bb108 digital

www.microgaming.co.uk/TDKR

£5.20 (€8.30) • ISSUE:108 • SEPTEMBER 2013 • www.betting-business.co.uk

Fair betting: Britishbookmakers prepareto head toWolverhampton tosee the latest LBOinnovations.

ESSENTIAL GUIDE 18

Football signing:Betfred teams up withBT Sport in order tooffer televised PremierLeague matches tocustomers

B2BiRETAIL 28

Social club: Canthe betting industryleverage socialmedia in the sameway as casino andbingo operators?

COMMENT 38

he UK government ispressing ahead with itsintention to impose a15 per cent gross profitstax on all remote oper-

ators for any business they conductin the country, much to the indus-try’s dismay.

Despite warnings that such a highrate will create a much bigger blackmarket for online gaming from UKcustomers that currently exists, theTreasury is persisting with it in anattempt to recoup a further £300m ayear from the industry.

Clive Hawkswood, CEO at theRemote Gambling Association,commented: “This is a challengingtime for the industry and we willcontinue to engage with Treasuryto ensure the impact of any taxchanges is fully understood by thegovernment. We have KPMGworking on a report that will becompleted shortly and hopefullythat will help to persuade the gov-ernment that it would be a seriousmistake to set the tax rate at toohigh a level.”

Indeed there appears to be anassumption that the Treasury’sfigures are based on capturing only

80 per cent of the market, with theremainder using non-licensed com-panies who will not pay the UK’sconsumption tax.

Given that the current licensingregime, while not directly regu-lated by the Gambling Commis-sion, encompasses 99 per cent ofthe market there is a very real pos-sibility that the new licensing lawswill actually make online gamblingless safe for UK citizens.

Economic Secretary to theTreasury Sajid Javid said: “Thesereforms will ensure that remotegambling operators who have UKcustomers make a fair contributionto the public finances.”

The news was revealed as part ofthe Treasury’s consultation on itsproposed place of consumption

tax for remote gambling. A positivefor the industry is that the govern-ment has taken the sensibleapproach and decided that for thepurposes of remote gambling thedefinition of UK customers will bebased on where the customerusually lives. It explained: “Thiswill mean remote gambling under-taken by a customer who usuallylives in the UK whilst temporarilyon holiday abroad will be liable fortax (as long as that gambling couldhave been accessed from the UK).Conversely, remote gamblingundertaken by a customer whousually lives abroad whilst tem-porarily in the UK will not be. Prem-ises based gambling will beunaffected.”

There were also details over how

the Treasury intends to enforce thetax rate, which mainly involvesworking with other tax jurisdic-tions to recover outstanding taxdebts under the EU Mutual Assis-tance in the Recovery of Debt(MARD) directive, requiring opera-tors from certain jurisdictions toappoint a joint and severally liablefiscal representative and/or provideHMRC with a security. Several ofthese points will be enforcedthrough the creation of summarycriminal offences. The offence offraudulent evasion of the duties forremote gaming duty carries anunlimited fine and imprisonment ofup to seven years.

LICENCE TO KILLCOMMENT 38

AUSTRALIA

William Hill has increased its shareof the Australian market with theacquisition of local online

betting brand Tom Waterhouse forAUS$34m (£19.6m), along with $6m(£3.5m) of liabilities. The deal also seesan additional earn-out of up to $70m(£40.4m), subject totomwaterhouse.com achieving incre-mental EBIT on a sliding scale between$10m and $30m (£5.8m and £17.3m) inthe year to 31 December 2015.

It is only six months since William Hillpaid £459m for Sportingbet’s Australianbusiness, as the bookmaker aims tomake the sector a second home market.Tomwaterhouse.com will join the Sport-ingbet and Centrebet brands, which areled by Michael Sullivan as CEO ofWilliam Hill Australia; however TomWaterhouse will remain managing direc-tor at the brand that carries his name.

Sullivan commented: “This is bring-ing together some of the best talent inthe bookmaking industry into one for-midable team. That can only be goodfor the customer experience. Add tothat our commitment to the Australianmarket and the best practice standardswe apply to our business and you get acompany that is also focused on pro-tecting and respecting the customer.”

Australia is one of the largestlicensed betting markets in the worldand is attractive to William Hill for itslong-term growth potential as a well-established and well-regulated market.William Hill has particular skills in thoseareas of the Australian market that aredemonstrating strong structuralgrowth: online, mobile, fixed oddsbetting and sports betting.

William Hill expects the acquisitionto be positive from 2014, enhancingunderlying earnings before transac-tion and integration costs and theamortisation of intangible assetsassociated with the proposed acquisi-tion in that year.

Hills getsbiggerdown under

ONLY LOCALLY LICENSEDFIRMS WILL BE ABLE TOADVERTISE IN THE UK

15 per cent tax rate couldbe ‘serious mistake’The UK place ofconsumption taxis due forimplementation on1 December 2014,but the industrywill hope to get the15 per cent ratereduced beforethen.

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BB108-p01-news:09/10 4/9/13 12:38

News

Bookmaker Coral hasbroken new groundwith the launch of

‘Football Jackpot’, aunique pool bet that willgive customers the chanceto become an instant mil-lionaire for just a £1 stake.Football Jackpot will runevery weekend throughoutthe 2013/14 football seasonand will be supported by aseven figure advertisingcampaign across broad-cast and print.

Coral customers canplace their FootballJackpot bets via couponsavailable in Coral’s 1,800shops, or online atcoral.co.uk or via Coral’smobile app. The mechan-ics are simple: Each weekthe Football Jackpot

coupon will contain 15football matches and cus-tomers will be asked topredict either a home win,draw or away win for just a£1 stake. The first solewinner of Football Jackpotis guaranteed by Coral towin £1m, and there are alsoconsolation prizes for cus-tomers who narrowly missout. Customers who cor-rectly predict 13 or 14results will receive a con-solation cash payment and,depending on the size ofthe pool and the number ofconsolation winners even,this could run into tens ofthousands of pounds. Cus-tomers also have the flexi-bility of either choosing alucky dip or making theirown selections.

etfred ownerFred Donebelieves that HighStreet bookmak-ers are competing

directly with online gam-bling operators for thecustom of the UK puntersand that LBOs need to be ableto offer value for moneyentertainment to keep aheadof the game.

Done believes that his cus-tomers factor in the enjoy-ment of being in a bettingshop while weighing up thepros and cons of having abet, and that providing anenhanced LBO experiencehelps retail bookmakerscompete against their onlinebrethren.

He explained: “I’m of thefirm belief that the valuereceived by the Britishpunter is unmatched any-where in the world. That’sbecause we’ve had a legalbetting industry for over 50years and it is evolved in away that provides its cus-tomers with more for theirmoney than anywhere else.

“But we are now compet-ing with online gambling, soour betting shops have tooffer more in terms of expe-rience, which is where thestaff come in. I would ratherhave a bad shop with goodstaff than a good shop withbad staff. It’s a much betterexperience when you placea bet with a cheery smile thana frown, or even an imper-

sonal click of the mouse. Thestaff are more importantnow than ever.”

Done believes there aremore opportunities now forbetting shops because of theeconomic situation of thehigh street rather than justthe planning changes imple-mented in the 2005 GamblingAct. “The truth is that land-lords can’t afford to be toofussy these days and aremuch more willing to see abetting shop in place whenthe alternative would be anempty unit. It gives book-makers more opportunitiesto command good locationson the high street.”

Along with staffing andlocation, Done is keen tokeep ahead of the competi-tion inside the shop as well.This is why it has becomethe first national bookmakerto sign up to BT Sport and isalso at the head of the queuefor Inspired Gaming’s newB2 gaming machine – theEclipse. “We’re very proudthat we are the first tocommit to the new Eclipsecabinets and the investmentin shops shows our belief inthe sector. Hopefully theywill give us a good shot inthe arm over the next fiveyears.”

Although Betfred’saverage revenue permachine is not close to themid-£900s of William Hill andLadbrokes (and even furtheraway from the £1,250 on

Paddy Power’s London-centric estate), Done recog-nises that this is mainly downto the northern geographicalspread of his shops ratherthan any lapses in manage-ment. Despite the lower rev-enues experienced, Done isadamant that a drop in stakefor B2 machines from £100to £2 would destroy the gameprofile. “It would absolutelykill it,” he said. “And if youput those machines at riskthen you jeopardise thewhole industry – 9,000 shopsand the jobs they generate.The gaming machines are anintegral part of the bettingshop experience now and weare dependent on them.”

Done is also of the beliefthat the concerns over B2stakes are ill founded anywaygiven the unlimited stakesthat are found online. “I see asimple comparison. Bettingshops are strictly age limited– you need to be 18 to get in.Our customers play themachines with theirmaximum stake and prizelimits and while they play theyare monitored by our staffwho have been trained tointervene if they think there’sa problem. Now isn’t thatpreferable to faceless onlinegambling, most of which isn’tregulated in this country atthe moment, with its unlim-ited stakes and prizes?”

ECLIPSE LAUNCHEssential Guide 26

LBO experience needs totrump online competitionDespite having online gambling operations of his own, Betfred’sFred Done believes that betting shops need to play to theirstrengths to counter internet betting.

BETTING SHOP

BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 20132

ANALYSIS

Betfred has madecomfortably thebiggestinvestment inretail betting in thepast few years,mainly down to its£265m purchaseof the Tote in2011. Since thenthe bookmakerhas beenconcentrating onintegrating andturning around theTotesport bettingchain, somethingFred Done saidhas been going toplan. “To behonest I knew itwould be easy. Wejust had to take onthese shops andcarry on what wehad already beendoing with theBetfred chain. Infairness to theTote managementthey could barelymake any plansfor the businessas the wholeorganisation wasessentially up forsale for sevenyears, so justadding somestability wouldhave workedwonders alone.”

FRED DONE: ‘VERY PROUD THATWE ARE THE FIRST TO COMMIT TO

THE NEW ECLIPSE CABINETS’

Coral launfootball poA new season has seen a new typeof football bet from Coral with a£1m guaranteed jackpot for asuccessful 15-timer.

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BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 2013 3

Bwin.party has signed up to become Olympique de Marseille’s official online betting and gaming partner. The three-year partnership will boost theprofile and status of the Bwin brand in France and strengthen its position as Europe’s leading football betting brand. Bwin has already announcedsimilar partnerships with Real Madrid, Manchester United, FC Bayern, Juventus and RSC Anderlecht. CEO Norbert Teufelberger said: “We are nowpartnered with six of the greatest clubs in European football, enabling us to offer our customers an unparalleled range of online and real world offers.”

Olympique deal for Bwin

Casino operator 888Holdings has said ithopes to build on the

success it is enjoying ininternational markets tomake a good tilt at the USiGaming market once thesector takes off.

At the firm’s interimresults, CEO Brian Matting-ley explained: “We aremaking good progress innew markets with tremen-dous success in Spain andItaly where we see furtheropportunities for growth.These experiences havegiven us further confidencein our ability to capitalise onthe exciting US opportunitywhich continues to developand we believe our strategyand partnerships ensurethat we are well positionedto maximise market shareas that market becomesregulated.”

888 has a joint ventureagreement with globalinvestment firm AvenueCapital Group to launch andoperate a comprehensiveB2C gaming offering in theUS market upon regulation.The newly formed company -the All American PokerNetwork (AAPN) - will launch888’s brands into the USmarket. 888 also has agree-ments with Treasure Island,Caesars Interactive Enter-tainment and WMS.

While Mattingley acknowl-edged that there is muchexcitement in the industryabout the market’s potential,he said it was important toremain realistic about poten-tial time frames. “We cannow say with certainty thatwe will shortly be operationalin the US, once platformcompliance has been

granted by the regulators.While it will be a slow andresource intensive process,the region clearly has thepotential to bring significantfuture revenues to thecompany.”

Group revenue in the firsthalf of 2013 was a recordUS$200.1m (£129.0m) - anincrease of 7 per cent, drivenby B2C Casino and Poker,and profit after tax more thandoubled to $32.1m (£20.7m).

888 has rather bucked thetrend for poker, which hasbeen on a downward spiralfor many operators. Instead888’s poker revenue jumped13 per cent. Mattingley com-mented: “As anticipated, theastonishing growth that thelaunch of Poker6 brought isnow inevitably slowinghowever 888poker is still per-forming well and in line withthe general industry trend.The fact that our Poker offer-ing has now risen to numberfour on the global Poker-Scout rankings reinforcesthe excellent performance ofthe product.”

He added that casino, alsoup 13 per cent, had ‘enjoyedsomewhat of a renaissance’in 2013, especially in Italy andSpain: “The new Casino50platform has now fullybedded down and customersare finding the offer excitingand enjoyable to play. Wehave continued to refresh thegames by launching fourfurther slot games alldesigned by our in-houseteam. The progress in theplatform has been well sup-ported by strong marketingcampaigns that haveboosted first time depositorsand shown a significantreturn on investment.”

aunches £1mpool bet

Simon Clare, PR directorof Coral, commented: “Thisis an historic day as we arethe first British bookmakeron the high street to everoffer our own ‘football poolbet’ and one with the poten-tial to create millionaires.

“We are confident Foot-ball Jackpot will become ahuge success and areinvesting a seven figure sumto launch and promote thisexciting new bet on TV andin print advertising over thecoming weeks and months.Football has a huge andgrowing following inBritain and by offering foot-ball fans a simple, Lottery-style, ‘small-stake big-win’product we hope to attractthousands of new cus-tomers to our shops andonline, as well as givingexisting football punters anew and fun betting oppor-tunity to try and win a life-changing sum of money”

Clare added: “The beautyof the Football Jackpot isthat we will always knowgoing into the last game

every Monday or Sundaywhether we have a cus-tomer in with a chance ofbecoming a millionaire andwhat results they need,enabling us to promote thethrill and excitement of thebet as it happens throughsocial media and CoralTVin Coral betting shops.”

The Football Jackpot winpool will rollover if there isno winner, and Coral pre-dicts that there will be occa-sions during the seasonwhere customers will be inwith a chance of winningwell in excess of £1m.

To support the launch ofFootball Jackpot, DLKWLowe has produced a 20second TV advert with thesimple message that youcan ‘win a million’. Adshave been booked acrossall of the main channels(ITV1, ITV4, Sky SportsNews, Sky Sports, Film 4and Comedy Central) foreight weeks. There is alsobe a partnership with TheSun which will feature thepunditry expertise of Terry

Venables. The FootballJackpot coupon will alsobe inserted in The Sun, TheDaily Star, The Express,The Mirror and The DailyRecord as well as addi-tional activity within aselection of these titles.

Ladbrokes has seen con-siderable success with itsMillionaire footballcoupon which asks cus-tomers to predict the 12Xoutcome of 20 matches forthe chance to win a £1m.The clever part of the Lad-brokes bet is that it actu-ally splits the stake intofour different accumula-tors, meaning that cus-tomers only need to get thefirst five correct in order toget a return of some sort.However Coral is the firstto incorporate a pari-mutuel element into themix and it will hope that itsnetwork of shops andonline reach will helpboost the football poolwhich, this season at least,seems to be a burgeoningmarket.

CORAL IS NOW OFFERINGA £1M FOOTBALL BET

Internationalsuccess sets 888for US market

888 Holdings has lined up its targetsin the US and is now poised to enterthe market.

CASINO

BRIAN MATTINGLEY:‘EXPERIENCES HAVE GIVENUS FURTHER CONFIDENCEIN OUR ABILITY’

BB108-p02-03-News:09/10 4/9/13 12:42 Page 2

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iGaming

MOBILE

Charles Cohen, co-founder and CEO ofmobile gaming opera-

tor Probability, hasdescribed the last 12months as ‘the year thatmobile finally became main-stream in the gamblingindustry’.

Cohen said that up to halfthe customers of traditionaldesktop betting and gamingbusinesses have beenswitching their attention tomobile offerings, openingup an opportunity for Proba-bility’s mobile content.

“This is why productinnovation, distinctiveness,and total focus on theunique needs and expecta-tions of the mobile cus-tomers is and will remainthe real centre of what wedo,” Cohen added.

The comments weremade during Probability’sfull year results, which saw20 per cent revenue growthto £8.6m and a positiveadjusted EBITDA of £41,000,although the firm stillposted a £600,000 loss forthe period.

Probability’s financialyear saw the companyinvest significantly in itstechnology to ensure it wasthe first to successfullylaunch mobile slots in Italy,and to develop the coretechnology necessary toensure all its games aremade available across thewidest range of devices.Android sales now accountfor approximately 70 percent of the market, accord-ing to Cohen who pointedout that ignoring that part ofthe company’s potentialactives base is ‘just not anoption’.

Cohen described some ofProbability’s ‘tough deci-sions’ as taking a pit stopfor new tyres and fuel. Heexplained: “With limitedresources we had to makesome tough choices in orderto make these very impor-tant investments. Mid year,we decided to acceleratethe wind-down of our legacyfeaturephone customerbase, and pause our releaseschedule in the second halfof the financial year in orderto support the developmentof the next generation ofmobile gambling games inHTML5, taking advantage ofthe latest device and operat-ing system capabilities todeliver an experience everybit as good as a native app -but at a fraction of the timeand cost to develop andmaintain.”

win.party ishoping that itsrelaunch of PartyPoker in the nextfew weeks will

provide a glimpse into thefuture of online poker, andhopefully distract from itsparticularly poor first halfperformance.

The company experi-enced a 16 per cent drop intotal revenues for theperiod to 342.5m euro,while clean EBITDA fromcontinuing operationscrumbled 34 per cent to60.7m euro. The drop hasbeen blamed on the impactof a turnover tax on sportsbetting in Germany intro-duced on 1 July 2012, ISPblocking in Belgium and theclosure of slots in Spain, aswell as a switch in philoso-phy from ‘volume to value’and platform migrationlosses.

CEO Norbert Teufel-berger commented: “Theloss of revenue followingthe dotcom migration hasprompted several changes

internally to ensure that welearn from our mistakes andthat such losses are notrepeated. Whilst an improv-ing performance duringAugust is encouraging, it isunlikely to mitigate thesofter than expected firsthalf revenue performanceand so we now expect fullyear revenues, excludingthe US, to be between 14per cent and 17 per centlower than 2012.”

The firm’s plannedrelaunch of Party Pokerrepresents the fourth stageof the firm’s ‘four-point planto revitalise poker’announced 12 months ago.Teufelberger explained:“Our objective with thelaunch is to re-establish thebrand as the undisputedhome for recreationalplayers - which was thefoundation of partypokerwhen it first launched backin 2001. We want to recon-nect with our target con-sumer through amuch-improved productexperience as well as

through a step change inthe quality of our playercommunications. All of ourefforts have been focusedon making the new productrelevant and disruptive, sothat it will not only chal-lenge but will changecurrent perceptions of bothour brand and also of onlinepoker generally - we areputting the fun back intopoker.”

The new product, whichwill also be made availableon bwin.com, has beencompletely redesignedfrom a player journey per-spective with a completeoverhaul in terms of lookand feel. The new versionincludes several new fea-tures including one-clicklobby, achievements andmissions, player profilesand connecting to friendsthrough social channels.

Teufelberger added:“Having been in beta testingsince the beginning of July,we have been processingthe feedback from theexternal user group and

burning through the issuesidentified ahead of launch.The process has beenhugely positive ensuringthat the product will nowbe even better when itlaunches to our dotcomcustomers in the next fewweeks.”

The firm has also devel-oped a new bingo productin an attempt wrest controlof its bingo operation fromthird party suppliers.Teufelberger said: “Theemergence of several newoperators has meant thatcompetition has intensifiedand the need for greaterproduct differentiation andinnovation has increased.Whilst Foxy Bingo andCheeky Bingo remain con-tracted to run on the thirdparty platform until July2014, we have redevelopedand will soon relaunch ourown bingo software usingthe partybingo label andbelieve that it will deliver afresh and exciting alterna-tive to what is available inthe marketplace today.”

Jan Jones-Blackhurst, CaesarsEntertainment’s senior vicepresident communications and

government relations, answerssome questions about the US aheadof her presentation at the EiG shownext month.

Is it fair to say the land-based casinoindustry in the US is now embracingthe possibilities of online gaming?What has caused the shift inopinion?I believe it is a fair representationthat the US casino industry is nowembracing the concept of online

gaming. Certainly, thereremain a few outliers,Sheldon Adelson inparticular, who are notsupportive, but overallthe industry is alignedin favour.

Has the land-basedindustry beendriving the legisla-tion of onlinegaming?The AmericanGaming Associa-tion (AGA) and the

land-based industry have beenthe primary drivers of onlinegaming legislation federally.

Is Federal regulation ofonline gaming a pipedream?Given the state of Congres-

sional dysfunction,federal legislation wouldbe remote, but notimpossible.

How has Caesars pre-pared for the newdawn of online gaming

in the US?With CIE, Ceasars Ent is well pre-pared to take advantage of the con-sumer on line opportunities…weare very active on line with realmoney gaming and social games

What do you hope to get out of EiG?EIG is always a great opportunityto network and be aware of all thatis happening in and around thegaming industry

EIG EXPO & CONGRESS8-10 October 2013Fira Barcelona

Cohen hailsmobile’smove tomainstream

Relaunchfocusafterpoor sixmonthsBwin.party is hoping arelaunched poker product willhelp revitalise the operator in asector which has been inconstant decline for the firmsince 2006.

FINANCIAL RESULTS

ANALYSIS

It appears thatthings will get worsefor Bwin.party beforethey get better, evenif the firm ispromising 70m euroof cost savings inthe current year andup to 20m euro morein 2014. However inthe eight weekperiod ended 25August 2013,average net dailyrevenue was down 8per cent versus thesecond quarter of2013 and down 21per cent versus thesame period in 2012.As the firmexplained: “Animproving position insports betting inAugust has beenhampered by ISPblocking in Greeceand a short delay inthe launch of ournew poker product.”

