Posts by cara@bettingjobs.com
Spirited away
Gas guzzled Running out of runway: The first US airline casualty of the Iran war hit at the worst possible moment for Las Vegas. Spirit Airlines, the bright-yellow ultra-low-cost carrier that for years drove leisure fares into the basement, ceased operations just after midnight on Saturday (May 2). The news comes at a time where…
Read MoreEating out
Clear and present danger: Even as a new report from ARK Invest positioned sports as being irrelevant to the long-term story of prediction markets as financial institutional play, the debut edition of EKG’s new market monitor suggested the current sports-led offerings hit 11% of sportsbook handle in March. Adding noughts: The ARK Invest report made…
Read MoreLucra scores $20M to help brands build P2P experiences
The news: Lucra, the plug-and-play loyalty SDK powering competition with real-money and rewards, has raised $20M led by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest Venture Fund, with participation from Alumni Ventures, Astralis Capital, Harlo Equity Partners, Simplex Ventures, SeventySix Capital, and WTI. The company’s SDK lets brands embed peer-to-peer challenges, tournaments, and live competitions inside their own…
Read MoreScary monsters
Keep me scared: UK Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller has pushed back on “ill-informed” criticism of financial checks, while signaling openness to crypto payments and a wider review of regulatory burden. At the Ethical Gambling Forum held in Leeds this week, Miller corrected what he characterized as widespread misinformation of financial risk checks. He…
Read MoreNot buying it
One man on a lonely platform: Sportradar came armed yesterday with a new quarter-of-a-billion share buyback, a personal $10m commitment from CEO Carsten Koerl and plenty of answers to the analysts’ questions when it presented its Q1 earnings, but it left investors unmoved. The shares fell a further 11% yesterday, leaving them down nearly 50%…
Read MoreNo holiday in Scambodia
It’s time to taste what you most fear: Cambodia has dramatically escalated its crackdown on cyber scam operations, announcing the closure of 91 casinos found to be operating as fronts for online fraud syndicates. The move came just days after the US Treasury sanctioned a sitting Cambodian senator over his alleged control of a sprawling…
Read MoreA Cambrian moment
Liquidity events Life on Earth: Proponents of prediction markets are talking them up as the next stage of the evolution of institutional finance, even as the regulated gaming sector and the CFTC seem destined to continue the legal slugfest all the way to the Supreme Court. A recent posting from prediction markets investor a16z made…
Read MoreBetHog’s ambitious plan to roll out AI dealers and “take over” the category
The news: BetHog, the crypto casino and sportsbook from the FanDuel founding team, has closed a $10M Series A co-led by Will Ventures and RockawayX, bringing total funding to $16M. Alongside the raise, the company launched Sentient Studios—a B2B platform that lets operators deploy AI-powered live dealers on a revenue-share model with no setup fees…
Read MoreThe Escape Route
On the right path One, two, three, four: Penn Entertainment’s Q1 earnings have given the clearest indication yet that Penn has finally managed to find a path to producing profits from online after its calamitous Barstool and ESPN Bet adventures. The interactive segment produced a $78m YoY swing and cut losses to just $10.8m in…
Read MoreDiary of an iGaming Exec – Victoria Reed
🔥Victoria Reed is the CEO and founder of Better Change, a consultancy focused on “positive play” in the gambling industry. Unlike traditional safer gambling organizations, her company works directly with operators to balance regulation, commercial success, and player wellbeing. 🎮She criticizes the UK gambling levy for poor governance and excluding industry-collaborating groups, arguing that prevention…
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