompted Sportingbet to exit that market in late 2011.

Sportingbet would love to take a gamble on re-entering a regulated US market. McIver says the company elected to make a $33m settlement with the Department of Justice in 2010 because “we hoped it would open the door going into the future.” McIver believes individual states will lead the way by regulating poker and casino games, which means that sportsbooks like Sportingbet will have to wait a while longer until they can take full advantage of the US market. But that hasn’t stopped Sportingbet from conducting joint venture talks with a potential US partner, which McIver says are “at the paperwork stage.”

While talks are progressing, McIver doesn’t appear to believe there’s any compelling reason to rush things. Unlike some of his colleagues, McIver isn’t expecting the US market to start significantly contributing to his bottom line out of the gate. “Do I think the US is going to suddenly be a great gold scene within the industry within the next year? No, I don’t. Do I think it will come back in a five- to 10-year period? Yes.”

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Don’t forget to watch the 2012 GES LatAm highlights video here.

Business News

Big Buck’s pipping Voler La Vedette at the final fence cost the bookies dearly with Paddy Power alone losing £3 million on free bets being refunded and the millions that chose to back the Paul Nicholls trained horse. The mood amongst the bookies was summed up well on Sportingbet’s official Twitter feed. See if you can detect the hint of sarcasm!

“Today was a brutal day. We were best price on Big Buck’s for MONTHS and the legend done us up good and proper. Office in tears. Goodnight x,” it said.

Another that took the bookies for a fair bit was the Ryanair Chase where heavily tipped Riverside Theatre won. William Hill had taken the horse on at 11-2 on raceday and Keith McDonnell, former Bodog Europe managing director, tweeted: “Bookies hammered yesterday with big bucks and Ryanair winner #tips.”

In terms of the day ahead there are already some in confident mood. Sportingbet head of media Russ Wiseman was one of today’s early risers – either that or he pulled an all-nighter – and vowed “this is the day that will put punters firmly back in their place.” Coral spokesman Simon Clare confessed the company had a “shocker” on day three of the festival and “the age-old contest” between bookies and punters “is in the balance” and “could go either way”.

Sports News

Companies like Sportingbet have argued that since Spain has only recently agreed to accept applications for online gambling licenses, betting outfits had been operating in something of a legal vacuum. In January, PokerStars beat back a similar attack by Codere in a Barcelona court, which ruled that Stars couldn’t be held liable for not applying for licenses that didn’t exist at the time. Now Codere is claiming that the Madrid court’s “indisputably prohibited” wording leaves no doubt as to how the rest of its cases will fare. Codere claims the total sum these online companies collectively owe the state equals “hundreds of millions of Euros.”

Over the border in Portugal, tourism minister Cecilia Meireles says the government has decided it is “a reasonable goal” to start collecting online gambling revenues in 2012. Meireles told local newspaper Público that legislators had “unanimously approved” plans to regulate the sector, although the nuts and bolts of their plan are still very much a work in progress. Last month, Portugal News Online quoted a source as saying the government hoped to collect €250m in “gambling concessions” in 2012. Meireles declined to get specific on the government’s revenue expectations, saying only that the process “needs some secrecy because it is too sensitive … This is a question to be worked on. This is a global analysis which requires the participation of many actors.”

Chief among those actors will be current lottery and sports betting monopoly provider Santa Casa de Misericordia de Lisboa. The Catholic charity has been Portugal’s sole online betting option since 2003, an arrangement that received the blessing of the European Court of Justice in 2009. Bwin, the losing party in that case, lost another ruling against Santa Casa in January and was ordered to cease advertising with Portuguese footie squads and fork over €27m in damages. Bwin has (for the moment) observed the former stipulation, but has appealed to the Portuguese Court of Second Instance.

Legal News

Unibet

Social betting developer Crowdpark has made its first movement into Facebook’s casino market. Pet Vegas, a slot game, is their first casino offering on the network and includes a number of themed slots. They’ve also released AnteUp, a game that allows friends to bet together on any topic or event via Facebook and Twitter with the hope it’ll soon be available for mobile devices. There was even news on their next release, a social betting game based on football offering live bets and weekly predictions in conjunction with trivia questions.

It’s being rumored that Sportingbet is edging towards a return to the US market. Andy McIver confirmed to eGR that the firm is in talks with another party but however much they tried he just wouldn’t tell them who it is. The cheek! What he did say was: “What we would start with is trying to cement our JV relationship before defining our strategy together… we would hope [the ongoing discussions] will have a positive outcome.”

