A British bookmaker employing a "controversial system" that "sidesteps" Australian laws to take live bets has capitalized on its popularity "by announcing plans to upgrade and promote it even as federal police investigate the technology," according to Rick Wallace of THE AUSTRALIAN. William Hill "told analysts in a media briefing that the number of live bets has more than tripled since the recent rollout of Click to Call, which allows bets to be placed with a click of the mouse instead of a traditional phone call while events are in progress." Execs told the briefing that the system -- heavily criticized by the anti-gambling lobby -- was “taking off” and the company would be increasing promotional efforts and spending millions refining and expanding the system. William Hill CEO James Henderson said, "We’ve had a very positive response to Click to Call since April." Australian law "forbids the placing of live bets by any method other than a telephone call, but the system circumvents this by checking if the user has their computer or smartphone microphone switched on and deeming that to be a phone call." Anti-gambling advocates claim that "such services have the potential to encourage punters to get addicted to placing microbets on frequent events such as the number of runs off an over or the number of points won on serve in tennis" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/30).
RISING STAKES: In London, Malcolm Moore wrote this week’s £5B ($7.6B) merger between bookmakers Paddy Power and Betfair "has sent a clear message to the rest of the gambling world: only the strong will survive." About the Power-Betfair tie-up, 888 Chair Brian Mattingley said, “That is a cracking deal. It has to change the landscape.” Nick Batram, a leisure sector analyst at Peel Hunt, "predicts several further waves of consolidation, driven by an increasing burden of costs." He said, "Regulation is expensive. Taxes are always going up. Marketing costs are not going down and IT costs are going up all the time. If you are a gaming company, you have to have desktop and mobile sites, data analytics and a seamless experience across everything, whether it is an Apple Watch, an iPhone or an Android." As the gaming market consolidates, and more markets become regulated, "grey market income will shrink, predicts Scott Longley, a partner at Regulus, a gambling industry consultancy." He said, "The companies in grey markets will find themselves boxed in while the big firms fight over the big stuff." Consolidation "could go further." Even the likes of William Hill and Ladbrokes/Coral "may become targets for players" such as the Canadian group Amaya, which pulled off the $4.9B purchase of PokerStars last year. Batram: "This is now a global market" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/30).
