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INNOVATION: Bodog’s Ed Pownall discusses some of the challenges involved in staying ahead of the pack
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MATCH FIXING: ESSA’s Mike O’Kane on the renewed focus on sports betting and integrity in 2015
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ESSENTIAL GUIDE 28
COMMENT 60
£5.20 (€8.30) • ISSUE:125 • FEBRUARY 2015 • www.betting-business.co.uk
A STILL FROM ONE OF THE SENET GROUP’S BAD BETTY TV SPOTS
TV campaign kicks off responsible gambling initiatives
ITALY
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
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hit Black Betty by Ram Jam, only changing the lyrics to ‘bad betty’. The campaign is running across TV, radio, newspaper and online with an audience reach of 9.7m. Advertising slots will include the commercial breaks around major televised sporting fixtures. Ron Finlay, interim chief executive of the Senet Group, said: “The vast majority of people who gamble enjoy it responsibly and safely. But some can slide into problem gambling. Our campaign highlights some of the warning signs and provides independent sources of advice for those who feel their gambling is getting out of control.” The last week in January also saw UK’s high street betting shops taking part in the new ‘GambleAware Week’, which has been designed to educate customers about the tools available to help them stay in
n a very rare occurrence, European bookmaker Stanleybet has been unsuccessful in its challenge to Italian betting laws after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that the country’s lawmakers were within their rights to offer shorterterm new licences. Stanleybet argued that it had been excluded from previous tenders in 1999 and 2006, which offered licence lengths of between nine and twelve years, and that the new 2012 tenders only last 40 months. The bookmaker pointed out that the length and other restrictive conditions on the 2012 tenders meant that it could not participate effectively in the market, especially when combined with the penalties associated with the grounds for revocation, suspension and withdrawal of licences. However, the CJEU said that new shorter licences were perfectly acceptable if the regulator was attempting the alignment of licence expiry dates. The decision added: “The Court notes that existing licensees enjoy an unfair competitive advantage, in that they were able to commence their activities years before the operators which were unlawfully excluded; however, those existing licensees do not have ‘even greater’ competitive advantages, since the provisions at issue also apply to them. “In addition, the Stanley companies cannot be truly described as ‘new entrants on the market’ since, even without licence or authorisation, they have been operating in Italy for approximately fifteen years. Moreover, even if the new licences have a shorter period of validity, they are less onerous and less economically restrictive.” Stanley International told Bloomberg in a statement that while the court ruled in Italy’s favour on the length of licences, the judges ignored other parts of the lawsuit, including Italy’s obligation to adjust to previous rulings from the court.
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Bookmakers are making a big push to educate their customers and the wider public about problem gambling and how to tackle it.
he UK betting industry has launched a series of high profile initiatives in a bid to underline its social responsibility credentials ahead of this May’s General Election. The gambling industry is in danger of becoming a hot potato as politicians fight for votes, so bookmakers are understandably keen to defend their problem gambling credentials early. The biggest development is probably the official launch of the TV campaign by the Senet Group, the new ‘gambling watchdog’ set up by William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral and Paddy Power. The ads, which have been widely well received, feature a young customer in a betting shop and a guy betting online at home with advice to players not to bet if they can’t afford it or if they are angry and frustrated. The ads use the 1970s’
CJEU has no problems with Italy’s shorter licences
control and includes measures to increase the number of players setting voluntary limits on gaming machines. It coincided with the launch of new machine rules making it compulsory for players to actively choose whether to set a limit before they start each machine session. Across the country, Britain’s bookmakers put up window posters and leaflets in their shops to encourage all customers to only bet what they can afford to lose. Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) chair Paul Darling QC said: “GambleAware Week marks the latest step in the industry’s approach to responsible gambling. We are absolutely committed to addressing public concern and doing everything we can to better protect our customers. In recent months, we’ve made a number of changes, on the basis of evi-
dence, to significantly improve player protection. However, we remain determined to do more and will continue to work with all interested parties in order to build on the measures already taken.” The Senet Group has also finalised its make-up with Wanda Goldwag, an expert on regulation, human resources and entrepreneurial businesses, installed as chair and Independent Standards Commissioner. Suzanne McCarthy, the UK’s Immigration Services Commissioner, and Gillian Wilmot, founder of Board Mentoring, have been appointed as independent directors, while William Hill’s corporate affairs director David Steele and Gala Coral’s director of corporate affairs Fiona Thorne have been appointed as industry directors. COMMENT 58
sales@microgaming.co.uk
BB125-p02-06-News_09/10 28/01/2015 13:23 Page 1
News Unibet snaps up bingo.com domain and business for $8m Unibet has acquired one of its white label customers with a deal that sees it pay $2m in cash and the return of $6m of share investment. BINGO
candinavian operator Unibet has pulled off a bit of a coup by acquiring the url bingo.com. In a complicated deal, the domain name has been purchased from listed company Bingo.com Ltd, which will now change its name to Shoal Games Ltd. Unibet has purchased the domain name as well as the company’s European real money gambling business for a consideration of US$8m (£5.3m), although $6m (£3.9m) of the sale represents Unibet’s former investment in Bingo.com Ltd’s shares, leaving Unibet paying $2m (£1.4m) in cash. Unibet had held shares in Bingo.com Ltd since May 2010 when it invested $2.25m in 26 per cent of the company (which in time has reduced to 21 per cent through further share issues). Between 2010 and 2014, the real money gambling business of Bingo.com has been operated as a white label by Unibet with 70 per cent of net revenues attributable to Bingo.com and 30 per cent to Unibet. As a result of the transactions, Unibet will now have
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full control of the domain Bingo.com and the related real money gambling business, while Bingo.com Ltd will be able to focus fully on its social bingo business. Bingo.com CEO Jason Williams explained the rationale behind the deal. “The online gambling industry as a whole is experiencing conditions of maturity where smaller firms are finding it increasingly difficult to compete. Bingo.com’s European gambling business, built with the www.bingo.com brand and URL, has therefore found it difficult to compete effectively with larger operators. “In response to these facts, the Bingo.com management team decided it was in the best interests of the company to sell the online gambling business; the associated brand and URL and determined the offer negotiated with Unibet, the company’s own online gambling partner and technology provider, was fair and the best offer available to the company for those assets.” Williams said that the company had been devel-
oping non-gambling bingo games since June 2012 and had developed a unique free social bingo game, which could be played worldwide, without the regulatory constraints present in the online gambling industry Trophy Bingo. The game is a puppy themed social bingo adventure where players must win their way through 120 levels of bingo challenges. The game includes many innovations for social bingo including new power plays, a map progression system, unique game types, card blockers, bonus bingo rounds, and a bingo combo system. Williams added: “The $2,000,000 cash obtained from the sale of its online gambling business, in addition to the current cash on hand will enable the company to continue to finance the development and marketing of Trophy Bingo. The return to treasury of 15,000,000 shares will be anti-dilutive to the company by 21.22 per cent, which is a great benefit to our shareholders. “The sale to Unibet Group plc includes the
JASON WILLIAMS: ‘SMALLER FIRMS ARE FINDING IT INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO COMPETE’
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BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
Bingo.com brand, which is needed for the cash gambling business, however, the company has built the Trophy Bingo game completely independent of the Bingo.com brand in its wholly owned subsidiary Shoal Media, Inc. Accordingly, the company has chosen to rename itself Shoal Games Ltd to reflect the company’s primary focus on social game development and publishing. Shoal Games Ltd will remain an Anguillan public corporation, and continue to be listed on the OTCQB exchange.” Williams said that it is the company’s intention to make Trophy Bingo one of the most popular and highest grossing social bingo games in the world. He added: “The ongoing live tuning and development efforts with Trophy Bingo have provided extremely satisfying results for the game’s retention and monetisation metrics. Trophy Bingo is a product that’s rich in game play and offers players hours of entertainment in a completely new format for social bingo.”
William Hill to subsume separate Australian brands
AUSTRALIA
The Sportingbet, Centrebet and Tom Waterhouse brands in Australia will soon be a thing of the past, with William Hill ready to push the group brand.
illiam Hill is moving to consolidate its three Australian brands under the parent name, as it believes it will ‘drive substantial longer term value’. Due to various acquisitions, William Hill has Sportingbet, Centrebet and tomwaterhouse.com operations in Australia, all with varying market recognition, and the bookmaker has decided to bring them under one umbrella. The company explained: “This rebrand will enable William Hill to focus its brand media and other marketing support on promoting a single brand name, enabling more cost-effective marketing and more focused IT investment, and reducing brand confusion. Sportingbet customers will migrate in the first quarter of 2015 with Centrebet customers being migrated later in the year and tomwaterhouse.com customers expected to migrate in early 2016.” The three brands already run the ‘powered by William Hill’ tagline and the firm will spend an additional £5m in marketing to launch the William Hill name properly this year. CEO James Henderson explained: “William Hill Australia’s potential has been significantly improved as a result of our management changes, the restructuring of our operations, increased marketing effective-
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Spot fixing trial collapses The high profile football spot fixing trial has collapsed after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to pursue convictions against the 13 individuals arrested in connection with the football related match fixing investigation. The involvement of investigative journalist Mazher Mahmood as a witness is thought to have played a part in the decision given that another judge had said that there were ‘strong grounds’ to believe he had lied in the witness box on another case. The CPS said: “When all the evidence submitted by investigators was carefully reviewed in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.”
WILLIAM HILL IS HOPING THAT ITS MARKETING BUDGET WILL GO FURTHER IF IT ONLY HAS TO PROMOTE ONE BRAND
me e an
ness, enhanced user experience and the ongoing expansion of the product range. “Using the William Hill brand in Italy, Spain and the US, alongside the UK, has already proved highly successful. I believe now is the right time to adopt the William Hill brand in Australia. The previous introduction of the ‘powered by William Hill’ branding in that market has seen awareness build and the complete change will further improve our competitiveness, bring greater focus to our marketing and IT investment and gives us a strong global brand to compete at the highest level in this attractive market.” He added: “Putting our full weight behind one brand is critical and we’ve increased the marketing to ensure a positive launch. But, much more importantly, by focusing in this way William Hill will, in effect, have substantially more marketing behind it than any one of the three brands has had so far.” There is also the wider costs of phasing out the three brands, with William Hill valuing the various intangible brand assets at £108m which will be dealt with on the balance sheet via accelerated amortisation. The tomwaterhouse.com brand has been particularly high profile over the past few years, as Tom Waterhouse himself is a skilful media operator. Fortunately, as CEO of
Portugal can more than double tax with switch to GGR model PORTUGAL
ortugal’s intransigence on a betting turnover tax will cost the country 20m euro (£14.9m) according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), in a study developed for Remote Gambling Association (RGA). The current proposals for online betting in Portugal include a turnover tax which will collect 17m euro by 2018. However, PwC has told the Commission for Economy and Public Works at the Portuguese Parliament that if the taxes were based on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), then that figure would shoot up to 37m euro (£27.6m) over the same period. To support the study ‘Sporting Bets Regulation in Portugal’, PwC collected and analysed data on other European countries, according to the tributary regimes applied in each one of them and the corresponding market behaviour, with special highlight for fiscal revenue. According to the study, the turnover tax discourages demand for licences and the coming of new entrants in Portugal, as they won’t be competitive and do nothing to prevent players taking their business to unregulated operators. For the State, the biggest consequence of this scenario will be a fiscal revenue way inferior to the one expected when it was decided to regulate the online gambling market. PwC’s analysis notes that in France, with a model identical to the Portuguese, half of the online gambling traders had left the country by the end of the first year due to the lack of profitability (18 of the total 35), which weakened the offer made to the consumers and caused a ‘meteoric decrease of revenue’ to the government. Under these conditions, the ability to absorb supply and clients from the unregulated to the regulated market is minimal. The verified experience in other countries shows that a tributary regime based on the total amount of bets prevents market evolution and is not able to absorb more than one fourth of the market. On the contrary, according to the study, the GGR model increases its absorption rate over 50 per cent, double the projected rate for Portugal under the present regime. By analysing the potential socioeconomic impacts of the regulation of online sporting bets in Portugal, in light of the experience and situation of other European countries, PwC’s study maintains that the present model damages the consumers. By allowing players to remain in the more attractive unregulated market, there remains no kind of juridical protection in the moment of placing and collecting the bet, never mind the handling of personal data. There also won’t be any control of problem gambling behaviour, contrary to what happens in the traditional gambling and in regulated market of other countries. The study concludes that the proposed system is diminished, inefficient and unprotected. In contrast, the countries with a GGR model were able to create plural, efficient and protected systems.
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William Hill Australia, it should be simple to align the Waterhouse brand with that of the wider company’s over time. Part of the reskinning will be done in time for the rugby season and finance director Neil Cooper does not believe there will be a significant impact on business because of the bookmaker’s ‘very accomplished CRM team’. He added: “We are not going to be changing some of the fundamental processes of the system when the rebranding occurs. It is not a root-and-branch move onto a new system. When we acquired Tom Waterhouse, one of the challenges for us was to migrate Tom’s business onto our existing system, which also hosted Centrebet and Sportingbet. So in terms of consumer changes, I would not say this is a cosmetic change in that sense, but it will not alter the functionality of the existing operation.” Meanwhile, Henderson has indicated that the firm’s balance sheet is in good shape, leading to speculation that the company is in the mood for a large acquisition. “It gives me flexibility,” Henderson admitted when pressed. “You know the three strands of the strategy: we are looking at technology, international diversification and omni-channels. Anything that can accelerate that, we would look at.” WILLIAM HILL PROGRESS Business 64
ANALYSIS Bringing three disparate brands under one umbrella in a fledgling online business seems a pretty straightforward decision to make. It’s still a slight risk though. Brand awareness of William Hill in Australia currently stands at 21 per cent, while locally recognised brand SportsBet has 80 per cent awareness. James Henderson, who has served his time in the Australian market and so knows its foibles, believes awareness will improve rapidly though, as William Hill is still only recognised through the ‘powered by’ moniker. He said: “Obviously in regards to closing that gap, when we are fully behind one brand with all the additional marketing spend that that will encompass, then you would expect us to narrow the gap quicker than through Powered By.”
PWC HAS BEEN SPEAKING TO THE COMMISSION FOR ECONOMY AND PUBLIC WORKS AT THE PORTUGUESE PARLIAMENT
NEIL COOPER: ‘IT IS NOT A ROOT-ANDBRANCH MOVE ONTO A NEW SYSTEM’
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Mega winner at LeoVegas
News
A LeoVegas.com player from Stockholm has won 5.7m euro (£4.4m) - the largest ever pooled prize on a mobile slot. This record prize, won from just a 1.3 euro bet on the Net Ent game Mega Fortune Touch, coincides with the third year anniversary of LeoVegas.com.
Amaya selling off B2B interests as it lines up PokerStars sportsbook
New look for MonteCarlo Casino
While offering PokerStars customers the chance to make sports bets is a high profile change from Amaya, behind the scenes it is getting rid of some B2B brands.
CASINO ORGANISATION
nline gambling powerhouse Amaya Gaming is aiming to divest its B2B business as it concentrates on expanding its huge poker operation both by geography and portfolio. It also views the potential sales as a way to start paying back the money borrowed in order to buy PokerStars. The Canadian listed firm said that it intends to explore various strategic opportunities to divest its B2B assets. It said: “The intention is to examine strategic alternatives for these B2B assets that will maximise shareholder value by facilitating the repayment of indebtedness and/or the repurchase and cancellation of the corporation’s common shares. There is no timeline for this process.” Things are already in process as well. In Q4 of 2014, Amaya sold its B2B poker and platform provider to NYX Gaming Group. Although while selling one B2B interest,Amaya gained another with a strategic investment in NYX via a subscription of an unsecured convertible debenture, which matures two years after the date of issuance and bears interest at 6.0 per cent per annum, payable at maturity. Interest and principal are payable in kind in NYX Gaming Group common shares at Amaya’s option.
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Amaya has also received and is evaluating non-binding proposals from ‘certain persons’ for its B2B land-based gaming solutions business, Cadillac Jack Inc. Amaya explained: “While discussions are ongoing, there can be no assurance that the Corporation’s strategic review process will result in the consummation of any specific action. There is no defined timeline for the strategic review. Further developments with respect to this process will be provided when, and if, Amaya’s Board of Directors approves a specific action or otherwise deems further disclosure appropriate or required. If a specific action is consummated that results in a divestiture, the corporation intends to use the proceeds of such transaction to primarily facilitate the repayment of indebtedness.” Amaya’s B2C operations have also been busy. In December 2014 PokerStars completed the rollout of casino table games to players in eligible markets on PokerStars.com and certain domains sharing liquidity on the global network. The table games are available through the new PokerStars 7 platform, which is currently an optional download to players but which will become the sole poker client in the future. PokerStars will also launch web
E AMAYA CEO DAVID BAAZOV OVERSAW HUGE CHANGE IN 2014
and mobile versions of its casino in 2015, supported by an ‘aggressive consumer marketing campaign’. PokerStars estimates it has achieved a significant double-digit share of Spain’s regulated online casino market despite not yet launching external marketing. PokerStars saw a 30 per cent cross sell of casino table games to its active player base on PokerStars 7 in Spain, which was above expectations and represented a faster crosssell ramp up than was experienced on Full Tilt despite table games being the only casino games available. According to the firm ‘a majority’ of daily active users were playing multi-player games. The casino games were withdrawn from PokerStars.es in late 2014 in order to modify the offering to allow players to download their hand histories. It is aiming to re,launch them soon.
ANALYSIS A lot of the heat and speculation surrounding Amaya’s purchase of PokerStars and FullTilt last year was the expectation of it being paid for by a tilt at the US market. However, given the disappointing revenues in the regulated states, it is apparent that this will not balance the books. But adding other gambling products to the poker operations and mastering the art of the cross-sell could well pull in the cash. PokerStars’ sportsbook is to go live in the first quarter of this year - ahead of schedule. The sports betting product will launch within the PokerStars poker client base in certain markets and PokerStars will gradually add more markets as well as web and mobile versions throughout the year.
GamCare increases HelpLine effectiveness PROBLEM GAMBLING
he latest figures from problem gambling charity GamCare saw the organisation increase the number of calls it handled on the national HelpLine by 34 per cent to 22,875. The huge jump wasn’t attributed to an increase in problem gambling though - rather a new filtering system which has helped GamCare become more efficient. The charity explained: “The total number of inbound calls increased marginally to 61,187. Answerable calls reduced by 23 per cent to 34,376, and answered calls reduced by 6 per cent to 30,648.
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GAMCARE CHAIRMAN ANTHONY JENNENS HAS BEEN GIVEN AN OBE
BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
uropean online gaming company Betclic Everest Group and The Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), the Monaco hotels to casinos group, has relaunched the Monte-Carlo Casino at www.montecarlocasino.com. Isabelle Andres, CEO of Betclic Everest, said: “Designing the official online counterpart to the Monte-Carlo casino was always going to be a daunting challenge. We are incredibly proud of the new online casino which is the culmination of a year of planning and design. Many unique features accentuate our close relationship with the land-based MonteCarlo, including the use of the actual interiors for our online games rooms.” Amongst these unique features are a new intuitive dashboard for customers as well as the brand new world class VIP scheme ‘The Cercle Club’, which ties into the famous Monte-Carlo casino VIP program. The casino will be on a proprietary platform and is already live with NetEnt, including NetEnt’s Live Dealer and Mini Games, as well as games from Quickfire. Games from providers IGT, WMS and Amaya will follow shortly and many more are still to come. The Monaco-based Monte-Carlo casino is one of the world’s most iconic casinos. Frequented by the rich and famous, it was founded in 1863 and quickly achieved worldwide fame for its stunning architecture. In recent times it has been immortalised in films such as Casino Royale, Cars 2 and Ocean’s Twelve, as well as being on the route of the Monaco Grand Prix.
However, these reductions reflect the call filtering which was introduced on the HelpLine at the start of the year to filter out nontarget calls such as those relating to the National Lottery and gaming machine mechanics for example. This means that advisers now have greater availability to answer calls from our target group which is reflected in the year-onyear increase of 34 per cent on calls answered from problem gamblers and affected others.” GamCare said that the data received from HelpLine callers and clients in treatment about gambling activities and facilities used had maintained a consistent
pattern across years in 2012/13 and 2013/14. The main gambling activities disclosed continue to be FOBT/Roulette Machines 30 per cent, betting 31 per cent, and Fruit/Slot machines 19 per cent. The main gambling facilities disclosed also follow a similar trend to 2012/13 with the leading facilities being betting shops 43 per cent, online 34 per cent and casinos 7 per cent. Given that the LBO industry roughly represents half of the UK regulated gambling industry, the figures are probably to be expected. Meanwhile, chairman Anthony Jennens was recognised in the New Year Honours List, receiving an
OBE for charitable services in the Prevention and Treatment of Gambling Addiction. Jennens has worked with GamCare, almost since its inception in 1997, and was appointed chairman in 2005. Dirk Hansen, chief executive of GamCare, said: “We are delighted that Anthony has been awarded the OBE. Anthony’s ambition and tireless dedication as chairman have been a driving force over the last 10 years, guiding the charity to become the well-respected, national and international resource it is today.” DIRK HANSEN INTERVIEW POLITICS 26
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iGaming PlayOLG targets over £200m in revenues over five years PlayOLG has been launched in Ontario, with some interesting responsible gambling features available to customers.
PAF CEO ANDERS INGVES
Pafs switches onto Winga
CANADA
he Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has finally launched its internet gaming site PlayOLG.ca province-wide, following a successful preview by eligible members of OLG’s Winner’s Circle Rewards program. With the launch of PlayOLG, Ontario joins British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and all of the Atlantic Provinces in offering online gaming. Currently, approximately 500,000 Ontarians spend an estimated CA$400 - $500m (£220-£275m) annually on grey market sites that are not regulated in Ontario. John Wisternoff, OLG’s vice president of igaming, commented: “We are excited to launch PlayOLG, an important milestone in the modernisation of gaming in Ontario. For Ontarians who love the excitement of gaming, PlayOLG offers a safe and regulated alternative to grey market websites.” PlayOLG features a wide range of interactive casinostyle games including slots and table games such as Blackjack, Baccarat, Single-player Poker and Roulette, as well as the sale of LOTTO 6/49 and LOTTO MAX lottery tickets and ENCORE. In addition to offering players the latest in internet games and entertainment, PlayOLG provides a dedicated customer service team based in Ontario.
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With the launch of PlayOLG as a new line of business, OLG will provide more money to the government of Ontario for hospitals, community infrastructure and other government priorities. PlayOLG is estimated to deliver $375m (£206m) in additional profits to the Province of Ontario during its first five years in operation. GTech is the primary service provider for PlayOLG. Perhaps understandably, it has not all been plain sailing since the launch. Ontario consumers took to social media channels to report website issues regarding game loading times, onsite glitches and flawed geolocation access services which would not allow some customers to register with gambling portal. Furthermore, the website received several complaints regarding its exhausting registration process which requires all customers to input all the information as it exactly appears on their government identification document. Consumers complained that the registration process was too complicated and time consuming. PlayOLG.ca received further criticism as several functions of its customer support were not working, including live chat and email support. In a statement to Toronto City News, OLG said: “Demand
BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
for PlayOLG customer service is very high at this time, especially being the first weekend since Thursday’s launch. We appreciate everyone’s patience at this time… the PlayOLG registration and verification process is very robust.” Indeed, player identification is a key aspect of PlayOLG for problem gambling issues. OLG’s Responsible Gambling (RG) program continues to receive international recognition. The World Lottery Association (WLA) recently awarded OLG the WLA Best Overall Responsible Gambling Program Award. This award recognises excellence in Responsible Gambling among more than 140 member organisations from around the world. As the only internet gaming site regulated by the Ontario government, PlayOLG is built with responsible gambling measures in place to encourage healthy player behaviour, to respond to changes in play that may lead to risky gambling, and to direct players to information on where to seek help, if needed. OLG consulted broadly with a range of stakeholders, researchers and addiction specialists in addition to reviewing available industry and academic research, to develop and implement responsible gambling best practices for PlayOLG.
ANALYSIS
ITALY
The features to prevent problem gambling on the PlayOLG website will be watched with considerable interest to see how effective they are. Management tools that may be used to set financial or time limits include: mandatory weekly deposit limits or loss limits for casino games, and time limits for casino game play. Limits can be reduced immediately, but any increases will need a seven day ‘cooling off period’. There are also tools to help players assess their own gambling behaviour by providing self-assessment tests, risk profile information and access to one’s personal full gambling account history. PlayOLG’s data analytic technology assesses the level of play and customises responsible gambling messages to each player, with medium Risk assessed players receiving 25 per cent more messaging and high risk players 50 per cent more.
he Åland gaming company Paf has entered the Italian market by acquiring Winga. The Italian online operator Winga offers casino, poker and bingo products at winga.it and via the television channel Winga TV. Winga operates within the regulated Italian gaming market using local gaming licences. The company, which is headquartered in Milan, was founded in 2010 and currently has 27 employees. In 2014 Winga’s revenue was circa 10m euro (£7.6m). The acquisition means that Winga becomes a subsidiary of the Paf Group and its activities will continue to operate under the Winga brand and online at winga.it. Anders Ingves, CEO of Paf, commented: “The acquisition of Winga is part of our strategy of continued internationalisation and expansion. We see great potential in Winga’s well-established operational base in combination with Paf’s international industry experience and broad range of products. As a first step, we will expand Winga’s product range to include additional casino games and betting in the next few years.” Winga has broadcast daily games programmes on its own television channel Winga TV since 2011 with a focus on casino games. The channel’s output is strongly linked to the gaming offers on winga.it. The TV channel is available through the Italian digital terrestrial television network and via online streaming. Winga CEO Assen Diakovski added: “It’s exciting and challenging to lead Winga into a new era. Our market niche within casino TV in combination with Paf’s international gaming expertise makes me confident that together we can grow the business in Italy over the next few years.” Paf has acquired Winga from Buongiorno SpA, an Italy-based multinational group of companies who focus on multimedia and digital entertainment.
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BB125-p10-14-iGaming_09/10 27/01/2015 19:18 Page 2
Foxy revamp
iGaming
Online bingo site Foxy Bingo has revamped its brand and website, backed by a new multi-million pound through-the-line marketing campaign, including a series of TV adverts and multimedia videos starring Joey Essex. The updated design brings a cleaner, crisper feel to the branding while Foxy himself now sports a slicker, hipper look featuring a retro purple two-piece suit. Bwin.party’s director of games Golan Shaked said: “Foxy’s makeover represents the recent upgrade to our overall product proposition.”
More double digit growth for 32Red
‘Under age’ Lottery play remains static at 6 per cent
MOBILE
2Red has reported its fifth consecutive year of double digit growth as the operator recorded total net gaming revenues of £32.1m, an increase of 26 per cent on 2013’s £25.4m. 32Red’s online casino, which is the operator’s primary product, recorded £29.3m in NGR, up 27 per cent on 2013. The casino performance had been driven by improved active player numbers, which saw a 15 per cent increase to 82,155. The operator was able to sustain its improved player activity with an improved Customer Gaming Yield of £510 compared to the previous year’s figure of £485. 32Red CEO Ed Ware said: “We performed well throughout the year with an accelerating performance in the second half following increased investment in our business. Our marketing and operations have never been in better shape and we are excited by the opportunities for 32Red to further develop this year both within and outside the UK market.” 32 Red stated that management focus remained on mobile device casino development, which saw revenues up 89 per cent on 2013 and now represent 32 per cent of total casino revenues, although this is only slightly up on the previous year’s figure of 21 per cent. Over one half of all new players are now recruited via smartphones and tablets. The operator’s Italian casino brand 32Red.it generated revenues of £1.1m, almost double of last year. The growth was said to be satisfactory given the company’s decision to limit marketing spend in Italy ahead of the anticipated withdrawal of unregulated operators from the market with effect from the end of 2014. Early trading in 2015 has been strong across the operator’s products with revenues for the first twenty days in January up 31 per cent on the corresponding period in 2014. However, the operator stated that it was too early to gauge the effects of the new licensing regime on the UK remote gaming market which came into force on 1 November 2014.
