Los Angeles-based blockchain venture studio Draper Goren Holm has announced an equity investment in Degens – The Blockchain Betting Exchange. 

Founded back in 2017, Degens is the first peer-to-peer sports betting exchange to operate on the Ethereum blockchain that uses the popular cryptocurrencies ETH and DAI. 

According to Degens, it is revolutionising the $100bn+ sports betting industry by utilising blockchain technology to offer the lowest fees, complete anonymity, a non-custodial platform (meaning Degens is never in possession of customer funds), and instant deposits/withdrawals. 

The collaboration with Draper Goren Holm and the Draper Venture Network will give Degens access to additional capital investments, mentorship, product marketing assistance, a powerful public relations arm, hands-on growth marketing guidance, and future sports partnerships through the venture studio, and the other portfolio companies in the venture network. 

Discussing the investment CMO of Degens, Matthew Thompson, said:

“We’re extremely excited to be supported by one of the leading accelerators and incubators in the blockchain/fintech space. We are confident their support will ensure that Degens continues to remain a market leader in the rapidly growing blockchain gaming industry.”

While Founding Partner at Draper Goren Holm, Josef Holm, commented: 

“Since the beginning, Degens has proved itself as a promising decentralized peer to peer sports betting exchange, one that users can trust and rely on. While we’re all curious to see how the sports industry overcomes COVID, the act of betting isn’t going anywhere; users will continue to win using Degens.”

And, Founding Partner at Draper Goren Holm, Alon Goren, added:

“Degens is replacing the typical house and its associated fees with smart contracts and contrary participant opinions. This type of system architecture allows for unstoppable winning and prevents Degens from controlling one’s money. It’s no question that this will be the future of sports betting, so we’re excited to welcome the team into the Draper Goren Holm family!”

AYO.NEWS says:

Sports betting has had a rough ride so far this year, and the COVID-19 crisis doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon, so it’s great to see Draper Goren Holm are looking ahead at the long-term with this investment. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Stockholm-listed online gambling group Betsson AB has published its 2020 interim results, revealing record revenue despite the COVID-19 crisis. 

Betsson saw Q2 revenue come in at SEK 1.532bn (€150m), up 20% year-on-year, with the group’s online casino properties responsible for 84% of that, a growth of 40%. This helped offset a 34% fall in Q2 sportsbook revenues, which amounted to some SEK 226m. 

Operating income for the first half of the year was SEK 478m (€46m), up 6% on the H1 2019, while closing H1 trading Betsson reported a year-to-date net income of SEK 422m (€40m), up 5% year-on-year.

During the period the Betsson saw several significant events, completing the acquisition of GiG’s B2C vertical, and announcing entries to the US (Colorado) and Kenyan markets.

Reflecting on the group’s performance, President and CEO of Betsson AB, Pontus Lindwall, said:

“We responded quickly and decisively to make changes in our offer, and I am particularly pleased to see the strong performance in casino.

“Sports betting revenues continued to be impacted in the second quarter by the pandemic as expected, however benefited from the progressive return of football and other sporting events at the end of the quarter. Our business has remained financially robust and resilient to this impact, being both diversified and flexible.”

The company has said that things are looking strong for Q3 2020, with daily revenue 35% higher than average, but has sounded a note of caution regarding regulatory environments in key markets. 

Specifically, the company is facing higher tax burdens in Denmark, a payment ban in Norway, the suspension of online gambling in Latvia, and most worrying of all, the controversial emergency gambling restrictions in Betsson’s home market of Sweden. 

Regarding the situation in Sweden, Lindwall said:

“During this pandemic, governments have been modelling a range of scenarios of potential impact, several governments took immediate temporary actions on our industry such as either suspending gambling both offline and online or implementing restrictions on marketing. 

“In the beginning of the third quarter, when most countries had removed Corona-related restrictions, Sweden sadly enough implemented restrictions on online casino, without empirical evidence. This measure will, unfortunately, push even more consumers to play outside of the Swedish regulation.”

AYO.NEWS says:

With Betsson’s extensive online casino offering, it was well-placed to ride out the COVID-19 storm compared to operators more exposed to sports betting. However, as we’ve been cautioning for some time, the crisis looks to be far from over and a second wave of infections later in the year could result in more lockdowns, and more severe economic disruption. But, as Pontus Lindwall highlighted, the biggest threat to successful operators like Betsson is most likely politicians rather than the virus.

