Mr. Mine: Idle Miner Town

How to play Mr. Mine: Idle Miner Town

“Now, having said that, we’ve also been in a low sportsbook activity environment during July when most football leagues have been closed. But we have that underlying improvement in momentum, and we continue that now throughout the rest of the year.”

Beyond SunBet’s growth, another highlight of Sun International’s H1 was a return to growth for its land-based casino segment, for the first time in three years.

Revenue from land-based casinos increased 1.5% to R3.42 billion, while Sun International’s market share in South Africa grew 2.3% to 49%.

What is Mr. Mine: Idle Miner Town?

For an industry already producing content at enormous scale, that distinction is important. The promise of Game in a Box and Studio in a Box is not simply that they can help put even more games into an already crowded market.

Instead, Curwen hopes that by removing some of the cost and risk that have traditionally surrounded development, creators will have greater freedom to take chances on what they produce.

“That’s ultimately where I want Game in a Box to take us,” he says. “Technology handles more of the complexity, while people concentrate on creating great games.”

How to play Mr. Mine: Idle Miner Town

But, as Robinson warns, the opportunity to enter Africa doesn’t come without challenges.

“It’s profitable, it’s growing and it was for sale from a distressed vendor,” he says. “That combination rarely appears in regulated Europe, where scaling a B2C brand means paying up for customers against Flutter and Entain on thin margins.

“Africa isn’t saturated, but I wouldn’t call it easy either. Betway and the local incumbents are well dug in. The difference is that you’re competing for a market that’s still forming, at a fraction of the acquisition cost, and the operating margin is there if you get the payments and the product right. The risk is regulatory and currency rather than competitive.”