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Sweden has failed to protect the vulnerable players
The Ministry of Finance has proposed that the temporary restrictions on the online gambling market, that were introduced on July 2 this year, should be extended to June 30, 2021. The proposed restrictions are a weekly deposit limit of a maximum of SEK 5,000 and that bonus offers are limited to a maximum of 100 SEK.
The Ministry of Finance claimed during the spring that the gaming on online casino was strongly increasing during the pandemic and that the government needed to protect the Swedish consumers.
The minister stated that there where an increase in problem gaming during the spring, but that statement was not based on facts. Neither The Swedish Gambling Authority nor other authorities did see that as a fact.
Scientific studies
This is also something that later on was proofed by scientific studies conducted. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.554542/full
“Results: Total gambling activity decreased by 13.29% during the first phase of the outbreak compared to forecast. Analyses of online gambling data revealed that although betting decreased substantially in synchrony with a slight increase in online casino gambling, there was no increase in likely problematic, high-intensity gambling and neither did total online gambling increase.
Conclusions: This first, preliminary study revealed no increase in Swedish gambling activity, total or specifically online, in the first phase of the covid-19 outbreak. Future research should examine whether pandemic-induced transitioning between gambling modalities and/or increased participation in gambling, leads to long-term effects on prevalence of problem gambling.”
Moving to the unlicensed market
Setting a deposit limit of 5,000 SEK per week does not solve the need to help people who have a gambling problem as it is always possible to gamble at different companies. Alternatively, you can play at the unlicensed companies. The effects will instead be that the individual gaming companies cannot follow the individual players’ behaviour and, if necessary, support it.
7 out of 10
It is an extremely worrying development in Sweden that 7 out of 10 of those who seek help for gambling problems have banned themselves from playing breaks and still continue to play. The idea of a game break is good, but there is a lack of power against the unlicensed gaming companies that target Swedish players and then the problems remain. A first step in resolving this is to prevent the possibility of paying with a number of well-known Swedish payment services at the unlicensed gaming companies. We have to close the holes! (https://www.spelfriheten.se/ Pelretin, organization for gambling addiction.)
This means that the blocking service Spelpaus (Spelpaus enables Swedish gamblers to paus them from all gambling on licensed operators https://www.spelpaus.se/ ) does not fulfil any major function as long as a number of different gaming companies without a Swedish gaming license are allowed to flourish freely. Several help seekers have also told us that these gaming companies provide the opportunity to pay with a number of well-known Swedish payment services
Lack of tax revenue
In 2019, the licensed companies in Sweden paid SEK 3.6 billion to the Treasury. An amount that is now steadily declining in step with the shift to the unlicensed companies.
Focusing on those who try to behave
No unlicensed company or person linked to unlicensed gaming activities has been fined or prosecuted since 1 January 2019, at the same time 26 fines have been issued for a total of 236.4 MSEK against the licensed gaming market.
The government’s mission should be to protect consumers and that should be their priority. On the contrary, the effects have been that they have shifted vulnerable players to the unlicensed companies. Sweden has failed to protect the vulnerable players and the extended regulations will not protect them.
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The post Huge Jackpot at King Billy Casino: C$3,658,306! appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Play’n GO, the world’s leading casino entertainment provider, has today announced its latest US operator partnership, with Resorts Digital Gaming, in the state of New Jersey.
Resorts Digital Gaming was acquired by Boyd Interactive in September 2024, and this announcement sees the group’s players on the www.resortscasino.com and www.mohegansuncasino.com brands in New Jersey gain access to a multitude of classic Play’n GO game titles, such as the legendary Book of Dead, Rise of Merlin, and Rise of Olympus.
Play’n GO entered New Jersey in September 2022, shortly after first launching in the US via the state of West Virginia in July of that year. It has since seen its games live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and most recently, Connecticut.
Magnus Olsson, Chief Commercial Officer at Play’n GO, commented “New Jersey has been of crucial importance to our US operations for over two years now, so it is with great pleasure that we make this announcement in conjunction with Resorts Digital Gaming.
“The company joins together two instantly recognizable operator brands, and the addition of Play’n GO’s games will be of enormous mutual benefit. We confidently describe ourselves as the world’s leading casino entertainment provider, and partnerships like this one are of great importance to us in establishing that idea. We’re excited to see this partnership flourish.”
Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Boyd Interactive, added “The whole Resorts Digital Gaming team is excited to bring Play’n GO games to our players. Play’n GO is one of the world’s leading iGaming brands, and we’re confident that our players are as excited as we are to see those Play’n GO titles on both www.resortscasino.com and www.mohegansuncasino.com.”
Match Hype has just won two industry competitions. Talk us through your product.
Match Hype brings engagement from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram into the sportsbook. Our technology automatically turns raw sports data into short videos full of sports and betting insights. We have the capacity to create up to a million videos daily in more than 30 languages. We also provide hosting and streaming of the videos, and we track everything in the video thanks to our own player. The high level of video experience and the scale make us unique in the market, and we believe that this innovation is extremely needed in the industry—and the judges in the competitions probably agree with us.
What technologies are you leveraging to deliver such a cutting-edge tool/product?
We have more than six years’ experience in developing dynamic video solutions for clients like Microsoft, HBO, and SAP, and a decade in high-end video production for similarly well-known clients. Match Hype is the essence of this. We have developed our own robust cloud infrastructure that enables us to work on a huge scale. We can also leverage the integration of third-party solutions that help us make the video content rich and engaging. The AI boom came at the right time to help us make the experience for the viewer even better.
Who is Match Hype aimed at?
We focus mostly on sportsbook operators, where we think we can bring the biggest value. But we also have clients on the affiliate and media side. Our “competition” at the moment are creative professionals who are able to create one video at a time. To cover hundreds or thousands of events daily, you need huge manpower. With Match Hype, you don’t need that—it’s all automated. Anybody who appreciates this level of efficiency will benefit.
The end users are any sports fans who enjoy engaging videos. So basically everybody.
Has this industry been slow to embrace video content and unlock the potential it offers? If so, why?
It’s hard for us to talk about the whole industry, as we haven’t been part of it for that long. But iGaming feels like a conservative industry where only truly meaningful innovations make it. Fingers crossed for Match Hype being one of them. We are confident because of our track record in other industries, and mostly thanks to the results of our dynamic videos that are already used by significant igaming industry players.
What makes video content so effective at customer acquisition? How can Match Hype be used in this regard?
People just love video content. In the last review, TikTok said that the average user spends around 90 minutes a day on their platform. Platforms like Spotify used to be music and podcasts only; now they are full of videos. You just can’t ignore that. Video killed the radio star, and a static sportsbook is next to die.
And what about retention? How can it be used to keep players engaged and coming back for more?
Imagine that a 30-second video gives you the exact insights to help you make a betting decision without spending dozens of minutes on different resources to gather all the information. People don’t want to read anymore. This is probably an even bigger strength of Match Hype than user acquisition.
What can we expect from Match Hype in the coming months?
We will establish Match Hype as an industry standard for dynamic video content. We’ll bring many more sports like tennis, basketball horse racing and. We are preparing real-time video use cases—for example, half-time updates in football—and new distribution channels like integration directly into streams. The potential is huge. Stay tuned.
Any final thoughts?
For the last year, we have talked with literally hundreds of iGaming experts, investors, and executives. Almost every one of them sees fan engagement as a huge topic in the upcoming months and years. And video will definitely play a key part in it.
Video says more than a thousand words. Give it a go—watch one of our 30-second videos and see for yourself.
The post Exclusive Q&A w/ Radek Pšurný, CEO at Match Hype appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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