Published 03.09.2019 Author: Jake Category: News
The new gambling regulations that were put in motion at the start of January 2019, meant that a number of foreign operators would be completely shut out of the market. Throughout the year, this clause has been a ticking time bomb and many operators were starting to think the shutout would never be actioned. However, the Swiss regulator has now listed 65 operators who are blacklisted from working in the country.
The list was a combination of two, coming from the Intercantonal Lottery and Betting Commission (Comlot) and the Swiss Federal Gaming Board (SFGB). Moving forward, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be expected to block all websites that are found on the list, with a total of 65 domains. Many household, European names make up the list including Bet365 and Pinnacle.
There were a number of operators who in anticipation, removed themselves from the Swiss market. GVC Holding sites, such as Bwin left at the start of the year, with William Hill leaving in June after doing their best to hold onto their Swiss players for as long as they could
In the future, if these operators are looking for their way back into the Swiss market, they will need to keep a good reputation in the country. Those who are found to maintain lawful for five years will become eligible for partnerships and re-introduction into Switzerland. However, this does involve the operators keeping their hands clean, preventing the countries players from accessing their casinos, even through VPNs.
Published 02.09.2019 Author: Jake Category: News
ComeOn, the Malta-based gambling operator has recently decided they are going to be dropping their UK facing brands and will look for a more suitable country to focus their efforts. Their reasoning stems from the regulation changes the UK has been making in recent months, but the overhead of Brexit is having a negative impact on company’s confidence in the UK gambling market.
Before the end of September it’s said that comeon.com, getlucky.com and mobilenet.com along with many other ComeOn operator sites will exit the UK. The CEO, Lahcene Merzoug claims this is in order to “focus on more favourable markets.” He continues, the “U.K. is a very mature and highly competitive market and the financial risks are big. We have never had a non-compliance breach, but we’ve seen competitors being fined big numbers and that creates uncertainty.”
Beginning September 23rd, ComeOn will no longer accept players who are from the UK. Following this, on the 27th of September, the accounts will be closed and customers will be given two days to withdraw their funds. Once these two days have passed, the procedure to withdraw funds will be difficult
Lahcene Merzoug added that “The U.K.-license has lost its symbolic value. Before you almost had to have one to be looked upon as a credible company. Today we hold licenses in many European countries and given that the U.K. has never been a big market for us, it’s a wise move to put our focus elsewhere.”
Published 01.09.2019 Author: Ian Category: News
Network Media Services have announced a major release of their market leading affiliate management systems for the iGaming and Forex Trading industries. The new updated version introduces some impressive features and improvements to automatically manage affiliates, handle new marketing regulations and to easily integrate with advertising networks.
The system is a complete turnkey affiliate management solution, catered to the specific industry, with feature modules for calculating commissions, tracking clicks and conversions, automatic financial policy management, organising creative content and managing payment services.
Alex Winslow, Head of Client Services at Network Media Services, said "This is one of our biggest releases to date, it has been created in response to feedback from our long-term partners, as well as recent trends within the industries we serve and the latest trends within affiliate marketing."
Network Media Services have introduced the following new features in the latest version of their affiliate management software
Published 30.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
Indiana have become the latest US state to launch their Sports Betting market, after a number of their local casinos opened the doors on their new sportsbook products. On the initial opening day, three operators launched their sports betting segments, but as many as thirteen locations will be accepting sports wagers in the coming weeks.
The first to offer the activity in the state are Ameristar Casino in East Chicago, Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg and Indiana Grand Racing & Casino in Shelbyville. Following these, we will see Horseshoe Hammond and French Lick Resort begin their new ventures. On Tuesday, Eric Holcomb, the state Governor, placed the first wager when he visited Indiana Grand.
The journey began in May, when Eric Holcomb approved sports gambling legislation, which resulted in the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) to accept license requests in July. Each application proceeded to go through an approval period, where the operations were tested for compliance. Once the tests had been carried out, they were individually allowed to introduce sports betting in the state
Each operator has a hefty sum to pay, with the initial license fee of $100,000 and then an annual license renewal cost of $50,000. Each sportsbook will be expected to pay 9.5% of their gaming revenue to the taxman, which will be spent on supporting problem gambling.
Published 29.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
During the month of August, we saw 1xBet remove themselves from the UK gambling market space, after they closed all their operations to the country. It was found that the decision was made shortly after the news broke that the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) was investigating their activity.
The operator had apparently been involved in a number of questionable gambling activity and advertising practises which were against the gambling law. Although 1xBet have withdrawn from the UK market, the gambling commission are continuing their investigation and are still able to impose fines on the company. They have already seen repercussions of their actions, after Tottenham Hotspot football club pulled out of their apparent long-term agreement signed in August of last year.
1xBet as well as their white-label partner, FSB Technology are both being investigated over allegations that they were allowing their players to wager on underage sporting games as well as cockfights and operating a casino which featured topless dealers. Additionally, 1xBet has been found to be advertising on websites that illegally streamed Premier League matches.
