We wish you merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year coming
TGC Writing Team.
iGaming Operators News
SPORTS BETTING OPERATORS
- 888Bets goes live in Malawi, marking its 7th market in Africa.
- Pixbet partners with Legitimuz to build a strong protection of bettors in Brazil.
- Bet99 secured a partnership with PandaScore in Ontario. The bookie will have access to its innovative Odds feed for CS2, LoL, CoD & Dota 2.
- BoyleSports closes its South Africa operations on January 10th, as it asked its customer to withdraw their funds
- Unibet accepts the €400K KSA fine, for having still accepted self-excluded player to its platform.
- BetFred is continuing to reduce its presence in the US by closing its Washington and Iowa operations. There will still be live in two states (Pennsylvania and Nevada)
- Livescore Bet’s have decided to exit Netherland following the rise in taxes; their gambling license have been revoked.
- 1xBet becomes the Global Betting Partner of FIBA for a 3-year contract.
CASINOS OPERATORS
- Videoslots under Spelinspektionen (Sweden) suspicion of AML failure.
- Penn Entertainment has gone live in Pennsylvania with its stand-alone Hollywood Casino App for Androïd and IOS. Players can access the product either via ESPN BET or directly from Hollywood Casino app.
- Stakelogic secures license to newly regulated Danish Market.
LOTTERY, BINGO, SLOTS & FANTASY & Crypto
- Crypto.com launches sports prediction platform in the US, raising debate on crypto betting and licenses.
Suppliers News
- Pentasia released its 2024 salary survey, where we learn that companies are being cautiously optimistic.
- Amusnet’s LatAm Business Development Officer chats with Casinobeats about how the supplier is navigating market-specific content, compliance and the coming Brazilian regulation. Amusnet solidified its presence in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil & Peru, with a strong localisation process in order to comply with local expectations. Amusnet make sure to follow regular updates with a dedicated legal team and compliance experts.
- Habanero Systems share insights with Casinobeats. The provider reinforced its presence in Italy, South Africa, LatAm, Greece & Switzerland. They built and adapted products to each market. For 2025, Habanero think personnalization & gamification as key trends.
- Sportingtech enhanced its live casino offering after securing a partnership with live casino supplier CreedRoomz. It adds more than 25 games, table options and mobile optimisation to the platform, so that Sportingtech clients all over the world can use them know.
- BetMakers extend Betr partnership after BlueBet merger. New terms add Price Manager features to the existing partnership (fixed-odds solutions, content & data)
- Jackpot Digital has been awarded a gaming supplier license in Ontario.
iGaming Affiliates News
General News
- Catena Media appoints another NED to its board, with the arrival of Martin Zetterlund, a swedish entrepreneur specialized in cybersecurity and managed security services, « areas that are becoming increasingly critical for Catena Media’s Operations ». He’s joined by Stephen Taylor-Matthews (founded Polynate, an AI-focused company delivering sports engagement solutions)
- Catena Media announces an exclusive partnership with Daily Racing Form, the leading media on Turf in the US, allowing the affiliate to promote betting content.
- QMRA is now live in Greece and GameLounge is launching member with its greek asset.
- Acroud has secured the support of a bondholder committee and majority shareholders for its financial restructuring, which includes extending the maturity of its existing bonds to 2028 and issuing new super senior bonds worth SEK 65.3 million. The company also plans to acquire the remaining shares of its subsidiary Acroud Media owned by RIAE Media Ltd, strengthening its capital structure to drive growth. Gary Gillies, director of RIAE Media, becomes Acroud’s largest shareholder following this transaction, marking a significant milestone for the Nasdaq Stockholm-listed company.
- CasinoFinder launches a new casino comparator. The affiliate website built a very well-designed tool for its community.
- Casino.Online’s about to relaunch early 2025. The asset got a fresh revamp with the aim to bring a more user-centric approach and open three new markets
- Game Lounge launches its SaaS Incubator aiming to launch new projects to revolutionize the industry.
Interviews
- Jamie Walters, CEO of QiH Group comments on the UK government’s statutory levy announcement, arguing that responsible gambling companies already made this contribution to research, and that it would only switch from voluntary to mandatory (that’s the point).
- Another month, another interview of Game Lounge’s CEO, Richard Dennys. Dennys got hired right after Game Lounge faced difficulties similar as Catena and Raketech are going through now. HE also discloses their ambitions, hitting 200.000 FTDs in 2024.
Company Results
Affiliates
- Checkd Media announced a 157% increase in the conversion rate for its brand Footy Accumulators (from 1.1% to 2.9%). Average monthly users also grew by 17% with more than 150K unique visitors.