Sportingbet released disappointing results earlier today and will hope the decision to abandon its Turkish business will lead to a more favorable attitude from the US. In terms of when it will happen, McIver added: “I would be very surprised if we see any sort of federal legislation in this space in 2012. The election will definitely slow it down, as no one is going to trample on emotive topics in an election year.”

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Sportingbet

Group chief executive Andrew McIver also explained: “This has been a transformational six months [for Sportingbet]. We have acquired additional regulated businesses in Australia and Denmark and disposed of our Turkish language website. These, together with the movement towards regulation in our second and third biggest markets, of Spain and Greece, mean that by the end of our year we expect to derive over 75% of our revenues from regulated markets on an annualized basis.”

Australia was the group’s bright spark with net gaming revenue up 28%, amounts wagered increased 12% with mobile wagers seeing a huge rise of 395%.

McIver added: “Following regulation in September 2008, our experience with Sportingbet Australia has demonstrated to us the long term growth potential for market leading brands in regulated markets. Our European business is being currently restructured to ensure it too is best placed to capitalise on the move towards regulation.”

2011 ended up being a challenging year for Sportingbet after the elongated takeover deal with Ladbrokes failed to bear fruit. That in itself had a detrimental effect on the company’s shares on a couple of occasions and revealed a pitfall to being a publicly-traded firm – you live and die by your shareholders. For the record the shares are at 39.50pat the time of writing – 6% down.

Removing themselves from Turkey does mean they’re able to profess to taking over 50% of revenues from regulated markets. Is this a sign they’re gearing themselves up for a tilt at any US market that materializes? Well it isn’t going to be sports betting – that’s for sure.

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If Spanish operator Codere had its way, all international online gambling operators would follow Microgaming’s lead and get the hell out of Dodge. Codere launched legal action against Bwin last April, asserting that the Austrian outfit’s online presence in the unlicensed market amounted to “unfair competition” since land-based operators like Codere had no choice but to observe the local laws and stay offline. Codere believes that any operator that established an online presence pre-regulation will hold an unfair market advantage over newcomers like themselves. The remedy? The scallywags should be forced to ditch their brands and customer databases and pay back taxes dating from, say, the dawn of the internet.

In December, Codere made similar allegations against Sportingbet and PokerStars, seeking injunctions to block the sites’ access to Spanish punters. (Gambling Compliance reports that Codere has “copy and pasted” similar injunctions against other companies serving the Spanish market.) A commercial court in Madrid subsequently granted an interim injunction against Sportingbet’s Spanish-facing site Miapuesta, which was then blocked by Spanish internet service providers and payment processors. Sportingbet was compelled to put up a €2m deposit to lift the injunction while the case is before the courts.

But Codere’s victory wasn’t a clean sweep. On Jan. 16, a Barcelona mercantile court rejected imposing an injunction against PokerStars, noting that Stars held another EU-based license and had formally applied for a Spanish license once the government decided to offer them. In the meantime, Judge D. Luis Rodriguez Vega ruled that Stars “cannot be liable for not having obtained the authorization, given that they did not have the chance to do it.” Codere must decide this coming week if it will appeal the decision.

The only market where Codere maintains an active online presence is Italy, but here, too, Stars is drinking their milkshake. Following the launch of their real-money iOS app in Italy, Stars has now released a similar version for Android. Unlike the iOS version, which was only available via iTunes, Stars is making the Android app available directly from its own site. That is, unless Codere objects…

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This competitor came in the form of online bookmakers, fuelled by the .com boom and the need for innovation in the industry pureplay operators such as Betfair, Sportingbet and bet365 became overnight successes – although they would undoubtedly say it wasn’t quite that simple.

While the retail division of many bookmakers still remains their largest sector, the gap is narrowing. Figures from H2 Gambling Capital show that while the percentage of the UK sports betting market online was just 9.7% in 2003, it stood at 24.3% for 2011. Furthermore this figure is expected to continue to rise for some time yet.

As the times are changing so are the people, even into the betting shops themselves the scene is changing dramatically. Where old men with roll up cigarettes and the daily newspaper once sat are younger and more technologically savvy punters with touch screen phones and nicotine patches.

Now that most bookmakers have finally taken the hint and embraced the digital age outside of betting shop, the next step is surely to do the same inside.

