ANJ puts players at centre of 2024-26 action plan
ANJ strategy, Evolution in class action suit, Sportradar reshuffle, news in brief
Hello, on Gaming & Co today:
France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux puts player protection and RG at the centre of its 2024-26 action.
Evolution unregulated activities attract anger of US investors.
Sportradar’s leadership reshuffle.
News in brief: IGT, Gaming Innovation Group, Soft2bet
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ANJ to prioritise player protection in 2024-26 strategy
Close protection: France’s gambling regulator Autorité Nationale des Jeux has placed reducing excessive gambling and the protection of minors at the heart of its 2024-26 strategic plan and has called on all economic and institutional stakeholders to work alongside it to reach those targets.
ANJ’s plan marks the end of its first cycle of regulation since it succeeded ARJEL as industry regulator in 2020 and arrives at a key juncture for the French gambling sector.
All ages and walks of life: Industry revenues (digital and land-based) have increased by over 50% to more than €13bn since 2010 when the market opened to regulation and in 2024 “gambling has become a mainstream consumer product for people of all ages and from all walks of life”, said ANJ.
Corporate moves: France’s largest gambling group Française des Jeux this week tabled a €2.6bn offer for the European online operator Kindred Group, which the Swedish group has accepted.
In terms of regulatory developments, in the past year the country’s land-based casinos and online operators have called for the regulation of online casino and the introduction of a framework to enable this.
Those calls were rejected by the government, which instead passed a set of web3 regulations aimed at NFT fantasy operators such as Sorare.
In its report, ANJ stressed that gambling was “not a product like any other” and a restrictive regulatory policy, supply and consumption of gambling was justified.
“Problem gambling still plays too large a role in the gambling market”, despite “significant progress in this area over the past three years”, said ANJ.
Problem numbers: In 2019, France’s Gambling Observatory estimated that the number of at-risk gamblers was 1.4 million, with almost 400,000 at pathological level.
ANJ added that problem gambling accounts for more than 38% of the sector's turnover and excessive gambling generates 21% of its revenues. The figures are due to be updated this year, but “illustrate the reality of a social problem, particularly for young people”, said the regulator.
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President of ANJ, commented: "After three years in office, we now believe that the regulation of gambling must take a turn that involves the market gradually moving towards a less intensive model.”
Three is the magic number: Following on from this, the regulator has based its 2024-26 strategy around three “fundamental pillars”. The first will be to “drastically reduce the proportion and number of excessive gamblers in the gambling market”.
A key objective that will require major efforts from operators, “it cannot be achieved without a coherent and balanced regulatory policy aimed at consolidating the French gambling market model”, said ANJ.
The transparency and integrity of the sector will be paramount and the fight against illegal gambling will be the second foundation on which ANJ will base its operations.
The third pillar will be to strengthen “the economic dimension of regulation in order to gain a better understanding of market balances and provide solutions to the changes it is facing today”.
Added Falque-Pierrotin: “This voluntary target to reduce the number of excessive gamblers and to strengthen the protection of minors will be monitored over a period of three years. It can only be achieved if all the players join forces alongside the regulator to move the goalposts: gambling operators, public authorities, institutions, associations.”
ANJ added that its focus is “to make scientific knowledge of the market and gambling practices the compass of regulation” and “embody, at national and European level, regulation based on dialogue and cooperation” and position the authority “as a laboratory for bold, effective and exemplary public action”.
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Evolution sued in class action
Unregulated activities continue to cause legal headache for live casino giant.
Trompe-l'oeil: Live casino giant Evolution Gaming is the subject of a class action in the US by shareholders accusing the group of "misleading" them about its business prospects by downplaying its exposure to regulatory risk between February 2019 and October 2023.
Evolution CEO Martin Carlesund and CFO Jacob Kaplan are both named in the claim. The complaint describes how regulatory pressures affected the company's share price and sales during the period.
Short-term actions: Evolution, like other groups in the sector such as SBTech, the sports betting platform acquired by US leader DraftKings in 2020, has already been the target of attacks by 'short sellers', investment funds that generate their profits by driving down the share price of listed companies.
Their mode of operation sees them publish reports describing the activities of groups like Evolution in unregulated markets in the Middle East or Asia, leading to the shares dropping in value.
Evolution did not respond to requests for comment from the media following this latest news, but in the past has stated that it cannot control where its customers deploy its B2B technology.
Reading material: In its Q3 results the group revealed that just 40% of its revenues came from regulated markets.
Sportradar reshuffles management team
Optimise: Sports betting data provider Sportradar has reshuffled its senior management team in order to optimise the company's key functions. Group Chief Strategy Officer Ulrich Harmuth will be stepping down and Chief Financial Officer Gerard Griffin will follow suit at the end of May for personal reasons.
Sports rights on the rise: To general surprise, during the group’s Q3s Griffin announced a restructure of the teams in order to reduce the acquisition costs of sports rights. JMP analysts estimate that these costs have risen by 36% for 2024.
For Q4, the group is expected to announce revenues of $250m and EBITDA of $37m, and €870m-€880m in revenues and €162m in EBITDA for 2023. For 2024, the company has reaffirmed its intention to increase revenues and EBITDA "by at least 20%".
For JMP, the figures represent "a slight setback", but the group's partnerships with the NBA, new US brands like ESPN Bet and Hard Rock and its track record of strong free cash flow generation should enable Sportradar "to increase its profitability over the long term".
New layout: Product Director Warren Murphy is now Chief Delivery & Operations Officer, while Nick Maywald becomes Chief Growth & Innovation Officer. Eduard Blonk has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer, Lynn McCreary is Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary and Séverine Riviere-Gerstner has been appointed HR Director.
The power to say no
The Banque Cantonale de Neuchâtel has asked some of its crypto-currency customers to cease trading and find a new financial partner by the end of June.
The reasons for the decision were not revealed, but BCN had been one of the pioneers of the Swiss financial sector by accepting crypto-companies as clients back in 2015-16.
Neuchâtel to the (Xa)max: This led many French companies to move to Switzerland and open accounts with the bank as they could not find French banks willing to accept them.
Double jeopardy: Crypto exchange Bity said its "future could be in jeopardy" if it did not find an alternative.
News in brief
IGT has signed a multi-year agreement that will sew it provide its PeakDual VLT proftuct protfolio to Loto-Québec.
Gaming Innovation Group has launched CoreX and SportX, its new online casino and sports betting platforms targeting regulated markets, ahead of ICE London in early February. The group also launched DataX and LogicX, two new player account management and analysis systems.
Online casino software provider Soft2Bet has expanded its commercial with the recruitment of Alex Collyer as Commercial Operations Director and Nicolas Campano as Sales Director Latam.
Calendar
6-8 Feb: ICE London
Feb 7: Disney/EPSN Bet
Feb 29: Lottomatica
Contact
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