BetDex launches, Eminence boosts shares in Entain, new RG campaigns roll out

The week has been super busy. BetDex, a decentralized betting exchange launched by former FanDuel alumni and gambling industry mandarins, introduced the platform which sports the credo "Built for the Bettor," a statement that would be quickly put to the test. BetDex promises to create an equitable playing field where exceptional bettors are not "penalized" for being too successful at what they do.

Stock movements in the gambling sector – Stake & Eminence in focus

Eminence Capital, a global asset management firm, has pushed its stake in Entain, a FTSE100-listed company, to 5.18%, following the latest purchase of 7.1m shares by the company’s boss, Ricky Sandler. Sandler, who has a pew on the Board of Directors at Entain, has been one of its most outspoken critics, reprimanding the company for what he claimed was an ill-conceived mergers and acquisitions strategy.

Stake.com founders, Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, submitted a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange through Easygo, their local business in the Down Under, confirming that they had bought out a 4.2% stake in PointsBet, an Aussie bookmaker, which could signal that Stake, which is a registered brand in the country, might attempt to expand its clout locally.

In the meantime, FanDuel has completed the acquisition of BeyondPlay, promoting the company’s CEO and founder, Karolina Pelc to VP of BeyondPlay as part of the FanDuel umbrella.

The exact terms of the deal, nor its financial value, were never disclosed to the public, but BeyondPlay delivers custom and tailored solutions that allow companies to better engage with their audiences in the iGaming space. BeyondPlay’s solutions will now be deployed exclusively with FanDuel and Flutter Entertainment’s companies.

Speaking of big corporate changes in the gambling industry, we would be remiss if we didn’t bring up the appointment of a former Flutter executive as Yolo Group’s new Chief Product Officer. Ashley-Christian Hardy has joined the company earlier this week.

Are social casinos illegal gambling – Georgian local woman seeks the answer

Bally’s Corporation is moving forward with Ruby Seven Studios as part of a new deal designed to set up a dedicated social casino that will focus on free-to-play experiences for Americans. Bally Play is already underway in the United States, and it seeks to expand in North America as a whole. The games included on the website include titles from popular developers such as Gaming Arts, Bluberi, Aruze, IGT, High 5 Games, and Konami, among others.

Meanwhile, Chumba Casino’s parent company, Virtual Gaming Worlds, which also operates Luckyland Casino and Global Poker, is facing more legal flak in the Georgia, the United States, with a fresh lawsuit filed on behalf of a local woman who alleges that VGW is in fact flaunting gambling rules and pushing an illegal gambling product.

Gambling regulation and responsible gambling efforts

The week actually had several interesting developments to report insofar as responsible gambling and the regulation of the industry are concerned. Let’s start with Mr Green who managed to have a colossal SEK31.5m fine against it reduced to SEK12m in a court of law in Sweden.

This is the second time that Mr Green has sought reduction over what the operator consider to be an unjust penalty brought on by AML and social responsibility failings. At the same time, Sweden has launched a new responsible gambling campaign designed to help protect young adults from the dangers of problem gambling and real money gambling in general.

The new campaign focuses exclusively on protecting the most vulnerable groups, the age group between 18 and 25, who tend to develop unhealthy relationships with gambling activities if left unsupervised.

Similarly, the Autorité National des Jeux is launching a new campaign to promote safer gambling practices ahead of the Euro 2024 competition which is due to kick off on June 14. The campaign solicits personal stories from people who have suffered from gambling-related harm and who have shared them for the purposes of raising awareness.

The Betting and Gaming Council has touted the success of Safer Gambling Week 2023, citing data that there have been 50m impressions of mentions about the campaign and the use of responsible gambling tools. The trade body also saw an increase in the use of self-exclusion and deposit limit registrants.

This comes at the same time as GambleAware confirmed that voluntary donations have been increasing but highlighted the fact that only four companies alone accounted for 94% of all the money collected. The not-for-profit similarly said that it is seeking a statutory levy, as discussed by the White Paper Review of the country’s gambling industry.

The Netherlands has introduced the new Responsible Gambling Policy Rules, which are enacted with an immediate effect this week, and will seek to limit the deposit limits for players.

However, the implementation of certain aspects of the new rules, including the deposit limits, will come with a grace period through October 1, 2024, giving companies enough time to catch up in terms of the technology required to deploy to stay compliant.

Equally important, Casino Guru has launched the third phase of the Self-exclusion Standards initiative, which seeks broader input from operators around the world to help advice on a common framework for self-exclusion rules and recommendations.

To arrive at a solution, the Self-exclusion Standards project embarked on a comprehensive journey, that fostered cooperation with international stakeholders to create a set of online self-exclusion recommendations that will be available for adoption across different jurisdictions. The project now seeks operator input, big or small.

Industry talks with Brandt Iden, Gustaf Hoffstedt and All Things Gambling

This week we had the pleasure to catch up with many industry insiders. Gustaf Hoffstedt for one, who is BOS Secretary General. Our conversation with Hoffstedt focused on the recent government proposal to ban credit cards for more gambling activities, and how this could impact. Hoffstedt said that BOS firmly supports well-thought-through measures that protect consumers but argued that in the midst of declining channelization rates, it’s important for lawmakers to approach changes with understanding and an evidence-based approach.

Fanatics VP of Gaming and Betting Brandt Iden walked us through what is next for iGaming in the United States. He offered a deep account of what the current landscape is, and how it may change in the foreseeable future, insisting that lawmakers need to better understand the subject matter in order to make better-informed decisions. Online casinos are more or less the future, but lawmakers need to understand why prohibiting them is actually empowering the black market. Iden’s insights go well beyond that and we invite you to read the full interview.

In our latest episode of All Things Gambling, we sat down with CoinPayments Senior Sales Executive Osvaldas Kazlauskas and 4H Agency Partner and Head of Eastern Europe Desk Ivan Kurochkin to discuss how crypto is evolving and how the once marginal sector is becoming a bigger part of the gambling industry.

Scam alert – beware of the false Gurus

Not least, we finish this week’s news roundup on a less cheerful note. A slew of websites that are trying to imitate the Casino Guru brand and visual identity, or are alleging affiliation or/and endorsement, have bene registered by our teams.

We want to issue a stern rebuke to such practices and inform our loyal community members that the only information about Casino Guru and its projects will only be available through the official website. You can read more about the rogue websites here.

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