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Football association: how betting brands are using the beautiful game BETTING NEWS 10

Live aid: the latest solutions available for operators interested in live casino ESSENTIAL GUIDE 12

Primary colours: just where does the industry stand when analysing gaming activity?

POLITICS 30

£5.20 (€8.30) • ISSUE:107 • AUGUST 2013 • www.betting-business.co.uk

THE NEW LAW WILL TRANSFORM HOW IRISH CITIZENS BET ON THEIR NATIONAL TEAM

ACTION IMAGES / TONY O’BRIEN LIVEPIC

Bookmakers embrace new Irish gambling laws

Ireland’s 82-year-old betting legislation is finally getting a thorough update to recognise the changes to society since 1931.

IRELAND

rish bookmakers have welcomed the publication of the long awaited Gambling Control Bill, a prospective piece of legislation which will update the country’s disparate gambling laws and provide for a comprehensive new licensing and regulatory framework.

The new licensing system will cover land-based betting and gaming as well as extending to casinos and remote gambling. This will be overseen by a new body called the ‘Office for Gambling Control, Ireland’ (OGCI) which will be a part of the Department of Justice and Equality. It will be partfinanced by fees from licence applicants and holders.

The Irish Bookmakers Association (IBA) said its members welcomed the new law and added: “The new bill provides

shops have contributed to such a fund, and we are proudly supporting the exemplary work done by the Northern Ireland Charity - The Dunlewey Centre.

The Irish retail betting industry has funded this service for almost five years now, and will continue to do so.”

Not too surprisingly, the legislation also includes a ban on fixed odds betting terminals as Ireland’s lawmakers have always been jittery about even having fruit machines in betting shops.

Just four days after publishing the Gambling Control Bill, the government also released a revised second version of its concurrent Betting (Amendment) Bill, which introduces a licensing regime for online bookmakers and betting exchanges. This confirms that the government is pressing ahead with earlier planned changes ahead of a greater

overhaul of gambling laws.

In the new version of the Betting (Amendment) Bill, betting shops will remain subject to a registration requirement with the Revenue Commissioners and the proposal to extend opening hours from 7am to 10pm has remained part of plans.

Under the new law unlicensed bookmakers can be subject to prosecution on indictment which is subject to a 300,000 euro fine and/or five years imprisonment. There is also a potential six month prison term on summary conviction for engaging in a betting transaction with a person under 18.

Interestingly there is also a new offence of misrepresenting oneself as being over 18.

The amendment bill is likely to be enacted early 2014 with the wider raging Gambling Control Bill a better bet for 2015.

© 2013 Playboy.

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more protection for customers, by requiring licensed operators to maintain a minimum level of funds in reserve and making bets recoverable by law, similar to existing legislation in the UK. Our association welcomes this development, and look forward to further clarification on definitions and licensing choices contained in the legislation.”

Other ways in which the law aims to protect consumers is through making gambling debts enforceable by law and establishing a new complaints procedure. It also introduces the concept of a Social Gambling Fund into which operators will mandatory have to pay a percentage of turnover.

The IBA added: “We also welcome that contributions to a social responsibility fund will now be compulsory, and that all operators will have to pay.

Until now, only Irish betting

www.microgaming.co.uk/live

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Commission rolls out test purchasing programme REGULATION

ookmakers in the UK would be well advised to ensure its staff training standards are up to scratch this summer with the news that the Gambling Commission’s test purchasing programme is set to continue across England and Wales during the next few months.

The Commission will again be working with a group of local authorities across England and Wales to directly test the effectiveness of under-age gambling policies and procedures at arcades, betting shops, bingo clubs and casinos. The tests are designed to provide the Commission with evidence that licensed operators have sufficient safeguards in place to prevent under age gambling.

The Commission’s first test purchasing proved to be a huge kick up the backside for bookmakers in 2009 as it recorded a 98 per cent rate of failure on age controls. Within six months failure rate had reduced dramatically to 35 per cent (with a spread of around 25-40 per cent) for the big operators. Even Parliament has recognised the improvement, with the Culture Select Committee noting: “The betting sector is now broadly comparable to that of the retail of other age restricted products.”

If bookmakers are able to continue its improvement and score a lower than average failure rate then the sector as a whole would be in a far stronger position when dealing with accusations of problem gambling.

Indeed, the regulator is prepared to recognise firms that take age controls seriously enough to run their own test purchasing schemes through third parties. The Commission said those operators are less likely to be directly tested than others who are not proactively providing the Commission with assurance that they are effectively testing their own controls.

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News FORMER GALA CORAL DIRECTOR PETER HANNIBAL IS THE P3 GROUP CEO

Operators urged to join consumer protection group A new cross-industry group aims to develop practical ways of protecting their customers from developing gambling problems.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

he chairman of the new industry organisation to tackle problem gambling practically has called on businesses to sign up to the body. The P3 Group has been set up by a group of industry operators and suppliers from all sectors to research the best ways to prevent problem gambling. It is the first time that a crossindustry group of companies has come together to share their experiences and knowledge and work together to establish best practice in this area.

P3 Group chairman Russell Hoyle said: “The founding members of this new initiative cover all areas of the gambling industry and the setting up of the P3 Group demonstrates its commitment to improving consumer protection. I would urge all gambling-related businesses to join the Group and support its objectives.”

The organistion will seek to find and trial practical technological solutions, protocols or tools that will enable the industry to move forward in

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these key areas of consumer protection. Among the betting and gaming firms already involved are Betfred, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, William Hill, Gala Coral, SG Gaming Group, Openbet Technologies, Inspired Gaming Group, Rank Group, Sky Bet, Genting Casinos and Hippodrome Casino.

P3 Group will work on three key principles; information for all players to ensure consumers have greater transparency and clarity of gambling offers, better and more effective identification of consumers who show tendencies towards risky behaviour and establishing and improving processes that can better help protect those consumers displaying risky behaviour from harm.

Initially, the Group will be chaired by Hoyle, a board member of the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and who has been involved with the industry for 15 years in a numbers of capacities. The executive is Peter Hannibal, ex Gala Coral Group with 25plus years in the industry and currently working as a con-

sultant to a number of organisations.

Hoyle said: “The British gambling industry leads the world in its approach to social responsibility. The founding members of the P3 Group recognise that the industry needs to act proactively across all sectors of gambling in order to minimise the risk of harm from gambling.”

He said that the group was committed to supporting the government’s aims to improve consumer protection and harm mitigation measures.

He explained: “As a first step we will aim to trial better methods of communication to ensure consumers are properly informed. We will also seek better ways to identify consumers who display risky behaviour and trial methods that may help to protect them from harm.”

Hoyle added that there will be an ongoing dialogue with the industry’s trade associations: “We will work closely and cohesively with the industries’ trade bodies who are already undertaking new ground-breaking initiatives in a number of areas, developing

far reaching codes of practice.

The P3 Group supports these initiatives and will seek to assist, but not duplicate, work that is already underway.”

The new group has the support of the Responsible Gambling Trust, which has been given an observational brief with the new body. Chief executive Marc Etches commented: “The Responsible Gambling Trust is delighted to support this initiative to bring together like-minded businesses across different sectors of the British gambling industry to investigate trial and implement harm minimisation measures in a range of areas.”

While open to all UK licensed and regulated market business, the P3 Group’s strategy will be decided at a monthly steering group consisting of a single representative from each market sector.

This Steering Group decides on appropriate areas of focus and activity, measurement and KPI metrics, success criteria, and delegates trial work to appropriate participants.

Membership general meetings will be held once per quarter.

ANALYSIS This new alliance could become just what the Gambling Commission ordered when it warned that it required greater metrics and a ‘player-centric’ approach to machine gaming in order to recommend any stake and prize increases in the future.

It’s also a way for the industry to seize back the initiative on social responsibility which has been laden with politics and bureaucracy in recent years. It will be interesting to see if addressing the issues from a business perspective with a bottom up approach might make greater progress than the top down structure that currently exists.

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BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

Speculatio unregulate REGULATION

Reports that Bwin.party might sell off its operations in nonregulated markets have gone down well with the stock market. hares in Bwin.party received a sizeable boost at the end of last month on rumours that the company is going to divest its operations in non-regulated markets. Shares jumped to a two month high on the suggestion that such a manoeuvre would help it attract more potential partners in the US. In the firm’s earlier Q2 statement Norbert Teufelberger, CEO of Bwin.party, had reiterated the operator’s desire to concentrate on regulated markets in a ‘volume to value’approach.

He said: “Trading in the year-to-date reflects our shift from volume to value, the introduction of a turnover tax in Germany in July 2012, as well as some issues we faced following the migration

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Paf’s friendly poker revamp Åland-based gaming company Paf has relaunched its poker offering by pledging a game for everyone regardless of their skill level or experience. The new system includes helpful instruction videos and full-service guidance. Paf.com director Anders Wiklund said: “We want Paf Poker to be a friendly place for hanging out and having fun with friends. Although there is still work to be done, this is definitely a big step in the right direction. Paf wants to offer something new and unique, something that is non-exclusive in that it suits all players. We believe that this is where the growth potential is.”

Bookmakers lobbying for laundering exemption EU

ndustry chiefs are trying to negotiate an exemption on new European anti-money laundering rules that could have a huge impact on bookmakers in UK and Ireland.

The Fourth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive will require due diligence to be carried out on customers placing bets of over 2,000 euro (£1,740) and possibly for customers who win more than that amount.

The regulations have been called unworkable from all sectors. The Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) has suggested it would cost the British betting industry £100m to comply with the directive, while the Irish Bookmakers Association (IBA) said it could see 40 per cent of the country’s betting shops closing. The proposal would also ‘crucify’ the on-course betting sector.

Industry chiefs are trying to put pressure on the government, via the Gambling Commission and DCMS, to negotiate an exemption to the directive for the betting sector.

ABB chief executive Dirk Vennix commented: “This is a ridiculous proposal - they simply haven’t thought it through. It’s unworkable, unnecessary and disproportionate. On a busy day at the Grand National or Glorious Goodwood you could have 10 people trying to place a bet two minutes before the opening race. If someone tries to place a 2,000 euro equivalent bet, the bookmaker will have to put the rest of the queue on hold while they scan their passport, ask the relevant questions and add them to the customer register. Then they’ll have to keep those records for five years, even if the customer never places a bet with them again.”

IBA chair Sharon Byrne made a similar point that around 88 per cent of greyhound bets are placed within two minutes of the off and even then the average stake is only 13 euro. But the directive requires betting shops to have to have linked records of the ID of all their customers, to check smaller bets in case they are linked. “All it will do is drive them back into the hands of the black marketeers,” she said.

“It definitely wasn’t intended to put small bookmakers out of business - but this will be the unintended consequence if this goes through. We have 1,042 betting shops in Southern Ireland and we believe approximately 400 of them will close if these measures go through, based on existing turnover and the cost of implementing the rules in the shops. If you take our average of 4.5 people working in each shop, that’s at least 1,600 job losses, not to mention the loss in betting tax as punters are pushed to the black market.”

BWIN IS THE OFFICIAL ONLINE GAMING AND BETTING PARTNER OF RSC ANDERLECHT

ation over Bwin.party’s lated business of Bwin.com customers in December 2012, all against a challenging competitive and market backdrop.

“However, the process to optimise the shape and size of our business, with a greater focus on regulated and to-be-regulated markets, is on-track and we remain focused on returning our business to growth.”

The group’s revenue performance since the beginning of April 2013 was softer than expected due to a lower than expected gross win margin in sports betting during April and June as well as ‘competitive pressures’ in bingo. The firm said: “Whilst we retain a leadership position in our two largest markets, competitive pressures in both the UK and Italy have continued to hold back our bingo business.”

The company has also been testing its next generation poker product with full launch scheduled for this month, alongside new payments services.

Teufelberger explained: “We are testing the new version of our poker product, a process that will run for the next few weeks before a full launch during August 2013 when we also

expect to launch a new social sports betting application that is currently being tested in a closed environment on Facebook. Kalixa, our payments business, will launch a new service on both iOS and Android in August, enabling consumers to make contactless mobile payments. Additionally, Kalixa Pro, our service for small and medium-sized businesses, will launch its mobile point-of-sale product in September, enabling the making and acceptance of card payments anywhere and at any time.”

The firm revealed that its ‘volume to value’ tactical shift was continuing to provide short term pain in revenues, but Teufelberger was upbeat.

“While the revenue performance was down on last year, we remain on course to deliver the targeted 70m euro of cost savings in 2013 with more to follow in 2014. During the second half we expect to roll out our new real money and social gaming products as well as, regulations permitting, the launch of our poker and casino games in New Jersey.”

The operations in unregulated

markets don’t appear to be restricting Bwin.party’s progress in the US. The firm already has deals with MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming and said that it is ‘making good progress towards ensuring that we will be ready to launch poker and casino products into New Jersey as soon as the market regulates’. A $15m payment to the State of Kentucky also resolved the only remaining litigation involving the company that stemmed from its pre-UIGEA US activities.

However, the firm’s decision to stop taking sign-ups from most of its unregulated markets, which has cost the firm around 10 per cent of its revenues, is more likely to be a factor in talks of a sell-off of part of the business. Rather than let the operations wither at the vine, it makes far more sense to divest the operations to companies much more prepared to take a risk.

Meanwhile, Bwin.party has been securing more partnerships with football clubs, becoming the official gaming and betting partner of Belgium’s Anderlecht and Italy’s Juventus.

ACTION IMAGES / HENRY BROWNE LIVEPIC

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MONEY LAUNDERING RULES ARE ‘DISPROPORTIONATE’

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iGaming 37 firms applying for New Jersey licence

Slow start for 32Red in Italy Record revenues and a healthy amount of patience for a slow-burning Italian business mean that 32Red is anticipating a bumper year.

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nline operator 32Red has managed to offset higher than expected start-up losses in Italy to record another period of record revenues with total gross win up 15 per cent to £19.0m in the first six months of 2013.

Initial trading at the Italian 32Red casino, which was on 29 November 2012, was softer than anticipated, but the firm said that despite this revenues have grown consistently month on month. The company is expecting further progress from the launch of a mobile casino, and anticipates that growth will be augmented as further products are approved by the Italian regulator AAMS. 32Red CEO Ed Ware said: “We are pleased with another strong performance from 32Red. We have maintained our clear focus on providing a high quality experience for our players which is underlined by our trading performance.

It is also supported by the results from the recent Mystery Shopper examination undertaken by etruvian across the industry; the survey identified the 32Red customer experience as the very best in the market place.

“As with a lot of other new entrants to the Italian market, we are finding progress slower than expected. However, we remain confident that this will develop into an important and lucrative territory for 32Red.'” For the core 32Red casino gross

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win increased by 17 per cent on the first half of 2012 to £16.9m.

While the number of active casino customers was way up - increase to 42,455 - the drop in casino player yield from £457 to £398 curbed a similar rise in revenues. The number of new casino players in the period dropped slightly to 17,459 (from 18,724) but so did the cost of acquisition, down to £159 from £166.

In the meantime, the firm has teamed up with Nottingham Racecourse, sponsoring the entire card on 19 July and returning to support further races at three meetings in October.

Nottingham Racecourse’s general manager Pip Kirkby said: “This is exciting news for Nottingham and I am absolutely delighted to welcome 32Red’s chief executive Ed Ware and his team to Colwick Park. We are very much looking forward to progressing our relationship and ensuring this sponsorship works well for all involved.”

32Red’s sponsorship portfolio spreads beyond horse racing where their support has also extended to Nottingham’s sister courses of Newmarket and Market Rasen in recent years - with substantial investment as well in premiership football sponsorship.

Ware said: “We are delighted to expand our commitment within Jockey Club Racecourses this year.

32Red.com has sponsored more than 1,500 horse races since 2004.

ANALYSIS While the Italian business is dragging its heels a little compared to 32Red’s other business interests, there are enough promising signs to suggest that the company is approaching the new market in the right way. That is certainly the view at analysts Numis, which commented: “We believe the low-cost organic entry strategy into Italy is the right one and that it will pay off once regulatory issues are resolved.” Meanwhile, the stellar growth of the main casino business appears to be continuing into the second half of the year. The third quarter continues to show healthy double digit growth where gross win in the first 16 days of July is up 13 per cent year on year.

We find that racecourses offer us excellent commercial opportunities as we strive to offer our customers the very best gaming experience on the web, combined with the opportunity to bet on racing and other sports through 32Redbet.”

ED WARE: ‘FINDING PROGRESS SLOWER THAN EXPECTED’

888 told not to promote Spider-Man slot ADVERTISING

88.com has been censured for promoting its Spider-Man licensed video slot on its own website by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which suggested that it could be appealing to children.

888 argued that it was not possible for under-18s to play the game for real money in their casino, as all members had to provide their name, address and date of birth, accept the Terms and Conditions and confirm that they were over 18, not to mention all the background checks the firm carries out. The ad also contained a clear warning that only players that were aged 18 or over could play for real money.

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gambling products should not be likely to be of particular appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture.

“We acknowledged that Spiderman appealed to some adults, but considered that the depiction of the popular comic book character was likely to have particular appeal to children and young people. We therefore concluded that the ad breached 888 CAN’T PROMOTE THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN SLOT the code.”

ON ITS OWN WEBSITE 888 was told that the ad But the ASA said: “The the ad appeared on the must not appear again in its ASA understood members website, which was accessi- current form and that it must had to confirm they were ble to visitors, regardless of not use images that were aged 18 or over before they whether they were members. ‘likely to be of particular could register to play the The Code stated that mar- appeal to children or young game. However, we noted keting communications for people in future gambling ads’.

BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

ew Jersey regulators have received a total of 37 applications filed by companies that want to work in the internet gambling sector with the state’s casinos. The applicants provide software, marketing, telecommunications or other services for online gaming after each of the state’s 12 casinos notified the regulator of their intent to partner with an internet gaming provider last month.

Firms that missed the first deadline have a later opportunity, although they run the risk of not being licensed in time for the proposed opening of the market in November.

Division director David Rebuck explained: “We see this as the first round of filings and we expect that more applications will be filed as the start of internet gaming moves closer. The 29 July deadline does not preclude someone from filing for a licence in the future. All proposals will be considered as they are received.”

Among the casino partnerships that have been announced include; 888 Holdings has teamed up with The Bally’s, Caesars, Harrah’s Resort and Showboat casinos, Bwin.party is with Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Resorts Casino Hotel has linked up with PokerStars, Golden Nugget Atlantic City is to use some Bally Technologies software, Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort has partnered with Ultimate Gaming, Tropicana Casino and Resort is partnering with Gamesys and Betfair is reportedly teaming up with Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.

Meanwhile, UK online operator 2UP Gaming PLC has received a Letter of Intent from an Asian investment group to the investment value of £215m which will facilitate 2UP’s planned entry into the United States internet gaming market by providing it the means to build or acquire a hotel/casino in Atlantic City.

