Each week, CasinoBeats breaks down the numbers behind some of the industry’s most interesting stories. Today, we take a look at huge sports betting projections, a UK curfew warning, a cooling off time delay and acquisitions.

34.9

Scientific Games has announced that a number of long-term institutional investors, including investment trust Caledonia, have reached an agreement to acquire a 34.9 per cent stake in the firm from MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated.

Coming in at a price of $28 per share, the transaction will also see a number of governance changes implemented, including a refreshment of its board of directors and termination of the stockholders agreement with MacAndrews and Forbes.

Former Aristocrat CEO Jamie Odell, along with former Aristocrat CFO Toni Korsanos, will join the Scientific Games Board as executive chair and executive vice chair, respectively. They will be joined on the board by an additional independent non-executive director.

Ronald Perelman, current executive chairman of the Scientific Games board and MacAndrews & Forbes chairman and CEO, as well as Barry Schwartz and Frances Townsend, the two other MacAndrews & Forbes representatives, will resign from the board.

10

The Betting and Gaming Council has called the added restrictions imposed in north-east England “disappointing” and has stated that the “illogical decision” will lead to inevitable job losses.

Last week, health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the imposition of new restrictions, which mean leisure and entertainment venues, such as casinos, will have to close between the hours of 10pm and 5am.

Furthermore, restaurants, pubs and bars will also have to adhere to the aforementioned hours of closure as well as being limited to table service only, with the almost two million residents banned from socialising with individuals outside of their household or support bubble, as well as being urged to only use public transport for essential purposes.

72

Barclays has introduced a cooling off time delay to its gambling block feature, designed to provide further support to those individuals who are seeking additional control over their spending on gambling sites and apps or in venues.

As a result, customers accessing the feature would have to wait 72 hours before they can make gambling payments, during which time any attempted transactions will be automatically declined.

Lauded as being “the first UK high-street bank to introduce a cooling off period of this length,” the enhancement comes as a result of customer feedback. The new time delay feature will be accessible over the coming weeks.

To access the cooling off block, customers need to go into the cards section of their app where they will find the gambling block within the merchant control section.

Upon switching gambling back on, a pop up will appear reminding customers that if they choose to turn on this spend type, they will have to wait 72 hours before they can make payments.

900

The legalisation of online sports betting could yield up to $900m in annual revenue and $108m in tax for the state of New York, according to projections by NY Sports Day.

The region’s entry into the area, which would see New York become one of the largest legalised online sports betting markets in the US, is pending the passage of NY State Senate Bill 17D. This would authorise each of New York’s seven retail casinos to operate a mobile sportsbook.

It is said that online sports betting could make it onto a proposed revenue enhancement bill, which lawmakers are expected to discuss in an upcoming special session about the state budget.

Senate Bill 17D proposes a 12 per cent state tax on mobile sports betting revenue, as well as a one-time $12m licensing fee paid by each operator.

664,000

Entertainment Laboratories has bolstered its igaming portfolio further still after the group acquired a 66.5 per cent majority stake in Malta-based online casino operator Shogun Group.

The group says that it will migrate operations under its own licenses to its proprietary platform, add Enlabs’ sportsbook BetX and provide full support to accelerate business growth.

The acquisition of Shogun, which currently operates through a third party gaming platform under Maltese license and is said to have just left the start-up phase, will be done in two stages.

Firstly, Enlabs has bought the 66.5 per cent majority interest in Shogun from a group of investors for €664,000, which will be settled by issuing 229,995 new Enlabs shares. The remaining 33.5 per cent ownership is held by the Shogun founders.

In addition Enlabs will invest €1m into the Shogun business operations, as well as holding an option to buy the remaining 33.5 per cent in January 2023 for a valuation of five times its net profit.

42

Detroit’s three casinos have reported monthly aggregate revenue of $69.3m during August after the properties reopened following a four and a half month shutdown due to the rapid spread of COVID-19.

The casinos’ aggregate revenue for slots and table games was down 42 percent compared with August 2019 results, and has declined 62 percent year to date against last year.

When compared to the performance in the comparative month in 2019, revenue fell 46 per cent to $28.6m at MGM Grand Detroit Casino, 37.5 per cent to $25m at MotorCity Casino and 41.5 per cent to $15.7m at Greektown Casino Hotel. Market shares during the month was 41 per cent, 36 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.

This comes after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer awarded the properties the green-light to reopen from Wednesday 5 August in adherence to strict health and safety guidelines.

Subsequently, MotorCity Casino and Greektown Casino reopened on the first day permitted, while MGM Grand resumed action two days later on August 7.