Nigeria’s online sports betting sector is enjoying a boom as the nation grows more comfortable with the concept of online commerce.

Reuters reported that Nigeria’s 190m residents had been loath to adopt the type of digital payment solutions that had become commonplace in other African countries like Kenya. This reticence was reportedly the result of a general mistrust of online banking and glacially slow internet speeds.

But the situation has undergone a dramatic improvement over the past two years, according to Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) data. There were 29m digital financial transactions in 2017, more than twice the 2016 figure, while there’d already been 10m transactions in just the first three months of 2018.

The total value of these transactions has grown apace, rising from NGN132b (US$367m) in 2016 to NGN185b in 2017 and NGN61b already in Q1 2018.

Vanessa Selbst, who “retired” from poker at the beginning of the year, hasn’t given up the game completely. She has been seen at a couple of tournaments over the course of the past six months, and even suggested to Phil Galfond that the two should hook up for the WSOP’s Tag Team event. Selbst is now back in Las Vegas for this year’s WSOP, and has announced that she will play in at least one tournament, with half of her winnings going to a charitable cause.

In a Twitter post, Selbst announced her return to Sin City and the WSOP, saying, “I’m heading out to #WSOP for this weekend and then the main. In honor of the monsters in our gov’t, I will do a matching campaign for 50% of my WSOP profits to groups that support immigrant communities like @MaketheRoadNY. Pls join in pledging what you can at this critical time.”

The only tournament verified so far is the Main Event next month. Selbst, with over $11.8 million in live-action winnings, is one of the most prolific female players in poker history. However, her return to the action this year has found her facing off against a new breed of poker player and she hasn’t yet been able to find her groove.

It would appear that Selbst hopes to use her position and fame to support a political agenda. Her cause is at the forefront of a national debate over immigration that has resulted in a number of protests and some serious tongue lashings in social media. According to some reports, around 2,000 immigrant children of undocumented parents in the US have been detained at the border between the US and Mexico, leading to the children being separated from their parents. That separation has now been eliminated, as President Trump signed a bill that prevents children from being separated from their families.

Another round-up from the World Series of Poker this time focusing on Nicholas Seiken winning the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship at his first attempt, and Matthew Mendez creating history winning the first Pot Limit Omaha event ever played online.

For Nicholas Seiken, playing No-Limit Hold’em was like watching two tortoises trying to make a baby tortoise. He wanted something a little quicker. In his opinion, the Cadillac had run out of gas.

Seiken turned to mixed games.

I don’t think he’s going back.

Daily fantasy sports operator FanDuel says its brand will front the new sportsbook at West Virginia’s The Greenbrier Resort.

On Monday, NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk (PFT) reported that The Greenbrier Resort’s private casino will feature FanDuel-branded sports betting both physically at the resort and via online and mobile devices.

PFT quoted FanDuel CEO Matt King saying his company was “honored” to have been selected to provide wagering for “an iconic resort” such as the Greenbrier. King noted that his company was still working towards “building out a top sports betting product for the upcoming NFL season.”

It was only a month ago that FanDuel announced that it was merging its operations with the US-facing business of UK-listed gambling giant Paddy Power Betfair. Since FanDuel has never offered single-game sports betting before, King’s use of the phrase “building out” may primarily involve slapping FanDuel’s logo on PPB’s existing sportsbook, as well as a few more technical tweaks for the US market.

Another round-up from the 2018 World Cup in Russia including Colombia sending the Poles packing, and a thrilling 2-2 draw between Japan and Senegal.

Two years ago, Poland looked a team of real promise in the European Championships, eventually going out in the quarter-finals, losing on penalties to Portugal.

There’s no shame in that.

But the entire squad should be hanging their head in shame this morning.

Another round-up from the 2018 World Cup in Russia, focusing on outstanding displays of attacking flair from Belgium and England as they brush aside minnows Tunisia and Panama with ease. 

There are many similarities between Belgium and England. We’re nations transfixed on eating chips, but we are also alike when it comes to our international football teams promoting false hope.

In many ways, Belgium’s current crop of players reminds me of the England squad in 1998. We were playing in France. We couldn’t use the heat or humidity as an excuse. We knew that South American sides never won on European soil, so it was down to Germany, France, Italy, Spain or us.

David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Paul Ince and Alan Shearer.

The UK’s responsible gambling charity GambleAware has selected its Don Drapers and/or Peggy Olsens to craft its new safer gambling advertising campaign.

On Friday, GambleAware announced that it had appointed creative agency M&C Saatchi to handle its two-year, £7m responsible gambling advertising campaign, which will target ‘at risk’ gamblers to ensure they don’t progress (or regress) into full-blown problem gamblers.

GambleAware said it had selected M&C Saatchi following a competitive procurement process based on the agency’s previous experience in public health campaigns, the quality of their pitch, the depth of their analysis and the expertise of their team.

The charity has created a new board to oversee the campaign, and an advisory panel has been formed to solicit input from the gaming industry, the sports sector, problem gamblers, treatment providers, related charities and faith groups.

Can lottery-style contests encourage young people to practice safe sex?

Last week, Switzerland’s government announced that it will distribute around 400k condoms to the public from June to October as the latest plank in its “Love Life’ campaign to raise awareness of HIV prevention. The campaign is supported by non-governmental groups AIDS Foundation Switzerland and Swiss Sexual Health.

The condoms, which are being handed out at swimming pools, clubs and festivals, feature packaging that contains a lottery ticket with a specific code. Users can check the code via the Love Life website to see if they’ve won one of 3,500 prizes donated by various private companies that are co-sponsoring the campaign.

The available prizes include everything from bicycles, lawnmowers, electronics and clothes to holiday packages. The ‘Suit Up and Win’ campaign is being promoted through a series of cheeky promos, a sample of which can be viewed at the bottom of this article.

Poland’s casino license derbies have turned nasty as two competitors accuse each other of making wildly outlandish revenue claims to boost their chances of winning new licenses.

Last week, Polish business news outlet Puls Biznesu reported on the rather fanciful claims made about the revenue potential of certain casino operations by Zbigniew Benbenek’s ZPR group, which operates 28 of the country’s 40 casinos.

Polish law allows for a maximum of 52 casino licenses and new casino licenses must be issued via public tender. The Ministry of Finance judges license applications by a point system predicated on, amongst other criteria, their expected revenue projections. But only the projections for the first three years of operations are subject to verification, meaning operators can promise the moon without fear of blowback.

In the case of an April 2018 tender for casino licenses in the Lodz region, ZPR’s application estimated that gaming revenue would total PLN38m (US$10.2m) in each of the first three years. But ZPR claims revenue will leap to PLN409m ($110m) in year four, rising to PLN4.6b ($1.24b) in year five and hitting just under PLN23b ($6.2b) in year six.