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Tipico has signed an agreement with Novomatic to acquire a 100 percent stake in ATLAS Group GmbH, the parent company of ADMIRAL Group in Austria.

Gibraltar-based Tipico Group said the acquisition will bolster its position in Austria, while Novomatic says it will help it to focus on its international business, according to an update on January 8.

The update does not include any financial details of the acquisitions.

Axel Hefer, CEO of Tipico Group, said the agreement is an “important milestone” in the company’s expansion strategy in the German-speaking market. 

Stefan Krenn, member of the executive board at Novomatic, explained: “We have decided to sell the ADMIRAL Group in Austria in order to focus on international growth markets and drive further global expansion. In Tipico, we found a highly professional and reliable partner who will continue to operate ADMIRAL in Austria successfully and sustainably.”

The agreement is subject to certain conditions such as regulatory approvals.

Legislation that would add a northern Virginia community to the list of cities eligible to host a land-based casino has again been introduced in the General Assembly in Richmond. 

, whose primary sponsor is Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat, seeks to designate a specific area within Fairfax County for a commercial casino. Currently, commercial casinos have been approved in Bristol, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville and Petersburg.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology for its consideration. Surovell takes over from fellow Democratic state Senator David Marsden, who unsuccessfully tried to get a similar bill through the legislature last year.

Senate Bill 675 would have allowed the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in northern Virginia to determine whether to hold a casino referendum. Marsden hoped a casino and entertainment venue would help retain some of the $150m Virginians currently lose across the Potomac River at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. 

The idea of a North Virginia casino was first considered in the 2023 session before Marsden withdrew his bill from consideration.

Flutter Entertainment, owner of FanDuel and Paddy Power, has revised its 2024 financial outlook after reporting adverse U.S. sports-betting results in November and December, primarily due to National Football League (NFL) parlay and same-game parlay outcomes. 

In a trading update, Flutter described the NFL season as the most “customer friendly” since the launch of online sports betting. The company noted that the results have a $438m gross gaming revenue (GGR), and estimated reductions in revenue of approximately $390m and adjusted EBITDA of some $260m for the period November 12 to December 31.

The company now expects U.S. revenue to be $370m lower than its previous guidance of $5.78bn, with fourth-quarter U.S. revenue now expected to be approximately $1.59bn. 

“Given FanDuel’s revenue mix, this implies a 10 percent revenue hit for the full year for sportsbook specifically or 40 percent for the fourth quarter,” Regulus Partners wrote in a blog post on Flutter’s profit warning. 

“After nearly four years of structural margin improvements, a brief run of bad luck was almost inevitable and Flutter is largely right to confirm underlying guidance, in our view.”

Regulus doubted that FanDuel would be the only U.S. operator to report disappointing revenue.

Pennsylvania Republican Senator Gene Yaw has confirmed he will bring a skill-games regulation bill to the Senate, even though a similar bill was introduced in the 2023-2024 session but failed to pass before the end of the session. 

Legislation had not been formally introduced as of Wednesday (January 8), one day after the start of the 2025-2026 legislative session. In a memo released last week, Yaw said he believes that regulating the machines could generate around $300m in annual tax revenue.

Current estimates on the number of slots-like skill games in Pennsylvania range from 40,000 to 80,000 machines in bars, taverns, convenience stores and gas stations across the state.

Yaw’s Senate Bill 706 introduced in the last session included a 16 percent tax on skill games, which the state’s gaming industry has opposed. Revenue from slot machines at Pennsylvania land-based casinos is taxed at 54 percent. 

Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro had proposed a 42 percent tax on skill games in his initial budget proposal in February 2023, but the proposal was removed before the final passage of the fiscal year 2025 budget.

In his memo, Yaw noted his proposal “will address the need to clean up the market to rid us of illegal gambling.” Representative Danilo Burgos, a Democrat, plans to file his own skill-games bill in the House of Representatives.

After legalizing sports betting and then banning skill games in Kentucky, a new bill would allow voters to decide whether or not to approve casinos in their communities. 

, authored by Republican state Representative Thomas Huff, would assign the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation to regulate riverboat and land-based gambling, as well as fantasy sports in the Bluegrass State.

Under the 71-page bill, a county could pursue a casino if it had a population in excess of 30,000 with two or more adjoining counties with a total combined population of more than 30,000. Additionally, a petition would need to garner signatures of 25 percent of the votes cast in the county during the previous election.

The bill also includes limited casino licenses that allow counties that host racetracks to approve a ballot referendum to allow for the track to operate only slot machines. The casinos would pay a 21 percent tax rate, as well as a $3 admission for every person that enters the facilities. 

While a resident needs to be at least 18 years old to bet on sports and horseracing in Kentucky, casinos would be restricted to those over the age of 21. 

As for fantasy sports, operators would pay an annual licensing fee of $5,000 pr 6 percent of the revenue generated within the state, whichever is larger. Huff’s bill bans college sports from being used in fantasy sports.

The possibility for a lottery in Nevada will be on the agenda when lawmakers return to Carson City next month after the measure was initially approved during the 2023 legislative session. 

(AJR5) would amend the Nevada Constitution to allow the state to implement a lottery and for the sale of lottery tickets.

The bill passed in the Assembly on April 17, 2023, with a 26-15 vote, with one vote excused, and passed in the Senate on May 26, 2023, with a 12-8 vote, with one excused. 

As ratified in 1864, the Nevada Constitution prohibited the state from authorizing a lottery and prohibited lottery tickets from being sold. Currently, residents need to drive to California or Arizona to purchase lottery tickets. 

Nevada, Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii and Utah are the only states without a lottery. 

AJR5 will get a second vote in the next legislative session that begins on February 3, and if passed again, the bill will be on the general election ballot in 2026.

Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña has promulgated Law 7438, which demonopolises the gambling industry, allowing three operators to legally operate quiniela and sports betting.

The law also restructures the gambling regulatory body Conajzar, integrating it into the National Directorate of Tax Revenue (DNIT). This is because Conjazar does not have the manpower to fight illegal gambling, a concern that was also previously cited by Javier Balbuena, the former head of Conajazar.

Daruma Sam, the current monopoly licence holder, has three and half years left on its licence, which leaves what local media called “legal advisors” to sort out whether or not two more companies will join them before their term is up. 

The licence of TDP, which operates quiniela, is conveniently expiring this year.

A new measure introduced in the New Hampshire legislature would raise the minimum legal age for sports betting from 18 to 21.

will be introduced in the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday (January 8) when lawmakers convene the 2025 session in Concord.

If passed, the change would take effect on January 1, 2026. 

In fiscal year 2024, state revenue from sports betting was $33.65m, of which approximately 1.9 percent of gross gaming revenue (GGR) came from individuals under the age of 21. 

“Therefore, the revenue attributable to bettors aged 18 to 20 in the fiscal year 2024 would be $639,443,” according to a fiscal note attached to HB83. “Sports betting revenue can shift based on a variety of factors, however, the [New Hampshire] Lottery Commission expects this number to remain consistent for FY 2026 and beyond.”

Considering this bill is effective halfway through fiscal year 2026, state financial analysts expect a decrease in state lottery revenue, and transfer to the education trust fund “by approximately $320,000 in FY 2026 and by $640,000 in FY 2027 and each year thereafter."

A bill to allow wagering on in-state Virginia college teams has been carried over from last year’s session and will be reconsidered by lawmakers when they return to Richmond on Wednesday (January 8).

, authored by Democratic state Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg, would open the state’s betting market to wagers such as totals, but proposition bets would remain prohibited.

VanValkenburg introduced the measure for the 2024 session, but members of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted to carry the bill over to this year’s session, where it will be reconsidered. Under the General Assembly’s rules, SB124 cannot be carried over into the 2026 session. 

The Virginia General Assembly will convene for a 30-day legislative session. Virginia is one of a dozen states that prohibit wagering on in-state college teams, while Massachusetts bans wagering on in-state college teams unless that game is part of a tournament.

“Any pact on revenue is indeterminate at this time,” the state's Department of Planning and Budget wrote on a 2024 session financial impact statement. “Allowing wagering on Virginia college sports may increase overall sports wagering activity and may increase taxable adjusted gross revenues, or it may shift wagering dollars and result in a net neutral tax revenue impact."

Sweden has banned Curaçao-based Versus Odds BV from operating in the country for offering games without a licence. 

The regulator found that , which is run by the operator, was targeting Swedes although it does not have the authorisation to do so.

The sites had information in Swedish, policy documents in Swedish, FAQs in Swedish and marketing materials in Swedish.

Players in Sweden were also able to register and create accounts on the site, which the regulator discovered through hidden test purchases.

Versus Odds BV was also fined €5m in 2023 by the Spanish government for operating without a licence.

Sweden's Council on Legislation has given lawmakers the go-ahead to decide if lotteries organised by political parties should still be allowed tax exemptions that apply to other public benefit lotteries. 

This proposal came in the form of a draft bill at the end of last year. The Legislative Council has now reviewed the bill and said that it does not breach the Constitution. 

Those who stood opposed had argued that getting rid of the tax exemption would violate the Constitution's freedom of association, freedom of business and property rights, in addition to EU regulations. 

The Council on Legislation nevertheless found it to be constitutional, saying it would only be in violation if all political party lotteries were not treated in the same way or if they were subject to different rules. As all will face the same restrictions, according to the draft bill, the Council found no issue. 

The state lottery authority of Rio de Janeiro has come out swinging against an injunction imposed by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court to prevent state-licensed online betting operators from accepting wagers beyond Rio’s borders.

As reported by BNLData, Rio lottery LOTERJ on Friday (January 3) filed two legal petitions against the injunction, calling for the current terms of licences awarded to nearly two dozen operators to be respected until the case filed by Brazil’s federal government is ruled upon on its merits.

LOTERJ is seeking urgent consideration of its appeal, given the lottery had just five days to introduce geolocation requirements for the Rio market.

In a statement expressing disappointment with the initial injunction, LOTERJ said its licensing regime complied with Brazilian federal laws on online betting and e-commerce more generally.

“An eventual invalidation of the legal acts that accredited the operators would require compensation of millions of reals, loss of significant tax revenue for the federal government itself, and the disruption of an entire regulated economic sector,” LOTERJ added.

The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld a district court ruling that Pace-O-Matic (POM) lacks standing to bring its lawsuit because the company cannot show its business would be harmed by a determination by gaming regulators that skill-game devices are unlawful.

POM argued that a letter from Don Brownlee, director of the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission (KRGC), to law enforcement officials constituted a threat to its “Dragon’s Ascent” game that has been distributed state-wide in businesses who have partnered with the company.

Brownlee wrote that KRGC agents had played “Dragon’s Assent” and believed that the skill element was not sufficient to eliminate the impact that chance has on the game. 

The state's Supreme Court upheld a district court’s dismissal of claims by POM of Kansas, a subsidiary of Georgia-based POM, that the machines do not fit into the state’s definition of gambling machines.

The Kansas Reflector reported that in its original 2019 lawsuit, POM of Kansas sought a court order that the unregulated Dragon’s Ascent machine complied with state laws because it was a contest of skill. The company argued its machines were different from slot machines which are regulated games of chance. 

The justices also vacated a district court ruling that rejected claims the state’s criminal gambling statutes were unconstitutionally vague because there was no provision giving companies fair notice on whether a device was considered a game of chance or skill, according to the .