Cracking the code to an emerging gambling market has proven in the past to be the golden ticket. With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, establishing a brand foothold in Asia, Africa and Latin America will be one of the stepping stones to help the gaming industry recover globally. Parimatch CMO Dmitry Belianin sat down with our own Becky Liggero Fontana to offer some insights on how brands can build a marketing strategy for emerging markets.

Understanding the role that brand building and being prepared to play the long game, is the key to success in any new emerging market. “Understanding your audience in an emerging market is key,” Belianin told us. “We do segmentation to ensure the right brand propositioning and positioning into the selected target segments. As for the emerging markets its very important to invest in the brand building to find the right channels to communicate your brand’s values.”

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“My biggest tip is that you should find your own brand proposition before entering those markets to segment the market and to understand the channels. I’m a big fan of integrating marketing so it’s really important to have various channels combined at the same time. Be sure to concentrate people’s attention around your brand values,” Belianin said. 

If you want a fast overview of how the entire gambling market has done so far in 2020, looking at Playtech’s latest trading update gives a pretty good idea. The company notes a “resilient” H1 2020, with some areas of growth and a few areas that definitely struggled.

Overall, they noted that the company’s online businesses and TradeTech helped keep the engine going, with an Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of “more than €160 million.” They also note that July was strong, and with some retail locations reopening, they expect a return to normality.

Breaking it down, they note that online casino, live, bingo and poker saw increased play in the first half of the year, although that’s now dropping back down to normal levels. B2B Sports took a hit, and still haven’t recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels.

Snaitech, the company’s Italian facing betting operation, is now starting to recover, with retail outlets reopening as of June 15 and HPYBET is now back in business in Germany and Austria as well. Sun Bingo is noted as a strong performer, but no details are given otherwise.

William Hill is now the first sportsbook operator in the U.S. to open a location within a sports complex. William Hill opened a temporary location inside the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., home to the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics. The opening coincides with the return of sports to the U.S. market.

@WilliamHillUS Officially Opens First-Ever Sports Book Within a US Sports Complex at @CapitalOneArena in D.C.

Ceremonial first bets placed by Season Ticket Holders, loyal to the @Capitals, @WashWizards & @WashMystics since inaugural seasons!

More: https://t.co/zzRIpin9mK pic.twitter.com/fqLKFyx6Ju

Supposed superstars like Memphis Depay, Angel Di Maria and Alexis Sanchez have all failed to do it, but others carved their names in Manchester United legend. Could Jadon Sancho succeed where those recent failures fell short and become an icon in the No. 7 shirt for Manchester United?

To some clubs, a number below is just that – a number. However, for The Red Devils, wearing the number seven brings with it something completely different. Not only is the player who wears ‘No. 7’ on their back expected to hit the heights and become a legend at the club, but they have to play in a certain way and light up Old Trafford. Why is that? Well, there’s a whole lot of history behind the mystic shirt when it comes to the most successful club in English football.

While we have to credit honourable mentions to players who have worn the famous No. 7 shirt at Old Trafford such as Steve Coppell (1975/76 – 1981/82), Jesper Olsen (1985/86 – 1986/87), Danny Wallace (1992/93) and Lee Sharpe (1990/91), we’ve taken a look back through the archives and found the seven best No. 7’s to play at Old Trafford. Let’s look at them in reverse order of greatness.

7. Antonio Valencia (2012/13 – 2013/14)

Brentford and Fulham served up a play-off final that possibly showed why neither side could go up in the automatic places as Fulham triumphed 2-0 after extra time at Wembley. 

Both sides came into the final in good form. Brentford had won seven of the nine games they’d played since lockdown ended, while Fulham had put in a great effort to beat a determined Cardiff side over two legs in the semi-final. 

Said Benrahma has shown that he is of Premier League quality all season, with a superb touch and 64 shots on target in the regular season, a Championship record. 

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It’s been a very busy few days in the 2020 WSOP Online Series, with bracelets won in Short Deck and No Limit Hold’em. There’s also been a race to the final table of the Millionaire Maker, with Daniel Dvoress proving that he is the man to beat when play reconvenes. Let’s take a look through an exciting collection of events, starting with a Short Deck victory to remember.

Teoh Takes the Short Deck Title

The 47th event of this 2020 WSOP Online Series saw Paul Teoh of Malaysia claim the gold bracelet and a top prize of $88,202 on GGPoker. Teoh is something of a mixed game expert, and has already proved his chops in various formats in the regular WSOP and WSOPE events in both 2018 and 2019, so it comes as no surprise to see him as the winner of this 487-player event.

There was plenty of competition at the final table, too, as Mike ‘Sir Watts’ Watson was hoping to end his no-luck run as perhaps the best player left on the planet who hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet. While Watson would eventually miss out, he did at least reach the final table, running deeper than some legendary pros in the process.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

For many years the last of the four Grand Slam tournaments on the PGA Tour, the 2020 PGA Championship in this very unusual campaign will be the first of the three Slams – the British Open was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic – when the best field of the season tees off Thursday at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. It’s the penultimate tournament of the 2019-20 PGA Tour regular season.

It’s the first time that course has held a major championship – it last held a PGA Tour event in 2015, the WGC-Match Play, hosted the Presidents Cup in 2009 and the WGC-American Express Championship in 2005. This also will be the first major ever held at a TPC property, and it’s the first time since 1995 (Riviera in Los Angeles) that the PGA Championship will be played in California. TPC Harding Park is a par 70 at 7,234 yards.

As of now, 95 of the world’s Top 100 players are scheduled to play. The highest-ranked players missing are Italy’s Francesco Molinari and England’s Lee Westwood. The latter doesn’t feel comfortable traveling to the USA right now because of the coronavirus surging in the United States, while Molinari, the 2018 British Open winner, didn’t give a reason for withdrawing.