Holland Casino Amsterdam-West wins “Best Casino of 2020” award
Casino review website OneTime has selected Holland Casino Amsterdam-West as “Best Casino of 2020.”
“Pierre de Jonge Etten-Leur" and “Gran Casino Lelystad” completed the top 3.
Typically for the year 2020, the professional jury was particularly impressed with the way mandatory Covid-19 measures were implemented.
Erwin van Lambaart, CEO of Holland Casino, commented: “I am extremely proud that our colleagues have received this wonderful prize. Winning such a prize by excelling in hospitality and professionality, and by being highly valued by both the professional jury and our guests fills us with pride.”
IGT offloads Lottomatica business to Apollo-managed investment fund for €950m
International Game Technology (IGT) has announced that it has agreed to sell 100% of the share capital of its Italian B2C sports betting, gaming machine, and digital gaming businesses to Gamenet Group, an investment fund managed by Apollo.
The sale includes the Lottomatica Videolot Rete S.p.A. and Lottomatica Scommesse S.r.l. businesses.
Under the terms of the agreement, €725m will be paid at close, with a further €100m payable by the end of 2021. A final payment of €125m will be made on 30 September 2022, bringing the total value of the deal to €950m.
The deal follows a €500m investment in pan-European lottery and gaming giant Sazka Group.
Upcoming events
The following events may be of interest to the GiH community.
Events
SiGMA Europe has been rescheduled to 13 – 15 April, 2021.
ICE London 2021 will now take place 29 June – July 1, 2021, with the co-located iGB Affiliate London taking place 1 – 2 July.
iGB Live 2021 has also been moved to 28 September – 1 October, 2021, but will still take place in Amsterdam!
Webinars
Mindway AI has published an on-demand webinar on player profiling and efficient responsible gaming interventions.
Join the iGaming Next Power Hour every Friday @3pm CET for a short, compact, educational and social weekly digital gathering with some of the brightest and most connected minds of the industry.
UK gov’t launches Gambling Act review
The UK has long been Europe’s leading gambling market. A review of the 2005 Gambling Act, launched by the UK government this week, has the potential to undermine the relative importance of the UK market.
The reformers’ wish list includes limits on stakes and prizes, affordability checks, as well as a ban on sports sponsorships.
The Chair of the UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee (DCMS), which oversees the review, described the process as an opportunity for the government to “re-balance” the odds between gamblers and the industry:
“We know that gamblers take their chances in a world increasingly dominated by online, pitting themselves against sophisticated algorithms and increasingly, artificial intelligence.
The Government has an opportunity to re-balance these odds.
We want to see greater transparency in how algorithms are used in marketing to promote gambling, we need fairness in bet exchanges.
Crucially, robust age-verification must be brought in to keep children off age-restricted platforms.”
The Terms of Reference of the review are available on the UK government's website.
Other news
Austria-based Neccton has secured a deal with Nederlandse Loterij to supply its responsible gaming solution “Mentor.”
Flutter Entertainment has agreed a $4.2bn deal to acquire an additional 37.2% stake in US sports betting operator FanDuel, taking Flutter’s total stake in FanDuel to 95%.
Sweden’s Consumer Agency (KO) has branded the terms and conditions (T&Cs) of 13 licensed operators as “unreasonable, vague and misleading” following a review of operator practices.
With the end date of the transition period following Brexit approaching fast, Danish regulator
Spillemyndigheden has issued a reminder that all licensed online gambling incumbents must ensure that their registered business entities reside in either an EU or EEA nation.
As of today, casinos in Denmark will be closed until at least January 3.
Malta’s General Workers' Union is threatening industrial action following large-scale layoffs at NetEnt.
Playtech has signed an online casino and VLT partnership with Norsk Tipping.