Merry Xmas

What is Merry Xmas?

In an interview with the Financial Times over the weekend, Done cautioned that additional tax hikes could result in widespread betting shop closures, harm related sectors such as horse racing and accelerate the decline of the high street.

Betfred currently operates approximately 1,094 retail shops across the UK. Done highlighted the concrete risks of Machine Gaming Duty – taxes on gambling machines – doubling from 20% to 40%, a move reportedly under consideration by Chancellor John Healey ahead of the Autumn Budget.

Betfred’s retail business still heavily depends on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and in-shop gambling. Despite the maximum stake limit being cut to £2 in 2019, FOBTs account for roughly half of Betfred’s shop profits. Done emphasised that without these machines, retail betting wass “impossible”.

What is Merry Xmas?

With no jackpot win materializing, the game’s top prize has continued to grow, reaching $332 million ahead of the Wednesday drawing. A hypothetical winner would be able to either claim the annuity option for the full sum or the one-time lump sum option of $141.7 million.

The $1 million win in the UK comes shortly after a lucky player in New York won a similar prize after matching the five white numbers for the Saturday, September 19, drawing. The same drawing also saw 30 players win tier-three prizes. Of these, 23 won $50,000 each, while the remaining 7 won $100,000 each thanks to Power Play.

A week before that, Powerball awarded not one, but two Match 5 prizes. One of these incredible payouts was a $1 million win in Georgia, while the other one was a $2 million windfall in Ohio.

How to play Merry Xmas

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.

“The Fifa World Cup draws global attention in a way that no other sporting event can, and it was the best stress test of the technology we could have asked for,” says Oliver Lamb, SVP of trading at Kambi.

“We also delivered a nigh-on limitless range of bet combinations, delivered in a more rapid and more seamless manner than we have been able to before.”