Each week, SBC CIS editors look back at the events of the previous week to highlight the most interesting and resonant ones for you.
Betano becomes the first regional FIFA World Cup betting partner, Flutter predicts current World Cup to top the previous one in the overall volume of bets, Disney’s expansion into sports betting may be halted by the return of their former CEO, Belgian National Lottery restricts gambling and sports betting advertising amidst the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Belarus proposes to increase airtime for gambling advertising, FAVBET Tech talks about their path of inspiring IT innovations in the face of Russian invasion of Ukraine.
More on these, as usual, in our digest below.
FIFA has announced that it had reached a significant milestone in its commercial history by appointing an official betting partner for the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament for the first time.
Betano, a sports betting branch of the multinational operator Kaizen Gaming, has announced that the company had been selected by the football’s governing body. The partnership will be used to “engage and excite” football fans around the world during the tournament that’s currently taking place in Qatar.
Timothy Hill, Senior Project Manager at Betsson Group has sat down with SBC for a Q&A session uncovering the details of the company’s preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
During the session, the senior Betsson Group official opened up a bit about the operator’s efforts to get ready for the launch of the tournament, the biggest challenges they had to overcome, lessons they learned as well as projections that they make as for the future of big sporting events and tournaments in the future, from the perspective of a sports betting brand.
Flutter Entertainment has confirmed that the football tournament in Qatar shows the signs to become the most popular betting event in the whole calendar year.
Sky Betting & Gaming, Paddy Power and Betfair UK expect total bets only from fans in England and Wales to exceed £300m mark.
Flutter stressed that the tournament has already displayed every reason to outperform the 2018 FIFA World Cup, that was considered to be the biggest sporting event in history, betting-wise.
Bob Chapek stepped down as the CEO of The Walt Disney Company and was replaced by former CEO Bob Iger. This may affect the gambling plans of the media giant.
Following the recent boom in popularity of sports betting in the US, Disney has begun to focus more and more on the sector, concentrating its promotional efforts mainly through its sports streaming channel ESPN.
However, with Chapek’s resignation and Iger’s return as the CEO, Disney’s plans to develop sports betting and/or gambling may be put on hold.
Under Iger’s leadership, Disney has taken a very clear position on gambling, including opposing gambling-friendly laws in Florida, home to Walt Disney World Resort.
During a 2019 earnings call, Iger said he didn’t expect Disney to go into the gambling business, adding that he was pretty skeptical about going into the gambling business in the first place.
He also noted that Disney would not be involved in gambling for the foreseeable future and noted that possible future development in the sector is under his direction.
Belgian National Lottery has recently announced that during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it will not be advertising sports betting products. Reports in the local media name Vincent van Peteghem, the Finance Minister, to be responsible for the decision to tighten the government’s approach to betting.
Such announcement is the latest in a series of political bans on betting and gambling in Belgium that include a number of new advertising restrictions.
The ban plan will continue into the new year with all of the remaining forms of sports betting marketing to be banned by 2024.
In Belarus, The Ministry of Trade and Anti-monopoly Regulation (MART) has completed their work on a new bill, proposing to slightly widen the timeframe for television and radio advertising of gambling-related products and services. To date, the broadcast of promotional videos aimed at gambling and betting is only allowed between 22.00 and 07.00.
The new bill is proposing to increase this time by one hour thus allowing casinos and sportsbooks to run ads on the radio and television starting from 21.00.
FAVBET Tech’s CEO Artem Skrypnyk discusses how Ukrainian IT specialists have rediscovered themselves as military tech pros and provides his assessment on the prospects of the nation’s military technology industry.
Before the full-scale war, the Ukrainian IT community’s interest in military technology could be described as ‘moderate’ at best. However, over the past 9 months, there’s been a huge change. The ever-growing need for technology has not gone unnoticed by local businesses and startups, which have actively engaged in the development of relevant solutions.
Stay tuned for more news this week and don’t forget to subscribe to our Telegram channel!
