Hello and welcome to Weekend Report. Here, iGB brings you the latest news you might have missed in the past few days.
New Labour government brings gambling uncertainty
The UK’s general elections on Thursday (4 July) saw a major shift of power, as Labour won a large majority. The Conservatives’ 14-year rule was ended and a significant overhaul of the key personnel in parliament took place.
Lisa Nandy, the newly appointed secretary for state of culture, media, and sport will oversee Britain’s gaming industry. Regulus Partners Dan Waugh discussed the impact a Labour-led government would have on the industry in the World Series of Politics Podcast, which was released prior to this week’s election.
Waugh stated that it was unclear whether the new law would have a significant impact on gambling. From an industry standpoint, this looks fairly comforting. Labour has made some positive comments about it.
“I don’t know if it is so simple. The reason why I said that was because while Labour may not have a negative agenda at this time towards the gaming industry, the majority of work in government is done by civil servants, not politicians.
There is strong evidence that the state’s major institutions have been captured – at least in the areas they deal with gambling. This has led to a strong movement for public health which sees gambling the “new tobacco.”
Bosnian Tennis Player Banned for Match-Fixing
Jasmina Tijic, a former Bosnia and Herzegovina Tennis player has been barred from playing the sport for a period of six years. Her admissions of match-fixing offenses led to the ban.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency has suspended Tinjic due to 23 violations of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme. The list included: “contribing the results of matches, facilitation wagering, money received in exchange for not giving your best effort in matches, and failure to disclose corrupt approaches.”
Tinjic had been banned from her home country of Sweden in 2022 for criminal match-fixing offenses. Tinjic’s ITIA ban has therefore been retroactively backdated to May 2028.
FanDuel New York and FanDuel flourished in Q2
New data released by Jefferies shows that New York has seen a 33% increase year over year in the online handle of sportsbooks and a rise of 32% in gross gaming revenues (GGR). This was the largest increase in New York handle ever. This was a substantial increase over the 11% growth seen in the prior quarter.
FanDuel is still the leader in terms of GGR, with 47%. DraftKings came in second place with 36%. Caesars, BetMGM and BetMGM each had 6%.
FanDuel recovered from a bad May, which saw DraftKings gain 41% and its GGR drop to 43.3%. FanDuel increased its share by 7 points in June to reach 50%, while DraftKings’ GGR fell to 31%.
