Insights Archive

February 21, 2022

DraftKings Shares Plummet After Loss Widens, Revenues Beat Expectations

DraftKings stock tumbled more than 20 percent Friday despite the company meeting its revenue projections, a potential sign of investor impatience with the company’s high customer acquisition spending.

February 21, 2022

Baltic Online Markets Soar Past €400m In 2021

Overall regulated online gambling revenue in the Baltic region jumped by 84 percent year-on-year to €409m in 2021, with exaggerated channel shift helping Latvia and Lithuania to become the latest European markets to pass €100m in annual market size.

February 18, 2022

Week In Brief - February 18, 2022

A short roundup of some of the week's payments news you may have missed. This week we look at UK Finance's response to FCA Consumer Duty proposals, the threat of crypto to global financial stability, new fintech laws in Egypt, BlockFi's settlement with the SEC and the huge rise in dating fraud in the U.S.

February 18, 2022

EPC Launch QR Standardisation Consultation

Hot off the heels of Ant Group’s report on QR codes in the EU, the European Payments Council (EPC) has published a new consultation regarding standardisation in the trading bloc.

February 18, 2022

Ceasefire! Amazon And Visa Reach Global Agreement

After months of negotiations, a clash of the titans row that has engulfed the payments industry and caused wider debate appears to be over, as the companies announced a new arrangement regarding payment fees. However, could further fee regulation be on the cards?

February 18, 2022

New AML Platform To Build TRUST In Crypto Trading

Leading U.S. crypto firms have joined forces to build a platform called TRUST to comply with travel rule requirements and anti-money laundering (AML) rules.

February 18, 2022

Arkansas Mobile Sports-Betting Rules Clear First Legislative Hurdle

Controversial rules that will allow for mobile sports betting in Arkansas but could also keep major national operators on the sidelines cleared the first of two legislative hurdles on Thursday.

February 18, 2022

Swedish Relief As Harsh Measures Left Out Of Government Proposals

Recent government proposals to update Swedish gambling law are a relief because none of the online gambling-unfriendly measures floated over the past few months were implemented, an online gambling trade lobbyist has said.

February 18, 2022

Nevada Regulators Approve Apollo To Buy Las Vegas Sands Strip Casinos

Apollo Global Management received final approval from Nevada gaming regulators on Thursday for its portion of the $6.25bn deal to acquire the operations of the Strip properties owned by Las Vegas Sands.

February 18, 2022

Nigeria Regulator Urges Lawmakers To 'Speed Up' Legal Amendments

The head of Nigeria’s federal gambling regulator wants the National Assembly to speed up the introduction of an amendment to the National Lottery Act that would improve taxation and clamp down on unlicensed operators.

February 18, 2022

News In Brief: February 14-February 18, 2022

More French teenagers are gambling, according to a survey by the national regulator, with very high exposure to advertising a key motivating factor.

February 17, 2022

CFPB‌ ‌Takes‌ ‌Aim‌ ‌At‌ ‌Prepaid‌ ‌Card‌s Used For Welfare Benefits

Latest in the line of recent regulatory announcements, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is now looking at fees and conditions of prepaid cards used to distribute U.S. government payments.

February 17, 2022

China To Allow Fee To Prevent CBDC Bank Runs

Mu Changchun, the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency lead, has given more hints to the world about how the most significant central bank digital currency (CBDC) project in a major economy is evolving.

February 17, 2022

Which? Gives Food For Thought To Using BNPL

The UK consumer association warns that using buy now, pay later (BNPL) to pay for basic food shopping could be a sign of problem debt.

February 17, 2022

Russian Banks Complete First Digital Ruble Test

State-backed financial institutions VTB Bank and Promsvyazbank have conducted the first successful transactions with a digital ruble issued on the test version of the Bank of Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform.

February 17, 2022

New Jersey Sports-Betting Juggernaut Keeps Rolling Even As New York Soars

Like two Olympic skaters sprinting for gold, New Jersey and New York are competing for the lead in the nation’s booming sports-betting market while racing in their own lanes.

February 17, 2022

Norway Warns Kindred To Leave Or Else Face Daily Fines

The Norwegian Gambling Authority is warning Kindred Group that it will be fined 1.2m Norwegian krone (€118,000) a day if it does not stop offering gambling to Norwegian residents.

February 17, 2022

Singapore Bills Unify Regulation, Prohibit Proxy Betting

Singapore has released draft legislation streamlining gambling regulation under one authority, while also criminalising proxy gambling, introducing “class licensing” for low-risk products and toughening existing penalties.

February 17, 2022

Minnesota Lawmakers Renew Effort To Legalize Sports Betting

Minnesota state Senator Roger Chamberlain believes there is finally enough support among his colleagues in both chambers of the legislature to overcome traditional opposition from Indian tribes and anti-gambling forces to legalize sports betting.

February 16, 2022

Singapore Consolidates Bills Into One Easy Payments Regulation

A new Singapore bill would consolidate a number of existing financial service regulations into one omnibus act and enhance the country’s agility in addressing sector-wide risks.

February 16, 2022

U.S. Banks Say AML Rules Are Ill-Suited For 21st Century

The current U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) framework does not account for advances in technology and is outdated, the American Bankers Association has said in its response to a request for information.