Gambling Insider Nov Dec 2020

Nov/Dec 2020 Mar/Apr 2019

A global perspective Market focuses from key nations around the world BIG QUESTION Combating cyber security threats ROUNDTABLE Examining the future of live casino GGA LAS VEGAS All of 2020’s winners revealed

EDITOR’S LETTER

COO, EDITOR IN CHIEF Julian Perry EDITOR Carl Friedmann Carl.Friedmann@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 207 739 9908 SENIOR STAFF WRITER Tim Poole Tim.Poole@gamblinginsider.com STAFF WRITERS Owain Flanders Owain.Flanders@gamblinginsider.com Iqbal Johal Iqbal.Johal@gamblinginsider.com Ezra Amacher Ezra.Amacher@gamingamerica.com Peter Lynch Peter.Lynch@gamblinginsider.com

A

Julian Perry, COO, Editor in Chief

Carl Friedmann, Editor

t every conceivable level, the gambling industry has made decisive action as the global pandemic has morphed and twisted its way through our lives. From surges in online gambling and sports betting alternatives during lockdown, it shows that we’re unable to remain idle. Of course, the adhesive that binds us all together are the expos, trade fairs and gatherings that pepper the calendar and spice up our working relationships. Those face-to-face opportunities are all but suspended for now, but the innate need to forge ahead has manifested in the many online and virtual versions of the shows we’ve been accustomed to visiting every year. It’s truly been a source of inspiration how event organisers, sponsors, visitors and tech support have rallied together to adapt to the circumstances that have befallen us, and bring a new and exciting version of what we’re missing. It might even signal a sign of things to come as virtual aspects of shows might be here to stay. But not to get ahead of ourselves, we’re closing out this year with a celebration of the Global Gaming Awards winners starting on page 22. G2E organisers have had a difficult time sparring with regulations and narrow windows of time to not only confirm new dates for the virtual show but get everything organised in time to put on a seamless, first of its kind event. The pressure to deliver has been something to build character from. And as an integral component of G2E, the Global Gaming Awards had to adapt as well. We here at Gambling Insider had to dust off the green screen, get our tech sharpened and coordinate with all the sponsors and winners to put on a show that the Academy Awards would be proud of. It was truly a team effort with GI’s Julian Perry hosting and Tim Poole taking the reins as we patched calls to all the winners for their reactions.

Naturally there were a couple of twitchy glitches and “can you hear me now?” moments, but that all made it raw, real and relatable. In case you missed it, it’s all on the Gambling Insider website, and without giving too much away before you read the full overview in this issue, it bears highlighting that for the first time in GGA history, Aristocrat won in three different categories: Land-based Industry Supplier of the Year, Land-based Product of the Year and Slot of the Year. It’s also worth mentioning that Rush Street Interactive won its first-ever Global Gaming Award in the Digital Operator of the Year category. It was quite an accomplishment to embark into uncharted territory and keep so many moving parts in check. The success of the outcome certainly gives us confidence that we can do it again, but we’d certainly prefer to roll up the green screen and meet in person once again in 2021.

CF, Editor CF

CONTRIBUTING THIS ISSUE

LEAD DESIGNER Laura Fogar DESIGNER Olesya Adamska DESIGN ASSISTANTS Radostina Mihaylova, Aimee Matthews, Aleksandra Cakikj, Veronika Fukita MARKETING & EVENTS MANAGER Mariya Savova FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT Dalia Ambrazaite IT MANAGER Tom Powling COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Deepak Malkani Deepak.Malkani@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 6279 EVENTS SALES MANAGER Ryan Horwood Ryan@globalgamingawards.com +44 (0) 208 638 7610 SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER William Aderele William.Aderele@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7739 2062 ACCOUNT MANAGERS Michael Juqula Michael.Juqula@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 3487 0498 Clive Waite Clive.Waite@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 0643 Richard Carr Richard.Carr@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 203 435 5624 Nitesh Patel Nitesh.Patel@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 207 739 5768 Martin Dilleigh Martin.Dilleigh@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 203 435 5628 US BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Aaron Harvey Aaron.Harvey@playerspublishing.com Tel: +1 702 425 7818 US ACCOUNT MANAGER Erica Clark Erica.Clark@playerspublishing.com Tel: +1 702 430 1912 CREDIT MANAGER Rachel Voit WITH THANKS TO: Stephen Cavey, Alexandru Petrescu, Ingo Ernst, Rob Griffin, Justin Cosnett, Angie White, Andres Rengifo, Vahe Balayan, David O'Reilly, Stephan van den Oetelaar, Jason Chess, Simon Noy, Alex Czajkowski, Natalka Antoniuk, Steve Donoughue, Marin Lycka, Steffan Jones, Aaron Phelps, Lee Richardson, Paul Sculpher, Willem van Oort, Xavi Muñoz Bellvehí, Ranjana Adhikari, Tanisha Khanna, John Griffiths, Simon Hammon, Thomas Filippou, Andreas Köberl, Tamas Kadar Gambling Insider magazine ISSN 2043-9466

STEVE DONOUGHUE

Gambling Consultant

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ANDREAS KÖBERL

CEO, BetGames.TV

Produced and published

by Players Publishing Ltd All material is strictly copyrighted and all rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is forbidden. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of Gambling Insider but we assume no responsibility for the effects arising therefrom. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

CONTENTS

FEATURES

32 32 Big Question: Cyber security Executives from Ground Labs, BMM, 4Stop, MIRACL, Continent 8 Technologies and TransUnion discuss how gaming firms can fight new threats

ISSUES

38 Roundtable: Live casino Representatives from NetEnt and BetConstruct discuss the future of the fast-growing vertical

8 Comment Tim Poole, Owain Flanders, Iqbal Johal and Ezra Amacher discuss current industry issues 16 Facing facts The latest industry data 18 Taking stock Tracking operator and supplier stock prices across a six-month period

42 Path to CEO Owain Flanders assesses what the best route is to becoming a CEO

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46 Goodwill and support Jason Chess, partner at law firm Wiggin, questions the rulings of the UK advertising regulator 48 Kambi catch-up Iqbal Johal catches up with Kambi head of trading Simon Noy, to discuss how the supplier came through the challenges presented by the suspension of live sport

20 In Numbers A gaming snapshot by Fantini Research

52 Buyer beware Alex Czajkowski, a long-time gaming marketing exec, on the pros and perils of one-to-one IM marketing 54 ICE London 2021 Natalka Antoniuk, content writer at events company Quadrant2Design, discusses the hybrid twist that is making ICE 2021 possible

GGA AWARDS 22 Global Gaming Awards We walk you through the winners at this year's Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas, with our 100-strong Judging Panel voting to crown the sector's most successful firms

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56 We've got five years The opinionated Steve Donoughue gives his latest take on the UK market and the Gambling Commission 60 The importance of legal certainty GVC Holdings' regulation and compliance guru Martin Lycka compares regulatory frameworks in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands

62 Added security Steffan Jones of Worldpay speaks to Gambling Insider about what lies in store for the payments sector in 2021 64 Preparation and agility Aaron Phelps, account director at Digital Fuel Marketing, details various ways to help US sportsbooks stay ahead of the pandemic 66 Still the land of opportunity Lee Richardson, CEO of Gaming Economics and co-founder of The Big Betting Balagan, explores the dynamic US market

INSIDERS 85 Relax Gaming Simon Hammon 86 Intralot Thomas Filippou 87 BetGames.TV Andreas Köberl

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68 Identity crisis With a legal review coming up for UK land-based casinos, Paul Sculpher of Gaming Recruitment Solutions asks: Where are we going?

70 Market Focus: US Ezra Amacher compares new sports betting laws in Colorado, Michigan and Tennessee

PRODUCT REVIEWS

72 Market Focus: Netherlands Willem van Oort reviews the latest developments in Dutch online gaming regulation, explaining why he is optimistic about 2021's market launch

88 Product reviews Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, product output remains at an impressive level, and Gambling Insider previews some of the newest gems available in the market

74 Market Focus: Spain Xavi Muñoz Bellvehí, gaming lawyer at Spanish law firm ECIJA, dissects the legal aspects of the Spanish online gaming and betting market 78 Market Focus: India Ranjana Adhikari, co-head media entertainment & gaming practice, and associate Tanisha Khanna – of Nishith Desai Associates – discuss the state of play with legalising online gambling 80 The rise of esports Gambling Insider speaks with John Griffiths, chief commercial officer at Spicy Mango, to get his insight into the rise of esports amid the COVID-19 pandemic

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FINAL WORD 98 Organic growth in an ongoing pandemic Tamas Kadar, SEON founder and CEO, speaks with Gambling Insider about the fraud-fighting company’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

COMMENT

TIM POOLE

ARE WE TRULY LIMITING LOSS? Tim Poole explores the ever-divisive issue of problem gambling, and the industry’s differing approaches to what genuinely constitute safe and responsible gambling measures

“So what do you do, Tim?” “I’m a journalist who covers the gambling industry.”

“What do you think of gambling?”

“It’s entertaining – but it can lead to losses.”

“For me, a gambling man is right down there with the lowest of the low, like a thief.”

This is a real-life conversation I had with an Uber driver on my way home from our weekly office meetings in September.

I recall this conversation not to agree with the driver, who I gave a five-star review for his engaging conversational skills, but to show what the outward perception of our industry can be like. Tell anyone in passing you work in the gambling industry and there’s a 50-50 chance of them being highly disapproving of the sector.

As I’ve said ad nauseam in these pages, I will champion the industry and defend the right to gamble as much as I can. I disagree with the principle that gambling itself is wrong. Like I said to my Uber driver, it’s entertaining, it’s exciting, it’s a genuine alternative to watching Netflix or playing computer games these days, as it holds value and can engage an audience.

But can our industry really blame people for judging the gambling sector when there is still such a muddled approach

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towards problem gambling? Let’s take any religious anti-gambling sentiment out of the equation for a minute and think about those who disapprove of the way the industry itself behaves.

At worst, it can be argued some companies feed off problem gambling: these are not my views, but rather views constantly expressed by frontline employees of gambling operators – who fall just enough under the radar to be able to air their opinions honestly on social media.

And even in a best-case scenario, the industry’s approach can be described as incoherent. A prime example right now is operator Paf and its loss limit scheme: on the one hand, its €20,000 ($23,345) annual loss limit, down from €25,000 and having started out as €30,000 initially, is a shining light. Paf can tangibly demonstrate it has sacrificed millions in revenue to ensure players do not lose more than €20,000 a year individually; it is sending an anti-VIP player message out and challenging others in the industry to do the same – knowing full well certain operators will never follow suit.

Yet how effective is this loss limit, truly? Of course, Paf is doing more than any other operator in this regard, but it is doing enough? Let’s take two very basic hypothetical cases. A player on an annual income of €1,000,000 may be able to lose €100,000 and consider this a reasonable expense. Without a tendency to gamble too often, their behaviour may actually deem them a safe gambler, though they are now restricted to losing only €20,000 in 12 months. A player with a yearly salary of €15,000, conversely, is still allowed to lose €20,000 a year with Paf – a sum greater than their annual income.

So does this loss limit go far enough? Is it too arbitrary? Does it truly help define what a problem gambler actually is? And would Paf (hypothetically) reduce this limit further to €5,000 if it ended up costing the operator 75% of its total revenue?

Although the brand is to be commended on trying something different and at least attempting to send shockwaves through the sector, this one example is a divisive area – let alone the industry’s overarching approach to problem gambling. On the other end of the scale, a statement attributed to Caesars Entertainment in August leaves absolutely no room for manoeuvre in the US. What is the following statement if not a total abdication of operator responsibility?

In its recommendations on Virginia sports betting, the company is quoted as saying: “Ultimately, the decision to gamble or not gamble, or how much or how little to gamble, is the responsibility of the gambler. Indeed, taking personal responsibility for one’s own gambling decisions is a hallmark of both healthy play as well as recovery from a gambling problem.”

Alas, even in this day and age, the gambling industry’s approach towards safer gambling is simply Jekyll and Hyde.

COMMENT

OWAIN FLANDERS

UNPRECEDENTED Owain Flanders reflects on the past year with Gambling Insider and recounts what he’s learned during a time no one could have predicted, even in an industry known for unpredictable shifts

What a year it’s been since the last November/December edition of Gambling Insider. It might seem a cliché, but it has been a rollercoaster.

Just eight months ago I was making my way through rows of exhibitions, taking in grand LED displays and obliging offers of free beer at ICE London 2020. Now, that same exhibition centre is being used as a makeshift hospital for COVID-19 patients. Back then, if you had told me that the trade show floor housing such names as Scientific Games, Novomatic and Flutter Entertainment would be filled with hospital beds just two months later, I probably would have laughed.

Sadly, that unimaginable reality is now all too real, and the same can be said for every other aspect of life. Working from home is now de rigueur, as are mandatory masks and endless bottles of hand sanitiser. In London, we’ve been able to avoid another full lockdown, but rising case numbers tell us we could be back behind closed doors some time soon, with our neighbours further north recently set upon with stricter measures.

For the industry, this period of rapid transition has been no different in its unpredictability. Casinos and betting shops in the UK have closed, reopened and then battled vehemently to remain that way. Meanwhile, US properties have been encumbered with a long list of limitations, from capacity numbers to smoking bans and everything in between.

As a result, the pandemic has taken its toll, even for such giants as MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, which have both seen net loss figures skyrocket since March.

As I look back on the past year with Gambling Insider, it’s difficult to even recall a time without COVID-19, when the biggest challenge facing operators was regulatory rather than respiratory.

In January, operators in the UK were more concerned with an impending governmental review of the Gambling Act 2005. Likewise, Sweden was heading into its second year of re-regulation after what had been a turbulent debut year, and North America was undergoing a complex mix of sports betting and online gaming legislation in many States. Little did operators and suppliers know that a microbe would cause more damage to revenue streams than any regulatory action ever could.

That said, the pandemic has provided ample opportunity to learn about the industry’s true character, at a time when adaptability has been

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absolutely necessary. In the space of just a few weeks, operators, suppliers and affiliates had to prepare for potential losses to revenue streams in whatever way possible.

With sports cancelled, sports betting operators had to look towards other verticals such as esports, virtuals and online casino – a new need that necessitated the assistance of gaming providers and data suppliers.

Later, as land-based properties reopened after lengthy closures, casino operators were required to adhere to new health and safety measures.

Gaming providers had to develop new ways for them to do just that, providing everything from Perspex screens to cashless payment systems and antimicrobial cabinets.

Industry groups have also demonstrated their importance during this time. Within the UK in particular, the unity of the industry has been clear to see under the single voice of the Betting and Gaming Council.

Although at times the industry body’s consistent calls to action and policy condemnations could be considered overkill; the persistence of Michael Dugher and his team has been admirable in the main, and has no doubt led to some positive change for the industry during the pandemic.

Similarly, the American Gaming Association has acted as a valuable ally to US-based gambling companies, while the European Gaming and Betting Association has helped its members increase customer protection at a time when it has never been more important to do so.

It’s this industry resilience that has impressed me above all else.

Through a combination of diligence, togetherness and careful optimism, the industry has endured what we hope has been the worst of the crisis.

Now, gambling companies across the globe can look towards recovery with the knowledge they have the tools necessary to survive, even in the worst of times.

Hopefully, the upcoming year will see the sector flourish once more, and we can all enjoy a beer at ICE 2021 without a hospital bed in sight.

“IN JANUARY, OPERATORS IN THE UK WERE MORE CONCERNED WITH AN IMPENDING GOVERNMENTAL REVIEW OF THE GAMBLING ACT 2005. LIKEWISE, SWEDEN WAS HEADING INTO ITS SECOND YEAR OF RE-REGULATION AFTER WHAT HAD BEEN A TURBULENT DEBUT, AND NORTH AMERICA WAS UNDERGOING A COMPLEX MIX OF LEGISLATION IN MANY STATES”

COMMENT

IQBAL JOHAL

LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE Iqbal Johal discusses whether sports betting sponsorship in football has gotten out of hand or whether it’s still fully justified, particularly in the current climate of financial hardship across the sport The start of the football season in mid-September should’ve been a time of great excitement, both for the industry and fans up and down the country, given the current climate. I too couldn’t wait to see my beloved Coventry City back in the second tier of English football for the first time in eight years. However, tuning into the Sky Blues’ opening EFL Championship game of the season away to Bristol City, my concentration and focus was immediately turned elsewhere.

As both teams battled out a closely fought 2-1 victory for the home side, it was hard not to notice the copious amount of sports betting sponsorship everywhere your eyes turned. All 22 players were donning betting sponsorship on their shirts, with Bristol City now sponsored

by MansionBet, after the operator signed up as its principal partner in August, the same week Irish bookmaker BoyleSports became Coventry’s main shirt sponsor. The match was also taking place in the SkyBet Championship, with the now Flutter-owned operator’s logo situated in all corners of Ashton Gate.

It followed on from the many news stories I covered in August and September regarding operators becoming main shirt sponsors or principal partners of several clubs in England.

Instead of trying to enjoy, or endure, the match, I simply kept asking myself the same question: Is there too much gambling sponsorship in football? And, after many discussions, there’s no easy answer to this question.

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In July, a House of Lords Select Committee report, The Time for Action, called for a ban on gambling operators advertising on the shirts or any part of a sports team’s kit, or near sports venues, although the ban wouldn’t take place for clubs below the Premier League before 2023.

In truth, it’s easy to see both sides of the argument. Those in favour of a blanket ban would point to the fact eight Premier League clubs have gambling operators as their main shirt sponsor, accounting for 40% of the entire league, and a further 11 in the Championship.

Even though the total number of 19 clubs being sponsored by gambling companies is down from 27 in 2019-20, the industry is still the biggest in terms of shirt sponsorships in the top two divisions of English football. The argument here is there’s sports betting logos and sponsorship wherever you look when watching football, whether that’s in person or, more relevant to now, on television. That can make it hard for the millions of children and vulnerable people who watch the sport to ignore.

Yet calls for a blanket ban miss the bigger picture, and are mainly the result of political pandering, with the general public’s view of the gambling industry poorly received. As the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) alluded to, the voluntary whistle-to-whistle advertising ban introduced in the summer of 2019 reduced sports advertising by 84% in the year since, showing the effort the industry has already made to reduce sponsorship in sport.

There’s also the case and fact that sports sponsorship provides much-needed funds to the grassroots and EFL clubs in particular, especially in this current pandemic where clubs are on the brink of going out of existence. Such sponsorships like the BoyleSports partnership with Coventry, the highest value front-of-shirt sponsorship deal for the club since 2011-12, are essential for clubs to provide an alternative revenue stream, now that matches are set to be played behind closed doors for the majority of the season.

It’s also about the target market, and however much the critics want to deny it, football and sports betting go hand in hand. The vertical is extremely popular among football fans all over the country, and it’s not hard to see why, with the incentive of being rewarded for your predictions or footballing opinions.

It’s always going to be hard to completely police against vulnerable and young people from not having any exposure to gambling in some form. So should we close down all betting shops in fear of children walking past them? I believe football stadiums should be a safe haven for gambling advertisement, considering the majority of fans who attend matches are able to bet safely and sensibly.

It’s still important to keep exposure levels down to some degree, which is what the whistle-to-whistle ban has started to achieve. That has seemed to be the perfect compromise, in comparison to betting companies sponsoring football shirts in Spain’s La Liga being outlawed, a draconian measure that frankly helps nobody.

COMMENT

EZRA AMACHER

SKY’S STILL THE LIMIT The pulse of Las Vegas has been diminished, but plans forge ahead to ensure the city will be fighting fit soon. Ezra Amacher weighs the harsh realities of the present against the ambition and drive to build a better future

In the era before COVID-19, planes would buzz over my central Las Vegas residence all day and into the small hours. From commercial aircrafts carrying visitors by the hundreds to private jets chauffeuring the business elite, there was always action in the air. When the pandemic arrived, a stealthy silence fell across the southern Nevada sky. The sparse roar of an arriving plane, once an ordinary annoyance, became a reminder of the normality Las Vegas residents used to take for granted.

Lately, planes are starting to make their presence felt again, though not close to pre-pandemic numbers. McCarran Airport reported 1.7 million people flew in and out of Las Vegas in August, a 7% improvement from July but down 61% year-on-year. Perhaps more concerning is that midweek occupancy dropped 2.5% from July to August to 34%. In mid-October, The Encore at Wynn Las Vegas decided to close between Monday and Thursday citing weak demand.

The absence of conventions – the lifeblood for many Strip operators – is exposing why Moody’s predicts a slower recovery for Las Vegas than regional casinos. In a report published 14 October, Moody’s wrote: “We expect that Las Vegas Strip operator revenue and profits will lag regional casinos as leisure customers return before long-distance travelers. Las Vegas operators rely heavily on large and highly profitable midweek conference bookings and attendances that typically depend on long-distance travel. Meanwhile regional casinos will likely see reduced traffic where individuals congregate.”

Moody’s attributes two primary reasons as to why Las Vegas can expect a long path back to pre-pandemic business than its regional competitors.

Cash-strapped Americans are less willing to spend disposable income on travel and gambling, and businesses are unlikely to schedule in-person conventions until the pandemic has subsided.

For customers who want to visit land-based casinos, packing a car and heading down the highway is more sensible than booking a trip to Las Vegas. More than 900 of the nation’s 989 casinos have reopened and sports betting will soon be legal and live in 19 states plus Washington D.C. (Tennessee is set to launch online sports betting in early November.)

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Live entertainment, once one of Las Vegas’ premier advantages over other markets, is sidelined indefinitely.

At a time when Las Vegas casinos need to embrace innovative strategies to attract customers, some of the town’s smaller operators will be skating on thin ice, limiting what modifications they can make to their business.

Moody’s adds: “Debt-to-EBITDA is projected to be over seven times during the next 12 to 18 months. And as companies hunker down to preserve cash during this period of high uncertainty, funded debt will remain high.”

Rising debt and depressed earnings is a double whammy for operators as they will lack the resources to invest in new technology and products while watching their competitors pull even further ahead. In Las Vegas and elsewhere, the gap between the top operators and mom-and-pop casinos will only widen.

The most pressing challenge for Las Vegas collectively will be how to encourage convention organisers to bring their shows back to town.

This summer the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Super Bowl of conventions for Las Vegas, announced it would not hold a physical show for January 2021 but instead opt for a virtual convention. CES annually brings around 175,000 attendees to town with $300m generated for the local economy. News of the convention pulling out of town provided a healthy reality check for what might be in store if changes aren’t made to how operators host large events.

MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts announced in September they are turning to rapid COVID-19 testing for convention attendees. Other operators would be wise to propose their own safety measures to help lure organisers.

Though Las Vegas has a long way to go before planes start arriving at pre-pandemic frequency, the city’s ambitious leaders aren’t waiting for clearance to take off. In the last few weeks alone, The Circa opened downtown, the Las Vegas Convention Center entered the final stretch of its $1bn expansion, and Elon Musk’s underground transit system received support to link to Allegiant Stadium. If you build it, they will come.

ISSUES

NUMBER CRUNCHING

Facing facts Gambling Insider takes a close look at US and European gaming and sports betting markets, to assess levels of recovery as COVID-19 restrictions are slowly lifted, casinos are permitted to reopen and sport leagues return

Kindred’s average monthly sportsbook turnover for the first three quarters of 2020. Although activity dropped in Q2 as a result of COVID, GRAPHsportsbook 1 the European operator saw turnover surpass pre-pandemic levels by September (GBP/£ million) GRAPH 1 Source: Kindred Group Q3 report Q1

Quarterly revenue for Svenska Spel and Betsson shows the differing performance of the two Swedish operators amid the pandemic (US$ million) Source: American Gaming Association

Q3

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Total sportsbook stake GBPApr 1,143.4mMay Y-o-Y growth -14.7%

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Total sportsbook stake Jul Aug GBP 780.2m Y-o-Y growth -37.9%

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Total sportsbook stake Oct1,476.1m GBP Y-o-Y growth +21.2%

NGR 2019

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Net gaming revenue (NGR) for Spanish online gambling shows the pandemic has not impacted the growth of the market, with Q2 2020 revenue up 18% year-on-year (€ million) GRAPH 4 General de Ordenación del Juego Source: Dirección 250

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Française des Jeux quarterly 2020 revenue compared with 2019. The French monopoly operator only saw a detrimental impact from the pandemic in Q2 (€ billion) Source: Company reports

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$17.55B -39.4% -39.4%

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$3.14B -44.1% -44.1%

Oklahoma Ok

$524.9M $932.1M +33.2% +33.2% +203.3%+203.3%

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Rhode Islan Rho

$450 $400

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5,119 $112,146 19,929 $146,009 -23.2% New Nevada Jersey gaming revenue for the year-to-August 2020, demonstrating thePennsylvania market’s steady recovery$661,986 to near 20191,092 levels since properties closed 112 $761,536 -13.1% in March ($million) GRAPH 5New Colorado 472 5 3,003 $70,896 -5.1% GRAPH Source: Jersey $67,312 Division of Gaming Enforcement Indiana

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Aug

Jan

$150 $100 400

20 250

465 Pennsylvania sports wagering handle for the year-to-August over the past two years. Although handle saw a significant decline as a result 400 of sports cancellations this year, the figure never dropped below 2019’s total and is now seeing record levels each month ($million) 300 Source: H2 Gambling Capital

20

19

300

20

-73.2%

Q2

96

524 500

20

$0

20

-9.6%

Q1

-12.4%

37

600

19

01

$50 350

20

-4.6%

$350 100

Q4

57

100

19

-7.4%

150 $400

20

-5.1%

89

150

Q3

-13.1%

200 $450

19

36

96

200

20

-23.2%

250

Q2

09

Q2 YoY growth

GRAPH 4

250

Q1

daily per day

300

9

$01,200 1,200

1,000 1,000 300

2020

20 1

350

Rhode Island

2019

$50

Q2

350

400 Oklahoma

$100

Q1

400

1M 3%

2020

9

g GGR

2019

Nevada gross gaming revenue for the year-to-August shows the impact of casino closures in April. However, the market has seen a steady recovery with August revenue within 12% of 2019 levels ($million) $150 Source: Nevada Gaming Control Board $200

20 1

3M 2%

Q3

Average daily GGR per casino day

Open Casino Days

9

Average daily GGR per casino day

Open Casino Days

20 1

g GGR

ISSUES

NUMBER CRUNCHING

$350 Q2 2020

200 150

200

2019

100 100

50 0

The number of casino properties open for business in the US from 1 Mar to 12 Oct 2020. The easing of restrictions has seen the majority of casinos reopen, with additional health and safety measures in place Source: American Gaming Association Commercial Properties Open

600

Tribal Properties Open

524 500

465

470

400

439

300

200

100

12

Oc

t

t Oc 3

p Se 24

15

Se

p

p

Au g

Se 6

28

Au g 19

Au g 10

Au g 1

Ju l 23

l Ju 14

l

n

Ju 5

n Ju

n Ju

ay M

Ju 26

17

8

30

ay M 21

ay

ay

M 12

M 3

Ap r 24

Ap r 15

Ap r 6

ar M 28

ar M 19

ar M 10

M 1

Aug

ar

0 Jul

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

17

l

Ju l 1

23

l Ju

Ju 14

5

Ju n

Ju n 26

17

n Ju

M 30

8

ay

ay M

ay M 12

M 3

21

ay

Ap r 24

Ap r 15

ar

Ap r 6

28

M

ar

Aug

M

Jul

M

Jun

19

May

10

Apr

ar

Mar

1

Feb

ar

0 Jan

M

Aug

2020

ISSUES

TAKING STOCK

Gambling Insider tracks operator and supplier stock prices across a six-month period (May to October 2020). The stock price is taken from the first day of each month and last date available at the time of writing Scientific Games

GVC Holdings Currency (GBP)

Currency (USD) 40.00

1200

35.00

1000

30.00

800

25.00 20.00

600

15.00 400

10.00

200

5.00

r be to

r Oc

em pt Se

Se

Six-month high – 1000.3 (October) Six-month low – 691.2 (August)

Six-month high – 35.97 (Oct) Six-month low – 11.17 (May)

NetEnt

Elys game technology

Currency (SEK)

Currency (USD) 90

4.5

80

4

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

Six-month high – 84.50 (Sep) Six-month low – 32.46 (May)

er ob Oc t

r be em

to be Oc

pt Se

Se

pt em

gu Au

Ju

Ju

M

Six-month high – 4.03 (May) Six-month low – 1.73 (Sep)

st

0

gu

0

Au

10

ly

0.5

Ju

20

ne

1

Ju

30

M

1.5

r

40

be r

2

st

50

ly

2.5

ne

60

ay

3

ay

70

3.5

18

be

st Au

gu

ly Ju

ne Ju

to

M

be

r

r Oc

pt

em

be

st Au

gu

ly Ju

ne Ju

ay M

ay

0.00

0

ISSUES

TAKING STOCK

888 Holdings

Crown Resorts Currency (AUD)

Currency (USD) 10

300

9.8

250

9.6 9.4

200

9.2

150

9

100

8.8 8.6

50

8.4

0

pt

r be Oc

em

to

be

r

st Au

gu

ly Ju

ne

M

Ju

ay

r to Oc

em

Se

Se

pt

Au

be

r be

st gu

ly Ju

ne Ju

M

ay

8.2

Six-month high – 9.76 (July) Six-month low – 8.72 (August)

Six-month high – 257.50 (Oct) Six-month low – 143.00 (May)

Aristocrat

Twin River Worldwide Holdings Currency )USD)

Currency (AUD) 35

30

30

25

25

20

20 15

15

Six-month high – 30.52 (Oct) Six-month low – 24.10 (May)

r Oc to be

r Se

pt

em

be

st gu Au

ly Ju

ne Ju

M

r be to Oc

r be em pt Se

Au

Ju

Ju

M

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0

ly

0

ne

5

ay

5

ay

10

10

Six-month high – 26.85 (October) Six-month low – 14.98 (May)

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

19

$7,702

$12,568

-38.72

$143,710

$142,224

+1.04

$70,541

$80,755

-12.65

$173,633 ISSUES MississippiFANTINI RESEARCH

$179,131

-3.07

Missouri

$129,370

$139,840

-7.49

New Jersey

$277,153

$265,241

+4.49

$0

$19,936

-100.0

New Mexico Tribal

$201,977

$192,955

+4.49

New York

$175,259

$226,907

-22.76

Ohio

$164,645

$155,106

+6.15

Pennsylvania

$277,519

$265,459

+4.54

Maine Maryland Massachusetts

New Mexico

Rhode Island SEPTEMBER EARNINGS $31,055 IMPACTED BY$46,795 COVID-19 South Dakota Virginia West Virginia

$11,674

$10,423

+12.00

$1,673

$1,786

-6.33

$53,528

$55,075

-2.81

$2,364,404

-6.63

$3,423,695

-11.54

$2,207,548 Regional Markets Total Gaming revenue continued to rebound in September, $821,131 Nevada with revenue down 6.4% year-on-year to $3.664bn, according to Fantini’s National Revenue Report.$3,028,679 US Casino Total That continued a trend of sequential recovering revenue:

GAMING$1,059,291 REBOUND CONTINUES-22.48 IN US STATE

2020 REVENUE

2019 REVENUE

YEAR-OVER-YEAR % CHANGE

Arkansas

$34,259

$33,258

+3.01

Colorado

$64,949

$71,756

-9.49

MONTH

DECLINE

August

-9.4%

Connecticut

$67,918

$80,484

-15.61

July

-11.8

Delaware

$36,442

$40,705

-10.47

June

-56.6

Detroit

$87,908

$112,299

-21.72

May

-90.2

Florida

$38,373

$44,098

-12.98

April

-96.9

Illinois

$81,768

$111,606

-26.74

Indiana

$152,385

$161,329

-5.54

Iowa

$120,342

$120,920

-0.48

Kansas

$28,791

$31,334

-8.12

Kentucky

$26,171

$18,807

+39.16

Louisiana

$126,039

$183,405

-31.28

$7,702

$12,568

-38.72

$143,710

$142,224

+1.04

$70,541

$80,755

-12.65

Mississippi

$173,633

$179,131

-3.07

Missouri

$129,370

$139,840

-7.49

New Jersey

$277,153

$265,241

+4.49

$0

$19,936

-100.0

New Mexico Tribal

$201,977

$192,955

+4.49

New York

$175,259

$226,907

-22.76

Ohio

$164,645

$155,106

+6.15

Pennsylvania

$277,519

$265,459

+4.54

That comes with the continued reopening of casinos and the continued strength of online gaming, sports betting and slot routes.

