The bill, called the Fantasy Contests Act, is the first of its kind in the US and outlines how sites like FanDuel and DraftKings can operate legally in the state of Virginia. It was signed by governor Terry McAuliffe, who put the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service in charge of overseeing the industry.
The Fantasy Sports Act states that, alongside undergoing two independent audits every year, fantasy sport sites must pay a $50,000 fee to operate. All players must be 18 years or older and employees of fantasy sports sites are prohibited from participating in public contests.
Griffin Finan, director of public affairs for DraftKings, said: “We thank governor McAuliffe for his leadership and advocacy and are hopeful that other states across the country will follow Virginia’s lead. We will continue to work actively to replicate this success with dozens of legislatures and are excited to continue these efforts.”
March 10, 2016
March 08, 2016
World Match expands presence in Italy with GoldBet
World Match announces that has further increased its market share in Italy having signed a business deal with Goldbet. Under the agreement World Match’s games will go live on Goldbet.it.
World Match GoldBetOn its side, the Italian portal of online gaming enlarges its game offerings that now features as many as 117 casino games, in addition to the Poker platform and the brand new Bingo.
To date World Match boasts all the biggest Italian operators as its customers: a great success resulted from the ability to finalise a game engine that fully satisfies the habits and preferences of the Italian players. All World Match’s games are equipped with captivating in-play animations, hi-quality sound effects and great special features.
Moreover, Goldbet is going to activate the Network Jackpot, a Jackpot that is connected to different online casino operators, offering the same win amount. Hence the players contribute to the increase of the same Jackpot that can be won while playing in any of the partaking casinos.
The wide selection and the configuration flexibility of jackpots is one of World Match’s best selling points. In addition to the Network Jackpot, operators can choose among Fixed Jackpot with a fixed win amount, Progressive Jackpot with an increasing win amount, Fixed + Progressive and more.
Andrea Boratto, World Match, Executive Director, commented: “We are very pleased with our games going live on Goldbet, because it is one of the top IT operators and because this partnership reaffirms the trust in our company and products.”
World Match GoldBetOn its side, the Italian portal of online gaming enlarges its game offerings that now features as many as 117 casino games, in addition to the Poker platform and the brand new Bingo.
To date World Match boasts all the biggest Italian operators as its customers: a great success resulted from the ability to finalise a game engine that fully satisfies the habits and preferences of the Italian players. All World Match’s games are equipped with captivating in-play animations, hi-quality sound effects and great special features.
Moreover, Goldbet is going to activate the Network Jackpot, a Jackpot that is connected to different online casino operators, offering the same win amount. Hence the players contribute to the increase of the same Jackpot that can be won while playing in any of the partaking casinos.
The wide selection and the configuration flexibility of jackpots is one of World Match’s best selling points. In addition to the Network Jackpot, operators can choose among Fixed Jackpot with a fixed win amount, Progressive Jackpot with an increasing win amount, Fixed + Progressive and more.
Andrea Boratto, World Match, Executive Director, commented: “We are very pleased with our games going live on Goldbet, because it is one of the top IT operators and because this partnership reaffirms the trust in our company and products.”
March 01, 2016
Former Bwin execs face bribery charges
Several reports in Europe are naming both bwin founders Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger in potential forthcoming charges by prosecutors in Austria for bribery regarding a 2007 application for a sports betting license in Turkey.
According to reports both men while working for bwin are guilty of paying a €2.25 million incentive in order to bribe Turkish officials.
Bodner and Teufelberger are set to face charges imposed by Austrian law courts with regards to bribery, corruption, money laundering and breach of trust attached to national business standards.
TREND an Austrian news source is saying that charges relate to Bwin’s attempts to gain a Turkish sports betting license in 2007. The company is reported to have hired several lobbyist to help with its application.
The license in question was granted at the time but then revoked by the Turkish government and the €2.25 million payment was written off by Bwin.
Legal representatives of Bodner and Teufelberger have moved to dismiss the charges, stating that the allegations were “without merit”. Both of the execs were “fully confident” that the courts would side with them “in due course.”
According to reports both men while working for bwin are guilty of paying a €2.25 million incentive in order to bribe Turkish officials.
