On today’s episode of iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, James Ross is joined by SBC’s Media Project Director, Martyn Elliott, and CasinoBeats Editor, Joe Streeter, to discuss the growing scandal over candidates and former MP’s betting on the date of the general election, with some even placing a wager on losing their seats.
Later on in the show, Ted Menmuir, Content Director at SBC, takes over and is joined by the Founder and Managing Director of SBC Advisory, Anton Kaszubowski, at the SBC Summit Tbilisi in Georgia.
James, Joe and Martin discuss the latest updates on the gambling scandal, which has involved several MPs and members of Rishi Sunak’s police protection team, before Joe likens MPs who have bet on themselves to lose their seats to match-fixing even though it is technically not illegal.
Joe added: “Instinctively, my principle is if somebody is betting on something they’re involved in, my instinct says that’s like the pinnacle of offences, that’s match-fixing, that’s the ultimate integrity breach. But here I think we might be dealing with a situation where that potentially isn’t as bad as the kind of insider trading type bet.”
Martyn then goes on to question the role of operators in the controversy and asks why they continue to offer markets on outcomes that other people know before the bookmakers such as football transfers and the winners of TV shows like Strictly Come Dancing.
As the first half of the show comes to an end, Joe asks Martyn and James what impact they believe this betting story will have on the outcome of the general election set for July 4.
“Nothing has had an impact in this election,” explained Martyn. “The gap between Conservatives and Labour has stayed the same through everything, through people actually starting to consider what policies are and so on. The polls have stayed pretty much the same.”
After a short break, the show’s attention turns to Georgia where Ted takes over hosting duties to report from the SBC Summit Tbilisi.
The pair discuss what themes they noticed during the opening days of the event and Ted remarks that the “young and vibrant feel” of the the Eurasian market compared to Western Europe.
Anton agreed: “The management teams are very young, much younger than with established operators in Western Europe. They’re super dynamic, smart and innovative.”
Anton adds that SBC Advisory mostly works with smaller and mid-sized businesses which means that the company is always looking for regions such as Georgia that are emerging and developing as they offer the most opportunities.
