Rank Group Plc has issued a market update as it begins to reopen its Mecca Bingo venues across England from Saturday 4 July. Absorbing COVID-19 impacts and costs, Rank stated that its group underlying profits will fall at the lower end of its provided £48-58 million guidance for the year ending 30 June 2020. Despite the closure of its entire …
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Rank Group has ‘gifted’ its sponsorship of League One football team Ipswich Town FC to Carers Trust, with the charity’s logo due to feature prominently on the team’s home kit for the 2020-21 season. The team’s shirt currently features the logo of Rank online casino subsidiary, Magical Vegas. The sponsorship was donated to raise awareness of the organisation which supports …
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Rank Group has announced that it will begin the ‘phased reopening’ of its Mecca Bingo venues operating across England from 4 July. In accordance with the government’s public safety measures, 36 Mecca venues will reopen on 4 July across England, as Rank re-establishes its retail footprint having been forced to close all gambling venues from mid-March as the UK entered …
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John O’Reilly, Chief Executive of Rank Group, has stated his disbelief at the UK government refusing to allow England’s casinos to reopen on 4 July, as previously anticipated and prepared for by licensed operators. Rank’s CEO branded the government’s latest easing orders on leisure and hospitality venues as ‘baffling’ and ‘incoherent’, with the government allowing England’s bingo venues to reopen …
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Communicating on behalf of its members, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has declared that England’s casinos will be ready to reopen and service the public safely from 4 July. As part of the government’s ‘stage 3’ arrangement of lockdown easings, hospitality and leisure businesses across England will be allowed to reopen from 4 July, providing that they adhere to …
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GVC Holdings has become the latest gambling company to issue a claim to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) regarding compensation owed from tax charges related to fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). After William Hill followed the lead of Betfred and Rank Group earlier in the week, GVC has predicted that a successful claim ‘will result in a cash inflow to …
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Achieving product differentiation is arguably more important now than ever as sportsbook and casino operators face the challenge of staying relevant, writes Will Whitehead (pictured), Associate Director – Accounts at mkodo. This remarkable period triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19 has stressed the importance of having dynamic and agile digital products and has likely rang alarm bells for many over …
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With this week’s announcement by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) that it has agreed to voluntarily remove all gaming product advertising on TV and radio during the COVID-19 lockdown, the subject of safer gambling is hot on the thoughts of people in the industry. Speaking at the SBC Digital Summit, Andy Danson, partner at Bird and Bird, and a panel …
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GambleAware has revealed that donations to the charity have surpassed its £10 million minimum target for the first time. Publishing the full list of donations received between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, it revealed that gambling operators and suppliers had made £10.05 million in voluntary donations to the charity, which is not inclusive of money received through regulatory …
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UK bookmakers could secure compensation for previous tax charges made against gambling machines, after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) lost its long-standing dispute against Rank Group and Betfred. Last Friday, an Upper Tribunal led by Justice Anthony Mann and Judge Thomas Scott ruled in favour of the betting firms who had long disputed HMRC’s classification of VAT charges on Fixed …
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