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Ground-Breaking Study Highlights Dramatic Growth in Women’s Sports
Calls for proactive approach to mitigating risk of match-fixing in women’s sports
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), All-In Diversity Project (AIDP), Entain, Flutter and Stats Perform today launched a ground-breaking study on women’s sports and women in sports betting, ‘Breaking Barriers: Assessing Women’s Sports, Betting and Integrity Challenges’.
The study, conducted by the German Sport University Cologne and launched at iGaming Business Live! in Amsterdam, analyses the economic development of five women’s sports: soccer, tennis, basketball, cricket and volleyball. For the very first time it analyses the size and characteristics of the women’s sports betting market and examines the potential vulnerability of women’s sports to match-fixing.
“We are about to witness the best attended and most watched women’s World Cup in history and where soccer leads other women’s sports are rapidly following,” the Chief Executive Officer for the IBIA, Khalid Ali, said. “The dramatic growth of women’s sports is a hugely positive development for fans, the sports and athletes themselves and also for the betting market. It is creating very significant and untapped opportunities for sports betting. However, with increased growth comes an increased responsibility for ensuring we get ahead of the game when it comes to sports integrity and the fight against match-fixing in women’s sport. There is no room for complacency.”
The study confirms that the dramatic increase in women’s sport has been accompanied by a similar growth in betting on women’s sport. Soccer is leading the way in terms of the number of people betting and placing bets on women’s sport with an annual market growth rate of approximately 20% since 2020. This is followed by tennis, basketball, cricket, with growth rates of over 10% during the period 2017 to 2022.
It also analyses the particular characteristics of female bettors. Over the last few years, the percentage of female bettors in women’s sports has consistently risen across all five sports analyzed, with annual growth rates of up to 10%, while the total number of women betting on women’s soccer has more than doubled. The total volume of bets placed on women’s sports has grown more among women than men, highlighting potential untapped opportunities.
“Entain is delighted to fund and support the publication of today’s study, which is an important step in increasing our understanding of developing trends within women’s sport,” the Corporate Affairs Group Director for Entain, Grainne Hurst, said. “We are proud to already support aspiring female athletes through our multi-year partnership with SportsAid and our Pitching In initiative and we will continue to work with organizations to promote fairness and integrity in all sports competitions.”
“Stats Perform has a history and commitment to investing in women’s sports and enabling rightsholders and teams to grow their fan, commercial and on-field potential,” the Chief Commercial Officer for Stats Perform, Alex Rice, said. “Understanding women’s sports fans is key to achieving this, so we’re proud to have helped with this important research.”
Whilst corruption exists in women’s sport, the study found that it is significantly lower than in men’s sports. However, the experience of men’s sport has shown that sports betting can be the subject of criminals who defraud regulated operators by manipulating matches and exploiting vulnerabilities of sports and athletes.
The study makes a series of recommendations to strengthen the fight against match-fixing in women’s sport including:
- Strengthening monitoring and enhancing cooperation between sports governing bodies, betting operators and law enforcement agencies.
- Develop targeted and tailored education and communication programs for athletes, coaches and support staff to raise awareness about the risks of corruption and match-fixing and help create and reinforce a culture of integrity.
- Promote fair wages and economic transparency in women’s sports to reduce the risk of corruption and match-fixing.
“We are seeing the popularity of women’s sport continuing to grow with last summer’s European Championship the biggest women’s event for Flutter by volume and a seminal moment for many of our European brands,” the Sports Integrity Manager for Flutter, Ian Devlin, said. “This has created a higher demand from us to offer more sports with more markets relating to women’s events starting with the upcoming FIFA World Cup. However, as women’s sports continue to grow, so does the risk of participants being approached by individuals seeking to profit from sports-related corruption. This is an area that Flutter takes very seriously, with our Betting Integrity team working closely with both sport’s governing and trade bodies, such as the IBIA, to ensure that we, and the markets we offer, uphold the very highest level of sporting integrity.”
“This study wants to be the beginning of a conversation with the betting industry on how it addresses women’s sports,” the co-founder for All-In Diversity, Christina Thakor-Rankin, said. “By understanding what this new and rapidly evolving landscape looks like we put ourselves in the best possible position to keep customers, sports betting operators, athletes and sport safe for all.”