Federal legislation a remote possibilityUSA

B

BWIN.PARTY’S INTERIMSGOT A FROSTY RECEPTIONFROM THE STOCK MARKET

JAN JONES-BLACKHURST


BB108-p04-09-iGaming:09/10 4/9/13 10:08 Page 1

Contact us at [email protected]

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©2013 SOUTH PARK DIGITAL STUDIOS LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COMEDY CENTRAL, SOUTH PARK AND ALL RELATED TITLES, LOGOS AND CHARACTERS ARE TRADEMARKS OF COMEDY PARTNERS.

VIDEO SLOT


iGaming Gaming group 32Red has become the official casino partner of Italian football club Bologna FC for the 2013-14and 2014-15 seasons. The deal, which will boost the profile of the 32Red brand in Italy includes both on and off-line co-branding activities. Ed Ware, 32Red’s CEO said: “We are proud to be partnering with Bologna, one ofItaly’s oldest and best known clubs. We see Bologna as an ideal partner to help promote the 32Red brand in Italy.”

Bologna mate

ob Yong, owner ofthe retail andonline poker oper-ator Dusk TillDawn, has identi-

fied a series of ways to revi-talise the poker sector, at leastfrom a recreational player’spoint of view.

Yong detailed eight differ-ent improvements that theonline sites could make to helpgenerate new poker playersand improve the online expe-rience for the recreationalplayers in his blog on dusktill-dawnpoker.com.

The first three suggestionsare ways to address some ofthe bad publicity and percep-tions that surround the pokersector, with the remainderintended to reduce the edgeenjoyed by poker profession-als over the recreationalplayers.1) Display RNG stats on adaily/weekly/monthly basis2) Manage player etiquetteand behaviour as close to alive game as possible3) Publicise the detectionand punishments of thosecaught colluding or cheating4) Close down the poker botssites and remove affiliates thatlink poker brands to thesesites5) Ban all poker tracking soft-

ware as these magnify thepro’s edge over the recre-ational punter6) Restrict the number oftables that any player can playto 2-47) Make the min buy-in 50BBon all tables as this stops thevarious ‘short stack’ systemsplaying optimally8) Promote 8-10 handedtables rather than the 4 and 6maximum handed tables

Yong added: “I understandif one of the big poker sitesimplemented all of thesechanges at once, their liquid-ity could go through the floorin the short term, but is it notpossible for online poker tomove in a direction to encour-age new players to startplaying the game that we alllove and also bring back thoseplayers that have lost faith inonline poker or poker ingeneral?

“I do hope this doesn’tcome across as a bashing forthe big online poker sites, Iam trying to be constructivein my own words. All of thebig poker rooms have done somany amazing things forpoker over the years, I justreally feel passionately aboutthis subject and people whoknow me will know that I have

been campaigning/whingingfor change in this area forsome time.”

Dusk Till Dawn has recentlylaunched its own ‘clubmembers only’ online cashgames where a ‘moremanaged’ environment pro-hibits the use of online pokertracking software is prohib-ited, multi-tabling is restrictedto 2 tables of NL and PLO andplayer behaviour and eti-quette will be expected to beto the live club’s standards.

Yong commented: “We area minnow and don’t have anydelusions of grandeur to everbe anything more than a nichepoker operator, focussed ongiving live players the bestpossible poker experience.However, we do speak to awide cross section of pokerplayers face to face and in myexperience, recreationalpoker players are growingmore and more scepticalabout online poker. I believethat this is for two reasons;firstly online poker has hadsome negative PR over thelast few years, and secondly,recreational players arelosing their money quickerbecause the environment hasbecome too biased towardsmulti-tabling professionalonline players.”

Bingo giant GalaBingo.com has announced anew partnership with holiday park specialistsPark Resorts as the two companies launched a

joint promotion with a £50,000 prize package. Thecompetition, which offers bingo players the chanceto win a luxury caravan for life, launched last monthwith the support of TV presenter Alison Hammondand reality TV king Jeff Brazier.

“We are really excited to be working with ParkResorts”, commented Galabingo.com directorAlison Digges. “There is great synergy between thetwo brands and we are sure the promotion will bemutually beneficial. This competition perfectly fitswith our players’ profile; we know that people whoplay Gala Bingo love to have fun and many haveyoung families so this fantastic prize package is areal gem.

“In addition, the involvement of Alison Hammond,who is a regular presenter on Gala Live, and JeffBrazier is a real bonus. The two were able to visit ParkResorts to test the winner’s luxury caravan for them-selves and we are confident that their endorsementwill really help drive interest in the competition.”

A two-bedroomed Abu Ashridge holiday home isthe top prize and winners can choose to locate theirnew holiday retreat at any of Park Resort’s 33 awardwinning sites which include some of UK’s favouriteholiday spots.

Park Resorts marketing director, Riche Jones,commented: “We were keen to work with Gal-abingo.com and we are confident that the innova-tive prize package, which includes all running costsuntil January 2015, will help put Park Resorts’ offer-ing front of mind for thousands of bingo players.”

Tickets for the grand prize draw were allo-cated free to all individuals who won one of GalaBingo’s qualifying games in late August with thewinning name drawn out during a live Fridaynight broadcast.

Åland-licensed gamblingoperator Paf has teamed upwith an organisation called

Hyper Island to investigate howits relationships with customerscould develop in the future.Because Paf believes thatgrowth comes from strong andlong lasting customer relation-ships, and that companiesshould be built with the help ofcustomers, a deep understand-ing of the customers and digitalsolutions that promote a senseof togetherness and exchange

are necessary. To achieve that aim the gaming

company has enlisted the help ofHyper Island, which, amongother things, has been involvedin digital development at Afton-bladet in Sweden.

During an eight-week period,six students from Hyper Islandwill work at Paf’s office on Åland.As part of their coursework thesestudents will immerse them-selves in Paf’s strategy, which isbased on the assumption that itis more fun to play together.

Paf CEO Anders Ingves isenthusiastic about the newworking partnership: “HyperIsland is interesting becausetheir training methods combinethe insights of the new digitaleconomy with design and com-munication. They are skilled atfast development processes,which is essential in today’s eco-nomic world. It will be fun andreally inspiring to have some stu-dents among us and hopefully wecan learn from their way of think-ing. At the same time, I am con-

vinced that they will gain newinsights from us.”

Hyper Island CEO JohannaFrelin is also positive: “We arevery pleased to begin thisworking partnership. Paf is acompany at the cutting edge thatis open to innovation andchange. While the experience willbe challenging and educationalfor our students, I am convincedthat they have a lot to contributeto Paf’s continued development.It will be exciting to see whatthey come up with.”

Paf goesHyper forcustomers

Gala BingooffersholidayhomeBINGO

JEFF BRAZIER AND ALISON HAMMONDLAUNCHED THE PROMOTION

Eight pointplan for pokeroperators

Dusk Till Dawn owner Rob Yong has detailed a series ofimprovements for the online poker industry to consider.

ROB YONG: ‘WE DO SPEAK TO A WIDECROSS SECTION OF POKER PLAYERS’

ANALYSIS

The poker sectorrecognised theimportance of therecreational playeronly when thegrowth of onlinepoker slowed up.Only then was itacknowledged thatsome of the cardsharks had scared alot of the smaller fishout of the sea andthat therefore theprofessionalsneeded to be reinedback in some way.Some firms avoid thetargeting of greenpoker players simplyby making all tableanonymous, whichalso has the addedbonus of renderingtracking softwareimpotent. And RobYong summarised hisown open letterthusly: “Please don’tallow the pro’s abigger edge over therecreational playersthan they alreadyhave by the nature ofthem being betterpoker players.”

POKER

R

ANALYSIS

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iGaming


iGAMINGBRIEFS

BIG BROTHER IN THENETPLAYNetPlay TV’s Super-Casino.com brand is theheadline sponsor ofCelebrity Big Brother2013, due to air until 13September 2013. Thissponsorship representsthe Group’s second majorsponsorship deal, follow-ing on from the successfulsponsorship of BigBrother 2013.

Charles Butler, CEO ofNetPlayTV, said: “Thesponsorship deal with BigBrother is alreadyshowing positive results,and illustrates the factthat TV airtime, a keyelement of our marketingstrategy of targeting newcustomers, remains highlyeffective. We are confi-dent that the sponsorshipof Celebrity Big Brotherwill continue to accelerateour customer reach andbrand awareness.”

STAKING A CLAIMA new ‘poker staking’company has launched inthe UK called Stake Me toPlay which uses the latesttechnological and strate-gic developments to helpplayers evolve into thebest they can be. Thecompany offers a guaran-teed monthly income tothe players it stakes, andoffers the greatest profitsplits in the entire stakingindustry. It caters to pokerplayers of all abilities,from beginners all the wayup to seasoned grinders.Players benefit from avibrant community andpersonal, one to oneplayer care along withtheir state of the art pokertraining facility in the UK.

WRB INPHILADELPHIA Recent key political devel-opments including twofederal bills to legaliseinternet gaming and inter-net poker, a Senatehearing calling for thetight control of internetpoker on a federal leveland the call by Represen-tative Dina Titus (D-NV) fora House hearing todiscuss federal regulation,will make the forthcomingWrB, taking place inPhiladelphia (22-23October), one of the mostanticipated and con-tentious sessions to beheld on the future of USiGaming. The two-dayevent will bring togetherkey thought leaders andpoliticians from all sidesof the US iGaming debate.Notable speakers includesupporters of both stateand federal solutions todiscuss the best wayforward in organiserClarion Gaming antici-pates will be a livelydebate.

adbrokes is hoping that itsnew partnership withPlaytech will transform thecompany’s online fortunes inmuch the same way that the

supplier did for William Hill after a dis-appointing first half.

Operating profit in Ladbrokes’ digitaldivision of £10.8m was 28 per cent downalthough it said that like for like netrevenue (excluding Betdaq) was onlymarginally lower and with a smallincrease in operating costs. Nev-ertheless the timing of thedeal with Playtech couldn’tbe more apposite.

As CEO RichardGlynn commented:“In March weannounced a newproduct and market-ing services agree-ment with Playtech,enabling us torealise fully the ben-efits of previousinvestments andbuild a more com-petitive digital offer.Once fully imple-mented, it will acceler-ate revenue growth in2014 and beyond.”

The new subsidiary,Ladbrokes Israel,began operationson 1 May andcurrentlyh a s

around 60 employees with digital mar-keting expertise. Ladbrokes expectsthis team to grow to around 100 by theend of 2013, in parallel with an ongoingrestructure in its existing operations.

Glynn added: “Allied to this we are inthe process of introducing the full suiteof Playtech’s gaming products and havealready made good progress. In the pastfew weeks, we have launched the ‘Vegas’games casino online and on mobile. Thisstrengthens our gaming offer, with an

additional 70 games whichare plugged into theIMS back office.

“Separately wehave also con-

cluded a dealwith NetE n t e r t a i n -

ment, whichexpands ourrange of games

further andre-affirms ourcommitment to

work with abroad range ofsuppliers, using

an open source plat-form.”

Casino and Gamesnet revenue of £35.7m

for the first six monthsof 2013 was 6.8 per

cent downyear on

year. With its Vegas brand now launched,the company is now focusing on improv-ing acquisition and player retention.Ladbrokes Israel is also workingtowards implementation of a more effec-tive PPC and affiliates programmes todrive acquisition and utilise Playtech’sexperience of sophisticated businessintelligence and CRM systems to‘enhance the customer journey’.

Poker net revenue fell 25 per centduring the period to £4.2m. Glynn com-mented: “Strong competition amongstpoker operators, with increasing activ-ity on recruitment of players continuesto characterise a tough marketplace.Our expected transition to Playtech’siPoker network, as part of the productand services agreement, will help usestablish a more competitive position.”

Bingo net revenue was 15.5 per centdown at £6.0m following a decline inactives. Ladbrokes is planning improve-ments to the bingo product, including anew website, in the second half of theyear using experience from Israel andPlaytech.

Glynn is also more confident ofexpansion plans now it has the weightof Playtech expertise behind thecompany. He added: “Our partnershipwith Playtech will enable us to; improveour performance in internationalmarkets where we already have a pres-ence, as well as establishing a presencein appropriate new markets moreeasily. Our approach to opportunitiesoutside of the UK will continue to beflexible, with a pragmatic approach toensure we have access to local knowl-edge and expertise.”

All Slots Casino haslaunched itsredesigned website,

providing players with a sig-nificantly enhanced gamingexperience with an intuitive,cutting-edge interface.

The new All Slots site pro-vides players with an entirelypersonalized experience,including localisation,games history, seamlesslogin and more. Other bene-fits include quick access tothe most popular games andenhanced displays withbackground graphics for amore immersive gamingexperience.

Players will be able to con-tinue sessions seamlessly

across desktop, tablet andmobile platforms and enjoya new and improved VIPprogram with a new presen-tation. There is also focus onreal time interaction, with anew Loyalty Club gauge dis-playing each player’sprogress in real-time and thecurrent top winners andjackpot total also being dis-played in real-time.

It is now even easier forplayers to make a depositand start playing one of morethan 450 games. Promo-tions, new game offerings,and onboard banking arevisible and easy to accessfrom any screen.

“We are thrilled to offer

our players an enhancedgaming experience thatreflects the best of bothtechnological and aestheticdesign,” commented DavidBrickman, All Slots’ vicepresident of player affairs.“We are constantly workingto improve what we offer ourcustomers in order to set thestandard in the field of onlinegaming.”

All Slots Casino, which ismanaged by Nexigames withits licence from the Lotteriesand Gaming Authority ofMalta, has also launched itsbiggest ever free spins offer,giving players the opportu-nity to start playing with 500free spins on one of three

popular games: TombRaider™ - Secret of theSword, Starlight Kiss or GoldFactory.

Brickman explained:“Free spins offers are alwayspopular and have been quitesuccessful in the past. Thisis the first time All SlotsCasino has offered 500 freespins, and we are confidentthat it will be a success.”

All Slots Casino’s mobile

casino games have alsobeen made free to downloadin the UK App Store. “We arethrilled to release All SlotsCasino on the App Store,”said Brickman. “The AppStore is the natural destina-tion for iOS users, and thoselooking for a quality mobilecasino are sure to find agaming experience that’ssecond to none at All SlotsCasino.”

ANALYSIS

While William Hill’sdeal with Playtechwastransformational forits onlineoperations, therelationshipbetween the twofirms was strainedat best andpunctuated bystrikes, sackingsand legal threats. Itwas no surprisethat William Hillexited thepartnership as soonas it could, leavingboth firmsconsiderableenriched, it must benoted. Ladbrokeshas now beenplaying catch up towhat was once itsmajor rival for someyears now, so it’sno surprise that thebookmakerfollowed suit whenthe opportunityarose to partnerPlaytech. Howeverit would beadvisable for bothparties to keep ontheir toes goingforward to avoidsome of theproblemsexperienced in theearlier deal.

New look for All SlotsCASINO

Ladbrokes aiming fordigital turnaroundLadbrokes has loudly trumpeted what it is expecting from its Ladbrokes Israelsubsidiary as the figures starkly show the challenge that lies ahead.

DIGITAL

RICHARD GLYNN: PLAYTECH ‘WILL ACCELERATEREVENUE GROWTH IN 2014’

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www.gtech.com

GTECH™ brings the best gaming products to players around the world through millions of hours of expertise across all segments and channels. With customer satisfaction at our heart, we provide innovative concepts that drive sustainable growth.

WWW.GTECH.COM© 2013 GTECH. All rights reserved. All trademarks and logos noted herein are trademarks owned by, or licensed to GTECH Corporation.

From interactive to land-based, we are Bringing Gaming to Life!

Bodog has signed a sponsorship deal with the Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation (RUFF)to be exclusive online gaming partner of Ruff 10 held in Shanghai, China. Bodog marketingdirector Izhar Biran commented: “It’s great to have the brand back in MMA especially inAsia. Should this work well we will look to expand our MMA portfolio once again.”

MMA return for Bodog

The Rank Group hasrevealed that its mobilerevenue for its financial

year jumped by an impres-sive 168 per cent to £13.2m.The retail and online casinoand bingo operator addedthat in the 12 months ended30 June 30 per cent of itsdigital customers in GreatBritain played its games onmobile devices comparedto 23 per cent in the previ-ous year.

The Group achieved 7 percent growth in continuingbusiness revenue; with 6 percent retail growth overshad-owed by the 16 per centgrowth in digital business.

The biggest improvement,albeit from a low base, wascasino brand Grosvenor’sdigital revenue which wasup 72 per cent in the periodto £9.8m. Despite increaseddigital marketing and soft-

ware royalty costs the oper-ating loss was reduced to£2.1m from £2.9m in theprior period. The firm saidthat a key focus is to growthe brand’s digital channelthrough product improve-ments, cross-channel col-laboration and brandawareness activities,including TV advertising.The total spend per visit fordigital customers was£28.91, up 83p on the yearbefore.

Bingo brand Mecca’srevenue increased by 1 percent to £296.2m as a 10 percent growth in digital rev-enues was offset by a weakerretail performance. Thedigital channel saw growthin customer numbers andvisits whereas the venueschannel saw a decline.

Mecca’s digital revenueof £61.3m was up by 10 per

cent as digital customernumbers continued to growas a result of increased mar-keting and customer acqui-sition activity. However,operating profit fell by 2 percent as a result of highermarketing and softwareroyalty costs. Digital spendper visit declined slightly to£12.25 as more customersmigrated to the mobile plat-

form where the variety ofgames on offer is currentlylimited and consequentlydwell time is shorter.

The disappointing venuesperformance and higherdigital software and affiliatecosts resulted in total brandprofit declining 12 per centto £44.1m.

Rank Group chief execu-tive Ian Burke said: “Despite

the tough economic envi-ronment and the competi-tive market in which weoperate the group has deliv-ered a solid set of results. Ithas been a busy 12 monthsfor Rank culminating in thesuccessful completion inMay of the acquisition of 19casinos and 3 non-tradinglicences from Gala Coral,making Rank the leading

operator of casinos in GreatBritain. We remain confi-dent in the group’s long-termprospects and see goodgrowth opportunities forour expanded casino estateand digital channels.”

An obvious point ofimprovement for Rank is inits cross selling. During theyear, only 4.6 per cent ofcustomers engaged with itsbrands both in venues andthrough digital channels.While this rate of cross-overrepresented a 0.6 percent-age point increase com-pared with 2011/12, there ishuge room for improve-ment. Cross-over betweenMecca’s venues and digitalchannels increased by 0.8percentage points to 5.8 percent; while Grosvenor’sgrew from 0.6 per cent to1.3 per cent.

The firm commented thatits online business was stillone of its three key priori-ties for the future: “Growthin digital – throughimproved cross-channelworking and capital invest-ment we will continue ourfocus on growing our digitalchannels.”

Mobile driving Rank’s revenue growthWhile it may have a toe dipped inboth retail and online gambling, it isthe latter that is providing the growthfor the Rank Group.

RESULTS

GROSVENOR’S DIGITALREVENUE WHICH WAS UP72 PER CENT

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Betting

The introduction of the 5 per cent turnover taxfor sportsbetting in Germany has seen amountswagered with Bwin.party fall by 53 per cent to

269.3m euro (£229.2m) in the first half of the year.The tax on turnover meant that short odds productsbecame unviable in Germany, effectively restrictingthe volume of product available in Bwin’s largestmarket.

However a ‘marked reduction’ in acquisition mar-keting as well as restrictions on new player registra-tions in several dotcom markets, along with theabsence of the Euro 2012 Championship, meant thatthe total amounts wagered has not fared at all well in2013, falling 34 per cent to 1.4bn euro (£1.2bn).

The drop in business volume was partially miti-gated by an increase in gross win margin to 9.2 percent from 7.2 per cent. This was driven by a struc-tural shift caused by the German tax whichprompted an increase in wagering on higher oddssingles and combination bets, as well as the with-holding of 5 per cent of winnings on bets placed byGerman customers, in lieu of the tax due.

Germany’s imposition of a turnover tax ratherthan the more common profits tax appears to be anoutlier for the industry. Chief financial officerMartin Weigold suggested that sportsbooks tend toavoid the heaviest hand of regulation when marketslook to bring in online gambling laws. He said: “Gen-erally, if you look at sports betting and how that’sbeen impacted by regulation, it seems to have faredmuch better than some of the other verticals likecasino where we’ve had to close down certainproduct offerings in particular markets like Francewhere casino is not permitted altogether; in Spainthey restricted the offering in slots which is themain component of casino; and then in poker whereyou have ring-fenced liquidity in a number of theseregulated markets that’s also proved to be problem-atic for that particular product vertical.”

Weigold added that where Bwin.party is con-cerned, its sportsbook tends to be more advancedthat the other sectors: “I think it’s fair to say inrespect of our mobile offering for sports that it ismore advanced than for some of our other verticals.But that having been said it’s not where we want itto be and we’ve got lots of exciting plans in thatrespect in the pipeline.”

Betinternet.com, thesportsbook subsidiaryof Webis Holdings plc,

has launched its updatedwebsite, which includes anew look-and-feel togetherwith an enhanced focus onlive events.

The in play offering atBetinternet continues togrow, with baseball, golf,handball and volleyball thelatest sports to be offeredwith live betting on multiplemarkets, complementing

the existing comprehensivecoverage of football, tennisand basketball. In playturnover at Betinternet isnow responsible for overtwo-thirds of sports bettingactivity on the website.

The new design alsoallows for a dynamic resiz-ing of the display to clearlyshow as many bettingevents and markets as pos-sible, depending on the cus-tomer’s screen resolution.Throughout the Betinternet

website, the central seg-ments will automaticallydivide the display into twocolumns when viewed usingthe higher screen resolu-tions which are nowbecoming more widelyused.

In addition, the mobilewebsite, available at m.bet-internet.com, has beenupdated with the newstyling to ensure consis-tency with the online offer-ing. The overall design has

also been specified toensure that the full versionof the website functionscorrectly on the populartablet devices.

