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The operator yesterday reported that Rrvenue from SunBet surged 35.5% year-on-year to R1.18 billion ($73.6 million) across H1, outpacing the 19% overall growth of South Africa’s online market during the period.
Online growth drove Sun International’s group income up 7.4% to R6.58 billion during H1 when excluding the Table Bay Hotel (TBH), which the company is running under a management agreement with IHG.
At the company’s Capital Markets Day in March, Sun International outlined plans to double SunBet’s share of the South African online market from its 4.5%.
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Committee Chair Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede highlighted that, since 2020, the growth of online marketing techniques and associated harms have shifted the debate substantially.
“The time was right to reassess this crucial policy area, focusing on the topic of gambling advertising where the former committee’s strong recommendations have been largely unaddressed and where substantial developments in the gambling advertising landscape since 2020 have demanded a re-evaluation of the policy options,” he said.
The committee has advocated for applying a public health framework to gambling advertising regulation. It criticised the existing patchwork of self-regulation, noting the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes, co-regulation for broadcasts and industry-led voluntary measures, were inadequate.
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“Sometimes what data tells you is uncomfortable because it’s challenging the norm,” he said at the time. “For me [it’s about] where we can make some marginal differences by using player data and challenging the perspectives of what the industry thinks should and does happen.”
The Gambling Commission suspended both licences with immediate effect on 28 August after enquiries revealed suspected social responsibility and AML failings. Reviews are now taking place under section 116 of the Gambling Act 2005. But in the wake of the suspension, the two sites have bowed to the inevitable and shut down completely.
According to the Commission’s licensing registry, Bet St George surrendered its four gambling licences on 4 September. BresBet surrendered its own licences on the same date.