“2UP has been working diligently for the past 12 months assembling the finest technology and strategy necessary to be a global leader in the i-Gaming marketplace,” said 2UP’s CEO Marino Sussich. “Emerging global gaming markets have created enormous growth opportunity for our company, and the United States launch of 2UP’s online gaming products will significantly add to our growth.”

The ruling has implications for operators who have slot games featuring characters which could appeal to children, even if they also have a broader appeal after all, Spider-Man’s popularity is wide ranging given that it first appeared in the 1960s. Taking the ASA judgement by the letter, operators would not be able to promote certain licensed games on their own websites, at least not until the customer has signed in. It also reduces the potential marketing prowess of such licensed properties, if operators are not actually permitted to promote them outside their own player base.

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iGaming RICHARD GLYNN

CLIVE HAWKSWOOD: ‘NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THE REVIEW OF INTERIM LICENCES’

Greece draws up 400-strong blacklist

TV CAMPAIGN FOR WINNER

The battles between the Greek government and the industry’s trade associations have continued unabated, with the authorities accused of creating an illicit blacklist.

GREECE

he Remote Gambling Association (RGA) has accused the Greek authorities of prematurely drawing up a blacklist of operators and of using reviews of interim licences to compile the data.

As a result, the RGA has written to the Hellenic Gaming Commission to ask it to stop reviewing the licences of companies held by legitimate operators in Greece. The trade association said that it believes that the real reason for interviewing the operators who have been granted an interim online gambling licence is to prepare a blacklist, which currently stands at 402 websites.

The RGA argues that the compilation of a blacklist is premature given that the Greek Government has not

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addressed the issues already raised by the European Commission in relation to its review of the gambling regulations.

Clive Hawkswood, CEO of the RGA, said: “There is no justification for the review of interim licences at this stage. All that the Hellenic Gaming Commission will achieve is the closure of legitimate and well regulated gambling companies. In all other jurisdictions that have sought to maintain online gambling monopolies a significant proportion of the population have chosen to bet on more attractive sites based in other jurisdictions.

We have no doubt this will happen in Greece too.

“It must be obvious that the Greek people, the Greek government and the Greek licensed industry would all benefit from a competitive and successful domestic

market. That is not even a possibility if interim licences are removed and OPAP is gifted an online monopoly.”

The RGA thinks that the review is being undertaken with a view to creating a blacklist that will require: Internet Service Providers to block access to websites operated by these blacklisted gambling operators.

Payment and credit institutions operating in Greece (Payment Service Providers to stop processing payments to and from blacklisted accounts held by gambling operators not licensed in Greece.

Sanctions against individual players and media owners that publicise online gambling sites on the blacklist.

The authority to draw up this blacklist is set out in draft regulations notified to the European Commission.

But these regulations received a detailed opinion from both Malta and the European Commission which set out the reasons why the law was not compatible with European regulations. To date no amendments to the draft regulations have been passed by the Greek Government and therefore the concerns expressed in the detailed opinion have not been addressed.

The Hellenic Gaming Commission has drawn up a list of 402 websites to go onto a black list. The RGA believes that this is contrary to European Commission law and will open up the Greek authorities to legal challenge. Among those included on the blacklist are Stanleybet, 888, Stan James, Gala Casino, Vernons, PKR, Mansion, Bwin, 32Red and Virgin Games.

ANALYSIS The RGA fears that the real reason for review of the licences and the creation of the blacklist is to provide the current offline monopoly, OPAP, with a de facto online betting and gaming monopoly, even though the legal basis for such a monopoly has not been demonstrated. Even if the concession does have a legitimate reason, the awarding of it to OPAP has not been transparent or in accordance with European directives. The RGA believes that if OPAP were given a legal online monopoly, it would be a step back from the current situation where there is a licensing scheme in place and operating.

Profitable quarter for Bingo.com BINGO

ingo operator Bingo.com has sneaked into profitability for the second quarter of 2013 with a net income of $10,449 (£6,857) for the period compared to a loss of $28,908 (£18,972) in the second quarter of 2012.

The firm is also celebrating the beta launch of its Trophy Bingo concept into the social casino market on iOS, Android, and Facebook and the successful migration onto a new platform provided by Unibet.

“We are very pleased with our return to profitability,” said Jason Williams, CEO of Anguilla-based Bingo.com.

“With an increased focus on retention and monetisation of the players we acquired

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in the first quarter, we were able to secure a small profit despite reduced gaming activity resulting from the website migration and a reduction in marketing spend.”

The reduction in marketing spend was probably wise given that the firm made a sizeable $471,189 (£309,000) loss in the first quarter of 2013, most of which appears to have been spent on marketing. In fact, Q2’s sales and marketing budget was 65 per cent lower than Q1’s outlay of $868,789 (£570,000). Sales and marketing expenses principally include costs for television marketing, search engine optimisation expenses, prizes for our players and

BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

iGAMINGBRIEFS

other bonuses and incentives offered to gaming players.

Williams said that the initial results on Trophy Bingo, the company’s entry into the social casino marketplace, have been ‘very positive’. “We are currently working on planned improvements to the social features contained in the game before it enters its global launch,” he added.

“The analytics received to date from our on-going beta test include positive retention statistics which indicate the game is popular with players and we remain confident in our decision to enter this new market. We continue to invest significantly in the development

of Trophy Bingo and look forward to its pending global launch and the monetisation of this innovative new game.”

Williams said that the migration process onto the new platform has had a negative impact on Bingo.com’s gambling turnover in the short-term: “We’re looking forward to recommencing the marketing of Bingo.com’s new gambling platform in our target jurisdictions and returning the company to growth.

However, the summer months can be difficult for player acquisition so we will be cautious with our marketing budget until we fully understand the strengths of our new gaming system.”

JASON WILLIAMS: ‘VERY PLEASED WITH OUR RETURN TO PROFITABILITY’

Winner Bingo has launched a brand new and funny advertising campaign on television for the very first time. Head of marketing Yoni Sidi commented: “The new Winner Bingo television campaign really encapsulates what our exciting online bingo destination is all about and we are delighted with the outcome of the advert.

Featuring more than 100 games, including six different styles of bingo, slots and scratch cards, Winner Bingo gives players a real shot at embracing their inner winner. We can’t wait to work with our affiliates to create exciting and interactive promotional campaigns.”

FAST FOLD ON THE GO

Mobile Poker Club, the first mobile-only poker room, has launched fastfold ring games under the name Next! Poker. This high-speed version of the game is the very first fastfold poker available on all smartphones and tablets and boasts an optimised algorithm that intelligently distributes players evenly across the table positions, providing a smooth, seamless and fast experience. Mike Hamilton of Mobile Poker Club said: “We’ve invested a great deal of time and effort into developing our fast-fold variant and we are sure customers are going to absolutely love always being at the heart of the action without having to wait for opponents to finish playing their hands.”

SHERIFF GAMING WINS IP CASE

The Netherlands Court of Appeal has rejected Betsoft’s claim that Sheriff Gaming has infringed its IP rights with regards to the zooming effect that it calls ‘Expandicon’. After analysing and comparing source codes, the Court of Appeal concluded that there was no evidence to support Betsoft’s claims.

Stijn Flapper, CEO of Sheriff Gaming, commented: “We couldn’t be happier by this latest ruling and we hope that we can now move forward whilst proving irrevocable proof to our clients and the rest of the industry that we are a true innovator of 3D games. We are licensed by the highly respected Alderney Gambling Control Commission and all our games are licensed within the regulated markets of Alderney, Malta and the Isle of Man.”

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Vegas comes to Ladbrokes Ladbrokes has launched a suite of games under a new ‘Vegas’ tab on the Ladbrokes.com website, offering around 70 games on the web with around 30 available on mobile channels. CEO Richard Glynn commented: “We are delighted that Ladbrokes customers will now begin to see the benefits of our partnership with Playtech with a strengthened gaming offer across all channels.”

Zynga ‘resets’ and rules out real money Zynga Poker, which once caused such consternation for the gambling industry, will not be seeing real money in the US anytime soon.

SOCIAL

ZYNGA HAS USED ITS FARMVILLE BRAND IN ITS UK CASINO

he much-anticipated, and in some cases feared, annexation of the gambling sector by the social gaming industry appears to have stumbled after one of the sector’s biggest operators distanced itself from realmoney play.

In its second quarter results, Zynga revealed that it would not be pressing for a licence to offer real money gambling in the US, its home market, despite the growing number of states legislating for online gaming.

Earlier this year the company launched real money gaming in the UK and it intends to continue the business, however, the language used around the operation suggests that it hasn’t uprooted any trees since its

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introduction.

The firm said: “Zynga believes its biggest opportunity is to focus on free to play social games.

While the company continues to evaluate its real money gaming products in the United Kingdom test, Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a licence for real money gaming in the United States. Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings.”

It’s been a troubled year so far for Zynga, which probably reflects the company’s decision to focus on its core competence - social games. Indeed, the firm is losing players at quite a rate.

Daily active users (DAUs) decreased from 72m in the second quarter of 2012 to 39m in the second quarter of 2013, down 45 per cent year-over-year. On a consecutive quarter basis, DAUs were down 24 per cent from 52m in the first quarter of 2013.

Monthly active users (MAUs) decreased from 306m in the second quarter of 2012 to 187m in the second quarter of 2013, down 39 per cent year-over-year.

On a consecutive quarter basis, MAUs were down 26 per cent from 253m in the first quarter of 2013. Monthly unique users (MUUs) decreased from 192m in the second quarter of 2012 to 123m in the second quarter of 2013, down 36 per cent year-overyear. On a consecutive quarter

basis, MUUs were down 18 per cent from 150m in the first quarter of 2013.

Zynga still holds some of the most popular social gaming brands. As of June 30, 2013, Zynga had three of the top 10 games on Facebook, based on DAUs as reported by the Facebook API, including titles from its most established franchises, Words With Friends, Zynga Poker and FarmVille 2.

However, while Zynga Poker was anticipated to be the perfect gateway to recruit real money players, especially in the US when legislation allowed, it appears the operator has more fundamental concerns with the product. It has been reported that Zynga Poker has been ear-

marked by new CEO Don Mattrick as requiring some work and that some of the company’s best talent have been tasked with revitalising the product.

“The next few years will be a time of phenomenal growth in our space and Zynga has incredible assets to take advantage of the market opportunity,” said Mattrick. “To do that, we need to get back to basics and take a longer term view on our products and business, develop more efficient processes and tighten up execution all across the company. We have a lot of hard work in front of us and as we reset, we expect to see more volatility in our business than we would like over the next two to four quarters.”

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Betting

Bookmakers have long bemoaned the cost of the UK’s gambling regulator but at least the Gambling Commission is operating within its means.

ACTION IMAGES / PAUL HARDING LIVEPIC

Commission income and expenditure flat for 2012/2013 HORSERACING IS ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR GAMBLING PURSUITS AFTER LOTTERY PRODUCTS

REGULATOR

he Gambling C o m m i s s i o n ’s annual report has revealed that the regulator’s expenditure has remained steady for 2012/2013 once exceptional activities have been taken into account.

The regulator revealed: “During the year, expenditure on operational costs excluding depreciation was £12.8m (2011/12 - £12.2m).

After allowing for expenditure on services provided to the NLC (£570,000) and exceptional external legal costs in connection with The Health Lottery judicial review (£283,000), both of which were fully reimbursed, expenditure (£11.9m) fell by £0.1m (0.7 per cent) on the prior financial year. We have continued to streamline our operational activity and

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increase efficiency.”

Compliance and enforcement costs over the year actually dropped from £6m to £5.7m, but the cost of policing betting integrity edged up again, this time to £750,000. The other major regulation costs were licensing (£1.6m) and Infrastructure and IT (£1.0m).

The Commission’s total income from fees and other sources was £14.13m for the year (up slightly on the previous year’s £13.54m).

However, excluding the reimbursement of legal costs from the judicial review and income from the NLC for services, income actually experienced a ‘modest decrease’ of 1.3 per cent on the prior financial year.

Most of this income (84 per cent) was from annual licence fees which

amounted to £11.84m over the period - down from £12.07m the previous year.

Income from personal licences rose £500,000 to £630,000 and operator application fee income for the year amounted to £0.68m, a 8 per cent increase on 2011/12.

Commission chairman Philip Graf said: “Our role is to ensure that those who provide gambling facilities put the licensing objectives set out in the 2005 Gambling Act at the heart of their business and can demonstrate this. To this end we continue to challenge the gambling industry to demonstrate how it is working to keep gambling crime free, fair and open and to do all it reasonably can to prevent and mitigate harm from gambling.

“Our focus is on ensuring we use our resources most

effectively on regulating those operators that potentially present the greatest risk to the licensing objectives. We also pay particular attention to the support of our shared regulation partners and continue to develop our evidence base in conjunction with the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and the Responsible Gambling Trust.

“Looking ahead, we are preparing for the expected change in the law in 2014 which will extend our remit to cover overseas operators offering gambling to British consumers; we continue to provide support to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as it concludes the triennial review of machine stakes and prizes, and we also expect completion of the merger

Paddy Power gets social SOCIAL

addy Power is to introduce the first product to offer real money sports betting on Facebook. The product will be beta launched in the next few weeks.

The in-house developed product, Paddy Power InPlay!, is being trialled as a Facebook app for desktop customers in the United Kingdom, which Facebook has chosen as the initial

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launch market for real money gambling on its platform. The app will add social engagement to online betting, enabling customers to bet on a wide variety of sporting events through Facebook, while also giving them visibility of, and the opportunity to engage with, other users.

Player participation will be subject to strict age verification checks.

PADDY POWER SENT ITS OWN BABIES TO CHEER ON THE ROYAL BIRTH

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BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

Paddy Power In-Play! was created by Paddy Power’s Sofia based games development team in collaboration with its product development team in Dublin.

Peter O’Donovan, managing director of Paddy Power Online, said: “The launch of the first real money sports betting product on Facebook is testament to Paddy Power’s e-

commerce and technology capabilities, as well as our international industry leadership position in social media. We are pleased to partner with Facebook on this pioneering work.”

Will Collins, head of social casino partnerships at Facebook, added: “Given the popularity of sports betting in the UK, we’re delighted to be welcoming Paddy Power onto the Facebook gaming platform with an innovative gaming experience.”

In the meantime, the bookmaker has been causing one of its trademark controversies, this time around the Royal birth.

Paddy Power sent three ‘big babies’ to the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital to cheer the Duchess of Cambridge along in her labour. The babies, dressed in Paddy Power Green onesies, each rocked a customised coloured tuft of hair to highlight the bookmakers hair betting market.

with the National Lottery Commission later this year.”

The Commission also published its quarterly industry statistics which found that over the year to June 2013 the most popular gambling activity was National Lottery tickets (46 per cent of respondents), followed by other lotteries (13 per cent) and scratchcards (10 per cent). No other individual gambling activity was participated in by more than 4 per cent of respondents. Horseracing (4 per cent), sports betting (3 per cent ), greyhound racing (1 per cent), virtual (0.5 per cent) and football pools (3 per cent) were mentioned.

Playing gaming machines in LBOs remained stable at 1 per cent.

PHILIP GRAF Comment 33

ANALYSIS The Gambling Commission is paid for by the industry in the shape of licensing fees. The good news is that it hasn’t spent a great deal more this year doing its job. However, the prospect of a cut in licence fees is remote given the small disparity between income and expenditure. There is a school of thought that the online gaming sector can prop up the regulator’s income for the benefit of the land-based industry, but the Commission’s philosophy suggests that the cash from that income stream will be spent directly regulating the presumably much bigger online gaming sector.

Bodog sponsors basketball championship

GREG FERMONT (MD BODOG ASIA) WITH CHINA’S YI JIANLIAN

BASKETBALL

nline gaming brand Bodog Asia have signed a major six figure sponsorship deal to cover the entire 2013 FIBA Asia Championship in Manila, which will include perimeter boards and in-stadia LED advertising.

Bodog Asia’s ‘ambassadorettes’ will be present at the games both inside and outside the stadium to ensure there is a party atmosphere at the event.

Izhar Biran, marketing director for Bodog Asia, explained the decision: “Not only is the event on the doorstep of our HQ here in Manila but it will be broadcast throughout the region with peak TV audiences expected to reach over 100m. Very few events on the planet can offer those sort of numbers so this was an easy decision for us and we hope to bring our own brand of glamour to the Asia Championships.”

The 2013 FIBA Asia Championship will also act as the qualifying event for the 2014 FIBA World Cup to be played in Spain. The top three teams from the FIBA Asia Championship will earn the right to represent FIBA Asia at the 2014 FIBA World Cup.

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info@betconstruct.com

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Betting

FOOTBALL

eeds-based Sky Betting and Gaming has agreed a new, five-year deal to sponsor the English Football League. The deal sees the League’s flagship competition titled the Sky Bet Football League, with its three divisions becoming the Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League 1 and Sky Bet League 2.

Sky Bet managing director Richard Flint commented: “This is a ground-breaking sponsorship for Sky Bet and it enables us to engage with millions of football fans spanning all 72 league clubs in the country.

As the title sponsor, we are looking forward to enhancing the experience for Football League fans through our range of league specific betting markets.

“The strength of our technology, supported by a trusted brand that is part of the fabric of football, means we’re ideally placed to add to the match-day experience for fans.”

Greg Clarke, the Football League chairman, added: “On behalf of the Football League and its clubs I’m delighted to welcome Sky Bet on board. This agreement takes our existing partnership with Sky to a new level and provides a genuine boost to clubs ahead of the new season.”

Other betting brands have also been making their moves ahead of the new season. In the Premier League Marathonbet has already been announced as Fulham’s shirt sponsors, and it will be joined by bookmaking brother Dafabet, which has taken over from Genting Casinos as Aston Villa’s main sponsor.

Dimitris Karatzas, managing director of online betting and gaming at

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BOTH NEWPORT COUNTY AND ASTON VILLA WILL SPORT BETTING BRANDS THIS SEASON

Sky Bet sponsorship in different leagues

Dafabet parent AsianBGE, said: “After entering the Premier League last season as international betting partners to two clubs, we saw the increased potential of becoming an official club sponsor. We are delighted to see Dafabet on the front of such a well-recognised shirt and to be associated with a club respected throughout the footballing world.”

Dafabet head of sponsorships John Cruces added: “To be associated with one of the oldest and most successful clubs in England will help us achieve our aim of making Dafabet a household name - not just in Asia, where the majority of our players are currently from, but worldwide.”

At the other end of the scale is former Villa sponsor 32Red, which has signed up as shirt sponsor to Football League returnees Newport County. 32Red has already had considerable success in associating with Welsh football teams - it was previously on Swansea City’s shirts - and hopes to be as successful in a record sponsorship deal for ‘The Exiles’.

Mark Quayle, head of marketing for 32Red, said “We are thrilled to

support Newport County in their first season back in the Football League.