Bodner and Teufelberger are set to face charges imposed by Austrian law courts with regards to bribery, corruption, money laundering and breach of trust attached to national business standards.
TREND an Austrian news source is saying that charges relate to Bwin’s attempts to gain a Turkish sports betting license in 2007. The company is reported to have hired several lobbyist to help with its application.
The license in question was granted at the time but then revoked by the Turkish government and the €2.25 million payment was written off by Bwin.
Legal representatives of Bodner and Teufelberger have moved to dismiss the charges, stating that the allegations were “without merit”. Both of the execs were “fully confident” that the courts would side with them “in due course.”
Novomatic & Sazka Group partner up for Casinos Austria
Novomatic and Sazka Group, both privately-held firms, will pool their respective – already acquired or to be acquired – shares in Casinos Austria AG and Austrian Lotteries. Novomatic and Sazka will then create a joint-venture company.
“Subject to approvals from anti-trust and supervisory authorities being given, the two companies intend to establish a joint-venture company, where their shares in Casinos Austria will be joined together, to establish an evenly levelled partnership and pool the existing know-how in the best possible way for the future development of Casinos Austria,” Novomatic stated in a Friday release.
The deal also aims to solve existing legal disputes related to the shareholding structure of partially state-owned Casinos Austria, the announcement added.
It is unclear the total shares the combined partnership has in Casinos Austria as it was not mentioned in the statement.
This is “the first essential step towards providing a clear shareholding structure to Casinos Austria and making the company fit in the long term for the future challenges of the domestic and global markets,” Novomatic’s chief executive Harald Neumann said in a statement.
Casinos Austria owns 12 casinos in Austria as well as lottery business Austrian Lotteries. It controls Casinos Austria International Ltd, with investments in several casinos and other gaming-related businesses internationally.
“Subject to approvals from anti-trust and supervisory authorities being given, the two companies intend to establish a joint-venture company, where their shares in Casinos Austria will be joined together, to establish an evenly levelled partnership and pool the existing know-how in the best possible way for the future development of Casinos Austria,” Novomatic stated in a Friday release.
The deal also aims to solve existing legal disputes related to the shareholding structure of partially state-owned Casinos Austria, the announcement added.
It is unclear the total shares the combined partnership has in Casinos Austria as it was not mentioned in the statement.
This is “the first essential step towards providing a clear shareholding structure to Casinos Austria and making the company fit in the long term for the future challenges of the domestic and global markets,” Novomatic’s chief executive Harald Neumann said in a statement.
Casinos Austria owns 12 casinos in Austria as well as lottery business Austrian Lotteries. It controls Casinos Austria International Ltd, with investments in several casinos and other gaming-related businesses internationally.
February 25, 2016
Playtech unit Markets.com sees mass layoffs in restructuring of sales, retention and customer service operations
Retail Forex and CFD broker Markets.com, a unit of Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC), has issued pink slips to a large number of its sales, retention and customer service employees in both Israel and Bulgaria, as part of a major restructuring. More than a hundred employees in Israel, and several dozen in Sofia, Bulgaria have been affected.
The move affects many of the employees of TradeFXL, the Playtech unit which served the group’s online brokerage brands including Markets.com and binary options broker TopOption.
Apparently many top-level decisions at Markets.com are being made nowadays by Playtech management. One of those decisions was to automate the operations of Markets.com and the group’s other online trading brands. And, to remove incentive compensation (i.e. commissions) for most of those employees who remained.
The layoffs and departures have occurred in stages since last October, but apparently accelerated over the past few weeks since the company’s planned acquisitions of rivals AvaTrade and Plus500 were called off (more on that below).
Apparently a large number of sales and retention staff were summarily laid off, while another group was offered to stay but on new terms – fixed salaries instead of salary-plus-commission. Not surprisingly, many of that second group of employees have also left, especially the higher-performing sales people who could no longer earn large commissions.
The move to automate is not a new one in the industry, but seems to be a big gamble at a broker such as Markets.com, which as far as we can tell was performing very well of late before implementing the changes.
The reasons behind the move?
