Russian Gaming Week 2014 Conference Results

5th of June, 2014, has been a final day of the two-day conference in Moscow, devoted to gambling business in the course of the 8th International gambling and entertainment exhibition Russian Gaming Week. More than 100 people participated in the event.

Prior to the start of the largest Russian forum for gambling business professionals, there has been going a lot of action affecting the gambling industry. These things defined the Conference program and its participants, uniting famous experts, analysts, lawyers, authorities and businesses representatives.

“This year, the Conference has been held just before important amendments to legislation came into effect on the 1st of July and changed the way major market players make business, affecting online casino operators, bookmakers, lotteries etc.,” said director of RGW Oleg Vlasov.

He continued: “Many companies today are looking for alternative solutions to continue their work. Key topics of our forum and conference agenda will be finding answers to these important questions -what to do and how to work on.”

Denis Nikitas, professional moderator and business trainer, who works as managing partner at Communication Group 2C and chief editor of Segment magazine, has agreed to lead the Conference.

FIRST DAY

National Bookmaking Association President Yuriy Fedorov opened the Conference and told about the main legislative amendments and SRO establishment.

Leonid Obozniy was next to make a presentation “Bookmaking business -- battle for efficiency”, providing the exclusive market state data and information on the invested and returned money of Russian and global online, as well as land based casino in 2014.

Speaker noted that since 2010, the main driving force on the gambling market has been mobile with its progress going on today. Offline sports betting growth is slow in comparison with other land based venues. On the other hand, online bookmakers enjoy their rise. Plus, online sports betting share comprises 47 per cent, whereas offline takes up 20 per cent with casino, slots, and lotteries.

RAGBD experts also supported the idea of SRO establishment. As new amendments to the law №244 took their force, Valeriy Ivanov advices to get ready for restrictions of the market.

In the mid of the forum, a roundtable took its place, discussing SRO feasibility in gambling, and uniting specialists like Yuriy Fedorov - President of National Bookmakers Association (NBA), Konstantin Makarov - lawyer and CEO at Bingo Boom, Leonid Obozniy - President of First Gaming, Thanos Marinos – CEO at EBGC, Betting Entrepreneur (Greece), Nikolay Oganezov - Director of Regional Association of Gaming Business in SFD, Maria Lepschikova - legal counsel of Pravovaya liniya, LLC etc.

Konstantin Makarov has been one of the firsts to speak about no benefits from the current amendments and possible market recession for online bookmakers, and, eventually, its ban in the future. Konstantin thinks that a number of obligatory SRO members shall be reduced to create 3 or 4 such organizations considering current license holders.

Leonid Obozniy also expressed some criticism, backing it with risks of dirty competition, market monopolization, if just one SRO will exist (due to the small number of bookmakers with licenses); lack of options within a single accounting center of interactive betting for player and bookmaker, fee for player and bookmaker center activities. He was concerned about the nonfundamental nature of the law and the need to change gambling regulations again pretty soon. It is also not clear which tax would online bookmakers have to pay.

Yuriy Fedorov replied that 15 per cent from the difference between accepted bets and paid winnings would be an effective tax. But for now, it’s certain that the government plans to tax interactive bets accounting center fee. On the contrary to those who think that SRO will not benefit anyone, NBA President noted that at the very least, players’ interests would be protected. He added that strict bookmaking regulation is commonly found in many countries: “In Russia, it’s SRO; in UK, it’s a Gambling commission; in Italy, it’s MMС, and they all are doing their job.”

The next speaker was an expert from Greece Thanos Marinos. Answering the audience questions, Thanos advised to take Italian law as an example, being the most democratic country when it comes to gambling regulation. If the government wants to impose bookmakers with heavy taxes, operators shouldn’t purchase licenses, as it was the case in Bulgaria, where the government had to reduce taxes eventually.

Maria Lepschikova, a lawyer, also noted some small bookmaking law changes that seem to be not very important. For example, legislative amendments state that after they take legal force, it would be forbidden to accept bets for any original games and internal exchange rate bets, namely the things that are nowadays popular in the form of poker, bingo, keno etc.

At the end of the roundtable participants reached common ground that SROs are important and necessary but laws regulating their operation shall be improved significantly incorporating global experience and Russian realities.

After a short coffee-break the audience listened carefully to presentations concerning legal issues.

As part of his presentation, Konstantin Makarov (Bingo Boom) shared his vision of bookmaking market: legal regulations for bookmakers require obligatory membership in SRO, which is actually leading to bookmaking market monopolization and affects state regulation.

Sergey Ilyushchenko (Germes) told about OTC trading as an alternative to lottery products, about the gaming means visualization legitimacy in trading platform of dealing halls and terminals, as well as the possibility to operate around-the-clock, when the market is closed and how to solve issues with the authorities.

Maria Lepschikova (Pravovaya liniya, LLC) answered the audience questions of how to protect your business legally.

SECOND DAY

Second Conference day at Russian Gaming Week has been devoted completely to promoting and online player acquisition, bookmaking software innovational technologies, online casino licensing, cryptocurrencies usage and supporting the gambling portals.

Roman But was the first to speak, providing shocking data that more than 50% of marketing budget is spent inefficiently and 60% of clients are lost within the first three months. To assess ad activity efficiency, speaker suggested math modeling and ways to use it.

Next, Thanos Marinos presented information using examples of European bookmaking regulation practices in Italy and France. It turns out that online gambling comprises more than 7% of gross profit in Italy. This is the largest European market, due to the efficient tax policy. On the contrary, in France legal online gambling potential has been destroyed because of high taxes for bookmakers and nonfundamental nature of industry legalization.

Thanos thinks that Russia has a high potential, but all interested parties shall be engaged in gambling legalization discussion, including NBA, SRO, RBA and RFU.

Nikolay Rudenko, experienced affiliate and optimizer, was next to give his presentation “10 easy ways to kill conversion.” He named the main usability problems and mistakes while optimizing marketing campaigns using examples of existing operators.

Speaking directly to bookmakers, the presenter pointed out their inability to use season approach: e.g. a lot of online bookmakers have been using World Cup 2014 in Brazil banners to attract audience, when there was also 2014 IIHF World Championship going on in Minsk with lots of attention from Belarus, Russia and Baltics.

Optimizer recommended to attract audience to website with proactive sales based on support service, sports predictions and other content, trial accounts in the fun gaming mode, using humor in social networks, as well as making seasonal promotions.

Vyacheslav Federov and Ivan Montik made presentations in the “Online money” section. Vyacheslav told about different electronic systems for deposit and withdrawal, while Ivan explained why Bitcoin gambling is a positive, efficient and profitable thing for operators and players. Both speakers answered a lot of questions.

Director of BetConstruct Suren Khachatryan told about innovational technologies in bookmaking software.

Also Conference participants discussed methods of avoiding game portals and websites blocking. Sarkis Darbinyan, famous lawyer, made a presentation on this topic. Sarkis shared examples of the most high-profile cases from his legal practice concerning transition to “ru” domain by the foreign companies and of the latest Federal Security Service of Russia requirements for gaming portals.

The Conference ended with Oliver Zammit’s presentation, who shared information about Malta as the leading online gaming country.

Smile Expo Company, exhibition organizer, thanks all Conference participants for their interesting presentations and engagement in the event.

Visit Russian Gaming Week next year!