Having sponsored two clubs in the top flight, we’re now looking to invest in the roots of football. The Exiles are one of those clubs that caught our eye when looking for potential deals and we’re confident the team has what it takes to make the sponsorship a success for us.”

Less commercially minded perhaps is Bodog’s decision to sponsor Scotland’s Ayr United for a third consecutive year because of the similarity in name to Bodog founder Calvin Ayre. He commented: “As a rule I’m a frugal kind of guy but I do allow myself the occasional indulgence and this sponsorship has given me enormous pleasure over the years.

Any Ayr supporter will tell you it isn’t easy being one of The Honest Men but now Rangers have finally made it up to our level I feel sure this will spur us on to a great season.”

Hugh Cameron, commercial director at Ayr United, added: “The backing Calvin and the Bodog brand have given the club over the years has been great for us.”

ACTION IMAGES / PETER CZIBORRA

Sky Bet’s bold deal with the Football League is the most eye-catching partnership between bookmaker and football club this season.

August sees BetVictor launch a new £500,000 TV ad campaign, still featuring the company’s chairman Victor Chandler and ‘Maurice’, actor Paul Kaye. Turnover at BetVictor has increased 70 per cent this year and the firm attributes some of success that to the ‘Maurice and Victor’ adverts. The three new ads, Train, Pogo and Baggage, will promote the new football season and BetVictor’s in play betting capabilities.

ANALYSIS Some cynics argue that had BT Sport not looked to shake up the way football is broadcast in the UK then this Sky Bet deal wouldn’t have happened.

As it stands, parent firm BSkyB can now enjoy an even stronger association with football for its Sky brands. The fact that the announcement that Sky Sports had secured broadcasting rights for the Football League until 2019 came the same day as the sponsorship deal is merely coincidence. However, it can’t be denied that betting firms are as keen as ever to sign deals of varying size and exposure with football clubs in order to associate themselves with what is fast becoming the most important sport for bookmakers.

MOBILE

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MAGNUS SILFVERBERG: ‘BETSSON DELIVERS STABLE ORGANIC GROWTH’

10 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

Smartphones contributes to a strong demand for mobile gaming solutions. Betsson has developed and provides, today, one of the market’s broadest and most advanced gaming solutions for smartphones.”

Revenues in the second quarter increased 19 per cent year on year to SEK579.2m (£58.0m) with operating income jumping 26 per cent to K137.8m (£13.8m). Gross turnover in the sportsbook, including all gaming solutions, amounted to K3.4bn (£340m), another increase of 26 per cent.

President and CEO

Magnus Silfverberg commented: “Betsson continues to make investments in order to optimise its operations. During the second quarter a successful migration of Betsson.com to the common platform was executed. After this, the majority of Betsson’s revenues are generated on the new platform. This has strengthened the mobile offering and enables an advanced further development of the gaming experience as well as costefficient operations. At the same time Betsson delivers stable organic growth and one of the market’s strongest profit margins.”

PENN DEAL

Sportech’s US division Sportech Racing has signed a six year contract (with potential for two one year extensions) with racetrack operator Penn National Gaming Incorporated to provide betting technology and associated services. Ian Penrose, Sportech CEO, said: “We are delighted to have secured this longterm contract with Penn National Gaming, the largest racetrack and associated betting facility operator in the United States. This further strengthens our position in the United States, and builds upon the international momentum following sales to the UK Tote and a contract with Danske Spil, the State owned Danish gaming operator, earlier this year.”

IG PROFIT A ‘SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT’

Jonathan Davie, chairman of spread betting firm IG Group, has described the firm’s year of record profitability as ‘a significant achievement given the particularly challenging trading environment in the first half of the year’.

While revenue decreased by 1 per cent to £361.9m, diluted earnings per share increased by 3.4 per cent to 38.80 pence per share primarily to tight expense control and ‘materially lower’ employee variable compensation. He added: “We remain committed to delivering superior technology, innovative products and the best trading experience, putting the needs of our customers at the forefront of everything we do.”

CAWLEY FLIES IN

Betsson prepares for smartphone surge wedish betting operator Betsson is anticipating a boom time for the use of mobile phones for gaming among its customers. At the company’s Q2 results, the firm’s management revealed that it believes ‘revenues from mobile devices will increase significantly during the coming twelve-month period’.

During the second quarter, Betsson reported that 9 per cent of all revenues were via mobile phone, up one per cent from the preceding quarter. The firm commented: “The high level of growth in the use of

BETTINGBRIEFS

In its Q2 report, Betsson said it was of the opinion that the online gaming market will continue to develop strongly. “The number of internet users across the globe is growing rapidly, which is a fundamental driver for the business. The confidence in internet and e-commerce is increasing as more people use the internet to perform their banking and stock market transactions, insurance business and other purchases. This changing behaviour and increasing confidence in e-commerce is important for the online gaming industry.”

Michael Cawley, the deputy chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Ryanair, has been made an independent non-executive director of bookmaker Paddy Power and has also been appointed as a member of the Audit Committee.

Cawley joined Ryanair in 1997 as CFO and commercial director. Prior to that he was group finance director of Gowan Group Limited. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Paddy Power chairman Nigel Northridge commented: “Michael is a highly accomplished executive who will add very substantial commercial, financial and international business experience to the Board.”

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IN PLAY TENNIS HAS BEEN PARTICULARLY SUCCESSFUL FOR BETINTERNET

Webis breaks into California betting market

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While one of its brands is making good progress in live betting, the other Webis Holdings operation is gaining access to a huge new market.

PARI-MUTUEL

portsbook Betinternet has showed strong year in year revenue growth, according to a trading update by parent firm Webis Holdings, with the extension of its ‘In Play’ content playing a big part in that success.

The firm said that In Play tennis has been especially popular following its launch in early January 2013, where up to twenty live markets are updated after each point on every match in the tennis Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA tours.

The firm commented: “The gross margin for all sports improved and became more consistent following additional investment in data and pricing feeds, enhancing the overall product offering. Results proved more favourable, especially throughout the second half.

Activity within the casino and games achieved revenue growth, although the gross margin was slightly impacted by some large wins in the first half.”

Meanwhile, its US sister WatchandWager, which offers pari-mutuel betting on horseracing, has received approval for a multi-jurisdictional Advanced Deposit Wagering (ADW) licence by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) which allows for wagering from California residents on the WatchandWager.com platform.

This licence permits WatchandWager.com to accept wagers from Californian residents on all content for which it has agreements with the host track and the particular racing breed. By virtue of WatchandWager’s licenced operation at Cal Expo in Sacramento, agreements are already in place for standard bred racing.

Now that the licence has been formally approved, agreements with thoroughbred and quarter horse racing content

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providers will be sought. By statute, licenced wagering may commence on 6 September 2013.

Ed Comins, pari-mutuel operations director at Webis, said: “It is fantastic to break into the Californian market.

WatchandWager will have access to a population of more than 38m people and one of the strongest economies in the world.

This licence approval also represents another significant step forward in our overall US development strategy and is evidence of the status we now have as a business to be accepted by regulatory bodies as prestigious as the CHRB. WatchandWager has established itself as a substantial US licenced operator, with a firm foothold in the US gaming market, with opportunity for upwards leverage on both a federal and state basis.”

WatchandWager.com is the first ADW to be granted a new operational licence in California by the CHRB in more than five years and will be only the fourth operator that can legally take bets from Californian residents. The CHRB has a heavy emphasis on compliance and wagering integrity and the granting of a licence is testament to the significance that WatchandWager.com places on these issues. In due course, the board said that it believes the financial impact of the Californian licence will be significant in terms of player numbers, reputation and leverage.

The company added: “The board is very pleased by the tangible progress that both Betinternet and WatchandWager have made in the financial year. With many opportunities ahead and a robust balance sheet, the board anticipates a continuation of this growth through the current financial year.”

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22 BT Sport secures more football rights

24 Betradar unveils new virtual sports betting product

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Essential gu VIEWPOINT

Licensing an untapped opportunity?

Danske Spil signs with Prima Networks

28 Verifying the new 5 euro note

August 2013

Bookmaker Coral has selected BGT as its software provider to power the rollout of 1,000 self-service betting terminals

STAR TREK REGULARLY FEATURED CASINO GAMING – MAKING THE LICENCE A GOOD FIT FOR A LIVE CASINO ENVIRONMENT

Andrew McCarron he beauty of the Live Casino product is that it is the closest the online gaming industry has come so far to emulating the feel of a live casino environment; an ambition seen by many as the Holy Grail.

Players can now have a truly recognisable casino experience at home and so the sector has reached a high water mark. But there’s no reason to stop there. The technology and structure of the industry allows us to go above and beyond what’s on offer in land-based venues For example, there are a number of trends that, when combined, could provide an interesting development to drive on the sector in unexpected ways. If operators are more receptive to offering their customers a range of Live Casino options, and it seems that approach is becoming more and more likely, then it frees the developers to be a bit more experimental with their offerings.

Without the pressure to provide the standard live dealer product, suppliers in the field now have the opportunity not just to improve the technical side of matters such as streaming speed and clarity, or the range of casino games on offer.

A move in the direction has already started. Microgaming’s Playboy-themed live casino provides something to set them apart from the rest - a differentiator useful for both the supplier and the operators who choose to take on the product. The Playboy licence works particularly well because it is a casino brand in its own right, with its own iconic dealer outfits, and therefore fits so

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seamlessly into the Live Casino concept that it perhaps doesn’t feel as groundbreaking as it could be.

But if the Playboy licence can be used in the live casino sphere, what about other licences? Would they be able to transfer? IGT is currently making great strides with its licence for the new Star Trek films in a slots capacity - yet could the licence also make great strides in live casinos? Certainly the Next Generation iteration of the TV and film franchise regularly featured card games and casinos, so it’s not such a jarring association. Combined with the iconic uniform doubling as croupier outfits, it could be a very simple way of seeking out new life in the concept. It needn’t stop there either? Who wouldn’t see the appeal in playing blackjack against a dealer in full Klingon make up and regalia? Also who knows what the actual actors from the many Star Trek series are doing these days? Maybe they would be hard up enough to be a dealer!

There are several other massive franchises that could make the transition. A Middleearth themed casino for Lord of the Rings fans? Or a live casino populated with people dressed as superheroes from the Marvel or DC universes? A Sex and the City themed sparking casino environment where all the dealers wear fabulous shoes and the women aren’t treated as sexual objects?

The concept of celebrity guest dealers is another option, although this would of course be dependent on the willingness to go through some croupier training. But as a marketing coup, announcing that the latest Bond actor (or more probably, god help us, the latest Big Brother winner) is spinning the wheels at your casino one evening could be a winner.

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guide to ... Live Casino BET VICTOR

Catering to a wider market Bet Victor head of eGaming Andrew Dymock explains his firm’s approach to the Live Casino phenomenon. ive Casino has been granted its own tab on the Bet Victor site - is it such a standalone experience than the regular casino?

Yes, it is very much a standalone product/experience. This caters for a different type of casino player to the RNG casino.

Those who are not necessarily satisfied with the RNG experience look for a casino experience nearer the real thing. It tends to cater for a larger staking player who do not necessarily just want the quick on demand games, but prefer a slightly more drawn out purer experience.

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Can you explain the reasoning behind having different live casino ‘venues’?

We have Evolution Live Casino and the Ho Gaming Live Casino. We do not have any reason not to present more than one live casino as we like to be able to offer a range of choice to the players and let them decide what their casino of choice is. We have found, as in the real world, players move between tables and casinos dependant on how lucky they are being - this allows them to do this. It also reduces the blackjack limitation of number of seats available as between the two existing live casinos we have a wide range of tables where you can generally get a seat at the limits you play. We are also going to be launching

www.locusaffiliates.com

more Live Casinos in the near future: Microgaming, Net Entertainment and another very exciting Live Casino venture which I am currently unable to mention. Our multiple RNG casino platforms has proved very successful for us over the last few years, creating a vast choice for the RNG player and there is no reason not to follow a similar strategy when it comes to Live Casinos.

How important is it to offer British dealers?

For certain players the British Dealers are exactly what they are looking for. They create a bit of atmosphere at the table, similar to what you might expect in the bricks and mortar casinos by being able to have some banter with the players and are also able to discuss subjects like sport and British football especially. The Latvian and Estonian dealers are fantastic, very professional and appeal to different players who are not really interested in what the British Dealers have to say or players may just prefer a pretty face dealing. You can often see a visible drop in player numbers at the table when a particular dealer changes shift whether it be a British Dealer or a particular Latvian or Estonian dealers. The dealers are very important to certain groups whether they are looking for sheer professionalism, a bit of banter or simply a beautiful woman/handsome man.

BETVICTOR PLAYERS HAVE A CHOICE OF LIVE CASINO

Are certain croupiers more popular than others? Does this need to be managed?

Yes absolutely. We have a large say in what Latvian or British dealers work on our private Bet Victor tables in Riga, Latvia. We need to be sure the dealers represent the Bet Victor brand well and they also must be liked by the players otherwise the tables are not as attractive and they don’t keep players playing as long.

We want to utilise the best dealers over the key, busy periods where more players are going to benefit from their experience.

Live Casino is obviously more expensive to run than the regular RNG casino tables. Why is it worth the investment?

It is a slightly more expensive operation but the product attracts some of the most valuable casino players who would not be interested in the RNG tables. It opens your brand up allowing you to cater to a wider market which is important. We don’t see masses of RNG players migrate over to the more expensive Live Casino products, we see new dedicated high value live casino players registering. Just like you may need to spend a little bit more to bring proven revenue generating branded slots on board, similarly you don’t mind paying a little more licence fee for a top quality live casino product which obviously has huge studio and staffing costs to the supplier.

affiliates@locusaffiliates.com

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Essential Guide to ... Live Casino BETINTERNET.COM

EGASA

A very useful revenue contributor

EGASA launches iPad Live Roulette

Betinternet.com managing director Garry Knowles explains how his firm had to deal with a sudden change of live casino supplier. ince the turn of the year Betinternet.com has been offering a live dealer solution to its UK customers. It was previously unable to do this as its supplier CWC was based in Costa Rica and the UK Gambling Commission requires live dealers studios to be located in the EU or white listed jurisdictions. However, a switch in supplier to someone closer to home has opened up the product to the operator’s entire customer base and not just the Asian contingent.

Knowles explained: “We had a bit of a setback on Live Dealer in December last year when CWC stopped supplying services to the industry, with no notice. We were without live dealer for about six weeks but are now with Microgaming, which is why we are able to take UK business, as their product is licenced in the IOM. But we aren’t anticipating a strong take-up from the UK market. While we are making good progress with the bonusing and cross-marketing of casino and games into Asia, I suspect that we will always be sports-led offer.”

The sudden withdrawal of CWC meant that for a period Betinternet was unable to offer Live Casino, although the firm’s players were flexible: “During the six weeks when we were dark, customers generally transferred to our RNG casino, but we were aware that it was impacting our attractiveness to Asian clients. As I have said before,

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BETINTERNET WILL BE TAKING ON THE PLAYBOY LIVE CASINO SOON

A new deal with Evolution Gaming means that the Spanish betting firm can offer live casino t its customers via tablet.

you wouldn’t want to operate an Asian facing sportsbook without a good live dealer product.”

While a very popular part of Betinternet’s product offering, Knowles said it would be difficult to gauge whether it would be able to operate in isolation: “The difference between a stand-alone casino and one attached to a sportsbook is that the marketing costs are much lower as our customers are driven to our site by the sports content and convert to casino. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very useful revenue contribu-

tor, but would be a different business model if it was stand-alone.”

Betinternet is also shortly adding Microgaming’s Playboy Live Dealer as an addition to its existing product. “It is an opportunity that has arisen from our partnership with Microgaming,” Knowles commented. “It is not something we specifically sought, but it will offer a different experience for our customers to choose if they wish. It can only be a good thing and we will see the take-up before we look at other options in this area.”

BODOG ASIA

Trust is everything Greg Fermont, managing director at Bodog Asia, explains how important the live casino experience is in the Asian market. ou have two different live dealer casinos - what’s the difference?

Like all online gaming commodities Live Dealer Casinos have to offer something unique to stand out from the crowd. The Grand Bodog Casino offers the glamorous essence of the Bodog brand and cutting edge technology but we have added a new concept to that casino recently, namely the Bodog Zone. These offer faster versions of the more popular games. Zone Baccarat allows those customers who prefer to choose their bet without using previous hand-history a quicker route to play with a reduced waiting time of 10 seconds between hands. In Asia, Baccarat is by far the biggest game played both on and offline but with complicated calculations between hands can be frustratingly slow. We will

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panish operator EGASA has launched the first Live Roulette games for iPad in the Spanish market.

The Ruleta En Vivo service, which launched simultaneously on PC and iPad, joins EGASA’s comprehensive online sportsbook, poker, slots and bingo offering at www.luckia.es.

Accessed via the casino area of the site, the Luckia Ruleta En Vivo service is streamed in real-time to players’ devices from Evolution’s land-based Spanish Roulette live studio facility at Casino Rincon de Pepe in Murcia.

Jose González, president of EGASA, said: “As a privately owned operator we are proud of our heritage in Spain and Latin America, and delighted to bring our players the very first opportunity to play world-class Live Roulette, with native Spanish speaking dealers, on iPad. Evolution was a natural choice for us: they were first to market in Spain last year with Live Roulette on PC; they are a proven and trusted partner in this market; and in our view they are the best B2B Live Casino supplier.”

González added: “We are confident that Live Roulette will be a compelling part of the Luckia product offering and will be greatly appreciated by our players. We are also confident that Evolution’s multi-channel road map will help us assure a consistently high-quality customer experience as we roll out live games on other mobile tablets and devices.”

EGASA operates Sports Betting, Slot Operation, Gaming Arcade and Casino Divisions and also develops Entertainment Resorts. The company has been a leading gaming imperator in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries for more than 30 years. Its Spanish designated gaming site, Luckia, launched in January this year.

The firm entered the live casino market after signing a three-year agreement with supplier expert Evolution Gaming.

Evolution’s Fredrik Osterberg said: “Through EGASA’s significant interest and participation in land-based operations in Spain, Latin America and Croatia, the company is very adept at anticipating and meeting customer needs.”

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also soon release a new version of Blackjack, Zone21 and also Zone Poker. So the Grand Bodog Casino offers a very ‘Bodog’ experience while the other one offers more traditional versions of the games.

What makes the live dealer product appealing to players in your view?

In the Asian market trust is everything and this is why Live Dealer is the preferred option - they can see and feel that it’s real unlike with RNG. This will likely change as the market matures. Equally, in markets where RNG dominates I can see the appetite for Live Dealer growing as players seek a different experience to what they are used to.

Are the Live dealers more important to the Asian site than the e-games casino then?

Very much so. Baccarat is totally dominant over any other type of game and the Live Dealer version is miles ahead in terms of popularity.

Any plans for introducing it to your bodog.eu service?