Other than the obvious benefits of automation (less people to manage, lower costs), a major driver was avoiding future potential regulatory problems.
Apparently the new bosses at Playtech were concerned with all the telephone contact commission-hungry sales and retention people were having with clients – a feature at many Forex brokers – and made a strategic decision to automate (virtually) all sales and retention operations, and eliminate commissions.
Internally, the company has been referring to operating ‘more like a bank’, meaning a more conservative approach to the business.
Playtech Plus500 deal cancelledThe restructuring is in part an outcome of Playtech’s inability to close on the acquisition of rival Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS), and adopt Plus500’s ‘automated’ approach to customer acquisition and retention. Playtech had offered to buy Plus500 mid last year for $700 million. The deal was approved by the boards and shareholders of both companies, but was cancelled in November after the UK financial regulator The FCA indicated that it was not going to approve the transaction.
As we wrote at the time, beyond pure growth and the desire of Playtech’s controlling shareholder Teddy Sagi to build Markets.com into the world’s leading retail FX broker, the key behind the planned deal was acquiring Plus500’s technology and processes. Plus500 has grown to be one of the world’s largest retail Forex and CFD brokers (2015 revenues of $276 million) with a bare minimum of staff, focusing its efforts on onboarding and serving clients in as automated a way as possible.
Without Plus500, Markets.com is instead going it alone in trying to automate a lot of internal processes and operations. And that means a lot fewer employees.
As we wrote above, most affected are employees at Markets.com / TradeFXL in the company’s Tel Aviv, Israel offices. The company is also shutting down its operations in Bulgaria, engaged mainly in customer service and documentation processing, shifting some of those jobs to Cyprus where Markets.com operating company Safecap is based.
Markets.com parent company Playtech is set to release Full Year 2015 results tomorrow, Thursday, February 25. We would expect the announcement will include some mention of the restructuring at Markets.com.
We have seen automating broker operations becoming a key competitive point lately among leading platform providers as well, such as at Leverate and SpotOption with its Spot+ system.
The move affects many of the employees of TradeFXL, the Playtech unit which served the group’s online brokerage brands including Markets.com and binary options broker TopOption.
Apparently many top-level decisions at Markets.com are being made nowadays by Playtech management. One of those decisions was to automate the operations of Markets.com and the group’s other online trading brands. And, to remove incentive compensation (i.e. commissions) for most of those employees who remained.
The layoffs and departures have occurred in stages since last October, but apparently accelerated over the past few weeks since the company’s planned acquisitions of rivals AvaTrade and Plus500 were called off (more on that below).
Apparently a large number of sales and retention staff were summarily laid off, while another group was offered to stay but on new terms – fixed salaries instead of salary-plus-commission. Not surprisingly, many of that second group of employees have also left, especially the higher-performing sales people who could no longer earn large commissions.
The move to automate is not a new one in the industry, but seems to be a big gamble at a broker such as Markets.com, which as far as we can tell was performing very well of late before implementing the changes.
The reasons behind the move?
Other than the obvious benefits of automation (less people to manage, lower costs), a major driver was avoiding future potential regulatory problems.
Apparently the new bosses at Playtech were concerned with all the telephone contact commission-hungry sales and retention people were having with clients – a feature at many Forex brokers – and made a strategic decision to automate (virtually) all sales and retention operations, and eliminate commissions.
Internally, the company has been referring to operating ‘more like a bank’, meaning a more conservative approach to the business.
Playtech Plus500 deal cancelledThe restructuring is in part an outcome of Playtech’s inability to close on the acquisition of rival Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS), and adopt Plus500’s ‘automated’ approach to customer acquisition and retention. Playtech had offered to buy Plus500 mid last year for $700 million. The deal was approved by the boards and shareholders of both companies, but was cancelled in November after the UK financial regulator The FCA indicated that it was not going to approve the transaction.
As we wrote at the time, beyond pure growth and the desire of Playtech’s controlling shareholder Teddy Sagi to build Markets.com into the world’s leading retail FX broker, the key behind the planned deal was acquiring Plus500’s technology and processes. Plus500 has grown to be one of the world’s largest retail Forex and CFD brokers (2015 revenues of $276 million) with a bare minimum of staff, focusing its efforts on onboarding and serving clients in as automated a way as possible.
