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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.

Trueplay’s tokenised loyalty programs target user retention and help platform owners earn more by boosting key metrics.

The role of loyalty programs in iGaming is undeniable, as they have proven to boost retention rates and make players love your brand. How can you make loyalty programs even better? By tokenising them through a blockchain solution. This is exactly what Trueplay does.

Blockchain-based gaming platforms are not new on the market. But creating them from scratch is quite challenging and requires huge investments. Trueplay’s iFrame widget takes 48 hours to install and doesn’t cost anything to implement, while it brings all the perks of blockchain to platform owners. In this article, we will explain how exactly our tokenized loyalty programs work.

Issuing your own token
To open the world of crypto tokens to your players, you first need to create your unique digital asset.

According to the company, for the first three months, this token will have a stable price. After that, the token will be listed on a decentralized exchange and it will become your own cryptocurrency. Users can receive tokens in many different ways, for example:

Token sale
Token airdrop
Bonuses for registration, for bringing a referral, etc
Loyalty programs
The last option is the most interesting for platform owners because this is what makes your KPIs grow and brings you more income.

Play To Earn
It’s a unique bonus model where players are automatically rewarded for making bets. Every time the user bets, a tiny per cent of your GGR pool arrives at a player’s balance.

Players are rewarded regardless of the game’s outcome, so, even if they lose they still will receive this reward. This is great for user retention and motivation, especially for those cases when players are constantly losing and get demotivated. Always having something on the balance, players are more prone to come back to the platform and play more.

People can customise the reward per cent, change it whenever they want to, or even put a different percentage of reward to certain game providers. In this way, you can use Play To Earn as a marketing instrument to promote certain games when needed.

Hold To Earn
It’s like a classical crypto staking, but way better. Players can deposit their crypto earnings and get a chance to multiply them. Users can choose from three time periods and freeze their tokens.

After the holding period is over, a certain percentage of the GGR pool arrives in the player’s account if the platform’s GGR was positive on this day. If it was negative, players receive their staked amount of tokens back. There’s no way users can lose in this game.

All the periods in Hold To Earn are adjustable. We recommend using these timing slots:

Short: 5 minutes to 1 hour, so that players can get familiar with holding and see how it works
Medium: 8 – 12 hours, so that players can put their tokens overnight and have an incentive to come back in the morning
Long: 1 – 3 days, so that players may receive a more significant reward and fall in love with your brand
The Hold To Earn program is a massive tool to boost retention, as players need to come back to the platform each time they want to pick up their reward and deposit again.

What’s the value of tokenized loyalty programs
According to the company, Trueplay’s loyalty programs’ benefits are truly great as they allow platform owners to boost their KPIs and user engagement. With Play To Earn and Hold to Earn from Trueplay, you can increase your:

Average Deposit per Player
Because players receive token rewards each time they make a bet through Play To Earn, the more users bet the more crypto they get.

Bets Turnover
This KPI grows since players find out that tokens exist on the platform. Players, staking through the Hold To Earn program, do tend to spend more.

See also: Retention fight under new EU regulations on free bonuses

Time Spent on a Platform and Retention
Tokenized loyalty programs are more interesting than usual bonus systems, moreover, both of Trueplay’s platforms are aiming for users to stay longer or come back more often.

To wrap it up
Trueplay’s tokenized loyalty programs target user retention and help platform owners earn more by boosting key metrics.

Five provincial gaming corporations in Canada have formed a coalition to call for the federal government to take action over illegal gambling operators.

Canada.- A coalition of five provincial gaming corporations in Canada has called on the federal government to work with the provinces and regulators to clamp down on illegal gambling websites in the country.

The Provincial Lottery Corporations coalition comprises the British Columbia Lottery Corporation; Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis; Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation; Loto-Quebec; and Atlantic Lottery Corporation.

Commercial gambling is illegal in Canada unless controlled by a provincial government, but offshore operators are active and promote their websites by advertising mirror “free-to-play” sites, in particular during popular live sporting events. The coalition said this blurs the line between provincially regulated gaming sites and illegal operators.

Due to the concern over the rapid increase of such advertisements, the coalition will work to raise public awareness. It will advise media platform owners of their duty to comply with existing laws and regulations by refusing to accept misleading ads for illegal sites. It said it will also encourage the federal government to enforce laws and regulations to shut down these operators.

Atlantic Lottery Corporation president and chief executive Patrick Daigle said: “Research shows that the majority of players are unaware of whether an online site is legal in their province or not. This is a significant amount of money that could be staying right here in our region to fund public services, but instead continues to be taken away from helping our communities to the sole benefit of illegal operators.”

