Monthly Archives: February 2017

Playtech’s Asian grey- and black-market ops drive 2016 revenue

Online gambling technology provider Playtech enjoyed double-digit revenue gains in 2016 due largely to growth in its Asian grey- and black-market operations.

Year-end figures released on Thursday show Playtech’s group revenue rising 12% to €708.6m last year, while adjusted earnings rose by one-fifth to €302m and net profit shot up 42% to €193m.

Playtech’s dominant casino vertical drove the gaming division’s results, rising 15% to €354.6m thanks to strong growth in live casino and Asian markets. Mobile casino revenue more than doubled year-on-year, driven by Asian markets, where mobile casino activity more than tripled.

Most of Playtech’s other gaming verticals were in negative territory, with services falling 3% to €151.6m, bingo down 13% to €17.8m and the struggling iPoker division falling nearly one-fifth to €9.1m. Playtech insists it “remains dedicated” to its poker product.

Proposed tribal gaming ban to cause officials legal headache

Thinking about passing the tribal gaming ban bill is already giving Idaho lawmakers a headache these past few days.

This as Attorney General Lawrence Wasden warned that the measure may spark multiple legal headaches should the Congress approve House Bill 127, which seeks to ban lucrative video gaming at tribal casinos in Idaho.

The New Observer reported that House Assistant Minority Leader Ilana Rubel of Boise asked Wasden to conduct a legal review of the bill which is now in the House State Affairs Committee. Though Rubel isn’t a member of the committee, she still wanted her caucus to know the facts about the bill.

“I’m certainly concerned about the tribes, this seems like an effort to bring them to their knees,” Rubel said.

Kindred Group fortifies UK presence with $219M deal to acquire 32Red

Kindred Group, the parent company of online gambling brand Unibet, will fork out GBP175.6 million (USD219 million) to acquire rival 32Red, strengthening its position in the UK online casino market.

Under the deal, the Swedish online gambling company will pay 196 pence a share for 32Red, which is 16 percent above the Wednesday closing price for the UK operator who saw its shares surged in the past weeks over rumors of a possible takeover.

Kindred said the offer is 40 percent more than the average price in the last three months.

The takeover is the latest in the surge of mergers and acquisitions activities across the UK gaming sector. It’s also an overdue move by Kindred, which hasn’t entered a deal since acquiring Stan James and iGame in 2015.

Pokerstars joins forces with Hippodrome Casino for new London series

ONCHAN, Isle of Man – February 22, 2016 – PokerStars London Series will debut at PokerStars LIVE at The Hippodrome Casino London in the heart of London’s West End, from March 2-5, 2017, PokerStars, an Amaya Inc., (NASDAQ: AYA; TSX: AYA) brand, announced today. The £275 PokerStars London Series in March will feature a £40,000 guarantee, 25,000 starting stack, and four starting flights, including a new Saturday Night Turbo flight at 8pm.

There will be five new PokerStars London Series events over the coming months with buy-ins starting from £275. Further details can be found here. “Poker has always been a social game played for matchsticks, or pennies in homes and neighbourhoods all over the world,” said Eric Hollreiser, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Amaya Inc. and PokerStars. “While being committed to growing the game globally, PokerStars is also investing in promoting poker in local communities in the U.K.. The new London Series is designed to bring together the most loved parts of the Hippodrome Classics and the UK & Ireland Poker Series and make them even better for poker players living in and visiting London.”

The new PokerStars London Series schedule, which was created following player feedback on the UKIPT Series and the Hippodrome Classics, will include increased guarantees and starting stacks, tournaments with deeper stacks and longer levels, and prolonged registration.

Key Schedule Highlights

Morten Klein of Cherry on the latest happening in the company

In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, Morten Klein of Cherry explains why business consolidation is a good thing for operators.

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Russian state bank VP likens bitcoin to ‘positive bacteria’

Much like food and water, bitcoin is a life necessity—that was the conclusion the vice president of Russian state bank Vnesheconombank came up with.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant, Nikita Smirnov described the popular digital currency as “the only successful implementation of blockchain technology currently in existence,” and likened bitcoin to a “positive bacteria.”

