Tag Archives: gambling operator

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Rank Group Grosvenor Casinos registered a 6.1% drop in revenue for the financial year 2017/2018 that ended on 30th of June. The firm blamed the regulations requiring strict checking of customers as having caused a decline in the number of casino customers. The company is, however, determined to forge forward and increase its profit margin this and subsequent financial years.

Announcing the financial report for the previous financial year, Rank group said that 2017/2018 was a “challenging year” because of the disappointing performance that its Grosvenor casinos business posted. The business reported a 6.1% drop in revenues to £373 million in the financial year.

The poor performance of the casino business caused a decline in Rank group’s financial performance. Its pre-tax profit dropped by 41.4% to £46.7 million for the year ending 30th June. Subsequently, its revenue fell by 2.3% to £691 million.

Rank group has blamed a number of factors for the slowed casino business. The underperformance of some casinos in the region caused the firm to dig deeper into revenue in an effort to try and stabilize the businesses. It reported that it made “exceptional” charges following an underperformance of five of its casinos and closure of one of the casinos in Bradford.

The group also blamed the new guidelines that were published by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission in September 2017. The guidelines require that betting firms undertake due diligence when dealing with their customers and perform more stringent checks on punters. The effect of the guidelines has been a decline in casino customers. Rank group also blamed adverse weather conditions that were experienced earlier in the year.

Casino goers were forced to stay at home because the weather patterns were unpredictable and they could not go ahead and risk their lives. In the long run, low casino customers translated to reduced revenue. The firm believed that the decline in revenue could have been by higher margins were it not for its robust cost control measures.

The announcement of a decline in revenue triggered a decline of the group’s share prices by 6.1%. Commenting on the decline, Ed Monk, an associate director at Fidelity Personal Investing shares division argued that the fact that the group’s dividend rose by 2.1% to 7.45 per share coupled with the firm’s profit warning which was issued in early April had helped prevent a sharp and bigger decline.

The firm is, however, banking on its online business which despite not growing in the pace anticipated, has maintained a positive trajectory. In the year ended 30th June, the group’s digital revenue grew by 9% to stand at £122.5 million. The group reported that the first and second half of the year saw different growth patterns in the digital revenue with the second half registering slower growth because of the new guidelines that were released during the period.

Rank Group’s Chief Executive Officer, John O’Reilly emphasized that the company will implement a turnaround plan that will cause better performance in the future. “We are taking steps to increase our focus on the customer, to accelerate growth in the digital business, to drive cost efficiencies across the business and to strengthen our organizational capabilities,” he said “This will be delivered with a transformational programme framework, which will ensure that we deliver a growing Rank Group that is fit for the future.” O’Reilly reiterated.

 

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Chief executive Producer of the giant Paddy Power Betfair betting firm Peter Jackson claims that the firm’s winning streak is back after a well-done performance of the world cup despite facing harsh challenges in the U.S and Australia markets.

Most of their investors got disappointed after they missed to meet their 9.9% expectations on their returns growth. The half-year returns on revenues reached 5% of which it cuts down the full year earnings to approximately £470m from the expected value of £482.5m. Despite the lagging in returns growth, the company had gross profits of 4pc higher at £106m for the past six months before the world cup. The CEO defended the firm against the negative performance indicated in the stock share markets arguing that the changes were as a result of a change in tax regime imposed by the Australian government to sport gambling firms as well as mixed reactions about whether U.S Supreme courts will legitimize sports gambling casinos.

The company management, therefore, decided to beef up on their marketing strategies to ensure they boost their market share prices. They agreed on a World Cup campaign that was meant to pledge donations of £10,000 for each goal scored by the Russian team in the entire tournament which was to go to an LGBT charity. Thanks to their world cup strategy it worked perfectly well and boosted their profit margin to give back glory to the company’s reputation. During the world cup, the company netted more than £22m as revenues that comes with a £8m in profit.

It was in 2009 when Betfair owned TVG, the largest U.S. horse racing firm with members in more than thirty-five states as well as broadcasting TV channel viewed in more than 45 million homes. Paddy Power which later merged terms with Betfair owns an online gambling casino, and they are still they are the biggest horse racing bookmakers in New Jersey. In 2017 they also owned a daily fantasy sports (DFS) company. Recently in June they also took over FanDuel (a U.S fantasy game site) after paying the firm $770m.

