Sports bettors wagered just under $116m on the Super Bowl with Nevada sportsbooks, falling just short of 2014’s record $119.4m haul. Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman A.G. Burnett reported that unaudited figures put the state’s 191 licensed sportsbooks’ net win at $3.26m, representing a 2.8% hold, the lowest figure since the 0.8% win from Green Bay’s defeat of Pittsburgh in 2011. This year’s win was also a fraction of last year’s record $19.7m payday.

Most books reported losing money on the game itself while making their bones off prop wagers. The results would have been much different had Seattle not opted for that ill-advised pass from the one-yard line. MGM Resorts International VP of Race & Sports Jay Rood told Bloomberg that Malcolm Butler’s interception caused a “significant seven-figure swing” for the casino’s sportsbook.

William Hill US director of trading Nick Bogdonovich echoed these sentiments, saying the firm “got killed on the game itself” but eked out “the smallest of profits” via futures and props. Wynn Resorts Race and Sports Book director Johnny Avello told KTNV his book lost money on the game but “counting the props and everything, it wasn’t a disaster.”

Jay Kornegay, exec director of the Westgate Las Vegas Sportsbook said the offside call against Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett that brought the ball from the goal to the five-yard line following Butler’s interception was “probably the best encroachment in the history of football.” Bets on a safety were among the most popular prop wagers taken on this year’s game.

GTECH TAKING MGM MOBILE

In related news, Italian gaming technology firm GTECH has inked its first digital sports betting deal in the US with MGM Resorts. The deal will see GTECH subsidiary GTECH Interactive UK provide enhanced sports betting technology at 12 MGM properties in Nevada and GTECH’s OnPremise mobile sports betting and casino gaming technology at 10 MGM properties. The companies plan a phased deployment of the technology starting in Q3 2015.

MGM senior biz-dev VP Thomas Mikulich said GTECH was selected due to its “end-to-end experience, expertise and technological innovation.” The technology will allow MGM sports bettors to wager “seamlessly across multiple gaming channels” while OnPremise will allow guests at 10 MGM properties to enjoy mobile slots and table games “whether they’re at a sportsbook, slot floor, restaurant or poolside.”

Official figures show that Macau casino gross gaming revenue fell for an eight straight month in January.

According to the data released by the city’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) on Monday, Macau casino revenue fell by 17.4% year-on-year in January to MOP23.75 billion (US$2.97 billion), following the 30.4% year-on-year decline in December.

The number of Macau-registered junket operators also dropped 16% in January to 183 compared to 217 in the same period last year.

Rating agency Standard & Poors said the sector will experience further drops in revenue in the short term, but the situation can be reversed if operators broaden their customer base to focus on China’s growing middle class and non-gaming holiday-makers.

“We still view the long-term growth drivers for the gaming sector in Macau as good. Demand should remain firm, thanks to China’s healthy economic growth and its growing middle-class, said Joe Poon, Standard & Poors’s analyst, in a report.

Meanwhile, casino services and property firm Macau Legend Development Ltd. announced that the company has received all the necessary permits from the Macau government to open its Harbourview Hotel.

The 444-room hotel does not have any gaming but the facility is connected to the firm’s Babylon Casino by a bridge. The company had previously announced that it had been granted 35 additional gaming tables which will be deployed at the Babylon Casino and  Pharaoh’s Palace Casino.

Lee Davy takes a gander at the shortlists for the inaugural American Poker Awards, and takes a punt at who he thinks will get lucky on the night.

On February 27th 2015, at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the Global Poker Index (GPI) will take another baby step towards their ‘sportification of poker’ when they host the inaugural GPI American Poker Awards.

Kara Scott will host the event that will recognize the achievements of the main players in the North American poker industry during 2014. I counted at least a dozen awards, and nine of them will have been selected via a nomination process involving a 60-person strong nomination panel and select jury.

Here are my winners.

