This Week's Breaking News

Here is a round-up of this week's top headlines and breaking news from the betting industry.

1) Spread-betting operator Plus500? issues half-year trading update, reporting "another strong operational performance" in H1, with revenue rising by 15% year-on-year to $468.5m and Ebitda climbing from $148.5m to $174.1m, with a margin of 47%. New customer numbers up 2% to 50,449, but active customers falling from 177,946 a year ago to 175,762. Group says board remains "highly-confident" about its performance for FY 2023, with revenue and Ebitda expected to be in line with current market expectations. CEO David Zruia adds: "We made significant progress in optimising our growth opportunities in the US and Japan, where we continue to make substantial investments to take advantage of the opportunities ahead."

2) Conversational gaming platform Streaks Gaming announces it is rebranding as StreaksAI, effective immediately. Group says move reflects its commitment to "leveraging cutting-edge technologies in the realm of natural language processing text generators like GPT-4 in its flagship products Streaks Gaming and Streaks Social".

3) Sportsbook software supplier Altenar announces partnership with nVenue , whose micro-betting features will be integrated into the former's platform. Groups say collaboration "highlights the growing significance of micro-betting as an essential feature in the world of sports betting, demonstrating its increasing popularity among major sportsbooks".?

4) BETBY reveals details of a new collaboration with cryptocurrency gambling platform FortuneJack for the launch of latter's sophisticated new sportsbook. FortuneJack CEO Boris Kiknadze says: "We sought (BETBY's) industry expertise to ensure our new sportsbook platform made a significant impact, and we feel we have created something that our players will greatly engage with."

5) Industry marketing affiliate B90 Holdings plc reports it has entered into a share purchase agreement with Funko International to acquire entire share capital of Emwys Ltd , a Swedish marketing company that specialises in pay-per-click online gambling marketing, for up to €3.6m. Group says deal, which is expected to close no later than September 1, will provide it with a "significant asset" to enhance its marketing capabilities and generate future revenue through strategic affiliate partnerships.?

6) Online marketing and gaming operator XLMedia Plc announces sale of its Casino.se , Casino.gr and Casino-Portugal.com.pt European domains and associated websites for $4m. Group says assets generated revenues of $840,000 in 2022 - equivalent to 6% of its total European Casino revenue. It says cash from sale "provides the group with additional working capital and funds further investment to drive the expansion of XLMedia's North American Sports and Gaming footprint and advance its EU portfolio".

7) Gambling Commission announces Star Sports operator Star Racing is to pay a ￡594,000 penalty for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures, and will also receive an official warning and have conditions added to its licence. Regulator says?AML failures included ineffective policies, procedures and controls - which allowed customers to deposit large amounts before obtaining source of funds information - while social responsibility failures included not demonstrating an understanding of the impact and effectiveness of customer interactions in terms of the minimisation of customer risk. The failings occurred between March 2020 and May 2021.

Subscribe to our Daily News Briefing to get access to real-time industry-centric news, delivered daily straight to your inbox:?https://go.pa.media/l/314511/2023-03-24/m3slf