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INTEGRITY ISSUES: IndiaBet’s MD on how the IPL scandal has put people off betting on cricket BETTING NEWS 14
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Boom in mobile and tablet gambling
CLAIMS THAT GAMING MACHINES INCREASE PROBLEM GAMBLING SEEM OFF THE MARK ACCORDING TO THE LATEST FIGURES
RESEARCH
Fall in UK’s problem gambling numbers Despite critics claiming that egaming and B2 gaming machines are fuelling problem gambling in the UK, it seems that the problem gambling rate has actually dropped since these products entered the market. roblem gambling in the UK has declined since 2010 according to the latest official figures. The Health Survey for England (2012), which will be used by the Gambling Commission in the absence of a British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BPGS), estimated the rate of problem gambling in the adult population to be 0.5 per cent on the DSM-IV measure and 0.4 per cent on the PSGI measure - compared to 0.9 per cent and 0.7 per cent in 2010. In 1999, the DSM-IV figure was 0.6 per cent. The figures in Scotland according to the Scottish Health Survey (published in September 2013) were broadly stable at 0.7 per cent for both measures. Rebekah Eden, the Commission’s programme director - evi-
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he amount of gambling via tablet and mobile will increase massively in the next five years, driven by a push from North America. The latest mobile gambling figures from Juniper Research suggest that the number of mobile and/or tablet owners using their devices to gamble will increase by 100m by 2018, meaning that 164m people will either place a bet, visit a mobile casino or buy a lottery ticket on their device during the year. Mobile Gambling: Casinos, Lotteries and Betting 2013-2018 found that although growth has been slow in the US since the DoJ ruling in 2011, the number of users in the region is expected to pick up sharply from 2014 onwards. This will occur as states which have not yet fully legislated on remote gambling make progress following successful services launching in Nevada and New Jersey. In addition, inter-state poker, where two players in separate, regulated markets play against each other, is likely to become a reality in the medium term, further driving mobile/tablet gambling usage. The report highlighted that the majority of the new users would be switching to mobile gambling from desktop services. It attributed this migration to the fact that many features of gambling work better on a mobile device than a PC. Author Siân Rowlands, observed: “Mobile can frequently provide a more immersive and convenient gambling experience than a desktop PC or laptop. As a result of this, gambling operators have been required to shift the nature of their organisation away from ‘legacy’ services such as telephone betting towards becoming a more mobile-oriented company, with the aim of achieving over half of their online revenues from mobile in the next 1-3 years.”
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dence and analysis, said that the industry should continue to be vigilant on its social responsibility: “The figures suggest that fewer people are experiencing gambling problems directly, but that there are groups of the population where the risks remain significantly greater. This puts even greater emphasis on the industry finding ways to identify people who are suffering problems or who are at risk, and intervening effectively.” Among the groups Eden is referring to is young men who have increased levels of gambling engagement and therefore highlights them as a particular group who may be at risk of experiencing of gamblingrelated harm. On the PSGI score, 1.7 per cent of young men aged 16-24 were deemed as problem gamblers compared to the 0.6
www.microgaming.co.uk/mobile
per cent for men in general, while 3.2 per cent were classified as ‘moderate risk’ (compared to 1.7 per cent for men). Dirk Vennix, chief executive of the Association of British Bookmakers, said: “While this survey shows that problem gambling across all gambling products is a falling trend and gambling prevalence is the lowest among lower income households, we are not complacent and do acknowledge that some customers are at risk of developing a problem with their gambling behaviour.” While the results are great news in that it vindicates the gambling industry’s social responsibility policies, the ABB is no doubt also relieved at having some hard facts to defend what is at the moment a besieged industry. Vennix com-
mented: “The ABB continues to pursue an evidence-based approach to the management of gambling related harm and will continue to counter ill-informed commentary and the deliberate misrepresentation of the facts by single-issue pressure groups funded by vested interests.” While direct comparison between two studies with different methodology does not make for the most robust conclusions, there has been a conscious effort to try and replicate key questions from the BPGS in the Health Survey. The positive aspect is that there appears to be a downward trend in problem gambling, but this will be clearer with the results of the next Health Survey, likely in three years’ time. COMMENT 52
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News THE CURRENT ONLINE LICENSING SITUATION GOES AGAINST THE EU TREATY AND GREEK CONSTITUTION (©EUROPEAN UNION 2012 EP/PE)
Greece could face compensation calls over online licensing failure The long running battle to get fair online gambling legislation in Greece is set to continue in 2014. GREECE
he Greek government may have to compensate recent investors in OPAP for letting them believe that the gambling giant had a monopoly in its home market, despite this being against European law. The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) has suggested that Greece’s current reluctance to licence online operators to offer services to the Greek market, despite the legislation to do so being in place, could see the financially troubled country forced to deal with a number of compensation claims. RGA chief executive Clive Hawkswood explained: “The Greek government is taking a risk by not enabling reputable European companies to provide online gambling services to Greek customers under an established licensing regime. By limiting the market without complying with the Treaty and Greek Constitution, the government may have to compensate European licensed companies for damages suffered by having to terminate their Greek operations due to failure of the Greek State to implement a proper licensing process and a lawful transitional regime. “They may also have to refund investors in OPAP to the extent that they may have been led to believe that OPAP did have a monopoly. But most importantly the Greek government is denying itself tax income
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from established online operators that would bring in millions of euros in taxation if they could be licensed in Greece.” The latest route that the industry is taking to persuade the Greek government to play ball is the issuing of petitions to the Athens Administrative Court of Appeals against the lack of response to applications for Greek online gambling rights. Individual members of the RGA applied for online gambling licences under The Greek Gambling Law (4002/2011) in July 2013 to the Minister of Finance and the Hellenic Gambling Commission (HGC). While the Minister of Finance has not responded at all, the HGC decreed that it is not competent to examine the applications. The problem arises from the fact that the law’s enabling provisions relating to full online gambling licensing have never been properly implemented since its adoption more than two years ago. The absence of a full licensing process left the companies to apply for a five year licence to provide online gaming services to the Minister of Finance and the HGC. Both RGA members have now petitioned against the HGC’s ‘lack of competence’ declaration and the nonresponse by the Ministry of Finance as their applications should have been duly processed and decided
BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
upon by both authorities which are considered to be competent. The members maintain that the Greek Gaming Law provides for the HGC and the State the competence to examine the licence applications. The RGA has consistently stated that the motivation for not offering licences for online gambling in the past two years had nothing to do with concerns about consumer protection but was to sell OPAP’s shares at the highest possible price. This is somewhat borne out under the current ‘transitional regime’, introduced in late 2011, where a Ministerial Decision has allowed an online gambling market to operate with a closed number of operators. The RGA and certain of its members have previously challenged the Ministerial Decision for its manifest unlawfulness by a separate petition for annulment on grounds of it being contrary to the fundamental freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services. Hawkswood added: “In the absence of constructive progress to introduce an open, transparent and fair online gambling regime in Greece, our members have made it clear that the RGA will use all legal and legitimate efforts at its disposal including legal challenges to the EU and the Greek courts, in order to get to a legal, clear, workable and fair resolution.”
Gaming mach explores data
As more research into gaming machines is developed, Brita RESEARCH
he first phase of the major research project on gaming machines has been published by The Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT), although this initial stage only deals with the type of data that is currently available for the machines. It is a first step in an ongoing research programme commissioned by the industry-funded RGT in order to better understand how people behave when playing on those gaming machines offering the highest stakes and prizes, and what helps people to stay in control and play responsibly. NatCen Social Research (NatCen), which carried out the recent Health Survey for England (HSE) and previous British Gambling Prevalence Studies, has undertaken unprecedented research by analysing data held by 13 industry
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operators - representing 80 per cent of the highest stakes and prizes gaming machines market. The first report has found that the data held by the industry tells us a lot about transactional data and provides a solid basis for further study of the patterns around consumer behaviour when playing gaming machines. However, it also described the information collated by bookmakers as ‘data rich; information light’ as it provides no context to how a player responds to certain aspects of gameplay - ie what effect a near miss of a win would have on behaviour. The next step in the research programme is to follow three strands: • Exploring use of player account data in the licensed betting office and casino sectors • Interrogating transactional level data and providing basic overviews of
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No shared liquidity for France Despite a recommendation from the national gambling regulator ARJEL, the French National Assembly has vetoed any possibility of sharing poker liquidity outside of France. It had been thought that France could join a network with Italy and Spain in order to strengthen the poker operations in these jurisdictions, but French politi-
cians have now shot down the possibility of any European agreement. Chief voice against the changes was the parliament’s Razzy Hammadi (pictured), who refused to believe that the country’s poker decline had anything to do with liquidity, instead suggesting that the game is now ‘out of fashion’.
THE FIRST PHASE OF RESEARCH ON GAMING MACHINES HAS BEEN COMPLETED
William Hill staying put in Gibraltar REMOTE
illiam Hill is to retain its Gibraltar-based operations despite the arrival of the point of consumption licensing and taxation in the UK. The announcement was made as the bookmaker launched its new technological ‘centre of excellence’ in Shoreditch in east London the heart of Britain’s ‘tech dev’ community. Andy Lee, managing director of William Hill Online, told reporters: “We have over 400 people in Gibraltar, we run our global operations from there. Our staff are very happy there and there are reasons why we will remain there in order to be competitive in this market.” The announcement has no doubt helped put the minds at rest of some of the jurisdiction’s officials worried about the exodus that the new consumption regulations in the UK might cause. The island’s industry even formed the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association in order to lobby against the proposed new law, even threatening action at a European level on the basis of it being implemented to raise taxes rather than consumer protection. Meanwhile, William Hill’s new Shoreditch office has been designed to complement its international online operations in Gibraltar, Leeds, London, Tel Aviv, Sydney and Las Vegas. The hub will initially house 40 staff and will have an emphasis on innovation and developing our growing stable of mobile products. Lee commented: “We see this as a hugely significant step in the history of William Hill and, indeed, our industry. We plan to tap into Shoreditch’s eco-system of development talent – we are a very strong, successful, brand and we have done this by evolving throughout our history. “Our goal is to provide a unique and excit-
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WILLIAM HILL IS EMBARKING ON A MAJOR RECRUITMENT DRIVE
ing experience for our customers through digital innovation and differentiation - being in Shoreditch, at the heart of Europe’s technical expertise, will help us achieve that.” With mobile development evolving at a ‘lightning pace’, William Hill is embarking on a major recruitment drive to acquire outstanding digital expertise, including high calibre mobile tech developers. Lee added: “We are the first gaming company to move into Shoreditch, because it is clear the very best talent in Europe is based here - it lives and breathes innovation. Mobile technology is moving rapidly - the frequency is quicker, the scope broader - so being in Shoreditch gives us the best possible chance to anticipate and prepare for future developments, by hiring the brightest minds in the country.”
achine research ata possibilities
oped, Britain’s Labour Party has decided to target bookmakers.
volume of play • Exploring within session play and patterns of behaviour using proxy session data from LBOs In addition, the RGT will commission concurrent primary research which will immediately examine areas of interest in the gaming machine research agenda, including evaluating harm minimisation approaches and exploring the impact of stakes, prizes, game speed, accessibility and game features. The RGT aims to produce results from these next steps by autumn 2014. RGT chief executive Marc Etches said: “The nature of this research is unprecedented and this report is an important milestone in achieving a much better understanding of the way people behave when playing these machines. “The systematic assessment of industry-held data for research marks a step-
change in how government, regulator and industry working in collaboration will better understand and aim to mitigate harm among gaming machine players. This exercise was a necessary buildingblock for gaming machine research to provide insight into player behaviour, possible harm mitigation and the most effective options for evidence-based regulatory policy.” Etches also recognised that the study is needed to counterbalance the wealth of anecdotal evidence that is currently dictating political discussion of the machines in the media and hopefully contribute to a better informed debate. He said: “We are very aware that there is a great deal of political and public interest in high stakes gaming machines. It is the ambition of the RGT to deliver robust research which equips both the government and industry to minimise gambling-related harm in
Great Britain.” Indeed, the political interest in gaming machines jumped up a notch last month when Labour leader Ed Miliband jumped on the anti-FOBT bandwagon pledging to put all number of restrictions on bookmakers. The promised measures included placing betting shops in a separate planning class, allowing councils to restrict the number of machines to fewer than four per shop, doubling the minimum play time of 20 seconds, session time warnings and the need to stake via the counter. Labour also wants to see the end of ‘single manning’ threatening to make it a requirement of the licensing. Miliband commented: “The time has come to give local communities the right to pull the plug on these machines - the right to decide if they want their high streets to be the place for high stakes, high speed, high cost gambling.”
ANALYSIS The RGT’s machine research couldn’t come quick enough for the industry in order for a more objective view of the current situation, given that a potential next Prime Minister appears to have taken all the anecdotal evidence against betting shops and swallowed it whole in order to win some votes (or more beneficial media coverage). As the Association of British Bookmakers retorted: “This announcement has nothing to do with helping problem gamblers; it is simply about playing politics with the jobs of 40,000 people, and the enjoyment of eight million people for no reason.” Thankfully it seems that the research will be well on the way before the next General Election. BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
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iGaming Unibet develops own poker platform
MOBILE
hat opportunities does the mobile channel bring for marketing? Mobile is undoubtedly the future. According to 2013 statistics released by OFCOM, 15 per cent of the UK population now live in a mobile-only household. There are 82.7m mobile subscriptions in the UK alone, with 94 per cent of adults owning or using a mobile phone. Additionally, according to Zenith Optimedia, mobile is now the main driver of global ad spend growth, with forecasts predicting that mobile will contribute 36 per cent of all the extra ad spend between 2013 and 2016. As a mobile casino, we can’t ignore the opportunities arising from such significant figures. Technological innovations, along with social trends, mean that the way we connect with each other has completely changed. With the advent of smart phones, a mobile phone now serves the functions of
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POKER
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Getting the message across James Goode, head of marketing & strategy at mobile casino mFortune, talks about mobile marketing ahead of his appearance at the ICE Conference on Mobile Gaming on Tuesday 4 February at ICE Totally Gaming.
a telephone, PC, media player, camera, games console, radio and television - amongst many others. We’ve come to completely rely on our mobile phones, so we nearly always have them with us. For mobile casino marketers, is it vital to utilise a channel that is a) used by almost all of our target market, b) is nearly always with our target market and c) offers a huge variety of methods and media through which to market our products. We are able to market via social media, blogs, video, apps, online adverts, affiliate sites - all can be adapted to mobile, so there are endless opportunities but they are not without challenges. The key difficulty is that all mobile opportunities arise within a very short
s the next step in developing its customer experience, Unibet has decided to move to a standalone poker product in early 2014. To cater for this new poker strategy, Unibet has been closely involved in key functionality and design of the software, which has been developed exclusively for the Unibet and Maria brands by Estonian-based supplier Relax Gaming. Unibet and Maria will be the sole operators offering this new product after previously being part of a network of multiple operators. Head of gaming at Unibet Daniel Eskola explained: “The environment in the online poker industry has changed over the years and we have come to the insight that being part of a poker network is not sustainable for Unibet in the long term. This project has given us the possibility to start from a blank piece of paper and define everything we believe is important for a fun poker experience. In a way, our goal is to bring the fun back to poker by creating software with a clear focus on the casual player.” Eskola added: “Our relationship with Microgaming remains strong, and we are continuing to offer Quickfire games in our casino.” The new software will include a user friendly table selection, rich 3D backgrounds, ability to change avatar and screen name and gameplay features such as achievements and missions. Unibet Poker is a multichannel product and will be available for PC and Mac download, browser, and tablet versions for both iOS and Android. In connection with the deal, Unibet has also invested 1.25m euro (£1.0m) in Relax Gaming for a share of the company.
window. Mobile phone users are often multitasking or are on-the-go, so they only access information very briefly and can therefore only digest bitesized snippets. Because they don’t hang around for long, we need to adapt to these new rules of engagement: relevant, concise, swift and shareable. Are players now more receptive to receiving SMS communications from operators? These days, SMS messages have applications in customer service, banking and player-identification, as well as marketing, so it’s important to establish a healthy SMS messaging relationship with players from the outset, across all business areas. It’s a twoway street: SMS messages
provide an easy and costeffective method for players to communicate with us, so players do see the benefits. However, players, rather like anyone else, are not very receptive to mass volumes of unsolicited texts. It doesn’t matter who it is, if they are talking at you, without listening and adapting to your response, you are going to switch off eventually. By listening to players, and gauging their responses, their likes, dislikes, feedback and player patterns, we can more successfully target our SMS communications. If SMS messages are helpful, useful, relevant, well-timed and of direct benefit to the players, they will respond. This is where a playerfocused SMS marketing strategy works best - what do they want to see when
they open an SMS message, rather than what do we want them to see. Is building an App worth the hassle and expense? As with most business decisions, this isn’t straightforward! There’s a temptation to build an App just because everyone else seems to be doing it. But if you’re going to do something, it’s important to do it right. The same applies to Apps: a bad App will do your business no favours at all. In order to build a good App, you will need to invest significant amounts of time and money so it’s vital to have a clear strategy in mind. For example, what are you trying to achieve with the App? Is an App right for a particular product? Is it the most effective way for customers to access or use your product? Is it the most cost-effective, accessible and user-friendly way to deliver the product? Bearing these thoughts in mind, and the obstacles presented by App Stores - such as competition, userjourney, RMG exclusions, etc - an App requires very careful consideration.
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Plumbee deal for Endemol
iGaming
Endemol has invested $13m (£7.9m) in social casino gaming company Plumbee in a deal that values the business at $40m (£24m). Raf Keustermans, chief executive officer of Plumbee, commented: “Joining forces with a world leading content creator like Endemol ideally positions us to develop a new generation of premium social games.”
BIRGITTE SAND: ‘INDUSTRY LARGELY IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW’
Danish approach has developed stable market
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DENMARK
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now goes on in Denmark, suggests that the Danish regulatory model is succeeding. She attributed some of the success to effectively engaging with the industry. She said: “There has had to be a willingness from the perspective of the operator to be regulated as well and we have found that it has been an industry largely in compliance with the law. We see around 5 per cent or less illegal offering of games in Denmark. It’s very small, but of course I’m not satisfied until we get it down to zero.” One of the more valuable measures introduced has been on the social responsibility front with a national database for online selfexclusion called ROFUS. Administrated by the Danish Gambling Authority, ROFUS allows players to self-exclude from all Danish licensed online operators for one, three, six months or permanently
and all operators are required to have a link to ROFUS on their sites. Sand commented: “We regard ROFUS not just as being successful, but very successful in the sense that we see about 2,700 players currently registered in the system. The number has doubled this year which indicates to us that the knowledge of the system amongst players has increased. It’s a real positive result in the sense that we can see the players know the system, make use of it and use it as it was intended - to give them the opportunity to cool down for a period of time. “Most players choose to exclude themselves temporarily. Our treatment centres in Denmark also find the system very useful and advise problem gamblers that ask the centres for help also to use the system.”
ANALYSIS After some of the plainly unworkable regulations that the gambling industry has seen over the past few years, it has been refreshing to see one country approach online gaming regulation in a sensible to the benefit of all stakeholders. Denmark’s experience with its ROFUS framework for selfexclusion is also interesting, given the trend for such a database elsewhere such as Holland, but it still raises the question of how to protect problem gamblers from unlicensed sites who are not signed up to the national selfexclusion mechanism. There is still the danger of sending those who need the most help to operators who are least likely to provide it.
Gaming Realms buys £2.2m marketing agency ACQUISITION
aming Realms, developer and operator of online gaming products, has acquired specialist marketing agency Quick Think Media (QTM) for £2.2m. QTM is a specialist online gaming marketing agency, with particular expertise in online bingo and casino products. The acquisition supports the group’s strategy to establish itself within the bingo and casino segment of the social gaming market, as well as launch real money bingo and casino games in the UK regulated market. real money social and gambling Over the longer term the company games across multiple platforms. intends to either acquire or Michael Buckley, executive develop and launch freemium and chairman of Gaming Realms, com-
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obile gaming operator Probability is still suffering from a pair of failed marketing campaigns as the firm posted a pre-tax loss of £1.6m for the six months to 30 September 2013. Television focused campaigns in December 2012 and in June/July 2013 delivered fewer customers than would have been expected based on Probability’s earlier experience even though mobile and online marketing performed as expected, despite increased competition. This forced a complete review of all B2C activities in August 2013, which saw Probability renew its focus on proven direct-response digital marketing and its core LadyLuck’s mobile casino brand. Probability CEO Charles Cohen said: “We are dealing with the legacy of the challenges we faced in the first half of the financial year following the disappointing performance of some of our B2C marketing activities. During the summer, once it became clear that the B2C commercial strategy was not delivering we took decisive action in recalibrating this side of the business, bringing in new talent and fresh thinking and focusing back onto proven and controllable methodologies for acquisition. “Whilst recovery is still incomplete we have begun to see growth again and our unrelenting focus is to build on this renewed momentum.” Following the recalibration of the marketing strategy and changes to retention campaigns, trading in October and November has improved with revenue growth in all areas. In November cost-per-acquisition of a cash player to the core B2C brands was a third of the equivalent cost in July, and provisional data indicates a close to break-even outcome at the EBITDA level for the month. Higher yields from existing players are being achieved and higher conversion rates thanks to improved CRM and deposit options with a number of new initiatives and games are planned. Gaming margins for the firm have broadly stabilised since September when some big winners apparently affected the bottom line. Gross win from B2C smartphone customers in November was higher than at any time in the previous six months and revenues from legacy featurephone customers have continued to decline in line with expectations.