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The underage levels of participation in the National Lottery has not increased beyond 6 per cent, with online figures even lower. STUDY
new study has found that the number of underage players participating on the National Lottery is around 6 per cent of the population, a figure that has remained relatively static over time, with no evidence of a rise in problem gambling levels. This report presents findings from the 2014 Young People Omnibus Survey of secondary school pupils, carried out by the Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute on behalf of the Gambling Commission. The overall aim of this research study was to explore young people’s gambling behaviours, specifically amongst those aged 11-15 who are not legally entitled to buy National Lottery products. The report did throw some interesting light on underage participation for the Lottery’s website. It said: “Mirroring the findings from 2013 and 2012, a very small minority of children have participated in online gambling using their parents’ accounts. “Just 2 per cent of 11 to 15 year-olds have played
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National Lottery games online using a parent’s account with their permission. And of the 2,522 young people interviewed only ten respondents say they played National Lottery games online using a parent’s account without their permission.” However, it did find that 10 per cent played a free or practice gambling game on the internet. The report added that in 2014 rates of gambling do not vary significantly according to measures of deprivation mapped to the school area the child attends. Instead, the child’s own perception of how well they are doing at school is a characteristic of gambling activities. One in seven 11 to 15 yearolds have admitted visiting the National Lottery website, which is a figure that has remained consistent yearon-year, since 2008. Older children (13 to 15 year-olds) are more likely to visit the website than children in the younger age groups (15 per cent compared with 10 per cent of 11 to 12 year-olds). Children who come from families of high affluence are more likely to say they have
visited the website (15 per cent, compared with 8 per cent of children from low affluence families) and again these patterns mirror findings from previous studies. The reasons offered for visiting the National Lottery website have remained consistent since 2012, with three quarters going online ‘to check my parents’ or guardians’ numbers’. Less than one in ten children mention any other reason. Interviewing was carried out through self-completion questionnaires with the whole class in one classroom period. An Ipsos MORI interviewer was present to explain the survey to pupils, to reassure them about the confidentiality of the survey, to assist them in completing the questionnaire, and to collect completed questionnaires. Fieldwork for the study was conducted between 3 February and 10 April 2014. Of the 574 schools approached, 114 schools participated, giving an unadjusted school response rate of 20 per cent. Overall, fully completed questionnaires were obtained from 2,796 pupils.
ANALYSIS The term underage gambler has a very different distinction for the National Lottery and its scratchcards than it does for the other regulated UK industry. Because the state sponsored gambling operation has an age limit of 16, the figures only measure gambling participation of 11-15 years olds. In fact, while only the 6 per cent of 11-15 year olds play the Lottery, the figure jumps to 14 per cent for 16 year olds - a figure that would cause some politicians to hyperventilate had it been any other gambling activity. The point is that next time there is hand wringing about some failures in age checks, be it online or for retail, maybe it should be recognised that a significant proportion of under 18s are gambling in nonlicensed premises with the government’s blessing
ED WARE: ‘MARKETING AND OPERATIONS HAVE NEVER BEEN IN BETTER SHAPE’
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10 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
BB125-p10-14-iGaming_09/10 27/01/2015 19:53 Page 3
Computer learns perfect poker strategy
iGaming
Cepheus, a computer program that taught itself to play poker, has created nearly the best possible strategy for one version of the game. The program, created at University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, considered 24 trillion simulated heads-up limit Texas Hold ‘em hands per second for two months. The resulting strategy still won’t win every game because of ‘bad luck’ in the cards, but won’t lose money in the long run. Cepheus can be played against at http://poker.srv.ualberta.ca/
New Jersey interested in sharing liquidity with UK
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USA
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major infractions or meltdowns or any systematic regulatory failures that would make anyone doubt the integrity of operations. The issues that have arisen have been dealt with appropriately just like in the brick-and-mortar casinos. However, we are far from out of the woods; we must continue to be vigilant and ready to take on new challenges as they come our way.” Rebuck said that the regulator was surprised at how unprepared the operators were operationally when the market opened up. “They thought they would be able to flip a switch and start up their current system here. They quickly found out that was not going to happen. There was definitely a learning curve for the operators to adjust to our regulatory framework but that has improved dramatically. Companies adapted to our new model which we believe has helped improve the industry and raised its standards.” Rebuck pointed out that New Jersey is by far and away the leading state in the US for online gaming. According to a University of Las Vegas Center for Gaming Research study, New Jersey online gaming accounts for over 90 per cent of the legal US online gaming revenue. Although Nevada and Delaware started Internet gaming operations several months before New Jersey, New Jersey’s authorised internet sites, from January 2014 through October 2014, generated US$25m or 75
12 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
jarke Larsen has been appointed NetplayTV’s permanent chief executive officer with immediate effect. Larsen has been serving as interim-CEO and commercial director of the company since September when Charles Butler moved up to become non-executive chairman. Butler commented: “I am delighted to welcome Bjarke as CEO of the company. Bjarke has been with the Group for eight years and with his significant company and industry experience is well placed to lead the company in its next stage of development.” The announcement came as the company announced its 2014 Q4 KPIs, which saw a 4 per cent increase in new depositing players to 16,249 and a 3 per cent increase in active depositing players to 33,073. The firm said that full year underlying results are expected to be ‘in-line with current market expectations’ Meanwhile, after a thorough review of its marketing programme, NetplayTV has developed a new strategy designed to deliver improved returns through ‘increased cost efficiencies and more accurately targeted marketing spend’. The firm said that this process included terminating onerous and inefficient marketing contracts and working closely with the groups’ major TV partners to maximise the effectiveness of its guaranteed TV airtime contracts. The company added: “These strategic changes are already delivering encouraging results. Overall Q4 marketing spend has been reduced, the average cost to acquire new depositing players has fallen and average revenue per player has increased.”
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In a healthy review of the first year of legalised igaming in New Jersey, the regulator’s director David Rebuck appears to be open to evolution in the sector.
he State of New Jersey has been in discussions with the UK about a possible ‘international compact’ to help build liquidity outside the US state. In a review of the first year of internet gambling in New Jersey, the director of the Division of Gaming Enforcement David Rebuck revealed that the regulator has been considering deals both within the US and further afield. “This type of cooperation between jurisdictions is very important for building liquidity in peer-to-peer games such as poker,” he explained. “The legislation that authorised internet gaming specifically permits the Division to enter into multijurisdictional agreements. “The Division has been in discussions with other jurisdictions, such as Nevada and the United Kingdom, but no compacts have been entered to date. The Division is open to discussions in this area and always seeks to ensure that any agreements are most beneficial to New Jersey’s Internet gaming industry.” Rebuck was quite pragmatic about the perceived slow start to legalised online gaming in the US. He commented: “Even one year into the process with the experience which has been gained, internet gaming is still in its early stages of development and the industry and the regulators continue to learn from each other. From a regulatory standpoint, our system is working. There have been no
NetplayT V sticks with Larsen in CEO role
per cent of the total internet poker revenue in the US and $78m or 98 per cent of all internet non-poker casino revenue. Rebuck did recognise there had been a problem with payment processing for the industry with approval rates of 73 per cent for Visa and 44 per cent for Mastercard. The Division has been in discussions with the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance and the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to address the difficulties. Rebuck said: “A new credit card code has been created for legal online gambling transactions and it is expected to be in effect spring of 2015. It should also be noted that the rate of chargebacks for internet gaming is actually less than it is for retail transactions. In addition to increased credit card transaction acceptance rates, payment processing companies such as Neteller are approved to do business with New Jersey internet casinos and provide convenient and secure methods to fund internet gaming accounts. As the banking industry becomes more familiar with legalised internet gaming and patrons become more educated about the various options for funding their accounts, further improvements are expected in this area.”
ANALYSIS As David Rebuck points out, at the launch of internet gaming in New Jersey, there was a perception that online poker would predominate over slots and other online games. This prediction has not been correct. From inception through November 30, 2014, poker accounts for only 25 per cent of New Jersey’s internet revenue while the remaining 75 per cent consists of other authorised casino games. Not all of New Jersey’s platforms offer poker, but the percentage breakdown for revenue on platforms that offer both poker and casino games is approximately 40 per cent poker and 60 per cent other authorised games. Rebuck is right when he says: “This presents an opportunity for creators of online games to introduce their products to New Jersey gaming operators.”
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BB125-p10-14-iGaming_09/10 27/01/2015 19:28 Page 4
32Red launches Italian campaign
iGaming
32Red has launched its first full Italian marketing campaign. The multi-content advertising campaign was devised to raise brand awareness of 32Red.it gaming services. The first of its Italian TV advertising campaigns was launched on 4 January, promoting its online casino product with a free 10 euro sign up offer. 32red.it will support its TV marketing campaign with targeted online advertising.
BODOG STILL HAS AN ASIAN MARKETING DEAL WITH ARSENAL DESPITE NO UK LICENCE
iGAMINGBRIEFS QUICK MILLION FOR POKERSTARS PLAYER
Russian PokerStars player ‘sss66666’ has become a near-instant millionaire after he was victorious in the first-ever $1m Spin & Go. The tournament lasted 13 minutes and 26 seconds, meaning the Russian earned $1,240.69 per second. Runner up ‘geldduvel’ from Belgium and third place finisher, ‘Nonko999’ from Bulgaria, both received $100,000 for their respective finishes. Spin & Go’s are three-max ‘HyperTurbo Sit & Go’ tournaments that feature just 500 starting chips. As soon as three players register for the $5 buy-in, there was a random draw to decide how big the prize pool will be, up to the $1m won by sss66666. FREESHEET LAUNCHES CASINO
‘Everybody in the company is in R&D’ Ed Pownall, global PR director for Bodog Brand, explains some of the challenges behind staying ahead of the pack. INTERVIEW
odog is closely linked with poker thanks to the many innovations it has brought to the table. However, it is generally considered that poker is on the decline; is this something that Bodog has also noticed, what can it be attributed to and is there a way back for the product? With poker the problem and the solution are one and the same; the problem is that there’s very little differentiation between the poker operators, therefore, it stands to reason that the one with the biggest liquidity wins. But, as a result, even the smallest differences make you stand out a mile - the vitriol that we were met with when we announced allsite anonymous tables showed us we must be doing something right. Remember the outcry from the big bookmakers in the UK when Betfair came on the scene? Without that noise Betfair may not have got noticed by the punters but everybody thought; ‘if the bookies are squealing that much it must be something good!’ Poker used to
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command a chunk of the market without really trying because it was the new, exciting product on the block now it has to compete with sports, casino, bingo etc. How much investment does Bodog spend on R&D and how difficult is it to protect your innovations? Everybody in the company is in R&D and encouraged to bring any and all ideas to the table. Protection is nearly impossible so you just have to make first mover advantage count and be careful not to rush into the next fad. Look at social, everybody tripped over themselves to get involved but it’s looking more and more like fool’s gold. My personal view is that those using free play casino games are actually less likely to convert to real money play than a user of a generic high traffic site because they’ve made an aggressive choice NOT to play real money. It’s not like they don’t know real money versions exist out there.
ED POWNALL: ‘IT’S SENSIBLE FOR ANY GOVERNMENT TO REGULATE AND TAX GAMING’
pean trend for walled markets? It’s sensible for any government to regulate and tax online and offline gaming, they just have to make sure they don’t see it as a cash cow to be so squeezed as to become uncompetitive.
Which do you think will be the pre-eminent gaming device; mobile because of its ubiquity or tablets because of the opportunities their extra ‘real estate’ provides? I think the difference With Singapore bringing in between the two products online gambling laws, is this will become increasingly the first instance of Asia blurred - phones are so starting to follow the Euro- nearly mini tablets now
14 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
anyway. But the phone will surely win out simply, as you say, because of its people ratio to tablets. How difficult is it to differentiate in a gaming market where a lot of content is provided by third parties? What’s the most cost effective way of doing this in your view? There has to be a balance between ‘parity products’ and ‘exclusive products’; as long as you have a good mix of both cost is relatively immaterial - parity products should be good value because they are nonexclusive and those unique to an operator should be
driving extra custom because of that fact. While you don’t deal with the UK market and as such have no local licence, you still have marketing deals with Arsenal FC and Ayr United which many would have thought to be under threat under POC. Does the current position, which is essentially warning sports clubs that they will be liable if unlicensed partners take UK punters, present a decent compromise or is the UKGC still unnecessarily aggressive in its tone? I think it’s the correct compromise - you can tell just by looking at our site that we are not targeting the UK market - we don’t offer UK horseracing, lower League football and if you click on ‘Football’ you’ll get NFL, not Arsenal v Man United! It would be strange not to let companies target other areas of the globe though there are many brands beyond the gambling space that are not offering product into the UK but heavily use the Premier League (take Weibo for example) and it would be a very odd decision to ban them from advertising so I don’t really see why it’s any different in our industry.
London business newspaper City A.M. has launched a new mobile casino powered by mobile igaming developer Nektan. City A.M. readers will be able to access casino games via Cityamcasino.com or through the City A.M website across smartphone and tablets devices.Games on offer include casino favourites such as blackjack, roulette and slots, which have been developed using the latest HTML5 technology. City A.M. managing director Lawson Muncaster commented on the launch of City A.M Casino: “City A.M. Casino gives us a great opportunity to engage with our readers during their leisure time. We are really excited to launch this product as a new gaming destination, and this is another significant stage in the multi-platform development of City A.M.” INTERCASINO REVAMP
One of the first online casinos InterCasino has undergone a revamp ahead of a UK marketing campaign later this year. The website has been redesigned to improve the customer journey and features a redeveloped layout and new graphics. The original crown motif has also returned to the InterCasino logo.One of the more innovative additions to the site has been the introduction of a ‘Customise Your Casino’ feature which allows players quick access to their preferred casino games. The changes have been made following extensive research and feedback from more than 6,000 affiliates, media partners and customers through surveys and focus groups.
THE HOFF Š 2013 Hoffworld, LLC. THE HOFF and DAVID HASSELHOFF are trademarks of Hoffworld, LLC and are registered in the United States and other foreign nationals. Used under licence from MX Digital, LLC. All rights reserved.
BB125-p14-22-Betting_09/10 28/01/2015 10:45 Page 1
ACTION IMAGES / TONY O’BRIEN LIVEPIC
Betting WEST HAM SHIRT SPONSOR ALPARI HAS FOUND ITSELF IN TROUBLE
BoyleSports extends LBO estate beyond 200 with 6 Tully shops IRELAND
rish bookmaker BoyleSports is to invest around 2m euro (£1.5m) in acquiring six betting shops from fellow independent firm Tully Bookmakers, reportedly beating national competitor Paddy Power to the deal. A Boylesports spokesman told the Sunday Independent: “The acquisition brings us to 205 stores which brings us over 200 stores for the first time. We are going to invest significantly in the new shops, invest in new tech and bring them up to a modern standard.” There isn’t expected to be any job losses at the six shops, instead BoyleSports has indicated that it will instead be supplementing the 20 employees with more colleagues. Boylesports CEO John Boyle said: “We are delighted with this acquisition which allows us to significantly grow in the South East. We look forward to extending BoyleSports’ industry-leading suite of products to existing Tully customers in the region.” Given the new freedoms that have been made available to bookmakers in Ireland, it is no wonder that both BoyleSports and Paddy Power are in the market to invest in extending their retail estates. Since the turn of the year, betting shops have been able to open in the evening in order to cover winter sports ending a law that dated back to 1931. Before now, betting shops could only open in the evening during autumn and winter if there was any domestic horseracing. This meant that after every summer bookmakers had to lay off staff and re-recruit in the spring and summer months. It was also costly for the taxman, with an estimated 6m euro in additional betting taxes lost. Meanwhile, Boylesports has appointed former NordicBet managing director Neill Garfield as its new chief marketing officer, replacing James Arnold who left last November.
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Swiss Franc surge causes forex turmoil The unexpected surge in price for the Swiss Franc has caused long lasting issues in the financial betting sector. FINANCIALS
he unexpected decoupling of the Swiss Franc from the Euro and the former’s sudden and rapid increase in value has sent shockwaves through the foreign exchange and financial spread betting markets. The decision sparked market turmoil, with the franc surging almost 30 per cent against the Euro and stock markets suffering violent swings. Because the move by the Swiss National Bank was so surprising, and its effect so extreme, many spreads and forex players were caught on the wrong side of the spread and saw such sudden and huge losses that most operators have been forced to almost instantly write them off at great cost. IG told the stock market: “The precise level of the impact will be partially dependent on the company’s ability to recover client debts, but in total it will not exceed £30m, from market and credit exposure. “The market exposure occurred where client positions were closed at a more beneficial level than the company was able to close its entire corre-
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sponding hedge due to the market dislocation. This occurs against the backdrop of very strong recent and current performance and IG’s extremely robust financial position.” London Capital Group issued a similar statement, only its losses have been estimated at £1.7m. Forex.com research director Kathleen Brooks told the Daily Telegraph: “I’ve never seen a move like that, and I’ve worked in FX for 10 years.” She explained why the firm was forced to temporarily suspend trading in the Swiss Franc: “We couldn’t get liquidity from our providers so we couldn’t pass it on to our clients. No one would give us a price. The market was too volatile, the movement was too sharp so we just had to wait until the dust had settled.” Meanwhile, there have been even greater repercussions for the smaller operators. Alpari UK was forced into administration is it became rapidly insolvent after the Swiss Bank announcement as many of its clients sustained losses that exceeded their account equity, with the company then forced to foot the bill.
16 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
However, funds held on behalf of clients were kept in separate accounts, as required by Financial Conduct Authority rules. Richard Heis partner at KPMG and joint special administrator, commented: “The company holds some US$98.5m of retail client money which has been segregated and we shall be returning this to clients or making other suitable arrangements in accordance with statute and the regulatory framework at the earliest opportunity.” The good news is that more than 50 companies have shown interest in acquiring all or parts of Alpari, which is also the shirt sponsor for Premier League club West Ham United. London business news sources report that Alpari’s Japanese and Russian trading arms are also of particular interest to potential buyers of the company. Alpari hopes that the takeover interest from buying parties will be able to save its 170 staff members from redundancy. CITY AM reported that forex trading operators Iron FX, SpreadCo and ETX Capital have all shown interest in acquiring the operator and its assets.
ANALYSIS While huge spikes in forex do occur from time to time, they are usually signposted a little, allowing firms and traders to find a position with which they are comfortable. However, the Swiss National Bank caught everyone on the hop. Ironically IG has just opened a new office in Switzerland, underlying again the global demand for financial instruments around the world, particularly in major financial cities. The firm has pledged to learn lessons: “While this was due to an unprecedented and unforeseeable degree of movement in a major global currency and only a few hundred clients were affected, we will seek to learn lessons from this incident which we can incorporate into our risk management approach going forward.”
JOHN BOYLE
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BB125-p14-22-Betting_09/10 28/01/2015 10:50 Page 2
Clamp down on intermediaries
Betting
The US Treasury Department has warned licensed casino operators that they must actively combat illegal sports betting. The Treasury submitted a letter to multiple gambling operators just weeks before the NFL Super Bowl, saying they want all gambling operators to enforce tighter controls in order to stop the wagers being placed by intermediaries: “Increases in sports betting conducted on behalf of third parties are facilitating criminal activity and posing a money laundering risk to the US financial system.”
Unibet is the latest firm to come under the unwanted glare of the ASA and been found wanting.
UNIBET’S ‘ARMCHAIR EXPERT’ CAMPAIGN WAS BEING SUPPORTED BY CONTENTIOUS GOOGLE KEYWORD ADS
Dubai racing pools from PGI POOL BETTING
sle of Man-based Premier Gateway International Ltd (PGI) is working with the Emirates Racing Authority as the host of the international horse race betting pools for this year’s Dubai racing season, which includes the Dubai World Cup Carnival - the richest race meeting in the world. The Dubai World Cup Carnival is a series of 11 highlycompetitive race meetings that annually attract the world’s best horses, jockeys and trainers to Meydan racecourse in the United Arab Emirates. The Carnival culminates in the world’s richest race meeting, the Dubai World Cup, which is being held on 28 March 2015. This features nine high-class races highlighted by the US$10m Dubai World Cup. Neil Harmer, chief information officer for PGI, commented: “We are delighted to be working with the Emirates Racing Authority as the betting pools provider for the Dubai racing season and are particularly looking forward to working on the Dubai World Cup Racing Carnival. “The betting pools for the Carnival attract interest from betting operators around the world who will all be connecting into PGI’s totalisator system located in Douglas. We’ve found the Isle of Man to be the ideal location for our business and have benefited from the highly professional approach that the government takes for the gaming industry and the technological infrastructure.”
I Risk-free bonuses comes under more scrutiny MARKETING
nline bookmaker Unibet is the latest operator to feel the wrath of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the body upheld three complaints about its email marketing using the terms ‘risk free bet’. The marketing, which amounted to two sponsored Facebook posts, a sponsored Google search result and a web page for a promotion on Unibet’s site, all referred to a £20 Risk Free Bet for new customers, but the ASA received three complaints that the ads were either misleading or insufficiently clear. The ASA, after a thorough judgment, agreed. It said: “The ads must not appear again in their current forms. We told Unibet (International) Ltd to ensure that they did not use the claim ‘risk free bet’ to describe this bonus offer in future ads and that future ads made clear all material information and significant conditions of the
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offer, such as the requirement to place further bets at specified odds.” Unibet has argued that ‘risk free bet’ was a term commonly used in the gambling industry for bonuses of this nature and said that the offer was explained in clear and easily comprehensible language in their bonus terms and conditions. It said that the initial bet was risk-free because customers got the stake back as credit in the account, however, the ASA was concerned that this credit had to be recycled six times at odds greater than 1.4 before it could be withdrawn as actual cash. Unibet explained that it was not the case that six unique bets were required to be placed as part of the turnover, but rather the subsequent bet placed in and with the turnover must be six times in value of the refunded stake. They stated that after the stake had been returned to the customer account as bonus as a result of losing the first bet, the
customer could use this bonus fund to place further bets in the turnover; they would not need to wager their own money during the turnover process. However, the ASA said that from the adverts concerned most consumers would expect that the stake from their first bet would be refunded and could then be withdrawn as cash. It added: “We considered the requirements in the bonus terms that consumers would need to fulfil to qualify for the withdrawal of the refunded stake in cash, in conjunction with the possibility of losing the entire bonus funds during the turnover process and therefore becoming ineligible to make such a withdrawal, were likely to contradict consumers’ understanding of the ‘risk free’ bet offer within the context of the ads. We therefore concluded that the claim ‘risk free bet’ in the ads was misleading.” Unibet stated that due to limited space in social media
posts, and considering common industry practices, material information concerning the turnover requirements would not be visible or clear to consumers and therefore it was common practice that such requirements were not directly included in these posts, unlike ads in other media such as emails and banners. Unibet stated that the terms and conditions which detailed the turnover requirements were always easily accessible to customers. While the ASA noted the size restrictions, it still wasn’t happy. “Given the omission of a qualification in the ads to indicate that the offer was subject to terms and conditions, some of which were particularly significant, and the fact that the full terms were more than one click away from the ads, we considered material information about the offer had not been presented clearly enough to consumers in order to enable them to make an informed decision.”
ANALYSIS It is a rare month that goes by without the ASA objecting to one gambling ad or another, but there is no suggestion that these were malicious transgressions of the advertising code from the industry. Gambling operators are still in their infancy when it comes to advertising in the grander scheme of things, and these ASA judgments are actually helping build up a case file as to what is acceptable and what isn’t. Only a year ago, a similar decision against Bet365’s use of the term ‘free bet’ worked as an indicator to the industry as to what was allowed, and what wasn’t.
Sky Bet looking to add 90 new staff RECRUITMENT
ky Betting and Gaming, one of Yorkshire’s leading employers, is creating 90 new jobs at its headquarters in Leeds as it invests in its growing team. Due to the rapid expansion of Sky Bet over the last 12 months the new positions have been created in a range of departments across the business, including technology, product development, marketing and customer service. All of the jobs are
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18 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
RICHARD FLINT: ‘WE’RE LOOKING FOR THE VERY BEST INDIVIDUALS’
available for immediate application and will be based in Sky Bet’s offices in Wellington Place. Richard Flint, managing director at Sky Betting and Gaming, said: “This is a really exciting time for Sky Bet and I’m really pleased to be able to confirm that we are continuing to invest in Yorkshire with the recruitment of 90 new team members as we continue to grow our business.
“Just last month we announced that Sky Betting and Gaming is to become an independent company in a deal which values the business at £800m. The expansion of Sky Bet over the last year means we now need more people to join a number of our departments here in Leeds.” Flint said that the company works hard to ensure that Sky Betting and Gaming remains one of the
best places to work in Yorkshire and that a massive factor is ensuring the company has the right people. He added: “We’re looking for the very best individuals, which is often more about candidates having the right attitude and potential rather than solely focusing on experience. We do everything we can to provide the right environment that delivers job satisfaction, ful-
filment and which also nurtures talent. We would love to hear from people who are energetic, analytical and passionate about building a career in an exciting digital business.” Sky Bet said that all successful applicants will receive comprehensive development and training to support them grow the skills needed for the role, along with competitive salaries, rewards and benefits.
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BB125-p14-22-Betting_09/10 28/01/2015 10:54 Page 3
Cultured deal for Tipico
Betting
Bookmaker Tipico has again become the official sponsor of the International Baroque Festival Valletta which took place in stages all over the Maltese capital last month. Since the cultural highlight’s premiere in 2013, the sports betting provider has been a main sponsor every year. The firm’s Jan Bolz said: “Due to the fantastic success in the previous years, we are committed to supporting such an important cultural event again.”
‘Our main focus is around developing our product’ EXCHANGES
oint of Consumption has finally arrived - what has this meant to your business and the market it operates in? The introduction of Point of Consumption was a huge change in the UK gambling industry. However, as a company we are very nimble and as a result we saw very little change to our business operations. More importantly, this shift in practices had no effect on our prices, offering or service to our customers. With that being said, we have recently seen some competitors depart from the UK market following this legislative transition and this is obviously a considerable advantage for us to capitalise upon.
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Smarkets CEO Jason Trost talks about how he plans for his exchange to make big waves this year.
duced in 2014 and has been a very popular addition to our platform. Aided by live updates shown on the site, the feature matches in-play bets instantly so traders never miss a price due to delays. If a bet is matched during a ‘danger period’, the trade is pending for eight seconds and will be voided should a material event (i.e. a goal or red card) occur during this time. So in-play traders get their prices instantly, but are also protected at the same time - it’s the best of both worlds. Smarkets doesn’t have the huge brand marketing budgets of some of its competitors - how do you cost effectively market to your target demographic? It doesn’t worry me if our marketing budget doesn’t match larger competitors. At this stage our main focus is around developing our product and, unlike many of the big bookmakers, we’re not reliant on marketing gimmicks to differentiate ourselves. We are growing organically very well simply because we offer the best prices in the industry. If we needed a huge marketing budget to sell Smarkets to our demographic, that would suggest our product isn’t good enough in the first place. Furthermore, we’ve been able to catalyse customer acquisition with various SEO campaigns and the introduction of our affiliate scheme.
You pride yourself on having better prices than Betfair - how do you keep ahead of the game in this respect? We launched Smarkets believing that commissions charged in the betting exchange industry were near extortionate. Now more than five years later, our industry-low commission rate continues to be our main USP. Value is key in this industry and we want to continue to be the leader in this regard. Right now our competitors are increasing their flat commissions, upping rates based on location and hindering winning customers with premium charges. We’re deliberately going the opposite direction, investigating innovative technology and business models with the hope of not just maintaining our 2 per cent rate, but actually lowering it too!