Yes, Bodog.eu is now a Canadian focused website and there is a huge Asian population in Canada, especially Chinese and so we feel the Live Dealer product will sit well in this marketplace. It will also be useful as a differentiator to the competition in this market as well.

Visit us at the Microgaming Bar, EiG Barcelona, 8-10 October 2013

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Essential Guide to ... Live Casino EVOLUTION GAMING

MOBILE

Leading the way in regulated markets

Perfect gaming platform

The new opportunities in the Italian and Spanish markets for live casinos have seen Evolution Gaming step up to the mark. volution Gaming describes itself as the world leader in video-streamed live dealer gaming - and with some justification. Constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, this multi-award winning B2B Live Casino provider works with more top-tier operators than any other supplier and regularly delivers first-to-market advantage for its licensees in re-regulating markets.

Indeed, Evolution’s mission is to deliver ‘a flawless live gaming experience across multiple channels in regulated markets’. To this end, Evolution streams world-class Live Casino solutions from its state-of-the-art studios in Riga or from live studios in land-based casinos. The company’s solutions include real-time casino table games played on desktop, iPad and mobile devices, and content and betting integration for Live Casino TV shows.

Evolution’s leading position in the re-regulated Italian and Spanish markets illustrates the flexibility and possibilities offered to licensees. Earlier this year, Evolution enabled 888 to become the first international online operator to launch Live Roulette in the new Spanish market. The service is streamed from Evolution’s live studio in the land-based Casino Rincon de Pepe in Murcia.

This flexible, shared facility offers bluescreen backdrop options that enable multiple operators to stream their own uniquely

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branded ‘Ruleta En Vivo’ services. Alongside 888, Interwetten and EGASA also harness the live dealer game feeds from Evolution’s Spanish live studio.

The Spanish success story follows a similar trailblazing entry into the new Italian market in 2012. In Italy, the regulator AAMS permits operators to stream live dealer services from Evolutions’ studios in Riga. However, in both Italy and Spain the location of the live studio is largely irrelevant as the live tables are staffed by experienced native speaking dealers recruited by Evolution.

As the line between land-based and online becomes increasingly blurred, Evolution is now fine-tuning its offering for entry into the US market. Already a deal has been struck with SHFL Inc. to add US-specific table games.

According to Helen Hedgeland, Evolution’s head of marketing: “Our experience in setting up in-venue live studios and our growing mobile gaming offering means we are ideally positioned to help US operators benefit from intra-resort gaming opportunities.

For me, intra-resort is the real game-changer - a live studio sited on the actual casino gaming floor with players elsewhere in the resort able to play live at those tables on mobile devices.”

Live dealer gaming is certainly moving fast, and Evolution is determined to stay well ahead of the game.

ADVERTISING

Dealer uniforms too seductive for ASA While a dealer’s uniform might be designed to be attractive to customers, this might cause problems for publicising the product. The ASA is watching closely. ne of the advantages that the live casino has is, of course, that the dealers themselves become part of the attraction.

The human touch online can provide more customer loyalty than any bonusing scheme or rebranding can manage with some players. There are even forums where the most eager players discuss their favourite dealers, their outfits and the backdrops.

Operators know this and try and build on the personality of the dealers they offer their customers by providing mini biographies and photographs in a similar way to how the best bingo sites promote their most popular callers.

While personality goes some way with players, attractiveness is a key factor in popularity as well and many operators do their best to have uniforms that flatter their dealers and increase their attractiveness.

William Hill discovered the downside to this last month when the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned its TV advert for its live casino for being too sexy,

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specifically citing the uniform worn by Hill’s dealers.

The advert itself, at first glance, seemed innocuous enough. It opened with a closeup of a woman who opened her eyes and looked at the camera. The camera panned out, then down to a roulette wheel, down the body of the dealer who was wearing a basque-style top. The ad then showed a ball spinning around the roulette wheel and cut to a scene showing a large pile of gambling chips being pushed towards the viewer. The ad then showed playing cards and gambling chips flying through the air.

The voice-over said, ‘Experience a live casino like no other’ and the ad then showed several female croupiers in gold basque-type tops and male croupiers wearing suits.

The ASA’s main problem with the ad is that it considered that the camera lingering on the main woman’s eyes as being seductive - a big no no in gambling advertising in the UK. However, it added: “We also considered that as the camera panned down over the female croupier’s décolletage, this enhanced the sense of seduction, which was further reinforced by the uniforms worn by all of the female croupiers. We understood that the basquestyle tops were identical to those worn by the actual croupiers. However, we did not consider this to be a suitable justification for using them in the ad or showing sensual areas of the women’s body.”

William Hill is now in a peculiar position in that it might have to make its TV advertising for its live casino product less realistic in order to pass muster with the prudent judges at the ASA.

Ladbrokes has successfully transposed some of its live casino products onto the tablet platform. adbrokes is the latest operator aiming to take advantage of the seemingly perfect platform for live casino gaming - the computer tablet. With that aim, Ladbrokes has made four of its popular live dealer games available on its mobile platform. iPad users will now be able to play live dealer mobile blackjack, roulette, Casino Hold ‘Em and baccarat with the added advantage that players will not need to download any software before playing with the system using a live streaming webcam connection.

Developed in HTML5 and optimised for iPad, the live games feature the familiar user interface with live chat and a choice of game views and also enable iPad-style seamless switching between landscape and portrait game views as the user rotates his or her iPad. The iPad is a uniquely personal and portable device and was described last year by Rank Interactive’s Mark Jones as ‘the perfect gaming device’. While mobile smartphones suffer from using a screen size essentially too small to take advantage of the live dealer concept, the 7” and 10” tablets are ideal sizes for operators to showcase the capabilities of the latest streaming technology.

Last year Ladbrokes revamped its live casino area, supplied by Evolution Gaming, to reflect its distinctive new branding. The dedicated, fully branded Ladbrokes Live Casino area consisted initially of three Live Blackjack tables.

The tables, finished with Ladbrokes branded red cloth, are sited in front of a bespoke 3D rendered backdrop featuring the Ladbrokes ‘L’ logo.

The area is available exclusively to Ladbrokes’ customers via Ladbrokes.com, with two tables operating 24/7 and the third open 12 hours every day.

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sales@limelight-global.com

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Essential Guide to ... Live Casino NET ENTERTAINMENT

ENTWINE TECH

Off to an impressive start

Radical redesign for casino lobby

Per Eriksson, Net Entertainment’s CEO, discusses the Sweden-based casino developer’s innovative approach and growth in the live casino sector. ince our live casino launch at the end of last year we have seen significant growth. In the first six months of 2013 we have signed twelve new licence agreements and five new customers’ casinos were launched.

Before making our move into the sector we constructed a state-of-the-art studio in Malta to create what we genuinely believe is the next generation live casino environment. To ensure that we are operators’ first choice for live casino products there needs to be differentiation in the offering and that is something we have worked hard to achieve.

Our studio incorporates the latest technology to deliver the most realistic casino experience on the market. Until the introduction of specific content delivery networks latency issues were commonplace.

High resolution streaming technology has kept interruptions in the player experience to a minimum. Speed is vital when replicating betting patterns from a landbased casino. Our product allows for bets to be placed while the roulette wheel spins, just as you would find in Las Vegas.

Another aspect of land-based casinos is

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2013 has seen EntwineTech make a series of improvements to its Live Casino offer, ranging from the design of its lobby to new stylish uniforms. the chance to develop relationships with the dealers. Our dealers are professionally trained to mirror a croupier you would expect at a top casino.

Being able to have control over the design of each casino environment is highly attractive for our clients. Our casino studio has chroma-keying technology which allows for a specially designed background.

This means that our casino feed can be simultaneously used by multiple operators, however, each operator can tailor the room as they see fit. It means that skins can be adapted for whatever purpose they require.

To run a multiple player system it’s imperative that the backend of the casino is able to successfully handle large volumes of players. Live casino uses the Net Entertainment backend for RNG casino games to ensure that it can handle plenty of players at once.

It’s still early stages in the sector, but it’s been a huge success for us. In such a fastpaced category of the industry it’s important to constantly look for methods to innovate, with the development of 4G and mobile just two of the exciting avenues on the horizon.

MICROGAMING

It’s all about the bunny Neill Whyte, head of product channels at Microgaming, discusses his company’s unique take on the Live Casino model.

Tails you win! In February, Microgaming introduced the world’s first branded Live Dealer studio, having signed an agreement with Playboy Enterprises to develop a Playboy Live Dealer product, as well as RNG casino games.

Playboy is an iconic lifestyle brand established by Hugh Hefner in 1953. It leverages 97 per cent global brand awareness, has over 7.8m Facebook fans and 21m monthly unique visitors to Playboy.com.

The brand’s trademark style has been transferred perfectly into the world of Live Dealer gaming. The atmosphere of the studio evokes the original famed Playboy Club - complete with dealers dressed in the signature Playboy bunny costume.

An opulent studio coupled with striking lights sets the glamour and opulence that has been associated with Playboy.

The Live Dealer studio, encompasses the full suite of Live Dealer games including roulette, blackjack and baccarat. It

“

provides operators with a huge marketing opportunity to acquire new players, as it is a unique gaming platform that appeals to a worldwide audience. Playboy Live Dealer is currently live with a number of leading operators including 188BET and 32Red. Following the successful launch of Playboy Live Dealer, just six months on, Microgaming revealed its highly anticipated Playboy online slot, bringing the luxurious lifestyle of Playboy bunnies to the world of online slots. Microgaming truly pulled the rabbit out of the hat with this slot which has been expertly crafted around the brand, using hand-painted graphics and an original musical composition. In this five reel, 243 ways-to-win game, the reels are stacked with iconic symbols such as the Playboy Magazine and the notorious bunny logo. The slot presents plenty of exciting features for players to enjoy; the free spins bonus fea-

ture is definitely the highlight of the game which gives players’ access to the exclusive Playboy Club. It’s a one-of-a-kind game which is set to be a massive hit among online players!”

ntwineTech, one of the world’s largest live dealer platforms, launched its new casino lobby in June. The radical redesign combines a sophisticated and easy to use interface which allows customers the fastest access yet to their favourite game by utilising our innovative 1-click technology.

By focusing on the needs of players, EntwineTech continues to offer the best Live Dealer Experience in the world - ‘1-Click’ is the latest exciting example of our commitment to this.

The new casino lobby not only features enhanced modern tabs and easy navigation, it also remembers the last chosen game and table limit, allowing players to be in-game within 1-click on their return.

Only a month earlier the firm also launched its new look uniform. Following on from a number of developments and initiatives this year designed to keep EntwineTech’s Live Dealer solution ahead of the competition, the new uniform was introduced to bring a refreshing and elegant feel to the Live Dealer tables further enhancing the charm and professionalism of its dealers. Ian Dunning, a spokesperson for EntwineTech, commented at the time: “The combination of state of the art reliable software and good looking professional dealers makes EntwineTech the gold standard for Live Dealer solutions, a standard the competition struggle to keep up with.”

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LOCUS GAMING

“The product brings in new players” Ed Andrewes, director at recently launched mobile gaming operator Locus Gaming, explains why live dealers can make a big difference on the mobile and tablet platform.

To compete in the congested world of online casinos it is essential to offer customers a full-suite of products - be it for desktop users or those on tablet and mobile. For some time now Live Dealer has been an important cog in that wheel when it comes to desktop, to the point where it is an increasingly popular way of playing table games.

Not only does the product guarantee the integrity of the chosen game - the reason it was developed in the first place - it is also the best way to recreate that actual casino experience that certain players seek.

The very same applies to mobile and tablet, yet some operators have been slow to realise the benefits it can bring to these devices.

It seems that many have fought shy of integrating Live Dealer believing it to be too complicated or expensive to upgrade software or accommodate its live streaming

“

into the limited space within the interface.

There is also a perception that mobile and tablet owners are more interested in playing freemium products and are unlikely to convert to real money gambling. But given that Live Dealer is not available on

W O R L D - L E A D I N G

L I V E

any of these freemium games because the business model doesn’t allow it, its userfriendly simplicity is a unique opportunity to talk newcomers through the process.

As we’ve found via tablet at Jack Gold, consequently, the product brings in new

C A S I N O .

“ With over 100 tables here, and limitless customisation options, Evolution continues to lead the Live Casino world.

It’s a complete offering that meets the needs of all operators and all player types.”

players who enjoy Live Dealer on the move as much - if not more so - than they did sitting at their desktops.

And with our provider, Evolution, making the technology available to mobile phone users as well in September those numbers are only likely to increase as we head into 2014.

Live Dealer on mobile and tablet can be as beneficial to affiliates as well as operators. Many of the former have understandably been put off by mobile to date, given the problems with tracking customers via Apps bought from the Apple App store.

Yet, given that Jack Gold is a web app, it allows affiliates full-tracking and the allimportant credit for the traffic they direct to the Live Dealer tables into the casino.

With advantages for players, operators and affiliates therefore, it is hard not to see Live Dealer as being an important part of the product mix for tablet and casino over the next few years.”

W O R L D - B E A T I N G

R E S U L T S .

Evolution Live Casino: The leading Live Casino platform.

The largest, most flexible Live Casino studio resource in Europe Unrivalled customisation and localisation options – including native speaking tables open to all licensees

OLESYA IVANOVA, HEAD OF FLOOR OPERATIONS AT EVOLUTION’S LIVE CASINO

In-venue Live Studio solutions, too, within land-based casinos A flawless live gaming experience across multiple channels: PC, iPad, other mobile devices, TV and VLTs Proven first-to-market advantage for operators in re-regulated markets.

Find out more by calling us on +44 (0) 20 7563 4223, or email asrealasitgets@evolutiongaming.com

www.evolutiongaming.com

AS REAL AS IT GETS

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Retail B2B Retail Listings

B2B content R et ai l

www.sis.tv info@sis.tv

B2B epos

Casino virtual betting Inspired Gaming Group is to install its BetBOX virtual sports and bet management system in RAY’s Casino Helsinki, which will house a brand new sports bar area for customers to bet on virtual races over the counter using the Inspired BetBOX POS system. Steve Rogers, managing director of Inspired’s Virtual Sports division, said: “We are delighted to have RAY as our first BetBOX casino customer and look forward to announcing many more in the near future.

”

R et ai l

ACTION IMAGES / JOHN SI

BROADCAST

www.spielog2.com

B2B exhibitions R et ai l

The Bookmakers’ Trade Fair 2013 October 3 2013 at Wolverhampton Racecourse

BT Sport secures FA Cup rights

organised by

BOSmagazine B2B publications

JAKE HUMPHREY WILL BE HEADING UP BT SPORT’S FOOTBALL COVERAGE WITH HELP FROM MICHAEL OWEN AND DAVID JAMES

R et ai l

Alongside its top picks of Premier League games, BT Sport has also signed up for Conference and FA Cup matches. making sense of the gaming industry

B2B signage systems R et ai l

www.mrgsystems.co.uk sales@mrgsystems.co.uk

he BBC and BT Sport have secured a four year shared rights deal that will see both broadcasters become home to The FA Cup from 2014.

Jake Humphrey will lead BT Sport’s coverage from the company’s ground breaking new studios in the Queen Elizabeth Park, Stratford. BT Sport is already due to show live matches from The FA Cup in the 2013-14 season along with live Barclays Premier League matches and a range of top class football from top tier leagues across the world.

Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT Retail, said: “BT Sport made a determined joint bid to retain The FA Cup rights because we believe it is one of the truly great club football competitions. We will be fielding a superb line up of presenting talent to showcase and analyse all of the action.

New FA Chairman, Greg Dyke, said: “I

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would like to thank everyone who expressed an interest in these FA Cup broadcast rights and congratulate the BBC and BT Sport on their successful tenders. BT Sport might be new to television but they’re a major corporation and have been a part of everyday British life for a number of decades.”

Meanwhile the Football Conference and BT Sport have agreed a two-year deal for the new channels to show 30 live matches a season from the Conference Premier. BT Sport will host live broadcasts from the grounds for 25 league matches, plus both legs of the play-off semis and the Promotion Final at Wembley, from the start of the 2013-14 season in August.

The deal will bring live football from the 5th tier, immediately below League Two, to a much wider audience than ever before, which will enable greater opportunities for marketing and sponsorship deals.

BT Sport will show 38 exclusively live football matches from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the ‘top picks’ from August 2013 for three seasons. The channels will also show live FA Cup in the 2013/14 season, UEFA Europa League, top tier live football from Scotland, Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, Australia and the USA, plus action from the FA Women’s Super League.

Bruce Cuthbert, director commercial customers at BT Sport, said: “This is the first time in Premier League history that top pick matches have been shown anywhere other than on Sky. In the first 13 Premier League rounds until December, we will show the biggest clubs at least twice including Tottenham taking on serious title contenders in both matches, against Manchester United and Chelsea. We have Manchester United twice, Manchester City twice, Arsenal twice, Chelsea twice, Everton twice and Liverpool three times.”

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BROADCAST World Cup remains free-to-air ootball governing bodies FIFA and UEFA have lost an appeal against a European ruling that the World Cup and Euro Championships should be shown on freeto-air TV in the UK. The failure of the appeal means that every single game from the football World Cup Finals and the European Championship Finals will be available freeto-air for the foreseeable future. FIFA and UEFA has been challenging the UK’s ‘crown jewels’ list of sporting events required to stay free-to-air for a number of years through the European Courts, but the ACTION IMAGES / JOHN SIBLEY European Court of Justice should now have had the last say on the matter, meaning betting shops will be able to show the games to customers at no extra cost.

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sia, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, around 300 retail outlets in Poland will show the live BAGS greyhound content from the SIS2 channel.

The international expansion is down to SIS’s partnership with leading operator Intralot. The Greek-based company, supported by its media partner company Vermantia, localises, distributes and operates the SIS2 channel on behalf of its customers in those countries. George Irvine, managing director, SIS Betting, said: “This is yet another step in our expansion internationally and a further sign that the quality of our content is proving popular overseas.”

Correction ast month Betting Business ran a story regarding Setanta Sports in Ireland which suggested that the broadcaster could now offer all televised Premier League matches to its customers after signing a distribution deal with BT Sport. This is not the case as Setanta Sports does not have the distribution rights for games televised by Sky Sports. Setanta is able to offer BT Sport’s 38 exclusively live football matches from the Barclays Premier League - including 18 top pick matches - as well as coverage of the Premier League’s 3pm kick offs, but not Sky Sports’ 116 live matches.

We apologise for any confusion caused.

Inspired recognised

by Times aming machine and virtual sport developer Inspired Gaming Group has been ranked 34th in The Sunday Times’ league table of Britain’s private firms with fastest growing overseas sales.

Inspired has quadrupled international sales to an annualised £25.3m in just two years. The company has expanded its footprint to 33 countries worldwide and supplies gaming technology to major operators such as Sisal in Italy and the China Sports Lottery in China. Founder and CEO Luke Alvarez commented: “Inspired is a fast-growing, innovative, British technology company that using our UK base as a platform to push into fast growing international jurisdictions. The UK leads the world in gaming innovation and we’re proud to be exporting that leadership into exciting emerging markets.”