Garry Knowles, manag-ing director of Webis, com-mented: “We are verypleased with the latestupdate to the Betinternetwebsite that centres thedisplay around our growingin play offering, which ourcustomers have told usthrough their betting pat-

terns is their preference. Wehave deliberately retainedthe same easy-to-use func-tionality for both navigationand bet placement that ourcustomers have becomefamiliar with - so this is anevolution that is easilyrecognised as a core Bet-internet product.”

Meanwhile Webis’ SanFrancisco-basedWatchandWager.com pari-mutuel business (formerlyEWC) has had its leased

Californian harness trackCal Expo approved by theCalifornia Horse RacingBoard (CHRB) for its nextmeeting which begins at theSacramento venue on 5October 2013. Since takingover the lease of Cal Expo inlate 2012, WatchandWa-ger.com, through its Cali-fornian-based managementagency Golden Bear LLC,has increased total wager-ing across all sources by 27per cent.

addy Power hassaid it aims to con-tinue to use itshigher turnoverper LBO to deliver

the ‘best invested shops withthe best product’ as it contin-ues to increase market sharein both the UK and Irish retailmarkets.

While the firm current rep-resents less than 3 per cent ofthe UK market, it plans to openat least 40 shops annually inthe UK in the current environ-ment and its estate stands at228 units. Few other book-makers would be followingthrough with such expansionplans.

It helps that the new addi-tions to the estate are payingtheir way. The firm said in its

interim results: “New shopopenings are generating veryattractive returns on capital.In the UK, we opened 19 newshops during the period at anaverage capital cost of£270,000, compared to annu-alised EBITDA of £132,000 pershop in the period.”

The bookmaker said thatthis allows it to get ahead ofthe competition and invest innew products in the shops,such as SSBTs, the newInspired Gaming Eclipse ter-minals, and other innovations.

It explained: “We have ledthe market for Self ServiceBetting Terminals (SSBTs),with at least one terminal pershop since July 2011 in theUK, and have more than threetimes as many terminals

installed across the UK andIreland now than at the startof 2012.

“Other shop enhance-ments are on-going in rela-tion to improved screens,new shop fit-outs and virtualbetting product, as well asopportunities we are pro-gressing to exploit our multi-channel position.”

Paddy Power said that thegrowing popularity of virtualproduct, more small stakesbetting and more football mul-tiples, means a positiveoutlook for the bookmaker’snormal expected gross winpercentage in Retail within its11 to 13 per cent range.

However it’s not been allunremittingly good: “Theperiod was challenging for

machine gaming performanceas a result of our terminaltrials, competition and weakerconsumer demand (particu-larly within London, wheremost of our shops are located).In addition, the launch stageof our new loyalty programmeresulted in increased free betcosts between gross win andnet revenue. While the marketis likely to stay competitiveand consumer spending toremain weak, we expect ourinitiatives, particularly newcabinets and the optimisationof our loyalty scheme, todeliver improved FOBT per-formance in the second half ofthe year.”

In Ireland, poor sportingresults saw operating profitsdecreased by 16 per cent to7.6m euro, however amountsstaked was up 2 per cent - thefirst six month period withlike-for-like stakes growth,and stable net revenue, since2007.

The firm added: “Activitylevels in our shops continue toincrease, with a 13 per centincrease in like-for-like betvolumes to 34m driven bymore betting on virtualproduct, increased betting onsport (including footballcoupons) and other growth inmass-market business. Sincethe first half of 2007, ourbetting slips per shop haveincreased by 23 per cent,whilst the average stake perslip has fallen by 34 per centover the same period.”

The firm has increasedmarket share consistentlyover the last five years throughoutperformance at a per shoplevel and by adding units asothers have closed shops, astrategy which currently givesit a 38 per cent market share.

Betinternet expands in play offer with relaunchRELAUNCH

MARTIN WEIGOLD:‘WE’VE GOT LOTS OF

EXCITING PLANS’

Taxing questionhalves turnoverGERMANY

ANALYSIS

While it has a good grounding in retail, three quarters of Paddy Power’s revenues derivefrom the sportsbook and it is the bookmaker’s online arm which has again driven thecompany forward. Amounts staked on the sportsbook increased by 14 per cent inconstant currency to 1.1bn euro (£937m), while active sportsbook customers were up 18per cent to 1.1m and bet volumes grew 20 per cent to 83.8m. While the average stakeper bet decreased by 5 per cent in constant currency to 13.13 euro, the average netrevenue per bet was up 9 per cent in constant currency.

PADDY POWER HAS HADAT LEAST ONE SSBT PER

SHOP SINCE JULY 2011

Paddy Power exploitingLBO advantageAs well as providing the ‘benefits of having a multi-channel offer’,Paddy Power’s LBO estate is leading the pack.

RETAIL

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[email protected]


Betting

Following a successful2013 pre-season tour toIndonesia, Vietnam and

Japan Arsenal FC hassigned up Bodog as its Offi-cial Asian Betting Partner ina three year, multi-millionpound deal.

The partnership affordsBodog rights to capitaliseon the Gunners’ Asian fanbase and popularity posttour by connecting withmillions of supporters inAsia, a region of strategicimportance to the bettingcompany. As part of thedeal, Bodog will also havethe opportunity to developmarketing initiatives andconsumer promotions,generate content withArsenal first-team playersand utilise the club’s data-base to provide fans in Asiawith tailored betting offersaround matches.

Vinai Venkatesham, headof global partnerships atArsenal, said: “Our toursgive our fans beyond theUK a great opportunity tosee the team in action, andthis Asian tour was no dif-ferent with our first-teamsquad playing in front of

hundreds of thousands ofpassionate supporters. Asour fanbase in Asia contin-ues to grow rapidly,working in partnership withcompanies like Bodog whohave long-term roots in theregion, provides a strongplatform to further engagewith Arsenal fans in Asia.”

Bodog’s marketingdirector Izhar Biran, added:“The Premier League’spopularity in Asia is welldocumented and someclubs have been quickerthan others to realise thatpotential. Arsenal has beenparticularly pro-active inthe region for a number of

years and the recent touronly serves to highlight thatpoint. The trust and loyaltyboth Arsenal and thePremier League stand formakes this the perfect part-nership to continue thephenomenal growth of theBodog brand in Asia.”

Ladbrokes has snappedup Irish betting firmChronicle Bookmakers

Limited for a considerationof 6.0m euro (£5.2m). Thelow-key announcement wasmade in the listedcompany’s interim resultsand represents the secondsizeable Irish acquisitionfor the bookmaker this year.

Ladbrokes has alreadybought the Dublin-basedBetdaq betting exchange for43m euro earlier this yearand has now acquiredBetChronicle, the on-course bookmaker mostclosely associated withBetdaq. Indeed both firmsfeatured Dermot Desmondas a major shareholder andthe Irish financier is nowslowly building a sharehold-ing in Ladbrokes. Sinceacquisition at the end ofFebruary the Betdaq busi-ness has contributed £3.9min revenue at Ladbrokes andposted a net loss of£300,000.

Revenue for the group asa whole was up 6.4 per centto £563.0m, but group oper-ating profit was down 19.8per cent to £85.7m since theturn of the year with thesame drop experienced inUK Retail, which was downto £73.2m.

Ladbrokes chief execu-tive Richard Glynn com-mented: “Retail continuesto be an integral part of thebetting experience, provid-ing sustainable and depend-able revenues. We plan tocarry on expanding ourestate, evolving our offerand improving our tradingcapabilities to provide com-pelling value for our cus-tomers and take advantageof opportunities for growth.

“Having established aposition of market leader-ship in machines, with likefor like revenue increasingby c.40 per cent in the last

three years, we alwaysplanned for a slowdown thisyear. We continue tocompete strongly in a highlycompetitive market andhave a number of initiativesin place for H2, including anew cabinet rollout startingin Q4.

“Machine performancehas however been inconsis-tent in 2013, and the marketrate of growth slower thanexpected with positivetrends towards the end ofQ1 not maintained duringQ2 which was more vari-able. Following a decline inJune, prolonged hotweather in July severelyimpacted trading. Althoughrecent weakness appears tohave been influenced by oneoff factors, the July weatherhas exacerbated the volatil-ity we were already experi-encing, making underlyingtrends difficult to identify.”

OTC amounts stakedshowed a decline of 8.4 percent (down 10.9 per cent)with Ladbrokes attributingthe fall to an increase inweather affected lost racingin Q1 and the absence of amajor international footballtournament. Amountsstaked were down 11.2 percent in Q1 and down 5.8 percent in Q2.

OTC gross win margin of17.8 per cent was up 1.6 per-centage points, driven by anincrease across all sportsproducts. Football showedthe biggest percentageincrease helped by a partic-ularly favourable run ofresults in Q1. The signifi-cant reduction in gross winfrom the Cheltenham festi-val in Q1 was largely offsetin Q2 by a strong GrandNational meeting and a pos-itive year on year perform-ance at Royal Ascot.

WEATHEREDCOMMENT 40

illiam Hill chiefexecutive RalphTopping hasbeen quitebullish on the

prospect of the introduc-tion of a point of consump-tion tax in the UK, despitethe fact that it will be a quitecostly development for thebookmaker.

Speaking at his firm’sinterim results presenta-tion, Topping said that itwould likely disrupt thecompetition more thanWilliam Hill, despite thefirm’s considerable marketshare.

He explained: “You’d behard pushed to find anyonebetter placed than WilliamHill to compete when pointof consumption tax comesin. When you’re sittingthere as a market leaderwith the most competitiveoffering and the strongest

profit margins and thebiggest marketing budget,it would be a foolhardyman, or maybe just a fool,who takes his foot off theaccelerator. There areplenty of companies, somesmall, some not so small,who are going to be hit hardby this tax. We will alwaystake a long-term view.”

William Hill’s group netrevenue for the first half ofthe year was up 20 per cent,with operating profit up 8per cent. Strong over-the-counter (OTC) gross winmargin growth has seen an11 per cent increase inretail net revenue to£463.6m. Operating profitonly dropped £2.2m to£107.6m after the addi-tional c£5m charge causedby the introduction ofMachines Games Duty.

But the outstandinggrowth has been in online

sportsbook net revenuewhere an increase of 44 percent has been drivingoverall online net revenuegrowth upwards by 18 percent and operating profitgrowth up 16 per cent.

Topping commented: Wehave continued themomentum in Online, par-ticularly in mobile Sports-book. The shift to mobilegaming is an importantdevelopment and we haveinvested significantresources in getting thebusiness fully prepared toaccelerate this importantopportunity. With almost200 per cent growth inmobile gaming net revenuein the first half, this deci-sion is clearly justified.

“While online andmobile gambling havegrown substantially, Retailhas continued to proveresilient, with net revenue

Sunny side downfor Ladbrokes

While many of us enjoyed the hotweather this summer, Ladbrokes hassaid that it ‘severely impacted trading’in its retail business.

ACQUISITION

LADBROKES EXPECTS TO OPENNET 100 SHOPS DURING 2013

Bodog becomesArsenal’s Asian partnerMARKETING

William Hill in box set foThe point of consumption tax could well createopportunities for forward thinking businesses,according to Ralph Topping.

TAXATION

BODOG WILL BE ABLE TOGENERATE CONTENT WITHARSENAL FIRST-TEAM PLAYERS

WILLIAM HILL IS AIMING FORMORE MOBILE GROWTH

W

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Ray Davies, e-Gaming Development Manager

Tel: + 44 (0)1624 682365

Email: [email protected]

www.whereyoucan.im/egaming

ISLE OF MAN.WHERE YOU CANFIND A WINNING BASE FOR YOUR E-GAMING BUSINESSThe Isle of Man is home to many of the

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Paddy Power is to beta-launch Paddy Power In-Play!, the first real money sports betting product onFacebook, before targeting a proper launch in late October. The product was developed internally inBulgaria and Dublin and is being trialled as a Facebook ‘app’ for desktop customers in the UK, whichFacebook has chosen as the initial launch market for real money gambling on its platform.

Facebook betting app in beta

Sports and financial bookmaker Spreadex has seenprofits soar by more than 25 per cent in its latestfinancial accounts filed at Companies House. Profits

before tax rose to £14.4m for the year ending 31 May 2013compared to £11.5m for the same period a year earlier.Turnover increased to £29.4m from £25.7m a year earlier.

Spreadex managing director Jonathan Hufford said:“We have continued to see encouraging levels of newaccount sign-ups which in turn has kept bet volumesclimbing to record levels. This combined with regularproduct upgrades and expanded markets featuringOptions and Bitcoin trading on the financial side of thebusiness and even more in-play football on the sportsside have kept our customer base extremely happy.”

The betting group offers sports spread betting, finan-cial spread betting, sports fixed odds betting and casinobetting from one account. Spreadex’s in-house Pulsemarket alert system has helped to increase volumes onthe financial side of the business. And the firm believessports revenues will also be boosted further in the comingyear due to BT Sport’s competition with Sky in broad-casting live Premier League football this season.

Spreadex marketing communications manager AndyMacKenzie commented: “Football bets now make up 50per cent of our total sports room bets compared to 43 percent five years ago and the number of football bets wehave taken has doubled in the past three years alone.

“BT Sport opening up Premier League football to evenmore households, combined with the ease of placingbets via mobile or tablets means we expect levels togrow even further this coming football season.”

growing, driven by bothbetting and gaming. Profitshave held up well evenwithout a major footballtournament and with thebusiness being hit by addi-tional tax. As the UKeconomy improves andconsumers generally feelmore confident, we remainconfident Retail will con-tinue to prosper.”

OTC net revenue was up5 per cent, benefitting fromfavourable football andracing results, including arecord Grand Nationalresult. This led to an unusu-ally high gross win marginof 19.7 per cent (comparedto 17.8 per cent in 2012).Such a high margininevitably lowers stakingby reducing recycling.

Gaming machine netrevenue increased by 18 percent in the first half, or +1per cent after adjusting forthe MGD effect. Gross winper machine per week wasdown £14 to £910 with theaverage number of gamingmachines increasing by 3per cent to 9,384 followingthe change to MGD at adensity of 3.92 per shop.

et for consumption tax Profits jump forspread bettingoperatorSPREAD BETTING

ANALYSIS

Ralph Topping is viewingthe planned switch inlicensing and taxation inthe UK as an opportunityrather than something tobe feared and in planningfor the new regime islooking at costs rightacross the business, notjust in the online sector. “Ithink 2015 will beinteresting,” Toppingcommented. “Whatstrategies variouscompanies form aroundtheir point of consumptiontax. I do think it’s a greatopportunity for acompany like us to growour market share. I reallydo think that’s theopportunity.” Whether thisis an indication of Toppingaccepting the point ofconsumption tax as aninevitability or asmokescreen of trueintent, given there hasbeen talk about legalchallenges from someareas of the industry, itdoes provide acounterbalance to thearguments against it.

BB108-p10-15-Betting:09/10 3/9/13 20:04 Page 3

Betting


BETTINGBRIEFS

ANNIVERSARYBLOWOUT

Intertops is celebrating its30th birthday with aUS$30,000 giveaway. 30players with the highestnet percentage wageringprofit between now and31 December will receiveattractive Free Bet prizes.The top player will receive$5,000 in free bets;second to fifth placeplayers will get $3,000each. Intertops is alsooffering 30 Stake BackBets throughout the birth-day period until the end ofthe year. Players will begiven opportunities to winback $100 in stakes whichcan then be used as FreeBets. Established in 1983,Intertops took bets byphone and post beforeaccepting the world’s firstonline bet in 1996.

RICHARDSON TAKESON INSURANCEBTwiice Limited, a UKGambling Commission-licensed sports-bettingsoftware applicationprovider, have appointede-gaming industry veteranLee Richardson as a non-executive director. With15+ years experience inthe online sports-bettingindustry at a senior level,including the Tote, Coral-Eurobet plc, Boylesportsand ONEworks, Richard-son is currently chiefexecutive of Gaming Eco-nomics, an e-gaming con-sultancy and advisorybusiness. Co-founder andCEO Julien Cunze said:“We are really happy tohave such an experiencedindividual onboard as partof the BTwiice project, tohelp the team bring ournew sports betting insur-ance initiative to themarket.”

‘EXCELLENT’FORTUNARadim Haluza, CEO andvice-chairman of theBoard of Fortuna Enter-tainment Group hashailed the firm’s ‘excellentresults’ for the first half ofthe year, which have beendemonstrated by strongdouble digit growth in allkey indicators. AmountsStaked increased year onyear by 20.4 per centto275.9m euro (£224.1m),Group EBITDA reached12.9m euro (£10.9m), anincrease of 27.4 per cent,while Group Net Profit forthe first half of the yearincreased by 34.5 per centcompared to the sameperiod of the previousyear to 7.6m euro (£6.4m).Haluza said: “We expectthe potential of the FIFAWorld Cup and the SochiWinter Olympics toaccelerate growth furthernext year.”

Spread betting firm London Capital Group had mixed news for the first half of 2013. Adjusted profitbefore tax was up 59 per cent to £3.2m but once previously announced costs of £2.9m were factoredin actual profit before tax from continuing operations was down 61 per cent to £300,000. It was alsoannounced that group finance director Siobhan Moynihan is to leave the company after three years.

Good signs for LCG

he FootballPools businessis in danger ofbeing overshad-owed by parent

firm’s Sportech’s US racingbusiness if the company’sinterim results are any indi-cation. While SportechRacing saw EBITDA jumpup 22 per cent, the Footballpools business dropped by 6per cent for the first sixmonths of the year.

Across the board revenuewas broadly stable at £57.0mwith Group EBITDAreduced to £11.8m com-pared to £12.6m for H1 2012.

Chief executive IanPenrose said: “We havedelivered a solid set ofresults and continue tomake strategic and opera-tional progress and build onour unique market position.The United States is a strate-gically important market forSportech and I am delightedthat our efforts have led to a22 per cent growth inEBITDA in our Sportech

Racing business, which nowaccounts for over 40 per centof Sportech’s operationalEBITDA.

“With several significantnew contracts in place, newproducts coming into themarket soon, a flagshipbetting and sports baropening later this year inConnecticut and full launchof Connecticut's only legalonline horseracing bettingplatform by the year end, weare pleased with themomentum in our US busi-ness for 2014 and beyond.The strong performance ofthis business and its impor-tance to the group’s futuresuccess has helped mitigatethe challenges faced in e-Gaming during the period.”

Sportech’s Football Poolsstrategy remains to improvecustomer retention rates,increase spend per headfrom our large core cus-tomer base through increas-ing the opportunities to playits core Classic Pools game,and to add new players to

the Football Pools throughtelephone-based recruit-ment to direct debit andonline.

Pools revenue for theperiod amounted to £20.0m,compared to £21.7m in 2012,generating £8.2m of EBITDA(down £500,000). Averageweekly customer spend hasincreased slightly to £2.61.As at 30 June 2013, at the sea-sonally low point in the foot-ball calendar, Sportech hada total of 350,000 FootballPools customers comparedto 394,000 at June 2012. Thefirm commented: “Impor-tantly, 71 per cent of our cus-tomers now play by directmethods, and customer lossin this channel was just16,000 (6.0 per cent) com-pared to 38,000 (12.5 percent) in prior year. We con-tinue to focus on recruit-ment and retention activitiesto reduce this customer lossfurther. Our continuedinvestment in modernisingthe Football Pools has led tofurther cost reductions with

operational overheadsreduced by £0.7m (8 percent).”

Meanwhile, the perform-ance of Sportech’s e-Gamingbusiness in 2013 has beendescribed as ‘disappointing’,with the challenges of thebrand and platform migra-tions during 2012 having hadan impact on the establishedcustomer base.

Revenue has increased by£200,000 to £2.8m but, fol-lowing a significant increasein marketing spend, EBITDAis a loss of £700,000. Theperiod focused aroundrebuilding and growing thecustomer base with theincreased marketing spend,which has led to growth inboth active players to 24,000(compared to 20,000 lastyear) and an 80 per cent jumpin first-time depositors to18,000. However the lowyield from these players com-bined with the increasedcost of acquisition of newplayers generated the firsthalf EBITDA loss.

Last month saw Betfairlaunch its new sports-book-led advertising

campaign as part of its up-weighted marketing invest-ment in the UK and Ireland.The campaign bringsBetfair’s brand promise tolife by promoting Betfair’sCash Out product and theexcitement it adds to watch-ing live sport; a productwhich lets people cash outof their singles and multi-ples bets when in a winningposition without having towait until the end of thatevent .

Created by WCRS andplanned and bought by

Arena, it will include promi-nent TV advertising as wellas a significant digital invest-ment spanning PerformMedia, The Guardian, Face-book and the Telegraph

Central to the increased

UK investment from Betfairthis year will be a new com-mercial deal with Sky Sportsand a season-long partner-ship with talkSPORT to betheir Premier League bettingpartner as well as increased

social spend across the coresocial platforms.

Betfair’s brand directorMark Ody said: “This is a flag-ship launch for Betfair at akey time in the sporting cal-endar. Betfair will continueto innovate around livesports throughout the seasonand the marketing and com-munications potentialaround this is very exciting.”

The advert marks the seachange in strategy at Betfairin which the sportsbook isnow the main focus. As chiefexecutive Breon Corcoranexplained at year end:“While the exchange contin-ues to be at the heart of our

business, the sportsbookmeans we can now presentnew customers with asimpler, more familiarproduct and offer a widerrange of promotional activ-ity than is possible on theExchange alone. This ishelping Betfair to attractmore new customers thanever before.

“The recent introductionof Cash Out on the Sports-book is the first of manyways we intend to useExchange features to offer adifferentiated customerexperience and strengthenour competitive advantage.”

