French connection breaks the ICE
Leaders gather at inaugural Gaming in France Briefing, UKGC at ICE & loads more
Hello, on Gaming&Co today:
Gaming in France Briefing debated iCasino regulation, taxes and politics
UKGC spells out zero-tolerance policy towards black market
Novomatic enters French market with Vikings Casinos buyout
Kalshi moving in on US sportsbooks’ lawn
News shorts: PA Media, KMPG-Entain, Denmark, SportyTrader & loads more
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(L-R) Clément Martin Saint-Léon, Diane Mullenex and Nicolas Béraud
Gaming&Co breaks the ICE with…
… first Gaming in France Briefing which debated iCasino regulation, taxes and politics
Should and will: Diane Mullenex, partner at the law firm Pinsent Masons, opened the event in Barcelona by saying that the “landscape of regulation in France is very challenging” but that she also believed that “the market should and will open” eventually.
The political uncertainty that has dogged France since last summer will impact proceedings, but what will ultimately “drive the [regulatory] opening [will be] a balance between needing more money and curbing an illegal market” that is one of the largest in Europe, she added.
Double whammy: Nicolas Béraud, CEO of the French online market leader Betclic and President of AFJEL, the iGaming trade body in France, said one of the key factors impacting operators is that they are subjected to GGR and VAT taxes that come to more than 60%, but they cannot make up for these with revenues from legal online casino activities.
Legally attractive: “This has given rise to a major illegal market, as regulated operators face unfair competition” in the form of unregulated sites that “are just a few clicks away on Google”. “When the legal offer is attractive, in many countries we have seen that it is effective to reduce the illegal market,” Béraud added.
Progressive casinos
Progress with stability: Clément Martin Saint-Léon, MD Gaming for Groupe Barrière and speaking on behalf of the Casinos de France trade body of which he is Secretary General, said CdF was not against online casino regulation, but opening the market would “destabilise [land-based casinos in France] by causing a 15%-25% loss of GGR”.
“We are not saying we don’t have to open the market. We are not against progress, but you need to consider the finances, taxation and employment of land-based casinos,” he added.
Tax reform badly needed: Martin Saint-Léon also called for major reform and simplification of the tax system for gambling groups and reiterated CdF’s call to “give exclusivity to land-based casinos for a certain amount of time. This is the proposal we have made to the government.”
Nicolas Béraud added: “The problem is that most [online] operators cannot be profitable in France (with the current tax levels). If we would add casino games it could balance the revenue.” Being able to offer those games would “allow new and small operators to develop in the French market, which right now is impossible”.
The working committees due to evaluate iCasino regulation are currently suspended and Béraud said he hoped “the new government will continue this work to find a balanced compromise”.
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Black market fight is “top priority”
UK Gambling Commission CEO says focus is on illegal gambling as Betsson hits back
Be warned: CEO Andrew Rhodes emphasised the “industry warning” over illegal gambling the Gambling Commission issued at the start of the week when he opened the ICE World Regulatory Briefing on Tuesday and said the fight against the UK black market was now a “top priority” for UKGC.
Zero tolerance: Alluding to the ongoing licence review of live casino market leader Evolution, Rhodes said supplying games to unlicensed operators was an issue the Commission would confront head on. “Let me be crystal clear, this will not be tolerated,” he said and encouraged licensed operators to investigate the activities of suppliers.
Legwork: Rhodes added that it was “not their job to take action against illegal operators [but] we encourage them to carry out due diligence” if they suspect or can document illegal activities. And “if the Commission detects unlicensed operators, [the providers supplying them] face suspension or the prospect of having their licences revoked”.
9/10: Asked by Gaming&Co why measures targeting suppliers had taken so long to happen, Rhodes said funding had been an issue and that previously, enforcement actions towards operators accounted for 85% of UKGC activities. He noted that “nine out of 10 of the largest fines imposed on operators came from UKGC”.
Liberalised, regulated, channelised
The UKGC boss also addressed the issue of restrictive regulations such as in Germany or France that make illegal offers much more attractive to players. “I’m not going to comment on regulations outside the UK,” Rhodes said, before adding that Britain is “highly channelised” and despite being highly “liberalised”, it is the “most regulated market in the world”.
