Monthly Archives: December 2017

WSOP target amateurs, high rollers, & PLO fans in CONFIRMED 2018 schedule

A few days after the 2018 World Series of Poker schedule was leaked to the poker world, the minds behind the iconic annual poker fest release the confirmed program focusing on improving value for amateurs, high rollers, and Pot-Limit Omaha fans.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has lowered the curtain on any scars caused by the leaked 2018 schedule by quickly confirming the 2018 program in an email sent to the media, today.

Grab your camping gear, make sure to pack enough rotten tomatoes to hurl at Chris Ferguson’s Player of the Year banner, the most celebrated poker tournament this side of the bag of multi-coloured carrots that lie on my desk, is returning bigger and better than ever.

I should have waited a day.

Tasmanian Labor party vows ban on pubs and clubs’ 2,300 pokies

Tasmania’s Labor party has finally decided just how many video poker machines it wants to see in the Australian state’s pubs and clubs: zero.

In October, Tasmania’s Greens party challenged Labor’s leadership to come clean on its official vision for the state’s pokies industry, amid rumors that Labor was waffling on its earlier pledge to push for a drastic reduction in the roughly 2,300 pokies currently hypnotizing pub- and club-goers.

The Federal Group holds a monopoly pokies license in Tasmania that expires in 2023. The ruling Liberal party has suggested it wants to open a tender for a new pokies license post-2023, while pushing for a modest decrease (150 units) of non-casino pokies.

On Wednesday, Labor unveiled its official pokies policy, which seeks a total ban on pokies outside casinos by 2023, based on the party’s view that the “harmful impacts of poker machine gambling are widespread.” Pokies are routinely cited as Australia’s top sources of both gaming revenue and problem gamblers.

Poker and Bad Beats: How to complain the right way

Inspired by another Jose Mourinho moan and groan, Lee Davy examines the world of complaining to offer some advice on how best to approach in when you’re playing poker.

Manchester City has just treated Manchester United like a cat paws a mouse. The cat doesn’t want to eat the mouse; I’m not even sure it means to kill it. The mouse dies of fear. The cat just wants to play, like City, who won 2-1.

To make things worse, the pawing happens in Old Trafford, a fortress for the past 40-games. United, one of the best sides in Europe, only had 35% possession, a stat that has never been as low since Opta began making a living by recording such things when we were all fretting over the world ending when 1999 turned into something else.

After the match, Jose Mourinho, one of the most respected managers in world football; the Commander-in-Chief of one of the world’s most iconic football teams; the Special One – takes his post-match interview with the BBC and continues to spew forth bile with more heat than liquid magma.

EPL review week 17: Burnley for the Champions League anyone?

The first part of a midweek two-parter sees Burnley move into a Champions League place after beating Stoke, Crystal Palace walks out of the bottom three for the first time this season with a late, late win against Watford, and Huddersfield loses again, this time to the Champions Chelsea.

Burnley 1 v 0 Stoke 

If the Premier League were to end today, Burnley would be in the Champions League. Think about that for a second. It’s as absurd at those palm trees you see inside shopping centres.

And it’s not as if they’re hitting a white hot vein of form, slamming goals in, left, right and centre. But here’s the thing with Burnley. They don’t concede goals. With 12 in the Goals Against column, only the two Manchester teams have better rocks at the back.

Timothy Adams wins 2nd title of 2017, PokerStars Casino crowns 7th millionaire

The Canadian High Roller, Timothy Adams, has won his second title of 2017 after taking down the €50,000 Super High Roller at the PokerStars Championship Prague, and PokerStars Casino crowns a seventh millionaire of the year. 

I’m mind reading here, I know that, but come on, we all do this for a living, right?

It’s the back end of October, and Timothy Adams is in Macau competing in the HK$800,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Super High Roller. The event began with 79 entrants, and there are only three people left.

Dietrich Fast.

Oregon among betting favorites for Saturday as bowl season begins

The Oregon Ducks (7-5) will have a new head coach when they take on the Boise State Broncos (10-3) in Saturday’s Las Vegas Bowl after Willie Taggert left for the Florida State Seminoles following one season. The Ducks hired from within by promoting offensive coordinator Mario Cristobal, and they are listed as 7.5-point favorites over the Broncos.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Boise State won the Mountain West Conference Championship Game, rallying for a 17-14 victory against the Fresno State Bulldogs after going 7-1 in the league during the regular season. Led by quarterback Brett Rypien, the Broncos are 11-2 straight up in their last 13 December games while the Ducks are 7-0 under the same scenario.

