Monthly Archives: April 2015

Online betting point of consumption tax coming to South Australia

The Australian state of South Australia (SA) is pressing forward with its plans to impose a point of consumption tax (POCT) on online betting operators based outside the state’s borders.

In February, the SA government announced it was mulling the idea of imposing a POCT on online betting firms as part of a sweeping overhaul of the state’s tax system. Online betting operators licensed in other Australian states currently pay SA a $1,500 annual fee but aren’t required to pay the state any taxes on the activities of the estimated 74k SA residents who hold online betting accounts.

Local pub and club gambling operators, who have long complained that the taxes they ante up to the state means they can’t compete with online sites, are in favor of the POCT plan. A Clubs SA submission to the state government tax review claimed that the government stood to gain $47m per year from such a POCT scheme based on a 40% tax on ‘for profit’ online gambling businesses.

Late last week, SA Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis told The Advertiser that the government had begun work on how to implement the POCT plan. Koutsantonis said it was “important that online gambling operators pay taxes considering that they are generating profits based on betting activities of South Australians.”

Germany’s online sports betting licensing process scores more own goals

Germany’s tortured path toward online sports betting licensing has encountered yet another detour following the resignation of a sports advisory body tasked with assisting gaming regulators.

Late last week, the Sports Advisory Board (SAB) – which includes representatives from the country’s Olympic athletes, Football Association, Bundesliga and others – distanced itself from the Hesse Ministry of the Interior and Sport, the government body tasked with overseeing the bungled licensing process. The SAB said the ministry had repeatedly ignored its recommendations, including a warning that limiting the number of issued licenses to 20 would prove problematic.

The Hesse ministry issued its 20 federal online betting licenses last September following two years of dithering and false starts that left many applicants feeling ill-used. These licenses have yet to take effect due to legal challenges by spurned operators and lingering questions over whether the federal Interstate Gambling Treaty is copacetic with the European Commission’s idea of free trade.

The recently formed German Sports Betting Association (DSWV) issued a statement on Friday saying the SAB’s decision was logical and further evidence of Germany’s “regulatory chaos.” DSWV boss Mathias Dahms said German sports bettors were being “driven into the arms of black market suppliers” thanks to the “impasse” created by the Hesse ministry’s unwillingness to listen to outside advice.

Triple Crown Video promotion Enters Third Leg

By @TheDailyPayoff

With less than two weeks before the first leg of the Triple Crown racing series kicks off, America’s Best Racing released its third in a series of four video ads promoting horse racing’s Super Bowl.

This time, the series blends two parts philosophy and one part heartstrings in the form of Secretariat, one of the greatest thoroughbreds to race and was the first Triple Crown winner in 1973 in 25 years.

The Kentucky Derby, the series’ first race, goes off Saturday, May 2 and the digital video ads by America’s Best Racing, “The Road Less Traveled: The Road to the Triple Crown,” is trying to build audience expectation.

The video series highlights the hopes and aspirations indelibly tied to the pursuit of this most difficult athletic challenge, and features the beautiful cinematography of Bluegrass country, said Stephen Panus, vice president of ABR.

The series had been invoking mainstream sports references, a cameo by a 1958 Chevrolet Apache Truck and a quirky script are designed to expand the awareness, conversation and national viewing audience of the 2015 Road to the Triple Crown, he said. But this installment conjured up images of greatness from yesteryear.

The lastest installment can be view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns_esR_RXZQ

The Triple Crown is among the most difficult trophies to capture in all of sports. It has only happened on 11 occasions, with the last time occurring in 1978 when Affirmed took all three races.

A 3-year-old Thoroughbred must win three races – Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, each at a different distance – over the span of five weeks.

NBC Sports will provide live coverage of all three races: Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 2; Preakness on Saturday, May 16; and Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 6.

Episode 1 can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxtFGM05bw

Episode 2 can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TfYQYTocAo

NFL and Sportradar Unite on Exclusive Stats Deal

By Frank Scandale @Fscandale @TheDailyPayoff

The National Football League and Sportradar US, a major statistics data supplier, announced today a multi-year agreement to make the global company the league’s exclusive distributor of statistics to digital outlets beginning with the 2015 NFL Season.

Sportradar US will become the NFL’s exclusive distributor for official real-time scores, player statistics and play-by-play data (Game Statistics and Information System/ “GSIS”) as well as the NFL’s proprietary Next Gen Stats.