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Polish appetite for greyhounds he appetite for SIS’ greyhound services is continuing across Eastern Europe with the announcement that shops in Poland have started showing the coverage.

Following similar rollouts in Greece, Rus-

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GEORGE IRVINE

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GAMING MACHINES

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THE EUROS WILL REMAIN FREE TO AIR

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DATA Perform gets data deal ootball DataCo, the body that markets and commercialises the official match data for the Barclays Premier League, The Football League and Scottish Professional Foot- DAVID FOLKER ball League, has appointed digital sports media group Perform as the official and exclusive supplier of live data to the betting sector. The three year deal, which starts at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, will mark the first time a company has been specifically appointed to collect and distribute live data feeds tailored exclusively for bookmakers.

David Folker, general manager at DataCo, commented: “We recognise the betting sector has very specific needs and speed and accuracy of data is critical to the success of their business.”

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Coral to rollout SSBTs with BGT ookmaker Coral has selected BGT as its software provider to power the rollout of 1,000 selfservice betting terminals (SSBTs) across their UK shops. With other growth from existing partners, BGT will more than double their UK estate with over 5,000 terminals being deployed by the end of 2013.

Mark Chambers, chief operating officer at Coral, commented: “Coral is constantly looking for ways to improve our customer experience with SSBTs delivering a vast range of betting opportunities across a

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number of markets. We look forward to continuing our longstanding partnership with BGT and further enhancing the SSBT experience for our customers.”

William Weir, chief commercial officer at BGT, added: “We are delighted to be expanding our estate with Coral who we have worked with since the outset in the UK. Rolling out 1,000 terminals across their estate is a tremendous testament to the hard work of so many over the last six years and we see this as an important milestone in BGT’s development.”

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7YV[V[`WL [OYV\NO [V WYVK\J[PVU (SS Ä UPZOLZ For example: Bet slip dispensers Light boxes-wall and freestanding External ashtrays Magnetic wall boards Swivelling Tower with Poster Frames Pelmet Lights Upstands Floor bins with or without logo Paper Racks Pen dispensers Leaner legs

Coupon Dispensers Poster Frames Racing Post Holders Machine Tables Bandit Screen Posts Window Display Legs Stainless Steel Handrail Systems TV Gantry Systems LCD TV Brackets Plasma TV Brackets

SPECIALIST SUPPLIERS OF METALWORK TO THE BETTING INDUSTRY FOR OVER 16 YEARS UNIT 1E PECKLETON LANE BUSINESS ESTATE PECKLETON LEICESTER LE9 7RN TEL;01455 823721 FAX;01455 828339 EMAIL;davidross7@btconnect.com www.davidrossfabrications.co.uk Photographs courtesy of Coral Racing & Chisholm Bookmakers

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Sportsbook

“” Smarkets is a betting exchange built for professional traders that need the latest technology, fastest executions and lowest transaction costs.

Jason Trost CEO and co-founder, Smarkets

Smarkets betting exchange has rebranded and switched its focus from social to professional sports traders. The three yearold online exchange, that uses its own proprietary financial trading technology and offers commission at just 2 per cent, has introduced a raft of new features tailored to suit the needs of professional sports punters, traders and arbitrage bettors.

DATA

Sportradar’s system gets to the point

portradar and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) have launched a newly developed live scoring system, which enables ITF to have live data from all ITF Pro Circuit tournaments around the world directly by their umpires. The ITF schedule comprises over 1,000 tournaments with over 50,000 matches per year.

After becoming a partner to collect and distribute ITF Official Data, Sportradar started working with the ITF to ensure the collection and supply of live data from selected ITF tournaments to the media and betting industry. While corresponding to all officiating requirements according to the official tennis rules, the new system can also provide the necessary data depth as well as the data transmission speed and security required by the betting and media industry.

Jan Menneken, executive director, commercial for the ITF, said: “The implementation of the new live scoring system is a mile-

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stone for the ITF. The collection of the scores directly by our umpires represents a major improvement of our internal processes, assures data integrity and provides interesting opportunities to develop added value services for the national federations, tournaments, players and commercial partners moving forward.”

Furthermore, the new ITF Scoring System enables Sportradar to further extend its Betradar Live Betting Services. The introduction of the Live Scoring System will increase the coverage to up to over 30 tournaments per week or 50,000+ matches per year.

Sportradar group chief executive officer Carsten Koerl said: “The partnership with ITF has been very successful so far and we have already over 150 clients acquiring our Betradar Live Betting services for ITF matches. The tremendous increase of available matches will allow us to further improve our existing services, but more importantly we are looking forward to the

ACTION IMAGES / ANDREW COULDRIDGE LIVEPIC

Sportradar’s R&D department has been busy with the firm releasing a revolutionary new tennis scoring system and a new virtual racing product.

launch of innovative live betting solutions for tennis in the near future.”

In the meantime, Betradar has released its new virtual sports betting product Virtual Horse Classics (VHC). First customers include Nigerian online bookmaker NairaBet.com, Georgian online bookmaker europe-bet.com, and Tempobet.com.

The hosted front-end and fully customisable VHC solution provides 24/7/365 real money betting on virtual horse races and therefore, a close to reality betting experience. Each race simulation found in VHC feeds from the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence, all developed in-house by an experienced team of virtual sports experts.

The fast-paced betting approach always offers two race days in parallel with 9 races per day and a total duration of 45 minutes.

Every three minutes on average, a new race starts, this means clients feel the thrill of betting through unlimited betting opportunities and immediate payouts. The product

SPORTRADAR HAS DEVELOPED A NEW TENNIS REPORTING SYSTEM WITH THE ITF

delivers a wide range of fixed odds on the outcome of each race, as horse-racing punters are used to. With a unique race brochure, VHC gives the users access to valuable insight information about the past performances of jockeys and horses. In VHC, all statistics and odds are offered through the bookmaker’s existing web interface, as it happens with real horse racing events. The use of Betradar’s existing infrastructure is the key feature that makes VHC the perfect addition to any virtual sports betting portfolio.

Erik Lorenz, managing director sales of Sportradar, said: “We all know that Virtual Sports Betting has become an integral part of modern bookmaking. With Virtual Horse Classics, we extend our virtual sports betting portfolio with an entertaining and revenue-driving solution for all bookmaking operators. The fast-paced betting approach perfectly meets today’s market needs and punters will enjoy the impulsive nature of virtual horse racing.”

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LIVE BETTING

B2B Sportsbook Listings

VIRTUAL SPORTS

B2B betting platform S po rt sb

Online launch for BGT software GT, the firm which has been making big strides in the provision of live betting in the retail environment with its self service betting terminals (SSBTs), has announced its first online-only customer Austrian betting brand Kajot-bet.at.

As the company explained: “Our leading software not only runs on terminals, but is now available as an Online Turnkey Betting Solution. The ‘complete sports betting experience’ is on its way of global expansion.

We expect this to be the first of many online sportsbook customers in future and wish our client Kajot all the best with the new platform.”

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Kiron making headway in Nigeria iron Interactive has signed a long term licensing agreement with 1960Bet, Nigeria’s largest sports betting operator. The agreement provides for the delivery

by Kiron to 1960Bet of its suite of virtual betting products, including horse racing, greyhound and football. 1960Bet is Nigeria’s premier high street bookmaker with a large and growing retail estate currently exceeding 600 betting shops. 1960Bet also operates online from its www.1960bet.com website as well as its sister site www.betland.com.

Kiron’s products will be rolled out to 1960Bet’s entire estate of retail betting shops, across Nigeria, over a pre-determined period. An initial roll out to 100 shops is planned in the short term.

Kiron has recently signed deals with two other Nigerian betting brands; Nairabet and Winasbet. Both deals involve the deployment of Kiron’s scheduled based virtual sports products on a fixed odds basis, including horses, dogs and football.

Nairabet operates Nigeria’s leading sports betting website via www.nairabet.com. Kiron’s products will be made available on a streaming basis on Nairabet’s website as well as on an in-shop render basis on up to 50 Nairabet branded betting shops across Nigeria.

Winasbet will be deploying Kiron’s products across its retail estate numbering 10 betting shops currently, as well as a number of new stores being planned over the next couple of months.

Gibson, mkodo’s business development director, comments: “We have created and operated successful mobile betting and gaming services for European Operators for the last six years. We are very excited to be introducing innovative products, and enhancing those products, in the North American mobile lottery and gaming market.”

This latest release follows on from the recent launch of a bespoke iPad version of the App that took advantage of the massive importance and growth in the tablet sector.

alone offered 27 different bets, including a host of high value specials for the Confederations Cup held in Brazil. Paddy Power sports and sponsorship PR manager Sebastian Bell said: “We wanted to kick this huge summer of sport off with a bang so decided to really give our customers some serious value for money in June.”

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Business review etting Promotion is to revise its business plan and analyse its two key products after a disappointing second quarter of trading. In its interim report, the company explained: “The Board of Betting Promotion is of the view that the company has not been able to deliver satisfactory results for some time. For this reason the new company chairman, Peter Åström, will act as executive chairman and work together with management and staff to make a review of the business.”

Betting Promotion CEO Jonas Ornstein commented: “I am looking forward to working with Peter Åström to achieve positive operating results.”

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MARK GIBSON

JONAS ORNSTEIN

MOBILE Mobile upgrade from mkodo kodo has enhanced Atlantic Lottery’s Mobile App so that it now includes push notifications or ‘alerts’ that make access to two popular pieces of lottery information more convenient. Players can now receive a notification when new draw results are available, and when a local player has won a significant prize. Mark

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AFFILIATE Money back champs addy Power offered the best value for money in June to customers looking for money back offers, according to figures from a leading affiliate marketing website.

Freebets.com rated the Irish bookie ahead of its competitors a month after it finished runner-up to Ladbrokes in the first ever research into the booming sector. Statistics showed that 123 unique money back offers were promoted by the 18 online bookmakers monitored. Paddy Power

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Bet Butler revamp he UK’s leading bet broker, Bet Butler, will unveil a brand new online platform in time for the 2013-14 football season, offering an enhanced range of bets across all sports and a new live betting feature. This will be closely followed by the launch of Bet Butler Casino.

The expansion marks the culmination of a record-breaking year for Bet Butler, which has seen its membership base more than treble, spurred on by a series of successful partnerships with Premier League clubs and the Football League. The newlook site will continue to offer the betting tools and insight, while introducing a more intuitive playing experience and a vastly increased range of betting options.

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making sense of the gaming industry

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iGaming Ladbrokes supply deal Net Entertainment is to supply Ladbrokes with a selection of online desktop and mobile games. Ladbrokes eGaming’s Richard Poole commented: “We have made clear our pledge to work with best-of-breed suppliers and Net Entertainment certainly fits into this category.”

Fighting on mobile

888 integration Net Entertainment’s Björn Krantz is also ‘extremely pleased’ to go live with 888.com: “We have been focusing strongly on this integration project which will allow 888 to cross-sell our leading portfolio of games over multiple channels and markets.”

Net Entertainment has also launched a mobile version of its Fisticuffs slot.

Set in the early 1900s, when boxing was for gentlemen, Fisticuffs Touch features two fighters on the reels ready for action.

Fruity slot Reel Rush is Net Entertainment’s new online video slot release.

Chief product officer Simon Hammon said: “At Net Entertainment we always produce better games and our unique approach to the classic slots game delivers the ultimate reels experience.”

DEALS

Danske Spil selects Betware and Prima Both Danske Spil and William Hill will be offering Microgaming content to its customers after two new supply deals. anish national lottery Danske Spil has awarded its bingo and instant games tender to Betware in conjunction with Prima Networks Limited. Danske Spil was impressed with the functionality of Betware’s open Gaming Platform and its Instant Games Platform, coupled with Microgaming’s bingo and instant games portfolio.

Søren Kofoed Weeke, CIO at Danske Spil, said: “With our choice, we have found the right supplier to help develop our product and create new and exciting experiences for our customers. The supplier will become part of the family of partners who deliver games to Danske Spil’s customers.”

Betware will deliver Microgaming’s bingo software to Danske Spil, which represents a major proportion of the Danish gaming market, through a supplier agreement with Prima Networks Limited.

Loraine Schoevers, director of Prima Networks Limited, commented: “We are delighted to be awarded the Danske Spil contract. There’s no doubt that this contract affirms our position in Denmark as the leading software supplier and furthermore in regulated markets as a whole.”

Another major operator taking on Mirogaming content is William Hill. The bookmaker has signed an agreement to take Microgaming’s casino and mobile content through the Quickfire integration.

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James Curwen, director of gaming at William Hill, said: “The agreement with Quickfire, powered by Microgaming, will provide our players with world-class gaming content. Microgaming’s expertise in the industry and its rapid development of new content will strengthen our position globally; we look forward to working with them closely.”

Microgaming CEO Roger Raatgever added: “William Hill is a giant in the world of online gaming, highly recognisable and respectable. Naturally, we are thrilled to include them on our list of customers. We are confident that the collaboration between Microgaming and William Hill will prove fruitful for both parties and go from strength to strength.”

In the meantime, Microgaming is expanding its multi-player portfolio with the addition of two new tournament slots, Leagues of Fortune and Karate Pig. Leagues of Fortune is a five reel, 1024 ways to win video slot which sends players on a deep sea exploration. The game contains a free spins bonus feature which can award a player with up to 35 free spins and a 5x multiplier.

The martial arts themed video slot Karate Pig is a five reel, 40 payline game which offers stacked wild substitutes and free spins.

Providing substantial winning opportunities, the slot also includes a scatter bonus feature which unlocks a three-level karate

ROGER RAATGEVER: ‘WILLLIAM HILL IS A GIANT IN THE WORLD OF ONLINE GAMING’

bonus game.

Microgaming’s portfolio of tournament games now totals 17 and they are used for a variety of tournament types across their network. New addition Karate Pig will be used for the network’s midweek, 3-day, Survivor tournament which is a multiple round knock-out competition. This tournament commences weekly and has a $2,000 prize pool which is shared equally among the top

10 players.

David Reynolds, spokesperson for Microgaming’s multi-player games, commented: “In recognition of the growing popularity of community-based gaming, we are expanding our multi-player platform to ensure we deliver the most diverse multi-player experience to our operators’ players. Tournament enthusiasts can look forward to additional new games in the coming months.”

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SOCIAL

B2B iGaming Listings

SLOTS

B2B publications iG am in

DoubleDown for Century nternational Game Technology (IGT) has made its DoubleDown fun-toplay social gaming app available for players on selected Century Casinos websites.

Players have access to IGT’s library of content including hit titles like Wolf Run, Siberian Storm, Kitty Glitter and more. Players visiting Century Casinos websites can play the same casino games they know and love anywhere, anytime, gaining immediate access to 40+ slot games, Game King Video Poker, Black Jack, Roulette, Poker and Bingo. IGT’s DoubleDown Casino partner program allows the casino player with a way to connect with the casino property with Century Casinos customers able to remain connected to the Century Casinos brand.

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SLOTS

nline slot games from Bally Technologies are now available on the United Kingdom-based Mecca Bingo, owned by Rank Group. Bally currently provides casino-management and playertracking systems for Rank’s land-based casinos. The new agreement enables online players to enjoy Bally’s game content.

“We are confident our players will have a great time playing Bally games,” said Rank Group head of games, Alex Franklin. “Bally is widely recognised as one of the top gaming companies in the world and it is exciting to partner with them as they continue to grow in the online market.”

Bally Interactive general manager Michael Probert added: “Bally games being on the well-known Mecca Bingo is another big step for our online gaming business.”

ritish slots and table games supplier Realistic Games has unveiled its latest five reel slot Randall’s Riches. Named after the company’s mascot, Dove Randall, who appears in each of their Flash slot games, the 10 line slot follows the adventures of Able and his trusty sidekick Mable the donkey as they seek their fortune.

It features multiplying gold symbols and gold wild symbols and boasts a top prize of 10,000x stake. Three or more scatter symbols see a Pick Axe bonus awarded, whilst three TNT symbols on any win line triggers the ‘Search for Randall’s Riches’ bonus round.

Players choose from an array of weaponry in the game and blast the abandoned mine to release the treasure.

Commercial director Andy Harris said: “The graphics and the sound are great fun

on Randall’s Riches and I know customers are going to really enjoy playing it.

“As importantly, it will be available via Flash as well as Apple and Android versions of phone and tablet, meaning they will be able to play it on all of the most popular devices and operating systems” Randall’s Riches is Realistic Games’ seventh five reel game and takes their total slots offering, including three reel versions, to 15.

They also provide roulette and blackjack.

The Wantage-based firm was founded in 2002 by Andy Cattrell, who has been involved in the terrestrial and online gaming industry as a player, operator and supplier since the 1980s. Its own games platform, ReGaL, first went into production in April 2011 and is now used by operators including Bet 365, BetVictor, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Stan James and Boylesports.

Yeti still plays

ing blockbuster hits Thunderstruck and Tomb Raider. The addition of this content coincides with a series of enhancements 188BET are making to their mobile solution to further improve the customer experience. Frank Schuengel, mobile channel manager at 188BET, commented: “Quickfire’s casino and Live Dealer offering has proved extremely successful and we expect the mobile content to perform just as well. We are very excited with how our mobile solution is progressing.”

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etOnSoft has launched the new video slot game Yeti Hunt i3D. Tom Burke, creative lead on the product, said: “Yeti Hunt i3D is the second game to be released from our suite of innovative i3D (isometric 3D) titles. With this game we have created an engaging and fun group of characters within an imaginative environment and a very accessible narrative. Yeti Hunt i3D features a more traditional game personality, that will give our players a sense of familiarity and a great risk/reward experience. The game embodies a harmonious mix of fantastic new technology, funky graphics and engaging gameplay.”

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i1@intralot.com www.intralotinteractive.com

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Nyx OGS launches with EveryMatrix nitially live on Jetbull.com, Nyx OGS and its mobile offering, Move powered by Nyx OGS, is to be rolled out across EveryMatrix’s customer base over the coming weeks delivering a whole new range of top performing games for both PC and Mobile device. Everymatrix executive chairman Stian Hornsletten commented: “It has been a pleasure to work with Nyx to get the OGS integrated and live with the GamMatrix Casino Engine. The process has been seamless and highly efficient. The games have immediately taken a top spot among our 12 casino vendors and particularly the mobile games have shown to be extremely popular.

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Kicking new game SoftBetis due to launch a combative new branded slot featuring martial arts legend Bruce Lee. The 5 reel slot, unique to iSoftBet, comes with 243 individual winning combinations, bringing all the action and adrenaline associated with the movie star. An icon in the world of pop culture, Bruce Lee set the bar for martial arts films and inspired many of today’s biggest names in the field. With the new game, iSoftBet is looking to continue his legacy by bringing their Bruce Lee slot to both the online casino arena as well as to its mobile games collection.

