Unibet France fined record €800,000
ANJ hammers Kindred and FDJ’s flagship brand, Flutter, Lottomatica &Co
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Unibet given record €800K by French regulator for safeguarding errors
Results galore: Flutter, Lottomatica, Genius Sports, GiG Software
News shorts: Austria, Aspire Global, Betsson
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FDJ’s Unibet fined €800K by France’s ANJ
French regulator says duration of regulatory failure key as Unibet is fined for third time
Unwanted record: France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has fined Unibet a record €800,000 for a significant malfunction in its self-exclusion system that led to thousands of self-excluded players being able to access gambling services despite having signed out of the products. The issue affected iOS users, lasted nearly two years and led to ANJ issuing its largest fine to date.
Double trouble: The problem arose during the period of March 2021 to early December 2022, which was corrected by Unibet. However, issues reappeared due to a technical malfunction from the end of December 2022 to February 2023.
No contest: ANJ’s report explained that SPS Betting, the company that operates Unibet.fr, did not contest the findings, but said ANJ was unable to determine how many players had “actually suffered damage”.
It maintained that the numbers involved could “not have exceeded more than 100 players”, although it could not prove that was the case. SPS estimated that the malfunction was likely to have affected more than 4,500 players over the period in question.
Safeguarding errors: For its part, ANJ estimated that 6,754 players who had requested self-exclusion were able to resume gambling after a few days. This was “a further indication of the seriousness of the breach committed by SPS Betting”.
ANJ added: “It is also worth noting the ineffectiveness of the corrective measures (SPS) it implemented, as they failed to quickly put an end to the malfunction observed. The ability for players to self-exclude is a crucial safeguard in online gambling.”
Character failures
Three-peat: The failure was also characterised by its duration and the fact that Unibet has already been fined twice in France, most recently for exceeding the country’s 85% return to player limits, and is a major actor in the country’s online betting market, ANJ noted.
Unibet is Française des Jeux-owned Kindred Group’s flagship brand. It has two months to appeal the decision and will display a message on its homepage highlighting the sanction for two weeks this month.
Up next: FDJ will publish its FY24 results on Thursday morning, its first accounts as an enlarged business following the €2.5bn acquisition of Kindred Group. Two weeks ago, the FDJ said France’s increased OSB taxes would cost it €90m in lost revenues over the next two years.
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Flutter sees out Q4 to focus on international M&A
Group survives customer-friendly results to confirm US leadership
Diversity benefits: Flutter Entertainment’s geographic scale “remains unrivalled when it comes to diversified global growth”, according to industry analysts and the group’s CEO Peter Jackson said M&A will “be an important part” of the group’s strategy in 2025 as it looks to international markets for continued growth.
Billion dollars worth: “We've got $1bn of share repurchases this year,” said Jackson, “so M&A will continue to be an important part of our strategy but we have to make sure that it's the right opportunities for us in terms of delivering the right financial returns.”
Latin focus: Italy and Brazil will be important geos as the group seeks to complete the acquisitions of Snai in the former and NSX in the latter in Q2.
Jackson said the group had forecast “up to $100m of EBITDA losses” in Brazil this year, while CFO Rob Coldrake commented that the group was looking closely at bidding for a second lottery contract (Italy Lotto) in the market. Recall, Flutter’s Sisal brand operates the SuperEnalotto brand, which Coldrake said had “been performing fantastically well”.
Too early for predictions: In the US, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will be holding a roundtable on sports-related event contracts next month. Jackson said Flutter would “look out for opportunities that may arise” from that vertical, but that “the products themselves lack the richness of a true sportsbook offering”.
Despite “the most customer-friendly NFL outcomes in 20 years”, Flutter recorded a 14% rise in revenue at $3.8bn, with EBITDA up 4% at $655m in Q4. The EBITDA figures were 6% off consensus but with OSB market share of 43% and online casino at 26%, Flutter is now “the top iGaming operator in the US”, added Macquarie.
Ex-US revenues were up 14% to $2.2bn and adj. EBITDA rose 6% to $492m (+8% CC) driven by structural margin growth and “strong performances in Italy, India, Turkey, Georgia and Brazil”. In 2025 the group is expecting revenues of $15.48-16.38bn and adj. EBITDA of $2.94-3.38bn.
Lottomatica heralds ‘outstanding’ 2024
Italian giant sets sights on buybacks and M&A
Going with the flow: Lottomatica CEO Guglielmo Angelozzi said the company’s “strong balance sheet and cash flow” will see it move towards a share buyback scheme “which will compete for excess cash with M&A to maximise shareholder returns”.
