William Hill To Quit Spain
Citing regulatory and economic problems, British gambling group William Hill has announced a ‘gradual withdrawal’ over the coming months from its Victoria Apuestas joint venture in Spain with local gaming machine operator Codere.
William Hill revealed that Victoria Apuestas opened its first outlet in Madrid in April of 2008 and now trades across 98 locations in the Madrid and Basque regions.
The London-based firm declared that Codere would manage the business while it would continue to provide bookmaking services.
“Achieving relevant scale for the business has always been dependent upon a substantial growth in the number of outlets,” read a statement from William Hill.
“Achieving this scale has proved problematic because of the slow granting of local regulatory consents and the slower than anticipated regulatory changes within other regions. These factors, coupled with the difficult economic situation within Spain, were likely to lead to additional capital requirements and a delay in achieving William Hill’s target return for the venture.
“In these circumstances, William Hill has decided to focus its international sportsbetting strategy on the Internet via William Hill Online.”
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European Union Investigating Dutch Prohibition
A letter from Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin warning banks that they could be prosecuted for accepting payments from online gambling sites has prompted an investigation by the European Union.
Under current Dutch law, firms offering online gambling services in the nation must have a permit but all such activities are currently nationalised under the Holland Casino monopoly.
According to a report from the Telegraaf newspaper, the European Union has begun to look at Holland’s efforts and the nation could eventually end up before the European Court Of Justice.
“The European Commissioner has asked the appropriate services to start an investigation into the banking blockade,” said a spokesperson for Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner For Internal Markets And Services.
“As far as we are aware, The Netherlands is the only country in Europe to do such a thing.”
A recent report from research agency Motivaction revealed that the Dutch are spending €450 million a year on Internet gambling, which is double what it spent four years ago. Motivaction reported that 485,000 Dutch players gambled online ‘regularly’ while the nation spent an average of €82 a month gambling over the Internet.
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Bwin Business Booms
Leading betting and gaming provider Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2009 showing a 11.1 percent year-on-year rise in net gaming revenues to a record €102.1 million.
The Austrian firm reported that this figure represented a 1.1 percent increase on the final quarter of 2008’s €101 million while the first three months of this year saw gross gaming revenues reach €117.6 million, which was a 12.5 percent year-on-year upsurge.
Turnover from sportsbetting rose by 9.2 percent year-on-year to €762.7 million with a margin of 8.2 percent leading to a three percent increase year-on-year in gross revenues from sportsbetting to €62.4 million. Poker turnover rose 37 percent year-on-year to €31.1 million buoyed by the satisfactory development of the firm’s Italian poker business alongside the successful migration of the various poker labels to Bwin Poker and lucrative cross-selling.
Bwin stated that gross revenues from its casino and games business amounted to €18 million and €6.1 million, which was an increase year-on-year of 9.5 percent and 26.7 percent respectively. The growth of its games business was attributed largely to the expansion of its product portfolio along with the launch of its Italian skill games site at Bwin.it.
The first quarter of this year also saw the number of active customers rise 25.6 percent to 1.16 million while Bwin attracted 295,000 new players, a 16.1 percent increase year-on-year.
Costs per new active customer fell 17.2 percent compared to the first three months of 2008 to €123.40 while gross gaming revenues per active customer dropped 10.4 percent to €101.30 from €113.00.
All of this saw Bwin report a 72.9 percent increase year-on-year in earnings after tax of €18.9 million alongside a net cash position of €70.8 million, which is considerably higher than the €53.2 million it recorded for the first quarter of 2008.
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Delaware Legalises Sportsbetting
Delaware has become the first American state east of the Mississippi River to legalise sportsbetting in the hope of raising over $50 million a year to help with a projected $778 million budgetary shortfall.
The small state’s Senate passed legislation last week by a vote of 17 to two with two abstentions that legalised sportsbetting before Governor Jack Markell subsequently signed it into law on Thursday. The legislation had earlier made it through the Delaware House of Representatives by a vote of thirty to four after weeks of tough negotiations.
“I am very pleased that the Senate acted so quickly to pass the sports lottery legislation and I very much appreciate the leadership from both sides of the aisle,” said Governor Markell.
“Delaware has a unique potential advantage because it is the only state east of the Mississippi that is authorised by Federal Law to have a sports lottery.”
This distinctive situation is down to the fact that, due to a brief experiment with sportsbetting in the 1970s, Delaware is one of four states along with Oregon, Montana and Nevada that are excluded from 1992’s Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that bans sports gambling.
The new legislation permits players at Delaware’s three casinos to place wagers on sporting matches with the state getting 45 percent of any revenues.
Both the National Football League (NFL) and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) have criticised the new measure over claims that it will hurt the integrity of sports. Governor Markell revealed last week that the NFL has even threatened to take his state to court over the matter.
‘We expect that everyone involved in the administration of sports leagues, professional and college, will review today’s action and evaluate its impact as other decisions are made by Delaware officials and the Delaware Supreme Court,’ said Greg Aiello, spokesperson for the NFL.
Stacey Osburn, spokesperson for the NCAA called sports wagering ‘a problem, not a solution’ to the state’s to budget problems but Governor Markell disagreed.
“My real issue with them is they ought not to be coming into Delaware and telling us as Delawareans how to run our state,’ the Governor told ESPN.
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192Business Launches German Verification Solutions
Leading customer identity verification solutions provider 192Business has launched a new German identification check solution using data from official sources such the nation’s largest credit reference agency, SCHUFA.
The solution also uses information from Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom and will enable clients to verify the name, address and date of birth of over 65 million German adult consumers.
“We are now able to launch the most extensive German solution in the market thanks to our partnership with SCHUFA,” said Grant Greenwood, Product Director for 192business.
“The 192Business model is to license and integrate best-of-breed data sources into our identification check solutions. Our new German capability can help our customers such as e-commerce merchants and online gaming operators to acquire and welcome customers from new markets.”
SCHUFA agreed a similar deal with British age and identity verification firm GB Group earlier this month and stated that its latest agreement marks an important step towards becoming a truly international concern.
“For SCHUFA, it is vitally important that we extend our reach beyond our own borders and develop a strong platform of international activity,” said Professor Dieter Steinbauer, Chief Operating Officer for SCHUFA and Managing Director of CreditInfo SCHUFA Limited.
192Business revealed that it is constantly adding new technology and datasets in order to replicate the depth and breadth of its UK identification check solutions. In addition to using official data sources, 192Business also offers a range of other checking tools including the ability to authenticate data contained in German passports and identification cards.
By using multiple datasets and technology in order to verify customer identity, 192Business stated that it has become the first firm to offer identification check tools that meet compliance requirements across multiple channels under the Third European Union Money Laundering Directive.
“Germany is a key market for any online business and, in more uncertain economic times, we want to help our clients to be ready to verify and acquire customers from any market,” said Greenwood.
“The latest statistics show that Germany is home to the most online consumers in Europe. By 2011, 43 million Germans will buy online and we want to help our clients to benefit from that market.”
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