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Industry News

Entain Provides Update on Current Trading and FY23 Guidance

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Entain plc has provided an update on current trading and FY 2023 guidance, as well as plans to update shareholders on the progress of ongoing actions to accelerate operational performance and drive shareholder value.

Current Trading

Post the summer, Online Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) has been mixed across the Group, but in aggregate, softer than anticipated. Q3 Online NGR growth is now expected to be up high single-digit percent, and down high single digit percent on a proforma basis. Key drivers include:

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  • Adverse sporting results impacting sports margins during September
  • Group wide implementation of industry leading safer gambling measures and ongoing regulatory headwinds persisting longer than expected, particularly in the UK
  • Slower growth than expected in Australia and Italy
  • Good underlying Online growth (ex-regulatory impacts) as evidenced by further strong proforma growth in active customers across the quarter
  • Strong performance from recent acquisitions, particularly SuperSport in Croatia
  • Robust performance across Retail

BetMGM in the US continuing to perform well: on track to deliver positive EBITDA in the second half of 2023; FY2023 NGR at the upper end of $1.8-$2.0bn guidance; and the successful rollout of Single Account Single Wallet, as well as online sportsbook enhancements supporting strong start to the NFL season.

Entain now expect Group Online NGR for FY2023 to be up low double-digit percent with proforma NGR down low single digit percent. The company reiterate their expectations for FY2023 EBITDA to be in the range of £1.00bn-£1.05bn supported by robust operational controls.

Actions to Accelerate Operational Strategy and Performance

Over the last three years Entain has undergone a significant strategic transformation, improving the quality of earnings and aligning operations to ensure the Group is positioned as strongly as possible to deliver long term shareholder value.

Alongside the Q3 trading update on 2 November 2023, management will share more detail on how these actions are being implemented to accelerate performance and delivery, including:

  • A comprehensive market review focusing on long-term sustainable organic growth
  • The simplification of Group structures and operations to improve operational leverage and reduce costs
  • A plan for the migration of acquired businesses on to the Group’s industry leading technology platform
  • Optimising our capital allocation priorities
  • Progress on delivery of the Group’s Online EBITDA margin target of 30%

Jette Nygaard-Andersen, CEO of Entain, said: “We continue to see good underlying growth in our online business and are reiterating our EBITDA guidance for the year despite softer than expected revenue growth in Q3 and the ongoing roll-out of industry-leading safer gambling measures. We continue to attract more customers than ever before to enjoy our products and services. BetMGM remains on track to deliver positive EBITDA in H2 and a full year NGR performance at the top end of our expectations, and we are particularly excited about the product improvements that we are rolling out over the NFL season.

“We have made significant changes to the Group over the last three years. Our focus now is on accelerating the actions we are taking to drive sustainable organic growth, expand our margins, capitalise on the US opportunity and deliver long-term returns for our shareholders. We remain confident in our ability to deliver on the vast opportunities ahead of us, and look forward to sharing more detail about the changes that we are making alongside our Q3 trading update in November.”

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Amatic and Comatel Present Innovative Gaming Solutions at FIJMA Madrid

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Amatic Industries has teamed up with long-standing local partner Comatel to wow the crowds at premier gaming expo FIJMA Madrid. Together, the two are presenting a comprehensive display of solutions at the show running until May 9 at IFEMA, Madrid.

There are different Gemini configurations, each including a mix of the best slot games of Amatic’s library, 5 games of the Multi Link collection and the table game classics roulette, baccarat, SicBo and blackjack, with the possibility to connect them to a physical roulette wheel.

Viva Vegas is a gaming concept specially developed for the Spanish market. In addition to the traditional slot games, the new “King of Fichas” feature has been implemented, allowing players access to a much wider range of games only playable with the so-called “Fichas”. There are three different versions playable on various game cabinets.

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With the Revo III configuration, the players get offered the table game classics roulette, baccarat, SicBo and blackjack with the advantage to play the additional “Go for Gold deluxe” feature from all games. Within this configuration, the players have now the possibility to place up to five golden Jetons on the “Go for Gold deluxe” feature.

“We are delighted to exhibit alongside our valued partner Comatel at FIJMA Madrid. Through our longstanding collaboration, we have built a strong foundation of trust and innovation. Together, we look forward to showcasing our latest gaming solutions and providing attendees with a glimpse into the future of entertainment,” said a sales representative at Amatic Industries.

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The untapped potential of SEO in iGaming

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With Filip Podborschi, SEO Strategist at The Unit

From our experience in SEO in igaming, there are a number of areas where we see room for improvement and common mistakes which can be rectified. Let’s take a look at these facets of SEO one by one, with our best tips for how to make sure you can maximise your search ranking and drive more volume to your website.

Keyword strategy

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The first thing operators should do in this area is identify the best performing keywords that result in higher search volumes on each post. It’s pages that rank rather than websites, so you need a different search intent on each page, and that increases the list of keywords you’re ranking for.

The way to do this is by checking the search volume, and then implementing the keywords according to SEO best practices, which means having primary and secondary keywords and adjusting repetition accordingly.

The common mistake we see here is that companies don’t go into enough depth when conducting competitive analysis; especially when they’re new to the industry. Identifying what exactly your competitors are doing regarding SEO is harder than it looks, and it’s an area where marketing agencies tend to be quite lazy. They may use some tools which will show the standout competitors by algorithm, but they won’t crawl for long enough to ascertain what services they offer and provide a comparison with their client’s service. You need to find out which sites could be ranking better than you, and why.