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Mascot takes centre stage

Bally good deal

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MOBILE 188BET adds new games portsbook 188BET has enhanced its mobile gaming offering by adding a a suite of instant-play mobile games from Quickfire, powered by Microgaming.

Through this deal, 188BET players will benefit from over 30 HTML5 games includ-

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Back office ECB approval for Innovative Following the release of the new 5 euro note Innovative Technology’s NV9 USB, NV10 USB and NV200 note validators have all received European Central Bank (ECB) approval for their ability to recognise genuine Euro banknotes.

Unibet deal Nyx Interactive CEO David Flynn says he is ‘thrilled’ to make an agreement with Unibet to supply Nyx OGS and Gong for Griffiths Move. “Unibet have a strong Nottingham Trent University’s Pro- focus and growth within the fessor of Gambling Studies Dr mobile space.

Mark Griffiths has become the first This fits exever recipient of a lifetime retremely well search award, given by the US with our National Council on Problem Move powGambling (NCPG). The award is ered by Nyx given for long-standing research OGS product which assists problem gamblers offering.” and their families.

Ukash at ATMs

Global online cash payments provider Ukash has teamed up with independent ATM operator, Bank Machine to allow consumers to convert Ukash codes into cash at Bank Machine ATMs across the UK without the need for a debit or credit card.

DATA JAMES VARGA: ‘PARTNERSHIP WITH CALLCREDIT AND AVOCO IS A GIANT LEAP FORWARD’

Three is the magic number for ID Callcredit has improved its ID capabilities with a new deal encompassing Avoco Identity Platform and miiCard. ata expert Callcredit Information Grouphas extended its existing partnership with the Avoco Identity Platform to include miiCard’s online trusted ID verification services.

The tri-party partnership provides the digital economy with the first consumer-centric identity solution that leverages Assured Identities based on online bank accounts and supported by bureau data, strong authentication (up to three factors) and is powered by a compliant and tested architecture. As set out in the ‘Good Practice Guide: Identity Proofing and Verification of an Individual’ by the CESG, the UK’s National Technical Authority on Information Assurance and Cabinet Office, Government Digital Service - the access to online retail bank accounts may be used to establish online identities with the highest level of assurance. Online financial accounts, when qualified and matched with bureau data, provide the strongest available

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source of validation for consumers today and reflect the role that banks can play when tackling issues of trust and online identity assurance for organisations wishing to embrace the IDA agenda such as retail banks, consumer finance, healthcare, pre-employment screening, government and even other identity providers.

A Bring Your Own Identity (BYOID) service, miiCard verifies identities to the same level as an in-person photo ID check, through a consumer-controlled, patented process that leverages the existing trust between an individual and their financial institution. Members verify their identity using their existing bank account in an online process that takes just minutes, and then use their miiCard to create trust across a range of participating sites and services, as well as within their own personal networks. Strong multi-factor authentication including hard tokens, geolocation and voice biometrics ensure the true assertion of the

identity in purely online verification.

In line with the government’s midata initiative miiCard’s BYOID service puts consumers back in control of their real identities and personal information online.

Angus Sim, head of alliances at Callcredit Information Group, commented: “Unlocking the power of data is at the core of Callcredit and the addition of consumers’ financial profiles takes this one step further. The global Digital Economy is fast becoming a reality and we believe that consumers will use it more and more as trust frameworks begin to deliver convenient and secure means of managing individual online identities.”

MiiCard CEO James Varga said: “To enable trust online and realise the full potential of the digital economy we need to build a trust ecosystem. This partnership with Callcredit and Avoco is a giant leap forward in building this capability. Together we provide a flexible, robust and trusted Identity Service that can

truly open up services and access entirely online and in just minutes for over 35m UK residents today.”

The extension of the partnership follows the recent announcement that Callcredit and Avoco have teamed up to provide a fully compliant, mature identity assurance solution to Identity Service Providers. With the addition of the miiCard trusted identities that ‘prove you are who you say you are’ now built in, the platform raises the bar even further with online identity assurance providing the strongest level of trust and traceability available today in a purely online and digital environment.

Sim concluded: “Callcredit continues to take the lead on innovation within the industry, leveraging data and consulting expertise to support partnerships with best-practice identity providers (IDPs) to provide easy to implement, flexible solutions for public services and businesses from SMEs through to enterprise.”

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BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013 Editor: Andrew McCarron Email: am@sjc.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1457 867 683 Managing editor: Ken Scott Email: ks@sjc.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1273 699 900

Advertising sales: Neil Judson, Email: njudson@gbmedia.eu Tel: +44 (0) 1204 396 397 Fax: +44 (0) 1204 392 748 Ad Production: Dave Roderick Email: gdk@sjc.co.uk

Contributors: John Samuels, James Walker, Alex Lee

Fax: +44 (0) 1204 392 748 Subscriptions: Sarah Haworth, Email: shaworth@gbmedia.eu Editorial & Production: Tel: +44 (0) 1204 396 397 20 New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UF, UK Fax: +44 (0) 1204 392 748 Tel: +44 (0) 1273 699 900 Advertising & Subscriptions: Publishing Director: GB Media Corporation Ltd John Sullivan Bolton Technology Exchange Email: jsullivan@gbmedia.eu 33 Queensbrook, Bolton BL1 4AY, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1204 396 397 Tel: +44 (0) 1204 396 397 Fax: +44 (0) 1204 392 748

IDENTITY

REGULATION

Show the ID

Bwin.party locates GeoComply

umio Inc., the fast growing online and mobile credentials management company, and XP Capital, the new innovative binary options mobile betting platform, has announced that Jumio’s real-time customer identification solution is now live on the XP Capital iOS mobile application helping welcome and verify customers from all over the world. New customers at XP Capital are asked to hold their ID document in front of the camera on their mobile device.

Jumio’s Netverify scans the customer ID documents including driving licences, passports and ID cards and automatically authenticates security features and the customer data in the ID document.

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eoComply, which was recently awarded a licence by the Nevada Gaming Control Board to provide geolocation solutions to online gaming operators, has been selected by Bwin.party for support across both PC and Mobile devices in the US. GeoComply said it was chosen because of its ability to deliver on the high standards of compliance required by regulators in the US. Anna Sainsbury, CEO of GeoComply USA Inc, said: “As a specialist company focused on the iGaming space; we are very much looking forward to assisting Bwin.party in delivering to the gold standard of iGaming compliance in geolocation technologies.”

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TECHNOLOGY IT deal ntralot has signed a new five year IT contract with Greek gambling giant OPAP after an international tender process. The contract will see Intralot implement a new central system and provide support, maintenance and evolution of the system. The duration of this agreement is for two years with an option for three one-year renewals.

Intralot has also signed an extension to its current contract with OPAP until the commencement of the new system. The combined value of the implementation contract and the services agreement contract is 101m euro with the project implementation timeframe agreed at seven months.

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Leander gets Alderney licence latform and game developer specialist Leander Games has been successful in gaining an Alderney Core Service Provider Associate Certificate. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has granted Leander Games with a Core Service Provider Associate Certificate, enabling Leander Games to offer its complete portfolio of games to operators licensed in the same jurisdiction. CEO Steven Matsell said: “We are very pleased that we have been granted this certificate by the Commission. We are really pushing the company to grow significantly and apart from it being a seal of credibility for our company, it really enables us to offer our content to some of the largest gambling operators in the world.”

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DATA Playscan hits China venska Spel subsidiary Playscan can now provide a solution in China that minimises the harmful effects of gambling, by using expert knowledge of gaming behaviour, problem gambling, and CSR with the latest technologies. This provides not only an informed choice to the player about their gambling behaviour, but also provides the operator invaluable information to proactively prevent problematic gambling. FuSheng Interactive is taking on the Playscan product in China and chairman Anders Holmgren is delighted to be teaming up with the technology firm: “We believe Playscan have great potential in China and FSI will give full support on the development.”

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Perform gets £40m Opta igital sports media group Perform has bought sports data company Opta for £40m following a successful round of fundraising. The acquisition, complements Perform’s existing content distribution business and strengthens the company’s position in the provision of sports content to the media and betting sectors as well as enhance Perform’s direct to consumer products such as Goal. Opta is a market leader in collecting, packaging, analysing and distributing sports data in digital format to the media, betting and professional sports sectors. It has been at the forefront of the development of the global market for highly detailed performance data.

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Opinions expressed in this publication should not be regarded as the official view of GB Media Corporation Ltd, except where stated. Views, opinions and recommendations contained in this publication are put forward for consideration only. No action should be taken in reliance upon any such views, opinions or recommendations. Neither GB Media Corporation Ltd nor contributors accept any responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person howsoever caused or arising as a result of or in consequence of action taken or refrained from in realiance on the contents of this publication.

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Notes for contributors: BBi welcomes the submission of articles for consideration by the editor with a view to publication. Submission of an article will be held to imply that the article contains original unpublished work which GB Media Corporation Ltd may lawfully publish. All submissions are made at the owner’s risk. © GB Media Corporation Ltd, 2013 All rights strictly reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission given, full acknowledgement of author, publisher and source must be given.

VALIDATION

B2B Back Office Listings

Crane prepared for new tenner

B2B ball pens

he new £10 note will cause few problems for customers of Crane Payment Solutions ahead of its introduction as the company works closely with banks and mints to ensure that software is available for new coins and notes in advance of them being in circulation.

Crane Payment Solutions, part of Crane Co, was formed in 2006 with the strategic focus to provide a full range of high quality money handling solutions, aimed at the gaming, retail, transportation and vending markets. The team at Crane Payment Solutions work closely with machine manufacturers to ensure the development of products which satisfy both their requirements and the requirements of end users - for example by developing eye-catching bezels with blue flashing LEDs to help make machines more attractive.

It has been supplying payment products for FOBTs for a number of years and has recently continued its success by winning a significant order in the UK. Crane Payment Solutions’ products for FOBTs include the SR5i, Ardac Elite and PayLink. The Money Controls SR5i coin acceptor (pictured) features sensor technology which results in exceptional acceptances rates. The download capability means that factory quality coinless programming can take place remotely.

The Money Controls Ardac Elite has fieldproven state of the art imaging technology to ensure the highest standards of validation.

Its performance is a result of its advanced image capture and data processing technology that monitors 200,000 data points for every bill inserted, looking at the complete note. This means increased security and very high acceptance rates, accepting ‘street money’ in virtually any state, and inserted at virtually any angle.

To accompany its product range, Crane Payment Solutions offers secure audit and systems integration products and services.

PayLink is designed to help reduce the time to market for PC-based platforms. This technologically advanced product reduces costs and makes it easy to configure peripherals. It means that new applications can be developed without having to create custom payment software.

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Politics Primary gambling activity could still be a thorn in the side of bookmakers looking to open new premises, despite the original reasons for its formulation.

THE GROWTH OF SPLIT PREMISED GAMBLING ESTABLISHMENTS ORIGINALLY PROMPTED THE GAMBLING COMMISSION TO ACT

RECRUITMENT

he Responsible Gambling Trust has been recruiting for a new director of fundraising after Karen Churches Peacock revealed that she will leave the charity in September after four and a half years in the role.

Churches Peacock was responsible for the development, implementation and management of communications and database systems that have been essential to the charity fundraising in excess of £24m since April 2009.

Chief Executive Marc Etches said: “Karen has been a much-valued member of our team and has contributed greatly to the charity’s success in raising a minimum of £5m each year to fund research, education and treatment services to minimise gamblingrelated harm. Her recent success in inspiring over forty people from a diverse range of businesses to participate in fundraising expeditions to Africa in October 2013 (Kilimanjaro) and March 2014 (Sahara) are a testament to her contribution. We are grateful for all her hard work over the last four and a half years and wish her well for the future.”

Churches Peacock, who is leaving the trust because of relocation, said: “I have very much enjoyed working for the Responsible Gambling Trust and am both delighted and proud to have played a part in helping the charity increase its annual fundraising income year-on-year from £4.2m (April 2009) to £5.7m (May 2013). I am also excited about the future and look forward to exploring a number of potential business opportunities that will not require a daily commute into central London.”

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REGULATION

he Gambling Commission has distanced itself from being the final arbiter when it comes to the concept of ‘Primary Gambling Activity’.

In Paddy Power’s recent successful appeal against the London Borough of Newham’s rejection of a planning application, the judge dealing with the appeal suggested that primary gambling activity was an area solely for the Gambling Commission to look at, not licensing authorities.

However, the regulator has issued a statement saying that it does not agree with that suggestion. It commented: “In the Commission’s opinion, given the clear terms of section 153(1) of the Gambling Act 2005 that the authority “…shall aim to permit the use of premises for gambling insofar as the authority think it • (a) in accordance with any relevant code of practice under section 24, • (b) in accordance with any relevant guidance issued by the Commission under section 25…”

It is open to a licensing authority to take account of the relevant parts of those documents that relate to primary gambling activity.”

The Commission recently reminded local authorities of their powers, stressing that when issuing premises licences or ensuring that licensing objectives are being met, they must have regard to guidance issued by the Commission and to the codes of practice it publishes, including for example those on primary gambling activity.

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Commission passes back the buck on primary gambling activity The Gambling Commission originally introduced the concept of ‘Primary Purpose’ in an attempt to stop gambling operators exploiting the ‘split premises’ regulations in order to operate B2 Gaming Machines.

The trend was particularly prevalent in the adult gaming sector where arcades were introducing a ‘betting section’ to their product mix in order to offer the higher stake B2 machines.

The primary gambling activity clause put a stop to such pseudoLBOs by and large by stipulating that licenced betting premises needed to offer a range of OTC betting opportunities rather than simply rely on the gaming machines and that these opportunities ought to provide a substantial percentage of turnover/yield.

The problem that primary gambling activity is now running into is that B2 gaming machines are becoming the biggest contributor to betting shop profits everywhere in the country, and therefore arguably the primary gambling

activity, and lawyers are trying to use the concept to place restrictions on bookmakers.

Indeed, the chief executive of BACTA, the trade association that looks after adult gaming centres, has heavily criticised the Commission’s reading of its own regulation. Leslie MacLeod-Miller commented: “Once again the Gambling Commission’s legal analysis has been found to be flawed, yet the Commission persists in attempting to reinforce its position. Worse still, the Commission will attempt to encourage local authorities to spend vast amounts of money which the Commission is not willing to commit.”

MacLeod-Miller argues that Condition 16 of the regulator’s own rules on the matter says that premises only need to make sure that ‘sufficient facilities for betting are required’ and therefore the requirement for betting to be the main activity is not valid. He even suggested that the Commission’s ‘often contradictory and inconsistent drafting’ could contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

ANALYSIS While the Gambling Commission may seem confident on its stance on primary gambling activity, it appears to be leaving others in its wake. While the concept was introduced to help stop non-betting facilities from operating B2 machines unless they were, essentially, true bookmaking establishments, it has the potential to harm the sector in the future if local authorities are given free rein to interpret what constitutes primary gambling activity during planning applications.

Given that many local authorities up and down the country appear oblivious as to their powers when it comes to gambling premises licensing anyway, the Commission’s apparent reluctance to take ownership of such an abstract condition could pose problems in the industry’s dealings with local authorities in the future.

Lobby efforts against ‘single-manning’ STAFF

n e-petition calling for a mandatory end to ‘single-manning’ of betting shops during opening hours has attracted 2,909 signatures of support. The petition, created by Brian Hillier, calls for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, to ‘properly regulate the betting industry in regard to staff’ and that ‘a shop should be closed if two members of staff are not available’.

An Early Day Motion from Labour MP David Lammy has followed a similar, although less strongly worded theme.

The EDM also calls for ‘improvements to the working conditions of

Director search for Responsible Gambling Trust

A

ANDREW LYMAN: ‘WE WOULD ENCOURAGE MPS AND OTHERS TO READ THE REPORT’

betting shop staff’, and has so far attracted the support of 39 MPs. It also suggests that the ‘Safebet Alliance’, which included major bookmaking operators, trade

30 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

union Community, and other industry stakeholders reconvenes to look at the topic. However, an EDM is not likely to be debated even if it gains a large number of

signatures.

The e-petition has won over the support of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, which hitherto had been focused on the reduction of stakes and prizes on B2 Gaming Machines. The Campaign has also written to MPs asking them to sign both the e-petition and EDM. The Campaign has also belatedly published its report by Landman Economics, which uses methodology that suggests ‘an increase of £1bn in consumer spending on FOBTs destroys just over 13,000 jobs in the UK’.

The report has been criticised by Andrew Lyman, head of public affairs for

William Hill, who said that the campaign commissioned the Landman Economics report to essentially devalue the nature of betting shop jobs. He said: “This report is flawed in one very fundamental respect. It makes the assumption that if betting shop customers were denied the B2 gaming machine product that they would substitute into non-gambling products or services or alternative gambling products.

“We would encourage MPs and others to read the report. We are certain that once you engage with it and apply some cynical intellectual rigour to the findings it will be seen for what it is.”

EiG Totally Gaming

Dissect the anatomy of iGaming

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Comment Customer goodwill should not be gambled

John Samuels of IBAS believes that bookmakers can keep the public onside if they stop penalising customers for their own business’ failings.

irk Vennix, CEO of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), recently informed those gathered at the Association’s AGM that there seemed to be a ‘hurricane’ coming the industry’s way and everything, including the kitchen sink, was being thrown ‘in this lethal war being waged against the betting industry’.

One potential brick in the wall that might be used against this anti-betting tide, as highlighted several times in my articles over the years, is the point of customer enjoyment and loyalty. As that great PR man Lord Bell alluded to at the same AGM, if the general public and betting office customers turn against the industry it is surely dead in the water and its days, as we know it, will be numbered.

Ultimately, it is up to shop proprietors, and company senior executives within the industry to fathom how to engage with the local community and general public, but one subject I can touch upon is the sure-fire way to antagonise and alienate the industry’s customers; through bad customer service.

Those at the coal face of the betting industry are well used to the mantra from above: Put the customer at the heart of all that you do, give the customer great service and he will reward you with his loyalty etc. And, maybe not too surprisingly, this ethos has been in vogue for many years now. After all, who would argue that it does not make sense?

Unfortunately, far too often it appears that this message becomes diluted before it reaches the coal face, those charged with manning the coal face; even those managing the coal face and part of the way up the pit head!

Still, we at IBAS see wrong prices and incorrect handicap propositions being advertised and shown on shop screens (and subsequent bets laid with wrong prices or terms), related contingency bets being blindly and erroneously taken, promotions and bonuses becoming confused or over-stated in their explanation, and trading rules that sometimes do little to enhance the reputation of the industry.

How do some operators mainly respond to such mistakes and oversights made by data systems, text inputters, shop and managerial staff? Answer: Out comes the error, late bet or other trading rule.