Casino revenue fell 11.5% to $3.029bn in September, improving from August’s 15.5% decline despite capacity limitations. Casinos in every state except new Mexico were open during the month.

The opening of New York helped results, bringing in $175.259m in revenue. September was also aided by the opening of Churchill Downs’ historical racing venues Newport Racing and Gaming with 500 machines, and Oak Grove with 850 machines. That helped in Kentucky leading growth with 39.18%.

The state still grew 28.45% without those new venues.

Echoing similar trends in August, Ohio led major gaming states with 6.15% growth.

Louisiana casinos fell 31.28% as Lake Charles

20

-33.63

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

Maine Maryland Massachusetts

New Mexico

Delaware

$36,442

$40,705

-10.47

Detroit

$87,908

$112,299

-21.72

Florida

$38,373

$44,098

-12.98

Illinois

$81,768

$111,606

ISSUES

Indiana

$152,385

$161,329

-5.54

Iowa

$120,342

$120,920

-0.48

Kansas

$28,791

$31,334

-8.12

Kentucky

$26,171

$18,807

+39.16

Louisiana

$126,039

$183,405

-31.28

$7,702

$12,568

-38.72

$143,710

$142,224

+1.04

$70,541

$80,755

-12.65

$179,131

-3.07

$129,370 2020 REVENUE

$139,840 2019 REVENUE

New Jersey Arkansas New Mexico

$277,153

$265,241

-7.49 YEAR-OVER-YEAR % CHANGE

$34,259 $0

$33,258 $19,936

+3.01 -100.0

Colorado New Mexico Tribal

$64,949 $201,977

$71,756 $192,955

-9.49 +4.49

Connecticut New York

$67,918 $175,259

$80,484 $226,907

-15.61 -22.76

Delaware Ohio

$36,442 $164,645

$40,705 $155,106

-10.47 +6.15

Detroit Pennsylvania

$87,908 $277,519

$112,299 $265,459

-21.72 +4.54

Florida Rhode Island

$38,373 $31,055

$44,098 $46,795

-12.98 -33.63

Illinois South Dakota

$81,768 $11,674

$111,606 $10,423

-26.74 +12.00

Indiana Virginia Iowa West Virginia

$152,385 $1,673

$161,329 $1,786

-5.54 -6.33

$120,342 $53,528

$120,920 $55,075

-0.48 -2.81

$28,791 $2,207,548

$31,334 $2,364,404

-8.12 -6.63

$26,171 $821,131

$18,807 $1,059,291

+39.16 -22.48

$126,039 $3,028,679

$183,405 $3,423,695

-31.28 -11.54

$7,702

$12,568

-38.72

$143,710

$142,224

+1.04

$70,541

$80,755

-12.65

$173,633

$179,131

-3.07

Maine Maryland Massachusetts

GAMING REBOUND CONTINUES IN US $173,633 Mississippi casinos were still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Laura in Late August, with Caesars’ Isle of Capri remaining closed.

Louisiana casinos fell 4.80% when factoring out Lake Charles casinos.

Online gaming revenue once again more than tripled last year’s revenue to $147.417m.

September’s revenue annualises to $1.76bn, less than 10% of what many observers believe US online gaming will be in several years.

That was the third straight month of tripling revenue growth despite the gradual reopening of casinos. Online gaming accounted for 4% of total gaming revenue as casinos reopened, the same as in August and July.

Sports betting revenue grew just 1.89% to $142.010m as last year had strong results from Nevada.

However, September still beat August’s $115.667m and July’s $66.817m. New Jersey led all states with $45.082m while long-time leader Nevada retook second place with $32.894m. Pennsylvania brought in $18.276m.

To subscribe to Fantini’s National Revenue Report, contact Ashley Diem at adiem@fantiniresearch.com Tables represent September 2020 revenue (in thousands)

Missouri STATE

Kansas Regional Markets Total Kentucky Nevada Louisiana US Casino Total Maine Maryland Massachusetts

MONTH

DECLINE

Mississippi

FANTINI RESEARCH

-26.74

+4.49

August Missouri

-9.4%

$129,370

$139,840

-7.49

July Jersey New

-11.8

$277,153

$265,241

+4.49

JuneMexico New

-56.6

$0

$19,936

-100.0

May Mexico Tribal New

-90.2

$201,977

$192,955

+4.49

AprilYork New

-96.9

fantiniresearch.com $175,259 $226,907

-22.76

Ohio

$164,645

$155,106

+6.15

Pennsylvania

$277,519

$265,459

+4.54

Rhode Island

$31,055

$46,795

-33.63

South Dakota

$11,674

$10,423

+12.00

$1,673

$1,786

-6.33

$53,528

$55,075

-2.81

$2,207,548

$2,364,404

-6.63

Virginia West Virginia Regional Markets Total

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

21

GGA LAS VEGAS 2020

Lead Partner

GLOBAL GAMING AWARDS LAS VEGAS 2020: THE RESULTS ARE IN The winners of the seventh annual Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas were confirmed in October, celebrating those who have worked tirelessly to survive and thrive in the gaming industry under such difficult conditions this year.

All winners were announced during our virtual Global Gaming Awards ceremony, live as part of G2E, with an after show where we spoke to the winners.

Aristocrat continued on from its 2019 success by scooping an incredible three

22

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

Awards, including title defences in the Land-Based Industry Supplier and Slot of the Year categories.

And Scientific Games was another multiple Award winner, with its OpenGaming platform securing a third-successive Digital Product of the Year Award for the company.

Seminole Gaming also clinched more than one Award, winning in the Land-Based Operator of the Year and the Property of the Year categories.

BetConstruct was once again the Lead

Partner for this year’s Awards, powered by Gambling Insider. This year’s winners were decided by the Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas Judging Panel, which stood at 100 Judges for the second successive year.

Julian Perry, Gambling Insider COO, said: “A huge congratulations to all this year's winners, especially during such a turbulent year for the industry. A big thank you, too, to everyone involved in our first-ever virtual Awards ceremony, which was a huge success.”

GGA LAS VEGAS 2020

Lead Partner

Sponsored by

“This is part of our ongoing commitment to quality standards, taking care of our employees and creating really tremendous experiences for our guests. To be acknowledged again, we’re humbled and really appreciate it.” - Jim Allen, CEO, Seminole Gaming Picking up the Land-Based Operator Award for the first time was Seminole Gaming.

Opening the very first high-stakes bingo hall and casino in the US over 40 years ago, the Seminole Tribe now operates one of the most profitable gaming enterprises across the globe. That initial facility is viewed as the forerunner of the Indian Gaming movement throughout North America, with the company making further advances within the industry when it acquired Hard Rock International in 2007, the first deal of its kind by an Indian tribe. Long recognised for innovation, the operator can now also be commended for its strict health and safety measures since reopening its

casino doors across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Just missing out were MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment (formerly Eldorado Resorts), who clinched second and third place respectively. The former is a three-time winner of the Award, claiming the title in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The latter, meanwhile, secured success as Eldorado Resorts in 2019.

Also shortlisted for the Land-Based Operator Award were Las Vegas Sands, Boyd Gaming, Cherokee Nation Entertainment, Churchill Downs, William Hill US, Galaxy Entertainment Group and Twin River Worldwide Holdings.

SEMINOLE GAMING MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT (FORMERLY ELDORADO RESORTS) BOYD GAMING CHEROKEE NATION ENTERTAINMENT CHURCHILL DOWNS GALAXY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP LAS VEGAS SANDS TWIN RIVER WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS WILLIAM HILL US

Sponsored by

RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE DRAFTKINGS GOLDEN NUGGET CAESARS INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT HARD ROCK ONLINE CASINO POINTSBET ROAR DIGITAL UNIBET 888 HOLDINGS

“It feels great, it’s a very exciting time for us. We’re very strong in the online casino category so we were able to pivot during the pandemic very quickly. That enabled us to grow our business when sports were cancelled.”

- Richard Schwartz, president, Rush Street Interactive Another first-time winner, Rush Street Interactive clinched the Award thanks to its rapid growth in recent months, amid talks for the operator to now become a public corporation. Rush Street Interactive generated profit in the majority of its markets, growing significantly thanks to its PlaySugarHouse and BetRivers.com brands in Pennsylvania.

As the online market becomes an increasing focus for the industry, the Digital Operator of the Year Award is more prestigious and competitive than ever.

2019 winner DraftKings narrowly missed out in second place, having become a publicly traded company earlier this year following its acquisition of SBTech.

The sports betting company is now live in seven states after going live in Colorado, boasting a 2020 Q2 revenue rise of 24% year-on-year. And taking home third was Golden Nugget, which expanded its digital offering just last year through the launch of its online sportsbook in New Jersey. It dominated the state’s gaming revenue for online casino from that moment on, allowing the company to extend its fruitful partnership with Scientific Games.

Also nominated was two-time winner 888 Holdings, alongside Roar Digital, Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Flutter Entertainment, PointsBet, Unibet and Hard Rock Online Casino.

GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

23

GGA LAS VEGAS 2020

Lead Partner

LAND-BASED PRODUCT

Sponsored by

“It was quite the honour on behalf of Aristocrat, our global employee base, our land-based business and our customers all around the world. It’s what we do every day: think about making the best games for our players and customers.”

- Hector Fernandez, president, Americas, Aristocrat Aristocrat continued its dominance of the Land-Based Product Award through its MarsX Cabinet, with its minimalist design a result of next generation R&D. The highly modern approach offers a dynamic experience, with built-in hardware to support the future of gaming. The small matter of its marketleading games provides further attraction, with Buffalo Gold Revolution and Mighty Cash Ultra just two options among a prestigious list. Aristocrat has scooped the Land-Based Product Award twice before, with The Walking Dead Slot Games and Lightning Link securing the 2014 and 2018 prizes respectively.

Last year’s winner Interblock couldn’t follow up that honour this time around,

despite its Stadium being nominated once again thanks to its ‘upgrade kit,’ which has taken into account the necessary precautions regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And taking third spot was Crazy Money Double Deluxe from Incredible Technologies.

Other top-tier products to be shortlisted include Synergy Blue’s new 2600 Series Cabinet Line, Zitro’s Bashiba Link Illusion Cabinet, Konami’s SynkConnect and Intralot’s Orion.

Completing the shortlist was Enrollment Kiosk from Everi, Triple Zero Roulette Wheel from Cammegh, and the G 55C VIP Slot Cabinet from EGT.

DIGITAL PRODUCT

SCIENTIFIC GAMES OPENGAMING

IGT – PLAYSPORTS SPORTRADAR – OTT SOLUTION ALTENAR - SPORTSBOOK BETCONSTRUCT - SPORTSBOOK INSPIRED ENTERTAINMENT VIRTUAL SPORTS NEWGIOCO GROUP - ELYS PLAYPORT GAMING 2-GO MOBILE GAMING PLATFORM PLAY’N GO - VIDEO BINGO GAMES 1XBET - 1XGAMES

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ARISTOCRAT -

MARSX CABINET

INTERBLOCK – STADIUM INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES – CRAZY MONEY DOUBLE DELUXE CAMMEGH - TRIPLE ZERO ROULETTE WHEEL EGT - G 55C VIP SLOT CABINET EVERI - ENROLLMENT KIOSK INTRALOT - ORION KONAMI - SYNKCONNECT SYNERGY BLUE - 2600 SERIES CABINET LINE ZITRO - BASHIBA LINK ILLUSION CABINET Sponsored by

“We’re just so proud to win these Awards and, on behalf of the entire team, thrilled to thank the industry for these recognitions, as well as the team at the Global Gaming Awards for putting on another fabulous event.”

- Christina Karas, senior director of corporate communications, Scientific Games Scientific Games continued its dominance in the Digital Product category with a third successive Award, having clinched the honour in 2018 and 2019 with OpenBet and OpenSports respectively. OpenGaming has completed the treble, with several major operators relying on the platform. And in Q1 of 2020, the company witnessed an increase of 1 billion wagers placed on its Open Gaming System platforms year-onyear, further increasing its leading position within the industry.

Taking second was IGT, whose sports betting platform PlaySports is a leader in the US market. Thanks to its in-house trading and marketing offers team, IGT has deployed over 300 of its self-service

PlaySports Kiosks, helping to expand sports betting access across the country. And it was Sportradar’s innovative OTT Solution that clinched third. If anyone understands and appreciates the flexibility of live sports, it’s the Sportradar team, which boasts over 15 years of experience as an OTT provider.

Given the current circumstances surrounding land-based gambling operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalisation is undoubtedly more important than ever.

Every company has met this challenge head-on, with BetConstruct, Inspired Entertainment, Altenar, Playport Gaming, Play’n Go, 1xBet and Newgioco Group all making the shortlist for this year’s Digital Product Award.

GGA LAS VEGAS 2020

Lead Partner

LAND-BASED INDUSTRY SUPPLIER

Sponsored by

“During this global pandemic, we really said we wanted to simplify our business and focus. We carried this mantra internally and externally, focusing on our people, our customers and to preserve the longevity of the business.”

- Hector Fernandez, president, Americas, Aristocrat Aristocrat defended its Land-Based Industry Supplier title thanks to constant innovation, with casinos choosing to dedicate entire floor areas to its Buffalo Brand, launched in February of this year.

The company is a true global gaming powerhouse, having also won the Slot Award in 2019 to go with its Land-Based Industry Supplier success. Licensed in around 300 gaming jurisdictions, Aristocrat’s 5,000 employees serve thousands of satisfied customers across the globe. Both IGT and Scientific Games have previously dominated this category, and Aristocrat now looks set to follow in their footsteps with back-to-back wins.

The hugely successful pair were, however, unsurprisingly close to securing further success. IGT finished second in its bid for a third title, with Scientific Games clinching third and just missing out on an unprecedented fourth Award.

With all US casinos closed for a time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all nominees were forced to work twice as hard to stand out, with their safety measures upon the reopening of casinos being of huge importance.

Completing the shortlist were AGS, Gaming Arts, JCM Global, Interblock, SuzoHapp, Novomatic and Everi.

ARISTOCRAT IGT SCIENTIFIC GAMES AGS EVERI GAMING ARTS INTERBLOCK JCM GLOBAL NOVOMATIC SUZOHAPP

DIGITAL INDUSTRY SUPPLIER

Sponsored by

“It’s always particularly special. We try to make games players love but, in light of who the Judges are, your peers and in some cases your competitors, it’s especially cool. You’re up against the best of the best and it feels incredible.” - Todd Haushalter, CPO, Evolution

EVOLUTION SBTECH/DRAFTKINGS KAMBI

ASIA LIVE TECH BETCONSTRUCT CONNECTIVE GAMES CONTINENT 8 TECHNOLOGIES IGT PLAYDIGITAL PLAYTECH SCIENTIFIC GAMES

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Winning the Digital Industry Supplier Award was provider Evolution. As the demand for live casino grew, Evolution answered.

The company’s market share is set to rise rapidly once it completes the process of acquiring NetEnt, having already witnessed a 41% year-on-year rise for Q1 2020. In the space of 12 months, Evolution has produced 12 new games, and is showing no signs of stopping there.

This category focused on those taking the digital gaming industry in the right direction, and it was SBTech/Draftkings that finished in second spot in our Digital Industry Supplier Award. In the past 12 months, SBTech has expanded across the US, with its

sports betting technology recently launched in Oregon, Indiana and Pennsylvania. And it was 2019 winner Kambi that took third, having reported a 21% increase in year-onyear revenue to $103.6m.

The legalisation of sports betting in the US has unsurprisingly witnessed an increase in demand for product and innovation, while online casino has also enjoyed a gradual growth, as well as the digital industry. BetConstruct, IGT PlayDigital, Scientific Games, Playtech, Continent 8 Technologies, Asia Live Tech and Connective Games were also shortlisted for the hugely competitive Digital Industry Supplier Award.

GGA LAS VEGAS 2020

Lead Partner

CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAM

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“On behalf of all of us at MGM Resorts, a big thank you and it’s always an honour to be recognised by our industry peers. Providing great customer service and experiences through M Life Rewards is what we do best.”

- Marc Jacobson, manager of corporate media relations, global corporate communications and industry affairs, MGM Resorts International Now a six-time winner in this category, it seems M Life from MGM Resorts International simply cannot be toppled.

Collecting the Customer Loyalty prize in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and now 2020, M Life provides members with valuable benefits and exclusive access. These guests can earn Tier Credits for almost all of their spend, undoubtedly enhancing their gaming experience.

Second in the category was Caesars Rewards from Caesars Entertainment, which put an end to four years of dominance from MGM by winning the Award in 2018. However, it couldn’t do so again this time around. Penn National Gaming, meanwhile, finished

in third place with its mychoice program.

Loyalty programs have become more vital than ever as operators look to welcome consumers back through their casino doors, and the other nominees have been offering some of the most exciting and successful programs out there. Rush Street Interactive’s RSI loyalty program, Ocean Casino Resort’s Ocean Rewards Club, Mohegan Sun’s Momentum and Galaxy Entertainment Group’s GEG Privilege Club made the list. Also shortlisted were Rymax with Experiential Events and Merchandise Rewards, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas with Identity, and Foxwoods Resorts Casino with Foxwoods Rewards.

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CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT – CAESARS REWARDS PENN NATIONAL GAMING – MYCHOICE FOXWOODS RESORTS CASINO FOXWOODS REWARDS GALAXY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP GEG PRIVILEGE CLUB MOHEGAN SUN - MOMENTUM OCEAN CASINO RESORT - OCEAN REWARDS CLUB RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE RSI LOYALTY PROGRAM RYMAX - EXPERIENTIAL EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE REWARDS THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS - IDENTITY

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“It was an amazing project and there’s no other building like it in the world. Having to open it under the COVID environment has created a little bit of a challenge. But we’re really happy with its early results and we believe it will continue to grow.” - Jim Allen, CEO, Seminole Gaming

One of the newest additions to the Global Gaming Awards, the Property category THE VENETIAN MACAO started just two years ago, and is arguably one of the most difficult to win. Not only does size and the volume of gaming THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS machines play a part, but properties must be accommodating, well-designed and globally renowned. Every single shortlisted property met those requirements and BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA more, but it was The Guitar Hotel that CASINO DEL SOL clinched top spot.

ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR After taking almost a decade to build, FOXWOODS RESORTS CASINO the first-ever guitar-shaped hotel opened its MOHEGAN SUN doors to the world last November, and since OCEAN CASINO RESORT then has enjoyed great success. Standing PECHANGA RESORT & CASINO at 450 feet tall, this stunning building

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MGM RESORTS

INTERNATIONAL - M LIFE

comprises 638 rooms across 36 stories.

The $1.5bn expansion on the existing complex in Hollywood, Florida, has been stunning its visitors on a daily basis, perhaps unsurprising given how majestic this masterpiece truly is.

Having won the Property Award last year, The Venetian Macao just missed out on a title defence this time around, with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas taking home third spot.

Casino del Sol, Pechanga Resort & Casino, Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods Resorts Casino, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Encore Boston Harbour and Ocean Casino Resort were also shortlisted for this highly respected honour.

GGA LAS VEGAS 2020

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PRODUCT INNOVATION

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“One of the great things about this opportunity we had is that so many of the contactless products were already in the works for Scientific Games. We were really ready to go and rise to the challenge.”- Christina Karas, senior director of corporate communications, Scientific Games Scientific Games came out on top thanks to its innovative Contactless Gaming Solutions, with the Unified Wallet providing customers with the opportunity to access funds to play tables and slots through a mobile phone application. The product also comes with Dynamic Distancing, a hugely important feature to ensure the safety of all players during these uncertain times.

Redefining live casino, Evolution Gaming’s Mega Ball and Crazy Time secured second spot. And, introduced at G2E, IGT’s PeakBarTop Cabinet finished in third.

Introduced in 2018, the Product Innovation category is another new addition, merging the digital gaming innovation and

land-based gaming innovation sections to create an Award worthy of all the creativity that goes into creating a new product.

Much like with every other Award, the coronavirus pandemic has put a great strain on companies to perhaps be more creative than usual, and all of the nominees have met this challenge head-on.

They include; Incredible Technologies - Infinity Pilot, CasinoTrac - Dynamic Auto Social Distancing Program, Global Payments Gaming Solutions - VIP Mobility, GameCo - The Multiplayer Arena, Golden Race - New Virtual Football, Game Changing Technologies - Tribal Gaming Cloud, and Paysafe - iGaming Payments API.

SLOT

ARISTOCRAT -

SCIENTIFIC GAMES -

CONTACTLESS GAMING SOLUTIONS EVOLUTION – MEGA BALL AND CRAZY TIME IGT – PEAKBARTOP CABINET CASINOTRAC - DYNAMIC AUTO SOCIAL DISTANCING PROGRAM INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES INFINITY PILOT GAME CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES TRIBAL GAMING CLOUD GAMECO - THE MULTIPLAYER ARENA GLOBAL PAYMENTS GAMING SOLUTIONS VIP MOBILITY GOLDEN RACE - NEW VIRTUAL FOOTBALL PAYSAFE - IGAMING PAYMENTS API

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“We made a strategic choice not to slow down our R&D development and we’re looking to create an even better product in 2021. Thank you to everyone for our Awards, we really appreciate it.”

-Hector Fernandez, president, Americas, Aristocrat

DOLLAR STORM

NETENT – DIVINE FORTUNE SCIENTIFIC GAMES – DANCING DRUMS EXPLOSION ARUZE GAMING PACHINCOIN JACKPOT SERVICE ECLIPSE GAMING JACKPOT $PINS HIGH ROLLER IGT - HEXBREAKER 3 LIGHTNING BOX - EAGLE SUN PRAGMATIC PLAY GREAT RHINO MEGAWAYS WORLDMATCH - NIGHT VAMPIRE ZITRO - 88 LINK WILD DUELS

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Aristocrat has continued its complete dominance of the Slot category with its Dollar Storm. In another Award only established in 2018, Dollar Storm was created exclusively for the Award-winning MarsX Cabinet, which clinched top spot in the Land-Based Product category.

Aristocrat has won the previous two Slot Awards, with its Game of Thrones slot victorious in 2018, followed by Buffalo Diamond in 2019. Dollar Storm has now secured the hat-trick.

Taking second place was NetEnt, whose Divine Fortune transports players back into a mythical era. The slot is part of NetEnt’s efforts to target US markets,

with free spins and a Mega Jackpot just two in a long list of exciting in-game features. And finishing in third was Scientific Games, whose Dancing Drums Explosion features on the Twinstar V75 Cabinet, which also boasts a number of explosive in-game features.

Also shortlisted in this hugely competitive category were Aruze Gaming with Pachincoin Jackpot Service, Eclipse Gaming with Jackpot $pins High Roller, IGT with Hexbreaker 3, Lightning Box with Eagle Sun, Pragmatic Play with Great Rhino Megaways, WorldMatch with Night Vampire, and Zitro with 88 Link Wild Duels.

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RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

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“For us, it’s every standard we hold ourselves to. It’s an Award that’s in line with our values and it means so much to us to be recognised by our peers. We’ll aim to continue to ensure we’re offering the best services in 2021.”

-Anna Sainsbury, Chairman & Founder, GeoComply GeoComply took home its third Responsible Business Award, having received the honour in 2016 and 2018. The company has become a crucial part of the US online gaming market, and continues to evolve its products year after year.

The careful, thorough testing of products, meanwhile, is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of the entire industry, and BMM Testlabs took second spot thanks to its rigorous testing protocols.

BMM is present in 13 countries throughout the globe, ensuring it is the world’s most experienced and most trusted independent gaming testing laboratory. And third place went to San Manuel Casino, whose annual

San Manuel Golf Tournament has donated over $1.6m in charitable funds over the years.

A sense of community is the number one priority for organisations within the industry, with player protection and indeed a wider social responsibility all part of the daily routine. Over the past 12 months, such issues have been more important than ever in preventing addiction and other gambling-related harm. All of the nominees went above and beyond the call of duty, and they were; BBIN, Boyd Gaming, Caesars Entertainment, Gary Platt Manufacturing, Hard Rock & Seminole Gaming, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts International.

GEOCOMPLY BMM TESTLABS SAN MANUEL CASINO

BBIN BOYD GAMING CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT GARY PLATT MANUFACTURING HARD ROCK & SEMINOLE GAMING LAS VEGAS SANDS MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL

AMERICAN EXECUTIVE

JASON ROBINS DRAFTKINGS

ANNA SAINSBURY – GEOCOMPLY JIM ALLEN – HARD ROCK BARRY COTTLE - SCIENTIFIC GAMES BROOKS PIERCE - INSPIRED ENTERTAINMENT DAVID LOPEZ - AGS ELAINE HODGSON - INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES ERNIE STEVENS, JR. - NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION GEORG WASHINGTON - SYNERGY BLUE GREG CARLIN - RUSH STREET GAMING

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“The Global Gaming Awards are the gold standard in the industry and I’m really just so appreciative. I have too many people I want to recognise but I do want to mention my two co-founders, Matt Kalish and Paul Liberman.”

-Jason Robins, CEO, DraftKings HECTOR FERNANDEZ - ARISTOCRAT JOE ASHER - WILLIAM HILL US JOHN CONNELLY - INTERBLOCK KEITH SMITH - BOYD GAMING KIMBERLY VAN AMBURG - CASINO DEL SOL MARIO KONTOMERKOS - MOHEGAN GAMING & ENTERTAINMENT MARTIN STORM - BMM TESTLABS MATT KING - FANDUEL MELONIE JOHNSON - BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA MICHAEL RUMBOLZ - EVERI MIKE DREITZER - GAMING ARTS RENATO ASCOLI - IGT RICK MEITZLER - NOVOMATIC SHEILA MORAGO - OKLAHOMA INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION TOM REEG - CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins won the American Executive Award, with the operator reporting a 24% year-on-year 2020 Q2 rise, as well as acquiring SBTech in December.

GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury claimed second, with Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen in third. Sheila Morago of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association and Ernie Stevens Jr. of the National Indian Gaming Association shared fourth spot.

The American Executive of the Year Award is the only one that celebrates the individual as opposed to a company, with all nominees playing a crucial role in guiding their respective teams through this extremely difficult period.

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BIG QUESTION

BIG

How can gaming companies combat the increased cyber security threats brought on by the coronavirus pandemic?

question

Stephen Cavey, co-founder and chief evangelist, Ground Labs

Stephen Cavey

COVID-19 has impacted nearly every aspect of life, and the online casino industry is no exception. In fact, according to Research and Markets, the global online gambling market is expected to grow from $58.9bn in 2019 to $66.7bn in 2020 at a growth rate of 13%, a significant uptick likely due to the fact that many on-premise casinos are temporarily shut down, and large populations have resorted to gambling right from home.

Looking ahead, the market is expected to reach $92.9bn by the year 2023, a tell-tale sign that online gambling is here to stay. But as this industry explodes while simultaneously undergoing a massive digital transformation, significant cyber security concerns arise with gamblers disclosing a slew of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to gain access to popular gaming websites.

Here’s how to mitigate cyber risk and better safeguard player information in a few simple steps.

1. UNDERSTAND THE RISK While the major internet casinos are independently audited and backed by legitimate companies, the track record for internet-based casinos is questionable due to several scandals that suggest a lack of security policies and regulations. The most common issues include the use of unencrypted systems that have exposed users’ private information, games that have been unfairly rigged in favor of the house, or casinos that have misused player funds.

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The exchange of money and personal information makes this industry a lucrative target for cyber criminals, who are well aware of the increase in online gaming since COVID-19. In fact, according to a Q2 2020 Fraud and Abuse report, there’s been a 23% increase in the amount of cyber attacks specifically targeting the gaming industry.

2. MITIGATE THE RISK WITH ENCRYPTION AND RNG Today’s safest online casinos use some of the strongest commercially available data encryption technology. This means information and financial transactions between them and their customers cannot be read or accessed in its original form by other people.

Additionally, random number generators (RNGs), or the part of the software code that generates a random sequence of numbers or symbols, ensures every part of the game (whether it’s blackjack, roulette or slots) is as random as possible. Reputable casinos employ independent companies to regularly test and verify their RNGs and then provide information on their sites about the results of this testing. This ensures real-money wins are distributed fairly.

3. PROPERLY SAFEGUARD PLAYER INFORMATION To ensure online casinos are maintaining integrity and as a requirement to keep a license, the software systems, apps, and games in use at an online casino are all subject to regular auditing by an independent company.

BIG QUESTION

An example of an audit organisation is eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance), an internationally recognised body that provides audits and monitoring of online casinos.

Unfortunately, due to the large scope and volume of data these online casinos are dealing with, it is a challenging task to achieve regulatory and license requirements, and ultimately protect users from cyber criminals out to steal their data. In addition to the volume of data, online casinos are also grappling with the array of locations where such data may be stored. For example, data can be hidden just about anywhere: on employee devices and workstations, spanning emails, cloud providers, desktops,

and servers both on-premise and in the cloud. To avoid taking a gamble with sensitive data, online casinos should look to conduct regular audits of their data inventory through data discovery, which in turn, will help them better understand their security posture and remain prepared for independent assessment, and certification with industry standards.

4. NEVER ‘WAIT AND SEE’ Remember, it’s always easier to be the attacker; therefore as the defender, a ‘wait and see’ approach is a dangerous security strategy when you’re entrusted with large amounts of player deposit funds coupled with personal information. This is ultimately

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the reason why online casinos receive high levels of attention from criminal groups looking to exploit any weakness that may exist. And it underpins why getting your data security posture is a crucial foundation to longer-term success.

Stephen Cavey is a co-founder of Ground Labs, leading a global team empowering its customers to discover, identify and secure sensitive data across their organisations. As the chief evangelist, he leads its worldwide product development, sales and marketing and business operations and was instrumental in extending Ground Labs’ presence with enterprise customers. Stephen has deep security domain expertise with a focus on electronic payments and data security compliance.

How can gaming companies combat the increased cyber security threats brought on by the coronavirus pandemic?

Alexandru Petrescu, SVP, BMM BIG Cyber

Alexandru Petrescu Cyber security incidents are more common than business decision makers think; and it can be shattering, most of the time, with few or no remedy solutions. For a long time, the average small business was considered an unlikely target for sophisticated cyber criminals, with fewer financial resources, a minimal database, relatively limited branding reputation: apparently unappealing for cyber villains.

Not anymore!

Many small businesses don’t think about cyber security until after an incident and not having sufficient cyber security can prove very expensive in terms of money, reputation and results in irremediable data loss and business damage. In extreme

situations, the business itself could cease to exist.

There is a general perception that cyber attacks target only large corporations.

Although most of the popular media outlets are only covering the considerable security breaches that have happened to the largest companies, a great deal of attacks actually target small businesses.

With cyber security attacks occurring every 14 seconds, Security Operation Center (SOC), firewalls, antivirus software, anti-spyware software etc must all work in perfect coordination – to efficiently defend the fort from the attacks of restless and ever-so-creative cyber criminals.

In the last couple of years, governmental statistics show that 43% of these data breaches and cyber security hacking attacks not only target small businesses, but 60% of these small enterprises go out of business within six months of the attack. This is a significant percentage for something that could have been avoided if cyber security solutions would have been prioritised within the business strategy.

Cyber security is affordable when compared to the potential damage to your business. If sensitive data is compromised, businesses must pay compliance fines and court fees, lead a criminal investigation and then invest in identity theft prevention services. In addition to all of this, businesses will lose valuable customers in the process and will end up spending even more on customer acquisition and reputation rebranding. These reasons are the exact reasons small businesses tend to go out of business after a data breach.

Employees remain the biggest cyber security vulnerability. People open emails from unknown senders, click on unfamiliar links, or even print sensitive information and leave it sitting on the printer tray. While excellent cyber security tools, such as Security Operation Center (SOC) could prevent most data breaches and threats, every business, big and small, should invest in cyber security awareness training. Without proper training for employees, there is no cyber tool in the world to keep the business reasonably safe.

By 2021, the damage inflicted by cyber crime will cost the global economy $6trn every year, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, a research firm specialised in cyber security. Over 90% of the worldwide business population represents small and medium sized business (SMEs). There are 30.7 million small businesses in the US, which account for approximately 99% of all US businesses (SBA 2019). It is more than obvious that the likelihood of becoming a victim of cyber attacks is greater within the SME sector – you cannot bet against these odds! So my advice is: have an ace up your sleeve – have the support of the cyber security system that will keep your business up and running.

Alexandru Petrescu, SVP, BIG Cyber With 15 years+ of executive-level experience, his experience includes a multitude of prestigious positions within the European Council across digital agenda and the Romanian Government, that includes tenures as Minister for Communications and Information Society, Minister for the Business Environment, Trade, and Entrepreneurship, Minister for the Economy, and executive and non-executive manager of strategic companies in the portfolio of the Romanian State.

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BIG QUESTION

How can gaming companies combat the increased cyber security threats brought on by the coronavirus pandemic?

Ingo Ernst, CEO, 4Stop result, many just implement what they require and therefore never utilise the benefits additional KYC data can bring to their business.

In the current landscape, it's not feasible to start integrating additional KYC and various anti-fraud technology. Managing KYC for regulatory requirements and fraud prevention needs to be quick, streamlined, automated and in the most frictionless manner possible.

Ingo Ernst Globally we have seen dramatic shifts in our economic statue, with multiple industries facing their most significant challenges to date since the COVID-19 outbreak. When we look at the worldwide impact on the gaming industry, it is indicative these platforms are leading the way and surging to new heights. People are seeking entertainment and resources online as they continue to accumulate various lockeddown experiences. More and more people are appearing in online gaming, poker rooms and online casinos, leading to the highest engagement increase ever experienced in the industry over the last three years.

MANAGING KYC AND RISK: GAIN A COMPETITIVE EDGE AND FUTURE-PROOF YOUR ONLINE GAMING PLATFORM Dealing with the surge in volumes both in onboarding and transactional processing (along with combating the rise in cyber crime as a result) in an efficient manner, while teams work remotely, is bringing a whole new level of challenges. Gaming operators and affiliates are putting significant importance on their brand awareness, obtaining frictionless onboarding, customer trust, loyalty and retention.

For many years, online entities have been integrating their required KYC and anti-fraud processes through APIs. However, each of those are well known to be a single data service solution, resulting in multiple third-party integrations, which place a great deal of strain and cost on development and resources. As a

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DATA IS VITAL FOR ANYTHING PERFORMED DIGITALLY: THE GAMING INDUSTRY IS NO DIFFERENT One of the top risk mitigation strategies many online markets are leveraging is partnering with a data aggregator with a complete orchestration hub. A data aggregator provides access to an abundance of KYC data services from only a single API integration, which is integrated in a very timely, efficient and cost-saving manner.

From a data aggregated hub, it is effortless to activate or deactivate KYC in real-time, for singular or multiple segments of any business, in whichever region or timeframe required.

Additionally, tier-one data aggregators host the most current leading-edge data services from their hub. So through a single API, businesses are future-proofing their KYC with minimal to zero-touch on their business operations.

XXX

Some data aggregators are a complete orchestration hub and provide dynamic decision-making frameworks and real-time anti-fraud engines with intelligent transactional monitoring. They establish a centralised view of all verifications, transactions and associated risk to improve reaction times to fraud dramatically.

Partnering with an orchestration hub is one of the most beneficial investments any online business could make. Where flexibility to easily manage regional presence and expand into new markets to harness engagement rates is quickly and easily obtained. Harnessing the benefits of utilising additional KYC brings customers overall lifetime value, with no impact on IT resources or integration costs. Most importantly, as we have experienced in this pandemic, to be fully future-proofed on global risk mitigation in a modern, and fail-safe manner, regardless of economic and regulatory shifts within our online eco-system.

4Stop, founded in 2016, saw the data aggregation trend rise, and now its orchestration hub is home to thousands of tier-one data sources in conjunction with its leading anti-fraud technology and data science. Additionally, its data hub services a complete end-to-end business underwriting solution to mitigate risk globally, regardless of the B2B or B2C touchpoint.

Time spent online gaming per region during the coronavirus pandemic: Time increase 50.0% 45.0%

45%

40.0%

38%

35.0% 29%

30.0% 25.0%

20%

20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% United States

France

United Kingdom

Germany

BIG QUESTION

FEATURES

How can gaming companies combat the increased cyber security threats brought on by the coronavirus pandemic?

Rob Griffin, CEO, MIRACL

Rob Griffin

The pandemic has had a severe impact on global gambling revenues owing to the moratorium on sports and the closure of casinos, track venues and retail bookmakers.

Current estimates are that gross gaming revenues (GGR) will be down approximately 25% globally. Despite this, online gambling has shown remarkable resilience as punters have had more time at home and no option of placing a bet on the high street. For these reasons, the GGR of the online gambling market is forecast to still grow 13% in 2020, amounting to $66.7bn.

Invariably, where money goes, cyber security hackers will follow. This year has seen a record increase in cyber attacks in the online gambling sector, fuelled in part by the fear and chaos that COVID-19 has caused the public. If hackers can catch an online punter when he or she is slightly disorientated or distracted, it provides the perfect opportunity for identity fraud, which typically means attempting an account takeover (ATO) attack.

ACCOUNT TAKEOVER (ATO) ATTACKS According to a report published in October, ATO attacks across all ecommerce operators rocketed by 282% from Q2 2019 to Q2 2020.

This results in both direct and indirect cost to operators. Direct costs include customer compensation, as well as the time cost of forensic work or support to establish what happened (estimated at approximately nine man-hours per hack). Indirect cost arises because over half of customers who have been hacked will leave and take their business elsewhere.

The majority of ATO attacks are carried out by password stuffing servers (called bots). The servers are loaded with user credentials purchased from hacked databases. These 'bots' will then fire authentication attempts at websites at a rate of up to 100 per second each. For this reason, traffic monitoring has shown some online gambling sites are suffering between 40 to 50% of their total traffic being from fraudsters attempting ATO. Password stuffing arises because, faced with an average of over 150 online accounts, users most often end up reusing the same password. In a recent survey, 63% of gamblers admitted to using the same password across as many as seven accounts. The result is a much higher likelihood that a bot attack will be successful. Online gaming can be

particularly vulnerable to this issue because gamblers often have multiple accounts.

HOW TO STOP ATO ATTACKS The most important consideration in fighting these problems is not to rely on users – they simply don’t think it is their problem to fix. 91% of people know using an identical password on multiple accounts is risky, yet 64% continue to do so. Despite 25% of customers having already had an account hacked and 52% being 'concerned' about such a hack, only a third use any kind of password manager. Users are often willing to simply contact customer service and not take any action to improve their account security, so merely asking them to change their password regularly will not suffice. So what can you do? Well, one measure is to more closely monitor account activity. Over half of identified ATO attacks were spotted by users identifying suspicious activity, while only a third was proactively flagged by the operator despite it clearly being in operators’ interests to do so.

AUTHENTICATION However, account monitoring is often a flawed solution. Firstly, it may only provide an alert after a loss has occurred. Secondly, it can result in false positives that can ruin users’ experience and finally, the systems need constant tweaking as hackers change their tactics.

To really address ATO, operators need to assess the way their service authenticates their users. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has been shown to kill 99.9% of ATOs – but can it also provide a good UX? Well, new passwordless solutions such as MIRACL offer the prospect of getting rid of passwords, hated by users and operators alike, which can both reduce friction in UX while also improving security.

These new innovative solutions look set to be valuable weapons in the fight against ATO attacks and the need to protect customers when COVID-19 is making them so vulnerable.

Rob Griffin Has worked in emerging technology, including cybersecurity, for20 years both in start-ups and as a professional investor. He delights inworking with a team of inspiringly talented people and is passionate aboutinnovation and its potential to improve lives and the world we live in.

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BIG QUESTION

How can gaming companies combat the increased cyber security threats brought on by the coronavirus pandemic?

Justin Cosnett, CPO, Continent 8 Technologies

Justin Cosnett

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The so-called ‘new normal’ of remote interaction has resulted in millions more consumer IOT devices creating vulnerable interfaces that are ripe for exploitation by cyber criminals. During the first few months of the pandemic, Continent 8 saw evidence on our own networks of significant growth in legitimate traffic to online gaming providers. There was a corresponding rise (compared with previous years) in the growth rate of DDoS attack volume, complexity and frequency.

While this rapid growth in traffic was something that needed close monitoring, it didn’t really cause the same problems for online gaming as it may have done for other industries.

The online gaming industry is one of the most frequently targeted by cyber criminals, so many of our customers are very used to dealing with ‘spikes’ and exponential growth in attacks across several fronts. That meant the sector generally weathered the storm because robust systems were already in place to deal with it. In this context we could be forgiven for thinking we don’t need to do much more to combat increased threats to cope with the ‘new normal;' but the reality is that our ‘postpandemic’ world will need to break down some of the traditional barriers between ‘corporate IT’ and ‘consumer systems.’

As well as addressing the potential impact of consumer-based cyber crime, most of our customers will have received formal user InfoSec training, predominantly highlighting that ‘people’ are the weakest part of any secure system. We teach people about dealing with suspicious emails, tailgating awareness, password policies, ‘BYOD’ policy and so on. All great ‘in a work context.' But many people are now in a mixed home/work context and they aren’t necessarily used to applying those same principals in their home environment. Due to pressure, IT departments may be using their own home devices to access work systems. How many of those companies’ administrators made ‘minor’ exceptions to the VPN or other infrastructure policies to get them up and running quickly?

It has been widely reported recently that phishing attacks and other scams, targeted to exploit our natural human fears, have increased significantly during

the pandemic. A major source of threat to consider, in the wake of the global pandemic, is a new type of insider threat. Not the type of ‘insider threat’ we learn about in our InfoSec training (i.e. the sysadmin that got annoyed with their boss), but the innocent employee that has completed all their cyber-security training and follows company policy, but happens to be using their own computer at home for remote access. They clicked a link in an official-looking email and now has someone watching their every move on the corporate network.

How do we respond? There’s certainly a technical element to it. Modern developments in intruder detection and prevention systems using machine learning to detect anomalies will be invaluable. Of course, forcing ‘compliance’ on endpoint devices, in terms of AV and Malware protection, is a must; as is (if possible) re-tightening any of those ‘temporary’ weaknesses that were deployed by well-meaning IT departments to meet company recovery time targets. Better sharing of intelligence and policy data across our ‘corporate’ and ‘customer-facing’ systems will also help.

However, by far the biggest thing to address is one of user education in this ‘new normal’.

The boundaries of work and home are now merged for millions worldwide and the online gaming industry is affected by this.

The nature of our industry makes us and our people a high-value target for bad actors.

We must help our people understand how to extend the same principals of ‘good practice’ to their personal internet-enabled lives and remember, while doing so, that not all of them are online gaming wizards with a computer science degree. The days when we could control our cyber risk by neatly defined network edges, tight computer policies and encryption have now passed. And our user training needs to become more than just a tick box for compliance.

Justin Cosnett, Chief Product Officer, Continent 8 Technologies With 20+ years’ experience in the hosting and SaaS sectors in a number of customer facing roles, Justin has a strong technical background.

He joined Continent 8 in 2012 and was Head of Solution Architecture before being promoted to Chief Product Officer.

BIG QUESTION

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How can gaming companies combat the increased cyber security threats brought on by the coronavirus pandemic?

Angie White, senior product marketing manager, TransUnion top pandemic-themed scam is phishing, with 27% saying they were hit here.

The increase in phishing and other digital scams has led to a new barrage of breached personal data and credentials, which consumers notoriously re-use across sites. We expect this will fuel large increases in account takeover, identity fraud and synthetic identity fraud. These fraud types have not historically been prevalent in online gaming, so let’s consider points of risk and potential solutions.

Angie White

It’s no understatement to say change has been around every corner throughout 2020. That is certainly no different when it comes to fraud. One of the most drastic changes we’ve seen is the shift from fraudsters targeting businesses to targeting consumers this year.

For instance my company, TransUnion, found the share of suspected fraudulent digital transactions against businesses worldwide decreased 9% from the beginning of the pandemic (11 March - 18 May) to when businesses began reopening (19 May - 25 July). This trend was less pronounced in online gaming, where we only documented a 1% decline in suspected digital fraud against those companies globally.

By contrast, TransUnion’s Consumer Financial Hardship surveys found consumers targeted by digital COVID-19 schemes increased 10% from the early days of the pandemic (week of 13 April) to more recently (week of 27 July). Among consumers reporting being targeted with digital COVID-19 schemes globally, the

ACCOUNT TAKEOVER Account takeover is when a legitimate customer’s account is taken over for the purposes of committing fraud. This could be to simply gain access to funds a player has stored on their account to fraudulently withdraw those funds.

Obviously this has disastrous effects in terms of the customer relationship but can also do reputational damage to the operator. We have had operators report that bad actors have taken over legitimate player accounts to use them for money muling. This allows them to move money through an operator’s platform, laundering it to avoid detection of criminal activity.

It equally puts the operator at risk for anti-money laundering (AML) fines.

Operators can execute a number of methods to prevent account takeover, even if a bad actor has the correct login credentials. First off, it’s imperative to go beyond username and password to two or even multi-factor authentication.

There are a number of other solutions operators can implement depending on their priorities, including one-time passcodes (OTP), biometrics or devicebased authentication, which has the advantage of assessing device risk without adding friction to the player experience.

SURGE IN IDENTITY FRAUD Beyond account takeover concerns, operators are also going to have to contend with a surge in true and synthetic identity fraud. True identity fraud is when a consumer’s identity is stolen and used for illicit purposes. Synthetic identities, which are sometimes called “Frankenstein identities,” are pieces of real and fake

identities strung together to create a new fake identity, which looks like someone with a thin credit file: for instance, a young adult. With both true and synthetic identity fraud, operators will need to prevent the setup of fake accounts, which often involve stolen credit cards or fraudulent payment methods that could result in big losses.

Fraudulent accounts additionally open up the risk for laundering.

One of the most effective methods to stop such abuses is through a robust onboarding process to ensure only legitimate players are allowed to set up accounts in the first place. There are a number of methods operators can use, including address verification, identity proofing solutions and know your customer (KYC) solutions. As operators are considering how best to prevent fraudulent new accounts, it’s critical to think through how to add security without adding too much friction. This is why it’s so important to understand the risk of a transaction. Add friction such as step-up authentication if risk is perceived, or dial back challenges if the risk is low. And as consumer expectations around digital experiences continue to rise, operators should look to automate and streamline processes for consumers wherever possible.

Much has changed in 2020, but one thing has stayed consistent; fraud is ever-evolving. As 2020 turns into 2021, it will be imperative for operators to a dapt their fraud prevention methods to stay one step ahead of bad actors trying to capitalise on the pandemic. We must double down against these new types of online gaming fraud brought on by the pandemic.

Angie White - TransUnion Fraud Solutions Senior Manager For more than a decade, Angie White has helped companies better understand fraud, cybersecurity, regulatory issues and all manner of technologies ranging from data centers to multi-factor authentication. She has authored numerous reports and papers focused on the evolution of fraud, risk-based authentication and the impact of key regulatory requirements such as GDPR and PSD2.

When she’s not presenting about how to make the web a safer place, you can find her exploring the Pacific Northwest.

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ROUNDTABLE: THE FUTURE OF LIVE CASINO Industry experts from BetConstruct and NetEnt analyse the trajectory of the live casino vertical, the pandemic’s impact and where the vertical is headed moving forward

THE PANEL Andres Rengifo – director, NetEnt Live Vahe Balayan – live casino product owner, BetConstruct

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What has been the secret to the success of live casino in recent years?

Andres Rengifo: It’s not a secret, per se, but the recent growth of the live casino sector has been the result of continual product improvements and innovation. Technological advancements have allowed us to enhance the quality offered, with HD camera, blue

screen and improved user interfaces adding to the level of immersivity and playability.

New game variants have helped to expand live casino’s appeal to new audiences too, with the vertical now attracting a much more diverse player base.

Vahe Balayan: The two main cogs which

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set the whole ecosystem into motion and guarantee success are business model and technology. The newcomers to the industry, both suppliers and operators, bring new challenges, set the bar higher than ever and pave the way to innovation. Along with that, technologies are flourishing; the high-speed internet services and digital cameras that are the best today may not be good enough tomorrow.

What are the most important markets for live casino right now around the globe?

And which markets have potential for live casino in the future?

AR: Europe is by far the strongest region currently and doors continue to open in its core online casino markets. We’ve recently landed major deals in Lithuania and Sweden, while UK continues to perform strongly as the product offering grows. You can’t ignore the potential across the Atlantic either.

The US opportunity is becoming a reality as legalisation of online gaming continues in states across the country. We’re also keeping a close eye on Colombia, which could create a domino effect across Latin America.

Does live casino generally appeal to any specific demographic? Can it be catered towards certain demographics moving forward?

AR: Five years ago, the live casino player base was typically dominated by males aged over 35. But the introduction of new game formats is shifting the demographics and establishing a more gender-balanced audience of casual players. Blackjack and roulette will always remain the vertical’s staples, but we now offer a much broader portfolio of around 40 games with different gameplay and volatility levels. Improving accessibility has been a core focus for the sector and succeeded in extending the appeal of live casino beyond the stereotypical VIP and high-stake player types. This includes younger audiences too – a trend that we are continuing to cement with improvements to the mobile experience.

VB: It can be, as long as the players are in the legal age to gamble. Live casino is a social experience; not only do players communicate with a dealer, but chat with other players too. So I can say it appeals to the people who search for entertainment that goes beyond a person-computer interaction.

How can an operator best utilise a live casino offering to increase acquisition and retention?

AR: What separates live casino from other industry verticals is its stickiness. From the moment they enter the lobby, players are fully immersed in the live casino environment and

Andres Rengifo taken on a captivating journey. This level of engagement is difficult to beat, particularly considering the additional element of human interaction. By instantly building trust, live casino establishes credibility and authenticity far quicker than most other online gaming products available today.

supplementary wheels in addition to the main roulette wheel to offer huge wins of up to 5000x stake. The product looks amazing and we think it satisfies the demand for big win possibility while remaining true to the live casino concept, relying as it does only on the spinning wheels with no RNG involved.

VB: A newly launched business needs to have a target demographic or market. That simplifies the task and sometimes a strong game portfolio and hefty marketing are enough at an early stage. With advances in operation comes a deeper understanding of the audience and their needs. At BetConstruct, for our partners we provide a number of tools which allow them to boost and spice up player experience. Jackpot Engine, Bonus Management System, Tournament Management System, to name a few: all these systems contribute to higher retention rates and player engagement.

VB: The most important thing we do is providing our clients with freedom of choice.

Apart from our standard gaming tables, we give them an opportunity to request a different visual set up, new custom-developed games or even a full-fledged gaming hall with their branding. Our offer goes as far as providing a transformation from land-based casino to online. It goes without saying, every single notion starting from the colours and ending with the language a dealer speaks are up to the client's choice. As a result, both our partners and their players receive an extraordinary experience with BetConstruct’s Live Casino solutions.

What does your own live casino offering provide which perhaps other competitors’ might not?

AR: Customisation has been a core focus for NetEnt’s product strategy. Having first pioneered our chroma key in 2013, paving the way for our Network Branded Casino, we have since made ceaseless improvements to the technology, to provide our partners with an incredible level of customisation options.

We’re also proud of our proprietary live dealer products like Perfect Blackjack, which offer something unique in the market.

I’m particularly excited about our latest launch Roulette MAX, which is live in December. It’s a brand new volatile roulette concept we developed, which uses three

Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the progression of the live casino vertical in any sense?

AR: I think it’s the opposite. NetEnt had a pipeline of live casino developments scheduled to go live throughout the course of 2020 and we’ve implemented our initial launch plan without much disruption.

The pandemic sharpened industry focus on online and the importance of product diversity, for which live casino naturally fits the bill, triggering increased demand from markets worldwide.

VB: As many others, we have had to face much uncertainty and a lot of difficulties

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technology creates a better mobile experience for a live casino and makes a player gravitate towards this gaming experience that is accessible, interactive and social. I am sure plenty of things are yet to come.

over the past couple of months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We were doubting whether to start new projects or wait for things to get back to normal. Eventually, we chose to be flexible and agile, and implemented a number of projects in response to the request for online and live casino products.

under safe conditions. Naturally, the interest in online gaming increased and the awareness too. So those who didn’t know there was a commendable substitute for a land-based casino available anywhere at any time of the day may now take advantage of it. And the casino owners in turn should be interested in having an online brand of their casino venues.

Have you seen any increased/decreased interest in your live casino offering during the pandemic?

AR: Navigating the pandemic has been challenging for businesses throughout the sector, but it has also solidified the need for variety. More and more operators are now looking to add live casino to their product portfolio and thereby open up a reliable income stream. Given that the vertical has consistently outperformed the market – a rare achievement in these uncertain times – it can be a key differentiator in a product portfolio that not only attracts new players but drives revenue.

What is your expectation for the future of live casino? Do you expect it to continue its rise in popularity?

AR: The current climate presents the ideal conditions for growth, particularly considering the new market openings on the horizon – namely the US. The increased accessibility of live casino has and will continue to play a role in its future success, as well as increased investment in the mobile experience. The vertical is yet to reach saturation point, which means there is still huge opportunity for operators to make a mark.

VB: With the temporary, yet indefinite at that time, shutdown of physical casinos, people started seeking online alternatives that could provide the same experience at an affordable cost – and most importantly

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VB: Live casino will always be trending entertainment in the gambling industry. The games housed in a supplier’s studio like ours provide the feel of an actual casino and that majorly affects a player’s choice on the online casino platform. On top of that, evolving

From a technology standpoint, what is next for live casino? Will new technologies such as VR have some role to play moving forward?

AR: It’s possible, but not something we’re expecting to take off in the short term.

That said, live casino has to keep pace with technology developments in other fields if it is to stay relevant and VR is no exception.

We’re continuing to assess how we can improve both from a technology and experience perspective, putting the player at the heart of our strategy.

VB: At BetConstruct we already utilise virtual and mixed reality technologies which are manifested in our VR Casino. History proves that sometimes innovation, apart from being a resolution for an existing problem or need, can also come out of nowhere. As for now it’s difficult to pinpoint what comes next, but seeing the influence of the current hi-tech trends within this industry and others, one can say mixing and matching can produce remarkable results.

“EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY CREATES A BETTER MOBILE EXPERIENCE FOR A LIVE CASINO AND MAKES A PLAYER GRAVITATE TOWARDS THIS GAMING EXPERIENCE THAT IS ACCESSIBLE, INTERACTIVE AND SOCIAL. I AM SURE PLENTY OF THINGS ARE YET TO COME” - Vahe Balayan

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ROUTE TO CEO

THE ROUTE TO CEO

Owain Flanders identifies the best path to CEO, by examining some recent examples of executives who have taken the top seat

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For the gambling industry’s most driven executives, the chief executive role is the cream of the crop. While some may wish to avoid the incredible responsibility associated with such a role, the majority of industry executives would no doubt jump at the opportunity to sit in the top seat no matter how much hard work was necessary for its occupation.

