Monthly Archives: March 2015

PokerStars Profits Soaring as Amaya Eyes New Jersey and Sports Betting Next

Major revenue spike in fourth quarter for Amaya Inc. Sports betting platform imminent Entry into New Jersey online gaming market this year, says Amaya CEO PokerStars may not be a legal entity yet in the US, but the online mega-site is earning its keep very nicely elsewhere, thank you very much. Parent company Amaya Inc. […]

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Nevada casino revenue slips in February as baccarat whales go MIA

Nevada casino revenue dipped 1% in February, returning to negative territory after January’s numbers interrupted a five-month losing streak.

Statewide, Nevada casinos reported revenue of $916m, down 1% year-on-year and down nearly 4% from January’s figure. The numbers were even worse on the Las Vegas Strip, where revenue fell 4.4% to $555.7m. For the year-to-date, the numbers are off 2% statewide and 4.2% on the Strip.

Much of the decline was attributed to a decline in baccarat volume, which came despite the Lunar New Year celebrations in February, as Macau’s vanishing VIP phenomenon exported its problems to US shores. Baccarat revenue fell 23.5% to $121m as baccarat handle fell 21.8%.

Excluding baccarat, Strip gaming revenue actually rose 3%. Blackjack was up 23.3% to $89.9m and craps rose 18.6% to $33.9m while roulette fell 1.9% to $27.9m. The rest of the table tallies shook out thus: three-card poker ($12.4m, flat), mini-baccarat ($9.3m, -39.6%), pai gow poker ($9m, +19.4%), let it ride ($3.3m, -5.5%), keno ($2.2m, +31.3%) and bingo ($1.2m, +144%). Slots revenue rose 4.9% to $565m and poker revenue fell 8% to $8.5m.

IS NFL EYEING LEGALIZED GAMBLING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC?

 

Is the NFL inching closer to joining the NBA in the push for legalized sports wagering? Depends on whom you talk to.

Late last week commissioner Roger Goodell announced that teams will be allowed to do one-year pay fantasy deals for the 2015 season, all of which will be subject to review after the season. While not a huge value proposition for the long-term yet, it does open a door that had been closed for a much-needed new revenue stream for teams.

Only a few teams have inked deals so far of some sort with fantasy outfits. The Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, each inked deals last fall with Draft Kings. Most most other clubs still deferring on what and how the decision will be made.

Patrick Smyth of the Broncos public relations office, said the team signed on with Draft Kings, one of the two big players in the Fantasy arena, last fall for good reason.

“The decision to become involved with fantasy sports provided an opportunity for us to engage and connect with our fans through a new and growing avenue,” Smyth said. “we moved forward with our partnership after consulting with the league office.”

At the time of the signing, the team explained that daily games and contests were the next frontier for fantasy sports, and that this would be another way for fans to engage with the sport and the team they love. The Patriots expressed similar reasons for being the first team in the NFL to partner with a fantasy operation.

According to a story last fall in the Boston Globe, the Patriots said then “many of our fans in the stadium are playing daily fantasy sports, and we want to provide them with the most up-to-date information.” http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/10/16/draftkings/5E2bKV1bzN2103jl1lg7BO/story.html

Calls to a dozen NFL teams seeking comment about their status with fantasy sports were mostly unreturned. Two said they had no comment at this time.

The New York Giants’ Pat Hanlon did say while the team had no comment at this point, ” It’s a matter we will be discussing internally once we have all the details of what is allowable.”

Another more intriguing issue is if the NFL and other leagues like the NBA, who play games in markets like London where legal gaming is allowed, will take a big step in 2015 and license an official local betting partner. With the NFL now holding regular season games and promoting more to a global audience, a natural next step could be to pull in dollars, legal dollars, in places where the games are played.

Speaking at the Sportel Conference in Miami two weeks ago, NFL EVP of International Mark Waller was somewhat evasive and very cautious on the subject.

“Right now we are looking at all options as we should as a business, but to say the NFL will license gambling or create a partnership anywhere with a legal bookmaker is not on the table,” he said. There have been rumors that both the NFL and the NBA would sign deals this coming summer, creating a new revenue stream and again testing the waters for what legal dollars good flow in from legalized sports gambling, but right now both leagues have been relatively silent on the matter.

If the leagues were to sign deals to license their marks, it would raise an intriguing question for a state like Nevada, which currently does not have any of the four professional sports playing in the state, but is pushing hard to add the NHL with a new arena.

In year’s past, when teams like the Los Angeles Lakers played regular season games in Las Vegas, sports books would not take legal bets on the games. Now in a changing landscape, a move to have a legal betting partner abroad could open the door for a legal Nevada partner by the leagues, especially for the NHL, in advance of any federal law change to allow sports betting across the board. A host of other states continue to challenge the Federal law on sports gambling, but as of now Nevada remains the only place in the US where sports betting is legal and regulated.