ANALYSIS

With the US facing businessprogressing healthily,Sportech has been looking atits other operations. It hasbeen working to broadendistribution of the FootballPools products and is readyto launch its products onFrance-Pari’s platform early inthe 2013/14 football season.The company added: “Wehave signed an agreement tointegrate the pools productson Footballpools.com into oure-Gaming platform andtherefore benefit from theshared wallet. This will beintegrated during 2014 toenable greater cross-sellopportunities between ourFootballpools.com playersand our e-Gaming customers,whilst driving operational andcost efficiencies.” With a fullrange of e-Gaming productsfrom a single wallet, and a fullmobile offering, this largerplayer base is expected toreturn the business to aprofitable second half.

Sportech hasbeen managingthe decline ofthe FootballPools since theintroduction ofthe NationalLottery, but itcontinues toimprovecustomerretention rates.

POOLS

Betfair pushes Cash Out in new campaignMARKETING

SPORTECH DONATED THESHIRT SPONSORSHIP OF

PRESTON NORTH END TOCHARITY CARERS TRUST

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US businessputs Sportechout in front

SIOBHANMOYNIHAN

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THE NEW BETFAIR ADPROMOTING CASH OUT

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[email protected]


Politics

AGE CONCERN

The Gambling Com-mission hasreminded licensed

gambling operators oftheir responsibility toensure children andyoung people cannotgain access to age-restricted gamblingpremises and products.

This reminder comesin light of some initialresults from the Commis-sion’s latest test purchas-ing exercise. Recenttests of smaller inde-pendent betting shopoperators (and someadult gaming centres)have indicated someweaknesses in identify-ing and challengingyoung persons who enterpremises in order to playa gaming machine.

A Gambling Commis-sion spokesperson said:“These early resultsbroadly reflect the Com-mission’s concerns thatcertain sections of theindustry may not havesufficient safeguards inplace to prevent under-age gambling. The Com-mission expects to seeimprovements in resultsas its rolling programmeof test purchasing con-tinues.”

All licensed operatorsare required to put intoeffect policies and proce-dures designed toprevent underage gam-bling and to monitor theireffectiveness. The recenttests were conductedwith local authorities andpolice across Englandand Wales and havefocussed on access togaming machines byyoung people, withoutthem seeking interactionwith staff, to assess theability of operators toidentify and preventunder age gambling.

In over half of thetests, young personswere able to accesspremises and playgaming machineswithout challenge. TheCommission said that ofparticular concern isthat, in some instances,the young people werespotted or even acknowl-edged, but were still notchallenged.

The Advertising StandardsAuthority (ASA) has founditself involved with the cam-

paign against B2 Gaming Machinesas opposing sides complained aboutthe other’s advertisements. The ASAdecided not to pursue a complaintabout an ABB ad in the Racing Postin March by The Campaign for FairerGambling which challengedwhether the claim ‘backyourlocal-bookie’ was misleading, because itimplied that the campaign wasintended to support small local busi-nesses rather than large bettingshop chain. It also objected to theABB using the phrase ‘in one of theUK’s most innovative and success-ful retail sectors’ and a reference togaming machines in general ratherthan B2 games.

However the ASA chose not topursue the complaint because theredidn’t seem to be a breach of the

Advertising Code. It considered thatreaders were unlikely to interpretthe claim ‘backyourlocalbookie’ torefer independent shops only, theinnovative and successful would beviewed as opinion rather than factand that most people didn’t differ-entiate between B2 and other typesof gaming machine.

The Campaign had more successdefending three parliamentary mag-azine ads against a complaint byPhilip Davies MP, who suggestedthat the ads claims against FOBTs(ranging from them being a scourgeof the high street to containingaddictive roulette content) weremisleading.

The ASA however deemed thatDavies complaints were ill founded,particularly it seems because of theaudience the magazine attracted.One typical ASA comment said: “Weconsidered that readers of ‘TheHouse’, who were used to lobbyingtactics, would understand from therhetoric of the claim that it was theopinion of a charity that was publi-cally and openly against FOBTs andtherefore would not expect a claimwhich was presented in this way tobe supported by objective evi-dence.”

Meanwhile the debate has alsohit the small screen again with a tel-evised discussion on Newsnight lastmonth between ABB chief execu-tive Dirk Vennix and Campaignfounder Derek Webb, who confus-ingly made his criticisms of thebetting industry via a video linkfrom Las Vegas.

he Remote GamblingAssociation (RGA) haswritten to MichelBarnier, the EuropeanCommissioner responsi-

ble for internal market and serv-ices, demanding action to preventwhat it describes as anti-competi-tive reforms to Greek gambling law.The opening of the Greek onlinegambling market is under threatfrom amendments which will resultin OPAP being gifted an illegal onlinemonopoly against European Unionlaw.

In 2008, the Commission sent aReasoned Opinion to Greece settingout its view that OPAP’s offline gam-bling monopoly is not compatiblewith EU law. Furthermore, the Euro-pean Court of Justice stated in therecent Stanleybet ruling that Greecehad not provided any evidence tojustify the existence of OPAP’soffline monopoly.

RGA chief executive CliveHawkswood said: “The RGA under-stands that Greece is currentlyunder considerable pressurebecause it has to address the obliga-tions set by its creditors for the

financing of its public sector anddebts. We also appreciate thatbecause of that, the Commissionmight be minded to give Greecegreater leeway than usual.

“However, after five years theremust surely be a limit to how farGreece can unjustifiably be allowedto stretch the rules. Greece needsstability and legal certainty. We aretherefore urging CommissionerBarnier to make it clear to the Greekauthorities that he will not hesitateto bring early infringement pro-ceedings against Greece if it doesnot fulfil its obligations and, evenworse, if it creates new breaches ofEU law by awarding an online sportsbetting monopoly to OPAP insteadof creating an EU compliant gam-bling regime.”

Five years have passed since theCommission issued its ReasonedOpinion, but Greece has made nochanges to its gambling laws toaddress those concerns. In fact, farfrom making its laws compliant, it isin the process of making them evenless compliant by proposing tomake a law to extend OPAP’smonopoly to cover online gambling

as well. In doing so the RGA says the

country is ignoring the EU require-ment for such concessions to beawarded in a transparent manner.Consequently two RGA membershave already applied for the Greekonline gambling monopoly. Shouldthey not obtain a satisfactoryresponse, they will be in position tobring proceedings before the GreekCouncil of State about the legality ofOPAP’s monopoly and claim fordamages that can run to millions ofeuros.

In these circumstances, the RGAsaid that it has no alternative otherthan to call directly on Commis-sioner Barnier to directly interveneby commencing infringement pro-ceedings if the Greek Parliamentspasses the amendments to its gam-bling law which were recently noti-fied to the European Commissionand subject to a Detailed Opinion.By its actions Greece has demon-strated over a five year period a dis-regard for the views of theCommission and EU Internal Marketrules and it is wrong to allow that sit-uation to continue indefinitely.

Smallbookiesneedstricteragertests

ANALYSIS

Since 2008, OPAP’spromotion of its gamblingproducts has become evenmore aggressive, a course ofaction which wouldundermine almost any legalargument for a gamblingmonopoly in EU law. Europewill tolerate statemonopolies if the intention isto reduce opportunities andlimit gambling activity andwhere public authoritieshave strict control of theexpansion of the sector. Thisclearly isn’t happening in thecase of OPAP which haslaunched new products(such as greyhound bettingin March 2011) and hasintensified the advertising ofits gambling products byincreasing the amount ofadvertising it does in relationto Greek sports. In factOPAP is now one of theleading advertisers, if not theleading advertiser, in Greece.

Score draw for ASA complaintsLOBBYING

RGAdemandsaction onGreekreformsMichel Barnier has been urged toaddress the illegal extension ofOPAP’s gambling monopoly to theonline sector.

GREECE

MICHEL BARNIER HAS BEEN TOLD TOACT ON GREECE’S

ILLEGAL MONOPOLY

T

THE NEWSNIGHT DEBATE

BB108-p16-Politics:09/10 3/9/13 19:58 Page 1

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BOS Trade Fair

his year sees the fifth incarna-tion of the Bookmakers’ TradeFair. It is a development that

show organiser Lesley Shar-man hadn’t anticipated when she firststarted the event.

“I thought it was such a shame when theBetting Show was incorporated into ICEthat there wasn’t something more fo-cused for bookmakers outside of Lon-don,” Sharman explained. “I didn’t for oneminute think it would be still going fiveyears onwards, but I guess it means that Iwas right – there is demand for our show.”

Sharman said that the impetus for run-ning the show comes from commentsmade by the companies exhibiting inracecourse’s hall. “I get such positivefeedback from the stand holders. They allsay it’s the best ‘networking’ opportunityas it’s possible to see everyone under oneroof in a day, which doesn’t happen anymore at the big conferences. They saythey do more business because of it.”

Other reasons to like the show ac-cording to Sharman are the eveningmeal followed by the evening racing andan on-site hotel, although the popularityof the event has seen the ‘fully booked’sign go up at the racecourse’s hotel along time ago.

She added: “The show very much hasits place and those who attend really ap-preciate it. There is a soft spot for theshow, especially from those who used toattend the Betting Show when it was atthe Motorcycle Museum.”

There is an ambition for a bigger event,although Sharman is wary of altering theformula of a show that until now hasproved popular among its participants.“I’d like to get bigger, but our venue atWolverhampton racecourse would strug-gle to meet any considerable expansion.I’m loathe to move though as the peoplethere are so helpful and I doubt I wouldget such quality of service elsewhere.There are other advantages such as thefree and plentiful parking for everyoneand the evening racing on site. There maybe ways of generating more space.”

The other option would be to expandthe time that the show is open, but Shar-man is firmly against that: “I think oneday’s enough and that’s probably part ofthe appeal of the show. I’ve been asked afew times if it would run to a second day,but the second day of the old BettingShow was dire. I think just one day is somuch easier for bookmakers to attend.”

As for product diversity, Sharmanthinks there is one sector that is perhapsunder-represented in Wolverhampton:“We’ve not had any online exhibitors atthe show yet, but maybe that’s somethingthat will change in the future.”

Bookmakers Trade FairThursday 3 October10.30 – 16.30Dunstall ParkWolverhampton Racecourse

28Bristol-based Datatote is

providing the technology forthe Coral Football Jackpot

32BetConstruct is getting

Olympic Entertainment set upwith betting facilities

34TNA Impact Wrestling launched

an online slot machine gamewith Sky Vegas

36Sporting Solutions has helpeddevelop a Trading School of

Excellence

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September 2013

ORGANISER

Gimme fiveIndependent bookmakers are expected to descend onWolverhampton Racecourse next month and it’s not justfor the all weather racing.

Going to the dogsIrish greyhound racing will bestreamed on Bwin.partythanks to the Irish GreyhoundBoard and XB Net

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BB108-p18-26-Essential:Layout 1 4/9/13 12:14 Page 1

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Don’t miss SIS at this year’s BOS Bookmakers’ Trade Fair Wolverhampton racecourse, Thursday 3rd October, 10.30am - 4.30pm

For more details visit www.sis.tv or email [email protected]

How important do you think the Trade Fair is toindependent bookmakers?

The BOS Trade Fair is very important to theindependent bookmaker. The main advantage of theWolverhampton Trade Fair is that all the stands arerelevant to the independent bookmaker. It’s a compactvenue so it is possible to visit most of the importantindustry suppliers in one afternoon, which is great forthe smaller bookmaker who is under time pressure. It isalso conveniently situated with good road, rail and airlinks to both the UK and Ireland.

What’s the most important piece of technology in a LBO?The hub of the technology in the betting shop is theEPOS system. This is the primary source of informationfor shop staff and the scope, functionality and flexibilityof the system is crucial to enable betting shops tosupply the changing services which are required intoday’s betting shop. An electronic link to the shopscreen system to enable fast updating of informationwithout re-keying is also important to ensure facilities

such as in play betting can be offered.Increasingly all the technology in a betting shop is

interconnected and it is important to look at how thevarious systems from different suppliers interact ratherthan looking at each system in isolation.

What are you planning on discussing in yourpresentation?The presentation will consist of a short history of theBTC, a description of the services that we are presentlyproviding and a look ahead at the changes which weanticipate in the coming 12 months. There will also be ashort Q&A session at the end of the presentation. TheBTC was set up in 2006 and now has a good trackrecord of supporting the independent sector. There arenow over 350 shops taking services from the BTC whichrepresents a significant percentage of the independentshops remaining in the UK. We hope to have a numberof new services to announce at the Trade Fair and thepresentation will allow these to be described in detail toan audience of bookmakers.

INDEPENDENTS

EPOS the hub of the betting shopIndependent bookmaker and director of the BTC Howard Chisholm believes thatthe Bookmakers’ Trade Fair is a key event for the sector.


Essential Guide to ... BOS Trade FairBettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201320 B 2 B

“The annual trade fair is always a good opportunity to catch up with col-leagues from across the industry, and to discuss issues of concern, or share

ideas. This year, there is certainly a lot for the ABB to report back on and discuss.The most obvious issue facing the industry has been the recent consultation

about the stakes and prizes offered on all gaming machines and we look forwardto updating attendees on the latest developments.

There has been recent media speculation, which suggests that stakes andprizes on gaming machines in betting shops will remain as they are now, but, de-spite the consultation closing back in April, at the time of writing this, there hasbeen no formal announcement or decision taken.

The ABB did make a substantial submission to the consultation, setting out indetail the facts about betting shops and gaming machines and highlighting theeconomic impact on jobs and shops if stakes and prizes were to be reduced – assome anti-betting shop campaigners have been calling for – and also address-ing some of the increasingly bizarre myths claimed about betting shops.

We also ensured the voices of our eight million customers and 40,000 staffwas heard loud and clear - our Back Your Local Bookie website generated over9,000 emails to Members of Parliament and the Government, urging them toleave stakes and prizes as they are.

We also addressed head on some of those wilder claims made by anti-bettingshop campaigners in the media, whether on regional TV and radio news bul-letins, in newspaper articles or the recent debate on Newsnight.

Working closely with our members, we’re developing a new Code for Re-sponsible Gambling which will be unveiled soon and the Safe Bet Alliance (SBA)has gone from strength to strength, most recently receiving the endorsement ofthe Association of Chief Police Officers. The guidelines in the SBA are now beingrevised and we look forward to publishing an updated document by the end ofthe year.

We hope more independent betting shop operators will become ABB mem-bers too. For us at the ABB, it is not just about sending a regular newsletter andupdates, it is about the industry sticking together, fighting for our staff andspeaking with one clear voice to decision makers about issues that would affectevery single betting shop operator in the country.

It is also about providing help and support for our members. As an example,we recently helped one of our independent members to successfully challengea VAT bill from the Inland Revenue. As a result, the VAT claim was reduced by 95per cent, saving the member tens of thousands of pounds. Not bad for a £100 an-nual membership fee.

We look forward to meeting up with everyone in Wolverhampton.”

he Bookmakers’ Trade Fair is auseful communication tool forindustry regulator the Gambling

Commission, which sees theevent as an increasingly useful way to talk toa large number of smaller licensed opera-tors.

Members of the Commission’s bettingteam, including national compliance man-ager Richard Ingram, will again be on handto explain the Commission’s approach faceto face. This is particularly useful as the reg-ulator’s day to day work focuses on higherrisk issues and operators with a regional ornational impact, leaving more of the compli-ance and enforcement with smaller opera-tors to local licensing authorities.

“The BOS organised show is one of anumber of trade events the Commissioncovers each year,” explained Ingram. “Thisone is very much a chance for the existingbetting industry to get together, especiallythe independent sector. It makes sense forthe Commission to be there as we can an-swer lots of questions from small-er licensed operators in an ef-ficient way. Listening toand communicatingwith operators is es-sential to good regu-lation. In particu-lar this year wewant to ensurethat bookmakersare clear aboutthe challengewe have madeto all gamblingoperators to domore to addressconcerns aboutthe harm that gam-bling can cause.

“And I expectwe’ll continue to re-ceive questions on top-ics such as primary

gambling activity, plus hopefully the 4th EUMoney Laundering Directive proposals andthe forthcoming consultation proposalsabout updates to licence conditions andcodes of practice, including ways to helpconsumers understand how to resolve dis-putes and how customer funds should beprotected.”

He added: “Operators will also want tounderstand the position with our latestround of test purchase activity - we recentlyreminded smaller licensed operators oftheir responsibility to ensure children andyoung people cannot gain access to age-re-stricted gambling premises and products.The reminder came in the light of some ini-tial results from the latest test purchasingexercises in smaller adult gaming centresand independent bookmakers. Here someweaknesses have been found in identifyingand challenging young persons who enterpremises in order to play a gaming machine.”

Ingram said that the regulator will be pre-pared to answer any other queries as well.“You can never be too sure about what is

going to come up. We’ll have the rightpeople on hand to answer nearly all

of the questions there and thenand we will quickly follow-up

with any remaining answersas soon as we can.”

Copies of the Commis-sion’s annual report, annu-al review, gambling indus-

try statistics and otherrecent publications willbe available at the Com-mission’s stand. Anyquestions of detail not

answered immediatelywill be responded to in

full in the days after the fair.

NATIONAL COMPLIANCE MANAGERRICHARD INGRAM WILL BE

AT THE FAIR

GAMBLING COMMISSION

Efficient wayto answerquestionsThe Gambling Commission is sending several officials tothe Wolverhampton show in order to field any questions thatbookmakers require answering.

ABB

A forum toshare ideasPeter Craske, PR manager at the Association ofBritish Bookmakers, explains what the trade body hasbeen up to and why it is exhibiting at Wolverhampton.

T


Gamble responsibly - gambleaware.co.uk

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OUR TURF


nevitably, the technology usedin Licensed Betting Offices con-tinues evolving, and much is dif-

ferent from even a few years ago.Self-Service Betting Terminals (SSBT’s),larger and brighter TV screens, gaming ma-chines, customer information terminals,Racing Post touchscreen displays, virtualevents and numbers games such as Bingoare abundant, and even Bank ATM cash ma-chines are seen in some branches.

It could be asked, ‘What has notchanged?’ At least one answer, is the age-old way of displaying the shop tradingrules. In an effort to remain comprehen-sive, the rules posters have grown everlarger and the text print ever smaller. In aneffort to accommodate it, the poster hassometimes even been seen fixed on thewall above the newspaper display, whereone would need either to be 8 foot tall, orhave a step- ladder or binoculars to readthem.

However, operators should not kidthemselves; unless the display of the rulesevolves at the same pace as other changeswithin the premises, the situation can onlyget worse, to the point of sheer impractical-ity.

Unfortunately, in an effort to resolve theproblem, IBAS is aware that some opera-

tors are considering, and even starting touse, rules display methods that may not becompliant with the ‘fair and open’ require-ments of the Gambling Commission’s Li-cence Conditions and Codes of Practice(LCCP). These approaches involve the soleuse of the internet to display sections of theretail rules and retail rule changes and addi-tions.

Of course, the practice of displaying re-tail rules on the internet is a positive andprogressive initiative, but to display someretail rules exclusively online and poten-tially beyond the access of many bettingshop customers could be considered ques-tionable from a fairness perspective.

Even if the practice was acceptable tothe Commission, there must be a signifi-cant possibility that a court would considerthe application of rules which were, effec-tively, inaccessible to the customer unac-ceptable ‘hidden terms’ in the context ofthe Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

To solve this problem I have a sugges-tion, and it is one that I have informallyhawked around to many operators over re-cent years. Now is the time for considera-tion to be given to utilising the technologythat currently exists in many betting shops,to display the trading rules.

For example, a head office controlled

and edited (but sited in the public area ofthe shop) information terminal would bean ideal medium for the rules to be dis-played. Operators could update rulechanges in an instant, and customers couldaccess any and all of the rules in just a fewclicks. With no space constraints, the rulecould be as extensive and provide as manyexamples of how the rule would be appliedas were considered necessary.

Similarly, maybe cost permitting, even adesignated rules terminal could be consid-ered. Alternatively maybe an arrangementcould be arrived at with the supplierswhereby the SSBT or the Racing Posttouchscreen displays could be adapted andutilised to display the retail rules.

On the basis that the large multiples al-ready have the resources and technologi-cal capability to address the issue, perhapsthe Bookmakers Technology Consortiumcould consider whether one of the afore-mentioned ideas or a further solution yetcould be workable for the benefit of inde-pendent operators and their customers.One of the obvious upsides being that valu-able wall space would be freed up to dis-play promotional, advertising or currentracing/sports information.

There are a few important caveats to thesuggestion. It would clearly be wise to seek

the view of the Gambling Commissionand/or legal advice to ensure that any newinitiative is acceptable.

Whatever new method and initiative isintroduced for the display of rules, for thepurposes of adjudication or legal proceed-ings relating to disputes, there shouldclearly be a credible timed record of whenthe rules were displayed, added to orchanged.

Customers should be advised where therules can be read in the branch. As everybranch has one I suggest that possibly the‘No Persons Under 18’s Allowed On ThePremises’ notice could be used (i.e. appro-priate words added) to inform customershow they can view the rules inside thebranch.

Even if the suggestions above are con-sidered unworkable or too radical, I wouldstill urge operators to consider alternativesto the traditional wall poster.

Maybe, in the absence of new technolo-gy being used, the rules could be displayedon a small lectern similar to how the RacingPost is often displayed in shops. This dis-play could be in the form of loose leaf (al-beit ring bound) A4 size laminated num-bered and dated pages. Any rules or pagesthat needed updating or changing could beeasily replaced.

While Wolverhampton Racecourse is automaticallysynonymous with betting, the presence of the Book-

makers’ Trade Fair these past five years have also indeliblylinked the venue with bookmaker industry.

However it appears that other sectors of the gambling in-dustry is now recognising the appeal of the all-weathertrack with the news that Talarius, the UK’s largest operatorof Adult Gaming Centres, has signed an exciting new spon-sorship deal with the racecourse.

The deal, which will run across six race days betweenSeptember and December, marks the beginning of an ex-panded national marketing campaign to enhance brandawareness and increase its market share for Talarius’Quicksilver brand.

