News In Brief: September 23-September 27, 2024

Leading online betting operators in Brazil have voluntarily agreed to stop accepting credit card deposits, three months before formal regulations to that effect are due to come into force.

Industry association IBJR said its members took the decision after a dialogue with the Ministry of Finance. The members of fellow trade association ANJL have agreed to do the same, according to Brazilian media reports.

The moves follow mounting political and media pressure on a Brazilian market that stands on the cusp of regulation. As highlighted by various publications, Brazil’s Central Bank released a new analysis earlier this week highlighting increased expenditures on gambling by Brazilians, including by welfare recipients.

Credit card deposits were prohibited under an April ordinance, but the restriction will not be legally binding until operators become licensed from January 1.

“Although this method accounts for only around 0.5 percent of deposits made by customers, the measure aims to mitigate financial risks and reinforce a more responsible and protected experience for users,” IBJR said in a statement published on LinkedIn.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) voted Thursday (September 26) to officially prohibit sports bets on individual collegiate awards, such as the Heisman Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the top player in college football.

“This was an item that was brought to our attention recently that may cause confusion with our event catalog,” said Andrew Steffen, sports wagering operations manager with the MGC. 

Prior to the commission’s approval of the changes, there was no specific carve out in the regulation for the prohibition of individual collegiate awards. 

Since its launch in 2023, the sports-betting event catalog allowed operators to offer wagers on awards granted or recognized by the league or governing body based on regulator season statistics as outline in the catalog. 

Steffen confirmed that no operators had offered these markets in the state, but there was no official language in the regulation prohibiting them.

“I think this proposed change lines up with the way I view the statute,” said MGC interim chair Jordan Maynard. 

In other developments Thursday, Penn Entertainment told the MGC that it will be rebranding its retail sportsbook at Plainridge Park Casino to an ESPN BET branded sportsbook. The company’s mobile app has already been rebranded in Massachusetts, according to Karalyn O’Brien, MGC’s licensing division chief. 

The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) unanimously approved the proposed merger of sports-betting technology provider GAN Ltd. with Sega Sammy Creation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings. 

The merger, which was approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) earlier this month, still requires approval from seven state regulatory agencies, with West Virginia and Connecticut regulators expected to sign off in October.

Upon completion of the merger, GAN will cease to be a publicly traded company, and its shares will be delisted from the NASDAQ allowing it to be owned by Sega Sammy Holdings. The deal, which was announced in November 2023, valued GAN at $107.6m.

The deal was expected to close in the fourth quarter or by early 2025.

A serving senior official in the Philippine National Police has accused a former general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) of arranging the assassination of PCSO board secretary Wesley Barayuga in 2020.

Police official Lieutenant Colonel Santie Mendoza on Friday (September 27) told a joint House of Representatives committee probing extrajudicial killings that former PCSO general manager Royina Garma, previously chief of police in Cebu City and an acquaintance of former President Rodrigo Duterte, ordered Barayuga’s assassination.

Mendoza told the committee he was informed by National Police Commission head Edilberto Leonardo that Garma was behind a “special operation” targeting Barayuga, the Philippine Inquirer reported. 

Barayuga was shot twice in the head and once in the torso by a motorcycle rider in a drive-by shooting in Manila’s Mandaluyong City in July 2020.

Garma has also been accused of being a police member of an alleged death squad during Duterte’s stint as mayor of Davao City. 

Earlier in the committee hearing, lawmakers heard that Garma appointed at least seven members of her family to PCSO positions after becoming general manager.

Garma has been detained on the orders of committee lawmakers. She is a key suspect in the probe into the extrajudicial killing spree of drug suspects and other victims that exploded during Duterte’s presidency, and a potential witness to the activities of more senior suspects.

Flutter Entertainment Plc remains bullish about the future of its online sports-betting and internet gaming business, especially with half of its future revenues expected to be generated from the U.S. market.

At an investor day on Wednesday (September 25), the company behind FanDuel and Paddy Power announced plans to repurchase as much as $5bn of its shares over the next three to four years.

The board authorized the share repurchase program, which is expected to begin after the company releases its third-quarter earnings in November, Flutter CFO Rob Coldrake said.

Flutter is now projecting the North American mature total addressable market to be approximately $70bn, of which the U.S. is roughly $63bn and Canada $7bn. It issued a global industry forecast of $368m by 2030. 

Revenue at Flutter was projected to increase 14 percent annually, reaching approximately $21bn in 2027. 

FanDuel CEO Amy Howe confirmed the company’s advocacy strategy will be changing as it enters a new phase of growth, including a revamp to push its launch in California, Texas, and Florida, which combined represent more than 25 percent of the U.S. population. 

“There’s a lot of hard work the team of gearing up to do to make sure we can legalize some of the biggest states in California and Texas,” Howe said at Flutter’s investor day in New York. “We know we’re going to need a much more proactive public affairs strategy going forward.” 

FanDuel estimates that its mobile sportsbook will be available to 80 percent of the U.S. population by 2030, with iGaming available to 25 percent of the population by that same date.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has barred advertising from five social casino companies because the agency said the ads misleadingly implied players could win and withdraw cash from the games.

