Australian online betting operator BetEasy will be folded into rival Sportsbet following the successful merger of parent companies The Stars Group (TSG) and Flutter Entertainment.

On Tuesday, The Australian reported that BetEasy staff had been told their brand was headed for the boneyard once the mega-merger of Flutter-TSG is complete. Flutter shareholders voted 99.19% in favor of the merger at the company’s extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday, while TSG’s shareholders will hold their vote this Friday (24).

The companies’ original plan was to maintain both Australian-facing brands once TSG’s operations come under the Flutter umbrella but a Sportsbet spokesperson said Tuesday that Flutter “currently intends to pursue a single brand strategy for its Australian operation.”

The spokesperson claimed the new strategy was “principally” chosen due to “the ongoing volatility to sporting competitions around the world and the wider economy” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Executing a “single brand customer migration in a shorter timeframe” would also allow Flutter to provide a better experience for customers.

With 142,000 YouTube subscribers, 22,700 Twitter followers and an Instagram following of 36,900, Andrew Neeme can lay claim to conquering the world of poker social media. Like friends Johnnie Vibes and Brad Owen, Neeme commands a large audience by being extremely likeable along with being a highly successful poker player. But what is it exactly that makes Neeme’s poker video blog so addictive to watch?

For a start, it’s worth opening with Neeme’s phenomenal dedication to his craft. Having only started video blogging regularly less than four years ago, Neeme has put out an incredible 240 videos about the game we all love. Let’s break down those numbers; roughly speaking, that’s an amazing consistency of a poker video blog once every five days during that period.

Neeme hails from Michigan and in many of his videos, he speaks about what led to him getting into the game, failing at it, then rebuilding his powers. We all love a redemption story, it’s keyed into our human nature and Neeme’s charm often comes from how honest and friendly he is. Some poker players that are better at the felt than Neeme would be much worse to watch simply because we as an audience wouldn’t want them to win like we do the man who popularized the poker ‘meet-up game’.

The way that Neeme’s meet-up games took off was relatively simple. Neeme announced on social media that he was going to play a game in a specific location, and others who were in that area would arrange to meet up with him and take him on at the felt.

Seven more events in the Poker Masters Online Series have seen Alexandros Kolonias and Timothy Adams rise to the top of the leaderboard after 18 high roller and high-profile poker events.

The action has been huge in one of the flagship Poker Central events which, like so many events this year, has been forced online due to the Coronavirus outbreak. After 11 events, Hungarian player Andras Nemeth was in the lead, but after a raft of new events, that has changed dramatically as Nemeth slid to 5th after the latest results.

With over $17 million awarded in prize money so far, the race is well and truly on to become the world’s first Poker Masters Online Series winner and claim the $50,000 top prize and much-coveted Purple Jacket. Let’s take a look at who took down what as 60% of the events were completed.

Event #12

In the fast moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Final Program of Betting in face of COVID-19 for the EU Market

On April 17, Smile-Expo will hold Betting in face of COVID-19 online conference aimed at the EU market. The event is dedicated to the efficient strategies for overcoming the betting industry crisis during the pandemic. The program is already completed, let’s examine the list of speakers and their presentations.

Betting in face of COVID-19 will involve top betting market players, providers of betting products and services, representatives of sports organizations, consulting experts, as well as specialists in esports, virtual sports and fantasy sports.

Anyone hoping to enjoy the hospitality of Donaco International in Southeast Asia will have to wait atleast a little longer. The Australia-listed casino firm has confirmed the Aristo International Hotel in Lao Cai, Vietnam has extended its shutdown by another 7 days.

In an announcement to the Australian exchanges, Donaco confirmed that while the Vietnamese casino initially shutdown on April 1 for a 15 day period, that has been extended an additional 7 days, presumably to April 22.

The April 21 release did not note if any further shutdown extensions are expected. But as Vietnam has outclassed much of the world in its battle with the COVID-19 virus, with only 268 confirmed cases and no deaths, a sudden re-opening of the resort is not out of the question. Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, has recently noted that the “risk levels” in some areas might be downgraded as early as April 22.

Still, Donaco doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. “The Company believes the current COVID-19 situation poses a risk to the health and safety of staff and visitors at Aristo if operations resumed, which could have adverse long-term consequences for Donaco,” they wrote.

This is a guest contribution by Jon Southhurst, writer at CoinGeek.com. He interviews ShowPay’s Sunny Fung, who helps answer for so many gambling operators why Bitcoin SV is the only real choice for businesses looking for a blockchain that can handle their volume of data and transactions. This article first appeared on CoinGeek.com.

