Paraguay’s tender to award a national sports betting franchise has come under disrepute as participants have rejected the concession’s result. This week, Conajzar, the gambling authority of Paraguay, announced Daruma Sam as the winner of its competition to operate an exclusive sportsbook franchise across all provinces. The decision was immediately challenged by participants, who accused Conajzar of having no intention …

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has announced that new rules and penalties related to the use of padded whips will be ‘implemented in full’ from 6 February 2023. Under the auspices of the updated regulations, jockeys must ensure that the “use of the whip for encouragement” should be limited to the backhand position only. UK racing has also established a …

Grupo CIRSA has confirmed this week that it will revise its international growth strategy as a result of Spanish home units outperforming their pre-pandemic results.    Strong Q3 trading saw the Blackstone-owned Spanish gambling group achieve corporate revenues of €466m (+40%) as period trading benefited from strong activity registered by its casinos and ‘back-to-business’ recovery of its UNIDESA B2B unit, which …

UK operators have been warned to prepare for the worst outcome of the gambling review, as PM Rishi Sunak has backed stringent reforms “to fix the catastrophe of online gambling“.  As reported by Steven Swinford, Political Editor of The Times, Sunak will “resurrect plans to curb online gambling amid concerns about the number of people who are becoming addicted.” Sunak …

Rank Group Plc has notified investors that Steve Esom has chosen to end his tenure as a Non-Executive Director of the LSE gambling group.  Formerly Managing Director of Waitrose, Esom will end his six-year tenure as a corporate advisor of Rank on 31 December 2022 and will further resign as Chair of the Remuneration Committee. Rank announced that following his …

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has emphasised its commitment to working with international counterparts to improve the standards, protections, and shared knowledge of a “globalised and constantly evolving global gambling marketplace”.  The development of the Commission’s international remit is overseen by Jamie Wall, Senior Manager for International Regulatory Partnerships. Wall revealed that the Commission had expanded its presence by working …

OPAP SA looks forward to uninterrupted World Cup trading as the Greek firm continues its strong post-pandemic recovery, benefitting from new online and sports betting upgrades.  The Athens-listed gambling group reports a further consecutive quarter of growth, generating Q3 revenues of  €498m, up 6% on 2021 comparative results of €470m. Period trading saw OPAP’s lottery unit generate stable revenues of …

Gambling’s harmful impact on young men has once again hit national headlines, as frontline NHS doctors cite that addiction clinics are witnessing a surge in demand for treatment and support for gambling addiction. As reported by The Times this morning, NHS bosses have called on betting firms to “think hard about the human cost behind their profits”, as the UK’s …

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has repeated its warning to MPs that nanny state rules will not protect British gambling consumers.  The trade body calls on the government to follow the evidence in which a new survey by YouGov details “compulsory spending limits on betting risks driving more people to the unsafe, unregulated gambling black market” according to 67% …