Late last week, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) raised red flags against 11 online gambling platforms.

According to the federal watchdog, Greenspin, Slotman, Jeetcity, Betibet, Candyland Casino, Thunderpick, Golden Lion, Digits 7, Sector 777, New Vegas and PayID Pokies have been operating in violation of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001.

In response to the breaches, ACMA has formally requested Australian internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to all the mentioned casino sites.

The authority has the power to make such requests when an operator provides prohibited interactive gambling services to Australian online casino customers.

Blocking orders can also be issued for websites engaged in online gambling without a valid licence.

Since ACMA initiated its first blocking request in November 2019, a total of 893 illegal gambling and affiliate websites have been blocked.

Additionally, 220 illicit services have exited the Australian market since the authority began enforcing new rules against illegal offshore gambling in 2017.

“Website blocking is one of a range of enforcement options to protect Australians against illegal online gambling,” stated ACMA.

The authority also issued a reminder to consumers that even seemingly legitimate services are unlikely to have essential customer protections, putting Australians at risk of losing their money when using illegal gambling platforms.

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The government in China has been cracking down on gambling for several years now. In light of the country’s strict laws on gambling activities, law enforcement and other agencies constantly monitor different activities and investigate cases of illegal gambling or other gambling-related crimes.

Amid the crackdown on gambling, online content platforms have reportedly taken action by removing live streaming features like lucky draws, actions that slashed their revenues for the latest quarter. As reported by Reuters, Tencent Music, as well as NetEase’s Cloud Music, have excluded live streaming features from its offering.

Analysts have previously voiced their concerns that such live-streaming features may be used for illegal gambling. However, none of the companies have officially addressed such concerns but rather released other reasons for the halt of certain live-streaming features.

For example, Tencent confirmed that the recent change seeks to make it more “music-centric.” Yet, upon releasing its second quarter of 2023 results earlier this month, the company confirmed that Tencent Music has seen a decline of 24% year-over-year in its social entertainment revenues, where the live streaming segment is positioned.

Similarly, Tencent’s game broadcasting platform that resembles Twitch, Huya, also posted a decrease in its social entertainment revenues for Q2 2023 that dipped by 16% year-over-year. Addressing the changes to its live streaming features, Huya said it sought to elevate the experiences for its customers and create a “healthier” atmosphere.

On the other hand, NetEase’s Cloud Music, a popular music streaming service, reportedly also excluded some live streaming features. The change was described as an improvement of its “internal controls mechanism” in combination with “stricter monitoring over irregular user activities.” Unsurprisingly, Cloud Music’s social entertainment revenue in Q2 this year also fell by 24% when compared to the corresponding period in 2022.

The Crackdown on Gambling Continues

While the aforementioned companies haven’t officially linked China’s ongoing crackdown to the halt of some streaming services, analysts predict further impact. 86Research’s analyst, Charlie Chai, predicted that the ongoing efforts against gambling may eliminate between 20% to 70% of the revenue from live streaming. According to him, this depends on the popularity of each of the streaming platforms.

“We expect the anti-gambling crackdown… to eliminate 20% to 70% of live streaming revenue, depending on each platform’s exposure.“

Charlie Chai, analyst for 86Research

Earlier this summer, the Payment and Clearing Association in China confirmed that some $277 million in payments for illegal gambling platforms were blocked for last year alone. The report reaffirms the dedication of the country to fight against such activities at all costs and reduce the money leaking into illegal gambling.

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Gambling streamers have become very popular in recent years – but why is that, and what have popular platforms Twitch and Kick done to increase their popularity?

Twitch’s popularity

Tom Waterhouse from Waterhouse VC decided to research this topic and compare two of the most popular streamers. Twitch was launched in 2011, but its biggest growth was recorded after Amazon bought the platform for $970 million in 2014. At the time, there were very few streamers in the whole US market.

There awaited various thrilling features, including many tutorials and chat rooms hosted by famous gamers from all over the world. The money comes from both ads and premium subscriptions, as well as a few merchandise sales, and the platform and the streamer used to split the subscription revenue 50/50 until June when it changed to 70/30 for the streamer.

Among other things, Twitch offers Bits – it’s an internal currency that users can give to steamers as a sign of support, and that revenue is also split. However, according to the source, the streamers believe they’re underpaid. In 2021, some information about the network was leaked, and according to that, only 0.01% of streamers were paid more than the minimum wage. This is the main reason for the different split percentages, along with increased competition from the new platforms.

Kick – a serious threat

Another major platform is Kick, which is relatively new, with the launch in January 2023. However, it rapidly became popular among streamers and viewers. Streamers love it because of the 95/5 split, along with keeping all the tips to themselves.

Kick also allows gambling. After the 2022 scandal, when Twitch borrowed money from creators to pretend to fund gambling expenses, Twitch decided to ban most of the popular gambling streaming, starting in October last year.

Back then, the company claimed: “We’ll be making a policy update on 18 October to prohibit streaming of gambling sites that include slots, roulette, or dice games that aren’t licensed either in the US or other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection.”

On Kick, however, gambling content is beyond popular, which has drawn streamers to the platform. Since fans keep finding new ways to gamble, the ban didn’t help – many of them simply transferred to Kick, which likely won’t ban gambling content from the platform since its popularity keeps growing.