This is a step that some within the sports betting industry are now looking to take – a step which has been addressed by a number of companies, of whom the Racing Post will be among the most recognized.

Richard Thorp, B2B operations manager at the Racing Post, explains that modernising is certainly something that bookmakers are now looking to do.

He says: “Bookmakers will have to adapt with the times to attract a new audience and quite a few of them already are doing so.

“The spaces are more comfortable and brighter, the screens tend to be in HD and there is a better focus on customer service.”

Digital Screens

Thorp is behind the Racing Post’s attempts to further the adaptation that he speaks about and has done so with the Racing Post Digital Screens. The screens, which were on show at the International Casino Exhibition last month, are touch screen and provide a number of services for horse racing, football and greyhound punters.

Once connected to the wall and the internet they allow the user to view statistics, form and even ritual horse races of future races with the results based on predictions.

So far Thorp says that the response from bookmakers has been very positive. He explains: “There has been a lot of interest and two of the major bookmakers have already put in orders.”

But the Racing Post aren’t the only company trying to modernise the bookmaking world, MRG Systems have also created a digital touch screen product for stores. Theirs is named the Dailyform screen and makes use of content provided by the Press Association and offers users news concerning a wide variety of sports.

Darren MacDonald developed the Dailyform touch screens at MRG and he agrees that the modernization of retail bookmakers is something that needed to happen.

He explains: “Betting shops need to take full advantage of improvements in technology both with added functionality (touchscreens, HD displays etc) and with reduced costs.

“Information currently available online needs to be available in shop. A lot of independent bookmakers use Oddschecker for example to ensure customers get the best available price.”

In-Play in Store

Looking forward, online sports betting may have inadvertently given the retail sector a boost with the development of in-play products.

The line between retail and online betting continues to be blurred with Buzz Sports taking an interesting approach to combining the retail and in-play worlds.

Their zone play betting products, while originally intended for online and tablet use have now been placed in small portable handsets. Handsets that could easily fit into a bookmakers store and provide retail customers with a level of in-play betting that has never been possible before.

Simon Oaten is a director at Deloitte and Betting and Gaming sector leader. He boldly predicts that mobile and retail betting will become ever closer in terms of working together and competing against each other.

He explains: “In five years time operators are going to know exactly where you are so if you walk into a betting shop in the UK and you’ve got some sort of app then it’s going to be beeping in your pocket.

“Then by looking at the sporting events currently taking place it will tell you that you that the bet you could be about to place at whatever odds in the shop could be placed with another operator at a better price on your mobile.”

Situations such as this may actually not be so far off. They will create even more competition for the retail bookmakers who now certainly can’t afford to rest on their laurels. Fortunately, if MRG and the Racing Post are anything to go by then this won’t be the case.

Thorp admits that there’s much to be done: “In-play products will drive customer retention and these plus betting are the features we will be focusing on this year.”

“We believe that the digital age enables bookmakers to provide more information to their customers in a cost-effective manner,” says MacDonald.

For the first time in more than 50 years there are big changes taking place inside bookmakers’ stores. These changes have been forced by the rise of the internet and a need to compete. However, should retail bookmakers embrace the digital age then it may be more about complimenting than competition – a situation that’s bound to benefit many more betting professionals.

Business News

Sportingbet has confirmed the acquisition of two Danish sportsbooks. The international gaming firm signed a deal to take on Danbook and Scandic back in October and the deal hinged on them both being awarded Danish gaming industry licences. The deal, which is worth up to £8.5million, is performance related and is worth £4m cash and £500k in shares up front. It means they have a sizeable presence in Denmark with Sportingbet and Centrebet also owning licences in the newly regulated market.

Microgaming is launching a “Diamond Edition” of its live dealer games that promises to make the online experience even more like a real casino. The new edition adds to the high definition video streaming with redefined graphics and a lot more statistics than ever before. Multi-player roulette joins Microgaming’s live dealer offering with participants now able to see other player’s bets on the table. A spokesperson for Microgaming Live Games said: “The Diamond Edition was partly conceived because of the trend we have noticed towards playing multi-player games, and we were keen to ensure that players have even greater opportunity to take advantage of this function, this time through Roulette. Already, 16 Microgaming customers are using the Live Games product after just one year in the market, meaning that our first-rate technology and comprehensive live experience is being used by thousands of gamers worldwide.”