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Danish regulator Birgitte Sand, who is speaking at the ICE Conference: World Regulatory Briefing on Tuesday 4 February at ExCeL, says that the country has had some success on the issue of self-exclusion. irgitte Sand, director at Spillemyndigheden - the Danish Gambling Authority, believes that the fact that few operators have left Denmark is a good sign that the online gambling legislation introduced in 2012 is effective. Sand explained: “We regard the Danish market as being very stable. What we have seen so far for the first two years is operators applying for a licence, and staying. Operators received a one year licence and when they could fulfil all the necessary requirements they chose to turn it into a five year licence. Most operators who came in from beginning are still there and we have more coming in as well.” Sand said that the stability of the market, and the relatively small unlicensed business that
TV marketing campaigns prove expensive
new customers over a shorter timeframe and at lower cost across the business, particularly in the new digital channels which are now available. In addition, QTM brings a growing profit stream and user base into the Group, both of which can be used to further enhance our brand development activities.” Tom Gooding, co-founder of QTM, said: “I am very excited by the opportunities this deal brings. We have developed an innovative mented: “We are pleased to marketing capability which we welcome the QTM team into the believe will complement Gaming group. Our combined marketing Realms’s existing marketing operations will be able to secure activities.” GAMING REALMS ALSO OPERATES ALCHEMYBET
gaming@callcreditgroup.com www.callcredit.co.uk/gaming
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Trend setters
iGaming
In a pre-close statement, operator 888 has said that the trends reported at the time of the Q3 KPIs and IMS have continued and that 888 remains confident of meeting management expectations for full year adjusted EBITDA. 888 had previously reported a 2 per cent increase in revenues for Q3 and a 19 per cent increase in registered customer accounts for its casino, poker and sportsbook activities for the year to 14.9m.
iGAMINGBRIEFS
The intersection of social and realmoney games
FINE DRAW
Daniel Kajouii of ISIS Friends talks about how his firm intends to offer the chance to transform social games into viable real money experiences. SOCIAL GAMING
ou are about to run in the UK what will ISIS Friends bring to the market that’s not already available? ISIS Friends is a game changer and first of its kind. We see ISIS Friends as the first social gaming network to offer gaming at the intersection of social gaming and real-money games: the gamification of gambling and the gamblification of social gaming. It allows the twoway crossover of games between fun, free, and friendly social games and real-money wagered games. The vision is to offer the option of wagering within the most popular social games, as well as adding the fun and friendly social gamification elements to the very best in real-money gambling. As free, fun social games continue to look for new monetisation strategies, they continue to blur the line between social gaming and real-money gambling. With in-game purchases, freemium upgrades, and other monetisation strategies, social gaming and realmoney gambling are increasingly targeting the
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same audience and will undoubtedly and eventually converge. As social games increasingly allow players to use real money in game play or wager using noncashable money, the distinction between fun, free social gaming and realmoney gambling continues to blur, making the identification of a clear boundary difficult. Are regulators right to be concerned about social gaming or are they just responding to concerns from real money operations about competition? In my opinion, regulators have raised some real concerns pertaining to social gaming. The issue of real money operator concerns about a threat, while perhaps relevant in certain limited instances, are largely an attempt to direct the focus of the conversation elsewhere. For instance, a minor is able to play slot titles for free on Facebook. The same title is then available for real money play to the same person, presuming they are now of age. The difference now is that the real money game cannot have a payout
percentage of 100+ per cent, unlike a lot of the free social casino games. Most of the social casino games are designed to prolong the users game session and as such, because they aren’t regulated, they offer payout percentages which often exceed 100 per cent. This means the slot machine is actually paying the player more than what it takes in, which naturally could never be the case in the real money instance. However, it also creates a false sense of luck and success on these gambling machines. The reality here is that most social game developers have very little experience in the real money gaming world, and as such, have not had the exposure to the reality that addiction and gambling problems are real and social responsibility and regulatory compliance are serious responsibilities that providers and developers, along with operators in the real money sector, must adhere to at every turn of their business.
DANIEL KAJOUII: ‘BINGO IS CONSIDERED AN EVERGREEN GAME’
Developers can spend several months (or more) developing good, fun, high quality and immersive games and not have them available for real money gaming. Or, gaming companies can develop simple, lower quality games and spend a lot of time and effort on getting them approved for real money wagering. Through Isis Friends, we can easily and quickly adapt and qualify great games to be played for real money, as well as add additional gamification functionalities to more simple games and have them become more entertaining to a real money audience. We aim to allow any developer to gamblify their fun, free social games into real-money, high quality wagered games, Just as important, the Isis How long does it take to Friends platform offers convert a game to a real developers a simple and money prospect? effective new monetisation
method to earn additional revenue from their great games. You used to be at 1 Gaming Inc - what are your thoughts on the bingo market now? Bingo is considered an evergreen game. It has been around for centuries and will continue to be amongst the most popular forms of gaming. It is by far the most popular and socially accepted form of gambling. While I believe there has been much progress in the bingo market by way of market size and competition, we have yet to see this form of gaming truly flourish. I believe that with the expansion of regulated markets, online bingo will continue to grow. The online bingo while slightly saturated in the UK, continues to have massive growth potential in other emerging markets.
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A new charity social gaming site has launched called SpinForGood.com. It works by giving donors the same social gaming experience they’d find from the most popular providers, but adds a competitive tournament aspect where players compete on behalf of their selected charity. Players have a chance at turning a small donation into a large donation by competing in online tournaments. Spin For Good makes it efficient and cost-effective for participating charities to raise money. Participating in a Spin For Good donation tournament is a fraction of the cost of direct mail. The games are played completely online and donors are reached via email and social media. HACKERS JAILED
Ad campaign boosts Jack Gold numbers MOBILE
mbitious plans to boost the mobilefocused Jack Gold Casino brand with a television advertising campaign has seen significant uplift in traffic, according to its owners. Locus Gaming launched its first phase of commercials at the end of October on a range of terrestrial and digital channels. The campaign culminated in one new player winning a solid gold bar in a prize draw organised to coincide with the gold rushthemed creative. During the time the adverts aired, visits to the site more than doubled, with the number
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of active real money players increasing by 75 per cent. Ed Andrewes, CEO of Locus Gaming, said the marketing plan was encouraging at a time when the volume, frequency, and
BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
exposure of gambling adverts on UK television is under review. “We didn’t take the decision to do above the line advertising lightly as there is considerable expense associated
with it. We were also aware of concerns over saturation coverage. But we are pleased with the increased awareness, including a boost in the credibility of the site among new and existing customers and tangible commercial returns. We’re confident we’ve got the right product available on the right platforms for today’s casino customers, but it’s crucially important to reach out rather than expecting them to find us.” The adverts sought to develop a heritage for the brand by taking viewers back in time to the early days of the California Gold Rush. They are then
returned to the cutting edge technology of the current day where the thrill of playing Jack Gold’s pioneering table and slots games awaits. Central to the promotion, which was initially aired on ITV, Channel 5, and Sky Television, Locus gave away a solid gold bar to one lucky customer. Jack Gold Casino is now optimised for a greater number of Android devices and the new breed of mobile and tablet handsets in local and emerging markets. The changes follow research into preferred operating systems and handsets in territories such as Australia and South Africa.
Two hackers have been jailed for blackmailing an online operator using the threat of DDOS attacks. Piotr Smirnow, 31 and Patryk Surmacki, 35, who were described by their own defence has having embarked on a ‘bizarre, misconceived, naive and brazen attempt of blackmail’, received sentences of five years and four months at Manchester Crown Court last month. The pair pleaded guilty to two counts of blackmail, and admitted conspiracy to access, use and impair computers without authorisation. Detective Inspector Chris Mossop said: “They may have been using the latest technology but this was simply good oldfashioned blackmail.”
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Betting SAM SODJE ALLEGEDLY TOLD THE SUN ON SUNDAY THAT HE WAS PAID £70,000 FOR A RED CARD
Market restriction will not stop match fixing
FINANCIAL
ACTION IMAGES / ED SYKES
INTEGRITY
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betting syndicate based in Singapore and are faced with the same charges. Ali said that the political debate that has stemmed from the revelations has been misplaced. “For these cases which are being discussed – where are the bets going?” he asked. “A lot of these bets are not actually placed with regulated and licensed operators and yet there’s all this discussion going around about the types of bet you can place. This is nothing to do with the regulated industry. “One thing which definitely should be done is restrict the type of bets, because all that does is push people to the unregulated markets. As you go down the divisions there’s less chance of betting on these types of markets anyway as the bookmakers don’t allow it.” Ali said that the industry has always been aware of this possibility which is why they’ve invested a lot into security techniques and why ESSA exists as an information sharing body. “We are on the front line and if there is match fixing in sport then we suffer,” he added. “In the short term sports get their repu-
nline giant Bwin.party has revealed that since the end of September 2013 its performance has been in-line with management’s expectations with gross win margins in sports betting remaining strong. In a trading update, Bwin.party said that betting volumes were slightly lower reflecting a reduced sporting calendar during the international series of football matches in November. It added that mobile remains an important channel, representing approximately 25 per cent of sports average daily net revenue in the period. The firm has recently launched an all-new version of its sports mobile product in Spain and plans to roll it out to other markets during the first half of 2014. In its other verticals, revenues have grown since the introduction of Bwin.party’s new poker client, casino has been boosted from the New Jersey operations while Bingo net revenue has improved with a steady recovery in performance in both the UK and Italy. Non-executive chairman Simon Duffy is to stand down at the next AGM, allowing plenty of time to conduct a formal search process for his successor. He commented: “By the time I depart the Board in May I will have served as Bwin.party’s chairman for more than three years. as non-executive chairman I was tasked with overseeing the integration of Bwin and PartyGaming following the announcement of their merger in 2010 and I am pleased to say that many of the strategic objectives positioning Bwin.party for future growth have now been achieved. The most recent milestone was the successful re-entry into the United States with the launch of real money gaming poker and casino services along with our partner in New Jersey, the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. “The group has faced numerous challenges over the past three years, but most of them are now behind us and I am confident that, under the leadership of Norbert Teufelberger, Bwin.party is wellplaced to return to growth by capitalising on its strong market position, leading brands and proprietary technology.”
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Another spate of match-fixing revelations in the UK has seen political debate switch to placing unnecessary restrictions on bookmakers. anning types of bets on sport will not prevent match-fixing, but may well harm the fight against corruption, according to Khalid Ali, the chief executive of the European Sports Security Association (ESSA). There have been increased calls to limit the types of bets that bookmakers can offer following the arrest of six people on spot fixing allegations. Former Nigeria international Sam Sodje was secretly filmed by the Sun on Sunday describing how he punched an opponent in a League One game to get a red card in exchange for £70,000. He also said he arranged for another player to be paid £30,000 for getting a yellow card in a Championship match. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has already charged four people with match fixing from a separate investigation. Two footballers with Conference South team Whitehawk FC - Michael Boateng and Hakeem Adelakun - were both charged with conspiracy to defraud, while Chann Sankaran and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan are alleged to be members of an international illegal
Margins strong towards end of year
tation damaged but it is the bookmakers who are losing the money. The long term consequences is that sport will lose money as it will lose sponsors and attendances, but the betting industry also suffers as people will not want to bet on those events. So there’s every reason for us to want to fight this.” Bookmaker Betaland is one of those making proactive steps, sponsoring a ‘Say No to Match-Fixing’ integrity tour by the Malta Football Association (MFA). The will be conducted by Sportradar and will educate players, referees and club officials about all relevant issues surrounding modern day matchfixing. Betaland CEO Antonio Ricci commented: “Betaland is proud to be part of this project along with the MFA and Sportradar. As an international bookmaker, we support this important fight against match-fixing because we truly believe in sport and we intend to protect it from corruption and manipulation. For us this is a decisive partnership that goes beyond marketing and branding purposes, but wants to show clearly our social responsibility.”
ANALYSIS Questions have got to be asked about the role of the sporting bodies in policing corruption, particularly given that it transpired that the FA didn’t follow up on its warning to Conference South clubs last season about ‘responsibilities under the FA’s betting and integrity rules’ and players from that league have now been arrested on match fixing charges. There has also been talk about the sponsors of sport putting pressure on the associations it is funding in order to take a more professional approach to corruption. After all, the last thing that the Conference South sponsor Skrill wants to be associated with is dodgy payments.
www.inspiredgaminggroup.com sales@ingg.com
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Paddy Power extends Irish estate Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has increased its retail footprint in its domestic market after acquiring nine shops from major independent Hackett’s. Under the terms of the said deal, all the acquired shops will be rebranded under the name Paddy Power bringing its estate to 232 units. The shops bought by Paddy Power are located in Limerick, Dublin, Clonmel, Templemore and Tullamore.
Controversial betting shop closed down
BETSSON’S BETTING SHOP WAS FIRST OPENED IN 2008
Betsson has shuts down its provocative betting shop at Götgatan, claiming the future is in mobile operations anyway. RETAIL
wedish online gaming operator Betsson has closed down its controversial betting shop after five years of operation, suggesting that it has outgrown its usefulness to the company. Betsson first opened the shop in May 2008 as an agent provocateur, goading the Swedish authorities to close it down which would simultaneously lead to a debate on the country’s gambling laws and their compatibility with the EU Treaty. As Betsson explained in a statement about the shop: “It was part of the aim to offer Swedish customers a freedom of choice within gambling, which lead to a drawn-out battle between Betsson and the Swedish authorities. Since then many more or less creative strategies have been used to try and force Betsson to shut down the betting shop, the latest tactic was prohibiting the use of table hockey games and pinball
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machines in the shop.” In the five years of operation, Betsson’s betting shop at Götgatan in Stockholm has been a natural meeting point for people interested in sports and gambling and although it has not proved to be the catalyst for upheaval that the bookmaker might have wished to achieve, it has instigated some debate on gambling laws in national courts. But instigating change via European law is notoriously slow and it appears that time has run out for the betting shop after five years. “Our customers now have their betting shop at home. As we have reached our goals with the physical shop we now choose to put full focus on our mobile products, which have made astonishing progress this year,” explained Magnus Silfverberg, CEO of Betsson AB. “The betting shop has been important to the development for both Betsson and to the rest of the Swedish gambling market.
As the issues around gambling legislations have been raised to the Supreme Court and have been proven to go against EU Law, we feel that the shop has now fulfilled its cause. We are proud of what we have achieved and that we have started a debate about the Swedish gambling legislation.” In giving the betting shop its eulogy, Silfverberg was keen to promote the firm’s mobile offering, saying that it has already shown good results. He said: “Everything that you can do in a betting shop, you can now do from a desktop, tablet or mobile. Our future is mobile, like our players. During this year one of the Betsson AB subsidiaries has developed a new mobile site and in October they also launched one of the Nordic markets first Native mobile applications for gambling on Apple’s own platform. This led to a turnover more than four times higher than before on mobile gambling.”
New sportsbook app from Ladbrokes MOBILE
adbrokes has launched a new Mobile sportsbook in the Apple store providing a brand new interface and navigation menu based upon a new platform, using the latest technology, to ensure high performance, speed and reliability. Designed to give a fresh, modern look and feel, the new mobile site offers simple navigation and an easy-to-use betslip, live streaming of horse racing and a quickbet feature so customers can place single bets almost instantly. The product also has ‘push’ capability enabling the delivery of relevant and timely offers straight to customers’ smartphones. The launch follows a limited release in August to a small number of customers to gather feedback and test functionality and follows the formation of an exclusive
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partnership with the Chelsea Apps which has a remit to constantly innovate, measure and improve the Ladbrokes mobile offering. Ladbrokes MD Digital Jim Mullen said: “Mobile remains a massive opportunity for Ladbrokes. Customers have increasingly high expectations on what they want from the mobile product. The new sportsbook product on the mobenga platform is a key part of our response. “This is a significant step on the journey of our digital offer and we are continuing to work on building our single wallet capability with our partners and in moving our casino offer to Playtech well ahead of the summer. When complete we will be in a position to mobilise our business, compete effectively and grow our offer.” BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014 11
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Data Tote deal cleared
Betting
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has decided that Sportech’s acquisition of poll betting technology firm Data Tote does not raise any issues and therefore will not be referring the deal to the Competition Commission. Sportech said that Data Tote brings an incremental customer base with strong year-onyear revenue growth that will broaden Sportech’s share of the European betting market.
ACTION IMAGES / JED LEICESTER
Boylesports signs up the Colossus
MARKETING
With football betting getting ever more popular, Colossus Bets appears to have developed an attractive proposition. POOL BETTING
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offer the £10,000,000 Colossus and other pools on our platform from January 2014. The turnover that Colossus have managed from a standing start with zero clients is impressive and shows that the public want large guaranteed pools on football. The fractional Cash-In is also a great USP and we can’t wait to be the first bookmaker to offer these features, along with our current offering, and have the world’s biggest pool on Boylesports for the second half of the season and then the World Cup in Brazil.” Colossus Bets CEO & founder Bernard Marantelli added: “We have signed 9 B2B partners already and several more are in later stages of negations to take our products so the industry is clearly as excited as we are about this revolutionary product that allows lotto sized prizes on football everyone loves.
The firm has not been reticent in tweaking the product either. In November it introduced 20p Games including a 20p Pick 6 pool to win £200,000, which Marantelli said had been ‘very popular’ both with smaller staking punters but also with larger staking customers trying out more permutations. Last month the firm also started allowing customers to play the Colossus for fractions of the stake & jackpot. For example, a 20p line instead of a £2 line would provide a £1m jackpot rather than £10m. Marantelli added: “The introduction of our 20p games was so successful that we have now introduced 20p lines to all our games, allowing customers to choose £2 lines for £10m or 20p lines for £1m or anywhere in between.” Colossus Bets, which will be launching Spanish and Chinese versions of the
oral has agreed to an extended five-year sponsorship of the Welsh Grand National taking the bookmaker’s association with the Chepstow race to 45 years, the third longest sponsorship partnership in jump racing. Coral chief executive Andy Hornby said: “I actually attended my first Welsh National in 1973, and I am delighted that having been there for the first Coral-sponsored running of the race, four decades on the association remains as strong as ever. “On behalf of everyone at Coral, I can also say how proud we are to be involved in one of the longest-running sponsorships not just in racing, but in sport, and we look forward to working with Chepstow and ARC over the next five years and beyond to ensure Wales’s greatest race maintains its position as one of the highlights of the National Hunt season.” Phil Bell, executive director South West for Arena Racing Company, added: “This sponsorship is superb news for racing and Chepstow customers. We are extremely grateful for Coral’s support of the Welsh Grand National and look forward to continuing the longest jump racing sponsorship relationship between a racecourse and a bookmaker. It’s a fantastic partnership that works well for both parties.” Last month’s race was broadcast live on Channel 4 for the first time. Jamie Aitchison, Channel 4’s sports editor, commented: “The race is a seasonal highlight with a strong history of horses going on to run, and win, at Cheltenham Festival and Aintree’s Grand National Meeting.”
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COLOSSUS BETS OFFERS A £10M JACKPOT FOR 7 CORRECT SCORES
rish bookmaker Boylesports is the latest firm to sign up as a partner with Colossus Bets in order to offer customers a life changing jackpot via football pool betting. Colossus Bets’ headline pool, The Colossus, regularly offers a £10m jackpot for players correctly predicting the outcome of 7 Premier League games for a £2 stake, but the firm also offers several other variations with which to attract punters. Since launching at the start of the football season, Colossus Bets has signed 9 B2B partners and Boylesports will now join firms such as Bet Victor, 32Red and YouWin in offering the pool bets to their own customers. Keith O’Loughlin, group CTO at Boylesports, commented: “We at Boylesports are very excited to
Coral extends Welsh national association
site this month, has also experienced great success with its Cash-In feature that allows punters to exit bets early. The firm has had four patents granted in the US under a ‘global scheme’ protecting cash-in and especially ‘fractional’ cash-in in many gambling spheres. Since launch Colossus Bets has attracted over 11,000 registrations, 62 per cent via mobile which is a string channel for the operator. 43 per cent of bets placed are on mobile with it also representing 37 per cent of Cash-In transactions. Marantelli said: “The uptake on mobile has been exceptional, as it suits our progressive bet with leg by leg cash-in perfectly.” Given that 9 out of 10 cashed-in tickets go on to lose, Colossus Bets is clearly offering its customers a valuable tool, which will no doubt be rewarded by more brand loyalty.
ANALYSIS One of the more fascinating aspects of Colossus Bets’ rise has been the rivalry it has built up with Coral, which launched a rival big jackpot pool betting football product at the start of the season as well. A group led by Bernard Marantelli actually scooped Coral’s £1m jackpot in late October for 15/15 correct scores. The firm later dropped its £1m guaranteed jackpot for a single outright winner, but Marantelli’s group won a jackpot again a month later when it had rolled over to almost £300,000. Coral had been in discussions to take the Colossus Bets product at the start of the season - the firm probably wishes it had done now.
GVC bucks unfavourable results trend TRADING
VC Holdings has taken the opportunity to have a bit of a dig at the recent spate of profit warnings from bookmakers bemoaning unfavourable sporting results with a trading update suggesting that its operations haven’t been nearly so hampered.
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Noting the recent announcements made by ‘a number of its peers in the sports betting industry bookmaker’, GVC commented: “The group’s trading has held up extremely well in the first two months of Q4 2013, reinforcing the success of GVC’s integration of the
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Sportingbet business. The sports margin was 8.2 per cent (Q3 2013: 9.4 per cent) despite the ‘punter-friendly’ nature of a number of sports events.” In the first two months of Q4 2013, average wagers per day rose to 4m euro (£3.3m), up 23 per cent on the prior quarter and up 12
per cent on October and November in 2012, on a likefor-like basis. Despite the reduction in sports margin percentage, average daily Net Gaming Revenue in the first two months of Q4-2013 rose by 4 per cent to 536,000 euro (£446,000) per day from the preceding quarter. The company added:
“The Board of GVC therefore expects the group’s full year results to be at the upper end of analyst’s current expectations.” The Group anticipates that it will provide a further trading update on Q4 2013 as well as a dividend declaration early in 2014.
CORAL HAS EXTENDED ITS ASSOCIATION WITH THE WELSH GRAND NATIONAL
BB112-p10-14-Betting_09/10 03/01/2014 11:30 Page 4
Lite move
Betting
Spreadex has become the first UK spread betting firm to offer leveraged Litecoin trading. Marketing communications manager Andy MacKenzie said: “Opinions are certainly divided on the longevity or even the legitimacy of this form of digital currency, however, we’ve seen great take up of our Bitcoin trading market since we launched it earlier in the year. Litecoin is probably the next most accepted form of cryptocurrency of the various types now available.”
