Highroller abandoning UK market

[SpinUk]

Another one bites the dust. Just had an email confirming Highroller are leaving the UK market as of 22nd September.

I guess you can’t blame them with the omnipresent threat of high 6 figure punitive fines being passed around by the UKGC - fine for the likes of William Hill etc but for smaller operations that sort of fine can wipe out a years profit.

The UK market is rapidly approaching the likes of Sweden and Australia with a handful of Casino’s offering a cornered market. Not good for anyone in the long term.

 

[bamberfishcake]

Its a shame. Lack of competition stifles the market. I was looking forward to seeing what changes there would be under the new ownership.

Highroller had just been purchased but as already a UK licence holder I wonder if there was no time or room to improve to meet the existing standards (thats if improvement was needed). Maybe the existing model was on course for fines and the only sense was to pull out until the model is correct, anyone know any details?

 

[SpinUk]

Its a shame. Lack of competition stifles the market. I was looking forward to seeing what changes there would be under the new ownership.

Highroller had just been purchased but as already a UK licence holder I wonder if there was no time or room to improve to meet the existing standards (thats if improvement was needed). Maybe the existing model was on course for fines and the only sense was to pull out until the model is correct, anyone know any details?

I dont see them returning in the short term. The hassle of licencing and kyc for the UKGC i’ve heard from hearsay is a nightmare. Add the double wammy of high taxation on profits/bonuses and the fine threat, don’t blame them for abandoning ship. I’d do exactly the same in their shoes.

 

[bamberfishcake]

I dont see them returning in the short term. The hassle of licencing and kyc for the UKGC i’ve heard from hearsay is a nightmare. Add the double wammy of high taxation on profits/bonuses and the fine threat, don’t blame them for abandoning ship. I’d do exactly the same in their shoes.

So this is bad for the affiliate market also, yes?

As it seems the market is lining up the big companies and weeding our the small fry. Do the bigger companies get involved with affiliation so much?

 

[SpinUk]

So this is bad for the affiliate market also, yes?

As it seems the market is lining up the big companies and weeding our the small fry. Do the bigger companies get involved with affiliation so much?

Yea its bad for you guys, the players too also as they get less choice so the Casinos offer less to compete.

But hey at least we our autospins limited to 100 and an invasive SOW requests everywhere. So thats alright then.

 

[bamberfishcake]

Im not an affiliate, though I have been giving it some thought lately.

Yes, less competition is bad for everyone but the big casinos i guess.

 

[brianmon]

There are 300+ UKGC licensed online casinos.
So the dozen casinos, who have left the market during the past 6 months, aren't going to make that much difference.
Especially as there have been 16 new sites granted a licence in the past 3 months alone.

 

[JGslots]

Didn’t High Roller get sold off like 4 weeks ago?

Rob

 

[dunover]

Didn’t High Roller get sold off like 4 weeks ago?

Rob

Indeed, to Ellmount gaming who have largely dropped the UK market with their properties.

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[slot_zombie]

There are 300+ UKGC licensed online casinos.
So the dozen casinos, who have left the market during the past 6 months, aren't going to make that much difference.
Especially as there have been 16 new sites granted a licence in the past 3 months alone.

Yes but aren't most of these sites just clones from Aspire, Jumpman etc.?

Breaking news, now Everynatrix have completely pulled out of the UK market except for B2B operations.

UKGC is going about things far too heavy handed in my opinion.

 

[Jono777]

Must be a difficult one for the smaller operators as I am led to believe that the UK has a huge player base and makes up to 70% of some of the larger operators business.

 

[colinsunderland]

Yes but aren't most of these sites just clones from Aspire, Jumpman etc.?

Breaking news, now Everynatrix have completely pulled out of the UK market except for B2B operations.

UKGC is going about things far too heavy handed in my opinion.

Nothing to do with them ripping off problem gamblers for years then?

 

[brianmon]

Yes but aren't most of these sites just clones from Aspire, Jumpman etc.?

Breaking news, now Everynatrix have completely pulled out of the UK market except for B2B operations.

UKGC is going about things far too heavy handed in my opinion.