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corporation president and chief executive Manny Atwal added: “The members of our coalition return their profits back to the province in which they operate. These profits help fund important programs and services like healthcare, education, and community programs. Illegal gambling websites advertise to Canadian players but often operate outside of Canada, taking the profits with them.”

Pariplay partners with Atlantic Lottery in Canada
NeoGames subsidiary Pariplay has expanded its presence in the regulated Canadian market through a partnership with Atlantic Lottery. The deal enables Pariplay to offer online casino content from its in-house studio Wizard Games, as well as a wide variety of aggregated third-party games, to players across Atlantic Canada through its Fusion platform.

Pariplay has a B2B gaming licence in Ontario, the Canadian province that opened its online gambling market on April 4. The provincial lottery operator is a World Lottery Association (WLA) member and returns all of its profit to the communities of Atlantic Canada.

Betting shops in Bremen have a week to appeal against the closure order.

Germany.- The German Sports Betting Association has blasted an order issued by the city-state of Bremen to close all betting shops. Authorities in the city said it was issuing the order on the grounds that it was not convinced that betting operators were not fronts for money laundering.

The city has rejected applications from 32 high-street betting shops that had applied for new licences under Germany’s new interstate gambling treaty, which came into effect last July. It said that some operators failed to provide written evidence of how they had secured the startup funds for their businesses, while one was located too close to a school. Operators have until August 5 to appeal.

Bremen is Germany’s smallest city state. Authorities highlighted a 2019 report from Germany’s finance ministry and federal police that found that said criminals were using gambling to launder dirty money and also directly investing money to buy betting shops. In some cases, gambling was simulated.

In Germany, betting shops are often not run by large chains but by smaller businesses that buy a franchise licence.

The Guardian quoted Bremen senator for internal affairs, Ulrich Mäurer, as saying: “At its core, this is about checking the reliability of these operators. We also want to guarantee that no money from dodgy businesses like drug dealing or human trafficking is being laundered here and thus flows into legal money cycles.”

A “politically motivated” decision
The German Sports Betting Association (DSMV) has claimed that the decision to reject the licence applications was “politically motivated”. It said authorities were seeking to move attention away from “urgent domestic political problems”.

It says that documents were submitted to Bremen authorities to prove operators’ financial resources, and says this evidence was validated by money laundering experts. It’s also questioned why authorities have suddenly decided to reject all licence applications on the same day, months after the applications were made.

DSMV President Mathias Dahms said: “The members of the German Sports Betting Association have nationwide permits as organisers of sports betting. The reliability of the providers has already been tested and, of course, the legal origin of their equipment was also proven.”

He added: “The fact that, after months without any response from the authorities, all 32 applications for permits were suddenly rejected on the same day suggests that this is an arbitrary, legally questionable and completely disproportionate act that only serves to achieve political goals. This has nothing to do with proper administrative procedures.

“By wanting to close all betting shops, Senator Mäurer is undermining the 2021 State Treaty on Gaming, which the Bremen Senate and the Bremen Parliament have approved.”

Dahms warned that the state’s move would harm consumer protection and push customers to the black market. However, a spokesperson for Bremen authorities suggested that other states may follow its lead.

Rose Gerdts-Schiffler said: “Other states in Germany are looking with close interest at what we are achieving by taking this step If we are successful, I expect many of them will follow suit.”

German regulator wants ISPs to voluntarily block unlicensed gambling sites
The new federal gambling regulator Glücksspielbehörde (GGL) has proposed a system under which it would ask internet service providers (ISPs) to voluntarily block unlicensed gambling websites. The proposal comes after the GGL took its first enforcement action last week by ordering IP blocks against Lottoland.

The GGL is due to officially begin its full capacity as Germany’s new federal gambling regulator from January 1, but it began its enforcement action against unlicensed gambling this month. It revealed that IP blocking would be one of the tools in its arsenal and has already ordered blocks against Lottoland’s www.lottoland.com, www.lottohelden.de and www.lottohelden.com.

The GGL has the power to impose penalties against internet providers who do not comply with its IP blocking orders. However, it’s now proposed that ISPs voluntarily block unlicensed sites without waiting for a formal order subjecting them to a legal obligation.

Based in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the GGL was created under the federal treaty on gambling, which established a federal regulated online gambling market last July. It was not due to be fully up and running until January 1, although it launched the GGL website in February.