Something for the Weekend - 26th May 2023

If Kindred Group was a football club, its board would be reaching out for Big Sam. Following last week’s abrupt departure of CEO Henrik Tj?rnstr?m, days after CFO Johan Wilsby announcing he was to quit, a further two C-level executives are on their way out.?

Chief commercial officer Anne-Jaap Snijders and chief marketing officer Elen Barber will both follow Tj?rnstr?m and Wilsby out the door. The pair, both veterans with more than ten years’ service at Kindred, will depart later in the year.?

This, of course, followed a fairly damning interview in the Swedish press with founder and former chair Anders Str?m, in which he criticised strategic decisions such as its US entry and building a proprietary sportsbook platform. Str?m ultimately recommended the business be sold, something activist shareholder Corvex Management has long pushed for.?

Now interim CEO Nils Andén is left to pick up the pieces, and most likely ensure Kindred looks attractive to potential buyers. There’s a lot more to come from this.?

We’ll continue with the week’s other main stories, after we try and raise a dry smile.?

iGB Diary: Let’s get this bread, hotel it like Beckham and off the stool

Happy Friday igamers! This week the Diary gets that bread (and a bit more), ponders waking up next to David Beckham in Macau, and wonders whether the Stool Presidente has reached his time limit.?

Let's get this bread (literally)

There is nothing more normal than popping out to grab a loaf of bread. It's a fact of life, like taxes or DJ Khaled shouting "WE THE BEST MUSIC" on a song you quite like.

After such a mundane task, you cannot blame a person for wanting some sort of little reward, if only to brighten up their day. In this case, that reward was a lottery ticket, which bus driver Steve Goodwin purchased alongside the loaf.

But Goodwin was in for the shock of his life. After placing a post-errand kebab order (very relatable), he discovered that he had in fact won ￡1m on the aforementioned ticket.

Goodwin said that he will use the money to buy his first home mortgage-free. Although the Diary wholeheartedly supports this decision - and are a little bit jealous - we hope he sets a little bit aside for future loaf and kebab jaunts. Never forget where you come from.

Hotel it like Beckham

When it comes to holiday destinations and wallet-emptying resorts, the Diary is always partial to something special.?

Yet, when abroad we often can’t shake the longing for home. But what’s one to do? A stash of English breakfast tea in the carry-on, ketchup snuggled into the hold luggage? Well, if you’re going to a ‘back in business’ Macau you can stay somewhere just like home, albeit weirder.

The Londoner is a new hotel and its theme is self-explanatory. It’s like Big Ben, Paddington Station and Legoland all had a baby and out popped this hotel. No, seriously. There’s a replica of Big Ben attached because no Londoner can walk around the English capital without knowing our trusty time monument is close.

The hotel is a redesign of the Sands Cotai Central integrated resort and marks the beginning of a new 10-year gaming concession for Sands China. The company has promised to invest $3.7bn in Macau.

Hotel visitors can take an adventure inside a London taxi with a hologram of David Beckham, who in his role as brand ambassador (is there nothing he won’t endorse?) also designed 14 suites with framed photos of himself inside.?

Fitted with monogrammed DB cushions the suites are the perfect place for those with a Beckham obsession in China’s only legalised gambling city.

Waking up next to Becks? Oh, what a time to be British.

Off the stool?

Famed pizza consumer and self-described “degenerate gambler” Dave Portnoy has always had a knack for keeping himself in the headlines.

Over the years he’s carved out a niche as everyone’s least favourite podcast bro, one of the louder terminally divorced take-havers in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

However, following Penn Entertainment’s 2020 acquisition of his outfit Barstool Sports, Portnoy has no doubt chafed under the restrictions that working for a public-listed American corporation can bring.

And so it looks like he might be on his way out. This week, during an appearance on the Kirk Minihane Show, Portnoy gave a notably non-committal answer when queried about his future at the business, emphasising that his “contract's done in 20 months so.”

Maybe before the 46 year-old Massachusetts-native leaves the industry with nothing to his name but his enormous personal fortune, perhaps the Diary should take a moment to thank him for all he’s done for the sector.

That’s your lot! Same time, same place, next week!

The week on iGB

We kick off with the week’s most read piece. In last week’s Something for the Weekend, we promised you more from Fanatics Betting and Gaming CEO Matt King, and we’ve delivered with an in-depth interview with the man looking to show there’s as much of an advantage in being a second mover as there is in forming part of the first wave. He doesn’t want to build another FanDuel - he’s done that already - but now he wants to build something new, that ultimately offers a product and experience so good that it convinces people to move over from their existing sportsbooks.

Talk over what constitutes legal and illegal online gaming is back at the forefront of the industry’s mind, but Malta is looking to give its licensees an added level of protection. A bill filed in the Parliament of Malta would prevent courts from awarding damages to plaintiffs who sued gaming businesses for offering gaming services abroad. This has prompted outrage from German and Austrian lawyers working on cases to recoup player losses from MGA licensees. They’ve contacted the European Commission urging action to block the legislation.?

In Great Britain, Flutter’s Paddy Power Betfair was fined ￡490,000 for marketing to self-excluded players. A push notification was sent from its app to Apple devices linked to accounts of players that had signed up for the national self-exclusion system Gamstop, an issue flagged to the Gambling Commission by the operator. Flutter noted that neither the operator nor the Commission received any complaints about the message, while players were not permitted to bet, and it’s unclear how many actually saw the notification.

The markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation means cryptocurrency businesses operating in the European Union now face additional regulatory scrutiny, potentially impacting gaming businesses in the sector. This sets a three-month window for states to develop an authorisation framework for crypto businesses, as well as setting out enhanced checks for those operating in high-risk jurisdictions.?

Staying in Europe, Paf has expanded its Baltics presence with a €28.3m deal for 888’s Latvian business. This comprises the legacy William Hill and Mr Green operations, which are run semi-autonomously by a local management team. “As a business, our relatively limited exposure in the Baltic region means that the region is not one of our core or growth markets where we prioritise our investments,” 888 chair Lord Mendelsohn commented.?

Finally for the news, Australia could miss out on AU$3.35bn in tax income as a result of offshore gambling, according to a Responsible Wagering Australia report compiled by H2 Gambling Capital. The black market, H2 notes, generated an estimated $571m in gross revenue last year. The findings show the need for balanced reform, and more efforts to stamp out unlicensed activity, RWA said.

That’s all for this week!