There could be a dramatic change to Kenya sports betting rules with the 20% tax on betting stakes being removed from the country’s budget.
Kenya’s National Assembly has approved Finance Bill 2020 and forwarded it to President Uhuru Kenyatta who will now decide on whether or not he wishes to pass it into law.
The president has vocally opposed the entire gambling industry and last year urged Kenyan lawmakers to implement a complete ban on gambling-related activities.
President Kenyatta at the time commented that they have this thing called gambling and it is so bad that he alone could not finish it and that the constitution should be changed.
Sports betting stakes were taxed at 20% in Kenya after being introduced in the 2019/2020 budget in a decision that hampered the market. Following the introduction of the tax many sports-books in Kenya dropped out of the market. These included both SportPesa and Betin who decided to withdraw their services from the East African country.
An entity in Kenya called Shade.co.ke proposed that sports betting turnover be removed as they believe that its introduction has resulted in operators making cuts, including in local sports club sponsorships.
The National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning Committee informed Shade that the reason behind removing the tax was that the high level of taxation had led punters to placing bets on foreign platforms that were not subject to tax and thereby denying the government revenue.
They also explained that getting rid of the tax would ‘reverse the negative effects’ that it has had on the country’s sports betting industry.
According to Finance Committee Chair Joseph Kirui Limo, this is going to boost revenue, because currently revenue is going down.
Newgioco Group, a global sports betting and interactive gaming technology company, is pleased to announce that it has re-opened all of its retail betting venues across Italy after the March restrictions imposed by the Italian government on physical business establishments due to the COVID-19 outbreak have been lifted. This follows the improving situation in the country that led to the government being able to ease certain restrictions that included permitting land-based betting shops to open.
On Friday, 19th June 2020, all of Newgioco’s land-based betting shops, including corner locations such as coffee shops and bars throughout Ital re-opened with the company taking several anti-contagion measures in order to maintain sanitation, minimum distance and health-related obligations at all locations that offer sports betting products.
The Italian Serie A soccer championship as well as the English Premier League resumed play over the weekend of 19th June to join the German Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga that will see most major and minor European soccer leagues being brought back in to action with catch-up matches over the next few months.
Earlier this month Newgioco revealed that the return of several major sporting events contributed to a ‘robust’ rise in revenue.
Newgioco offers clients a complete suite of leisure gaming products and services such as spots betting, online casino, virtual sports, bingo, poker, slots and interactive games. The company also owns and operates groundbreaking betting platform software that provides both B2B and B2C bet processing for casinos, sports betting and other online and land-based gaming operators.
Maltese online casino games developer Nolimit City Limited has announced the launch of a new video slot game – ‘Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds’.
The developer recently issued an official press release to reveal that its latest five reel, three row and 20 fixed pay line release utilizes ‘rich game design and lush graphics to offer players a magical experience’. Nolimit City also explained that the mobile-friendly title is themed around a mythical Arabian genie that has been tasked with guiding aficionados through its pair of base games and bonus round.
The high volatility ‘Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds’ video slot is playable from 0.20 to 100 credits per spin on desktop, mobile or tablet devices and comes with an RTP of 96.03% with the Bonus Buy option raising it to 96.36%.
Wins in the video slot are awarded for 3 to 5 matching symbols on a line from left to right, except during the Genie Lamp feature when they are paid both ways.
Symbols on the reels include the low end card royals from 10 through to A, which award 5X to 6.25X a player’s stake for a single five of a kind. These are followed by the magical lamp, a leopard, Aladdin and the princess. The Genie acts as a Wild Scatter, substituting for all other symbols and triggering the main feature.
‘Golden Genie and the Walking Wilds’ has made its exclusive debut on sites operated to online casino operator William Hill that includes WilliamHill.com, MrGreen.com, RedBet.com and Latvian frontrunner 11.lv
Award winning game developer Microgaming has announced the launch of its new video slot, titled ‘Aurora Beast Hunter’ that was developed by Just For The Win exclusively for the developer and has a retro 90s TV cartoon theme.
The 5 reel and 40 pay line “Aurora Beast’ slot game is playable on desktop, mobile or tablet devices from between 10p and £50 per spin.
The new slot game comes with an RTP of 96.27% and a max win of 5,000 x stake, which comes in The Sub Free Spins feature. The max win is 500 x a player’s stake on each base game spin.
The Wilds in the slot game come in a range of shapes and sizes and can deliver random prizes. Players have 3 different Free Spin rounds to choose from.
Players can land a random prize on any base game spin with an expanding or stacked Wild able to deliver one of the extras, namely a Cash Prize feature, a Random Wild feature or a Sticky Wild Stack feature.
The Scatter symbol is a Monster Truck with a Rocket Launcher on the top and triggers 1 or the 3 Free Spins features when landing ton reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same spin. Landing 2 Scatters gives players a Re-Spin and a second chance to land the third and a chance to activate the bonus. Players can then pick 1 of 3 different Free Spin rounds, namely the Sandstorm Free Spins feature, the Danger Zone Free Spins feature or the Sub Free Spins feature.
Leading online casino games aggregator and supplier Relax Gaming has announced that it recently entered into an agreement with iGaming content maker SYNOT GAMES that will see it boosting its slots offering by integrating the latter’s portfolio of online casino content.
In terms of the partnership which falls under Relax Gaming’s Powered By program, the supplier will gain access to SYNOT’s portfolio of more than 50 HTML5 titles, including its latest releases Sync Spin, Wild Blooms and Rock n Roll Roosters.
SYNOT Games is part of retail and online casino games distributor SYNOT Group and will benefit from this deal by getting a fast and effective route to market and ever-growing distribution reach among tier-one online gambling operators that form part of Relax Gaming’s vast network of clients.
Simon Hammon, Chief Production Officer of Relax Gaming, commented on their partnership with SYNOT Games by saying that their new partner has quickly established itself as a company that develops ‘original online slots with high playability and attractive visuals that appeal to a variety of players’.
Hammon went on to say that the addition of SYNOT Games’ portfolio to their platform will elevate the range of quality content they offer to their partners and that they look forward to assisting the casino games maker to grow its market presence.
Ivan Kodaj, Chief Executive Officer at SYNOT Games, said that teaming up with Relax Gaming offers great opportunity for growth as they look to continue raising awareness of their brand among leading online casino operators and reach new playing audiences.