We also see issues with the ranking of sites based on the user’s location. For example, you may have a website that ranks well in Canada, and when I as a user based in Romania search for that category, I’m not going to get the same list of results as a user who is based in Canada. The best thing to do is use a VPN to gauge how your websites are ranking and performing with your specific audience in your domestic geographical area.

SEO tags optimisation

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With SEO tags, which are essentially the page title and description you see on the search engine results page, the page title has the highest ranking power. Google will first check the page title to get an idea of what the page is about and what searches it is relevant for. It will then check the H1 and the content, and it may look through the H2 as well.

A common issue here is some websites have templated SEO tags, especially for the inner pages, so it’s more of a formula within the code to generate a random structure. It is very obvious they are templated and that the operator doesn’t really care about the length.

The key thing with tags is to make sure your pages have titles that don’t exceed the ideal length. This is a big mistake if you get this wrong, and it is very important to optimise your titles. SEO tags can be optimised around keywords. Once doing so, it is very important to prioritise your main pages. If you have 10 pages as part of the main menu, then you should optimise those, before optimising the inner pages.

Identifying duplicate pages is also important, as well as making sure meta inscriptions include CTAs; those inscriptions don’t impact rankings directly, but they do impact the CTR. You have to do that without being too spammy though, so it’s advisable to avoid words like ‘sale’ or calls to “CLICK HERE NOW”.

Headings

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Keywords must be implemented in headings; especially in H1s and H2s. Make sure not to overuse H2s and keep them optimised for content value.

If we structure the ranking power of the elements that are bringing results, we would optimise with the page title first, H1 second, content third and H2s fourth. It is better to have five H2s with three of them being optimised around the same search intent that is highlighted in H1, than it is to have 3/10 optimised around keywords. Too many H2s will just confuse Google about your search intent. You can have similar search intent as with H1s, and also have H3s and H4s to highlight value to the reader.

Interlinking strategy

Interlinking between pages is often missing. I’m not talking about interlinking from the main menu, as every page has the ability for you to go back, but I’m talking about interlinking within content, which Google considers to be much more important, because it cares about the relevancy. Google will consider pages with high-quality content as a higher authority page.

Our advice would be to implement anchor links on both branded and non-branded keywords. You should make sure there is an anchor link to the parent page. For example, domain.com/blog is a parent for domain.com/blog/igaming-seo.

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It’s very important to have child pages linking to the parent page, passing authority to the parent page. Having that interlinked structure will pass more authority to that parent page.

To explain that in a little more detail, let’s say you have a sportsbook page with 10 more child pages that reflect a particular set of sports. Having each of those 10 pages optimised so they have some authority and linking them to the parent page would pass authority to that parent page. Parent pages usually have a keyword with higher search volume, and passing as much authority as you can to the child page is very important. Too often websites lack content on child pages.

The future of SEO and experience needed

Going forward, we see AI as one of the most significant developments in SEO. At this point, we are not able to rank user engagement in AI, and it is important to keep yourself updated with how Google is reacting to this.

Google in time may provide additional options if you want to be eligible for a particular set of results in that environment. Keep an eye on what features it will offer and the types of websites. Google may consider implementing specific types of results for betting, such as displaying odds or a comparison of odds from three or four sites at the same time.

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With all these issues, it is vital to have the relevant experience on board, particularly when it comes to the skill of conducting very in-depth competitor analysis, and this is something The Unit can provide. Conducting competitor analysis is something we have done across several industries, and not just in igaming. The main strength you can have with SEO is to know your competitors inside out, and those skills can be adjusted based on your needs.

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IGT Expands Footprint in Spain’s ‘Salones’ Sector with Launch of New Multi-level Progressive Theme

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International Game Technology PLC announced that its latest multi-level progressive (MLP) game, Diamond Mania, has launched in Spain’s Amusement with Prize (AWP) “salones” sector. Diamond Mania will follow the success of IGT’s Magic Fortune Link AWP game in Spain, a high-performing title that recently surpassed a 1000-unit deployment milestone.

“IGT is committed to growing its footprint in Spain by supplying researched-backed, market-attuned games that meet the player preferences in the region. Building on the successful deployment of IGT’s debut title for the salones sector, Magic Fortune Link, we are excited to expand our offering to include Diamond Mania, a unique multi-game jackpot that can help operators achieve excellent results and diversify their gaming floors,” said Maria Aldana, IGT Director of Sales Western Europe and Africa.

Specifically adapted for the salones market, Diamond Mania features four lively base game themes: Samurai Takeo, Majestic Stallion, Ramosis Treasures and Wish Mistress. Featuring proven mechanics for a highly engaging experience for players, Diamond Mania offers three special bonuses, a reel boost, a prize boost and a jackpot bonus, which can combine to activate the super games and mega games features and ultimately lead to the chance to win one of the four progressive jackpots.

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Diamond Mania is available on the BINTIA 27-inch multi-game cabinet, which offers dual HD monitors and a topper option for casino-like styling. It features an ergonomic design, programmable LED lighting, vivid high-resolution graphics, an immersive sound system and can be configured with the TITO function.

The game will be exclusively distributed through Orenes Grupo, Spain’s salones sector market leader in operations and gaming machine distribution. Later this year, IGT plans to introduce Treasure Box, the Company’s third MLP developed specifically for Spain’s salones sector, which represents approximately 3000 gaming and bingo halls.

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