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CBE for Bet365 founder Betting


Bet365 founder Denise Coates has been appointed CBE for services to the community and business. She told the Racing Post: “It’s an incredible honour to receive this award. It would not have been possible without the fantastic support and commitment of everybody at Bet365.” The bookmaker has recently posted broadly flat profits of £93.7m, on turnover of £439m for the 12 months to 31 March 2011 after heavy investment in internet and mobile technology as well as its expensive advertising campaign.


Suarez banned again - this time from gambling ads


It seems Liverpool’s Luis Suarez can’t avoid controversy even when he is being used to promote betting on a game he’s playing in.


ADVERTISING B


ookmaker Paddy Power has had one of its ads censured by the Advertising


Standards Authority (ASA) in a ruling that has implica- tions for the rest of the betting industry. The firm used an image of Liverpool striker Luis Suarez to adver- tise a money-back promo- tion on his team’s Premier League match against Man- chester United. However, the CAP code says ads for gambling services should not feature those under 25 years of age gambling or ‘playing a significant role’; Suarez is 24.


Paddy Power said it did not believe the ad would


have particular appeal to young or vulnerable people, or encourage young people to gamble, on the basis of Suarez’s age or image. It argued that the ad featured Suarez as he was the subject of the bet, and he was fea- tured in his role as a profes- sional footballer, rather than in connection with the act of gambling. It said it did not believe that featur- ing him in this way meant that he played a significant role in the ad and believed there was a distinction between featuring someone under the age of 25, who was the subject of the bet and acting in their capacity as a sports person, and featuring a person


Spanish online laws delayed until summer


SPAIN T


he much heralded opening of the Spanish online gambling market has had its timetable shunted back to the summer. The reg- ulation of the market was due to start from 1 January, but has been delayed by six months in order to give the regulator enough time to verify and issue successful applicants with their licences by 30 June.


The delay has been made possible by an amendment to the gaming laws by the newly formed Spanish gov- ernment. The change means that the regulator will not impose sanctions on dot.com operators for con- tinuing to offer products to the Spanish market until the summer, although any attempts at increasing market share by offshore firms will be frowned upon. There is still great interest in the Spanish market. A recent report by MECN said that the liberalisation of the market will be a success and it will grow to 680m euro (£562m) by 2015. More and more operators have been wondering about ROI on licences especially since the negative experiences in France. But MECN says that


Spain seems to be a different story as, for example, gam- bling taxes are significantly lower (mostly 25 per cent of gross revenues). Therefore, nearly all of the experts sur- veyed believe that a Spanish licence will pay off financially. Martin Oelbermann,


director of MECN and co- author of the study, added: “Many operators lost a sig- nificant amount of money in the liberalised French market - therefore, opera- tors became more sceptical. They now analyse the finan- cial effects of the tax rates and other key regulations (e.g. identification processes) even more closely. But the Spanish model seems to convince them and brings back a lot of optimism to the industry.” The figures regarding the Spanish gambling market are impressive according to MECN: total market size in 2010 of 28bn euro (£23.2bn) in turnover/wagers and 9.5bn euro (£7.9bn) in gross revenues. The online gam- bling market is estimated at 465m euro (£385m) in 2010 and is expected to grow to over 680m euro (£562m) by 2015 with betting and poker leading the way.


16 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2012


under 25 promoting the act of gambling or betting. The ASA disagreed: “We considered that because he was pictured individually and was the focus of the ad, he was likely to be seen by consumers to be playing a significant role.” It added: “We told Paddy Power not to feature those who were under 25 years of age in their ads for gambling services if they were gambling or playing a significant role.” The ruling means that bookmakers now have to be wary which sporting partici- pants they feature in adver- tising to make sure they are not under 25, which might cause problems to some markets; for example, cur-


NordicBet revamps live betting interface


LIVE BETTING O


rently any promotion of a match between Andy Murray verses Novak Djokovic would not be able to feature images of either player, as they don’t turn 25 until May.


LUIS SUAREZ HAS EVEN MANAGED TO BE CONTROVERSIAL IN THE BETTING INDUSTRY


nline gaming company NordicBet has announced the launch of its new LiveBet section. Redesigned extensively to further suit players’ needs, the already successful LiveBet section now boasts a totally fresh new look, a design which is totally compatible with the sportsbook layout, multiple game widgets and a whole new Game Centre. The multiple game widgets will allow NordicBet’s customers to follow several sporting events and bet on them simultaneously while the Game Centre will provide useful information to enhance the betting experience including up-to- date news about team line-ups, statistics as well as commentaries on over 20 football events. Ken Dipple, head of


Samvo promotes ‘Man Crèches’ LBO


RETAIL O


nline operator Samvo is a relatively new brand to high street bookmaking and has been promoting its two ‘betting cafés’ as ‘Man Crèches’ over the Christ- mas period. The firm offered people the chance to escape the mayhem of Christmas and sale shop- ping by providing free festive refreshments including mince pies, yule- tide logs, cakes, tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Visitors also received a £5 free bet on the weekend


football, while they could also enter a loyalty Christ- mas draw for the chance to win signed football shirts, camcorders and Prada accessories. David Miller, senior marketing manager at Samvo, said: “Hammer- smith and Camden Town are two Christmas shop- ping hotspots - so we wanted to offer gentlemen a place of refuge from the madness that the last full shopping weekend before Christmas will surely bring. We told them to


‘Man Up’ and come and join us at the Samvo Man Crèche.”


Sheetal Randev, brand manager at Samvo, added: “The Samvo Man Crèche isn’t just for guys - it’s been designed to help women as well. Who wants to hear their partner complaining about how much they’re spending or how much longer we’re going to be shopping?”


SAMVO’S ‘MAN CRÈCHE’ FEATURED FREE MINCE PIES AND ‘SEXY SANTAS’


NordicBet sportsbook, commented: “For almost all online bookmakers, live betting has become their biggest growth area over the past few years, most gaming companies predict that live betting will account for the major share of their sportsbook business within the next 12-18 months if it is not already.” He stressed the strategic element of the launch: “NordicBet have and will continue to make


significant investments into the development of our live betting product to improve customer experience, such as providing functionality that enables customers to completely customise the new LiveBet page and improving live stream viewing. “We are committed to being 100 per cent


customer focused and have added many new features like the new Game Centre which will provide extra content such as team news, stats and live commentary. We feel that we have developed an innovative live betting product that will not only keep our existing customers engaged but help us to attract new users and at the same time, keep us one step ahead of the competition as many of the new features are unique to NordicBet and cannot be found elsewhere.”


ACTION IMAGES / PAUL THOMAS


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