January 8, 2025 – FairOdds Network

January 8, 2025

Industry calls lopsided Minnesota online sports betting hearing “a media stunt”

In Minnesota, a state that has considered legalising sports betting since the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was overturned in 2018, Senator John Marty today (8 January) held a hearing on the issue. But he didn't invite industry reps.

The decision to keep the industry out of the hearing in front of the state senate finance committee was by design. In his comments before testimony began, Marty acknowledged that the state has been struggling with whether or not to legalise.

But he also said that no previous hearing had “focused on harm”. While “harm” may not have been a focus in previous hearings, problem and responsible gambling advocates testified many times.

Marty also suggested that sports betting “is currently legal in Minnesota”. He said betting with friends or strangers is legal. But “sports bookmaking where a corporate entity can come in and profit off of your betting” is not legal. He went on to qualify gambling addiction “as powerful as any op..

January 8, 2025

Brazil Supreme Court rejects Loterj’s latest appeal in ongoing spat with federal government

Supreme Federal Court (STF) minister André Mendonça has rejected the Rio de Janeiro State Lottery’s (Loterj) appeal against the ban on state-licensed brands operating throughout Brazil.

On 2 January, Mendonça passed a preliminary decision to ban Loterj licensees from operating nationally across Brazil. The request was initially filed by the attorney general’s office (AGU) back in October, requesting the court suspended certain 2023 provisions that gave Loterj powers to regulate outside of Rio (Accreditation Notice 01/2023).

As a result of the court’s ruling, Loterj licensees were banned from accepting bets beyond Rio de Janeiro state borders and also mandated to reintroduce geolocation tracking to ensure bets are only being accepted within the state.

Mendonça’s decision gave Loterj five days from 2 January to halt its nationwide activities and impose these geolocation mechanisms.

Loterj immediately appealed the decision, citing “defects, omissions, obscurities and material errors..

January 8, 2025

Flutter issues US profit warning amid “very unfavourable” sports results

Flutter Entertainment has warned it is likely to fall approximately $370 million (£297 million/€359 million) short of US revenue expectations for FanDuel following a period of “very unfavourable” sports results in the country during November and December.

In a trading update published today (8 January), Flutter said strong player-friendly results have offset US player momentum. The group published Q3 results in mid-November, with these showing “excellent” growth across all regions.

However since the results announcement on 12 November, running into December, FanDuel has endured “unfavourable US sports results” primarily affecting NFL parlay and same-game parlay outcomes.

The operator went as far as calling the 2024-25 NFL season “the most customer friendly since the launch of online sports betting with the highest rate of favourites winning in nearly 20 years”.

Flutter takes $438m GGR hit from customer-friendly results

These results, Flutter said, generated an estimated adverse gr..

January 8, 2025

India GST enforcement agency given blocking powers for tax-avoiding gaming sites

The ministry of finance in India has granted new powers to the directorate general of GST Intelligence (DGGI) to begin blocking online gaming websites and mobile applications that are illegally avoiding goods and services tax (GST) in the country.

Confirmed this week in the Gazette of India, the new regulation – SO 95(E) – is effective immediately. The ministry said this intends to address fraudulent activities under both the Information Technology Act 2000 and GST Act 2017.

The DGGI is an agency tasked with mitigating tax evasion on behalf of the GST Council which enforces the tax requirement.

Online real money gaming companies operating in India are required to pay a 28% turnover tax for skill games. This was first enforced in October 2023 and was reiterated on 10 September last year, following a performance review of the tax measure.

Operators must be registered under the Simplified Registration Scheme of the IGST Act and appoint a person based in India to pay their GST contri..

January 8, 2025

Sportsbook+ could be DraftKings’ tax saviour. But in the era of subscriptions, will consumers add one more?

On 28 December, DraftKings quietly launched a new subscription service, dubbed DraftKings Sportsbook+, for select customers located in New York. The new service, which allows for odds boosts on parlays, is the first of its kind – and it could be the company's tax saviour. But will bettors actually subscribe?

Essentially, Sportsbook+ allows subscribers to get better odds on parlays. Each applicable parlay must be at least two legs and each leg must have odds of -500 or narrower. For each leg added to the parlay, the odds would be improved by 10%. In other words, a two-leg parlay would be boosted 10%, a three-leg bet would be boosted 20% and so on. Parlays with 11 or more legs would be boosted by 100%, or double the original payout. The maximum applicable bet is $25.

The news of the launch was first reported by Sportico on 3 January.

DraftKings said the service would be available to “select, eligible customers” in New York, but didn’t elaborate on specific criteria. The fact t..

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Daily Archives: January 8, 2025