Magic Rush: Heroes

About Magic Rush: Heroes

“The regulatory failures are unhelpful but perhaps the sheer number and regularity of them has made them less remarkable, such that they become ‘wallpaper’,” Waugh says.

He argues that some lawyers and licensees believe the Commission’s presentation of cases is detached from the operational reality but feel they have little option other than to accept the “regulator’s truth” when settling.

“The Commission’s approach to reporting may well create the inaccurate impression that the industry is inherently non-compliant,” he adds. A more balanced account might place failures alongside the majority of licensees that pass assessments or lead on customer wellbeing, although Waugh considers such a shift unlikely.

How to play Magic Rush: Heroes

“That dual value is really the point of the deal,” he explains. “Owning a leading local operator gives us direct, ground-level insight into regulatory developments, player behaviour and payment infrastructure across several African markets, insight that is very difficult to build from the outside.

“Over time we expect that knowledge and local presence to help us open conversations with other operators looking to enter or expand in Africa, in the same way our historical B2C experience in Europe underpinned our platform proposition there.

“So this is not an either/or. It is a B2C acquisition that we expect to strengthen our B2B pipeline on the continent.”

What is Magic Rush: Heroes?

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%.

While the company did not comment on how its market share had progressed since then, on Sun International’s post-H1 earnings call on Mondat, Bengtsson reiterated that product was key for its next phase of expansion.