[F I N A N C E
NEWS
]
POC IMPLEMENTATION TO BE PUT BACK
RGA letter explains PoC regulation is unlikely to come in until June
new regulatory framework set to
transform the UK gambling market is
unlikely to come into force until June,
the Remote Gambling Association (RGA)
has advised.
The RGA notified its members the
Gambling
Commission’s
preferred
timetable leading to a 1 April start date
will be delayed by at least one month and
possibly two as the Gambling (Licensing
and Advertising) Bill makes its way
through parliament.
The second reading of the Bill in the
House of Lords was set for 17 December
but given the Christmas recess, the Bill
could not complete its passage through the
upper house before the New Year.
With the potential of amendments to
the Bill during the House of Lords stages,
further delays are possible and the RGA
states Royal Assent of the Bill is now
The
unlikely to occur before March 2014.
“April is off the cards now so unless there
is some completely unforeseen additional
delay we’d expect the revised ‘go live’ date
be in May or June with a three-month
licensing window preceding it,” Clive
Hawkswood, RGA chief executive, told
eGaming Review.
“I don’t think they have to stick to the
first of the month, but realistically we’re
probably looking at June for the new
regime - if it gives everyone another month
or two’s breathing space then so much
the better and it’s certainly no cause for
concern,” he added.
Hawkswood also said the RGA decided
to alert its members to the delay in order
to manage expectations and so people
could “relax a bit more over Christmas”
rather than worry about readying licence
applications for January.
GVC MAKES STRONG START TO
FOURTH QUARTER
Listed sportsbook and casino operator announces Q4 growth while noting
competitors’ recent sportsbook troubles
GVC Holdings appears to have bucked the
recent trend of operators bemoaning
“punter–friendly” runs of sporting
results after issuing a strong Q4 trading
update.
Although the company reported sports
margin had decreased quarter-onquarter from 9.4% in Q3 to 8.2% during
the first two months of Q4, average
wagers per day soared by 23% from
€3.3m to €4m across the same period.
And despite the reduction in sports
margin, average daily net gaming revenue
for the first two months of Q4 rose by 4%
from €516k in Q3 to €536k.
GVC, which returned the loss-making
non-Australian business of Sportingbet it
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acquired in March to profit in September,
said current performance reinforced the
success of the Sportingbet integration.
It added it expected the Group’s fullyear results to be at the upper end of
analysts’ current expectations, with a
further update expected on 9 January.
In releasing the update, the AIM-listed
company said it had noted “the recent
announcements made by a number of its
peers in the sports betting industry on
the matter of recent unfavourable sports
results”.
GVC was referring to operators such as
William Hill and G