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The online gaming content supplier Spinomenal has been licensed to offer services to gambling operators in the British market.

UK.- Britain’s Gambling Commission has granted two B2B licences to the Israeli online gaming content supplier Spinomenal. The licences have been awarded to two companies: Panda Bluemoon and SubTech, allowing them to offer services to gambling operators in the British online gaming market.

Panda Bluemoon and SubTech will both trade under the Spinomenal brand. The British licence approval is the fifth for the company following licences in Malta, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden. The company will launch its Retro Gaming Studio products in the market.

Spinomenal was founded in 2014. It develops games in-house and also offers access to third-party products via its Spinomenal Aggregation Platform.

Spinomenal head of partnerships Olga Sirokha said: “Securing our UK gaming licence is a huge moment as it allows us to share our outstanding slots library with partners working in this prestigious market.

“Our Retro Gaming project is gaining momentum all the time and we expect this to accelerate now we’re able to target UK-licensed operators with its range of classic entertainment products.”

Gambling Commission fines Smarkets for AML breaches
Last week, the Gambling Commission issued a formal warning and £630,000 penalty to online betting operator Smarkets for a series of AML failings. The regulator said the operator had failed to conduct adequate checks on players’ sources of funds and had failed to identify or interact with at-risk customers.

The operator, which is based in Malta and runs the SBK sportsbook, found that a customer had been able to deposit £395,000 over four months without appropriate checks on their source of funds. Another customer was able to transfer “significant levels of funds” between accounts without the matter being investigated.

Smarkets will now be audited to check the implementation of its anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies and procedures.

Earlier this month, the Gambling Commission issued LeoVegas with a warning and a £1.2m penalty for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings. The regulator found that the Swedish operator had “not sufficiently taken into account the Commission’s 2019 guidance on customer interaction” and had not enforced its policy of interacting with customers who displayed signs of gambling harm.

Announcing its Q2 results, the operator revealed the negative impact of its exit from the Netherlands last year.

Sweden.- LeoVegas has released its Q2 results, posting revenue of €98m. Revenue was up by just 1 per cent year-on-year, held back by the operator’s exit from the Netherlands when the regulated market launched in October 2021. It said that excluding the impact of its exit from the Netherlands, revenue was up by 9 per cent year-on-year.

However, the operator said it has applied for a Dutch licence and hopes to re-enter the Netherlands market by the end of this year. Meanwhile, in April, LeoVegas went live in Ontario, Canada.

For the second quarter, EBITDA was down 45.1 per cent year-on-year at €5.3m. Operating profit was €570,000 and net profit €407,000 – a drop of 62.4 per cent. The number of new depositing customers was down by 10.9 per cent at 158,149, although returning depositing customers rose slightly despite the Netherlands exit.

For the six months ended June 30, revenue was €196.4m, up 1.5 per cent. EBITDA was down from €43.3m to €20.2m and net profit was down 70.5 per cent at €4.6m.

MGM acquisition
LeoVegas said that its proposed acquisition by MGM was advancing “according to plan” in spite of the Swedish Economic Crime Authority’s investigation into insider trading in LeoVegas shares. The €576m deal was reached in May and the acceptance period ends on August 30.

President and CEO Gustaf Hagman said: “It seems likely that the bid will be accepted, which would lead to the company’s shares being delisted from Nasdaq Stockholm later in the year.”

He added: “The expansion project in the US and New Jersey was paused at the end of the quarter due to the ongoing bid and the initiatives and obligations that MGM already has in the US market.

“The assessment is therefore that the most responsible course of action is to pause the expansion until we know whether the bid on LeoVegas will be accepted. If a launch is made possible in the future, we will be able to resume the US expansion with a short start-up period.”

Earlier this month, the British Gambling Commission issued LeoVegas with a warning and a £1.2m penalty for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failings. The regulator found that the Swedish operator had “not sufficiently taken into account the Commission’s 2019 guidance on customer interaction” and had not enforced its policy of interacting with customers who displayed signs of gambling harm.

Nearly 45,000 people visited the temporary venue last month.

US.- Rockford’s temporary Hard Rock casino received 45,000 visitors in July, according to the Illinois Gaming Board. That’s the highest monthly figure yet and compares with 37,000 in June. The temporary casino in Rockford City, Illinois, opened last November.

Rockford’s mayor, Tom McNamara, said the city has received more than $1m from the casino, receiving 70 per cent of the casino’s tax revenue.

