Monthly Archives: March 2018

Battered bones & boards: David Pham does it again this time winning a gold ring

David ‘The Dragon’ Pham shows that the old school brigade still has what it takes to beat the best after taking down his second big entry field tournament in less than a fortnight.

When my parents used to come home from the pub, I would sneak out of my bed, crawl to the top of the stairs and peek downstairs. One time I saw a woman wearing a basque and stockings. I quickly returned to my room.

Another time I heard a commotion. Off I went, but as I reached my depressed area of carpet, I heard a sound I had never heard before. I can’t even describe. Tethered to a scream. Shouting. The sounds of things falling from pristine places. My Dad bellowing.

The next morning I woke up and saw a woman in my kitchen making poached eggs. She turned to me – a purplish-grey eye socket, blood-river eyeball.

Angela Lee and Mei Yamaguchi to battle for ONE women’s Atomweight World Championship at ONE: Unstoppable Dreams

15 March 2018 – Singapore: The largest global sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), recently held a worldwide media conference call for ONE: UNSTOPPABLE DREAMS, featuring reigning ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion “Unstoppable” Angela Lee of Singapore and challenger, Japanese martial arts veteran Mei “V.V” Yamaguchi of Tokyo, Japan. Also on the call was Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, Chatri Sityodtong.

Ticket information for ONE: UNSTOPPABLE DREAMS is available at www.onefc.com.

Angela Lee, ONE Women’s Atomweight World Champion, stated: “With the help and support of my family, we got through (the accident) together. And I feel thankful for everything. I am so excited to be back in action. I’ve missed everything that comes along with competition — the training and preparation, and of course, getting right back in the cage. I think fans are going to see a great matchup. I just want to go in there, do what I love, and the results will show.”

Mei Yamaguchi, ONE World Title Challenger, stated: “I am super focused on this match. It’s going to be a tough challenge for me, facing the champion. But I am confident in my abilities and I working hard to give my best performance. I’ve been training a lot, especially in jiu-jitsu. I’m now a black belt, so I think I’m improving a lot. At the same time, I have a new kickboxing coach, so we’re working very hard. I hope I can showcase some of those new skills.”

Slots Capital introduces colourful new Party Parrot slot from rival with 50 free spins

March 15, 2018  – There’s a party in the jungle this week as Slots Capital Casino introduces the festive new Party Parrot slot from Rival Gaming. This weekend, active players can get 20 free spins on the new game and, until the end of the month, the casino will give players another 50 free spins when they make a deposit.

Party Parrot is a colourful slot with an expanding wild and a free spins bonus feature.  The free spins symbol can trigger up to 20 free spins. Wilds are sticky during free spins. They trigger another spin and stay on screen during all re-spins.

There are lots of exotic birds in this game, including Toucans and Flamingos, but the highest value symbol is a hungry Pelican.

Party Parrot has a wide betting range to appeal to all kinds of players. They can bet from one to ten coins per line and coins can be valued at $.01 to $.25 each so they can make a minimum bet of just a penny or wager up to a max bet of $62.50 per spin.

Gambling TV ads run afoul of Irish broadcasting codes

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) isn’t happy with the state of TV commercials in the country.  It recently reviewed a number of channels and concluded that ads for gambling operations, as well as for children’s toys, weren’t adhering to regulations it had established. The findings reiterated that the agency has found in previous years, but there’s little it can do to make changes.

On Wednesday, the Irish Examiner reported that several advertisements for betting services have ran afoul of BAI regulations. According to the agency, there were six instances of ads for betting services, for which the content was “deemed to promote gambling.”

Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Lottoland.ie all produced commercials, as did PokerStars, which didn’t carry the requisite label designed to encourage responsible gambling or warn against the perils of gambling.

The gambling promotions were included in the BAI review, which also focused foreign channels that broadcast in Ireland as well as the content of TV spots that target children. The BAI has, in previous years, also brought up the issue about the lack of warnings on foreign-based channels. However, since it still doesn’t have jurisdiction over the broadcasters, its hands are tied to force a move. The BAI, established in 2009, is responsible for regulating all broadcasting, both radio and television, in Ireland, as well as participate in all media mergers in the country.

