June 2024 – Page 2 – FairOdds Network

June 24, 2024

Weekend Report: MGM hacker arrested, Colorado tribes still shut out

Welcome to the Weekend Report, where iGB updates you with the stories you may have missed over the last few days.

Suspected MGM hacker arrested in Spain

In 2022, MGM confirmed that its loyalty programme had been hacked. On 14 June, the Spanish national police arrested a man they believe to be involved in the hack at Palma Airport. He was boarding a flight to Italy, reported Murcia Today.

The FBI’s Los Angeles field office issued the arrest warrant for the 22-year-old UK national, per CyberNews.

The group responsible for the cyberattack, Scattered Spider, allegedly hacked multiple major corporations. The man arrested is accused of hacking corporate accounts and allegedly controlled $27m worth of BitCoin. Caesars Entertainment was also hacked last autumn.

Colorado tribes still shut out of digital wagering

Nearly five years after Coloradans legalised digital sports betting and four-plus years after launch, the state’s tribes still aren’t live. Per the Colorado Sun, the state has ..

June 24, 2024

Fifa president says “there will be sanctions” for violating wagering rules

With the Olympics on the horizon and two major international soccer tournaments underway, Fifa president Gianni Infantino used an event to honour Pele as a time to remind players to also honour the game.

On 15 June, in Paris, Infantino said his organisation wouldn’t abide players betting on the world’s most popular sport. He made the comments a day after UEFA’s Euro 2024 tournament opened and less than a week before Copa America kicked off.

“The players know: obviously, they should not bet,” he said, reported Games Magazine Brasil. “In football, in rugby, in any sport. When something happens, there are obviously investigations and very serious, very stringent decisions are made regarding betting. And football, at all levels, including amateur.”

Infantino’s comments were in response to questions about Brazilian national team and West Ham midfielder Lucas Paquetá. England’s Football Association (FA) is investigating Paquetá for potential wagering violations. In question are multiple..

June 21, 2024

State of the Union: MGCB busts illegal slot parlor, Caesars completes Wynn MI deal

Welcome to iGB's State of the Union, a look at the biggest North American sports betting stories we've covered over the week and briefs on others we found interesting.

MGCB busts illegal gambling site

Michigan Gaming Control Board agents along with the state police raided an illegal gambling site on 5 June, the agency announced on Thursday (20 June). The agents confiscated six slot-style gaming machines, $2,820 in gift cards and $5,161 in cash from the Red Horse Bar in Saginaw. Following a tip, the MGCB issued a cease-and-desist letter to bar owners Christopher and Nicholas Adams. They did not comply, resulting in the raid.

“The Michigan Gaming Control Board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring compliance with all state gambling regulations,” MGCB executive director Henry Williams said via press release. “We will continue to work diligently to identify and eliminate any illegal gambling activities that pose a threat to the integrity of the industry and the welf..

June 21, 2024

Maryland: Betfred to exit, Bally’s and VSC to enter wagering market

Digital wagering operator Betfred Sportsbook revealed that it will be exiting the state of Maryland at Thursday's (20 June) Maryland State Lottery & Gaming Control Agency meeting.

Betfred’s US business, partnered with Long Shot’s (off track betting) OTB in Frederick, has struggled to gain traction and will shutter its retail and digital sportsbooks over the summer. Betfred will close its brick-and-mortar location on 30 June and take down its digital platform on July.

Maryland’s wagering law allows for more than 15 “Class B” licences, which are for OTBs, bingo halls and similar businesses. The idea was to spread the opportunity to participate in sports betting beyond the professional sports teams and casinos.

Long Shot’s was vocal during the legislative process, which also included using what lawmakers called a “lens of inclusion”. This was designed to help small businesses and women- and minority-owned businesses to enter the market.

Maryland Lottery & Gaming director John ..

June 20, 2024

Ontario police open Jontay Porter criminal investigation

On Tuesday (18 June) a representative for Ontario's Provincial Police told ESPN that it has opened a criminal investigation into former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver in April issued Jontay Porter a lifetime ban from the league for betting on his own team and sharing personal information with bettors.

According to ESPN, the OPP Investigation and Enforcement Bureau will coordinate with US federal authorities, who are also investigating wrongdoing surrounding two NBA games. Porter took himself out of games on 26 January and 22 March. According to a federal affidavit, Porter allegedly left the games early at the behest of of Ammar Awawdeh.

“Screenshot this … Me ammar awawdeh born 7/23/91 is forcing [Player 1] to do this,” reads a text in the affidavit. Porter allegedly replied with: “If I don’t do a special with your terms. Then it’s up. And u hate me and if I don’t get you 8k by Friday you’re coming to Toronto to beat me up.”

Porter is not identifie..

June 20, 2024

Yield Sec projections: Illegal market still has strong hold on US gamblers

Using predictive analytics, Yield Sec earlier this month released a special report projecting that, even as legal sports betting proliferates across the US, the black market still dominates. According to the report, the black market made up 65% of all wagering GGR in the US.

In 2023, according to the report, of the predicted total $29.5bn GGR in the US, $10.4bn was from legal operators.

Yield Sec further broke down the numbers and determined that 15% of all legal US GGR came from basketball, 10% from football and 6% from baseball.

Parlays ruled US betting in 2023, making up 54% ($15.9bn) of GGR. A company spokesperson said that while operator data may show that football is the most-bet sport in the US, many of those bets are parlays, which show up as “parlays” rather than “football” in Yield Sec data.

The report is titled “How America Bets Online” and only includes data related to online or digital gambling.

