Right to the Source

Right to the Source tackles crypto pivots, a tale of two resorts in Singapore and Golden Matrix’s B2C shift.  

Ed Birkin and Robin Harrison have a frank exchange of views on Yolo Group’s regulated market pivot to kick off. This hinges on whether the move gives the crytpo giant an unfair advantage thanks to its scale and revenue, or simply follows an ongoing industry cycle.

We then discuss the contrasting fortunes of Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, then Golden Matrix becoming a B2C business through its acquisition of Meridianbet.

Right to the Source is back with Ed Birkin beaming in live from Lisbon, and social casino pioneer Zynga, the Congo and Mauritius are up for discussion.

Right to the Source is back and this week Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin are talking Groupe Partouche in the wake of their third quarter results, and the Georgian gambling market. 

The third quarter results showed Groupe Partouche benefiting from a bigger casino portfolio, with a new venue in Cannes and one further afield in Benin contributing to a 5.3% year-on-year rise in revenue. 

That prompts the question: Can French operators leverage shared language to expand into Francophone Africa, much like we are seeing Spanish gaming businesses do in Latin America?

And talk of France means talk of iCasino is never far away. Groupe Partouche, with operations in Belgium and Switzerland, could be building up its capabilities. Depending on whether there is any regulatory progress and if it can leverage its land-based database, could it carve out share in France’s future online gaming market?

We’re talking the country not the state, but interestingly gambling in Georgia accounts for 3.5% of GDP. That’s the highest level of any country H2 Gambling Capital tracks, Ed points out. 

And while attractions such as “Black Sea Vegas” Batumi are designed to bring in the players, online is the real story in Georgia, making up the vast majority of revenue. 

Georgian gambling is also dominated by major industry players, with Crystalbet (Entain) and Adjarabet (Flutter) battling for supremacy. However it’s local operator Crocobet growing rapidly. 

All this and the usual diversions into the sublime and the ridiculous in the latest Right to the Source!

Right to the Source is back and under the microscope this week is the Belgian gambling market and Zeal Network. 

In episode 18 Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin start off by discussing why gambling revenue in Belgium continues to grow. Revenue in 2024 rose despite the regulator and politicians constantly tightening controls on the industry. 

Considering it has been an early mover with deposit limits, advertising bans and deposit limits Belgian gaming growth may embolden other markets to get strict on their licensees. If the market continues to grow, what's the harm? But Belgian gaming benefits from a unique quirk, and it’s quite a surprising factor that may contribute to that continued growth. 

Next up discussion turns to Zeal Network, Germany’s lottery brokerage business that could prove a blueprint for companies looking to transition to more sustainable business models. Having successfully executed a pivot from lottery betting to brokerage, the addition of online slots may be building a formidable business. 

Right to the Source is back after a week’s break and Ed Birkin of H2 Gambling Capital has been saving up some rants for this episode, but we start looking at the Cambodian casino market. 

After Cambodian online gambling was outlawed in 2019, the country’s casino market was the only show in town. But Covid-19 and a crackdown on junkets has effectively left operators struggling to return to pre-pandemic revenue levels. 

That even affects NagaCorp, Cambodian gaming’s local listed giant with a monopoly on casinos in and within 200km of the country’s capital Phnom Penh.

Right to the Source is back with more data deep dives, debates and diatribes, this week bringing in special guest Jon Bruford to dissect Gordon Brown stepping into the GB gambling tax debate. 

The former Prime Minister and Chancellor has thrown his weight behind a proposal to hike gambling duty to 50% of GGR in Great Britain. Only his proposal, and the evidence he puts forward to support it, doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny. 

Ultimately, he’s pitching gambling as a solution to child poverty. Considering gambling is regularly decried as the cause of poverty by the anti-industry lobby, that’s quite the volte-face. And how can people match up treating gambling as a golden goose with calls for new restrictions designed to reduce gambling revenue in Great Britain?

With Bruford, co-host of The Gambling Files podcast, joining to pick apart Gordon Brown’s claims, it gets interesting. And where else will you hear about launching a competing magazine to Runner’s World as part of the conversation?

As promised in our last episode, Robin and Ed also talk about gambling in South Korea, and scope for Canadian provinces joining Alberta and Ontario in liberalising their lottery monopolies. 

We’ll be taking a break in the coming week, but that leaves you lots of time to listen to this week’s!

Right to the Source is back and Ed Birkin is on his soapbox as he takes aim at those talking up the size of Brazil’s illegal gambling market and estimates on the scale of the crypto gambling sector!

Robin Harrison tries (and fails) to stem the tide amid Ed’s diatribes in this episode, but this reality check, for Brazilian gaming licensees in particular, is important.

By constantly talking up how prevalent illegal gambling in Brazil is, the industry may be setting itself up for higher taxes, further restrictions on marketing and product, and ultimately turn the conversation into a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Welcome back to Right to the Source, where Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin are digging into the Slovenian gambling market and discussing stalled progress of online gambling in Chile. 

First to Slovenia, where online gambling licences are linked to brick-and-mortar properties, meaning online remains far smaller than casinos and gaming halls. Land-based gaming, with 12 casinos in Slovenia and 25 gaming halls, continues to perform well, and Ed has the figures to shed more light on how it’s doing. But the online tethering and small market size is stunting online growth. Where other Eastern European gaming markets are transitioning into ominichannel operations, Slovenian gambling remains an in-person proposition. 

A long-haul flight late, we touch down in Chile, where legislative progress for online gambling has stalled. A bill introduced in 2022 and passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 2023 is now stalled in the Senate. As ever, offshore operators are thriving, with potential licensees unable to gain a foothold. 

We’ve also got rap beefs and New York downstate casinos, a few words on Brazil, and Ed complaining about Sheffield Wednesday falling into disrepair. 

Right to the Source is back and trying desperately to stick to formats as Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin talk through casinos in Liechtenstein, the potential of the Panama online gaming market and why Italian betting and gaming remains resilient. 

The choice of markets may seem somewhat random, but it’s at least somewhat deliberate. We want to offer listeners a truly global view of the gaming market with the numbers to back it up. 

Right to the Source is back, and this week Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin are discussing the Peru online gaming market and whether Brazil casino regulation can be salvaged. 

This week Ed is testing formats, so from last week’s random country generator Peru and Niger are up for discussion. Peru online gambling regulation passed last year, and while Brazil stole the spotlight, it’s a stable market and even the introduction of a 1% tax on turnover was shifted to GGR. However there’s a big presence from local brands, so can international operators carve out share without M&A activity?

The Niger gambling market, after some hasty research, is reasonably sized but suffers from the same drawbacks that hold back other African countries’ gaming markets, namely a lottery monopoly. 

And last week Brazil’s omnibus bill to legalise a range of land-based gaming products, namely jogo de bicho, bingo halls and casinos failed to progress to a Senate vote. Does that mean the dream of regulated casino gambling in Brazil is dead? 

Our special guest says in its current form, yes. Legislators supporting Brazil casino legalisation are now likely to apply what worked for sports betting, namely splitting out the casino proposal from the omnibus bill. But will that push things forward any time soon? Don’t hold your breath. 

Watch on iGB: https://igamingbusiness.com/finance/right-to-the-source-online-gaming-peru-brazil-casino/