Boise State is also 4-1 against the spread in its past five following a win compared to 2-9-1 ATS in the previous 12 for Oregon, which is coming off a 69-10 rout of the Oregon State Beavers. The Ducks went 4-5 in the Pac-12 and covered three of four down the stretch.

International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) signs new multi-year integrity partnership with Sportradar

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has today announced it has signed a brand-new integrity partnership with Sportradar utilising the organisation’s world-leading monitoring, intelligence and prevention solutions to help safeguard the sport against match fixing.

Hundreds of matches each year will be covered by Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System (FDS), a unique service that credibly and effectively identifies betting-related manipulation in sport, across all ITTF’s major events, including the ITTF World Table Tennis Championships, Men’s & Women’s World Cup and the ITTF World Tour.

The deal will also allow the ITTF to call on Sportradar’s bespoke Fraud Intelligence Unit (FIU), where cutting edge tools and processes are used by dedicated experts to develop an unmatched picture of those who may be looking to enable, organise and finance any integrity attacks on the popular global sport.

ITTF President, Mr Thomas Weikert said: “We are very pleased to be signing a partnership with Sportradar, as the world’s leading supplier of solutions to help prevent the threat of match-fixing and other integrity concerns around table tennis. Protecting the sport from such activity is crucial in maintaining table tennis’ position as an exhilarating spectacle and professional sport. We are looking forward to working with Sportradar to keep our sport clean, which is one of the aspects that we pride ourselves on.

SoftGamings and 1X2 Network sign cooperation agreement

13 DECEMBER 2017, VALETTA/MALTA, RIGA/LATVIA: Softgamings, an online casino platform provider and gaming systems aggregator, has finished integration of 1X2 Network’s products into SoftGamings platform. From now on, casino operators will be able to add virtual sports, general fixed adds games and casino games from 1X2 Network to their portfolios.

Within the framework of this cooperation, SoftGamings and 1X2 Network plan to leverage the performance of 1X2 Network products and provide players exciting player experience.

Across the 3 ‘platform’ brands of the 1X2 Network (1X2gaming, Iron Dog Studio and Leap Gaming) 1X2 Network has a vast portfolio on offer. Highlights include 24 titles of virtual sports, including football, tennis, racing, velodrome, World Cup and African Cup, to name just a few. Casino games are represented with a further 24 titles made up of Cribbage, Astro Roulette, Three Card Poker, Craps, Blackjack, Baccarat and more. Slots collection is composed of 40 games, each of them dedicated to a popular theme, such as Ancient Rome, Aztecs, robots, Halloween, underwater, cats, sports, classic fruits etc. 1X2 Network also provides Bingo/Keno games, Instant Wins and Mini games, with the total number of titles exceeding 100.

Being the pioneer of virtual football, 1X2 Network offers football betting every 90 seconds. The range of football betting markets of the company is the widest. The company’s software is reliable and tested by major industry institutions and certified by the UK Gambling Commission.

Scientific Games shines at 2017 North American Lottery awards with nine nominations and top honors for “Best New Instant Game” created for the DC Lottery

LAS VEGAS and ATLANTA, Dec. 13, 2017 — Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) (“Scientific Games” or the “Company”) today announced that its $5 DC-7s game created for the DC Lottery has won the Buddy Roogow Innovation Award for “Best New Instant Game” in the 2017 North American State and Provincial Lotteries Association (NASPL) Awards held at the NASPL 2017 Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon. The DC Lottery directly benefits the residents and economic vitality of the District of Columbia.

In addition, the $100 Ultime game designed by Loto-Québec and Scientific Games was one of the two finalists for “Best New Instant Game” of 2017. In total, nine of the 13 games nominated by U.S. and Canadian lotteries for “Best New Instant Game” were designed and manufactured by Scientific Games. Included in the nine nominations was a “family” of four games, with Scientific Games creating and producing the $5 and $10 game in the suite.

