Monthly Archives: February 2015

Another rumored arena on The Strip?

In today’s column in the LVRJ, Norm Clarke mentions rumors that local billionaire being in serious negotiations to a major arena to compete with the MGM/AEG arena and thinks that Sheldon Adelson is the billionaire in question. This does make sense seeing that he does have the deep pockets for such a project and an arena would compliment the Sands Expo Center.

London Affiliate Conference 2015 Day 1 Recap

The London Affiliate Conference 2015 went off with a bang today at the Olympia London, a new venue for the ever-growing LAC.

This is the biggest event of the year for the iGaming Affiliate industry, with almost three thousand people expected to attend over the two days its open.  Running alongside the LAC is the Financial Partners Expo, the largest event dedicated to the retail finance sector, an industry with significant crossover to iGaming.

The LAC expo hall has been divided into two floors this year, the first floor featuring iGaming affiliate program booths and the second floor featuring binary and forex.  Without a doubt, the first floor was the busier and more garish of the two, but there was a decent amount of activity upstairs as well.

As per usual, a good percentage of the iGaming Affiliate program booths featured free alcohol, Paddy Power with their pure Irish Guinness on tap, Caliente.mx with their lively open bar and music, 666Bet with their custom brewed 6.66% “Bullet” beer named after their new brand ambassador Roberto Carlos…you get the idea.

One of the more unique booths this year was Coral’s, where they featured a burger stand (sans burgers, unfortunately) manned by Coral TV personalities Carly and Farley.  The duo appear on Coral’s TV commercials with Carly representing the type of girl all men wish they had on their arm and Farley carrying out impersonations of famous football celebs such as Harry Redknapp and “Stevie G”.

In addition to the expo, there were three session tracks taking place simultaneously during day one of LAC- “New Markets and Opportunities”, “Financial Partners Expo” and “Acquisition Zone”.

Over at the “New Markets and Opportunities” track there was a Bitcoin session during which the panelists discussed opportunities in this sector for affiliates.

Aaron Mermelstein Wins the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open

Aaron Mermelstein has become the latest member of the World Poker Tour Champions Club after defeating Eugene Todd, in heads-up action, to take the crown at the Borgata Winter Poker Open in Atlantic City.

Aaron Mermelstein has prevented Shawn Cunix from becoming the 21st player to win two World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event titles, with a life altering tournament performance in Atlantic City.

[Image Credit: WPT]

The 27-year old from Philadelphia was playing in only his third-ever WPT event, when he walked away from the Borgata Winter Poker Open as the only remaining contestant from 989 entries, and $712,350 the richer.

It was a tough final table.

Season X WPT Jacksonville winner Cunix was joined by the likes of Season 6 WPT Borgata final tablist Eugene Todd, former Deepstacks Tour winner Randy Pfeifer, and World Series of Poker (WSOP) final tablist Justin Liberto.

Mermelstein came into the final table second in chips. Cunix had the chip lead. The next nine hours of play would see 181 hands splayed across the table; 17 different lead changes, and four different chip leaders. It was like a game of pass the parcel with the WPT trophy playing the role of parcel. When the music stopped it remained in Mermelstein’s hands.

Boxing Superstar Manny Pacquiao Gets Bluffed

Boxing legend Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao can truthfully say that only a handful of people have gotten the best of him in the ring, but when it comes to high stakes no-limit holdem ring games, the 36 year old boxing sensation from the Philippines is somewhat more likely to meet his match. According to high stakes […]

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NFL Super Bowl XLIX Picks

So here we are. This time tomorrow, we’ll have a Super Bowl champion. At this point, it’s probably safe to ask if you’ve already made your Super Bowl bets. I’ve locked down mine and I even threw in a few more props for good measure. So as we count down the final hours leading up to Super Bowl XLIX, let’s take a look at some of the bets and props that I bet on. The objective here, as always, is to impart my betting wisdom – or lack thereof – on everyone with the hope that it can give you some insight on my thought process heading into the game.

 Who’s going to win?

I initially planned to put this article up yesterday, and then I figured that with the spread being as low as it is, late betting action could drive that number haywire. Turns out, I was right. Depending on your sportsbook, the spread for the game has become a hot mess. Some books still have the New England Patriots as -1 favorites, the spread that has been in place for the better part of the past two weeks. But other books now have the game as a pick ‘em, and even more interesting, others have taken to flipping the roles and putting the Seattle Seahawks as -1 favorites.

