The Paying Piano Club

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the release signals a provider comfortable iterating on both a familiar mechanical family and a familiar creative template

Humor works here as a differentiator in a category crowded with interchangeable Hold & Win releases. By giving the Coin mechanic a clear narrative wrapper, a besieged gnome plus flames and flying objects, Play’n GO gives operators a title with an on-screen hook that needs little explanation.

The commercial argument is straightforward. The commercial hook sells itself on screen: Frank, the gnome gang over the fence, and a suburban garden turned battlefield.

What is The Paying Piano Club?

The Loterij suggested around 200,000 Dutch citizens already engage with unauthorised platforms.

Earlier this summer, the Dutch Online Gaming Providers (VNLOK) trade body initiated legal action against Meta and lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission, accusing the social media giant of failing to prevent the widespread display of illegal online gambling advertisements targeting Dutch users on Facebook and Instagram. 

According to VNLOK, the illegal online gambling market in the Netherlands now matches the size of the regulated sector, with estimated annual revenues in excess of €1 billion ($1.1 billion).

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According to Multiples.VC, the average enterprise multiple (EV/EBITDA) of top US-listed gaming companies is currently 10x. Data from New York University last updated in January pegged the overall market average at 23.9x and 19.7x among EBITDA-positive firms, suggesting the sector is undervalued relative to other industries. In a report released Monday, Fitch Ratings said most North American gaming companies hold “Stable” outlooks with “adequate rating headroom” despite consumer headwinds.

Macquarie’s Beynon agrees with that sentiment, pointing to the relative stability of gaming companies through tough economic stretches such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Bankruptcies in the sector have been low relative to the broader market, he notes, and both land-based and digital companies have reason for optimism moving forward.

“It’s certainly not lost on us that this sector has underperformed for several years in a row just because it doesn’t have either the growth of say, tech companies, or the perceived free cash flow-insulated businesses, which we believe it does…We’ve thought there’s been value in the sector for a few years, particularly this year,” he told iGB.