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

The gaming sector directly contributed €1.56bn to the Maltese economy in 2019, up 9.6% from 2018, according to official figures from the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). 

More important to Malta than the headline figure suggests

Gaming ranked third, behind retail/food/accommodation at number one, and professional services at number two, in terms of the private sector that contributed most to the economy of the European Union’s smallest country. 

As the MGA has also pointed out, the real value of gaming to Malta is actually much higher than the €1.56bn suggests, because much of the value generated from other sectors, including real estate, distributive trades, catering services and hospitality, ICT, and financial and professional services is heavily reliant on the gaming sector. 

More operators, more jobs

294 gambling operators were licensed in Malta in 2019, up 3.9% on 2018, but down from 2017’s high of 296.

The MGA approved 53 out of 89 license applications during 2019, compared to 93 that were granted in 2018 – with the authority putting this down to changes in the licensing system that meant licensees that already possessed a critical gaming supply or gaming service license mostly didn’t need a new one if they wanted to offer a different product.

Employment in the sector also rose to 7,417 in the year, of which the vast majority, 6,593 were in online gaming, a 9.2% year-on-year increase. 

Slots still rule

Player versus house casino games accounted for over 56% of revenue, up from 55.4% in 2018. Of these, over 74.4% of the revenue was from slots, with table games bringing in 21.5%. 

Sports betting brought in 36.3 of total revenue, down from 39% the year before. Unsurprisingly, football generated the most of all sports, bringing in 76.4% of revenue, with tennis accounting for 7.7% and basketball 5.9%. 

‘Player versus player’ games brought in 7.7% of total revenue. Of this, poker contributed the lion’s share at 81.9%, and betting exchanges generated 10.3%, 

Skill games hadn’t generated enough revenue to be significant as of the end of 2019. 

2019 also saw a 12.7% growth in the number of active player profiles in Malta-licensed online casinos, totaling 20.4m. 

Compliance crackdown

2019 also saw the launch of an ongoing enforcement drive by the MGA, which saw it cancel 14 casino licences during the year. This compared to 8 license cancellations in 2018, and just 3 in 2017. Additionally, 11 casinos had their licenses temporarily suspended during 2019. 

The MGA itself spent €13.2m, of which €7.2m were staff costs, and €1.2m were depreciation and amortization, plus general and administrative costs. 

Looking ahead: impact of COVID-19 crisis

In April 2020 the MGA conducted a survey of licensees to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the gaming sector. The poll, which involved 151 B2C operators, suggested there would likely be an overall drop of 12% in gaming revenue during 2020 – caused by the loss of sports betting revenue. Sports betting itself looks set to take a much bigger hit, falling around 40%. 

64 B2B companies were also surveyed, with a resulting 20% decline in revenue predicted. 

AYO.NEWS says:

As the MGA rightly pointed out, and as anyone who has spent time living in Malta will know, the actual importance of the sector to the country’s economy is much greater than the €1.56bn suggests, because so many other services are reliant on spending from gaming sector companies and employees. 

This will become even more apparent at the end of 2020, when the full scope of the damage done to Malta’s critical tourism sector by the COVID-19 crisis becomes clear. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Sports betting supplier BETBY has announced its sportsbook and Betby.Games esports offering is now live with iGaming solutions provider Advabet. 

The partnership will see Advabet’s white label and turnkey online casino solutions boosted by BETBY’s AI-driven sportsbook offering, which covers more than 50K sporting events per month, and over 80 different sports. 

Betby.Games, the supplier’s new esports offering, will also be available through Advabet’s solution. This covers popular titles like FIFA, NBA 2K, and Rocket League, with more events, including tennis and combat disciplines expected to be added soon.

Commenting on the news Chief Executive Officer at BETBY, Leonid Pertsovskiy, said:

“Advabet is an exciting, up and coming, innovative brand who we are proud to enter a commercial partnership with.

“Our Betby.Games offering continues to go from strength to strength and with the return of live sports we see more appetite than ever to have a multi-product solution which appeals to a wide range of players. We look forward to a long and successful relationship.”

While Chief Executive Officer at Advabet, Sergiu Cravcenco, added:

“BETBY’s innovative products and customer-centric attitude are things that stood out for us in our search for new offerings for our platform.

“We both share an exciting vision for the future and working together we will look to continue to grow at an exciting pace.”

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Spanish sports betting has made a strong comeback, following the lifting of the country’s emergency restrictions.