Without Plus500, Markets.com is instead going it alone in trying to automate a lot of internal processes and operations. And that means a lot fewer employees.
As we wrote above, most affected are employees at Markets.com / TradeFXL in the company’s Tel Aviv, Israel offices. The company is also shutting down its operations in Bulgaria, engaged mainly in customer service and documentation processing, shifting some of those jobs to Cyprus where Markets.com operating company Safecap is based.
Markets.com parent company Playtech is set to release Full Year 2015 results tomorrow, Thursday, February 25. We would expect the announcement will include some mention of the restructuring at Markets.com.
We have seen automating broker operations becoming a key competitive point lately among leading platform providers as well, such as at Leverate and SpotOption with its Spot+ system.
Paddy Power Betfair selects SafeCharge’s Personalised Cashier
The largest Internet betting exchange; Paddy Power Betfair selected SafeCharge to provide a comprehensive technology based solution for alternative payment method deposits and withdrawals.
SafeCharge today announced that Paddy Power Betfair, provider of a full range of sports betting and gaming products and one of the largest online gaming operators in the world has selected SafeCharge’s Personalised Cashier to facilitate the checkout journey of its players globally. SafeCharge’s Personalised Cashier is a unique technology-based solution for deposits, withdrawals and diverse alternative payment methods that optimises all aspects of the payment funnel.
The solution includes multiple approaches to assist players at home or on the go complete their deposits simpler and faster. For winnings the solution allows for a fully transparent initiation and management of withdrawal requests.
Stephen Moffat, Head of Payments, Paddy Power Betfair stated:
“We selected SafeCharge due to their proven and extensive experience in the online gaming industry and the superiority of their technology. They were able to provide us with a simple integration, a superior front-end Cashier solution and a quick and easy method to add multiple alternative payment methods.”
David Avgi, CEO, SafeCharge commented:
“We are proud to be selected by Paddy Power Betfair to facilitate the globalisation and diversification of their online payments which demonstrates their trust in the robustness, feature richness and the absolute availability of our services. Both Paddy Power Betfair and SafeCharge management teams are committed to achieve the vision of a more secure and effective journey for players during the sensitive processes of deposit and withdrawal.”
SafeCharge today announced that Paddy Power Betfair, provider of a full range of sports betting and gaming products and one of the largest online gaming operators in the world has selected SafeCharge’s Personalised Cashier to facilitate the checkout journey of its players globally. SafeCharge’s Personalised Cashier is a unique technology-based solution for deposits, withdrawals and diverse alternative payment methods that optimises all aspects of the payment funnel.
The solution includes multiple approaches to assist players at home or on the go complete their deposits simpler and faster. For winnings the solution allows for a fully transparent initiation and management of withdrawal requests.
Stephen Moffat, Head of Payments, Paddy Power Betfair stated:
“We selected SafeCharge due to their proven and extensive experience in the online gaming industry and the superiority of their technology. They were able to provide us with a simple integration, a superior front-end Cashier solution and a quick and easy method to add multiple alternative payment methods.”
David Avgi, CEO, SafeCharge commented:
“We are proud to be selected by Paddy Power Betfair to facilitate the globalisation and diversification of their online payments which demonstrates their trust in the robustness, feature richness and the absolute availability of our services. Both Paddy Power Betfair and SafeCharge management teams are committed to achieve the vision of a more secure and effective journey for players during the sensitive processes of deposit and withdrawal.”
February 17, 2016
Macau Legend breaks ground on casino in Cape Verde
Macau Legend Development has begun construction of a US$ 272m casino complex in Praia, capital of the picturesque islands of Cape Verde. Local government seeks to increase the number of tourists visiting the country from 600,000 per year to more than 2 million and believes the new resort will help boost tourism figures.
Cape Verde PraiaThe island located in Western Africa is set to feature a 152,700 square-meter integrated resort and casino along with facilities such as function areas, a marina, a convention center, retail outlets, and an array of restaurants once the complex is complete. The entire task is thought to take up to three years to complete.