When can we expect the “walk in and leer over the hot dealers edition” then?

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

Sportingbet

Betfred has revamped its mobile product and at the same time launched a mobile casino. It will benefit from IGT’s mobile casino games such as Rainbow Riches, Cleopatra and Monopoly Multiplier. This is in addition to the sportsbook that will offer easier navigation and quicker access to markets.

Software provider Playtech has gobbled up another gaming industry company after reaching a deal for casino game developer Ash Gaming. The deal will be for an initial £15.5million with a deferred contingent consideration of up to £7.5m. £6m of this will be paid on the yearly anniversaries of the deal with £1.5m contingent on the company producing an agreed number of games over the three years. Playtech believed there are “significant combined benefits to be gained from this purchase, including greater revenue opportunities and enhanced economics across the value chain.”

Business News

Bet365

OpenBet has appointed Amanda Bicknell as their new sales director. The former Microsoft employee of 13 years will be responsible for existing sports betting and casino business. At the same time she takes on the  responsibility for managing, strengthening and developing existing key partner relationships.

Jeremy Thompson-Hill, Chief Operating Officer of OpenBet, said: “This is another key hire for OpenBet and adds further expertise from another leading global software company. Amanda’s experience will enable us to further improve our market-leading offering to bookmakers and national lotteries worldwide. We are pleased to welcome someone of her calibre to our team at OpenBet.”

Sportingbet has replaced Betfair as sponsor of the Melbourne Racing Club. The deal sees Sandown Racecourse renamed Sportingbet Park with the company also undertaking race sponsorships at the club’s flagship track, Caulfield. Sportingbet also lends its name to the Sandown Cup and a number of races at Caulfield. Betfair’s deal had run for three years and the new deal with Sportingbet encompasses additional race commitments such as naming rights and a strong signage presence at all MRC sponsored courses. Sportingbet Australia CEO Michael Sullivan commented: “Sportingbet Australia has had a brilliant relationship with the Melbourne Racing Club and this new deal firmly establishes Sportingbet Australia as the leading bookmaker supporting racing in Victoria,” said Sullivan. “We already pay a product fee to bet on racing in Victoria and contribute through various other sponsorships and this deal further shows how committed we are to supporting the industry.”

The deal runs from 1^st January 2012 and sees Sportingbet contribute over $5m in the next year in product fees and sponsorship. Betfair’s loss comes off the back of another deal that they surrendered with the Melbourne Cricket Ground back in the summer

Business 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.

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Following the disposal of the Turkish arm the group now accrues 40% of NGR from regulated markets with the figure set to rise 18% in territories where tax is being paid ahead of regulation. Over in Europe the firm saw wagers decrease by 4.8%, with challenging conditions in both Spain and Greece to blame. That blip on the radar was remedied by its “industry leading” in-play margin of 10.1% and it now accounts for 67% of wagers in Europe. The company’s mobile actives increased by 108% year-on-year reflect the industry-wide trend of growth in this area. Poker didn’t enjoy the best of quarters as revenue decreased by 29.6% to £2.5million, “despite the recent closure of the US facing businesses of some of our competitors.”

Online casino business 32Red has moved to limit unexpected downtime by signing a deal with Spook Ltd. 32Red will be given an early warning when environmental conditions at its data centre change and ultimately cause IT failure. “Given the nature of our business and the service we provide, the reliance on our IT infrastructure is extremely high”, Graham Campbell, 32Red IT Director, said.

Technology is of utmost importance in the iGaming industry and if you have a product that fails it’s likely customers will go by the wayside as a result. The deal with Spook will see round-the-clock monitoring of various factors such as air conditioning outages, power failures and any water ingress. Campbell added: “Our server room contains over 100 servers, and is sensitive to any variation in temperature.”

This latest tidbit from 32Red follows the firm hooking up with age verification firm GB Group and goes to show that ensuring the customer and product are safe are both pivotal.

Canadian-based Amaya Gaming Group saw revenues for the third quarter skyrocket as their acquisition of Chartwell Games came to fruition. Revenue for the quarter was up 171% to CA$3.97million with the figure for the first nine months of the year up to CA$8.89m, an increase of 125%. These impressive figures were offset by net earnings coming to a loss of CA$1.8m, thanks to the costs attributed to start-ups in a number of different territories. The next set of results will be a better measure of any success they’ve so far enjoyed in Moldova, Kenya and Uganda.

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