Something for the weekend - 19 January 2024

It’s certainly been icy in London as we gear up for ICE in less than three weeks! Luckily over at iGB Towers we’ve got the hottest industry news, data and updates to keep us warm…

Starting with that sunny Mediterranean island many of us know as Malta (grrrr), all eyes have been on the MGA recently.

We’ve now seen five companies have their MGA licences cancelled in the last two weeks. Genesis Global has so far proven to be the headline fixture, with Super7Plus, Winners Malta, Rush Gaming and Betago also frozen out.

Things are certainly hotting up with Charles Mizzi set to ascend to the MGA throne as CEO on 26 January. Could this be a case of the regulator cleaning house?

Or perhaps, with Cura?ao now overhauling how it regulates gambling, competition between the world’s two biggest regulators might be getting ready to boil in 2024. ?

Warmed up yet? We’ll get back to all that and more once we thaw you out with what’s caught the Diary’s eye this week.

iGB Diary: MGA puts the boot in, These boots were made for stoppin’ and Lock and load

Happy Friday igamers! This week the Diary kicks back as the MGA puts its laces through some licence-holders, makes a mental note not to stand still in Vegas and pulls the trigger in Nebraska.

MGA puts the boot in?

The start of the New Year can often be slow, as people return to work regretting eating quite so much chocolate over Christmas and trying (and largely failing in the case of the Diary) to keep up their New Year’s resolutions.

But slow certainly doesn’t apply to the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) which, as we outlined above, has just dished out its fifth licence cancellation or suspension of 2024 with less than three weeks gone since the ball dropped to bring in the New Year.

In a real show of force, Super7Plus is the latest to draw the MGA’s ire, with Winners Malta Operations and Genesis Global also incurring the regulator’s wrath this week.

That follows the previous week, in which Rush Gaming’s licence was suspended until further notice, while Betago also had its authority to carry out gaming operations in Malta cancelled.

The MGA has certainly hit the ground running for 2024, clamping down on any pesky tactics operators may be trying to use to get ahead of the game.

So, next time you decide it’s too cold to go to the gym or break your ‘Dry January’ promise, just think about those hard-working fellows at the MGA making us all look bad.

These boots were made for stoppin’

If the Diary were to list all the wacky things that go on in Las Vegas, this newsletter would be 10 miles long.

So we won’t. Instead, we’ll brief you on just one – this week, Clark County Nevada voted to ban pedestrians from standing or stopping on the walkways over the Las Vegas Strip.

“But they’re really busy walkways,” we hear you say. “This kind of thing makes total sense.”

Yes, we get that. Most of us are London-based after all, and regularly fume behind slow-moving pedestrians. But one of the reasons listed in the bill to ban stopping on the walkways is… to prevent crime.

“Stopping on the pedestrian bridges creates conditions that can foment disorder which, in turn, can lead to crime and serious safety issues,” the bill reads.

And the penalty for stopping? A cool $1,000 or six months in prison. As much as we kid around, we promise we’ll behave on the walkways, Clark County. Catch us scampering across them next time we’re in Vegas.

Lock and load

There’s some developing intrigue in Nebraska, where the state Racing and Gaming Commission is under mounting scrutiny for a December report that put the kibosh on new racetracks and racinos in the state… and for spending over $30,000 on assault rifles.?

Yes, December’s market analysis ultimately concluded there was no more room for racinos in the Cornhusker State, though the General Affairs Committee is peering through the holes in the final document and questioning whether it needs redoing.?

Oh yeah, and why the regulator needs 10 short-barrel, semi-automatic rifles, costing $30,350, for its plainclothes investigators.?

“You have to meet force with force,” one of the investigators growled, presumably while flexing their biceps and posing in a mirror with their new Sig Sauer. In the Racing and Gaming Commission’s eyes, the purchase shows the regulator being “proactive”. Because packing heat, not growing your gaming market, is the best way to be “proactive”.?

The Diary did pause when it read this. Maybe it was naive to think a badge and a gun were not a fundamental part of any regulator’s arsenal. Though State Senator John Lowe’s reaction – “This is a regulatory agency,” he said, presumably as baffled as the Diary – suggests they’re… probably not.?

This week on iGB

Warmed up? We’ll get back to the news…

First up with one of the biggest headlines this week, we’ll get the kettle ready to boil with 888. An icy earnings report highlighted how the company’s revenues have gone cold with a full-year revenue drop of 8%. 888 said this was driven primarily by a proactive mix shift away from dotcom markets. This, it said, impacted revenues by approximately ￡80m in 2023. Hirings will also be undergoing a big freeze, with the company announcing it will be making multiple redundancies across its global network. “We are making some changes to our organisational structure that will better position the group to achieve its long-term strategic plans,” an 888 spokesperson said.?

Flutter, in comparison, has a much warmer outlook, with the company breaking the ice this week with a 25% year-on-year increase in group revenue to ￡9.51bn for its financial year, driven by a 38% rise in revenue from operations in the US.

FanDuel is certainly a hot prospect right now, with revenue rising 38% year-on-year to ￡3.06bn. As was the case in 2022, US operations remain the primary revenue source for the group, drawing 37.9% of all revenue.

Staying in the US, and New York brings the temperature down somewhat. Any hopes for seeing igaming regulated this year were frozen as Kathy Hochul, the state’s governor, left it out in the cold when producing the state’s FY25 budget.

And it was certainly an icy bath for those encouraged by New York state senator Joseph Addabbo’s filing of a revised igaming bill last week, with the exclusion of igaming from the budget spelling trouble. For Brendan Bussmann, managing partner at B Global Advisors, the choice to exclude igaming from the budget delivers a critical blow to the future of online casino. In his own words: “We’re in for a fight.” To analyse what igaming could bring to New York, Bussmann looks at its current sports betting market, which consistently brings in high revenue for the state. And no wonder – sports betting tax is set at 51%. Comparably, Addabbo’s latest bill proposed a tax of 31.5% on gross gaming revenue from igaming. Certainly a prospect to watch this year to see if it thaws.

Moving north to an even icier landscape than the UK is right now, and Ontario igaming and player spending brought the thermostat back up. Gaming revenue grew 22% quarterly to ￡384.3m, with player spending now at ￡10.7bn for Q3 2024 – making the outlook positively balmy.

Bet365, which is Ontario’s biggest operator by market share, also benefited from a red-hot analysis by Ed Birkin, senior analyst at H2 Gambling Capital. While the most prominent figure in the operator’s report was its chilly ￡61.2m loss, Bet365 also recorded significant revenue growth.

In Birkin’s view, Bet365’s growing interest in the US market, as well as its hugely successful Ontario launch, could lead to future growth in regions such as North America and the soon-to-be regulated Brazil. Birkin believes the heavy investment that caused the losses will prove to be beneficial for the operator. “I view this investment as very positive for the company,” he said. “Personally, I would be more concerned if there wasn’t a significant increase in investment given the new market entries and shift to regulated markets.”

That’s all from us for this week! We’re going back to camping out by the boiler. If we haven’t completely frozen over the weekend, we’ll be back with even more of the industry’s best news, data and analysis on Monday!