Amazons Battle

How to play Amazons Battle

Sun International remains committed to improving its SunBet product after the product produced strong H1 earnings for the wider online business.

The operator yesterday reported that Rrvenue from SunBet surged 35.5% year-on-year to R1.18 billion ($73.6 million) across H1, outpacing the 19% overall growth of South Africa’s online market during the period.

Online growth drove Sun International’s group income up 7.4% to R6.58 billion during H1 when excluding the Table Bay Hotel (TBH), which the company is running under a management agreement with IHG.

How to play Amazons Battle

“That was the reason why we joined [online as well as land-based]. But we were a full brick-and-mortar company so it took us some time to prepare for that market. In the beginning, the market share was of course higher because you only had 10 operators and we had a very well-known brand name, but now the market is much bigger and you have operators more specialised in sports betting and things like that. We have dropped down a bit.”

The Netherlands has a government that may be a little heavy handed, a regulator that knows this, and a monopolistic operator that’s trying to do its best for the customer. The industry is an active participant in trying to erradicate the growing illegal market. This week, state-lottery operator Nederlandse Loterij took action against the offshore operator behind the brand Skyhills, ordering them to cease serving Dutch players.

What else can Netherlands gambling operators do to stop the flow of players offshore? Holland Casino is a member of online gambling trade association VNLOK which represents 90% of the licensed operators, and Petra answers simply: “If we knew the answer, we would try to reach it.

How to play Amazons Battle

The land-based gambling sector, comprising adult gaming centres (AGCs), betting shops, bingo halls and casinos, produced £4.9 billion in GGY over the year, marking a 1.1% yearly increase.

However, the UK’s physical estate shrank, with overall licensed gambling premises falling by 2% to 8,081.

Betting shops declining for the twelfth consecutive period, standing at 5,617, a 3.6% decrease representing a loss of 208 shops year-on-year.