Visit us at ICE London!
If you are visiting ICE London next week, don't forget to see us at our stand SD6-A.
Let's get in touch!
Entain seeks damages from former BetCity owners over undeclared regulatory investigations
Entain is seeking compensation after claiming that the former owners of BetCity failed to properly disclose two ongoing regulatory investigations by the Dutch Gambling Authority, CasinoNieuws reports.
Entain acquired BetCity for an initial sum of €300m in January 2023. During the acquisition process, BetCity’s former owners signed documents stating they were not aware of any ongoing regulatory investigations, Entain alleges.
Although the former BetCity owners paid the fines that were issued as a result of the regulatory investigations, Entain is arguing that the business should have had a lower valuation because of these investigations.
Although Entain already became aware of the regulatory investigations prior to the conclusion of the deal, it did not officially file for damages until December 2023.
Entain did not specify the damages it is seeking in its court filing.
French regulator issues warning over illegal online casinos impersonating licensed operators
French gambling regulator l'Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has warned consumers about illegal gambling websites using the brand of licensed operators to promote their services on Facebook.
To date, ANJ has reported approximately 400 website URLs to Meta, the parent company of Facebook. This has resulted in the closure of 137 user accounts on the social network.
Individuals create fake promotional images using brands owned by these approved operators as a way of enticing players to their unlicensed sites that have no affiliation with the licensees.
Similar false advertisements earlier appeared in the Netherlands, with Holland Casino being the main victim of these scams.
Upcoming events
The following event(s) may be of interest to the GiH community.
Registrations for ICE and ICE VOX 2024 are now open! Join 45,000 industry peers and attend the industry’s largest B2B event between February 6-8 in London.
IGB Affiliate 2024 takes place February 6-9 alongside ICE London and aims to connect affiliates with iGaming operator affiliate programs and tech vendors.
Kindred's annual Sustainable Gambling Conference will be held March 20, 2024, at the Kia Oval in London.
The 2024 Casino Operations Summit, which focuses on land-based casino operations, will take place April 23-25 in Amsterdam.
Belgium to raise minimum gambling age to 21, will ban bonuses
Belgium's Chamber of Deputies has approved a new gambling bill that will raise the minimum gambling age to 21 and will prohibit bonuses of any kind. Additionally, all gambling advertising will be banned in principle, unless explicitly exempted in a separate Royal Decree. Online operators may no longer offer different kinds of gambling, e.g., casino and sports betting, through the same website.
Controversially, Belgium's National Lottery will be exempted from the gambling advertising ban.
The Belgian Association of Gaming Operators (BAGO) has strongly criticized the new regulatory framework, claiming that the adoption of the bill will harm player protection and market channelization.
In related news, approximately 230,000 individual Belgian gamblers have manually raised their personal deposit limits to exceed the country's standard €200 weekly limit which was introduced in July 2022.
Other news
Live casino developer Stakelogic Live has announced a collaboration with Italian operator Planetwin365.
Kindred has entered an agreement with Stats Perform to enhance its proprietary sportsbook platform, Kindred Sportsbook Platform (KSP).
Flutter Entertainment has commenced trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Comments