He said: “Prior to this casino, not only did citizens want a casino for 30 years, but we had citizens going to Indiana, going to Wisconsin, going to Iowa to gamble, so all of this money was fleeing the state of Illinois and specifically fleeing the city of Rockford and I think we’re seeing right now how of that money was fleeing.

“Hard Rock: An Opening Act” is located at Giovanni’s Restaurant and Convention Center at 610 N Bell School Road. It hosts more than 600 slot machines, a sports bar, and a restaurant.

Hard Rock is hoping to open sportsbook venue at the temporary facility. The company still needs licensing and approval from the state, which it hopes to have by the end of the year in time for large sporting events like the NFL’s Super Bowl.

The temporary casino will remain in operation for two years while construction takes place on the permanent Hard Rock Casino Rockford at the site of the former Clock Tower Resort on E. State Street. Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, said that the $310m casino project would provide 1,200 permanent jobs and an additional 1,000 during construction.

The regulator has voted to approve FanDuel’s licence to co-brand the sportsbook inside the Fremont hotel-casino operated by Boyd Sports.

US.- FanDuel has been granted an initial licence approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission following its agreement with Boyd Gaming to brand the Fremont Hotel Casino sportsbook. The approval still requires a final sign-off, with the commission to meet again on August 25.

Under the agreement with Boyd Gaming, FanDuel will provide betting odds and make recommendations on any wagering line movements to Fremont sportsbook personnel, who will still be Boyd employees. The sportsbook co-branding does not include a FanDuel mobile app.

FanDuel CEO Amy Howe said: “The intent is not to bring in the FanDuel app at this time,” said “There may be a future time when the app might be brought in, but the (Boyd) app will continue to appear to the patron as it does today. The retail book (however) will be branded with FanDuel.”

If the Nevada Gaming Commission gives final approval, the co-branding would begin later this year. That would give FanDuel its first Nevada presence since 2015. FanDuel is set to operate retail and mobile sports betting in Boyd casinos in eight of the company’s nine licensed states by early 2023.

Last week, FanDuel announced the promotion of Andrew Sneyd to executive vice president of marketing. Formerly the senior vice president of brand, Sneyd will now oversee the core marketing functions across the company’s full portfolio of brands. That covers sports betting, daily fantasy sports, casino, advance-deposit wagering, retail, and free-to-play.

FanDuel has also named Carolyn Renzin as its new chief legal officer. In July, the firm announced two new executive appointments. Christian Genetski was promoted to the role of president, and Mike Raffensperger was named to the newly created position of chief commercial officer.

The YouGov study looked at betting experiences during the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final.

UK.- A new study has shed some light on the impact of offers and reminders on betting behaviour. The consumer research and data firm YouGov studied betting experiences during this year’s UEFA Champions League final, with surveys carried out among monthly bettors before and after the event.

According to the study, 54 per cent of players agreed with the statement that offers and reminders “helped remind me to place a bet”. Bettor engagement increased when promotions were sent directly in the days closer to the match.

Of those players who bet more than they had anticipated, 56 per cent said they were incited to bet by offers sent directly by operators. That’s a notably higher proportion than those influenced by ads on TV and online (15 per cent in each case), social media ads (13 per cent) and ads in betting shop windows and newspapers (7 per cent each).

Of those players who bet on the UEFA Champions League final but hadn’t intended to, 65 per cent said promotions were the main reason. At the same time, 64 per cent said they had made late bets because they had been “holding out” to see if a company offered a free bet or special offer.

Meanwhile, 57 per cent of respondents said that they saw betting mainly as a way to increase their engagement with the sporting event by giving them a stake in the result.

YouGov said: “Our pre-study research showed that bet365 was the preferred brand choice ahead of UCL Final. 42 per cent of monthly sports bettors in the UK expected to place a bet with them,” YouGov explained.

“Even more ended up doing so and bet365 enjoyed the highest levels of bets placed for UCL Final among monthly sports bettors in the UK (50 per cent). Sky Bet is a distant second (26 per cent) followed by William Hill (11 per cent), Betfair (10 per cent), Paddy Power (10 per cent), and Ladbrokes (8 per cent).

“The increase in bettors who had not expected to place a bet with bet365 was mainly driven by low-value bets.”

The timeline for the UK government’s overhaul of gambling legislation remains in doubt pending the selection of a new prime minister. Details of what’s to be expected in the long-delayed gambling white paper have been leaked, but it’s not clear to what extent the next administration may want to put its own stamp on the review.

