Got beef
Entain shareholders sue over Turkish bribery sell-off
Investors claim £150m in compensation for post-Turkey settlement share drop.
In +More: Evoke buys into Romania, BetMGM goes single wallet in Nevada.
Google’s third-party content change hits Better Collective in the US.
PointsBet says Australian profits are set to “kick in.”
Beef rap could lead to gettin' teeth capped.
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Blame game
Take a Chancery on me: A group of 20 institutional investors in Entain have filed a claim in London’s High Court for damages caused to the value of their shareholdings by the outcome of the HMRC bribery case into Entain’s previous dealings in Turkey.
The claim made on the investors’ behalf by London law firm Fox Williams is seeking compensation of at least £150m.
The firm’s spokesperson said more investors might yet join the action, which was filed on August 2.
The FT said yesterday it is thought the investors are US and UK-based.
See you in court: In a statement, an Entain spokesperson said it is “aware of these claims but has not yet been formally served with them, so these matters are at a very early stage.”
They added that the company intends to “defend any proceedings robustly.”
Slaughter & May has got the instruction from Entain to defend against the claim.
The hits keep coming: Entain made provision for £585m last August after it reached a settlement with the UK’s tax authorities over a bribery charge related to its now long disposed of Turkish-facing business.
The terms of the settlement disclosed in December last year showed the UK authorities no longer see black market activity as being compatible with being a good corporate citizen.
Weighed down: Since the likely size of the provision was first announced, the Entain share price has fallen nearly 45%.
In that period it has also seen the emergence of activist investor Eminence Capital as an influential voice within the company.
Entain also parted company with then CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen in December.
Its recent uptick followed in the wake of the appointment of Gavin Isaacs as full-time CEO.
🤮 Vomiting camel: Entain’s share price down nearly 45% in past year
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+More
Chicken dinner: Evoke has laid out £10m for a controlling 51% stake in Romanian operator New Gambling Solutions, which runs the Winner.ro brand. Together with 888’s existing Romanian business, it will make the combined operation #4 in the country with ~7% market share.
Evoke has the option to buy the remaining portion of the business it doesn’t own after three years.
Winner was launched in 2019 and generated NGR of €19m in H124. The combined business will be managed by Nicklas Zajdel, the current Winner CEO.
The deal is expected to close in Q3.
Nanny knows best: William Woodhams, CEO at high-end UK-facing bookmakers Fitzdares, says that to save UK horse racing small stakes punters should be encouraged to bet via the Tote or equivalent offerings at the expense of using fixed-odds.
Speaking to E+M, Woodhams said the major bookmakers and the racecourse openers were now at a “bit of an impasse.”
“The bookies need to protect their margins and racing needs more money,” he said.
But he added that Tote betting offered an alternative, with guaranteed funding for racing if it had more visibility with the betting public.
“If every £10 or exotic bet is put through the Tote, it would help secure racing’s funding for the future.”
BetMGM announced it has become the first sports-betting app to offer Nevada bettors seamless, nationwide connectivity through a single digital wallet. BetMGM is now the only OSB app to allow Nevada residents and visitors to wager in the state and carry their funds to BetMGM mobile markets nationwide.
The US Betr has acquired a license to Huddle’s odds-making tech, which will allow it to build its own IP around same-game parlays and micro-bets. Betr had already integrated Huddle’s software in its sportsbook platform.
Flutter has opened a technology center in Hyderabad, India, as part of its $3.5m investment in the region.
Golden Matrix has acquired 80% of an Australian-based discount platform called Classics for a Cause for $8.4m, as it branches out into the loyalty and rewards market.
Lottery.com has finalized the deal to buy the technology behind its Sports.com brand.
Read across
In Compliance+More this week, sweepstakes in the US are generating heat after a memo from the American Gaming Association (AGA) ramped up the pressure on a product that it said “threatens consumers and undermines gaming regulations.”
In The Token Word, Tim Heath, the man behind Yolo and a number of crypto-based gambling businesses, said his aim is to collar the high-end crypto user while rival Stake.com “wants to be bet365.”
+More careers
The big move: Jake Williams has joined Underdog as the new SVP of operations. He was previously COO at PointsBet US until it was sold to Fanatics and before that he was VP of legal and regulatory affairs at Sportradar.
Welcoming him, Underdog CEO Jeremy Levine said Williams would take his company to the “next level operationally as we execute on our massive ambitions.”
“PointsBet always punched well above its weight,” Levine added. “That was testament to operational skill driving success.”