Despite deploying the key strategies in sports gambling, with all these sister companies to Paddy Power Betfair earns about $2 billion annually from the U.S casino gambling markets. According to revenues earned from other countries, this value seems that Paddy Power Betfair is not maximizing on these U.S markets. It is an undeniable fact that the U.S has a higher population of people interested in sports. After its merger with FanDuel and a contractual agreement with Boyd Gaming(another major online sports gambling casino company), the betting company is promising it’s investors to expect positive growth in the emerging U.S sports wagering market.

As of now, there are high hopes emerged after the U.S Supreme Court in May declared the legalization of sports betting and casino operations and should still pose reasonable taxes for the sports betting sites. The U.S CEO Kip Levin urges that they are already doing markets for all U.S. sports because it’s growing in popularity, especially in Australia. At the same time, they are ensuring their betting offers are more tailored to the U.S market. He also added that if more taxes are imposed on them, there may not be any probability of having promising rewards as well as it will remain a big challenge to eradicate illegal markets. Additionally, he suggested it could be better if all states in the U.S will have a constant rate so as to enable them to offer the same bets countrywide. Ed Monk who is an associate director at Fidelity personal Investing said “before the World Cup the bookmaker share value was up at almost 9% and therefore Paddy Power Betfair stands to gain from the opening up of US betting markets, confirmed earlier this year, and has moved quickly to expand its FanDuel site to capitalise. That benefit, though, now appears to be priced into the shares and investors will want to see the improved operational performance and a return to growing market share from here.”

The company has an optimistic approach to their strategies in increasing market share in the U.S markets. The management is focusing on brand recognition, market accessibility and operational capabilities and substantial investments to increase their customer base across the U.S wagering market. A strong coverage by their very own racing channel TVG will be their key advantage in increasing their customer base and brand recognition.

 

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A survey was done in the UK, and the results showed that approximately 528,000 people are addicted to gambling. The result also stated that 80% of them end up having bad debts that eventually destroy their financial status.

GamblingOnce you get into betting it becomes tough for one to stop. It is for this reason that two challenger banks came up with a solution to this bad habit. They have come up with mobile apps that give the current account holders of these banks the option to block all the payments to any registered gambling operator.

This feature is meant to help the players who are trying to stop spending on gambling. Tony Franklin, a former gambling addict who is using the app to quit his bad habits, talked to The Daily Mail and he confessed how gambling had consumed most of his adult life. He continued to say that the bad habits had led to him losing his home plus his family two times. His life kept getting disorderly. His relationship with banks got worse. He said that the gambling life affected his entire life; family, friends, employment, financial state, housing and eventually his health.

Tony has interest in challenger banks market as a whole. He kept looking for a bank that would come up with ways that would help him control his spending habits, and his research led him to Starling bank. Franklin says that ever since he started using the feature, he has been able to withdraw from gambling. The element has prevented him from falling back to the bad habits as many players do. They quit, and after a week they fall back. He says the bank has played an essential role in trying to get his life back on track. He has been able to pay off some debts, but he still has others. He says he will pay them with time.

Tony Franklin believes the feature is the only way to get out of the ‘cauldron of chaos’ as he calls it. Before the banks came up with the feature, players were forced to go to the gambling operators and convince them to block themselves from receiving any payments from the player. Starling bank was the first to come up with the feature, and after a short while, Monzo followed. The two banks have accounts that are operated through a mobile app. Barclaycard also offers the blocking services to their credit card holders to enable them to block their credit card from making transactions to any registered gambling operator. This is done by talking to their customer care.

As long as the feature is switched on, any trial to make a payment to an authorized gambling operator will be rejected automatically. Monzo customers can block the payments by using the feature on the app or by contacting the customer care team through the chat feature. Starling clients can block the payments by using the feature and can unblock payments anytime using the feature also and immediately an alert will show up guiding them to seek help from National Gambling Helpline. For a person using Monzo account, they will need to talk to the customer care using the chat feature on the app to unblock the payments. On request, they will ask the person several questions and try to convince them to rethink. If the person gives the go-ahead after all these, it will take 48 hours for the payments to be unblocked.