When Virginia decided to launch legal sports gambling in the state, the response was overwhelming. 25 applications were received for a field of only 12 licenses, but some of those applicants may have jumped the gun. As the Virginia Lottery, the entity tasked with laying out the rules and regulations for the new market, unveils its guidance, some of its expectations are causing sportsbooks to cry foul. The reaction probably won’t be enough to stop the clock, but it could cause Virginia’s sports gambling market to lose a few yards. 

Virginia wants sports gambling operators to pay 15% in taxes – a high amount, but not a show-stopper. However, what is apparently making things difficult for sportsbooks to figure out how to operate is a requirement that they offer game spreads in real-time. The Virginia Lottery decided that this was a requirement so that gamblers could make the best decisions, and it comes with a caveat that the sportsbooks show – with each line – an explanation of how they reached that conclusion. They also have to be able to show the current handle and the exact payout. Anyone who has been around sports gambling for even five minutes knows that these are not just impractical requests – they’re impossible.

Still, in order to appease regulators, sportsbooks have tried to make it work. They tried, and failed. FanDuel, with all of its financial and technical backing, couldn’t figure out a viable solution when it ran a test program in October that used only 24 bets on a single NBA Playoff game. Extend that to hundreds, if not thousands, of events being played simultaneously around the world, and the only thing that emerges is a nightmare. 

FanDuel gave it a shot and then reported its findings back to the Virginia Lottery. The operator laid it all out, explaining, “Sports betting apps are simply not built to provide and display this type of information. This requirement would force a re-engineering of the products, to create a demonstrably worse user experience. The actual odds [of a game] and by how many points [is always an] unknown.”

As Macau works feverishly to overcome the burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s nice to have some distractions. Since casinos aren’t as busy as their owners would like, there have to be ways to fill the gaps, and Melco Resorts & Entertainment has found one. Its City of Dreams resort in the city is going to host a three-day eSports event starting today that will bring to a close a competition that began this past October.

The GBA Sim Racing Grand Prix (SRGP) 2020 Grand Final will find 50 competitors facing off to see who’s the best behind the virtual wheel. The event was put together in conjunction with CCTV and comes as the final lap of a tournament that began with online and satellite events two months ago. Over 15,000 eSports gamers had signed up for the tournament, participating from their home bases in Macau and Hong Kong, as well as Jiangmen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai in mainland China.

According to Melco, viewership for the tournament reached almost 60 million, a substantial amount, but the COVID-19 crisis and continued lockdowns played a role in limiting everyone’s options. Still, eSports continues to gain ground across the globe and has found support from many top-ranked sports organizations and athletes. It has even been brought up as a possible option for the Olympic Games, although that is proving to be a tougher nut to crack.

The closing of the tournament at the City of Dreams will begin with 30 players from the different regions competing in a semi-final event today. Another 20, specifically from Macau, will participate in a separate semi-final, with each group being given 20 minutes to take a few practice laps followed by 20 minutes of qualifying races. Then, the real race begins, with the top 16 advancing after a 40-minute race.

Language proposed by the European Commission (EC) to be included in the Digital Services Act (DSA) has found support from the largest gaming coalition in the European Union (EU). The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has reviewed the recommendations outlined in the framework and has concluded that they are going to provide necessary enhancements to protect businesses and consumers. While the DSA doesn’t directly target the iGaming sector, its protocols will still be beneficial to ensuring a cohesive maturation of the space.

The DSA has been in the works for some time and was created to support the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The latter is legislation that will regulate large digital platforms in an attempt to foster a “fair and competitive” environment for all of the markets as the EU continues to look for ways to operate as more of a singular body. The outline for the DSA includes, among other things, the implementation of cross-border identification solutions, which will be crucial for the union’s iGaming industry.

According to Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, “The two proposals serve one purpose: to make sure that we, as users, have access to a wide choice of safe products and services online. And that businesses operating in Europe can freely and fairly compete online just as they do offline. This is one world. We should be able to do our shopping in a safe manner and trust the news we read. Because what is illegal offline is equally illegal online.”

The proposals will now make their way to the European Parliament and the European Council. These two bodies will need to review the recommendations and make any suggested changes, after which, collectively, they will need to sign off on the legislation. The DSA’s language regarding how social media companies and others are held liable for content, as well as online advertising controls, should also prove beneficial to the iGaming ecosystem. 

As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures. Earlier this year, when it became obvious that COVID-19 was going to cause serious economic shortfalls for governments and businesses alike, the prediction was that gambling might be taken more seriously as a viable option to make up for the losses. There is likely to be a lot of movement in the legal gambling space in 2021, especially in the U.S., and the idea of seeing a casino in Hawaii, long opposed to the concept, is now closer to reality than ever. The push for a major gambling resort isn’t coming from the private sector, either. Hawaii’s Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) is suggesting a casino resort on the island of Oahu.

The DHHL is concerned about its diminishing pool of funds and it foresees darker days ahead as it looks to figure out how to fill a $6-billion gap that will keep it from providing adequate housing. The agency is responsible, in part, for assisting native Hawaiians with their housing needs and it currently doesn’t have the resources required to continue developing land earmarked for that purpose. The DHHL said in a statement as it hinted about a casino being used to help cover the gap, Given the impact of COVID-19 on our state’s economy, the department is proposing a bold measure that has proven successful for indigenous groups in generating critically needed revenue to improve the lives of their people.”

There are eight states in the U.S. that have no form of commercial or tribal casinos, of which Hawaii is included. It is also one of two – along with Utah – that have zero gambling and the Aloha State doesn’t even offer a lottery. However, the DHHL feels that it might be time for a change and, given the success gambling has had elsewhere around the world, it could be right. In addition, a legal casino might help Hawaii to keep its illegal casinos off the islands. 