“Viruses are negative bacteria,” Smirnov said, according to the report. “But bitcoin in many sense represents positive bacteria which meet a person’s specific needs… and allows him to exist. Bitcoin is the world’s only blockchain technology to have achieved wide usage and which continues to exist after years of people trying to beat it down but has not failed.”

Meanwhile, Herman Gref, chief of the country’s largest bank, Sberbank, recently forecasted that an industrial-scale blockchain deployment in the country will be possible by 2019.

VIGE2017 announces IMGL Masterclass – Risks and challenges when working in regulated markets

Thursday, 23rd of February 2017 – The organizers are proud and honored to announce that with the support of International Masters of Gaming Law(IMGL), VIGE Seminars will host an IMGL Masterclass with top names of the industry discussing the risks and challenges for affiliates, operators and platforms are facing when working in regulated markets.

Moderated by Dr. Joerg Hofmann, Immediate Past President of IMGL, Partner with Melchers Law firm, Heidelberg, Germany, the panel will stress on liability.

Online gaming continues its explosive growth year by year and respects no territorial borders. Trying to stop online gaming offering is like holding back the tide. Nevertheless, many jurisdictions are trying to keep unlicensed operators out of their market and restrict the gaming offering. The gaming regulators are using every imaginable measure to enforce local gaming regulation: Blacklisting of operators; penalizing players; ISP blocking; payment blocking and affiliate blocking measures are taken into use.

The gaming regulators have now turned their attention to the software supplier industry for aid in policing local gaming laws. Gaming platform providers have been asked to monitor traffic on their platforms and block for unlicensed gaming operators (.com traffic).

Lawmakers likely to take up Japan IR bill during fall special session

Spring is coming to Japan, but apparently, it won’t be the time that the country’s ongoing integrated resorts legalization process will reach its full bloom.

After talking with a member of Japan’s House of Representatives who is involved with the in-process IR legislation, analysts at brokerage Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd. believe there won’t be any movement during the Diet’s spring session.

“Rather, we think the Diet has already made the decision to handle the IR bill during the fall special session, suggesting that it is more likely going to be an October or November event,” Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen said in a note.

Japan already passed the first legislation—the so-called “enabling” bill—last December that will pave the way to make casino gambling legal, and if all goes well, the country may see the opening of new casinos by year 2023. But even before Japanese lawmakers can lay down the ground rules for the opening of casinos, international operators are scrambling to find local partners and venue hosts in the island nation.

Genting Singapore bounces to $112.4M net profit in Q4

Improved gaming revenue from the premium mass segment helped casino operator Genting Singapore to rake in a SGD159.2 million (US$112.4 million) net profit in the final quarter of 2016.

The October to December 2016 net profit data was a turnaround from a net loss of SGD7.8 million (US$5.52 million) in the same period a year ago, Genting Singapore said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

“With ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic and political environment, coupled with a difficult Asian gaming market, we continue to adopt a measured approach in the VIP gaming business,” Genting Singapore said. “The impairment of receivables relating to this business segment has reduced since we calibrated our credit policies and remodeled our commission structure. We have seen our profit margins improve in this segment.”

True enough, Genting’s bad debt provisions whittled down by 14.2 percent to SGD38.9 million (US$27.51 million).

Legality of CS:GO Skin Gambling

This is a guest contribution by Lionel Iruk. An i‐gaming, international wealth management, M&A, principal attorney and manager at Empire Legal. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

International Gaming – Legal Contributor

The term skin gambling may come as a surprise to many a gambling enthusiast and even old experts in the area. This is because Skin gambling is a very recent development which evoked interest after the ‘Arms Deal Update’ in 2013 which allowed users to trade in virtual weapon skins on the game and was touted by the makers as one of the most important updates.  It is essential that before we delve into the world of Skin Gambling and its legality, we have a correct understanding of the parties who are involved in this very niche area of Skin Gambling and then understand how the engine runs.

Origins of ‘Skins’

Becky’s Affiliated: Latest developments in Live Casino, a closer look with Neil Walker

Developments in Live Casino were one of my five favorite highlights from ICE and LAC 2017 and it looks like iGaming affiliates are also enjoying the rise in popularity of this sector.