BETTINGBRIEFS
‘Indians are being put off cricket’
SCHALKE SHAKES HANDS
George Oborne, MD at social betting site India Bet, discusses how his firm approaches betting in India. He is speaking at the ICE Conference: Monetising Social Gaming on Wednesday 5 February. MARKETING
oes Indiabet work as an affiliate site or is there a longer term strategy for monetisation? Yes, we currently monetise solely through affiliate marketing. We have certainly looked into and considered some longer term plans. However, we have no intention of changing our business model until the Indian market has introduced proper regulation. What we do then will very much be determined by the conditions set by the regulators and so it is difficult to have a fixed idea of the future now as regulation is some way off. All our current development is therefore focused on an affiliate marketing business model.
specifically in cricket? Does it de-motivate your customer base? As a company we aren’t. With virtual currency it would be pretty remarkable if someone attempted to fix a match to win an India Bet Mug. On a serious note, though, it is a major issue in India at present. Indians are being put off cricket and are hugely cynical about the current state of the game (any mild variation from the norm is blamed on fixing and much of the excitement of cricket has been killed for many supporters). Ironically, the illegal bookmaking industry took a real hit after the IPL scandal and it became much more difficult than usual to get a bet on in the final stages of the How are you affected by tournament. match fixing scandals, As far as our affiliated
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tablets. We therefore produced a mobile product earlier this year and we have seen strong growth there. Because of the site’s origins our desktop product is still more popular, but our view is that the future for India is in mobile and tablet and we are working hard on improving our mobile offering. It must be remembered though that most mobiles What is the most popular in India are below the specchannel for your Indian cus- ifications we are used to in tomers? the UK and our products We primarily built the site have been built to meet the for desktop use and partic- specs of Indian phones and ularly in terms of early not UK ones. product development we focused on desktop. There- What are the challenges fore, the majority of our behind running your own users use our desktop virtual currency? product. However, it I would identify two main became apparent that things that are problematic many of our users were with virtual currencies. accessing the desktop site First, is keeping control of from their phones and the amount of currency partners are concerned, I don’t think it’s a major issue as almost all bets placed on fixed events are done through the illegal markets and any suspicious betting activity is tightly monitored by online firms. Win markets are tied to the Betfair markets and I am sure any liabilities are easily removed through the exchanges.
players can get hold of. You want to be able to control the amount of VC each player receives. You want to give different amounts to new players and older players, to loyal players and temporary players, to winning players and to losing players etc. Therefore creating in game mechanisms to control this occupies a lot of our thought when working on development. Secondly, you need to think about how to keep players engaged when they run out of currency. If a currency can’t run out then it negates its value. However, when players do run out of currency they need to be kept engaged. I think this is an aspect of social gaming that is not given enough thought - particularly within the sports betting sector.
Betfred takes a stake in Great Leighs CONTENT
ookmaker Betfred is to enter the racecourse ownership arena by helping take over the failed Great Leigh’s course. Tote Media Limited, a new Betfredowned company, has formed a joint venture company (Great Leighs Estates Limited) with SIS and Bet Solutions International to acquire the track and various assets and intends to rename it Chelmsford City Racecourse. The bookmaker said that the racetrack is in excellent condition despite its lack of use since it was last operational five years ago. The new management will undertake a comprehensive review of the track and its facilities, but will initially focus on building a new custom built grandstand with commensurate leisure and betting facilities. The track is expected to run a regular high quality, self funded racing program and will apply to the BHA in January for a licence and entry into the 2015 Fixture Allocation Process. Phil Siers, the managing director of Tote Media Limited, said: “We are delighted to be involved in this project, and look forward to working with our partners and the
ONE OF THE FEW RACES AT GREAT LEIGHS
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Online bookmaker Bet-athome.com has extended its association with Champions League team FC Schalke for another two years. The two organisations have worked together since 2012 and the latest deal sees the sponsorship contract extended until 30 June 2016. Under the sponsorship agreement, Bet-at-home’s ads will be featured on LED boards and sponsor boards featured in the media zone of the club’s Veltins Arena. In addition to this, the contract also foresees a special online betting section dedicated to Bet-athome on Schalke’s website. Bet-at-home.com marketing director Michael Gierke commented: “FC Schalke04 is one of the biggest football clubs in Germany and for an international company such as bet-at-home.com is a highly attractive club.” BRAGBET GETS NI DEAL
Irish operator Bragbet has become the official betting partner of the Northern Ireland Football League for the next two and a half years. Bragbet, a hybrid social network and sports betting operator, is already the official betting partner for the Football Association of Ireland. NI Football League’s head of marketing and communications Graeme Beggs commented: “Bragbet are a young and incredibly exciting company who, in our opinion, could revolutionise the way fans interact with each other by combining social media and betting in the one platform. We have looked at a number of potential partners, but no business shared our vision of a combined social media and football product quite like BragBet.”
ACTION IMAGES / MATTHEW CHILDS
BRAZIL BONUS
BHA to create, what we believe will be the best all weather facility in Europe.” Joe Scanlon, director of racing at Betfred, has been appointed chairman of the racecourse: “I’m delighted that a new joint venture company has acquired the assets of Great Leighs and I look forward to working with our partners. The track is ideally placed for Newmarket’s training centre whilst the sur-
rounding area has a total catchment in excess of 3m people. “This is an exciting challenge and represents a significant investment. Working closely with the BHA we intend to deliver a high class programme of racing which can only be to the benefit of everyone involved in our wonderful sport.” Along with Ffos Las, Great Leighs was one of two new racecourses opened in the UK this
century but has been massively unsuccessful. Its official opening was delayed by 18 months until April 2008, but within nine months it was in administration and had its temporary racing licence revoked. Despite several attempts by several different owners to obtain a new licence for racing, the British Horseracing Authority has yet to be convinced to allow racing at the site again.
Bookies Genting Bet have fired the opening shot of the World Cup wager wars by offering customers money back if Brazil lift the trophy. The new sportsbook, which launched in October, has pledged to return stakes of up to £50 to customers who back any other team for glory. Genting Bet’s Ruairi Boyle said: “We wanted to make an impact on the market and hopefully offering money back on every runner in the race if the favourite wins will be attractive to customers. The World Cup will be massive for us next summer and we’re going to have to be both competitive and clever in what will be a very congested online space.”
THE BEST FROM ACROSS THE POND ON YOUR TURF
EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK! Gamble responsibly - gambleaware.co.uk
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Politics BACTA unhappy with remote freedoms
‘Major weaknesses’ in independent age controls Small firms are finding out from the Gambling Commission that their age controls are not up to scratch
REGULATION
ndependent high street gambling businesses are being told to improve their underage gambling controls after the Commission’s recent test purchase exercise with local authorities and the police across England and Wales identified some major weaknesses. Owners of some gambling businesses have been warned to do more to keep young people out of their adult-only premises. The national programme of tests showed a worrying number of betting shops and adult gaming centres failing to keep young people out of their premises or preventing them from using a gaming machine. Matthew Hill, the Commission’s director, regulatory risk and analysis said: “These results are unacceptable. The test purchasing programme with local authorities and the police will continue, and operators will be putting their licences and livelihoods at risk if they fail to improve.” In 29 out of 54 tests of betting and adult gaming centre (AGC) premises, a supervised test purchaser
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under the age of 18 was allowed to play on a gaming machine and leave the premises without being challenged to prove their age. However, results from a small sample of bingo and casino premises demonstrated stronger controls in preventing young persons from entering the premises. This particular exercise focused on groups of businesses in the land-based gambling industry that have not provided the Commission or local authorities with assurance that their underage gambling controls are being monitored. Around 60 gambling premises were tested across ten local authority areas using a young person aged under 18 supervised by a local authority or police officer and a Commission Compliance Manager. The results of the test purchases of smaller betting premises were of greatest concern to the Gambling Commission, and little wonder given that in 20 of the 31 premises tested the young person was not challenged at any stage of the test. The remainder of the betting premises tests demonstrated better controls, with challenges being
made at the premises entrance or before the tester had inserted money into a gaming machine. Of particular concern to the Commission is that in some of the betting and AGC premises where no challenge was made, the young person was seen by staff but ignored. In a very small number of the tests, the young person was even welcomed or encouraged to gamble. Rather than come down too heavy handed at this point, the Commission has instead encouraged all operators to view these results as an opportunity to satisfy themselves that they are delivering their obligations under the Act and their operating licences. It said it is also an opportunity for the industry as a whole to make serious progress in improving performance in this ‘critical area’. The regulator added: “The Commission’s programme of test purchasing work with local authorities and police is ongoing and we expect the next round of results to be available in summer next year. If those results continue to demonstrate severe weaknesses in parts of the industry, con-
ANALYSIS The Gambling Commission appears keen for operators to take this matter very seriously and has issued some pointers. It said that close proximity of a staff member to the entrance of premises helps although ‘this will depend on the attitude and competence of the staff themselves’. The siting of gaming machines out of view of the staffed counter was identified as an issue in some tests although whether shops were busy at the time of test was not a key contributory factor. The regulator also said that premises that appeared to operate a robust Think 21 policy showed very good rates of challenging early.
sideration will be given to mandating new measures to improve the degree of protection offered. Individual operators will wish to reassure themselves that they have acted on the learning provided by these
results. Failure to do so may increase the risk of formal regulatory action being taken against individual operators.” AGE CONCERN Comment 52
EU questions raised at Responsible Gaming Day EUROPE
2 months after the European Commission launched its action plan on online gambling, EU decision makers, national authorities, representatives of the wider digital economy and gambling stakeholders came together at the 6th Responsible Gaming Day for a round table discussion on how to improve the regulatory landscape in the EU. A lively exchange between the roundtable panellists and with the audience on questions such as how regulation of national online gambling markets can facilitate an attractive legal offer to consumers, the diverging approaches between
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HENRIK TJÄRNSTRÖM
ACTA, the coin-op gaming trade association, has responded to the consultation regarding remote gambling licensing by suggesting that land-based gambling businesses are facing tougher regulations than those based online. The association’s chief executive Leslie MacLeod-Miller commented: “It is important to reflect that the purpose of the 2005 Act was supposed to deal with gambling on remote devices, mobiles, TV and the internet, but five years since implementation of the Act there is an ever increasing gap between the overregulation which characterises landbased gambling and gambling provided through remote communication. Despite the remote legislation having been passed by parliament, it remains doubtful whether it goes far enough in terms of enforcement to be effective and I fear that it will be just another opportunity for the Gambling Commission to empire build at our expense.” MacLeod-Miller suggested that such legislation should have been passed sooner anyway: “What is of even greater concern to taxpayers should be the delay in taxation of remote gambling which has put money in the pockets of offshore gambling companies while essential services, such as defence, health, fire and education have been cut. We have asked pointed questions and lodged a Freedom of Information request about the reasons why the government has dragged its feet and we will continue to push for an even playing field with landbased gaming.”
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AGE TEST
Member States and what lessons can be learned from other sectors in the EU Digital economy to improve regulation for the online gambling sector in the EU. Claire Bury, director for Internal Market and Services at the European Commission gave an overview of the implementation of the European Commission’s action plan on online gambling to date and the actions that are to follow in 2014. There was general agreement that the public policy objectives for gambling legislation, such as a high level of consumer protection and the prevention of fraud are widely shared, but that there are quite diverging ways between Member States how to achieve
those. The development of an attractive range of legal gambling opportunities is pivotal to effectively prevent consumers from going on sites outside the regulatory framework. Henrik Tjärnström, CEO of Unibet and board member of the EGBA, said “The big challenge facing the EU, Member States and the licensed industry alike is how to make sure that regulation is capable of channelling consumers to safe and attractive online gambling products. EGBA is committed to work with all national and EU stakeholders towards an efficient and effective - and a more common - approach on online gambling.”
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Turf TV is to expand its US racing offering with two US fixtures every night of the week
Picklive has announced a new Fantasy partnership with The Telegraph Media Group
New mobile operator Metro Play has signed a games supply deal with Net Entertainment
BetVictor has signed a two year deal to use Callcredit Information Group’s CallValidate
Betting Business Interactive Edition
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January 2014
Totally Gaming As the industry prepares to decamp to the ExCeL Centre, check out what the key products and services are going to be next month. Essential Guide to ICE Totally Gaming 18
Silver service Inspired Gaming Group launches 100/1 Roulette - described as a quirky addition to its popular multi-game Storm and Eclipse gaming machines 40
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Essential guide to ... Stand up
Global reach
Knowledge base
In terms of exhibiting companies, Clarion estimates that ICE Totally Gaming will be edging towards the 500 figure - an achievement which it calls ‘symbolically hugely significant’.
Some 50 nations will be represented on the show floor and over 60 per cent of exhibitors will be from outside the UK. As well as the major established gaming brands, there will be 67 companies at ICE for the first time.
The ICE Conference programme comprises 40 hours of targeted learning and networking delivered by 150 of gaming’s most eminent thought leaders. The whole show will be delivered by 25 permanent Clarion staff.
Vast expanse Visitors will be exposed to the entire gaming landscape covering betting, bingo, casino, lottery, mobile, online, street and social in what is the world’s biggest gaming space comprising 55,000 sqm.
ORGANISER
VIEWPOINT
ExCeL allows us to grow
The Gaming City
level in its development.
Clarion Events’ Kate Chambers talks about this year’s ICE Totally Gaming and the changes her team have made to make it even better than last year. o your second year at ExCeL what did you learn from last year and what changes have you made? The move to ExCeL was certainly one of great significance compounded by the fact that we had to change our dates as part of the move. Whilst the relocation went better than we could have expected with ICE registering its third year of consecutive growth (the final audited attendance of 22,247 was 4.3 per cent up on 2012, 8.6 per cent up on 2011 and nearly 18 per cent up on 2010) we did of course learn some important lessons which we have moved quickly to resolve. ExCeL is a huge venue with the length of the halls being close to 700 metres which caused some issues with visitor flow. To address this for 2014 we have taken over both the North and the South halls and reduced the length of the show. The outcome is a squarer format but one which is 12 per cent larger than in 2013. This will reduce the distances visitors have to walk and improve the visitor flow through the halls. We have also made some big changes to the arrangements for build-up which should deliver significant benefits to exhibitors. You never stop learning in this business and when you do it’s probably time to find another career challenge!
How have you catered for the sports betting industry? Another huge strength of ICE is the spread of exhibitors it attracts and as a consequence the breadth of the product offering which goes way beyond what you would see at any other gaming event anywhere in the world. Totally Gaming is the most appropriate descriptive for ICE and attendees come to this event to immerse themselves in the gaming experience with a consequent cross fertilisation of ideas and inspiration. Dealing with specifics, the sports betting bar in association with planet win 365 is a dedicated bar for the sports betting community. This popular feature at ICE will be located in the South hall near entrance S1 with the majority of sports betting exhibitors. The Racing Post Café, which has become a focal point for the sports betting community, is located in the heart of the sports betting village and is intended as a place where visitors can meet, network and relax over a coffee.
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What was the reaction to the new venue? Each year we conduct quite extensive post show research the purpose of which is to identify what we are doing right and the areas where we are falling short. Obviously
the new venue featured high on the feedback and I’m pleased that in the main our attendees were very positive about it. We went to great lengths to push home the point that ExCeL was extremely well connected and that travel time from Custom House to the luxury quarter around Green Park is a little over 30 minutes. People also appreciate having London City Airport so close. ExCeL is modern, it has clean lines because it’s purpose built and it has the standard of business facilities that our stakeholders expect. All of these are important, but in addition, because we are not venue bound we can talk with our exhibitors about their plans for the future with confidence that we can meet them. We could not do this at Earls Court and as a consequence we missed out on retaining and even attracting companies because we were unable to satisfy their demands for space. ExCeL allows us to grow and to implement our strategic vision and take ICE to the next
There appears to have been an upsurge in marketing the show - what has been the strategy behind this? We realise that we have to earn the custom of our stakeholders - exhibitors and visitors who travel many thousands of miles to be part of ICE Totally Gaming. We also have a duty to our exhibitors to maximise the quality of attendees who come to ICE. I fought hard for an enhanced marketing budget and our ICE SENSATIONAL campaign has, I believe, gained some traction in the market. It’s a memorable campaign and one which resonates with our customers. My team works extremely hard and applies a large degree of creativity to attract the calibre of gaming professionals and influencers that our exhibitors (quite rightly) expect from ICE. Ticket registration for the world’s largest gaming event is free at www.icetotallygaming.com
Andrew McCarron t’s amazing how quickly a year passes and before we know it we are on the cusp of another barnstorming ICE show. The hustle and bustle of the English capital is replicated within the ExCeL venue, as is the international flavour of its inhabitants. Although bigger than last year, the switch from a long footprint to something much more manageable should please tired legs, especially on the third day, as visitors drink in all there is to offer. With a considerable amount of consolidation in the industry, some stands will be even bigger than last year as companies strive to include the whole product - and brand - range on the same square footage. Other firms take the more pragmatic, if more expensive, approach of keeping brands separate, with their own space servicing their own customers. And between all these are the odd hidden gem, who will end up being vital partners for some operators form all different walks of life. ICE Totally Gaming at ExCeL is not just an exhibition these days it is the Gaming City where everything to do with gambling is available to everyone, at the right price. And if you’re not there, you’re in danger of being left behind by your peers.
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ICE Totally Gaming PLANNING
Vast array of business opportunities Visitors to the London show are well advised to pre-plan meetings CE organisers are optimistic that the ICE Sensational marketing campaign will help achieve the fourth consecutive year of growth for gaming’s largest international business-to-business event. To achieve this the 2014 edition, taking place across the 4-6 February 2014 at ExCeL London, will have to exceed the 2013 audited attendance of 22,247 which itself was a 4.3 per cent increase on 2012, 8.6 per cent up on 2011 and a 17.8 per cent uplift on the figures for 2010. Jo Mayer, marketing director responsible for ICE, said: “This will be our second year at ExCeL and we are not resting on our laurels. We understand that we need to continue our investment in the ICE brand in order to continue to secure the loyalty of our stakeholders, the majority of whom travel to London from outside the United Kingdom. To achieve this we are investing heavily in what is our most experiential campaign to date, one which is appearing throughout international gaming media as well as in an extensive direct marketing campaign and innovative social media promotions.
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“ICE is the only business-to-business event to bring together both the online and offline gaming worlds under one roof and the only exhibition to provide a truly global perspective on gaming trends, with 65 per cent of exhibitors drawn from outside its host country. These unique characteristics are the key motivators in attracting the thousands of gaming professionals who come to London each year.” Meawhile, visitors to ICE Totally Gaming are being encouraged to pre-plan their meetings with exhibitors to ensure that they don’t miss out on the huge commercial opportunities which are available at the London event. The advice comes as research conducted by Vivid Interface amongst exhibiting companies at the 2013 show, confirms that ICE London is the international gaming industry’s commercial capital. The Vivid Interface research showed that exhibitors held on average 52 business meetings at ICE, a figure, which when applied across the 481 exhibiting companies, totals some 25,012 commercial gatherings over the duration of the exhibition. Whilst
the mean number of meetings stood at 52, the most active 3 per cent of exhibitors packed in more than 200 business meetings over the duration of the three days. Geoffrey Dixon, managing director at Vivid, said: “The research we conducted confirms that ICE is the meeting place of choice for the international gaming community in its broadest sense. It’s clear that exhibitors come to ICE intent on doing business, with our sample expecting on average 28 per cent of their meetings to result in a positive commercial outcome. The challenge for visitors is to ensure that they are able to meet with the exhibitors they want to do business with and clearly the best way to achieve that is to arrange meetings in advance of the exhibition opening rather than simply leaving it to chance on arrival. ICE is simply too popular an event to stage meetings at to risk missing out.” He added: “From my experience gained researching across the exhibition industry, such a level of commercial activity is near the very top of the spectrum, with the aggregate value of the deals agreed at ICE
info@bit8.com
JO MAYER
being worth many hundreds of millions of dollars. ICE is unique in that it is both a business and an information exchange event which results in a very senior tranche of chief executives, thought leaders and buyers with absolute authority. The exhibitors told us in interviews that this is a very potent audience profile and one that sets ICE apart from other events in the gaming space.”
www.@bit8.com
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming KIRON INTERACTIVE
LVS
A virtual evolution
Getting FDJ’s ParionsWeb mobile
Steven Spartinos, co-founder and co-CEO of Kiron Interactive, believes the evolution and increasing popularity of virtual sports provides an exciting opportunity for operators. I once heard it said that ‘cartoon racing’ would never catch on because sports bettors would always prefer to have a wager on the real thing. Some always will, of course, but the expansion of this increasingly popular vertical across the globe and on numerous platforms shows there is room for both in any operator’s product range. And it’s not all about horseracing these days either. The interest in greyhound racing and football has escalated significantly in recent years, with the latter in particular capturing the imagination of fans of the world’s favourite game. The opening up of new territories has also developed the need for different sports that are more suited to local tastes and I look forward to showcasing our new virtual sports portfolio at ICE this year. As well as content, here at Kiron Interactive we offer a turnkey back office solution too. This includes sophisticated and recently-updated EPOS and bet acceptance systems focused on the deployment of virtual sports in retail venues. As new platforms have developed and grown, we have made these available online, via self-service terminals, and mobile so that operators can benefit from technology in whatever form their customers choose to access it. The days of a one-size-fits all philosophy are long gone, fortunately, and we pride ourselves in customising what we offer to suit operating requirements on different platforms and in different jurisdictions. Furthermore, our virtual sports are now also available via multi-station gaming terminals for deployment in casinos. We’ve trialled these in Asia recently, with some very good re-
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By making an app for the group’s FDJ operation, cooperation between Lotsys and LVS has resulted in yet another successful partnership.
sults, and I expect them to attract a lot of interest on our stand in the Betting Pavilion at ExCeL. Casinos around the world are realising their players require more than just the traditional table and slot games offering. Our suite of Race Day virtual horseracing loyalty and marketing products in particular really capture the imagination – and, just as importantly, retain it. New Year is traditionally a time of reflection and looking back since ICE 2013, we are proud of our achievements both with respect to the depth of our content and the evolution of our products and transaction systems across multiple platforms. This has made our solutions a really attractive prospect in both traditional and emerging markets. Starting with ICE, 2014 is going to be a big year for Kiron Interactive.”