And up until recently 'Highroller' was just another MT Secure trade clone site.

 

[SpinUk]

Nothing to do with them ripping off problem gamblers for years then?

Well no, if it was a fair comment then given the choice of playing by the rules or abandoning a massive lucrative market outright, you would just tighten up on what was required and stay in the game.

The fact that they are actively leaving given the choice, means that its either not financially viable to draw a profit from the UK, or the risk of staying in could potentially sink your business depending on what side of bed the UKGC got up in the morning is too high. Probably both, but more to do with the latter.

 

[colinsunderland]

Well no, if it was a fair comment then given the choice of playing by the rules or abandoning a massive lucrative market outright, you would just tighten up on what was required and stay in the game.

The fact that they are actively leaving given the choice, means that its either not financially viable to draw a profit from the UK, or the risk of staying in could potentially sink your business depending on what side of bed the UKGC got up in the morning is too high. Probably both, but more to do with the latter.

Not in this case though as they have already lost the license. I imagine they have an idea of what is going to happen next, and considering their dodgy history, I would have expected a rather large penalty. I wouldn't be surprised if they are pulling out to avoid that. Maybe if they hadn't ripped off so many vulnerable customers over the past years, they wouldn't be in this position now. Plenty of casinos make the UK market work fine, all that is happening, is the poor ones are being weeded out.

 

[colinsunderland]

PWR.bet and EveryMatrix Ltd. agreed on terminating their white label B2C cooperation in the UK market. It means that EveryMatrix's UK licence will not be used by PWR.bet in the future, however it does not affect either operations on other markets or B2B white label services in the UK in case PWR.bet obtains its own licence. The decision about B2C cooperation was made because EveryMatrix would be required by UKGC to execute several further operations on behalf of PWR.bet as licence holder, which has not been found as effectively manageable.

PWR.bet had anticipated this decision well before and started working on alternate solutions to continue operations in the UK market. We will give you update about the possible options of resuming those operations soon.

 

[Kroffe]

Another one bites the dust. Just had an email confirming Highroller are leaving the UK market as of 22nd September.

I guess you can’t blame them with the omnipresent threat of high 6 figure punitive fines being passed around by the UKGC - fine for the likes of William Hill etc but for smaller operations that sort of fine can wipe out a years profit.

The UK market is rapidly approaching the likes of Sweden and Australia with a handful of Casino’s offering a cornered market. Not good for anyone in the long term.

Eh, its not so bad actually.
Who wants bonuses and such things anyways...
Oh, i have to get back to the slot, the spin i started before i went to make this comment is about to finish.

 

[brianmon]

Well no, if it was a fair comment then given the choice of playing by the rules or abandoning a massive lucrative market outright, you would just tighten up on what was required and stay in the game.

The fact that they are actively leaving given the choice, means that its either not financially viable to draw a profit from the UK, or the risk of staying in could potentially sink your business depending on what side of bed the UKGC got up in the morning is too high. Probably both, but more to do with the latter.

I'd say more to do with the former.
EveryMatrix are a shadow of their former self, since all their decent sites migrated to other platforms.
At their peak they had Guts, CasinoLuck, NextCasino, Thrills, SuperLenny, to name but a few.
Who are their big sites now?
They obviously don't have a big enough share of the Uk market now, to cover the cost of licensing and upgrading their systems to be compliant

 

[slot_zombie]

And up until recently 'Highroller' was just another MT Secure trade clone site.

..my point still stands..

 

[Harry_BKK]

And up until recently 'Highroller' was just another MT Secure trade clone site.

Highroller was actually fully owned by GiG and operated by their subsidiary MT SecureTrade on the iGamingCloud platform.

Ellmount will keep it on the same licence and platform for the next four years until they paid off the purchase price of EUR7 million.

They had an EBIDTA of -EUR200K on revenues of EUR1.4 million for H1/2019, doesn't sound like they were doing too well.

 

[Nicola]

As mentioned a few weeks back, the first of many MTSecureTrade casinos leaving the UK.

Surprised that EveryMatrix are leaving the UK market. However, as the CEO says in the PR today the damage has been done and to recover would be difficult. Shame.