iGaming Daily

00:00
All right then Ted, so we're here at the end of the SPC Summit Malta, it's been a pretty busy couple of days. We've both been quite active in the conference side of things as you'd expect. I've been doing a lot, well I've been chairing the affiliation and marketing stage for the past couple of days. You've been cutting about a bit as well. mean, so, from what you've seen, from the conversations you've heard, I know you've done some moderating as well, what's like?

00:29
What are the biggest trends that are going on in iGame and betting in 2025 based on what people have been talking about here in Malta? think, look, I'm glad to be in Malta. And it is like without a doubt the operational hub of the iGaming sector. And it's always going to bring up kind of interesting insights because this is where kind of the sausage gets made in Malta, right?

00:55
I could have picked a better analogy. I'm sorry. It's been a long two days. We're going with sausage. For me, I hosted talks on AI and innovation, but then I hosted another talk on the kind of realities of customer services and the pressures that the operators are under. My two takeaways from this conference,

01:24
My glaring takeaway from this conference is that there's a new tax dawn coming into the industry. The anxieties are up, the concerns are there, because I think what we've been discussing for the past three months, that the economic realities of running a B2C operator in iGaming in regulated markets has changed completely. And it's really changed in the last six months.

01:52
And I think there's gonna be a tough end of year for a lot of companies coming in. And again, I think we're now living in that kind of economic gravity for the operator where the tax bite is hitting our plus 50%. Which markets from what you've seen, which markets are people most concerned about regarding tax? France, Netherlands, Germany already, the UK.

02:17
Yeah, I mean, of course, we've been seeing a lot of action from the BGC, the betting and gaming council lately, haven't We've been getting quite vocal about the prospects of gaming tax being increased because obviously the Labour government are looking for more funds for their investment projects and so on, aren't And growth initiatives and all that. And that forms part of that. Yeah, that's one of the discussions we've been seeing back home. What about Germany? that still an ongoing Germany, I mean, the reality here, mean, for many people just view that as a lost market.

02:46
in terms of casinos are no go, it's been taxed out and plus there's too many kind of game limitations. So again, the channelization rate of Germany cannot be trusted. It's definitely above the 55 % and of, you know, going to the black market now. Another area that's been picked up time and time again, that encroachment coming in. And again, the anxieties go up because of the taxation level.

03:14
It's not just a question of you're to be paying more tags. It's the question of how it impacts the value chain. Also, we already are in like a cost saving period for the, for the majority of operators. So what kind of cost controls are they going to tighten there? Where kind of the spec get reallocated? Is it in marketing? Is it in operations? Is it in scaling down your bonuses, right? And your rewards? All these questions are up in the air, but

03:43
And we're not just talking about a slight tax increase. We're talking about, you know, a couple of, you know, percentage points on that. So it really will hurt kind of the beta level of the operators. It's going to be a period of transition. Yeah. The one of the panels I just saw today was on like navigating the various advertising bands and different advertising regulations that we've got going on across Europe. I mean, that really just the breadth of geography is disgusting that I think really hammered home.

04:13
how expansive all these changes are across Europe, and that's just Europe. We're not even talking about the operators that are looking at getting into South America, the US, African markets or anything like that. We're just talking about Europe here. And yeah, you've got so many different regulatory intricacies to consider if you're operating cross-border. Yeah, this is going to be an incredibly challenging year, I think, for a lot of companies.

04:39
in terms of taxation but also in meeting a lot of different restrictions and regulations that coming in. Oh yeah, certainly, know, reporting on the Netherlands last week. Netherlands of course, There's still going to be some regulatory changes coming into Sweden. The UK's still yet to be defined. So that's a never-ending story. again, I actually kind of know that of your information here. I mean, yes, this is kind of a primarily European-focused conference.

05:10
there was some chatter about South America and the potentials to grow abroad. those kind of anxieties are kind met with the reality that you have to get your own house in order to fix up. So the focus really is on where do I think, look, how do you kind of take on these adjustments? But what's left? Where can you get like percentage eggs to grow and in which market?

05:40
It seems like the options are getting kind of more and more limited. I don't know what the play is going to be. Yeah. It's not all doom and gloom though. There's some bright spots. There's been a few discussions about Finland and think a lot of people, there's a lot of optimism about that I think. It looks like it's going to launch in 2027. I think it seems like lot of local.