Another finalist for “Best New Instant Game” was created by British Columbia Lottery Corporation featuring the CIRQUE DU SOLEIL KOOZA™ brand from Scientific Games’ global portfolio of licensed properties for lottery and casino games.

Named in honor of the DC Lottery’s former executive director, the Buddy Roogow Innovation Award won by the $5 DC-7s game celebrates “the efforts made to create and communicate the innovative attributes of new instant and draw style games.”

Ad watchdog slams Fruity King’s derogatory LooseWomen tweet

The UK’s advertising watchdog has slammed a Fruity King social media post for being derogatory towards women.

On Wednesday, the Advertising Standards Authority posted its weekly list of companies whose promotional activities have caused certain members of the viewing public to blow a gasket. This week’s list included a promoted tweet by Fruity King Casino, a licensee of white-label online casino supplier ProgressPlay.

The tweet in question, which was posted on September 8, showed the female hosts of ITV daytime program Loose Women dressed in bathing suits. The tweet’s accompanying text declared: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. #LooseWomen18”

A complaint was filed based on the claim that the tweet was derogatory towards women. In response, ProgressPlay Ltd claimed it had contacted Fruity King, told them to immediately remove the tweet and demanded answers as to what Fruity King’s social media mavens were thinking.

Vienna International Gaming Expo will be back in 2018 as a bigger and better boutique style gaming event, do it for your karma

Vienna – 12 December, 2017 – Vienna International Gaming Expo will be back in 2018 with the second edition of one of the fastest growing conference in Central Europe. The 2018 edition of VIGE is reincarnation of the inaugural edition and the motto of the event is “Do it for your karma”.

Below are the main updates which have been adopted to further increase the quality of the event.

New period and a new program

The event will be held between 30 May and 1 June in 2018, the first day being dedicated for Pre-registration, Welcome Drinks and Networking.

2018 World Series of Poker Schedule Unveiled, $1 Million Buy-In Big One for One Drop Returning

Happy holidays, poker fans: the 2018 World Series of Poker schedule for next summer’s entire event program is live. Released on Tuesday, next year’s Series features 78 bracelet events, including […]

The post 2018 World Series of Poker Schedule Unveiled, $1 Million Buy-In Big One for One Drop Returning appeared first on .

SBTech launches Action Betting, its latest mobile in-play feature

New live betting feature will create markets and offer players opportunity to add selection to their bet slip instantaneously

London, UK – 13 December 2017 – Market-leading sports betting solutions provider SBTech has added to its range of in-play products with the launch of Action Betting, a mobile-first feature which dynamically suggests markets of interest to players through contextual alerts and call-to-action betting options.

Powered by SBTech’s machine learning algorithm, Action Betting creates instant notifications when a specific incident occurs in a match, whether a free kick, red or yellow card, corner or dangerous attack. A dynamic market is then displayed on-screen, enabling players to ‘quickbet’ on outcomes directly from the widget, with the selection added to the bet slip instantaneously. 

Ian Bradley, Chief Product Officer at SBTech, commented: “Action Betting is the result of our investment in personalisation, as we seek to tailor the experience for each user. The constant drive to create more markets is not going to stop, and given the challenges that brings, our aim is to enhance the UX, ensuring players don’t have to scroll and search for markets. Instead, we offer them suggestions whenever a significant incident occurs, presenting them with a relevant market in the context of the alert. The launch of Action Betting is part of our strategy of continuously improving the mobile betting experience and is just a taste of what we have in store for our partners in 2018.”  

Brazil police raid Winfil casino for second time, seize slots and cash

The Winfil casino in Porto Alegre, Brazil has been raided for the second time in six weeks for offering real-money gambling without authorization.

On Monday, local media reported that police had once again descended on the Winfil casino, seizing 98 slot machines, numerous documents and an unidentified sum of money. However, no arrests were made and the property has not been ordered to close.

This marks the second time the police have raided the Winfil venue, which is operated by Catalan-based gaming operator Grupo Pefaco. On October 30, police staged a major raid on the venue, putting an end to the alleged illegality going on inside.

Winfil opened in mid-October with its electronic gaming machines set for free-play “demonstration” mode due to the ongoing illegality of casinos in Brazil. But Winfil switched to real-money gaming following a court order that the operator interpreted as preventing the authorities from seizing its gaming devices.