David Chow, Macau Legend Co-Chariman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, laid the first stone during a ceremony to start the construction process. Chow spoke highly of Cape Verde and explained why his company has chosen this location to invest.
“Cape Verde is a Portuguese-speaking country that enjoys political stability, beautiful scenery and pleasant climate with convenient transportation network,” Chow said. “Tourism is the country’s core industry. In 2014, the tourism industry accounted for 22pc of its local GDP and is growing steadily. Cape Verde currently has four international airports; the largest one is in the capital city, Praia, which is also where our project is located.
First casino was built in the island in May 2013, when new gaming laws came into force that allowed casinos to be built on the islands of Boa Vista, Maoi, Sal, Santiago, and Sao Vicente. A US$ 5,45m Casino Royal opened on the premises of the Hilton in Santa Maria on Sal island.
This new complex is set to receive 15 years of tax relief and concessions, and a deal struck gives Macau Legend exclusive nationwide rights to online gaming, online sports betting, and physical sports betting for 10 years.
Chow believes that thank to its location the project will be able to attract tourists from North Africa, West Africa, Europe, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, creating a new market.
“Especially with the trend that more and more Chinese are emigrating and investing in these places and this saves them from flying long to Asia,” added Chow. “The project is also a first choice for short-term vacation, which will be comparable with Bali and Phuket and other world class tourist destinations.”
Cape Verde PraiaThe island located in Western Africa is set to feature a 152,700 square-meter integrated resort and casino along with facilities such as function areas, a marina, a convention center, retail outlets, and an array of restaurants once the complex is complete. The entire task is thought to take up to three years to complete.
David Chow, Macau Legend Co-Chariman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, laid the first stone during a ceremony to start the construction process. Chow spoke highly of Cape Verde and explained why his company has chosen this location to invest.
“Cape Verde is a Portuguese-speaking country that enjoys political stability, beautiful scenery and pleasant climate with convenient transportation network,” Chow said. “Tourism is the country’s core industry. In 2014, the tourism industry accounted for 22pc of its local GDP and is growing steadily. Cape Verde currently has four international airports; the largest one is in the capital city, Praia, which is also where our project is located.
First casino was built in the island in May 2013, when new gaming laws came into force that allowed casinos to be built on the islands of Boa Vista, Maoi, Sal, Santiago, and Sao Vicente. A US$ 5,45m Casino Royal opened on the premises of the Hilton in Santa Maria on Sal island.
This new complex is set to receive 15 years of tax relief and concessions, and a deal struck gives Macau Legend exclusive nationwide rights to online gaming, online sports betting, and physical sports betting for 10 years.
Chow believes that thank to its location the project will be able to attract tourists from North Africa, West Africa, Europe, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, creating a new market.
“Especially with the trend that more and more Chinese are emigrating and investing in these places and this saves them from flying long to Asia,” added Chow. “The project is also a first choice for short-term vacation, which will be comparable with Bali and Phuket and other world class tourist destinations.”
Match fixing evidence uncovered in Dutch football's top league
Dutch football association KNVB confirmed that match fixing took place in at least two Willem II matches in the top league. Both cases involve former Willem II player Ibrahim Kargbo and match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal.
The first match fixing case involves the Willem II match against FC Utrecht on August 9th, 2009. Email conversations between Kargbo and match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal show that the two agreed that Willem II will lose the game. In the emails Kargbo indicates that “the captain”, then Michael Aerts, and a third player will cooperate. In return for deliberately losing this match, each of these three players would receive 25 thousand euros from Perumal.
Perumal later claimed that the match fixing failed – the agreement was that FC Utrecht one by more than one goal, which did not happen. Nevertheless, it is clear that match fixing took place, according to the KNVB’s integrity unit. There is not enough legal evidence to prove that Aerts was involved and the identity of the third person is unclear.
The investigation also showed that Perumal and Kargbo arranged a charity match between Willem II and Sierra Leone on November 14th, 2009 with the aim to manipulate the results for gambling purposes. Despite the lack of legal proof that the game was actually manipulated, the integrity unit believes that Kargbo and Perumal organized the match with the intent to manipulate it. The integrity unit also found evidence that Kargbo and Perumal had contact with each other about manipulating Sierra Leone’s national team’s matches for some time.
