Industry News

LeoVegas: A myth-enshrouded industry

Published

4 years ago

May 29, 2020

Reading Time: 7 minutes

The gambling industry is a bit myth-enshrouded, including by a number of falsehoods about it. Below we explain a few of the things that are often questioned or unknown in an area intended to provide entertainment and relaxation for many people. In Sweden alone, hundreds of thousands of people play games every week.

A young company with Swedish roots
Many people do not know that LeoVegas was established in 2011 in Sweden by two individuals, that the Parent Company is Swedish, and that LeoVegas has a gambling licence that is regulated by the Swedish Gambling Authority. LeoVegas is also regulated in several other countries, which entails continuous oversight by licensing bodies and authorities. This is just like many other regulated industries, such as banking and telecom.

Who owns LeoVegas?
LeoVegas’ stock is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, and roughly 85% is owned by Swedish shareholders, including mutual funds, insurance companies and more than 15,000 private investors (as per 1 January 2020).

Can anyone play as much as they want?
LeoVegas puts strong emphasis on ensuring that players have the financial means to support their gaming, and that players do not exhibit unsound gaming behaviour or signs of such a tendency. Many control mechanisms are in place, including algorithms that monitor gaming behaviour, personal contacts, and tools that players themselves can use, for example, to regulate the amount of time they spend playing and set amount limits.

How young can you be to play?
LeoVegas has an age limit, and you must be 18 to play.

What does a person need to do to limit their gaming?
LeoVegas offers various options for players to limit their gaming. LeoSafePlay, which is LeoVegas’ proprietary tool for responsible gaming, is one way. The website Spelpaus.se is another means, whereby players can limit their gaming with all gambling companies that have a licence to conduct gambling for money in Sweden. Players can also block themselves from playing and from direct marketing for one, three or six months, or until further notice. Other markets have similar self-blocking systems, such as Rofus in Denmark and GamStop in the UK.

Do the same rules apply for all gambling companies?
In licensed markets, all operators work under the same rules, which is important for consumer protection, among other things. Unfortunately, every regulated market has a black market, entailing gaming outside of the licence system. For example, in Sweden players can play with unlicensed gambling companies, which to not abide by the Swedish rules. These companies do not pay any gambling taxes, and the blocking mechanisms provided by Spelpaus.se do not work. There is no oversight of these companies, and there is a large risk that they are used for money laundering.

How much is the gambling tax?
Most countries have a gambling tax. In Sweden, revenue from gambling tax amounted to an estimated SEK 3.6 bn in 2019. This is tax revenue that was previously excluded from the national treasury. This amount corresponds to the costs (salaries and related payroll costs) for 5,100 nurses per year, or roughly twice the budget of the Swedish Security Service.

How much does LeoVegas play in gambling taxes?
The gambling tax rate varies from country to country. In Sweden it is 18%, while in the UK it is 21%. In total LeoVegas paid EUR 49.7 m in gambling taxes in 2019 (corresponding to SEK 525 m). In Sweden LeoVegas paid SEK 153 m in gambling taxes in 2019.

How much are the winnings at LeoVegas? How large is LeoVegas share of winnings?
For every krona in wagers with LeoVegas, 93%-98% goes back to players in winnings. This can be compared with other popular games in Sweden, such as V75 (pari-mutuel horse racing), where 65% of wagers go to winnings, or Triss (scratch lotteries), where only 49% of players’ wagers are returned in winnings. In general, the state-controlled operators in the various countries offer a considerably lower share of winnings to players than what LeoVegas and other commercial operators offer.

Why does LeoVegas have operations in Malta?
The island nation of Malta, which borders to Sicily and the rest of Italy, is a republic with a population of just under 500,000 and a member of the EU. Historically, gambling in many European countries has been run as a state monopoly, including Sweden until 2019. Malta was out early in offering a European gambling licence, under which gambling companies could offer their services to countries within the EU entirely legally. This was the starting shot and the main reason why many companies chose to establish themselves in Malta, including LeoVegas. Apart from this, the sunny climate and Mediterranean Sea attracts many to work on the island, which facilitates recruiting. Malta is the prime hub for gaming in Europe, and a number of large European gambling companies are domiciled in Malta.

How many people work for LeoVegas?
LeoVegas has approximately 800 employees from nearly 60 countries (including more than 400 in Malta and just under 200 in Sweden). The company has extensive breadth in its employees’ expertise, including 250 IT specialists, gaming developers and product specialists, 40 lawyers, five specialists in artificial intelligence, 20 designers, 80 people who work with marketing, 50 HR specialists, 35 economists and 150 customer service representatives. A total of some 70 people work with compliance and responsible gaming. LeoVegas is constantly searching for additional talent.

