Stockholm-based esports data and statistics company Abios has launched a new age compliance solution. 

According to the company, the new solution provides up-to-date information covering planned rosters, player ages, birthdays, and the proportion of underage players in teams participating in major tournaments and titles – information critical for bookmakers and esports betting platforms to maintain regulatory compliance. The data is retrieved directly from Abios’ API weekly. 

Several jurisdictions, including Sweden, the UK, Spain, and US states, are now implementing various regulations regarding betting on esports matches involving the participation of minors – with some prohibiting betting when minors feature on rosters, and others when minors make up the majority of players.  

Oskar Fröberg, CEO of Abios, commented: “Over the past 18 months, we have offered player age compliance as an add-on service for several of our large customers in the affected jurisdictions. Due to the increased demand and incoming regulations in more regions, we are happy to announce that esports compliance will now officially become part of our product offering.

“Having run the product in a live environment for an extended period, without any errors, we can now comfortably offer it to the broader market.”

AYO.NEWS says:

With esports betting regulations becoming more complex, and the liabilities of non-compliance growing, betting operators very much need this kind of tool to make offering esports betting manageable. 

It’s also interesting to ponder whether or not, with many esports organisations and leagues now partnered with betting operators and the commercial importance of gambling rapidly increasing, there will be a trend towards age segregated rosters and even age segregated tournaments and leagues?

Serious questions have been raised regarding the recently collapsed Football Index, after it emerged the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) had been warned about dangers over a year ago. 

According to The Guardian, in January 2020, the UKGC received a document which described Football Index as “an exceptionally dangerous pyramid scheme” masquerading as a “football stock market,” and called for urgent action “to alert and protect” users.

Football Index was granted a license by the Gambling Commission in 2015, and was not licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates investment products.

Several fundamental issues were flagged regarding the betting firm’s business model, and it was accused of deliberately misleading customers by portraying itself as a legitimate investment service rather than a gambling product. 

The seemingly obvious liquidity issue, which ultimately sunk the operation, was also highlighted, with the document pointing out that if user growth stopped or declined, the company would be unable to pay liabilities to its users. 

Specifically, the document said Football Index was “vulnerable to and destined for a bank run in which the first ‘X’ percent of users manage to get some money out before the system collapses and the remainder lose everything.”

As previously reported, in a collapse Football Index itself said was largely triggered by the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on football, the platform saw prices for footballers plummet, causing a liquidity crunch, which resulted in it slashing dividends by 80% in a desperate attempt to remain afloat. 

This move sparked an instant backlash from customers, some of whom found themselves facing huge losses, with Football Index even having to disable its Twitter account due to the level of anger directed at staff. 

On 11 March, the UKGC suspended Football Index’s license, and said: “The suspension follows an ongoing section 116 review into the operator, as we had concerns activities may have been carried on in purported reliance on the licence, but not in accordance with a condition of the licence, and that Football Index may not be suitable to carry on with licensed activities.”

As reported last week, Football Index then announced it was suspending operations and entering administration.

AYO.NEWS says:

As we said last week, there is no realistic way Football Index can possibly hope to recover from this. Indeed, we wouldn’t be surprised to see several new investigations into the business, and those behind it. And, if the Gambling Commission itself was seen to turn a blind eye, expect fireworks on that front too. 

In absolutely, totally unrelated news, earlier this week, just days before The Guardian bombshell, UK Gambling Commission CEO, Neil McArthur, announced his resignation.

UK-based In Touch Games has been hit with a £3.4M GBP fine, and ordered to undergo extensive auditing, by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). 

The action follows a UKGC assessment that revealed social responsibility, money laundering, and marketing failures. 

In Touch Games Limited operates bonusboss.co.uk, cashmo.co.uk, casino.mfortune.co.uk, casino2020.co.uk, drslot.co.uk, mfortune.co.uk, mrspin.co.uk, pocketwin.co.uk and slotfactory.com.

According to the Gambling Commission, the operator’s litany of failures included:

Social responsibility failings included:

• Stating in its Responsible Gambling Team interaction guidance that a bonus may be offered if a customer provides identification.
• Not putting into effect its policies and procedures for customer interaction for seven customers where it had concerns that a customer’s activity may indicate problem gambling.
• Not using all relevant sources of information to ensure effective decision making, and to guide and deliver effective customer interactions for those seven customers. If the Licensee had followed its policy it should have given more consideration to placing mandatory limits on customer accounts.
  

Anti-money laundering failings included:

• Having a risk assessment which did not take into account the risk of allowing customers to use a payment provider which also acts as an exchange for crypto-currencies.
• Neglecting to conduct appropriate levels of Enhanced Customer Due Diligence.
• Failing to critically review Source of Funds information once it was requested.

Fair and transparent terms and practices failings included:

• Not stating in an SMS text the minimum and maximum deposits in an offer’s significant terms.
• Not stating in an SMS text the time limit for which the bonus offer could be claimed.
  