“The Dutch football has as one of the last in Europe officially lost its innocence in this area”, KNVB operational director Gijs de Jong said in reaction. “We know match fixing does not stop at national borders and the KNVB said long ago that it can happen in Dutch competitions. Yet now it was officially established. At the same time we hope that something good will come out of this. Namely that it contributes to the urgency in the Netherlands to combat this scourge in the sport.”
The KNVB shared the results of this investigation with UEFA, FIFA and the Dutch Public Prosecutor. As Kargbo is no longer a member of the KNVB, the professional football prosecutor can not act against him. The Public Prosecutor will carry out a criminal investigation into this matter.
The first match fixing case involves the Willem II match against FC Utrecht on August 9th, 2009. Email conversations between Kargbo and match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal show that the two agreed that Willem II will lose the game. In the emails Kargbo indicates that “the captain”, then Michael Aerts, and a third player will cooperate. In return for deliberately losing this match, each of these three players would receive 25 thousand euros from Perumal.
Perumal later claimed that the match fixing failed – the agreement was that FC Utrecht one by more than one goal, which did not happen. Nevertheless, it is clear that match fixing took place, according to the KNVB’s integrity unit. There is not enough legal evidence to prove that Aerts was involved and the identity of the third person is unclear.
The investigation also showed that Perumal and Kargbo arranged a charity match between Willem II and Sierra Leone on November 14th, 2009 with the aim to manipulate the results for gambling purposes. Despite the lack of legal proof that the game was actually manipulated, the integrity unit believes that Kargbo and Perumal organized the match with the intent to manipulate it. The integrity unit also found evidence that Kargbo and Perumal had contact with each other about manipulating Sierra Leone’s national team’s matches for some time.
“The Dutch football has as one of the last in Europe officially lost its innocence in this area”, KNVB operational director Gijs de Jong said in reaction. “We know match fixing does not stop at national borders and the KNVB said long ago that it can happen in Dutch competitions. Yet now it was officially established. At the same time we hope that something good will come out of this. Namely that it contributes to the urgency in the Netherlands to combat this scourge in the sport.”
The KNVB shared the results of this investigation with UEFA, FIFA and the Dutch Public Prosecutor. As Kargbo is no longer a member of the KNVB, the professional football prosecutor can not act against him. The Public Prosecutor will carry out a criminal investigation into this matter.
Coral head of trading resigns
Head of Trading Sam Foulkes has quit Coral. He left earlier this month having tendered his resignation in December, and is now seeing out a period of gardening leave.
Sam FoulkesNews of Foulkes’ departure comes just five months after he had been promoted to the head of trading role, which saw him relocate from Coral’s Stratford headquarters to the operator’s Gibraltar offices.
The move was part of a wider restructuring of the sportsbook trading division, which also saw Danny Greer become head of in-play and the trading division split to form separate in-play and pre-match pricing teams.
Foulkes joined Coral in 2012 after having previously spent eight years at rival William Hill, where he had held various roles including senior trader and head of in-play football. Speaking to eGaming Review, he said it was the right time to move on:
“I am immensely proud of my achievements at Coral and after four years, I felt it was the right time for a new challenge. I’ve had a number of exciting work offers already and I’m expecting to take up a new role within the next few months.”
A spokesperson for the operator confirmed: “Sam recently left Coral and we wish him the very best for the future. No decision been made on how to replace him but we have a strong team so we are not in any hurry to decide.”
Sam FoulkesNews of Foulkes’ departure comes just five months after he had been promoted to the head of trading role, which saw him relocate from Coral’s Stratford headquarters to the operator’s Gibraltar offices.
The move was part of a wider restructuring of the sportsbook trading division, which also saw Danny Greer become head of in-play and the trading division split to form separate in-play and pre-match pricing teams.