How do you see the exchange market developing in 2015? As sports betting customers continue to become more informed and more demanding, the exchange market will continue to grow and the value offered by companies will be crucial towards success. The future is full of overrounds shrinking and the use of technology increasing.
One of Smarkets’ other big things is ‘in-play without a delay’ on the football. How do you achieve this and what advantages does it bring? Instant Match is a feature we intro-
Titanbet takes on the Kingmaker MARKETING
itanbet.co.uk has announced its biggest race partnership to date after agreeing a deal to sponsor the Kingmaker Novices’ Chase at Warwick Racecourse next month. The £40,000 Grade 2 chase, which will be shown live on Channel 4, is a preparation race for the Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy at The Cheltenham Festival in March. Titanbet.co.uk will sponsor a further four races on the card as it looks to engage with National Hunt racing fans in the build-up to The Festival. Spokesman, Russell Yershon, said agreeing to take on this year’s Titanbet.co.uk Kingmaker marks an important milestone in the sports-
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book’s on-going growth in the UK market: “It’s a prestigious race at an important stage in the calendar and we’re delighted that it marks our biggest racing sponsorship to date. We hope it will be the first of many similar deals that help us build the profile of Titanbet.co.uk among horseracing fans.” Carey Buckler, regional sponsorship manager for the south west region of The Jockey Club, added: “I am delighted that Titanbet.co.uk have taken their first major National Hunt race sponsorship at Warwick. The Titanbet.co.uk Kingmaker Novices’ Chase is one of the leading trials for the Racing Post Arkle and I am sure that this year’s renewal will be just as competitive.”
The Titanbet.co.uk Kingmaker Chase, run on Saturday February 7 this year, is open to horses aged five or older and run over a distance of two miles. Its title refers to the 16th Earl of Warwick, known as the ‘Kingmaker’ during the Wars of the Roses. Titanbet.co.uk made their first foray into the UK jump racing when it agreed to sponsor a number of twilight meetings at Kempton at the end of 2014. RUSSELL YERSHON: ‘WE HOPE IT WILL BE THE FIRST OF MANY SIMILAR DEALS’
GVC sees record level of sports betting turnover FINANCIALS
VC Holdings, the operating company of sports betting brands Sportingbet, Casino Club and Betboo, has reported a strong end to 2014, with gaming revenues exceeding 20.3m euro (£15.4m) for the month of December. In a short Q4 2014 announcement, GVC stated a record level of sports betting turnover during the period, which helped it post Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) of 59.4m euro (£45.0m) representing a daily net revenue rate of 646,000 euro (£490,000), up 22 per cent on Q4 2013 performance. Sports wagers exceeded 400m euro (£303m), up 11 per cent on Q4-2013 and up 9 per cent on Q3-2014. The company was able to maintain an improved Q4 2014 sport betting margin of 9.1 per cent compared to 8.4 per cent in Q4 2013. The positive performance recorded during the period, has helped the operator to report an expected 2014 NGR of 224.6m euro (£170m), up 23 per cent on 2013 performance. Chief executive Kenneth Alexander said: “I am delighted to announce another strong quarter and fullyear for revenues, along with a 12.5 cents per share third interim dividend, 1cent per share (8.7 per cent) higher than the same period in the prior year (11.5 cents). 2014 has been an exciting and successful year with the group now in a strong position to further its growth. The continued success and growth of the group is a result of the tremendous efforts from the talented and motivated staff we have at GVC, all of which have bonus plans aligned to the level of dividends paid to shareholders.”
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Royal deal for BETDAQ
Betting
BETDAQ has renewed and extended its partnership with two of Arena Racing Company’s racecourses - Doncaster and Royal Windsor. BETDAQ’s long term commitment to both courses is substantial, covering 70 races over 13 race meetings in 2015 across both codes at Doncaster, with 15 races at five of Royal Windsor’s popular Monday evening fixtures during May and June.
Research suggests no evidence to ban live betting
BETTINGBRIEFS SOCIAL POOLS FIRMS MERGE
The Asser Institute has carried out another study into the gambling sector’s relationship with match fixing and found that live betting isn’t necessarily a greater risk that other products. INTEGERITY
SSA, the sports betting integrity body, has welcomed the latest report from Dutch research body the Asser Institute which found no correlations between live betting or side betting and possible instances of betting-related match fixing in football. The report said that the empirical evidence does not justify a prohibition of these bet types and that the focus of efforts to prevent, investigate, and sanction betting-related match fixing should lie on fraud linked to organised crime. Khalid Ali, secretary general of ESSA, commented: “We have continually called for an evidence-base debate and this report clearly supports what bookmakers have been saying for years, that side bets and live betting is not the issue. The challenge comes from Asian
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betting markets and from poor sports governance, which is where our focus must centre.” This latest Asser report obtained access to key statistics from Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System (FDS). A five-year dataset of football matches worldwide, which the FDS identified as likely to have been targeted by match fixers, enabled the Institute to observe patterns and correlations with certain types of sports bets. In addition, representative samples of football bets placed with sports betting operator Betfair were collected and analysed. The report found that almost all of the suspicious betting activity is detected in the most popular sports betting markets: the Match Odds market (i.e. the traditional 1X2 betting formula), the Total Goals market, and the Asian Handicap market. It sug-
FLAWED SPORTS RIGHTS ARGUMENT MASKS ENFORCEMENT ISSUES COMMENT BY ESSA’S MIKE O’KANE
“It is important to remember that the earlier Asser risk and prevention report’s high assessment of the French model as a ‘template for a legal framework’, in this instance, does not include an examination of the controversial “right to consent to bets”, or ‘sports betting right’ as it is more commonly known, imposed for apparent integrity reasons. That matter was, however, assessed in detail in a report on sports organisers rights that was prepared for the Commission by the same authors and which was published earlier in 2014. Put simply, it widely criticised the ‘sports betting right’, highlighting numerous clear practical and operational flaws in the effectiveness of this system, along with a number of important legal obstacles within the EU. Professor Ben Van Rompuy, one of the report’s 22 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
gested that what it called side bets (bookings, corners, even goalscorers) were too illiquid to pose an actual high risk in Europe. The demand from criminal organisations to exploit the side betting markets, at least those offered by European regulated sports betting operators, was found to be low. “Side bets are a betting product geared toward recreational bettors. European sports betting operators often offer side bets only for higher-profile events (where the players involved would be less likely to risk losing their careers over a spot fixing operation) and ordinarily restrict the stakes that will be accepted. “Even if an operator would accept large bets on e.g. which player will get a yellow card, the high stakes would arouse a great deal of suspicion. Subsequently, also the potential for indi-
authors and who has published a number of studies on the relationship between sports, media rights and EU competition law, expanded on the latter issue at the EU Sports Forum at the end of 2014. Van Rompuy informed an audience of senior representatives of sporting bodies that: “A right to consent to bet will be a restriction of free movement of gambling services under article 56 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.” The report also notes that this model does not provide an effective or efficient approach with revenues predominately going to the major sports bodies and where it is unclear that they are being used for integrity, whilst the costs associated with the administration of this right are considerable. Quite understandably, very few jurisdictions have opted to introduce this mechanism with the majority of government’s opting for alternative and more balanced and efficient approaches which indisputably
viduals to exploit this type of sports bet for their own benefit is very limited.” The report also said that in-running markets hold no greater risk for sporting integrity. “One of the key points that emerges from the FDS monitoring statistics is that match fixers, in an attempt to spread the risk of detection and minimise loss of profit, will typically choose to take advantage of both prematch and live betting options in the three main betting markets (Match Odds, Total Goals, and Asian Handicap). “For two-thirds of the likely manipulated matches both suspicious pre-match and live betting patterns was observed and for the vast majority of matches irregular betting patterns appeared in a combination of these markets.”
seek to protect integrity, rather than as a commercial substitute. The separate Asser study on risk assessment and prevention states that the best examples of good integrity practices have four shared features. These are: information sharing between betting operators and sport; similar information sharing between betting companies and national gambling regulators as a condition of the licence granted to that betting operator. That information when gathered is analysed by a sports betting integrity unit attached to the national gambling regulator; and that there is a clear process for determining whether there is any evidence of criminal activity. These are issues that responsible regulated operators promote and it is easy to see why the UK model, in particular, is championed. Importantly, however, the report also highlights that: “enforcement rates of sports specific corruption sanctions, and particularly of enforcing ‘conflict of interest’ prohibitions against
ANALYSIS This latest Asser report suggests that it is ‘counterintuitive that a national prohibition of certain types of sports bets would make sports events less vulnerable for bettingrelated match fixing’, indicating that the markets will still be available in other jurisdictions around the world. Instead, it suggests that it would be better to regulate and monitor those markets close to home, especially as most regulated jurisdictions also have the challenge of making the domestic markets attractive enough so that customers do not have the desire to visit black market operators.
athletes appear to be extremely low (one is reminded here of the inconsistent enforcement of doping regulations in certain sports, especially pre-WADA).” Furthermore that “the enforcement of provisions which place players under an express duty to report betting manipulation approaches are not extensively used.” These are critical issues. Indeed, whilst other actors have a role, the report places a welcome emphasis on sport, noting that “it is sports’ responsibility to contribute as much as possible, financially and institutionally, to taming the societal problems stemming from the competitions it brings to life.” Moreover, that “International Sports Governing Bodies need to make sure that their national members are taking match-fixing seriously by inter alia vigilantly enforcing their conflict of interest provisions.” RENEWED FOCUS ON INTEGRITY Comment 60
Pools betting exchange Stakes & Ladders and Bets of Mates have pooled their businesses to create a single platform offering a greater selection of online betting games on the market. Stakes & Ladders has adapted the highly innovative Bets of Mates games formats into its network and users will be able to enjoy a much wider variety of game formats across all sports and live events. David McGurk, founder of Bets of Mates, said: “This is a massive step forward for our fledgling business concept. We set out to create a social betting network for all Football fans and in Stakes & Ladders we have found a partner that shares our passion for sports betting between mates.” ROCKETS GET FIRST DRAFT
NBA basketball team Houston Rockets has partnered Boston-based daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings. The Rockets are among the first NBA franchises to work with DraftKings, the US-based destination for daily fantasy sports, which offers contests for experts and casual players alike. In addition to daily fantasy basketball, DraftKings also offers fantasy contests in additional major professional and college team sports. The partnership includes branded team bench areas and court side signage. “The Houston Rockets have a strong dedication to their fervent fan base, the Red Nation, and DraftKings couldn’t be more excited to partner with the team,” said DraftKings vice president of business development Jeremy Elbaum. FANDUEL OUT IN FRONT
Fantasy sports operator FanDuel announced a record breaking $37m in revenues for its final quarter of 2014, up 13 per cent on Q4 2013. The Edinburgh-founded company, which offers daily fantasy sports prizes, has witnessed increased player numbers and player activity, as the Fanduel created high coverage partnership with US sports franchises and released a mobile game apps. The company further reported $371m in player entry fees from October-December, which accounts for 69 percent of the market - more than double than the $166m in player entry fees its closest rival, DraftKings, earned in the same period.
www.betconstruct.com
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Politics Calls for new relationship between councils and industry
Scotland to get devolved FOBT powers FOBT
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Councils and the betting industry have signed a joint-agreement designed to ensure a more constructive working relationship.
COUNCILS HAVE BEEN CONCERNED OVER THEIR PERCEIVED LACK OF POWERS WHEN IT COMES TO LBOS
FRAMEWORK
he Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) have come together in a bid to smooth out some of the causes of friction between the industry and local councils. The framework is being billed as an opportunity to create a new relationship between councils and the betting industry that helps to ensure councils are confident that their concerns are listened to and acted on. It also aims to reassure the industry that councils recognise their right to be on the high streets. Concern among councils and some sections of the industry about both clustering and use of gaming machines prompted the LGA to set up a Betting Commission in early 2014, bringing together both sectors to
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look at these issues and whether there was any consensus about how to resolve them. This framework has been put together by the body. Cllr Tony Page, LGA Licensing spokesman, said: “Councils are not antibookies but many have concerns around the proliferation of shops on their high streets. The Betting Commission was the first time that councillors and betting shops firms had sat down to discuss the concerns around betting shops and to try and find a solution. It showed that while we might not agree on everything, there is a desire on both sides to increase joint-working in order to try and use existing powers to tackle local concerns, whatever they might be.” ABB chairman Paul Darling QC said: “We are
pleased to have worked with the LGA through the Betting Commission, and to be able to have discussed issues of concern to all of us in detail. We all look forward through this partnership agreement to building on the successes of different projects betting shop operators and councils are already doing, and discussing concerns in an open and transparent way.” The framework builds on earlier examples of joint working between councils and the industry. In Ealing, the Southall Betwatch was set up to address concerns about crime and disorder linked to betting shops in the borough. As a result, crime within gambling premises reduced by 50 per cent alongside falls in public order and criminal damage offences. In December last year, the Medway Responsible Gambling Partnership
was launched by Medway Council and the ABB. The first of its kind in Britain, the voluntary agreement allows anyone who is concerned they are developing a problem with their gambling to exclude themselves from all betting shops in the area. Page added: “Schemes in Medway and Ealing show how it can be possible in areas where there are strong feelings about betting shops to work together to try to find pragmatic ways of addressing concerns about them. “While this might not work everywhere, we would encourage councils with concerns about betting shops, or those wanting to enhance their local regulation, to consider this framework. Launching it is a good first step, but we need to make sure that it is used and acted on, by councils and betting shops alike.”
ANALYSIS In the joint foreward, signed by Tony Page and ABB chief executive Dirk Vennix, the framework says: “Councils and betting firms both want vibrant and safe high streets, with the betting industry playing its role as a responsible industry alongside other local businesses. Betting shop staff want to feel that their work is a valued part of the community. We believe that this framework can help to contribute to that, and will therefore be of benefit to councillors, local communities, betting shop users and staff.” Given that some of the country’s councils have recently been protesting about betting shop proliferation, the joint framework perhaps comes at the right time, just before an election.
Illegal betting market dwarfs legal US operators USA
ccording to a first-ever estimate by the American Gaming Association (AGA), Americans were due to make US$3.8bn worth of illegal bets on this year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. That figure stands in stark contrast to the approximately $100m bet legally on the Super Bowl each year. In fact, the illegal market is 38 times greater than the legal one. Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the AGA, argues that the figures means that the current regulation is not working. “Current law banning sports betting is clearly failing. The
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AGA is closely examining the current state of sports betting, the laws that govern it and the best way forward for the gaming industry.” Today, four states allow some form of sports betting, and the majority of such legal betting takes places in Las Vegas. Earlier in the month the AGA welcomed new guidance on sports books from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It said: “AGA members are committed to robust anti-money laundering measures in every aspect of their operations and invest significant resources to tailor risk-
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he British government is proposing to give powers over FOBTs to its Scottish colleagues, as part of the wholesale devolution process stemming from last year’s no vote in the Scottish independence referendum. The Smith Commission had recommended that Scottish Parliament have the power to prevent the proliferation of FixedOdds Betting Terminals and the Coalition government has agreed by including Clause 33 into its draft legislation. The ‘Command Paper’ explains: “This clause will devolve legislative competence to the Scottish Parliament and executive competence to the Scottish Ministers to vary the number of FOBTs authorised by a betting premises licence by inserting a specific exemption into B9 of Part 2 of Schedule 5 to the 1998 Act. The exception will permit the variation of the number of FOBTs authorised by virtue of a new betting premises licence, but does not permit variation of the number of such gaming machines authorised by existing betting premises licences. “For this purpose, Scottish Ministers will be given power to make an order (following the affirmative procedure) to vary the number of these FOBTs and will, as a result, have a greater say over how many of these gaming machines may be made available for use in Scotland.” Given the amendments made by this clause do not apply in relation to a betting premises licence issued before this section comes into force the extent to which the power will be useful to anyone is unclear.
based compliance programs for every corner of the casino, including sports books. The industry welcomes continued guidance from FinCEN to protect
dering is far greater in the vast, unregulated, illegal sports betting market than in the highly regulated, legal gaming industry. While casinos routinely look for suspicious bets at sports books and have worked with law enforcement to identify illegal activity - in some cases leading to criminal convictions - no such oversight exists for the illegal sports betting market. The AGA is committed to aggressively against attempts to use addressing illegal gambling, casinos for money launder- including illegal sports ing and illicit financing and betting, and looks forward to ensure the integrity of the to partnering with FinCEN, U.S. financial system. law enforcement and others “The risk of money laun- in this effort.”
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Poker fraud hit with £1m bill
Politics
An online poker player found guilty of fraud has been jailed and ordered to pay back £1m. Nick Tofiluk, the Gambling Commission’s director of regulatory operations, said: “We believe this to be the first such prosecution of an online poker player, which sends out a clear message that if you play poker fraudulently online you could end up both in prison and having to repay your ill-gotten gains.”
‘The need for direct services and treatment is on the increase’
Bookmakers work with councils to standardise test purchasing AGE CONCERN
ookmakers Paddy Power and Ladbrokes have been working closely with local authorities Milton Keynes Council and Reading Borough Council to create standardised inspection plans covering age test purchasing procedures and standards. The inspection plans contain national inspection strategies which together will cover a large portion of the betting sector. Under the remit of the Better Regulation Delivery Office, the primary authorities worked with each other, and with the Gambling Commission, to develop the inspection plans in response to business concerns about inconsistent test-purchasing. Terry Parker from Paddy Power said: “We are delighted to partner with Reading Borough Council on our age verification policies and look forward to working closely with them to help protect underage people from gambling.” A Ladbrokes spokesperson said: “Ladbrokes take age restricted sales extremely seriously, and the Primary Authority scheme and inspection plan, together with the benefits of a consistent approach to regulation and enforcement throughout the country, will be extremely beneficial to our business ensuring a cost benefit to both regulators and ourselves.” The inspection plans are designed to be largely uniform, thereby bringing consistency to proactive test-purchasing in betting shops. Enforcing officers will have to inform the relevant primary authority before conducting a proactive test-purchase, and will have to provide feedback to the primary authority afterwards. The results of the national inspection strategies will be used by the primary authorities to help the businesses prevent underage gambling on their
B GamCare CEO Dirk Hansen discusses how the problem gambling charity is progressing in what is a charged political environment. INTERVIEW
amCare is currently in the third year of its longterm funding commitment from RGT. What has this set up allowed you to achieve compared to in the past where you had to pitch for funding on an annual basis? We are grateful to the Responsible Gambling Trust for providing sufficient funding within a structured format. Having more security obviously allows for better planning, continuity, and innovation regarding services. Over this past three years GamCare has made significant progress in terms of operational efficiency on our Helpline, and in extending our face to face counselling to now cover over 95 per cent of Great Britain. This growth in our infrastructure is due in large part to secure and reliable funding.
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There is more and more pressure on the industry to produce more research into problem gambling - how do you ensure there is still sufficient funding for treatment amongst all the grandstanding? Research is important and there should be a mix of funding available to offer this, as well as prevention and education. However, we are seeing ever increasing numbers of individuals who need sophisticated help due to problems with gambling. It is vital that we get the word out to our funders that the need for direct services and treatment is on the increase, and we cannot let those people down. As awareness is raised amongst the general public about problems related to gambling, and
the help that is available, then we will see even more people contacting GamCare for assistance. There now appears to be a lot more bodies in the problem gambling space. Is this good news that there is more activity in the area or do we have to be wary about diluting the level of expertise available to problem gamblers? I can’t speak to what other organisations may offer, but GamCare is confident that we offer the widest range of free services to individuals and their family members available for gambling-related problems, and that these services are drawn from nearly 20 years of experience and expertise. Also, many do not realise that GamCare also provides youth education programmes, training for professionals, as well as social responsibility training for gambling operators.
and open communication about social responsibility and the realities of problem gambling help our cause.
GamCare managed to increase the number of calls from problem gamblers it handled in 2013/2014 by 34 per cent. How was this achieved and what other initiatives have you introduced? Yes, we are really pleased with this performance as more people who truly want help are better able to get it in a timely manner. Obviously, we operate a call centre and therefore we aim to have state of the art systems in place to manage fluctuations in demand. The introduction of a Freephone number has had a positive effect as well as the integration of our HelpLine and NetLine. Our specialist advisers are now able to take a telephone call or an online chat call delivered by the same system. This has helped us plan better and ensure that we There seems to be a slight have enough staff available increase in the percentage when there are surges in of people getting their initial demand. information about Gamcare from gambling establish- Does the growth in numbers ments. Is this down to new that GamCare is dealing leafleting or a greater will- with necessarily equate to a ingness by operators to growth in the number of problem gamblers? promote GamCare? It is hard to verify how That is a difficult question people first heard about to answer. Our general GamCare when they assumption is that the contact us, but we do increase in calls to the believe that promotion HelpLine is due in large part from within gambling to the recent promotional establishments has had a campaigns that highlight positive effect. People are Gambleaware and the using this information and National Gambling eventually contacting our Helpline, but also the Helpline and we welcome increase in public awarethis. Also, our relationships ness regarding gambling with gambling operators and possible problems remain strong, and we related to gambling. believe that raised aware- Whether or not there are ness, knowledge sharing more problem gamblers is
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harder to make assumptions about, but so far the research worldwide indicates that the rates of problem gambling have stayed relatively stable. However, that does not mean that everyone with a problem has sought support, in fact, there are many people out there who could benefit from advice and/or treatment. Therefore, as awareness increases and people feel comfortable and confident with services available, then the numbers are likely to grow. It’s recently been suggested that a rational debate on problem gambling is increasingly rare. Is this your experience? Why is this perceived as so difficult? Well, I don’t think that the debate is irrational, but yes, it can sometimes be overly complicated. At GamCare we are often asked to comment on, or take a position about gambling and gambling products, or social impact related to gambling. I think that we have a responsibility to enter the debates as best as we can, but in our work with individuals, we know that the problem behaviours and the outcomes of these problems are often more complex than not, and cannot be summed up by a focus on any particular aspect of gambling. But, we also don’t subscribe to a laissez-faire approach, and we do support sensible and appropriate consumer protections that offer clear information about the risks of gambling in general, as well as opportunities to opt out easily, and how to get specialist help.
premises. A Gambling Commission spokesperson said: “The Commission welcomes the opportunity to work with local authorities and businesses to help shape these Primary Authority arrangements. Ensuring that operators take effective steps to prevent underage gambling is a priority issue for
the Commission, and the inspection plans have real potential to help the businesses concerned achieve the high standards the public expect.” The primary authorities will have a national overview of the business’s compliance and will be able to collate information from various enforcing officers to identify particular trends. Paul Gittings, Reading Borough Council’s Lead Councillor for Consumer Services, said: “These inspection plans provide consistency for local authorities and business. Reading Borough Council is pleased to work with its Primary Authority partner, Paddy Power, and the Gambling Commission to help prevent underage gambling.’ A Milton Keynes Council spokesperson said: “This new national inspection plan, developed through our Primary Authority partnership with Ladbrokes, will make a real difference to how we work together and give significantly better protection to children; an outcome we all wish to see.”
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A single view of customers across all channels is now possible via OpenBet
Super Soccer Oddsfeed and Abelson Info’s GPS now features a record number of competitions
Yggdrasil Gaming has launched its latest innovative video slot, the dragon-themed Draglings
LiveSport has decided to enter the data provision market by investing in Enetpulse
Betting Business Interactive Edition
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February 2015
IT’S SHOWTIME! The ICE Product Showcase provides an opportunity to companies to show off the products and services which will be landing at ExCeL this week in gaming’s biggest trade show. Essential Guide 28
Sports betting is demonstrating convergence leadership Leigh Nissim, commercial director at IGT Interactive with responsibility across all regulated markets, believes sports betting can teach other the gambling sectors a thing or two. 48
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Essential guide to ... Global promotion
London calling
£200m Clarion sold
ICE-branded copies of Jules Verne’s Around The World in 80 Days are located inside the show at London’s ExCeL Centre. Whoever gets the copy which features 5 stars on the front cover will win a round the world flight ticket worth £3,000.
ICE Totally Gaming is on course to have a significantly higher German presence with show organisers confirming that preregistration figures from the country are up 25 per cent on those for 2014.
Last month it was announced that ICE organiser Clarion Events had been sold to global asset management firm Providence Equity for £200m. Clarion organises around 200 events globally in a cross-section of industries.
New faces ICE has 67 new exhibitors from 33 jurisdictions. Leading the way with the most number of new exhibitors is Malta with ten, followed by host nation the United Kingdom (six), Spain (five), Gibraltar (four), the British Virgin Islands and Italy (both three).
OPENBET
INVESTMENT
Coral Connect marks the start of OpenBet’s journey
Getting onto the Pitch
One of the betting industry’s major platform suppliers, OpenBet, is making a big effort to attract customers of all sizes this year. penBet CEO Jeremy Thompson-Hill has expansive plans for the firm in 2015 - in fact, he wants the supplier to be everywhere. “Perhaps our most important priority this year is our omni-channel gaming solutions,” he explained. “We have delivered the first live solution to link the landbased gaming account to the online account with the launch of Coral Connect, but for us this is the start of our journey.” Thompson-Hill purposely uses the term ‘omni-channel’ instead of ‘multi-channel. “Multi-channel is an operational view how you allow the customer to complete transactions in each channel. Omni-channel, however, is viewing the experience through the eyes of your customer, orchestrating the customer experience across all channels so that it is seamless, integrated, and consistent. Omni- channel anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution. Making these complex ‘handoffs’ between channels must be fluid for the customer. Simply put, omni-channel is multi-channel done right.” The company’s omni-channel solutions will be the focus of their ICE offering. But the firm also has plans to increase its already impressive client list. Thompson-Hill commented: “We know that there is a perception that OpenBet is expensive and complex to deploy. I can’t comment on our competitors’ pricing and how we compare, but as for complexity
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goes, well a sports betting platform is complex - there is no getting away from it. Especially for some of our customers because they want a bespoke system, but we have recognised that this is something we need to address.” As such the firm has developed ‘Keystone’ - a cut down version of its main product with the emphasis on speed to market. “We should have the ability to go after smaller customers at lower cost to them and to us. The industry does want more of a managed service so we’ve built the new platform to do exactly that. It’s a cut down platform that aims to meet needs very quickly and at low-cost. We will be live with a website on Keystone in March.” Keystone is in effect an out of the box solution providing the key features of the OpenBet system, hence the name. It will still retain key features such as: base inrunning, ability to change the front-end on the fly and all the performance of the back end delivered in one box. It’s also hosted by a third-party and allows third-party trading systems to be plugged in very easily. “It’s all about fast to deploy at low cost but with quality,” he explained. Thompson-Hill also said that the major operators these days are happier to relinquish control in some areas of the business rather than the entire platform after a previous spate of firms trying to bring their platforms in-house. Thompson-Hill said: “After they’ve decided they can do things themselves and
t the 2015 edition of ICE Totally Gaming in London, entrepreneurs will have an invaluable chance to command the attention of all delegates in a bid to secure investment by pitching their businesses directly to attendees. Called Pitch ICE, the free and easy-toenter opportunity for start-ups sees businesses given 15 minutes to sell their concepts live on the show floor during the world’s largest betting and gaming event. All pitches will be filmed and shown online, where a public vote over the two weeks following ICE 2015 will determine the best pre- and post-funding propositions. Applicants were asked to send in a twominute pitch video hosted on the GamCrowd website setting out the business idea, including a short product demo and outlines what they want to achieve from the show. In addition to the opportunity of exposure from the live slots, the pitches will be promoted throughout ICE during the three day trade event in London. The winners from each category will be given essential PR support post-ICE to ensure that the pitches go from strength-to-strength. The creation of Pitch ICE was born through a partnership between GamCrowd and Clarion Events. Many of the betting and gaming industry’s products and services that have transformed the industry over the past two decades have been launched at ICE, and the introduction of Pitch ICE will look to nurture further innovation by giving entrepreneurs a platform from which to interact with the whole of ICE Totally Gaming 2015 at once.
