Monthly Archives: August 2017

Poker routines episode #13: Dominik Nitsche

Lee Davy sits down with the three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, and World Poker Tour Champions Club member, Dominik Nitsche, to learn more about his poker routines. 

At only 26-years of age, Dominik Nitsche has earned over $6.7m in live tournaments, including three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, and a World Poker Tour (WPT) title; online tournaments have also netted him over $4.1m.

How does he do it?

Let’s find out. 

Betting on Sports puts operators and affiliates on the road to Russia

The ‘Sport in Focus’ track at Betting on Sports (12-15 September) will culminate in a session dedicated to next year’s FIFA World Cup, as more than 120 operators and 80 high-level affiliates at #boscon2017 get on ‘The Road to Russia’.

AC Milan Commercial Director Jaap Kalma will be joined by an industry quartet tasked with educating over 1,200 delegates at Olympia Conference Centre on how to engage with a wider audience during Russia 2018, a tournament played at European friendly times.

‘World Cup 2018: The road to Russia’ has been perfectly timed for operators and affiliates seeking to put plans and partnerships in place ahead of the global footballing event. Ideas discussed will be expanded on during more targeted sessions at next year’s Betting on Football, which has been moved forward to 20-23 March to accommodate industry plans for the World Cup in Russia.

The rest of the panel is made up by BetStars Managing Director Zeno Ossko, Superbet Group Director of E-Commerce Jamie Hart, OpenBet Executive Vice President (Sports) Keith O’Loughlin and Shaun Simmonds, who heads up the marketing for  Kenya based sports betting group SportPesa.

Melco Int’l revenue soars after taking control of Melco Resorts

Asian casino operator Melco International Development saw its revenue nearly quadruple in the first half of 2017 on the strength of Macau’s resurgence.

On Thursday, Melco informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its revenue in the six months ending June 30 shot up 262% to HKD 20.1b (US $2.56b), while adjusted earnings rose 298.5% to HKD 4.7b. However, profit fell 98.4% to HKD 164.6m.

Melco said the profit slide was the result of a major one-off gain in H1 2016 from the disposal of previously held interest in an associate. There’s also the bill from Melco increasing its stake in the Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture (now known as Melco Resorts & Entertainment) from 37.9% at the end of 2016 to 51.3% this spring.

Melco began increasing its stake in Melco Crown a year ago as its former joint venture partner, Australia’s Crown Resorts, undertook a dramatic restructuring to refocus its attentions on its domestic resorts. Melco’s increased stake was perfectly timed, coming just as Macau began its return to growth after 26 months of consecutive revenue declines.

A Bitcoin world: with Dr Craig Wright

This event is part of the “We Are Fascinating Project” season of talks from entertaining experts and insightful individuals. The talks will each be capped off with a Q&A between the speaker and the audience. It’s a social, it’s a learning opportunity, it’s a little like an interactive book…where the reader gets to ask direct questions to the author.

Our speaker Dr. Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist, businessman and inventor who challenges the world with visionary ideas. Currently, he is Chief Scientist for nChain – the global leader in research and development of blockchain technologies.

Since emerging in 2009, Bitcoin has generated much interest as a cryptocurrency and the future of money. But what if bitcoin is far more?

Learn from visionary scientist Dr. Craig Wright, one of the earliest minds behind bitcoin, about his vision of a world with wide-scale adoption of both the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin network as a transformative technology platform. Bitcoin’s underlying technology platform is the blockchain, a distributed decentralised ledger that chronologically transactions in an immutable way.

CalvinAyre.com featured conferences & events: September 2017

WrB London

WrB London 2017 has a theme of “Responsible Gambling Innovation” and will cover responsible gambling politics, technology and commercial strategy.  Topics to be covered on the day will range from managing responsible gambling across multiple jurisdictions, to how to build a responsible and transparent culture, change the social perception of gambling and how to measure the success of a responsible gambling campaign.

What: WrB London

When: September 12, 2017

Online gambling sites face new DDoS threat from Android phones

Online gambling operators need to be aware of a new variety of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that recently plagued websites around the globe.

This week, technology giant Google was forced to purge roughly 300 Android apps from its Google Play online market after researchers uncovered hidden malware that allowed a new botnet dubbed WireX to commandeer 70k mobile phones in over 100 countries to maliciously bombard websites with data.

The apps in question were mundane products offering ringtones, media players and the like, and were programmed to run in the background, allowing the WireX botnet’s organizers to harness the infected devices even when the dodgy apps weren’t being used.

In some instances, the people behind WireX contacted targeted websites to demand ransom before unleashing their botnet on those who didn’t pay. The attacks began slowly at the start of August, ramping up dramatically mid-month, after which researchers began sleuthing the source of the attacks.

Tigre de Cristal’s VIP turnover surges, mass tables slump

Lawrence Ho’s Tigre de Cristal casino in Russia’s far east saw its VIP gambling turnover more than double in the first half of 2017.

On Thursday, the Hong Kong-listed Summit Ascent Holdings Ltd filed its report card covering the six months ending June 30, during which gaming and hotel revenue rose one-fifth to HKD 204.6m ($26.1m), while adjusted earnings improved by 62% to HKD 57m. However, a series of notional non-cash one-offs resulted in the company recording a net loss of HKD 5.4m for the period.

Just to be clear, Summit Ascent holds a 60% stake in Oriental Regent Ltd, which has a wholly owned subsidiary called G1 Entertainment Ltd that runs the Tigre de Cristal in Russia’s Primorye gaming zone near Vladivostok. G1 also pays Summit Ascent a management fee equal to 3% of Tigre de Cristal’s gaming revenue.

Tigre de Cristal’s VIP turnover hit HKD 8.4b in H1, up 140% year-on-year, while VIP revenue rose 48% to HKD 79.7m. VIP turnover through the first two months of August totaled HKD 4.25b, putting it on track to break its previous quarterly turnover record of HKD 5.6b in Q3 2016. However, that Q3 record was set with a daily average of only nine open tables, half the property’s current average.

Czech Republic restricts online bonuses, free bet offers

Central European betting and lottery operator Fortuna Entertainment Group (FEG) reported significant gains in its H1 revenue but its Czech Republic online gambling operations are about to face new restrictions.

On Thursday, FEG released its preliminary results for the six months ending June 30, during which betting stakes shot up nearly 41% to €720.7m, revenue improved 24.5% to €100.5m, while earnings fell 22% to €7.6m and profit fell by more than half to €2.5m.

The earnings slide was the hangover of FEG’s recent pricey acquisitions of the Romanian, Croatian and Spanish betting operations of the Hattrick Sports Group and the Forbet brands. FEG CEO Per Widerström claimed that if the one-off costs of acquiring and integrating these operations were absent, FEG’s H1 earnings would have risen 8% year-on-year.

Apart from the acquisitions, the company credited its online gambling operations as the main engine of H1’s growth. In February, FEG launched its new online gambling site in its biggest market, the Czech Republic, which formally ushered in a new online licensing regime this year.