One iGaming affiliate in particular, Neil Walker, is an authority in Live Casino games with four years of playing himself, behind the scenes experience from visiting Live Casino studios and service as the moderator (“neilw”) of Casinomeister’s Live Casino forum section.  Unlike most affiliates who include Live Casino as one of the tabs on their site(s), Walker has gone ahead and dedicated an entire affiliate site, LiveCasinoComparer.com, to the sector.

“There are quite a few affiliates out there promoting Live Casino, but not many have dedicated sites on the subject”, said Walker.  “Live Casino is still considered a niche product but it is very competitive; you only have to see the PPC costs for live casino terms in Google to understand that”.

Walker attended ICE and LAC 2017 a few weeks ago and predictably spent a lot of time checking out the Live Casino products on offer.  One important observation he made during ICE was the unusually large number of Asian Live Casino providers in attendance.  When he asked such operators why they made the trip, he learned they were looking to build partnerships with operators from outside Asia.

Onfido joins Tech City’s Future Fifty

London-based startup named among new entrants to prestigious programme for fast-growing tech

Onfido, a leading provider of KYC solutions to the iGaming industry, was today named one of 26 new entrants to Tech City UK’s Future Fifty programme. The Future Fifty showcases and supports 50 of the country’s most pioneering growth stage companies, with the likes of Deliveroo and Transferwise already among its number.

Future Fifty companies have enjoyed phenomenal success since the programme began, demonstrating that the Tech City UK initiative is a real proving ground for the UK’s most talented entrepreneurs and their teams. Future Fifty alumni companies have now created 27,000 jobs and raised almost $4 bn in funding through venture capital and capital markets in the last 36 months.

Onfido was one of a cluster of FinTech companies joining the list this year. Founded in 2012 by three graduates from Oxford University, Onfido has since grown to a team of 145 across offices in London, San Francisco and Lisbon. The company secured Series B funding totalling $25 million for its Machine Learning-based KYC solution early last year, which is now used by over 1000 businesses worldwide.

NOVOMATIC took centre stage at the World Theatre of Gaming

The international gaming community was once again welcomed to London on February 7-9 as Clarion Events put on another stellar ICE Totally Gaming at ExCeL London. Central to the show was NOVOMATIC and its various international group companies and competence centres that presented a full range of gaming solutions ready to excite the market and break new ground in 2017.

Harald Neumann, CEO NOVOMATIC AG, said: “With this trade show appearance, NOVOMATIC once again proves that as a full-service provider, we are among the world’s leading gaming technology groups.”

Ever-expanding, the NOVOMATIC stand increased to 4,700 square meters this year to make way for an even wider selection of products including those from new additions to the Group. Ainsworth Game Technology exhibited for the first time on NOVOMATIC’s monumental ICE stand, presenting the new A600® cabinet line and debuted the A640® for the first time on the global stage. Visitors got their hands on a selection of new content such as Rumble Rumble Bear™, licensed titles King Kong City™ and Three Amigos Ride Again™, as well as several linked progressives. Another newcomer to the NOVOMATIC stand was Otium that demoed a range of market-leading video bingo products.

International highlights of NOVOMATIC Gaming Industries included a presentation of the full suite of V.I.P. cabinets – NOVOSTAR® V.I.P. Royal, NOVOSTAR® V.I.P. II, NOVOSTAR® V.I.P. III and V.I.P. Lounge™ – that showed how Very Important Player experiences can be created in gaming venues of all sizes. After making a sneak preview last year, the GAMINATOR® Scorpion made a standout display at ICE and showed a multitude of content across all NOVOMATIC platforms and game mixes, such as the brand new Jackpot Edition™ compendium that made its international debut at the show.

UltraPlay broadens its partnership network with Golden Race and Betinvest

The leading eSports betting company UltraPlay has announced that it has signed a deal with Betinvest and Golden Race, which will further enrich and broaden the business perspectives on a global scale while providing top-class sports betting solutions and virtual sports content.

“With the company’s core ambition to offer a wide variety of winning products to its customers, UltraPlay has successfully started another fruitful partnership with two of the best sports product providers Betinvest and Golden Race.“, said the company’s CEO Dariy Margaritov.