The latest additions take the total number of German online slots licences to five.

Germany.- Online slots licences are slowly rolling out in Germany. Two more operators have been granted licences, taking the total number of licences to five. The new licensees are Merkur and The Mill Adventure.

Merkur has received a licence for three sites: Xtip, Merkur Sports and Merkur Spiel. The Mill Adventure will offer slots on its Slotmagie website.

Germany’s new online gambling legislation came into force on July 1 last year, introducing a tight regulatory regime for slots, with a €1 stake limit and a 5.3 per cent tax on turnover. Licensing has been slow, with the first online slots licences not issued until earlier this year.

The first operator to receive a licence was Mernov, a joint venture between Merkur and Novomatic that has since changed its name to Deutsche Gesellschaft für Glücksspiel (DGGS). Licences followed for Tipwin and Mybet in June. The state of Saxony-Anhalt has since said that it has approved another nine operators but didn’t name them.

Saxony-Anhalt’s State Administration Office which remains responsible for online slots and poker licences until the new regulator Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL – The German Federal States’ Joint Gambling Authority) takes over on January 1, 2023.

The State Administration Office recently said it had referred 25 online gaming operators to the public prosecutor’s office for offering gaming without a licence in the last year. It said it had checked 871 websites and investigated 148 cases of illegal gambling and 90 cases of illegal gambling advertising.

Meanwhile, the GGL has already taken over enforcement duties, taking steps to begin to block IP addresses and payments to unlicensed operators. The regulator also plans to devise an early detection system for gambling harm and to create a centralised complaints and whistleblowing system that the public will be able to use to report gambling “irregularities”, advertising violations and suspicions of illegal gambling.

The innovative iGaming developer and service provider PopOK Gaming is now certified to offer its games in Georgia.

Press release.- PopOK Gaming now extends its iGaming activities to Georgia as well. This way, local players will have access to our engaging games already loved by many. 18 games, such as Yummy, Lost Treasure, Diamond Flash, 20 Hot Bar, Sultan’s Tale, Los Apaches and others, will bring a breath of fresh air to all players and make their leisure more colourful, tasty and enjoyable.

PopOK Gaming’s local partners will surely get a lot of benefits from this, being able to deliver certified games to their customers. The gain is totally worth it, with the clear potential to drive high traffic to operators’ websites and greatly contribute to their business growth.

Regarding this certificate acquisition PopOK Gaming CEO, Karen Gulkanyan said, “Since iGaming is regulated strictly in Georgia, it’s a huge step forward to deliver our games to the Georgian audience. The path is not easy, yet we are full of hope that our lucrative solutions will immediately appeal to the regional players and increase business revenue for partners, laying the foundation for long-term cooperation”.

Important note: PopOK Gaming belongs to Soft Construct (Malta) Limited that holds II Class licence (2239) granted by The Georgian Regulatory Authority.

On booth 306, the German gaming giant will indeed ‘entertain’ with a strong presence of its top jackpots, cabinets and new games.

Press release.- With the post-pandemic trade show calendar progressively returning toward pre-Covid lev els each new show announcement is greeted with enthusiasm across the gaming industry. In this vein, Merkur is very much looking forward to the 14th Entertainment Arena Expo in Bucharest.

Being held from September 6th to 8th at the Romexpo Fair Ground in Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, EAE 2022 will have a major exhibitor presence from MERKUR. On booth 306, the German gaming giant will indeed ‘entertain’ with a strong presence of its top jackpots, cabinets and new games; backed up by the presence of cash handling experts GeWeTe and next-generation payment options from Merkur eSOLUTIONS.

Bucharest in Romania has been the country’s capital city since 1862 and, through its long history, has been known as both the ‘City of Joy’ and the ‘Paris of the East’. It is also the centre of the country’s gaming industry where both casinos, gaming arcade premises and venues in the sports betting and gastronomy sectors are hugely popular.

See also: Merkur UK supports the Mindful Resilience Programme

Romania has the largest number of slots in operation in east Europe, currently well over 70,000 machines. The Merkur brand has been active in Romania since 2004 and has a Group subsidiary company, Merkur Gaming Distribution, based in Bucharest and with Hannelore Fuica as its managing director and team leader.

Speaking ahead of EAE Ms Fuica confirmed her belief that the two most popular game types with Romanian players are Fruit games and, in recent years, Roulette. Already in both slot hall and sports betting operations throughout the country, the new MERKUR Roulette features stunning 3D graphics, a new animation of the roulette wheel itself and an enhanced speed of play.

