White Paper under starters orders
Next week could be the week for UK White Paper, Kentucky sports betting gets a boost, Netherlands regulation hampers market access +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
On the grid: UK sector awaits the White Paper release.
Sports betting could be fast-tracked in Kentucky.
Dutch market access struggles.
Good regulation costs money, says Sweden
Sportradar’s head of sports integrity talks about AI innovation.
Please release me (let me go).
On the grid
The UK industry awaits the publication of the White Paper next week.
I don’t like Mondays: The release of the UK government’s White Paper on gambling is “on the grid” for release next week and possibly as early as Monday, according to sources. However, caution abounds after too many previous false dawns.
The government has stuck to the line about the White Paper being due in the “coming months” for well over a year now.
This time it’s different: But now there is increasing confidence that the document is in the final stages of completing the write-around stage where a bill is sent to other ministries.
As C+M reported late last month, an article in The Sunday Times suggested Monday, April 17 had been penciled in by the government.
Coverage: Compliance+More will be sending out an edition on whichever day the White Paper appears, with follow-ups gauging reaction and assessing what the contents mean for the sector, both in the UK and further afield.
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Kentucky fast track
Kentucky retail sportsbooks could be up and running by the start of the NFL season.
Game plan: Rep. Damon Thayer said retail betting locations could be open for business for the NFL season. “That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Thayer told BetKentucky.com. “That’s a pretty aggressive launch.”
After speaking with Kentucky Horse Racing Commission chairman Jonathan Rabinowitz, he said: “There’s a chance that the racetracks could have their locations running by this fall.”
Online betting will take longer, but Thayer envisions a launch date no later than January 2024.
Delay of the land: There are some potential hiccups with Thayer’s timeline. Kentucky’s sports-betting law doesn’t go into effect until June 29, which means any official work on rules and licensing will have to wait until then.
The KHRC has six months to post regulations but could have them ready sooner. How soon the state could license and launch OSB once the rules are posted is unknown.
Considering how the process has gone in other recently launched states, the time between the draft rules and the finished product could take the full six months.
Points of contention between the industry, responsible gambling advocates and regulators have taken time to sort out. Kentucky is unlikely to be any different, particularly with its staunch anti-gambling culture.
Kentucky doesn’t have a casino infrastructure. That means regulators will be unfamiliar with the sports-betting licensees.
They could lean heavily on other states for insights, but regulators are responsible for gambling in their state. It would be unique for Kentucky regulators to license (even temporarily) an unknown entity because they are licensed in many other states.
History is also working against a 2023 OSB launch in Kentucky. Even in ideal conditions, OSB launches have taken considerable time. On Twitter, Steve Bittenbender noted that six states have launched in 127 days or less, but these were almost always retail-only.
US notebook
North Dakota: Efforts to get a vote about sports-betting on the ballot came to nothing after the bill’s proponents lost a vote 16-30 in the state Senate. The measure had previously passed the state House.
Pennsylvania: An effort to regulate and tax skill games might be in the offing after state senator Gene Yaw said in a statement that he will be unveiling a proposed bill soon, claiming the move could immediately generate $300m in revenue.
Skill games are a “piece of the small business economy in our state”, Yaw said. “It’s time we recognize the benefits of this emerging industry and offer regulatory support, so that we can ensure it flourishes safely and responsibly.”
TLDR: Gaming remains implacably opposed to the introduction of lottery in Nevada, according to The Nevada Independent.
Dutch market access woes
Bettson is one of many remote firms struggling to gain access to the Dutch market following changes to how regulatory data is shared between operators and the watchdog.
Been a long time: The Swedish firm disclosed in its recent annual report that its ongoing efforts to access the Netherlands have taken more than a year, after applying for a license in Q1 of 2022.
“The application review period was expected to take up to six months but due to requests for additional information and the introduction of changes to the control database component (CDB), the review period has been delayed,” the report said.
Netherlands Gambling Authority boss René Jansen said last month that several other remote operators have been unable to meet the new demands.
“We see many applicants struggling with getting their control database set up correctly,” Jansen said. “In some cases, it has even proven to be a showstopper.”
Sharing is caring: Updates to the Dutch Gambling Act in 2019 requires remote operators to set up and maintain a CBD, which must be housed in the Netherlands with access for regulatory officials and Dutch tax officials.
It contains records of the operator’s transactions and other financial data, updated in real-time, with currencies swapped and recorded in euros.
Swedish good life
The cost of doing business in Sweden is going up, says Spelinspektionen.
