Donny King

How to play Donny King

Playtech on Thursday reported a 10% revenue increase year-on-year in H1 to €425.1 million, driven by what it described as “exceptional growth” for its B2B business in North America.

Revenue from the US and Canada increased 161% year-on-year (or 176% in constant currency) to €56.9 million.

This was due to its partnership with Hard Rock Bet in Florida, and the strength of its games powered by Past Motor Racing (PMR). These are expected to normalise in subsequent quarters.

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As Spain celebrated the successful end of their campaign, Kambi was reflecting on a significant achievement of its own. For the sports betting technology provider, the tournament represented a major technological milestone: its first World Cup traded entirely by AI.

Across 104 matches and more than 100 million bets, AI handled every stage of the pricing lifecycle – from ingesting data and creating the offering to managing liabilities and settling bets. The platform recorded zero downtime, delivered an operator trading margin of 18% and, during the final alone, processed more than one million unique bet combinations.

Kambi had set itself the ambitious target of delivering the entire tournament through AI. By the time Spain lifted the trophy, it had provided compelling evidence that automated trading could withstand the scale and intensity of sport’s biggest betting event while improving the experience offered to operators and their customers.

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But that isn’t the case according to Richards: “We are not signalling plans to re-enter B2C elsewhere; Africa is a distinct case: a high-growth, underpenetrated region where owning a local operator makes strategic sense in a way it may not elsewhere.”

There’s also a financial constraint, with Ahlberg noting that GiG has used its available cash and is raising additional capital to fund the 888Africa transaction, meaning he doesn’t expect the company to pursue further B2C acquisitions in the short term.

Robinson takes a more expansive view, however, arguing that the acquisition could mark the beginning of a broader shift in GiG’s strategy. “I’d read it as the start of something, not a one-off,” he says. “GiG’s survival as an independent business depends on consolidating in emerging markets where it can own the P&L, not just supply the technology.