News in brief: Betfair; GTech; Macau casino revenues...
Betfair could follow other operators and relocate offshore if the UK tax environment does not become more hospitable, its CEO has warned...
Betfair could follow other operators and relocate offshore if the UK tax environment does not become more hospitable, its CEO has warned this weekend. David Yu told the Sunday Telegraph that he felt Betfair was penalised for staying in the UK, where it pays 15% gross profits tax, compared to the likes of Ladbrokes and William Hill that have moved offshore to lower their tax bills.”What we have to consider is that many others have gone offshore and we don’t think that is a fair and level playing field right now. We’ve been engaged in a dialogue with the government and what we would hope is that we can find a way for that playing field to be levelled,” Yu said.
GTech has signed a new 12-year contract to provide French state lottery operator Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) with a new lottery system. The deal, which begins in June 2012, is expected to generate revenues of around 23m for GTech, that has been providing lottery products to FDJ for the past 10 years.
Macau‘s land-based casino revenues rose almost 50% to a record high of 18.869bn patacas ($2.37bn) in October from a year earlier and are predicted to beat full-year expectations. Aaron Fischer, CLSA’s head of Asian gaming research, told Reuters that there is a “general level of optimism in China that’s translated into an appetite for gaming”, due in part to strong property and equity markets. He added that individual operators were more willing to extend credit, so people were more willing to play.