How many customers does LeoVegas have?
LeoVegas has roughly 500,000 active customers, and during a given month LeoVegas handles more than 1.2 billion gaming transactions.

What does LeoVegas provide for players and for society?
With ease of accessibility LeoVegas provides a moment of relaxation and entertainment for everyone (18 years and older). People have played games through the ages – even when the Great Wall of China was built, parts of it were financed by lotteries.

LeoVegas contributes large amounts to countries’ treasuries as a taxpayer through gambling taxes, income taxes, employer payroll taxes and other taxes.

LeoVegas is part of the Swedish IT wonder. The company employs highly educated people in programming, technology, search engine optimisation and artificial intelligence. It offers attractive jobs at numerous offices, including in Malta, where 412 work, and in Sweden, where LeoVegas has 182 employees in Stockholm, Västerås and Växjö.

What is LeoVegas doing to address players who exhibit an unsound relationship to their gaming?
Advocating for sound gaming and being vigilant about where gaming wagers come from have top priority. The part of our operations that addresses customers’ gaming is called responsible gaming.

The part of operations that is working to counter money laundering is called Anti-Money Laundering (AML). Put simply, money laundering refers to an operation where black money, i.e., money that has been obtained illegally, is used in a way that it appears to be legally originated or can be used for private consumption without raising suspicions. Black money can be, for example, money that has been received legally, in private or through business, but which has avoided taxation, or money that has originated from criminal activity, such as smuggling, drug trafficking or theft. Today the concept of money laundering also refers to legally or illegally obtained money that is used to finance terrorism.

Following is a description of a few areas in which LeoVegas is working on this issue:

Responsible gaming
LeoSafePlay
Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

Responsible gaming
The responsible gaming department receives information on a continuous basis from all departments that have customer contact, such as customer support, the risk department, the fraud and payments departments, and so on. They review customer accounts to determine if there is a need to contact individuals based on their gaming behaviour and also based on customers’ correspondence with LeoVegas. The company also conducts proactive reviews of customer behaviours and trends in customers’ transactions to be able to identify a need to act. Following a thorough analysis, a decision is made on any measures to be taken. This may be in the form of an email, phone call, or offering education and/or information on unsound gaming. LeoVegas also has a dedicated website, separate from the Group’s gaming website, called LeoSafePlay. Here customers can find additional information about responsible gaming and tools to help individuals who may have a potential problems. LeoSafePlay is also targeted at family members or relatives of persons who exhibit unsound gaming behaviour.

LeoSafePlay
LeoSafePlay is the name of LeoVegas’ platform and work approach for responsible gaming. It incorporates everything from technology and technical solutions to the daily work in the operating activities with this issue. LeoSafePlay also includes the website LeoSafePlay.com, where players themselves can assess their gaming profiles and set time limits and wagering limits for their gaming, among other things. The website is a source of all information surrounding the company’s work with responsible gaming. One of the most important technical solutions used by LeoSafePlay is built upon extensive data analytics to proactively create a long-term relationship with customers and promote responsible gaming.

Central self-exclusion system
On the external website Spelpaus.se, individuals can block themselves from all gambling and from direct marketing during a self-chosen period. Unfortunately, the site does not cover unlicensed companies that operate and advertise in Sweden. This represents more than SEK 700 m in lost revenue to the country’s treasury.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
LeoVegas’ Anti-Money Laundering (AML) department works closely with the customer support and compliance departments to ensure full compliance with regulatory requirements and LeoVegas’ policies and routines. This is done by applying a risk-based approach employing system-generated warnings, transaction monitoring algorithms and specialist-trained employees augmented by mandatory training for all employees in the organisation. Identification of fraudulent behaviour helps reduce risks that the company may be exposed to daily. AML risk assessment has high priority and is initiated as soon as a customer registers with LeoVegas.

FACTS ABOUT THE SWEDISH MARKET

How many companies have gambling licences in Sweden?
After the new Gambling Act (Spellag (2018:1138)) came into force on 1 January 2019, 96 companies are now licensed in Sweden (as per 5 March 2020).

How much money do swedes spend on gaming?
Customers in Sweden (18 and older) spend an average of SEK 173 per month with operators licensed in Sweden, net, i.e., after paid winnings. Added to this is gaming with operators without licences, amounting to an estimated SEK 70 per month. (By gaming is meant gaming for money, i.e., where the chance of winning to various degrees is based on odds. Source: Swedish Gambling Authority2018 https://www.spelinspektionen.se/om-oss/statistik/).

What portion of the Swedish population plays games?
Sixty per cent of all Swedes say that they have played for money during the last 12 months. Of those who play, 33% play once a week, and 58% play once a month. Lotteries and pari-mutuel horse racing are the most common forms of gaming/betting. Seventy-five per cent of those who have played games have bought lottery tickets, 38% have bet on horses, and 5% have played casino games. Number games, such as Lotto, account for 50%, and sports betting, such as Oddset, account for 21%. (In this compilation, players may have played more than one type of game, which is why the sum is greater than 100%.) The gender breakdown for gaming is even.

