Author: Olivia Cole

Flutter Entertainment has kept its merger and acquisition strategy in 2022 with a couple of new deals. Yesterday, one of the biggest British gambling companies revealed it completed the acquisition of UK online bingo operator Tombola, with staff mainly located in Gibraltar and Sunderland. The company is primarily focused on the provision of low-staking bingo options, with its own data reporting for an engagement of approximately 400,000 users every month. Tombola became the first UK-focused gambling operator that rolled out both mandatory deposit limits and maximum stakes. Financial reports have…

A recent report reveals that a group of campaigners and Members of Parliament are urging the UK’s National Lottery to contribute more money to good causes. They have cited a decline in contributions made by Camelot UK to good causes since 2010. Lately, the lottery operator has also been subject to fierce criticism because of its instant win games that are available to customers via mobile devices. The Observer revealed that the complaints are linked to revelations that the aforementioned instant win games of Camelot UK were donating smaller amounts…

After last week it was revealed that Entain’s Ladbroke business claimed over £57 million in furlough in 2020, and the BBC reported that the company claimed a further £44 million of furlough money last year to protect jobs against possible layoffs and redundancies, the gambling giant decided to respond to the criticism. Jette Nygaard-Andersen, the company’s boss used a recent interview with The Times to provide more details about her role within the gambling operator, the new challenges it encountered and the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on its business.…

British bookmaker Ladbrokes claimed more than £100 million from the furlough scheme, although the rapid growth registered in online gambling has been compensating for the losses registered as a result of the lengthy retail betting shop closures amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to accounts published on January 6th, the company claimed a total of £57.5 million in 2020, while the BBC reported that a further £44 million were claimed by Ladbrokes in 2021. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the parent company of the bookmaker – Entain – has…

Gambling software development company Playtech has decided to put off its planned shareholder meetings to approve the Aristocrat Leisure’s takeover deal. The operator is trying to buy more time to discuss a potential acquisition bid with JKO Play, although until recently Aristocrat Leisure was considered the frontrunner for the acquisition of Playtech. As Casino Guardian previously reported, in October 2021 the two companies even agreed on a takeover worth £2.1 billion (about AU$4 billion) but the deal has stepped along a bumpy road. As originally planned, both Playtech and Aristocrat…

Sportech revealed that the sale of its interest in Loteria Electronica International Dominicana (LEIDSA, or the Dominican Republic lottery) to Inspired Entertainment has been completed. As confirmed by the company’s CEO, the control over Sportech’s valued customer has already been transferred to the safe hands of Inspired Entertainment. The takeover transaction was estimated at $14.5 million and resulted in a more than 5% increase of the UK-based online gambling and entertainment operator’s value immediately. As revealed by Sportech, out of the overall sum, Inspired Entertainment is set to pay $12.5…

The UK division of 888 Holdings avoided sanctions from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after the British advertising regulator decided not to uphold two issues raised in association with targeting underage individuals and encouraging them to gamble. Two individuals filed complaints against 2 videos – called “I Was Youtubers TAXI driver for 24 hours” and “$10,000 YOUTUBER POKER CHALLENGE”, respectively – uploaded on Callum Airey’s YouTube channel, which currently has a large audience of young people. The complainants challenged whether the ads for a 888 UK gambling application, which were…

The British bookmaker William Hill could suffer a regulatory fine after information that it submitted incorrect data to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has emerged. The revelation forced the country’s gambling regulatory body to dispose of its analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on local people’s health and betting habits. Since 2020, the UKGC has published regular updates of its analysis about the aforementioned effects of the coronavirus pandemic on Brits’ betting patterns as a response to the growing concerns that consecutive lockdowns and social distancing measures could trigger excessive…

A Royal Commission has made a number of recommendations for future reforms to be brought to Crown Melbourne but experts have remained uncertain about their feasibility. On one hand, experts believe that the Royal Commission’s proposal associated with the instalment of a special manager to monitor the operations of Crown Resorts’ casino in Melbourne would not be enough to make right years of misconduct, not to mention that the proposed changes would not be easy to implement. Even though Ray Finkelstein’s recommendations aimed at tackling problem gambling have been welcomed,…

This year, the London-listed gambling group Entain has been involved in some of the most interesting negotiations and movements across the global gambling market. The owner of the world-famous Ladbrokes and Coral brands has been at the heart of the action – on one hand, thanks to its US partner MGM Resorts, and on the other hand, thanks to the DraftKings’ $22-billion acquisition bid. The joint venture that Entain and MGM Resorts operate together in the US – BetMGM – was created in July 2018. The company currently employs about…