Who needs BTC or ETH when you can tokenize it on a blockchain that actually works for payments? Companies like ShowPay are building wallets that let you send and receive other digital assets without the excessive fees or unreliability that burden some popular chains.

They are showing how Bitcoin SV itself can function as a payment layer for any other digital asset—like Lightning Network does (or should) for BTC, without the need for extra node equipment or the cumbersome (and often risky) process of funding and maintaining channels. Users don’t even need to convert BSV to BTC or other tokens for transactions between wallets; the change happens automatically.

We profiled ShowPay last December after they released a short demonstration video and announced an upcoming beta test for merchants. While the global COVID19-related chaos has slowed rollout for many services, ShowPay is currently testing in China and is still on track to roll out its system across the world over the coming years.

With the news that the 2020 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas has been postponed until Autumn at the very earliest, fans needing their fix of WSOP Main Event action will be happy to know that a new show featuring archive WSOP action starts today.

Poker Central and PokerGO are bringing poker fans up to date with some recent yet classic WSOP final tables, with the added bonus of some insight from one of the popular players of the GTO era, Matt Berkey.

The announcement that six of the most exciting WSOP Main Event final tables are to be featured in the 2020 Hindsight series will fill fans with cheer in these times of isolation.  The premiere of the series takes place tonight, on Tuesday April 21st with the broadcast of the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table that ended with Jonathan Duhamel outlasting superstars such as heads-up opponent John Racener, ‘The Grinder’, a.k.a. Michael Mizrachi and everyone’s favourite poker hero Joseph Cheong.

There’ll be a new episode released every week for the next six weeks, and with each episode clocking in at around 40 minutes, it’s the perfect length for casual fans and hardcore poker watchers alike to enjoy.

At the southern end of Las Vegas, the South Point casino wasn’t willing to wait until May 1 to see if Governor Steve Sisolak would re-open gambling facilities. In a letter obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owner Michael Gaughan announced the furloughing of most employees starting on May 3.

Noting that this decision was being made with the employees best interests in mind, Gaughan encouraged everyone to file for unemployment right away. “By being furloughed, you will be better off,” he wrote. “You will receive more money from both the State and Federal Government than what you are currently receiving from South Point.”

Employees will continue to receive health benefits until July 31, and the company will cover their insurance deductions up until that point. Meanwhile, some workers can continue to work full time, receiving paid time off credits and two square meals a day.

While many will be fighting to file their unemployment claim in the coming days, something Gaughan admitted “can be difficult” at the moment, he promised there will be a job for them when the crisis is over. The catch is, if the off-strip casino doesn’t see peak visitors anytime soon, it may be a while before everyone is re-hired. “Unfortunately, it may take several months to get back to full employment due to the lack of business,” he wrote.

Macau has seen a lot of movement with its casinos over the past couple of years, partly in an effort to align them all for a major event scheduled for 2022. According to the current gambling laws, the casino licenses held by operators aren’t eligible for renewal, in the strictest sense of the word. Instead, the laws are going to force an entirely new tender bidding process when the licenses expire two years from now. To get all the casinos on the same page, SJM Holdings and MGM China Holdings were granted license extensions to avoid having their licenses expire this year, and to put all the city’s casinos on even ground for the tender process in 2022. However, if JP Morgan analysts are correct, that process might not happen in 2022 because of, in part, the coronavirus.

Macau’s gambling structure was created in such a way that licenses would not be automatically renewed until the end of time. They allow for a maximum extension of up to five years beyond 2022; however, the tender process would be opened up to all possible entities, and no guarantees are offered that current licensees would retain their permits. It goes without saying that stripping an existing operator of its license is a farfetched idea, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

Macau is rewriting its gambling laws. It wants to become a more versatile destination that isn’t as reliant on casinos for its revenue, and wants the gambling venues to be more proactive in making that happen. The current COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the city’s position that it has been too reliant on gaming and needs to diversify its offerings. Macau officials, under the leadership of the city’s new leader, Ho Iat Seng, are revamping the gambling laws and could obligate some casino operators to make changes.

Once the new laws are drafted, they will have to be pushed out to the public to allow for feedback. That is still scheduled to take place later this year, but the laws would then have to be approved by Macau’s Legislative Assembly, which couldn’t happen until next year. JP Morgan analysts DS Kim, Derek Choi and Jeremy An feel that a 2021 review is overly optimistic and believe that 2022 might be the earliest any approval could be given. They add, “Thus, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the renewal [rebidding] process postponed by a year or so versus the current expiry of June 2022.”