US media reports Monday were debating a possible conflict of interest issue involving the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (bought by the Adelson family recently) and columnist John L. Smith, who has had a legal brush with Sheldon Adelson in the past. Following Adelson’s acquisition of the LRVJ, long-time columnist Smith wrote a piece …
The Washington State Gambling Commission has announced that it has hired the professional services of New Jersey gambling consultants Spectrum Gaming to prepare an economic market study on gambling in the state. A press statement from the Commission notes that Spectrum has worked in the field since the 1980s and has conducted studies on gambling …
The latest Sunday Times Rich List in the UK shows that the Coates family – owners of online gambling group bet365 – have continued to prosper since last year and have now moved into the Top 25 list, having boosted the family fortune by GBP 1.4 billion since last year to GBP 3.8 billion. That …
Private equity group CVC Capital Partners is at the centre of another major gambling deal, announcing Sunday that it signed a binding agreement to acquire a majority stake in betting firm Tipico, Germany’s largest private sports betting group. Privately-held Tipico – a sponsor of soccer clubs like FC Bayern or Hamburg’s HSV – was put …
The full year 2015 results for online gambling group GVC Holdings were released Monday, revealing that pre-tax profits plunged almost 40 percent despite rising revenues from wagers, as the gambling company grappled with the cost of its GBP 1.1 billion acquisition of loss-making rival Bwin.Party (see previous reports). The Isle of Man-based group reported that …
Richard Moross has advised the Ladbrokes’ Board that he will be stepping down as a non-executive director at this year’s AGM and will not seek re-election as a director. Moross said that his decision was based on a need to devote more time to his other commercial interests. The effective date of his resignation is …
Specialist online gambling software supplier A Bet A is to launch fantasy football into UK and Irish retail bookmaking for the first time with the roll-out of MegaFan Manager product. The service will allow shop customers to use their skill and knowledge of this summer’s Euro 2016 tournament to pick a team of 11 players …
Among the many informative articles on eSports which surfaced over the weekend was one from ESPN examining the response of the traditional gambling industry to the fast rising vertical and its market-coveted young 18 to 34 years age demographic. The piece quotes a typical eSports event at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre last week in …
That scourge of all sports – corruption – has perhaps predictably raised its ugly head in the nascent but lucrative eSports business, with high profile prosecutions in South Korea underlining a determination in the business to combat the evil. The publication Kotaku notes that a report on the StarCraft2 match-fixing scandal has just been released …
US casinos of the future will probably offer a wide range of gambling variants that include skill-based slot machines, online gambling, sports betting, fantasy sports and eSports arenas and wagering facilities, the research company Rubin Brown predicts in its new report “Gaming Statistics”, based on statistical data from the industry. Gaming practice leader Daniel Holmes, …
Skins, usually add-on weapons purchased in-game which can give an advantage in eSports competitions, have reportedly morphed into additional uses that include payment ‘currency’ in wagering on third party websites, usually on eSport competitions. Given the youth of many players and eSports fans, and the lack of regulation in the sector, the wagering reports are …
The future looks bleak for the up-and-coming YP eSports team following a ban by the Electronic Sports League on its participation in league competitions on grounds that it is sponsored by the YouPorn adult entertainment company. Despite efforts by the team to work around the ban, including an offer to re-brand entirely, and an undertaking …
Charges which originated in the 2007 bust of an illegal multi-billion dollar New Jersey sports betting ring culminated this week with a three year jail sentence handed down to the alleged boss of the ring, eighty-year-old Joseph DiNapoli. Prosecutors alleged that DiNapoli, who entered a guilty plea in February this year on racketeering charges flowing …
The police in Kota Kinabalu, capital of the Malaysian Sabah province, have deployed a new weapon in their fight against illegal online gambling operators – cutting off their electricity supply. The measure will help prevent the notoriously persistent illegal operators from simply buying new computers and re-starting operations following police raids…now they will have to …
There is some irony in the fact that after the state of New Jersey has battled unsuccessfully for the last three years to secure intrastate legalised sports betting, the American Gaming Association is now pushing hard for changes to federal law. In terms of the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act 1992 just four …
Robbie Cooke, chief executive of the Australian Tabcorp group, has confirmed the accuracy of an advisory sent by Tatts Group to shareholders that a A$9 billion merger with Tabcorp is currently on ice. The Tatts advisory explained that both companies are bidding in the A$1 billion sale of the Western Australian government’s TAB network, the …
GameAccount Network (GAN) continued to hoover up the land casino demand for online free-play social casino systems this week, announcing yet another US deal, this time with “one of the largest Native American casino operators in the US.” The operator concerned cannot be identified until the regulators have given approval, but GAN’s Simulated Gaming social …
A dedicated windfall of Euro 70 million will be available for the successful punter who hits the Colossus jackpot on the upcoming Euro 2016 football championship, distributor BetConstruct has announced, claiming one of the biggest sports-gambling jackpots yet seen. On Friday the company took the opportunity to launch a new online betting partner site titled …
Bulgaria-based betting product development, operations and casino marketing group UltraPlay has enhanced its product line-up with Virtual Sports games from BetRadar and online slots from Prague-based Endorphina Games. Chief operating officer Borislav Borisov announced this week that the new virtual sports games have launched at UltraPlay client sites BetEast and VulkanStavka, and Endorphina’s casino games …
The US branch of UK online gambling group Betfair (now part of the Betfair-Paddy Power UK gaming leviathan) has disclosed that starting May 10 it will operate a real-money betting exchange – the first in the United States – with New Jersey horseracing group Monmouth Park in the Darby Development group. Beta testing on the …
The Russian Ministry of Finance has a strange way of creating the right tax environment to encourage online gambling operators, as demonstrated by its recent announcement of a tenfold hike in online gambling taxes paid by Russian bookmakers to 2.5 to 3 million roubles per operating region, along with a plan to make the already …
The Greek government has confirmed that it intends to call a parliamentary vote next week in order to increase the already high tax rate on gaming from 30 percent to 35 percent (see previous reports). In the quest for ever more tax revenue the government appears deaf to pleas from operators that it will be …
With a science fiction theme and a minimalistic lay-out, the new Dice Tronic slot from Bulgaria-based developer Zeus Services launched Thursday, boasting RTP of up to 94 percent. The browser-based 5 reel slot has 5 fixed pay lines and 3 stops, and joins the company’s new NXG Line platform to become Zeus’s second game release …
Kambi’s new Premium sportsbook product, due for release later this year, has already been selected by the Mr Green online casino company to complement its existing casino action. Kambi chief executive Kristian Nylen said in a statement Thursday that Mr Green is well positioned geographically to enhance its success with the new product “We look …