So a bookmaker’s response to a customer with a dispute may go something

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32 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

along the lines of these actual recent examples: • “We may have advertised 9/4 and this may have encouraged you to place your bet with us, but in fact the correct price we meant to advertise was 7/4. Although we are aware that a competitor may have been going 2/1 we were 7/4 at the time, so that is how we will be settling the bet, and no we will not be giving you the 2/1 which you could have got elsewhere.”

• “Although you may have asked our member of staff for a bet on Chelsea to win (the Cup), the bet that was written for you by our branch staff said simply ‘Chelsea to win’. In line with our 90 minute rule, and although we acknowledge that Chelsea did win the Cup, the bet is a loser as Chelsea drew at the end of 90 minutes play.”

• “Although we took the horse bet, and it won the 2 mile jump race, it was 15 seconds late and therefore falls outside of our 10 seconds leeway after the off time, the bet has been made void.”

• “Your greyhound bet was processed through our system 4 seconds after the off, and although we did accept it at the time and it won at 9/4, giving you a return of £6.50, we will not be settling your bet as a winner, here is your £2 back.”

• “I’m afraid that one of the prices you were given in your 4 fold accumulator bet was wrong. Even though the other three selections were winners we have settled the bet in accordance with our rule that states that if we lay an obviously wrong price the whole bet is void. Here is your stake money back.”

Of course, there is always more than one side to every story, but nevertheless, one wonders how the guy on the Clapham omnibus would react, and what he would think of the betting industry, if these tales of woe were related to him by the aggrieved customers themselves.

There is clearly a difference between putting the customer at the heart of the business and actually going the extra mile. It never does any harm for the people in charge to spend more time working with those who have customer service responsibilities, but they might also want to take a fresh look at their trading rules at the same time. Nor would we ever discourage anyone whose company has been affected by more IBAS rulings than they would have expected to contact us for a ‘health check’.

The cyclical nature of be s far as the big firms are concerned at least, betting shops are doing alright - especially considering the severe economic situation in the country. Indeed, it could be argued that the performance of Ladbrokes’ betting shops has appeased its shareholders which have long been promised an online revolution from the firm’s executive. At least 2013 has finally seen the green shoots of this promise with the intriguing acquisition of Betdaq, the muchdelayed launch of the new in-house sportsbook and the ‘me-too’ partnership with Playtech.

The main problem for Ladbrokes is that it automatically invites comparisons with William Hill; a firm that has been enjoying high octane, Nitro-9 powered performance for several years now - ever since its audacious acquisition of StanleyBet’s British and Irish betting shop business made it the UK’s biggest bookmaker.

While Ladbrokes’ performance in this period has been tidy, it feels lacking compared to the transformation that Hill’s has undergone, especially online with its now completed Playtech partnership.

Fortunately, the growth in

A

andrew mccarron viewpoint

LBOs, driven mainly, of course, by the popularity of the B2 games, has masked Ladbrokes’ perceived online underperformance. Indeed, the numbers emanating from the machines are like a five-year-old that’s just downed a gallon of Sunny Delight - extremely demanding of your attention with the prospect of more of the same on the horizon.

However, the growing reliance on gaming machines is not healthy, just as the industry’s vast over reliance on British horseracing wasn’t at the time. The shackles fell from bookmakers after the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak cancelled all horseracing and forced bookies to become more creative with their range of offers; it is a lesson well learned. While still strongly important in the betting shop, racing no longer dominates. It is important that gaming machines do not replace it as the LBO crutch.

The current importance of gaming machines, though, is just a short period on a much longer lifespan for the retail betting industry. Before long another LBO product will appear and redress the balance and make it a more egalitarian product mix. There’s a good chance that this has already happened with Self Service

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“I played in many Championship games in the 90s, I won’t name any umpires, where if it got to this situation on the third evening with one wicket left all it needed was to hit the pad!”

Former England captain Michael Vaughan doesn’t exactly paint cricket in a great light, suggesting that in the past some umpires would give a wicket in order to finish a game early.

Meeting the challenges of regulation In an extract from the Gambling Commission’s Annual Review for 2012/13, chairman Philip Graf tells Betting Business that the Commission’s focus remains firmly on those operators and issues that present the greatest risk to the licensing objectives. he Gambling C o m m i s s i o n ’s focus remains on those issues and operators that potentially present the greatest risk to the licensing objectives set out in the Gambling Act 2005. The licensing objectives are, in essence, to keep crime out of gambling, ensure it is fair and open and that the young and vulnerable are protected.

We always prefer to use our powers to educate and support the gambling industry in understanding how to comply with the law, but we never flinch from taking action when necessary against those who would exploit or cheat consumers.

At the same time, we continue to support our regulatory partners in handling local issues through our Local Authority Liaison Unit.

In addition we have a role to play in advising central and

T

of betting shops Betting Terminals. Inrunning betting’s phenomenal popularity online would suggest that the terminals might well take off and eventually compete with the FOBT hegemony.

Should SSBTs outperform anyone’s wildest dreams and actually match the performance of gaming machines, it would be interesting to see whether they too would inspire ‘Stop the SSBT’ style campaigns in the media.

Perhaps they could be known as the heroin of the gambling industry?

The point is that vitriol against the gambling industry is cyclical and at the moment the arrow is pointed at gaming machines. The recent Institute of Economic Affairs report into the subject sums the merry-go-round up succinctly.

Gaming machines aren’t perfect. But they’ve been around for 12 years now and the world hasn’t ended, despite the predictions in the Daily Mail and Guardian.

They are popular with the people who play them, but that doesn’t automatically mean they are addictive. It means they can be enjoyable to play and, certainly compared to almost any other gambling product in the UK, are good value for money.

With a severe lack of

data, apart from the juicy turnover figures which are often wildly misinterpreted sometimes accidentally, it is perhaps understandable why there is currently a crusade or two against the machines, which have also suffered from the trend for High Street betting shops.

But some of the ire is misplaced. For example, in the UK there is a gambling product with a £10 stake that can be repeatedly purchased in non-age controlled premises by 16 year olds in order to win a promoted jackpot prize of £4m, which may no longer be available, and sold by someone without any problem gambling training.

Isn’t that more of a worry than gaming machines in a strictly over 18s environment with caps on stake and prize which still offers a 97 per cent pay out? In comparison to gaming machines, National Lottery scratch cards get a far easier ride in the press.

Maybe it is down to the operator’s expensive wide ranging media advertising campaign - and all that money going into the coffers of those very newspaper’s that rant on and on about gaming machines rather than the glut of lottery games punted out like there’s no tomorrow.

local government and other stakeholders on gambling, its effects and regulation but it is not for the Commission to promote the gambling industry, to do so would be to call into question our independence as a regulator.

This year we spent time securing improved arrangements for research, education and treatment of problem gamblers working with the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and the Responsible Gambling Trust.

We also challenged gambling operators to do more to address the genuine concerns raised about the harm that can be caused to those who gamble to excess or are otherwise exploited.

Technological advances over recent years mean that operators can now monitor play and identify high risk gambling behaviour, enabling them to respond to those players appropriately. But if they wish to continue to grow and innovate to provide safer gambling options, the gambling industry must build confidence with the wider public by demonstrating that operators take full ownership of the licensing objectives.

And, with legislation expected to be in place in 2014, this will apply equally to operators based

overseas that provide gambling facilities to British consumers. At present over 85 per cent of the British online gambling market is regulated overseas, not by the Commission. We therefore welcome the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s endorsement of the proposed repatriation of gambling regulation, so that all those selling gambling facilities to British consumers will be subject to Commission requirements and oversight.

The next 12 months look challenging - we expect the merger with the National Lottery Commission to complete shortly; we will be producing a report during 2014 providing updated information on problem gambling that is comparable with the previous British Gambling Prevalence Surveys. We will continue to support DCMS as it reaches conclusions on the triennial review of machine stakes and prizes; and we are preparing for the extension of our remit to cover overseas operators selling gambling to British consumers.

All this goes alongside our ongoing compliance activity and the continued development of our evidence base in conjunction with the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board and the Responsible Gambling Trust.

All our activity is aimed at protecting players and the wider public from gambling related harm through the provision of effective proportionate regulation - this will always remain at the heart of what we do.

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Business RYAN LINTON

Avoid the throttle with in-memory data Dr Mohammed Haji, senior solutions architect at Software AG, explains how inmemory data management is a much better bet for the gambling industry.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Online bookmakers received a poor press following both this year’s Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National, as on each occasion many networks crashed - with large numbers of punters unable to place bets on their mobile devices.

The huge growth in mobile betting may be an exciting development, but it’s one that brings with it a major challenge. Most operators are using mobility platforms that simply cannot cope with the dramatic increase in data connectivity required to manage the surge in customers using betting apps on their smartphones or tablets. And this problem is at its most acute when the number of bets placed shoots up at sporting events.

Some new entrants to the online betting market have expressed disappointment at not achieving the levels of business expected. Yet, just as with more established competitors, much of the problem is due to the dropout of large numbers of players unable to place their bets as the system ‘throttles’ or crashes.

Typically, the mobile user will be looking to place a bet on an imminent sporting event and their inability to do this instantly will result in a poor and frustrating experience.

Switching to another o n l i n e

“

provider couldn’t be simpler and, without appropriate analytics in place, the resulting revenue loss will be invisible to the operator.

So how can gaming companies address the problems of scalability and performance they face, as they look to improve customer loyalty and reduce the current high levels of churn?

The answer is to move to an enterprise in-memory solution. By putting valuable customer data in-memory rather than using an open-source or database solution, it can be recalled instantly, allowing the business to respond instantly to rapid spikes in demand. A best-practice solution must also be able to scale rapidly to manage terabytes of data, in order to ensure the capacity to cope with a fastgrowing market.

Equally, in delivering this essential flexibility, a software-based inmemory solution which runs on low-cost commodity servers and uses industry-standard APIs can be installed quickly and simply in just an afternoon. This enables the operator to be up and running almost immediately. Full 24/7/365 IT support also ensures that this level of performance is

maintained with minimum outages or downtime.

A best practice in-memory solution will address another industry-wide performance issue. In by-passing the industry-wide problem of garbage collection in Java, this avoids the inevitable pause or ‘stop the world’ scenario which also currently results in many players dropping out.

Many operators are unaware that affordable solutions exist which are able to deliver such dramatic and immediate performance improvement. Yet a simple proof of concept can demonstrate how mobile betting revenues can easily double or treble, simply by being able to accept all bets placed, all of the time.

Looking ahead, increased deregulation (and regulation) is encouraging operators to expand internationally. At the same time, the growth of predictive analysis allows mobile betting and gaming companies to understand their customers better and so put together more creative, targeted advertising and promotional initiatives, in order to increase revenues and build loyalty.

In both cases, the ability to manage planned growth puts even greater demands on data capacity, making it business-critical to have in place an agile, scalable in-memory solution.

With this in place, the gaming operator has the capacity and flexibility to efficiently manage millions of concurrent players, by ensuring that customer transactions consistently take place in real time - at the speed today’s online user demands.”

MOHAMMED HAJI: ‘MANAGING PLANNED GROWTH PUTS EVEN GREATER DEMANDS ON DATA CAPACITY’

Clarion launches new research division RESEARCH

A new report highlights new opportunities in the country, but reminds readers that America’s got talons.

Getting Ready to Fly! Commercial opportunities in the USA, the world’s biggest online gaming market’ is the title of the first market report from Commercial Intelligence, the new division launched by Clarion.

The report highlights the key commercial opportunities available in what is set to become the most lucrative online gaming market anywhere in the world, and examines the US sector and key developments.

Expanding on the decision to launch the Commercial Intelligence division, managing director Julian Graves said: “With ICE Totally Gaming, EiG, GiGse, WrB and ICE Conferences, Clarion own and deliver some of the most respected and successful knowledge and business-exchange brands in the gaming space. By bringing

‘

34 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

together the totality of our insight and experience we are able to build on our presence in the sector with the launch of Commercial Intelligence.

“I see this as being a complementary and a natural fit, with Commercial Intelligence both feeding off and contributing to our existing brands.”

Meanwhile, Clarion’s flagship gaming exhibition ICE Totally Gaming has had its 2013 attendance confirmed at 22,247 by the not for profit organisation BPA Worldwide. BPA verified the total registered attendance as well as demographic and geographic profiles of attendees.

Glenn J. Hansen, BPA worldwide president, praised ICE Totally Gaming 2013 for voluntarily opening its records to independent certification and documentation of its data. He

confirmed: “In addition to facilitating the buying and selling process of exhibit space, an event audit report provides exhibitors with assurance that their investment reaches target audiences for specific markets.

It helps exhibitors to identify ways to maximise ROI and helps show organisers by documenting the quality of their attendees.”

Kate Chambers, portfolio director responsible for ICE, commented: “The BPI audit confirms what a tremendous event ICE 2013 was. Despite the difficult trading conditions, ICE continues to grow, achieving year-on-year increases in attendance. All eyes are now on ICE 2014 and our focus is concentrated on delivering another world class international gaming event at ExCeL London.”

International business lifts PMU FRANCE

espite a difficult economic environment, French monopoly betting operator PMU has recorded a slight increase in turnover for the first half of 2013 of 0.2 per cent to 5.04bn euro (£4.37bn). The overall gross margin increased by 0.8 per cent to 1.29bn euro (£1.12bn) driven by international activity and online offer.

The firm’s extensive network of retail outlets saw turnover drop by 4.1 per cent, which the operator has attributed to the economic climate. It said: “Given the severe downturn of economic activity and particularly the significant rise in unemployment, PMU customers have had to make adjustments to their consumption priorities. This has resulted in a decrease in the number of ticket sales, down 2.5 per cent and there was also a decline in the average value per ticket sale, down 1.4 per cent to 11.80 euro (£10.23).”

Turnover on horseracing in France fell by 0.6 per cent in H1 to 4.93bn euros (£4.27bn), but the gross margin rose 0.4 per cent to 1.26bn euro (£1.09bn). This has been offset internationally, where global common pools rose 110 per cent to 277.7m euro (£240.7m), driven primarily by Belgium, Germany and South Africa. Turnover has quadrupled during the past two years and is an important source of growth for the company.

The PMU’s online division, consisting of horseracing, sportsbetting and poker, saw revenues grow by 5.7 per cent to a turnover of 868m euro (£752m), with PMU.fr is the first betting site of choice in France with an overall market share of 44 per cent.

The firm added: “The total gross margin from internet operations amounted to 144m euro for the first half, an increase of 4.8 per cent. These results are based primarily on strong growth of bets taken on mobile and tablets which now represent 15 per cent of horse race bets and 25 per cent of sports betting.

The PMU continues to win market share within these new activities (reaching 26 per cent for sports betting and 8.4 per cent for poker) by offering innovations such as new applications for mobile devices.”

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Fundraising for Betable Betable, the software development firm which adds betting opportunities to social games, has reportedly raised an extra round of funding in the region of US$15m-$20m, which values the company at between $80m and $100m. It has also recruited Ryan Linton as chief revenue officer, who joins the firm from Zynga where he was vice president of revenue. He said: “There are very few companies that can claim to have created a truly disruptive business model. Betable is one of those companies.”

corporate

appointments

nline casino operator Casumo has O appointed Hanne Aimonen as its new country manager. Previously marketing manager for Net Entertainment, Aimonen will be responsible for managing the brand, communications strategy and marketing activities towards the Finnish market. She commented: “Casumo has managed to develop a completely new concept for the online casino players by combining real money gaming with the social aspect. The Casino Adventure is one of a kind and it will be fantastic to be part of building this in an innovative and technology focused company whose main focus is on creating the best player experience there is.”

HANNE AIMONEN

etfred has recruited Luke Brill to head up Bmanaging its Australian arm. Brill has taken the role of director Betfred.com Australia after running his own consultancy for the past 18 months. He has plenty of experience of the Australian market after five years as Centrebet’s global head of marketing and gaming.

Previous to that he held several marketing roles at Party Gaming and its bookmaker subsidiary Gamebookers. eeds-based Sky Betting and Gaming has Ldirector. appointed Rob Painter as its new marketing He will be responsible for Sky Betting and Gaming’s marketing strategy across all media channels. Previously at The Sun and

www.betradar.com

The Times and The Sunday Times, Painter said: “Having worked for one of the world’s leading media companies for many years, I wanted to find a new and exciting professional challenge, which I feel Sky Betting and Gaming can offer me. Sky Betting and Gaming is reputed to be one of the best companies to work for in the industry and the teams are truly passionate about growing the business to its full potential.”

attracted such an experienced and wellrespected individual. Stephen’s skills and experience greatly complement our plans for the expansion of our global footprint and the enhancements we are currently making to our portfolio of services.

With the Isle of Man data centre expansion currently underway, Stephen’s appointment also underlines our commitment to further growth on the Island.”

ROB PAINTER

STEPHEN TRIMBLE

ecca, part of The Rank Group PLC, has M appointed Murray Chisholm as digital development director. Chisholm joins from

avid Purvis has succeeded Richard Carter D as CEO at 49’s Limited, the firm that supplies LBOs a portfolio of fixed odds betting

Gala where he held a number of senior positions, most recently as business development director for Gala Interactive, and has also held senior positions with Victor Chandler and Tribeca Tables Poker. Murray, who will join the Mecca team later this year and will be based at the company’s office in Gibraltar, said: “Mecca was the clear choice for my next challenge. It is a very successful multichannel brand that has exciting and realistic ambitions.”

products, including the twice daily 49’s draw, Irish lotto Bet, Rapido, virtual horse and greyhound racing. Purvis spent the last five years as managing director and chief executive of Stanleybet and has previsouly worked at Cyberview, Inspired and Coral.

Purvis said: “I am delighted to be getting back into the UK betting shop business, which is where I started my career, and ensuring that 49’s continues to deliver great products and experiences for its customers.”

ontinent 8 Technologies has recruited C Stephen Trimble as head of product, based at the company’s Isle of Man headquarters.

Trimble brings over 15 years of experience in Telecommunications, IT and Data Centre operations to lead Continent 8’s global product management function. CTO John Stone commented: “Continent 8 are delighted to have

DAVID PURVIS

sales@betradar.com

www.betradar.com

BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013 35

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Agenda JULIAN GRAVES

Visitors to October’s EiG will benefit from a new format, powerful content and a raft of additional features. iG will see a series of changes this year, implemented following a close programme of consultation with a cross section of stakeholders and based on a commitment to keep EiG amongst gaming’s elite group of ‘must do’ events, a group which also includes ICE Totally Gaming, ICE Conferences, GiGse and the WrB series.

The new EiG agenda includes features tailored to meet the needs of what organisers have identified as iGaming’s ‘Implementers’ - the tranche of senior executives who are responsible for applying a strategic vision to an organisational structure.

In response to requests for smaller and more targeted learning sessions EiG 2013 will feature 11 specialist Workshops and Networking Groups at which attendance will be limited to just 50 delegates. The Groups have been designed to provide the ‘Implementers’ with a bespoke programme created to meet their specific requirements and operational needs. Open and lively debate is also guaranteed courtesy of the EiG Tutorials that will feature insightful industry presentations held within a central networking area.