Stand S1-232
BETOLOGIC
Flexible solutions in competitive markets Betologic is to launch iBet2, a feature rich sports betting platform with analysis and statistical tools to assist decision making. ports betting software provider Betologic has introduced what it calls ‘a new breed of gaming solutions’, with the release of iBet2, an innovative platform for bookmaking operators. The gaming solution has been developed and integrated in-house using the latest technologies, with the aim of providing a unique, flexible and easy-to-use platform for sportsbook operations. Highlighting a wealth of features and enabling operators to provide more betting options to customers through various betting channels including the internet, land based shops, mobile devices, self-service terminals and fixed telephony, iBet2 is on a level playing field with the ‘big players’ in the market and provides a unique solution, empowering bookmakers to boost revenue and become leaders in an ever increasing competitive market. Betologic’s product manager Dr Tasos Sofokleous explained: “Bookmakers’ expectations are exceedingly high and Betologic has always endeavored to deliver the best and most powerful solutions. The demands of changing technology combined with the demands of an increasingly competitive market are only some of the concerns sports betting operators face. In order to claim market share and engage new customers, bookmakers usually offer very low-margin odds, unreasonable bonuses and commissions. To overcome this and aid operators
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VS has helped Lotsys announce the successful development of FDJ’s ParionsWeb native application which is now available on iPhone and iPad. As in the past, with the development of the mobile internet betting site, cooperation between Lotsys and LVS has resulted in yet another successful partnership. The lottery solutions enterprise and the sports betting factory worked rapidly and efficiently with FDJ, using an Agile methodology to produce a highly ergonomic mobile development. Lotsys’ CEO Laurent Chesnais stated: “The ParionsWeb app offers players on the go a simple, intuitive and secure gaming experience.” FDJ is the second largest lottery in Europe, with stakes of over 12bn euro in 2012. It offers a range of entertaining, responsible and secure lottery and sports betting games to 34,300 outlets and digital channels (internet and mobile). In 2012, FDJ redistributed 95 per cent of player stakes: 65 per cent to players, 24 per cent to the community (including nearly 2 per cent to Sport for All and social initiatives) and 5 per cent to retailers. The ergonomics of the app have been tailored to enable players to switch easily from the world of pre-match betting to live betting. The version for tablets has been developed with a ‘second screen’ option, Multiplex Live, which will accommodate and encourage live punters in particular. FDJ’s competitive business director Jean François Barthe explained the new features available: “Players have the option of fast betting by selecting their ‘favourites,’ and personalisng their gaming options (basic bet, homepage layout after opening app). Simplified access to the coupon games makes it easier to place single, multiple and combination bets within a matter of seconds.” The ParionsWeb native app can be downloaded from the App Store. Access to the ParionsWeb offer is equally accessible on Android through mobile and tablet parionsweb.fr portals.
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increase profits, Betologic takes a novel approach to its technology to offer iBet2, a feature rich sports betting platform with analysis and statistical tools to assist decision making, which at the same time is flexible, affordable and adaptable to any operational environment, economic or technological, i.e. environments with low bandwidth and lower infrastructure quality’.” Sofokleous continued: “The same extended software platform that applies to large clients is adapted and ready to be used by much the smallest ones. Operators and particularly beginners are looking for ways to distinguish their offerings from the competition. Therefore, a unique, flexible, affordable solution such as iBet2 is ideal. Everything needed to manage a booking business (market creation, reports, promotions, odds and risk management) is incorporated.” Part of Betologic’s success results from the firm’s understanding that e-gaming never stops evolving, and the company continues to investing in its solution. Perceiving the growing number of people turning to mobile devices and tablets, Betologic is preparing some innovative developments for 2014, such as extending its mobile back office suite of tools, making it easier for the operators to fully manage their business from anywhere, anytime, using any device.
Stand S1-240
Stand S2-111
Come and visit us on Stand S2-123
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming IGT
BIT8
A whole world of opportunity
How to make bonus pay
IGT’s Leigh Nissim tells Betting Business about his role as commercial director of Interactive and why, after a decade in online gaming, he finds it a more exciting time than ever. consider myself to be a lucky guy. Working in a hugely exciting and constantly changing industry, I travel the world, attending fascinating events and visiting some amazing companies. In recent weeks my work has taken me to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Vancouver, Montreal, Gibraltar, Barcelona and Rome, meeting customers, sampling some wonderful restaurants (Sushi Samba in Vegas was a highlight) and hotels along the way. Mobility is a must in our global industry. I find that this level of travel commitment can only be fruitful when accompanied by 100 per cent confidence that these trips and their associated expense are worthwhile and that my family are OK in my absence. The global nature of my role gives an indication of the strength of IGT Interactive’s customer base and content distribution network. We have customers across multiple geographies, working side-by-side with IGT to ensure that they optimise performance and yield from our games. Whether it’s a lottery, sports betting, bingo or casino operator, we are becoming much more aligned and focused on game marketing and data, to better support customers in game promotions. That’s one of the many benefits of working with IGT. In 2013, we dedicated a lot of our efforts to upgrading our customers to the latest version of our remote gaming server (rgs), transitioning from expensive legacy arrangements for game distribution and enabling our mobile games for a large majority of clients. IGT Interactive has new rgs customers in Italy, Canada, Belgium, Denmark and of course now the US, reinforcing our position as the casino supplier of choice in regulated markets, with notable launches with lottery and casino customers in these territories. You could say 2013 was a busy year, with fantastic foundations laid for further growth in 2014. Mobile betting and gaming has exploded in the last three years and growth looks set to boom, with research company H2 Gambling Capital predicting it will generate around 44 per cent of total interactive gambling gross win, or just over 5 per cent of all gambling gross win by 2018. If I were a betting man (which I often am, from my Samsung mobile device), I’d wager that the casino industry will hit that threshold a lot earlier. One of our little-spoken-of innovations is that we’ve revolutionised the way that smartphone and tablet players engage with our games through our new Mobile Console – and maximised the benefits to operators as a consequence. Available to all IGT Interactive partners, the new console gives
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operators unprecedented design flexibility to stamp their mark on the presentation of our games. The intuitive, floating dropdown menu significantly enhances player experience and ensures seamless movement between the lobby, paytable, wallet and other tabs. The new Mobile Console is fully customisable and optimises the real estate on all mobile and tablet devices. This allows our operators to innovate by adding their own branding and features, provides them with the opportunity to easily switch between real-money and free-play gaming, and to cross-sell other products to players through better advertisement placement. The prospect of rapid growth is very exciting but what I personally look forward to and enjoy within mobile is that the future is far from defined and it’s thrilling to be part of the journey with one of the leaders in mobile casino gambling. And not just on the supply side – my role means I’m constantly speaking with all of the top gambling operators worldwide and, on a daily basis, I see what’s working and what isn’t, as well as what innovations are in the pipeline. Reaching the end of the year is always a time to sit back and reflect. At the moment there is so much development and innovation happening and, as we begin 2014, whether it’s markets opening, regulation being passed or product advancements, there is more to look forward to than ever before. And more hotels, flights and restaurants along the way…
Stand N4-240
Justyna Majcher, head of content and brand management at Bit8 Ltd, explains how her firm’s product can help gain promotion. efore presenting one of the most innovative and exciting features of the Bit8 backend, let’s look at how most operators go about creating a bonus or promotion. As some of you reading this have dedicated teams setting up bonuses and locating the player segments, you might not be aware of the waste of time and resources even the simplest bonus setup is, so a simplified summary follows below. First step is to log into one system and run a report to extract a file containing all the players from each country eligible. Then the team needs to go through the extracted lists and manually select the players which fit within your chosen target market, copy and paste those into another list, then upload this list into the bonus system. The team then proceeds to upload a list for each language into an emailing system, to send a newsletter informing said players about the new offer. Roughly four hours have passed. And if reading this made you yawn and feel frustrated, imagine doing this every week at work. Not only is the current way of creating bonuses a waste of human resources and time, it also isn’t the most ideal nor innovative way to target players, and does little to entice them or prolong their loyalty to your casino. With the Bit8 bonus system you have all the data within one backend; you can locate desired players using a multitude of filters, dynamic filters, interactive map to choose location etc., perhaps even set open data source criteria like public holidays, weather or local/national events. Create an infinite amount of different bonuses and bonus groups, apply a player selection to them, and send it to the emailing system with a push of a button. Roughly 20 minutes have passed, and you’ve not only saved time but you also made each and every player on that list feel specifically targeted and like a VIP. I’ll leave you with the words of one of our satisfied users: John Faley, marketing director at for the websites youwin.com, hepsibahis.com and uwin.com: “Running the marketing for an online gaming means balancing resource, time, efficiency and opportunity at the same time to get the best possible results. The customer deserved transparency and instant gratification regardless of the operator’s product choices. To get to that point though, you need a global view of an individual customer’s behaviour, trends and patterns, something that a lot of gaming companies find it hard to do. With the bit8 cross product bonus platform, you are able to cut down the resource required to run bonuses and reward campaigns, increase efficiency by always having your open bonus liability, expenditure plus return on investment in real time.”
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Stand N14-230
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming NET ENTERTAINMENT
2DB
Net Ent Extends its reach Net Entertainment’s Per Eriksson reveals the firm’s plans for this year’s ICE Totally Gaming Show. The ICE show remains the standout industry exhibition in the gaming calendar. Last year’s show was my first as president and CEO and it was a brilliant threeday event at the ExCel centre. It’s an excellent chance for operators and suppliers to meet from around the world and provides the perfect platform for the rest of the business year. This year we will continue our custom of revealing our latest branded slot title at our superb stand and we’re very excited. In the past few years we have launched some of our most popular branded slots including Frankenstein, Scarface and most recently South Park. As well as the main unveiling we will be using the event to showcase our ever-expanding portfolio of desktop and Touch games, which are developed for iOS and An-
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droid. Our portfolio now has more than 20 games and is live with close to 50 customers. Over the past 12 months we have seen a significant increase in tablet gaming as devices become more accessible and we have accommodated this shift in focus. At Net Entertainment we are planning ahead for a time when tablets and mobiles will be the standard gaming channel, making desktop PCs less significant. However, this will take place gradually. Our research shows that although traffic for tablet has greatly increased, desktop demand has not suffered in the process. The launch of our South Park slot at last year’s show was simultaneously released for both PC and Touch, an impressive feat considering one is HTML5 and the other
uses Flash. Simultaneous mobile and desktop launches will be a permanent feature of the online gaming market from now on. Our Live Casino product was launched this time 12 months ago and has been a resounding success. We built a state-of-the-art studio in Malta which has been an important factor in developing better games and the results reflect this - we have already signed 19 Live Casino agreements. One product that is creating a huge amount of interest is our unique game within Live Casino, Common Draw Blackjack. Innovation is integral in everything we do and this version of the classic table game allows for tremendous scalability. This enables an unlimited amount of players to simultaneously play a hand without jeopardising the traditional Blackjack experience. The introduction of Net Ent Extend is another way for our partners to develop and hold a competitive edge. Net Ent Extend has been added to 50 of our most popular games and will be an integral part of all future games. We believe that NetEnt Extend will help define what Social Gambling means to individual operators.
can be a slow process, especially if a tape needs to be retrieved from an off-site vault.” Over the last 15 years, Isle of Manbased Continent 8 has established itself as the leading provider of co-location, managed hosting and network solutions to many of the world’s largest eBusinesses. Multi-jurisdictional and multi-cultural, the privately-owned company offers its services in 9 different countries across three continents with global expansion continuing in the United States and Europe. Data centre locations currently include the Isle of Man, London, Paris, Dublin, Malta, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Montreal and Singapore. The firm has recently upgraded its Isle of Man data centre following an extensive expansion project. Continent 8 has been headquartered in Douglas since 2006 and has doubled the capacity of the local data centre and recruited new staff to meet growing demand and to service new industry sectors. Using Continent 8’s recently opened data centre in Dublin as a blueprint, a key element of the Isle of Man upgrade was the introduction of fresh air cooling, via a dedicated air handling unit
Stand N9-110
Stand S3-130
Stand N1-241
Head in the Cloud Continent 8 wants igaming companies to Backup and use its new cloud facility. s data hosting and solutions provision to the igaming industry, Continent 8 has developed technical and regulatory solutions over many years creating an offering that delivers on all aspects of risk mitigation at a cost point that does not hinder the business. With companies of all sizes currently finding unprecedented data growth placing pressure on backup and recovery initiatives, Continent 8 Technologies has developed a revolutionary new Cloud Backup product. In what Continent 8 describes as a ‘new approach to backups’ Cloud Backup offers:Reduced backup window size; Much faster backup and recovery times; Data secure - at rest and in flight; Deduplication; Compression; Always available; Rapid recovery as data always ‘online’; Single web portal; Extremely cost effective Continent 8’s head of product Stephen Trimble highlighted that Cloud Backup seamlessly integrates with the Continent 8 global network, thereby offering a complete solution to any customer at any of Continent 8’s locations - reducing the cost of backing up data remotely. He said: “Customers will experience 99.999 per cent availability from a proven
THE CONTINENT 8 TEAM WILL BE AT ICE
cloud solution, and could reduce their backup and recovery times by 95 per cent or more. This backup, recovery and restore solution allows a business to redirect IT resources to more pressing challenges or strategic initiatives within the organisation. The built-in scalability of Cloud Backup makes it easy to evolve as a business data environment grows and changes. “It eliminates the shortcomings of tape backup which are often expensive, vulnerable to obsolescence and can be lost or stolen when being transported off-site. Also, recovering data from a tape system
The Genus display system is attracting plenty of international custom for developer 2DB. etting display developer 2DB approaches ICE Totally Gaming with the intention of further expanding its international sales base. The firm picked up several new customers in 2013, the largest of which was the ISBB (Israel Sports Betting Board) which installed 2DB’s Genus Display System in 150 shops across Israel. The system launched in August 2013 and installation is scheduled for a further 450 shops during 2014 and 2015. The Genus display system chosen by ISBB features a large flat screen TV using 2DB’s Multiview technology to display multiple pages of information including racecards, live pool standings, probable pays and results, plus a variety of promotional pages. The system also drives a separate touch screen console, which ISBB customers use to look-up form guides, past results and other betting opportunities. The ISBB project was delivered in conjunction with GBI which supplied the live horseracing TV pictures and core project management, Ineda who supplied the live betting information feed and Perform Group who supplied the IPTV network. As part of the project, 2DB also supplied Genus pages for the IPTV racing channel for use ‘on air’ before and after live racing. Not only did the ISBB project involve meeting a number of precise and unique requirements for betting shops in Israel, it also threw up specific challenges, such as handling information in Cyrillic fonts and right-to-left text for display in Hebrew. In the event, 2DB was able to address all of these problems fairly easily by simple adaptation of its Genus display system product, thus backing up its claim that Genus is the most sophisticated and flexible display system currently available. 2DB head of marketing Angelo Sanzone believes that his firm is generating quite a reputation for delivering systems in difficult market places, particularly those where betting is relatively new or underdeveloped, and added that this was a key factor that enabled 2DB to secure the contract with GBI and ISBB. While 2DB has a core of UK customers, such as Betfred and the Bookmakers Technology Consortium, the firm has several international customers. Its Genus display systems are used by the likes of Codere, Bwin and Sportech in in several regions of Spain, Holland, Mexico and parts of Central and South America. Stan James also uses 2DB’s systems in various countries, such as South Africa, Venezuela, Russia and Northern Cyprus, in addition to its UK operation.
CONTINENT 8 TECHNOLOGIES
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2DB’s international push is Genus
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www.greentube.com/en/casino
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming SPORTRADAR
Going Live with Sportradar The web-delivered, betting shop-optimised TV channel from Sportradar allows bookmakers to offer more live events to customers than ever before. portradar, supplier of sports and betting-related data, will be showcasing its Betradar brand’s Retail Live Channel at ICE - a streaming channel for betting shops of the global bookmaking industry. Thanks to an international media rights portfolio, the Live Channel serves live pictures from around the world all day long and combines live statistics, live odds and live moving images on one single screen, thus offering betting opportunities on live matches for the entire business hours of bookmakers. Customised solutions to each client make the white-label solution attractive to every bookmaker in the world. The simplicity in accessing the live product
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by a standard browser is a major driver. Only five months after its launch, the Live Channel already covers 15 hours of content on a daily basis, on average. Betradar’s Live Channel is designed with a conscious focus on sport during off-peak hours allowing shop owners to enhance their daily live sporting coverage extensively through a unique, and entertaining solution, providing excellent opportunities to increase customer loyalty, and to drive revenues. The firm has secured the media rights for eleven international sports across all five continents, including international tennis tournaments, as well as high profile soccer, basketball, handball, and ice hockey leagues.
MICROGAMING’S AVALON II
MICROGAMING
Big announcements for a big show
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tradar generates live statistics (e.g. free kick, corner kick) directly from the pitch for all sports. Common Betradar pre-match statistics, such as league standings, headto-head statistics and form indicators are available as well. The Retail Channel provides the ongoing display of live odds and live statistics next to the stream as a one screen solution, allowing customers to be kept abreast of the current betting options and generating more turnover. As well as presenting the Live Retail Channel at ICE, Sportradar will be launching some interesting gaming solutions for bookmakers.
Stand S1-250
WILLIAMS INTERACTIVE
Slots of differentiation from Williams
Neill Whyte, head of product channels at Microgaming, explains what his firm has in store for the ExCeL. t’s full steam ahead at Microgaming as we prepare for the major gaming exhibition of the year. If you thought ICE Totally Gaming 2013 was big, this year is set to be even bigger. Located at the entrance of N5 in ExCel London, the Microgaming stand is even larger than last year - that means more devices, more machines, more demos, more meetings and of course more people! The long-standing tradition of the Microgaming bar, the social networking hub of the event, is continuing, but this year we’ve decided to shake things up just a little. The purpose-built bar will be situated right next to our stand and we’ve got some exciting plans to ensure it’s the place people want to greet, meet and eat. With over 23,000 visitors set to visit ExCel during the exhibition, the event lends itself perfectly to make some big announcements and to set the scene for the year ahead. One of the biggies is the launch of Avalon II: The Quest For The Grail, sequel to Avalon, one of Microgaming’s most successful proprietary titles. The Arthurian legend is set to return at ICE 2014, to the delight of operators and players alike. The five reel, 243 ways-towin video slot takes players on an epic quest to retrieve the Grail. The journey through the Kingdom will see players
Last month the Retail channel covered the final of the MLS Cup and also broadcast the Spengler Cup 2013 and the 8th WAFF(West Asian Football Federation) Football Championship in Qatar and has also recently covered tennis tournaments ATP Qatar Exxon Mobil Open and the ITF tournament from Istanbul, several matches of the Czech ice hockey league, as well as live basketball from the German BBL and Spanish ACB and live handball from theGerman HBL. By combining the picture rights with its data set, Sportradar has a strong proposition for bookmakers wanting to offer more live sport and live betting to their customers. Through its scout network Be-
revel in eight bonus rounds of captivating gameplay. It’s a slot which has taken two years to develop and certainly sets a new precedent in game creation. From stunning 3D rendered animations, intricate tapestry, classically painted environments to suspenseful sound effects, the world of Avalon has been perfectly illustrated, to the finest of details. We’ll present this masterpiece slot at ICE 2014 with the upmost pride. In addition to the launch of Avalon II we have also signed two new licensing agreements, with two legendary and iconic brands. The details of which you’ll have to wait just a few more weeks to hear - but they’ll be worth the wait, we promise! As well as up-and-coming news, ICE allows us to demo our latest features and software enhancements, across all our products (bingo, casino, poker and live dealer) and across all platforms (online, mobile and land-based). Intent on being at the forefront of new and emerging technologies, at ICE we’ll be demoing some of our content in a new-fangled and neverseen-before way, beyond the current world of Smartphones and tablet devices. Be sure to visit the Microgaming stand or bar to find out more.
Stand N11-120.
As well as providing authentic Vegas-style online slot content, Williams Interactive can now call on the might of the rest of the SG Gaming empire. illiams Interactive is riding a wave of success from its refined game strategy focused on slot differentiation providing compelling player experiences, with multiple hits including KISS: Shout it Out Loud! and Spartacus Gladiator of Rome built on the Colossal Reels game engine, and Elvis: The King Lives built on the Double Money Burst game engine. Early performance from the third game built on the Colossal Reels engine, Giant’s Gold, have it continuing the streak of hit launches finishing out 2013 for the provider of authentic Vegas-style online slot content. Visitors to the Williams Interactive stand at ICE will view the company’s commitment to multi-channel game launches for casinos sites integrated with its Remote Game Server, empowered by the recently deployed mobile platform powered by cutting edge HTML5 technology. Starting with the planned January 2014 launch of Zeus III, the first online deployment powered by the player-favourite Reel Boost game engine, key Williams Interactive game launches moving forward will deploy simultaneously across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, giving players access to these exciting new titles and game engines wherever they choose to play. The Zeus III multi-channel launch will be followed in subsequent months with the planned February launch of Rainbow Rich-
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es, the first addition to the Williams Interactive game library from the Barcrest content portfolio, and the highly volatile Raging Rhino game powered by the Any Way game engine providing 4,096 winning possibilities on each spin. Both of these themes are planned to launch in MiniGame format as well, empowering gaming sites to drive incremental revenue from their non-casino player activity through this exciting content distribution channel. These themes, platforms and more will be on display at the Williams Interactive stand at ICE 2014, located just inside Entrance N1 and co-located with sister companies WMS Gaming & SG Gaming. This will be the first industry event for Williams Interactive since becoming subsidiary of Scientific Games Corporation.
Stand N2-140
www.bettings.ch
www.sportingsolutions.com info@sportingsolutions.com
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming SPORTING SOLUTIONS
Launchpad for a great year of sport Sporting Solutions managing director Simon Trim is looking forward to another successful ICE. e were really pleased with ICE 2013. The event has grown in stature over the years and it certainly didn’t look out of place when it moved to ExCeL London 12 months ago. We had numerous meetings with current and prospective partners from all over the globe and plenty of business was done over the three days. The major difference this year is the World Cup. Operators of all sizes will be pinning their hopes on success in Brazil and will be investing heavily across the boards. There is a danger for the smaller sportsbooks that they will be overpowered by the tier one operators, but Sporting Solutions can help thanks to our recently extended football service which covers many
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more markets and betting opportunities, particularly in-play, than ever before. The bigger sportsbooks need to be careful not to miss out on other opportunities while focusing on the World Cup and this is also where we come in. We can assist sportsbooks of all sizes with their pricing and trading of other sports, leaving them free to concentrate on the action in Brazil. Events such as Wimbledon, Royal Ascot and the England v India Test series are too big to pass up. Sporting Solutions is the undisputed market leader in the provision of quality pricing and trading services. In recent years a number of sportsbooks have taken the decision to discard large portions of their trading floor and adopt a strategy of
copying the market price to try to reduce costs. This approach has led to declining margins as operators aim to secure a profit rather than maximise it. Point of Consumption Tax in the UK is going to make matters worse for these companies and they will need to act quickly if they are going to survive, let alone prosper. Superior pricing, trading and modelling has always been at the heart of Sporting Solutions’ business. Our investment in market-leading models means we are able to offer our partners the widest coverage and the deepest set of markets, while crucially maintaining and enhancing their margins.