Pole position: Angelozzi said this was made possible by an “outstanding” 2024, during which it recorded 24% YoY increase in its adj. EBITDA to €739m and consolidated its position in Italy as its market share reached nearly 31%.
Betting stakes reached €39bn and GGR surpassed €2bn for the first time. Its online division became its biggest revenue driver as GGR rose 50% to €780m thanks to the acquisitions of SKS365, Cristaltec and Distante.
Retail volumes were also up as sports and gaming franchises contributed €460m and €763m respectively. The group forecast revenues of €2.3bn and adj. EBITDA of up to €870m in 2025.
Sports betting drives growth for Genius
CEO says financials show value of official sports data
Official demand: Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke said the group’s 24% YoY increase in revenue to $511m for 2024 was the result of “consistent execution” and the company’s ability to capitalise on industry demand for official sports data. The growth was driven by strong performance in the company’s largest division, Betting Technology & Content, where revenues rose 29% to $355m and drove the company’s 61% rise in adj. EBITDA to close to $86m.
Stroke of genius: With net losses dropping $22.5m to $63m, Locke said Genius will focus on the “nitty gritty operations of the business” in 2025, having launched a number of new products and signed partnership deals last year. He added that he expected more strong growth in betting, particularly in H1 2025.
The company’s media and content division grew 15% to $105m, while its sports technology unit saw an 8% uplift to nearly $51m.
Clever outlook: Genius reaffirmed its 2025 outlook of $620m in revenue, a 21% increase on 2024, with adj. EBIDTA set to rise 46% to $125m.
No lazy pandas: In other news, Genius and Sportradar are being sued by SportsCastr Inc, which trades as PANDA Interactive, as part of an antitrust claim. PANDA Interactive initiated a patent infringement lawsuit in October 2023 and claims the companies “unlawfully tied access to the official sports data they exclusively control with their own betting technology”.
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GiG gets to grips with standalone status
Platform provider says it has “confidence and ability to deliver” in 2025
Opening gambit: GiG Software announced its first set of results as a standalone unit following its split from Gaming Innovation Group in Oct24 and said that despite a 15% decline in FY24 revenue to €32m underlying revenue was up 20% to €29m. Announcing a €75m commercial pipeline for 2025, CEO Richard Carter said he was “confident in GiG’s ability to deliver the results and growth we expect”.
Operating expenses increased to €33m due to investment in software, marketing and staff in the past 12 months. The group reported an operating loss of €28m due mainly to €50m charges related to acquisition and contract write-downs.
Key figures: The company booked €16m in contract value from seven new commercial agreements in Q4, including the key renewal of Betsson. FY24 adj. EBITDA losses were €3m primarily due to restructuring costs. The group forecast €44m in revenue and €10m in adj. EBITDA in 2025.
New gigs: Investment priorities included expanding its core product suite and launching the SweepX social casino with the company targeting growth in Finland, Brazil and France as regulatory changes happen in those markets.
News shorts
Austria’s new three-party coalition government is set to maintain the country’s current gambling monopoly model. The centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Liberal Party (NEOS), have signalled that they plan to retain the single model licence currently held by Austrian Lotteries when it expires in 2027. There had been hopes the country might regulate its online gambling market this year.
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) imposed a £1.4m penalty on Aspire Global for significant social responsibility and anti-money laundering (AML) failures. The operator failed to protect at-risk customers across 58 websites with one player losing £6,000 in 48 hours without timely intervention. Another customer lost £7,000 in just over four hours due to a system error that allowed deposits beyond set limits.
Not again: This marks the second enforcement action against the operator, following a £237,600 penalty in 2022 for similar AML failures. CEO Andrew Rhodes said the Commission was “closely monitoring” how operators communicate with customers regarding affordability checks and financial risk assessments.
He also confirmed the UKGC would release its illegal gambling findings, which will include estimates, segmentation and data on the effectiveness of its interventions in “early summer”.
Betsson has received its full licence to operate online sports betting and casino products in Brazil. The company was absent from the list of 43 operators that received full licences at the start of the year. It has been active in Colombia and Peru for many years and acquired a 75% stake in Brazilian sportsbook Suaposta in 2019. Five other operators recently received full licences including Big Brazil-Caesars, SkillOnNet and Reals Brasil.
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Results: 6 March: Banijay-Betclic, FDJ, Entain
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