“We think that works for us, it’s a balance between regulation, personal freedom and consumer protection. It is always delicate and UKGC has to balance all those factors,” added Rhodes.
However, Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall hit back yesterday, telling IGB that “regulators sometimes have misunderstood their role”. Instead of protecting consumers and bringing in tax revenues, “they push the business out of the regulated [sector], they don’t fulfil any of [those promises]”.
Novomatic acquires France’s Vikings Casinos
French casino group with 10 resorts now part of Austrian company
Direct involvement: Novomatic has entered the French market as an operator with its acquisition of Vikings Casinos for an undisclosed amount. The industry giant already supplies a number of French casinos with its gaming machines.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and will enable Novomatic “to successfully continue its international growth strategy,” said Stefan Krenn, Executive Board member of the group.
Vikings Casinos is based in Normandy and operates 10 casinos in France and has been in M&A talks for the past two years. CEO Luc Le Borgne said: “The acquisition will help us to further strengthen our position in the French market.”
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Kalshi moving tanks onto OSB lawns
Trump that: Kalshi has made its first foray into offering odds on sports prediction markets, following in the footsteps of rival trading exchange Crypto.com. The operator, which made its name offering odds on the US presidential election, launched its first ‘yes/no’ markets on US sports fixtures on Thursday after filing its ‘sports event contracts’ with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC).
The move comes a month after Crypto.com launched its first sports offering with prediction markets around the Super Bowl. The CTFC, which regulates the US derivatives market, is reviewing the legality of the offering.
Meanwhile, crypto-based prediction market operator Polymarket has been banned from operating in Singapore. The country’s gambling regulator said it considers Polymarket an “illegal gaming site” operated by an unauthorised provider.
Back in the US, Hawaii looks set to become the next state to offer legalised online gambling after a Senate Bill was filed to create the Hawaii Lottery and Gaming Corporation. The plans are to launch lottery and iGaming offerings, but not sports betting.
News shorts
PA Media Group has appointed former LiveScore senior exec Josh Sparke as the Managing Director of Podium, its sports and betting data arm. Sparke is the latest of a number of senior leaders to leave LiveScore in recent months as the operator has trimmed costs and cut headcount in its bid to become profitable.
Julien Fontan is the new head of marketing at Sorare, the NFT fantasy football operator and one-time French tech unicorn. Before joining Sorare, Fontan spent almost 10 years with the country’s OSB leader Betclic and more recently for the social sports app Omada.
Entain auditor KPMG is facing an investigation by the UK's Financial Reporting Council into its auditing of the Ladbrokes and Coral parent. Both KPMG and the operator remained tight-lipped on whether the investigation was linked to Entain’s £615m settlement with HMRC in 2023 over alleged bribery in its former Turkish operations.
Recall that Entain avoided criminal charges after it was granted a “deferred prosecution agreement” by the Crown Prosecution Service and paid a £615m fine for the activities carried out by a different management team.
The online gambling market in Denmark grew by just under 8% YoY in November to DKK654m (£87m) with strong casino performance compensating for weak sports betting numbers. Online casino revenue was the main driver of growth with revenue of DKK295m (€39.5m), up 18% YoY. In contrast, sports betting revenue rose by only 0.3% to DKK232m (€31m).
QMRA has added Gentoo (ex-GIG Media) as a founding member of its Brazilian affiliate quality mark. QMRA runs its quality mark schemes across Europe, Australia and the US and just went live in Brazil. It has also added Game Lounge’s CanadaCasino.Ca to its scheme in Canada.
SportyTrader.es was the top-performing affiliate for sports betting in Spain in November, according to latest data from PartnerMatrix . SportyTrader is part of the French sports media group Skores and delivered just over 137k clicks to brands across the month, edging out Oddschecker, which drove 129k with Apuestas-Deportivas.es in third with just under 79k.
On the operator side, Bet365 continued its dominance with over 205k clicks from affiliates in November with TonyBet and Codere battling for minor honours with 69k and 63k clicks respectively.
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