Stand S1-230
MRG SYSTEMS
SG GAMING
At the forefront of advanced technology
SG Gaming the innovation station
Ian Hunter of MRG Systems takes us through the range of products that the firm is showcasing next month at ICE. RG are at the forefront of developing advanced multicast, multi-screen technology used by top high street brands like Paddy Power and Coral. MRG has developed a new breed of PC based shop servers which are beginning to replace the existing shop-PC infrastructure so familiar to the betting industry. Clients turn to MRGs BIDS5 for the best multi-broadcast betting shop solutions available. BIDS5 software marries the latest screen technologies with the most efficient, optimised studio services available to the retail industry, anywhere. BIDS5 offers more control, greater automation and the highest production values to achieve exceptional results for our clients. Our goal is to provide the best multi-screen solution to large retail estates anywhere in the world. For bookmakers the All-in-One screen is a large screen showing race cards of up to ten meetings each day. Structured to display information clearly, it is beginning to establish its place in betting shops as the primary refer-
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THE BIDS5 GANTRY FROM MRG
ence guide to the days racing. Non-runners, early prices, shows and results are all maintained automatically throughout the day to ensure the All-in-One remains relevant and up-to-date for your customers. So whilst you are thinking about new screens and maximising your marketing impact we have some amazing high brightness screens for you to consider as window displays. These screens remain bright even in direct sunlight. Coupled with our management software and the tools to create your own displays simply and easily MRG digital signage helps you to extend and amplify your brand message to the public at large. This year we have created a ‘Through the Glass Touchscreen’. This shop window, outward facing screen is a brilliant interactive tool for connecting with the public even after closing time. You are sure to benefit from increased interest with one of these in your window. And to make it even more appealing we have combined it with the high brightness screen to give you a winning package. So, whether you’re looking for a system to manage screens across a large estate, high brightness digital signage for your window displays or a stunning through the glass touchscreen solution, visit the MRG stand for a chat.
Stand S2-121
ICE Totally Gaming will see SG Gaming preview a range of new content and initiatives across a range of platforms. G Gaming, a division of Scientific Games Corporation, will be showcasing its latest innovations at the ICE Totally Gaming 2014 Exhibition, including its exclusive content, platform developments and specialist field-based support service, SG Connect. SG Gaming will preview a range of new content and initiatives across a range of platforms, as well as titles that are available exclusively to SG Gaming customers. Part of the exclusive content being previewed for 2014 will feature proven titles from WMS and Williams Interactive, which will soon be available to SG Gaming customers following Scientific Games’ acquisition of WMS Industries in October 2013. The SG Gaming, WMS and Williams Interactive stands will be alongside each other this year, making it easy to experience the expanded range of product offerings. SG Gaming will also be demonstrating its self-service betting terminals (SSBTs) developed in partnership with Best Gaming Technology, as well as its wide range of cabinets including the T8, Infinity and the new Clarity terminal. “We are constantly pushing the boundaries of content innovation and redefining what is thought of as possible in the gaming industry. We’ll be showcasing our latest range of innovative titles at ICE which includes a sneak preview of our 2014 gaming machine portfolio and our cross-platform content offering, including some proven WMS titles. We’ll also be showing
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PHIL HORNE
off our enhanced platform and cabinet innovations for 2014,” said Phil Horne, group managing director of SG Gaming U.K. “ICE will be the first time we are demonstrating our new self-service betting terminals that we are now offering to the LBO estate as an option. SG Connect, our comprehensive field-based support service, will also be at our stand in force. With so much going on, it is an exciting time for our business.”
Stand N3-140
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming A BET A
Growth in worldwide betting markets Bet management system specialist A Bet A is anticipating a very busy ICE show next month. Bet A, the provider of complete bet management systems around the world, is expecting its busiest ICE ever in 2014, after continued growth around the world, as markets emerge in countries as betting becomes regulated. Prime areas for growth continue to be West and East Africa (especially Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania), the greater Caribbean (particularly Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana), and south east Asia (Malaysia and the Philippines).
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CHRIS LATTER
Many other countries are also seeing healthy business growth. Founder and CEO Chris Latter said: “2014 offers many new start-up betting businesses around the world exciting opportunities to start and get established, and A Bet A is ready with the flexible and scaleable bet management systems they need.” UK-based A Bet A is well-placed, with a sound track record, a main supplier in the UK
independent market, and well-established around the world. It currently serves betting businesses of all sizes and across all sales channels, in 24 countries across four continents. Its systems support all sales channels, ie smartphones, websites, shops, cafes, kiosks, gaming centres, casinos, and call centres. And its covers the full range of live racing and sports events, virtual games, mark sense coupons and progressive jackpot software, and integrate with all leading data sources. Fundamental to A Bet A’s international business growth over the last 20-plus years has been a double-edged combination of systems benefits. First it provides systems in the local language and currency, and tailored to the specific cultures, legislation and local data sources. All this is under-pinned by a high level of security, locking down the system to run a
business safely, for bet acceptance, settling and liability management. Latter added: “This is always top of the shopping list for most businesses we talk to, and we can provide all this and more.” Also present on A Bet A’s stand will be Veros Digital, founded by members of the team who launched Inspired’s virtual games. They will be showcasing the first of a new generation of virtual games with in play betting for the global betting market, plus announcing and previewing their schedule of upcoming games currently in development for clients during 2014 and beyond, These will include Virtual Boxing, a variety of Motorsports racing and USA team sports products. Veros are also preparing to launch a range of short form games tailored for both the wagering and play for fun markets.
Stand S3 – 112
GTECH
EVERYMATIX
Making the most of the third dimension
EveryMatrix wants to create World Cup winners With sportsbooks due to see some serious football action from Brazil this year, EveryMatrix’s Ana David explains what its OddsMatrix solution can do. ith less than six months to go until the FIFA World Cup, EveryMatrix is giving sports betting operators a way to seize the opportunity with an award-winning sportsbook solution: OddsMatrix. OddsMatrix is now able to provide more than 10,000 live events monthly, and multiple localisation options for operators worldwide. OddsMatrix can provide: Tools for tapping into new markets – We have just launched our Asian and US frontends. More choice for your players - OddsMatrix features 100+ bet types for main football events, 20+ languages and 40+ different payment methods (including credit and debit cards, e-wallets and pre-paid cards). More flexibility - The Do It Yourself (DIY) module allows you to create markets and manipulate odds for marketing purposes or other specific requirements. The DYI module allows you to focus on marketing your business while cutting the costs associated to large in-house trading desks. A betting shop retail solution - The latest addition to our product range. Multiple Odds Formats - UK (fractional), European (decimal), Asian/Hong Kong, US, Malaysian, Indonesian. Mobile Sportsbook - The OddsMatrix stand-
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alone mobile application can be used by any sports betting software supplier. Web based and compatible with all browsers Tailored for all screen sizes Full support for both single & multi-bets, live betting, and multiple languages An award-winning solution - OddsMatrix has been awarded the EGR 2010 Award: Innovation in Sports Betting and the EGR 2011 Award: Sports Betting Rising Star. We can also improve your existing platform. We can integrate OddsMatrix into your current setup or add our back-office solution and any new products you need along with it (CasinoEngine, third party poker, bingo, payments, affiliate system integration etc.). EveryMatrix can provide OddsMatrix alongside the back-office solution GamMatrix for player handling, reporting and bonus management. GamMatrix handles a wide range of services, including Vendors Integration, CMS, Payment Processing, and Player Handling. The Platform is integrated with more than 70 different Software APIs, and is both a flexible and scalable system. GamMatrix is also compliant with EU jurisdictions, and has a highly sophisticated role handling and auditing system.
Stand N12-221
GTech, with its gaming product brand SPIELO, plans to bring ‘gaming to life’ at ExCeL. ollowing its successful presentation at G2E Las Vegas, Sphinx 3D, an Egyptian adventure featuring glasses-free True 3D on the brand new AXXIS cabinet, is being launched at GTech’s ICE booth N5-160. Sphinx 3D is the first title in GTech’s new True 3D product line, which uses a glasses-free 3D display designed exclusively for GTECH for the gaming industry by SeeFront. It uses a unique, patented autostereoscopic technology with integrated eye-tracking to make images jump off the screen or stretch into infinity in high resolution. GTech’s stand will also feature the globallaunch of Action Jackpots, a unique novelty product, offering four different progressive links tied into one single gaming machine. Also on show will be the new linked progressive Volcano Island and the popular licensed games Bejeweled, Zuma, and Plants vs. Zombies available on the MaXVusion cabinet. Brand-new game suites will be on display for the successful diversity multigame, as well as a wide selection of new core games, including Treasure Blast, which provides a unique combination of a dominant stacked symbol, activating wild symbols, and player bonus control. GTech is also showcasing its comprehensive range of interactive solutions, including its library of mobile content, including favourites from the popular SPIELO casino games library as well as bingo, poker, lottery, and sports betting products. With new games for desktop such as The Wild Life, Sphinx Classic, Poseidon, Island Quest, Decadence, and a selection of cross-channel titles including Book of the Sphinx, Treasures of the Pyramids, The Big Easy and Treasure Quest, GTech will illustrate the player journey and
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content convergence from land-based slots to desktop gaming, tablets and smartphones. The new Poker platform will also be displayed, along with its Mobile Poker for iPad tablets, featuring ergonomic thumb-based game play. GTech s Player Account Management platform has been built around player and operator needs and is the power behind GTech’s interactive portfolio. Player Account Management facilitates content convergence and is a comprehensive integration and administrative system that strengthens a gaming operator’s business agility. Fully scalable, its open architecture connects all systems and pulls all player, reward, and financial activity together in one place. It can even integrate third-party offerings or required regulatory systems, allowing full control so operators can focus on their players - not their technology. GTech’s Remote Game Server solution allows new and existing customers to integrate GTECH’s gaming content into their own or third-party system and portal via a simple and fast one-time integration. This gives operators the ability to incorporate GTech’s play-for-free and wager-based games into their internet and mobile offerings while having full control on gaming sessions and related data. The company will also be showing its full betting portfolio, including a wide range of sports and game types, to fit any market need at any time, such as fixed odds sports, fixed odds racing, fixed odds numbers/ digits, fixed odds virtual betting, pools sports and racing, exchange and spreads.
Stand N5-160
www.kironinteractive.com info@kironinteractive.com
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming CALLCREDIT INFORMATION GROUP
BETCONSTRUCT
Taking a client centred approach
Powering up your business
Rob Meakin, market development manager at Callcredit Information Group, discusses how the firm plans to build on a bumper year. 013 was a milestone year for Callcredit in the online gaming sector. Since we were last at ICE we’ve more than tripled the amount of business within the gaming sector which will remain a key strategic growth area for us 2014. We have continued to invest heavily in people since last year’s show and now have a substantial team focussed on delivering a market winning proposition. As with all sectors we operate in, taking a client centred approach forms the cornerstone of how we work - we have focussed our efforts on establishing a robust understanding of busi-
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ness drivers from an operator perspective and mobilised a comprehensive development programme to deliver against this. In November we introduced Callcredit’s offering to the Maltese iGaming market exhibiting at the Malta iGaming Seminar (MIGS) in St Julian’s bay. MIGS exceeded expectations on attendance levels and provided a very good networking opportunity. Our solutions were well received with a number of companies performing data trials. This is an important step as Malta is an essential part of Callcredit’s plan to expand in to the iGaming sector. The Maltese market has operators with players in many different countries and with our international data spanning 135 different countries we are ideally placed to be able to offer essential insight in to this market. For those looking to conquer the lucrative UK marketplace we are able to provide them with vital data to embed in to compelling business plans with a combination of being able to provide the highest match
rates in the UK, whilst remaining compliant, can ensure that new entrants in to the UK can create a solid base in which to build their brand. Early in 2014 we will deliver enhanced international ID verification services drawing together the strongest data sources available in key gaming territories - supplementary ID token verification and comprehensive international watch list screening will enable us to provide a single touch point international IDV solution to complement our market leading UK IDV services. As we move through 2014 we will be building up the breadth of our international data sources and adding key features for gaming sector clients: we see document screening, device profiling and geo-location services as being key areas in terms of capability - particularly in light of the changing requirements driven out of newly regulating markets together with the need to improve conversion rates and customer experience whilst keeping within regulatory boundaries. We will also be developing new approaches to international payment validation - and customer value profiling delivered alongside KYC services. Our vision for the gaming sector is to provide a one stop shop of KYC and related services in the UK and internationally which can be flexed to deliver value in any jurisdiction.
GREENTUBE
Greentube is ready for London Sharing a pavilion with other brands in the Novomatic Group, Greentube has a wide portfolio of games on offer. ith Europe’s top gaming exhibition ICE Totally Gaming returning to the ExCeL Centre in London, Greentube is delighted to be exhibiting with its partner companies in its own pavilion this year following the successful integration into the Novomatic stand at ICE 2013. From its i-lottery solutions with Betware, through to mobile applications from Cervo Media and iGaming2Go and then to Extreme Live Gaming live-dealer applications and Admiral mobile betting solutions, Greentube aims to present a wide range of innovative i-gaming solutions. This year, to supplement its range of blockbuster games in the Novomatic family and the popular highlights of its IP portfolio such as Marilyn Red Carpet, Marilyn’s Diamonds, Rex and The
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Reel King Elvis, Greentube is unveiling Hoffmania and Hoffmeister games both featuring David Hasselhoff. Greentube’s game applications will be presented for the online and mobile channels (HTML 5, Android, iOS, Native App, etc.) and backed up by its extensive and successful games portfolio. In addition, Greentube’s multi-screen terminal solution for stationary gaming applications makes its debut at the ICE 2014. The Greentube team is happy to arrange meetings for the show with anyone interested in finding out more about the innovative gaming solutions it will be showing on the Novomatic stand.
Stand S9-130
BetConstruct CEO Suren Khachatryan has plans for 2014 to be a major year for the betting technology supplier. etConstruct is coming to the ICE Totally Gaming with a boost from being shortlisted in the Technology Provider/Supplier category at the International Gaming Awards, which will take place less than 24 hours before the ICE red ribbon is cut at the ExCel centre in London. Regardless of whether or not we win the award it is a terrific way to start what I predict will be a record year for BetConstruct. For the last decade we have built up market leading technology in not only sports betting for online and retail, but also poker, casino, skill and virtual games. The ICE, which keeps expanding, is a perfect venue to showcase our technology. It is also a great platform for launching our new products and services. We are particularly proud of our cuttingedge sportsbook platform and comprehensive data and statistics offering covering more than 50 sports and 14,000 live matches per month. The platform comes complete with a state-ofthe-art backend, affiliate and agent systems, marketing, content and risk management tools – all supported by a team of more than 500 developers, traders and other specialists. Strongly believing in a diversified market, which is not dominated by a few big operators, we have always focused on providing the most sophisticated tools to the small and medium sized betting companies. By powering them up, we ensure their presence on the market, which will always push the big operators to perform better and will provide punters with more betting options and better service. More than 40 clients in Europe, Asia and Africa are benefiting a great deal from our technology as well as our expertise. All our partners have 24/7 direct access not only to their Partner Support team but also to the managers of all departments, which are vital to their operation. Any question from the partner is addressed within 30 minutes – that’s a rule. The visitors at the ICE will be able to experience the entire range of our products and services along with a whole host of innovative technology that we believe will significantly benefit new and existing clients and shape the industry for many years to come.
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Totally Gaming INSPIRED GAMING
BETTING’S
International expansion
Betting on Bitcoin BETTING’s has become one of the first suppliers to allow bookmakers to easily take Bitcoin as currency.
Ahead of ICE, Inspired’s founder and CEO, Luke Alvarez took the time to reflect on a year of international expansion and continuing innovation across the globe. Over the last 12 months Inspired has strengthened its position as the leader in distributed gaming and Virtual Sports. This year Inspired has been named as a high-growth company to watch in the Sunday Times HSBC Fast Track 200 and the new London Stock Exchange ‘1000 Companies to Inspire Britain’. In the UK, we have become the number one supplier of gaming machines to bookmakers - gaining 2,500 units from multiple clients including Betfred (the ex-Tote estate) and Chisholm Bookmakers. We also launched our premium 4-screen Eclipse cabinet with William Hill, Betfred and Paddy Power, and have installed over 5,500 Eclipse machines across the UK in just four months. Our UK slots and casino games portfolio is a strong mix of Inspired games, such as Diamond Goddess, and third-party titles. New game features such as Fortune Spins have become favourites with players. In UK casinos, Inspired’s Sabre Multi-Win Roulette continues to be the highest performing electronic table gaming product and we increased the footprint of this product by 500 units during 2013. In Italy, Inspired is one of the top three VLT suppliers and we went live in August with our third VLT customer, Lottomatica.
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added a number of clients to our bookmaker product we now have the results to show this. In November 2013, 12 of our bookmaker clients made between of 20 - 50 per cent of turnover in gross profit (bets wins), these clients all have regular bets over all sports of all sizes, ranging up to 50,000 bets per month. A further 18 clients made between 10 and 20 per cent while four were around 5 per cent. Only one made a loss - 4 per cent on only 500 bets as a start-up. Included within this is one client in Asia who has made 20 per cent after only 2.5 months being live. Looking at the released figures from the established operations I am sure they’d be delighted to making these types of numbers. We believe our service is truly bespoke and unique. Our clients don’t require the overheads of data feeds and large trading departments in order to compete with large operators, and the large operators could reduce their overheads by working with us.
wiss igaming software supplier BETTING’s has released of its brand-new Bitcoin sports betting platform. Built upon its existing sportsbook software, the new platform is designed for online bookmakers who intend to offer Bitcoin payments for online gaming transactions. During the past several years financial markets have experienced a rapid and constant expansion of Bitcoin, which now provides a valuable alternative to other means of online payments. BETTING’s analysed and acknowledged a number of successful cases of Bitcoin usage in online gambling and implemented them in its sportsbook betting software. Using BETTING’s Sportsbook Platform online bookies can offer Bitcoins alongside traditional currencies or as the only available means of payment. All of the required transfer gateways and reporting tools have been integrated for both deposit and withdrawal to ensure high-quality betting management experience. Depending on the jurisdiction, offering Bitcoin as a payment option ensures a number of competitive advantages for online bookmakers: No gambling licence required in most markets; Possibility to attract new players; Reduced or zero taxation; Increased customer loyalty; Player anonymity option; Simple exchange into real currencies; Irreversible payment transactions. Bitcoin integration is also offered by SoftSwiss company, a member of BETTING’s corporation. SoftSwiss provides a complete online casino solution which can be integrated with BETTING’s Online Sportsbook. BETTING’s is the trading name of Swiss Interactive Software GmbH and works with sports betting operators from all around the globe, bringing new recurrent and engaged players to various sports betting projects. BETTING’s offers licensing support in various gaming jurisdictions, including Curacao, Malta, the UK, and others as well as integrations with the world’s leading sports data suppliers - Betradar, Betfair, Betting Promotion, Enetpulse and DonBest. Betting’s software supports all currencies, payment processors and merchant accounts in various regions.
Stand S3-131
Stand S2-205
Our multi-channel Virtual Sports products have been chosen by nine major Italian concessionaires and are now going live after government tests in 12,000 venues and on over 100 websites in 2014. In Colombia Inspired’s SBG slots are generating increasing incomes and Inspired games, such as Viking’s Gold, have proved popular with the player profiles. In China, Inspired’s Virtual Football game - known locally as Electronic Ball Lottery (E-Ball) - gained national approval from the Ministry of Finance and launched in sports lottery stores across Jiangsu Province, China’s largest lottery market. Inspired’s popular Virtual Motor Racing game - known locally as Lucky Racing - has been live in sports lottery stores in Hunan Province since 2011. Lucky Racing sales have totalled over RMB 820 million (USD $132m) and make up 36 per cent of all lottery sales in Hunan Province. Looking onwards to 2014, we’ll be kicking of the year with several new product and game launches at the ICE Totally Gaming show, including a new Virtual Sport, more Freespins+ games, HTML5 mobile games, and new Systems technology for VLT and lottery operators.”
Stand S5-110
BETTING PROMOTION
Odds supply should appeal to big firms too Betting Promotion’s Richard Hogg discusses the benefits of outsourcing of odds compilation. iven pre-live and live betting is a must to be competitive these days, the costs involved in this process can range from EUR8k per month for a basic data feed on odds offered by others along with some ‘suggested’ odds for your sportsbook. This can go right up to over EUR100k per month if you want live data and pictures. On top of this you will need people to operate your sportsbook in terms of your presented odds and risk management. Staffing costs will be at minimum a further EUR10k per month for a couple of ‘competent’ individuals ranging right into the hundreds of thousands. These costs for start-ups and small to medium size businesses this would be a severe drain on a budget which could and should be spend on customer acquisition
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RICHARD HOGG
and retention. But also, why shouldn’t the larger operators take notice of any successful service and use it themselves? After all these larger operators are happy to trust the RNGs delivered by gaming software providers to deliver small margins. At Betting Promotion we have always believed our odds were the true odds in the market place. After over 10 years of market making on all the major betting exchanges as well as across Asia we know we have the right balance. We have also attracted interest from businesses who see us as competitors but who we see as not being able to deliver a true and proper service. Having recently
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Retail B2B Retail Listings
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www.sis.tv info@sis.tv
B2B epos R et ai l
Football rights Sportradar recently secured the retail rights with the international media company Saran Group for the Turkish cup competition ‘Türkiye Kupasi’. Sportradar’s Joern Anhalt said: “Through this deal, we gain topclass football for our Live Channel for our retail betting customers.”
