SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
This year’s Q2 was marked by significant shifts in the global gambling landscape, with some major regulatory developments coming up on the horizon especially across Europe and countries like Romania and Bulgaria.
Media outlets blew up back in April when it was announced that Cristian-Gabriel Pascu, a hairstylist, has been hired to take on the second most important role for gambling in Romania as the VP of the National Gambling Office.
Just days later, the southeastern European country enforced a key change in its gambling strategy, forbidding any land-based gambling facilitates in populated areas with less than 15,000 permanently registered citizens.
Neighbouring Bulgaria also saw its fair share of political turbulence regarding the local gambling sector. At the start of April, the leader of the nationalist party Revival used the highest tribune in the country to insist for a ban on gambling advertisements.
The idea later gained back some traction and returned as a new draft – this time put forward by the biggest political party in the Bulgarian parliament. After a number of redactions, the bill was finally presented to MPs for a vote, winning a majority support to be signed into law.
We can’t keep talking about international gambling without mentioning the UK as well. Here, Q2 welcomed Grainne Hurst as the new CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council to steer the trade body towards the implementation of the Gambling Act Review White Paper.
Also amidst the new reglamentation affecting the whole of UK gambling, Bacta – the trade body representing land-based entertainment – fostered a partnership with the Bingo Association’s Gaming Machine Working Group to form guidelines for the machines sector on how to remain competitive in the new landscape.
Flying over to France, national lottery operator Groupe FDJ’s takeover of Malta-based Kindred was in full swing in Q2. The bridge between both major players was significantly extended when FDJ bought out 2.4m shares – SEK 122.5 a piece – held in Kindred by investment vehicle Veralda.
FDJ kept its foot on the gas pedal towards the €2.45bn valued acquisition, later on revealing a strong Q1 financial performance to help propel the firm into the rest of the year and bring it one step closer to the ultimate goal of owning 90% of Kindred’s share capital.
Staying in Europe, the shift in regulatory principles brought the discussion of multi-licensing versus monopoly systems to the forefront.
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) took the stage back in May to remind how much the EU market has matured over the last 15 years in terms of fostering online gambling competitiveness, and that this trend must continue going forward by abolishing the few remaining state-owned igaming monopolies.
Staying on topic but moving continents, online gambling in India was thrown into turmoil this summer after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council decided to leave the 28% levy on full value bets unchanged after being introduced by Modi’s cabinet last year.
At that point the tax rate was a great cause of concern for gambling companies, which were arguing that as a result the sector has been forced into insolvency, leading to severe job losses and a number of businesses leaving the market.
Now crossing the Atlantic, Brazil was and still is a major talking point throughout the year, especially in Q2 when the newly-built regulatory gears were turning at high speeds.
For the first time we saw the publishing of regulatory policies for Brazil’s Prizes and Betting Secretariat (SPA), tasked with the supervision of the betting market.
SPA’s mandate given by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance subsequently produced some of the most important stakeholder market ordinances in the country’s recent history.
Constant political shuttles saw the adoption of a 15% tax on prizes and winnings above €530, while the gradual push towards a regulated market launch by January 2025 also raised the question of bringing Brazil’s land-based gambling under federal jurisdiction.
And to round things off, having Brazil in the mind always puts football on the tongue. On that note, going full circle we’re landing back into Europe and all the football craze that the June Euros 2024 kick-off brought with it.
Leading up to the tournament, we saw a plethora of player-centric campaigns launched by the sector to optimise the betting experience. One of them was a safer gambling campaign by the French gambling authority ANJ to reduce excessive behaviours.
The UEFA Euro also presented an opportunity for companies to showcase their technology stacks, now being fully updated with the latest advancements in artificial intelligence.
Sportradar for example deployed its full scale AI data simulation model using a total of 10,000 potential match result outcomes to predict that England is the most likely team to lift the trophy in the final.
However, while England started off strong by topping their group, Entain revealed that UK punters were losing hope for football to come home the further their team went into the tournament – even with AI on their side.
Unfortunately, this sentiment ended up being prophetical as Spain settled things for good in a very close final against the Three Lions.