In addition to the six featured race days, the Quicksilver

brand will be present at the racecourse throughout the en-tire year. Talarius has 172 Quicksilver venues across the UKand to secure a constant presence at the popular andbusiest racecourse in the UK will help increase brandawareness and drive growth.

Commenting on the sponsorship, Talarius chief execu-tive Peter Harvey said: “We are thrilled to have the opportu-nity to raise the profile of our largest brand, Quicksilver, atsuch an exciting venue with high footfall and a fantastic at-mosphere. We will be beaming our Quicksilver brand intobookmakers around the country as part of the nationalsatellite TV coverage. The sponsorship will help us to in-crease our market share as we move into the next phase ofTalarius’ growth and development, and we look forward toseeing the results.”

Wolverhampton enters gaming arena

Bookmakers will now have to rub shoulders with an AGC operator at Wolverhampton Racecourse.

SPONSORSHIP

IBAS Don’t let therules slideJohn Samuels of IBAS is hoping to see a technologicaldevelopment for of one of the LBO’s oldest components atthe Trade Fair - the rules.

I


www.ingg.com [email protected]


ABet A Technology has over 20 years’ experience in providingbet management systems which are well-established as

favourites for the independent bookmaker and, the firm says, arechosen as the best priced with the lowest annual charges and thegreatest functionality.

The company’s software covers all needs for fast bet accept-ance, settling and liability management, with real time securitycontrols and alerts, all fully regulated by the Gambling Commis-sion of Great Britain.

The system is scalable for any size of business from one till orone shop upwards and can be installed and operational in a day. Itis also compatible with all major content and odds suppliers, andhas support seven days a week.

A Bet A’s bet management system is used for live racing, sportsevents, and virtual games (VEROS, VSports Games, Kiron Interac-tive, Spin Three, Keno, Spin Master and Roula Bet), with optionalcall centre and SMS text betting, website, mobile app branded to abookmaker’s business, and a full range of MarkSense coupons forfootball and other sports.

At the Bookmakers Trade Show, A Bet A will be showcasingfour additional bet management services, which are proving par-

ticularly popular for broadening sales channels. The first gives direct integration with an LBO’s EPOS and the

British Tote. Then, there is a mobile EPOS solution for all kinds oflive sporting events. This is already taking off fast at racecourses,football stadia and other major sporting event venues.

The next development is A Bet A’s direct EPOS integrationwith the newly-launched Colossus Bets as the football pool betoperator’s preferred EPOS partner. This means that bettingshop customers can place and redeem their cash bets straightthrough into Colossus bet’s guaranteed £10m correct scorefootball pool.

Finally, to address a current popular need, bookmakers canget direct EPOS integration into Betfair and Matchbet Ex-changes. The firm said that this ability is a great help for liabilitymanagement and market intelligence, helping the bookmakercompare odds in real time with those coming from the course.

A Bet A will be offering further information and live demos ofall the above at the Bookmakers Trade Show in October, as wellas discussing the firm’s latest technical partnership, supportingwww.betting.co.uk, which offers a new online trading presencefor independent bookmakers.

Anew service will be launching atWolverhampton that is intended to

help small bookmakers compete withtheir corporate brethren online. Bet-ting.co.uk will be offering UK and Irish in-dependent bookmakers the ability tohave their own online presence as theneed to service customers outside of LBOhours continues to grow.

The firm explained: “Every independ-ent betting shop which is in competitionwith a major chain bookmaker losesmoney from cash customers wheneverthey are closed. Betting.co.uk gives theindependent bookmaker the presencethey need to halt this decline. The firststep to losing a customer is for them tostart betting online with your competi-tion. Betting.co.uk provides a means toprevent this and allows the independentbookmaker the ability to offer a full onlineservice to their customers including amobile phone betting application.”

Betting.co.uk is backed up in its effortsto supply bookmakers by industry stal-warts A Bet A.

ustomer Focus is the title of oneof the new features on the SISwebsite - and the words can

also be used to sum up the last 12months for the company. SIS said that al-most everything it has done since the lastBookmakers’ Trade Fair has been gearedtowards those it serves.

The Wolverhampton gathering might bethe only time SIS gets to see all its cus-tomers in one place, but the company hasbeen in constant contact with them all atvarious times during the last year. Further-more, SIS has introduced a range of initia-tives, many prompted by client feedback,as it reacts to meet the challenges of anever-changing marketplace.

George Irvine, managing director, SISBetting, said: “Focussing on our customersis a constant for us, with our Customer Fo-rums, hosted events and site visits. But theTrade Fair does give us a moment to reflecton the previous 12 months - and then talkabout what more we can do in the next year.”

In horse racing, SIS has broadcast moreevents from overseas than ever. It deliv-ered more than 30 meetings from Dubaiduring the winter - including the world’srichest horse race, the Dubai World Cup –and followed up with extra fixtures fromLatin America and North America, allow-ing shops to have quality content well intothe evening. Additionally, SIS is now deliv-ering more racing from France, havingsigned an extended and expanded dealwith Pari Mutuel Urbain. That meant thatfor the first time all three major Europeanderbies outside of Epsom – the French,German and Irish - were available in shops.

SIS has also played a key part in grey-hound racing’s continued resurgence. Itsupported BAGS in the staging of the popu-lar Inter Track Championship and then fol-lowed up by taking over the high-profilecoverage on Sky Sports. Again, bettingshops benefitted. For the first time, retailoutlets as well as TV were able to show themost prestigious races in the sport. They in-

cluded the Greyhound Derby, which builtup to a thrilling climax at Wimbledon andsaw increased activity in shops andthrough the tills.

SIS has also put more resource into virtu-al events. Bookmakers increasingly signedup for SIS’ Virtual Betting Channel, with itsregular, reliable content, while the compa-ny has announced SIS+ Virtuals, whichcomprises up to 40 new and exclusivehorse and greyhound racing events aimedat providing an even more comprehensivebetting card.

SIS has continued to offer more serviceswhich customers can access directly andfor free. The company’s website -www.sis.tv - now carries a complete horse

and greyhound racing results and scheduleservice from the UK, Ireland and overseas,while its site for VBC customers now car-ries today’s and tomorrow’s betting mar-kets.

Finally, SIS has seen plenty of change it-self, with a reshaped commercial teamwhich focuses on UK and Irish betting shopoperators. Major account managers areTerry Mahoney, formerly with OpenBet,who has broad responsibility for the South,Nigel Boardman (North) and RachelO’Reilly (Ireland), while Helen Scott headsup an expanded Customer Services set-up.Many of SIS’ team will be on hand atWolverhampton and all with one mission -Customer Focus.

BETTING.CO.UK

Gettingbookmakersonline

A BET A

Managingthe businessThe bookmaking systems from A Bet A arecontinuing to evolve, with the firm launchingfour more services at the Trade Fair.

VIRTUAL CONTENT FROM KIRONINTERACTIVE CAN BE MANAGED

FROM THE A BET A SYSTEM

SIS

Keeping focusLBO broadcaster SIS has made customer focus its mantraand the firm is hoping to catch up with all its customers inWolverhampton.

SIS’ VBC CONTAINS SUCH VIRTUALCONTENT AS INDY CAR RACING

C


MRG Systems LimitedThe Mill, Upper Mills Estate, Bristol RoadStonehouse, GL10 2BJ

T +44 (0)1453 820840 E [email protected] +44 (0)1453 820860 W www.mrgsystems.co.uk

Contact MRG today for the latest independent screen systems.Call 01453 820 840 or email [email protected]

The start of a new era

NOW available for ALL bookmakers

BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201326 B 2 B

The shift towards new screen systems and new technologyfor independent bookmakers has continued in 2013. This

year, MRG rolled BIDS5 out to over 40 independent bookmak-ers in Ireland as well as groups trialling the system in the UK.The company advises Irish bookmakers to check out the amaz-ing service Bar One Racing (Dundalk) provides to their cus-tomers.

The firm said: “If you are a medium sized independent book-maker that owns your Albos units and wants greater oversightof the content on your screens, we want to hear from you. Wewill convert YOUR old Albos unit into a BIDS5 shop server. Thecost of the conversion kit is only £500.00 and the installationprocess is quick and simple. Make it really work for your localcustomers by regionalising the screen content. Maximise yourscreens with a premium system, supported by continual devel-opment using the latest technologies.”

Touchscreens put customers first and by their very naturethey enable customers to choose what is displayed. The CIT hasmany functions; amongst them are the display of race resultsand the additional markets not displayed on the gantry screens.

Meanwhile the DailyForm is linked to live data from the PressAssociation who provide all the form for horse racing, dogs,

football and much more. The screen iseasier to read than printed paper and is continually updatedwith non-runners, live prices and breaking news stories.

LBO audio is provided by the discreet AVS500 zoning amplifi-er. Volume, tones, balance and equalizer controls are all avail-able via the units own web page. The AVS500 amplifier adds sat-isfyingly rich tones to over one thousand betting shops acrossthe country.

MRG also believes its digital signage iscutting edge. It ex-plained: “Turn on to ultra-high brightness (1500 cd) window dis-plays to draw in the punters. These are the brightest screens foruse in any window. They are three times brighter than a domes-tic TV; perfect for windows in a sunny aspect. Broadcast yourbest deals to the world outside. Digital signage is cheaper andmore effective than posters and instantly advertises your dealsto the public at large. We have systems across the country pro-ducing fantastic results so get in touch and we will be happy toarrange a demonstration for you.”

aming machine developer In-spired Gaming Group haslaunched its new Eclipse cabi-

net with three leading book-makers: William Hill, Betfred and PaddyPower. The Eclipse cabinet comes com-plete with a new widescreen video buttonpanel, called SmartDeck, and an intuitivetouch and swipe menu, called Smart-Menu. Inspired will be rolling out over9,000 Eclipse gaming machines to WilliamHill, Betfred and Paddy Power venues.

Luke Alvarez, CEO and founder of In-spired Gaming Group, commented: “Wehave exclusive supply deals to providegaming machines, technology and gamesto three major bookmakers and a largenumber of independents. Every year weput an enormous amount of resource intoR&D for the UK LBO market – the launchof Eclipse and all its features is an excitingmilestone in our on-going innovationstrategy.”

Eclipse is a 360° product evolution. Keyfeatures include: four linear HD screens,swipe-enabled primary screen and video

button panel, the industry’s first com-bined touchscreen video buttons andphysical buttons with video screens (Op-ticV buttons), HD sound system, ambientlighting, and an ergonomically designedfootrest.

Eclipse’s SmartDeck video buttonpanel adds another touchscreen to theplayer experience and, therefore, allowsfor more game features and increasedplayer interaction. Games available withpremium SmartDeck features include:Merlin, Showtime, Luck of the Irish, 20pRoulette, Blackjack Poker Plus, andBlackjack Lucky Pairs. Inspired launchesat least one new UK game a month andgoing forward new B2 and B3 games willprovide even more entertainment withSmartDeck functionality.

Eclipse’s new SmartMenu has an intu-itive user interface and smart algorithm tomake it easy for players to find oldfavourites, while also recommending sim-ilar content they might like to try in an in-telligent and non-intrusive way. The newhomepage has been carefully designed to

suit all player types in UK bookmakers, byappealing to both slots and casino gameplayers. For experienced players, who areinterested in browsing more of the gamelibrary, there are sophisticated game cate-gory pages with a second tier navigationand filters to find games with specificqualities.

Eclipse also accommodates physicalloyalty cards and Inspired’s Core VIP mar-keting and rewards ecosystem. WilliamHill and Paddy Power have card basedloyalty systems powered by Inspired’sCore VIP software and their player re-wards will include exclusive SmartDeckgame features.

US racing is about to hit the Turf TVschedules this month. With coverage

starting at around 5.30pm around the Au-tumn to Spring period, it is an ideal comple-ment to the UK schedule which is lighter dur-ing this time. It will also sit neatly around twi-light fixtures running at Kempton Park. TurfTV will be featuring around 15 races eachevening Wednesday to Sunday along withvirtual racing.

The broadcaster’s Steve Walsh com-mented: “Our aim is to present US racing in avery similar manner to that of our UK racing.This will involve using our own graphics (asthe feeds from the US will mostly be clean)and providing supporting editorial content.We will also supply a fixed odds data servicewhich will include uncoupling runners,which is one of the quirks of the US racingthat US punters find confusing. Colour race-cards will be in the Betting Shop Display tocomplete the package.”

Customers taking Turf TV’s US racingcoverage in their retail estate will also beable to stream coverage from our US trackson their websites. This provides a cross plat-form revenue opportunity for Turf TV’s cus-tomers, although they have to be able tooffer betting into the host track’s pool whichrequires a technical integration.

Walsh added that the LBO channel willalso be featuring a host of other content: “Inaddition to racing from the like of GulfstreamPark and Laurel Park we can look forward toChampions Day at Ascot in October whichhas already established itself as a highlightof the annual schedule, and of course wethen move onto the jumps season with Chel-tenham, Kempton, Sandown and Wetherbyall featuring major meetings through untilthe end of the year. We are also making sig-nificant changes to our virtual schedulesand the combined changes and additionsshould be useful to our customers.”

Turf TV is also still running its ‘soft start’promotion for independents, providing cus-tomers with a half price offer for the first yearof a betting shop’s operation. The broad-caster explained that this gives provides abenefit to an expanding bookmaker whosebusiness is at most risk of experiencingcashflow problems in the first year.

US RACING IS AVAILABLE ON TURF TV

TURF TV

Racing aheadwith the US

Turf TV is offering itscustomers US racing forthose winter evenings withoutmany racing events.

INSPIRED GAMING

New Eclipse takesa Smart approachInspired Gaming’s new Eclipse gaming machine has a wholehost of new features designed to make games more playable.

MRG SYSTEMS

MRG is showcasing a series of technical innovationsthat help bookmakers run their betting shops.

Essential Guide to ... BOS Trade Fair

THE NEW ECLIPSE

Technically speaking

G

MRG’SDAILYFORM


RetailBettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201328 B 2 B

“ ”CONTENT

ow do you think LBO customerswill take to US racing?We expect that they will pick it

up very well, last year we gotcontacted by many UK bookies for Gulf-stream Park, it seems everybody in the UKwants it. It’s the best winter track in the US,no cancellations due to bad weather, as it'slocated in Florida. Nice view, a lot of train-ers move their horses from NY down toFlordia in winter. It fits well from a timingpoint of view, early UK evening. It’s a goodcomplimentary product as US races will beshown when there is no UK races. It will putTurf TV also in stronger position in the UK.

What are the main differences compared tothe British product?One main difference is that horses from thesame owner in one race are treated as cou-pled horses which means they have thesame betting number and therefore thesame odds. For our Turf TV venture we willde-couple these horses and each can be betseparately. In the US only tote betting is al-lowed. To approach the betting habits inthe UK, we will offer fixed odds for all theraces which will be offered on Turf TV nextto tote betting. There are no jump races,

only flat and the race distance is between5F and 1.5 miles. The field size is 7 to 9 hors-es. Also with our main winter track Gulf-stream Park we do not face race cancella-tions due to bad winter weather as thetrack is located in Florida.

Do you think there will need to be some edu-cating of customers about the intricacies ofthe US product?Yes and no. it’s still horse racing, but weneed to make sure that punters get familiarwith the details of the product which willhelp to drive revenue. We need to teachthem about the sport, meaning jockeys,trainers, horses. This will be done throughthe Turf TV show which will be of higheststandard with talking heads, and coopera-

tion with the PA and Racing Post. To accom-modate the betting habits in the UK, we willde-couple any coupled horses.

Can bookmakers offer US racing outside ofoffice hours?The Turf TV show will take place fromWednesday to Sunday, whereby approxi-mately 15 races from two different trackswill be shown in the time between 5:30pmtill 10:00pm. To expose our content alsooutside office hours bookmakers can addit to their websites, which means punterscan bet till 5am in the morning. We haveabout 150 thoroughbred, harness andgreyhound tracks from the US under con-tract. We can provide a vast betting offeron 364 days per year.

contentB2B

Retail

signage systemsB2B

Retail

[email protected]

The Bookmakers’ Trade Fair 2013

October 3 2013 at Wolverhampton Racecourse

organised by

BOSmagazine

www.spielog2.com

[email protected]

exhibitions

epos

B2BRetail

B2BRetail

making sense of the gaming industry

publicationsB2B

Retail

B2B Retail Listings

A goodcomplimentaryproduct

René Schneider, VP ofbusiness development XBNET, discusses his firm’sdeal with Turf TV which willsee US racing in UK LBOs.

Ferry good dealSBTech has entered the US market byproviding the Genting Group with acomplete turnkey sports betting solution for its new project,Bimini Superfast Ferry, a 32,000 ton cruise ship that will sail be-tween Miami and Resorts World Bimini in the Bahamas.SBTech is to provide self-service betting terminals, a customerservice agent manned cashier solution and its HTML5 tabletand smartphone compatible mobile betting platform.

H

BB108-p28-31-b2bRetail:Layout 1 3/9/13 20:33 Page 1

BROADCAST


POOL BETTING

Datatote helps Coral getin the pool

Bristol-based Datatote is to provideCoralwith the technology and sup-

port for its new, ground-breaking CoralFootball Jackpot pool bet. The Datatote Se-ries7 pools engine allows Coral the flexibil-ity to offer a range of pool bets includingthe Football Jackpot, the first football poolbet ever launched by a high street book-maker. Datatote has developed an in-shopterminal application including an interfaceusing Chatsworth scanners and a live linkinto Coral’s online and mobile platforms.Simon Clare, PR director for Coral, said:

“We have beenvery impressedwith Datatotethroughout thebuild of this pio-neering technolo-gy. The core tech-nology is fast andflexible and theDatatote teamhave worked veryclosely with Coraldevelopment teamto get this bet liveon time.”

SYSTEM

Turkish delight for Arland

Betting software platform Bookmak-er5, developed by Austrian developer

Arland, has extended its internationalreach by launching a Turkish language ver-sion. Intended for global use from incep-tion, Bookmaker5 allows sportsbettingoperators to offer customers any given lan-guage and currency. Previously cashierscould only choose between German, Eng-lish and Russian, but that has changed withthe new Bookmaker5 shop software re-lease which offers Turkish as a languageoption. The firm explained: “Motivatedcashiers are as important to a sports bet-ting operator as an extensive betting offerand competitive odds. With the Turkishlanguage version, Bookmaker5 can beused even more intuitively and effectivelyby a lot of those employees.”

BOOKMAKER5 IS NOW AVAILABLE IN TURKISH

www.betradar.com

T Sporthas announced that allthree BT Sport channels will beavailable in all of Betfred’s 1,370

bookmakers across the UK. Bet-fred is BT’s first big commercial contract inthe gaming sector and means that all of theBetfred shops will have access to BT Sport,comprising BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2 andESPN, for the next three years.

BT Sport will be delivered as part of thebookmakers own Betfred TV service. Bet-fred customers will be able to watch and betin play on a huge range of events includingone of the most comprehensive line ups oflive football available. This includes cover-age of 38 games from the Barclays PremierLeague, with 18 of the ‘top pick’ games.

Bruce Cuthbert, director of commercialcustomers, BT Sport, said: “We are delight-ed to announce our first major contract inthe gaming space. It is fantastic that Betfredhas signed up to put BT Sport in all of itsbookmakers. As the largest independentbookmaker in the UK, we could not have

hoped for a bigger name as an early cus-tomer.

“We are already seeing fantastic levels ofinterest and sign ups in BT Sport acrosspubs, clubs and hotels, as hard-pressedowners who have been priced out of themarket by Sky in recent years look to offertheir customers some really top class sportat an affordable price.”

Betfred managing director John Had-dock commented: “We are delighted tohave secured a deal with BT Sport and weare looking forward to showing some topquality action in all our 1370 shops nation-wide. As well as showing the live sport wewill continue to have the best offers on thehigh street including special boosts for ourin play betting.”

BT Sport is an exciting new propositionwhich is available to all commercial premis-es including offices, golf clubs, sportingclubs, bookmakers and Corca registeredclubs with prices starting from as little as£75 per month.

Betfred takeson BT Sport DAVID JAMES AND FRED DONE

LAUNCH THE NEW DEAL

B


RetailBettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201330 B 2 B

BROADCAST

Irish deal for At TheRaces

SISand At The Raceshave agreed anew media rights deal with Horse

Racing Irelandand the Association ofIrish Racecourses that will cover the pe-riod from January 2014 to December 2016.Under the terms of the new three-yearagreement, ATR will have exclusive, cross-platform, non-LBO media rights worldwideto all fixtures from Ireland’s 26 courses. Itsproduction partner, SIS, retains all domes-tic and international betting-shop rightsunder the terms of its current contract withHRI and further cements the company’s

long-standing relationship with Irish rac-ing. George Irvine, managing director, SISBetting, said: “We are delighted that HRIand the Association of Irish Racecourseshave recognised SIS and ATR as the rightnon-terrestrial partners to televise Irishracing.”

SOCIALRESPONSIBILITY

ABB working on Code

Following extensive stakeholder con-sultation over the past several months,

the Association of British Bookmak-ers (ABB) is developing a new Code forPlayer Protection and Responsible Gam-bling which aims to build on current bestpractice and create a step change in re-sponsible gambling thinking basedaround informed choice by adult cus-tomers. It will focus on three key themes:Making player information on gamblingresponsibly more accessible; providingself-help tools to players to help themmanage their gambling behaviour; and im-proving the level of staff training.

Stakeholder and cross-industry discus-sions on the best way forward for respon-sible gambling will continue in the monthsahead.

NOTE VALIDATION

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BETTING INDUSTRYFOR OVER 16 YEARS

Bet slip dispensers

Light boxes-wall and freestanding

External ashtrays

Magnetic wall boards

Swivelling Tower with Poster

Frames

Pelmet Lights

Upstands

Floor bins with or without logo

Paper Racks

Pen dispensers

Leaner legs

Coupon Dispensers

Poster Frames

Racing Post Holders

Machine Tables

Bandit Screen Posts

Window Display Legs

Stainless Steel Handrail Systems

TV Gantry Systems

LCD TV Brackets

Plasma TV Brackets

Photographs courtesy of Coral Racing & Chisholm Bookmakers

ollowing recent successes in theLBO sector over the past 12months, Innovative Technology

sales director Tony Morrison be-lieves the firm’s constant development hashelped it become a key piece of equipmentin the betting shop environment.