Industry News

The untapped potential of SEO in iGaming

Published

16 hours ago

May 8, 2024

George Miller

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

With Filip Podborschi, SEO Strategist at The Unit

From our experience in SEO in igaming, there are a number of areas where we see room for improvement and common mistakes which can be rectified. Let’s take a look at these facets of SEO one by one, with our best tips for how to make sure you can maximise your search ranking and drive more volume to your website.

Keyword strategy

The first thing operators should do in this area is identify the best performing keywords that result in higher search volumes on each post. It’s pages that rank rather than websites, so you need a different search intent on each page, and that increases the list of keywords you’re ranking for.

The way to do this is by checking the search volume, and then implementing the keywords according to SEO best practices, which means having primary and secondary keywords and adjusting repetition accordingly.

The common mistake we see here is that companies don’t go into enough depth when conducting competitive analysis; especially when they’re new to the industry. Identifying what exactly your competitors are doing regarding SEO is harder than it looks, and it’s an area where marketing agencies tend to be quite lazy. They may use some tools which will show the standout competitors by algorithm, but they won’t crawl for long enough to ascertain what services they offer and provide a comparison with their client’s service. You need to find out which sites could be ranking better than you, and why.

We also see issues with the ranking of sites based on the user’s location. For example, you may have a website that ranks well in Canada, and when I as a user based in Romania search for that category, I’m not going to get the same list of results as a user who is based in Canada. The best thing to do is use a VPN to gauge how your websites are ranking and performing with your specific audience in your domestic geographical area.

SEO tags optimisation

With SEO tags, which are essentially the page title and description you see on the search engine results page, the page title has the highest ranking power. Google will first check the page title to get an idea of what the page is about and what searches it is relevant for. It will then check the H1 and the content, and it may look through the H2 as well.

A common issue here is some websites have templated SEO tags, especially for the inner pages, so it’s more of a formula within the code to generate a random structure. It is very obvious they are templated and that the operator doesn’t really care about the length.

The key thing with tags is to make sure your pages have titles that don’t exceed the ideal length. This is a big mistake if you get this wrong, and it is very important to optimise your titles. SEO tags can be optimised around keywords. Once doing so, it is very important to prioritise your main pages. If you have 10 pages as part of the main menu, then you should optimise those, before optimising the inner pages.

Identifying duplicate pages is also important, as well as making sure meta inscriptions include CTAs; those inscriptions don’t impact rankings directly, but they do impact the CTR. You have to do that without being too spammy though, so it’s advisable to avoid words like ‘sale’ or calls to “CLICK HERE NOW”.

Headings

Keywords must be implemented in headings; especially in H1s and H2s. Make sure not to overuse H2s and keep them optimised for content value.

If we structure the ranking power of the elements that are bringing results, we would optimise with the page title first, H1 second, content third and H2s fourth. It is better to have five H2s with three of them being optimised around the same search intent that is highlighted in H1, than it is to have 3/10 optimised around keywords. Too many H2s will just confuse Google about your search intent. You can have similar search intent as with H1s, and also have H3s and H4s to highlight value to the reader.

Interlinking strategy

Interlinking between pages is often missing. I’m not talking about interlinking from the main menu, as every page has the ability for you to go back, but I’m talking about interlinking within content, which Google considers to be much more important, because it cares about the relevancy. Google will consider pages with high-quality content as a higher authority page.

Our advice would be to implement anchor links on both branded and non-branded keywords. You should make sure there is an anchor link to the parent page. For example, domain.com/blog is a parent for domain.com/blog/igaming-seo.

It’s very important to have child pages linking to the parent page, passing authority to the parent page. Having that interlinked structure will pass more authority to that parent page.

To explain that in a little more detail, let’s say you have a sportsbook page with 10 more child pages that reflect a particular set of sports. Having each of those 10 pages optimised so they have some authority and linking them to the parent page would pass authority to that parent page. Parent pages usually have a keyword with higher search volume, and passing as much authority as you can to the child page is very important. Too often websites lack content on child pages.

The future of SEO and experience needed

Going forward, we see AI as one of the most significant developments in SEO. At this point, we are not able to rank user engagement in AI, and it is important to keep yourself updated with how Google is reacting to this.

Google in time may provide additional options if you want to be eligible for a particular set of results in that environment. Keep an eye on what features it will offer and the types of websites. Google may consider implementing specific types of results for betting, such as displaying odds or a comparison of odds from three or four sites at the same time.