The first step in trying to bring a casino to Hawaii is to plant the seed, which the DHHL has done. The next step is to get initial approval for the concept. That will be up to the Hawaiian Homes Commission, which will soon vote on the subject. If it says yes, the proposal then moves on to the next step, approval by the state’s governor, David Ige. Even if it’s approved by the governor, it still has to be approved by Hawaii’s House of Representatives and Senate, both of which are overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.

Kenyan sports betting operator SportPesa is threatening legal action after the country’s gambling regulator staged a raid on the company’s Nairobi offices.

On Wednesday, Kenyan media reported that police officers and agents of the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) attempted to raid SportPesa’s Nairobi offices at around 3pm. Witnesses claimed that the officials brought a truck with them, apparently in the expectation of carting away documents and computer equipment. 

However, the agents appear to have left empty-handed after failing to gain entry to SportPesa’s offices. SportPesa later issued a statement saying the agents had failed to produce either a court order or warrant supporting their invasive maneuver. 

The company is now vowing to sue both the BCLB and the Interior Ministry for disregarding a Nairobi High Court order telling the BCLB to stand down until a January 25, 2021 hearing on the question of whether SportPesa is currently permitted to conduct betting operations in Kenya. 

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.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

Pariplay’s Portuguese Prominence Flourishes through Partnership with Casino Portugal

Portfolio of industry-leading casino content continues to take over Portugal with latest partnership

Another thrilling GGPoker Super MILLION$ final table saw the chip leader going into the day, Uruguay’s Joaquin Melogno win the day as he triumphed against Russian player Andrey Kotelnikov to seal the deal heads-up and win the top prize of $636,072.

With a bumper field of 511 entries, that meant the prizepool again sailed past $5 million, with a massive half a million dollars on offer to both first and second places. That created plenty of action on Day 1 and left Melogno as the man to beat coming into the final day’s play.

Melogno, who in winning the Super MILLION$ final table did so for the first time, took out five of his eight rivals to do so in spectacular style, with a thoroughly dominant performance fully deserving of the victory. 

The final table action saw the first player to fall out before the Twitch viewers had settled into their gaming chair grooves, Finnish player Jorma Nuutinen busting when his shove for just under nine big blinds with ace-four was called by Turkish player ‘veca’, whose pocket eights would turn a set on their way to winning the hand for him.

Sports betting operator FanDuel Group has struck a Caribbean and South American market access deal with a company controlled by America’s first black billionaire. 

On Wednesday, FanDuel announced a deal with The CAGE Companies and its subsidiary CAGE Sports BV to operate online and retail sportsbooks in “certain jurisdictions where CAGE is licensed or is seeking sports betting licenses in the Caribbean and South America.”

CAGE is an offshoot of the RLJ Companies, a holding company founded by Robert L. Johnson, creator of Black Entertainment Television (BET), following the 2001 sale of BET to Viacom. 

CAGE subsequently established a network of video lottery terminal (VLT), sports betting and virtual sports games in several Caribbean jurisdictions, including Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, Guyana and Sint Maarten. 

Casinos across Europe are rapidly losing their Christmas spirit as governments order them back under pandemic lockdown. 

On Wednesday, Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s Cyprus offshoot Cyprus Casinos (C2) posted a note to its website announcing that it would “temporarily suspend” operations at all four of its gaming venues “according to the government directive.”

The notice applies specifically to two of C2’s smaller satellite venues, as one other satellite location and C2’s larger ‘temporary’ casino in Limassol were forced to close in November. This is the second lockdown for C2, which shut all four venues in mid-March and didn’t reopen until the summer. 

In the Czech Republic, land-based gambling venues were permitted to emerge from their original lockdown on December 3, albeit it under strict capacity restrictions and limited hours of operation. 

Its that time of year again and oh how I love to reminisce as I put together my annual top 10 most viewed list for Becky’s Affiliated. 

As we are all painfully aware, this year has been completely different than all the rest, yet the gambling industry soldiers on, finding solutions rather than lamenting about the situation. As I’ve said before in various panels and interviews throughout the year, I’m so incredibly proud of our industry and sincerely look forward to what 2021 will bring. 

As you peruse the list below, you’ll note four of the 10 pieces are related to industry events which reflects what an important part they play within our community. I’m delighted to see two BitcoinSV pieces make the list as I predict there will be an explosion of BSV blockchain within the gambling space shortly, perhaps 2021 will be the year. 

The rest of the pieces on the list are also fantastic watches and reads, so please check them out if you have not already and thank you so much to all my Becky’s Affiliated interviewees, we all appreciate your time and expertise.

After an entertaining final table, Argentina’s Damian Salas has become WSOP Main Event winner in the International leg after the action concluded live and exclusive in Rozvadov at the world-famous King’s Casino.

Winning $1.5 million, the heads-up was an ironic meeting from two players from South America, who would have found it infinitely easier to travel to Las Vegas rather than the small town on the Czech-German border.

With only eight of the nine combatants who made it this far arriving at King’s, Chinese player Peiyuan Sun decided not to travel to Rozvadov, and while Sam Greenwood was one player who suggested maybe they should be blinded out, that didn’t happen, with Sun awarded the 9th place prize of $75,360 as contained in the GGPoker/WSOP rulebook and as reported from the scene by PokerNews.

That left eight to battle it out for the title, and the action was fast and friendly from the beginning. First out the door was Austrian player Hannes Speiser, who cashed for $109,982 when his queen-ten was crushed pre-flop by Salas’ pocket tens. Salas was building momentum, and he busted the next player to go, too, with Bulgarian Stoyan Obreshkov unable to live up to his namesake Stoyan Madanzhiev in winning a WSOP Main Event. Stay chilled, other Stoyans, and keep that powder dry – another WSOP Main Event could come along at any time!