Whether due to COVID-19 complications or overdue management shifts, this year we’ve seen a number of new CEOs across the industry. In just the past few months, David O’Reilly has succeeded Bernard Marantelli as Colossus Bets CEO, while BetGames.

TV appointed Andreas Köberl. This year’s highest-profile appointments came in July when Bill Hornbuckle replaced Jim Murren as permanent CEO of MGM Resorts and GVC Holdings marked a new era as Shay Segev succeeded Kenny Alexander.

For budding executives looking up the chain of command with eager

anticipation, this year’s CEO changes will offer some hope for the possibility of attaining that seat. However, a question remains that will have been in the minds of all highly driven executives at some point, from COOs to CFOs and everything in between: What is the best path towards that chief executive role?

Is it better to gradually work your way up the chain of command by serving diligently for one company, or is it more beneficial to hop from business to business? Is there something to be said for gaining experience in multiple industries, or do CEOs require a lifetime spent in one field? And what role is likely to make you next in line for the top spot when the board decides the time for change has come? What better way to answer these questions than by taking a closer look at some success stories.

Before his decision to step down this year, Murren had been at the helm of MGM Resorts for around 12 years. Within that time, he steered the US-based casino

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operator to considerable success. Murren was instrumental in the establishment of professional sports in Las Vegas, including the building of T-Mobile Arena, and oversaw the company’s expansion in Macau. It goes without saying therefore that his replacement, Hornbuckle, had big shoes to fill; but executives can certainly learn from the journey Hornbuckle took to get himself into that position.

Boasting more than 43 years of experience in the industry, there's no doubt Hornbuckle’s appointment demonstrates the importance of spending a career within one chosen field. He began his career in Las Vegas as a room service bus boy at The Jockey Club before making his way through the hotel and casino industry. His impressive career took him from Hilton, to Wynn Resorts and finally MGM Resorts in 1988; the same month that former CEO Murren joined the business.

Speaking with Gambling Insider in September, Hornbuckle explained how he made the move from his former role as COO with the operator. Although he described it as a bit shocking due to the change taking place practically overnight, ultimately his responsibilities hadn’t changed drastically from those he had adopted as COO. “About a year and a half ago I became COO,” he said. “I was running, in theory, the company from a day-to-day perspective. As a result, the week that

Bill Hornbuckle

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Stephan van den Oetelaar

the transition happened there wasn’t a whole lot of change in the operating environment.” He attributed this in part to the impact of COVID-19 and the crisis management that was needed at the time, with Hornbuckle’s appointment taking place when casinos were being forced to close across the US. Although Hornbuckle took the CEO role in extraordinary circumstances, the story of his relatively smooth transition into the hot seat is one that most companies

would hope to replicate when making any important management changes.

That being said, it’s also important to note that MGM Resorts was hardly a company in crisis before Hornbuckle took the reins. Although Murren described the company’s Q4 2019 results as below expectations, the operator had still seen 4% growth year-on-year, with revenue increasing 10% for the full year to $12.9bn.

In contrast to a forced removal, Murren’s departure seemed to derive more from the executive’s own desires, although we will never know for sure. The former CEO announced shortly after his departure he was set to head Nevada’s private sector COVID-19 Task Force. Within that eight-member team, which was originally established by GovernorSteve Sisolak, Murren has been working to introduce necessary prevention measures to the state, such as increasing PPE supply and daily test availability.

Rather than replace Murren with somebody who might shake things up, as is often the case with company’s looking to turn around poor financial results, it seemed logical MGM would appoint someone who could maintain the legacy Murren left behind. Who better to do this than the man who had worked with him over the past 20 years? Sometimes, the best route to CEO is about simply maintaining the same values, ideals and drive as the current leadership team, while also boasting the experience necessary to get the job done.

In October, David O’Reilly succeeded Bernard Marantelli as CEO of Colossus Bets, and there are some distinct

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similarities between this and the appointment of Hornbuckle at MGM Resorts. O'Reilly's appointment also demonstrates how the COO role can act as a springboard towards that chief executive role. Additionally, like Murren’s departure, Marantelli appeared to step down from the role or his own personal reasons. Deciding to move to Spain with his family, he believed it was an appropriate time to step away from day-to-day duties he had undertaken since founding the company in 2012.

In appointing O’Reilly, it’s clear Colossus Bets wanted to maintain a smooth transition much. Gambling Insider spoke with the newly appointed CEO just after the announcement was made, and he was clear that he had been steadily taking over responsibilities for a period of months. He explained: “We thought now’s the time to recognise that I am probably doing more of the day-to-day running of the business and have been for the last three to six months anyway, so on that basis, we agreed it was the right time to transition.”

When asked about his main objectives upon taking the CEO role, O’Reilly reinforced the fact that the company was not going to adopt a drastically different path as a result of his role change. “There’s an element of business

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as usual without sounding clichéd, because I’ve been here since day one.

It was the two of us at the very outset effectively,” he added. “I’m not planning to radically change anything because if I thought we were fundamentally on the wrong path, I should have made my views clear long before now.” Clearly there is much to be said for maintaining the status quo, particularly at such an unpredictable time.

Furthermore, it’s certainly no coincidence that Hornbuckle and O’Reilly were both overseeing the COO role in their respective companies prior to being called up this year. Often seen as the role second in place to the chief executive, it’s very common for the COO to replace a CEO when they decide to step down. In fact, when Gambling Insider asked its readers for the best route towards becoming a CEO, over half of voters picked the COO role.

In second place was the CFO role totalling 20% of the vote, while CMO trailed in last with only 8% (see image below).

Of course, progression is not the only route to that much-coveted CEO role.

There are also the more entrepreneurial options, such as with former Colossus Bets CEO Marantelli, who appointed himself to the role after founding the business eight years ago. Alternatively, you could

also acquire a company and take the CEO role for yourself, such as with Stephan van den Oetelaar, CEO of Stakelogic. Van den Oetelaar bought the casino gaming provider from Novomatic in 2018. He has been chief executive of the company ever since, despite admitting he didn’t know much about the gambling industry prior to the acquisition.

Gambling Insider caught up with the Dutch executive recently to discuss his journey towards becoming a CEO in the gaming sector. Despite holding no past experience within gaming, Van den Oetelaar has overseen the rapid expansion of the Netherlands-based game developer during his tenure as boss. Since 2018, the company has grown from 25 staff to 100 in four different countries. According to him, the company’s client base has also seen rapid growth during that time, from four clients to 500 operators, leading to a growth in revenue of 500% since he first purchased Stakelogic.

Asked if he believes there’s a best route towards becoming CEO, he modestly suggested he “took the easy route” in appointing himself as CEO from day one. However, he did have some advice for those eyeing up the role. “First of all, you should question yourself and ask why you want to be a CEO, because if your heart is really with sales or marketing or finance and technology you should realise that the CEO is involved in everything,” he says.

“To fulfil the CEO role, you need to understand the industry you’re operating in and have a clear vision how the industry will develop in the next five years.” For this reason, Van den Oetelaar believes the past experience of a CEO is not necessarily important, as long as they are able to set out specific goals for the company with a defined strategy and be adaptable. “They could come from finance, marketing and sales – I don’t think it makes a lot of difference,” he concludes.

It’s clear from the stories of Hornbuckle, O’Reilly and Van den Oetelaar that a number of factors are involved in the journey towards CEO. Although there may be similarities, that journey varies from person to person. What is evident is that each of these CEOs holds a passion for the industry, a penchant for leadership, and has worked hard for everything they have achieved. Whether a COO, CFO or an entrepreneur, nothing can replace these qualities. Ultimately, if it’s buying a company and starting from scratch, or dedicating more than 20 years of a career to a company, there are no wrong answers in the journey to success.

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JASON CHESS

GOODWILL AND SUPPORT Jason Chess, partner at law firm Wiggin, assesses how operators have fared in terms of social responsibility during the pandemic, also questioning the rulings of the UK advertising regulator

As the ‘second spike’ of COVID-19 grips Europe and national governments battle to balance the competing needs to suppress the virus and preserve their economies, it is a good time to take a look at how the online gambling industry in the UK has behaved since the crisis began back in the early spring. The resources and commitment the industry has invested in the performance of its social responsibility obligations has increased massively in the last few years as part of the collective enterprise to drive up standards. The industry understands the pressing need to make inroads into the percentage-wise extremely small but numerically-wise still-too-many rump of persons who suffer harm from gambling. A period of acute social and economic stress and uncertainty, combined with real fear for one’s livelihood, has piled pressure on all of us.

At the outset of the pandemic there arose particular concern about how these pressures might affect potentially vulnerable gamblers.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reacted swiftly to the changed circumstances.

On 7 April, it announced: ‘The conduct of

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the online gambling industry, including the nature and frequency of its advertising, is under particular scrutiny during this period of national emergency.’ The press release pointed out that people might be tempted into seeing gambling as an escape from difficult circumstances and that ‘Such vulnerabilities heighten risks associated with gambling.’ Consumers were encouraged to report gambling advertising and there were warnings of ‘firm action.’

The Gambling Commission also reacted quickly to the potential dangers posed by the pandemic. In May it issued a set of emergency responsible gambling regulations in the form of ‘Additional formal guidance for remote operators during the COVID-19 outbreak.’

These included a requirement for operators to reset financial thresholds ‘on a precautionary basis,’ with the aim of nipping potentially pathological patterns of gambling in the bud; logging sessions in excess of one hour as proxies for potential harm; removing the option to reverse cashouts; enhanced affordability checks and monitoring. These measures sit on top of the extensive guidance

on Customer Interactions published in 2019.

Taking advertising first, it seems as if the industry has risen to the challenge. On 11 August, the ASA published a ‘watching brief.’

Despite the encouragement of the public to report gambling advertising, complaints between April and August remained at prelockdown levels, running at some 60 – 100 per month or 2% – 3% of the ASA’s annual crop of complaints. As usual, the vast majority of complaints were from persons who simply disapproved of gambling, not because the advertising broke any of the ASA’s extraordinarily wide, vague and capriciouslyenforced editorial rules. The ASA was honest enough to admit it received no reports of gambling advertising taking advantage of the pandemic. Two advertisements were sanctioned, including a Coral advertisement of 3 June 2020, in which not even the most paranoid copy-clearer would have seen anything remotely problematic.

This evidence seems to show two things.

Firstly, that gambling advertising has, generally, settled down into its regulatory framework.

JASON CHESS

Given that almost the whole of that framework is self-regulatory, this is a clear vindication of self-regulation. Secondly, the industry did not identify the pandemic as something that it should exploit. In other words, the industry did exactly what society expected of it, not because of the advance scolding of the ASA, but because it has developed a mature understanding of its place in society and an acceptance of today’s social responsibility standards as the norm. On 22 October, the ASA launched a consultation on tightening up the rules around appeal to children and young persons. The ASA will, of course, not ‘consult’ at all but will produce something that can be press-released as a ‘crackdown.’

The ASA should note that the Gambling Act 2005 specifically exonerates operators from liability where children and young persons see advertising as an incident of its publication to adults. That is not an excuse to throw caution to the four winds but it does signal Parliament was prepared to give advertisers a certain leeway: it is not the role of the ASA to remove it via the back door.

It is for both these reasons that the ASA’s continual eccentric adjudications, as reflected in the Coral ruling, are disappointing.

The issue with gambling advertising is not one of compliance. Everyone knows what the public disliked was the ubiquity of advertising and the shrillness and insistency of editorial tone, particularly around sporting events, that followed the enactment of the Gambling Act in 2005. These are issues the industry itself has tackled in the form of the various iterations of the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling codes, with the big bookmakers and the Betting & Gaming Council leading from the front.

It is therefore frustrating when expensively shot campaigns with a mature, responsible narrative format and high editorial standards are ruled against, on the most whimsical and subjective interpretations of the regulations.

These are the sort of advertisements that should be positively encouraged because they represent a deliberate swing away from the kind of noisy calls-to-action people don’t like. Self-regulation is not just a matter of scheduling restrictions or 18+ notices, it is also a matter of reflecting high standards in everything the industry does.

The ASA striking down scrupulously cleared high-quality campaigns for household names on flimsy pretexts provides no encouragement whatsoever and is a clear example of regulation actually disincentivising good behaviour.

On the wider matter of social responsibility, vulnerable people and customer interactions over the period of the pandemic, the trend is more difficult to survey. This is because, of course, these internal business-by-business matters are private and not publicly reported.

However, some predictions (or guesses) are

probably safe to make. The first prediction is that whatever the outcome of the Commission’s scrutiny of the industry’s compliance over the last six months or so, standards in general will be considerably higher than they were even eighteen months ago and much higher than four or five years ago – when attitudes on the part of both the regulator and the industry were very different.

The second prediction is that each time the Commission ‘raises the bar’ and raises its regulatory expectations, businesses will inevitably take time to flow the changes through into their risk assessments, policies, procedures, training regimes and generally translating them into front-line actions. This does not represent a lack of resource, shareholder or board commitment, or competence. It is just the reflection of a complex technical environment, full of human components and human-digital interfaces, being asked to change itself at a fast pace.

As far as the statistics seem to show, there has been no massive boom in overall UK gambling, responsible or otherwise, although there was of course fluctuation across product verticals. The Commission’s report for the period March – August showed a decrease of 12% in gross gaming yield and, crucially, the number of customer interactions rose to 11%, of which 5% (July) and 4% (August) were direct contact by staff. It is probably a fair guess that these figures represent operators clamping down on VIP programs and continuing to develop affordability assessments, as part of the general improved sophistication of customer interactions. Additionally, land-based operations have been hit hard, and land-based casinos and bookmakers are again being forced to close.

Is it premature, or tempting fate, to take certain encouragement from all of this? Could COVID-19 and the unexpected need to do things differently and quickly actually have worked in favour of the industry? Press coverage remains unremittingly hostile and the industry’s political critics see no further than individual tragic cases.

The industry is caught in the position that its genuine improvements are either ignored or else treated as ‘something you should have been doing in the first place.’ But if the industry can demonstrate, in its reaction to the pandemic, that it is now aligned with society’s much-changed expectations, there may be a glimmer of hope in two much-needed areas.

The first is in the nature of the Commission’s regulation. In 2014, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills put onto a statutory basis a code of practice for regulatory bodies called the ‘Regulator’s Code.’ The aim was for regulation not just to ‘regulate’ but to promote economic growth for the good of all. By its own admission, the Commission is not interested in the growth of the online gambling industry. Much current political and media comment starts from the basis that all gambling is undesirable, pathological or not.

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Jason Chess Perhaps after the step-change of improvements triggered by COVID-19, the Commission will feel freer to look at growth in the industry that it regulates and factor that imperative into its attitude, decisions and processes. Perhaps the experience of the 99% of players who do not suffer substantial harm will loom a little larger in official attitudes.

The second benefit may be the more general one. Many of the biggest names in the British online gambling market are household names and have been for generations – Joe Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill. More recent arrivals have also established themselves in their communities: Bet365 provides thousands of well-paid tech jobs in Stoke-on-Trent and there is no operator with a British license that does not at least contribute to media and sponsorship spend in the UK. In 1886 a Mr Pennington entered the bookmaking business with a Mr Schwind, who lived in a property called Ladbroke House in London, and who trained horses for the owners of a Ladbroke Hall. A third partner who joined them, Mr Bendir, suggested they might appropriately call the business ‘Ladbroke’s’.

In 1913, Ladbrokes recruited the first ever female bookmaker, a Scottish noblewoman called Helen Vernet, who became the face of the company for many years as it became a trusted British icon. The reaction of the online gambling sector to the COVID-19 pandemic may just represent the point at which both the grand old ladies of the British gambling business become entitled to ask for a little more goodwill and support, from those who regulate and legislate for them.

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KAMBI SPORTS BETTING

MOVING FORWARD Iqbal Johal catches up with Kambi head of trading Simon Noy to discuss how the supplier came through the challenges presented by the suspension of live sport, and what lessons the industry can learn to aid growth However resilient and adaptable the sports betting industry is, the sector had to concede that it was going to enter a period of hardship with the suspension of live sport in March.

With all major live sport worldwide suspended, or cancelled, in mid-March until at least May, operators and suppliers were presented with a huge obstacle to their offering.

Many had to turn to alternative verticals such as esports or live casino, but in terms of sports betting, the best that could be offered was the less traditional sports and leagues, such as table tennis and the Belarusian Premier League.

No matter how popular these leagues and sports proved for a short period of time, losses throughout the industry were incurred.

For Kambi, the reality was no different for the second quarter of the year, the period most affected by the sporting suspension.

The supplier’s revenue for the period between April and June fell 32% year-on-year, down to €14.8m ($17.4m), while operating profit decreased by 31% to €3.5m. Results after tax amounted to a loss of €3m, a shift from a €1.6m profit in 2019.

This was in stark contrast to the start of 2020, when Kambi posted a 33% revenue increase for Q1 compared to 2019, up to €27.9m, with operating profit skyrocketing 162% to €6.8m. That led to a slight revenue rise for H1 to €42.7m, from €42.6m in the same period last year. Kambi CEO Kristian Nylén described the quarter as “what has undoubtedly been a testing period for Kambi” but that “the past few months have proven Kambi can overcome the toughest of tests”.

And it’s that resilience that has led the supplier, and the industry in general, along the right path on the road to recovery, despite having to endure losses before things improve.

Of course, pent-up demand for customers betting on the likes of the English Premier League after it returned in June, rather than less familiar options, helped June's operator turnover and gross gaming revenue (GGR) surpass the same period last year, among the supplier's clients.

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KAMBI SPORTS BETTING

As Kambi head of trading Simon Noy explains to Gambling Insider, the delay in the completions of top leagues in Europe allowed the supplier to recoup the losses made during the months without them, and that the summer-style UEFA Champions League tournament also helped plug the gap left by the European Championships.

“Given how the timing of events played out, it is fair to say that the extension of the likes of La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A into June and July were responsible for filling that gap,” Noy explains. “We experienced a clear rise in turnover per game alongside consistent betting volumes, and while it’s not at quite the same level you would expect from a major international tournament like the Euros, this is compensated with the fact that there were more matches per day. And all being well, the Euros will take place in the summer of 2021, so we are only looking at a 12-month delay to these games rather than any loss of revenue.”

Betting volumes have also proved to be resilient, he adds, and momentum trends are encouraging as the organisation looks to build on this, with an overriding aim of protecting its staff and partners.

In terms of how Kambi dealt with the pandemic at its height, the solution was similar to the rest of the industry: turn to an offering not known to be popular in the past. However, it turns out that when given a choice between continuing to bet on sports or not, the likes of table tennis

“THERE ISN’T ANY EVIDENCE AS YET THAT FANLESS GAMES IMPACT BETTING IN A NEGATIVE MANNER, SO WE DON’T CURRENTLY VIEW THAT AS AN ISSUE. INDEED, THE AVERAGE TURNOVER PER GAME HAS INCREASED ACROSS THE MAJORITY OF MAJOR LEAGUES”

and mixed martial arts (MMA) can prove admittedly on the decrease by the time major sport returns. That was a big barrier Noy believes the supplier overcame.

He said: “The period towards the end of Q1 and the beginning of Q2 of course presented challenges with the absence of a number of major sports, but one of the advantages of being a global sports betting provider is that we have always maintained a strong offering in events from all over the world. Table tennis in particular contributed a significantly increased proportion of turnover during the final weeks of March, and we were able to take advantage of the rise in interest in less traditionally popular events by boosting our already excellent existing capabilities in these sports.

“Throughout this period we have worked closely with our partners, ensuring they were always fully abreast of our offering across these more niche sports and enabling them to maximise their sportsbooks.”

The popularity of such sports demonstrates that demand from players engaging with the vertical remained strong, considering that with minimal worldwide activity, Kambi was still able to post revenue growth for H1.

The period certainly wasn’t one for any supplier or operator in the industry to stand still, with Noy touching on the deals Kambi signed with Churchill Downs and LeoVegas during the summer.

“From a commercial perspective 2020 has certainly been busy, signing with new partners and extending our agreements with existing ones,” Noy says. “In short, the commercial appetite for our sports betting services is continuing to mount, and we feel the pandemic has only brought our outsourced solution into sharper focus, considering the variable cost model it offers operators who may now prefer to reduce fixed costs.

“A major enhancement we have made is the introduction of the Kambi Multi Builder. It's the next natural step in the evolution of the bet builders, which allows players to combine several event combinations into a single bet for the first time.”

While sport is back, the majority of events are still taking place behind closed doors, although in some countries such as in Germany and Italy, fans are allowed into stadiums at a reduced capacity. While in England, it’s expected fans will be unable to attend football matches until at least March 2021. The absence of fans led to a surge in bets for the away win market across leagues in Europe, and arguably strange scorelines, none more bizarre than Aston Villa beating defending Premier League champions Liverpool 7-2 in October.

However, Noy isn’t convinced the lack of fans is having a negative impact.

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Simon Noy “There isn’t any evidence as yet that fanless games impact betting in a negative manner, so we don’t currently view that as an issue,” Noy affirms. “Indeed, the average turnover per game has increased across the majority of major leagues.”

The period has certainly been a steep learning curve for the entire industry. Being adaptable and resilient has been key, according to Noy, while businesses such as Kambi have used the period to work on ensuring the highest levels of sports betting integrity.

Noy concludes by saying: “The key takeaway for sports betting providers is to ensure that you have as relevant a sport offering as possible at all times. If traditionally popular sports suspend their calendars, then your coverage of more niche sports needs to be of comparable breadth and quality.

“As I’ve mentioned, we have always had extensive offerings across these sports, and so the impact of COVID-19 resulted more in a ramping up of our existing capabilities than being caught on the hop.”

It’s been quite a journey throughout 2020 for the sports betting industry. There have been twists and turns but, as ever, the industry has shown resilience.

While we hope the worst is behind us, the rest of the year and 2021 provides the sector with a chance to get back to some semblance of normality.

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BUYER BEWARE

BUYER BEWARE Alex Czajkowski, a long-time gaming marketing exec, on the pros and perils of one-to-one IM marketing

Alex Czajkowski Seventy percent of the girls on Tinder aren’t girls but what are called catfish, people who have stolen images to attract and connect with others to sell them something like stocks, Forex, crypto or casinos.

And they’re not reluctant to play the long game. Days go by, with endless chats about whatever, as they try to gain your trust. In fact, pushing for real-time selfies might elicit a “You don’t trust me?” comment. You can even see it in people’s profiles: “Scammers swipe left”, “I have no money to invest”, and “I don’t gamble”.

Does it work? Yes and no. Look at any China-facing operator and you’ll see rooms full of Chinese working WeChat to connect with the database they stole from Dafabet. Laughing. Flirting. Dropping hints of promise and eventually pushing a brand.

“Oh you like slots too? I love playing at….”

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Even my personal Skype is bombarded near daily with offers from online casino operators and, more recently, even gaming and transaction platforms, like from Kzing.com at 3am. The database has obviously been sold over to suppliers as well, as they desperately try to make their quotas in our massively competitive markets and robo-Skype their way to hell. But as usual, the bad guys are out in front of adopting and abusing technologies in what will almost undoubtedly become the model of player interaction in the very near future. It’s the new spam.

This is a bad thing, and a good thing.

While email and SMS soldier on, the latter under increasingly strict geo-prohibitions, and the former increasingly ignored or shunted to promotional tabs or the junk file, connecting one-to-one, via instant messaging (IM) platforms, is the new normal. Twelve years ago I remember people saying, “I don’t bother with email; ping me on Facebook”. It’s more true now than ever. With the rise of FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, LINE, WeChat, this IS how people communicate over the web.

The upside is that it’s essential. You need to connect to your player base one-to-one, with real, personal attention to every prospect and active player. My registration forms now include a field for IM and the player’s handle.

About 60% provide this with real data.

But how can you leverage this key contact point? Tools are emerging to help manage multiple IMs from a single platform, such as Respond.io. CS solutions like Zendesk and Salesforce incorporate direct connections to many IMs, and firms like Zapier build a bridge between the IM platforms and CS/ CRM systems with non-native support.

There’s already blow-back from IM platforms, though. WhatsApp hates your broadcast spam (and has basically eliminated it), but one-to-one comms are encrypted from point to point, so you can say anything right?

As well you should. Spam won’t be tolerated; they’ll block your broadcast account eventually.

But proper one-to-one comms aren’t spam so long as they are timely, relevant and authentic.

Timely comms can include “Hey Alex, we’ve just released a new fishing game from Spade and it’s great. I have 20 free credits

for you – ping me here and I’ll put them in your account.” Or perhaps the more familiar, for the next several hours we’re giving some percentage bonus. Real time incentives. “Your withdrawal has been processed” is always good news to a player.

But they do have to be relevant. As an avid blackjack player, I really don’t care for 200 free spins on Super Hot Mega Aztec Billions. Give them to me and I may spin away, but I’ll never play (but your active player count will go up by one; management, be careful what you ask for). Now give me a 10% rebate on my 21 action and I’ll think I have an edge worth exploring.

My clients laugh when I talk about marketing karma. No one knows if that five dollar bet on Peking Luck returned 400x (which it did) or 4000x (which it can’t); no one except for the sharps on sites like Casinomeister, who will gladly call out your boastful winner stories. So we stay authentic, tell real stories about real winners, and can back it up with a PDF of their entire session if you want to see it (player details of course redacted).

We sleep better that way and are confident that karma is on my side.

I send daily Secret Insider emails with timely, relevant and authentic content to get a consistently high open rate of around 30%. But will I push that same model to IM? Probably not. Email is asynchronous, it can sit there unopened till the player chooses to see it. IM is in your face. I’d rather have a robo-response when pinged with Secret Insider and then respond with the facts of game performance over the last 24 hours.

So yes, you need to leverage one-to-one comms to players. From initial contact and initiated by the player, though perhaps with an incentive from you to do so. Integrate IM into your CRM and CS systems. After all, you want to talk to players on the platform they prefer, but keep those comms (and those old emails and SMSs for as long as they keep getting delivered) timely, relevant and authentic. Or risk ending up like all those catfish.

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EVENTS

A HYBRID TWIST Natalka Antoniuk, content writer at events company Quadrant2Design, discusses the hybrid twist that is making ICE 2021 possible

This year has not exactly been great for the UK events industry. Back in March, when UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson put us all into lockdown, events were the first to close their doors. Today, almost eight months later, they have yet to receive a restart date.

It makes a lot of sense. The first step in protecting a population is putting a stop to mass gatherings. And the industry didn’t bat an eyelid. Quite the opposite. It donated ExCel London and six more of its venues to the Government to support the NHS by becoming Nightingale Hospitals.

Renowned for contributing over £70bn ($90bn+) annually to the UK’s economy, supporting over 700,000 full-time jobs and achieving year-on-year growth unheard of in any other sector; the events industry is facing a crisis. Unfortunately, nearly a year has passed without any of the venues, event organisers or suppliers raising an invoice. But

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it was Winston Churchill who famously said: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

FIRST TO CLOSE, LAST TO OPEN The events industry was the first to close its doors and will be the last to reopen.

Back in March, we predicted nothing would happen until September 2020 and then we would slowly start rebuilding. Johnson then announced 1 October as our restart date.

The industry was thrilled and excited to be back to planning the events we all love.

Unfortunately, the second spike in coronavirus cases forced Johnson to pull this restart date. At a press conference on 22 September, he announced a set of new restrictions including the rule of six, larger fines for breaching the rules and the withdrawal of the events restart date. The hardest part of this announcement was Johnson’s theory that these restrictions

could be in place for six months. For the events industry, this meant a further six months with no revenue.

This news devastated thousands of businesses and employees, particularly with the furlough scheme coming to an end.

Many events businesses can’t work because of the COVID-19 guidelines. This means they can’t encourage their employees back to work, not even for one-third of their hours.

Therefore, Rishi Sunak’s Winter Economic Plan excluded the entire industry. With no restart date in sight, businesses have had to reposition and find something useful to offer their customers.

THE VIRTUAL EVENT SHIFT Virtual events aren’t a new concept. They weren’t borne out of isolation madness.

They’ve always been seen as the most sustainable way to run an event. No

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FEATURES

GETTING READY FOR ICE 2021 So why should the gaming industry be ready for this? Event organisers are going full steam ahead for ICE 2021. Taking place in June at ExCel, this show will likely be one of the first business events in over a year. We are also expecting it to be one of the first hybrid events to take place.

Stuart Hunter, Managing Director at Clarion Gaming, has already announced a series of virtual events set to take place from February and running through until the physical show. The Road to ICE and iGB 2021 will provide exclusive previews and allow the market to meet, months before the event. travelling, no venue, no materials to dispose of – the eco-friendly event alternative.

Not to mention the financial benefits.

Event organisers spend fortunes on venue and equipment hire, none of which are necessary in a virtual environment. Visitors don’t have to think about travel or accommodation costs, so the idea of attending a virtual event is already more appealing.

When COVID-19 swept the globe and mass gatherings were banned, virtual events really started taking off. One platform, 6Connex, recorded 1,000% growth having hosted over 50,000 virtual events since the start of the pandemic. It’s great to see the events industry pivot, successfully, when facing a crisis. However, unfortunately, many will be left behind.