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Ulrich Harmuth, President of Sportradar US said the deal underscores the company’s commitment to securing its spot as the top outfit in the U.S. sports data market.

“We are thrilled to partner with the NFL in developing a completely new data category that will boost the fan experience as well as improve how the NFL and its partners interact with their fans,” he said.

He explained that since entering the US market about 18 months ago when it took over SportsData LLC in Minneapolis, MN, the company has been convinced about the sports data market being a great opportunity to do “all kinds of sports data” in the future. “We believe the US sports market is the largest in the world.”
He said the company upgraded the Minneapolis headquarters and the infrastructure there as an indication of its long term commitment to its venture in the US.

He said the NHL, for example, would be one of “six or seven interesting leagues” in the US that Sportradar would be interested in pursuing down the road.

“We managed to grow quickly in the past and there will be a need to continue to grow,” Harmuth said. “The NFL is a major step for us. We are also the official statistics provider for NASCAR, so if there is an opportunity to go for further licensing deals, we know we have a compelling product…and are completely willing to invest further resources.”

Vishal Shah, VP of Media Strategy and Business Development at the NFL , explained the reason for the deal.

“Statistics are core to the fan experience, and being able to broadly deliver new, differentiated viewpoints is compelling. Next gen stats is an exciting initiative that adds tremendous breadth and depth to our sport,” he said. “The ability to partner with Sportradar US, with its focus on technology and high quality data distribution, enables the NFL bring these great experiences to the rapidly growing sports data market and our fans.”

This partnership will allow the NFL to distribute statistical data in new and innovative ways, across apps, social media platforms, and connected devices.

Next Gen Stats, the initiative first introduced in the 2014 NFL season, consists of real-time, location-based data such as speed, acceleration and distance traveled, for all players, in all games.

This unique information, alongside GSIS, will be distributed by Sportradar US to give fans a closer look into the game, and allow them to experience it in ways never seen before. Insights from Next Gen Stats also will be available for fans in-stadium, at home, and everywhere else that NFL content is consumed.

While the company said the deal will not impact the US gambling market, it will further the development of Fantasy Football.

“Fantasy Football players are constantly looking for that extra bit of insight or information that will give them the edge against their competition,” Harmuth stated. “The NFL’s Next Gen Stats will provide a whole new level of insight into player performance, strengths and tendencies. For example, data about a player’s formation location, routes and speed over time as well as his performance or record against specific players or teams, will provide fantasy sports players with unique information as they consider future player performance and their selections.”

Both the NFL and Sportsradar have said that statistics will not be shared with gambling houses in the US. Harmuth explained the company has two verticals of business – one is for media and business, the other is to serve gambling customers. In Europe, they are completely separated, he said. “In the US we only offer one vertical – the media – and no data to gambling customers.”
Asked how this might change if the regulations were loosened on sports betting in the US, Harmuth replied: “We know what we have today, so we are fully focused on media sales, and not worrying about what might happen three to five years away.”

Harmuth said his company and the NFL agreed to not disclose financial details of the deal. However, Sports Business Daily reported via industry sources that the Sportradar would pay the NFL $5 million per year in exchange for an equity stake in the company. https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/04/20/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL-sportradar.aspx

Sportradar US is the U.S. subsidiary of Sportradar AG, which supplies more than 800 businesses in over 80 countries with data. Headquartered in Switzerland, Sportradar has offices in more than 30 locations around the world.

Sportradar US, which until recently operated as SportsData LLC and was acquired by Sportradar AG in 2013, has been said to be the fastest-growing sports data provider in the U.S. In addition to providing official league feeds from the NFL and NASCAR, the company said it now covers more than 20,000 live events across professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey and golf events, plus collegiate football and basketball. The company provides data solutions for leading global companies such as Google, Turner Sports, IBM, Facebook and Twitter. Sportradar US is headquartered in Minneapolis and recently opened a new 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art office dedicated to collecting, processing and monitoring data as well as client support, IT and development teams.

Lock Poker Throws Away the Key on Millions Owed with Apparent Site Shutdown

Lock Poker has been offline for three days, leading to speculation that the pariah poker site has shut down permanently. Lock has been suspected of insolvency for some time. Earlier this month, it reached the dubious milestone of a whole year since its last processed cashout, and it’s believed that the site owes its former […]

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