Flutter plows $350m in Brazil, Netherlands raises tax, Playtech sells Snaitech

It has been a huge week for the gambling industry in terms of major regulatory changes and merger and acquisition deals.

First, Flutter Entertainment confirmed that it is buying out Betnacional in an all-cash deal, which will see the company purchase a controlling stake in NSX Group, the operator of the well-known sports betting and gaming brand.

This is one of the biggest moves in the market and signals a strong appetite for market share in the burgeoning Brazilian gambling sector. The deal also comes shortly before Brazil issued a warning to still-unlicensed companies to apply for a license before the end of September.

Companies that still do not comply and do not have a license at the end of September will have until October 10 to voluntarily exit the market. Come October 11, Brazil will mount a multi-institutional effort to block gambling websites that still operate without a license.

Following this announcement, six more companies have applied to the Prizes and Betting Secretariat, hoping to remain operational in the local gambling market. All applications will be reviewed by November, while companies that have applied for a license and await a ruling will be able to still operate until their submission is reviewed.

EveryMatrix has tabled a buyout bid for Fantasma Games, a popular developer of online casino games. The company is looking to buy the studio for €18.5m with the majority of shareholders already throwing their weight behind the buyout bid.

Fantasma Games has until October 10, 2024, to decide whether it wants to proceed with the deal. Should the proposal go through, this will be the second studio that EveryMatrix has under its own roof, with Armadillo Studios already building original games for the company.

Playtech rejuggles assets, regulatory changes incoming

In another major mergers-and-acquisition move this week, Playtech has confirmed that it is shedding its business-to-customer division, Snaitech, and transforming its business into a business-to-business operation instead.

The buyer is Flutter Entertainment which has agreed to spend £2bn on buying out the business, securing itself a firm foothold in the Italian iGaming market.

This announcement came shortly after Playtech said that it had reached an amicable resolution of an ongoing issue with Caliplay, acquiring a stake in Caliente Interactive in Mexico, and sorting out a problem the companies had with unpaid service fees.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands has confirmed that the country will be raising the gambling tax to 37.8% gradually through 2026. The first gambling tax hike will take place in 2025 when the levy will reach 34.2%. The final rate will be applied in 2026.

In Malaysia, the main opposition party has said that gambling should be completely banned in the country, including Malaysia’s only land-based casino. Moving ahead with this plan seems highly unlikely especially when the country is not due to hold general elections for another several years.

Australia, in the meantime, continues to grapple with whether loot boxes constitute a form of gambling. Although loot boxes have not been assigned a formal "gambling status," they have still come under new regulations that will now reclassify a number of games that contain these digital containers.

In other news, BetMGM has become the official sports betting and casino gaming partner for Gannet, the publishing house behind the USA Today brand and its sublets, the USA Today Sports and USA Today Network.

This marks another huge partnership opportunity for BetMGM as the company previously announced a similar collaboration with the Associated Press in yet another move that sees mainstream media embrace sports betting.

The American Gaming Association in the meantime has come up with a new RG Intervention Effectiveness Scale that is essentially aiming to set a new standard for RG communications and advertisements. The RG-IES attempts to build a guideline for and estimate how effective RG messages are, helping companies build more impactful campaigns.

Streamer xQc is said to have gambled $3bn on Stake.com. This is one of the biggest amounts to have ever been gambled online by any person, and the news was met with both cheers from fans and criticism from sceptics who argued that xQc had not been using "his money" to achieve this.

Videoslots, a popular iGaming operator, had a fine against it in the Netherlands reduced to €1m after the Kansspelautoriteit initially slapped the company with a rather overreaching €10m fine.

The regulator alleged that Videoslots was part of blackmarket operations, which the company has vehemently denied, insisting that it had complied with the watchdog’s original request to exit the market in a timely fashion.

Sky takes heat over data, FDJ to close Kindred Group deal sooner

Sky Betting and Gaming, the leading operator with a strong presence in the UK, was subject to scrutiny from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the country recently. The interest of the ICO followed a complaint filed by Clean Up Gambling.

In its report to the ICO, the not-for-profit campaign claimed that the operator used personal information to specifically target "vulnerable gamblers." The ICO investigated the alleged issue and concluded that Sky Betting and Gaming hasn't misused personal information in such a way.

What came as a surprise to the ICO was another breach of the use of data by the operator related to "processing personal data through the use of certain cookies in a way that was not lawful, transparent or fair." This processing was completed without the consumers' consent, which is why the ICO reprimanded Sky Betting and Gaming.

To wrap it all up, the Française des Jeux (FDJ) has confirmed that it has been cleared by anti-competition authorities in France to acquire Kindred Group in a landmark €2.45bn deal that will transform the FDJ into Europe’s largest gambling operator by revenue cap.

The gambling industry talks

This week we had the pleasure of speaking with a number of great people from all around the industry. We caught up with Dr. Jennifer Shatley, Executive Director of the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA), who spoke about the association’s long-term goals and upcoming projects, and argued that RG programs in general benefit the larger gambling audience, not just people who have come to experience harm.

We also spoke with Katya Machuganova, Product Owner at Silverback Gaming, with whom we discussed what makes the launch of a new slot game successful. As Machuganova puts it, a successful slot is defined by its ability to capture players' attention – and keep it.

Hardly last, we have published our latest episode of the All Things Gambling Series, which focuses on the benefits and risks of casino streaming, featuring Anna Zhukova who is Influencer Marketing Team Lead in the iGaming industry at Famesters, Roy AKA Spintwix who is Casino Streamer & Founder of CasinoRing.com, and Šimon Vincze, Casino Guru'sHead of Sustainable & Safer Gambling.

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