With all these issues, it is vital to have the relevant experience on board, particularly when it comes to the skill of conducting very in-depth competitor analysis, and this is something The Unit can provide. Conducting competitor analysis is something we have done across several industries, and not just in igaming. The main strength you can have with SEO is to know your competitors inside out, and those skills can be adjusted based on your needs.

The post The untapped potential of SEO in iGaming appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Industry News

IGT Expands Footprint in Spain’s ‘Salones’ Sector with Launch of New Multi-level Progressive Theme

Published

18 hours ago

May 8, 2024

Niji Narayan

igt-expands-footprint-in-spain’s-‘salones’-sector-with-launch-of-new-multi-level-progressive-theme

Reading Time: < 1 minute

International Game Technology PLC announced that its latest multi-level progressive (MLP) game, Diamond Mania, has launched in Spain’s Amusement with Prize (AWP) “salones” sector. Diamond Mania will follow the success of IGT’s Magic Fortune Link AWP game in Spain, a high-performing title that recently surpassed a 1000-unit deployment milestone.

“IGT is committed to growing its footprint in Spain by supplying researched-backed, market-attuned games that meet the player preferences in the region. Building on the successful deployment of IGT’s debut title for the salones sector, Magic Fortune Link, we are excited to expand our offering to include Diamond Mania, a unique multi-game jackpot that can help operators achieve excellent results and diversify their gaming floors,” said Maria Aldana, IGT Director of Sales Western Europe and Africa.

Specifically adapted for the salones market, Diamond Mania features four lively base game themes: Samurai Takeo, Majestic Stallion, Ramosis Treasures and Wish Mistress. Featuring proven mechanics for a highly engaging experience for players, Diamond Mania offers three special bonuses, a reel boost, a prize boost and a jackpot bonus, which can combine to activate the super games and mega games features and ultimately lead to the chance to win one of the four progressive jackpots.

Diamond Mania is available on the BINTIA 27-inch multi-game cabinet, which offers dual HD monitors and a topper option for casino-like styling. It features an ergonomic design, programmable LED lighting, vivid high-resolution graphics, an immersive sound system and can be configured with the TITO function.

The game will be exclusively distributed through Orenes Grupo, Spain’s salones sector market leader in operations and gaming machine distribution. Later this year, IGT plans to introduce Treasure Box, the Company’s third MLP developed specifically for Spain’s salones sector, which represents approximately 3000 gaming and bingo halls.

The post IGT Expands Footprint in Spain’s ‘Salones’ Sector with Launch of New Multi-level Progressive Theme appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Industry News

Sportradar Appoints Behshad Behzadi as the Company’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer

Published

18 hours ago

May 8, 2024

Niji Narayan

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Sportradar Group AG announced that Behshad Behzadi has been named Chief Technology Officer and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Company (CTO and CAIO), effective May 1.

As Sportradar’s CTO and CAIO, Behzadi will be based in the organisation’s headquarters in Switzerland and report directly to Chief Executive Officer, Carsten Koerl. Working collaboratively across the organisation, Behzadi will drive the usage and adoption of AI and cutting-edge technology to enhance its product offerings and roadmap to deliver hyper-personalised experiences for sports fans. Additionally, his extensive experience in leading initiatives aimed at improving internal operational efficiency will help optimise processes and drive innovation across the business. Sportradar has the largest global coverage of sports data, fan insights and betting liquidity. The usage of cutting-edge AI will help to drive the Company’s future efficiency and can create significant value for clients and stakeholders.

Koerl said: “We are proud to welcome Behshad, a world-renowned leader in harnessing generative AI and other advanced technologies, who marries a unique blend of technical expertise and business acumen. His proven track record in developing and commercializing product strategies to accelerate growth and innovation, as well as spearheading initiatives aimed at improving internal operational efficiency, will bolster our leadership position, keeping Sportradar at the forefront of technological advancement.”

With more than 20 years of experience, Behzadi is a distinguished computer scientist and recognised global technology leader with expertise in algorithms, search ranking, natural language processing, speech recognition, machine learning and generative AI. Behzadi joined Google Zurich in 2006 and has played a key role in Google’s AI-first strategy as co-founder of Google Assistant, Google Lens, Google Smart Display and the Next Gen Assistant, a breakthrough in mobile assistant technology with on-device Machine Learning. Most recently, he led Google Cloud’s Conversational AI and applied Generative AI initiative focusing on applying the latest AI advancements to reimagine and automate customer services and operations for large enterprises. Behzadi earned a PhD in Bioinformatics from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and did postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.

Behzadi said: “Sportradar is an exceptional company and category leader operating at the global intersection of sports, technology and digital content. I am very excited to join an organization that pushes the boundaries on technology and puts a premium on innovation. I look forward to working alongside Carsten, the rest of the executive management team and their talented group of creators to continue Sportradar’s history of innovation as the Company enters its next exciting chapter.”

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