This will be a significant highlight of Merlur’s EAE presentation, as will the new linked progressive jackpots Link Zone (shown in the Avantgarde Max Trio cabinet) and Solar Link (featured on the stylish Allegro Trio cabinet) plus the innovative MERKUR Mystery jackpot that will display on the Avante Trio cabinet that hosts a multiplicity of new multigame titles powered by the latest software and boasting a brand new player interface.

See also: Gauselmann Group is back on course for success

EAE’s ambition is to become internationally recognised as THE standout gaming show for the Eastern Europe and Balkan region, something on which Athanasios “Sakis” Isaakidis, Chief Executive, International commented: “We are all anticipating a really great EAE show in Bucha rest.

And he added: “Romania is a significant and highly successful market for MERKUR and we are set to make a great representation of our history, experience and great products at EAE in Bucha rest as we demonstrate, as the show’s title exemplifies, our commitment to gaming Entertainment across Romania, and beyond.”

Through this partnership, NetBet will make use of FeedConstruct’s BetGuard product.

Press release.- NetBet, a renowned sportsbook and casino operator, has recently joined FeedConstruct’s family of partners.

Through this partnership, NetBet will make use of FeedConstruct’s BetGuard product – an enhanced trading and risk management solution that minimizes the risks of financial losses of betting operators, ensuring higher profitability through secure trading operations.

“We are more than ever committed to our mission of arming our partners with reliable quality solutions that are meant to secure a balance between operational efficiency and player engagement. We are very glad to welcome Netbet, an operator with considerable reputation and presence, to our big family and expand our reach in the European market.” – says Artashes Sargsyan, the Deputy CEO of FeedConstruct.

This alliance is an exciting addition to FeedConstruct’s existing portfolio of partnerships with other companies in the sports betting industry. The company has long been focused on providing safe and secure experiences for its partners, so they’re excited to be working with such a well-known company as NetBet.

Slovakia’s Ministry of Finance hosted a study visit for Montenegro’s gambling regulator as the country prepares to reform its gambling legislation.

Slovakia.- The Slovakian Ministry of Finance (MR-SF) and the country’s gambling regulator URHH have hosted a study visit for their counterparts from Montenegro. The two bodies are providing input as Montenegro looks to act on European Union requirements for it to reform its 2004 Gambling Act.

The Slovakian authorities hosted representatives from the Montenegro Ministry of Finance and Office for Gambling Regulation as part of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project. The visit aimed to explore ways to “enhance transparent and responsible management of public finances from gambling”.

Montenegro must reform its gambling legislation to eliminate market discrepancies and weaknesses as part of its planned entry into the European Union from 2025. Slovakia has been working with the country on the matter since 2018. The aim is to increase budget revenues from gaming and reduce possible exposure to money laundering and take action to come in line with the rules of EU membership.

The Slovakian regulator, URHH, will also provide a technical upgrade of Montenegro’s IT systems for monitoring gambling activity and transactions.

Bojana Boškovič, general director of financial at Montenegro’s Ministry of Finance, said: “We understand the Slovak support and help from Slovak Gambling Regulatory Authority. It is very important to have direct cooperation with an EU member and to have the opportunity to implement know-how in our country.”

URHH general director Dávid Lenčéš said: “There are no mandatory sources of European Union law for national regulations to be harmonised with. It is up to each national legislature to regulate the gambling market according to the best practice and specific needs.

“As there are relatively few experts in gambling regulation in European countries, I am pleased about our successful cooperation. Close business relationships between small European countries, such as Slovakia and Montenegro, can be the basis for the future harmonisation of gambling legislation across Europe.”

Last month, Slovakia’s Office for the Regulation of Gambling announced the launch of a whitelist of online gambling websites run by licensed operators. The regulator already has a public blacklist of unlicensed sites, but the creation of a positive whitelist is intended to make it easier for players to check if a site is licensed.

The regulator also noted that keeping the blacklist up to date was a constant challenge since new sites spring up all the time. The whitelist, however, should prove a lot easier to keep up to date.

Meanwhile, it has also announced the publication of a “Concept of Responsible Advertising” document with which it intends to improve gambling advertising standards. The document will introduce new standards for gambling ads in all media.

The document is intended as a “starting point” that operators and media bodies can use to introduce new self-regulatory and control mechanisms to ensure a safe gambling market for consumers and prevent crime and gambling harm.