Door security Securikey has been promoting its Keylex range of mechanical digital door locks. Completely selfcontained, all models in the Keylex range are straightforward to install and on the occasion a code might be compromised, reinstating security is quick and easy.
Transparent deal Crystal Displays (CDS) has launched small format 10” and 15” Transparent Display development kits to allow companies to better experiment and evaluate the technology. It is effectively a plug and go kit with the client only needing to add backlighting and content.
GAMING MACHINES
gaming B 2 machines B R et ai l
www.inspiredgaminggroup.com sales@ingg.com
B2B publications R et ai l
WHITE KNIGHT
Inspired offers new spin on roulette making sense of the gaming industry
B2B signage systems R et ai l
www.mrgsystems.co.uk sales@mrgsystems.co.uk
The Inspired team has developed two new games for SBG machines - 100/1 Roulette and White Knight. nspired Gaming Group has launched two new games for its LBO gaming machines. 100/1 Roulette is described as a quirky addition to its popular multi-game Storm and Eclipse gaming machines. Designed with Roulette lovers in mind, this unique game features 10p chips and an extended Roulette wheel with 105 wheel positions, as opposed to the usual 36 wheel positions on traditional single zero roulette games. The new 10p chips allow lower staking players the option to spread their bets more widely and the chance to win 100 x the bet. The innovative new wheel shape incorporates 1 - 100 red
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and black numbers, and there are also five green pockets. The bets are placed via a touch screen table display. Gerhard Burda, acting chief product officer at Inspired, commented: “Inspired’s innovative game development team works vigorously to create games of interest that are both different and fun to play for their customers. 100/1 Roulette is no exception and we are confident that the ability to stake low and win high will attract a new style of Roulette players.” Inspired has also launched White Knight the latest Freespins slot game to feature HD graphics and Free Spins. The game is available for Inspired’s UK estate of over 15,000 gaming machines, and will soon be available for international VLT markets, online and mobile. For the UK gaming market, the ability to play 25p, 50p, £1 and £2 per game in the B3 mode, or five Fortune Spins for £20 in the B2 mode means this game is particularly alluring to time spenders and high stakes enthu-
siasts. The Fortune Spins mode also has the advantage of higher payouts and additional bonus features such as ‘Sliding Wilds’, which are also created when the White Knight thrusts his sword downwards. Once live these remain active throughout the Fortune Spins and will slide from right to left across the screen creating wins. Burda added: “White Knight is a descendent of Diamond Goddess, Inspired’s most popular UK slot game to date. Built on the success of this game, White Knight is something exciting and new for players to enjoy. Already this game has received an extraordinary response and we are confident it will prove to be a favourite amongst players in the UK and internationally.” “Customised versions of White Knight will reach our international clients during the course of 2014. Following our cross channel convergence philosophy, the game will be available for land based gaming in - machines and as HTML5 versions for teractive and mobile operations.”
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LOTTERY
GAMING MACHINES
Fine China for Cantor
Big game from SG
antor Gaming has partnered with Global Entertainment Investment & Management and the Tianjin Welfare Lottery club to provide the technology, systems and infrastructure driving the lottery offering at Cantor Club in Tianjin. A new high frequency lottery club, Cantor Club spans more than 80,000 square feet and offers members lottery games, mah-jong parlours and lounges. Lee Amaitis, president and CEO of Cantor Gaming, commented: “Cantor Gaming prides itself on innovation and the highest standards of technology quality and excellence. We are proud to provide Cantor Club with the very best, most sophisticated technology systems that match this premier, world leading venue.”
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Turf TV expands US racing service
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RICK MOUNTNEY
G Gaming has launched three new multi-channel games towards the end of 2013, and the firm said that Barkin’ Mad, The Big Cheese and Money Mad Martians are all performing well in LBOs. Rick Mountney, director of content development, said: “SG Gaming offers world-class content, across multiple platforms. We have a long track record of developing games that prove to be player favourites. The stats back that up - our games drive significant cash-box performance in the UK. We do everything in-house, all the way from designing the concept to delivering it, which helps us with quality control and ultimately helps us offer a better product to players.”
S THE DESIGN FOR THE NEW FACILITY
CURRENCY Plastic goal ndy Bassam, customer support manager at banknote validation experts Innovative Technology, has said that the new plastic £5 and £10 banknotes planned for 2016 will be no problem for the firm. He declared: “In terms of note validation, polymer banknotes pose no additional issues and note validators will accept and stack as normal. ITL validators would not require any hardware modifications to accept the new polymer banknotes. The only update required would be a free currency firmware update to incorporate the new polymer banknote data. By utilising polymer, UK banknotes can take advantage of improved security and durability measures. Evidence points to lower counterfeiting risks and overall higher security, as polymer allows additional security measures to be added, which is another boost for the industry.”
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aving launched a five-day service back in September, Turf TVis to expand its US racing offering for subscribers from 21 January with two US fixtures every night of the week. Gulfstream Park in Florida hosts its Winter/Spring meet through until the end of April with over 80 individual racedays along with Laurel Park (Maryland) with racing through until the end of March forming the backbone of the service. These tracks are complimented by the likes of Pimlico, Keeneland, and Beulah - East Coast tracks that fit neatly into the UK betting shop window, racing between 5:30 and 9:30pm. Head of marketing Steve Walsh commented: “We’ve had some positive feedback from many independents regarding the quality of the racing, the pictures and the fixed-odds
VIRTUAL Kiron hits Intralot shops iron Interactive is the first supplier to go live in Italy’s newly-regulated virtual gaming market with Intralot Italia. After being certified by the Italian regulator in September, Kiron’s games are now available to play in more than 500 Intralot-branded betting shops across Italy. Kiron’s virtual sports games are being delivered on a new Virtual Gaming TV channel, with live Italian commentary, in association with audiovisual content provider Vermantia. Kiron’s games will also be complemented by VSoft Games’ newly upgraded Fantastic League virtual football product. Steven Spartinos, co-CEO of Kiron, said: “It is testament to the hard work of all the teams involved in this project that we and our partners, Vermantia and VSoft Games, have taken the lead in this vibrant new market.” My Diary Agenda 52
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pricing that accompanies the product, providing a service seven nights a week was borne out through our customer requests and our US partners (XB Net, part of the Stronach Group) have been able to expand the roster of tracks available so that we can service the industry. “So far this winter UK and Irish horseracing has enjoyed the unseasonal weather with little more than a handful of fixtures being lost to the elements, but even the eternal optimist would anticipate that at some point during the next few months the weather will start to impact on the schedule - bringing in racing from the likes of Florida and Arizona provides a level of surety to the service at this time of year and with all of our cards available in the Betting Shop Display it gives punters something to get their teeth into good quality, competitive racing.”
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Sportsbook B2B Sportsbook Listings
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765174%'& 21465 '66+0) 1.76+105
Serbian FA signs up Sportradar group CEO Carsten Koerl has said that the firm is ‘very pleased’ to extend its co-operation with The Football Association of Serbia after signing a threeyear deal to become “Official Sports Data Partner to the sporting organisation.
NBA In-Play North American sports specialist Don Best Sports has gone live with its new In-Play Pricing and Trading service for the NBA. President Benjie Cherniak Racing deal said: “Our InBritish slots and table games sup- Play Pricing plier Realistic Games has signed product for the a novel deal to sponsor the yard NBA is unique of leading horse-racing trainer in so many Ruth Carr. The agreement will see ways, offering Realistic’s logo on the silks of comprehensive each jockey who rides for the sta- and full season bles, and its name feature in the coverage.” race-card.
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news & B2B analysis S po rt sb
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US racing not limited to Breeders’ Cup While its prestige horserace gets most of the attention, there is plenty of other high quality racing in North America.
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n November 1 & 2, the world’s premier racehorses converged at California’s picturesque Santa Anita Park for a two-day slugfest to determine, without a doubt, who would be crowned the ‘world’s best.’ Global outlets wagered US$160,704,877 (£97.3m) into commingled pools hosted by the Breeders’ Cup, not accounting for wagers that were booked or ones that entered separate pools. With such a strong financial showing, the Breeders’ Cup once again affirmed its standing as one of the world’s premier racing events. Perhaps blinded by a strong Breeders’
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Cup, a common misconception remains that the global value of North American racing begins and ends with its premier days. But XBNet, an authority on North American content distribution, says that this is simply not the case. Fueled by stalwart thoroughbred, harness and greyhound industries, racing from the US and Canada provides the international wagering marketplace with more high-quality wagering events than any other location. On Breeders’ Cup Saturday, a slightly more modest race program embarked with much less fanfare at the Tucson Greyhound Park, situated nearly 500 miles East of Santa Anita. The thirteen-race card was one of more than a dozen similar greyhound fixtures to take place that afternoon and evening in the United States, providing keen insight that wagering in North America stretches well beyond the walls of Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Saratoga, Churchill Downs and Pimlico. According to René Schneider, vice president of business development for XB-Net: “North American racing, be it horse or dog,
fills a glaring void in the portfolio of European wagering providers. US racetracks provide firms high-quality, exciting racing coverage for nearly 12 hours a day, 364 days a year. On any given day, it is not uncommon to have 40 or more racetracks competing for your customers’ wagering dollars.” XB-Net recently introduced a linear channel solution that provides broadcast-quality thoroughbred and greyhound video. Schneider commented: “The linear channel option was something a number of clients demanded and it only makes sense to introduce that type of product to the market. It is easy and seamless for us to connect this solution to our partners’ interface.” Additionally, both thoroughbred and greyhound video exists via separate stream solutions in a variety of stream and bandwidth types. Schneider added: “Whether you’re a firm looking for a new product line, or you’re simply looking to enhance current offerings, North American racing may bet the product for you.”
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VIRTUAL Virtual Football called Offside
FANTASY
Daily Telegraph picks Picklive
echnology provider Offsidegaming has announced a deal with Betradar to integrate its Virtual Football League (VFL) into its comprehensive suite of gaming products, using the existing Betradar infrastructure. The VFL provides a close to reality betting experience 24 hours a day, taking football betting to a whole new level. The VFL combines Artificial Intelligence, 3D animations and a unique betting experience in a highly authentic, entericklive Limited, an operator and taining and revenue-driving virtual sports supplier of next-generation fanbetting solution. Offsidegaming will roll tasy sports and social gaming, out the product to a number of its clients has announced a new partnership in Latin America, Europe and Africa. Offwith The Telegraph Media Group. The deal will sidegaming managing director Matt allow the Telegraph to offer its fantasy players Alexander said: “Betradar’s Virtual Football League adds another dimension to our access to Picklive’s short-term fantasy sports and social gaming products that typically last live betting offer, with an additional 2,500 for one match. events per day.” CEO of Picklive David Galan said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Telegraph given its unique position as a major media company that already offers season long fantasy football. Picklive has already enjoyed great success in the UK and this opportunity allows us to bring product innovation and the ‘social’ element into the fast growing short duration daily fantasy sports space to the Telegraph’s customers that compliments the existing season long games.” Picklive are a former Telegraph Startup 100: Gaming, Virtual Worlds - Finalist and Galan further commented. “We see ourselves as second screen entertainment providers, the perfect companion whilst watching the live sport. It is all about the game and all about the people you are playing with.” Steve Stiles, interactive sports manager at the Telegraph Media Group, added: “Picklive’s daily live games will offer 200,000 Telegraph Fantasy Football managers a fresh and New look for EasyOdds exciting way to test their selection skills in an dds comparison site Easyodds.com innovative social environment.” has launched a new website including a brand new navigation and design, plus a number of new features including live in-running betting. Existing Easyodds.com services such as Sesame, Top Tipster and Horse Alerts have been revamped and improved and can now all be accessed from a newly created My Accounts page. CEO James Garmston said: “Easyodds.com has always been seen as a trusted and reputable company in the sports betting industry, but the technology of the old website was holding us back from reaching our full potential. Our new platform allows us to be a competitive vibrant brand and give us a real opportunity to build on and launch some very exciting products in 2014.
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MARKETING
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iGaming Jokerizer in the pack
B2B iGaming Listings
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EveryMatrix for Dragonara
www.greentube.com
Malta’s Dragonara Casino is now using the Casino Engine solution provided by EveryMatrix. The casino’s Franco de Gabriele said: “We can now offer our casino customers with a wider selection of game content and the opportunity to play their favourite games whenever and wherever they may be.”
Yggdrasil Gaming has released its first in a new series of slots products developed in collaboration with leading Norwegian online casino SpilleAutomater.com. The Realistic agreement ‘Jokerizer’ integrates traditional Realistic Games’ commercial dislots symbols within a modern 5 rector Andy Harris is delighted to reel game. have tied up a multi-year supply deal with William Hill: “Our strategy has always been to partner with the best operators around the world and William Hill’s growth in recent years is proof they are in the vanguard of online gaming.”
B2B software iG am in
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SLOTS
www.inspiredgaminggroup.com sales@ingg.com
With its growing mobile games portfolio, Net Entertainment has signed up another operator.
i1@intralot.com www.intralotinteractive.com
Net Entertainment catches Metro sales@microgaming.com www.microgaming.com
ew mobile operator Metro Play has signed a deal with Net Entertainment for enabling the firm to extend its slots portfolio. The deal increases both the quality and quantity of Metro Play’s Casino mobile offer to over 80 games on the mobile platform just six months after launch. Jamie Walters, managing director at Metro Play, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Net Entertainment, one of the leading suppliers in the gaming market. At Metro Play we’re always looking to have the best content in the market and this new partnership adds to our fantastic range of existing content partners, giving our customers easy, on-the-move access to great branded content such as South Park.” Net Entertainment has also been busy with new game developments and has developed a mobile version of its Guinness World Record slot Mega Fortune. Mega Fortune Touch is a 5-reel, 3-row, 25-bet line multiple-coin video slot featuring scatter wins, free spins, wild substitutes, and a
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triple jackpot bonus game. “Mega Fortune has already proved a resounding success and we’re really pleased to announce it has been added to Net Entertainment’s Touch portfolio,” commented chief product officer Simon Hammon. “We are constantly growing our mobile offering with better games and this Guinness World Record slot helps continue our mission.” As if to underline this success, last month saw a Finnish player at Kolikkopelit.com Casino win a 2.6m euro jackpot on Mega Fortune. Kolikkopelit.com COO Risto Myllymäki commented: “Kolikkopelit.com is all about entertainment and excitement, and we are really happy that one of our players won the Mega Fortune jackpot. We are one of the fastest growing online casinos for the Finnish market, and this will help us to be even stronger.” The firm has also released its latest branded game: Creature from the Black Lagoon. Licensed from Universal, the new game is a 5-reel, 3-row, 20-line video slot
awash with innovative features. Hammon commented: “We’re really pleased with the outcome of our collaboration with Universal and players can expect a real treat with Creature from the Black Lagoon. It’s the perfect mix of win anticipation and clever features that are all woven around a classic story against the backdrop of the misty Amazon.” Complementing the new slot is a new online roulette product called European Roulette which provides standard roulette inside and outside betting types. There are options to choose from inside bets, outside bets, racetrack bets, or place combinations of the three. Players receive betting tips during spins via mouse-over messages. These helpful pointers range from alerting players what bet has been placed and when they have exceeded a bet or table limit. The cleverly designed billboard changes depending on the stage of the game. It shows the table result stack, the winning number presentation, and other roulette statistics.
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MOBILE Reel launch icrogaming’s Reel Thunder is now live on the HTML5 platform as a 9 payline, 5 reel slot. Microgaming’s expanding HTML5 mobile collection now boasts 40 games and has expanded every month throughout 2013. In a bid to develop games designed to cater for the ever growing number of mobile and tablet devices, HTML5 has been a key platform for Microgaming as it supports the broadest number of screen sizes and resolutions. In addition to enhancing its HTML5 platform, Microgaming has added HTML5 capability to its Download App which means that its HTML5 games can now be released to both the HTML5 platform and Mobile Download platform concurrently
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Sweet deal for Probability obile gambling operator and supplier Probabilityhas signed a partnership with Sugar Hut, one of the UK’s most successful lifestyle hospitality brands, which will see Probability power ‘Sugar Hut Mobile Casino’ featuring a full range of realmoney mobile slot, bingo and casino games. Michael Byrne, chief commercial officer at Probability, commented: “Over the past 12
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months we’ve noticed a growing appetite from companies that have traditionally sat outside our world, who recognise mobile gambling as a means to open up new revenue streams into their businesses. The partnership enables Sugar Hut to deepen brand engagement and drive loyalty by delivering fun, entertaining mobile games that give their customers the opportunity to win real money.”
LIVE CASINO Campione goes live ive dealer provider Evolution Gaming has signed an agreement with Casinó Campione d’Italia, one of Europe’s largest land-based casino, to create an in-venue Live Casino studio. Initially, Live Roulette, Live Blackjack and Live Baccarat tables will stream live games to existing and new customers. As well as being able to play Casinó Campione’s in-venue live tables online, customers will also be able to access Evolution’s generic tables, which stream live games from Evolution’s central studios in Riga 24/7. The combined service will mean that customers will be able to access a Casinó Campione live tables service on PC, Mac, tablets, iPad and iPhone at virtually any time when they are unable to visit Casinó Campione in person.
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Mobile platform now available from Williams illiams Interactive has launched its mobile platform, available to patrons of gaming sites integrated with the Williams Interactive Game Server. Players can enjoy games from the company’s library of authentic Las Vegas-style slots at home or on the go, courtesy of a mobile platform built with diligent consideration to the player gaming experience. The platform leverages HMTL5 technology to empower game delivery on both tablets and mobile devices that seamlessly adapts to different devices, operating systems, screen sizes and resolutions to provide an optimal high-resolution slot experience from each game theme and engine on each player’s device of choice. Unibet was the first gaming site live with the Williams Interactive mobile platform. Head of Gaming Daniel Eskola, commented: “The mobile games from Williams Interactive are a premium addition to our mobile and tablet casino offering, allowing us to deliver high-resolution slot entertainment to this increasingly important segment of
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our business. We’re excited for the benefits we’ll gain from their multi-channel game launch strategy, including the efficiency in our marketing efforts on new themes and the ability to provide our players with on the go access to the same exciting content they enjoy via their computers.” Williams’ Orrin J. Edidin added: “The ability to launch our games on desktop, tablet and mobile simultaneously maximises the value from each game in our extensive library, and provides our casino customers enhanced entertainment potential from each theme we release.”
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Back office B2B Back Office Listings
B2B ball pens ffi ce B ac k O
PUNTER PENS 17,280
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£180 DELIVERED + VAT CONTACT: SALES AT HAINENKO LIMITED Tel: 020 8882 8734 Email: sales@hainenko.com EST. 30 YEARS
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The Bookmakers’ Trade Fair 2014 October 9th 2014 at Wolverhampton Racecourse organised by
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t. +44 (0) 1624 678 888 e. sales@continent8.com w. www.continent8.com
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New Playbook
/n software gets FAC
Jumio has published a free whitepaper on its website entitled: ‘The Fraudsters’ Playbook’. The report from the payments and ID scanning & validation experts details five ways in which fraudsters are stealing identities, and how to stop them.
Online payment solutions provider First Atlantic Commerce (FAC), and a provider of professional internet development tools and components called ‘/n software’, have integrated their systems, enabling /n software clients to access the FAC payment gateway for online card processing.
risk B2B management ffi ce B ac k O
,ĞůƉŝŶŐ ďŽƚŚ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ĂŶĚ ƐŚŽƉͲďĂƐĞĚ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐĞƐ ƚŽ͗ x ŵĞĞƚ ƌĞŐƵůĂƚŽƌLJ ĂŶĚ ŵŽŶĞLJ ůĂƵŶĚĞƌŝŶŐ ƌĞƋƵŝƌĞŵĞŶƚƐ x ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞ ŽŶͲďŽĂƌĚŝŶŐ ĂŶĚ ƌĞƚĞŶƚŝŽŶ ƐƚƌĂƚĞŐŝĞƐ x ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞ ƚŚĞŝƌ ƉůĂLJĞƌ ĂĐƋƵŝƐŝƚŝŽŶ x ĨŝŶĚ ƚŚĞ ŵŽƐƚ ƉƌŽĨŝƚĂďůĞ ƉůĂLJĞƌƐ x ŐĞƚ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ŵŝŶĚƐĞƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ƉůĂLJĞƌ͕ x ƚĂƌŐĞƚ ƚŚĞŵ ŵŽƌĞ ĞĨĨĞĐƚŝǀĞůLJ͘ Ăůů ƵƐ ŽŶ Ϭϭϭϯ ϯϴϴ ϰϯϬϬ Žƌ ĞŵĂŝů ŝŶĨŽΛĐĂůůĐƌĞĚŝƚŵĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ͘ĐŽŵ ǁǁǁ͘ĐĂůůĐƌĞĚŝƚ͘ĐŽ͘ƵŬ
After using Optimove’s retention automation software in its Dragonfish B2B division to increase player retention and engagement, online gaming operator 888 has expanded the use of Optimove into its consumer-facing Bingo operations.
