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Regulus Partners, the strategic consultancy focused on international gambling and related industries, takes a look at some key developments for the gambling industry in its ‘Winning Post’ column. Italy: gambling duties – felice anno nuovo? The Italian government ended 2018 with further material tax rises for its commercial betting and gaming sectors. In the machine sector, AWP and VLT duties will …

After a tumultuous 2018, what does 2019 hold in store for the UK sports betting sector? I have dusted down my crystal ball. It may be a bit cloudy in areas, with perhaps the odd crack beginning to show in parts, but here is my best bet on what the regulatory future may bring. On the plus side, I do …

Andrew Morgan, International Director at Independent Content Services, anticipates 2019 will be all about M&A, the USA and the ongoing rise of esports. It has been another incredible year for the global online gambling industry. From power-play acquisitions to new markets opening their doors to legal betting for the very first time, the past 12 months have been transformational for …

Approving the Lega-5Star coalition ‘Budget Law’ on the weekend before Christmas, Italy’s Senate has delivered coal to betting stakeholders’ festive stockings, as a miserable 2018 closes its curtains. From 1 January 2019, Italian land-based and online gambling incumbents will have to undertake a number of quick adjustments to a new tax reality, as Lega-5Star seeks to collect circa €700 million …

UK:  B2 impact – the sound of scraping… With Britain’s B2 ban now formally enacted into law (see below), the first practical signs of impact (beyond PR and lobbying) are starting to be felt. So far, these have been seen in machine contracts, rental pleas, horseracing funding and M&A. This list is likely to grow as April approaches and then …

Aly Lalani, Head of Marketing at BetRegal, discusses executing a strategic roadmap for 2018 that had to be ‘realigned considerably’, undertaking a periodic review of performance, and why this practice allows a business to properly facilitate large-scale change. The holiday season. A time of family and friends, fun and celebration and general merriment. Inevitably, the holiday season invokes a sense …

Regulus Partners, the strategic consultancy focused on international gambling and related industries, takes a look at some key developments for the gambling industry in its ‘Winning Post’ column. New Zealand: NZRB – the trouble with monopolies? New Zealand Racing Board’s results to July 2018 demonstrate continued progress online, with 20% growth in customers to 230,000 (nearly 5% of NZ’s population), …

For sector incumbents, 2018 will be remembered as the year of US market liberalisation, continued multi-billion M&A activity, record UKGC penalties, FOBTs reductions and strained relationships between betting and its wider stakeholders (media, the community, politics, governing bodies etc…) Amid all this mayhem, the sector has seen little with regards to fresh blood, delivering much needed new propositions and perspectives. …

Robin Reed Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has detailed his firm’s strategic vision and future strategy to new investors, as GIG prepares to end 2019 by listing as a new Stockholm Nasdaq enterprise. Founded six years ago in Oslo, Reed details that GiG’s enterprise founding team have been led by the mission of delivering ‘digital transformation’ …

The repercussions are gathering pace on November’s arrests relating to money-laundering and illegal gambling charges, undertaken by Italian Police’s joint ‘anti-Mafia’ taskforce.   No Italian gambling/betting stakeholder should expect an easy end of year, as Italian Parliament probes for an explanation on the nation’s biggest money-laundering investigation, underlying more than two-years of systemic AML and corruption failings. Last week, thirty …