- ReferOn registered a 183.5% rise in new registrations compared to 2023.
Operators & Providers
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Market Moves
NEWS FEED
- Indonesia’s new government using AI to combat online gambling. They blocked 380.000 online sittes in October. They’re using AI to detect illegal gambling content on the Internet. The Government also built a cyber-patrol to detect sites and apps that contain gambling contents.
- Robinhood « definetely thinking about sports betting » as their next product.
- US Horseracing wagers rise above $920M in November (+1%). The market isn’t really growing compared to sports betting.
- IGB Affiliate tackles Sportradar’s deal on acquiring XLMedia assets in the US, at a time all affiliates are struggling there.
- Ben Robinson, from Corfai Capital discusses the effect on iGaming from the US macroeconomy for 2025, highlighting a rise in M&A activities and a probable easier access to funds for start-ups.
- France’s ANJ fines 8 betting operators for exceeding payout limit to bettors.
- China’s president urges Macau to diversify its economy away from gaming, since it still bring 81% of the government revenues.
M&A Moves
- VBET announces the acquisitio of Growe’s Brazilian business. The two leaders are planning the deal to end on december 2025 under the Parimatch Brand. Parimatch clients will transit to the VBET platform.
- Gambling.com in discussion to acquire Odds Holding for a total amount $160M (80 upfront and 80 based on performance)
- Draftking completed the acquisition of SimpleBet.
- North Star Network acquired Soccernet.ng to expand its footprint in Nigeria.
- Allwyn acquired 51% of Novibet for a total consideration of 217M€.
Marketing
- Google to fine-tune its stance on site reputation abuse. Adweek reported that News Media Alliance penned an open letter to Federal Trade Commission and DoJ urging them to investigate the algorithm changes (even though Google ran manual penalties in the past 2 months.)
- Affiliates experts tackle the lattest SRA update, arguing that smaller teams could be more agile to respond. Still, The Guardian still rank on iGaming Keywords by deleting the mention « sponsored)
Regulatory Updates & Whispers
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USA
Missouri : Officials have confirmed that sports betting vote has passed, with 50.5% in favor. The Missouri Gaming Commission stated it would seek to have all processed in place for a launch in spring or summer 2025. Sports books will probably not launch until next December, the time to frame betting rules. Sportsbook will probably face a 10% tax in revenues (lower than the average 19%)
Pennsylvania: Judge Patricia a McCullough stated in favor of G&B Amusements in the case of skill-based money games that are not located in casino venues.
National Council of Legislators from Gaming States suggests a notable revamp of the regulatory framework. Including a taxe rate of 15-25%; the ban of credit card payments, limiting the daily deposits by an individual to $20.000; prohibiting risk free language in ads nor allowing ads on college campuses.
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Sweden
The Swedish Government is studying the opportunity to exit state control over horse racing.
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Curaçao
The Parliament approved the new National Ordinance on Gambling that will regulate offshore gambling. Licences are availables to companies that are registered in Curaçao.
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Brazil
- Brazil has moved forward in banning offshore gambling sites.
- Bill 2,234/2022 (already approved by the Senate and Justice Committee) was withdrawn from the agenda last week, espacially because of the lattest news on addiction among Bolsa Familia beneficiaries. The federal government will then, make a new attempt to legalize casinos, bingo and jogo do bicho.
- Brazil Regulator approves 71 sports betting licenses.
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Australia
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UK
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France
France about to relaunch discussions on gambling taxes (for the most addictives games) but also on players winnings.
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Paraguay
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Finland
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Peru
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Chile
The Chilean SCJ announced this week that a RFP have been launched for a new casino. This licence was belonging to Rantrur SA before.
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New-Zealand
The country is making changes to the Racing Industry Act 2020 to extend TAB NZ’s monopoly to include online sports and racing betting.
The Country also aims to forbid greyhound racing in the coming months.
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Kenya
Kenya has acted its Gambling Control Act, that requires all licensed gambling companies to have at least 30% of their shares owned by kenyan citizens. But also, stricter penalties for offshores operators, a dedicated kenyan banking account and a raise in taxes (12.5% to 15%). That raises concerns in the industry that could lead to an un-channelisation of the market.
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Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwean government has announced a 10% withholding tax on gross sports betting winnings, effective January 1, 2025, following the growth of the sports betting activity in the country.
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Argentina
It’s almost over for Welcome Bonuses in Argentina since the Chamber of Deputees voted to ban gambling advertising, including endorsment, sponsorship and welcome bonuses. The bill still has to go through the Senate but is likely to succeed.