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JEREMY THOMPSON-HILL: ‘WE’VE FOUND A GOOD BALANCE’
we have seen them come back to the fold, it’s not as easy as they thought. Two or three years ago there were very bullish IT directors who thought betting wasn’t that hard and wanted to use their own teams for development. Customers have looked at building and innovating areas of the platform and it hasn’t worked out as they planned. As a result we have now re-examined our partnerships and we have stronger deals than before that allow them control and flexibility and us to do what we are good at. “Bookmakers are more focused on what they do best and suppliers are better at understanding what those needs are and how to service them. We’ve found a good balance between allowing the bookmakers more territory in the technology platform that’s relevant to them and in return getting more territory in the back end part of the platform where our core strengths lie.”
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ICE Products & Services LOTTERY
Ideal preparation for a global lottery launch Ahead of going public with their plans, Betting Business caught-up with a team of Canadian-based gaming entrepreneurs to ask what brings them to ICE Totally Gaming as they plan the launch of a new online global lottery. an you start by telling us about your plans and what makes them so special? After quite literally years of research we identified an enormous opportunity for a properly licensed, private lottery to enter the market. State-run lotteries are essentially a voluntary tax, and as such, operate primarily for the purpose of generating revenue for the state and are only capable of offering odds often in the range of 1 in 14m up to 1 in 622m in the case of the Superenalotto to win the main jackpot. Our lottery is a raffle style, very similar to the Irish Sweepstakes lottery with a fixed number of tickets and a predictable set grand prize. We will offer odds of 1 in 450,000 for a $5 ticket all the way up to 1 in 5,625 or better to win a guaranteed jackpot of 1m euro or equivalent every draw. We will cre-
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ate add on lotteries with other guaranteed jackpots as the company grows. It’s a radical more equitable lottery, which we believe will engage with players. We will also be making charitable donations in the jurisdictions in which the jackpot winners reside which will generate goodwill, media traction and enhanced web traffic translating into additional ticket sales. What will you be doing in London and what do you want to get out of your time at the exhibition? We’ve got an extremely exciting story to tell and where better to tell it than at ICE? That being the case our primary purpose is to meet with our investor community comprising existing and interested investors and also to hold meetings with key partners who
are involved in the project including GB Media, who will be working with us on positioning, branding, strategic marketing and of course the launch. As well as connecting with our associates we will, of course, spend a lot of time walking the aisles meeting with the games and systems innovators who seem to gravitate to ICE and getting in some networking with what is arguably the most influential gathering of gaming’s best connected and smartest minds. We were here last year and it was a wonderful and an uplifting experience. This year it’s the final staging post prior to launch. When do you think you will go live? Everything is very much in place. We have the funding, we have best-in-breed partners, we have the financial systems and infra-
structure, we have our gaming license and the business model has been scrutinised, interrogated and examined by a virtual auditorium of individuals in the corporate gaming arena. We now need to sign-off on the creative, fine-tune the marketing and we are ready to go live in 2015. We’ve rented an apartment in Canary Wharf and I’m looking forward immensely to getting together with what is an inspirational group of entrepreneurs and gaming professionals with a shared vision to create a unique game changing lottery - as well as having a few pints in one of the most enjoyable cities on the planet! For more information and introductions visit the GB Media Stand SD4-C/D or contact jsullivan@gbmedia.eu
Our systems manage over 40,000 screens seven days a week
3-5 Feb 2015 See us on stand
S1-226
Thrilling displays and a first class performance
A central studio screen management system which organises multiple data sources, marketing images and live video for display on thousands of screens in real-time. MRG deliver digital display systems for the top brand bookmakers. Long-standing customers include Paddy Power, Coral, New Zealand Tote and Irish bureau services.
Contact MRG today for the latest information screen systems. Call 01453 820 840 or email sales@mrgsystems.co.uk MRG Systems Limited The Mill, Upper Mills Estate, Bristol Road Stonehouse, GL10 2BJ
T +44 (0)1453 820840 F +44 (0)1453 820860
E sales@mrgsystems.co.uk W www.mrgsystems.co.uk
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services GAMEACCOUNT NETWORK
GW GAMES
GW Games unveils launch portfolio In the lead-up to ICE, gambling’s most formidable exhibition, GameAccount Network’s commercial director Daniel Lindsay explains the commercial prowess of Simulated Gaming.
GW Games has been improving the distribution of its games, making it easier than ever for operators to add the firm’s games to their own portfolio.
Helping operators get ‘faster, higher, stronger’ hat are the business objectives from attending ICE? The key business objectives are to drive our Simulated Gaming products globally, help land-based content developers move their games online in a quick and cost efficient manner, continue to build on our very strong position in the regulated Italian market - where we will be adding new operators in 2015 - and deliver best-in-breed content wherever our Internet Gaming System is deployed. I believe that Simulated Gaming has the potential to be the online phenomenon of 2015 and we are going to ICE on the back of what was a transformational 2014. We had hugely successful showings at both G2E Las Vegas, and G2E Asia and we are confident of a similar outcome at what is GameAccount’s home show.
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For those of our readers who aren’t already aware, can you provide a resume of what Simulated Gaming is? Essentially, it is a social gaming product off Facebook which allows players to purchase virtual credits enabling them to play their favourite slot and table games on a website which may be connected to a land-based casino. It’s perfect for land-based casinos that want to offer a form of online gaming in an environment prior to real money gaming legislation being in place. Our patented iBridge technology allows for an integration into the land-based casino management system which, in turn, allows rewards to be made to players who buy credits online if they have a land-based loyalty card - and where allowed. What are the commercial attractions of Simulated Gaming to land-based
operators? Simulated Gaming drives incremental revenue in three main ways. Firstly and obviously, a stream of players buying virtual credit packages online to play slots and table games. Secondly, in doing so, it re-activates lapsed landbased players and drives them back to the land-based venue for gaming and associated in-venue activities. Finally, it generates new land-based players who may have played online and want to visit the bricks and mortar site. There is a classic accelerator effect for the casino as well as a brand new revenue stream. How do you see the company’s footprint developing in 2015? We have a clear global vision and the international make-up of the ICE visitor base is a major attraction. One of our main strategic aims lies in continuing the penetration of our free to play slots product in North America. However, outside of that, we will be launching in Australia later this year and in the real money regulated markets we will continue to develop our business by providing the very best in breed games for our operating partners. Asia remains a very interesting market despite the complexities; the sheer scale of the opportunity there means it can’t be ignored. Our main challenges, and these aren’t unique to us, are dynamic regulations and the somewhat stuttering nature of the roll-out of real money gaming in the US. However, this is also a very positive note for GameAccount as in fact, our free to play solution can be offered without the need for real money regulations to be in place. Those regions aside, where else do you
envisage growth? We already have a strong and sustainable business in the regulated .com and .it markets and our aim is to continue to build on our progress. Specifically, we serve content to over 65 per cent of the Italian market and we will be adding new operating partners to our network there. It’s a hugely complex market where there is still a very healthy appetite for strong slot content. In that regard, in addition to the formidable array of titles we offer, we are going to be launching content from a number of innovative content providers over the course of H1 2015. We constantly search for, and are approached by new content developers looking to get their games online. We offer a quick and efficient route to market, which means these companies can get reach to market in a short time frame and exposure of their games with some of the biggest regulated and licensed operators globally. Content is King and we have what we believe is the strongest portfolio of casino and slot games in the market. Finally, can you explain the challenge you are issuing at ICE? Our ICE creative is ‘Faster, Higher Stronger’ and in keeping with this we have issued a challenge to find gaming’s strongest operator at the show. There’s a special trophy for the stand visitor who records the highest score on a traditional fairground-style strength machine which we have sourced specially for the duration of ICE. It’s a light hearted way of underlining our key qualities of being able to deliver powerful gaming solutions and, thanks to our agility as a smaller, fitter company - deliver them extremely quickly!
ot on the heels of last month’s official brand launch, cross-platform content development studio GW Games arrives at ICE Totally Gaming armed with an impressive portfolio of games, aimed at online, mobile and land-based platforms and operators. Proven and successful games are now live and earning on OpenBet and Microgaming Quickfire, and GTS/VF, Leander,
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widely available. “And the fact that these partners’ own client lists include operators such as Rational Group, Amaya, 888.com, Bet365, Coral, Gala and Unibet is a huge positive for us as we look to build upon our existing strong relationships with Betfair, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Sky Vegas and William Hill.” Far from being a flashin-the-pan new developer, GW Games is the product of decades of heritage, has been years in the refining and comes to market with a developing game portfolio that is bursting with both gameplay excellence and design creativity. A line-up that includes Gold Strike, Egyptian Gold, Dr Frantic & the Lab of Loot, Spinner Takes All, Dr Frantic & the Monster Spins, Wok Star, Lucky’s Empire, Teenage SKY VEGAS’ ROBERT PARKER Kicks, The Baron and Reel Buddies combines Odobo and GECO all join the traditional with the the fold in Q1/Q2 2015 radical; the dark with the with the online and mobile light; the comical with the releases of games such musical. as the hugely successful Robert Parker, head of Gold Strike and the come- games at Sky Vegas, condy-themed Wok Star. firmed: “GW Games has According to commer- supplied us with a numcial director Andrew Hen- ber of games, now inson, while the focus of the cluding the likes of Gold studio’s evolution is very Strike and Spinner Takes much placed on game All. They have an excelcreativity, the securing of lent team, supplying a broad spectrum of quality content that is almeaningful partnerships ways delivered to us in is also an extremely imexcellent condition. Most portant priority. “The likes importantly though, the of Leander’s LeGa game games really resonate aggregation platform, with our customers and Odobo’s developer distri- the performance of their bution programme and titles so far has been suthe GECO RGS mean that perb. We hope to see high quality GW Games more of their titles on our will quickly become more platform very soon.”
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services MAGNET GAMING
Bringing social lessons to real money gaming hat are Magnet Gaming’s services and can you explain your company’s unique journey from social gambling to realmoney igaming? We develop a wide variety of slot games for online gambling operators in regulated markets. Our aim is to offer the most engaging, cross-platform, casual gaming experience. We’ve been building and operating social casino games in our native Denmark and across Europe for over a decade now. When Denmark deregulated we were the first home-grown supplier to be granted a real money licence. Since then we’ve been using the skills we learnt in the social sector and applying them to the real money world. Our plan now is to take that onto the international stage.
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What game mechanisms has your team looked to transfer from social/mobile games sector to the Real Money Games sector? We have very low churn rates at Magnet Gaming. That’s because we know what players want and are able to utilise the CRM
Mads Veiby, cofounder and CEO of Magnet Gaming, explains why his firm is making a splash at ICE 2015.
MAGNET GAMING CEO MADS VEIBY
tools that work so effectively in the social sector. We are also very careful to analyse player journeys and their playing habits to make sure they continue to enjoy the experience. That is critical in any market, but particularly so in an established one like the UK where competition is very stiff. Magnet Gaming places a high emphasis on creating cross-platform player experience. How does your team tackle development and player engagement for this crucial mechanism? We take cross-platform development very seriously. We don’t cut corners and make sure players enjoy the same game experience whatever device they chose to play it on. We are exclusively focused on HTML5, which allows us to deliver on a cross-channel platform with simultaneous launches on PC, mobile and tablet. We’re not delivering a scaled-down, inferior experience on mobile, as some providers do. Our games are the same on a variety of devices, with optimisations only to user interface to suit specific ways of playing on de-
vices. Modern players want to able to play on their phones, tablets and PCs all on the same day, so that’s what we let them do - despite the time and effort it takes. iGaming has witnessed a lot of standardised game formats; has the industry become too formalised. What should operators look to do, in order to bring in fresh ideas and thinking? On the surface, there has never been more choice for online casino players. More companies are producing more games than ever before. But below that surface there is a lot of uniformity, which is turning people off. Many slots games now have very similar maths models and are formulaic. There are also a lot of aggressive, volatile games that do not suit everybody. Operators need to cater for all-comers. We think there is a missed opportunity to cater for more casual players who don’t see themselves as gamblers. Many are female and come to casino from bingo and lottery products. Our ‘sociable casino’ philosophy has gone down very well in Denmark and we think it
would suit these players too. Finding new revenue streams like this will be crucial to operators in 2015. You have had success in the tough and competitive Danish market. What can you transfer to the wider European iGaming market? I think our greatest skill as a company is retaining players. Many end-users have been with us for years because they enjoy our games and the experience they get when playing them. That is common in social casino, but we’ve been able to transfer this to real money too. Players will inevitably move around because there are new games to try every day and tempting sign-up offers. But having players stick around is the circle everyone is trying to square, as sustainable revenue streams is what we’re all striving towards. We’ve managed this at home; there’s no reason why we can’t do it internationally too. Looking ahead to 2015, what impacts and factors must the igaming and social gaming industries tackle in order to ensure long term growth and sustainability? Should issues be tackled independently by the sectors, or should they look to act together? Regulation and taxation are going to be the two major issues for everyone in 2015, be they suppliers or operators. The deregulation of markets provides exciting opportunities, provided the taxation regimes are not too draconian. But increased taxation like point of consumption in the UK is going to have a big effect too. Operators need good localised content which appeals to a wider group of players than what is currently on offer in order to diversify revenue streams and grow new ones. I think we should act together as an industry, as well as across sectors, because we’re all in it together ultimately.
STAND N6-342
MRG SYSTEMS
BIDS5 boosts betting businesses RG plans to target international visitors to its stand S1-226 at ICE 2015. The firm’s Ian Hunter explained: “The UK market recognises we offer the most automated and comprehensive screen management system available. But there is a wealth of international visitors who have yet to discover what we offer and we want to change that in 2015. Our invitation goes out to anyone with a multiplicity of screens and we will inspire them with our latest solution; BIDS5, whatever they need to manage.” BIDS5 is flexible and is designed to provide each new service with its own distinctive branding. The new breed of PC based shop servers exploit the latest screen technologies to optimise gantry screen displays. It is easy to customise through promotions, specials
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and with high definition graphics. BIDS5 offers more control, greater automation and the highest production values to achieve exceptional results for clients. This comprises an outstandingly rich and immersive experience for shop customers through its video wall and video overlay capabilities. Hunter added: “BIDS5 users stand out from the crowd because they able to introduce more betting opportunities than with any other system. Just look at what our cus-
tomers Paddy Power, Coral and other users are doing in their shops. Routine procedures are converted to ‘Automations’ which frees up additional resource to manage marketing campaigns more effectively. Clients with BIDS5 have more dynamic displays, greater capacity to cover multiple events and outperform other systems by optimising their advertising campaign capabilities.” MRG is showing new products designed to provide customers with easier access to the information a modern betting office has available. The new Managers Monitor comprises a touchscreen 21” Slate from HP with templates from MRG’s automated screen services. The system has been totally redesigned for release later this year. The
screen provides speedy access to key information by busy counter staff. The home page offers selections for the day’s racing and links to all Sports betting markets. Nonrunners, early prices and shows are maintained with live updates throughout the day. Lightweight and slim the high definition screen doubles as a customer information terminal if desired. The All-in-One (AiO) screen is a large screen split into ten columns to show a day’s racing; it’s a digital newspaper for betting shops. Early prices, non-runners, shows and results are maintained automatically throughout the day to ensure customers have accurate information and the best betting experience.
STAND S1-226
SELECT YOUR WEAPON
sales@microgaming.co.uk
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services COLOSSUS BETS
DIGITOTE
Taking a piece of the fraction
Gary Anderson steps up to Digitote stand
Bernard Marantelli, CEO at Colossus Bets, discusses the wider implications of the fractional cash-in facility. t the beginning of 2015 it is almost a rarity to watch a sports betting television advert which does not promote the relevant firm’s ‘cash out’ option. As more players are exposed to this feature and embrace it, cash out will become an essential component for operators looking to provide their players with the full ‘product suite’ - just like having an app or offering live streaming of sports. Lee Richardson of Gaming Economics reported last year: “Early-adopter operators [of cash out functionality] such as Betfair and William Hill have reported of their customers’ reduced propensity to churn, increase in betting frequency and increase in average stakes. I would add that this functionality also enables the operator to generate a second revenue stream from the player’s original bet (via the margin applied
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to the cash out offer), as well as reducing the volatility of the operator’s revenue, with players closing positions earlier for smaller but more frequent profits. “The logical extension of the conventional binary cash out option, is enabling the player to cash out a portion of his bet and retain a portion for a correspondingly reduced share in the full return from the bet. It doesn’t need to be the ‘do you, don’t you?’ question posed in the Betfair advert. Of course given that Colossus Bets has pioneered ‘Fractional Cash-In’ on all of our multi-legs pools and had been granted patents on the technology, I would say this! “Since our launch in August 2013 Colossus Bets players have banked £1.3m from Fractional Cash-Ins. Every tweeter has an opinion on what percentage of a live Colossus ticket should be Cashed-In and at what
stage of the game. The feature has generated some great feel good PR stories for us, such as an 80p ticket which subsequently went on to lose, being Cashed-In for £57,000 along the way. “Whilst currently cash out is exclusively a sports-betting phenomenon, I think it can be of application in the wider gambling sector, including casino, slots/arcade games and even lotteries. To this end I am really excited by a deal Colossus Bets has struck with Core Gaming, with Core now in the process of building a Colossus branded slot game, featuring a Fractional Cash-In component. “We are close to unveiling a prototype of the game, so if you’d like to see the application to a slot game of the most transformational feature in sports betting over the past couple of years, hunt me down at ICE!”
The 2015 World Darts Champion will be one of many things worth seeing at Digitote’s ICE stand. igitote will show its new Customer Information Screens for Livebets that supports all sport types and takes advantage of the increasing availability of affordable Ultra HD Monitors. Despite showing the core Digitote product Xturf (Wallet and Sportsbook) for shops, mobile and self-service machines), Digitote has invited special guests to help promoting their products to customers. Sport1 is the leading sports multimedia brand in Germany with its TV, online, mobile, radio and social media offers. Sport1 stands for premium live sport, proven sports expertise and
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SIS
Digital portfolio on display
which gives bookmakers a different way of attracting and retaining punters. Its ‘open streaming’ service, unlike others, allows punters to view content free of charge before placing bets. Join SIS on stand S1-140 to find out more about its exciting new digital products and services.
high-quality, entertaining reporting. In London Sport1 has teamed up with Digitote to showcase its content at ICE and what offers are available in the German market for gaming and betting companies. Digitote supports online streaming to Sport1 TV Text pages and streaming of live odds into live TV content. Sport1 representatives will be present during these three days at the Digitote stand and they are not the only ones. On Tuesday, 3 February between 13pm visitors to ICE are invited to come and meet the 2015 World Darts Champion Gary Anderson at Digitote’s stand. Presented by Sport1, Gary ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson won the Final of the 2015 William Hill World Darts Championship against Phil Taylor. He is currently ranked third in the PDC World Ranking. Beginning his career in 2000, he has won several BDO and PDC tournaments so far. At the Digitote stand he will sign autographs from 3-4pm after which he is going to show his extraordinary darts skills.
STAND S1-140
STAND S1-160
Better known for its supply to LBOs, SIS will be showing off its digital capabilities at ICE. IS, a leading supplier to the global betting and gaming industries, will be showcasing a suite of innovative, exciting digital products across multiple platforms. SIS is Spanish football’s first official, exclusive partner for collection and distribution of live data and is providing high quality, pre-match, in-running, and post-match data products tailored to bookmakers’ needs. This super-fast data includes Alert and Danger messages direct to the trading
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room by feed, interface client or console. Dynamic visualisation will also be showcased and presents sports in a more engaging way for punters - taking them through the full experience of an event from start to finish. For horse racing visual updates are provided for parading, going down, the race and the result, all to help encourage betting. SIS Stream will also be featured on the SIS stand, and is a multi-platform solution
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ISLE OF MAN
The impact of point of consumption Peter Greenhill, Head of e-gaming, The Isle of Man Department of Economic Development, talks about POC tax and its impact on the Isle of Man and wider industry. he online gaming industry is in the midst of a seismic change and, undoubtedly, one of the most significant regulatory developments in 2014 was the introduction of the point of consumption (POC) tax. Having come into force on 1st December last year, there is no doubt that it will challenge the operational mechanisms of the e-gaming landscape, as operators seek to maintain revenues and margins under differing market conditions. The Isle of Man has focussed on how it can best adapt to this regulatory change. The existing and potential licensees on the island need not fear! The effect of POC on the Isle of Man online gaming sector is minimal compared to other jurisdictions because, despite each Isle of Man licence having a different operating
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strategy and different player profiles geographically, the vast majority of players addressed by Isle of Man operators reside outside the UK. This means that our licensees on the Isle of Man can retain their current structures with all of the accompanying benefits. The introduction of POC also means that offshore licence holders are required to either appoint a UK based Financial Representative who, at great expense, will take responsibility and personal liability to pay UK HMRC the duty owed or may negotiate to pay six months duty in advance. The positive news as far as the Isle of Man is concerned is that we have negotiated an arrangement with the UK tax authorities that UK facing operators licensed with us do not need to take on this vast expense. This
represents a major saving over other jurisdictions. In addition, the Isle of Man will allow our licence-holders relief against Double Duty for UK players and the Island’s Gambling Supervision Commission has been approved to offer Dispute Resolution Services to those operators holding both UK and Isle of Man licences. Hopefully, this decision provides reassurance to Isle of Man licence holders so they can continue to run their operations from data centres on the Island. Further afield, the new tax is likely to cause market share consolidation as rising costs force smaller players out of the market and a slowdown in the number of start-ups being launched. The ‘new’ regulated sector is fast becoming the preserve of the big industry players, as evi-
denced in both Europe and the US. The post-POC landscape will see a lot of M&A activity across the sector. New entrants will have to realise that to succeed they require a strong unique selling proposition and that another vanilla sports-book offering will simply not survive in what is now a mature e-gaming landscape. Businesses which lack funding, or those which could not come up with strong enough ideas, will shut shop. Those that are facing the UK with small margins are going to be hit by the UK taxation, so we are going to see increased pressure on them over the next 12 months. Whilst it’s inevitable that POC will impact the operating margins of UKfacing companies, and will result in the loss of a number of existing licensees who have not reached their revenue goals, we are also seeing an
increase in the number of very innovative and unique businesses, with more robust financial plans, realistic marketing budgets and, most importantly, the right magnitude of investment to succeed in a tough market. On the Isle of Man, we are seeing companies coming in from the four corners of the globe including the Asian market, where we already have an excellent reputation, and also from the emerging markets in the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere; we see this as one of the main drivers of growth in 2015. The industry landscape might be changing rapidly, but I remain optimistic for the sector, and for the Isle of Man’s ability to adapt to the newly regulated market.
STAND N5-320
Faster Higher Stronger
Gaming solutions from online’s most agile software and content developer
gameaccountnetwork.com London | Las Vegas
Stand: N2-310
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services A BET A
BETCONSTRUCT
‘Robust, reliable, and cost-effective’
BetCosntruct plans to give business a Spring
A BET A’s Jason Hardman details what his company will be showing at ExCeL this week. Bet A is a leading supplier of betting systems to retail bookmakers, call centres, and online sportsbooks. We provide robust, reliable, and cost-effective transactional and operational software to fixed odds and pool betting operators in the UK and Ireland, as well as markets overseas. Ease of transaction will feature prominently for us at ICE 2015, when we unveil new products and services designed to make life easier for punters. The first such innovation is the new Smart Screen display which brings to life betting data in a way that engages customers and promotes betting activity. It also prevents latency issues that have plagued retail bookmaking for years, finally removing the discrepancy between the odds shown on shop tills and customerfacing screens, a persistent source of dissatisfaction. Other system benefits include cutting out
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the need for in-venue graphics control hardware and expensive installations. Operated by the in-shop EPOS terminal, the Smart Screens prevent data relay and can be delivered over a wide-area network to licensed end users. As well as in-shop EPOS developments, we’ll be unveiling new technology to aid both customers and bookmakers in remote locations. The new platform will provide an ultra-portable, all-encompassing mobile EPOS solution for emerging markets at an unbeatable cost. Our secure, in-shop EPOS system is the most fully functional product on the market. It is now used in traditional shops, modern betting lounges and kiosks around the world. It can be used as a stand-alone device or linked back to a head office site for liability control and event management. Operators
can also configure it to control their credit business within a shop environment as a small call centre would. Working in tandem with this system is our BetMaker device, a pre-authorised betting slip creator, a unique and valuable addition to betting shops. Customers can browse and compile their own bets on the shop floor before bringing them to the counter for validation. In addition, we offer self-service betting terminals that provide a full range of sports betting opportunities, including virtual sports, in-running betting, and traditional fixed odds. These can be tailored to incorporate a bookmaker’s own branding, graphic design and racing rules. So too can our online sportsbook product, which is fast, flexible, and compatible with call centres and gaming platforms. It enables customers to place a bet, play games or view account information with a single account reference number.
market that controls the entire chain of its in-running offer - from the data collection at the venue right through to the compilation and delivery of odds. In total, the coverage amounts to over 18,000 live events in 18 sports around the clock each month, providing over 350 unique odds types. Managed Trading Services, the latest product innovation from Betradar, helps to optimise the profit of each bookmaker by externalising labour-intensive tasks and dealing with them efficiently and cost-effectively. The service puts Betradar’s experts in global betting markets to work for their clients and enables them to completely or partly outsource their trading. From providing the fixtures to compiling the odds, monitoring the liabilities to finally confirming the results - all conducted by the companies’ highly experienced and committed trading analysts, who administer the entire process, providing their clients with the largest and most competitive sports betting offer for both pre-match and live betting. Moreover, with its Virtual Sports Betting portfolio, Betradar attempts to stir up the sports betting and gaming industry worldwide. Betradar’s Virtual Sports Betting products deliver fast-paced real money betting all day long across retail, mobile and online.
CE is generally regarded as ‘the’ event in the gaming industry calendar and, in recognition of this, BetConstruct has much sponsorship around the show as well as a large team of experts to demonstrate and assist all industry professionals. Debuting at ICE 2015, BetConstruct will build on its existing offerings with ‘Spring’ its most complete gaming platform to date. Spring enables gaming operators to quickly and easily grow their gross gaming revenue while controlling the costs of growth. Spring is equipped with a complete line of products and services designed to work seamlessly together. Additionally, Spring is completely white-label equipped and ready to be implemented quickly within your business. New or well established, all operators who want success must offer their customers a memorable and satisfying gaming experience; one that drives wager values, loyalty and revenues. It’s vital to provide betting opportunities that attract, engage and match personal playing preferences. Spring enables gaming operators to quickly and easily grow their gross gaming revenue without unnecessary overhead with a complete line of products and services designed to work together. Best of all, Spring is completely white-label equipped, ready to implement seamlessly within any business. Spring opens the gates to an operator’s growth through: Providing access to more vertical markets: Increase revenues by offering more players the involving betting and gaming opportunities they seek and the exciting experiences they desire. Supplying powerful back office tools: Effectively manage the business operations with an integrated suite of convenient back office tools accessible via the web. Reducing operator costs with all-inclusive services: Reduce the staffing costs that business growth can cause with services provided to all our partners at no additional cost. Encouraging revenue growth with simple commercial offers: Extra products create new revenue opportunities. Our transparent and very competitive pricing actively encourages operators to add new products to their portfolio, at a price that makes commercial sense.