THE EVENTS SUPPLY CHAIN My company supplies exhibition stands to businesses attending trade shows such as ICE London, Vaper Expo and the BETT Show. Our product can’t simply pivot online. And even if it could, what would we do with a warehouse full of exhibition stands?

The same goes for thousands of businesses that are involved in the event supply chain.

From portaloos to glassware, musicians to security, companies are at risk of extinction with the reality of a virtual events industry.

Because of this harsh truth, the industry is preparing for mass redundancies and closures.

A survey by Feast It found 61% of businesses in the events industry don’t think they will still exist in six months. But it is not the end.

event offers networking, speaker sessions and exhibitor showcases. The novelty of virtual is wearing off after 5,872,999 Zoom meetings.

People who attend the virtual side of a hybrid event will do so with intent.

Hybrid events are unique in that they ensure no business operating in the events industry is left behind. They create new roles, more jobs and a safe environment for exhibitors and visitors to do business. This growing trend is seen industry-wide. Even though we still aren’t able to conduct in-person shows, venues are launching virtual event studios to prepare themselves for the future.

ExCel London recently launched a virtual studio, with capacity for 30 visitors, a stage and production equipment.

This studio requires almost no space compared to dormant exhibition halls.

Physical events aren’t compromised. They benefit from numbers and more captured data – every trade show marketer's dream.

HYBRID EVENTS OF THE FUTURE The event industry has struggled. Nobody is denying it. The pivot to virtual put a lot of venues and suppliers at risk. The novelty of virtual events wore off and as the furlough scheme drew to a close, the excluded events industry was left facing a crisis.

But out of the ashes rose an alternative.

Hybrid events not only give venues and suppliers the chance to utilise their skills and run in-person events, but they create thousands of jobs as teams will be put in place to run the virtual element.

Visitors can choose to attend the in-person show to meet, mingle and learn from industry leaders. Yet they have the option to attend the virtual element of the event instead. Travel restrictions and local lockdowns won’t get in the way of this industry. Visitor numbers will likely be higher than we’ve ever seen. What was it Churchill said, again? Oh yeah, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

HELLO HYBRID Hybrid events are the future. A hybrid event takes place both in a virtual environment and a physical space. Those who aren’t bound by travel restrictions, local lockdowns or of higher risk are able to attend the show. Albeit with much less hand shaking.

Those who can’t attend a physical show don’t have to miss out. The virtual half of the

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STEVE DONOUGHUE

WE’VE GOT FIVE YEARS Steve Donoughue, who oversees Britain’s foremost gambling licensing & compliance advisory service, feels strongly about the Gambling Commission and the impending review of the Gambling Act 2005. Although many may disagree, the gambling consultant states his case to Gambling Insider

Pushing through the market square, So many mothers sighing.

News had just come over, We had five years left to cry in.

In 1972, David Bowie released the opening track of his seminal album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Called Five Years, it introduced the overarching theme of the record: an impending apocalyptic disaster that would destroy earth in five years.

It might seem a bit hyperbolic, but with the current pandemic crisis, increasing tensions

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between America and China, China and India, Russia and the rest of Europe, Brexit and global warming, that this almost 50-year-old song still can serve as a cautionary tale. But my argument is that Britain’s gambling industry alone has five years to save itself before the forces of prohibition gain victory and we become akin to how the Ukraine was, with a thriving gambling industry, but almost all of it on the black market.

You may ask how could such a proud nation as the UK, which once had a gambling industry and regulatory environment the rest of the world envied and wished to emulate, stray so far away from the basics of sensible regulation that encourage firms to operate in a licensed and taxed marketplace. The answer is the rise of populism, the ascent of poor leadership, the acceptance of radical ideology and

STEVE DONOUGHUE

dogma, a rejection of liberal values such as a belief in scientific method and the need for evidence, and the freedom to do what you want without harming others.

My belief that we only have five years left is based on the fact the Government has started the wheels moving on its review of the Gambling Act 2005. As of late September, the Gambling Minister, Nigel Huddleston MP, called in stakeholders to discuss how the review will be shaped. There have even been reports in the press that No. 10 will be leading the review.

Why five years? Because that is how long it took for the last review of the gambling laws, the Budd Review, to be initiated, completed, published and turned into legislation; as the Gambling Act 2005, which received Royal Assent 7 April 2005. Previous reviews took even longer to be turned into law. So if the Government decides on a full review, we can expect a new Gambling Act in about 2025.

Bizarrely, we have less to fear from a review than we do from what the Gambling Commission may conjure up in the intervening time. If the Budd Review and previous Royal Commissions are anything to go by, they generally give gambling a fair hearing. There is an independent panel of the great and good appointed, usually with little knowledge of gambling but with reputations to preserve.

They thoroughly examine the evidence before them and consider all views. As chapter three of the Budd Review, The Central Dilemma, shows us, this often leads to differing views among the review panel, but usually they come out with quite a sensible compromise.

Steve Donoughue

In a number of cases the review panelists show up the lies, misinformation, twisted reasoning and falsified data so often deployed by anti-gambling groups. This is something that’s been completely missing from the reports that were published over this summer, such as those by the Gambling Related Harm All Party Parliamentary Group and the House of Lords Select Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry.

This could be due to the preponderance of overtly anti-gambling MPs who wrote those reports. We must never forget that there is a large anti-gambling lobby in Parliament.

And this is my point: we know that politicians have become more populist and more prone to voting for an ideology rather than with what the evidence shows. We take it as a given that the anti-gambling groups driven by grief or revenge, militant academics seeking more grant money and activist problem gamblers wishing to pass the blame for their own actions, will all bring gallons of emotion but tea cups of evidence to the debate. With an independent panel providing a review based on evidence, facts and logic, this industry has at least some hope of emerging in 2025 some way intact.

But considering the industry’s reputation so blackened by the fixed-odds betting terminals debacle, mostly due to the land-based industry’s short-sightedness, this is only a faint hope that the conspiracist concerns of the populist politicians will be salved.

Our biggest problem, however, is the regulator that seems determined to destroy what it was set up to protect. It’s historical fact that the regulator has had difficulties in its relationship with the industry. The Commission has adopted a Stalinesque approach, demanding that every utterance be considered of regulatory importance and moving away from issuing clear and concise regulations.

The cornerstones of the Commission’s approach to problem gambling are the customer interaction policy and affordability, neither of which comes with any clear guidance, explanations or details of how they should be implemented. Operators are expected to just develop systems themselves, at enormous cost, and hope they fulfil what the Commission is trying to achieve. It is arguable that the Commission doesn’t really know what it is trying to achieve as, with all regulations brought in, there is no testing to see if they have worked or not. Even the considerably prohibitionist Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office picked up on this in their highly critical reports on the Commission published in February and June 2020.

This was taken to the extreme recently, when the arguably-illegal COVID-19 regulations were imposed in May without

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“OBVIOUSLY THERE IS MERIT IN LETTING GAMBLERS HAVE A VOICE, BUT THIS WOULD LOGICALLY IMPLY A REPRESENTATIVE PANEL OF 99 HAPPY, NORMAL GAMBLERS AND ONE PROBLEM GAMBLER, NOT THE GROUP OF ACTIVIST PROBLEM GAMBLERS THE COMMISSION HAS ALLOWED TO HAVE A MAJOR PART IN THE POLICY DECISIONMAKING PROCESS” any consultation as required by s24(10) of the Gambling Act 2005. A series of bullet points have hamstrung the industry and increased the regulatory burden by at least 100%. This was predicated by the un-evidenced belief that the COVID-19 lockdown would cause a massive increase in problem gambling.

What little research the Commission conducted showed a miniscule increase in gambling by a small customer demographic.

Subsequent research has shown no evidence of the foreseen tsunami of problem gamblers.

Considering the Commission has not rescinded the emergency regulations, a cynic would think that it was the Commission using the opportunity of the pandemic to increase the regulatory burden. It is also important to note that if the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill currently progressing through Parliament passes, then the Commission is free to break the law as often as it likes.

However, where the Commission really shows itself as the biggest danger to the future of a licensed and taxed gambling industry is its introduction of Experts by Experience and the proposed new rules to be imposed on VIP schemes.

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STEVE DONOUGHUE

The key to the folly of Experts by Experience is in the name. The suggestion that someone is an expert in anything, just by experiencing it, is clearly ridiculous to anyone brought up in the enlightenment and tradition of scientific method. That may be because the concept of lived experience comes from postmodernism, which rejects the idea of scientific fact in favour of the nebulous concepts of the primary importance of language, feelings and beliefs.

Obviously there is merit in letting gamblers have a voice, but this would logically imply a representative panel of 99 happy, normal gamblers and one problem gambler, not the group of activist problem gamblers the Commission has allowed to have a major part in the policy decision-making process. The last time I looked, the nuclear regulator did not have Greenpeace making nuclear policy, nor do we have alcoholics deciding licensing laws. But this will get worse as the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling, an on-the-face-of-it body of eminent academics that advises the Commission on problem gambling, is the group not only promoting this hare-brained dogma but recommending that problem gamblers be involved at every stage of gambling policy. Anti-gambling, if it wasn’t clear already, will be blatantly at the heart of our industry’s regulator.

The Commission’s proposed new regulations for VIP schemes expect an operator to ascertain from a new member of a VIP scheme the following: whether they are experiencing poor physical or mental health, physical or cognitive impairment, suffering side effects from injury, medication or addiction; and whether they are experiencing financial difficulties, are suffering from domestic or financial abuse, have caring responsibilities, are experiencing a life change or sudden change in circumstances; and whether they have a higher than standard level of trust or high appetite for risk. In short, the gambling industry must recruit an army of trained psychologists and convince their potential VIPs to spend hours on the couch

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with them before they bet one solitary pound.

This is even before the financial declarations that would be needed on a scale greater than that needed for preventing money laundering.

So why would the Commission introduce such rules, which are so obviously impossible to implement?

My suspicion is that after adopting a national health approach to problem gambling, the Commission just wants to reduce the number of gamblers. Technically, a national health approach to anything is about reducing its frequency. The other national health approaches are on drugs, alcohol, smoking and knife crime. The Gambling Commission sees all gambling having the potential for harm, so by reducing the amount of gambling, you theoretically reduce the amount of harm.

This isn’t based on any evidence and ignores research into the genetic and psychological causes of problem gambling. It just blankets all gambling as toxic and a cause for harm.

My belief is that the Commission realises that after 20 years, the number of problem gamblers hasn’t changed, while the amount of gambling has doubled. This would imply that the amount or platforms for gambling don’t actually cause problem gambling at all, it’s either genetic or psychological. The Commission doesn’t have the levers to pull to reduce problem gambling numbers; it can’t rewire addiction issues. But its political masters and the moralising press are constantly hounding it to reduce numbers.

So why not impose a regulatory regime that just allows for recreational gamblers, the guys gambling £25 ($32.80) a week or so?

As we all know, the more robust a gambler, the higher the likelihood they will turn into problem gamblers (albeit in no way certain).

So introduce mandatory loss limits at a very low level, as already imposed in Sweden, and make operators undertake intrusive investigations about every aspect of a gambler’s life if they want to gamble more, thus ensuring they venture off to the black market.

The result is that the number of gamblers and the amount gambled is reduced massively and everyone loves the Gambling Commission again. No one mentions the millions of gamblers pushed onto the black market, unprotected, unregulated and un-taxed, because by its very nature, you can’t count accurate numbers in the black market. You would think this would lead to an increase in the number of problem gamblers. So all the Commission will do is clamp down further, send more to the black market and the vicious circle continues.

So in theory, we have five years left for a sensible review of the gambling laws to take place and hopefully give balanced proposals for a new regulatory regime. In reality, in five years’ time, the industry will be at a tipping point, where the arbitrary, un-tested or evidenced and ever-increasing regulations the Commission will come out with to save its own institutional skin will mean it will have destroyed its very purpose of keeping the majority of Britain’s gamblers in a safe, well-regulated and taxed environment.

The populists in the press, Parliament, academia and prohibition groups will all declare victory as this industry burns.

“MY BELIEF IS THAT THE COMMISSION REALISES THAT AFTER 20 YEARS, THE NUMBER OF PROBLEM GAMBLERS HASN’T CHANGED, WHILE THE AMOUNT OF GAMBLING HAS DOUBLED. THIS WOULD IMPLY THAT THE AMOUNT OR PLATFORMS FOR GAMBLING DON’T ACTUALLY CAUSE PROBLEM GAMBLING AT ALL, IT’S EITHER GENETIC OR PSYCHOLOGICAL”

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MARKET ROUND-UP

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEGAL CERTAINTY Modern regulation is certainly a complex topic. GVC Holdings director of regulatory affairs Martin Lycka shares his personal views with Gambling Insider on the key to getting regulatory frameworks correct; and where emerging markets Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands stand

Legal and regulatory certainty is the modern-day mantra of the online gambling industry. It unlocks investment opportunities and secures access to assets that are indispensable for its seamless operation, such as payments services or app stores. The European online gambling market, taken as a whole, is edging closer to completing the big shift from a sparsely regulated space to one where every country boasts regulation of its own. In most cases, regulation allows private online gambling operators to enter their respective markets, subject to licensing and paying tax.

The countries that have regulated online gambling drew inspiration from one another. Yet there’s a strong element of wheel reinvention, usually designed to reflect the country’s political and cultural leanings, and other idiosyncrasies.

Brushing aside the laudable efforts of the European Commission to harmonise technical standards that apply to online gambling products, existing European regulation (similarly to nascent US markets) is a patchwork of national laws and regulations that gambling operators, as well as others in this space, are expected to navigate through.

REGULATORY COMPLEXITY Every new territory added to an operator’s list of licensed jurisdictions increases the overall complexity of the technological, product and regulatory compliance processes that underpin the business operations.

For that reason, it’s critical to assess each new kid on the block from two key angles: evaluation of the commercial potential of the market in question based on a data-driven cost/benefit analysis; and assessment of the impact implementation of the countryspecific regulatory rules will have on the operator’s overall ecosystem.

Buying power, combined with pre-regulation market share, plays a key role in relation to the first part of the analysis; rigidity and clarity of the applicable technological rules mandates the outcome of the second. A positive outcome of the assessment exercise is conducive to operators applying for local licenses, which by

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Martin Lycka implication reduces the size of the remaining unregulated market.

Bearing the above in mind, it comes as no surprise that European jurisdictions with high levels of GDP have attracted a lot of keen interest from within the online gambling industry. The first wave of regulation has extended to France, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and a little later also the UK. Conversely, despite having sketched out regulatory plans many years ago, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have taken longer to reach the safe harbour of regulated markets. In fact, the Dutch ship is only scheduled to land throughout next year, whereas the journey Germany embarked upon has been full of twist and turns. Out of the three, the Swedish authorities struck first.

THE SWEDISH BLUES The Swedish online gambling regulation entered into force on 1 January 2019. The regulation itself is modelled around the

MARKET ROUND-UP

existing Danish online gambling regulation, which allows for all online product verticals, including sports betting, poker and casino, subject to taking out a local license. The gambling tax rate stands at 18% of gross gaming revenue (GGR). These regulatory parameters were bound to have warranted a flurry of initial license applications and the operators have indeed duly obliged, hoping to replicate the regulatory success they had previously experienced in Denmark.

However, it became clear nearly from the word go that the Swedish authorities intended to opt for a rather more stringent interpretation of some of the key applicable rules, such as those related to betting offers or advertising. This approach has led to concerns about the ability of the regulator to efficiently capture the regulated market and drive away operators that are not licensed in Sweden. Studies into the newly regulated Swedish market put the current level of market channelisation below 80%.

The downward trend is unfortunately expected to be further compounded by additional regulatory restrictions introduced in July 2020. These restrictions, implemented by the Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, include among others a SEK 5,000 ($570) weekly deposit limit for casino play and a SEK 100 cap on sign-up bonus offers. The additional restrictions are due to expire at the end of 2020. The big question the Swedish authorities will have to grapple with is whether their regulatory approach is suitable to ensure adequate levels of consumer protection within the bounds of the regulated market.

THE CONVOLUTED PATH OF GERMANY Owing to the fact that online gambling is a prerogative of the 16 German states, as opposed to one of the German Federal Government, Germany was always going to take a sonderweg approach to find a consensus on a definite regulatory status for internet sports betting and casino.

Regulation allowing for the aforesaid product verticals is scheduled to enter into force on 1 July 2021, after years of tough political negotiations. In the meantime, operators can rely on a combination of recently granted sports betting licenses, and a poker and slots tolerance policy, to continue servicing customers.

The sports betting licenses set out rules that will govern the main features of the regulated German product. They include certain restrictions on the betting offer, as well as a set of wagering limits, with a possible increase to up to €30,000 ($35,492) per customer account. Operators that have obtained their sports betting licenses

are now obliged to present the German regulator with an implementation plan for the individual licensing requirements for approval. The plan will govern the timelines going forward.

The poker and slots tolerance policy provides for a set of compliance criteria these products will have to meet to be allowed. The key criteria revolve around customer verification, deposit limits (€1,000 a month per customer account) and poker and slots-related advertising. The policy entered into effect on 15 October 2020, with additional restrictions on slots kicking in on 15 December 2020. The tolerance policy has been modelled around the post-July 2021 German regulation, so it will give an early insight into how the German authorities envisage handling all the above-mentioned matters in the future.

The recent developments in Germany are a major breakthrough in a rather longwinded regulatory saga. They cater for long sought-after legal and regulatory certainty in one of the biggest European gambling markets. Their actual impact on the German market is yet to be measured but the practical operation of the new rules will arguably give the industry an opportunity to lobby for their further improvement.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN IS FINALLY SCHEDULED TO LAND Just like the German regulatory process, the Dutch version is nearing its happy conclusion. The authorities in the Netherlands have sought to introduce online gambling regulation for the best part of the last 10 years. Countless drafts and consultations later, a new Dutch Remote Gaming Act was adopted in February 2019 and is scheduled to enter into force on 1 March 2021. Just like its counterparts in Sweden and Germany, it will permit all the now standard online gambling verticals: sports betting, casino, (including slots) and poker. The products will be subject to a gambling duty of 29% of GGR plus several tax add-ons. First licenses are currently expected to be granted towards summer 2021.

The Dutch authorities have beaten their German counterparts to the introduction of a tolerance policy, which allows offshore operators to continue servicing the Dutch market in the run-up to future licensing.

The Dutch iteration of the tolerance policy foresees a number of criteria designed to ensure operators do not target Dutch customers, such as exclusion of the Dutch language, typically Dutch symbols or the use of .nl domains. Compliance with the tolerance policy has been subject to strict policing and regulatory enforcement.

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It follows that the Dutch online gambling market will enter its regulated era over the course of next year. The rate of success of the market, as is the case with all the other regulated markets, will be determined by the rate of channelisation of the previously unregulated offer into the regulated fold. It’s certainly in the interest of operators, customers and the Dutch authorities that the rate is as high as possible.

And that’s the key lesson to emerging markets. Only a sufficiently high channelisation rate can ensure adequate levels of consumer protection in these regulated markets.

“THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GERMANY ARE A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN A RATHER LONG-WINDED REGULATORY SAGA. THEY CATER FOR LONG SOUGHT-AFTER LEGAL AND REGULATORY CERTAINTY IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST EUROPEAN GAMBLING MARKETS. THEIR ACTUAL IMPACT ON THE GERMAN MARKET IS YET TO BE MEASURED BUT THE PRACTICAL OPERATION OF THE NEW RULES WILL ARGUABLY GIVE THE INDUSTRY AN OPPORTUNITY TO LOBBY FOR THEIR FURTHER IMPROVEMENT”

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PAYMENTS

ADDED SECURITY Steffan Jones, commercial development VP of gambling, global enterprise and eCommerce at Worldpay, speaks to Gambling Insider about what lies in store for the payments sector in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an acceleration to a ‘cashless’ society, particularly in land-based venues. Do you view this as a positive for the gaming and payments industry and how can both take advantage heading into 2021?

Digital payments provide for better and easier regulatory compliance, whether that is with anti-money laundering requirements, understanding your customer (KYC) or even financial reporting. They also offer customers greater choice and can lend themselves to responsible gambling, with many banks now offering the ability to set spending limits or cooling-off periods on their bank accounts, which they are unable to do with cash. Cash is an expensive form of payment with the human resource cost of

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counting cash, cost of security transporting money, as well as bank charges for depositing cash.

The move towards digital payments equally brings the opportunity to combine the physical and online offering with an omni-channel solution. This can give operators a single view of the customer, whether in a shop or on the website, providing an enhanced understanding of player behaviour. This understanding can be beneficial for responsible gambling reasons and it allows operators to provide more tailored or personalised experiences, which can be a competitive differentiator.

With Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) to be fully rolled out next year, what impact will this have on

the gambling industry? And what benefits will this bring, particularly when combating fraud?

One of the most notable elements of PSD2 is the introduction of strong customer authentication, which is set to come into effect from 1 January next year for much of Europe and 15 September in the UK. This will introduce the need to effectively have two-factor authentications to make a payment online. For example, where today a payment could just be made entering a debit card number, from next year this would need an additional layer of security such as a biometric scan.

This security will help bring about a reduction in most elements of fraud and will save operators the direct cost of paying for this, as well as the indirect cost

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of managing these fraud cases and the associated cost of chargebacks. However, this additional layer of security also introduces a potential new layer of friction that could slow down or impede the player experience.

This can be a concern when speed is of the essence, such as during in-play betting.

There are, however, some exemptions to this additional level of security that an operator can apply for at a transactional level through their payment provider. This will allow the operator to request that a payment does not have this second layer of security, which will in turn provide a quicker deposit experience. These exemptions have a number of qualifying criteria and cannot be automatically obtained, with certain dependency sitting with the payment provider themselves. That said, operators will need to understand and learn how to balance the need between enhanced security, and a frictionless payment experience.

Again operators that are able to succeed in this area could have a significant advantage over competitors who have a less flexible approach.

What positives will open banking bring and how can it benefit payment operators in helping with user experience?

Open banking as part of PSD2 opens up the competition for access to offer services through an individual’s bank account. These broadly fall into two main camps: account information and payment initiation. The former allows accredited service providers to provide consumers and operators, with consent, aggregated information related to their bank account – such as spending behaviour. In turn, gaming operators can use this information to bolster their own

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Steffan Jones understanding of customers whether for KYC, responsible gambling or other regulatory requirements.

The second allows payment initiators through open banking the ability to offer a new payment method that connects directly to a player’s bank account. I.e. it removes the need to pay via a debit card or ewallet.

This introduces a new and exciting form of payment to players and operators alike. For consumers it provides secure, reliable and near-instant access to their winnings. For operators it introduces the ability to offer wider choice, reduced fraud and in many cases enhanced economics with reduced direct costs.

“CAPACITY, AND BEING ABLE TO SCALE AND RESPOND TO HIGH VOLUME EVENTS TO MEET DEMAND, WILL ALSO BE A KEY DRIVER FOR OPERATORS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD. THEY SHOULD BE WORKING WITH THEIR PROVIDERS NOW TO ENSURE THEY ARE READY TO MAXIMISE OPPORTUNITIES FOR 2021, SUCH AS THE DELAYED UEFA EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS”

What else can we expect from 2021 in terms of product innovation and technology, aimed at providing a better payments service for players in the gambling industry?

The online gambling industry has always been at the forefront of digital adoption and innovation, with many players being early adopters of technology. As improved infrastructure and hardware enable operators to take advantage of delivering better player experiences, it’s really important that they consider the full customer journey from deposit to payout, to maximise customer loyalty.

Financial regulation has opened the door to innovations such as faster pay-outs and implementing these types of solutions are becoming increasingly important to meeting player expectations of what seamless service really means. Capacity, and being able to scale and respond to high volume events to meet demand, will also be a key driver for operators for the year ahead. They should be working with their providers now to ensure they are ready to maximise opportunities for 2021, such as the delayed UEFA European Championships.

Lastly, regulation will continue to be a key theme for the online gaming industry.

We have seen some movement with statelevel regulation in the US over the past few years. As this gains momentum with new states coming online – as well as developments elsewhere in the world like Latin America – established European operators can work with global payments partners to help expand and enter new markets.

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DIGITAL FUEL

PREPARATION AND AGILITY Aaron Phelps, account director, US, at Digital Fuel Marketing, oversees media buying globally and here he details various ways to help sportsbooks stay ahead of the pandemic

Aaron Phelps

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It’s not new to say COVID-19 has changed how we operate in 2020. In fact, like me, you might have rolled your eyes when you read that, having no doubt heard the same phrase what feels like a hundred times in a hundred Zoom meetings already. While we’re all still in the thick of managing both pandemic-related business disruption and the day job now the sporting calendar is live again, considering how to future-proof advertising plans for further disruption is a key part of being prepared for what’s to come.

With the majority of sports cancelled from March and gradually coming back into play from June, both operators and their agencies had to react quickly. Making my job and your job (and probably everyone else's involved) much harder: reviewing advertising plans and pulling major TV campaigns, pivoting above the line and below the line campaigns, and pushing new casino offers instead. Now sport is back. The Premier League, NFL, horse racing and more are running again, and it’s tempting to rest easy and revert to typical plans. However, while the calendars have been reinstated and adjusted to allow for delays incurred during lockdown, last-minute changes are now much likelier to happen.

In the US, the NFL experienced its first COVID-19 outbreak of the season recently, forcing the league to postpone the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Tennessee Titans game to later in the season. With promotions already planned for this game, sportsbook operators had the choice to cancel their offers entirely or pivot and replace with another focus. Advanced scenario-planning here ensures these decisions are not left to the last minute, and a backup campaign is in place and ready to roll when news of postponement comes in.

Recently, I’ve had lots of conversations with clients about the fine line between cheeky and opportunistic advertising and promotion responses. Making light of cancellations due to the pandemic should be approached with care, while reaction is very dependent on each brand’s tone of

voice. Switching to evergreen digital ads, as opposed to event-related ads (like “Missing the Steelers vs. Titans game? Check this out instead”) protects brands from being called out as too opportunistic.

Having multiple evergreen advertising campaign options on hand and in place to respond to delays or cancellations due to COVID-19 ensures minimum downtime to promotions. While game postponements will have an impact on the number of bets placed, they don’t need to have a major impact on brand visibility to potential new customers. This is a tactic I’ve put in place for our paid media clients both in the UK and the US. Working with the internal team to identify their most effective promotions and campaigns, we’ve created evergreen collateral based on this. When games are cancelled, typically a few days’ notice is given so we’re able to switch out the planned-game promotion for the evergreen ads, and the whole process is relatively stress-free.

The pandemic is testing companies on their agility; the ability to communicate internally with their agencies and their suppliers, and externally with their customers, to ensure business continues as close to normal as possible. Operators with clear and fast communication channels are a step ahead. A communication plan needs to be put in place (if it hasn’t been already) to make sure mistakes are not passed on to the customer risking void bets and annoyed bettors. To use again the example of a game cancellation, a process needs to be in place to disperse this information quickly through the operator’s team, to the trade desk, the marketing team, the SMT and the agency managing advertising efforts.

For operators to stay ahead with their promotions, and put their best foot forward to maintain acquisition and retention levels, preparation is key. Our best client results over the last few months have come from advance preparation, alongside the ability to shift and pivot. An agile approach is the best (and least stressful) way to be prepared for future disruptions.

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US SPORTS & IGAMING

STILL THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY Lee Richardson, CEO of Gaming Economics and co-founder of The Big Betting Balagan, explores the dynamic US market and accelerating growth of iGaming, and the talent needed to for it to sustain

Lee Richardson 2020 has been a year defined by the pandemic.

But how has it been for the US sports betting and iGaming sectors? Who has performed, and what has disappointed? How has the impact been for these promising sectors, and which issues still lie ahead?

There’s a lot to unpack but from December 2019 onwards, iGaming’s performance in the two largest states that currently permit it, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has been impressive as the combined gross win has grown every month since, and is currently producing an annualised gross win of around $1.7bn. That’s more than double the run-rate seen at the start of the year, and there’s every chance a $2bn annual market will be seen by 2021. With the arrival of new online states like Virginia and Michigan, plus others slated to adopt iGaming soon, a multi-state iGaming market of $3bn gross win seems highly achievable by the end of next year.

This level of growth, and player adoption, bodes well for those operators – and suppliers – with proven form on both sides of the digital coin of iGaming and sports wagering. Sports betting will be the growth engine for the new, giant combination of Caesars/William Hill, with Roar Digital (MGM/GVC) and online global market-leader bet365 springing

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to mind too. Playtech has also recently announced deals in NJ with both of the latter, so we can expect their US B2B market share to grow in 2021 as well.

But it’s not just Tier 1 operators, or their suppliers, who are benefitting.

A London AIM-listed games provider since 2013, Gaming Realms remains small by industry standards but nonetheless, it has quadrupled its market cap since February 2020, primarily through success overseas.

The success of its IP-protected Slingo family of products has enabled it to gain valuable share in the fast-growing US iGaming market, with a host of Tier 1 clients ranging from Golden Nugget to Rush Street Interactive, respective market leaders in NJ and PA. However, one possible drag on the current growth trajectory of both the sports betting and iGaming sector is the increasing evidence of a talent gap. Currently, industry observers see a significant and growing gap between demand for experienced and proven operational, trading, marketing and leadership roles, and the supply of such people within the US market.

