Agenda LISTINGS
SIX MONTH BRIEFING FEBRUARY
21-23 Gaming Executive Summit LatAm, Marriott, Panama City, Panama 27 Florida Gaming Summit, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood, Florida
MARCH
4-6 iGaming North America Conference, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas
6 Association of British Bookmakers AGM, Savoy Place, London 6 AMEX 2011, Dublin 6-7 Irish Gaming Conference &
GambleAware.ie Conference, Green Isle Hotel, Dublin 6-8 iGaming Asia Congress, Grand Hyatt, City of Dreams, Macao 27-28 Social Media World Forum Europe 2012, London Olympia 29-30 The Igaming France Conference, Paris
APRIL
16-18 Igaming Forum, Grand Hotel, Stockholm 17 7th Online Bingo Summit & Awards, Hilton Paddington, London 18-20 IMGL Spring Conference, Arizona 24-26 GIGSE, San Francisco
MAY
4 European Lotteries General Assembly, Amsterdam 16-17 East Coast Gaming Congress 2012, Atlantic City, New Jersey
22-24 G2E Asia, Cotai Strip Cotai Exp, The Venetian Macao- Resort-Hotel
22-25 iGaming Super Show, The RDS, Dublin
JUNE
8 Start of Euro 2012 in Poland & Ukraine 11-13 Canadian Gaming Summit, Canada 25-29 North American Gaming Regulators Association (NAGRA) Annual Conference 2012, Texas
JULY
1 Euro 2012 Final, Olympic Stadium, Kiev 10-12 World Gaming Executive Summit, W Hotel, Barcelona 10-12 Global Lotteries Executive Summit, W Hotel, Barcelona
The shortest month is not short on events as bookmakers gear up for Cheltenham and we welcome back European football.
I
t’s been a crack- ing start to year at Unibet and we are now looking forward to the
Carling Cup between Liver- pool and Cardiff and although Liverpool seem to be nailed on favourites, last year’s final sprung a surprise with Birmingham beating Arsenal, and we have some tasty odds on Cardiff tri- umphing!
The Champions League returns in February and although the two Manches- ter clubs are out we have some really exciting ties with London taking on Italy. Can Arsenal overhaul the mighty Milan, whilst Chelsea travel to the caul- dron that is the Stadio San Paulo and take on Napoli. Meanwhile, the two Man- chester giants are bound to set the Europa League alight with two intriguing ties; United take on the inven- tors of ‘Total Football’ Ajax whilst City take on past Champions League winners Porto. We and our cus- tomers will be licking our lips as we’ll be streaming Champions League and Europa League games as well as hundreds of other sports events over the coming months on Unibet TV. With The Masters at Augusta, the Cheltenham Festival, F1 Drivers Cham- pionship and Grand National just around the corner we can hardly contain ourselves.
MICHAEL BUTLIN Affiliate marketing manager Unibet
The sporting calendar may be at the mercy of the weather at this time of year, but hopefully the road to the Cheltenham Festival will continue with big Saturday meetings at Newbury, Ascot and Kempton, with the Gold Cup winner, Long Run, looking to get his season back on track in Newbury’s Denman Chase, following two defeats against the mighty Kauto Star.
The Six Nations got off to a thrilling start, with England bouncing back from their World Cup sham- bles to record a first victory at Murrayfield for eight years, and Wales snatching a last-gasp success in Dublin, and hopefully we’ll see more of the same in the remaining games.
They may not be watch- ing in Manchester, but for everyone else the return of the Champions League is a sure sign that Spring is just around the corner, while there will be no weather con- cerns in the UAE, as England’s cricketers look to make amends for the poor showing in the Test series against Pakistan in the shorter versions of the sport.
DAVID STEVENS Head of PR Coral Racing
Expect football to be big for betting in February, fol- lowed by horse racing. The Carling Cup final takes place on 26 February. Liverpool will take on Cardiff at Wembley, with the Reds being the overwhelming
favourites to win. Europa League action continues with mid-February matches that will decide who goes through to March’s Round of 16. After being knocked out of the Champions League, both Man City and Man United are on the hunt for consolation prize glory. City are the team to beat but have their work cut out for them when they take on defending champions Porto. In horse racing, Kempton’s Racing Post Chase promises to provide lots of excite- ment. The race has served as an unofficial trial for April's Grand National - in previous years, two horses who were victorious at this competition went on to triumph at Aintree.
JASON TROST CEO
Smarkets
The Champions League and Europa League returns in February and although no Scottish teams have made the knock out stages - sur- prise, surprise - there will still be plenty of interest in both competitions amongst our customers. With great TV coverage of all the top European leagues punters are so familiar with teams and players from all over the continent. The Europa League usually plays second fiddle but with Manchester United and City both now in the competition, it will be interesting to see if turnover can compete with the Cham- pions League. It will all depend on how seriously the two take the competition.
My Diary: Dirk Vennix
Ahead of the ABB’s AGM on 6 March, chief executive Dirk Vennix provides an insight into one of his typical days in (and out) of the office.
M
y working day starts as soon as the alarm goes off at 6am; I check emails that have come in overnight on the smartphone. One of the hall- marks of leading a trade body - especially one as busy as the ABB - is that it’s 24/7 and you are campaign- ing on a number of battle- fields and consulting with a wide variety of stakehold- ers. This makes for a fasci- nating job. There is literally never a dull moment. Arriving at the ABB’s
THE W HOTEL IN BARCELONA
offices around 8am, I spend some time making phone calls to members and gov- ernment officials on the issue of planning powers to stop new betting shops. Since I
44 BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2012
arrived at the ABB last April, one of my goals has been to increase the dialogue with stakeholders around our positive messages (we’re supporting 100,000 jobs) and bust the myths and misper- ceptions about the industry. On planning, some stake- holders will have you believe high streets are being destroyed by more betting shops. The facts show a dif- ferent picture. The number is more or less the same as it was ten years ago.
I have lunch at my desk
before spending much of the afternoon in meetings about the government’s upcoming consultation on new Machine Gaming Duty, the rate of which will be
decided in the 2012 Budget. One hears a lot about gov- ernment wanting to provide conditions for growth. That is exactly what we need. We believe that a rate of 15 per cent would do this for our industry, and smaller inde- pendent operators espe- cially. Around 2,600 betting shops are currently strug- gling to survive on profits of under £22,000 a year and more than 11,000 jobs are at risk.
Inbetween meetings I put the finishing touches to the agenda for our AGM on 6 March (all ABB members more than welcome) and am on the phone with a couple of journalists who have queries. One of them sounds
particularly interesting - a request from the BBC for a bookmaker who remembers the 1960s for a documentary they’re making on the period. It sounds like a good oppor- tunity for some positive press about how the indus- try has developed from the smoky backrooms fifty years ago to a modern £3bn retail leisure sector.
In the evening I head over town to an event and meet Radio 4 Today presenter Evan Davis. We have a lively discussion about problem gambling. I assure him the levels are low by interna- tional standards and that 99 per cent of our customers enjoy placing a bet safely and responsibly in our shops.
They feel the shop is a part of their local community and it’s like having a few pints with your mates in the local pub. They would be adversely affected if their social hub is taken away. I head back home on the train around 10 pm - the morning journey now seeming like a distant memory.
Ante Post:W bookies sa
The other big event is the Six Nations. Although rugby isn’t overly popular amongst Scottish punters we will still look to give all games a good push as the coverage it receives from the BBC is always excellent and there are good marketing oppor- tunities. Thankfully, over the past couple of years, Italy have been on hand to make sure we don’t pick up the wooden spoon.
PAUL PETRIE Director McBookie
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