Industry News of the Day for November 9, 2023

iDEA Growth Member News

• SBC Americas: Major Affiliates Band Together To Form Responsible Gambling Group
  • A new group of US gambling affiliates is essentially banding together to become The Avengers of responsible gambling. The new group is called the Responsible Gambling Affiliate Association. It consists of the following six affiliate groups: Better Collective, Catena Media, Gambling.com Group, Oddschecker, Spotlight Sports Group, and XL Media. Arguably the six biggest affiliates in the country, the group is uniting to promote elevated standards of advertising that are sensitive to best practices when it comes to online gambling advertising.

Industry News

• Gambling News: GiG Reports Robust Q3 2023 Revenues And Growth Across Core Verticals
  • Oslo-based Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) announced impressive financial results for Q3 2023, showcasing its leadership position in the iGaming industry. The company’s Q3 revenues reached an all-time high as it heads to a record-breaking year-end. Several high-profile appointments bolstered GiG’s leadership team, helping to manage its growing international footprint. GiG’s Q3 revenue reached an all-time high of €31.8 million ($33.92 million), reflecting a 39% year-on-year increase, with a substantial 23% being organic.

California

• PlayUSA: California Sports Betting Initiative Proponents Offer To Hand Unregulated Market To Tribes
  • California sports betting initiative proponents are offering Indian tribes ownership of online gambling companies currently operating illegally in the state. Kasey Thompson and Reeve Collins shared with PlayUSA an ambitious plan to cleanse illegal operators and give tribes control of a massive unregulated sports betting market that already exists in California. And that’s just the beginning of broader aspirations to rid the entire United States of unregulated online gaming by bringing the sites into the light.

Florida

• Legal Sports Report: Mobile Florida Sports Betting Challenged Day After Relaunch
  • It did not take long for the relaunch of online sports betting in Florida to draw a legal contest. West Flagler Associates, who is fighting at the state and federal level against this expansion of gambling in Florida, submitted an urgent request Tuesday evening to suspend mobile Florida sports betting through Hard Rock Bet. Hard Rock and the Seminole Tribe elected to open the platform again Tuesday, but only to existing customers. West Flagler accused the Seminole of creating a distraction with their announcement last week that legal in-person sports betting would launch at multiple casinos beginning Dec. 7.

Illinois

• Sports Handle: The State With The $20 Million Sports Wagering License And No Takers
  • From an operator standpoint, Illinois has just about everything one could ask for when it comes to sports wagering: a metropolis, professional sports teams, easy access to mobile betting, room for more online operators, and available licensee opportunities. Now in its fourth year of conducting business and firmly established as a top-three market nationally, there is one area where the Land of Lincoln has yet to hit paydirt — finding an operator wanting to go through the full process of becoming an online-only licensee. While no licensing process is easy, the Illinois Gaming Board has as thorough a vetting process as any state before awarding a license.

Michigan

• PlayMichigan: Interview: MGCB Speaks On Stopping Illegal Online Gambling In Michigan
  • The Michigan Gaming Control Board hasn’t been hiding that it’s actively seeking out illegal gambling in the state. It recently addressed the issue with PlayMichigan in an extensive interview. Raiding of illegal gaming sites has been routine over the years. However, the MGCB and state lawmakers have recently turned their attention to illegal online gambling. Mainly, that focuses on sweepstakes casinos that operate too similarly to a Michigan online casino while not facing the same rules and regulations. The same goes for illegal sports betting. Last month, Michigan implemented the Fantasy Contests Consumer Protection Act.

New York

• Gaming Today: Could iGaming Be the Rescue Plan for New York’s Looming Multi-Billion Dollar Deficit?
  • Whenever there’s a deficit, there’s always a way to alleviate the lack — especially when it comes to state budgets. And when it comes to New York’s looming budget deficit, there’s one state senator whose eyes and hopes are set on iGaming as a rescue plan. That senator is Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. But let’s first take a glimpse at why the Empire State’s budget needs a boost. In June 2023, WXXI — an NPR-member station based in Rochester, NY — reported that the forecast for New York’s budget deficit in 2024 is $9 billion.

• PlayNY: Delayed Downstate Licensing Process Shouldn’t Affect NY Online Casino Legalization
  • New York lawmakers have worked hard over the past few years to get the Empire State to expand legal gambling. That, of course, resulted in the first retail sportsbook opening at Rivers Casino & Resorts in Schenectady, the launch of NY online sports betting in 2022 that quickly became the biggest state-run industry in the country and, more recently, the authorization to expedite three downstate casino licenses. Yet Sen. Joe Addabbo, arguably the biggest proponent of gambling expansion and often behind legislation to do so, isn’t done. He never is. He still wants the state to legalize online casinos in NY.

North Carolina

• NC Sharp: Proposed Sports Betting Rules Limit Naming Rights For NC Sportsbooks
  • If rules from the North Carolina Lottery Commission are approved, sportsbooks will be prohibited from purchasing the naming rights to sports venues in the state. Rule 1-H-002 states that “No Operator shall contract for or purchase the right to name a Sports Facility or racetrack, or any physical locations within the Sports Facility or racetrack …” This restriction applies to seating locations, luxury boxes, concourses, the playing field or floor, holes of a golf course, locker rooms and more.