This week saw several important developments, with one of the most influential private betting and gaming companies potentially going up for sale. Read on to find out this week’s gambling industry most important updates.
Bet365, the privately owned British gaming and betting company, controlled by the Coates family, may be considering a sale, the Guardian has reported. The outlet has suggested that a £9bn price tag has been floated.
According to the publication, the company has talked to US banks about a partial or full sale, as well as exploring options to take the business public in the United States, but no definitive plans have been reached. If these rumors prove to be true, that would be one of the most significant events of the year in the gambling industry.
Bet365 is a leader across the globe, with the company’s finances weathering a storm of toughening regulation, lower demand in certain sectors, and higher costs of doing business.
Robinhood reported that its platform saw one billion event contracts traded in the past six months, marking a distinct milestone for the company. Less than half of those contracts were sports.
Business & finance
EveryMatrix has reported another banner quarter, with Q1 2025 starting the year on a strong note, hitting €54m in net revenue, or a 39% year-over-year increase. The company’s EBITDA increased to €28m, which was a 27% year-over-year increase.
The company attributed these results to its existing clients as well as innovative product launches. Much happened during the quarter, including the successful migration of Bet600 to the EveryMatrix platform, and following the deal with FSB Technologies.
The company similarly signed partnerships with SkyCity in New Zealand as well as LeoVegas Group to strengthen the company’s global sports betting offering.
In a time of financial results reporting, Evolution Gaming was among the companies to share its Q1 2025 results. The quarter was marked by slight difficulties for the firm, which noted continued decline across some performance markets, such as the RNG division, whose revenue contracted to €72.3m, from earlier quarters but was still up year-over-year.
Evolution also spoke about issues in its Asia division and said that it has taken remedial action to ensure long-term sustainability and growth.
Evolution Gaming has been fighting a number of fights at the same time – facing strikes in Georgia which prompted the company’s reduction of its local hub headcount, as well as an ongoing legal saga in the United States, which the company is appearing to be winning having unearthed the name of the company that prepared a damning but ultimately untruthful report about the firm.
In the meantime, the live casino’s vertical remained the company’s driver of growth, contributing €448.7m in Q1, 2025, a 4% year-over-year increase.
MGM Resorts also posted a fairly strong quarter, with a small contraction of 2% year-over-year, although net income actually fell to $149m, from $217m year-over-year. Net revenues from Las Vegas Strip resorts hit $2.2bn for the company during the reported period.
Bragg Gaming Group appointed Holly Gagnon as Chair of the Board of Directors, becoming the latest senior management appointment for the company. Gagnon was previously the Lead Director appointed in 2021.
Regulation and laws
SBC Summit Malta will feature the "Europe: Regulation & Compliance" track, which will focus on important markets in the region, including Curacao, Malta, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy, and discuss the regulatory challenges that companies in the sector face. Each of the aforementioned markets is undergoing profound changes that will have a lasting impact on the industry, and the conference seeks to address this.
Responsible Gambling
The outgoing chair of the self-exclusion industry scheme Gamstop, Jenny Watson, recapped the achievements of the program, as she prepares to step down from her position in September. Watson said that 1% of adults in the United Kingdom, or about 560,000 people, have been excluded from regulated gambling websites, and 75% of all people who were excluded stopped gambling after that.
The voice of the industry
This week, Casino Guru News had the opportunity to catch up with a Casino Guru Awards sponsor, Medier, and Affiliate Director Mary Ivanova, with whom the publication spoke about iGaming marketing and what companies in the sector need to do in order to maintain a strong presence.
Ivanova described Medier as a company of professionals who are their clients' strategic partners who care deeply about long-term growth and sustainable, scalable success. You can read the full interview with Ivanova here.
In other news, Casino Guru News has been nominated for the inaugural SBC Awards Europe 2025 in the "Casino Affiliate of the Year" category.
Casino Guru is a leading casino database with a clear player-centric approach and an established record of championing practices that favor values such as openness, transparency, and fairness. Casino Guru is responsible for enhancing and improving industry practices, owing to its unique Safety Index reviewing methodology that offers up-to-date information about how reliable online casino brands are.
Not least, Casino Guru News caught up with Phil O’Toole, Director of Content at IGT PlayDigital, with whom the publication discussed the lasting legacy of Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania, a game that continues to cross generational boundaries and fascinate modern-day players.
O’Toole spoke about the franchise’s success and how some game features prove to be too good to be consigned to the past.
SBEA+ Summit 2025 is now just three weeks away, with Eventus International catching up with Peter Mshikilwa Mukandi, President of the Esports Federation of Tanzania, ahead of the event.
SBC Summit Americas 2025 announced a dedicated Payment Expert Summit, which will address many of the outstanding challenges and opportunities in the gaming sector when it comes to payment processing.
Not least, AffPapa has exciting news with the iGaming Club Conference heading for Cancun, Mexico, and serving as a stepping-stone into Latin America.