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BETRADAR
The one-stop shop provider for betting and gaming operators worldwide etradar is a brand of Sportradar, a global leader in understanding and leveraging the power of sports data and digital content for its clients around the world. Since its founding in 2001, Betradar has developed into a key player in the industry. Today, Betradar provides all the necessary services to run a successful bookmaker operation, such as fixtures, results, odds compiling, trading tools, in-running services, front-end content solutions, live streaming solutions and innovative gaming solutions. This diverse portfolio enables Betradar to meet the challenges and demands of the international bookmaking industry in a forward-looking manner while helping to maximise the profit of each client. At Betradar, the past year was again marked by some momentous decisions and benchmark-setting innovations. These included the introduction of Betradar’s Managed Trading Services, the launch of Betradar’s new Live Channel Online and Betting Software, the development of new virtual gaming solutions in combination with Betradar’s new Remote Game Server, and many more. In particular, the launch of Betradar’s new Managed Trading Services represents a key milestone in the execution of Betradar’s strategy of becoming the industry’s unique ‘one-stop-shop’ provider, offering a diverse portfolio of turnkey sports betting solutions. Today, Betradar offers the most comprehensive and reliable Live Odds & Live Scouting service and is the only supplier in the
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services CALLCREDIT INFORMATION GROUP
TAB AUSTRIA
Operators advised to Go4Platinum
Customer analysis the key to gaining a clearer picture Sadie Guymer, head of sales (gaming) at Callcredit Information Group, talks about how customer analysis can boost business. nline gambling has transformed the gaming industry over the last two years largely thanks to the growth in sports betting and the rapid increase in customers using both mobile and tablet devices. In a fast paced sector where growth is key, we understand the importance of player acquisition, retention strategies and risk management. As such we offer the gaming sector a suite of solutions that help to find the most profitable players, provide insight in to how to keep them, reduce the risk of fraud, whilst at the same time helping operators to meet regulatory requirements. Our CallValidate solution has become a highly regarded ID Verification solution across the industry due to its ability to verify instantly customers’ names, addresses and date of birth details, whilst performing a real-time check against payment de-
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tails to safeguard against fraud and meet regulatory requirements. However, as the industry becomes a more heavily regulated market, the key focus for Callcredit throughout 2015 will be to help gaming operators increase the level of insight held on customers in order to meet enhanced due diligence requirements, whilst at the same time increasing customer acceptance rates and improving the customer experience by verifying genuine customers quickly and efficiently. We aim to do this through our dedicated consultancy team who will optimise the insight we provide to operators not only through offering guidance on industry best practice and benchmarking but also by having the knowledge to create bespoke models and strategies using operators existing player performance data. This will enable operators to better under-
stand the characteristics of their customer base not only to identify high-value players but also to make it easier to identify any abnormalities and identify possible fraud throughout the customer lifecycle. We’ll also continue to listen to our clients’ needs and deliver further robust solutions throughout 2015 to maximise volumes of successful registrations quickly and simply, focussing on person verification, payment validation and device profile capabilities to guarantee that operators have the most in-depth information on their customers to hand.
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XB NET
XB Net: the source for US racing n the heels of a strong 2014, XB Net returns to ICE to provide firms with live wagering on thousands of horse and greyhound races from the United States each year. A member of the powerful Stronach Group, which owns and operates several racetracks in the United States, including Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita Park and Pimlico, XB Net is the definitive source for North American racing. It serves as your one-stop solution to content rights, wagering, video and data from hundreds of the world’s best racetracks, and allows you to quickly and easily add them to your portfolio. Live racing from the United States provides organisations an attractive, risk-free wagering product. XB Net offers access to 180,000 live thoroughbred, harness and greyhound races annually, with racing in the US beginning at 12:00pm locally and continuing for 12 hours. The quantity and breadth of racing in the US allows European punters to continue to play the races at their convenience online, well after local LBOs have closed for the day. Billions of dollars are wagered annually on US races, and XB Net makes it easy for operators to put their customers in a position to win their share. Plus, with North America’s com-
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ith ICE Totally Gaming 2015 being the largest and most comprehensive trade event in gaming, every sector is represented, be it betting, bingo, casino, lottery, mobile, online, social or street gaming. Whichever sector a firm belongs to, it will find a plethora of products and content to drive the business forward in 2015 and beyond. This year TAB Austria will be located at booth, no S2-330, where the visitor’s attention will be especially drawn to the latest betting cabinet solutions and the latest version of the Golden Island Gaming platform. Additionally, TAB will show its amusement products Fun4Four and Max Fire HD. As a highlight at this year’s show the Fun4Four game table has been given a whole new look and feel. TAB Austria will also unveil a host of new games including more features and high performing content. One of the key products is the betting cabinet Go4Platinum. TAB Austria offers a wide range of turnkey terminal solutions that provide a unique player experience and refer to almost all the top players in the industry. With TAB’s terminals solutions bookmakers can easily bring their ideas to the market. Colour, equipment, screen size all the terminals can be customised to spec and equipped them with hardware devices like card reader, hoppers, recycler or NFC as the business needs for its own requirements. TAB’s solutions are implemented currently within sports betting, fixed odds betting, gaming and video lottery terminals, with many more appliances yet to come. The new Go4Platinum betting cabinet is ‘extremely well designed’ and equipped with the ‘latest and best’ components. The terminals will be finished in the customer’s corporate colours and will enhance enduser’s betting experience. The new Go4Platinum cabinet is characterised by its ultra-slim body and the clear and futuristic lines. It has been designed to deliver convenience and player comfort in betting shops. It includes carefully considered screen positioning, an easy-to-reach button panel and plenty space for leg clearance.
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mingled wagering model, operators make money each time one of their customers places a wager, win or lose. And with daily jackpots and massive pools that often exceed US$1m, customers will want to play the races from the US daily. XB Net’s exclusive and proprietary EasyGate Solution allows it to stand apart from competitors and provide its partners with instant access to live data, video, wagering pathways and news and tips for hundreds of racetracks from around the world. EasyGate’s multi-tote interface serves as an international hub and connects partners with racetracks in the US, as well as the UK, Germany and South Africa, eliminating the need to hire expensive odds compilers and risk managers. In 2015, XB Net plans to enhance the quality of service provided by EasyGate, with high definition quality video, enhanced data offerings and additional improvements planned. XB Net will be at ICE all week and keen to dicsuss how US racing can benefit bookmakers. The firm has a presence with a number of exhibitors, including Best Gaming Technologies, the Perform Group, Press Association or GBI Racing.
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services YGGDRASIL GAMING
MICROGAMING
HTML5 more than just a Flash in the pan
Microgaming opens Windows with new app
Fredrik Elmqvist, CEO and founder of Yggdrasil Gaming, explains why his firm is now fully embracing HTML5 technology.
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CE is the daddy of all online gaming events and we can’t wait to show off our shiny, new HTML5 framework at the show
this year. The framework enables ‘tandem drops’ simultaneous desktop and mobile game launches - which allows our partners to reduce their marketing spend by focusing on one launch campaign across all platforms. By utilising numerous loading and caching techniques, it has also been designed to have incredibly fast loading times. This is what the modern-day slot player demands, particularly when it comes to mobile where connections can
often be slow. The first game available on the new framework is The Dark Joker Rizes, a follow-up to our hugely popular Jokerizer slot. It is a feature rich game which will give players a far deeper experience regardless of what device they are playing it on. Mobile gaming growth continues to explode and HTML5 is now really overtaking Flash as the dominant technology in the industry. We have invested heavily in it and have made a strategic decision to migrate all of our content to the new framework during 2015. A major advantage of HTML5 is that we are able to use the same codebase for both desktop and mobile. This reduces development time and allows for the tandem drops across all plat-
forms. It also gives players a greater emotional connection to the game as the experience will be the same no matter whether they are playing on a PC, tablet, iPhone or Android device. The new framework has been made by developers for developers to maximise efficiency. A developer environment can be set up from scratch in just 10 minutes and will be fully automated with a clear, well-defined code structure that is easy to extend and maintain. Everything about this new product has been created with the player and the operator in mind. The players will know immediately that they will get a top class experience wherever they play the game, while the operators can deliver an engaging launch campaign yet still streamline their marketing costs. We have put a huge amount of time and effort into this new HTML5 framework and we are confident that we have created a market-leading proposition. Come and see us at ICE to find out more.
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icrogaming is continuing to spearhead the movement in mobile gaming with the release of the industry’s first real-money casino app on the Windows Phone Store. Released in November, the app is suitable for any device running on either Windows Phone 8.0 or Windows Phone 8.1. Developed from scratch using native code and native user interface components, it features over 35 of Microgaming’s premium games, including online slots, progressives, table games and video poker. The app has been designed with the end user in mind; a simple and intuitive user interface allows a player to install and play a game in just two taps. It also detects the player’s device type and alters the experience accordingly to ensure faultless gameplay. Now live, the app will be updated, adding new games, new features and enhancing its performance, regularly. In addition, updates will be made to ensure compatibility with new Windows operating systems, such as Windows 10, which when released will enable the app to run on even more Windows devices. John Quinn, head of casino at Microgaming, explained: “We follow mobile developments very closely and recent statistics show that the Win-
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OPTIMA
iSHOP gets live demonstration ptima has been making its presence felt in the industry by signing 30 clients worldwide for its sports betting and gaming platform during the second half of 2014. And with a host of announcements planned for ICE, this year is looking to take them from strength to strength. Optima’s multichannel gaming system, OptimaMGS, comes with a ‘super class’ sportsbook product powered by OPTIMA MarginMaker. MGS instant common wallet integration framework allows multiple poker, bingo, casino and games from any independent game developer to be promoted and managed under the same platform in a common bonus strategy spanning across channels and brands or suppliers. Optima Certified Partner Network includes a number of game developers - the catalogue makes thousands of titles available in the MGS platform ready for a pick and release exercise. Optima’s Certified Partner Network is being unveiled at the show. The network includes a myriad of third party payment, e-gaming and sports betting suppliers who
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have solutions certified by Optima such as Worldpay, Paypal, PaysafeCard, Skrill, Neteller, Retail2Web, Betradar, Betgenius, Inspired, Realistic Games, Microgaming, Amaya, Ezugi and Evolution games amongst others. Optima CEO Jacob Curciel said: “We have finished a very successful and robust 2014 signing new customers for the MGS platform. We have invested heavily to expand our software and services catalog for the e-gaming industry by acquiring MarginMaker Sportsbook platform support, development and commercialisation rights from GTech. MarginMaker has now been improved in different areas such as security, reporting and integration. “Key additions in Optima’s platform are the introduction of the new integration API core for the Certified Partner Network, the serverless shop architecture for the EPOS product, the proprietary push synchronous content delivery API for web and mobile, the new sports book trading content integration system and the new reporting system which provides easy What You See
Is What You Get customer report design.” The innovative iSHOP betting system for the retail channel - which will be demonstrated live on the Optima stand at ICE - is being rolled out to shops worldwide. Optima will run a continuous presentation schedule each day at the ICE show where new products and the technology roadmap from Optima will be showcased. New products from the OptimaMGS Certified Partner Network will also be announced. Curciel added: “Optima’s mission is to develop, maintain and support the most stable, scalable, fast, secure, efficient and modern modular e-gaming software suite in the market.” Eurofootball bet, UK BTC, Youwin.com, Corbettsport, BetCafe Arena, Go-Bet, Stanjames Group and JenningsBet are amongst the retail and online clients currently benefitting from Optima software and services.
dows Phone market share is increasing significantly across many European countries. With this in mind, we believe that Microsoft’s mobile platform is an important one to invest in. We saw an opportunity and we jumped at it!” The app is live with Microgaming-powered operator, JackpotCity. The operator commented: “This app, created by Microgaming, is the perfect gaming stage for our players with Windows Phones. It is feature rich, with a plethora of Microgaming’s first-class games, whilst also being incredibly user-friendly and reliable. It offers a firstrate gaming experience. “What’s more, apps such as these play an integral role in an online casino strategy, particularly in terms of retention and customer loyalty; it puts us in a great position to take full advantage of the thriving mobile gaming industry.”
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Essential Guide to ... ICE Products & Services SWISSBET
A new look from Swissbet Yan Rozum, CEO of the newly renamed Swissbet, is hoping to reintroduce the company at ICE. Welcome to Swissbet. We have renamed our company from Bettings.ch to Swissbet. It is a minor change but we felt it was important to do as it more accurately reflects the service that we have been delivering to our customers since our inception. We are a Switzerland based company which prides itself on delivering the best software engineered gaming solutions for our global clients - Swiss made iGaming solutions. While we continue to innovate and develop new technology our customers’ needs are primarily focused on the benefits we deliver, rather than on the underlying technology used to deliver those benefits. We are a Swiss solutions company, that provides front end to back end turnkey solutions for the sports betting in-
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dustry, to full spectrum iGaming and mobile gaming products. We understand your business. That is why we undertook a detailed review at how the online gaming market was developing from a software and technology supplier provision. We thought that the market was becoming commoditised and complicated in terms of igaming software for operators. Why? Every business and brand including the people managing that operation is unique and has very particular business requirements. So we decided to un-complicate matters with the introduction of our new platform that allows fast multiple integrations. Simply put, our platform provides separation of certain functional components, thus allowing gaming operators to inte-
grate content such as 3rd party slot games, country specific payment instruments quickly via our API into the core platform. This Swiss engineered solution of a modular approach to a scalable and flexible architecture provides the ability to customise and localisations of products and features for the gaming operator very quickly. We can provide localisations of bespoke sportsbook betting solutions for the African market and an Asian Agent betting system in accordance with the customer’s specifications and local markets regulatory requirements. The following are some of our solutions and services: Among the Swissbet solutions are online gaming, sports betting, social betting, skill games, mobile gaming and casino games. Swissbet localisations also cover Asian agent betting system, the African
betting, shops and online and the American sports, pay-per-head. On behalf of everyone here at Swissbet, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and we look forward to welcoming both new and existing clients to our booth.”
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SBTECH
VERMANTIA
Unveiling Chameleon360, mobile and retail solutions
Vermantia to unveil virtual, casino, lottery and social games
BTech is gearing up to present its cutting edge new solutions spanning online, mobile and retail at stand S2-210 of this year’s ICE Totally Gaming expo. On show will be SBTech’s new generation turnkey gaming platform, Chameleon360; a new suite of mobile products, including SBTech Touch; and their new sports betting terminals solution for retail/land-based operators. Chameleon360 is a fully comprehensive gaming and betting platform that features a powerful multi-product and multi-channel management system for an allin-one approach to both front-end and back-end sports betting and casino gaming. Players benefit from streamlined sports betting and casino gaming across multiple devices (online, mobile and retail) with a single sign-in, an enviable portfolio of leading games from top developers such as Microgaming, Net Entertainment and others, all leading payment methods from a variety of jurisdictions thanks to a flexible and robust payment gateway, and plenty of attractive offers and innovative promotions via an advanced bonus system. SBTech’s new suite of mobile products is equally impressive, with much of the emphasis being placed on SBTech Touch, an innovative new touch screen-optimised solution. SBTech Touch features a cutting edge HTML5 based design for maximum usability on any mobile device, from Android phones and tablets to iPads and everything in between. Optimising an already strong mobile product with today’s touch screen technology results in a smooth and responsive mobile sports betting and gaming experience that’s in high demand. Retail/land-based operators and betting shops will also benefit from SBTech Touch as it has been de-
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signed to be integrated into the new solution for sports betting terminals. Punters can enjoy top-ofthe-range pre-match and live sports betting capabilities via cutting edge touch screen terminals for quick and easy betting. Operators are afforded greater transparency and control of the entire system from a single console with the ability to build levels of management hierarchy as needed. SBTech CEO Itai Zak said: “It’s an exciting time for us here at SBTech. The team has put a lot of work in to developing a new generation of solutions designed to meet the demands of a fast-moving industry across online, mobile and retail channels and we’re eager to showcase our products at this year’s ICE expo.”
ermantia will exhibit its products and services at ICE Totally Gaming 2015, the largest and most comprehensive and international B2B gaming exhibition in the world. Vermantia will present to visitors a full suite of Virtual, Casino, Lottery and Social Games. 2014 was a transformative year for Vermantia with significant corporate and new games content development with several new Tier 1 operators signed up to promote our content. Alongside the heavy investment into the company’s products, Vermantia has also brought in a selection of very experienced and proven executives to bolster the management team. Vermantia’s stand will offer an interactive experience to its visitors who will have the opportunity to explore Vermantia’s products interactively throughout the stand. Vermantia’s core offering is Virtual Sports content which is delivered to both retail and interactive operators. We are developing a range of new Sports for release in 2015 with a focus on increasing the 3D graphics enhancing the players’ experience. We’ve recently completed the design and development of badminton, table tennis, cycling and archery in partnership with the China Sports Lottery and believe these represent the highest quality graphics in the industry to date. Head of sales and business development Tony Plaskow stated: “ICE is the annual meeting place for the gaming industry and we are very excited this year to present our new product portfolio. The introduction of this range of new products will allow both retail and interactive operators to deliver a unique offering to their customer whilst simultaneously boost their gaming revenues.”
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SBTECH CEO ITAI ZAK
DREAM THE GAME
Visit us at
N1-130
February 3rd-5th Ice Totally Gaming 2015 Excel, London
www.kirolsoft.com
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Retail B2B Retail Listings
gaming B2B machines R et ai l
www.sis.tv info@sis.tv
Promotion for Hammond
Summer approaching
Inspired Gaming has promoted gaming operations director Dave Hammond to SVP of mobile, while managing director Lee Gregory now takes responsibility for the whole integrated UK P&L. Phil Katsaros has also been engaged from IGT as head of business Development, Americas.
The 49’s teatime draw will switch to its ‘summer’ slot from Monday 16 February. Betting shop customers need to be aware that the draw, held at 4.49pm through much of the winter, will revert to 5.49pm from that date.
Gallagher takes the reins Doncaster Racecourse has a new executive director in the shape of Kieran Gallagher, who succeeds MD Mark Spincer. Simon Lane, ARC operations director, said: “We are delighted to be able to promote Kieran who has proved himself more than capable of leading one of ARC’s flagship racecourses.”
SYSTEM www.tab.at Better games through innovation
B2B marketing R et ai l
B2B publications R et ai l
OpenBet shows off omni-channel offer making sense of the gaming industry
B2B signage systems R et ai l
www.mrgsystems.co.uk sales@mrgsystems.co.uk
penBet is demonstrating a product range at ICE designed to facilitate a single view of the player and the technology that powers the industry’s first live omni-channel solution; Coral Connect. It is designed to boost revenues, while reducing acquisition costs and increasing customer loyalty. The OpenBet Unify Card is the key to unlocking the potential of an omni-channel offering and provides the vital missing link between land-based and online gaming. For the player, Unify holds together their username, password, profile and wallet, and is compatible wherever and whenever they want to bet or play. It provides unique insight into betting and gaming preferences. It also provides an insight into the previously anonymous retail player. A key feature of the ICE offering will be OpenBet Promote. Promote combines live video feeds, TV, audio, data feeds, HTML,
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Companies wanting a single view of their customers across all channels will find one on the OpenBet stand at ICE. RSS, and social media. The tailored, high-definition betting content display creates a live picture experience across multiple sports and games with real-time price, screen and content changes managed centrally via PromoteStudio. Continuing its commitment to re-defining the landbased gaming experience, the final product showcase will be OpenBet’s selfservice betting and gaming terminals, which allow operators to offer players a faster and more convenient way to enjoy their products. Players gain access to a range of markets, including in-play betting which has never previously been available in retail, as well as new, dynamic content that enhances the customer experience. Flexible deployment
means that costs are minimised and the adaptable nature of the product means that it can be changed to meet market conditions. OpenBet CEO Jeremy Thompson-Hill said: “Multi-channel and convergence have been the gaming industry’s buzz words in recent years, but there are different schools of thought as to what this truly is. Players don’t think in terms of channels and neither should we. They want a consistent, personalised experience regardless of device, and to carry on from where they left off. “This is the age of the consumer. OpenBet’s omni-channel offering allows our partners to build a meaningful and direct relationship with their customers - and to put a face to previously anonymous players.”
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COMPONENTS ISO accreditation anknote validatorInnovative Technologyhas seen its Chinese manufacturing plant Bellis Technologyreceive ISO9001:2008 quality management certification soon after a 2,500m² factory expansion. This standard is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement. Operations director TJ Crowley said: “The achievement by the Quality team at BTC to attain ISO9001:2008 approval status is a significant milestone in the development of our facility in Shenzhen.â€?
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GREYHOUNDS Bissett joins SIS ordon Bissett has joined SISas greyhound operations manager. Bissett, who was with Ladbrokes for 35 years and was most recently in charge of the bookmaker’s greyhound stadia, joins SIS in a move which will be seen as undelining the company’s commitment to greyhound racing. His appointment comes just a few weeks after the appointment as greyhound executive of Gary Baiden, former manager at Oxford. Bissett
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said: “SIS has great commitment to greyhound racing and the greyhound product, and it’s going to be interesting to see how we can develop the service. George Irvine, managing director at SIS Betting, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Gordon to the team. His knowledge of the sport is exceptional and we all see greyhound racing as developing further.�
SUPPORT
MarginMaker customers serviced by Optima
Tech’s sports betting and gaming customers on the MarginMaker platform are now being looked after by Optima, a B2B supplier of turnkey sports betting and gamSG Gaming makes B3 ing solutions, following the licence agreeMecca deal ment between the two firms last year. GTech vice president interactive and G Gaminghas signed a landmark fivesports betting commercial Paul Mears said: year agreement with Rank Groupto pro- “This agreement ensures that GTech’s existvide the company’s leading server-based gam- ing commercial customers using Margining solution to Mecca Bingo clubs across the Maker will receive high-quality ongoing supUK. The new strategic partnership will proport from Optima, enabling GTech to focus vide Mecca with SG Gaming’s industry leadon implementing its next-generation sports ing content library which consists of Categobetting platform for large-scale commercial ry B3, Category C games and community and World Lottery Association customers. games across a range of cabinets. The server- Optima’s staff has excellent experience with betting and gaming, is passionate about based gaming solution will also include the implementation of a fully networked terminal MarginMaker technology, and has demonstrated a commitment to excellence base that will offer operational efficiencies through ticket redemption stations and ticket throughout this process.� Optima has also acquired, by way of a perin, ticket out (TITO) functionality. SG Gaming’s Phil Horne said: “We have invested heavi- petual licence granted by GTech, certain ly into our platform solution over the past few rights to sublicense the MarginMaker platform to the global sports betting and gaming years and we are delighted to see the impleindustry. Jacob Curciel, CEO of Optima, exmentation of this solution into the bingo secplained: “The MarginMaker platform is extor on such a large scale.�
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cellent. It delivers to players a first-class sports betting and gaming experience across retail, online and mobile channels, and is the ideal platform to develop Optima’s business. “For several years Optima has supplied development and support services to sport betting and gaming organisations, many of which already use MarginMaker for their retail and online operations. The time was right for Optima to invest in acquiring full global rights to sublicense and support the MarginMaker platform in designated markets so that it will continue to deliver an integral, high quality service and software to its existing and new partners. Optima will continue to invest in MarginMaker to improve the platform and keep it up-to-date with the latest industry and regulatory requirements. “The acquisition both strengthens Optima’s B2B offering and enables the development of the platform to its full potential. That is what we intend to do for the benefit of our partners.�
Take the effort out of goalscorer pricing and settlement
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Sportsbook
“” We are now able to provide an even better service and to deliver data to all of our users quickly and accurately for all available leagues.
Janning Vygen CEO Kicktipp
Sportradar helps to Kicktipp Sportradar has entered into a partnership with online prediction game operator Kicktipp. The deal with the German based company includes the implementation of Sportradar Media Service’s Live Scores and Statistics solutions. From now on the online tipping game provider incorporates Live Scores and Statistics via XML feed into its website www.kicktipp.de and also into the Kicktipp app.
CONVERGENCE
How sports betting is demonstrating convergence leadership Leigh Nissim, commercial director at IGT Interactive with responsibility across all regulated markets, believes sports betting can teach other gambling sectors a thing or two.
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Adapt or die,’ the saying goes, and it is one that has long since been applicable to betting and gaming. Firmly lodged in the digital age, it is a ruthless business. Innovation leads the way in a multi-billion dollar industry which has mobilised – in every sense of the word to serve its end customer: the player. The most significant trend has been the emergence of multichannel touchpoints across land, online and mobile. The joining of these dots is so important - and gambling professionals from across the industry feel similarly. IGT Interactive recently commissioned a thought leadership study into convergence with leading digital specialists Econsultancy. Of almost 40 people surveyed - a range of senior practitioners from top-tier operators, suppliers and client organisations featuring retail, digital, content, strategy and operations staff - 88 per cent of respondents
‘strongly agreed’ it is crucial for players to have a consistent experience across channels and 67 per cent ‘strongly agreed’ that convergence is creating significant opportunities for their businesses. The same percentage ‘strongly agreed’ that company leadership understands the significance of convergence. Furthermore - and most tellingly - companies taking part in the study recorded a 38 per cent improvement in revenue uplift per player when they are engaged across multiple channels. Strong progress has been made to bring everything together, to create a seamless, personalised customer journey and experience. Operators are increasingly moving towards that all-round, single view of players and providing the same products and service on all channels that players demand. The mature UK igaming market sits at the fore of convergence, driven by demand for online and, particularly, mobile sportsbetting.
This has allowed the vertical to set the standard when it comes to convergence best practice. One example is IGT partner Coral, which has developed a means of bringing all its betting platforms together through a single multichannel customer wallet. The Coral Connect Card enables customers to bet in-shop or online, or via mobile, phone or tablet using their card as one account. Users can deposit cash or withdraw winnings at any Coral shop, or transfer them to a linked bank account. The card also facilitates cash-less transactions for quicker bet placements, and can be used across other wagering products. Developing such a simple and effective single customer wallet for multiple channels is a key to identifying players and enhancing their experience through a customised offering. Many of the operators we spoke to said there remain a number of hurdles - most no-
tably overcoming problems with legacy systems designed before the concept of convergence was envisaged - to providing a fully aligned cross-channel experience. However, most gambling companies have achieved the early stages of basic marketing and gaming convergence, where they cross-sell to customers between offline and online, offering the same games and experiences. Some have done this with respect to player accounts, by providing the single customer view. The next step is making advanced marketing and content convergence the norm through personalisation, bespoke offers and content. There is no doubt that buy-in from the top to the bottom of the organisations is increasing and each day I’m delighted to observe that most of IGT’s customers are continually implementing innovative and successful approaches that highlight the progression of convergence maturity.
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FENgaming updates its offer ENgaminghas announced the release of a new version of its sportsbook software and gaming platform, including a new bonus management tool. The sportsbook software is customisable for any market or regulatory regime, and the latest version has seen upgrades implemented across desktop, mobile and API. The software itself is designed to suit operators in the online and land-based environments. Gabi Pitileac, FENgaming sales manager, said: “With intuitive user and game bonus management functionality, comprehensive reporting and integration of major payment methods, not to mention support for several different languages, we believe there is a lot to be said for our offering.”
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TGP has Betvision GP Europe Limitedhas launched a new online gambling site with partner Betvision. The site runs solely from the TGP platform and features a sportsbook with over 18,000 unique betting events each week, a range of slots, table and instant games as well as Live Casino. Glenda Quirk, director at Betvision, commented: “We are so excited to be entering the gaming industry with TGP as our partners. We hope that their experience coupled with our desire to bring something new to the industry will mean success for us both.” Betvision has some imaginative competitions in its plan to gain the interest of both players and affiliates, including a whirlwind 5-day luxury trip to Monaco to take in the Grand Prix in true VIP style.