Morrison explained: “Innovative Technol-ogy, now in its 21st year, is one of the world’sleading manufacturers of cash handlingequipment. Although we are based in theNorth West of England, ITL (as we are knownto our friends) is recognised a global manu-facturer of ‘State of the Art’ bank note val-idators and recyclers. We pride ourselves onusing the latest cutting edge technology andinnovations - living up to our name.

“Through constant development ourproducts can boast field proven, 99 per centplus acceptance rates, and it is features likethis that have made the NV200 a flagshiphigh volume note validator.

“The last twelve months has seen theNV200 emerge onto the betting industryscene. A high volume, high security note val-idator the NV200 is ideal for the LBO market,boasting exceptional note handling, thehighest fraud detection rates and the abilityto take more cash. This year has seen theNV200 emerge into the LBO community in abig way, having been installed into a signifi-cant number of FOBT machines for its ex-ceptional note reliability and performance.”

Morrison added: “At ITL we pride our-selves on innovation and will not rest on ourlaurels. We are already developing groundbreaking products that will shape the cashhandling solutions of the future for the LBOindustry and the wider gaming community.”

SECURITY

Make the grade

Securikey’s new Euro Grade 0 highquality cash safe offers an aesthetically

pleasing yet robust security option forsmall businesses. The Euro Grade 0 is theentry level option in the Euro Grade rangeand is available in six sizes. Solid steelsquare lockingbolts are situat-ed on threesides of thedoor, ensuringthe safe re-mains securelyclosed when itneeds to, andextra protec-tion is providedwith continuous hingeprotection and a fire resistant door seal.Every single Euro Grade safe is certified tomeet European Security standard EN1143-1 after being subjected to stringent inde-pendent testing, proving that the range iswell suited for use within a diverse range ofenvironments

CORPORATE

Merger on the cards

Market maker and odds provider Bet-ting Promotion Sweden AB has

entered into negotiations over a mergerwith online gaming software company TainAB. In a statement the firms said that themerger would be an important step in bothcompanies’ strategy to strengthen their po-sition in the digital gaming industry. Itadded: “Negotiations are at an initial stageand are expected to be completed in Octo-ber 2013. A final decision on the merger willbe taken at an extraordinary General Meet-ing in Betting Promotion Sweden AB.”

CONTENT

Riders on to BT Sport

BT Sporthas signed up leading BritishMotoGP riders, Cal Crutchlow,

Bradley Smith and Scott Redding as BTAmbassadors. BT Sport has a five-year dealwith Dorna Sports for exclusive rights totelevise Motorcycle racing’s premier con-

test, the FIM MotoGP World Champi-onship, starting from the 2014 sea-son, which opens in Qatar. The trio,

Isle of Man-based Crutchlow, Ox-fordshire’s Smith, and Glouces-tershire-born Redding, will fea-ture in BT Sport programmes andmarketing. Crutchlow said: “It’sexciting to be involved with BTSport and I am looking forward tocontributing to the programmesnext season. I hope that I canbring some real insight from arider’s point of view.”

CAL CRUTCHLOW

NV200‘ideal’for LBOmarketF


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Scoreradar has launched itsnew and comprehensive prod-uct brochure. The 32 pagebooklet provides a completeoverview of Scoreradar as acompanyand its con-tinually ex-pandingproductportfolio forall types ofsports mediabusinesses.

Mobile partnershipProduct showcase

Fantasy sports betting gameTotelFootball has upgraded itsproduct following user feedbackand added a £100,000 jackpot.Business development directorKeith McDonnell explained:“We’re continu-ally looking toevolve and im-prove our prod-uct and thebest people tohelp us do thatare the players.”

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SportsbookBettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201332 B 2 B

SBTech is providing Scandina-vian-facing ComeOn with a brandnew mobilebetting plat-form, with auser-friendlyHTML5based inter-face that of-fers a varietyof bet typeson over 8,000monthly live sporting events fromaround the world.

lympic Entertainment Grouphasbecome the latest company tochoose BetConstructas its

sports betting partner. The deal willsee BetConstruct provide all the technologynecessary to launch the sports betting andsports bar network under the OlyBet brand,which is a new brand for its online and bettingshops service.

The betting services successfully launchedin early August and included a network ofsports bars in Estonia and Latvia, whilst the

OlyBet brand will also cover and support pre-match and live betting on hundreds of sportsevents across the world.

Madis Jääger, CEO of Olympic Entertain-ment Group, commented: “All Sports bettingservices will now be provided through Oly-Bet’s online environment as well as in sportsbars in Latvia and betting shops in Estoniafrom August. They will replace the existingseventeen casino lounges including ten in Es-tonia and seven in Latvia. We would like tothank the BetConstruct team for its bespokeservice and quick turn-around of its Sports-book solution and look forward to working to-gether on future opportunities.”

BetConstruct can provide start-up technol-ogy for retail, online and mobile e-betting andthe company can have a turnkey solution upand running both for land-based shops andonline in as little as two weeks.

This sports betting solution provider covers

all main sporting events and provides its cus-tomers with more than 12000 live matches permonth, including live scores and statistics,and internet broadcasts of up to 28,000 livematches per year, and these are compatible toa number of devices that includes mobile andtablet applications.

BetConstruct also offers its customers apowerful back-end solution including con-tent, marketing and risk management toolsthat are attractive to small and medium bet-ting companies across the world including Eu-rope, Russia, Central and South Eastern Asiaand Africa. This is supported by a team of over500 specialists with over ten years of gamingexperience and specialist knowledge.

The company also runs a profit share modelwhich means its revenue is generated fromboth online and offline opportunities and thereare no fixed or hidden fees which is attractiveto the customer.

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PLATFORM

Olympic win for BetConstruct Olympic Entertainmenthas taken advantage ofBetConstruct’s ability toprovide betting facilities bothonline and offline.

O

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RISK MANAGEMENT

£7m cover for Dedsert

Promotional risk management companyPIMS-SCA is providing Irish operator

Dedsertwith prize insurance for a guaran-teed £7m jackpot on its Novaball game,which is based on the twice weekly IrishNational Lotterydraws. PIMS-SCA posi-tions itself as a company’s ‘Silent Partner’,by minimising the financial risk attributedto larger scale promotions and jackpots.PIMS-SCA provides prize coverage forboth weekly NovaBall jackpots meaningthe amounts offered are consistently big-ger than the UK or Irish National Lotteryjackpots. CEO of PIMS-SCA Mark Kimbersaid: “We really pride ourselves in beingable to provide lotteries with higher jack-pot offerings through secure risk manage-ment. This partnership means Dedsert willbe able to entice more customers to theirproduct each week.”NOVABALL IS BASED ON THE IRISH NATIONALLOTTERY DRAW

PLATFORM

BetTech to ready Kruger

BetTech Gaming, has agreed a deal tosupply its flagship BetTech Sports

product to Krugerbets.com, the sports bet-ting site operated by South Africa’s KrugerRacing. BetTech has provided a total re-fresh of Krugerbets.com, significantly im-proving its functionality and adding an op-timised mobile betting experience.

Krugerbets general manager CraigSwan said: “When we decided to re-launchKrugerbets.com, BetTech was the stand-out choice of partner. Integration wasquick and painless, we were able to cus-tomise the product at every step of theway, and are delighted with the results.Service to our customers is of paramountimportance and we strive to allow them tomake transactions using our online site,seamlessly and effortlessly through acombination of our helpful staff as well asBetTech’s user friendly web and mobileplatform.”


[email protected]

win.party is to offer its cus-tomers streamed coverage ofIrish greyhound racing in a deal

which has seen the Irish Grey-hound Board (IGB) selectXB Netas an inter-national distribution partner.

XB Net already works with more than 100of the premier thoroughbred and harnessracetracks in North America, and distrib-utes to online and retail bookmakers aroundthe world. After signing up with the IGB, itannounced that it will provide Irish grey-hound racing to Bwin in the coming months.

René Schneider, XB Net’s vice presidentof business development, said: “It is a privi-lege to work with the Irish Greyhound Board,and we’re very excited about working to-gether to grow their product internationally.Their product is one of the world’s premiergreyhound signals, and we’re very confidentthat its prestige and quality will make it anattractive product offering for wageringproviders around the world.”

CEO for the Irish Greyhound Board AdrianNeilan added: “We are delighted to havebeen able to form this marvelous partner-ship with the global XB Net organisation forour greyhound industry. XB Net have a fan-tastic worldwide reach opening large scaleaccess in the sports betting sector and weare really looking forward to start showcas-ing our world leading Irish racing productthrough the well-known gaming companyBwin and other European XB Net cus-tomers. This agreement is a fantastic boostto our greyhound racing brand and is testi-mony to the big investment and work carriedout on our integrity systems which ensurethat our racing will work for any target mar-kets worldwide and will in turn boost ourearnings and Tote pools.”

The IGB has licensed 17 tracks in the Re-public of Ireland of which nine are ownedand operated by private enterprise and theindustry itself employs over 10,000 peoplethroughout the country.

CONTENT

Bwin to take Irish greyhound racing

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SHFL entertainment, Inc hassigned an agreement with NYXInteractive to have SHFL’s onlinegaming products, such as Ulti-mate Texas Hold’em andCasino War, integrated ontoNYX’s Open Gaming System(OGS) for real-money gaming inregulated online markets.

That’s MagicSHFL through OGSRealistic Games commercialdirector Andy Harris said hewas ‘confident’ the firm’s be-spoke iPhone Blackjack andRoulette Apps will ‘deliver greatbenefit to Ladbrokes and ourother cus-tomers by al-lowing them totap into the vastnumber of play-ers who’ll lovethe accessibilityand quality onoffer’.

Card app

Gold Strike, the five-reel slotsgame from Games Warehouse,is now live and performing on theSky Vegas online gaming plat-form. Following extensive devel-opment and testing, this debutgame was launched in July andwill soon also be released onSky’s mobile platform.

Sky strikes gold

iGamingPlayerscan lookforwardto an en-chantinggamingexperi-ence when playing Net Enter-tainment’s latest online videoslot Magic Portals. The game is a5-reel, 3-row, 25-line video slotfeaturing two Magic Portals thatcan transform matching symbolsinto Wilds and activate FreeSpins.

BettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201334 B 2 B

rima Networks Limited, pow-ered by Microgaming, hassigned a deal with Italian oper-

ator Cogetech to supply an on-line casino offering across both the Flashand download platform. Over 30 Mi-crogaming slot titles are now live on Co-getech’s online gaming platform iZiplay,including blockbuster games Thunder-struck II and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.These games are available to iZiPlay play-ers through ‘Casino Pacific’, a dedicatedchannel offering Microgaming-only con-tent.

Fabio Schiavolin, CEO at Cogetech,commented: “Through this agreementwith Prima Networks Limited, we are ableto add Microgaming’s internationallyrecognised slots to our online casino. Weare incredibly excited to launch CasinoPacific; we believe it will be hugely popu-lar, not only to our existing player base but

to new prospects also.”Loraine Schoevers, director of Prima

Networks Limited, added: “We are de-lighted that Cogetech chose Prima Net-works Limited, powered by Microgaming,to augment their online game offering.Our slots are favourites among onlineplayers and will form the perfect additionto iZiplay.”

Meanwhile OlyBet, previously Olympic-Online, has gone live on the MPN follow-ing an extensive rebrand which has alsoseen the firm offer Microgaming’s casinogames, through an agreement with Quick-fire, powered by Microgaming.

“We are delighted that the Olympic En-tertainment Group has chosen Microgam-ing as its sole poker provider,” says LydiaMelton, head of network games at Mi-crogaming. “The newly rebranded OlyBetwill find a welcome home on the MPN.”

Kaido Ulejev, head of OlyBet, com-

mented: “We have chosen to launch Oly-Bet as an open platform, in order to part-ner with a variety of different gamingproviders to entertain our clients. Mi-crogaming is a well-known softwareprovider, particularly in the markets thatwe operate in, and therefore was an obvi-ous choice to partner with.

“We were impressed with the MPN’sprogressive nature and its continual in-vestment to develop its poker offering.Similarly, the reputation that Quickfire hasbuilt in delivering market-leading gamingcontent through a seamless integrationprocess made the decision to go live withQuickfire a simple one.”

Quickfire has also signed up new oper-ator PlayFortuna. Through Quickfire,PlayFortuna has access to over 400 onlinegames, and is now live with playerfavourites, Avalon, Immortal Romanceand Thunderstruck as well as the popular

progressive jackpot slots. Andrew Zinger, Head of PR at PlayFor-

tuna, commented: “We chose Quickfire asit is a well-known and reputable gamingcontent provider. We were impressed withthe vast number of games available, themonthly release of new content and theplatform’s simple integration process.”

Meanwhile, Microgaming has addedthree more HTML5 mobile games to itscollection this August; Break da Bank, BigTop and Lion’s Pride are live with Mi-crogaming operators.

Neill Whyte, head of product channelsat Microgaming, explained: “We are re-leasing new mobile games on a monthlybasis; this highlights our commitment toproduce the most comprehensive mobilegaming solution for our operators. We willcontinue to develop our suite of HTML5games to ensure we retain our competi-tive edge in the marketplace.”

SLOTS

Three newoperatorstake onMicrogaminggames

Using the Prima Networksand Quickfire routes,Microgaming will be seeingits games played by evenmore customers.

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SLOTSPLATFORM

NYX for CasinoRoom

CasinoRoom.com has launched NYXOGSand the mobile offering, Move

powered by NYX OGS. David Flynn, CEO ofNYX Interactive, said: “Casino Room haverecently made some excellent changes totheir site and we are delighted that the con-tent delivered via NYX OGS has been a partof this change.”

Magnus Lindberg, Nordic director ofCasino Room, commented: “I am excitedabout our new collaboration with NYX In-

teractive. The innova-tive games of NYX are aperfect fit for the newimproved Casino Roomwith our strong focuson Missions, Friends,Rewards and mobilegaming.”DAVID FLYNN

LICENSING

New Jersey go-ahead forGeo

GeoComply, the Geolocation special-ist for the iGaming market, has be-

come the first Internet Ancillary Servicesprovider to successfully file its applicationwith the New Jersey Division of Gam-ing Enforcement. GeoComply USA’sCEO Anna Sainsbury commented: “NewJersey is an important market for us andour customers and the fact that GeoCom-ply was the first Internet Ancillary entity tosuccessfully submit for licensing is an indi-cation of our commitment to being readyfor the market-opening in November.”

LIVE CASINO

Defining difference

EntwineTechhas introduced of state ofthe art high definition cameras on all of

its Live Dealer tables. These cameras areintended to bring industry beating levels ofclarity and sharpness to games. The firmhas also added an additional Baccarat tableand announced plans to introduce a further14 Baccarat Tables by the end of the year,bringing the total up to 25 gaming tables ofall games. Spokesperson Ian Dunning com-mented: “This announcement is great newsfor Baccarat players everywhere, En-twineTech’s continuous drive for improve-

ment and deliveryof high standards ofcustomer satisfac-tion is one of themain reason theyare the world lead-ers in this field.”ENTWINETECH ISADDING MOREBACCARAT TABLES

SLOTS

Rush to mobile

Net Entertainmenthas launched itslatest mobile video slot, Reel Rush

Touch. Players have the opportunity ofwinning up to 5 re-spins, with each re-spinchanging the shape of the reels. Duringeach re-spin, two new positions on thereels open in a puff of clouds, revealing twosymbols that can help create winning com-binations after the reels stop spinning.Simon Hammon, chief product officer ofNet Entertainment, commented: “Develop-

ing ReelRushTouch formobilewas thelogicalmove after

the positive response we have had fromplayers enjoying the video slot. The mobilesector continues to grow at a fast pace andNet Entertainment meets the high demandby continuously growing our innovativemobile portfolio.”

Hot new slot

Realistic Gameshas revealed its lat-est three reel slot game - Hot Cross

Bunnies. The x300 jackpot game with a sin-gle win line features a host of traditional ar-cade elements, such as nudges with autonudge and a rewind feature. Commercialdirector Andy Harris said: “The features,striking graphics and crazy sounds willmake Hot Cross Bunnies a sure favouritewith slots fans, whatever device they choseto play it on. There’s also plenty in it for op-erators who can now offer proper arcadestyle features to customers, taking themdown memory lane and pointing to the fu-ture of slots at the same time.”

EveryMatrix addsiSoftBet games

iSoftBet’s range of pioneering slot ma-chines is to be integrated onto the Every-

Matrixplatform. iSoftBet will be integrat-ing their extensive range of state-of-the-artslot machines created in flash and opti-mised for mobile and tablet users to theirgrowing repertoire of games software.iSoftBet commercial director Nir Elbazsaid: “iSoftBet are extremely excited aboutthis integration with EveryMatrix. We hope

that their skills and expertise will help tobring iSoftBet content to new markets.”

EveryMatrix CEO Ebbe Groes added:“The agreement signed between the twocompanies marks a significant step in theexpansion of the EveryMatrix Casino En-gine platform while increasing iSoftBet’sindustry exposure.”



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I N T E R A C T I V EBINGO CASINO LOTTERY PLATFORM

Phone: +46 (0)8 586 121 00Email: [email protected]

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NA Impact Wrestling has be-come the first ever profes-sional wrestling organisation

to launch an online slot ma-chine game. The game features ‘The Icon’Sting, Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle,TNA Knockouts Champion Mickie James,Bobby Roode and Velvet Sky.

The partnership with MX Digital andSky Vegas marks an innovative addition toTNA’s ever-expanding roster of partnersand licensees. TNA President Dixie Cartersaid: “I’m thrilled to continue expandingTNA’s brand reach in the UK and Irelandwith this, first ever online slot game.”

TNA spokesperson Simon Rothsteinexplained: “We are promoting to ourwrestling fan base in three main ways: 1)Via Facebook (targeted posts to over 18sonly). 2) Via messages during our pro-gramming on Challenge TV (which goesout after 9pm). 3) The wrestling media arewriting about the game.

“Relatively, the UK is actually TNA’sstrongest market - even more so than theUS. We are the No 1 rated show on Chal-lenge TV and have a sell-out Tour eachJanuary including Wembley Arena. We’vebeen looking at lots of ways to grow ourbrand over here, including action figures,calendars, annuals, posters etc - so somesort of gaming project was the logicalnext step.”

He added: “MX conceived of doing thegame and approached first us and thenSky. It seemed a perfect fit what with Sky’sentertainment brand and ownership ofChallenge TV, along with their rapidgrowth in the gaming space so wassigned off quickly.”

Ike McFadden, director of business de-velopment for MX Digital, concurred: “Be-cause TNA Impact Wrestling airs on Chal-lenge, part of British Sky Broadcasting, itwas a natural fit to launch the game withSky Vegas. They understand the brandand had the experience to support a greatcross-media promotions strategy.”

T

Sky Vegasgets TNAWrestlingslot

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Office move

Igaming software developerWirex has signed a deal withWeswit to use its Lightstreamerreal-time data streaming tech-nology. Wirex has deployedLightstreamer for its successfulonline integration with Por-tomaso, the famous Malteseland-based casino.

Close to Wirex

Independent payment group Se-cureTrading is boosting opera-tor cashflow with the launch ofSTPayMe, which allows gamingmerchants to send e-invoicescontaining a secure link to cus-tomers, simplifying the processof requesting payment.

e-invoice for cash

Back officeBettingBusinessInteractive • SEPTEMBER 201336 B 2 B

The Rome office of Italian law firmPortolano Cavallo StudioLegale has moved. They are nowsited at 155 Via Rasella, Rome00187. Telephone numbers forthe company remain unchanged.

alford Business School is work-ing withSporting Solutions, thebusiness-to-business sports

betting software and data servic-es division of the Sporting Index Group, todevelop the next generation of trading ex-perts in the betting industry through aunique training programme.

The ground-breaking partnership will in-volve the development of a new TradingSchool of Excellence (TSE), a first in the bet-ting industry, which will harness the Busi-ness School’s global reputation in sports an-alytics and statistics to enhance the profes-sional development of Sporting Solutionstraders.

The course, which will launch in Septem-

ber 2013, will be hosted by the Centre forSports Business within Salford BusinessSchool. It will give key trading staff at Sport-ing Solutions the opportunity to developtheir skills in probability, statistics andmathematics through a combination offace-to-face and distance learning.

Students will study two six-week mod-ules, including e-lectures delivered onlineand complemented by interactive pricingand trading scenarios. Those who success-fully complete the course, which is offeredthrough Salford Business School and man-aged in conjunction with the University’straining arm, Salford Professional Develop-ment, will be awarded a Postgraduate Cer-tificate in Sports Pricing and Trading.

The course content has been tailored bySporting Solutions’ management to reflecteveryday practice in sports pricing and trad-ing. Students will gain a thorough under-standing of probability, collecting andcleansing data, statistical analysis, applyingstatistical modelling and using an algorith-mic model in tandem with an understandingof the market as the basis of trading.

“The TSE is a ground-breaking initiativethat will reinforce both our core trading val-ues and our commitment to innovation,”said Simon Trim, managing director ofSporting Solutions. “Comprising a range ofcustomised programmes and modules, theTSE will further develop the core competen-cies of the company’s trading staff, servingto enhance the professional development ofits traders and maintain the reputation thatSporting Solutions has for employing thehighest quality traders in the industry.”

Dr Ian McHale, director of the Centre forSports Business and Reader in Statistics atSalford Business School, said: “With arecord of world-renowned research and ac-ademic expertise in sports statistics and an-alytics, economics and finance, the Centrefor Sports Business can offer a wide range oftraining and consultancy opportunities forthe sports industry. The Trading School ofExcellence will give Sporting Solutions staffthe best possible training in the field of pric-ing and trading from some of the UK’s lead-ing sports analysts and statisticians.”