US ONLINE MARKET
NYX teams up with Sportech for US venture Companies are jostling for position should the US online gaming market start to reach its potential. portech has signed a joint venture with NYX Gaming Group Limited to provide online products and services in the US for social and pay-to-play gaming. As US online gaming regulation evolves, the joint venture will be able to offer a full suite of gaming products including bingo, casino, poker, slots and other games to potential licensees using the NYX platform. These include Sportech’s racetrack and casino partners across the US. Sportech and NYX will each hold a 50 per cent interest in the joint venture company, and will equally share both the set-up costs, expected to be less than £250,000, and the profits. Sportech’s interests on the Board will be served by Ian Hogg, chief operating officer of Sportech’s international consumer facing businesses, and Mark Gregory, managing director of Sportech’s US digital business. Sportech chief executive Ian Penrose said: “This joint venture with NYX will extend our US product range into a full suite of online games as and when regulations permit. It complements our established US position as a trusted supplier of terminal and online
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making sense of the gaming industry
Bingo on the Optimove
SPORTECH’S IAN HOGG WILL BE ON THE BOARD OF THE NEW JOINT VENTURE
betting systems for horseracing to racetracks and casinos. “It is important to us that NYX has an operational base in Las Vegas, enabling them to work closely with our Sportech Racing and Digital business, to maximise the US opportunities. We share common objectives, bring complementary skills and look forward to working together to build a successful i-Gaming business.” NYX has also been busy elsewhere - the firm has recently gone live with Scandinavian operator Unibet. The two companies signed a deal back in May for NYX OGS and MOVE powered by NYX OGS to be offered within Unibet’s online casino gaming suite for both PC and Mobile device. Unibet has initially taken a number of HTML5 and Flash games content via NYX OGS, and MOVE, with further games content being released
on an ongoing basis. Another firm to integrate the NYX OGS is newly launched Thrills.com, operated by the Betit Group. David Flynn, SVP business development for NYX Gaming Group, commented: “In a short space of time, NYX OGS has become the delivery module of choice for operators who wish to swiftly leverage an incredible amount of premium casino content from multiple suppliers. We are delighted to be taking Thrills.com live via NYX OGS.” Betti Group COO Henric Andersson added: “When we started Betit Group we knew exactly which partners we needed in order to build an appealing proposition to customers, and NYX OGS was one of these partners. We know how vital great games are to the overall gaming experience and NYX OGS open platform help us achieve that.”
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B2B
BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014 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
Velti gets the message out obile marketing and advertising technology provider Velti has signed a two year deal with bookmaker Ladbrokes to provide its cloud-based mobile messaging platform, mGage Communicate Pro, to Labdrokes’ retail division. Through an interactive user interface, Ladbrokes can set up multi-step campaigns based on individual user behaviour, to send personalised communications to their opted-in customer base. Two-way communication between Velti’s platform and Ladbrokes’ existing backend system is enabled through the platform API, allowing easy back-office integration. Rob Sweeting, head of retail CRM at Ladbrokes, commented: “The importance of securing a market-leading partner in mobile to support our digital engagement strategy with customers is vital.”
TESTING
tions, commented: “Less than a year ago, BMM celebrated the grand opening of our new state-of-the-art global headquarters. We knew that we would continue to grow in 2013, but less than a year later we are already set to expand our facilities.”
JURISDICTIONS Transparency award for Isle of Man he Isle of Man has been awarded the top ‘Compliant’ rating by the global body reviewing tax transparency around the world, one of only 18 countries to be awarded the top rating. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has published ratings for the 50 countries reviewed to date and the Isle of Man has been awarded the top rating. The rating has been welcomed by chief minister Allan Bell MHK: “This is an achievement the Isle of Man is rightly
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BetVictor takes up CallValidate etVictor has signed a two year deal to use Callcredit Information Group’s CallValidate solution for age verification checks. BetVictor wanted to be in a position where it could increase the number of pass rates, without inconveniencing genuine customers. Callcredit has provided BetVictor with its real-time online identity check tool, CallValidate, as a solution to its requirements. The tool instantly identifies underage sign ups and high risk players, by verifying customers’ names, addresses and dates of birth from a wide range of independent sources. In addition it prevents identity payment and fraud impersonation by conducting a real-time check against bank and credit card providers’ records. Since using the software, BetVictor has seen an increase in the volume of pass rates, with now in excess of 80 per cent of players successfully passing the automatic checks.
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proud of. It is yet further evidence of the Island’s international standing and reputation and that the Island can no longer be referred to as a ‘tax haven’.”
BMM to expand aming testing laboratory and technical consultancy BMM Testlabs will be expanding its testlab facility at the Global Headquarters in Las Vegas in early 2014. The expansion will represent an approximate 65 per cent increase in service delivery space and is set to house BMM’s growing math department, additional specialised labs, and space to support the growing engineer staff and client roster. Travis Foley, BMM Americas EVP Opera-
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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, 2014 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.
ID CHECKS
COMMUNICATION
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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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BINGO Parlay bingo into LATAM ffside Gaming has signed an exclusive agreement with Parlay Games to provide a new bingo
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Kay Fenemore, director of customer experience at BetVictor, commented: “We were keen to increase our pass rates without our genuine customers being affected; CallValidate has enabled us to do just that. We are now able to keep more customers playing without the lengthy manual checks, significantly reducing operational costs and increasing customer satisfaction.” Sadie Guymer, business development manager at Callcredit, added: “Online gaming continues to go from strength to strength and therefore it’s vital that underage players and fraudulent accounts are quickly identified without compromising the experience of genuine players. CallValidate is the ideal solution, offering numerous benefits within one pieces of software. It’s really pleasing to see how BetVictor are already seeing positive results from using our verification tools and I look forward to continuing to build our relationship with them in the future.”
network for the LATAM market. To ensure maximum customer service, the product will be fully localised and will provide native Spanish and Portuguese speaking chat moderators and customer services. The deal also includes a dedicated bingo team being built around the product, which will feature innovative promotions and events designed to attract new bingo players to Offside Gaming’s existing and new partners in the region. Parlay CEO Scott White said: “For several years, Parlay has been helping customers push into the various Latin American markets and we regard it as one of the more strategic markets for bingo.”
Isle of Man | London | Paris | Dublin | Singapore Gibraltar | Guernsey | Malta | Montreal | New Jersey
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Comment
ACTION IMAGES / ANDREW BOYERS
HOW EASY IS IT TO DETERMINE HOW A GOAL HAS BEEN SCORED AND WHO SUPPLIED THE ASSIST?
Define your terms of engagement John Samuels of IBAS suggests that the industry should make it absolutely clear what a bet offer entails as different interpretations of terms can lead to disputes. ell into the football season now and putting reports of match fixing and corruption aside for the moment, one would have thought that this long standing and increasingly popular betting medium should produce disproportionately few causes for bet disputes. In particular, one would have thought that football ‘speak’ and the game’s surrounding terminology would be well understood and its meanings accepted by all now - wrong! One example of possible confusion, touched upon in a previous article, was goal timings. Those betting on a goal not to be scored after say 70 minutes may be astonished to discover that a goal timed at sixty nine minutes and one second makes their bet a loser. But this fact may begin to be more understood by the football betting public as time passes, and as punters become aware that the first second of a game is classed as being in the first minute. Thus a goal
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scored at one minute and one second is a goal scored in the second minute of the game and so on. Innovation inevitably creates unforeseen difficulties, such as the terms contained in emerging bets, such as ‘yes/no’ bet coupons. In recent months, two such dilemmas for the IBAS Panel have included, ‘Will a double hat-trick be scored?’ and ’Will a goal be scored with the right foot?’ ; even the apparently straightforward, ‘Will a goal be scored?’ continues to reach our Panellists. Be honest, what was your first thought when you heard the expression ‘double hat-trick’? Did you think ‘ah, two hat-tricks scored in the game’ or did you think ‘one player to score at least six goals in the game’? Both are credible interpretations, but there is an important difference and only one of the two was a winner, as the 1/500 shot cruised to a 10-0 win over their opponents. If there had been two hat tricks in the game, albeit scored by two separate players, would
48 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
you forgive a customer for thinking that his bet was a winner, if he bet on there being a double hat-trick? How about the simple question: ‘Will a goal be scored?’ I probably do not need to elaborate on the problems that can be caused if the market does not clarify if ‘own goals’ count in this market. In some betting markets own goals do count (e.g. correct and final score markets) but in some other markets (e.g. first player to score) they generally do not. How about the emerging ‘goal assists’ market? What constitutes an assist? Say if Rooney appeared to try to aim the ball into a corner of the goal but, on its way, it brushed against a defender’s foot and the ball then fell to VanPersie who slammed the ball into the back of the net. Would Rooney’s efforts be classed as an ‘assist’? Finally, what about ‘will a goal be scored with the right foot?’ Ignoring again the issue of whether ‘own goals’ count or not what would you think the right foot means? Clearly, and for most, the
right foot would include the heel, the toe and the instep. But what about if it was reported, or if it could be seen, that the goal was scored with a last touch or deflection from the right ankle, or the shin, or calf, or knee, or thigh, or even any other part of the leg. Do any of these count as the right foot? One respected data provider includes the right shin in goals scored with the right foot, but counts the right thigh as being scored with ‘any other body part’. So, one can see that unless a market’s settlement criteria is clarified, and a results data provider has been decided upon and declared, confusion on how bets will be settled may continue to reign. Operators and marketmakers please note: You may be clear in your own mind what the market means, but do please try to second guess circumstances that may throw settlement criteria into grey areas, and how the market description might be interpreted isn m and possibly terpreted.
Who’s re t was a strange, unheralded Christmas present for the gambling industry and its stakeholders. The news that problem gambling, according to the measure that the Gambling Commission is using to monitor the situation, has dropped rather considerably in the past three years, should be a cause for celebration. It means the regulation seems to be working. It means that the regulator seems to be working. It means that the measures to prevent problem gambling appear to be working. It means that the industry’s socially responsible obligations are being met. The apparent drop in the rate of problem gambling in the adult population to 0.5 per cent or 0.4 per cent, from 0.9 per cent or 0.7 per cent depending upon whether you prefer DSM-IV or PGSI definitions, is something to be cheered. Or completely ignored if you’re hell bent on scoring political points by attacking B2 gaming machines by branding them as the scourge of society.
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andrew mccarron viewpoint
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“I made a mistake. A very embarrassing and humiliating one.” Tom Watson MP when it emerged that he had voted against the interests of his own anti-FOBT campaign
Commission expresses age concern The latest round of the Gambling Commission’s test purchasing with local authorities and police uncovered some serious weaknesses in underage gambling controls. The Commission’s Matthew Hill says betting businesses should view these results as a reminder that failing to keep children out of betting premises will lead to further action. very betting shop operator knows children are legally barred from entering a betting premises but our latest test purchasing at smaller businesses shows in practice there is still a lot more work for the industry to do. This summer the Commission worked with local authorities and police to test controls on underage access. The focus was on smaller businesses that had not provided assurance that their underage gambling controls were being monitored. Small and medium-sized betting businesses were included along with smaller bingo halls, adult-only arcades, and independent casino operators. The results show some firms must do much more to make their underage gambling controls work. In the majority of betting shops and many adult-only arcades, a supervised test purchaser under the age of 18 was allowed to enter the premises, play a gaming machine and leave without being challenged to prove their age. Smaller betting operators were the greatest cause for concern - no challenge was made in 20 of the 31 premises tested. The young person was sometimes seen and either ignored or, worse still, spoken to without an age check. Operators have been warned that future failure will lead to regulatory action. The tests offer some simple lessons. Shops where staff are close to the main door or positioned with a line of sight to gaming machines did better. A robust Think 21 policy also helped while the attitude, attentiveness and competence of employees were instrumental in whether effective challenges were made. Operators might also take advantage of the ABB’s
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’s responsible? The thing is that we all know that Ed Milliband’s latest populist announcement that he will consider banning B2 gaming machines is nothing but a load of hot air, which will gain him some beneficial coverage in some sections of the media. However, the threat of a new use-class for betting shops is a more realistic measure, although there would still need to be some safeguards against simple politicking against any new gambling establishment without any evidence. Surely that’s fair? But being fair to bookmakers doesn’t win headlines. As for giving local councils the power to decide on numbers of gaming machines within betting shops, well that’s an administrative nightmare from the word go, with councils put under pressure to reduce the numbers to zero, effectively closing all betting shops in the area and having empty shops on the high street instead. A pyrrhic victory or simply cutting their noses off to spite their face? But it’s unlikely that
the Treasury, possibly more important than the actual PM’s office these days, would countenance the loss of machine duty, corporation tax and PAYE that would be caused by widespread LBO closures. The other proposed changes to gameplay will all be more or less implemented by the time Labour would potentially come to power anyway, thanks to the ABB’s latest Code for Responsible Gambling. Unfortunately, ‘I will make bookmakers do what they are already doing’ doesn’t really have the same kind of political umpff as an election slogan. Despite heavy pressure on the government to reduce B2 stakes to £2 during the passing of its secondary legislation of stake and prizes, it held firm and remained at the current level, while other lower class machines received a slight uplift. Of course, the fact that the main supporter of the campaign against FOBTs, MP Tom Watson, proved to be so incompetent that he
actually voted for the measure he was campaigning against should give some indication of his abilities. Hopefully, his constituents won’t be struck by a similar malaise at next year’s General Election, allowing Watson to return to private life where he is less potential harm to society. While it is too early to make definite conclusions from the latest problem gambling study it is an indication that everything is actually working satisfactorily and safely from a punters’ perspective, even the white list and offshore licensing. Now if the next batch of research in around three years’ time shows an uplift in problem gambling activity will that be down to unscrupulous bookmakers with their nefarious gaming machines targeting the poor ? Or will it be because a reckless government created a not inconsiderable black market by dragging operators onshore and over taxing them? I can guess the true reason, but I know who’d get the blame.
welcome plans to offer third party test purchasing for its independent members. Unannounced testing allows smaller businesses to find any holes in their own protections and to take steps to improve. Larger betting operators have shown how third party testing and Think 21 can improve performance in stopping underage access. They still have more to do but they now turn away people without valid id more than 500,000 times a year. Operators being independently tested by a third party and sharing those results are less likely to be tested under the Commission’s programme if their third party testing leads to improved performance. These latest test purchases show underage gambling controls must improve in smaller betting and arcade businesses. Everyone knows children must be kept out so it is not good enough to have a policy on underage gambling that simply gathers dust on a shelf – every staff member has to understand that stopping under 18s at the door is part of their role. We want businesses to respond to these results by demonstrating they are serious about social responsibility. The lessons on offer now must be put into practice sooner rather than later if individual businesses, and the industry at large, are to avoid further intervention to uphold the licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005.
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Business Industry crowdfunding body launched
corporate
appointments
at the German operator Mybet Holding conPSvenersonnel tinues to change on a monthly basis. No sooner had Ivo Brinck been appointed as the new Management Board member than Monika Fiala surrendered her office as finance director. Fiala had taken the role of finance director on an interim basis at the start of November, but only lasted six weeks. Brinck, who will be the sole Management Board member of Mybet until further notice, is replacing Mathias Dahms, who left the company at the end of 2013 after more than 15 years. pread betting operator LCG has recruited David Sparks as chief financial officer. Sparks was most recently director of Financial and Strategic Projects at Sportingbet, assuming the position in 2004. Previously he was a finance director for the Americas Region of Sportingbet, based in Costa Rica. CEO Kevin Ashby said: “David Sparks has strong expertise in helping to grow online gaming companies with global operations and clients I am confident that he will be a tremendous asset as we seek to build our business and customer base.”
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DAVID SPARKS
has appointed Richard Roberts as a non-execSdentportech utive director with immediate effect. New Jersey resiRoberts currently serves as CEO of Slingo, Inc. the gambling, mobile social games and entertainment licensing business. Chairman Roger Withers said: “As Sportech continues to develop its business and online presence in the USA, it is important that the Board composition reflects this change.” Meanwhile John Barnes, who has been a non-executive director at Sportech since November 2005, has decided to retire from the board and has tendered his resignation. has appointed Roee Weinberg in the capacEentireveryMatrix ity of OddsMatrix product manager, overseeing the OddsMatrix sportsbook and giving valuable input on the creative direction, new features, enhancements and overall design of the product. CEO Ebbe Groes said: “We are very excited to have Roee Weinberg on board developing our OddsMatrix product as he will bring his creative talents and strategic acumen to the role. OddsMatrix is a growing product and we genuinely aim to ensure it is a product worthy of our partners and aim to keep investing in it to benefit current and new partners.” imon Ellen has been reappointed as chairman of the Racecourse Media Group (RMG) for a further four years. RMG is the umbrella organisation for the 34 racecourses which own an interest in Racing UK TV (Sky 432/Virgin 536), Turf TV (betting shop service) and GBI Racing (international betting shop service). Ellen, a keen racing enthusiast and racehorse owner, joined the RMG Board initially as a director in June 2010, before commencing his chairmanship two years ago.
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SIMON ELLEN
ally Technologies has announced its new senior execBment. utive team following the acquisition of SHFL entertainFrom the online industry’s perspective, John Connelly’s appointment as senior vice president of business development and interactive is of the most interest. Connelly has more than 20 years’ experience in the global gaming industry, including nearly 10 years in various capacities at Bally. President and CEO Ramesh Srinivasan said: “The combination of such exceptional leadership from both Bally and SHFL will position us well for the next phase of our growth and will set the bar even higher in providing innovative, award-winning products and world-class customer service and support.” 50 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
Gambling firms looking for investment away from banks and VCs now have a viable alternative in GamCrowd. FINANCE
Chris North, founder and CEO of the Fox Poker Club in London, said that he is going back to his roots as an entrepreneur this year by launching GamCrowd, a crowdfunding company specifically for gambling start-ups. North achieved no help from banks or VCs to set up Fox in 2010, but instead obtained all his capital from his friends in the industry. He explained: “The last start up I did struggled to register any interest from VCs and so I went back to my own crowd. I didn’t
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know it was called crowdfunding at the time, but that is exactly what we did and it was a spectacular success”. In his search for seed funding, he was supported by professional poker players like Phil Laak, Barney Boatman and Joe Beevers, who helped ensure a great poker experience. Michael Casselli, editor of Bluff Magazine, helped with marketing and PR, 888 CEO Brian Mattingley was the first chairman and retail bookmaker Ian Hogg helped with licensing and operations. These and about 30 other investors
from the industry brought cash, expertise and helped spread the word. The result was a club that grew to 26,000 members in six months, was packed out every weekend and was sold to Genting Plc within a year in a multi-million pound deal. Now North wants to use the same kind of people and resources to launch a crowdfunding site targeted exclusively at the gambling industry. GamCrowd seeks to match investors, start-ups and industry expertise just for the gambling industry. Crowdfunding is revolutionising the way that start-
ups raise money in an era when banks and venture capital firms are reducing their contribution to early stage funding. GamCrowd is backed by many of the investors that were successful with Fox Poker Club. The crowdfunding platform will go live at the end of January, when it will start recruiting its ‘crowd’ - potential investors, start-ups looking for funds and industry professionals. The crowd can get involved by investing either with cash or sweat equity, freelance crowdsourcing or crowd voting and are being
Betfair’s double play showing complimentary figures While many were nonplussed at Betfair’s move into the sportsbook market, it appears to be having beneficial effects on the exchange business.
BETFAIR’S MOBILE REVENUE IS UP 70 PER CENT IN H1
INTERIMS
etfair’s joint package of sportsbook and betting exchange appears to be appealing to punters, according to the firm’s interim results for the six months ended 31 October 2013. The new sportsbook-led customer acquisition strategy is working with UK & Ireland active customers up 25 per cent in H1, while 38 per cent of sports betting customers used both products in the half. Interestingly, 32 per cent of new UK & Ireland exchange customers initially joined via the sportsbook. Betfair CEO Breon Corcoran commented: “We continue to see evidence that our exchange and sportsbook products are complementary, with 38 per cent of sports betting customers using both products. This
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overlap is set to increase in the coming months following innovative developments to our bet matching technology, bringing the benefits of Exchange-based pricing to sportsbook customers.” Automated integration of the exchange and sportsbook products is expected in Q4. Meanwhile, mobile revenue is up 70 per cent in H1 and now accounts for more than half of sportsbook revenue. Betfair’s continuing focus on ‘sustainable revenues’ - ie regulated markets - continues to put a dent in its balance sheet, although the underlying figures are promising. While overall revenue declined 6 per cent in H1, sustainable revenues were up 11 per cent in Q2 and now represent 77 per cent of total revenues at the group/
Corcoran said: “Betfair has continued to make progress against the strategic objectives we set out in December 2012 and has delivered a good first half performance. Our focus on regulated jurisdictions and sportsbook-led acquisition continues to be successful. In the 12 months since we implemented this approach, the number of new customers acquired in the UK and Ireland is up 77 per cent.” Underlying EBITDA is up 16 per cent to £48.9m and underlying EBITDA margin is up to 26 per cent. The firm expects full year underlying EBITDA could edge towards £90m in FY14, including combined start-up losses of between £5m and £10m in Italy and New Jersey. Corcoran added: “Following cost reductions in the past twelve months we now
operate as a leaner and fitter business, which means we can reinvest to generate revenue growth. Our sales and marketing budget is over £100m this year. This enables a top tier presence on Sky Sports, major investment in our online marketing capability and an exciting new partnership with Channel 4 Racing for 2014. “We are also investing in international opportunities. Our online casino launched in New Jersey on 21st November and, while regulatory processes are always uncertain, we have made good progress towards launching an Exchange in Italy. Notwithstanding this incremental investment, the progress we have made in the first six months means we expect underlying EBITDA for the full year to be between £82m and £87m.”
BB112-p50-51-Business_09/10 03/01/2014 15:03 Page 2
Martin takes Remuneration Committee chair Ladbrokes plc has announced that its non-executive director David Martin has succeeded John Jarvis as chairman of the Remuneration Committee as part of the handover of roles before Jarvis’ retirement at this year’s AGM. Martin is chief executive of Arriva plc, one of Europe’s largest passenger transport providers, which is part of Deutsche Bahn AG, a worldwide provider of transport and logistics services.
ANALYSIS THE FOX POKER CLUB WAS CROWDFUNDED
asked to register. “Once we have a sufficient base of investors, start-ups and a crowd, we will begin putting people in touch with each other and allow investments to happen,� North added. Before any investment takes place, GamCrowd will be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority which has recently issued a detailed consultation document on the nascent crowdfunding industry in the UK. According to researcher Datamonitor, crowdfunding for businesses in the UK is experiencing growth of
80 per cent compound annual growth rate across all its variations and has raised funds this year of over ÂŁ119m. UK market leader Crowdcube has helped start-ups raise over ÂŁ16m, but doesn’t focus on any particular market or industry. This is where North believes GamCrowd will have an edge: “We intend to introduce investors with contacts and expertise to start-ups in the gambling industry across the world. As I have already learned, this will add tremendous value to the start-ups that are successful in being funded.â€?
Crowdfunding isn’t a new concept; the Statue of Liberty was funded that way and Chris North’s experience at The Fox Poker Club shows that the model can be successful in the modern gambling industry. As North argues: “The development of web 2.0 and social media have given the industry a new technology-based impetus. GamCrowd will offer a platform that will make a real difference for the creation of innovative start-ups that will drive growth in the UK gambling industry.� With banks still keeping a tight hold on their purse strings, GamCrowd could provide the platform to allow an idea to blossom whereas before it might have been trampled underfoot.
