Betfair has axed around 50 frontline staff as they reduce the amount of language options catered for. eGR reports the exchange specialists made 50 help and customer service staff redundant in some of their “less attractive” markets after revealing that maintenance costs far outweighed profitability. The markets that are thought to have had investment withdraw are in the Nordics, Eastern Europe…and…Asia. The news of redundancies comes in the same week that Betfair decided pulling out was also the favored form of contraception when it comes to the German market.
Paddy Power has officially launched its newest social offering in association with BetDash. The game, which has been running in Beta for over a year gives players the chance to play for free or real-money with users given £100,000 in virtual money and the chance to turn it into £1m in 10 days. The real money side of things lets you win 25 times your stake and the social aspects include a live feed showing all bets placed as well as the chance to challenge others and “Laugh At” bets. BetDash’s Justin Goldman added: “There have been many failed attempts at creating a successful social betting game. BetDash is bucking that trend by delivering a unique game design that enables punters to enjoy the thrill of sports betting in a low-risk, incredibly engaging social gaming environment.”
European betting firm Fortuna Entertainment Group posted an increase in online sports betting in the first nine months of 2012. The company’s total gross win grew 10 percent to €78million with online betting’s gross win growing by 23.4 percent year-on-year to €25.8million. They also saw an increase of 10.7 percent in amounts staked across the whole-company to €334.1m. Wilf Walsh, Chairman of the Management Board of Fortuna Entertainment Group, said: “The double digit growth in Amounts Staked on the Group level and the high single digit growth reported by the Sports Betting division were mainly driven by a successful expansion of on-line betting in all core markets, including our new regulated on-line business in Poland. We are reporting growth rates which are in line with our long-term targets for sports betting. On top of that, we have completed a comprehensive review of our lottery business in order to minimize EBITDA impact and to reach break-even during the first half of next year.”