Now that ain’t workin’: The Swedish gambling regulator said it needs more funding to meet its targets, with both the government and Sweden’s main trade body in agreement. The Swedish Trade Association for Online Gambling (BOS) believes the regulator is a poor cousin to its equivalent in other jurisdictions, and it is happy to support the plan to raise fees in the hope it will, in turn, improve standards of supervision.
“We believe that the Gambling Authority is underfunded, at least in terms of maintaining an acceptable dialogue with the industry the authority is set to monitor,” said Gustaf Hoffstedt, BOS secretary-general.
“More precisely, this lack of dialogue… concerns the difficulty for an individual license holder to establish a functioning dialogue with the authority,” he said.
Spelinspektionen hopes to become a one-stop-shop for licensing, and offer an improved advice service for operators regarding compliance and other matters.
As part of an ongoing regulatory review of Spelinspektionen’s powers, the government also intends to make it easier for the regulator to block payments to and from unlicensed operators.
That’s the way you do it: Proposals include the increase of the levy for a public lottery license during a period of five years from SEK3.525m ($341,000) to SEK3.995m, alongside a host of other hikes.
License application fees for land-based casino gaming will be SEK25,000 if the applicant is a natural person or sole proprietor, and SEK80,000 if the applicant is a legal entity, with nominal additional fees for each slot application.
An additional SEK2.4m from the government will boost the regulator’s coffers, agreed in the spring 2023 amendment budget.
Dutch regulatory shuffle
The Netherlands Gambling Authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has shuffled its senior pack ahead of a new wave of restrictions set to enter force in the coming months.
Delft school: Anita Vegter, a senior judge of the Court of Amsterdam, will serve as the new chair of its Advisory Board, while Haiko van der Voort, assistant professor at Delft University’s Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, has been appointed as a council member.
Vegter has replaced Ronald Prins in the role, which oversees KSA management of the Dutch gambling market, providing both solicited and unsolicited advice on the authority’s regulatory affairs and policy development.
A tough new ban on ‘untargeted advertising’ kicks in on July 1, which will forbid gambling logos and promotional material to appear on TV, radio, or in public spaces.
The Dutch government and KSA will also review its regulatory policies around improving duty-of-care standards and market safeguards under Vegter.
The KSA has been rigorously and aggressively enforcing the Dutch market over the last 12 months, drawing scorn from operators for some of its enforcement tactics.
The detectorists
Counter-intuitively, the news that Sportradar detected 34% more suspicious matches in 2022 should be seen as a good thing.
Box of tricks: The prevention of match-fixing has always been a cat-and-mouse game but, according to Andreas Krannich, managing director of Sportradar’s Integrity Services unit, the introduction of AI on the data detection side has the potential to fundamentally change the dynamic.
The company’s Universal Fraud Detection System (UFDS) identified 1,200+ suspicious matches in 2022 with AI helping to detect 438 of them
The suspicious events were spread across 12 sports in 92 countries and represented 0.21% of all matches tracked by Sportradar.
One step beyond: Krannich suggested the figures show the extent to which the introduction of AI within the UFDS system is changing the nature of how match-fixing is dealt with and contained.
Notably, he said the application of modeling and pattern analysis means the detectors are “close to being able to detect” where corruption might take place ahead of time.
“It’s a completely new chapter,” he added.
“Now we are trying to predict what the manipulation should be based on a set of specific circumstances. This is the next level.”
Holding pattern: Krannich pointed out that such is the extent of the data lake available to Sportradar that the AI technology can now be trained on real-world data to spot the patterns that add up to match-fixing.
Moreover, the analysis it provides means sports can potentially be forewarned when match-fixing is likely to occur.
He pointed out that Sportradar isn’t pre-judging any individuals or teams. But it can “act in a preventative way”.
“You act as a deterrent,” he added. “And prevention is better than the cure.”
Keeping a vigil: It might not stop the criminals looking to exploit the potential for match-fixing, he added. But every time a potential opportunity gets shut down, it chases them away and narrows their options.
“Sports corruption is as old as sport.” Krannich said. “You will never ever completely wipe it out. But there are tools to help you to control it.”
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Newslines
ProhiBet: The prohibited bettor solution joint venture between Odds On Compliance and U.S. Integrity has appointed Matt Heap to lead the Secure Sports Solutions offshoot behind the ProhiBet product. Heap joins from GeoComply where he served as senior director for product compliance.
OneComply: The Vancouver-based compliance tech provider said it is now targeting the land-based casino sector for its purpose-built SaaS platform. The company said several casino properties in Nevada, California and Washington State have already deployed OneComply to support and improve their operational compliance automation and accountability.
GamCare said it has received funding for the next three years from GambleAware, which will help continue its work as part of the National Gambling Support Network.
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