CHRIS NORTH: GAMCROWD WILL ‘ALLOW INVESTMENTS TO HAPPEN’
Betfred sitting pretty with positive set of results FINANCIALS
etfred has revealed a 22 per cent increase in gross profits for the group to ÂŁ362m on turnover of ÂŁ8bn (up 19 per cent). In the first full set of results since buying the Tote, underlying pre-tax profits grew 30 per cent from ÂŁ53m to ÂŁ69m, while the group also reduced its debt by ÂŁ43m to ÂŁ213m. The online business Betfred.com also continued to show strong growth with EBITDA up 42 per cent to ÂŁ6.6m. The firm also highlighted the increased payments to the Exchequer - up 24 per cent to ÂŁ89.6m - and an increase in the total payments paid to racing including levy - from ÂŁ21.8m to ÂŁ24.4m. Betfred Group chairman Fred Done said: “I am delighted to report such a positive set of results. We continue to grow strongly and evolve our range of products. Our estate of 1,375 betting shops is performing well and we are making great strides in improving and enhancing our online and mobile offerings.â€? One of the company’s biggest management objectives when the Tote was acquired was to deliver ÂŁ20.5m in annual synergies but this year ÂŁ23.7m was achieved. Done added: “The integration of the Tote, although extremely complex, is nearly complete and we have great plans for Totepool. Additionally, we are pleased to confirm that we have increased our promised contribution to Racing from ÂŁ9.0m to ÂŁ12.5m and this together with our levy pay-
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LAST YEAR ALSO SAW THE LAUNCH OF BETFRED TV
ments equates to a total payment to Racing of ÂŁ24.4m for the financial year. We are very excited about the future and are positive about the outlook for the business.â€? Despite this good news, the bookmaker has received criticism in the press over reported changes to its staff terms to link pay to gaming machine performance. However, Betfred said it was consulting staff on the changes. It told The Guardian: “It is incorrect to state that the grading of the shops is based purely on gross profit from the fixed-odds betting terminals: that misrepresents the true position. The grading is based on three factors that reflect the business of a high-street betting shop: the number of over-the-counter slips taken, over-the-counter stakes, and gross profit from the fixed-odds betting terminals. To do otherwise would be unfair on our staff.â€?
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&RPH DQG VHH IRU \RXUVHOI DW ,&( 6WDQG 6 :HVW (QWUDQFH For more information contact Angelo: angelo@2DB.com or www.2DB.com BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014 51
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Agenda LISTINGS
hankfully, the football shows no sign of letting up in January and as well as the FA Cup there are some choice televised Premier League clashes which should excite customers enough to blow away the January blues. Chelsea’s trip to Old Trafford is arguably the pick of the fixtures that month and we’ll have an extra special offer in store for our customers for the game as well. January also sees the return of another transfer window and we’re relishing the chance to fire up our dedicated page which will feature odds for potential clubs for a series of players linked with mid-season exits. We took record sums on these markets last summer and while keeping up to date with news is a challenge, they are bets we know our customers love to have. Finally, the Super Bowl will be another winter highlight as betting on American sports goes from strength to strength. We expect bumper turnover for the match with plenty of in-play fans ready to stay up through the night to enjoy the action!
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ALEX DONOHUE Public Relations Ladbrokes
The first tennis Grand Slam of 2014 starts in mid-January with Novak Djokovic defending his Australian Open title in Melbourne while Serena Williams will be a warm order to win her sixth women's
ACTION IMAGES / JASON O’BRIEN LIVEPIC
2014 starts with a bang for punters who enjoy cup football, tennis, racing and NFL. Oddly enough, the football transfer window is also a big draw.
Ante Post: What the bookies say
crown. Tiger Woods and co embark on golf’s Asian swing culminating in the Dubai Desert Classic. In horse racing, the countdown to the Cheltenham Festival continues with the StanJames.com Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock and Trials Day at Cheltenham at the end of January. The most open Premier League for years continues with Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea all dicing for the title. And there's a host of treats for fans of oval-shaped balls on the first weekend of February with Wales beginning the defence of the Six Nations title and Super Bowl XLVIII bringing the NFL season to a thrilling climax in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
RORY JIWANI Head of PR StanJames.com
and Del Potro 10s. It seems almost a sacrilege that Roger Federer is 16s but that is the price of the 17times Grand Slam winner. Can the Swiss ace turn back the clock one last time? I fear not and the recommendation is Del Potro who looks overpriced at 10/1. Serena Williams is a shade of odds on at 10/11 with BetVictor to win a sixth Melbourne Title but her first since 2010 with defending Champion Victoria Azarenka, who is seeking her third successive win in the event, 4/1, Maria Sharapova 15/2, Li Na 10s and 14/1 Bar.
Wimbledon Champion Andy Murray will bid to land a third Grand Slam title when the Australian Open Tennis tournament starts in Melbourne on the 13th of the month but he faces a tough task trying to wrestle the title from reigning champion Novak Djokovic, US Open Champion Rafa Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro who, like Murray, was recently named his country’s Sportsman of the Year. Djokovic is 6/5 at BetVictor to CHARLIE MCCANN win a fourth successive Aussie Director of online public relations Open with Nadal 9/4, Murray 11/2 Victor Chandler Worldwide
My Diary: Steven Spartinos Co-founder and co-CEO of Kiron Interactive, Steven Spartinos, reveals how he spends the build up to ICE. he next few weeks are all about ICE as far as we at Kiron are concerned: the build-up and the show itself. We’ve been exhibiting for six years now, at what has become the most important meet and greet for the eGaming world. As those who have a stand at the show themselves will
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know, there’s an awful lot of time and planning that goes into getting it right over the three days at ExCeL - not to mention considerable expense. Fortunately, we have a huge amount to talk about to both existing and prospective clients. In the first instance, we will be displaying new
52 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
graphic upgrades to our existing products. We’re also very excited about a raft of new content we can offer operators - but can’t talk about it yet here sadly! We are sure our clients are going to love our new games, which will considerably expand our existing portfolio.
A further development that we believe will be wellreceived will be the release of a new version of our Bet Acceptance System on selfservice terminals and tablets. For those looking for new content online we’ll have plenty to talk about when it comes to online and mobile solutions too. We’ll also be demonstrating our new multi-station gaming terminals, which debuted in Vietnam recently. We believe this product will be very appealing to the next generation of land-based casino operators vying for position in an increasingly competitive sector. As well as demonstrating these products to people visiting our stand, which is handily-situated in the
betting pavilion opposite the Racing Post Café, we also have a host of meetings in the diary. The expansion of markets around the world is creating new opportunities far and wide. We went live in Italy late last year and look forward to replicating our success there in other newly-regulated territories. Showcasing our products to other operators around the world, both off and online, is very exciting. With all that to get through it remains to be seen whether or not I’ll get a chance to see my beloved Manchester United before flying back to Johannesburg. But one thing is certain, I’ll need a glass of something cold by the time we’re done!
MONTHLY BRIEFING
JANUARY 21-23 EAG International, ExCeL London 21 Virtual Gaming Show 23-24 Mobile Games Forum (MGF), Dexter House, London, 23-24 Social Gambling Workshop, Dexter House, London, 23-24 Social Games & Virtual Goods Forum 2013 FEBRUARY 3 7th International Gaming Awards (IGA), Savoy Hotel 3 The 6th International Casino Conference, ExCeL 4-6 ICE 2014, ExCeL London 4 World Regulatory Briefing, ExCeL 4 CRM, Loyalty & Retention Conference, ExCeL 4 Mobile Gaming, ExCeL 4 SBC’s London Baby, The Folly, nr London Bridge 5 Cybercrime, Security & Regulatory Compliance in Gaming, ExCeL 5 Monetising Social Gaming, ExCeL 5 Game Design & Development, ExCeL 5 Next Generation Lotteries, ExCeL 5 Fire & Ice by Lyceum Media, Troxy 7-10 The London Affiliate Conference (LAC) 2014, Earls Court Exhibition Centre 7 IGB Affiliate Awards Night, Lancaster London MARCH 4-6 iGaming Asia Congress 2014, Macao 4-5 Irish Gaming Show, Dublin 19-21 iGaming North America 2014, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Las Vegas 31 – 1 April Social Media Marketing Conference, The Brewery APRIL 1 BiG Sports Dinner, The Dorchester 24 mGaming Summit, Dexter House 24-25 The Next Web Conference Europe, Amsterdam MAY 8 Football Betting Conference, Stamford Bridge 12-14 GiGse 2014, Westin Market Street, San Francisco 14-16 Japan Gaming Congress, Tokyo 20-22 G2E Asia The Venetian Macao SEPTEMBER 9 - 12 10th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues, Hilton Kalastajatorppa, Helsinki
BB112-p52-53-Agenda_09/10 03/01/2014 15:02 Page 2
Abstract thought The European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG) has called for abstracts ahead of its 10th European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues in Finland on 9-12 September at the Hilton Kalastajatorppa in Helsinki. Authors wishing to present a paper at the Conference must submit an abstract of the proposed content of 250 words, setting out the general interest of the paper for the participants at the conference and describing the contents of the presentation. Abstracts may be submitted until 1 June 2014.
BiG event for industry fundraisers Betting Promotion’s Richard Hogg explains some of the reasons behind setting up a new charity called The BiG Foundation, which brings betting, gaming and sports people together to raise money for injured, sick or terminally ill people. The BiG Foundation was conceived a couple of years ago but remained as just an idea in my head until I had a meeting with England rugby legend, Jason Leonard OBE, who discussed his involvement with various charities over the years since his retirement from the game. A few beers later The BiG Foundation was formed and whether I was ready for it or not commitments were made and if you know Jason you don’t go back on your commitments. There are number of existing and budding new entrants to the market place and many have cash. I have learned over the years when I try to give advice to new entrants - keep your money in your pocket in most cases because whether it be your
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idea won’t work, you don’t have enough money, or the idea needs changing. Whatever the advice I give the outcome is always the same. The money will be spent! It burns a hole in people’s pockets and they can’t see beyond their own desire to try and enter what they perceive is an easy market place to make money. I am not sure if they read that the big spenders have annual budgets of over £100m per annum these days so even their £2-3m is a drop in the ocean without a proper USP. We are fortunate in that the industry is still relatively young, it is rich and there is cash about, so surely we can achieve a lot of the above and give back to some good causes. There are plenty of sportsmen and women (able to disabled bodied) who
have their careers ended prematurely or who are looking for a career after sports. Without these individuals, so loyal to their sports, our industry would have no product to deliver. So what can we do to help these people, to put people in contact with each other. An event such as The BiG Sports Dinner seemed to tick all the boxes. We would get sports people and betting and gaming people together. Betting and gaming people use sports people for many reasons whether it be PR, marketing, brand ambassadors, odds compiling, trading, training, events, mentoring, the list is endless. This event will enable sports people to understand how they may be able to make a career in the industry and allows the industry to meet a wider
THE DORCHESTER: VENUE FOR THE BIG SPORTS DINNER
range of talented individuals in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. And, best of all, we can raise money for some deserved charities and maybe even create a benevolent fund for our own industry. And so we had the structure of The BiG Foundation and once we started contacting potential others for Patronage and attendance it was clear it was a not a good idea but a great idea. There were some cynical comments along the way from some, but they will still make an appearance I am sure
once they see the strength behind this. We’ve had commitments from most of the main industry players and sports people. Harry Redknapp, Petra Ecclestone, Jason Leonard OBE, and Jamie Spencer to name but a few, have all been very supportive over our concept. In order to launch the charity we have started organising ‘The BiG Sports Dinner’. The Dorchester is booked as are the personalities who will make this the must attend event of the year! 1 April 2014 is the date. Tables will be limited and it
is a prestigious event so we are really looking forward to it, details will be sent out very soon. All donations and profits will go to the charities we select which at this stage include: • Meningitis Trust • Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK • The Professional Cricketers' Association Benevolent Fund • The Professional Rugby Players (PRA) Benevolent Fund • Injured Jockeys Benevolent Fund”
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BB112-p62-63-Analysis_09/10 03/01/2014 18:21 Page 1
Analysis
Punters betting e With the National Hunt season hitting top gear, the most popular events with our customers in November were the Open Meeting at Cheltenham and the Hennessy at Newbury at the end of the month. Racing fans were also well catered for with the Breeders’ Cup meeting at Santa Anita and also our big sponsored race, the Betfred November Handicap which closes the flat racing season. In football, England’s friendly with Germany at Wembley proved to be a disappointment for the home side on the pitch and along with the defeat by Chile the previous Friday will have provided a reality check for prospects in next year’s World Cup. There was plenty of interest in both of these games but the Germany match shaded it in terms of turnover. The
ACTION IMAGES / JULIAN HERBERT
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TOP TEN GLOBAL POOLS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
JGBR – Colossus Bets – The £10,000,000 Colossus – E11,951,700 SWE – V75 – Halmstad – E8,760,053 ESP – La Quinella – E6,902,778 USA – Breeders Cup Pick 5 – E4,706,588 SWE/RUS – Stryktipset/Soccer13 – E4,012,783 GBR – Classic Pools – E3,585,510 AUS – VIC TAB Melbourne Cup Quaddie - E3,252,108 GBR – Colossus Bets – Premier League Pick6 – E2,390,340 SWE – V86 – Solvalla – E2,271,416 GBR – Bodugi Big Game – E1,195,170
Chart supplied by: Colossus BetsCalculated by biggest pools/guarantees over a week’s period during the month. One entry per bet type. Data for 1/11 – 27/11
TOP TEN UK HORSERACE POOLS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chart supplied by: Totepool. Data for October
TOP TEN FINANCIAL SPREAD MARKETS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Wall Street, Daily UK 100, Daily Germany 30, Daily Spot, EUR/USD Spot, GBP/USD Spot, AUD/USD Gold, Daily Dec UK 100, Dec Spot, USD/JPY Spot, EUR/JPY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(2) Bet365 (3) William Hill (1) Paddy Power (5) Betfred (4) Betfair (6) Winner (7) Stan James (8) Ladbrokes (9) Betway (10) BetVictor
Chart supplied by: Freebets.com. Data for November
International Cricket – Australia v England 1st Test International Cricket – India v West Indies 2nd Test International Cricket – India v West Indies 1st Test Domestic Football – Man Utd v Arsenal International Cricket – India v Australia 7th ODI Domestic Football – Arsenal v Liverpool Domestic Football – West Brom v Aston Villa Domestic Football – Cardiff v Man Utd Domestic Football – Cardiff v Swansea Domestic Football – Man City v Tottenham
Chart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets. Data for November
TOP TEN BOOKMAKERS FOR MONEYBACK OFFERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets. Data for November
Cheltenham – Paddy Power Gold Cup Chase Newbury – Hennessy Gold Cup Chase Cheltenham – Handicap Hurdle Cheltenham – Handicap Chase Newbury – Handicap Hurdle Haydock Park – Handicap Hurdle Cheltenham – Greatwood Hurdle Cheltenham – Intermediate Handicap Hurdle Cheltenham– Novices’ Hurdle Ascot – Gold Cup Handicap Chase
TOP TEN SPORTS SPREAD MARKETS
TOP TEN MONEYBACK OFFERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Bet365 – Greyhounds: Sky Dogs 2/1 Paddy Power – Rugby: Money Back If Last Conversion Missed Paddy Power – Football: Money Back If Suarez Or Sturridge Scores Last Paddy Power – Rugby: If George North Scores A Try Paddy Power – Rugby: If Sonny Bill Williams Scores A Try Betway – Tennis: ATP Finals Money Back If Djokovic Wins Boylesports – Cricket: Money Back If Team Capt Top 1st Inns Run Scorer - Ashes Paddy Power – Tennis: Money Back If Nadal Wins ATP Final Skybet – Racing: If Favourite Wins Supreme Trial Novices Hdle Paddy Power – Football: Money Back If Keane Scores Last v Latvia
Chart supplied by: Freebets.com . Data for November
THE £10,000,000 COLOSSUS
ALL OTHER BETS ARE LOWER LEAGUE 54 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2014
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BB112-p62-63-Analysis_09/10 03/01/2014 18:21 Page 2
TOP TEN BETTING EXCHANGE MARKETS
SPONSORED BY COLOSSUSBETS
ers on the Hunt for their ng entertainment
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
International Cricket – India v Australia (7th ODI) International Cricket – South Africa v Pakistan (2nd ODI) International Cricket – India v West Indies (2nd ODI) International Cricket – Pakistan v South Africa (4th ODI) International Cricket – Australia v England (1st Test) International Cricket – Pakistan v South Africa (3rd ODI) International Cricket – Pakistan v South Africa (2nd ODI) International Cricket – Pakistan v South Africa (2nd T20) International Cricket – South Africa v Pakistan (2nd T20) International Cricket – South Africa v Pakistan (1st T20)
Chart supplied by: Betfair.
Will Reynolds, the multichannel marketing executive for Betfred and its Tote operations, discusses the trends that the firm has seen across its retail operations biggest Premier League fixture of the month was unsurprisingly the Merseyside derby with Everton v Liverpool on the 23 November which proved to be a cracking 3-3 draw. We saw a lot of support for England’s cricketers ahead of the first Ashes Test at Brisbane, but events on the pitch since have seen enthusiasm from the Barmy Army on the wane to a certain degree! Business on the Rugby League World Cup was also pleasing; with the most popular games being England’s early clash with Australia and of course the final at Old Trafford where the Wallabies ran out comfortable winners to lift the trophy against New Zealand. In terms of Totepool
TOP TEN RETAIL BETTING (UK) EVENTS 1 Horseracing – Open Meeting, Cheltenham 2 Horseracing – Hennessy Gold Cup, Newbury 3 International Football – England v Germany 4 Horseracing – Breeders’ Cup, Santa Anita 5 International Cricket – Australia v England, 1st Ashes Test 6 Horseracing – Betfred November Handicap, Doncaster 7 Domestic Football – Everton v Liverpool, Premier League 8 Tennis – Barclays ATP World Tour Finals 9 International Rugby Union – England v New Zealand 10International Rugby League – Australia v New Zealand Chart supplied by: Betfred. Data for November
betting there were no great surprises with turnover during the month, as the feature races at Cheltenham and Newbury again dominated the list. Big Saturday handicaps at Haydock and Ascot also proved attractive for pool bettors.”
Adele Lawton has been named Betfred.com’s new head of online marketing. Lawton has 15 years’ experience in the gaming sector and was commercial director at Playtech and also spent three years as head of Jackpotjoy, as well as stints
at BSkyB, Bet365 and Gala Coral. At Betfred.com, she will take over full control of the brand’s online and mobile business. Chris Sheffield, MD at Betfred.com, said: “Adele comes to us with a proven track record of success and her vast experience in acquisition, retention and product management will prove to be of huge benefit as we continue to grow our business.” Lawton added: “Now is a perfect time to join Betred, who have demonstrated tremendous growth in recent years. I see opportunities to further accelerate that growth by leveraging the recent investments in marketing spend across all acquisition and retention activities.”
TOP TEN FOOTBALL BETTING WEBSITES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Betfair Bet 365 Bet Victor Paddy Power William Hill Coral Ladbrokes Stan James Sky Bet Betfred
Chart supplied by: Oddschecker. Calculated on market share of betslip clicks from Oddschecker.com
TOP TEN GAMBLING ACTIVITIES IN LAST 12 MONTHS (MEN) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
National Lottery Scratchcards Other Lotteries Horseracing (not online) Slot machines Private betting Online betting Sports events (not online) Machines in Bookmakers Casino Table Games (not online)
Chart from 2012 Health Survey for England
TOP TEN ONLINE CASINO PERFORMANCE
TOP TEN ONLINE BETTING MARKETS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Domestic Football – Premier League - Man Utd v Arsenal Domestic Football – Premier League - Arsenal v Liverpool International Football – England v Germany Horseracing – Hennessy Gold Cup Domestic Football – Premier League - Everton v Liverpool International Football –England v Chile International Cricket – 1st Ashes Test - Australia v England European Football – Champions League - Borussia Dortmund v Arsenal Horseracing – Paddy Power Gold Cup Boxing – Carl Froch v George Groves
Chart supplied by: BetVictor. Data for November
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(1) Jenningsbet Casino – 1.01 (2) 888Casino – 1.18 (3) 32Red – 1.37 (4) Totesport– 1.62 (5) Bet365 – 1.65 (7) William Hill – 1.79 (6) Betfred Casino – 2.00 (8) BetVictor – 2.18 (9) PartyGaming – 2.35 (10) Sky Vegas – 2.60
Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for November
TOP TEN ONLINE POKER PERFORMANCE
TOP TEN ONLINE SPORTSBOOK PERFORMANCE
RESPONSE TIME (SECS)
RESPONSE TIME (SECS)
(1) 888 – 0.56 (2) Jenningsbet Poker – 0.56 (4) Bet365 – 1.07 (3) PokerStars – 1.21 (5) Bet Victor Poker – 1.47 (6) Partypoker – 1.57 (-) Stan James Poker – 1.79 (-) Unibet – 1.98 (-) Poker Room – 2.12 (7) William Hill – 1.15
Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for November
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TOP TEN GAMBLING ACTIVITIES IN LAST 12 MONTHS (WOMEN)
RESPONSE TIME (SECS)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(1) Bet365 – 0.68 (2) Boylesports – 1.23 (3) BetVictor – 1.27 (4) Jenningsbet – 1.30 (5) Totesport – 1.75 (6) Betfair Sports – 1.76 (7) Ladbrokes – 1.79 (-) Betclic – 2.23 (8) Sporting Index – 2.69 (9) Sky Bet – 2.70
Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for November
Cash-In profits in full
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
National Lottery Scratchcards Other Lotteries Horseracing (not online) Bingo (not online) Slot machines Private betting Online gaming Dog races (not online) Online betting
Chart from 2012 Health Survey for England
TOP TEN GAMBLING ACTIVITIES IN LAST 12 MONTHS (MOST DEPRIVED - MEN) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
National Lottery Scratchcards Other Lotteries Horseracing (not online) Sports Events (not online) Slot machines Online betting Private betting Machines in Bookmakers Casino Table Games (not online)
Chart from 2012 Health Survey for England
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