banning certain types of bets for integrity reasons a recent study that looked at 20 jurisdictions across the world found out that these type of restrictions are not actually useful for integrity purposes. We analyzed all the alerts that were received during the last five years and 90% of the alerts that we received were on a match taking place in one country, but the customer betting on that particular match was in a different country. This means that if a country prohibits certain types of bets in that jurisdiction that doesn’t prevent other consumers betting on that event in that country, or using that specific market. So for integrity reasons it doesn’t make sense also, because it wouldn’t get picked up by the monitoring. AB: Okay. So we’ve kind of laid out the challenges. Do any of you have thoughts how can we address some of these things going forward? What’s the best way to move forward in a productive manner? VV: I can speak about eSports. I believe that there will be a joint push from the tournament organizers and data rightsholders and the publishers, to do something, at least in the US, because this is a huge market and very fragmented. It’s like 10 states where you can accept eSports bets and the other states are just hanging in the air. So we need to speak with regulators, as a group to educate them to see that it’s not just under age kids playing, it’s a sport, it’s a professional sport. And fun fact, you typically get burned out at 25, you cannot play competitively after 25 because your reflexes are not as good as the young guys. So you don’t have that many years to play. You can coach and so on but it’s very challenging to stay and to be at the top. So it’s a real sport and you need to be aware of all the demands on the players. So there is a need for the eSports industry to get together, to speak with the regulators with one voice and see if we can find a common language and see if there is a way to push this agenda to the Senate. PL: First of all, to do something you need to set a strategy. The strategy has to be set by the whole industry, what are the different areas that we need to tackle? We need to tackle education. But that’s very broad. How do we educate? There are different ways of educating the regulator: does this jurisdiction allow for specific masterclasses to be taken on the premises of the regulator? In Spain’s case? Yes, I’ve gone with experts in eSports, to the regulator, and they’ve been very appreciative. I’ve gone with Bitcoin experts, and they’ve been very appreciative. So is this possible in other jurisdictions? There are many other ways that you can tackle this. Lobbying, as we mentioned. Every time a regulation is set for public audience we need the whole industry to assess those papers. There’s a very relevant piece of legislation of regulation that is going to be implemented next year in Spain and it’s going to affect all of the other jurisdictions who automatically copy paste. So if you’re not an operator in Spain, you still need to be overviewing what is happening there and you can very well provide your input on this particular piece of legislation. There are rules regarding what and how information has to be provided to the regulator. So you definitely need to make a strategy how to do this, maybe through an association. If there are many associations then the language should be agreed upon because it’s to their benefit. One of the things that is not being completely communicated with the regulator and the legislator is the issue of flexible regulation. I’m very afraid of flexible regulation, because it’s the executive body who is then taking decisions. And you don’t really have a legal basis to challenge the process. And they are affecting fundamental rights and constitutional rights. So you need to definitely strategize that, and you need independent studies on this. We need to get our act together if we want to tackle these issues. AB: I could not agree more, I think you just hit the nail on the head. Education is key. And one of the things that you said, Patricia, that I want to drive home is, we all have to be active. This is a worldwide industry, on the sports side, and on the gaming industry side. And even if you’re not active in a jurisdiction, being there, to educate and be a part of the legislative and regulatory processes is valuable, because there’s one thing I’ve learned working on both the lobbying and the legal side in this industry, it’s that precedent is set everywhere. Another jurisdiction comes in and just takes that legislation or takes that regulation and changes a few words here or there and uses it as their own. And if we can’t collaborate on a worldwide basis and really get on the same page and show up and educate, then we’re not going to be able to drive it forward. So this is my call to all of you out there. If you’re going to be involved in Indiana or have any
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