With Spring of 2023 right around the corner, let’s look back at the most important gambling news and events that happened in the closing days of this winter.
European Gambling and Betting Association (EGBA) published a report on the gambling industry performance in 2022. The key takeaway from the report — the revenues on the European gambling market in 2022 grew by 23% and amounted to EUR 108.5 billion, online gambling revenues continued to grow steadily, reaching EUR 38.2 billion in 2022.
Forbes magazine published their 36th annual ranking of the world’s richest people. This year, although the list has changed significantly due to the difficult economic situation in the world, the war in Europe, the consequences of the global pandemic, it still had a place to accommodate 23 representatives of the global gambling industry. Click here to see who made the list.
In the Russian Federation, the National Assembly adopted a bill allowing the government to increase the amount of deductions it takes from the sports betting operators’ revenues towards funding the development of children’s, youth and mass sports in the country. CEOs of three biggest sports betting operators in Russia shared their thoughts on the decision made by the country’s government.
PartnerMatrix, announced the appointment of Vahe Khalatyan as the company’s new CEO. Mr. Khalatyan formerly served as Chief Technical Officer and over the years played a key role in the company’s growth and success. The appointment follows the departure of the former CEO Levon Nikoghosyan, who left the company to pursue personal projects.
AstroPay is an online payment service that enables people to make online purchases using their local payment methods and in their local currency. In a recent SBC podcast, Mikael Lijtenstein, CEO at AstroPay, shared his company’s global expansion plans, product localization, and how they recently launched their new product — AstroPay Visa debit card.
STATSCORE added Georgian language as a new language at its flagship sports scores platform. Widgets for the flagship products LivematchPro and PrematchPro are available in common languages such as English, Chinese, French and Spanish, as well as less common Latvian, Hebrew and Greek.
Betlive betting company became the official sponsor of three sports federations in Georgia — Georgian Rugby Union, Georgian Judo Federation, and Georgian Tennis Federation. Betlive is certain that the private sector involvement is essential for sports development. The company hopes their example will serve as an incentive for other companies, which will have a significant positive impact on sports in Georgia.
Sports Information Services (SIS) was put up for sale after a decision made by its shareholders, among which are Entain, William Hill and Betfred’s founder Fred Dawn. SIS is a provider of horse-, greyhound-, virtual horse racing content, and eSports. The company works with over 400 clients in 50 countries, and SIS partners with well-known bookmakers such as Bet365, Unibet, Betsson, Sportsbet and Pointsbet.
OneFootball is looking to reduce its headcount from 470 to 320. This will make the company lose over a third of its employees within a few months. OneFootball is a platform-based football media company with live scores, statistics, and news from 200 leagues in 12 different languages covered by a newsroom located in Berlin. Their monthly active audience has 130+ million fans.
National Lottery, the new lottery operator in Malta, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Convenience Shop to distribute instant scratch cards for the lottery operator. National Lottery took over the management of the Malta Lottery in July 2022. It plans to launch instant scratch cards under the SCRATCHIZ brand in the second quarter of this year that will be sold through a network of 86 convenience stores in the archipelago.
CT Interactive signed a distribution agreement with QTech Games. Under the agreement’s terms, CT Interactive’s content will become available on QTech Games platform, primarily targeting the Asian market, as well as Africa, Europe and Latin America. CT Interactive is a leading content provider with a portfolio of over 200 games designed for a variety of player groups. The company is accredited in 18 markets and is actively working to increase this number.
The UK government looks to agree a deal with the English Premier League which would see the gambling sponsors’ names taken off the front of football shirts. Currently, eight Premier League clubs have existing contracts with betting companies, including those involving the placement of the logo on football shirts.
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