The new look EiG has networking and learning at its’ core. EiG’s Breakfast With... session comprises a focused group discussion with an influential keynote speaker. Sessions comprises a series of focus groups addressed by an influential Keynote speaker. A range of different industry stakeholders will be on hand to challenge conventional wisdom, facilitate debate and stimulate in depth exploration of the subject matter.

With a reputation for attracting the biggest thinkers in European iGaming, EiG organisers have created two main platforms for speakers. The EiG Power Talks provide an opportunity for delegates to receive inspirational insight from thought leaders who have been recognised by their peers throughout the year for their contribu-

E

tions to the business. The CEO Debate is a once a year chance to discover how the C-Level opinion formers who are helping to fashion iGaming, see the future.

The dynamic programme also includes an exciting new feature which organisers have named The Pitch. Combining entrepreneurial zeal with a sharp competitive ‘winner takes all’ edge, the event comprises a series of 15-minute power pitches delivered by visionaries who will be presenting their innovations and landmark products in an attempt to win the hearts and the minds of the EiG audience. All members of the audience will be able to cast their vote anonymously using hand held electronic devices and using the EiG Networking App with the winning Pitch unveiled at the Awards Lunch which is being held on 10 October.

Commenting on the new developments, many of which are targeted at the ‘Implementers’, portfolio director Kate Chambers said: “With all of our best of breed gaming brands, we are involved in a constant process of evaluation and evolution in order to keep the events topical, relevant and compelling for our customers. Our research has identified the ‘Implementers’ as being a really important target group and a lot of what we are introducing at EiG is to equip them with a toolkit of solutions and insight delivered by industry experts. 2013 is a big year for EiG and we have pulled out all of the stops in order to continue to deliver the knowledge and the networking, which are the cornerstones of Europe’s defining iGaming business event. EiG 2013, which will feature some 100+ thought leaders alongside 80+ exhibiting companies, is a unique iGaming event for Europe.

The changes that we have made in partnership with the industry, will, I believe, provide a solid platform from which EiG will grow further and build on its influence.”

KATE CHAMBERS: ‘WE ARE INVOLVED IN A CONSTANT PROCESS OF EVALUATION’

36 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

he Premier League season kicks off on17 August and as always proves to be very popular with punters who have suffered a drought of soccer for the past two months. The Premier League has to be the most popular betting event with Boylesports, with our Live Betting and Assist Betting Markets sparking a lot of interest amongst punters. Next to the Premier League, the All-Ireland Hurling Final proves very popular as well as the four day York Ebor Festival.

The hurling final takes place on 8 September and is very popular amongst Boylesports Irish retail and online customers, who like to take advantage of our ante-post markets. In horse racing, as well as the York Ebor Festival, the Killarney August Festival which runs from 2831 August tends to attract a lot of attention.

In golf, The PGA Championship (8-11 August) receives a lot of interest, as well as The Barclays (22-25 August) and the Deutsche Bank Championship (30 Aug-2 Sept) both of which are part of the FedEx The main racing Festival this month is the Cup Playoffs. four-day Ebor meeting at York, which culmiLEON BLANCHE nates with the eponymous race on Saturday Head of communications 24 August. My long term fancy for this hisBoylesports toric race is Pallasator. A highly progressive

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ACTION IMAGES / JASON CAIRNDUFF LIVEPIC

Dynamic new format for EiG

The new football season may be looming but there is plenty of other events vying for the attention of punters as the summer hits its home strait.

My Diary: James Bennett In his new role as director of PR agency Square in the Air, James Bennett has taken the mantle of poacherturned-gatekeeper.

The inevitable move to the ‘dark side’ every journalist does it at some point, don’t they?” is the typical comment I’ve had since leaving eGaming Review in April after three years of occupying the hot seat.

Personally, it was a natural transition and something I’m delighted to have done. I’m even more delighted to have joined such a great company and such a strong team.

Unlike many other companies in today’s recessionary climate Square in the Air continues to expand.

The other major benefit, of course, is that I’m still involved in the betting and gaming industry. The downside is that I don’t get any more free lunches, my annual fresh smoked salmon courtesy of Sporting Index or trips to watch Premier League football. Nowadays I’m on the other side of the dining table and it’s me holding the credit card.

The next six months until the year end look very exciting. During the later summer months we should be in a position to announce a raft of new business. But, as every good PR professional knows, until the client gives the final nod nothing is sent out to the media. I know how hungry I was, and still am, for news and to be the first to break it. A certain large social network is still privately fuming about the real-money gaming launch story I broke back in November 2011.

The news went global and the network received the most coverage it has, and arguably ever will, during its lifetime.

“

Post summer we enter conference and awards season with a number of our clients heading to EIG and the Barcelona Affiliate conference in Spain.

Of course, there’s only one must-attend event for me and that’s ICE. The main grumble from the senior gaming guys I know, is that there are too many other ‘lower quality’ events over the course of the year and that many of them are arguably ‘losing their edge’.

It’s tricky for many companies to justify spending thousands of euros on events where it’s hard to visualise the ROI. Perhaps some organisers and publishers need to rethink just what it is the industry wants and needs. ICE aside, less is most definitely more, particularly when marketing budgets are being closely scrutinised. It’s high time there was a shake up.”

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Advice from the Star Chamber A campaign group of senior consultants with multi-level marketing experience in consumer behaviour, engagement, data management, attitudinal research, and branding, has been brought together to contribute to the campaign for ICE Totally Gaming 2014. The Star Chamber will work alongside the in-house marketing team as it prepares for February’s event, the second to be held at ICE’s new home, ExCeL London.

to win the US Open? He is clearly the best player in the world on current form, is the defending champion at Flushing Meadows and found the best way to beat his main rival.

In my book, he represents a 5/4 chance, so the 2/1 available is a steal.

Looking much further ahead, I recommend you have a small each-way interest in Belgium for the 2014 World Cup. They are gradually creeping up the World Rankings, but 20/1 looks fair value for a squad full of talent.

RICHARD THOMAS Head of PR operations William Hill The scorching summer of action looks set to continue throughout August and into September. Golf’s final Major of the year, the USPGA Championship (8-11 August), will be the focus of attention for golfbettingpro.com experts and, given their track record, their tips simply have to be followed.

The new Premier League season kicks off on the 17th of the month and the bettingpro.com footy gurus have been sharpening up their knowledge (and wit!) during the summer break. Before you know it, the 2014 World Cup qualifiers will be on us again, with Ukraine vs England scheduled for 10 September.

The guys at live-tennis.com already have their sights set on the US Open from Flushing Meadows, which gets under away on August 26. Another thrilling Andy Murray-Novak Djokovic final is surely too much to ask for?

The boys at racingtips.com will be burning the midnight oil to find the winner of the Ebor; the highlight of York's three-day August meeting. Stay in touch with the latest racing news, expert tips and bookie offers over there!

sort last season, Sir Mark Prescott has kept his son of Motivator under wraps this season, but he has the Ebor firmly in his sights and he NIGEL RIDGWAY Tipster looks a terrific Ebor prospect.

Why is Andy Murray not the clear favourite Racingtips.com

LISTINGS MONTHLY BRIEFING

AUGUST 12-14 Gaming Racing & Wagering Australia, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour 13-15 Australasian Gaming Expo, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour 14-15 Peru Gaming Show, Jockey Plaza Convention Center, Lima, Peru SEPTEMBER 19-20 US Online Gaming Law 2013, The Bellagio, Las Vegas 24-26 Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2013, Las Vegas Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas 24 IMGL Member Reception at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 29 – 1 October International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR) Annual Conference, Grand Hotel, Oslo, Norway OCTOBER 1-4 IMGL Autumn Conference, Grand Hotel, Oslo, Norway 3 BOS Bookmakers’ Trade Fair, Wolverhampton Racecourse 3-6 The Barcelona Affiliate Conference 2013, Barcelona 8-10 European iGaming Congress & Expo, Fira Barcelona 8 IMGL Reception at European iGaming Congress & Expo (EiG),

Gran Hotel La Florida, Barcelona 17 EASG Seminar: Social gaming / gambling: Threat or Opportunity, Tour & Taxis Building, Brussels, Belgium 21-23 Eastern European Gaming Summit (EEGE Expo), IEC, Sofia, Bulgaria 22-23 World Regulatory Briefing USA, Philadelphia, PA. NOVEMBER 4-5 Mobile and Tablet Gambling Summit, Hilton Tower Bridge, London 20-22 National Association for Gambling Studies Annual Conference, Crowne Plaza Coogee, Sydney Australia 28-29 Social Gambling Conference, Dexter House, London DECEMBER 1 – 4 The Second Asia Pacific Conference on Gambling & Commercial Gaming Research (APCG2013), Kaohsiung, Taiwan 25 Christmas Day

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR GAMBLING STUDIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE WILL BE ON COOGEE BEACH

BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013 37

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Analysis

Revolu pool b

THE COLOSSUS ASKS PUNTERS TO PREDICT THE CORRECT SCORES IN SEVEN MATCHES

We believe that people want to win lottery-sized prizes on sport they love to watch, so the main ‘Colossus’ pool asks punters to predict the correct scores in our seven selected football matches each week. There is a minimum £2 stake, but punters can obviously perm as many selections as they so wish.

On day one, Saturday 17 August, there is a guaranteed £5m win pool, with a further £5m guaranteed bonus for any ‘win pool’ winner who then goes on to predict the correct score of a single match the following weekend.

Therefore £10,000,000 Colossus will headline the “Top ten global pools” going forward.

We will also offer a host of easier pools, for example our ‘Pick 6’ on the Premier League has a guaranteed £2m pool each week. But it

ACTION IMAGES / MATTHEW CHILDS LIVEPIC

“

TOP TEN SPORTS SPREAD MARKETS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

International Cricket - England v Australia 2nd Test International Cricket - England v Australia 1st Test Golf - The Open - Finishing Positions International Rugby - Australia v Lions (3rd/Final test) Tennis - Djokovic v Murray (Wimbledon final) International Cricket - India v Sri Lanka (Triangular series final) International Cricket - West Indies v Pakistan 3rd ODI International Football - Brazil v Spain (Confederations Cup Final) Domestic Rugby League - Hull FC v Warrington (Challenge Cup SF) International Football - B Munich v Barcelona

Chart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets

TOP TEN BOOKMAKERS FOR MONEYBACK OFFERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chart supplied by: Freebets.com. Data for June

TOP TEN FINANCIAL SPREAD MARKETS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Paddy Power, Money Back if Animal Kingdom wins, Royal Ascot Betway, Money Back if any bowler takes 3 wickets, ICC Trophy Paddy Power, Money Back if Waterford beat Clare, GAA Paddy Power, Money Back if Roscommon score last, GAA Betfred, Wimbledon Money Back if Murray wins Paddy Power, Money Back if last score is from a placed ball, GAA bet365, Free bet for backing winner 2/1+, Sky Greyhounds Paddy Power, Money Back if North scores a try, Lions Tour Betway, Money Back if 5+ goals, Stanley Cup Paddy Power, Money Back if over 3 goals, Confederations Cup

Chart supplied by: Freebets.com. Data for June

International Cricket - England v Australia (1st Test) Tennis - Djokovic v Del Potro Tennis - Djokovic v A Murray Tennis - Lisicki v A Radwanska Tennis - Verdasco v A Murray International Cricket - England v Australia (2nd Test) Tennis - Janowicz v Murray Tennis - A Radwanska v Li Golf - The Open Championship 2013; Winner Tennis - Lisicki v Bartoli

Chart supplied by: Betfair

TOP TEN MONEYBACK OFFERS FOR JUNE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Wall Street, Daily UK 100, Daily Germany 30, Daily Spot, GBP/USD Gold, Daily Aug UK 100, Sep Gold, Aug Spot, EUR/USD Wall Street, Sep Spot, EUR/JPY

Paddy Power Betway Winner Bet365 BetVictor Ladbrokes Betfair Boylesports Betfred Coral

TOP TEN BETTING EXCHANGE EVENTS

TOP TEN ONLINE BETTING EVENTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Golf - The British Open Golf Tennis - Wimbledon Darts - BetVictor World Matchplay Darts International Football - Fifa Confederations Cup International Cricket - The Ashes 1st Test International Cricket - The Ashes 2nd Test Horseracing - King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes Horseracing - July Cup Formula 1 - German F1 Grand Prix Horseracing - Coral Eclipse

Chart supplied by: BetVictor

THE £10,000,000 COLOSSUS

ALL OTHER BETS ARE LOWER LEAGUE 38 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013

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TOP TEN ONLINE POKER PERFORMANCE

SPONSORED BY COLOSSUSBETS

RESPONSE TIME (SECS)

olutionising the l betting offer Bernard Marantelli is the founder and CEO of Colossus Bets, home of the £10,000,000 Colossus and the new sponsor of this page. He believes the firm’s new bet could compete with the Euromillions lottery. is our headline bet, The Colossus, which threatens to revolutionise pool betting as you know it. We believe that it could replace the Euromillions - with pools rising to possibly as much as £60m as it rolls over - as the flutter of choice for the masses.

Not only are we offering the biggest guaranteed pools in the world on a weekly basis, we are also giving punters the chance to cash-in their live tickets, in full or in part, at certain stages of the bet. So, you can take a profit in increments of 10 per cent of your ticket’s value, after one match has completed but the next match has not yet begun and at half-times of each match in a pool.

Allied to the guaranteed

match? It is not like we are talking about the 3.45pm at Redcar.

We believe that the Colossus Bets pools will appeal to 1 SWE - V75 - Halmstad Lordrag E8,357,968 all types of punters; the £2 2 ESP - La Quinella E3,727,500 player, the mates down the 3 GBR - Classic Pools E3, 476,640 pub pooling their weekend 4 SWE - V86 - Visby Onsdag E1, 821,717 gambling money, or the big5 SWE - V64 - Halmstad Torsdag E1, 471,807 staking professionals 6 SWE/RSA - Stryktipset/Soccer13 E1,214,040 looking for a mathematical 7 GBR - Bodugi - Big Game E1,159,420 edge with so much guaran8 GBR - Goal Millions E1,159, 420 teed money in the pools. All 9 GBR - Soccer Millionaire E1,159, 420 are welcome.

10 EUR - Marathon Toto E949,049 And we are not just focusChart supplied by: Colossus Bets. Calculated by biggest pools/guarantees over ing on the Premier League a week’s period during the month. One entry per bet type. Data for 1 July - 24 July either. We will incorporate European Leagues into the seven and eight-figure to expand our range of pools main bet as and when appropriate, as well as offering weekly pools, we believe the across different sports.

No-one is saying it will be multi-million pound pools cash-in feature will revolutionise pool betting and the easy to win - we are talking a on each of the five main Eurobeauty of the Colossus is that minimum £10,00,000 every pean leagues each week.

So please check us out at it can be adapted and applied week here - but who doesn’t to most, if not all, sports. have an opinion on the Colossusbets.com. It could Watch this space as we seek outcome of a Premier League be a life-changer.”

TOP TEN GLOBAL POOLS

TOP TEN RETAIL BETTING EVENTS (UK) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Horseracing - The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes Golf - The Open Championship, Muirfield International Cricket - The 1st Ashes Test, England v Australia Horseracing - The Eclipse Stakes, Sandown Horseracing - The July Cup, Newmarket Tennis - Wimbledon Tennis Championships International Cricket - The 2nd Ashes Test, England v Australia Horseracing - The John Smith’s Cup, York Horseracing - The Sussex Stakes, Goodwood Darts - World Matchplay Darts, Blackpool

Chart supplied by: Betfred

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

(1) Betfair (2) Bet365 (3) Paddy Power (4) BetVictor (5) William Hill (8) Coral (6) Stan James (7) Ladbrokes (9) Betfred (10) Skybet

Golf - Open Championship Horseracing - Darley Irish Oaks Horseracing - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes Horseracing - Coral Eclipse Horseracing - Darley July Cup Horseracing - Betfair International Stakes Tennis - Djokovic vs Murray Horseracing - Falmouth Stakes Horseracing - Bunbury Cup Horseracing - Lancashire Oaks

Bet on our easy-to-play weekly pick 7 football game.

RESPONSE TIME (SECS)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

TOP TEN SPORTS BETTING SITES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

(1) Bet365 - 0.61 (2) Boylesports - 0.95 (3) Jenningsbet - 1.39 (4) Totesport - 1.47 (5) BetVictor - 1.78 (7) Betfair Sports - 2.04 (8) Betclic - 2.06 (-) Sporting Index - 2.07 (-) Sky Bet- 2.32 (-) Coral Sports - 2.33

Cash-In profits in full

(1) bet365 (2) Betfred (4) Betfair (5) William Hill Sports Betting (7) Paddy Power (9) At The Races (8) OddsChecker (6) Ladbrokes Sportsbook (3) Sky Bet (10) Coral

Chart calculated by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for June

TOP TEN BINGO SITES (1) tombola (2) Jackpotjoy (3) Gala Bingo (4) Mecca Bingo (5) Sun Bingo (6) Foxybingo.com (7) Costa Bingo (8) Wink Bingo (9) Paddy Power Bingo (-) Cheeky Bingo

Chart calculated by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for June

TOP TEN CASINO SITES

RESPONSE TIME (SECS)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

(1) Jenningsbet Poker - 1.03 (4) Totesport- 1.48 (2) Bet365 - 1.49 (3) 32Red - 1.69 (8) William Hill - 2.03 (7) PartyBets Casino - 2.04 (5) 888Casino - 2.09 (6) PartyGaming - 2.23 (9) SkyVegas - 2.67 (-) Betsson - 2.72

Chart supplied by: Gomez

TOP TEN ONLINE SPORTSBOOK PERFORMANCE

Chart supplied by: Gomez

Chart supplied by: Boylesports

TOP TEN ONLINE CASINO PERFORMANCE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chart supplied by: Oddschecker. Calculated on market share of betslip clicks from Oddschecker.com

(1) Jenningsbet Poker - 0.66 (2) Bet365 - 1.02 (4) Poker Room - 1.30 (3) PokerStars - 1.35 (6) Paddy Power - 1.43 (5) PartyPoker - 1.44 (10) Bet Victor Poker - 1.65 (7) 888 - 1.76 (9) William Hill - 1.87 (-) Unibet Poker - 1.95

Chart supplied by: Gomez

TOP TEN FOOTBALL BETTING WEBSITES

TOP TEN RETAIL BETTING EVENTS (EIRE) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

(1) 888Casino (2) Sky Vegas (5) Ladbrokes.com Casino (3) William Hill Vegas (4) Bet365 Casino (8) William Hill Casino (7) 888.com (10) Paddy Power Casino (-) All Slots Casino (9) Supercasino

Chart calculated by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for June

Win your share of the pool

or in part as matches progress. by holding your nerve to the end.

Start playing at colossusbets.com www.colossusbets.com @ColossusBets

facebook.com/ColossusBets

BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2013 39

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