Suspicious sports bets were on the rise in the first quarter of 2020, while bookmakers have once again been tricked into taking wagers on matches allegedly played by impostors.

This week, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) issued its latest report detailing 61 suspicious alerts reported in Q1 2020 across seven different sports and 22 countries. The number of alerts is 65% than the number reported in the same period last year and 36% higher than those reported in Q4 2019.

Tennis accounted for the bulk (31) of Q1’s alerts, about on par with Q4’s total, while football saw its reports double to 18. Russia led all countries with 8 reports of dodgy tennis bets and three ping pong alerts, representing a significant chunk of Europe’s 27 overall alerts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of most major sports and racing events, pushing both bookmakers and bettors into wagers on unfamiliar sports and leagues, including the Belarusian leagues that have defied the current trend to suspend operations.

In the fast moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Betsoft secures presence in Colombia’s regulated market with Rivalo.

Rivalo, Colombia’s only vertically integrated, licenced operator is delighted to partner with Betsoft Gaming. Access to Betsoft’s award-winning portfolio will allow Rivalo to offer the highest quality gaming experience to players in Colombia and ultimately, further afield. Betsoft Gaming recently passed a rigorous ISMS Audit giving it autonomy to operate in Colombia. Rivalo works closely with Coljuegos, the national betting regulator as well as utilising EveryMatrix software. This committed regard for security, together with Betsoft’s quality and rigour, is anticipated to expedite Coljuegos’ approval process of each game.

Playson eyes global expansion with ORYX Gaming partnership

In the fast moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Betsoft secures presence in Colombia’s regulated market with Rivalo.

Rivalo, Colombia’s only vertically integrated, licenced operator is delighted to partner with Betsoft Gaming. Access to Betsoft’s award-winning portfolio will allow Rivalo to offer the highest quality gaming experience to players in Colombia and ultimately, further afield. Betsoft Gaming recently passed a rigorous ISMS Audit giving it autonomy to operate in Colombia. Rivalo works closely with Coljuegos, the national betting regulator as well as utilising EveryMatrix software. This committed regard for security, together with Betsoft’s quality and rigour, is anticipated to expedite Coljuegos’ approval process of each game.

Playson eyes global expansion with ORYX Gaming partnership

If you’ve been missing English Premier League football while stuck at home on the Coronavirus lockdown, yet playing more FIFA 20 than ever before then you’ll be familiar with several feelings:

• Talking to yourself around the house using Alan Smith’s accent

• Muttering “I meant pass it left. Left… not back!” in your sleep

• Wishing every hour that a fun Esports FIFA game would be coming to Twitch before the end of the week.

William Hill has been looking to solidify their board for a little while now, and it looks like they’ve finally done it. The operator has named Matt Ashley as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) designate, and Stephen Parry as their new Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Ashley is expected to take his role as CFO in just a few days, starting on April 6. He’ll also take on the role of Executive Director of the William hill Board, replacing outgoing CFO Ruth Prior, who will step down on May 15. Prior was announced to be leaving the company in January.

Ashley previously served as CFO at National Express, eventually serving as their as President and CEO for North American business. Before leaving that company, he finally held the role of Group Business Development Director. He’s also previously been the Director of transport, infrastructure and listed companies at Deloitte LLP.

William Hill previously thought they may have a candidate for CFO in Adrian Marsh, but he decided to stay with his current employer, DS Smith, due to “current unprecedented circumstances.”

The U.K.’s Gaming Commission (UKGC) has ordered Caesars Entertainment U.K. to pay £13 million in fines for eight offenses the regulator has found. The casino operator is accused of ignoring social responsibility failings and a lack of anti-money laundering (AML) checks.

The social failings all involve customers who spent beyond their means, or had tried to self-exclude in the past. One customer lost £240,000 over a 13-month period, but had previously self-excluded, while another lost £323,000 in a 12-month period had had displayed “signs of problem gambling.” Another self-employed nanny lost £18,000 in a year, and had admitted to sourcing funds from family and an overdraft facility. Lastly, a retired postman lost £15,000 in 44 days.

On the AML side, Caesars is accused of not carrying out adequate source of funds checks on £3.5 million, with £1.6 million in losses, from a single customer over a three month span. Another customer was not subjected to customer due diligence (CDD) and lost £240,000 over a 13-month period. One woman, who identified as a waitress, somehow gambled £87,000 and lost £15,000 during a 12-month period. Finally, a politically exposed person (PEP) lost £795,000 during a 13-month period, but Caesars did not look into where he got the funds.

“We have published this case at this time because it’s vitally important that the lessons are factored into the work the industry is currently doing to address poor practices of VIP management in which we must see rapid progress made,” said Neil McArthur, Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission. “The failings in this case are extremely serious. A culture of putting customer safety at the heart of business decisions should be set from the very top of every company and Caesars failed to do this. We will now continue to investigate the individual licence holders involved with the decisions taken in this case.”