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B2B Sportsbook Listings
B2B betting platform
666BETmoves to BetConstruct 66BEThas migrated its sportsbook to BetConstruct and casino to EveryMatrix, from the Isle of Man-based Novigroup. 666BET, which acquired MetroPlayfrom DMG Media in September, will now operate under MetroPlay’s Alderney gaming licence. Barry Martin, CEO of 666BET, said: “This is the next stage in the development of 666BET. The acquisition of MetroPlay was a game changer for us and it made sense to move 666BET’s casino platform to EveryMatrix. We saw a number of sportsbook providers as well and we were really impressed with BetConstruct. We’re delighted to be partnering with two excellent providers. “We are now in a position where we have a bigger platform and a better, more engaging website for our players. It is our aim to become a tier one operator and we now have the platform to achieve that.”
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Accurate pricing the goal for GPS
he ever increasing demand for goalscorer-based markets has meant a very busy 2014-2015 season for Super Soccer Oddsfeed and Abelson Info’s Goalscorer Prices & Settlement System (GPS), with a record number of competitions now included. While many of Europe’s leagues are taking a winter break, the Asian Cup and African Cup of Nations’ January means that the team is as busy as ever. Oddsfeed’s Jeevan Jeyaratnam commented: “Demand has been particularly strong this season and as such we have covered the Asian Cup tournament in its entirety for the first time. Compiling the squads and adding statistics to form an overall impression of players from some of the lesser known nations like Palestine, Kuwait, Congo and Equatorial Guinea offer a real challenge but are just one, of many, reasons why some of the largest sportsbooks in the world rely on our pricing.”
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STREAMING New equestrian deal for Perform he Fédération Equestre Internationale(FEI), world governing body for equestrian sport, has announced a two-year renewal of its partnership with digital sports content group Perform. The new agreement sees Perform deliver extended product management and marketing of FEI TV, the FEI’s official video website and digital home of live and on-demand content from the world of equestrian sports. The renewal follows the successful streaming of the FEI’s flagship event, the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy (FRA) this summer. The FEI platform delivered more than 250 hours of live and on-demand coverage in just two weeks during the Games, resulting in a significant increase in subscriptions to FEI TV, which is now one of the biggest and most successful services in Perform ‘s extensive portfolio of sports offerings.
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SIS launches stream ndustry broadcaster SISwill be displaying an ‘industry leading’ streaming platform for the first time at ICE this month. The firm ex-
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A huge range of goalscorer markets are now included in the GPS. Clients have a choice of up to 18 scorer-based markets from 27 competitions to choose from, with all data delivered via a single API. Abelson Info handles comprehensive resulting, with most matches settled in-running. An improved algorithm allows clients to take either a margin-free or margin-inclusive price for all markets and the product is bespoke, with settlement tailored according to each individual client’s rules. GPS services some of the most successful and well-known sportsbooks in the world. Gala Coral’s head of product and data management Jason Saywell, commented: “I would say it’s the best thing we have ever implemented, in terms of product range and speed.” William Hill’s head of pre-match football Hjalmar Kvam added: “We have an efficient, reliable service from Super Soccer, allowing us to provide an improved customer offering and service.”
plained: “As one of the world’s leading providers of broadcast solutions, we are now offering a new slant on streaming for digital bookmakers. We have invested in a dedicated infrastructure as well as having developed key partnerships with the leading suppliers in order to offer ‘best in class’ digital streaming. SIS Stream is a multi-platform solution which gives bookmakers a different way of attracting and retaining punters. Our ‘open streaming’ service allows punters to view content free of charge before placing bets.”
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DATA Big plans for STATS TATS, the sports technology, data and content supplier, is planning on a widespread expansion of its in-play portfolio over the next few years, with the company planning on doubling the number of events that it covers. Roy Clements, managing director of STATS Europe, said that the company has big ambitions to expand its coverage of American sports. He explained: “STATS in-play provision will see a rapid expansion of the number of matches offered. Our goal is to be offering 10,000+ matches across all US Sports within the next three years. This, coupled with plans to further expand the content solutions that bookmakers can provide to customers to support their betting activity, puts STATS in a strong position for 2015.”
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making sense of the gaming industry
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iGaming
“” Our comprehensive understanding of the gaming industry coupled with Spigo’s expertise will further enhance our leading market position.
Ebbe Groes EveryMatrix
Spigo available via EveryMatrix EveryMatrix has announced an agreement with slots and P2P games worldwide provider Spigo which runs the website Spigo.com, which has sister sites all over the world, offering 50 games for free and win prizes in Ludo, Yatzy, Dice 10,000, Backgammon, Sudoku, Mahjong, Crossword, 7 Solitaire and many more.
SLOTS
NYX games go mobile with Ladbrokes as Psycho arrives
A big few months for the Nyx Gaming Group has seen the firm successfully launch on the Toronto Stock Exchange, see its games on Ladbrokes’ web and mobile sites and secure a licensing deal for Psycho. extGen Gaming, the Sydney, Australia based games studio of NYX Gaming Group has launched an initial schedule of mobile and desktop slot games at Ladbrokes. These games include Foxin’ Wins, Medusa II and 300 Shields; soon supported by NextGen’s latest premium IP title, Judge Dredd. The partnership covers the licensing of a significant number of additional NextGen slots available online and on mobile on day 1, with Ladbrokes able to leverage a wealth of third party content delivered via NYX OGS. NYX Gaming Group commercial director David Johnson said: “NextGen boast the widest distribution network of real money wagering and social slots games in the online marketplace. We are delighted to announce our partnership and go-live with Ladbrokes and look forward to developing a close relationship across our respective businesses.” Richard Poole, e-gaming director at Ladbrokes, added:
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“I’m excited about the partnership with NYX Gaming Group; this supports our strategy of having best of breed suppliers, enabling our customers to play the best slots across multiple channels. NextGen have a strong heritage in slot games but importantly are now producing great mobile content on the NYX OGS platform. I look forward to future releases from both the propriety NextGen content and also the quality third party suppliers with whom NYX partner.” Last month NYX Gaming Group successfully completed an initial public offering and secondary offering of its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Total IPO funding for both rounds equalled CAD $45m (£25m). The initial public offering and secondary offering resulted in aggregate gross proceeds of CAD $20m to NYX Gaming Group and CAD $25m to the Selling Shareholders. NYX Gaming Group’s shares are trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “NYX”.
The offering was made through a syndicate of underwriters led by Canaccord Genuity Corp and comprised of Cormark Securities Inc, National Bank Financial Inc, Dundee Securities Ltd, Global Maxfin Capital Inc and Mackie Research Capital Corporation. NextGen Gaming has also announced the creation of a slot game featuring Psycho; Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, through a licensing deal with Universal Partnerships & Licensing. The online slot is due to be released in the first quarter of 2015. Johnson said: “We’re very excited to be launching the Psycho online Slot, NextGen’s latest premium IP title and a true thriller slot. Psycho’s infamous scenes married with NextGen’s proven premium, repeat play slots expertise will make for a chilling winter blockbuster title. Psycho will initially be available to our NYX OGS partners and ultimately to the wider industry through our global network.”
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BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
BLACKJACK
SLOTS SkillOnNet armed with Wild Crystal Arrows oftware supplier SkillOnNethas released new slots title Wild Crystal Arrows. Mobile and desktop versions of the five-reel, 15 payline game, which features a unique moving wild symbol, were rolled out across a host of casinos just before new year. The game will appear on both SkillOnNet’s popular web and soon-to-be-released mobile versions of their own casinos, including SlotsMagic, MegaCasino, and EUcasino. They will also be available via their B2B services to an increasing number of white label casinos in regulated markets around the world. SkillOnNet’s Andy Andrews said it was important to both operators and players to provide fresh and creative content on a regular basis.
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Ezugi has a new lobby zugi has launched its new games lobby and Hybrid Blackjack to allow unlimited players at a blackjack table along with Games Marketing’s 21+3 and Perfect Pairs Blackjack sidebets - games all designed to increase operator’s revenues. The new lobby is built with the newest HTML5 code to provide ease of use features such a menu panel containing the dealers’ schedule, the player’s own playing history, available as a full web page or iframe viewing mode. The release of Hybrid Blackjack developed in cooperation with Uplay1 is designed to increase betting activity from existing players by offering unlimited seats, a mix of higher and lower bet minimums which are ideal for engaging new and existing blackjack players.
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Here be dragons
ggdrasil Gaming has launched its latest innovative video slot, the dragon-themed Draglings. This mythical five-reel slot is a longer player, low variance game and features luminous dragon eggs in a diamondshaped window with three, four and five symbols on each reel. There are 20 + 20 paylines traversing across the screen. Although this is a lower variance slot, it offers both long play and winning potential. Players are able to enjoy up to 75 Free Spins, Wild Symbols, Expanding Wilds as well as a special Spreading Wild and more of the Special Wilds in Free Spins. This final innovative feature brings more Wilds with the potential
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to boost winnings. Fredrik Elmqvist, CEO of Yggdrasil Gaming, said: “This time last year we hadn’t even launched a slot game and we now have nine in our portfolio. With Draglings we were hoping to breathe a little fire into the casino games sector and this is one of our most exciting games to hatch yet.We’ve got plenty more content in the pipeline so make sure you come to our stand at ICE to see how our games can help drive your turnover.” Yggdrasil’s portfolio contains a wide range of popular casino games, including its latest high variance slot Cazino Zeppelin, designed for high rollers, Jokerizer, Winterberries and its first 3D game, Reef Run.
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iGaming B2B iGaming Listings
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POKER
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Spin Genie gets Realistic ealistic Gameshas launched its slots at new online casino Spin Genie. The Reading-based company has integrated its games onto the site following their popularity on PocketFruity.com, which is also owned by Gaming Realms. In addition to PocketFruity.com and Spin Genie, the company also operates the Total Gold and Castle Jackpot Casinos, Bingo Godz and Iceland Bingo, and the Avatingo social site. Paul Gielbert, managing director of Gaming Realms Alderney entity Bear GroupLtd, said: “We are delighted to continue the relationship with Realistic Games which is consistent with our strategy of selecting the best and most unique content in the market for our players.�
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icrogaminghas launched a revolutionary new technology for poker software. Babelfish, named after the fictional creature which performed universal translation, is a brand new API which allows any software developer to create poker client software and run it securely on the MPN. Operators can develop software in any programming language, and using the Babelfish API, join in the MPN’s liquidity pool, giving them access to all of the network’s cash games and tournaments (both real money and play money). “Babelfish is definitely a game changer for poker,� commented Alex Scott, head of poker at Microgaming. “It allows operators to customise their poker software to a higher degree than has ever been possible before, without having to go standalone. Furthermore, it allows them to do this without having to worry about expensive hosting costs, random number generators, or any of the other complexities that come with developing
server software. “Babelfish also has many other advantages. For example, operators can build software for almost any conceivable device - from specific mobile devices, to games consoles, to smart TVs. If you were so inclined, you could even build poker software for a smartwatch, a connected fridge or an in-car entertainment system. The only limit is your imagination.� Operators can tailor their bespoke client as much as they wish in order to customise the software to the specific market they are targeting; any language can be supported. The first operator to make use of Babelfish, a well-known major operator in the poker marketplace, will be going live imminently using a client that it has designed and built from scratch. This operator’s completely custombuilt client is carefully tailored to meet the needs of its players. The new operator will be migrating all of its players to the MPN, offering a mix of private and shared-liquidity games, providing mutual benefits for both the operator and the network.
offering to their customers whilst simultaneously boosting their gaming revenues.�
pliance laboratory complete testing for the HTML5 developer’s gaming products in multiple jurisdictions worldwide. CORE chief commercial officer Mark Rehorst-Smith commented: “NMi’s reputation in the industry speaks for itself, this along with the number of supported jurisdictions made them an ideal fit for us as a business. Although in the early stages of our relationship the approach and subsequent results so far have been extremely encouraging, CORE Gaming has big plans for 2015 and beyond and we’re confident that NMi can support our ambitions.�
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First Live Dealer solution for the Belgium market
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uropean Gaming Studioshas become the first fully compliant Live Dealer solutions provider for the Belgium market, following the recent instruction from the Belgium Gaming Commissionthat online operators offering Live Dealer Games are required to originate and broadcast services from within the Belgium country borders. EGS is a tripartite partnership between Brussels based GAA, a leading gaming provider; Ezugifrom Tel Aviv, the international live dealer technology provider and Gaming Ventures of Amsterdam, an investment firm which is active in B2B services for content and distribution for European regulated iGaming markets.
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making sense of the gaming industry
B2B software iG am in
MPN speaks your language with new API
EveryMatrix on the Wayne veryMatrixis to provide several winning software solutions to WayneCasino, including its ultra-flexible gaming management and payment processing platform, GamMa-
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FUNDING PLATFORM Full range from Vermantia
microgaming.co.uk www.microgaming.co.uk +44 (0)1624 647777 sales@microgaming.co.uk
ermantiawill present a full suite of virtual sports, lottery, casino and social games at ICE after a ‘transformative’ 2014 which saw the company undertake significant corporate and content development. Alongside the heavy investment into the company’s products, Vermantia has also brought in an international experienced and proven executive to bolster the management team. Filippos Antonopoulos, CEO of Vermantia, stated: “ICE is the annual meeting place for the gaming industry and we are very excited to present our new product portfolio to our current and future partners. The introduction of our newest products will allow retail and interactive operators to deliver a market-leading
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FILIPPOS ANTONOPOULOS
trix, its casino content aggregator, CasinoEngine, its CMS and Mobile casino, and its complete banner creation and affiliate management system PartnerMatrix. WayneCasino is a popular online casino operator that takes its users back to the old Wild West, providing over 100 jackpot, casino and live casino games divided into three categories. Ebbe Groes, chief executive of EveryMatrix, commented: “We’re always excited to introduce new operators into our midst and we’re confident that this new agreement signed with WayneCasino will help both companies thrive. �
COMPLIANCE NMi heads to CORE
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ORE Gamingand NMihave announced a deal which will see the com-
Start-up incubator launched CHRIS NORTH
amCrowd.com has evolved its gambling-specific crowdfunding and crowdsourcing platform through the launch of its new Incubator service. The programme sees GamCrowd directly offer a range of value-added provisions and resources to better prepare start-ups and assist with the process of crowdfunding through GamCrowd. Participating start-ups can immediately benefit from a full appraisal of their business model, in addition to targeted introductions, marketing advice and ongoing support. Companies will enter the GamCrowd Incubator process in return for equity in their business. GamCrowd CEO Chris North explains that the platform was designed to be adaptable - and that the introduction of Incubator is intended to give more start-ups the chance of making a breakthrough.
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Back office
“” We will work hard to drive quality traffic to Betway and help them achieve their targets in the UK and Irish market.
Marcel Puyk CEO Cellectivity
Betway added to Bet2Go Cellectivity’s Bet2Go affiliate website has added Betway to its suite of integrated partners. Bet2Go Sports allows punters to compare prices and place a bet across a range of bookmakers - Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Skybet, BoyleSports, William Hill and now Betway. Bet365 odds are also shown, but not integrated. In addition to being able to compare odds and place single bets, Bet2Go also offer price comparison on accumulator bets.
DATA
LiveSport makes big investment in Enetpulse LiveSport has decided to enter the data provision market by investing in Enetpulse.
ENETPULSE HAS BEEN HANDLING OFFICIAL ATP/WTA TENNIS LIVE BETTING DATA
ports media company LiveSport has secured a majority of the shares in Enetpulse, the global provider of live sports data. Richard Hájek, managing director of LiveSport Holding, said that the company has continued to adapt to the demands of the sports community in order to maintain its position as a leading sport live score company that can service every aspect of the requests of its growing user base. He commented: “The supply of data to the sports business world is becoming increasingly important and Enetpulse, with their progressive vision, excellent technological infrastructure and industry expertise, is a company who are at the forefront of this market. “We have been looking at sports data delivery area for a long time, so we believe this is a good fit for LiveSport, which will help our company to achieve an even bigger reach within the sports community. Enetpulse B2B business will benefit from support that our
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network of 50+ sporting websites can provide, in addition to other synergy effects.” Leo Noer, managing director of Enetpulse, said: “After 15 years of operation I am delighted to confirm that Enetpulse will now become part of the LiveSport family. This announcement marks an exciting next step in the history of Enetpulse and we are looking forward to fulfilling a key role within the LiveSport group, which we believe is the right partner for Enetpulse. “Enetpulse are already at the forefront of an exciting and dynamic time for the global sports data market. We welcome the opportunity to now finally being part of a company that shares our vision and desire to be the market leader in our space.” Enetpulse has recently entered the world of Live Betting Football Data for the sports betting industry with the introduction of its new Enetpulse InPlay service. Based on its success in handling official ATP/WTA Tennis Live Betting Data during the past three years, Enetpulse will now pro-
vide Football Live Betting Data with the same care and attention - with a view to expanding into further sports. Enetpulse said that its main focus is simple; to provide bookmakers with more inplay football events which are not currently covered by other providers. Its team of scouting experts has carefully hand-picked football leagues across several time zones to ensure unique, quality match coverage around the clock. The firm has established an extensive network of stadium reporters on all continents and can offer a minimum of 2,000 matches per month directly from the stadium and our coverage keeps growing every month. Further to the unique match coverage Enetpulse aims to stand out in its approach as a new player on the football live betting market by securing partnerships with federations across the planet. By taking this approach Enetpulse will not only bring more football leagues to the scene but also contribute to the global fight against match fix-
ing by ensuring reliable match reporting and a range of integrity services for bookmakers. Enetpulse has also taken the necessary steps to offer the best experience for their clients in terms of product stability and integration. The Enetpulse in-play service will offer complete match administration, including bet suspension, re-opening, danger, safe signals, and more. The Enetpulse live betting product includes extended in-play information which will provide lower bet delays, as well as market creation and fast settlement. After three years of managing in-play tennis matches for the world’s leading bookmakers Enetpulse has put much emphasis on maintaining fast, reliable and secure data transmission. As a result the latest technology has been applied across its entire infrastructure, both in the Live Betting Viewer for traders and the JSON push feed service in order to be able to ensure the client receives all necessary data directly from the stadium - in less than two seconds.
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BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015 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) 1257 277400 Fax: +44 (0) 1257 271329 Ad Production: Dave Roderick Email: gdk@sjc.co.uk
Contributors: John Samuels, Imogen Goodman, Chris Webster, Joe Ewens
LICENSING Equiom ready to talk taxation quiom is showing off its e-Gaming capability at ICE Totally Gaming 2015. Equiom’s e-Gaming team will be represented by Barry Smith, Adam Beighton and Sophie Campbell, who will be on hand to explain why committed operators choose the Isle of Man, as well as the benefits to be had from dual licences in the Isle of Man and UK. In addition, a hot topic at this year’s show will be the Isle of Man Government’s introduction of Double Duty Relief, following the UK’s launch of Place of Consumption Tax. Beighton commented: “ICE is the most comprehensive trade event for this dynamic industry. I am looking forward to networking with the best in the industry as well as demonstrating the capabilities of Equiom’s highly experienced e-Gaming team.”
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Jersey hoping to make an impact ersey eGaming, the newest tier-one eGaming jurisdiction to emerge, will be exhibiting at ICE Total Gaming. Andy Jarrett, director of digital at Jersey, commented: “Jersey’s eGaming offering has gone from strength to strength in recent years and is now arguably the most attractive of any tier one jurisdiction. Our recently announced highly competitive licensing environment, investment in telecommunications, depth of technology skills and our reputation as a leading finance centre makes us the compelling new option for eGaming organisations. We are also fortunate to have a supportive government position in relation to eGaming, and Jersey’s assistant chief minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, will be attending the ICE event on the 5th February to speak personally to businesses who may be interested in doing business with Jersey.”
Fax: +44 (0) 1257 271329 Subscriptions: Sarah Haworth, Email: shaworth@gbmedia.eu Editorial & Production: Tel: +44 (0) 1257 277400 20 New Road, Brighton, BN1 1UF, UK Fax: +44 (0) 1257 271329 Tel: +44 (0) 1273 699 900 Advertising & Subscriptions: Publishing Director: GB Media Corporation Ltd John Sullivan Oak House,1st Floor, Suite 4, Email: jsullivan@gbmedia.eu High Street, Chorley, PR7 1DW, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1257 277400 Tel: +44 (0) 1257 277400 Fax: +44 (0) 1257 271329
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.
B2B Back Office Listings
Sportradar to help in Italian lower league
B2B ball pens
taly’s second division, Lega Serie B, has signed an agreement with Sportradar Security Services, under which the betting fraud prevention specialist will provide both education workshops and e-learning packages to all 22 club teams for this season and the next two. Under the terms of the agreement, the workshop and e-learning modules will be provided to the senior team and youth teams of each club. Workshops will help all participants understand why match-fixing is a growing problem, how fixers make their approaches and what the consequences of fixing are, using real-life case studies. The elearning tutorials will support and supplement the workshops, ensuring that each participant understands what they have learnt and is comfortable with the information. Lega Serie B President, Andrea Abodi stressed not just their own commitment to fraud prevention and detection, but the whole of Italian professional football’s strong stance on honesty and integrity: “The
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tracts. Orders will be matched on the GMEX exchange platform, with trade confirmation and clearing occurring at Eurex. Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group, said: “We are pleased to have Virtu join as a committed liquidity provider for launch. We continue to make great progress leading up to our launch in terms of on-boarding buy side firms, banks and futures trading houses both directly and through vendor connections.”
most important asset of football are its supporters. Deceiving football supporters means deceiving the whole football world. That is the reason why knowledge and training about match fixing is essential for Serie B‘s credibility, and is fundamental to ensuring our stadiums are full. I would like to underline how important teamwork is to ensuring the effective defeat of match-fixing, and our key ally is Sportradar, which already collaborates with many other football associations worldwide.” Managing director integrity and strategy at Sportradar Andreas Krannich, added: “Our market-leading Fraud Detection System already monitors every match in all five professional leagues in Italy. No other country has that level of coverage. Today successfully closes the circle. This exclusive agreement means that our unparalleled integrity education services will reach all 102 professional clubs in Italy.”
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PLC, the MyWinners.com brand allows residents in Connecticut to wager online on leading horse-racing events at a wide range of tracks in the United States.
PAYMENTS Optimal integrates with OLG
MARKETING
yWinners.com, the only website legally permitted to offer online horse-racing wagering to players in the state of Connecticut, has announced a partnership with Income Access, an iGaming-focused technology and digital marketing services provider. As part of the marketing partnership, MyWinners.com’s new affiliate program will integrate with Income Access’ platform and will be managed by the company’s acquisition specialists, who will also develop and implement a search engine marketing (SEM) and media buy strategy. A subsidiary of Sportech
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lobal electronic market maker Virtu Financial is to become a liquidity provider for Global Markets Exchange Group Limited (GMEX). Virtu will join as a participant of GMEX Exchange, which will be operated by GMEX, to offer liquidity in GMEX’s pioneering Interest Rate Swap Constant Maturity Future (CMF) con-
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SERIE B PRESIDENT ANDREA ABODI AND SPORTRADAR EDUCATION MANAGER MARCELLO PRESILLA
ffi ce B ac k O
IncomeAccess to promote Sportech site
Virtu to join GMEX Exchange
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.
INTEGRITY
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FINANCIAL
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ptimal Payments Plc has fully integrated its Netbanx igaming payment solution on the new Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) regulated online gaming site PlayOLG.ca as part of a five-year service agreement. Optimal Payments COO Danny Chazonoff said: “We are as committed as OLG to provide responsible and sustainable online gaming. Offering regulated services in this sector is highly complex and we shared our expertise and experience with OLG. This helps the company achieve its goal of responsible play while supporting community and charitable programs.” Through its proprietary Netbanx processing platform that supports integrated technologies and tokenisation capabilities, Optimal Payments provides OLG the ability to deliver an enhanced customer experience while maximising conversions.
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DANNY CHAZONOFF
making sense of the gaming industry
risk B2B management ffi ce B ac k O
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Whether your market is low stake high volume gaming, remote, land-based casinos, bingo, betting or amusements there’s only one publishing house that’s really connected. The publishing division of GB Media is responsible for the award winning titles International Casino Review, Betting Business interactive and Coinslot, as well as the official ICE catalogue. For a unique window on the world of gaming, simply contact us on +44 (0) 1204 396 397 or email us at jsullivan@gbmedia.eu.
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BB125-p56-60-Comment_09/10 27/01/2015 16:21 Page 1
Comment
What to do with a winning punter Retired consultant and keen punter Ric Ingram explains how some of the successful punters take advantage of some of the more sluggish bookmakers in the industry. his article shares just a few secrets of wining punters. I feel it is safe to share this with the readers of this magazine because most bookies are structurally incapable of changing their behaviours to take advantage of this information. But just maybe I may have misjudged the capabilities of your particular company. Winning Technique A - Many companies with large shop estates - and even some without such a legacy - frequently offer prices for favourites (and sometimes for outsiders) which are over 20 per cent higher than the consensus of the competition. Now for a product with a 10 per cent profit margin it is not difficult to make 105 per cent to 115 per cent return on stakes each month by placing a portfolio of such trades. When senior price-setters are quizzed about this systemic and repeating mispricing, the answer is some variant of ‘our shops do not like us changing our prices too often’. I suspect that indolence is also a significant factor behind this excuse and most directors are happy to leave the price-setting department to just get on with it. Winning Technique B - The evidence clearly indicates that spread-betting firms have superior price-setting skills compared with almost all bookies. The superior skills of spread betting firms effectively tell you what the winning strategy is with the fixed odds bookies. First, spread betting firms have the benefit of making a two-way market which enables them to at least make the spread from sharp punters. Also, since they rarely limit or ban such sharp punters, they get to see which way the sharps play the spread and
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DOMESTIC BOXERS HAVE SHORTER PRICES
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adjust their spreads to remove the expected profit potential for latecoming sharps and others from their published prices. Bookies mostly cut themselves off from this information (except for two way markets) by only offering punters a back option, being unable to see the superior skills of the long term winners by having previously limited or banned such players. When I asked one senior price-setter of a firm I was winning from each week why he had banned me he was very honest when he said ‘it’s the only way we know’. If I was a controlling shareholder of that firm, I would have sacked all the price-setters but him and asked him to reduce the price of sharp punters’ selections by up to 30 per cent and increase the prices of other selections to attract business, reduce liability limits of the selections of sharp punters before a further reduction in price is made. In this way the liability controller would be able to align the book with the sharp punters position and make the same percentage profit the sharp is making, but for the shareholders. Winning Technique C - Most bookies learn common punters biases. For example, if a popular UK boxer is facing a foreign boxer, most UK punters will find it unpatriotic to back the foreigner. So UK bookies will offer a much lower price on the UK boxer than form and profit margin would usually suggest. Backing the other contender on a betting exchange or with a foreign bookie usually enables over 110 per cent return on stakes to be achieved over a portfolio of such bets. There are many such opportunities every day, particularly for some football
two-way bets. Winning Technique D - A particularly popular technique is identifying steamers. Some situations can be identified as steamers with over 80 per cent accuracy. After they have steamed a profit is locked in by matched betting or laying off at a much lower price with a betting exchange. While up to 20 per cent of the time a loss is made, the risk is very low compared to the rewards. Most bookies have never seemed to notice, let alone master the art of spotting likely steamers. The clues are there but something seems to get in the way. Winning Technique E - This is one of my favourites. A small number of bookies have price-setters with their ‘heads on backwards’. One such bookie sometimes accepts in full my requested stakes and sometimes offers me a fraction of the stake requested. I have noticed that when the full amount is authorised I very frequently win those bets, when limited the bet is most often a loser! So I stand the fully accepted bets and for those bets restricted, I lay off on an exchange a little more than was offered. If only the directors were bright enough to analyse the relative profits of bets fully accepted and bets restricted, they could make more profits at lower price-setting costs. But that would destroy my fun. Assessment - Now perhaps we all can appreciate that through indolence, ignorance, complacency, arrogance, under-par price-setting skills and particularly the vested interests of their very own price-setters, most bookmaking companies will not be able - in practice - to change their ways. So the above and other secrets of winning punters can be safely shared.
