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About Chicken Zap
Prime Minister Andy Burnham recent proposed a package of measures that would repeal the established “aim to permit” rule for betting shops and 24-hour slot machine arcades across Great Britain, removing a presumption in favour of granting permission for such venues.
AGCs in England that offer round-the-clock access to gambling machines will instead require planning approval.
The prime minister is also considering imposing an increased tax on gaming machines in the UK, based on a proposal from the Social Market Foundation. This could be seen in the upcoming autumn budget.
What is Chicken Zap?
“At that point, it is no longer just a collection of games,” Yashin says. “It becomes a new format for consuming casino entertainment, where every swipe brings a new piece of content and a new playable moment.”
Within iGaming itself, Yashin believes the implications of generative and real-time AI could ultimately extend into areas such as live casino, including AI-generated characters replacing physical presenters.
“I think the industry will adopt these technologies much more quickly than people might expect,” he says.
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In the six months to June, Entain’s online net gaming revenue rose 7% in constant currency. Revenue in Britain and Ireland increased 13%, while the company maintained its full-year guidance for online net gaming revenue growth of 5% to 7%. So why is its stock price still so under pressure?
One answer is that the industry is no longer being valued primarily on the promise of endless growth. The market instead wants to see profit, cash generation and manageable regulation maintained across all facets of a listed business. Ed Birkin, managing director of H2 Gambling Capital, says the longer-term decline in gambling stocks runs much deeper than just changes to earnings forecasts.
“The industry share price declines have been much more severe than the cut to earnings projections which means that, while there may be some weakening in some companies’ fundamental growth drivers, the valuations that investors are putting on them have been the main driver of share price declines – although weaker fundamentals lead to lower valuations, so the reality is that they’re completely intertwined.”
