With the recent acquisition of 7.1 million shares by Ricky Sandler, the CEO of Entain, a FTSE100 listed business, Eminence Capital, a global asset management firm, increased its ownership position in the company to 5.18%. As one of Entain’s most vocal critics, Sandler holds a seat on the board of directors and has criticized the firm for what he sees as a poorly thought-out mergers and acquisitions strategy.
The founders of Stake.com, Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, confirmed that they had acquired a 4.2% share in Australian bookmaker PointsBet in a filing made to the Australian Stock Exchange through Easygo, their local company there. This could indicate that Stake, a registered brand in the nation, may try to increase its influence there.
Meanwhile, FanDuel has successfully acquired BeyondPlay, elevating Karolina Pelc, the creator and CEO of the business, to vice president of BeyondPlay under the FanDuel brand.
Although the precise conditions of the agreement and its total value were never made public, BeyondPlay offers specialized solutions that help businesses interact more effectively with their customers in the iGaming market. Presently, FanDuel and Flutter Entertainment’s businesses will be the only ones to utilize BeyondPlay’s products.
We would be negligent if we were to mention the recent recruitment of a former executive from Flutter to the position of Chief Product Officer at Yolo Group, in relation to significant corporate developments in the gambling business. This week, Ashley-Christian Hardy began working with the company.
Are social casinos illegal gambling – Georgian local woman seeks the answer
Bally’s Corporation and Ruby Seven Studios are proceeding with a new agreement aimed at establishing a specialized social casino with an emphasis on free-to-play games for US players. Bally Play is currently operating in the US and is looking to spread over all of North America. The website has games from well-known publishers, including, among others, Gaming Arts, Bluberi, Aruze, IGT, High 5 Games, and Konami.
Meanwhile, a new lawsuit has been filed in Georgia, the United States, on behalf of a local woman who claims that Chumba Casino’s parent company, Virtual Gaming Worlds, which also runs Luckyland Casino and Global Poker, is actually breaking gambling laws and promoting an illicit gambling product.
Gambling regulation and responsible gambling efforts
Actually, there were a number of noteworthy occurrences this week that could be covered in relation to industry regulation and responsible gaming. Let’s start with Mr. Green, who succeeded in getting a massive fine of SEK31.5 million against it lowered to SEK12 million in a Swedish court of law.
Mr. Green has asked for a reduction in what the operator believes to be an unfair penalty resulting from AML and social responsibility errors twice. Simultaneously, Sweden has initiated a fresh initiative focused on responsible gambling, aimed at shielding young individuals from the perils of compulsive gambling and real money gambling in general.
The new campaign is only focused on safeguarding the most susceptible demographic, which is people between the ages of 18 and 25, as they are more likely to form harmful interactions with gambling activities if left unchecked.
Similar to this, the Autorité National des Jeux is starting a fresh initiative to encourage safer gaming habits in front of the June 14 start of the Euro 2024 competition. In order to raise awareness, the campaign is asking those who have experienced harm from gambling to submit their personal stories.
Safer gaming Week 2023 has been hailed as a success by the Betting and Gaming Council, which cited data showing 50 million mentions of the campaign and the use of tools for responsible gaming. The trade association also observed a rise in the number of registrants using deposit limits and self-exclusion.
Concurrently, GambleAware has acknowledged an increase in voluntary contributions, but has also brought attention to the fact that just four businesses have contributed 94% of the total amount raised. In line with the White Paper Review of the nation’s gaming industry, the non-profit stated that it is pursuing a statutory levy.
The Netherlands has proposed new Responsible Gambling Policy Rules that will attempt to restrict players’ deposit limits and go into effect this week.
Nevertheless, there will be a grace period until October 1, 2024, for the adoption of certain of the new regulations, such as the deposit limitations. This will allow businesses enough time to catch up on the technology that they need to use in order to remain compliant.
Not to be overlooked, Casino Guru has initiated the third stage of the Self-exclusion Standards project, inviting operators worldwide to contribute more broadly in order to provide guidance on a unified set of self-exclusion guidelines and suggestions.
The Self-exclusion Standards project set out on a comprehensive journey to find a solution, one that encouraged collaboration with global stakeholders to produce a set of online self-exclusion guidelines that may be implemented in many countries. Now, any operator input—big or small—is sought by the project.
Industry talks with Brandt Iden, Gustaf Hoffstedt and All Things Gambling
We had the pleasure of catching up with a number of industry insiders this week. One is BOS Secretary General Gustaf Hoffstedt. The recent government proposal to outlaw credit cards for additional gambling activities was the main topic of discussion with Hoffstedt. Hoffstedt stated that while BOS firmly supports well-considered consumer protection measures, he also contended that lawmakers should approach adjustments with understanding and an evidence-based approach given the lowering channelization rates.
What’s ahead for iGaming in the US was explained by Brandt Iden, Vice President of Gaming and Betting at Fanatics. Insisting that legislators must get a deeper understanding of the issue in order to make more informed decisions, he provided a thorough analysis of the existing state of affairs and predictions for future changes. Though policymakers should realize that outlawing online casinos is really strengthening the illegal industry, these establishments are really the way of the future. You are welcome to read the entire interview as Iden’s insights go much beyond that.
We spoke with 4H Agency Partner and Head of Eastern Europe Desk Ivan Kurochkin and CoinPayments Senior Sales Executive Osvaldas Kazlauskas about how cryptocurrency is changing and how it’s moving from being a marginal to a significant part of the gambling industry in our most recent episode of All Things Gambling.
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