Not so b T andrew mccarron viewpoint
he UK’s first socially responsible gambling campaign has been launched and perhaps the most surprising thing of all is that it is actually quite good. It’s not a mawkish, sentimental tour of the heart strings with a tale of the loss of innocence. The National Council on Problem Gambling in Singapore tried that last summer with the story of how Andy’s dad had bet all his son’s savings on the World Cup. Unfortunately, the message was diluted somewhat by the fact that the bet was on Germany to win the trophy, and the Council, despite its best intentions, was roundly mocked. One of the more prolific markets for responsible gambling advertising is the Australian state of Victoria. A controversial KidBet campaign aimed to raise awareness of children’s exposure to betting in the state was certainly memorable and different, and because of that, did the job. As laudable as it is to highlight the impact of problem gambling on children, The Senet Group is aiming at raising awareness among young men who gamble, and a large percentage of those will not be fathers.
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“I don’t know if gambling’s for you.” Victoria Coren-Mitchell questions comedian and poker player Richard Herring after he reveals he bought a £10 Lotto scratchcard
Be aware that Terms & Conditions can cut both ways John Samuels of dispute resolution service IBAS highlights a few of the more unusual rules that some operators try and squeeze into their T&Cs. ith the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act now in force for the British industry, its introduction has brought the need for offshorebased operators to obtain a GC licence, and consequently comply with the requirement to make an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service available to their customers. This, alongside the proposed July introduction of EU legislation on ADR provision for customers of all companies supplying goods or services to EU consumers, has seen a significant increase in the number of offshore-based operators applying to register with IBAS for that purpose. Although IBAS does not offer to provide a formal ‘health check’ for operators’ trading and games rules, we ask to receive a copy of them at the point of registration to ensure that we at least have a point of reference should a dispute arrive shortly after. Occasionally though, we do pass on some advice for areas that the authors might want to consider reviewing. Perusing through some of these recent submissions has been something of an interesting eye opener, as some quite unique caveats can be found. The following are a few examples taken from different sites: “In the event that a player wins an amount equal to 3,000 euro or more, through the use of the Software or the Service, the player agrees to give the company the exclusive permanent and irrevocable right and authorisation to use the player’s name, photograph, and portrait in all media as part of the company’s marketing and promotional needs, and for its internet site(s), on a worldwide level, and to be fully cooperative with company representatives including support staff.” “Some circumstances may arise where a wager is confirmed, or a payment is performed, by us in error. In all these cases the Operator reserves the right to cancel all the wagers accepted containing such an error, or to correct the mistake made re-settling all the wagers at the correct prices/spreads/terms that should have been available at the time that the wager was placed in the absence of the error.” “If you win EURO 100,000 or more, we reserve the right to divide the payout into ten install-
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so bad, Betty How they have gone about this should be applauded. The adverts are bold, memorable, and entertaining in a way that doesn’t detract from the serious message. The other advantage of the advert is that it has been pitched just right so as not to be prescriptive or too condescending. The use of Ram Bam’s Black Betty may well be the masterstroke - an earmworm that can be used in real life situations. It wouldn’t be surprising if the opening chord with the air guitar is replicated by real life punters in betting shops around the country. This is an ad campaign that might, just might, be effective. Of course, not everyone is happy. Some describe it as a Trojan horse for marketing FOBTs. Others deride it for not being helpful to actual problem gamblers, even though the ad is intended to sit more in the education and prevention brackets than treatment. Some are upset about the irregular font sizes on the final message. But this is a good, groundbreaking start from the Senet Group. It will no doubt be one of the many topics of discussion at ICE. As will the identity of Richard Glynn’s heir for the big chair at Ladbrokes. Patrick Jay, fresh from a stint at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, was the favourite in Paddy Power’s
cheeky book on the market - at least until they pulled it down with John O’Reilly second favourite despite the terms of his exiting Coral seemingly ruling out such a move. Many big operators who have changed their CEO of late have gone to the boot room rather than the transfer market, but the only problem there is Ladbrokes has experienced quite a turnaround of late. Business director Mike O’Kane is well versed in the company, although Jim Mullen may be in line given how closely the company has aligned itself with Playtech, with whom he has worked closely for many years now. Nick Rust may have been an option had he not just absconded to the BHA. The entrepreneurial spirit of BetChronicle founder Justin Carthy may appeal to the appointments board if they feel they need to pull something special out of the bag to catch up with William Hill. Of late though the only person
who seems keen on the job is an external candidate - Ben Keith of Star Sports. He’s been making such a compelling case for fresh blood from a non-corporate background that he has been made third favourite in the market. By returning Ladbrokes to some of its proper bookmaking roots, Keith argues, the firm can prosper and start taking measured risks and earning some real money from the art of making books rather than paying it lip service. For an industry that deals in risk, some of the biggest operators are remarkably risk-averse. Keith’s progress at Star Sports has been against the tide given the hammering independent bookmakers have taken in recent years. Wouldn’t it be great to see that kind of enthusiasm at the top of one of the country’s major bookmakers? It would certainly shake things up and who wouldn’t want to see that?
THE NEW ADS PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING ARE SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE
ments, paid with 10 per cent every month for 10 months until the full amount is paid out. You will not get any interest on outstanding amounts and you shall not treat the Company as a financial institution.” Always read the T’s and C’s is a commonsense but seemingly much ignored piece of advice. And some punters who ignore this sound advice may well feel that we still live in interesting times in relation to certain aspects of remote gambling. However, being fully aware of the sea in which one swims also applies to operators. Some customers will go to extreme lengths to circumvent trading rules in order to gain an edge. And punters should be aware that despite the many safeguards and firewalls that are put in place, to protect the genuine punter and the integrity of the game, the determined person may well be able to find a way around such safeguards. Perhaps the days of the ‘wild west’ of online gambling is taking its time to be completely eradicated. I refer to the poker world being somewhat shaken by recent news of professional player Darren Woods appearing in Court accused of fraudulent activity in online poker rooms between circa 2007 and 2012. The matter involved the player opening multiple accounts, abusing the operator’s affiliate incentive programme and acting in collusion with at least one family member to maintain an obviously advantageous position in cash games. The accounts, held in multiple names and protected by IP masking equipment, had the one same player controlling each of the hands being played. You won’t need to spend long on your favourite search engine to find further details. Woods recently pleaded guilty to some of the charges and at the end of January received 15 months prison sentence and was ordered to pay back £1m, with £283,673 going to a Gibraltarbased operator to recompense players who were victims of his collusion. If the £1m is not repaid, then sentence will be lengthened to six years in prison.
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“Many believe effective networking is done face-to-face, building a rapport with someone by looking at them in the eye, leading to a solid connection and foundational trust.”
Comment
American author Raymond Arroyo
Renewed focus on sports betting and integrity in 2015 Mike O’Kane, chairman of ESSA - the industry body representing regulated operators on betting integrity matters, takes a look back at the key events in 2014 and what can be expected in 2015. He will be speaking at Betmarkets, one of the ICE Conferences. The coming year could prove another critical period for national and transnational policymaking around betting and integrity issues. The last twelve months were primarily focused on the Council of Europe’s activities in this area, but 2015 will be concentrated more on the European Commission’s delivery of an initiative on betting-related match-fixing. National level debate in countries such as the UK will also see a renewed focus on betting and integrity issues. In those discussions, we can expect the usual promotion of a ‘sports betting right’ and a ban on certain types of bets, such as in-play. However, there is reason to be optimistic about the outcomes. ESSA’s endeavours to educate policy makers about the industry in 2014 culminated in the completion of the Council of Europe’s match-fixing Convention, which focuses on crosssector and transnational partnership building, something which ESSA has been advocating as a core policy approach for some time. Issues such as the flawed ‘sports betting right’ and a blanket ban on certain types of bets such as in-play, fundamentally driven by sports’ commercial ambitions, were notably absent from the final text. The decision not to include them in the Convention was,
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in addition to the work of the private betting industry, strengthened by a number of independent reports concluded for the European Commission during 2014. These supported much of what ESSA has been advancing since this issue became a significant matter of debate in the last five years. Much of our attention will now turn to the development of the European Commission’s initiative on betting integrity, which will be influenced by the two matchfixing studies completed for the Commission last year. The first of the two reports assesses the response to match-fixing in the 28 EU Member States, associated risk assessment, prevention and best practice models. The Asser Institute, which conducted the study, pointed out that it was too early to measure which initiatives were most effective at combating ‘the perceived current match-fixing ‘crisis’ in sport, not least because of the impossibility in ascertaining the extent to which that ‘crisis’ genuinely exists’. It is a valid comment as, whilst match-fixing exists, and our sector is after all the one that corruptors seek to defraud, there is still a fundamental question as to how much occurs. Indeed, this discussion has too often been dominated by suggestions of large-scale corruption which are actually ‘suspected’ rather than ‘proven’ in many instances and that does little
to help to accurately assess the threat. In a debate where we should be seeking to develop and implement proportionate mitigating actions, that is a serious unanswered question and there remains little statistical data to underpin many national and transnational policy decisions. ESSA remains the only industry-led body to provide integrity statistics for its regulated betting operators, whilst the British Gambling Commission and previously the French regulator ARJEL, are the only authorities known to have collected and published such detailed data covering their licensed operators and markets. Interesting then to note that the Asser report on risk assessment and prevention goes on to cite the UK and French models as demonstrating the best ‘template for a legal framework that could be adopted by all Member States’. Both, it states, are the “most ‘comprehensive’ in the sense of covering both risk assessment/management and preventing conflicts of interests, and both appear to incorporate realistic means of monitoring, enforcing compliance, and sanctioning breaches.” The second study on match-fixing, led by Oxford Research, also comes to some welcome conclusions surrounding existing national regulations, self-regulatory arrangements and practices governing the detection and
reporting of suspicious betting activity. It also further supports the Asser report in promoting information sharing between operators, sports and the authorities. ESSA has long promoted a cross-sector and transnational approach to address match-fixing, and that is central to the report’s conclusions along with the exchange of information on a wider scale, but the study also quite rightly highlights the thorny issues surrounding data protection. Sports have suggested that regulated operators unnecessarily withhold betting information. However, the study details the complexity of the legal position and, for example, that “there are specific data protection practices and, in some cases, regulations that prevent account level information from being shared.” These are of course all issues and evidence-based comments that many sports would prefer not expressed. With such thorough and detailed material at hand, and if the Commission continues to uphold its evidencebased approach to policymaking, there is every reason for our sector to be optimistic about the scope and content of the initiative on best practice in this area. That will of course trigger a response from the European Parliament, which usually presents a significant challenge for us. However, they also appear to be acknowledging the significant issues and impact concerning poor sports governance and the ethics and integrity of sport in general. As a result, recent comments from MEPs active in this area have been far less critical of our sector, which was in any event unfounded, and are now quite rightly more focused on the inadequacies of sports bodies. We hope that this might be a turning point in the debate with MEPs, albeit much of their positioning appears to stem from national market protectionism. What will unfortunately remain constant is the lobbying of certain sports to obtain control of regulated betting markets. Whilst integrity is cited, it is of course primarily for commercial reasons that those sports promote this flawed approach, and with the Asser report for the European Commission widely criticising the “sports betting right” it
appears that there is a move towards more national level lobbying, both within and outside of the EU. During 2014, we saw examples of this in Switzerland, with calls for a “sports betting right” to be included in new gambling legislation to protect integrity, and in the Netherlands on the same basis, where our sector’s commitment to protecting sport has been strongly challenged. During 2015, it is the UK that could become another key battleground in this debate. The opposition Labour Party recently conducted a consultation on its sports policy including promotion of a ‘sports betting levy’. Whilst the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement announced a consultation on a ‘racing right’ on betting in 2015, which will no doubt see renewed pressure from UK sport and its Parliamentary supporters to widen this into a ‘sports right’ with the integrity argument again employed to justify the expansion. Of late, the UK government has held a number of meetings about integrity issues, and that process will continue this year. ESSA is well-placed in that debate, in my capacity as co-chair of the UK Sports Betting Integrity Forum (along with an English FA representative). The Forum will seek to develop quicker identification and integrity response times, increase awareness and promote cooperation between sports, operators, the British Gambling Commission and law enforcement. Engagement of this nature is critical in directly influencing policy decisions, and to that end ESSA has also attained an important position on the European Commission’s Expert Group on Match-Fixing - established as part of the EU Work Plan for Sport 2014-2017 - and will seek similar access and impact with regard to other national and transnational processes. For whilst we have seen some very welcome and detailed studies on match-fixing during 2014, the debate will continue to rage during 2015 and beyond and we must continue to meet that with a resolve to challenge and counter the accusations levied against regulated operators and the principally commercial ambitions of sports bodies.
Dedicated to servicing the needs of the international betting and iGaming industry, Betting Business interactive is your partner of choice if you’re searching for the very best journalism, the widest distribution and inventive advertising opportunities. For more information, simply contact John Sullivan at jsullivan@gbmedia.eu or call us on +44 (0) 1204 396 397.
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Business ‘Our relationship with the Affiliate operator regulators is proactive reports rather than reactive’ ‘strong’ Tim Cretney, senior private banker at Nedbank Private Wealth, 2014 explains why the firm has embraced the gambling industry, unlike some of the bank’s peers. FINANCE
ow involved is Nedbank Private Wealth with the gambling and ecommerce industry? In a relatively young industry, we have been working closely with major gaming companies for over five years, and have gained a strong reputation for providing banking solutions to a large portfolio of businesses ranging from global, household name brands to start-up operations. We also have a well-established network of industry contacts that enables us to assist new businesses by introducing them to the right people, and to get the best advice and ancillary services available. As well as gambling companies, we also provide banking services to a diverse range of e-commerce businesses.
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Why did Nedbank Private Wealth decide to embrace the sectors? We are currently in an era where many banks are reluctant to engage with the ecommerce, gaming and gambling industries. We have taken a different view, and in acquiring the right technical knowledge and understanding we can see this as an opportunity. Our long history of servicing international clients means that we are used to dealing with even the most complex corporate structures. We also fully appreciate the international nature of e-commerce, and understand the efficient use of corporate structures for intellectual property and multi-jurisdictional tax efficiency. We aim to meet the needs of our clients by providing bespoke business services with full regulatory compliance through our award-winning banking platform, and we remain keen supporters of the sector. We also provide private banking and wealth management services to individuals working in the industry. Many UK operators are struggling to get banks to take their business. How can Nedbank Private Wealth help in this regard? With a full banking licence in the UK, as well as the Isle of Man and Jersey, we can provide UK businesses with a fully regulatory compliant banking service supported by our specialist industry knowledge and experience. We have kept fully abreast with the changes that have taken place in the European, and specifically t h e
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AFFILIATE
UK, industry over the last couple of years, and we are perfectly placed to service operators in these markets through our offices. As with any client proposition, our initial aim is to gain an understanding of the people and the individual business at the outset, enabling us to make effective recommendations and proposals to create an appropriate banking solution. Rather than viewing this simply from a corporate bank account standpoint, we provide a full range of banking, treasury and investment support to the company, the executives and the owners through our multi award winning suite of services. We work closely with the regulators to stay abreast of the requirements facing all our clients in the sector. Our relationship with the regulators is proactive rather than reactive, and we regularly provide feedback and suggestions from a banking perspective. With numerous and diverse clients in this area, from various jurisdictions, we have developed a knowledge and insight into the regulatory frameworks of each jurisdiction. We currently have clients who are regulated in the UK, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta, Jersey and Alderney.
gateways to our banking and investment services are through offices in the UK, Isle of Man, Jersey, Dubai and South Africa. Our stated company objective is to serve our clients better than any other financial services organisation, and we have employed this traditional way of thinking in our approach to the cutting edge world of e-commerce.
Your Focus platform has won awards - how does the platform benefit businesses? Our Focus platform provides a full suite of international banking services that will support the operational, financial and regulatory requirements of an e-commerce business. We can cater for even the most complex banking structures, including multiple currencies and account types, all underpinned by a flexible online banking system and supported by a team with specific industry knowledge and experience. Our Focus platform is particularly valuable to e-commerce organisations as it offers segmentation of business, enabling a company to break down each individual division of its business and, as a minimum, provide full regulatory compliance. It also lends itself to corporate structures to accommodate tax efficiencies on intellecNedbank might not be a familiar banking tual property and administrative costs. name to many. How do you reassure potenWhat has been your most satisfying project tial clients of your standing? Nedbank Private Wealth is the interna- in the gambling sector? tional private wealth management brand Working with people through the lifespan within the Johannesburg-based Nedbank of their businesses is the most satisfying Group. Nedbank may not be a household type of relationship. We have worked with name in UK, but it is the fourth clients both on a corporate and on a perlargest bank in Africa and is sonal level from the pre-start up stage, majority owned by Old through the establishment of the busiMutual Plc, the UK ness, the regulatory approval process, the FTSE 100 and Fortune launch and operation, and the eventual 500 financial serv- sale of their business. Our expertise in adapting services during the lifespan of a ices group. Nedbank Private company enables us to add considerable Wealth benefits value to clients and establish long-term from the collec- relationships with the people involved. tive strength and reputation of the Given your position on the Isle of Man, what associated busi- are your plans for the e-gaming sector in nesses, and a her- 2015? itage that dates While we recognise that gaming is at the back to 1834. We forefront of new developments in the everoperate a comprehen- growing e-commerce industry, we also sive private and per- provide services to numerous companies sonal banking operation engaged in supporting businesses, such as on behalf of a wide range of hosting providers, payment gateway comclients. These include panies, corporate service and administraprivate individuals, non- tion companies, lawyers and accountants. trading companies, trusts, Our entire business is based on continuity governments and insti- in terms of long-term relationships with t u t i o n a l our clients, and our commitment to the einvestors. gaming and e-commerce industries T h e remains very strong. We look forward to the future with great optimism, and will continue to work with clients, both new and existing, to develop our range of services as the industry evolves and matures. Bb125-business-timcretney.jpg
isted digital performance marketing services firm XLMedia has announced a ‘strong trading performance’ in 2014. The firm said that trading for the year has benefited from both organic growth and the positive impact from the recent acquisitions. XLMedia owns more than 2,000 content-rich websites in 18 languages which are effective affiliate partners for gambling operators. Surprisingly, the company said it is already expecting to exceed current market expectations with annual revenue for FY2014 of at least US$49.5m and adjusted EBITDA of at least US$16.6m, representing growth of 43 per cent and 24 per cent respectively. Chief executive Ory Weihs commented: “We are delighted with the strong financial performance of the Group, highlighting the significant strategic progress we have made over the past year. Since our IPO in March 2014 we have worked hard to execute our growth plans. I am happy to see the results of the efforts of our very talented team which delivered our planned growth, whilst also diversifying our business and building strong foundations for the future. We continue to make excellent progress across our strategic priorities and I look forward to updating the market at our full year results in March.” During 2014 XLMedia says it significantly increased its presence in regulated markets including the US and the UK through acquisitions, added marketing activities for additional products such as social gaming and financial services, extended its customer base and further diversified its marketing channels. XLMedia said that its recent acquisitions have performed ‘in-line or ahead of management expectations’. It commented: “Whilst we continue to enjoy strong organic growth within the established Scandinavian markets, these acquisitions have accelerated our growth within regulated territories and into new verticals such as social gaming, further diversifying our customer base in the process. For example, the US is now our second largest market and represents approximately 21 per cent of total group current revenue run rate. We expect this trend to continue in 2015 with our ongoing efforts to further diversify and capitalise on the high demand for digital advertising services worldwide.”
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BIG AFFILIATE WEBSITES CAN BE MONEY SPINNERS FOR THEIR OWNERS
Supporting the e-commerce and e-gaming industries
WITH OUR MULTI-AWARD-WINNING FOCUS PLATFORM
We provide a high quality and cost-effective service through our flexible Focus platform. Based on twenty-five years of experience, we can construct the most appropriate banking structure to meet your business and compliance needs. To find out more, please contact Tim Cretney at ecommerce@nedbankprivatewealth.com or on +44 (0) 1624 645000.
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SOUTH AFRICA
Nedbank Private Wealth is a registered trade name of Nedbank Private Wealth Limited. Nedbank Private Wealth Limited is licensed by the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission. Registered office: St Mary’s Court 20 Hill Street Douglas Isle of Man. The Jersey branch is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission. The London branch is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registration No: 313189. The UAE representative office in Dubai is licensed by the Central Bank of UAE. Licence No: 13/191/2013. Representation in South Africa is through Nedbank Limited. Registered in South Africa with Registration No 1951/000009/06, an authorised financial services and registered credit provider (NCRCP16).
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Double digit growth for Playtech
Business
Playtech has told the stock market that it has continued to perform strongly over the previous four months. The firm said: “It is the Board’s expectation that both total revenues and adjusted EBITDA for the full year will be comfortably in line with the latest market consensus, representing significant double digit growth versus the year ended 31 December 2013.”
Q4 dip won’t take shine off William Hill’s year
BETTINGBRIEFS BWIN.PARTY STILL IN TALKS
Bwin.party has said that it is still in talks for a potential buyout of the company by a third party. In its pre-close trading update, the firm said it was ‘continuing its discussions with several parties regarding a variety of potential business combinations with a view to creating additional value for Bwin.party shareholders’. However, it warned that ‘there can be no certainty as to whether or not such discussions will result in an offer being made for the company’. NEW DEPUTY CEO AT PMU
William Hill’s channels are all making good progress, and a ‘resilient’ retail business is at least holding its own. INTERIMS
Weaker sporting results’ have been blamed for William Hill announcing a 7 per cent drop in operating profit for the last quarter of 2014, although the company is quite upbeat about performance across the year. Only William Hill’s Australian operation increased operating profit in the fourth quarter, with a 59 per cent jump providing some succour against a 13 per cent drop in retail operating profit and a 6 per cent dip online On a full-year basis, Group net revenue increased 8 per cent. Within this, retail was slightly ahead, online increased 18 per cent, William Hill Australia was up 41 per cent (although only 11 per cent on a pro forma local currency basis), William Hill US increased 30 per cent and Telephone dropped 28 per cent. CEO James Henderson commented: “Overall it’s been a good performance in 2014 for the Group, driven by both the continued development of our UK-facing operations
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and our international diversification, together with a successful World Cup. On a full-year basis, operating profit from Online, William Hill Australia and William Hill US all continued to grow very strongly and Retail delivered another resilient performance, benefiting from effective cost control.” Henderson added that Q4 provided generally weaker sporting results in December which impacted revenue progression, as did a very tough November comparative, but gaming continued to grow. “In particular, Boxing Day - one of the busiest days in our year - was a very good day for the customer with all but one of the top ten football favourites winning that day. Yet, in spite of that, our performance means we’ve delivered our best ever full-year operating profit result. Notwithstanding a difficult start to the new year with highly unfavourable football results in week 3, we remain in a strong position going into 2015. Online is very well positioned as the new Point of
Consumption Tax regime starts and we continue to diversify successfully, with 18 per cent of our revenues now coming from outside the UK.” Q4 saw falls in sports betting net revenue in retail over-the-counter (OTC) and online sportsbook with softer gross win margins because of unfavourable football and horse racing results, particularly relative to a strong margin in Q4 2013. Amounts wagered were down 1 per cent in OTC, although once the scale of the company’s LBO closures in the second half of the year has been taken into account OTC was actually up 1 per cent. In contrast, the online sportsbook was up 16 per cent, with inplay wagering up 27 per cent and pre-match up 8 per cent. Mobile also continues to perform strongly and was more than half of sportsbook amounts wagered during the quarter. The firm said that group operating profit for the year is expected to be around £371m.
ANALYSIS With a stagnating OTC, gaming machines are as important as ever and the latest Eclipse cabinets are now available in 70 per cent of the Group’s shops with the final 30 per cent covered by summer. Gross win per machine per week was up from £920 in 2013 to £974. As one of the founders of the Senet Group, William Hill is also putting more safeguards into its machine gaming operation. From the end of January 2015, the firm is extending its ‘Set Your Limits’ facility to require all gaming machine customers to decide whether or not to set time or spend limits when starting their gaming machine session. Mandatory time and spend limits will apply in the case of those customers who do not set their own limits.
Betsson settles Nordic earn out dispute with £11.7m AGREEMENT
wedish operator Betsson has settled a legal dispute following its acquisition in 2012 of Nordic Gaming Group (NGG) by agreeing terms out of court. The disagreement stems from the ‘earn-out’ that was incorporated into the deal with the seller of NGG disputing the earn-out amount which had been announced at the time as a potential 20m euro (£15.1m) on top of the 65m euro(£49.1m) purchasing price. Betsson has now agreed with the seller of NGG regarding the payment of the final earn-out, leaving Betsson to pay 15.45m euro (£11.7m) with no additional require-
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64 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
MAGNUS SILFVERBERG, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF BETSSON
ments for transfers of interest or earn-out from Betsson. The agreement means that Betsson will have a cash flow impact of SEK -147.1m (£11.9m), but also that Betsson will have ‘a positive profit impact amounting to approximately SEK 40m (£3.2m) in the fourth quarter of 2014’. According to Betsson’s dividend policy, 75 per cent of earnings is transferred annually to shareholders through an automatic redemption process. The positive profit effect will not be included in the calculation of net distributions to shareholders. Betsson acquired NGG and its brands NordicBet, Tobet and
Triobet in April 2012 as it attempted to ‘secure its position as the largest private alternative to the Nordic monopolies’. Magnus Silfverberg, CEO and president of Betsson, commented at the time: “Through this transaction, Betsson continues to strengthen its Nordic operations and its leading position amongst the private gaming company alternatives in the Nordic region.” According to the deal at the time Betsson was entitled to choose to pay any additional purchase price in cash or in Betsson B shares, based on the share price prevailing at the time of such payment.
Alain ResplandyBernard has been appointed deputy CEO of the PMU on a proposal from Xavier Hurstel. He will join the PMU on 2 February. Resplandy-Bernard has over 20 years experience in large international companies and public institutions. During his career he has had to work on issues of transformation and control of strategic projects in high level positions at places such as French Football Federation, Thales, and the United Nations. On his return from New York, he was appointed advisor to the Prime Minister in charge of sports, tourism and housing. He then served as Deputy CEO of the CNRS. He was also member of the National Assessment of Innovation Policy Commission. INSPIRED GETS INTO SOCIAL
Inspired Gaming Group has completed the acquisition of the main assets and employees of UK-based social games content developer, We R Interactive. Completion of the deal sees Inspired acquire cutting edge game titles I AM PLAYR and We R Football, with all existing employees being retained. The addition of these assets into Inspired’s game development division supports the business’ strategy to provide premium and differentiated entertainment, across all platforms. Luke Alvarez, founder and CEO of Inspired Gaming Group, commented: “This acquisition reinforces our leadership in virtual sports on mobile and opens our content up to a new group of gamers.”
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AGTech moves into smart phone sector
The battle over VAT paid on Spot the Ball across three decades is entering the penalty shoot out phase, with Sportech’s latest appeal.
ACTION IMAGES / ED SYKES LIVEPIC
Business
AGTech Holdings, a leading integrated gaming company in China’s lottery market, has bought Score Value Limited for HK$489.5m (£41.8m). John Sun, chairman & CEO of AGTech, said: “The successful completion of this acquisition is a major milestone for AGTech. As well as strengthening our hardware business, we are now positioned as a potential first-mover in the hugely exciting mobile smart phone lottery system and content supply market in China.”