MOBILE AND TABLET GAMBLING SUMMITLondon, 4th-5th November 2013

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TRAINING

Postgraduate tradingqualification launchedA new Trading School ofExcellence has seenSporting Solutions link upwith the University of Salford.

SIMON TRIM: ‘THE TSE IS AGROUND-BREAKING INITIATIVE’

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CONSULTANCY

Hit the rock

Testing firm The Test Peoplehasopened a Gibraltar office to serve the

rigorous test requirements of the e-gamingindustry. Managing director Gav Winter ex-plained: “Gibraltar is a trusted hub for e-gaming, with more than 25 internationalgaming companies establishing businessesproducing revenues accounting for morethan 20 per cent of its GDP. We are delight-ed that our innovative testing services andrecord of delivery excellence are now ac-cessible at the hub of the remote e-gamingindustry, where we add significant value,compliance and trust through world-classautomation.”

Russ Illsley, head of operations in Gibral-tar, added: “Our new offices allow us localaccess to the world’s largest e-gaming com-panies, giving us tremendous internationalopportunities and growth potential.”

GAV WINTER

Shanghai opening

Callcredit Information Group’s retaillocation planning consultancy, GMAP,

has further strengthened its presence in theinternational market by establishing an of-fice in Shanghai, China. GMAP is an expertin market analysis and has made the deci-

sion to establish a permanent presence inthe country in direct response to retailerdemand. The accelerated urbanisation ofthe country has resulted in the growth of anumber of cities and many major retailersare now looking to open stores in China be-yond the major cities. GMAP haa devel-oped a large database of international re-tailer locations covering 120 international


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brands and over 50,000 locations across150 cities in China.

C5 explosive for Itex

Channel Islands IT consultancy, the C5Alliance Grouphas acquired tech-

nology company Itexand plans to enhance

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VC Capital Partnershas ac-quired a controlling stake inSkrill Group, a provider of alter-

native payment solutions to theonline industry regulated by the UK Finan-cial Conduct Authority, from a consortium ofinvestors led by Investcorp who will remainas a shareholder.

Siegfried Heimgaertner, president andCEO of Skrill Group, said: “We are delightedto have CVC on-board whilst retaining In-vestcorp as a significant investor, as wecontinue our evolution and growth as a glob-al payments provider. CVC’s global reachand experience will support our goal to be-come the first choice in payments on a glob-al basis. The value-based transformation we

began in 2012 will continue unabatedthrough this year and into 2014. We believeour consumers, merchants and employeeswill be excited about the prospects that thisnew investment and partnership will bring tothe world of online payments.”

Peter Rutland, senior managing directorof CVC Capital Partners, said: “Skrill is a highquality business that has demonstrated itsability to grow rapidly into a market leadingprovider of online payments serving the on-line gaming, gambling, digital media and e-commerce industries. We are pleased tohave the opportunity to invest in Skrill andsupport its management team as they con-tinue to grow their range of online paymentoptions across the globe.”

CVC takes a piece of Skrill

the eGaming services it offers. Itex has pro-vided full-service eGaming solutions forseven years, including on-island hostingthrough its data centres and full technicalsupport. Robin Le Prevost, director of e-commerce development for the Alderneygovernment, expressed his confidence thatthe changes would have a positive effect onthe industry: “It is positive news that the C5Alliance Group is going to add additionalservices to Itex’s core offering, enablingthose companies hosting their operationsin the islands to add further value to theirbusiness.”

PAYMENTS

Everi solution

Global Cash Access (GCA) haslaunched Everi, an innovative pay-

ments and monetisation solution for inter-active gaming. It has been designed tobridge the payments gap between land-based and interactive gaming, integratingseamlessly with GCA’s extensive networkof kiosks and land-based operations, whilesimultaneously reducing operators’ PCIburden, increasing operator brand aware-ness, and giving operators more controlover their interactive gaming solution.President and CEO David Lopez claimed:“Everi will revolutionise the paymentsprocess by making interactive gaming pay-ments an integral part of the player loyaltyand monetisation process for online andland-based gaming operators through itscomplete integration with GCA’s kiosksand expansive land-based operations.”

SKRILL IS THE MAINSPONSOR OF THE

FOOTBALL CONFERENCELEAGUES THIS SEASON

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Editor:Andrew McCarron Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0) 1457 867 683

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Opinions expressed in this publication should not beregarded as the official view of GB Media CorporationLtd, except where stated. Views, opinions and rec-ommendations contained in this publication are putforward for consideration only. No action should betaken in reliance upon any such views, opinions orrecommendations. Neither GB Media Corporation Ltdnor contributors accept any responsibility for any lossoccasioned to any person howsoever caused orarising as a result of or in consequence of actiontaken or refrained from in realiance on the contents ofthis publication.

Notes for contributors: BBi welcomes thesubmission of articles for consideration by the editorwith a view to publication. Submission of an article willbe held to imply that the article contains originalunpublished work which GB Media Corporation Ltdmay lawfully publish. All submissions are made at theowner’s risk.© GB Media Corporation Ltd, 2013All rights strictly reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means without theprior written permission given, full acknowledgementof author, publisher and source must be given.

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Comment

andrew mccarronviewpoint

here can be littledoubt that socialcasinos and socialpoker rooms havebecome hugely

popular. While the debate ofwhether the traffic on these verti-cals can be turned into highergrossing 'Real Money Gaming'players still rages, Sean Ryanfrom Facebook recently said thatthe lifetime value of a socialcasino player was aroundUS$500.

It cannot be denied that a newaudience has been engaged withthe mechanics of how to playpoker and how to play casinogames. This really begs the ques-tion why has sports bettingshunned engaging in cultivatingand growing a social audiencethat could potentially be millionsof sports enthusiasts making con-nections with their sports bettingverticals.

One explanation could be thatsports betting operators by theirvery nature are quantitativebeings, operational and manage-ment teams are driven by metricsthat can be filtered and commu-nicated easily throughout theiroperational chain. Thesenumbers are really the grease andcogs that drive a sportsbook.Operators are set to drill downperformance numbers and aggre-gate their customer base into spe-cific category types – VIP’s,mid-level players, first deposi-tors etc.

Social games reward andengage users using more person-alised methods such as status,achievements, influence, trustand dedication. These are factorsthat cannot be turned simply intoblunt measurement instruments;they require qualitative and quan-titative analysis in order to under-stand where the individual fits inthe game’s wider arc.

As we have seen with thesuccess stories in social casinosand poker rooms, monetisationis achieved once the player fullytrusts, engages and deems thegame to be worthwhile entertain-ment. The theory is no doubtharder than the practice.

Marrying sports betting andmore socially engaged traffichas to be the aim of socialbetting, not just any Facebookor Twitter users, but rather fully-fledged socially engaged trafficthat values its social status andits digital output - The kind of

user who meticulously tweaksan online profile and personafor the whole world to view.Social betting has designs onbecoming the reward mecha-nism for this traffic.

This ‘reward mechanism’ isvital if social betting is to harnessthe potential of a younger genera-tion of gamers used to a constantflow of feedback. In video games,Microsoft’s achievement pointsand Sony’s trophy system pro-vides users with an acute aware-ness of their technical prowessand their skill level in relation toother players. This drive toprovide constant feedback andshow a degree of differentiationbetween good, bad and averageplayers has proved to be a crucialcog in motivating gameplay. It isvisible in social games such asFarmville or even trackingreviews on TripAdvisor.

Without the ‘social’ element, acustomer used to an unceasingflow of information and a con-stant sense of their relatednessto other users within the commu-nity can quickly become disinter-ested and disenchanted. Usersare desperate to satisfy a simplepsychological need to displaycompetence in relation to others,and we have already seen thisway of thinking in sports bettingthrough separate communities

on Facebook and Twitter whojudge each other’s bets with ahealthy sense of competition anda fair dose of one-upmanship.

This ties in neatly to an assess-ment of consumer motivationthat often takes a backseatbehind quantitative analysis.One must remember the sym-bolic and hedonistic motivesthat drive the average punter, forinstance a desire to win andescape the monotony of normallife or a need to seek pleasureand play for the fun of it ratherthan simply looking for moremoney. Like video games, socialbetting provides a potentialoutlet for hedonists or those whowant to escape.

Press reports state that someoperators are willing to spendupwards of £9m on UK TV adver-tising to attract new customers.Is this unrelenting practice not acause of saturation and stagna-tion - especially when every book-maker follows suit?

In its current state the industrymay struggle to tackle engage-ment and retention issues as theprevailing tendency to thinkmainly in numbers means losingout on the social dynamic. Wecan see that operators are con-stantly turning up the volume,but this does not mean the publicare listening.

With a new set ofregulatory powersto remove licences,

the UK Treasury hasattempted to show thenew regulatory regime forremote gambling will haveteeth. And least for thosewho don’t pay taxes andbother to get locallylicensed. The threat ofhaving a UK licence takenoff a firm that doesn’t haveone and never intends toget one for not addressingtaxes they have nointention of paying ispointless.

The real eye opener herethough is the assumptionby the Treasury that,despite these new powers,the 15 per cent tax rate willonly capture 80 per cent ofthe market. It appears thatit is willing to sacrifice theremaining 20 per cent tooffshore, unregulatedbusiness in order to raiseits £300m.

The amendment to theGambling Act has longbeen touted as a changein public policy in order toprotect the citizens of theUK from both crime andthe mitigation of harm that

Opportunities inthe social clubOddslife CEORasmus Sojmarkdiscusses socialbetting and if ithas a place withinthe sports bettingindustry.

Treasuryprotecti

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BB108-p40-41-Comment:09/10 3/9/13 19:55 Page 1


Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis’description of B2 Gaming Machines

“Fruit machines on Viagra.”

www.innovative-technology.co.uk

NV200 - ‘High volume bank note validator’

• 99%+ field proven acceptance

• Rapid, online updates& data retrieval

• Rejects all known frauds

• Increases revenue

• 4 way barcode ticketreading, ideal for FOBTs

• Lockable, removable 500 /1000 note cashbox

sury scuttlesection aims

gambling can cause insome situations. Aslaudable an idea as thatis, the new legislation isactually going to be lesssafe after the Treasury’sspin on it. As transient assome operators may beunder the current system,over 99 per cent of onlinegamblers are protectedby it, either directlythrough the GamblingCommission or indirectlythrough the White List orby jurisdictions within theEEA. The set up asenvisaged now will seeone in five playersexposed to standards ofplayer protection thatpresumably do not meetthe expectations of theGambling Commission. Itis the regulator's duty toinform and advise thegovernment and godknows we've seenenough little love lettersfrom the Commission tothe Culture secretary oflate reminding us of thatrelationship. But youcan't help thinking thatthe Commission needs toplay the field a little more.While it may

communicate itsmisgivings to the DCMSabout the regulatoryblack hole that this ratewill create, and the DCMSmight forward them on to11 Downing Street, whenwas the last time theTreasury took a blind bitof notice of any of theother governmentdepartments? Especiallythe widely derided‘Ministry of Fun’.

Instead theCommission should takeit on directly with theChancellor, via the pressif needs be, and underlinethat forgoing 20 per centof the market for a quickbuck is simplyunacceptable.

Unfortunately theregulator is in thatinvidious position of notwanting to rock the boator indeed scupper its ownchances of becomingmore important. After all,while the tax rateattached to the newlegislation will only give itdirect influence over 80per cent of the onlinemarket, that itself is fargreater than the 15-20 per

cent it currentlyregulates.

So what is the idealrate? Would a 10 per centrate see tax receipts dropto £250m yet cover 90 percent of the market? It’sdoubtful that thechancellor wouldsanction a £50m dropeven if it did offer muchmore protection to UKconsumers anyway. In theyears when there was anopen market the industrywas pushing for a 2 percent rate in order tocompete with off shorejurisdictions. Thearguments behind thathave been blown away bythe fenced off Italianregulatory model nowanyway.

Even the remoteindustry is still not surewhat to pitch at and iswaiting for a KPMGreport to inform theirlobbying efforts. It’s asmart move as theTreasury is as likely tolisten to fellowaccountants more thanindustry stakeholders asit goes through the latestcharade of ‘consultation’.

BB108-p40-41-Comment:09/10 3/9/13 19:55 Page 2


Business

nibet CEOHenrik Tjärn-ström hasrevealed that thecompany’s focus

on locally regulated marketshas seen the companyachieve a successful launchin Estonia at the start of July2013. Unibet launched witha local license in Estonia onunibet.ee and maria-casino.ee, with the fullproduct range available ondesktop and mobile plat-forms for the Estonian cus-tomers.

Speaking during theSwedish operator’s interimresults, Tjärnström alsocited the continued growthof the mobile platform as areason for revenue growth:“Unibet’s strong top linemomentum from the firstquarter has continued intothe low season, despite nomajor championships thisyear. Our mobile offeringcontinues to grow and isnow over 19 per cent of thegross winnings revenuecompared to 8 per cent forthe same period last year.Market share growth isdriven by Unibet’s contin-ued investment in market-ing initiatives in bothre-regulated and coremarkets.”

Gross profit for the firsthalf year 2013 was up 16 percent to £97.5m with secondquarter figures up 18 percent to £46.4m. Profit aftertax for the first half year 2013amounted to £17.2m (upfrom £16.4m) while profitafter tax for the secondquarter of 2013 was £6.7mcompared to £5.7m for Q22012.

Tjärnström added: “Prof-itability in the secondquarter was strong, takinginto account sports bettingmargins slightly below thelong-term average and alsolower than the same periodin 2012. The prior year resultfor the second quarter alsoincluded a number of acqui-sition-related one-off itemswith a net positive effect. Inthe first five weeks of thethird quarter average dailygross winnings revenue hasincreased by approximately10 per cent over the sameperiod in 2012.”

For the second quarter of2013 the number of activecustomers amounted to446,649 compared with489,923 for the first quarter2013. An active customer isdefined as one placing a betin the last three months. Thetotal number of registeredcustomers has continued to

increase and exceeded 7.6mat 30 June 2013.

As the majority ofUnibet’s business is basedaround the sportsbook, itsperformance is determinedby the seasons for keysports such as the majorfootball leagues in Europe,major golf and tennis tour-naments as well as icehockey leagues in theNordic countries andNorth America and rugbyand horse racing in Aus-tralia. The seasonality ofthese events results in fluc-tuations in the Group’squarterly performance,especially in terms ofGross Turnover. However,quarterly results can alsovary, due to the volatility ofgross winnings margins insports betting.

The gross margin for pre-game sports betting beforeFree Bets for the secondquarter 2013 was 9.1 percent, down from 10.6 percent in 2012, while the livebetting margin was 4.7 percent – down from 4.9 per cent

The gross margin for totalsports betting for the secondquarter 2013 before FreeBets was 6.1 per cent com-pared to 7.3 per cent in 2012.After Free Bets it droppedto 5.7 per cent.

Gambling industry stalwart Roger Withers is to retire fromhis role of non-executive chairman at Playtech after seven

years, although he will be retained as an advisor. Witherssaid: “With the success of the business firmly established

and set to continue, I leave Playtech finan-cially robust, in good hands and well

placed to continue to serve itslicensees, shareholders, employees

and other stakeholders.”He is succeeded by senior non-

executive director Alan Jackson,who is also chairman of The Restau-

rant Group plc and deputy chair-man and senior non-executive

director of Redrow plc.ROGER WITHERS

Markus Geiß and Clemens Jakopitsch have been appointedto the Supervisory Board of Mybet Holding SE. The previ-

ously proposed candidates Carsten Markus Koerl and Chris-tian Sundermann had withdrawn their candidature at shortnotice before the Shareholders’ Meeting.

Betfair has appointed Zillah Byng-Maddickas a non-executive director and she will

also be a member of the audit committee.Byng-Maddick has held senior financepositions at Trader Media Group, FitnessFirst Group, Thresher Group, GE Capitaland HMV Media Group. Chairman GeraldCorbett said: “Zillah is an experiencedfinance professional who has worked atthe top of a number of consumerfacing businesses.”ZILLAH BYNG-MADDICK

Satellite Information Services (SIS) has recruited RichardLang as its new director of commerce and operations.

Formerly chief operating officer at the Gala Coral Group,Lang has also held board positions on the Bookmakers Com-mittee (BMC), the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB),British Afternoon Greyhound Services (BAGS) and 49’s Ltd.CEO Gary Smith said: “Having represented one of our majorclients he is already well known within SIS and has estab-lished relationships with key contacts across the industry.”

Ales Gornjec has been promoted to general manager atComTrade Gaming. The new role will see Gornjec prima-

rily responsible for the further expansion of the company,including seeking out new opportunities for growth andmaintaining its reputation of the bridge between the onlineand land based industries.He said: “We’ve spent thelast 14 years building on ourtechnology and expertiseto become one of the mostinnovative, multi platformproviders within the gamingindustry. I’m extremelyproud of all that we’veachieved and very excitedthat I’ll continue to playsuch a key role.”ALES GORNJEC

GeoComply USA has appointed Valli Ardalan as generalmanager for its iGaming Division. Ardalan, most

recently head of poker operations for Bwin.party DigitalEntertainment, will base himself between the UK and theUS as he immediately takes on responsibility for GeoCom-ply’s customers in Nevada, New Jersey and Canada aswell as the European platforms and development teamssupporting them.

Meanwhile journalist Tom Victor has joined iGaming PRspecialists Lyceum Media. Victor said: “After spending

close to three years writing about the igaming industry, I amexcited to bring my abilities and experience to the world ofPR. I have built up a strong understanding of the industry andhope this will help me bring Lyceum’s clients great coverageacross all media outlets in gaming and beyond.”

appointmentscorporateSuccessful

Estonianlaunch forUnibet

ANALYSIS

It’s not all aboutsportsbetting atUnibet and HenrikTjärnström was alsoupbeat about pokerperformance: “In thesecond quarter, thestrategy of makingthe online pokerexperience more funwith promotions andside games focusingon the casualcustomer continued.The main highlightbeing a successful ‘ingame’ promotion,where customers gotinstant rewards forgetting specific handstrengths. “Duringthe second quarterthe Unibet Open wentto Troia, just south ofLisbon, Portugal,where 242 Unibetcustomers played inthis populartournament. The nextUnibet Open eventwill be held inCannes, France, inSeptember with highhopes that this willbe one of our biggestevents ever, if not thebiggest.”

Following Unibet’s re-emergence into the UK sposrtbetting marketwith its Summer of Sport promotion, the firm has also opened forbusiness in Estonia.

EXPANSION

GAVIN HASTINGS HELPED LAUNCHUNIBET’S SUMMER OF SPORT

U

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European betting operator Fortuna has sold an 8 per cent stake in its lottery business to E-INVEST in a deal originally agreed last year. E-INVEST has invested in FORTUNA sázky a.s., asubsidiary of Fortuna Entertainment Group, which currently operates numerical and instantlottery games through a network of around 6,000 points of sale across the Czech Republic.

Fortuna sells a share of lottery business

[email protected]

The tortured progres-sion of Media Corpo-ration as a gaming

company appears to be atand end after the organi-sation pulled the plug onits Intabet B2B gamingplatform.

The company said thatthe impact of increasingtechnology, hosting andoperating charges on its‘limited financialresources’, coupled withthe inability of thecompany to obtain anappropriate gaminglicense in its own right hasproved prohibitive to thecompany being able tolaunch the Intabet platformin any meaningful capacityas previously envisaged.

It explained: “The direc-tors believe that continueddevelopment of Intabetwould prove a drain on thecompany that it cannotsustain in the absence of

meaningful revenues orinvestment. Together withcontinued legacy issuesfacing the company takingup substantial amounts ofmanagement time detract-ing their attentions fromthe operating business, the directors have takenthe difficult decision tocease development andoperation of the Intabetplatform and substantiallyall of the company’strading business.”

As a result the companywill not be in a position todeliver the betting plat-form to boxing subscrip-tion channel Box Nationand its Goal Millions gamewill continue to operateunder licence throughVamagaming, but with nextto no promotional budget,the firm said that its contri-bution to the revenuestream is expected to be‘negligible’.

Media Corp will nowhave to become an invest-ing company under AIMRules, a developmentwhich will likely see itdispose of its interest inIntabet and its associatedintellectual property.

Many consumers wouldsee the end of Media Corp’soperation in the gamingsphere in this way as fittinggiven the disregard that theorganisation appeared tohave for the customers ofPurple Lounge. Media Corpunceremoniously shutdown its online casino lastyear after deciding that itcouldn’t sustain the losses,leaving players out ofpocket. This would meanthat any Media Corprelated gambling operationwould have had consider-able trouble winning backthe trust of the marketanyway, had the firm beenable to launch its platform.

German betting firmBet-at-Home, part ofthe BetClic Everest

Group, has attributed adrop in turnover for the firsthalf of 2013 to comparisonswith last year’s Euro 2012tournament, as well as taxincreases in Germany.

The firm said: “In addi-tion, unprofitable busi-nesses were closed in thefirst half of 2013, which alsoled to a decline in turnoveryear-over-year. Further-more, the introduction ofthe sports betting tax inGermany and the associ-ated passing on of this taxat 5 per cent of the respec-tive bets to German cus-tomers resulted in lowerturnover.”

Despite the drop in 17per cent drop in revenue to

909.7m euro (£777.5m), thefirm’s gross gamingrevenue was stable at41.5m euro (£35.5m). Thecompany explained: “Theplanned decrease inturnover and simultaneousincrease in profitabilityunderpins the goal ofextensively increasing theprofitability of the bet-at-home.com AG Group. Out-standing successes havealready been achieved inthe first half of 2013 in thisregard.