In January, the platform had 9.000 active channels, and in April, that number increased to 67,000. Also, there were 12.8 million viewing hours in January, and that number increased to 51.8 million until April. It is still only 2.8% of Twitch’s hours, but the company keeps growing, and gambling streaming helps a lot.

Will Twitch be replaced by Kick? It’s early to say for sure, but the games have just begun.

Source: “Waterhouse VC: Twitching into gear”. iGaming Business. August 22, 2023

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The fast-expanding software developer that offers omni-channel gaming solutions and innovative in-house jackpots, Boldplay, has signed a content distribution deal with the Curacao-based online operator, Daintree Gaming. 

According to the terms of the agreement, the latter will host the developer’s entire line-up of casino games on all of its global platforms, starting with Betorspin. In the following months, additional Daintree Gaming-powered online gambling sites will host Boldplay’s signature releases. 

In March, Boldplay announced it reached a new milestone by obtaining a Romanian gaming license from ONJN and thus entering the country’s quickly growing iGaming market.

Hosting Boldplay’s Catalog, “a Significant Milestone” for Daintree Gaming

Daintree Gaming’s head of product, Rob Antill, commented on the news, explaining that the partnership represents “a significant milestone” for them that should allow them to provide players with a more versatile selection of games while fostering their success in the upcoming years. 

Boldplay’s chief executive officer, Valli Fragoso, also expressed similar feelings of delight for striking the agreement with Daintree and being able to see their games be distributed across their massive range of platforms. 

Fragaso added that the new partnership should allow them to form more ties with their audiences via Betorspin and the additional global operators that will follow suit in the upcoming months, which should contribute to their goal of becoming one of the leading providers on the market. 

Boldplay’s Freshest Release, Cakeshop Cascade, Already on Betorspin 

Daintree Gaming’s Betorspin brand has already introduced its players to one of Boldplay’s latest hit releases, Cakeshop Cascade, a 5×3 video slot game with 20 paylines, the iconic popular cascading reels mechanic, and multipliers of up to 50x.

The provider’s collection also consists of a vast variety of slots, table games, virtual scratch cards, and keno games, with titles like 9 Planet Shockers, Surfing Beauties Bingo, Warriors and Warlocks, Cyborg City, Wildscapes, American Roulette, 10-Hand Video Poker, Baccarat, and Holmes and Moriarty Scratch. 

The library also includes premium Jackpot slots, Superpays, Superpot, and Supersweep games, with options like Pretty Diamonds Superpays, 1 Don House Suupersweep, Gold Saloon Superpot, 500 BC Sparta Supersweep, Gold Greek Superpays on top of the list. 

Speed Heist, Splatzz, Cam Carter and the Wheel of Wonder are upcoming games waiting to be released by the same studio.

Last month, LuckyStreak announced a similar content distribution agreement with Daintree Gaming for the former’s live casino and slots content to reach the latter’s players across all brands, starting with Betorspin and Betwiz. 

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Spotlight Sports Group (SSG), a leader in tech, content and media that delivers distinctive betting experiences, has unveiled a new partnership with FTN Network. Under the agreement, SSG has re-engineered three platforms for its new partner.

FTN is a company that excels in providing affordable, customizable and reliable data to the betting and daily fantasy industries. The company works with individual customers, betting startups and established companies, providing them with sports data and tools they can trust.

Thanks to its new agreement with SSG, FTN’s platforms, namely FTNFantasy, FTNBets and FTNDaily will now be able to benefit from SSG’s cutting-edge publishing platform. As a result, the three platforms will be able to use SSG’s checkout services and SaaS solutions.

SSG’s affiliate management services are now deployed across the three platforms, allowing FTN to continue supplying its partners with relevant offers.

The improvements to FTN’s platforms will allow platform managers to elevate and personalize the experience for their customers. The additions are in line with FTN’s goal to grow its platforms in an organic fashion, while constantly improving the consumer experience.

FTN Trusts in SSG’s Capabilities

Kevin Adams, FTN Network’s founder and chief executive officer, welcomed SSG to the FTN family. He said that the partnership with SSG will help his company realize its technological vision, solidifying FTN’s position as a leading source for sports bettors and fantasy sports enthusiasts.

Our vision for our redesign was to provide a cleaner, more modern and premium user experience for our subscribers.

Kevin Adams, founder & CEO, FTN Network

Rick Wolf, SSG’s senior vice president of B2B partnerships, also commented on the matter, praising FTN Network for truly understanding how to utilize SSG’s solutions. Wolf added that FTN’s vision for ease of use, findability and deeper features using proprietary data has been seamlessly executed across FTNFantasy, FTNBets and FTNDaily.

Wolf added that the integration did not undermine FTN’s SEO strength.

The upgrades were implemented across the board using our new SaaS capabilities and delivered in collaboration with the great team at FTN Network. The upgrades feature a cleaner and more personalized design allowing for greater findability, which allows FTN Network to stand out amongst the competition with premium services for the upcoming NFL season.

Rick Wolf, SVP of B2B partnerships, SSG

SSG’s content is hailed as best-in-class in the industry. Because of that, in March, Sky Betting and Gaming asked the provider to create a special content hub for this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

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