When an entire city is shut down in order to stave off a fast-moving virus, it shouldn’t be surprising that the result is a decline in economic performance. However, seeing that performance drop to zero provides an extremely bleak outlook. That’s where Macau stands today, as analysts with JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd. predict gross gaming revenue (GGR) for casinos there is going to hit almost zero in April. As the city’s primary source of income, this doesn’t bode well for short-term operations, especially following a month that saw an equally-devastating drop in revenue.

Macau’s March GGR was just 20.3% of what it was a year earlier. According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ, for its Portuguese acronym), the city took in a little less than $658.3 million for the month. However, this was 69.4% better than what was seen in February when Macau reported GGR of $354.33 million. Still, that February take represented a year-on-year drop of 87.8%.

Macau hasn’t been able to hit its targets in recent months, even before COVID-19 started taking its toll. As the city tries to prevent more losses, it faces an uphill battle, and JP Morgan’s analysts state, “We wouldn’t be surprised to see Macau printing near-zero GGR until the restrictions at the Guangdong border are lifted.”

That border is typically a busy entry point into Macau. Last year, on average, around 108,000 visitors passed through the border checkpoint each day, but the situation has completely changed now. This past Sunday and Monday, border police processed 230 and 270 visitors, respectively. Using this as a guide for April, JP Morgan’s team added, “April could possibly be the worst month since the first Vegas-type casino opened in 2004 (Sands Macao).”

It’s not uncommon for businesses to see changes in personnel – it happens all the time. However, when two executives with the same company step down in quick succession, it raises eyebrows. International casino operator MGM Resorts International thanked chairman and CEO Jim Murren for 22 years of service as he departed last month (a move that was made before he completed his “MGM 2020” plan, which is another reason to be concerned) and, right on the heels of his departure, another executive is leaving. Brian Sandoval, the former governor of Nevada who joined MGM only a little more than a year ago as its president of global gaming, has submitted his resignation. With both departures, the circumstances are a little puzzling.

In the case of Murren, he had announced his resignation well ahead of the termination of his contract with MGM, which doesn’t seem fitting for someone at such a high level of a company. At the time of the announcement, he didn’t specify why he was leaving, but it was revealed shortly after that he would be spearheading Nevada’s efforts to combat the coronavirus. That should, in theory, just be a short-term gig, but it forced Murren to up his departure timeline and, instead of sticking around to help during the transition to bring in a new CEO, he bailed.

Sandoval is leaving because he wants to go back to school, in a way. In a statement released by MGM regarding his departure, he says, “Having accomplished my goals at MGM, I have decided to put my time, energy, and public and private experience to work as an applicant to become the next president of the University of Nevada, Reno.”

Sandoval, who served two terms as Nevada’s governor, was tapped by Murren in January of last year to help the company with its initiatives in the sports gambling and Japan arenas. The first as the company looked to become more involved in sports gambling after the reversal of PASPA, and the second with its efforts to win over authorities and politicians in Japan so it could secure a partnership to build an integrated resort (IR) in the country.

New York is missing out on a golden revenue opportunity. Granted, it now has to deal with one of the more serious outbreaks of the coronavirus in the country, but, even before that, the odds of having online sports gambling introduced were slim. Governor Andrew Cuomo has asserted, despite evidence to the contrary, that virtual sportsbooks could only be allowed through a constitutional amendment in the state, and the yes-it-does/no-it-doesn’t battle isn’t any closer to being resolved. In the meantime, the first draft of a mandatory study on the gaming market has been produced, but the contents are not being revealed. They won’t be, either, at least for a few more months, which means the battle will continue, most likely, until next year.

New York lawmakers have been feverishly trying to reconcile a new state budget, but are falling short and didn’t come to an agreement ahead of Tuesday night’s midnight deadline. Elsewhere in the country, states that have legalizing online sportsbooks are finding that the market segment is performing extremely well (at least, it was before COVID-19), and producing better results than found with physical sportsbooks. Including online sports gambling in New York, one of the most populated states in the country, would go a long way to resolving any budgetary shortfalls.

Sports Handle reports that Spectrum Gaming Group, the entity selected to conduct a market study on gaming for the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC), has presented its preliminary findings. In the report, the key to solving New York’s financial issues might be found, but Spectrum won’t be prepared to issue its final report until June 1. Brad Maione of the NYSGC confirmed to Sports Handle that no information from the draft will be released at this time.

That includes not offering any details on what the report says about online sports gambling. Ignoring the constitutional requirement dispute, New York is letting millions of dollars in revenue slip through its fingers. Before the current global pandemic brought the sports world to its knees, neighboring New Jersey saw a sports gambling handle of $494.2 million in February – the sixth straight month that the take was above $400 million. Of the February figure, $436.5 million was wagered through online sportsbooks.