What a long strange trip it’s been: Tim Cogswell, one of the founding team at betPARX, has announced via LinkedIn he has left the company and will be taking up new opportunities in the months ahead.
Max Tappeiner has taken up a new role within Wynn Resorts as the president for the Wynn Al Marjan project in the UAE. Tappeiner assumes the role on September 1. He was previously EVP of operations at Wynn Las Vegas.
Rivalry has appointed Demi Abidogun-Benson as interim CFO. Benson has been with the company since 2022 and has over a decade of experience in corporate reporting, planning and analysis.
MGM Resorts has appointed former IHG Hotels & Resorts CEO Keith Barr to the board.
John Foster has been appointed as the CEO at iCasino product design provider iGate.
Konami Gaming has appointed Chris Rowe as VP of North American game sales and Shane Thompson as director of sales and corporate accounts.
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Click and Collective
The searchers: Better Collective said its media partnerships would continue in a “slightly moderated format,” despite an unspecified US deal being “impacted” by decreased rankings after Google made changes to the way it treats third-party content.
The comments from CEO Jesper Søgaard came as the Q2 numbers showed North American revenues rising 12%.
But organic growth was at a negative 18% and adj. EBITDA for the region tumbling by 75% to just €1.9m.
“We have managed to navigate big changes,” said Søgaard, adding the company had “come out on top.”
Ace’d it: A better story emerged in Europe and the rest of the world where revenues rose 33% or 16% organically, meaning total revenues were up 27% to €99m. But adj. EBITDA was down 2% at €28.5m.
The European segment was boosted by the addition of the UK-facing AceOdds business bought for €42m in May,
Søgaard said the integration had been “seamless and swift with performance exceeding expectations.”
Eye for a bargain: The Playmaker HQ sports media buyout from Jul23 has proven to be more problematic. After a period of underperformance, BC has settled the earnout for the business early with a final price of $23m, some $31m lower than initially agreed.
Søgaard was keen to stress the outfit remained a good acquisition despite what BC hopes is a temporary lull in performance.
“I would like to stress I would definitely do this acquisition again,” he emphasized.
🚧 Investors in BC might need more reassurance
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Kicking on Down Under
Going through the gears: PointsBet is at an “important inflection point” in Australia where operating leverage “kicks in” and revenue growth will translate directly to the bottom line, said CEO Sam Swanell.
“Our trajectory is clear to see,” he said on the company's FY24 earnings call, which showed revenue for the year from continuing operations rising 17% to A$245m ($165m).
Normalized EBITDA losses narrowed to just A$18m from A$49m the year previous.
For 2025, PointsBet is preciting EBITDA profits of A$11m-A$16m from revenues of A$280m-A$290m. Swanell told analysts the projections wouldn’t be affected by any proposed changes to the gambling ad regime in Australia.
“We believe our brand is big enough,” to withstand whatever changes are finally agreed upon, he added.
Climb every Mountie: The reconfigured PointsBet is focused solely on Australia and Canada after having sold its loss-making US operation to Fanatics for $225m in June last year.
Without committing to a date, Swanell said the Canadian business was “on the path to profitability,” helped by the potential opening in Alberta.
“If we’re profitable in Ontario, then that really does translate quite straightforwardly to being profitable in Alberta and other provinces such as British Columbia,” he added.
“It's not like America where the states are very different and there is a new set of costs every time you set up in a state.”
🔥 Inflection point chat boosts confidence
Earnings in brief
The Lottery Corporation: The Australian lottery operator said revenues rose 14% YoY to A$4bn ($2.7bn) while EBITDA was up 16% to A$827m. Noting the mass-market popularity of the basic lottery product, the company spoke about the queues seen outside retail outlets when the Powerball jackpot hit A$200m.
Active players hit an all-time high of 4.75m over the year.
Sky City Entertainment: Revenue was static at NZ$960m ($591m) while underlying EBITDA fell 8% to NZ$228m. As previously warned, the company took a NZ$94.3m writedown against the value of its Adelaide property during the year and also made a NZ$130m provision against changes to New Zealand tax legislation.
Acroud: The now largely affiliate services provider saw revenue dip 8% to €9.5m while EBITDA went down in sympathy, off by 9% to €1.2m. After quarter close, the company paid back a nominal amount of the outstanding SEK190m (€16.7m) bond after receiving approval from bondholders. The company said it faced limited disruption from recent Google changes.
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Earnings calendar
Aug 28: Gaming Innovation Group
Aug 29: Rivalry
Sep 6: Allwyn
Sep 25: Flutter investor day
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