During a September 2020 Big Betting Balagan industry podcast on this topic, guest speaker Rob Dowling, CEO of the Conexus Group, which owns Pentasia, a leading industry recruiter, agreed that the talent gap is an issue. “Supply isn’t meeting demand,” he said.

“The demand for talent into the iGaming industry has never been higher and the war for technical skills is as fierce as ever… It’s a shame we can’t move more talent into the US.” The pandemic’s effect on gaming has, predictably, seen a retreat from retail, which looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. This shift will have different outcomes for different supplier and operator profiles within the sector. For example, a sports betting study undertaken pre-COVID 19 within one major US state (which has an economy about the same size as Sweden) indicated likely demand for up to 5,000 self-service betting terminals (SSBTs). These would have been potentially located within thousands

of lottery outlets to enable a sports betting option to be available for retail lottery customers, as well as reach new customers through new bar, restaurant and hospitality settings too.

In a post-pandemic world, that level of demand now looks less likely, with a resultant push for purely digital non-retail sports betting solutions instead, at the expense of those SSBT providers. As ever, there will be winners and losers on the supply side.

And in a recent, and largely unexpected, development, Costa Rica-based offshore sportsbook 5Dimes agreed a $46.8m settlement with the US Department of Justice apparently designed to enable a future, legal sports betting licenSe application.

Remember, the entire US sportsbook market remains dominated by the offshore sector, with the American Gaming Association believing it still retains an 80% market share two-and-a-half-years after PASPA allowed the legal market to launch beyond Nevada.

With this development, Gaming Economics believes other offshore operators may follow suit, leading to the legal sector accelerating its share of the total sportsbook market in 2021.

This development alone may well lead to even more interest in the sector from the capital markets. After a year full of unprecedented falls and rises in gaming company values, we’ve also seen record levels of M&A activity and new fund-raising via SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), a term I freely admit not to have heard of this time last year.

Encouragingly, this tumultuous year is ending seemingly full of opportunity, for both operators and suppliers from fresh capital sources, more regulated states, a faster-growing legal sports betting and iGaming sector and, perhaps, a smaller offshore market. Set all that alongside a growing industry talent gap and the continuing retreat from retail likely means that 2021 will be just as challenging and equally dynamic as the previous, rather crazy, dozen months have been.

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UK CASINOS

IDENTITY CRISIS

With a legal review coming up for UK land-based casinos, Paul Sculpher of Gaming Recruitment Solutions asks: Where are we going?

The pandemic, and its associated restrictions, has obviously had an effect on the UK casino industry that ranges, depending on whom you speak to, from the dire to the catastrophic. As I type, the furlough replacement scheme – the Job Support Scheme – has just been announced, and operators have a complicated equation to consider, with some unknown variables.

Paying 33% of full time hours vs government subsidy vs redundancy costs vs £1,000 ($1,310) grant for retained staff would be a mathematical problem. But add in the question about further lockdowns and a guess about the landscape in April and you end up with a difficult educated guess required as to what to do.

Where is this industry going?

To answer that, it’s worth reflecting on where it’s been. I’ll cut a long story short, and please forgive the cliches. Thirty years ago when casinos were largely low ceilinged, centrally located smoky places with a waiting period before you could get in, the

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public perception was that they were a) full of gangsters and scary people or b) full of James Bond types in dinner jackets using cigarette holders and eating caviar.

As we moved into the late 90s and the 21st century, operators were trying to open up the perception of casinos into the mainstream, with the oft-quoted stat that only 2% or 3% of the population had visited a casino in the last 12 months, wildly lower than (usually cherry picked) other countries – conveniently failing to recognise the AWPs in every pub, high street arcades, 9,000 plus betting shops and the imminent arrival of online gambling.

This opening up process often took the form of a larger site, further from the centre of the town or city, with a wider offering, encompassing at least an upscale bar, larger restaurant, sometimes entertainment and with deregulation to smooth things along.

The idea was that penetration into the populace would doubtless follow.

Looking back now, you’d struggle to say it was a wild success. Bigger sites mean bigger rents and bigger employment costs, but many operators simply found that while their admission numbers went up sharply in the bigger boxes, the surge was largely at weekends; those extra admissions translated into bar sales, sure, but not so much on gaming (especially when limited to ten, then 20 B1 slots).

The addition of live entertainment didn’t even tickle the needle in most places, and many operators were left scratching their heads as to why their bills were way higher but their bottom line didn’t move much; those throngs of new visitors stubbornly refused to become gamers in significant numbers, and those that did not only didn’t have much of a gaming budget, but equally importantly were slow spenders on gaming.

Fast forward to today, and not too much has changed. I’ve written before how smaller sites seem to me to be the direction of

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travel. With licenses devalued given both the pandemic and the strangling effect of AML and affordability regulations, it seems to make sense to take a step back and aim the offer at people who already have both the desire and the means to gamble. In fact there’s even been a short-term direct blow struck to the industry by the will to offer a wider experience in the UK casino trade.

When, as an industry, you lobby for years for some sympathetic treatment from lawmakers on the basis that casinos aren’t just gambling venues and have a wider offer, it’s hardly surprising that you get lumped in with bars and restaurants when it’s time to decide who gets stuck with a 10pm curfew.

That’s just unfortunate happenstance, but the question remains: Has the attempt to open the market up to new players failed?

I spoke with the marketing director of one major UK operation last week (mostly operating larger sites with the same drive to attract non-gamblers), who revealed to me a very telling snippet. The most popular page on their websites was under FAQ, and was “What’s the dress code?” If potential visitors are still asking that question after two decades of making casinos more friendly to newbies, surely an objective observer would say it just didn’t work.

So what’s the answer, when the COVID dust settles and it’s time to look beyond the immediate survival horizon? Well, there’s a Gambling Review coming, and while it may be over-dramatising to say it’s either move forward or die, there certainly won’t be many chances to secure improved terms for the offline industry. Sure to be on the larger operators’ lists of preferred changes will be more slots and portability of existing licenses. There’s an element of “they would say that” of course, since they hold most of the existing unused licenses and their operations are skewed towards the higher footfall locations; where the limit of 20 slots means they’re at or near comfort capacity a relatively high proportion of the time.

If we look beyond the big boys, what else might the industry ask for that could genuinely help out, and not be unrealistically contentious? Well, you’d start with automated table games. Electronic roulette was a total game changer when it was first introduced, with the UK being so roulette heavy, transferring some of the action onto terminals saved a fortune in employment costs and has doubtless effectively protected thousands of other jobs ever since. There’s no earthly reason why roulette and other games shouldn’t be allowed to be offered on terminals via RNG, as they are in every online casino on earth, and the combination of the casino atmosphere with a variety of available games means the casinos could simply be a lot more fun.

Currently the rules mandate that there has to be physical equipment involved: a real wheel, or real cards and dice, and this makes offering auto craps and card games exceptionally awkward and expensive, as anyone who’s seen the price tag for an automated dice shaker will attest. The chance for players to test the water on a million new games that people might love, but don’t want to play first time at an intimidating table, could revitalise the industry like few other options. The jobs protected by making the whole product more fun and ensuring the viability of some casinos would heavily outweigh those lost in a couple fewer tables per site.

The review should also consider adding in new areas for casinos. The Permitted Areas Regulations, which governed where all casinos could be located, date back to 1960-something, so it’s hardly too relevant these days. The 2005 Act added some laughably random sites, from those already offering casinos, Leeds and Southampton for instance, to the ludicrously non-viable: Dumfries, Skegness anyone?

There are plenty of areas in the country that currently can’t by law offer a casino, but from an economic perspective would be very attractive, leading to a potential competition process for local councils that could guarantee significant local benefits (as were realised in Stratford, Leeds and other locations). There’s no value in allowing portability of existing licenses (which were originally awarded with no assurance of anything but the right to operate within that area) when there are tens of millions to be made for local areas by maximising the value of new locations.

There are plenty of other areas where the UK casino industry can lobby for changes, especially in the context of the online operators being under so much scrutiny. Concessions to these big land-based casino employers seem only fair as they’re locking in the most jobs, paying significant UK taxes, and bear the burden of the AML and affordability rules. The contrast between the process UK casinos have to follow, and that which online players need to follow, is genuinely astounding, as anyone who has seen some of the self-certification safer gambling page of one major bookmaker will attest. I don’t even know how much you have to spend with some online operators to trigger a conversation with a real person, even now, after so many high-profile cases of spends wildly out of line with incomes. But it’s the sort of number that no offline casino operator could even imagine.

The offline industry in the UK is in a hole, no doubt about it. The upcoming

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review may be a lifeline – although some operators will sink without a trace long before it provides any benefit. But we can only hope that it offers some kind of opportunity to continue to provide one of the more community benefit-rich forms of gambling in terms of employment and tax revenue to UK punters. That shouldn’t be restricted solely to the two major operators, and the other operators’ voices should be heard when it’s time to put forward the industry view.

“WHEN, AS AN INDUSTRY, YOU LOBBY FOR YEARS FOR SOME SYMPATHETIC TREATMENT FROM LAWMAKERS ON THE BASIS THAT CASINOS AREN’T JUST GAMBLING VENUES AND HAVE A WIDER OFFER, IT’S HARDLY SURPRISING THAT YOU GET LUMPED IN WITH BARS AND RESTAURANTS WHEN IT’S TIME TO DECIDE WHO GETS STUCK WITH A 10PM CURFEW. THE QUESTION REMAINS: HAS THE ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE MARKET UP TO NEW PLAYERS FAILED? ”

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MARKET FOCUS: US

US SPORTS BETTING Ezra Amacher examines the latest developments in Colorado, Michigan and Tennessee, which all passed sports wagering bills into law last year

From first glance, Colorado, Michigan and Tennessee don’t have much in common. The first is in the Rocky Mountains and decidedly progressive, the second is Midwestern with Middle American values and the third is proudly Southern and conservative. During this deeply polarised era, residents of these three states might find little to agree on – except for the demand to bet on sports.

Each state passed sports wagering into law last year but Colorado moved much faster to launch online wagering than Michigan and Tennessee. Colorado operators accepted the risk of opening sportsbooks – the inclusion of online registration helped bring in customers when land-based casinos were closed – during the peak of the pandemic in May, confident major sports would soon return.

They were right.

By September, the Centennial State reached monthly handle of $208m, almost all of which ($204m) was wagered online. Colorado, whose September handle ranked among the top five markets in the US, was rewarded with its aggressiveness to launch sports betting as quickly as possible. Now Michigan and Tennessee are looking to replicate that magic in their own states, and there’s reason to believe they will see similar numbers once markets have matured.

Let’s start with Michigan, a state with a population over four million larger than Colorado, including 2.9 million in the metro Detroit region. Michigan’s sports betting bill allowed brick-and-mortar sportsbooks to launch within four months of Governor Gretchen Whitmer signing it into law; but the online sports betting and online gaming sections of the bill required nearly a year’s

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worth of drafts, hearings and licensing.

Physical sportsbooks tried to open in mid-March but closed within a week due to the pandemic.

By the time the state’s three sportsbooks reopened in August, the NBA and MLB were back in action. August handle amounted to $16m. That number more than doubled in September to $34m, thanks to the return of the NFL’s Detroit Lions. In October, regulators approved a final draft of online sports betting rules that were sent to a committee of legislators. The legislators have until mid-December to review those rules, at which point the Michigan Gaming Control Board can begin approving licenses.

All three casino sportsbooks, including leader MGM Grand Detroit, are expected to apply for a license. Twelve Michigan tribes will apply as commercial operators under a state license for wagering that takes place off the reservation, according to Bryan Newland of Bay Mills Indian Community. Newland was part of a panel on tribal sports betting at the virtual Global Gaming Expo. Bay Mills Casino & Resort scored a mobile sportsbook partnership with DraftKings earlier this year in a deal that Newland expects will benefit his tribe’s remote casino.

“We’re far from urban centres so whenever the state economy takes a hit in Michigan, it’s amplified up here,” Newland said. “We have been looking for a way to compete on a level playing field where we’re not as dependent on location as determining our fate in the gaming market. When you layer the pandemic on top of that we want to have options for people to game with us that are safe.”

Michigan lawmakers followed the steps set forth in markets like Colorado and New Jersey by including a provision that allows for remote, online registration. Online sports betting in Michigan could realistically begin in early 2021 and preferably before the Super Bowl.

In Tennessee, online sports betting is the only way to go. The Volunteer State officially kicked off sports wagering on 1 November through the state’s lottery. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars were among the heavy hitters waiting to welcome new bettors. Action247, a Tennessee-owned and operated sportsbook, is among the smaller operators eager to get a slice of the pie.

There should be plenty of sports wagering to go around. Tennessee, home to approximately seven million people including two million in metropolitan Nashville, has three professional sports teams: the Tennessee Titans, Memphis Grizzlies and Nashville Predators. The Tennessee Volunteers football program has a loyal fanbase as well. Tennessee sportsbooks will also attract bettors in Atlanta and Charlotte, as both cities are within a couple hours’ drive of the border.

Though the extraordinary demand for online sports betting in Colorado doesn’t guarantee transitive results for another state, it’s hard not to draw parallels between Colorado, Michigan and Tennessee. All three states are home to multiple professional sports teams, as well as power college athletic programs, and each includes a metropolitan region of two million or more people. What these states lack culturally and geographically, they share in their common interest to offer legalised sports betting.

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MARKET FOCUS: NETHERLANDS

THE NEXT BIG THING? After a decade of political wrangling, 2021 promises to be the year that regulated online gambling finally comes to the Netherland, writes founder of Gaming in Holland Willem van Oort.

How excited should the industry be?

A TIMELINE According to the Ministry of Justice and Security’s latest timetable, the Dutch Remote Gaming Act is scheduled to enter into force on 1 March 2021. The regulated

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online market will open six months later, on 1 September 2021, which should give the Netherlands Gambling Authority sufficient time to process its first batch of remote license applications. By law, the regulator is only allowed to start processing applications once the Remote Gaming Act has entered into force.

Given all the earlier delays and false starts, it is not unreasonable to ask whether yet another postponement is still on the cards. After all, the original version of the current Remote Gaming Act was first proposed in 2014, but only adopted by the Dutch Lower House in 2016. Worse was to come: it would take almost three more years, until February 2019, before the country’s Senate finally approved the bill.

For the next eighteen months, political wrangling shifted back to the Lower House with seemingly interminable discussions on the secondary legislation.

However, during a procedural meeting of a Lower House Committee on September 23, MPs at long last declined to raise further objections against the implementation of the Remote Gaming Act. Moreover, the next Parliamentary consultation during which this issue can be revisited will almost certainly take place after the Act enters into force. While this does not mean further delay is impossible – we certainly had nasty surprises

before – we now (conservatively) estimate there is at least a 90% chance the Remote Gaming Act will enter into force as projected above.

MARKET ATTRACTIVENESS Having remote gaming regulations in place is, of course, only half the story.

It remains to be seen how attractive the resulting regulated market will be. Without question, the Dutch online gaming market will be a high tax (29% of gross gaming revenue & a 1.5% responsible gaming levy), high regulation market. On the other hand, the Netherlands is the seventh-largest economy in Europe (fifth in the EU), with a wealthy population and high internet penetration. If we contrast the Netherlands to other recently or soonto-be regulated markets, we can draw the following comparisons: Sweden: While the average Dutch consumer is expected to be less inclined to gamble than their Swedish counterpart, the Dutch economy is almost twice as big as Sweden’s. With a detailed body of secondary legislation, regulatory uncertainty (contra Sweden) is not expected to be a big issue.

Germany: Germany is obviously a much bigger market than the Netherlands. However,

MARKET FOCUS: NETHERLANDS

Germany’s online casino/online slots regulations leave a lot to be desired, which is likely to be a major drag on the performance of multi-product operators. On a per-capita basis, the Netherlands is wealthier than Germany.

The United States: Seen by some as the Holy Grail, the US market features – apart from its enormous potential – some major drawbacks. First, it should be noted that the US gambling market is regulated on a state level. Looking at population, the Netherlands would be the US’ fifth-largest state, only trailing California, Texas, Florida and New York. By this metric, the Netherlands would be a bigger prize than 46 of the 50 US states. While it is not always easy to generalise, US gambling and betting regulations also tend to be far more protectionist than the relatively open Dutch model, which must operate within the constraints of EU fair competition rules.

In summary, while it may be somewhat over-optimistic to hail the regulated Dutch online market as “the next big thing,” it seems undeniable that, depending on an operator’s product focus and/or ability to run large-scale political lobby operations, the Netherlands may, in fact, offer the biggest bang for the buck. Especially with the (expected) tightening of rules

in traditionally more gambling-friendly jurisdictions, the Dutch market will be nothing to sneeze at.

AIMING FOR A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD: COOLING-OFF PERIOD & CUSTOMER DATABASE PURGE The regulations accompanying the Remote Gaming Act will contain several provisions to ensure newly licensed operators – not least the Dutch land-based incumbents – will be facing a level playing field once the regulated market opens. Most importantly, online operators deemed by the Dutch regulator to have "actively targeted” the Dutch market in the past will not be immediately eligible for a remote license.

René Jansen, chairman of the Netherlands Gambling Authority, recently clarified this “cooling-off period” at the Gaming in Holland Conference, which took place on 22 September in Amsterdam: “When we receive an application for a license, we will look at the applicant’s activities for a period of two years and eight months prior to the date of their application. In other words: an operator that applies for a license on 1 March 2021 will need to have ensured its offerings have not specifically and actively targeted Dutch consumers from 1 July 2018 on.

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“To assess whether that is the case, we will examine certain criteria. These include, but are not limited to, making use of the Dutch language and payment platforms popular in The Netherlands. To be eligible for a license, operators must also have had adequate age verification in place from 1 January 2020 on, to effectively prevent minors from participating in gambling.”

Furthermore, future licensed online operators that were previously active in the unregulated Dutch market will be required to purge any customer databases acquired while operating without a license. It should be noted, however, that, as currently phrased, this provision will apply equally to land-based incumbents, who may not automatically promote their online offerings to existing customers.

In short, while not without its challenges, the Dutch market should offer an interesting proposition. We, at least, are excited for what is coming.

GAMING IN HOLLAND is an English-language business community for those who are professionally interested or involved in the Dutch gambling market. Gaming in Holland offers free weekly newsletters, regular print magazines and B2B events. For more information, visit signup.gamingin.eu.

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MARKET FOCUS: SPAIN

THE SPANISH REVOLUTION Xavi Muñoz Bellvehí, gaming lawyer at Spanish law firm ECIJA, dissects the legal aspects of the Spanish online gaming and betting market with Gambling Insider A BRIEF BACKGROUND The Spanish gambling and betting market was regulated in 2011 by Law 13/2011 and a series of statutory regulations. There are currently around 80 operators offering their online gambling services in Spain and the gross gaming revenue (GGR) of this market is still growing.

The last licensing window was closed at the end of 2018 and no new window is expected in the short term. Given this situation and given the fact gambling and betting licenses are non-transferable under Spanish regulations, at the moment they can only be acquired by purchasing the company which holds them.

Nowadays, according to Spanish regulator Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling’s (DGOJ) report of the second quarter of 2020, the number of active operators by segment is: (i) betting: 46; (ii) bingo: 3; (iii) casino: 46; (iv) contests: 2 and; (v) poker: 9.

SPANISH LICENSING SYSTEM The offering of any gambling or betting activity in Spain is subject to obtaining a prior license.

The law foresees three types of licenses: General License, Singular License and Authorisation.

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General Licenses: These licenses authorise operators to offer those games classified within the categories of lotteries, bets, raffles, contests and other games (casino games). The licenses that can only be obtained during the licensing windows are those for bets, other games and contests. These General Licenses shall be valid for 10 years and may be renewed for an equal period of time.

In accordance with regulations, those operators who provide their gaming services to customers and own a gaming platform will be required to obtain a license. However, those companies who “partially" undertake gaming activities will also be required to obtain a license if their income for such activity is directly related to the revenue obtained from gaming activity.

This regulation also refers to those companies which will be considered as "operator and co-organiser of the game." In this sense, it refers to companies that manage the gaming platforms of which other operators are members or adhere to. This refers particularly to the networks of poker and bingo, or other networks managed by a co-organising company.

Xavi Muñoz

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MARKET FOCUS: SPAIN

Singular Licenses: These licenses can only be obtained by those operators who have previously obtained the corresponding General License above. So each Singular License must be granted under the umbrella of a General License. Unlike General Licenses, there is not a specific licensing window for Singular Licenses, as long as the company already has the corresponding General License.

There are 16 types of Singular Licenses and each one corresponds to a particular game; specific orders regulate each different kind of game. Such orders establish where and how these games can be offered, maximum amounts to be deposited and/or wagered, customer rights, publicity allowed, etc. These Singular Licenses shall be valid for five years, although in some cases it is established as a three-year term and may be renewed for an equal period of time.

Authorisations: These must be obtained to carry out the activities corresponding to the previously indicated Singular Licenses but on an occasional and sporadic basis.

These are not commonly used and can be applied for at any time. Please see below a chart with all possible licenses and their types:

General Licenses

Singular Licenses

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 led to the closing of the main sports competitions, both national and international, which affected the betting segment significantly for Q2. However, other segments (bingo, casino, contests and poker) have experienced a rise in this quarter in comparison to Q1 and, additionally, previous years. Especially for poker and casino, this quarter has been the highest.

ADVERTISING AND SPONSORSHIP Advertisement, promotion and sponsorship concerning gambling and betting activities is permitted, but only when these refer to gambling and betting activities duly licensed in Spain. Gambling licenses granted in other countries are not valid to offer, advertise or promote games in Spain. Advertising gambling or betting activities from operators which do not hold the corresponding license is an illegal activity in Spain, subject to heavy fines which may be imposed by the DGOJ. Advertising agencies, media channels or internet website editors are responsible

Other Games

Bets Fixed-odds sports betting

Roulette

Fixed-odds horse betting

Poker

Fixed-odds betting

Baccarat

Pool sports betting

Blackjack

Pool horse betting

Bingo

Pool other betting

Complimentary games

Exchange sports betting

Slots

Contests Contests

Other exchange betting

Total GGR for Q2 was €208.85m ($247.36m), in comparison to GGR for Q1 of €217.97m, as broken down in our next table:

2020 Q2

2020 Q1 Betting

€110.62m

50.75%

€68.15m

32.63%

Casino

€77.59m

35.60%

€93.54m

44.79%

Poker

€24.2m

11.10%

€38.2m

18.29%

Bingo

€3.69m

1.69%

€5.05m

2.42%

Contests

€1.88m

0.86%

€3.92m

1.88%

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for ensuring and checking, before publishing any advertisement or promotion, that the operator/advertiser is duly licensed; and that such particular advertising is allowed in the frame of the operator’s license by means of the General Registry of Gambling Licenses maintained by the DGOJ. In any case, if these media entities disseminate advertising from non-licensed operators they would also be responsible.

It is worth mentioning the newly implemented Code of Conduct on commercial communications for gaming activities, which entered into force on 15 January 2020, and is applicable to all companies adhering to this code of conduct.

From the 80 online gambling operators currently licensed in Spain, 48 are adhered to the referred code of conduct. Adhering to the code of conduct is not obligatory but shows the willingness of the operator to promote responsible gambling and is therefore recommended.

Spanish gaming law provides a wide definition of the persons or entities that can be liable, which comprises “any person or entity that performs any of the breaches provided by the law, as well as any other that gives them support, advertise or promote them, or in any way obtain profit from them.” In regards to these types of breaches, the same liability applied to gambling and betting operators could be jointly applied to media and publicity agencies, with fines which could range from €1 to €1m.

It is important to note that the new Government in Spain has adopted a more restrictive position towards the gambling sector and, therefore, it has recently approved a draft Royal Decree on Commercial Communications of Gaming Activities in Spain; it is expected to be approved

by November 2020. This Royal Decree is very restrictive and prohibitive towards publicity in various areas such as digital and audio-visual commercial communications, sponsorships, bonuses and betting predictors. We will have to wait for the final text, although it may imply a limitation to the sector.

In fact, if we consider the marketing spend of Q2 2020, which was €40.6m, compared to €118.24m for Q1, it has decreased exponentially with a quarterly fall of 66%:

MARKET FOCUS: SPAIN

2020.Q1

2020.Q2

Quarterly change

Advertising

€59.54m

€17.16m

-71.19%

Promotions

€42.36m

€12.47m

-70.55%

Affiliation expenses

€10.29m

€6.66m

-35.28%

Bingo

€6.04m

€4.32m

-28.43%

It shall be taken into account that the second quarter has been affected by the declaration of a State of Alarm due to COVID-19, which has resulted in the application of wide restrictions in advertisement and promotions of gambling. Therefore, after the entrance into force of the new Advertising Royal Decree, these results will probably become the reality for marketing in the near future. However, with the exception of betting due to the cancellation of sporting events, gambling in general has increased in spite of the advertising restrictions, so operators have spent less in marketing and still generated very good results.

TAX REGIME The tax rate for all games will be 20% of gross win (defined as the wagered amounts minus the pay-out of prizes). In the case of draws and promotional games, the tax rate will be 10% of the value of the prize.

Additionally, there is the annual tax of 0.00075% on operator gross income.

It is important to know there is a special tax regime applicable to companies located in the tiny Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Such operators will have a 50% cut on their tax rate, which becomes 10% of gross win. These companies additionally have reduced taxation on corporate tax and other taxes.

The prizes won by customers from these entities are exempt from personal income tax up to an amount of €2,500.

When such amount is exceeded, personal income tax shall be paid at a 20% flat rate.

SANCTIONING REGIME The law foresees gaming operators, as well as any other company which offers them support, publicity, promotion or which obtains profits from illegal gaming activities, to be responsible for any breach of the law. This is a very wide definition, which may include any company that directly or indirectly participates in any way in irregular gaming activity. The DGOJ has the authority to start the relevant sanctioning procedures and impose the corresponding fines. Other public bodies, such as the media and TV

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regulators, and bodies from autonomous regions, may also be competent depending on the type of breach.

Those breaches are classified as: • Minor breaches: these may be punished with a written warning and fine of up to €100,000.

• Serious breaches: these may be punished with a fine ranging from €100,000 to €1m and the suspension of gaming activity for up to six months.

• Very serious breaches: these may be punished with a fine ranging from €1m to €50m, loss of license and the closure of any gaming activity.

The DGOJ is active in investigating and fining the offering of any illegal or irregular gaming and betting services in the territory of Spain, opening sanctioning procedures to operators which do not have a license; as well as operators with licenses operating with non-authorised technical systems and non-compliant operators. Overall, we could say that, after nine years, the Spanish gambling market is quite mature, with an active regulator, helping keep illegal offerings out of the market.

STATE LOTTERIES The Spanish state company of lotteries and bets (“SELAE”), and the Spanish national charity for the blinded (“ONCE”), are the operators appointed for the commercialisation of national lottery games. The games that the SELAE and ONCE commercialise can be carried out by means of tickets, or through any other electronic, telephone or interactive means. These companies could also offer any of the other games available to other operators, subject to obtaining the corresponding license.

SELAE and ONCE's traditional games are exempt from gaming taxes and VAT.

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MARKET FOCUS: INDIA

INDIA: RIDING THE WAVE Ranjana Adhikari,, co-head media entertainment & gaming practice, and associate Tanisha Khanna – of Nishith Desai Associates – discuss the state of play with legalising online gambling in India The online skill gaming industry in India has seen rapid growth in the last few years, stimulated by improved digital infrastructure, ease of digital transactions and cheap data.

India is a country of 1.3 billion of which, as per estimates, half a billion have smartphones.

The online gaming industry, notable for games like fantasy sport, poker and rummy, has gained prominence during the COVID-19 lockdown, which has caused a large section of the population to stay glued to their smartphones at home.

Lockdown has seen Indian gamers satiate their need for cognitive engagement through these online games, resulting in unabated growth for the industry – as India continues to stay in partial lockdown. Investments in this sector have also increased manifold, with several prominent foreign and domestic investors picking up substantial stakes in Indian online gaming businesses.

Ranjana Adhikari

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With the spotlight on the industry, it was only a matter of time before the Indian authorities, legislators and courts sat up and took notice of its burgeoning impact on the economy and users. The last couple of months have seen different state governments and courts mulling the way forward for this fast-growing sector, which has hitherto been unregulated in most Indian states.

While certain Indian states like Andhra Pradesh have taken a hard line with the industry, and recently enacted law to ban all online games (including games of skill) for stakes in the state, the state of Maharashtra is considering legalising and regulating the practice. On the other hand, the courts of Gujarat and Madras have also recently advised governments of these states to consider how to deal with the industry, in the wake of several public interest litigations filed in these courts.

ARCHAIC LAWS ILL-EQUIPPED TO REGULATE ONLINE SKILL GAMING Betting and gambling is regulated at a state level in India, as under the Indian Constitution, the power to enact laws on ‘betting and gambling’ vests with state governments. This is problematic from a territorial jurisdiction perspective, for individual states seeking to regulate online gaming activities. In the absence of a single, central law for online gaming, it has also created business uncertainty for operators, as different states have taken diverse approaches towards the legality of these businesses.