According to The Times, who originally uncovered the illegal activity, the Premier League team announced that they were severing their relationship with 1xBet. The decision was made after the UKGC had warned all 1xBet associates that they could receive some of the backlash if they continue to work with the operator. The other football clubs with similar deals, Liverpool and Chelsea – have yet to take much action, claiming they
The two clubs were warned by the UKGC that they could receive “unlimited fines and up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment” for continuing their business relationship with 1xBet. Matt Zarb-Cousin, from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling in the UK, commenting say it was “absolutely debacle” that these football clubs had “failed to do the most basic due diligence checks on 1xBet before signing up for these multimillion-pound deals”
Published 27.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
The gambling regulator of Malta has released a number of new advertising guidelines to their licence holders, along with announcing a new committee who will be responsible for flagging any non-compliant operators. These new guidelines include a 30-point checklist which operators will be required to follow, the checklist outlines the rules in order to remain responsible with their brands promotion.
The guidelines will be thoroughly be followed by the Commercial Communications Committee whilst reviewing advertisements that have flagged. The committee will publish their verdict within 10 days of the complaint and the operator will have three days to respond.
The Malta Gaming Authority stated - “The main functions of the committee lie in reviewing commercial communications brought to its attention and assessing any possible breaches. The guidelines are intended to serve as guidance on the interpretation of the regulations, and should not be considered to be a substitute for the relevant laws and regulations.”
The guidelines state that all commercial communications must be "socially responsible, with particular regard to the need to protect minors and other vulnerable persons from harm or exploitation.” Attention was drawn to the fact that
Gaming advertisements will also be restricted from a number of public areas, including bars, restaurants and public transport. It’s said that any sponsorship deals must be limited to basic text and logo/imagery with product placement being completely banned.
In addition to advertisements, all licensed casinos must offer easy to access online responsible gaming information on their homepage. However, on mobile devices where there’s limited space, the information must be no more than 2 clicks away.
Published 26.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
Gaming Innovation Group or GiG, have recently announced that they have signed a deal with Betsson, one of the largest Swedish online gambling operators. The deal will see Betsson gain access to GiG Comply, a marketing compliance screening tool that will provide them with a stronger control over third-party advertisers and protect their brands from being promoted on non-compliant sites.
A time consuming task for affiliate managers is to look through their affiliate’s websites to ensure there’s no incorrect information that puts their brand at risk. The core functionality of GiG Comply is to scan and analyse thousands of webpages, images and URLs to ensure that everything remains within compliance. The search can be expanded to crawl the internet in search of mentions of brand names and then to report the findings to the operator.
The Chief Commercial Officer at Betsson Operations said – “We are looking forward to working with the GiG Comply product to reinforce Betsson Group’s existing compliance processes. The product will support us in guaranteeing that affiliate activity and marketing is compliant and sustainable
Richard Brown at GiG also commented - “We are excited to add Betsson Group to our growing number of partners and to support them in protecting their brands and end users. Our leading marketing and compliance technology will allow Betsson Group to keep even more control of its affiliate marketing.”
Published 25.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
The new sports betting industry is set to begin next week, with regulations being finalised and approved by the local gambling commission. However, some aspects have been delayed and will be reconsidered whilst the activity is legal in the state.
One of the segments that has been postponed is based around players who are in debt with the country, it was originally proposed that such players would have their winnings collected by the government to pay child support, taxes and criminal debts. It was requested by a number of operators to hold off on this, due to the fact that the bill did not explain how these winnings will be collected.
The majority of the regulations were both voted and approved back in July, with the plan to launch in late August. They regulatory body also decided that 18 of the 19 applying operators will receive a sports betting licence.
Additionally, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission fined
Published 23.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
Globally, eSports is continuously growing and drawing attention, with young people winning hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars from video games. Mexico in particular are looking to begin regulating the industry, as it has been valued at €1.26 billion by the Mexican Federation of eSports (FEMES).
Their plans to regulate the sector, are intended to encourage development whilst ensuring the safety of not only eSports players, but the individuals gambling on the matches. If the country proceeds, they could become one of the first to formalise eSports. The FEMES president, Ismael Silva explained that the legislation should “monitor the conditions of eSports events, professionalisation and approval of rules”
He continued: “It’s unbelievable that eSports events are still held in which organisers have to commit to pay a prize. And that such payment may take 180 days to be delivered or up to a year. It must be guaranteed that you have the prize money in advance. Players must carry out their development under the international rules so that they can achieve professionalisation. It is a sport and we will treat it as such from our position as coaches, players or organisers
Along with the expansion of eSports itself, there have been a number of online casino and sports betting sites which have begun to transition their products to the new industry. The act of regulating eSports in general, will in turn begin the process to regulate the new eSport betting industry, offering everyone a safer environment.
Published 21.08.2019 Author: J.D Category: News
Spelinspektionen, the Swedish gambling regulator has issued warnings along with four fines to sportsbook operators, after they were found to be offering wagers on events involving athletes under the age of 18.
The size of the penalty to each operator depended on their income. The fine was calculated as 0.1% of revenue, which resulted in the following amounts: ComeOn Sweden – SEK9.5 million, Snabbare – SEK6 million, Hajper – SEK4.5 million and Legolas.bet – SEK100,000.
These penalties were administered following these sportsbooks offering bets on matches and sporting events that had participants that were 17 and younger, which is strictly against the regulatory rules. The matches included five Under 17 international football matches, an Under 19 game back in April and an Under 17 volleyball match which took place in May.
Ever since the Swedish market was re-regulated at the start of 2019, Spelinspektionen has been
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