Monthly Archives: April 2018

GAN sign Goldbet Italy deal, extend Betfair New Jersey pact

Online gambling technology provider GAN has bolstered its presence in the regulated markets of Italy and New Jersey.

On Tuesday, GAN announced that it had inked a “multi-year” agreement with Italian-licensed online sports betting and casino operator Goldbet, which GAN says holds a 3% market share. The deal marks the ninth Italian online gambling deal for GAN.

Italy accounted for roughly 31% of GAN’s overall revenue last year, and GAN CEO Dermot Smurfit called the market “a strategic stronghold” for his company. The Italian market enjoyed significant growth in 2017, with online sports betting revenue growing 59.5% to €556m and online casino revenue up 29% to €567m.

GAN is also active in New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market via its deal with the locally licensed Betfair online casino of UK-listed giant Paddy Power Betfair. On Wednesday, GAN announced that the two parties had agreed to renew and extend their New Jersey relationship for another “multi-year” period.

Evolution Gaming revenue, profit spike 30% on live casino growth

Live dealer online casino technology provider Evolution Gaming started 2018 the way it finished 2017: setting revenue records.

Figures released Thursday by the Stockholm-listed Evolution show revenue of €51.6m in the three months ending March 31, a 30% year-on-year improvement and nearly €1m higher than the company reported in its Q4 2017 scorecard. Earnings were up 29% to €22m on an ungodly margin of 42.6% while profit rose 30% to €16.5m. Evolution’s shares rose more than one-quarter on the news.

The end users of Evolution’s products placed 3.1b bet spots in Q1, up from just 2b in the same period last year, thanks to new customer launches and existing customers expanding their live casino offering.

Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund said Q1 had closed off stronger than it started, putting the company on track to at least match its 2017 profitability as the current year progresses.

Fedor Holz, Antonio Esfandiari Among 15 Players Selected by Aria to Compete in 2018 Super High Roller Bowl

After selecting the first 30 players via a live lottery for the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl, Aria poker officials hand-picked 15 additional players to compete in the $300,000 rake-free […]

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Kenya to impose 20% tax on all gambling winnings

Kenya’s gamblers are crying foul after the government revived controversial plans to impose a 20% tax on gambling winnings.

On Thursday, local media reported that Kenya’s government had tabled a draft of the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018 in Parliament on Wednesday. Among the bill’s more controversial provisions is the imposition of a 20% tax on all lottery, betting and gaming winnings.

Assuming the new Bill is adopted, Kenyan gambling operators would be required to withhold 20% of players’ winnings on behalf of the taxman. A similar withholding system was abandoned in 2016 due to myriad problems associated with its implementation but the government appears confident that it has now sorted out these issues.

The draft Bill follows the imposition on January 1 of the new uniform 35% tax on gambling operators’ revenue. Kenyan sports betting operators, who had been paying only 7.5% tax, vigorously protested this change, saying it made their business untenable and would force them to pass on the costs to their customers.

Baazov cites PokerStars deal doubt as insider trading defense

Former Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov attempted to bolster his defense against insider trading charges by claiming that the 2014 deal to buy PokerStars almost didn’t happen.

This week was supposed to see the start of Baazov’s criminal trial at the Court of Quebec on criminal charges of insider trading relating to, among other transactions, the 2014 $4.9b acquisition of the Rational Group, the parent company of online gambling giant PokerStars.

But La Presse reported Tuesday that the trial had once again been postponed after Baazov’s legal team made yet another attempt to have the charges tossed, this time on the basis of abuse of process, specifically, that prosecutors keep turning over fresh documents allegedly pointing to Baazov’s guilt.

Baazov’s team claims that the Autorité des marches financiers (AMF), Quebec’s securities regulator, had made nine new disclosures of evidence just three weeks ago. The new evidence includes interviews with individuals caught up in Project Bronze, a parallel AMF investigation into how others may have profited from Baazov’s alleged dissemination of privileged information.

GiG announced as Malta Marathon main sponsor

The rapidly-growing technology business has taken over from Vodafone and signed up to support this annual event for the next five years.

18/04/2018, St. Julian’s / Malta – When one of the world’s leading iGaming companies officially inaugurated its new headquarters in Malta this year, its CEO and founder Robin Reed stressed that they wanted to become a bigger part of the local community. Now, underlining that promise, GiG – also Gaming Innovation Group – is set to sponsor one of the island’s largest annual sporting events – the Malta Marathon. The event will now be known as the GiG Malta Marathon.

“We are extremely proud to have partnered up with the Malta Marathon,” says GiG COO and General Manager for Malta, Mikael Angman. “We employ many young people, Maltese and foreign. Lots of us identify with this event and look forward to supporting it, while also embracing the challenge of taking part in whatever way we can. In fact, I am sure that many of our team members will be out there, running and racing, on the day.”

The Malta Marathon first began in 1986, when it was founded by Joe Micallef. Back then, 50 Maltese and 59 international participants took part. Those numbers are completely different now, with over 2,000 Maltese and 3,000 international participants joining the 2018 race.