Coolbet follows up Ontario licence with IBIA membership
GAN subsidiary signs on with sports betting integrity body’s suspicious betting monitoring and alert platform
Coolbet has become the latest operator to join the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA).
The membership follows the award of a sports betting operator licence in Ontario by the province’s regulator, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), last month. Membership of an integrity-based monitoring body like the IBIA was one of the conditions applied by AGCO before any Ontario license could be granted.
Under the provisions of its membership, Coolbet will provide the IBIA with access to its sportsbook data, sharing it with other IBIA member firms and with the integrity body itself through the centralized IBIA platform. The overriding aim of the platform is to reduce instances of suspicious betting and potential match fixing by reducing potential outlets where these sorts of practices can take place.
Coolbet, part of the Vincent Group, was acquired in 2021 by US igaming and sports betting B2B and B2C supplier GAN. The acquisition has proven to be a successful one for GAN, with Coolbet and the supplier’s B2B business spurring a 257% year-on-year increase in its global revenue during 2021. The operator currently holds a license in Estonia, Malta and Sweden.
IBIA members account for €115bn (£98bn) in global betting turnover per year, and account for nearly half of all regulated commercial betting. Member operators include Entain, Kindred Group, LeoVegas, William Hill, Flutter Entertainment, DraftKings and Betway. Coolbet is the fourth operator to join the association in the past year, with ComeOn Group, VBET and Videoslots all signing on with the integrity monitoring body in 2022.
The body also has data sharing agreements with a number of international regulators and trade bodies including the BGC, Fecoljuegos and the Canadian Gaming Association, and announced plans to expand its global monitoring platform into the US and Canada, including seven US states and Ontario.
Endre Nesset, senior VP of Global Sports at GAN Limited, said: “We are very pleased to be part of the IBIA. There is strength in numbers and power in unity, and together with the rest of IBIA’s members we are in a great position to help maintain integrity and stop foul play in our industry.”
In its latest integrity report for the first quarter of 2022, the IBIA confirmed receipt of 42 suspicious betting alerts on its platform during the period, a reduction of 39% (from 69) on total reported events during Q4 2021 and down on the 64 reported in Q1 2021.