06:07
people with local interests, stakeholders are quite confident that it's not going to have quite as many problems as some of the other re-regulated markets we've seen in Europe, particularly the Netherlands was a point made. Did anyone mention like what type of budget they're going to attach to Finland once? That's an interesting question. I'm not too sure. mean, have even prior to this event, have seen people already gearing up for it. ATG have signed a deal with the Finnish.

06:35
racing association, the trotting association, I think, who else is it? PAF or P-A-F, I can't remember which way you pronounce it, the one on the island. They've signed a deal with the Formula One star. Kick him out. yeah, yeah. Obviously, know, trying to, that's already quite an impressive movie, think, like a year or two before the market's even launched, they've already gone in and clinched.

07:01
the country's probably biggest sporting star, you know what mean? So people are moving and are clearly expecting, even though it's not passed through Parliament yet, clearly expecting this market to launch and want to make a big impact. I mean, to me that tells me that, okay, it's a positive thing what's happening in Finland. But I think within even, know, even towards going towards 2027, like kind of the reality kicks in, I mean, how much? Because I don't think

07:31
I wouldn't call Finland necessarily like a newly regulated market. But it has had some exposure prior to its kind of re-regulation. I heard some positive momentum about Italy, but they said again, the rising cost of a seven million pound licence. Okay, spread over four years, but that's a heck of a lot of money for kind of the mid-size operators to take on. So again, they kind of believe that that's pointing more towards kind of...

08:01
you've a consolation of the market. I agree with that. Look, my takeaway is that we live in interesting times. And I'm going to kind of be following leadership movements in the last six months of the year. I think from kind of September to December, it's going to be kind of a very rocky period of like, very, very tough, tough challenges and calls coming in. But

08:31
You know, we were an interesting sector. It's good to report on this drama. And yeah, stay tuned. Yeah, I mean, with Italy, that's an interesting point of thinking, because I saw some people talking about that and there's a bit of a sentiment among some, think, that Italy is now just a market for the big companies, Unless you're not a company with a big budget behind you and a lot of revenue. But I mean, that's what exactly one regulator wanted. They didn't, they don't want...

09:00
a market of 100 players, I they want to limit it down to 20 by the end of the decade. And heck, if you're not in that pain club, you're going to get kicked out. I mean, aside from this, talked a lot about markets and regulations stuff. mean, you mentioned AI earlier. That's something I've seen a lot of people talk about. And probably mainly because I've been on the obviously the market affiliation stage and it's quite a big talking point as to what AI can do.

09:26
There seems to be a bit quite a lot of sense now people have sort of almost come to terms with it. Like AI is here now. We've got it. We've got a deal with it. We've got to make the most out of what we've got. You know what mean? And use it for its advantages, but also acknowledge and have to deal with a lot of the issues it's causing. Especially for like search and things like that and competing against AI generated content and the issues that's creating. I think it's quite interesting.

09:55
There's a lot of sense of someone said to me directly that like AI is good, but you just not got to be lazy with it. know, I think, look, everyone speaks, I think the opportunities are very clear, right? But it's actually like the gamble is kind of like how do you integrate into systems and how disruptive do you want it to be? You know, the panel that I featured in was about AI. I I spent a lot of time just talking about how they use it personally day in, day out, right? And how kind of

10:24
and how it's changed their leadership perspective of being an executive level at a time where there is kind of a tectonic shift in technology taking place and how that makes them aware of what decisions they have to take. AI isn't just gaming, it's geopolitical. It's also asking very kind of big questions of like the big players in tech, you your Googles.

10:54
your alphabets, your X's, right? What is their movements and how do they were kind of dictated terms of plays onto other companies? It's going to be the main technology, technology matter or the discussion point, I reckon, till the close of the decade. So, again, stay tuned.

11:23
I mean, look, to our audiences, we're even though we're always trying to kind of figure this stuff out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always an uphill battle, isn't it? It's just very hard in day two of a conference. Okay. All right, well, cheers, Ted. Thanks for having a chat with me. A bit of a quick breakdown of what we've been up to at the SPC Summit Malta. Obviously, Canadian Gaming Summit is coming up next week, so anyone who wants to go to that, check out the site, check out the SPC events page and...

11:51
Yeah, and obviously we've got Lisbon later in September. yeah, more events coming up here. And me, Ted, and the team will have constant updates and everything going on in the industry on the site and on our gaming daily. So yeah, Ted. Cheers to Torchins. Ciao.