Champions League review: Brilliant Barcelona and Bayern Munich go through

A round-up of the final action of the Champions League Round of 16 sees Barcelona and Bayern Munich saunter into the quarter-finals with victories over Chelsea and Besiktas.

Barcelona 3 v 0 Chelsea 

Chelsea arrived at the Nou Camp, a beaten team. Faces raw with a future failing revealed as much after allowing the little magician Lionel Messi to score his 98th Champions League goal in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in the first leg. The wand came out once more during the second leg – goals 99 & 100 sending Chelsea to the rail.

The Premier League is the most exciting league in the world. But does it contain the most competent teams? Barcelona’s 3-0 win means they join Sevilla and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. Chelsea joins Man Utd and Spurs on the sidelines.

How to celebrate March Madness, poker style

Almost everyone’s getting catching the March Madness Fever. The annual series of tournaments for NCAA men’s basketball is one of the most-watched sporting events on TV, as well as one of the most successful gambling opportunities. Now, poker has caught the bug as well, and is in the midst of its first March Madness poker tournament.

Matt Berkey, who operates poker training website SolveForWhyAcademy, is currently hosting a single-elimination heads-up poker tournament in Vegas. The tournament began March 12 and runs through 14, bringing together 16 highly skilled pros to face off toward the ultimate showdown. Proceeds from the event will be split, with 50% going to the Raising for Effective Giving (REG) charity, and 50% to the prize pool.

The tournament has brought together some well-known faces in the poker world. Among others, Mike Del Vecchio, Jordan Young, Katie Stone and Jess Sylvia are participating in the $1,000-entry event. The playoffs will have commentary provided by Chris Soto and Jason Somerville on Twitch.

In addition to the heads-up battles, the public can also get involved. On Berkey’s website, players can enter their predictions for the winners in each match. Prizes are available, including a travel package for the upcoming March 23 Run it Up Reno tournament. Additionally, anyone who donates to REG during March Madness will take part in a drawing for additional prizes, one of which is a football jersey signed by Joe Montana.

2016 money given to BCLC high rollers wasn’t for winnings, probe finds

The hits just keep on coming for the casino industry in Canada. In an investigation over gambling practices and possible money laundering that apparently will never end, questions have now been raised over a number of checks sent to B.C. Lottery Corp. (BCLC) high rollers in 2016, according to a Postmedia report. One of the checks was drafted for CAD2.4 million (USD$ 1.8 million).

The investigation centers on questionable activity at a couple of area casinos, most notably the River Rock Casino. The casino has been targeted for possible large-scale money laundering, which has resulted in all records being pulled going back four years. An investigation by Postmedia uncovered checks that were repeatedly marked “Return of funds – not gambling winnings.” The indication is required by law when patrons ask for bank drafts.

A number of high-value checks were dispersed from the BCLC “non-cash” gaming fund in conjunction with what is expected to be a small number of Asian high rollers. The concern is that there is no way to know whether or not the funds actually came from the high rollers’ bank accounts.

In particular, it was discovered that River Rock issued 21 of the top 25 fund withdrawal checks in 2016.  They had values anywhere from CAD600,000 to CAD2.4 million and didn’t provide a clear paper trail of the source of the funds. Despite a requirement that casinos retain financial records for several years, initial measures to verify the source of five of the top 25 checks at River Rock produced no matching documents.

BetConstruct organizes a workshop dedicated to its innovations

Ahead of ASEAN Gaming Summit, BetConstruct  organizes Innovations Workshop dedicated to its brand-new solutions for the gaming industry.

Revealed at ICE Totally Gaming Show 2018, the novelties of BetConstruct fueled the global interest towards the company, let alone making its profile even more diverse. With all the new launches, BetConstruct will host Innovations Workshop and give all participants a free hands-on experience with the company’s solutions.

Officially unveiled in summer 2017 before iGaming Super Show, Spring BME is now enhanced with new functionalities and products. A real-time data feed solutions brought by FeedConstruct can be accessed through SpringBME as well, alongside with Friendship platform, a global marketplace for unique sport videos, developed for digital content providers.

