Author: Olivia Cole

With Ladbrokes making a decision to no longer provide money for its £2-million-a-year sponsorship with Scottish football, the uneasy relationship between football and gambling has been only highlighted. According to some analysts, it is high time for football clubs’ chiefs to start looking for ways other than joining forces with gambling companies, especially considering the fact that football clubs have long been blamed for their relationship with gambling. On the other hand, experts have projected that there could be other companies’ exodus from their football club sponsorship agreements, despite their…

Premier League clubs have broken shirt sponsorship record for 10th straight season, taking sponsorship in football to a new level. Earlier this summer it became clear that the total amount which would be brought to Premier League shirt sponsorship deals is worth £349.1 million. This amount beats the previous season estimate of £325.6 million. What really scandalised some campaigners is the fact that ten out of twenty principal shirt sponsors of Premier League clubs in the 2019/20 season are gambling companies. The revelation comes at a time when the gambling…

The owner of Ladbroke Coral and many other gambling websites, GVC Holdings, upgraded its forecast for full-year earnings today, after the strong performance of its online business helped it to compensate for losses resulting from stricter regulatory regime imposed on the UK gambling sector. GVC Holdings also revealed that the crackdown which the UK Government rolled out on the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) earlier this year did not hit the company’s performance as hard as expected. The company, which acquired its rival Ladbrokes Coral in a deal worth more than…

Casino and hospitality operator SkyCity Entertainment has recently posted its full-year results for the twelve months which ended on June 30th, 2019. The company reported a 14.7% decline in its annual net profit after tax from NZ169.5 million to NZ$144.6 million and came after the sale of the brand’s Darwin casino and a lower win rate registered in the company’s international business. The group normalised profit after tax rose by 1.9% and its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased by 1.3%. Despite the challenges faced by the…

Fiona Patten, a crossbench Member of Parliament at the Victorian upper house, has urged the lawmakers to commission a parliamentary inquiry into Crown Casino operations. Her calls come after the casino gambling giant faced some allegations of money laundering following a joint investigation by a number of local media hubs. Ms Patten, who also heads the Reason Party, shared that she wants to see a debate open in the Victorian upper house so that the allegations against Crown Casino are addressed immediately. She also wants the role of the Victorian…

One of the sponsors of Premier League clubs Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, 1xBet, has suspended its operations on the territory of the UK after an investigation held by the Sunday Times into improper conduct. Currently, the access to the Russian gambling operator’s UK website is blocked, but the company is still promoting its services on social media, including its sponsorship deals to its partners of the English Premier League (EPL). The Sunday Times has investigated into the global operations of 1xBet and found that it was promoting advertising on…

Currently, Australian customers are literally bombarded with gambling advertising materials whenever they decide to watch a live sporting event. Players are wearing kits which display the logos of sports betting operators, and a large number of TV ads are being aired during live sports events. But another trend emerged, making anti-gambling campaigners worried about the consequences which such aggressive gambling advertising could have on sports fans. It seems that Australian people’s smartphones are being increasingly invaded by gambling companies and their advertising materials and operators are seeking new ways of…

The massive expansion of William Hill into the US has led the British gambling operator through the $1-billion barrier in a few states which have recently made sports betting legal, including Mississippi and New Jersey. The company, which is one of the largest bookmaker in the UK, has been quickly expanding its presence in the US sports betting after the US Supreme Court lifted the federal ban and liberalised the sports betting sector which was previously suspended under the provisions of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992…

Yesterday, the Australian casino operator Crown Resorts confirmed that New South Wales’ gambling regulatory body had notified it for an upcoming inquiry into Melco Resorts and Entertainment’s planned stake purchase in the company. The agreement was announced by Melco Resorts in May, with the operator revealing that it would acquire a 19.99% stake in the Australian gambling operator at the price of $1.2 billion. James Packer-controlled CPH Crown Holdings Pty Ltd emerged as the seller. Lawrence Ho is currently the controlling shareholder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Melco Resorts.…

Matt Bekier, Chief Executive Officer of Star Entertainment Group has supported junkets’ use at the company’s casino, calling these operators a well-established feature of the gambling sector. Mr Bekier explained that he could not comment on the actions of his company’s major competitor Crown Resorts but shared that Star Entertainment sticks to practices which are permitted by law and give the company’s management and its investors that they are “doing the right thing”. Star Entertainment’s boss said he was confident that the company is running legal operations in correspondence with…