Success Stories: iGaming - July 2021

In success stories, we profile some of the key stories in iGaming this month, focusing on areas of growth, resilience and innovation.

This month’s snapshot features record breaking revenue, advances in player protection, a major Canadian market expansion and sunny long term gambling growth predictions.

Rocketing revenue

Churchill Downs, VICI and PointsBet greatly exceed revenue expectations

Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) has reached $144.4m in profit following a stellar H1. The US company enjoyed a lucrative six months with revenue climbing to $839.4m, almost doubling last years take of $438.0m.

The company owes its recent success to the easement of Covid-19 restrictions following the steady climb out of the pandemic in America. VICI properties, the spin off investor from Caesars has a similar story, with net profit up 163.2% in H1 thanks to restrictions easing for Caesars.

Across the Globe in Australia online bookmaker Pointsbet has made a real score with a 153% year on year revenue increase. PointsBet notes that this surging profit is thanks to it’s acquisition of Banach Technology earlier in the year, which bought in about $1.5m in B2B revenue.

Player protection progress

Entain extends safe play partnerships

Through its foundation Entain plans to build on the work initiated with its US partners, in order to help esports and video gaming players at potential risk of harm.

Initial plans will include the launch of ‘Mind Your Game’ in the UK with Game Quitters, a support community for victims of gaming disorder. Part of the initiative will provide education for people at risk with EPIC Risk Management and the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association.

This involves supporting people at risk of online addiction and gaming disorder in video gaming and interactive entertainment.

“Our business is all about understanding and meeting the needs of customers, which means offering the most entertaining experiences whilst doing everything we can to protect them,” said Grainne Hurst, Entain Director of Safer Gaming and Regulation.

Canada legalises single event sports betting

Bill C-218 will usher in a new era of regulated growth for Canadian operators

The long awaited bill C-218, also known as the Safe and Regulated Sports Betting Act, will soon pass into law after securing Royal Assent last month. All that remains is for the Canadian House of Commons to be advised, who voted through the bill following a third reading in April. The bill has been a long time coming and was reintroduced into parliament last November after several previous unsuccessful attempts.

The bill will repeal paragraph 207(4)(b) of Canada’s Criminal Code, under which consumers are only permitted to wager on at least three games or more (known as ‘parlay bets’), meaning that a bet on a single match or event is deemed illegal.

Legalisation is a blessing for sports betting in Canada, after decades of prohibition failure. Easy access to black market betting has siphoned as much as 14 billion dollars a year away from an industry that previously relied on parlay bets, which have low winning odds.

Global betting turnover will reach $767bn by 2025

IBIA and H2 predict global betting turnover will reach $767bn by 2025

The International Betting Integrity association (IBIA) released a report detailing research on the future of the betting market, including a projection that the global regulated betting market will generate $106bn in gross win from $767bn by 2025.

It also revealed that betting’s growth rate is double that of the gambling industry as a whole over the next five years, growing at 6.3%. Casino is set to grow at 3.0%, gaming machines to decline by 0.3%, bingo and other games to grow by 4.1% and lotteries to grow by 2.3%. This means the gambling market as a whole will grow by 2.7%.

Statistics also outlined the rise in revenue from fully regulated markets. The report revealed onshore licensed betting’s share of the market grew from 57.7% in 2012 to 73.6% in 2020, and predicted that this number will rise further to 76.6% by 2025.

It is clear that with the continued influx of customers, particularly now that online gambling has become so accessible, the gaming industry will reach new heights of growth in the years to come. Now more than ever is the time to spin the wheel and invest.

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