Hockey Bonanza

About Hockey Bonanza

The historic showdown between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers will take place at a venue located 7,971 miles from Levi’s Stadium, home of the last meeting between the NFC West rivals. Both teams are based in California, a fertile ground for prediction markets given a sports betting ban in a state with more than 39 million residents. But the Americans in attendance for Thursday night’s matchup (Friday in Melbourne) will not be able to live-trade from their seats.

That is because trading on prediction markets is illegal down under, according to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the nation’s regulator on financial services. Last month, in perhaps the ASIC’s strongest warnings yet against the asset class, the commission reiterated that prediction markets are not licensed as financial markets to operate in Australia. Through the guidance, the regulator urged consumers to exercise caution before partaking in certain investments on offshore platforms which have not obtained licensing nationwide.

The advisory could be music to the ears of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose league has pushed a federal derivatives regulator in the US to enact more rigorous standards to help protect the integrity of professional sports. Ahead of the matchup, Goodell spoke with CNBC from Melbourne.

What is Hockey Bonanza?

The report identifies land-based and online casinos and sports betting as carrying the highest money laundering exposure. By contrast, lotteries and scratchcards present lower risk. 

It finds that online gaming shows more documented terrorist financing activity than gambling, although proliferation financing risks remain limited across both sectors.

Cash, e-wallets, mobile money and virtual assets emerge as the payment methods most vulnerable to abuse. This is particularly true where operators use them to structure deposits below reporting thresholds. 

How to play Hockey Bonanza

The wider opportunity is to reduce some of the fragmentation operators face. Splash Tech’s jackpots and free-to-play products complement RubyPlay’s free spins, rewards, missions and tournaments, while remaining capable of supporting third-party content rather than being fenced inside a single studio’s games.

What changes is the support behind that business. Wilson says Splash Tech is moving from the resources of a 20-person company to those of a group of around 300, adding depth across licensing, compliance, finance, technology, product and business intelligence. In his characteristically understated phrasing, each area has had “rocket fuel injected into it”.

RubyPlay’s broader licensing footprint and distribution also give Splash Tech access to operators and markets it could not have pursued efficiently alone.