Betinvest’s VP of Business Development Valentin Kyrylenko expressed the same feelings and commented: “As a globally renowned company for its sophisticated and diversified sports betting turnkey solutions, Betinvest is totally prepared to deliver next level of online gaming experience. UltraPlay is among the eSports betting leaders which will further enhance its sports products with our business collaboration.”

Goldren Race has also entered UltraPlay’s partnership network with its well-known virtual sports products, amongst horse racing, greyhounds, 3D virtual football games expected to bring more high quality games to the customer’s online platforms. “Engaging the players 24/7 with matches and races in every 5 minutes, Golden Race will definitely enrich the virtual sports section of UltraPlay’s platform“, said Martin Wachter, CEO of Golden Race.

Tioga Downs announces opening of newly expanded gaming floor

Additions to gaming area follow the casino’s grand opening in December

 Nichols, N.Y (February 22, 2017) – Tioga Downs, the premier entertainment and gaming destination nestled in the Southern Tier of New York, is thrilled to announce the opening of their newly expanded gaming floor.

The expanded space is part of the casino that Tioga Downs opened December, which features 32 long-awaited table games, including Blackjack, Craps, and Roulette, as well as popular casino games such as Pai Gow Poker, Let It Ride, 3-Card and 4-Card Poker and the Big 6 Wheel.

The Down’s also features a separate live Poker Room with 12 tables featuring a Bad Beat progressive jackpot that is already over $60,000 (at the time this article was written), as well as weekly promotions.  Daily tournaments are in the plans for the near future, as well.

Microgaming buzzing with excitement for March games

ISLE OF MAN – Microgaming is set to release three exciting new games in March.

Pollen Party will literally have players buzzing with excitement as the ground-breaking, 720 way variable reel online slot is brought to life in a unique honeycomb reel layout. But the sticky delights go way beyond the quirky fun graphics and include two dynamic features for players to enjoy. From the two different scatter symbols, players can trigger the sweetest of free spin features that simply burst with pollen-filled potential, or pick their sugary prize in the enthralling Babee bonus! View the game promotional video here.

Exploding from the mythical depths, Emperor of the Sea features a rolling rhythm of play and a captivating musical score in this 5×4 reel online slot. A veritable treasure trove of in-game features start with players selecting their own payline option – 38, 68 or 88, all numbers representing ‘fortune’ in Asian culture. Stacked wild symbols feature across all reels in the base game. The fast-paced action then hits full flow in the free spins round, as Growing Wilds™ fill the reels. Stacked wild symbols increase in stack size with every single spin. This feature is combined with Rolling Reels™ to ignite winning symbol combinations in dazzling blue explosions whilst players wait for new symbols to fall down. View the game promotional video here.

Pollen Party and Emperor of the Sea go live with operators on desktop and mobile on Wednesday 1 March 2017.

Leading European online gambling operator bolsters EGBA membership

The EGBA is pleased to announce that Betsson Group, a leading European online gambling company with licenses across Europe, has joined the EGBA as of the 20th February 2017.

Commenting on the recent membership of Betsson Group, Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of EGBA, said: “We are very delighted that Betsson Group has joined the EGBA. Betsson has historically been an established company in the Nordic markets, who are now increasing their market share outside of the Nordics holding licenses in 10 countries1 in Europe, they are a truly European company. Their addition bolsters even further our ability to be the voice of industry when speaking to regulators and policy makers about the many regulatory challenges facing the industry.”

Ulrik Bengtsson, CEO of Betsson Group added: “With the current wave of local regulation taking place across Europe, Betsson Group wants to expand its revenue from locally regulated markets. It is important that these markets’ licensing regimes are compliant with EU law and the increasing EU regulation applicable to online gambling. EGBA’s knowledge, expertise and support will assist Betsson in this arena. For an evidently cross border sector like ours, effective application and enforcement of EU law is crucial.“

Betsson Group is the second member company to join the EGBA this year following the arrival of ZEAL Network SA in early January (see link). Betsson Group is also a member of BOS, the Swedish gambling association, which joined the EGBA as well in December 2015 and which seeks to influence the on-going Swedish gambling reform.