On March 14th, the Spanish government enforced the State of Alarm. This meant all economic activity came to a standstill, including sporting competitions. The situation lasted for over three months, up until June 21st, and in that period, a prohibition on gambling advertising was also in place countrywide. 

With neither national nor European sporting competitions in motion, and severe restrictions on ads that were only allowed to be shown four hours per day during the lockdown – specifically between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m – operators and affiliates operating in Spain could not develop any campaigns to attract bettors. 

In May, we saw the comeback of football in Europe, kicking off mid-month with the German Bundesliga. Since then, national leagues on the continent have resumed operations gradually, with the exception of the French Ligue 1. La Liga returned in June, but even so, the betting operators could not yet find any reason to cheer, as the State of Alarm was to remain in force for ten more days.

Change of course  

The plan was to lift the advertising ban on the 21st of June, the day when the State of Alarm ended in Spain. 

That was not the case, however, as ads were allowed again on June 11th – at any time throughout the day – coinciding with Sevilla FC vs Real Betis, the first match of LaLiga upon resumption.

The decision of lifting the ban ahead of schedule came from the office of Alberto Garzon, current Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs. When choosing to enforce the prohibition, back in March, he declared, “We are approving the banning of gambling advertising with the aim of protecting the most vulnerable during the lockdown, a period when overexposure to these sorts of ads threatens to create a public health problem with gambling”. 

But Garzon decided to end the prohibition as soon as Spanish football resumed. The gambling operators within the country received the decision with open arms and there was a big increase in interest from the Spanish population. 

This is clearly illustrated in the case of Miscasasdeapuestas.com, a bookmaker comparison site run by the affiliate company Leadstar Media. The site recorded its best numbers of the football season so far, as the resumption of La Liga together with the lifting of the advertising ban paved the way for players to return.

Commenting on recent weeks Eskil Kvarnström, CEO of Leadstar Media, stated: 

“In just twenty days, we’ve seen our numbers increase twofold compared to our best month in the 2019-20 campaign, and we expect further significant growth also in July as it will bring a full month of Spanish top-level football”. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Leadstar’s success since the lifting of the state of emergency gambling advertising ban clearly shows there was plenty of pent-up enthusiasm for Spanish football betting after three months in lockdown!

However, despite the good news for Spanish-facing sports betting affiliates, let’s spare a thought for Spanish football clubs and betting operators, who recently learned that, from the next La Liga season, all football gambling sponsorships, including shirt deals and naming rights, will be completely banned. 

Mind you, that may actually be good news for affiliates, as operators could well become more reliant on them for customer acquisition. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Interwetten has appointed former Premier League footballer Yakubu “Yak” Ayegbeni as its first Nigerian market brand ambassador.

The DACH-focused sportsbook previously announced its entry into the Nigerian market as a core corporate growth objective in its Q1 trading. 

Ayegbeni, who has scored 95 goals in the Premier League, and played 57 matches for Nigeria, will be involved in raising Interwetten’s profile in the rapidly growing Nigerian market through advertising, appearances, and a new social media feature called the ‘Yakubu Tip.’

Discussing the news Speaker of the Board at Interwetten, Dominik Beier, said:

“We are very happy that with Yak we can embrace great things. The passion for football is enormous in Nigeria, footballers are idols.  It was therefore clear to us that, for the first time in the history of the company, we would be  looking to partner with a former Nigerian professional footballer as our official ambassador.

“In Yakubu we feel we have found that perfect partner and look forward to experiencing the excellence of Nigerian football fans for ourselves. We want to ensure that our customers in Nigeria receive the highest quality product, so we were also looking for someone who had set an example of this during his career. We are just at the beginning of a long journey in Nigeria, now it really starts!”

While Ayegbeni himself added:

”When choosing my partners, it is really important to me that the chemistry is right and that was immediately obvious after the first talks. Interwetten has been a reliable and serious partner in sports for decades, in countries all over Europe. It will be a very exciting partnership and homecoming for me too!”

AYO.NEWS says:

Despite a temporary (hopefully) setback due to the COVID-19 crisis, the sports betting industry in Nigeria has been booming over the last few years, with more and more operators getting in on the action, and an ever growing market driven by the proliferation of smartphones and mobile internet access.

Given the country is football-crazy, it makes a lot of sense for Interwetten to hire footballers as brand ambassadors, and we expect to see other operators do the same over the coming months and years. 

Find out more about why Nigeria continues to be a fertile ground for sports betting companies here.

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020