Sportech to appeal £96m tax ruling
he £96m to and fro between football pools operator Sportech and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs is set for yet another court visit after Sportech was granted the right to appeal the latest decision. The case surrounds the old favourite sports gaming product of Spot the Ball, an extremely popular game back in the late 1970s and 1980s. While the digital age has seen the game’s popularity dwindle from its heyday, six years ago Sportech discovered that it was still worth its weight in gold. Having realised that, as a game of chance, Spot the Ball was not eligible for VAT, Sportech rifled through its books and discovered it had been erroneously paying the tax between 1979 and 1996 - about £40m worth. With compound interest, this has now become around £96m. Customs disagreed though, leaving Sportech to appeal its decision to the FirstTier Tribunal, which found in its favour in 2013, telling Customs to pay up. However, a series of appeals delayed the payment until eventually HMRC was compelled to hand over the majority of the claim - £93m - to Sportech last year. Unfortunately, Customs then pulled out a last minute equaliser with another appeal against the FTT decision, this time to the Upper Tribunal (UT). The UT heard that at the peak of its activity, 1.6m coupons were submitted in the weekly competition, generating an annual revenue of £65m. Originally these entries were assessed using a “sifting mask” (a sheet with a hole cut in it at the panel’s chosen spot) to eliminate the most distant entries, an exercise that was
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repeated with successive reductions in the ANALYSIS size of the hole. When a sufficiently small The fact that there number of coupons had been identified each of them was then submitted to the Final Mark have been no Machine which would calculate the deviation winners in this case between the location selected by the panel reflects the game itself. It was recently and the centre of the participant’s cross. The deviation would then be re-measured, revealed that the and the coupons ranked in order of devia- correct position of tion. Subject to human error, the process the ball was last was accurate to within one thousandth of an identified in 2004, inch. The panel never strayed from the simple with no-one path of treating a ‘closer’ cross as beating a scooping the more distant one. But it depends upon £250,000 jackpot in whether the placing of the cross in the right that time. However, places was a matter of skill or chance. HMRC there have still been maintains that it is actually a game of skill over 31m a year and as such was correctly taxed. paid out on the The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) ruled in favour of Her Majesty’s product since the Revenue & Customs and told Sportech is last jackpot win. The required to repay the money received to whole case seems to rest purely on HMRC in due course. Tribunal Judge Mr Justice Norris con- semantics and what cluded in his judgment: “Operators of ‘Spot ‘playing a game’ the Ball’ competitions are not providing truly means in this facilities for the playing of games of chance context, the fact that so as to fall within the Exemption. There is Mr Justice Norris no ‘game’: and completing and posting a had to invent a new coupon is not ‘playing’.” game - called Spot It is this latest judgement that Sportech the Star - in order to has now challenging. The firm said: make his point “Sportech confirms that it has been granted demonstrates the permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal wriggle room still left in relation to the VAT repayment claim on in this case. the Spot the Ball game. The hearing is expected to take place later this year. We Sportech will be will update shareholders once the date is hoping to make the most of that. confirmed.”
Seaniemac sees growth despite ‘challenging 2014’ SPORTSBOOK
isted betting operator Seaniemac has announced a 364 per cent increase in turnover in 2014, achieving US$10,750,114 in 2014 versus $2,949,471 in 2013. CEO Shane O’Driscoll commented: “SeanieMac generated a gross profit of $643,200 in 2014 versus $222,391 in 2013, representing an increase of 289 per cent. We accomplished this without a marketing budget for most of
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the year.” For every month, company turnover increased year-over-year when comparing 2014 to 2013. In 2014, he company had $7,718,000 in turnover, compared to $2,949,471 in 2013, representing an increase of 261per cent year-over-year. In 2014, the firm registered 9,336 new customers and processed and paid over 172,434 bets. O’Driscoll added: “We remain in advanced discussions on financing on substantially better terms than
66 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
appointments
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etfair has appointed Liam Wallwork as director of gaming operations where he will be responsible for the revenue performance and strategic direction of the operators gaming division. He replaces Matthew Robinson who left Betfair in October 2014. Wallwork’s appointment sees him promoted from his previous role as head of gaming operations. Wallwork, who has previsouly worked for Paddy Power and SkyBet, will work throughout Belfair’s current product gaming inventory, including Betfair Arcade, Betfair Slots, Exchange Games and Betfair Bingo.
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ark Claxton has joined social gambling developer Plumbee as slots producer and head of the inhouse slots production team. Claxton has been working in the gaming industry since 2003 focusing on games and slots development from initial concept to launch. Claxton’s last position was at Ash Gaming, a Playtech company. At Plumbee, Claxton will be working alongside a dedicated team of engineers, artists and Plumbee’s in-house mathematician to produce new games for Mirrorball Slots on both mobile and on Facebook verticals. Raf Keustermans, CEO and co-founder of Plumbee, said: “Mark is a brilliant addition to the team. His unrivalled passion and expertise for creating pioneering games will ensure that our Mirrorball Slots portfolio continues to go from strength to strength.” RAF KEUSTERMANS
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veryMatrix has appointed Sandra Barton to lead the payment product development department at EveryMatrix. Barton comes to EveryMatrix with a wealth of experience in payments and fraud having worked within the online gaming industry for over 10 years with Betfair, Rank Interactive and more recently BetVictor. She has successfully developed payment and fraud platforms and it is this in-depth knowledge that EveryMatrix is looking to harness and assist in taking their product to the next level. Chief executive Ebbe Groes commented: “We are pleased to have Sandra join our growing business. With her wealth of knowledge and experience within payments and fraud, a business critical function for us and our partners, we will continue to develop cutting edge products which are robust, secure and compliant to meet the needs of our clients and the industry.”
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kash chief executive officer David Hunter is set to join the advisory board of the Emerging Payments Association (EPA). Hunter joins four other industry leaders, who were elected following a poll amongst Gx and EPA member companies. The EPA was set up by a group of influential companies and individuals to represent those in emerging payments who wanted to shape their future. Hunter stated: “Ukash is continually innovating to deliver payments solutions that empower social inclusion in the global economy. I am, therefore, looking forward to bringing our philosophy to the EPA Advisory Board, where I am sure we will identify the opportunities to improve the customer experience as the payments landscape responds to the changing dynamics of the consumer marketplace.” DAVID HUNTER
some of the prior debt financing we entered into in 2013. We hope to update shareholders on this shortly, along with our JV discussions. Both these discussions are in the final stages now that we are current in our financial reporting. With these items in place, we believe we can
substantially grow the business in 2015. “2014 was definitely a challenging year. We at SeanieMac are excited and determined to make 2015 a great year. I am extremely proud of our team and think our level of growth for a start-up has been exceptional.”
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S racetrack operator Churchill Downs has appointed Travis Stone as lead race commentator, taking over from Larry Collmus, who is set to leave his position in April 2015. Stone had previously served as main race track commentator for New Jersey states Monmouth Park race track. Stone commented on his appointment: “It is truly an honour to become the new voice of Churchill Downs and to join a community that shares my passion and enthusiasm for this wonderful sport. The opportunity to call the Kentucky Derby and all of the prestigious races at Churchill Downs is a dream come true.”
AROUND THE WORLD
ODDSLIFE IS YOUR TICKET TO A GLOBAL SOCIAL SPORTS AND GAMING NETWORK
PARTNERS
YOUR SOCIAL SPORTS AND GAMING PARTNER
BB125-p68-69-Agenda_09/10 27/01/2015 12:40 Page 1
Agenda ACTION IMAGES / GRAHAM STUART LIVEPIC
There’s plenty of the regular February fare on offer for punters, with a rare occurrence of the Cricket World Cup and an even rarer occurrence of the possibility of the SPL title leaving Glasgow for the first time in 30 years.
Ante Post: What the bookies say t’s a packed sporting month, with football punters in particular spoilt for choice, with the return of the Champions League, the FA Cup fifth round and the Capital One Cup final alongside the usual domestic League action. We’ve just about recovered from the Boxing Day hammering we took from punters when a host of fancied teams obliged, with one lucky online punter scooping over £500,000 on a £13 15 match accumulator, giving him what he unsurprisingly called the ‘best Christmas present ever’. The cricket World Cup takes place Down Under so might be one for insomniacs, but in this rugby World Cup year there will be no such time issues with the Six Nations. Stuart Lancaster’s England are favourites for the latter, and second favourites behind reigning World Champions New Zealand for the former. Finally, the countdown to the Cheltenham Festival continues, and for those runners not heading straight to Prestbury Park, further antepost clues should be found at Newbury, Leopardstown, Ascot
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est in the big games in the top league but that won’t be a problem for this DAVE STEVENS match. Aberdeen are the shortest price of any team - other than Celtic Head of PR or Rangers - have been to win the Coral league in five years. There is a real buzz at the moment and long may it The Champions League and Europa continue. League make a comeback in FebruFinally, we have the Six Nations ary with some cracking ties. And it starting in early February, which, in is great for us that Celtic have made a World Cup year, takes on extra the knock out stages of the Europa significance. Rugby Union isn’t the League with a glamour draw against biggest sport from a turnover perInter Milan. Of course, it was Inter spective but the two club sides that Celtic beat in 1967 to become Glasgow and Edinburgh - have been the first British team to win the performing quite admirably this European Cup so there will be season and there is a wave of optimassive interest in the game. Celtic mism around the sport at the are outsiders to win but hopefully moment. It is 5000/1 that we win they will progress and give us more both the Six Nations and World Cup interest in the next round. Even if so I think we will be safe on that they don’t the quality of the sides in score. both competitions will mean PAUL PETRIE turnover won’t be dented. The second leg against Inter is Director on the 26 Feb which won’t help McBookie.com Celtic’s cause when they play Aberdeen in the Premiership two days later. For the first time in ages The Premier League title race has we have a serious title fight on our come back to life and February also hands in Scotland. Since Rangers marks the return of the Champions were kicked out the league we have League, with some tasty ties in had to be creative to generate inter- prospect in the Round of 16. and Kempton.
In terms of the Outright Betting, the spread betting Index pays out 100 points to the eventual winner, 75 to the eventual runner-up, 50 points to losing semi-finalists and 25 to losing quarter-finalists. Our traders have Real Madrid favourites with a spread of 55-59, followed by Bayern Munich on 5357, Barcelona on 42-46, Chelsea on 33-36 and Arsenal and Atletico Madrid both on 31-34. Fixed odds wise we have Bayern 5/2, Real 14/5, Barca 6/1, Chelsea 7/1 and Man City and Atletico Madrid 16/1. Racing-wise the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival continues with some big meetings throughout February including The Betfair Super Saturday at Newbury, The Ascot Chase and Betbright Chase Day at Kempton. The cricket World Cup is also sure to be huge for Spreadex clients as England look to put the sacking of Alastair Cook behind them and chase an unlikely success Down Under, while the Six Nations will be the focus for rugby punters. ANDY MACKENZIE Marketing communications manager Spreadex
My Diary: Jeevan Jeyaratnam Jeevan Jeyaratnam, senior trading & compilation at Super Soccer Oddsfeed, is planning for a busy ICE by meeting up with both existing and potential clients. n unusually busy January - building squads for the Asian Cup and African Cup of Nations into our database and pushing statistical research abilities to the limit - means that the ICE Show week has crept up like a false widow in autumn. In truth you’d have needed to be stationed on the Rosetta spacecraft to have missed the incessant email campaign from Clarion Events. The PR effort this year seems to have
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68 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
gone into overdrive but this only highlights the status of the event to the industry. The importance of the show to our business is ample recompense for the multitude of tube changes required to reach Docklands. Catching up with clients, current and potential, is crucial and this is one of the main aims for the week. Being a relatively small B2B company our ever-present strategy is to increase awareness of our product.
With three of the ‘big four’ already clients, we know the Goalscorer Prices & Settlement System (GPS) is first rate and we are confident that we can improve the quality and coverage of any sportsbook. Gala Coral and William Hill have been big supporters of this product and catching up with their teams at ICE is always worthwhile. Last summer GPS underwent a massive upgrade to its core algorithm, the result
is a much expanded product allowing for up to 18 derivative markets per player. ICE gives us a chance to meet with some of the clients already benefiting from this and also give the chance to remind others of what can now be achieved. February also heralds the official launch of our GPS dedicated website (www.gpssystem.co.uk). The month, short in nature anyway, looks sure to fly by, unlike the train journey to Docklands!
LISTINGS MONTHLY BRIEFING
FEBRUARY 2015 2 European Online Gaming Law 2015, Crowne Plaza London - The City Hotel 2 International Casino Conference, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3 World Regulatory Briefing, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3-4 Data Insight and Business Intelligence, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3-4 Cross-Platform and Multi-Channel Gaming, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3 Lotteries for the Future, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3-4 Game Design and Development, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3-4 BetMarkets, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 4 Cybercrime, Security and Regulatory Compliance, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 2-4 2015 New Horizons in Responsible Gaming Conference, Vancouver, Canada 2 8th Annual International Gaming Awards (IGA), Savoy Hotel, London, UK 3-5 ICE Totally Gaming, ExCel Conference Centre, London, UK 3 London Baby! Networking Party, Café de Paris, London 4 Fire & Ice, The Troxy, London 26 iGaming Legislative Symposium, Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, Sacramento, USA MARCH 2015 18-19 Caribbean Gaming Show & Summit, Caribe Hilton, San Juan 18-19 FAJDA Peru 2015, Atlantic City, Lima, Peru APRIL 2015 14-16 iGaming North America 2015, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, USA 15-17 I-Gaming Forum, Stockholm, Sweden 21-23 GiGSE 2015, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, USA 21-23 Social Casino Summit, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, USA
BB125-p68-69-Agenda_09/10 27/01/2015 12:40 Page 2
Forum foundations Heidi Scheiffele, editorial director of the I-Gaming Forum in Stockholm, Sweden on 15-17 April, is confident of putting on another good event. She said: “We will zoom in on your customers behaviour in order to deliver an optimal user experience, to stand out, to be innovative and creative, to utilise the right channels at the right time and use big data to your advantage.”
BRIAN MATTINGLEY WILL BE OFFERING A STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT
Igaming North America with Reality Check for online poker
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Coupon Dispensers Poster Frames Racing Post Holders Machine Tables Bandit Screen Posts Window Display Legs Stainless Steel Handrail Systems TV Gantry Systems LCD TV Brackets Plasma TV Brackets
SPECIALIST SUPPLIERS OF METALWORK TO THE BETTING INDUSTRY FOR OVER 16 YEARS UNIT 1E PECKLETON LANE BUSINESS ESTATE PECKLETON LEICESTER LE9 7RN TEL;01455 823721 FAX;01455 828339 EMAIL;davidross7@btconnect.com www.davidrossfabrications.co.uk Photographs courtesy of Coral Racing & Chisholm Bookmakers
Online poker is one of the many sectors to get a focused at the Reality Check-themed iGaming North America. eal-money online poker networks have been in operation in Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey for about a year and questions have been raised about if they are meeting their full potential. As a result, Igaming North America is hosting a session dedicated to the online poker industry. “Bringing the Fun Back to Online Poker” is taking place at 2.30pm and will provide a history of landbased poker (how and why we play), and its transition to online and how game theory has stifled a casino operator’s ability to grow their player base online. The expert speakers include: David Sklansky, Poker/Gambling Author, Two Plus Two Publishing Mason Malmuth, Owner and Publisher, Two Plus Two Publishing and Two Plus Two Interactive LLC Rich Muny, Vice President of Player Relations, Poker Players Alliance The speakers will provide ideas as to how to bring the fun back and increase the number of amateur players and keep professional players coming back. This session will provoke (new) operators to (re)consider how they structure their online rooms and the games that
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they offer, in order to (re) launch successful poker rooms online. Significant progress related to iGaming is continuing in segments that may not be evident to the casual observer. Fortunately, the producers of the iGaming North America Conference are closely monitoring these advancements, and has crafted the program of its 2015 event to help evaluate and share insights regarding iGaming’s most important trends. Branded ‘Reality Check 2015’, the upcoming iGaming North America Conference will focus on such themes as: What Casinos Can Do Now: Social Gaming; Skill Gaming and Fantasy Sports What is holding back iGaming in NJ, DE and NV? Consolidation in Gaming Supply: The Real Game Changer The iGaming North America Conference is apparently consistently praised by the industry for its on-point content and exceptional speaker portfolio, and organisers are already hard at work securing the program for 2015. The focus is on securing the disruptive innovators and groundbreaking leaders that have been integral to the advancements being made by leading operators, the financial sector, manu-
facturers and other industry insiders. The high-profile Visionary Panel at iGNA has quickly emerged as one of the most discussed debates. Last year, we featured the still-talked-about debate between Caesar Interactive’s Mitch Garber and Las Vegas Sand’s Andy Abboud. This year, the Visionaries Panel will feature CEOs from the recent key newsmaking acquisitions, David Baazov, CEO at Amaya Gaming, and Walter Bugno, President & CEO, Gtech International. They will collectively offer their observations as to how the aggressive consolidation in gaming suppliers is expected to impact landbased and online operations for the gaming and lottery industries in the upcoming decade. In addition, Brian Mattingly, CEO of 888, will be offering a State of the Industry report on how industry developments are unfolding in US and abroad. His breadth of experience across multiple jurisdictions will add insight to how things are playing out in the US. IGAMING NORTH AMERICA 14-16 April 2015 Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino Las Vegas
kevin@eagoco.com.tw
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Analysis ACTION IMAGES / JULIAN HERBERT LIVEPIC
The def Horse R An interesting analysis by bookmaker Coral and social media experts PeerIndex has discovered who are the most influential UK racing tweeters. eading bookmaker Coral has published a list of the 100 most influential tweeters in the UK Horse Racing Community, with Champion Jump Jockey AP McCoy topping the chart. The definitive list has been compiled in association with social media analytics company, PeerIndex,
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TOP TEN MOBILE JOURNEY CONSISTENCY (SD) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(9) Betfair - 0.23 (1) Sky Bet - 0.28 (3) BetFred - 0.53 (4) Bet Victor - 0.57 (5) Paddy Power - 0.67 (7) Bet 365 - 0.88 (8) Ladbrokes - 0.99 (6) Stan James - 1.06 (-) Willaim Hill - 1.43 (-) Coral 2.12
Chart supplied by: SciVism. Data for November Working Hours 08:00-23:00
TOP TEN MOBILE JOURNEY AVAILABILITY (%) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chart supplied by: SciVism. Data for December Working Hours 08:00-23:00
(1) SportingBet- 0.81 (2) Betfair - 0.97 (3) Sky Bet - 1.01 (5) BetFred - 1.51 (4) Bet 365 - 1.59 (6) Bet Victor - 1.62 (8) Ladbrokes - 1.82 (10) Totepool - 1.92 (7) Paddy Power - 1.95 (9) Coral - 2.53
Chart supplied by: SciVism. Data for December Working Hours 08:00-23:00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(1) SportingBet - 118.57 (2) Bet Victor - 143.00 (3) Bet 365 - 147.20 (4) Sky Bet - 155.80 (5) Ladbrokes - 187.43 (7) Coral - 192.20 (6) William Hill - 241.17 (8) Betfair - 298.75 (9) BetFred - 523.40 (-) Stan James - 688.67
Chart supplied by: SciVism. Data for December Working Hours 08:00-23:00
Betfair Winner Paddy Power Boylesports 888Sport Coral BetVictor Matchbook Stan James Sky Bet
Chart supplied by: Freebets.com. Data for December . Sorted by value including free bet payback
TOP TEN UK HORSERACE POOLS
TOP TEN MOBILE AVERAGE JOURNEY - PAGE SIZE (KB)
TOP TEN MOBILE AVERAGE JOURNEY - PAGE DELIVERY TIME (SECS) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(6) Bet365 - 99.67 (10) BetFred - 99.63 (3) Stan James - 99.58 (2) Bet Victor- 99.28 (1) Betfair- 98.99 (9) Sportingbet - 98.62 (-) Totepool - 98.56 (4) Sky Bet - 98.41 (5) Coral - 98.09 (8) Ladbrokes - 98.08
TOP TEN BOOKMAKERS FOR ENHANCED ODDS OFFERS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Ascot - Ladbroke Handicap Hurdle Chepstow - Welsh Grand National Kempton Park - King George VI Chase Aintree - Grand Sefton Handicap Chase Cheltenham- Caspian Caviar Gold Cup Aintree - Betfred Becher Handicap Hurdle Cheltenham - Stan James International Hurdle Ascot- Silver Cup Handicap Chase Newbury - Introductory Hurdle Kempton Park - Christmas Hurdle
Chart supplied by: Totepool. Data for December
THE £10,000,000 COLOSSUS
ALL OTHER BETS ARE LOWER LEAGUE 70 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015
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BB125-p70-71-Analysis_09/10 26/01/2015 12:15 Page 2
TOP TEN BETTING EXCHANGE MARKETS
SPONSORED BY COLOSSUS BETS
definitive list of UK se Racing’s Twitterati
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
International Cricket - Pakistan v New Zealand (1st ODI) £64,861,588.48 International Cricket - Pakistan v New Zealand (4th ODI) £63,259,919.46 International Cricket -Sri Lanka v England (5th ODI) £56,547,431.76 International Cricket - Sri Lanka v England (4th ODI) £50,470,713.48 International Cricket - Pakistan v New Zealand (2nd ODI) £46,936,020.96 International Cricket - Sri Lanka v England (7th ODI) £46,214,674.48 International Cricket - Pakistan v New Zealand (5th ODI) £43,101,364.10 International Cricket - Sri Lanka v England (3rd ODI) £42,856,662.18 International Cricket - Pakistan v New Zealand (3rd ODI) £41,595,790.56 International Cricket - Australia v India (1st Test) £40,788,529.48
Chart supplied by: Betfair. Data for December
TOP TEN with each entry being ranked with a ‘PI-score.’ The chart sees tipsters, jockeys, owners and trainers rubbing shoulders with broadcasters, print publications, racecourses, bloggers and individual journalists. The top ten includes Jump Jockey AP McCoy; Get Your Tips Out (an account developed by two young racing enthusiasts originally as a spare time project), as well as the trade newspaper - The Racing Post, and racing broadcasters Channel 4 Racing, Racing UK and AtTheraces. The official Twitter feed for Ascot is the most influential UK racecourse. To create the list approximately 5bn tweets and 100m Twitter accounts were reviewed. Each account is then assigned a PI-score, which looks at the account’s influence in the ‘Twittersphere’ in the context of the
TOP TEN 20 MOST INFLUENTIAL HORSERACING TWEETERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
AP McCoy - @AP_McCoy GYTO - @GetYourTipsOut Racing Post - @RacingPost Channel 4 Racing - @Channel4Racing Racing UK - @Racing_UK At The Races - @AtTheRaces Francis Keogh - @HonestFrank Ascot Racecourse - @AscotInsider Ruby Walsh - @Ruby_Walsh Nick Luck - @nickluck
METHODOLOGY IN WORKING OUT THE PI
Chart supplied by: Compiled by Coral Racing and PeerIndex
UK Horse Racing community. The number of followers does not play a role in measuring the PI-score. Tania Seif, head of social marketing at Coral, said: “Influence is an important currency on the social web and following major interest in our report on the 100 most influential people in Football on Twitter we decided to run the same piece of research for the UK Horse
conversations and this analysis shows who the most influential tweeters are and who are doing it best.”
Racing Community.” Coral spokesman Simon Clare added: “Horse Racing is blessed with an incredible amount of traditional media coverage with a daily trade newspaper, two racing channels, over eighty days’ terrestrial television coverage and pages or pull-outs in all the national newspapers. It is therefore no surprise that the sport also generates an incredible share of twitter
The key is to understand how other people respond to a tweeter. Someone’s rating is a function of other people’s assessments. This process, a bit like voting, is harder for a single individual to ‘game.’ Each person is assigned a Football PI-score 1 to 100. Peer Index’s maths also assesses who the people engaging with an influencer are. So a retweet from someone ‘highly influential’ is worth more than a retweet from an ‘average’ user. The
ONLINE SPORTSBOOK PERFORMANCE RESPONSE TIME (SECS)
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(1) Bet365 - 0.79 (2) Betfair Sports - 1.45 (3) BetVictor - 1.59 (4) Totesport - 1.86 (5) Ladbrokes - 1.99 (7) Sky Bet - 2.33 (6) Betclic - 2.76 (-) Jennings Bet - 2.97 (8) Paddy Power - 3.07 (9) Gamebookers - 3.31
Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for December
TOP TEN
SPORTS SPREAD MARKETS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
International Cricket - Australia v India 3rd Test International Cricket - Australia v India 1st Test International Cricket - Australia v India 2nd Test Domestic Football - Southampton v Man Utd International Cricket - South Africa v West Indies 1st Test Domestic Football - Liverpool v Arsenal International Cricket - South Africa v West Indies 2nd Test Domestic Football - Man Utd v Liverpool Domestic Football - Stoke v Chelsea International Cricket - New Zealand v Sri Lanka 1st Test
Chart supplied by: Spreadex.Calculated on volume of bets. Data for December
TOP TEN RETAIL BETTING EVENTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Horseracing - King George VI Chase, Kempton Horseracing - Welsh National Handicap Chase, Chepstow Domestic Football - Manchester United v Liverpool Darts - PDC World Championships, Alexandra Palace Domestic Football - Chelsea v Tottenham Horseracing - Ladbroke Hurdle, Ascot European Football - Roma v Manchester City International Cricket - Sri Lanka v England, 6th ODI Horseracing - Caspian Caviar Gold Cup, Cheltenham Horseracing - Betfred Becher Chase, Aintree
Chart supplied by: Freebets.com . Data for November
TOP TEN MONEYBACK OFFERS BY CHANCE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chart supplied by: Freebets.com . Data for December
TOP TEN BOOKMAKERS FOR MONEYBACK OFFERS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chart supplied by: Freebets.com. Data for December
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
AUS - Tom Waterhouse - Melbourne Cup - E17,228,400 GBR - Colossus Bets - The £10,000,000 Colossus - E12,743,900 SWE - V75 -Bjerke- E9,771,293 AUS - Ladbrokes Megafecta - Melbourne Cup Day - E6,891,360 ESP - La Quinella - E6,573,992 GBR - Classic Pools - E3,823,100 SWE - V86 - Solvalla/Bergsaker- E2,578,924 GBR - Colossus Bets -Pick6 - E2,545,180 AUS - Ladbrokes Megapick - Victoria Derby Day- E2,067,408 AUS - Ladbrokes Megapick - Melbourne Cup Day- E2,067,408
Chart supplied by: Colossus Bets. Calculated by biggest pools/guarantees over a week’s period during the month. One entry per bet type. Data for December
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Germany 30, Daily Wall Street, Daily UK 100, Daily Spot, EUR/USD Spot, GBP/USD Spot, USD/JPY SPX 500, Mar UK 100, Mar Wall Street, Mar Germany 30, Dec
Chart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets. Data for December
TOP TEN FOOTBALL BETTING WEBSITES
TOP TEN GLOBAL POOLS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(1) bet365 (4) Paddy Power (2) William Hill (3) Betfair (8) Stan James (7) Winner (5) Betfred (-) BetVictor (6) 888sport (9) Betway
Sky Bet - Football: If Both Teams Score Sky Bet - Football: If Man United beat Liverpool BetVictor - Football: If Man City fail to qualify (v Roma) Betfair - Football: If Liverpool fail to beat Sunderland BetVictor - Football: If 4 or more goals scored (Liverpool v Arsenal) BetVictor - Football: Red Card refund (man United v Liverpool) Bet365 - Greyhounds: Sky dogs 2/1 Coral - Greyhounds: If 2nd by a length or less Paddy Power - Football: If Man Utd and Liverpool draw Betfair - Football: Cashback Extra
TOP TEN FINANCIAL SPREAD MARKETS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Bet365 - 18.52% Betfair - 17.89% BetVictor - 11.24% Paddy Power - 8.84% William Hill - 8.09% Coral - 6.49% Sky Bet - 5.82% Ladbrokes - 5.66% Stan James - 2.70% BetFred - 2.62%
Chart supplied by: Oddschecker . Calculated on market share of betslip clicks from Oddschecker.com. Data for December
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BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2015 71
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