In Touch Games will now be required to contract, at its own expense, independent auditors to carry out an audit to ensure full compliance with the License Conditions and Codes of Practice.

Richard Watson, Gambling Commission Executive Director, said: “Through our challenging compliance and enforcement activity we will continue our work to raise standards in the industry and continue to hold failing operators to account.”

FIFA, in collaboration with the United Nations on Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has launched the Global Integrity Programme – a comprehensive international programme aimed at providing all 211 member associations with enhanced knowledge and tools to fight and prevent match manipulation.

In line with FIFA’s overall vision of making football truly global, as well as its ongoing commitment to protecting and promoting the integrity of the game, the FIFA Global Integrity Programme is designed to improve education and build integrity capacity within all 211 member associations by sharing advanced know-how and resources with integrity officers. The programme also reflects the UNODC’s objective of supporting governments and sports organisations in their efforts to safeguard sport from corruption and crime.

With the objective of setting up successful and sustainable integrity and anti-corruption initiatives at local level, the new programme is organised regionally per confederation and includes a series of three-module virtual workshops to be delivered to all FIFA member associations. The first edition of the programme, dedicated to the member associations from the Asian Football Confederation, started with the first module on 4 March and will continue with the second module on 16 March.

Speaking about the FIFA Global Integrity Programme, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “Match-fixing is an issue that is very real and threatens the integrity and credibility of football in many countries around the world. Working in close collaboration with experts at the UNODC and alongside other ongoing efforts that FIFA is taking, the FIFA Global Integrity Programme is another important step by FIFA to protect the integrity of football and will play an important role in educating and building capacity within member associations to help fight match-fixing at a local level.”

Alongside the FIFA Global Integrity Programme, FIFA has also announced today that it will shortly be launching the FIFA Integrity Officers Community Platform. This will be the first-ever community-driven online platform dedicated exclusively to integrity officers across all member associations and confederations worldwide. This confidential platform will bring together a global network of integrity officers to share their experience and exchange best practice related to preventing and fighting match manipulation and promoting integrity in football.

FIFA’s Global Integrity Programme is in line with The Vision 2020-2023: Making Football Truly Global, which reaffirms FIFA’s commitment to fighting match manipulation by implementing integrity initiatives and reporting mechanisms, as well as setting up dedicated educational programmes. As part of its ongoing integrity initiatives, FIFA signed a memorandum of understanding with the UNODC in September 2020 to step up their joint cooperation to address the threats posed by crime to sport.

The Lithuanian Gambling Supervisory Authority has issued its first fine to an operator. 

UAB Tete-a-Tete Casino has been hit with a €15,000 penalty for unreasonably setting betting limits on an online customer.

Apparently, during an inspection, the regulator found that the company had limited the amounts of bets placed, and winnings received, by the player in question, with no genuine objective reason. 

Explaining its action, the regulator reminded operators that they were not permitted to restrict customers from gambling, unless it was for objective reasons defined in the country’s regulations. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Well, it’s not often we hear of regulators fining companies for placing limits on customers’ betting activity – normally it’s a case of operators being fined for not putting limits on activity. It’s a sign that, at least in Lithuania, the regulator is concerned with protecting players’ rights to gamble how they see fit, unless there is a specific cause for concern.

The CEO of the UK’s Gambling Commission, Neil McArthur, has announced he is stepping down after fifteen years with the regulator. 

Despite McArthur having presided over numerous reforms aimed at strengthening player protection and reducing gambling harm, the UKGC has been slammed by anti-gambling pressure groups, politicians and popular press over recent years. 

Conversely, many in the gambling industry feel that the Gambling Commission, under McArthur, has been too aggressive with fines and sanctions. 

Reflecting on his time with the Commission, McArthur said: “I am proud of everything the Gambling Commission has achieved during my 15 years with the organisation.

“We have taken significant steps forward to make gambling fairer and safer and I know that I leave the organisation in a strong position to meet its future challenges.

“With a review of the Gambling Act underway now feels the right time to step away and allow a new Chief Executive to lead the Commission on the next stage in its journey.”

McArthur’s position will be filled by ongoing deputy Sarah Gardner and COO Sally Jones, who will take over as acting joint-CEO’s until a permanent replacement is recruited. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Who can blame McArthur for stepping down from such an absurdly impossible and thankless position. As we’ve argued many times previously, whatever the UKGC does, it won’t be enough to appease the emotionally driven anti-gambling crusaders – who are increasingly reminiscent of the woke mobs fueling today’s poisonous ‘cancel culture.’ 

Meanwhile, the UK’s gambling market is already one of the world’s most heavily regulated markets, and despite the extremely blinkered arguments voiced by pressure groups, any move to further tighten restrictions will inevitably push players towards unlicensed offshore operators by making licensed operators increasingly uncompetitive. 

Basically, whoever ends up leading the UKGC, they are in a “no win” situation.