After continuing his streak of summer successes at Sandown this weekend, Frankie Dettori has forced UK bookmakers to rethink their strategy on Dettori-accumulators, resulting in a number of bookmakers deciding to limit punters’ stakes on the champion jockey or insist on some legs be settled on SP only. Speaking on Luck on Sunday, Ladbrokes Coral PR Director Simon Clare defended …
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Veikkaus, Finland’s state-owned gambling operator has detailed the successful completion of the initial phase of its ongoing ‘transformation programme’. At the start of 2019, Veikkaus governance announced that it would undertake ‘significant operational restructure’ of its ‘restaurant gambling division’, having identified a number of ‘cost reduction areas’. Competing against a ‘trend of fierce online gambling competition’, Olli Saarikoski, President and …
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This May was a breakthrough month for the Italian betting sector as a reported GGR of €134 million (+45% on 2018 figures) was generated by its betting incumbents. Driven by strong football betting on Serie A’s closing schedule, and the UEFA Champions League Final, a total turnover of €1 billion was reported across retail and online betting verticals. Some good …
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GVC Holdings has responded to the news of William Hill’s shop closures by outlining that 900 of its own Ladbrokes and Coral shops could face closure, which is ten per cent lower than its previous estimates made in April. Similar to William Hill, GVC has attributed the potential closures to the FOBT stake cut brought in on 1 April of …
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Issuing its response to the announcement that William Hill could be closing 700 of its betting shops which the betting shop workers union, Community, has described as ‘devastating.’ As announced yesterday, William Hill confirmed that it is taking part in a consultation with its retail counterparts over the possibility that the bookmaker could be shutting a large portion of its shops, with …
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The French government has accelerated its plans to privatise state-owned lottery and sports betting operator Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), appointing a collective of eight investment banks to work on the sale of the asset. This week, the APE, the agency overseeing the management French state-owned firms, confirmed that BNP Paribas would be joined by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole, HSBC, …
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UK bookmaker William Hill has confirmed that it will be closing approximately 700 betting shops, impacting 4,500 members of staff, following the introduction of the controversial FOBT legislation on 1 April. As detailed in a media statement, William Hill had entered into a consultation process with its retail colleagues. The statement explained: “This follows the Government’s decision to reduce the …
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Nicholas Cooper has called upon the industry to consider shifting the horse racing levy from the current gross profits system towards a betting turnover-focused system. As part of his speech at the Racehorse Owners Association’s (ROA) annual meeting in London, the ROA president said that a turnover-based levy would “provide a much truer reflection of racing’s continuing worth to the betting …
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Seeking to act as a unified voice for all UK gambling stakeholders, new industry trade body the ‘Betting and Gaming Council’ will launch this autumn. The new body will replace the functions and duties of the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) and the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), which will be wound-up when the council secures its full operations. Announcing its …
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Operators who have only donated nominal amounts to GambleAware for research, education and treatment would have been better not bothering, according to William Hill Group CEO Philp Bowcock. Speaking at World GES in Barcelona, Bowcock touched on this week’s announcement from the UK’s biggest operators to increase the amount of money they provide to GambleAware by a factor of ten, …
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