Media Person of the Year

1. Nolan Dalla

2. Chris Grove

The poker software analysis tool, Hold’em Manager, and a series of Hold’em Manager 2 apps, are now available to buy, using Bitcoin, after the company set up a Bitcoin transaction method in their online store.

Whether you want to purchase apps on Apple’s app store, book an inter-galactic flight on Virgin Galactic, or buy yourself a pair of stockings and suspenders from Victoria Secret, you can do so buy using Bitcoin.

The value of the cryptocurrency may be continuing to drop (at the time of writing one Bitcoin is worth around $230. It once exceeded $1,000) but that hasn’t stopped some of the largest companies in the world giving customers the opportunity to purchase products using the cyber stuff.

The poker industry has also gotten into the act. And whilst we are used to discussion centered on Bitcoin online poker rooms, it’s refreshing to now hear that poker software companies like Max Value Software has also thrown their hat into the ring.

Max Value Software is the parent company of Hold’em Manager and PokerTracker – the two premier online poker analysis software products, and over the weekend, Hold’em Manager posted news on their forum that they are to allow customers to use Bitcoin to buy Hold’em Manager 2 (HEM2) and a series of non-subscription based HEM Apps.

The adoption of cryptocurrency now means there are six ways to purchase HEM products: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Neteller and now Bitcoin.

HEM products: NoteCaddy Premium, Leak Buster 4.0, SitNGo Wizard 2, Tilt Scanner, and most of the Table Scanner 2 services can all be obtained using Bitcoin. TableNinja II and Table Scanner 2’s Insta-Scan service is still off limits, according to PokerSoftware.com.

Phil Ivey has once again won the Aussie Millions $250,000 LK Boutique Challenge. The third time he has done so in the past four years.

There are plenty of reasons to love Australia. There is the wonderful wildlife, amazing people, and for Phil Ivey: the Aussie Millions $250,000 LK Boutique Challenge!

The great man has just defeated Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, in heads-up action, to take the first prize of AU$2,205,000, and leapfrog over Daniel Colman to take third spot in the All-Time Hendon Mob Live Tournament money list.

[Image Credit: PokerAsiaPacific & Kenneth Lim]

It’s the third time in four years that Ivey has won this title. Sam Trickett’s 2013 victory against a German onslaught the only blot on Ivey’s Melbourne landscape. In truth, you could sense it was coming. The great man sharpening up his weapons of mass destruction with a 23rd place finish in the $10,600 Aussie Millions Main Event just days earlier.

25 entrants created a total prize pool of AU$6.1m, and only five players would walk away with a profit. Actually, that’s inaccurate because one of the five cashers didn’t make a profit. Scott Seiver bought in for AU$750,000, and must have been extremely grateful to end up in fourth spot for a $15,000 loss.

Erik Seidel, himself an Aussie Millions specialist, finished fifth after running A3 into the pocket kings of Doug Polk; Scott Seiver would be flushed out in fourth by Timex; and Polk would cash in third after his A5cc ran into the AQo of the Canadian.

Tom Marchese has banked himself a tidy profit of $600,000+ after winning back-to-back $25,000 High Roller events at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Did you know that there is an event called The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake? It’s an annual event held in Gloucester, over the Spring Bank Holiday, and it’s a race to catch a 9lb round of Double Gloucester cheese as it’s rolled down a hill.

Did you also know that there is an event called The Aria $25,000 High Roller? It’s a poker game where men, and women, who can afford a $25,000 buy-in, sit down and play cards.

What do the two have in common?

They both involve Big Cheese on a roll.

Tom “BigCheese_Poker” Marchese has just finished at the top of the pile of both the Aria $25,000 High Roller II and III in Las Vegas. It’s a perfect start to a year that follows on from his most successful.

In 2014, Marchese banked over $4.4m, including three seven figure scores, one of which came in September when he was victorious in the $100,000 Super High Roller event also at The Aria. He begins 2015 with over $600,000+ in profit after topping fields of 41 & 42 entrants, in what is fast becoming THE place to be in Vegas poker.