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Presenting its full year 2015 corporate results this morning (52-week period ending 29 December), William Hill governance detailed that the company had paid circa £87 million in additional UK gambling duties. The hefty tax charge would impact the FTSE listed betting operator’s top-line metric performance, with William Hill announcing FY 2015 operating profit slump of 22% to £291 million (FY …

New York listed Chinese sports lottery operator 500.com has posted its third consecutive no-revenue quarter for Q4 2015. The troubled lottery operator continues to be impacted by its ‘temporary’ lottery services suspension imposed by China’s Ministry of Finance (first sanctioned in February 2015) As a result of the suspension, the operator posted Q4 revenues of RMB 0.7 million ($0.1 million), …

The divisive Donald Trump is now overwhelming 1/2 favourite with bookmaker William Hill to secure the Republican nomination. The businessman turned media personality turned presidential candidate has also had his odds slashed to 5/2 meaning he’s now the second favourite to win the race to the White House following his latest success in Nevada. William Hill Spokesman Graham Sharpe said of …

Olympic Entertainment Group and Eden Leisure have selected BetConstruct as its supplier for sports betting systems and provisions for its new joint venture enterprise Casino Malta (St Julian’s). Gambling technology provider BetConstruct were unveiled as partner at the grand opening of Casino Malta, which will be operated by Olympic Casino management. Announcing the partnership, BetConstruct governance detailed that it had …

The Gambling Commission has published its latest report which sheds some light on gambling behaviour in Britain in the past year. Vitally, and for the very first time, this research includes extensive information about how people gamble in terms of which devices they use, where they gamble and how many accounts they use for it. Paul Hope, Gambling Commission Programme Director, …

Leading global gaming technology group Novomatic, and Len Ainsworth, founder and majority shareholder of Ainsworth Game Technology (AGT), have announced that they have signed a purchase agreement for the shares of Len Ainsworth in AGT. The 92-year-old gaming veteran will retain his role as chairman, and Novomatic expects to keep the stake at about 53 per cent and retain Ainsworth’s ASX listing. …

Increased costs combined with the extra burden of betting taxes have seen Ladbrokes Plc post full-year 2015 (period ending 31 December 2015) group losses of £43 million, detailing a corporate decline from 2014’s profits of £37.7 million. Outlining 2015 impacts, Ladbrokes governance detailed that the company had paid circa £50 million in taxes due to increased duties on machine gaming …

A former director of Walton-based Sportech is hoping to buy the firm’s football pools arm in a deal that could be worth around £100m. As reported in the Liverpool Echo, Sportech’s former chief operating officer Ian Hogg is one of several potential bidders for the group’s subsidiary, known as The Football Pools. He was at Sportech for four years until he …

Spanish gambling operator Grupo R.Franco (R.Franco) has confirmed that it has made a substantial investment in independent online gambling platform provider Mediatech Solutions. R.Franco governance stated that its strategic investment in Mediatech Solutions, represented the company’s goal of creating a “new omni-channel giant”. The companies’ had prior working relationship, as Mediatech Solutions had delivered R.Franco its Spanish online gambling/betting platform, …

Sepp Blatter may have been banned from football for eight years but William Hill isn’t too sure this’ll stop him from turning up at the FIFA congress this week. Sepp Blatter, who has endlessly protested his innocence in the ongoing corruption investigation which scandalized the football federation last year, continues to be in the news as he appeals his personal …