EveryMatrix, the London-based software development company, has had its gambling license suspended by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission as they conduct a review into the company. It appears that the decision to initiate the review has come about after an examination into the customer interaction framework that EveryMatrix uses.
The suspension will not affect the company’s ability to offer manufacturing, installing, supplying or adapting gambling software to its B2B clients, but does mean that they’re unable to offer any remote casino or real even betting for any of the sites that use it. Customers with accounts that use EveryMatrix will be able to access their accounts in order to withdraw funds, and any ante-post bets placed before the suspension will be settled as normal.
What’s Happened?
The Chief Executive Officer of EveryMatrix, Ebbe Groes, confirmed that the suspension is on the back of an evaluation by the Gambling Commission into how the company conducts itself around the subject of problem gamblers. He made the point that there are ‘no specific player cases’ involved, nor does the UKGC appear to be worried about any ‘technical breaches’ in the software used by EveryMatrix.
Groes also said that EveryMatrix takes the subject of responsible gambling ‘seriously’, saying that the company had immediately put in place a system that they believe ‘addresses the concerns of the Gambling Commission’. His hope is that the suspension of their license will be revoked sooner rather than later, especially as they appear to be doing whatever they can to work with the UKGC in order to alleviate their worries.
Who Are EveryMatrix?
The news of EveryMatrix’s license being suspended sent shockwaves through the gambling industry, but the majority of punters won’t really know who they are. After all, when you logon to an online casino or go to place a bet with a sportsbook you don’t necessarily know who the company is behind the scenes that makes everything work for you. Things aren’t necessarily that much clearer if you look on the EveryMatrix website, which says that they offer ‘a modular and API driven product suite’.
Whilst that might sound like a load of mumbo jumbo to those not in the industry, what it essentially means is that they can give businesses a one-stop shop in order to create a gambling website. Here’s a list of the key things that EveryMatrix provides to users:
- A casino content aggregator and integration platform
- A fully managed sportsbook
- A bouncing engine across products
- A payment processing platform
- Sports data services
- An affiliate and agent management system that is multi-brand
Companies can choose to either take out the full package or else pick and choose from the things individually, but the overall point is that EveryMatrix sees itself as a one-stop-shop for an operator’s gambling needs. With more than eleven years experience in the industry and offices throughout Europe and Asia, the company has grown to become one of the most respected names in the business. That’s why their license being suspended is such big news to the gambling world.
What The UKGC Have Said On The Matter
The UK Gambling Commission was unambiguous in its statement on the matter, citing s116 of the Gambling Act as the reason to instigate its review. They said, “Pursuant to section 118(2) Gambling Act 2005…the Commission has determined to suspend the above operating licence”. They did make the point that the suspension pertains to EveryMatrix’s ability to ‘offer remote gambling facilities for real events’, as well as operating remote casinos.
What the UKGC did say is that EveryMatrix is still able to offer pool betting and virtual betting as well as to supply, manufacture, adapt and install gambling software for the foreseeable future. The suspension was announced on the fifth of September and took effect immediately, with the operator being informed that ante-post bets may be settled as long as they were placed before the suspension. They can also ‘facilitate customers’ accessing their accounts to withdraw funds’. The UKGC statement points EveryMatrix customers with questions towards the company’s support email.
What It Means For EveryMatrix
I wrote about EveryMatrix earlier in the year after they agreed to sell one of its business-to-customer brands, Jetbull, to AMGO for a fee in the region of €2 million. Jetbull was the only customer facing brand offered by the company, giving people a casino and sportsbook platform that they could use for their various betting needs. The move to sell to AMGO was seen as a sensible one, with the Swedish iGaming company relatively new on the scene but with experience of growing casino and sportsbook offerings.
Groes said at the time that they wanted to sell it because they didn’t want to have a site that was in direct competition with the businesses that would be using their platform. Now that EveryMatrix has had most of its licences suspended, there might be an internal question as to whether or not selling the Jetbull brand was the right thing to do. After all, it’s entirely possible that this will be damaging to the reputation of the company with the sorts of businesses that might ordinarily consider using its services. That being said, at the time of writing the Jetbull website still says that it is operated and maintained by EveryMatrix.
Obviously this is a story that will continue to develop over the next few days, so I’ll keep you updated on what’s happening.
Update: 23rd September 2019
Just two weeks after writing the above post, EveryMatrix have confirmed that they’re no longer going to offer their business-to-customer wares to the UK market. They tried to ensure that they responded to the United Kingdom Gambling Commission’s suspension as ‘swiftly’ as possible, but in the end have decided that the reputation of the white label side of the business has been ‘irreparably damaged’.
The company will continue to offer their software solutions for businesses in the UK, maintaining the business-to-business software provision licence that they have for ‘Remote Gambling Software’, so it will just be the side of the business that the UKGC investigated in the first place that will be discontinued for UK audiences. Instead of trying to rescue a part of the company that it felt was beyond rescue, EveryMatrix will concentrate on further developing the growth of the rest of the business.
What The Company Have Said
Ebbe Groes, the Chief Executive Officer of EveryMatrix, said that the company ‘fully respect’ the decision that the UK Gambling Commission made in suspending their licence in the first place. He also made a comment about how the UKGC appears to want to ‘substantially’ change the way that white label businesses are able to operate in the future. Whether that was intended as a dig at the Gambling Commission or not isn’t clear, but it certainly suggests that other white label operators may also find themselves in a similar situation in the future.
Groes was keen to point out that EveryMatrix don’t plan on allowing the decision to shut down the business-to-customer, white label side of the business to stop them from growing as a company. He said, “We will use this highly unfortunate event as positive as we can and we are keen on maintaining EveryMatrix’s leading role as a provider in the B2B space, in the UK and globally”. With the company having enjoyed what Groes referred to as ‘tremendous growth’ on that front in the ‘past several years’, it makes complete sense to ‘focus even harder’ on it from a business point of view.
Business Has ‘Become Unsalvageable’
EveryMatrix has provided white label businesses since 2014, enjoying ‘successful and unproblematic’ business-to-customers operations during that time. It’s a shame, therefore, that the UKGC’s investigation into EveryMatrix has left the company in a situation where it feels as though its white label business is ‘irreparably damaged’. That is in spite of the fact that they tried to prove that they operate in a ‘safe, responsible and compliant manner’ as swiftly as possible.
writing on the company’s website, Groes said that it was regrettable what the impact meant for EveryMatrix’s ‘loyal players’ as well as the brands and ‘long-standing white label partners in the UK’, but that it has ‘become unsalvageable’. Had the Gambling Commission concluded their investigation quickly, as Groes had hoped they would initially, it’s possible that EveryMatrix would have been able to rescue their solid reputation in the industry, but instead they will now have to concentrate on the business-to-business side of things and cut their losses.
