January 2025 – Page 4 – FairOdds Network

January 13, 2025

Weekend Report: Entain confident on FY24 earnings, Betfred exits Nevada, Concacaf seeks first betting partner

Welcome to the Weekend Report, where iGB looks at the news that you may have missed across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This week: Entain confident on FY24 EBITDA guidance, Betfred exits Nevada and Concacaf seeks first betting partner.

Entain reiterates EBITDA guidance for FY24

Entain said it remains confident of EBITDA guidance for FY24 despite taking a hit in the latter part of the year from customer-friendly sports results in the US.

Entain set out full-year targets during its Q3 trading update in October. Here, it said group EBITDA would be at the upper end of a range between £1.04 billion (€1.24 billion/$1.26 billion) and £1.09 billion.

Now, Entain has repeated this guidance despite its BetMGM joint venture in the US being impacted in Q4. Unfavourable sports results meant players won more during the period, which in turn impacted performance.

Entain said BetMGM still expects to post EBITDA of negative $250 million for the full year. This is in line with earlier guidance issue..

January 13, 2025

After election boom, Kalshi gets creative in new markets, including sports

Over the fall, Kalshi successfully overcame legal challenges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and became the first legal, regulated prediction market. The US presidential election was a gold mine for it and others – but now, the market is a hodgepodge of contracts for politics, finance and… sports?

Through the 5 November elections, the New York-based Kalshi was estimated to have taken in more than $700 million (£542.5 million/€651.5 million) in contracts, with some $430 million staked on the presidential race alone.

Kalshi prevailed in federal court against the CFTC last year by arguing that offering the contracts did not equate to gaming. The exchange lists the yes-no contracts with percentage odds and matches opposite contracts to each other. It then makes money on trading commissions. After Kalshi’s victory, multiple other well-known exchanges rolled out prediction markets, including Robinhood and Crypto.com.

The CFTC argued it was not equipped to be Ameri..

January 10, 2025

Las Vegas Strip revenue declines continue as Nevada posts 4% YoY decrease in November

The Las Vegas Strip posted its fifth consecutive monthly year-on-year revenue decline in November, with the state overall posting a 4.2% drop from last year.

According to figures from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) released on 9 January, the state’s gaming industry posted $1.31 billion (£1.07 billion/€1.27 billion) in gross gaming revenue (GGR) in November. The 4.2% YoY decline is the fourth for the state out of the last five months. But this is somewhat qualified by the fact that FY24 was the best ever.

So far in FY25, Nevada gaming is down 2.8% from this point last year, per the NGCB.

The most notable figures from November came from the Las Vegas Strip. America’s gaming capital posted $788.7 million in GGR for the month, down just under 4% from last year. This is the first definitive proof that the second edition of the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix did not live up to the inaugural race last November, although local officials had already acknowledged that to be the c..

January 10, 2025

State of the Union: DraftKings-Delta deal just words right now, CA lawsuit update, more

Welcome to iGB's State of the Union, a look at the biggest North American sports betting stories we've covered over the week and briefs on others we found interesting.

Don’t bet on betting on Delta just yet

On 8 January DraftKings and Delta Airlines announced a partnership that could eventually allow bettors to use the sportsbook app while on a flight. But View from the Wing writes that in-flight betting is against US law. The deal could be worth up $1.3 billion if it becomes legal to bet on US flights.

According to View from the Wing, in-flight gambling isn’t new. For “32 years, however, it was legal for foreign airlines flying to and from the US”, according to the publication. Airlines like Singapore Air, Swissair and RyanAir have all dabbled in it, but none had a gambling programme that stuck.

Announced at a CES presentation at the Sphere in Las Vegas, the announcement seems bigger than the actual deal. For now, there’s a partnership, but no betting, although View fro..

January 10, 2025

Sportradar integrity report: Brazil no longer leader in football match-fixing cases

The 2024 Sportradar annual integrity report has displayed a significant decline in suspicious match detections for football in Brazil, with the country no longer the most impacted by match-fixing in the sport.

On Thursday (9 January), Sportradar released its ‘Integrity in Action 2024 Global Analysis & Trends’ report for 2024. Its 2023 edition reported Brazil had the most suspicious match detections of all countries surveyed with 109 during the 12-month period.

The 109 figure suspicious match detections in 2023 was a 29% year-on-year reduction on the previous year, though. And there is more positive news for Brazil in this year’s integrity report, as the total number of suspicious football matches dropped by 52 to 57 in Brazil. It was no longer the nation with the most suspicious match detections for the sport in 2024.

Of the 57 detections, four were in competitions organised by the Brazil Football Confederation (CBF), representing just 0.18% of all games overseen by the CBF. Compara..

January 10, 2025

2025 predictions: Brazil to remain fluid, adopting novel betting types, sponsorships may be reviewed

How will the gambling sector evolve in 2025? We asked the industry to consider how key trends in 2024 will progress into this year

Ushering in 2025, the sector has hit the ground running in preparation for ICE Barcelona in a couple of weeks. Across the pond a couple of US states have kicked off their legislative sessions this year with bills supporting online gaming launches. But the holiday period provided enough downtime to reflect on ways the gaming industry evolved in 2024 and then consider what will likely dominate the headlines and earnings calls in the year to come.

Brazil’s legal online betting launch captured the most eyes in 2024’s news flow, and how the licensed market will navigate its infancy stages will pique the sector’s interest in coming months. Last summer, 113 operators applied for early-stage licences to enter the market, hoping to be among the first to launch on 1 January.

Brazil’s SPA then awarded 66 approvals at the turn of the year, including 14 full and 52..

January 9, 2025

Arizona sets $791.2 million sports betting handle record in October

Consumers in Arizona spent a record $791.2 million (£644.2 million/€768.2 million) betting on sports in October, while revenue in the Grand Canyon State fell just short of an all-time high.

Handle for October surpassed the existing Arizona record of $759.8 million, set in March this year, by 4.1%. It also beat October 2023 by 22.1% and September 2024 by 8.1%, according to Arizona Department of Gaming data. Online sports betting spend in October amounted to $784.4 million, while retail wagering hit $6.8 million.

Players won $735.6 million across online and retail betting, leaving $53.8 million in adjusted gross receipts. This falls 6.9% short of $56.9 million in the previous year and it also lagged 31.5% behind September’s $77.4 million record.

Almost all adjusted gross receipts – $53.6 million – came from online, with retail generating just $205,230 in comparison. On this, overall hold for Arizona in October was 6.80%

After excluding $30.2 million worth of free bets, the new adjust..

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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