Each week, CasinoBeats breaks down the numbers behind some of the industry’s most interesting stories. Today, we take a look at a trifecta of acquisitions, temporary restrictions, multiple fines and a raise of 2021 expectations.

98.6

Gaming giant Evolution has taken its total holding in NetEnt to approximately 96.8 per cent of the outstanding shares and 98.6 per cent of votes, confirmed the group upon expiry of the extended acceptance period for the offer.

The new company will operate as a single organisation under the Evolution banner, following its corporate brand change in early October, and will continue to offer products under the four brands of Evolution, Ezugi, NetEnt and Red Tiger.

Evolution confirms that it has ‘initiated a compulsory buy-out procedure in accordance with the Swedish Companies Act for the purpose of acquiring those shares not submitted in the offer’.

Furthermore, NetEnt has also applied for the delisting of its shares from Nasdaq Stockholm, with the last day for trading to be published when the stock exchange has made a decision.

Documenting the make-up of the enlarged company further still, Evolution has initiated ‘a total reorganisation and integration’ of NetEnt. This restructuring has also led to a ‘streamlining of the business’ within the development of slots games, as well as the NetEnt Live business proposition closing down.

95

Flutter Entertainment is to take its stake in FanDuel to 95 per cent, after announcing a $4.175bn (£3.131bn) conditional agreement to acquire the 37.2 per cent interest in the group that is currently held by Fastball. The remaining five per cent will continue to be held by Boyd Gaming.

The global gaming and sports betting group, which is increasing its ownership in FanDuel from 57.8 per cent, is to fund the deal with a combination of $2.088bn in cash and the issuance of 11.7 million ordinary shares. Flutter has also announced its intention to conduct a £1.1bn equity placing.

Flutter, which says that the deal is conditional on shareholder approval, comments that the translation materially increases its exposure to a US market that it asserts is ‘the most attractive sector opportunity today’. The deal terminates Fastball’s economic interest in Fox Bet.

2,000

Norsk Tipping has introduced a raft of temporary measures across its ‘high-risk’ games, including a 25 per cent reduction in the maximum monthly loss limit.

Introduced to ‘curb risky gaming activity in the short term,’ this move will see customers accessing KongKasino, eFlax, Bingoria and Yezz be permitted to lose up to NOK 7,000 (£592) per month.

Furthermore, the maximum daily loss limit on these games has also been reduced by 50 per cent to NOK 2,000 (£170), with the length of mandatory break after one hour of continuous play increasing from 90 seconds to 15 minutes.

The ‘popular’ label on selected online casino games will also be removed, with marketing by text message and email to customers in the 18-25 years age bracket to cease.

3

888 Holdings has unveiled three multi-year market access agreements in the US, as the group raises full-year expectations due to a continued strong operational performance throughout the second half of the year.

Representing the latest milestone’s in the group’s strategic US growth strategy, launches across Colorado, Indiana and Iowa, initially via the 888Sport brand, will commence during 2021.

In the former of those 888sport will debut under the licence of the Colorado Grande Casino based in Cripple Creek, the Hoosier State sees an agreement secured alongside Harrah’s Hoosier Park, which is owned by Caesars Entertainment, while an Iowan debut will take place under the licence of Catfish Bend Casinos.

As well as unveiling plans to increase its US presence to six states, 888’s board anticipates that full-year revenue will finish 45 per cent ahead of 2019’s $560.3m.

56.2

BetMakers has entered into binding agreements to acquire global assets of international online sports betting company Sportech for AU$56.2m, in a move which is designed to ‘supercharge’ its entry into the US.

Considering the acquisition to be transformational for the firm’s financial and growth prospects, the purchase includes an Americas tote business that provides betting solutions, hardware and operational services to over 200 racetrack, casino and betting venues to more than 50 customers in the United States, Canada and Latin America.

The deal also includes a digital business that provides white-label betting solutions to more than 25 customers in North America; a UK and European tote business that serves more than 35 customers across the UK, Ireland, Europe and Asia; and Quantum tote technology.

250

Resorts World Casino New York City has announced that it has generated in excess of $3bn for New York’s Lottery education fund since opening its doors in October 2011.

During its nine-year existence the property has generated enough revenue to fund 12 million laptops for students (based on $250 cost), or 37,500 public school teacher salaries for a year (based on New York average of $80K), or fully fund public education for 150,000 students for one school year (based on $20,000 average cost per year), or supply 6,082,725 students with school lunch for an entire school year (based on $2.74 average cost nationwide).

The New York Lottery contributed $3.38bn in the 2019/20 fiscal year to help support education in the state, of which RWNY generated $348m, a figure it says represents a ‘greater share than any of the other video gaming operators’ in the jurisdiction.

This revenue is used to support education across more than 700 school districts in New York State, distributed via a statutory formula that provides larger shares of funding to lower-income school districts.

2.5

The government of Gibraltar has imposed multiple fines totalling £2.5m across its gambling sector following a ‘thematic review’ by the country’s Gambling Division.

Having identified weak processes and controls related to ensuring AML protections, the Gambling Division noted within its assessment that operators had ‘worked collaboratively’ with its investigation to rectify ‘generic system weaknesses that are common to more than one operator’.

The Gibraltar government confirmed that fine proceeds totalling £2.5m would be distributed to the ‘Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation’ – to support the use of training initiatives at the Gibraltar University in AML and social responsibility by their employees.