Additionally, a key next step is to increase the data available and conduct further research and analysis on women’s sports and betting. This will help deepen the understanding of the match-fixing dynamics in women’s sports and will allow to develop approaches to sports integrity which are tailored to the particular circumstances of women’s sports.
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Week 40/2024 slot games releases
Here are this weeks latest slots releases compiled by European Gaming
Amusnet has released 40 Bulky Dice – a classic video slot full of lucky dice symbols with a modern twist, which tempts with lots of entertainment and fantastic prizes. This 5-reel, 40 fixed paylines slot game offers vivid gameplay, epic sound effects and an easy-to-use interface. Watch out for the colourful Joker, which is the Wild symbol and appears on the second, third and fourth reels.
BGaming has teamed up with famous rapper and record producer Snoop Dogg to create an iconic new slot, Snoop Dogg Dollars. The themed game is BGaming’s first branded content in collaboration with a celebrity and was exclusively launched with Roobet on 25th September, before going live across the wider network on 30th October.
Relax Gaming has delivered a knockout blow with its latest release, Feather Fury. Fists are flying in this 3×2 boxing-themed slot, where players can win up to 5,000x their stake thanks to a truly unique mechanic that awards respins following dead spins. Every dead spin that is registered automatically adds a notch to the bar, with 10 dead spins being enough to trigger Feather Fury’s respin feature.
“Reel Rabbit” from Hölle Games is already live, a new entry in the Reel franchise. This 5×3, 25 payline slot continues in the footsteps of furry friends Fox, Tiger and Wolf, and while it might be the most mild-mannered mammal of the bunch, Reel Rabbit still packs a hefty punch!
Step into the vibrant world of Muertos Fortuna, an exciting slot game from Zillion Games, featuring 3D animation and engaging features. Muertos Fortuna, inspired by Día de los Muertos and Halloween, brings vibrant animations and the unique presence of Catrina Muerte, who may appear during gameplay to interact and cheer you on with fun phrases, adding an engaging element to the experience.
Play’n GO invites players to revisit the mystical world of the beyond in Lady of Fortune Remastered, where the future holds untold riches and mysterious revelations. Venture where the veil between our world and the unknown is thin, and fortunes await those who dare to look. This 5×3 video slot revisits the popular title, Lady of Fortune, now with enhanced visuals and enriched gameplay.
Belatra Games has released its latest hot shot, Lucky Bandits. This exhilarating escapade launches players into the lawless lands of the Wild West that are brought to life with stunning visuals, immersive soundscapes, and thrilling gameplay. The game is bursting with engaging features such as Free Games, Hot Mode, and the intense Shot and Dynamite Bonuses.
Intrepid players are being given the chance to venture back in time to a land ruled by the great Pharaohs where they can uncover relics, treasures and big wins in Gold of Egypt, the latest slot from Silverback Gaming. In Gold of Egypt, players find themselves in a hot and arid desert at the entrance to a secret tomb. As the reels spin, ancient symbols land on the reels including a Cat, Snake, Scorpion and Scarab, as well as different hieroglyphics.
They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but in Swintt’s all-new slot sensation, Hidden Treasures of Rome, players’ fortunes can certainly be built up in seconds thanks to the presence of Free Spins, a rewarding tumble feature and random multipliers that offer a maximum payout of up to 5,000x the stated win.
On October 2nd Endorphina, released its newest slot game, Panda Strike, now available for play in most online casinos. Panda Strike is a 5-reel, 4-row oriental slot with 40 fixed paylines. Set in a small Chinese town, the slot encourages players to master concentration and self-discipline, leading them to face the legendary panda, a master of the martial arts.
Amusnet has released its new online slot game, 10 Vampire Bites. The game has 11 symbols scattered across 5 reels and 10 paylines. The video slot game also showcases a hauntingly beautiful gothic design that immerses players in a world of mystery, while the atmospheric soundtrack further enhances the eerie experience, drawing players deeper into the chilling narrative.
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How Do Casinos Detect Fake Chips and Cheat Devices?
One of the biggest challenges that brick-and-mortar casinos must deal with to run their business efficiently, is fraud. For as long as gambling establishments have been around, people have been trying to cheat at the games they provide.
So how do casinos keep themselves ahead of the game? There is a tremendous amount of unseen security that happens in a casino establishment, so much so that people may not even notice its sheer volume.