Yield Sec, a market intelligence platform, uses AI to trawl the web f..

June 19, 2024

Ontario igaming outperforms five-year state contribution and employment targets says Deloitte

Ontario’s commercial igaming sector outperformed various five-year economic contribution targets set by Deloitte between 2023 and 2024, including jobs sustained and government revenue contributions.

According to a report by Deloitte published on 19 June, the igaming market in Ontario hit or almost reached many of Deloitte’s year-five projections within its second year, with the market (excluding the state-backed lottery operator) contributing CA$2.7bn (US$1.97m) to GDP and sustaining almost 15,000 full time equivalent jobs in the province.

Of this, $1.3bn contributed to labour income. In comparison, market contribution in Ontario’s first year of operation hit $1.58bn, after Ontario’s online gambling market went live on 4 April 2022.

Between April 2023 and April 2024, direct jobs sustained hit 120% of Deloitte’s five-year prediction, with government revenues (94%), total full-time jobs sustained (92%) and GDP contributions (93%) also outpacing initial expectations.

The report said..

June 19, 2024

Michigan online gambling revenue tops $239.5m in May

Online gambling revenue in Michigan hit $239.5m (£188.3m/€223.0m) in May, a year-on-year increase of 28.9%, with growth across both the online casino and sports betting markets.

According to the latest Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) figures, the state’s revenue total cleared the $185.8m posted in May last year.

It was also 2.0% ahead of the $234.8m generated in Michigan in April this year.

Gross receipts from online casino activity amounted to $198.6m, up 31.9% year-on-year. As for sports betting, gross receipts here hiked 15.2% to $40.9m, with handle also rising 19.2% to $343.7m.

Adjusted gross receipts up 31.2%

In terms of adjusted gross receipts, taking into account promotional spending, there was also growth. Total adjusted gross receipts for the igaming market were 31.2% higher at $206.8m.

Adjusted online casinos receipts jumped 31.9% to $178.7m, with adjusted sports betting receipts up 27.7% to $28.1m.

The figures cover igaming activity across both commercial and ..

June 19, 2024

Pennsylvania igaming revenue jumps 24% in May

Growth within the igaming market drove gambling revenue in Pennsylvania up 8.7% year-on-year to $521.0m (£409.9m/€485.2m) in May, while the Keystone State also posted increases across sports betting and the land-based sector.

Igaming gross revenue came in at $174.1m in May, up 23.5% year-on-year.

Total revenue in May was comfortably higher than $479.4m in the same month last year. It also surpassed the $504.6m reported in Pennsylvania in April this year by 3.3%.

While the igaming segment saw the most growth, land-based slots remain the main source of gambling revenue in Pennsylvania. For May, revenue from physical slots hit $214.1m, a rise of 1.6%.

Mobile sports betting gross gaming revenue increased 10..5% annually to $59.1m on a handle of $557m, which marked an uptick of 21% on the previous year. Promotional spend across operators was up 6.3%.

In the land-based sector, table games revenue edged up 2.5% to $83.7m.

Deutsche Bank noted gross gaming revenue for both Caesars and ..

June 18, 2024

FanDuel: We’ll exit lottery contract if DC Council approves open marketplace

FanDuel would opt for a lower tax rate and walk away from its lottery contract in Washington, DC if the DC Council approves an open marketplace. President Christian Genetski wrote a letter earlier this month to DC Council chairman Phil Mendelson explaining his company's stance.

The DC Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) in March revealed that Intralot, the company that ran the GamBetDC platform, planned to take down the platform and subcontract with FanDuel. The news came as a surprise to the DC Council at that time. But bettors welcomed the change.

GamBetDC was fraught with usability errors and other issues from its May 2020 launch. In four years as the only mobile platform available throughout the city, GamBetDC underperformed. In that time, the District netted $4.3m in tax revenue from it.

OLG operators are taxed at 40%. In an open market, under the proposed amended law, operators would be taxed at 20%. FanDuel paid the city $1.9m in tax revenue in its first 30 days of ope..

June 18, 2024

Ohio regulator on track to change advertising, integrity monitoring rules

On Tuesday (18 June) morning the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) continued to refine its rules, approving a change to its advertising and promotional rules and expanding the scope of what integrity monitors may do. At about the same time, Michigan regulators said they weren't “trying to shut down” amusement businesses.

Both of Ohio’s amended rules must still go through the state’s Common-Sense Initiative office and the legislative Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. The proposals would go before the OCCC again later this year before final approval.

In Ohio, which already has some of the most stringent advertising and marketing rules, the OCCC voted to ban gambling companies from offering promotions as part of a “non-gaming, consumer transaction”. The prohibition would apply to consumers under the age of 21, the legal age for gambling.

This would mean, for example, that a company like Fanatics Sportsbook could not offer promotions to a high-school aged customer buyin..

June 18, 2024

How the sector is tackling competition this sporting summer

A packed sporting schedule means there are plenty of opportunities for gambling companies this summer to engage and target new customers. iGB spoke to a few industry leaders on targeting new betting markets and unique products helping them to stand out from the crowd.

Operators Betfred and Paddy Power and betting engine supplier Kambi are among those looking to capitalise and make significant revenue and customer gains throughout the packed summer sporting schedule, which is certain to excite sports fans.

The Euro 2024 kicked off on Friday and the Copa América starts this week, while the Olympic Games is set to take place in Paris as of 26 July with Wimbledon and the US Open to come in July and August.

The opportunity for the sports betting sector is clear, as more traction from these events will lead to increased activity across betting sites and ultimately more financial gain.

According to French gaming regulator L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the country could see close t..

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