A WEEKLY ROUND-UP

Education trust and Racing To School team up to raise gambling awareness

The Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) and Racing To School teamed up on the eve of the Cheltenham Festival to help raise awareness about the issues surrounding gambling among pupils at a school in Liverpool.

It was the second collaboration between the two education charities following similar work with pupils in Newmarket last year.

This year’s visit was to Maricourt High School in Maghull, which is the only senior school within the Aintree Beacon educational outreach programme and has established very strong ties with the home of the Grand National over the last four years.

The aim of the day was to engage around 70 year-nine and year-12 pupils to think about the relationship between gaming and gambling as a way of raising their awareness about related harms and sources of help.

YGAM operations director Kev Clelland made presentations to the pupils about gambling and gaming, providing information about the size of both industries and how much time and money children spend on the activities.

They were also asked to think about issues such as the difference between gaming and gambling and what the signs of problem gambling are.

Racing To School chief executive John Blake said: “We are so grateful to YGAM for supporting Racing To School for a second pilot session after the event at Newmarket last year, and so pleased the feedback from young people and teachers was equally positive this time up in Liverpool.

“We believe that these issues have relevance for young people like never before, and that racing can and should be part of their education around informed gambling choices, which fits both with the sport’s ongoing commitment to responsible gambling and the efforts made to welcome the next generation of racing fans.”

Maricourt’s curriculum leader for PSHEE (Personal Social Health and Economic Education), Citizenship & Vocational Education, Ian Daly said he had found the sessions “interesting and important”.

He added: “I would certainly consider having some staff training in the future. It’s an important issue and one that I think students perhaps don’t appreciate in the same way they do with drugs for example.”

Bet365 and Spotlight Sports Group extend partnership

Bet365 and the Racing Post’s parent company Spotlight Sports Group have extended their video content partnership, with the bookmaker becoming exclusive sponsor of flagship weekly show What A Shout.

There will be an immediate extension of exclusive sponsorship of the highly successful series Upping The Ante hosted by the Racing Post’s David Jennings and Gavin Lynch which delivered 1.7 million views during 2019-20. What A Shout, which gathers experts from the racing world to discuss big races, hit 1.7 million views in nine weeks.  

Spotlight Sports Group digital marketing director Gethin Evans said: “We’re delighted to grow our video content partnership with bet365 to include What A Shout. In only a few weeks, What A Shout has firmly established itself as the must-watch horseracing magazine show, which is borne out by impressive engagement and retention rates.”

A bet365 spokesperson said: “We are very excited around the planned progression of What A Shout. The partnership should help to deliver some fantastic content in the coming months.”

FanDuel leads way in New Jersey

Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel continues to lead the sports betting market in New Jersey according to the monthly data for February, although the coronavirus epidemic is set to lead to a slowdown across the sector.

Meadowlands, from where FanDuel operates, had online gross revenue of $9.6 million (approx £7.8m) representing a market share of 60 per cent against 48 per cent in January, although another operator PointsBet is based at the venue as well and accounts for a single digit percentage share of the market.

William Hill held a nine per cent share of the online sports market, compared to ten per cent the previous month, while GVC had six per cent of online revenue in the month, compared to five per cent in January.

Overall sports betting handle – the amount bet – was $494m in February, down eight per cent month-on-month but up 54 per cent year-on-year.

Goodbody analyst Gavin Kelleher said that while online revenues did not grow month on month in February, the market continued to see “impressive” year-on-year growth in New Jersey.

He added: “Flutter and FanDuel remain the dominant player in online sports and gaming. Given the lockdown on sporting events both in the US and globally due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the US sports betting market is likely to enter a period of weakness during March and April.”

EPIC and GVC tackle problem gambling in US

EPIC Risk Management has formed a partnership with GVC to minimise gambling-related harm in the US where it is estimated seven million adults suffer from gambling problems.

The partnership is being funded by GVC Foundation US to the tune of $2.5 million over the course of two years and will replicate EPIC’s European sports and education model. 

Programmes will run in 14 locations across the US in 2020 and 2021, covering New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington DC, and the New England region.

Martin Lycka, trustee for GVC Foundation US and director of regulatory affairs at GVC said: “As the leading provider of advisory and education in problem gambling, EPIC Risk Management has done extraordinary work in Europe. Partnering with EPIC in locations throughout the US will continue that impactful mission.”

SIS signs greyhound deal with Russian operator

SIS has agreed a deal with Russian gaming operator Pari-Engineering which will allow Poolbet.ru to accept and transfer bets into the pool of British greyhound racing content.

Poolbet.ru will expand its offering with the addition of more than 8,000 British greyhound races per year, taken from Central Park, Crayford, Doncaster, Harlow, Henlow, Hove, Monmore and Romford.

The agreement involves live streamed pictures, commentary, data on-screen graphics and markets.

SIS digital sales manager An~e Gantar said: “After successfully launching the SIS World Greyhound Tote Pool in North America last year, we’re excited to be bringing this product to Russia as part of our new partnership with Poolbet.ru.”

EU urged to enforce single market rules for gambling

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has welcomed the European Commission’s action plan for the enforcement of EU single market rules which was published last week but has urged the commission to ensure that the online gambling market benefits.

EGBA said the need for stronger enforcement was clear for sectors which are not yet harmonised, such as online gambling.

The trade body said the EU online gambling sector is worth €22.2 billion (approx £20.1bn)  and growing by ten per cent a year but that the 16.5 million Europeans who bet online experience 27 different sets of national online gambling policies.

EGBA secretary general Maarten Haijer said: “EGBA welcomes the commission’s commitment to making the single market work but EU law should be enforced more strongly across all sectors, including online gambling.”