Foulkes joined Coral in 2012 after having previously spent eight years at rival William Hill, where he had held various roles including senior trader and head of in-play football. Speaking to eGaming Review, he said it was the right time to move on:
“I am immensely proud of my achievements at Coral and after four years, I felt it was the right time for a new challenge. I’ve had a number of exciting work offers already and I’m expecting to take up a new role within the next few months.”
A spokesperson for the operator confirmed: “Sam recently left Coral and we wish him the very best for the future. No decision been made on how to replace him but we have a strong team so we are not in any hurry to decide.”
Sweden’s regulated online market growing faster than international operators
Sweden’s regulated online gambling market grew faster than international Swedish-facing operators last year, according to the country’s gambling regulator.
Preliminary stats for 2015 released by Sweden’s Lotteriinspektionen gaming overseer said the regulated market boasted turnover of SEK 45.6b ($5.3b), up 1.5% from 2014’s total. Total gaming revenue was also up 1.5% to SEK 16.7b.
Total online gambling revenue last year came to around SEK 8b, up around 7% from 2014. Lotteriinspektionen estimates that international operators serving the market without a Swedish license – mainly because Sweden doesn’t currently issue licenses to bloody foreigners – claimed around SEK 4.4b of this sum.
The international operators’ share eclipsed the SEK 3.6b collected by the state-owned betting monopoly Svenska Spel, but the monopoly’s share was up 8% year-on-year while the international sites grew only 6%.
Gambling advertising expenditure came to around SEK 3.3b, with roughly 70% of this being spent by those pesky international operators, despite the government’s vocal protestations. The total advertising spend is actually down from 2014, which the regulator attributes to last year’s lack of a marquee football competition.
On average, Swedish households spent around 2.4% of their disposable income on regulated gambling products last year, a sum equal to about SEK5,822 ($685) per person. The average Swedish adult lost around SEK 2,133 to the regulated market, while the average loss to international online gambling operators was a mere SEK 447 per adult.
Sweden is in the process of revising its online gambling market, prompted by years of public scolding and threats of legal action by European Commission watchdogs. New draft legislation is expected early next year, followed by a period of stakeholder comment and a final draft presented to legislators for consideration by the end of 2017.
The new regime is expected to call for the privatization of Svenska Spel, the issuing of licenses to international operators and more aggressive steps to prevent online operators not holding a Swedish license from accessing the market. Last month, a leading Swedish internet service provider went public with government plans to compel ISPs to block Swedes from accessing unauthorized sites.
Preliminary stats for 2015 released by Sweden’s Lotteriinspektionen gaming overseer said the regulated market boasted turnover of SEK 45.6b ($5.3b), up 1.5% from 2014’s total. Total gaming revenue was also up 1.5% to SEK 16.7b.
Total online gambling revenue last year came to around SEK 8b, up around 7% from 2014. Lotteriinspektionen estimates that international operators serving the market without a Swedish license – mainly because Sweden doesn’t currently issue licenses to bloody foreigners – claimed around SEK 4.4b of this sum.
The international operators’ share eclipsed the SEK 3.6b collected by the state-owned betting monopoly Svenska Spel, but the monopoly’s share was up 8% year-on-year while the international sites grew only 6%.
Gambling advertising expenditure came to around SEK 3.3b, with roughly 70% of this being spent by those pesky international operators, despite the government’s vocal protestations. The total advertising spend is actually down from 2014, which the regulator attributes to last year’s lack of a marquee football competition.
On average, Swedish households spent around 2.4% of their disposable income on regulated gambling products last year, a sum equal to about SEK5,822 ($685) per person. The average Swedish adult lost around SEK 2,133 to the regulated market, while the average loss to international online gambling operators was a mere SEK 447 per adult.
Sweden is in the process of revising its online gambling market, prompted by years of public scolding and threats of legal action by European Commission watchdogs. New draft legislation is expected early next year, followed by a period of stakeholder comment and a final draft presented to legislators for consideration by the end of 2017.
The new regime is expected to call for the privatization of Svenska Spel, the issuing of licenses to international operators and more aggressive steps to prevent online operators not holding a Swedish license from accessing the market. Last month, a leading Swedish internet service provider went public with government plans to compel ISPs to block Swedes from accessing unauthorized sites.
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