As for gaming and betting solutions we will discuss BetCloud allowing operators to accept bets over established limits and SlotBuilder with an opportunity to create a slot game and integrate it into the slot machine logic.

R. Franco Group’s SBG MULTIGAME stars at Dublin tradeshow

15th March, 2018 (Madrid, Spain) – The R. Franco Group, a world-class supplier of global gaming solutions, once again participated in the Iris Gaming Show, held last week in Dublin, via its local distributor, Aim Leisure.

Hundreds of delegates viewed leading products displayed by the Group, which are soon to be installed in arcades in the region.

These included ON MIX, the SBG multigame that provides greater player enjoyment, as well as higher operator safety and flexibility.

Two new games, Olympic Gold Free Spins and Olympic Gold Big Win, were also showcased, and are already available via the RF21 5-reel model, which has been active in Ireland for several years.

Biggest ever Betting on Football takes on truly international agenda

It’s Betting on Football by name, but so many of the topics to be discussed at this month’s conference are far from exclusive to the beautiful game.

Held at Stamford Bridge from 20-23 March, the #bofcon2018 agenda will combine expert analysis of this year’s football frenzy with a tour of the sports betting world and a breakdown of the most pressing international issues for industry leaders.

OPTIMA CEO Jacob Lopez will be opening the ‘Global Market Profiles’ track with an assessment of the licensing opportunity in Spain, one of more than 40 countries represented at this year’s event, with Jdigital Chairman Mikel López de Torre, La Liga Head of Global Partnerships Gregory Bolle, and Ficom Leisure Senior Partner Christian Tirabassi.

The morning part of the track will also cover preparation for a football-free summer in Italy, before Danske Spil Head of Sportsbook Jens Nielsen, Mr Green CEO Jesper Kärrbrink, Better Collective CEO Jesper Soegaard and Jari Vahanen, Senior Vice President for state-owned Finnish operator Veikkaus, combine to explain the success of gaming-based start-ups across the Scandinavian region.

Gibraltar eGaming Cloud provider Rockolo adds London presence

Gibraltar’s data centre provider Rockolo announces the addition of a London point-of-presence (PoP) to its Cloud platforms for eGaming and the emerging Blockchain based FinTech industries.

This comes within days of the Gibraltar Governments announcement of an agreement with the UK Government assuring continued UK market access post Brexit for the online gaming and financial sectors.

The new presence links London and Gibraltar with dedicated connectivity provided by Gibtelecoms triangulated European network. Online gaming and Fintech businesses can now rapidly build their technical environments across both geographies using a single platform provider.

Like many larger Cloud providers clients only pay for the resources they use when they use them creating a flexible springboard for startups and innovators looking to take advantage of Gibraltar’s recently regulated Blockchain and Crypto currency market.

Becky’s Affiliated: How SBC will better serve the sports betting industry in 2018

Next week SBC will be hosting the fifth annual Betting on Football Conference, a highly anticipated event bringing together professionals from all across the sports betting industry.

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Nordic Capital to acquire majority of Trustly from Bridgepoint and other shareholders

The European online payments provider Trustly announced today that it will be acquired by Nordic Capital Fund IX (“Nordic Capital”). Nordic Capital will support Trustly in its ambition to become the leading global online banking payments provider.

Trustly’s largest shareholder Bridgepoint Development Capital will dispose of its full equity interest in Trustly but management, founders and investment company Alfvén & Didrikson will remain significant shareholders in the company.

Nordic Capital is one of Europe’s largest private equity investors and has a pre-eminent payments practice. Its track record in the sector includes the transformation of payment platform Bambora into a global payment market leader and the successful investment in Point, a payment terminal and software company.

Oscar Berglund, CEO of Trustly said: “The shift towards online banking based payment solutions is only in its infancy and we are looking forward to continuing to innovate and execute so as to make it easier, safer and quicker for both consumers and merchants to make payments online. We are delighted to partner with Nordic Capital whose support will be of great value as we grow across merchant verticals, products and geographies. I also want to thank Bridgepoint Development Capital for their exceptional contribution over the last three years.”