Cumulative advertisingexpenses for the first halfyear of 2013 were 16.6meuro (£14.2m), thus repre-senting a considerabledecrease of 13.1m euro(£11.2m) compared to the2012 figures for the sameperiod. As a result, despite

a reduction in the advertis-ing expense of 44.1 percent, gross gamingrevenue remained almostat the same level as in thesame period in the previousyear. The firm said that thisonce again highlights thesuccess of the customeracquisition and loyaltymeasures taken, thusachieving a significantincrease in efficiency: “Themarketing measures takeninclude investments in newcustomer acquisition aswell as in the reactivationof existing customers,which led to a further suc-cessful strengthening ofthe bet-at-home.combrand. The customer basewas significantly expandedthrough a combination ofall these measures.”

Media Corp pullsplug on Intabet Afterunexpectedlyclosing downPurple Lounge,Media Corp hasfound it hardgoing to getback into thegaming sector.

INVESTMENT

Yield stable despiteturnover dropGERMANY

BOX NATION HAS BEEN LEFT WITHOUT A GAMING PLATFORM

BB108-p42-43-Business:09/10 3/9/13 19:52 Page 2


Agenda

i g h - p r o f i l eracing at homeand abroaddominates thenext four

weeks of sporting andbetting action on Betfair,with the usual accompani-ment of big footballmatches of course. The StLeger, the final Classic ofthe British summer, willcapture the attention inmid-September, but thereal glamour can be foundjust outside Paris threeweeks later for the Prix del’Arc de Triomphe.

Both antepost marketsare finely poised at the timeof writing with theExchange’s Arc betting par-ticularly fascinating as itbattles over a trio of inter-national contenders. Themoney will no doubt floodin as anticipation builds.

There’s a heavyweightclash in the Premier Leagueon Sunday 22 September asthe Manchester clubs playtheir first derby of theseason at the Etihad. We’veseen a number of classicmatches between the twoin recent years and any-thing like United’s 3-2 winin this fixture last yearwould bring multipleopportunities to hit thatCash Out button.

JOE DYEREditorBetting.Betfair.com

After a summer without amajor football tournament,the new domestic seasoncouldn’t start quicklyenough, and as we head intothe Autumn, there areplenty of highlights for foot-ball punters to get stuck

into, as well as England’slaboured attempts toqualify for next year’s WorldCup. Having launched ourunique Football Jackpotpool bet at the start of thePremier League season,we’ll be hoping to create amillionaire for as little as£1, and at the time ofwriting, we are delightedwith how the bet has gonedown with our customers.

Away from football, theracing highlights includethe season’s final Classic,the Ladbrokes St Leger atDoncaster, and the QatarPrix de l’Arc de Triomphemeeting at Longchamp. Thenews that the French show-piece would once again beavailable to British terres-trial TV viewers courtesy ofChannel 4 was a welcomedevelopment, and one thatall involved should be con-

gratulated on.

DAVID STEVENSHead of PRCoral

This period will see two bigraces take place with well-developed Ante Postmarkets which have con-tinued to change shape thissummer. Firstly the St Legerfrom Doncaster is the finalclassic of the year. Headingthe market at 4/1 is GalileoRock, who has been placedin two Derbys this summerand looks like improvingfor the extra 2 furlongs ofthe St Leger distance. AidanO’Brien still has manyentries at which to go to warwith, so there may still besome value lurking such asFestive Cheer at 12/1 or EyeOf The Storm at 16/1.

Secondly all eyes will

switch across the channelto Longchamp on the firstweekend in October forwhat looks like being avintage Prix de L’Arc de Tri-omphe. It seems we havehad different favouritesevery weekend followingsome great performancesover the summer. Thesehave included Intello’s (7/1)French Derby Victory, AlKazeem’s (5/1) three Group1 victories, Flintshire’s (9/2)impressive Grand Prix deParis win and who canforget Novellist’s (5/1 )record breaking display inthe King George at Ascot?Throw in Treve’s (8/1) bril-liant French Oaks win andit truly is shaping up to be arace to savour.

MATTHEW HULMES Horse racing odds compilerBetfred

LISTINGS

MONTHLY BRIEFING

SEPTEMBER10 Reforming the GamblingRegulatory System,Central London12 Callcredit’s 6th AnnualFraud Summit 2013, TheRoyal Institution of GreatBritain, London19-20 US Online GamingLaw 2013, The Bellagio,Las Vegas 24-26 Global Gaming Expo(G2E) 2013, Las VegasSands Expo &Convention Center, LasVegas24 IMGL MemberReception at GlobalGaming Expo (G2E)29 – 1 OctoberInternational Association ofGaming Regulators (IAGR)Annual Conference, GrandHotel, Oslo, Norway

OCTOBER1-4 IMGL AutumnConference, Grand Hotel,Oslo, Norway3 BOS Bookmakers’ TradeFair, WolverhamptonRacecourse3-6 The Barcelona AffiliateConference 2013,Barcelona8-10 European iGamingCongress & Expo, FiraBarcelona8 IMGL Reception atEuropean iGamingCongress & Expo (EiG),Gran Hotel La Florida,Barcelona17 EASG Seminar: Socialgaming / gambling: Threator Opportunity, Tour &Taxis Building, Brussels,Belgium21-23 Eastern EuropeanGaming Summit (EEGEExpo), IEC, Sofia,Bulgaria22-23 World RegulatoryBriefing USA,Philadelphia, PA.

NOVEMBER4-5 Mobile and TabletGambling Summit, HiltonTower Bridge, London6-7 The Social GamblingConference 2013, DexterHouse, London11 RGA AGM, The QueenElizabeth II ConferenceCentre, London18-20 Brasilian GamingCongress, Rio de Janeiro20-22 National Associationfor Gambling StudiesAnnual Conference,Crowne Plaza Coogee,Sydney Australia

DECEMBER1 – 4 The Second AsiaPacific Conference onGambling & CommercialGaming Research(APCG2013), Kaohsiung,Taiwan9-12 40th annual GlobalSymposium on Racing &Gaming, Westin LaPaloma, Tucson25 Christmas Day

It’s been a busy time for Samvoand we are eagerly lookingforward to the next few months.

After the success of our GrandNational offer back in April – wherewe paid out an industry-best eightplaces – we’ve been back in thedrawing room thinking of someexciting football promotions aheadof the Premier League season.

Working with our affiliate part-ners, we’ve launched SamvoPremier Picks which allows newcustomers to get a free bet worthup to £5,000 through our onlineoffering. Those that depositedduring August will have 25 per centof their deposit matched on theteam they believe will win thePremier League. Throughout theseason, we’re giving them thechance to top up their PremierPicks bet to 50 per cent, then 75per cent and finally 100 per cent oftheir initial deposit, meaningpunters could have up to £5,000riding on their choice of thePremier League outright winner, allcourtesy of Samvo.

Our two betting cafés in Londoncontinue to attract punters whoenjoy the sleek, stylish and com-fortable betting environment. Weare currently looking to expandand open another café some-where in the capital to bring theSamvo experience to even morecustomers.

We’re also working on makingour online offering, samvo.com,more attractive to punters withnew promotions such as marginsas low as 1.25 per cent on football’stop four leagues. Our VIP telebetcustomers are also being targetedfor the football season in prepara-tion for what Samvo envisages willbe a fantastic year of action.

Our online Betback promotionis also going very well. We’ve beenaiming at high-staking puntersand it’s been a successful ventureso far. Betback allows Samvo cus-tomers to get a percentage of theirwins, and losses, back everyweek, which means our clientscan take advantage of the lowestmargins around.

In November we are hosting anexclusive invite only high-stakespoker tournament at the Hippo-drome Casino in Leicester Square,London. This promises to be a bril-liant event and will follow on fromthe launch of our Samvo-Hippo-drome loyalty cards, which isscheduled for this month.

My Diary: Dave WebbDave Webb, RetailDevelopment Managerat Samvo, reflects onhectic schedule for hiscompany.

A couple of big races should whet the appetite of punters looking for something juicyaway from the important early season football matches.

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Ante Post: Whatthe bookies say

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The London Affiliate Conference (LAC) is to move to a new venue for its eighth event - theEarls Court Exhibition Centre in London. “We are extremely excited that the show hasgrown to the extent that we have to move venue,” said Shona ODonnell, head of operationsfor LAC organiser iGaming Business. LAC will take place on 6-9 February 2014.

LAC likes Earls Court

Despite Brazil’s ban onmost forms of gam-bling, betting is a

popular pastime amongstBrazilian football-fanatics.The estimated size of theun-licensed sports bettingmarket is unknown, butexponential growth isanticipated during theWorld Cup in 2014 and theOlympic Games in 2016.With an intensified bettingactivity in an un-licensedand un-monitored environ-ment comes a higher risk ofmatch-fixing, which is whythe issues around sportsintegrity start coming to theforefront in Brazil’s prepa-rations to host the sportsevents.

Well-regulated bettingmarkets are key to support-ing sports integrity initia-tives and preventing matchfixing. One example is theJoint Assessment Unit, setup during the London 2012Olympic Games by the IOC,UK Gambling Commissionand the licensed bettingoperators to monitor andprotect the integrity of theGames in 2012. European

Sports Security Associa-tion, an industry body setup by licensed Europeansports betting operators,works closely with thesports governing bodies toidentify and report suspi-cious betting patterns.“Corruptors are generallysteering clear of ESSA’swell-regulated and vigilantbetting operators, because

a perfect audit trail wouldbe created,” said AntonioCostanzo of ESSA.

ESSA’s chairman anddirector of British sports-book Ladbrokes, MichaelO’Kane, will be one of thespeakers at the first Brasil-ian Gaming Congress(BgC), scheduled to takeplace on 18-20 November2013 in Rio de Janeiro.

Sports integrity, security ofthe games and consumerprotections will be at theheart of the many debatesplanned for the Congress.

Brazilian perspectivewill be provided by JorgeBarbosa Pontes, securityinternational relationsmanager of the Rio 2016Organising Committee forthe Olympic and Para-

lympic Games, Codere doBrasil MD Andre Gelfi, andFabio Cleto, VP govern-ment funds and lotteries,CAIXA Economica Federal,and sports bodies in atten-dance at the Congress.

Gelfi commented: “It ishigh time that some of themyths around match-fixingand sports betting are abol-ished in Brazil. It has beenwell demonstrated thatlicensed operators con-tribute to preventingmatch-fixing through thescrutiny their securityteams apply when monitor-ing betting activities. TheBrasilian Gaming Congresswill be a great opportunityto showcase how it is doneand how regulation ofgaming can contribute to amore transparent and fairsporting events.”

Kate Chambers, who isresponsible for Clarion’sportfolio of gaming confer-ences, said: “Our aim is tobe gaming’s event organ-iser of choice and to be ableto host Brazil’s key institu-tional influencers, such asSEAE and Caixa at the

Brazilian Gaming Con-gress, speaks volumes forthe quality of work under-taken by the team across allof our gaming brands.Brasil is a very significantmarket on different levels.Economically and sociallyit has a growing, affluentmiddle class and politicallythere is now the will todebate the benefits of regu-lation and to hear the bestpractice in regulating andoperating gaming fromaround the world.

“This is a rare opportu-nity to listen to and networkwith the political figureswho will be shaping thefuture of gaming in what isone of the world’s keystrategic markets. The Con-gress will be by invitationonly and the attendance willbe capped in order toaccommodate the highlevel political networkingthat will be at the heart ofBgC.”

BRASILIAN GAMINGCONGRESS (BGC)18-20 November 2013 Rio de Janeiro

Clarion goes nuts for Brazil conferenceClarion is hosting a conference in Brazil on sportsbetting ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

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BRAZIL WILL BE HOSTINGTHE 2014 WORLD CUP

BB108-p44-45-Agends:09/10 3/9/13 19:43 Page 2


Analysis

THE £10,000,000 COLOSSUSALL OTHER BETS ARE LOWER LEAGUE S

w

1 International Cricket – England v Australia (5th Test)2 International Cricket – England v Australia (3rd Test)3 International Cricket – England v Australia (4th Test)4 International Cricket – Sri Lanka v South Africa (3rd T20)5 Golf – Group B US PGA Championship; Winner6 International Cricket – Sri Lanka v South Africa (1st T20)7 International Cricket – Sri Lanka v South Africa (2nd T20)8 International Cricket – Zimbabwe v Pakistan (1st ODI)9 Domestic Cricket – Northamptonshire v Essex T20 Semi final10 Domestic Cricket – Hampshire v Surrey T20 Semi finalChart supplied by: Betfair. Data from 1/8 - 28/8.

TOP TENBETTING EXCHANGE EVENTS

1 Football – Premier League 2 Horseracing – Glorious Goodwood3 USPGA Championship4 Football – ENG Championship5 Horseracing – York Ebor Festival 6 Football – ENG Community Shield7 Cricket – The Ashes 3rd Test8 Football – UEFA Super Cup9 Cricket – The Ashes 4th Test10 Football – International friendliesChart supplied by: BetVictor. Data for August.

TOP TENONLINE BETTING MARKETS

1 International Cricket - England v Australia 4th Test2 International Cricket - England v Australia 3rd Test 3 International Cricket – England v Australia 5th Test4 Domestic Football – Man Utd v Chelsea5 Domestic Football – Man City v Newcastle6 Domestic Football – Aston Villa v Liverpool7 Domestic Football – Chelsea v Hull8 International Football – England v Scotland9 Domestic Football – Cardiff v Man City10 Golf – USPGA ChampionshipChart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets. Data for August.

TOP TENSPORTS SPREAD MARKETS

1 UK 100, Daily2 Wall Street, Daily3 Germany 30, Daily4 Spot, EUR/USD5 Spot, GBP/USD6 Gold, Daily Oct7 UK 100, Sep8 Spot, AUD/USD9 Spot, USD/JPY10 Germany 30, SepChart supplied by: Spreadex. Calculated on volume of bets. Data for August.

TOP TENFINANCIAL SPREAD MARKETS

1 GBR – Colossus Bets – The £10m Colossus E11,629,3002 SWE – V75 – Rattvik E9,009,4723 ESP – La Quinella E5,387,0574 GBR – Classic Pools E3, 488,7905 SWE/RSA – Stryktipset/Soccer13 E3,457,5286 SWE – V86 – La Solvalla E3,130,5867 GBR – Colossus Bets – Prem League Pick 6 E2,325,8608 GBR – Colossus Bets – La Liga Pick 6 E2,325,8609 GBR – Goal Millions E1,162,93010 GBR – Bodugi - Big Game E1,162,930Chart supplied by: Colossus Bets Calculated by biggest pools/guarantees over aweek’s period during the month. One entry per bet type. Data for 1/9 – 26/8.

TOP TENGLOBAL POOLS

1 Ascot – King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes2 Goodwood – Qipco Sussex Stakes3 Newmarket – EBF Maiden Fillies Stakes4 Newmarket – Weatherby’s EBF Maiden Stakes5 Newmarket – Darley Cup6 Newmarket – 32Red Bunbury Cup7 Goodwood – Gordon Stakes8 Sandown Park – Coral-Eclipse9 Goodwood – Bet365 Lennox Stakes10 Goodwood – Maiden Fillies StakesChart supplied by: Totepool. Data for July.

TOP TENUK HORSERACE POOLS

THE ASHES SERIES WERE AFOCAL POINT OF BETTINGACTION THIS SUMMER

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he monthlyanalysis thatFreebets .comconducts hasrevealed that

bet365 came out on top forJuly in offering value to cus-tomers through their impres-sive range of money-backoffers.

July showed the leastnumber of Money Backoffers promoted in the threemonths since analysisbegan, reflecting the rela-tively low-key period forcore sports betting productslike horse racing, football,golf and tennis. There werefewer top level events inthose sports compared tothe previous two monthswhich featured racing clas-sics, major football cupfinals, golf majors and tennisgrand slam finals – althoughthe second week of Wimble-don fortnight took place inJuly.

Analysis showed therewere 97 unique Money Backoffers promoted by the 18online bookmakers moni-tored by www.freebets.com.Bet365 came out top in July2013 for providing punterswith the best value Money

Giving so

T

BB108-p46-47-Analysis CORRECT CHARTS:09/10 4/9/13 11:53 Page 1


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Chart supplied by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for July.

TOP TENGAMES SITES

1 Sky Poker2 Global Poker Index3 Pokerstars.com4 World Series of Poker5 Poker Tube6 PokerNews.com7 Bet365 Poker 8 888Poker9 Paddy Power Poker10 SharkScopeChart supplied by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for July.

TOP TENPOKER SITES

1 (1) Betfair2 (2) Bet3653 (4) BetVictor 4 (3) Paddy Power5 (5) William Hill6 (8) Ladbrokes 7 (6) Coral 8 (7) Stan James9 (10) Skybet10 (9) Betfred

Chart supplied by: Oddschecker. Calculated on market share of betslip clicks fromOddschecker.com. Data from 1/8 - 29/8

TOP TENFOOTBALL BETTING WEBSITES

1 (1) Bet365 – 0.702 (2) Boylesports – 1.073 (3) Jenningsbet – 1.474 (4) Totesport – 1.545 (5) BetVictor – 1.556 (6) Betfair Sports – 1.827 (8) Sporting Index – 1.94 8 (7) Betclic – 2.059 (10) Coral Sports – 2.08 10 (-) Gamebookers– 2.09Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for August.

TOP TENONLINE SPORTSBOOK PERFORMANCE

RESPONSE TIME (SECS)

1 (1) Jenningsbet Poker – 0.622 (4) PokerStars – 0.96 3 (2) Bet365 – 1.114 (8) 888 – 1.205 (5) Paddy Power – 1.34 6 (6) PartyPoker – 1.447 (7) Bet Victor Poker – 1.488 (3) Poker Room – 1.619 (10) Unibet Poker – 1.68 10 (-) Stan James – 1.79Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for August.

TOP TENONLINE POKER PERFORMANCE


1 (1) Jenningsbet Poker – 1.202 (7) 888Casino – 1.42 3 (2) Totesport– 1.48 4 (3) Bet365 – 1.51 5 (4) 32Red – 1.72 6 (8) PartyGaming – 2.13 7 (6) PartyBets Casino – 2.138 (5) William Hill – 2.209 (10) Betsson – 2.22 10 (9) SkyVegas – 2.68Chart supplied by: Gomez. Data for August.

TOP TENONLINE CASINO PERFORMANCE


1 ‘Bingo’ – 60,500 searches2 ‘Online casino’ – 60,5003 ‘Casino’ – 49,5004 ‘Poker’ – 33,1005 ‘No deposit casino’ – 33,1006 ‘bet’ – 33,1007 ‘Poker hands’ – 22,2008 ‘Bingo sites’ – 22,2009 ‘Betting calculator’ – 18,10010 ‘Free bingo’ – 18,100Chart calculated by: Greenlight. Data for July.

TOP TENGAMING SEARCH TERMS

1 (1) tombola 2 (2) Jackpotjoy 3 (3) Gala Bingo4 (4) Mecca Bingo5 (5) Sun Bingo6 (6) Foxybingo.com7 (7) Costa Bingo8 (8) Wink Bingo 9 (9) Paddy Power Bingo10 (-) Sing Bingo

Chart calculated by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for July.

TOP TENBINGO SITES

1 (1) 888Casino2 (-) Red Flush Casino UK3 (2) Sky Vegas 4 (4) William Hill Vegas 5 (3) Ladbrokes.com Casino 6 (-) 32Red Casino 7 (7) Bet365 Casino 8 (9) All Slots Casino 9 (8) Paddy Power Casino10 (-) Gala Casino

Chart calculated by: www.Hitwise.com. Ranked by visits. Data for July.

TOP TENCASINO SITES

g some back to the puntersDave Archer is the founder of affiliate website Freebets.com, which forthe past three months has been carrying out regular analysis on themoney back offers that bookmakers use to reward their customers.

Back offers. The website fea-tured a number of daily freebet offers on horse racingand all football matcheswhich were able to positionBet365 ahead of June book-maker of the month, PaddyPower and William Hill, whocame into contention cour-tesy of its mobile exclusiveoffers on football andChannel 4 racing.

Bet365 provided its cus-tomers with four uniqueoffers, Bore Draw, FeatureRace 4/1, Channel 4 4/1 andSky Dogs 2/1. There weremore football matches andraces that qualified for thebet365 offers in July thanJune and allied to the reduc-tion in the number offersand/or offer values pro-moted month on ActionImages / Andrew BoyersLivepic month by PaddyPower and Betway, allowedBet365 to overtake theircompetitors in the Julyratings.

Paddy Power provided

the most unique offers forthe third consecutive month,promoting 19 during Julywhich was seven more thanits nearest competitorBetfred with 15 uniqueoffers.

In contrast with the trendat Paddy Power, BetVictor,Ladbrokes and Coral, whohave all reduced the numberof unique Money Back offerscompared with June,

Betfred increased thenumber of unique offers forthe third month running. InMay, Betfred promotedseven Money Back offers,increasing the number to 12in June and trumped thatamount by a further three inJuly.

The analysis shows thatmany offers have a wideavailability and qualify forevents on a number of differ-

ent days. For exampleBet365’s Feature Race 4/1offer was available for racesin 24 days of the month whilePaddy Power’s Money Backif Second was available onsix days, highlighting thevariation in availability ofsome of the offers. Wecounted the number of dif-ferent days on which punterscould qualify for a refund ona new event to provide ametric for Total BookmakerOffers and using this crite-ria, there were 505 offersavailable in July, of which 97were unique.

Freebets.com uses algo-rithms, devised by its team,to cross-reference hundredsof offers and promotionsfrom 18 bookmakers on theirsite. They look at the numberof money-back offers avail-able, the free bet or cashrefund value, the likelihoodof the scenario to occur, andthe number of events andmarkets which qualify forthe offer.

1 Bet3652 Paddy Power3 William Hill4 Winner5 Betway6 Ladbrokes7 Betfair8 Betfred9 Boylesports10 BetVictorChart supplied by: Freebets.com. Data for July.

TOP TENBOOKMAKERS FOR MONEYBACK OFFERS

BB108-p46-47-Analysis:09/10 4/9/13 12:11 Page 2

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