Unless the game somehow ends up as a one-point affair, I doubt that we’ll get a significant bump in juice for any of these spreads. There’s going to be a some given the switching lines, but the overlying action here remains on who you think is going to win, regardless of the spread. If you think the Pats win, take the money line on books where they’re the underdogs. If you think the Seahawks win, do the same.

As for me, I started this season on record that the Pats would be in the Super Bowl. I initially had them losing to the New Orleans Saints, but we all know how that turned out. Think go me as being stubborn, but I just can’t see the Patriots losing three of their last Super Bowl games.

I’m scared silly of the Seattle Seahawks defense, but I like the Pats to uncork some of their patented in-game trickery to get the job done here.

 Prediction: Patriots 23, Seahawks 20

Machester United Launches Branded Casino Games

 

Machester United Launches Branded Casino Games

Manchester United and KamaGames have announced a global partnership and multi-year deal in which KamaGames becomes the official social games partner of the club.

A range of social casino games will be launched as part of the partnership, using United branding, including their logo and imagery.

KamaGames is a global developer and publisher of social games for mobile platforms, online, Steam, Xbox Live and PlayStation networks and claim to reach over 70 million users worldwide.

Richard Arnold, United group managing director, commented on the partnership: “Manchester United is lucky enough to have a huge global following and we understand the importance of engaging with and entertaining our fans.

“KamaGames and their innovative products will allow us to do this in new and exciting ways.”

KamaGames CEO, Danny Hammett, added: “KamaGames and Manchester United share a similar worldwide audience and, with this in mind, we are confident that the partnership will be a huge success for both organisations.

“We are proud and honoured to be associated with such a great team and iconic brand, and we look forward to building a strong relationship with the club and its fans.”

Seen originially at sportindustry.biz

Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

THE AMERICAS

Intertain Group said it was finalizing a potential $1b acquisition; Nevada casino gaming revenue fell in 2014 despite record sports betting; Sen. John McCain said he’d like to hold congressional hearings on legal sports betting; a judge approved Illinois as the proper venue to consider Caesars Entertainment’s bankruptcy; social gaming was the lone bright spot of IGT’s fiscal Q1; Minnesota pols aimed their guns at the state lottery’s online operations; Sheldon Adelson said jump and Lindsey Graham said how high; federal authorities busted an illegal online betting and marijuana operation in Oregon; Delaware’s regulated online poker revenue fell 77% in 2014; Scientific Games picked Las Vegas for its new corporate HQ; the World Series of Poker kicked PokerNews off its live reporting team; a SWAT team broke up a poker game in Virginia; Cloudbet’s Dennis Laudrup explained why Bitcoin is the best SuperBowl betting option and the online marketing chief for Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino explained why no piece of customer data goes uncollected.

EUROPE & MIDDLE EAST

Rank chose Bede Gaming as its new core online platform provider; France’s regulated online gambling market was saved by sports betting; Dutch regulators fined ComeOn Europe €180k for targeting Dutch punters; Russia announced it was scrapping one of its designated gambling zones; Cherry AB took a 51% stake in affiliate Game Lounge; Bwin.party warned it would take a €15m hit this year from new EU VAT rules; a Turkish political party was accused of being a front for gambling operations; a new study determined spot-betting was no great threat to match integrity; Beirut’s Casino du Liban was the target of an aborted car-bombing plot; Wink Bingo’s Eltan Gorodetsky discussed the art of rebranding; Betsson’s Simon Lidzen discussed the personalization of mobile apps; Inspired Publishing’s Tiz Corta offered insights into effective affiliate marketing; t2Marketing International’s Stephen Padveen listed 20 criteria for building a social media player archetype and Rebecca Liggero offered her picks for the top six sessions to attend at the London Affiliate Conference.

ASIA

Macau casinos lost 34 junket operators in 2014 and Macau officials proposed a full smoking ban in casinos; Las Vegas Sands’ mass market strength helped it ride out Macau’s downturn; Donaco International acquired the Star Vegas casino in Poipet; Sri Lanka’s new gov’t officially scrapped plans for new resort casinos; Bloomberry Resorts acquired land in South Korea with an eye toward international expansion; a call center working for Ole777.com was raided by the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration; Singapore’s Remote Gambling Act readied its starter’s gun and a China Welfare Lottery cockup sparked allegations that the fix was in.