Quietly some of the worlds largest betting houses have set up operations in the United States and continue to monitor the activity with regard to sports betting and pay fantasy while staying engaged in legal betting operations in sports like horse racing and poker.

Casinos are also looking for the added bump sports gambling could bring as a way to enhance team partnerships that have been in place for years as well. Is the NFL’s cautious toe in the water with pay fantasy a next step in taking the public temperature for legalized gambling and will their overseas games open other doors? Right now most are silent, but it will remain a key story to watch for when the pads go back on later this spring across America.

The issue of teams signing deals with fantasy companies came alive again last week when Daniel Kaplan of The Sports Business  Journal wrote that the league was making it clear to teams they could ink one-year deals.

Kaplan wrote that the league told teams they could sign daily fantasy deals during the league’s annual meeting in Arizona.

The league said it wanted to formalize its position because it did not have a policy in that category.

Kaplan quoted an email by Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s VP/Communications, saying, “With more teams signing advertising deals last year the league reviewed the overall landscape and made a proposal to enable all clubs to explore potential arrangements. It would be for one year.”

  

Frank Scandale @Fscandale contributed to this report.

Paddy Power is expected to return €800 million surplus cash

Irish betting operator Paddy Power is expected to return over €800m surplus cash to shareholders in the coming years, according to Davy Stockbrokers.

The company announced its plan to return €392m in cash to shareholders during its posting of record profits in 2014 earlier this month. Paddy says it hasn’t identified any attractive acquisition and investment opportunities or other uses for surplus cash.

The capital return plan is set for the shareholders’ vote during the company’s annual general meeting on May 14. Paddy’s management said that it is “very confident” that the move will not compromise its future growth.

Davy officially upgraded Paddy Power from “neutral” to “outperform” status on March 30 and said that the company has scope for “material consensus earnings upgrades over time through a combination of better-than-expected top-line growth and scope to expand profit margins.”

PokerStars takes first sports bet, expects New Jersey license this quarter

Canada’s Amaya Gaming announced that its PokerStars online poker site took its first sports wager on Tuesday following the beta launch of its new sports betting product.

Amaya, which completed its $4.9b purchase of the Rational Group’s assets – including online poker giants PokerStars and Full Tilt – in August 2014, reported revenue of C$368.6m in the three months ending Dec. 31, up from just $37m in the same period the previous year. Adjusted earnings came to $154.6m, up from $16.7m.

But actual Q4 earnings came to a loss of $26.7m compared to a loss of $6.8m. Reflecting Amaya’s shift from a B2B to a B2C focus, sales and marketing costs leaped from $2.8m in 2013 to $63m last year.

The full year numbers were similar, albeit on a smaller scale, reflecting the half-year contributions from the Rational assets. Revenue rose to $688m, adjusted earnings came to $292.7m and net losses came to $7.5m, down from $29.2m. Acquisition costs rose from $1.3m to $22.4m.

Walt Disney eyes venture with DraftKings; MGT and Seneca Gaming to launch daily fantasy sports site

Walt Disney Co. is in talk with online fantasy sports site DraftKings about a venture investment that could see the Seattle based start-up valued at $1 billion.

If such a deal comes to pass, it would give DraftKings a new ammunition in the competition with FanDuel for new customers, the credibility of membership in the Unicorn Club— companies that have soared to a $1 billion valuation or higher, based on fundraising—and give it an elite media partner ESPN—another property of Walt Disney—in the way that FanDuel counts Comcast and NBC Sports among its investors.

FanDuel is also shopping around a possible large growth funding round—a deal was also described as at “$1 billion or more.”

Meanwhile, DraftDay.com’s owner MGT Capital Investments has partnered with Seneca Gaming Corporation, owned by the sovereign Seneca Nation of Indians, to launch a new daily fantasy sports site for Seneca Resorts & Casino’s three properties – Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino, Seneca Allegany Resort & Casino, and Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.

New delays plague Japan’s casino bill

The move to legalize casino gambling in Japan took another hit on Monday as proponents have resigned themselves to a fresh round of delays, calling the division within the ruling coalition as another setback to passing what has become a controversial and polarizing bill.

Pro-casino lawmakers had said last week they would resubmit a previously failed bill by Tuesday, the end of the fiscal year. But they backed away from that plan on Monday as efforts continued to get the backing of the junior partner in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‘s coalition.

Takeshi Iwaya, a senior member of the group from Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, told Reuters that it’s crucial for all parties in the issue to be “on the same page” before proceeding with their next move. Any kind of dissension from within the ranks, small as it may be, can be considered a red flag, which is why the the group decided to hold off on submitting the bill until the group can convey a united front on the matter.

Iwaya didn’t specify when the group now plans to submit the bill, but a person involved in the process told Reuters that it could be just a matter of weeks – no later than early April – before the pro-casino movement re-submits the new casino bill.