This Week's Sports Betting Update

One big story?

888 shareholders unanimously approve the acquisition of William Hill’s non-US assets

Shareholders of 888 have voted unanimously for the company to purchase William Hill’s non-US assets from its owner Caesars. Some 307 million shareholder votes were in favour of the deal, with just 819,264 votes cast against the acquisition.

News of shareholder approval comes just a few weeks after Caesars agreed to cut the purchase price of the assets by ￡250 million, with the cash aspect of the deal now valued at ￡585m rather than ￡835m.

With the price reduction, the total cost of the acquisition is set to be ￡1.95 billion rather than the ￡2.2bn originally mooted. 888 believes by securing William Hill’s non-US assets it can more easily diversify into sports betting while cementing its stronghold in localised regulated markets.

Click here to get the thoughts of 888’s non-executive chairman, Lord Mendelsohn, on the takeover and discover how much 888 anticipates saving annually in cost synergies by 2025.

What you need to know

Commercial

• ???? William Hill have launched in the regulated Latvian sports betting market following a rebrand of local operator 11.lv. The brand, which has operated under a Latvian licence since 2012, has made way for William Hill, who plan to raise awareness of regulated online sports betting more easily with their established name. More
• ???? The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) confirmed that online operators generated a gross gambling yield of ￡363m in March. This represented a 10% decline on the previous month (￡40m). Although online slot yields were up 15% month-on-month, real-event betting yields were down 41%, hinting at the knock-on effects of the cost-of-living crisis. More?
• ???? Hard Rock International has confirmed its intention to launch its sportsbook in the regulated market of Virginia. A new mobile sportsbook and a retail sportsbook have been planned for the state, having originally rolled out its mobile sports betting app in Arizona in April. More
• ???? Bayes Esports has closed its latest funding round, raising more than €6m from fresh investors. Integrated resorts operator Las Vegas Sands was the lead investor, along with venture capital investors Bitkraft. More

Regulation

The Peruvian government has moved a step closer to launching online sports betting for its citizens. A bill to formally legalise online sports betting was unanimously approved by the Economic Commission of the Congress and will now move to parliament for further debate. More

Technology

BetMakers have reached an agreement with Royal Sabah Turf Club to develop a new, state-of-the-art tote betting platform and associated content management services for the Malaysian Tambalang Race Course. The software will also be utilised across Malaysia’s off-course betting network. More

People news

DAZN BET recruits ex-Betdaq managing director Shane McLaughlin

Former Betdaq managing director, Shane McLaughlin, has been appointed as managing director of the UK and Ontario at DAZN BET.

The former Entain executive, who oversaw substantial growth of both its Betdaq and Ladbrokes brands, will have a remit to oversee the DAZN BET sportsbook interface and build a product that’s fit for the UK and Ontario-licensed markets.

McLaughlin, who also spent time working at BoyleSports in his earlier years, will team up with former BoyleSports colleagues including former CEO, Mark Kemp.

Click here to get the thoughts of McLaughlin on his move to the fledgling sportsbook and the brand’s plans for the short and long-term.

This week's talking point

Calibre of evidence used to inform UK government’s gambling review white paper called into question

Dan Waugh, of strategic advisory firm Regulus Partners, believes the UK government has been armed with a dodgy dossier of evidence seized on by anti-gambling activists to try to influence the outcome of its gambling review white paper.

Waugh questions the quality and validity of the evidence on which the white paper will be based. That’s because much of the evidence presented has not been passed through a robust fact-checking system.

The danger, Waugh fears, is that the government will be misled in formulating policy based on inaccurate data. Exhibit A in Waugh’s argument is Public Health England’s estimate that the UK’s gambling industry costs over ￡1bn per annum in social and economic harm. However, after closer examination, Waugh cast doubt on PHE’s cost estimates. Anti-gambling activists have latched on to this to vindicate their view of gambling as the new tobacco.

Click here to learn more about why Waugh insists there should be no need to fabricate evidence on Britain’s gambling industry.

This week's insight

How pitiful prize-money in British horseracing can be solved

Prize-money in British horseracing has this week been described by the Racing Post’s Lee Mottershead as pitiful. The Racing Writer of the Year detailed seven ways to boost the industry’s coffers and plug the drain of talented horses from the UK.

Mottershead notes that Ireland’s horseracing industry outperforms Britain in terms of average prize-money per race. British racing's paltry prize offerings are also dwarfed by those in Asia, notably Japan and Hong Kong. The Racecourse Association forecasts that British prize-money will be ￡170m in 2022, which will be comfortably beaten by its cross-Channel counterparts in France (￡236m).

Reformation of the levy is one clear way to raise upwards of ￡20m per annum in extra income. An overhaul to the bookmaker funding model, combining the levy and media rights in one package, could increase top-level prize-money by between 10-30%.

Click here to subscribe and discover ways British horseracing’s prize-money problems could be solved, as Mottershead ranks them in terms of their feasibility and their likelihood of happening.

Ontario's online sports betting launch

A deep dive into the successful launch of Ontario's online sports betting market

Spotlight Sports Group is partnering with The Parleh to present a webinar focusing on the Ontario sports betting market on Wednesday, May 25 at 12 pm EST/5 pm BST.

Throughout the webinar, we'll hear from PointsBet CCO, Nick Sulsky, The Score's VP of Marketing and Content, Aubrey Levy, and Editor-in-Chief of The Parleh, Steve McAllister, as well as Spotlight Sports Group's own SVP of B2B Partnerships, Rick Wolf.?

Click here to register for the event.?

Enjoy this email? If so, let us know what you would like to hear more (or less) about here. We value your feedback to provide the most informative weekly newsletter in the industry.?

Was this forwarded to you by a friend or colleague? Sign up here to get your own copy of the news that matters sent to your inbox every week.