Most state anti-gambling laws were enacted prior to the advent of the internet and have prohibited gambling activities in physical premises termed ‘common gaming houses’ or ‘gaming houses.’ Most of these laws have not been amended to specifically include internet offerings. Only the states of Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have specifically extended their anti-gambling laws to the online medium.

Recently, the High Court of Gujarat has recognised that the Gujarat Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887, which prohibits gaming activities in ‘common gaming houses’, does not extend to online gaming. However, the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Bombay have applied similarly drafted laws to online game formats while considering the legality of these formats.

Most state laws exclude ‘games of skill’ from their prohibitions. The Supreme Court of India has held that (1) offering games of skill does not fall within the definition of ‘gambling’ and (2) offering games of skill are protected under freedom of business guarantees under the Indian Constitution.

However, there is no uniform machinery to ascertain whether a game format is in fact a game of skill or not. The state of Nagaland is the only state which has enacted law to regulate online games of skill, and which specifically identifies certain games as games of skill in its legislation. Over time, Indian courts have recognised that games such as 13 card Rummy, betting on horse racing, online poker, and a certain format of fantasy sport, are games of skill.

CALLS TO PROHIBIT ONLINE GAMING: UNSETTLING LEGITIMATE BUSINESSES One of the most notable developments in recent months has been the promulgation of the Andhra Pradesh Gaming (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 (“Ordinance”) on 23 September by the Governor of Andhra Pradesh to amend the Andhra Pradesh Gaming Act, 1974 (“AP Act”). The Ordinance has introduced amendments which are along the same lines as the amendments introduced to the Telangana Gaming Act, 1974 (“Telangana Act”) in 2017, the law applicable within the neighboring state of Telangana. The amendments introduced to the Telangana

MARKET FOCUS: INDIA

Act are at present being challenged before the High Court of Hyderabad.

The Ordinance has specifically extended the provisions of the AP Act to cover online gaming activities and has prohibited staking money on games of skill.

The introduction of the Ordinance has created much furor within the industry, as the state of Andhra Pradesh is a prominent market for most operators, and one always fears this having a cascading effect on other states.

As per recent reports, the chief minister of the neighboring territory of Pondicherry has urged the Central Government to ban online gaming activities.

The validity of the Ordinance has also been challenged before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and the outcome of these proceedings is awaited. As such, whether a state government has the legislative competence to prohibit games of skill is debatable and, therefore, the amendments to the Telangana Act as well as the Ordinance are questionable. The unfortunate part of this saga is that legitimate skill gaming businesses have been affected, in spite of the Supreme Court of India recognising that offering games of skill are protected under freedom of business guarantees, under the Constitution of India.

MOVES TO LEGALISE ONLINE GAMING IN INDIAN STATES While the amendments introduced by states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana unsettle the waters for the industry, there are several promising developments in other Indian states. As per recent news reports, the state of Maharashtra is contemplating legalising and regulating online betting, seen as a means of mobilising tax revenue for the state. It is unclear at this stage what the contours of the new law would be, and whether it would encompass only online

games of skill, or additionally games of chance. However, it appears discussions are still at a nascent stage and it could be some time before a new law is introduced.

There have, elsewhere, been remarks by High Courts of certain states in support of regulating online gaming activities. For instance, recently the High Court of Madras contemplated the lacuna in the law and underscored the need for a comprehensive framework to govern online games, virtual games and online sports. In this case, the police in the state had submitted to the court that there was no regulatory framework for online games of skill.

The court traced the legislative framework in India and remarked that there was a pressing need for a regulatory framework for such online games. The court also highlighted that regulation would encourage investment in the sector, lead to technological advancements, generate revenue and employment, as well as protect vulnerable sections of society such as the youth. The court ultimately urged the state government to take note of the situation and enact suitable legislation to bring online games within a licensing regime.

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legalisation of these games could provide attractive investment opportunities for investors seeking to ‘bet’ on the lucrative Indian market. Already, the size of India’s online gaming market is valued at $885m and is expected to grow 42% within the next year.

There is a strong need for a robust central legislation to regulate online games of skill and bring them within a licensing regime.

The central law could be supported by the existing self-regulatory codes of gaming industry bodies; these, in the absence of actual law, have identified which games are games of skill, set standards for operators and prescribed measures for player protection. It remains to be seen whether the Central Government will take up calls to enact such legislation. However, it is safe to assume it may be some time before such a law is enacted.

WAY FORWARD: A CENTRAL LAW FOR SKILL GAMES With the spotlight on India’s online skill gaming industry, the conversation about legalising these games has commenced in the country. Public opinion has both been in favour of, as well as against, legalising these games; however, the fact public opinion has been mobilised indicates developments for the industry are on the horizon. The

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ESPORTS

COVID-19 AND THE RISE OF ESPORTS Gambling Insider speaks with John Griffiths, chief commercial officer at Spicy Mango, to get his insight into the rise of esports amid the COVID-19 pandemic The current global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus has had a major impact on almost every country, industry and person across the world. In March 2020, one industry that initially came to a complete halt was sports. As lockdown

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restrictions began to lift a few months after, fans saw numerous sports resume, albeit without live spectators and the usual sporting atmosphere.

But has this presented a chance for esports to grow in its place? We spoke

to John Griffiths, chief commercial officer, Spicy Mango, about the changing world of esports, whether traditional broadcasters can rise to the challenge, the opportunity presented and what role betting has to play.

ESPORTS

Can you explain a bit about how the pandemic initially impacted the world of sport?

The world of sports has been majorly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

When lockdown ground everything to a halt, most major sports either paused, postponed or cancelled their season, with huge delays in restarting many sports such as the English Premier League and Formula 1. Even the pinnacle of global sport, the Olympic Games, was announced to be postponed until 2021.

At a time when the vast majority of the population was confined to their homes, watching live sport on TV would have been a very pleasurable way to spend the extra hours saved on the daily commute. Alas, with all sport cancelled aside from a few repeats of classic matches or races, there was a huge void to fill for sports fans.

So did this present an opportunity for esports and online gaming to become more mainstream?

How will this, or did this, impact broadcasters and betting companies?

Absolutely. Esports is growing rapidly. In fact, it’s estimated that esports revenues topped $1bn in 2019, a 27% increase from 2018’s figure. The last year or so has seen esports enter the big leagues, with Comcast announcing that it would build a $50m arena to accommodate esports tournaments. Leading the way is Fortnite, which as of 2020 has 350 million registered users, with other games including Dota 2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch also seeking to take a slice of the competitive gaming landscape.

Over the summer period, there was a massive increase in esports coverage as seen in motor racing, cycling (a virtual Tour de France), soccer, horse racing and even ice hockey. In some cases, this increased coverage has seen the opportunity for betting grow. In one example, this year’s virtual Grand National was watched by almost five million free-to-air viewers and the average bet on the race was £2 ($2.59), a significant increase from the 2019 virtual Grand National, which had 737,000 viewers.

But unfortunately, this betting success has not been seen through other sports, being viewed as a substitution until the real thing is able to return. While esports might not yet be in a position to rival traditional sports, does it instead offer the sport and its fans an opportunity for year-round competition and for younger, emerging stars to showcase their talent?

However, as with any environment, the growth of esports has, and will continue to, undoubtedly come with teething problems.

And with market leaders such as Amazon and Alibaba trying to take a path into the esports business, where is the future of its viewership heading? As a sport watched almost entirely by gamers, the question for broadcasters and betting companies is how can they make it appeal to the masses – and should they?

Is it an investment that broadcasters and betting companies should be making?

With Amazon’s Sport Now subscription now including Arena Esports in its monthly membership, and with broadcasters like the BBC among others having already taken a leap into the world of esports by broadcasting specific tournaments, broadcasters and OTT platforms are clearly attempting to capitalise on this ever-growing market. However, with 15 million people watching esports

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worldwide on sites like Amazon-owned Twitch and Google-owned YouTube per day, and the number of those 16 to 24 watching esports growing by more than 60% in 2019, how does a subscription or broadcast service compete?

The demographic of the esports audience plays an important role here: does the demographic and its spending power offer enough of an opportunity to broadcasters to decide if the investment is worth making?

The spending power of the current largest demographic – the 16 to 24 year-olds – may not be compelling enough for more broadcasters or betting companies to consider the approach.

However, in reality, traditional sports can learn a lot from esports when it comes to digital fan engagement, with the ability to show real-time data, match stats and background on key players or participants, which viewers can then use to not only engage with the sport, but to inform their bets.

John Griffiths

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ESPORTS

How does the experience differ between esports and traditional broadcast sports?

Streaming platforms such as Twitch offer users a unique experience. From esports tournaments to video game streamers, to streamers who are just chatting, Twitch gives users autonomy over what they want to watch and when. Furthermore, with the ability to interact with other players through live chat, this platform creates a sense of community that gamers want to be a part of, a community sometimes more important than the tournament they’re watching.

However, with the static nature of broadcast only offering the viewer the chance to view, not interact, will gamers choose to watch it on the big screen?

Again, this is where the audience of esports is important: by 2021, casual esports viewers will outgrow esports fans and players by 57 million, possibly due to increased awareness, which presents an opportunity for broadcasters to appeal to far more than the players themselves.

Betting also plays a huge part in this; the fact that the experience of esports might not be considered to be as impactful means esports betting could remain niche.

Yet there is the opportunity for technology to be utilised to ensure esports and betting are given a fighting chance, as live sports still remains restricted in the months to come.

What changes could broadcasters make?

For broadcasters considering a change in approach, if they aren’t able to offer a live view of the game, they need to decide what they want viewers to get from their coverage of the sport. EA worked with ESPN on a four-part series called Road to Madden Bowl to help tell the story in the lead up to the Madden Championship, and this enabled EA to reach audiences beyond their traditional online distribution, which added to the hype of the tournament.

However, it doesn’t have to be purely about broadcasters making esports work for their formats, when esports could also change its formats to become time-bound, and therefore more broadcast (and betting) friendly.

Many mainstream sports are changing their formats to appeal to wider audiences – both live and on TV – such as Rugby X, The Hundred and Tie Break Tens. Esports could just as easily make this change to fit in with existing broadcast schedules, and therefore widen the audience and betting

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opportunities. Without the limitations of timescales, broadcasters will be wide open to make esports appealing and work for their audiences, and by better utilising available data, betting companies can also ensure they are broadening their opportunities.

What challenges does betting introduce to esports?

Watching traditional sports on OTT services has increased in popularity over the last few years. The appetite from sports fans is certainly there, with 63% of sports fans claiming they would pay for an all-sports OTT channel, and 56% stating they would pay more for online streaming than for traditional TV channels. So we are already seeing changes happening in this area.

However, what has always been a stumbling block is the delay that often comes with OTT streaming services – often 15-20 seconds – which in a critical World Cup match can result in the viewer missing a winning goal or penalty. This is where, when betting is added into the mix, the challenge only increases.

If a viewer places a bet on the outcome of the match while watching on an OTT service, the delay could be the difference between the viewer cashing their bet in, or upping the stakes. That delay, however, could also mean a viewer’s decision to cash out loses them money if the state of play has changed in the 15-second delay. This is an area that clearly needs

attention, if esports stands any chance of becoming mainstream.

As one of the fastest-growing categories in online gambling, esports betting is expected to grow to $12.9bn by 2020, and the growth won’t stop there. To keep the user experience intact, and to ensure OTT services don’t stop the viewer getting the most out of their bets, these providers need to consider how technology can best be used to reduce the lag; and provide the same betting experience offered by broadcast.

What do you think the future holds for esports?

It’s clear that despite its boom in popularity, esports is still very much still in its exploratory phase for broadcasters, gaming companies and betting organisations. While we hope the world does not see another global crisis like COVID-19 for many decades, it may just present an opportunity for esports to accelerate its growth and find a new audience; an audience that hopefully will see the excitement, exhilaration and enjoyment that younger audiences have enjoyed and nurtured for the last decade or so, and that with a bit more spending power will drive faster growth of esports.

With lots of questions left to answer, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years, in terms of which companies will decide to take part in the journey, and whether broadcasters and betting companies be able to conquer constraints and capture the wider audience’s interest.

INSIDERS

ALEX CZAJKOWSKI

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Each issue, Gambling Insider commissions guest columns from people right at the heart of the gaming industry to discover more about the challenges its leaders, pioneers and innovators are facing today.

These insightful columnists are The Insiders.

SIMON HAMMON Relax Gaming

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THOMAS FILIPPOU Intralot

ANDREAS KOERL BetGames.TV

RELAX GAMING INSIDERS

Keeping a steady pace Relax Gaming CPO Simon Hammon explains the importance of technical excellence in a fast-evolving landscape

"In a market where restrictions are getting tougher and competition is getting fiercer, suppliers need a platform that can enable innovation, but also quickly adapt to regulatory requirements and huge software changes" Technology is the backbone of the online gaming ecosystem. It runs through the core of every product development and allows for innovation to flourish. But it can be a barrier too. Technical debt is often to blame for stunted growth, restricting the ability to launch new concepts, scale at speed, automate effectively and adapt to market changes. As regulatory developments across the globe ramp up, and demands on technical compliance and integrations become more complex, the necessity for agility has been brought sharply into focus.

Increasingly, more nimble providers are gaining ground on the industry titans weighed down by stacks of outdated tech.

Our tech-focused mindset has been at the core of Relax Gaming’s DNA since our inception.

We started mainly as a tech-centric firm consisting mostly of developers without as much as a sales team. Ten years later, we’re a company of over 200 employees with offices in six countries and room for more.

This growth has been propelled by our aggregation business and the strength of the purpose-built platform that underpins it. Our robust tech has facilitated a quick, efficient and reliable offering that delivers one of the fastest integration processes of any aggregator through simple APIs and straightforward procedures.

What’s more, our dynamic approach has

enabled us to test new ideas. We were recently chosen by CasinoGrounds, one of the industry’s largest streamer communities, to deliver a custom slot game based on their specifications. The result, Iron Bank, is an industry first: a game created by the player, for the player. It’s been a discovery process for both our team and CasinoGrounds, and one that has opened new avenues for collaboration as well as highlighting the promise of community-driven content.

This project is not the only new collaboration in Relax’s pipeline either.

We’re working with SuprNation to power its new consumer-facing brand Duelz Casino, alongside the original game around which it revolves. Developed using Relax Gaming’s game engine, the Duelz slot provides a new way of gaming where two players are simultaneously matched against each other in a casino duel, combining a mix of skill and RNG features.

The concept has the potential to create an entirely new style of content. Building it would not have been possible without technical flexibility.

However, all this innovation can only take place within the realms of regulation, which has also brought increasing pressure on suppliers’ technical ability to adapt. As more markets impose restrictions on game development, from caps on stakes to spin

lengths, studios and platform providers have to overhaul the structure of their games and tailor to individual jurisdictions. The more nimble your tech is, the easier this is to do. Germany is a prime example.

The new online market is set to open in June 2021, imposing restrictions such as stake limits and a ban on jackpots, but the transitional period has already gone live.

Compliance isn’t necessarily restricted to legal frameworks either. Suppliers have also had to significantly re-engineer content to meet Apple’s new App Store guidelines requiring real-money HTML5 games to be embedded into casino applications. The gravity of this task has depended on the servers and engines on which games are built.

What this demonstrates is the importance of technical excellence. In a market where restrictions are getting tougher and competition is getting fiercer, suppliers need a platform that can enable innovation, but also quickly adapt to regulatory requirements and huge software changes.

Given the pace the industry is evolving, it’s those with solid technical foundations and agility that will not only emerge as the frontrunners, but maintain their position at the top of the leader board for years to come.

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INSIDERS INTRALOT

The reality of retail Thomas Filippou, Intralot group director of retail transformation, discusses digital technology innovation and how it’s redefining the retail experience

“It’s imperative that the technology components of the touchless journey are fully aligned with the latest market trends and advancements, to offer both customers and retailers an enhanced participation experience”

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Digital technology continues to transform retail by changing the ways of engagement for consumers, their micro-moments and their purchasing path. It is commonly accepted that the viability of retail spaces around the world is being challenged by the rise of e-commerce, the overabundance of retail space and changes in consumer behavior. Furthermore, COVID-19 changed the reality of retail in a way we could not have imagined. However, this is neither a new nor a unique challenge. The retail market has been experiencing major disruptions for some time due to strong competition from online retail and changing consumer behavior. The development of mobile e-commerce and the growth of digitally savvy millennial shoppers are dramatically changing consumer expectations in terms of in-store shopping experience.

To mitigate these challenges, retailers are adopting an omnichannel approach, in which they combine offline and online activities. Customers desire a convenient, easy and frictionless experience, which prompts retailers to examine and apply new technologies that enhance the in-store customer experience. Moving further into the digital era, retailers are also concerned about customer retention, as well as with reduction of costs with the use of new technologies, such as AI, IoT, RPA and big data analytics.

Moreover, the in-store, frictionless experience is driven by the increasing number of available payment alternatives.

Both retailers and consumers seek touch-free options that provide a secure and safe experience for all. The answer is a consumer purchasing journey, which provides a balance of security, convenience and speed, while making the purchasing process as “touchless” for both retailers and consumers as possible.

Intralot’s knowledge and in-field research led to the conception of a new purchasing journey specifically for retail locations, to strengthen player loyalty and appeal to younger audiences. Dedicated to accelerating the pace of digital transformation in retail, we are aiming at enhancing the lottery and betting experience via a “touchless journey” for customers in retail locations. Customers who visit retail stores will be able to purchase any lottery or sports betting game ticket in various ways with the use of their own mobile phones.

In this “touchless journey” for retail, a smart mobile application enables players to select any type of lottery game, view betting markets and odds and build their selection slips digitally. When play selections are prepared, customers use their own mobile device for quick and easy play submission in the retail store and contactless payment.

It’s imperative that the technology components of the touchless journey are fully aligned with the latest market trends and advancements to offer both customers and retailers an enhanced participation experience. Technology delivers a hassle-free player experience, especially for sports betting players who often find it hard and confusing to fill in a betslip due to the complexity of the market offering.

Stepping into the new era of mobile apps, data collection and the new customer path, lotteries have access to priceless knowledge and insights that digitally transform the traditional retail environment. Information regarding trends of player participation, gaming options and spending habits lead to successful predictive analysis and data-driven decisions (through AI), which go straight to the heart of player wishes. All these new technologies and tools give lotteries the opportunity to identify the needs and preferences of players, offering them relevant products and services.

There is an exciting digital future ahead, as lotteries and betting operators embark on new journeys of experience and growth.

BETGAMES.TV INSIDERS

An aggressive growth strategy BetGames.TV’s new CEO, Andreas Köberl, speaks exclusively to Gambling Insider after stepping into his new role with the supplier HOW WILL YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE IN GAMING – AND AT MICROSOFT – HELP YOU IN THE ROLE? I have been very fortunate to learn from various industry leaders, particularly during the last three and a half years at Playtech, which was a fantastic ‘school’ to grow within. BetGames.TV has now reached a critical size with its own 10-digit figure in annual stakes, as well as more than 200 employees, so channelling my previous experience is going to be key to tackle the next level of growth.

I have helped form and reshape various teams and organisations in the past, and so aggressive growth strategies are nothing new to me; I’m excited to bring these big ambitions to my new role.

WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE TAKING ON A NEW ROLE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE VIRTUAL WORLD WE CURRENTLY OPERATE IN? I definitely chose a very disruptive time for my career move. Moving to a new country and especially understanding a new culture during COVID-19 is clearly a radical escape from my comfort zone. The majority of our team are working remotely, so the office can be lonely at times. Saying that, it’s 2020 and we have the tech and company infrastructure to make everything work just as it always would. We meet in-person regularly, as and when it’s appropriate, and our management team are returning steadily to our ultra-modern offices which are a nice change to home.

It’s certainly challenging but being flexible is key to us growing as individuals and as an organisation.

WHAT ARE YOUR IMMEDIATE GOALS AT BETGAMES.TV? We are executing a comprehensive strategy focused on aggressive growth which will challenge every part of our company. We have ambitious plans to reshape ourselves to become totally flexible and scalable in being able to tackle the exciting challenges that are posed by new customer segments and our own expansion.

Key to this will be removing any blockers to our progress and ensuring we’re as streamlined and dynamic as we can possibly be.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE ONLINE GAMING MARKET DEVELOPING OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? That depends on the market segment, but clearly COVID-19 is a much-needed gamechanger when it comes to digital innovation. Bearing in mind that almost

two thirds of the global workforce will consist of millennials and those in generation Z by 2025, new forms of entertainment will inevitably surface that suit these digital natives. I would also expect to see further consolidation across the industry, while the regulatory environment looks set to become more and more challenging.

We may not know the exact nature of these various changes until nearer the time, but we can do all in our power to ensure we become an organisation that can deal with anything that comes our way. Our innovation cannot be faulted, but there’s always more we can do to make certain we help lead the future of live gaming and continue our growth in the long term.

HOW KEY DO YOU THINK RETAIL WILL REMAIN ACROSS EMERGING MARKETS? There’s an apt saying that "the condemned live longer!” So, I think cash betting is allowed in retail, it’s only going to continue and even strengthen in emerging markets. However, mobile infrastructure is improving massively and with the accompanied demographic shift, there is bound to be a decline at some point.

Retail is limited in its offering and will only become more so as resources are solely placed in digital.

WHICH NEW MARKETS WILL BETGAMES.TV BE FOCUSING ITS ATTENTION ON, IN THE YEAR AHEAD? This is a key part of our strategy project.

We are and will continue to do our homework properly and assess potential focus markets in their minor detail. Our offerings are pretty much everywhere from a geographical perspective, so we do have some solid data on how our product is perceived and how we need to improve to foster that growth. At the top level, it is a question of assessing market potential and ensuring accurate prioritisation of investments, which applies to both geography and customer segment. We’ll lock this down in the next couple of weeks.

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WHAT’S NEW ON THE MARKET Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, product output remains at an impressive level, and Gambling Insider previews some of the newest gems available in the market IGT: ADVANTAGETM RESORT WALLET™ MODULE IGT offers three flexible variations of the cashless experience through its Resort Wallet™ module — an optional, integrated feature of the IGT ADVANTAGE® casino management system: “Carded” cashless using a casino-branded loyalty card. Players load cash into a secure digital wallet from either the casino cash desk or any slot machine, and access those funds from any slot machine or table game using the card.

“Cardless” cashless using a digital wallet via a mobile device. When players use IGT’s Resort Wallet feature with any Cardless Connectenabled gaming machine, their smartphone is transformed into a secure digital wallet. They simply tap their phones to card in, then easily and quickly transfer funds between slot machines and table games onsite, as well as between a casino’s sister properties. Funds in the digital wallet can be redeemed for cash at a kiosk or the casino cash desk, or securely maintained in the wallet for the next play session or property visit.

Cashless with an external funding gateway takes the contactless, mobile experience to the next level by combining Resort Wallet with IGTPay™, IGT’s proven payment gateway technology, and the services and support of its experienced Payments Advantage TM Resort team. This enables players to securely access funds directly from external sources such as bank and credit card accounts.

While other gaming industry vendors need to procure and integrate their external funding technology with a third-party payment gateway provider, IGT’s in-house, proprietary payment gateway services are fully integrated. IGT can act as the

EVERYMATRIX: BONUSENGINE BonusEngine, the newly relaunched casino and sports bonus solution from EveryMatrix, puts forward an intriguing promise: unlimited rewards to boost player acquisition, retention and reactivation while reducing the

operational burden and costs for operators.

BonusEngine comes packed with plenty of bonus types and features. Operators can now leverage the full potential of cross-product bonusing and ramp up the game by combining and stacking casino and sports bonuses in different ways, setting dependencies between bonuses to design engaging promotion campaigns. Be it sport, casino or both, players can enjoy unlimited bonuses at the same time, with no gameplay interruption.

Multi-triggers that allow precise player targeting also come into the spotlight. For instance, a specific

BonusEngine

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Wallet TM module Merchant of Record and manage the external funding function from end-to-end, which lets customers focus on the rest of their operations.

IGT’s payment gateway solution also ensures that after initial set-up, players only require a single digital account and login to make funding transactions. trigger or set of triggers can activate one bonus, just as well as the same trigger can switch on bundled rewards. It follows that all these need detailed reporting for thorough analyses, and BonusEngine manages to tick this requirement as well.

Created to act as a single point for managing player acquisition, retention and engagement across all the brands and verticals of an operator, BonusEngine delivers simplicity of use. From campaign recurrence to cost management, automation is how the bonus system seeks to optimise operational tasks while increasing the profitability.

A full picture of online gaming bonuses is incomplete without addressing the players, and BonusEngine also caters well to this audience. It ramps up the customer experience, by allowing seamless usage of different bonus and real-money wallets, and by amplifying the excitement with many gamification tools such as tournaments, challenges, or mission-based achievements.

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FEATURES

WAZDAN: CASH DROPS Wazdan has unveiled an exciting Cash Drop feature as part of a new suite of tools to drive player engagement for their operator partners.

The latest innovation from the slot studio can turn a gaming session on its head by delivering an unexpected burst of enjoyment in the form of free cash prizes.

Available across all of Wazdan’s games, Cash Drop’s smooth, customisable settings ensure it adds to the gaming experience without disrupting gameplay, or requiring any interaction by players themselves. That’s because after benefitting from a drop, their accounts are instantly credited with no further action or admin required.

It’s also convenient for casino operators and couldn’t be easier to launch. Following a smooth integration, they can clearly outline which games are included in the promotion through a Cash Drop logo, while also providing players with an opt-in nudge to allow for even further player protection.

This clear, simple communication gets players excited about the potential of a random cash drop well before starting a game session. That excitement begins to build when the game kicks off and players realise the quality craftsmanship that goes into every Cash Drop Wazdan game.

Furthermore, Cash Drop also allows operators to notify players when their bet value is too low to qualify for the promotion, ensuring they never miss a chance to earn the big Drop prizes.

The tool has been developed through a client-driven testing phase in which Wazdan’s casino partners were given time

to perfect its mechanics, guaranteeing it now works best for them and their players.

With glowing reviews from a variety of brands as a result, it’s now set to change the game for casino operators around the world.

So why not let Cash Drop fall into place for you today?

BETGAMES.TV: WAR OF BETS War of Bets is one of the most successful products from the BetGames.TV portfolio, incorporating a graceful symmetry of simplicity, style and synchronicity. The increasingly popular game is further

War of Bets

evidence of the growing consumer need for easy-to-play fixed outcome-based games.

The game is very simple to understand and the player does not need to study the rules for longer than a few seconds. War of Bets is a fast-paced card game, made up of only two sides – the Dealer and the Player.

The main goal of the game is very straightforward – the side with the higher card becomes the winner. If the value of the two cards on the table is the same, then the game ends in a war – the third main outcome in War of Bets.

Besides that, you can also place your bets on a variety of side betting options – players will always find the right one to keep the game entertaining.

With 25 different outcomes every 60 seconds, this game is quick, efficient and hyper-fun. BetGames.TV has a wonderful range of diverse, well-paced games, but we are sure War of Bets will become one of your favorites in no time.

The game has shown substantial consumer growth since its inception and is now among the most well-performing games in the entire award-winning portfolio. Quick, dynamic, fluid and innovative. These four words sum up the game, and essentially the entire BetGames.TV live broadcast betting model. If War of Bets could speak it would simply say ‘WOW’.

YGGDRASIL: HADES Welcome to the Underworld! Hades is a game from legendary slot makers Yggdrasil. It's their second game with the popular Gigablox mechanic, where massive blox can take over the entire screen for truly BIG WINS. Hades is played out in the Underworld, features heavy rock music and powerful visual effects. It's one of those games that not only looks good, but also plays great.

And there is plenty of fun to be had in Hades with the aforementioned Gigablox mechanic, Wild Hunt Free Spins and a Cerberus Multiplier feature.

It's a high-volatility slot that will excite a wide variety of casino players, whether

Hades

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you're new to it, or are already streaming your slot playing to other people.

Yggdrasil first released the Gigablox mechanic in Lucky Neko and the feature means that at any point in the game, blocks can appear in the size of 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 or 6x6.

Having a high-paying symbol cover the entire screen obviously means only one thing – BIG WIN! The Hades Wild Hunt is a feature when the reels go dark and Hades jumps into the reels and fights monsters on all the high symbols. Each symbol evaluates the fight,

DIGITAIN: LIVE FOOTBALL TRACKER Digitain has recently launched an upgraded version of its Live Football Tracker – which offers its network partners’ customers a fantastic interactive experience while betting on live football.

Covering live football from over 150 countries and 726 different championships and cup matches, and featuring 177 stats and team formation options, this new development is a great addition to bettors’ experience.

Digitain has added animated visualisation of the match ball plus team possession and game pressure.

The comprehensive stats package includes goals, cards and starting squad details, and individual player information, as well as updated scores.

Live minute-by-minute multi-language text commentaries on all matches will be added soon, to add even more player interest and engagement.

This new version will be available across all Digitain channels; web, mobile and native applications. Digitain’s partner operators can customise the Live Football

Tracker too – to differentiate their from over 150 countries and from over offering using their brand colours.