Cited in separate notices were Huuuge Global and its “Billionaire Casino,” Dataverse Co and its Gamehaus game, Mobee Co and its Ignite Classic Slots, SpinX Games and Zeroo Gravity Games with its “Cash Tornado.”

The ASA said that TikTok agreed that the ads breached its policies and removed them from its platforms.

The Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) has said it will prepare a report on illegal gambling to identify key companies and methods they use to circumvent gambling laws.

The report will also gauge international comparisons and provide suggestions for methods of enforcement against unlicensed operators, as well as propose legislative changes if deemed necessary, the SGA said.

The report is due in January, the agency said.

The success of the England team in the UEFA European Football Championship may have enticed younger players and women to bet on the football championships, according to UK Gambling Commission data.

Surveys conducted before, during and after the event found women reported to have bet doubled, from 6.6 percent before the event to 13.3 percent after, while the rate of men reporting bets rose only from 20.8 percent to 27.3 percent in the same period, the commission said.

Those aged 18 to 24 reported to have bet on the Euros rose from 14 percent before the event to 36 percent after, while those in older age groups reported more modest percentage increases, the regulator wrote.

The most common reasons for betting were to win money, to make the game more interesting or in response to a bonus offer, according to the survey.

But the survey found a significant increase in those reporting they bet because England or the team they supported were winning.

The England team made it to the finals before being defeated by Spain. The survey was of about 6,200 consumers polled by Yonder in three waves.

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has threatened an unlicensed bingo operator with fines of up to €285,000 if it does not shut down its operations.

The KSA has ordered Luxurybingods to end its bricks-and-mortar bingo games and to cease advertising them.

"During a visit to the Harbour Club in Eindhoven on 27 March this year, supervisors from the KSA saw that the Luxurybingods bingo was in full swing. No permit had been requested for this," the regulator noted.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) declined to take action Tuesday (September 24) on a new proposed Regulation 5.095 that allows licensees to refuse to pay any gambling winnings to individuals who have been excluded or trespassed.

“Trespassed” is a commonly used term in Nevada for ejecting someone from a property, or from a licensed casino.

NGCB chairman Kirk Henrick expressed concern about requiring casinos to display the warning against trespassing at each public entrance. The regulation also requires a warning on a casino’s website and in their house rules.

“I don’t think trespassers look at signage before they sneak into the casino,” the chairman said.

Hendrick and board member Brittnie Watkins expressed their desire Tuesday to hear more on the proposed regulation from the gaming industry. Hendrick also asked to hear from any trespassers or their attorneys as to why they return to a casino where they were trespassed. 

The NGCB also tabled any vote on an amendment to Regulation 74.016 that clarifies the term “patron” does not apply to any individual that falls within Regulation 5.095. Hendrick expects to put both measures on a future control board agenda.

BetMGM, the 50-50 joined venture between MGM Resorts International and Entain, will focus throughout the rest of the year on investing in technology and customer acquisition, as the company has experienced market share declines.

“BetMGM in 2022 and 2023 was really about building the business [and] expanding into new states as the legalized online sports betting,” MGM CFO Jonathan Halkyard said Tuesday (September 24) at Deutsche Bank’s 32nd Annual Leveraged Finance Conference. 

“We demonstrated the company was able to deliver profitability late last year, but we also saw some market share declines which were a bit concerning to the management team at BetMGM.”

Halkyard believed that going through the rest of 2024 they could stabilize their market share and in 2025 and into early 2026 see BetMGM return to profitability. He also expressed confidence in MGM’s projects in Japan, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while noting a decision on a New York license should be known by the end of next year.

MGM doesn’t expect to make any major digital acquisitions in the near future following the deals to acquire LeoVegas, Push Gaming and Tipico. Halkyard said those acquisitions allowed them to build a wholly-owned digital business for operation outside of the United States. 

On the domestic front, Halkyard said MGM isn’t looking at any pending brick-and-mortar deals to add to their regional portfolio. 

UK member of parliament Alex Sobel has written to major broadcaster Channel 4 to ask that it no longer broadcast gambling ads.

In extracts from a letter to the TV channel's chief executive, published in the Independent newspaper, Sobel said: “The majority of the UK public support a full ban on gambling advertising. I am asking that you consider a full ban on gambling advertising on Channel 4.

“As a broadcaster known to challenge the status quo, I hope that you will consider this request, which I have raised informally on a previous occasion."

The headquarters of Channel 4 is within Sobel's Leeds constituency.

“Removing gambling advertising from broadcast and on-demand television would provide another layer of protection for those vulnerable to gambling-related harms, and help stem the increase in gambling activity among new target demographics targeted by the gambling industry,” he added.

Italian communications regulator AGCOM has targeted social media influencers in its latest round of fines.

The penalties for Italy’s total gambling advertising ban were directed at the one-person operation Nicybooks by Luca Biande, as well as individuals Pietro Modaro and Argiolas Gian Luca.

The three were issued fines of €70,000, €55,000 and €50,000 respectively, for posting videos of gambling content on sites including Google’s YouTube.

The case against Nicybooks cited other gambling content on popular social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitch.

Both Google and Twitch have previously been the target of AGCOM enforcement themselves for allowing promotional gambling content on their platforms that targeted an Italian audience.