888, Entain, and Betfred grab the limelight in this week’s news flurry

This week was definitely huge for the gambling industry, led by a number of important developments involving some of the biggest names in the sector.

First, 888 Holdings confirmed that it had broken off negotiations with FS Gaming, an investment vessel put together by a trio of former GVC Holdings C-level executives, to wit Lee Feldman, Kenny Alexander, and Stephen Morana.

FS Gaming acquired a 6.6% stake in 888 Holdings earlier this year which triggered further scrutiny by the UK Gambling Commission and prevented the trio’s plans to secure leadership positions within 888’s hierarchy after the company confirmed that FS Gaming negotiations had been terminated.

In an official statement, 888 cited an ongoing investigation by the HM Revenue & Customs into several offenses that date back to the time of GVC Holdings (now Entain) when Morana, Alexander, and Feldman were part of the company.

In another big move this week, Entain has tabled a £203m offer for Angstrom Sports, a specialist in US forecasting and analytics. The company is hoping to significantly consolidate its technological footprint in the United States and scale its reach regionally.

Entain is looking to leverage Angstrom Sports’ expertise and technological base and use forecasting, pricing, and risk management to provide BetMGM, a sports betting and gaming operator it is backing, with additional access to technology.

The acquisition of Angstrom Sports is now expected to be completed in Q32023 and will help with BetMGM’s parlay and in-play portfolio as well as strengthen Entain’s global presence in forecasting and analytics.

Licenses, Market Opportunities and Protecting Gamers

Done Bros (Cash Betting) Limited, trading as Betfred, has agreed to pay a £3.25m settlement to the UK Gambling Commission, which will be forwarded to socially responsible causes as the company faced an investigation that established alleged shortcomings of social responsibility and anti-money laundering measures.

The period of the breaches concerns the months between January 2021 and December 2022 during which, the regulator claims, Betfred has failed to protect consumers on several occasions, including a lack of coherent know your customer and anti-money laundering measures in at least several instances observed by the regulator.

Betfred has accepted the settlement and has agreed to disclose the findings of these findings. This is one of the largest enforcement moves awarded by the UK Gambling Commission this year.

LeoVegas Group has reported a significant milestone in its journey as the company has received the go-ahead to operate in the regulated gambling market in the Netherlands for the next five years. The group is bringing casino, sports betting, and live casino products and is rightfully returning to one of the most significant and lucrative markets in Europe.

"We are thrilled to look to the future and fully focus on resuming our Dutch journey: the Netherlands has great potential and we look forward to it becoming an important market in our global growth journey," said LeoVegas Group CEO Gustaf Hagman

Meanwhile, Victoria, Australia has floated new proposals designed to help protect consumers from harm. The measures are a comprehensive set of guidelines that will introduce limits on poker machine play and also increase the time between rounds.

Carded play and a pre-set limit of $100 would be rolled out and poker machine venues will remain closed between the hours of 4 am and 10 am. This is a significant reduction from the $1,000 gambling limit presently available in the state. The measures are expected to be rolled out in 2024.

Rolling out with Suppliers

DraftKings continues to increase its content presence in online casino with the help of Konami Gaming Inc. this week. The operator has onboarded games by the supplier through Pariplay’s Fusion platform to further strengthen its game library in New Jersey at first, but with other rollouts planned for the rest of the United States as well. DraftKings praised Konami’s heritage in the land-based sector which was a strong draw with online players as well.

EveryMatrix too has launched its content with a prominent US-based operator, WynnBet, bringing a variety of content and games through its dedicated CasinoEngine solution. The supplier will provide WynnBet with a mix of third-party games as well as its in-house titles developed by Armadillo Studios as the operator continues to scale up its presence in US iGaming.

Events

SBC Summit Latinoamerica 2023 introduced the Sports Betting Product Track, dedicated to addressing one of the biggest verticals in the burgeoning Latin American iGaming and betting market. The product track is reuniting a number of prominent specialists and companies, among which are Kaizen Gaming, Pinnacle, representatives of the Puerto Rico Gaming Commission, and more.

SBC Summit Barcelona 2023 has provided more details about its Casino & iGaming Zone as the event is expected to draw more than 15,000 delegates, and many of them will be particularly interested in this aspect of the industry. That is why SBC is making sure that attendees can get the inside scoop on the zone from companies such as Spinomenal, Winfinity, SoftGamings, and others.

To wrap up, Eventus International has reminded interested parties that SPiCE Sri Lanka 2023, the inaugural event set to address the gambling industry in Sri Lanka and South Asia, is now less than a week away.

The Voice of Leaders

In our weekly conversations with the industry’s best and brightest, we spoke with two prominent specialists from the sector. Alina Dandörfer, Co-Founder and Director at Apparat Gaming, talked to us extensively about how her studio was able to achieve quality content that has enabled the company to scale its presence in markets well beyond its home country of Germany.

She elaborated on her company’s plans to put more than 20 games over the coming 12 months, the capitalization of Apparat Gaming, and the company’s ambition to be recognized not so much as a startup, but rather – as a rising star.

We also caught up with Thomas Metzger, Lotto.com’s Chief Executive Officer, who discussed the company’s commitment to local communities and the introduction of more environmentally-friendly products, such as the QR code solution his company added recently.

Metzger spoke about his company’s ambition to become the best at what they do and leverage cutting-edge technology for the constant betterment of the company.

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