700 different competitions.

Speed of data is very fast, given “Pre-match information is comprehensive Digitain’s development team’s integration and will help our partners’ customers make of web socket technology into the new data-based decisions when choosing their Live Football Tracker. selections. Our fast live betting data, stats For now, only football is covered – and visualisations are first class, and really but other sports to be added include add significantly to the customer’s knowledge basketball, baseball, volleyball and and enjoyment.” ice hockey.

Edmond Ghulyan, Digitain’s sportsbook product manager, is delighted with the new development; “Our upgraded Football Live Tracker is a really exciting development – customers will benefit from a really immersive experience covering every significant action in matches taking place internationally, Live Football Tracker

VIP Mobility

GLOBAL PAYMENTS GAMING SOLUTIONS: VIP MOBILITY The modern casino patron is a digital-first consumer at heart.

Global Payments Gaming Solutions’ VIP Mobility is the first and only solution of its kind to bring a modern and digital approach to gaming.

By harnessing the convenience, flexibility and ease of Global Payments’ groundbreaking VIP Preferred account network, plus functions like eCheck and Choice 4™ deferred settlement, today’s player can transfer funds directly from their VIP Preferred balance to their favourite game with the touch of a screen.

Not only does VIP Mobility operate within the casino’s existing technology structure, but it also drives a more cost-effective, secure payment method within gaming floors. The solution enables guests to create digital TITO

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and the fights won turn into Wilds!

Hades is a genuinely fun-filled and exciting game. The attention put to the music and the animations make the experience even better; and we believe this will be one of Yggdrasil's more popular titles for some time to come.

tickets on their mobile device by scanning an existing voucher or using their VIP Preferred e-check account. Patrons can then pair their mobile device to any slot or table game by scanning a QR code.

They can reload from their phone and retrieve funds once they are finished playing, allowing patrons to enjoy the freedom of digital ticketing and uninterrupted cashless play.

VIP Mobility surpasses traditional forms of wagering and betting by providing a seamless player experience from funding through cash-out. With VIP Mobility, casinos are enabled to connect to existing responsible gaming systems, while equipping patrons with the technology to better track, manage and control expenditures. VIP Mobility enables casinos to deliver a true cashless experience to patrons – all from the industry leader in Cashless, Contactless, Touchless Gaming.

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EXEFEED: LIVE FEED Specialising in odds calculation and run by people with several years of experience in the betting industry, ExeFeed’s goal was to create a quality product that will be adaptable to different market demands and enable the client to have the product they want.

And it has done that through its Live odds feed, which includes eight different profit margins, a trading rule for slight price changes, a wide range of markets and 19 sports with more than 30,000 events per month. We give the client the possibility to trade single events (moving prices, lines), with a trading rule for slight price changes.

Additionally, there is 24/7 support to monitor all live events, covering Football, Virtual Football, Tennis, Virtual Tennis, Basketball, Virtual Basketball, Volleyball, Ice Hockey, Handball, Snooker, American Football, Futsal, Water polo, Baseball, Table-tennis, Darts, Badminton, Rugby

League, Rugby Union and many more to come.

Others may rely on industry average, but ExeFeed uses its own proprietary odds algorithm, while its mathematical model enables you to be ExeFeed different with your offer. Don’t tie up your business to identical solutions as your competitors, we will help you to win and grow your business.

ExeFeed recognised our competition was unable to adapt to the specific needs of the client, offering them generic solutions rather than a customised approach.

The exceptionally high quality of service and understanding of our clients’ needs has led us to become a market leader in the Balkan region. With this approach, we see the possibility for global progress.

ARB: CHIPVUE ARB's optical-based bet recognition system provides real-time slot-like analytics for blackjack, baccarat and other carnival-style table games.

A fully GLI and FCC-certified system that works with existing chips and tables, and does not require any changes to dealer procedure. No specialised or RFID embedded chips are required for the system to work, instead proprietary Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms learn your existing chips during the installation and calibration of the system.

ChipVue’s patented real-time optical camera system uses three-dimensional images to separate the chips that are in the different betting spots – isolating them, which in turn results in the world’s most accurate recognition system – delivering over 95% accuracy.

The ChipVue bet recognition system is an all-in-one integrated device with the option of a 12 or 15 tube chip tray. All of the necessary cameras and computers to run the system are located inside the unit. It is compatible with Blackjack, Baccarat and any carnival-style game.

ChipVue only requires a single power and network cable to be connected. Each table then works in a cluster with distributed computing. Should one table be busy, and require more computational power, processing power is distributed from a quieter table – working as a network.

The hand-count sensor acts as the trigger for the system. When it detects the dealer’s first card, the player’s bets are locked in, betting values are processed and sent to the casino’s database. The data received also provides various table data, as well as a dealer’s performance, such as average hands per hour and much more. The sensor

can be programmed for different game types.

Our ChipVue system provides casinos with the highest level of bet value, customer play (THEO) and dealer hand-count pace accuracy is available, giving you actionable insights into player value and dealer performance metrics never before available.

ChipVue

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A ActiveWins

AstroPay

Agilysys

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www.activewins.com / T: +44 1613593593 / E: hi@activewins.com ActiveWins affiliate program unifies top online gaming and sportsbook brands. ActiveWins facilitates the highest level of affiliate marketing via a dedicated team of affiliate managers, marketing specialists and campaign analysts, ensuring that every campaign achieves optimal impact.

www.agilysys.com / T: +1 8773696208 / E: sales@agilysys.com Agilysys delivers next-generation solutions that enable property managers to better connect, interact and transact with their guests by streamlining their operations, improving workflow efficiency, increasing guest recruitment and wallet share, and enhancing the overall guest experience.

AGS

www.playAGS.com / T: +1 8667206105 / E: marketing@PlayAGS.com AGS is a full-service designer and manufacturer of gaming products for the casino floor. The company’s roots are in the Class II, tribal gaming market, and it has expanded its product lines to include top performing slot games for the Class III commercial marketplace, as well as live felt table games and mobile gaming.

www.astropay.com / AstroPay is a payment solution that provides merchants with the possibility to receive and send payments easily and securely. With one single integration, operators can provide their customers with the possibility to deposit and withdraw payments safely.

AstroPay is the payment solution of choice for thousands of Latin American, Asian and African consumers.

BBIN

www.bb-in.com / E: bbin_cs@mail.ur163.com BBIN is the leading online gaming software supplier in Asia.

With 20 years of experience supporting over 500 clients and more than 1,000 professionals around the world, BBIN is one of the most suitable partners in the East. For connecting with industry dynamics, BBIN not only keeps enriching four product categories - live casino, casino games, BB Luck and sports, but also upgrading two main services: game API and white label solution.

bet365 Ainsworth Game Technology

www.agtslots.com / T: +1 7029543000 / E: Sales@agtslots.com For more than half a century the Ainsworth name has been synonymous with the gaming industry. With global vision and exceptional leadership, Ainsworth provides the global gaming market with its outstanding range of gaming technology and game combination software.

Aristocrat

www.aristocrat-us.com / T: +1 7022701000 / E: contact@aristocrat-inc.com Aristocrat Technologies Inc. is a subsidiary of Aristocrat Leisure Limited, a global provider of land-based and online gaming solutions, offering electronic gaming machines to casino management systems. The company is licensed by more than 200 regulators, and its products and services are available in more than 90 countries.

Aruze Gaming

www.aruzegaming.com / T: +1 7023613166 / E: sales@aruze-gaming.com Aruze Gaming is a global entertainment company that designs, develops and manufactures slot machines and gaming devices for the casino market. It aims to create fun and entertaining experiences, to build trust and maintain global relationships and to be socially responsible by supporting and encouraging responsible gaming initiatives.

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www.bet365.com / T: +44 8000288365 / E: support-eng@customerservices365.com bet365, a leading, multi-award-winning international online gambling operator, has over 53 million customers with products translated in 20 different languages that support 24 different currencies. bet365 offer a cohesive suite of products, from sports betting to casino, live casino, games, poker and bingo. Their long standing policy of pursuing licences in regulated markets ensures tailored betting and gaming products to millions of customers on a global scale. The affiliate website and backend is all created in-house, and with one of the industry’s largest dedicated affiliate teams, the programme constantly challenges itself to deliver the very best service both in terms of response rates and day-to-day account management.

BetConstruct

www.betconstruct.com / T: +44 2037099010 / E: sales@betconstruct.com / marketing@betconstruct.com BetConstruct is a developer and provider of online and land-based gaming solutions with development, sales and service centres in 15 countries. BetConstruct’s offerings include an extensive range of products and services, including sportsbook, sports data solutions, retail solutions, RNG and live dealer casino, VR casino, poker, skill games, fantasy sports, social platform, Spring BME and more.

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C BetGames.TV

www.betgames.tv / T: +370 655 50 015 / E: sales@betgames.tv BetGames.TV is a unique, innovative and pioneering live dealer betting games supplier. The company offers fixed odds betting products combined with popular lotteries and table games to industry’s leading operators and platforms.

Casino Technology

www.casino-technology.com / T: +359 28129305 / E: sales@casino-technology.com Casino Technology is a recognised gaming manufacturer, present in many global markets. With 20 years of history, the company offers a successful product series, covering land-based and online gaming industries. The company has offices and distributors in more than 15 countries and installations in more than 50 jurisdictions.

Betgenius

www.betgenius.com / T: +44 (0)20 7851 4060 / E: sales@betologic.com Founded in 2000, Betgenius is the leading provider of sophisticated data-driven software to the regulated sports betting sector. Betgenius delivers robust, cutting-edge technology that helps international bookmakers and lottery operators maximise performance across sportsbook platforms, trading and marketing.

Colossus Bets

www.corporate.colossusbets.com / T: +44 (0)20 3405 8420 / E: b2b@colossusbets.com Colossus Bets is a B2C and B2B provider of the world’s biggest sports jackpots with lottery-size, multi-million pound prize guarantees.

The company pioneered cash-out and holds a series of patents on the technology across the globe. The product portfolio includes FreePlay, a seamless free-to-play marketing extension to its jackpots, as well as award-winning Syndicates, a unique ‘crowdbetting’ platform.

Betradar

www.betradar.com / T: +41 715177200 / E: sales@betradar.com Betradar is a brand of Sportradar, the world’s leading supplier of sports and betting-related data. More than 300 bookmaker clients, including over 30 state lotteries in more than 60 countries across five continents, rely on Betradar’s quality services and solutions. The product range of betting solutions consists of event creation, odds suggestions, trading tools, resulting, live scouting and live odds services.

Betsoft Gaming

www.betsoft.com / T: +356 2122 4481 / E: sales@betsoft.com Betsoft Gaming develops innovative casino games for desktop and mobile. Its portfolio of more than 190 RNG titles reaches players through partnerships with many of the online gaming industry’s leading operators.

BMM Testlabs

www.bmm.com / T: +1 7024072420 / E: wendy.anderson@bmm.com BMM Testlabs is the longest established and most experienced private independent gaming certification lab in the world, providing professional technical and regulatory compliance services.

BtoBet

www.btobet.com / T: +356 27135974 / E: sales@btobet.com BtoBet is a pioneer in new technologies for the betting industry.

BtoBet’s platform is unique, customisable, advanced, secure, reliable, flexible and delivers unprecedented capabilities to drive sportsbook and online gaming business.

Comtrade Gaming

www.comtradegaming.com / T: +386 81605200 / F: +386 81605050 / E: gaming@comtrade.com Comtrade Gaming is an independent software supplier to the gaming industry that delivers open gaming platforms, casino management systems and professional services to both online and land-based sectors.

Comtrade Gaming enables the industry to innovate its business model at vendor, operator and regulator levels.

Connective Games

www.connectivegames.com / T: +7 3822330775 / E: info@connectivegames.com Connective Games develop state-of-the-art, fully-customised and white label software solutions to operators via their flexible and sophisticated gaming platform. Connective Games' portfolio of online and mobile gaming products include casino, poker and a host of popular games.

D DataSpade Inc.

www.dataspade.com / T: +1 2313846177 / E: info@dataspade.com DataSpade is an industry-specific software and analytics company positioned to help gaming properties yield profitable results from their player’s club database. DataSpade has created a company that begins its mission at the core of all gaming – the data.

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Degree 53

www.degree53.com / T: +44 1613594000 / E: info@degree53.com Degree 53 is an award-winning digital agency, providing bespoke, innovative solutions to the gambling industry. Degree 53 holds the Remote Gambling Software licence from the UKGC and has worked on projects, including sportsbook development, gambling apps, data feed management and system integrations.

EveryMatrix

www.everymatrix.com / T: +40 371042222 / E: info@everymatrix.com EveryMatrix delivers a modular and API driven product suite with a market-leading, one-stop casino content aggregator and integration platform, a cross-product bonusing engine, a fully managed sportsbook and sport data services, a stand-alone payment processing product, and a multi-brand affiliate/agent management system.

G Digitain LLC

www.digitain.com / T: +44 1613594000 / E: suren.khachatryan@digitain.com Digitain is a sports betting and casino platform provider for land-based and online operators. Our API integration delivers turnkey or white-label solutions for sportsbook, casino, live dealer and virtual sports.

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GameArt

www.gameart.net / T: +356 99313566 / E: sales@gameart.net GameArt is an independent online casino software provider and developer, providing innovative games and cutting-edge solutions dedicated to online and land-based gaming operators. GameArt’s core business is the development of high quality slot games and gaming contents, not only for online operators but also for VLT and the land-based casino industry in the regulated markets.

Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) EGT

www.egt-bg.com/en/home / T: +359 28902400 / E: sales@egt-bg.com Euro Games Technology is a worldwide gaming manufacturer with headquarters in Bulgaria and 20 representative offices in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. EGT’s portfolio includes video slot games, gaming machines, multiplayer solutions, interactive games and casino management systems.

www.gaminglabs.com / T: +1 7329423999 / F: +1 7329420043 Gaming Laboratories International LLC delivers quality land-based, lottery and online gaming testing and assessment services. GLI’s laboratory locations are found on six continents, and the company holds US and international accreditations for compliance with ISO/ IEC 17025, 17020 and 17065 standards for technical competence in the gaming, wagering and lottery industries.

Gaming Partners International EnergyCasino

www.energycasino.com / T: +356 77200290 / E: mailto:media@energycasino.com EnergyCasino offers almost 400 slots from GreenTube, NetEnt, Wazdan, Quickfire and Oryx, plus poker and live dealer casino games. EnergyCasino will soon offer content from its new sportsbook EnergyBet, covering all major global sporting events.

www.gpigaming.com / T: +1 7023842425 / E: mmaciel@gpigaming.com GPI manufactures and supplies table game equipment to licensed casinos worldwide, providing chips, plaques and jetons, gaming furniture, layouts, playing cards, dice, and table accessories. GPI also offers RFID currency, readers and antennas and RFID solutions.

Ganapati PLC

www.ganapati.com / E: info@ganapati.com

Everi Holdings Inc.

www.everi.com / T: +1 7028553000 / E: info@everi.com Everi Holdings Inc. is the casino industry’s only single source provider of robust payments solutions, vital intelligence offerings and engaging gaming machines that power the casino floor. Everi’s mission is to be a transformative force to casino operations by delivering reliable protection and security.

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Ganapati produces high-quality, entertainment-focused casino content for the online gaming industry. Ganapati supplies the online gaming market with titles that combine the best Japanese game logic and design with a unique entertainment element.

With offices in Tokyo, London, Malta, Estonia and Taiwan, Ganapati games utilise the provider’s contacts across the entertainment industry and feature licensed IP from internationally recognised studios along with its own in-house studios.

FOR SALES EMAIL: SALES@GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions GmbH

www.greentube.com / E: sales@greentube.com Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions, the global interactive unit of NOVOMATIC is a leading developer and supplier of iGaming solutions. Greentube is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NOVOMATIC Group, one of the biggest producers and operators of gaming technologies and one of the largest integrated gaming companies in the world. Greentube’s industry leading Omni-channel technology allows the convergence of online, mobile and land-based games.

H Habanero

www.habanerosystems.com / E: sales@habanerosystems.com Habanero is a supplier of quality slots and table games to the online casino industry with an experienced management team and a host of skilled designers, developers and mathematicians. Hosted on the company's own platform and made available at a competitive rate, their games are proven revenue generators tailored to the widest possible variety of devices, allowing operators in multiple territories to maximise their incomes.

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Intertops

www.Intertops.eu / E: Affiliate@intertops.eu Intertops accepted the world’s first ever online sports bet and is still one of the world’s largest sites for sports betting, casino, poker and games. The website offers over 4,000 daily wagers for fans of every type of sport and boasts satisfied customers in over 180 countries.

INTRALOT

www.intralot.com / T: +30 2106156000 / E: info@intralot.com INTRALOT, a public listed company established in 1992, is a leading gaming solutions supplier and operator active in 44 regulated jurisdictions around the globe. With €0.7 billion turnover and a global workforce of approximately 3,800 employees (2,200 of which in subsidiaries and 1,600 in associates) in 2019, INTRALOT is an innovation - driven corporation focusing its product development on the customer experience. The company is uniquely positioned to offer to lottery and gaming organizations across geographies market-tested solutions and retail operational expertise. The company has designed a new ecosystem of holistic omni-channel solutions across verticals (Lottery, Betting, Interactive, VLT) for Lotteries digital transformation. INTRALOT has been awarded the prestigious WLA Responsible Gaming Framework Certification by the World Lottery Association (WLA) and the WLA certificate for the Security Control standard.

J Helio Gaming

www.LottoHero.com / T: +356 20925800 / E: info@lottohero.com Helio Gaming provides a lottery engine and custom-made games, including Lotto Hero. They integrate existing gaming platforms, CRM, campaign management, affiliate management, and other marketing automation tools. Their offering covers operator-branded RNG lottery games and those based on international lotteries. This delivers a new player-boosting vertical and multi-vertical cross-sell opportunities.

I IGT

www.igt.com / T: + 1 7026697777 / E: info@igt.com IGT enables players to experience their favorite games across all channels and regulated segments, from gaming machines and lotteries to interactive and social gaming. Leveraging a wealth of content, substantial investment in innovation, in-depth customer intelligence, operational expertise and leading-edge technology, IGT's gaming solutions anticipate the demands of consumers wherever they decide to play.

JCM Global

www.jcmglobal.com / T: +1 7026510000 / E: Jason.Cribbs@jcmglobal.com JCM Global is the gaming industry’s leading transaction technologies supplier. Its extensive line of products set global standards, with ground-breaking peripheral transaction components and innovate digital media hardware.

K Kambi

www.kambi.com / T: +356 21315514 / E: sales@kambi.com Kambi provides fully-hosted sports betting solutions through its innovative software platform. The Kambi sportsbook is available in a range of currencies and languages, and covers 65 sports and over 70,000 sporting events annually. Kambi's services encompass a broad offering, from front-end user interface, through to odds compiling, customer intelligence and risk management, built on an in-house developed software platform.

Interblock

www.interblockgaming.com / E: info@interblockgaming.com Interblock is a developer and supplier of fully and semi-automated luxury electronic table gaming products. Its multi-player gaming devices set industry standards and provide the ultimate in luxury interactive entertainment experiences. The Interblock brand is globally recognised for gaming solutions and technical support in more than 166 jurisdictions.

Konami Gaming, Inc.

www.konamigaming.com / E: sales@konamigaming.com Konami is a complete gaming manufacturer that develops, designs, manufactures, distributes, sells and services slot machines and its award-winning casino management system SYNKROS.

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CONNECTIONS

FOR SALES TEL: +44 (0) 207 729 6279

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Newgioco Group

LeoVegas Affiliates

leovegasaffiliates.com / T: +356 27780258 / E: affiliate@leovegas.com LeoVegas Affiliates is the affiliate program for LeoVegas, one of the highest converting online casinos worldwide. LeoVegas partners can earn commission up to 35%, and are offered uniquely tailored commission plans. LeoVegas also provides a full range of marketing creative and round-the-clock support from account managers.

Lightning Box

www.lightningboxgames.com / E: info@lightningboxgames.com Lightning Box Games exists to make the most exciting gaming entertainment for players via video slots. It has become a major global supplier of video slot content to the online RMG, land-based and social casino verticals.

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www.newgiocogroup.com / T: +39 391 3064134 / E: ceo@newgiocogroup.com Newgioco Group is a leisure betting technology company providing regulated online and offline gaming and wagering through licensed subsidiaries throughout Italy. Newgioco Group, Inc., together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is a fully licensed and integrated online and land-based gaming operator.

NOVOMATIC

www.novomatic.com / T: +43 2252 606 0 / E: communications@novomatic.com The NOVOMATIC Group is one of the biggest international producers and operators of gaming technologies and employs nearly 30,000 staff worldwide. The product range includes land-based gaming products and services, management systems and cash management, online/mobile and social gaming solutions as well as sports betting solutions.

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Merkur Gaming

www.merkur-gaming.com / T: +49 574127369301 / E: sales@merkur-gaming.com Merkur Gaming, part of Germany’s Gauselmann Group, is the gaming innovator that delivers on game development, high quality manufacturing, cutting edge technology and its overwhelming commitment to top line sales and service.

Ortiz Gaming

www.ortizgaming.com / T: +1 5612415368 Ortiz Gaming provides multi-platform games through land-based, social, online and mobile platforms, always bringing innovation and new experiences for players.

P Microgaming

www.microgaming.co.uk / T: +44 1624647777 / E: sales@microgaming.co.uk Microgaming is the world's largest provider of online gaming software with innovative and reliable solutions to over 160 market-leading sites worldwide. They offer unrivalled solutions for casino, poker, bingo, live, progressives and network gaming across online, land-based and mobile platforms.

N NetEnt AB

www.netent.com / E: sales@netent.com NetEnt AB is a digital entertainment company, providing premium gaming solutions to the world’s most successful online casino operators.

Since its inception in 1996, NetEnt has been a true pioneer in driving the market with thrilling games powered by a cutting-edge platform.

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paysafecard

www.paysafecard.com/business / T: +43 17208380 / E: success@paysafecard.com Paysafecard, part of Paysafe Group PLC, is the global leader in prepaid online payment solutions. Available in 42 countries at over 500,000 sales outlets, it can be used in thousands of online shops worldwide.

By using a paysafecard PIN, customers can pay quickly, simply and safely online as if paying in cash.

Play'n GO

www.playngo.com / T: +46 470788851 / E: info@playngo.com Play'n GO are developers of bespoke, comprehensive solutions for the online gaming industry. Utilising the latest cutting-edge technology, Play'n GO have developed products including their innovative independent platform, a range of quality casino games and mobile and tablet gaming solutions.

FOR SALES EMAIL: SALES@GAMBLINGINSIDER.COM

Playtech

www.playtech.com / T: +44 2075349650 / E: sales@playtech.com Playtech offers cutting-edge, value-added solutions to the industry's leading operators. Playtech develops unified software platforms and content for the online, mobile and land-based gaming industry. It provides licensees with the tools to maximise cross-selling, player loyalty and yield through powerful management interface the IMS.

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Synergy Blue

www.synergyblue.us / T: x / E: bdolan@synergyblue.us Synergy Blue is a leading provider of entertainment gaming solutions that develops, licenses, produces and manufactures arcade-style, skill-based-games and platforms.

T Prestige Seating Technology

www.pstseating.com / T: +44 1914566209 / E: sales@pstseating.com Prestige Seating Technology are providers of maximum-comfort casino furniture in Europe, designing fully customised chairs and tables for high-profile casinos and entertainment establishments worldwide.

R Rymax Marketing Services

www.rymaxinc.com / T: +1 8667962911 / E: info@rymaxinc.com Rymax provides unique comprehensive marketing services, specialising in tailored rewards and incentive programmes for companies in the gaming industry and other markets. Rymax has a wealth of market knowledge and industry expertise, over 300 brands and 10,000+ reward products, putting them at the forefront of loyalty marketing.

S SBTech

www.sbtech.com / E: sales@sbtech.com SBTech is a provider of interactive sports betting solutions and services.

The complete offering includes an innovative, dynamic and customisable suite of turnkey and fully managed solutions, specifically designed for top gaming operators, existing bookmakers and land-based networks.

Scientific Games

www.scientificgames.com / T: +1 (702) 897 7150 / Scientific Games offers dynamic games, systems and services for casino, lottery, online gaming and sports betting. It also offers the gaming industry's broadest and most integrated portfolio of game content, advanced systems, cutting-edge platforms and professional services. Committed to responsible gaming, Scientific Games delivers what customer and players value most: trusted security, engaging entertainment content, operating efficiencies and innovative technology.

Sirplay

T: +356 2713 9252 / +356 35505702 / Whatsapp: +356 79088806 / E: info@sirplay.com / Skype: sirplay.com Sirplay is an international software house with over ten years of experience developing online gambling solutions. The company supplies bookmakers, lotteries and betting organisations in regulated markets for online and land-based gaming operators.

Tal Ron, Drihem & Co.

www.rd-law.co.il / T: +972 522437484 / E: TAL@RD-LAW.CO.IL The award-winning gaming and financial entertainment law firm, recommended by all leading FX, Binary and online gaming platforms, Tal Ron, Drihem and Co., founded by lawyer Tal Itzhak Ron, offers innovative solutions for company formation, regulation, banking and compliance, along with full legal services for operators, platforms, brokers and affiliates.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY

www.tcsjohnhuxley.com / T: +44 1782260220 / E: info@tcsjohnhuxley.com TCSJOHNHUXLEY is a manufacturer and supplier of end-to-end live gaming solutions and services. With an emphasis on leading-edge technology, their extensive portfolio of products are utilised by land-based casino operators globally, trusted for their quality and excellent after-sales service and support.

Trustly Group AB

www.trustly.com / T: +46 850521120 / E: sales@trustly.com Trustly is one of the best-known brands in the online gambling industry, with a payment service developed by players, for players.

Its core product supports instant pay-ins and pay-outs directly from players' bank accounts with the highest available bank-level security.

U UltraPlay

www.ultraplay.co / E: sales@ultraplay.net UltraPlay is a modern technological company, with the core ambition to offer an innovative approach to the online gaming industry, by providing advanced betting solutions, focused on eSports, sports betting, casino, live betting and bitcoin solutions. UltraPlay is a trusted partner for delivering superior sports softwareand odds products to its customers.

Y Yggrdasil Gaming

www.yggdrasilgaming.com / E: sales@yggdrasilgaming.com Yggdrasil Gaming is a provider of superior online and mobile casino games. It has emerged as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed suppliers, providing games for some of the world’s biggest operators. The company is headquartered in Malta, with a development office in Krakow, Poland, as well as a regional office in Gibraltar.

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FINAL Organic growth WORD in an ongoing pandemic Tamas Kadar, SEON founder and CEO, speaks with Gambling Insider about the fraud-fighting company’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as what the future holds

Based in Budapest, Hungary, it’s been a busy year for SEON. It has been a hectic year for everyone, of course, but the cyber security firm has been particularly active in 2020.

In fact, in the nick of time, SEON opened a London office in Soho just before the introduction of lockdown measures in the UK due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the restrictions, the company has signed new partnerships in recent months, including with with identity platform DevCode Identity. Here, we catch up with SEON founder and CEO Tamas Kadar.

“WE TRY TO HAVE A GREAT AMOUNT OF BUFFER IN TERMS OF SAVINGS - HOW MUCH MONEY WE HAVE IN THE BANK WHICH CAN BE BOUGHT FOR X AMOUNT OF MONTHS”

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How did the DevCode Identity partnership come about and what does it mean for SEON? DevCode were introduced to our platform through one of our other partners – and they were really happy to onboard our tool as part of their existing portfolio of APIs. They only work with some providers and they were happy to onboard us to enrich their portfolio with our tools.

I'm really excited. I hope they have some partners we don't know yet, because we have already approached most of the main players, or we already work with some of them. So I hope this will lead to some undiscovered business opportunities in the future.

SEON is now one of the rare start-ups to be profitable two years after launch. How have you managed to keep revenue growing?

Since we have almost all of our employees in Eastern Europe in Budapest, it's quite easy not to spend too much because salaries are not as high as in Western Europe. But on the other hand, it's harder for sales, because it's not like there are many big companies located here who are in our industry, or

working in our target market. So that's why we set up the office in London, and that's why we did a lot of business travel pre-COVID times.

But we were always trying to be very conscious about our finances, so we never wanted to burn too much money. We try to have a great amount of buffer in terms of savings – how much money we have in the bank which can be enough for X amount of months. So we always try to take things step by step; we haven't scaled up really quickly. In the first year, we went from two employees to around 10 employees, which is not very much in the first year of a start-up: usually it’s much higher. And actually I think it was the right strategy because then we could just kind of organically grow. We haven't spent on unnecessary things.

How was it possible to function in such a situation?

It was a fun thing because we hadn’t had any marketing or sales people until last year. So it was just my co-founder and me, we were doing all the pitches, the business demos, everything which is marketing and business related. We only just started hiring people for the business development team from last year, around one and a half years ago.

Have you any other partnerships lined up?

We have just signed a contract with TruNarrative, who are UK-based. They are very similar to DevCode Identity.

So that will also be an interesting partnership. We provide the same tool for these companies, and they are the ones who are integrating us because they are kind of reselling our services and our tool to their own client base.