All casinos, be it digital platforms or land-based establishments, deal with money. Any low deposit Czech online casino, an online casino no minimum deposit Philippines platform or a Canadian casino site has security to protect digital payment transactions. And physical casinos have to work hard to stay one step ahead of the game. Here are some of the methods they use to protect themselves.
Fake Chips
Chips are currency in the casino, which makes them a big target for counterfeiters, but making them is no easy process. That’s down to the security measures embedded in real chips, which makes them very hard to replicate.
Making this even tougher for would-be scammers, is the fact that all casinos use different designs for their chips, and the variations between them can be in the form of marking, colours, style and even weight.
This is a very important aspect because if a counterfeiter went through all the effort and expense to make chips for just one casino, there’s a greater chance of them being caught than if they were spreading the chips around at various establishments.
But casinos take a lot of other steps to protect themselves against fake chips.
RFID Technology
At the top end of casino play, it’s common for higher-value chips to have RFID technology built into them. These signals can be detected by the casino’s systems and tracked at any moment. So if a chip turns up at a table or a cashier’s cage and an RFID signal is not received, that’s a problem.
Ultraviolet
Chips also have hidden UV markings on them, making it difficult for them to be replicated. Standard practice for casino workers is to go through the floats that hold the chips and scan them with a UV light. If a chip’s missing a marker, it’s flagged.
The Trained Eye
Casino workers are trained to know their chips, so sometimes a visual inspection can be enough to catch a fraudster if a slight difference in the shade of green on a $25 chip is spotted, for example, or the weight feels a little off in the hand. This is naturally a little more difficult to reveal, but it’s part of the security along with random audits and chip counting on a shift.
Chip Fingerprinting
Chips come from a mould, and this makes forensic fingerprinting of chips possible as well. That means at a microscopic level, the chips are going to have the same flaws as that mould. If a suspect chip doesn’t match the mould as it should, then it’s not going to be a genuine casino product.
Personal Checks
Another rule that casinos follow for protection against fake chips is undergoing checks on players. Wherever a player tries to buy into a game with a high-value chip of at least $500 a security check on the person will be performed. If the player refuses to give their ID or have their photo taken, well that just makes them look extremely suspicious.
Part of money laundering laws also means that players can’t buy in at a certain level (typically $10K) without validating their ID. Casinos also have phenomenal surveillance systems that can track individual high-value chips, so they can account for where they are at any time. Trying to introduce fake high-value chips is, therefore, high-risk stuff.
That’s also part of the reason anyone who attempts this will typically go for lower denomination chips, with the $100 being the most frequently faked.
Cheat Devices
Cheat devices that are taken onto the casino floor to try and manipulate games are another thing that casinos have to deal with. These are electronic devices that can send signals to players at a poker table from spotters or ones that can be inserted into slot machines to manipulate the mechanics.
How do casinos detect these? Metal and radio signal detectors can help scope these out. But again, the “big eye in the sky”, the surveillance systems play a large part in this. It watches everything and tracks everything, and even the slightest suspicion about something will raise a red flag.
There are also consequences for trying to use fake chips, as it can lead to casino bans, criminal charges being pressed against you and prosecution.
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Blask expands coverage with new European and Asian markets
Blask, the AI-driven market analytics ecosystem, continues its rapid expansion towards the goal of providing high-quality iGaming data for the entire world, with the addition of 10 major new markets.
All Blask users now have access to real-time data, including estimates of GGR, FTDs, Blask Index, and Relative market share by brand, for the new markets, which include the Philippines, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Malaysia, and North Macedonia.
“As we onboard more users to Blask, we are listening to them closely and adding new markets based on demand,” said Blask CEO and co-founder Max Tesla. “This latest Europe and Asia-focused update provides the most accurate, real-time data available for some of the most important iGaming jurisdictions in the world. Blask is already providing a data-driven edge to users, and we’ll continue to deliver on our roadmap to make it a must-have for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of our industry.”
Blask now offers data from a total of 34 global iGaming jurisdictions. In August, the team rolled out several new Latin American and African markets to meet the demand for accurate data in emerging regions.
As well as new markets, additional functionality is also being added to Blask. This includes a recent update that brings comprehensive customer profiling to the platform.
The company recently announced the appointment of Greg Penkov as Chief Revenue Officer to help bring Blask to new customers.
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