Online gambling operator 888 Holdings closed out 2020 by shattering revenue records while spending some of that revenue on a major advertising push to Spain’s online gamblers.

On Thursday, the UK-listed 888 issued a trading update in which the company said it finished 2020 on a high note, posting new all-time monthly records for both revenue and active customer numbers in the month of December. 888 investors largely shrugged, pushing the stock down 1.3% by Thursday’s close.

The news builds on the company’s previous market update in the first week of December, in which 888 projected its full-year revenue to be 45% ahead of 2019’s US$560.3m. 888 said Thursday that its FY20 revenue and earnings are now forecast to come in “moderately ahead of its prior expectations.”

888 said that while the current year had started with “good momentum,” it was “mindful of possible headwinds” in certain markets. Said jurisdictions likely include Germany, which is mulling harsh new taxes ahead of its regulated online gambling market launch this summer, as well as Spain, which will start enforcing its draconian new advertising and sponsorship rules this spring.

Kaizen Gaming, the online gaming and sportsbook operator, is bringing in some fresh talent to help with its continued expansion efforts. The Greece-based company is looking to leave its mark on the global gaming industry and has begun working on new deals to help it establish a larger footprint, which it feels can be better accomplished by relying on a long-time gaming executive. Claus Jansson, a former executive of Better Collective, is now wearing a Kaizen hat as its new Head of Affiliate Marketing Media Buying.

Jansson will primarily focus on developing the company’s expansion both at home and overseas. Kaizen is dedicated to getting its Betano and Stoiximan brands in front of more consumers, and the new executive is going to be key to that growth. He’s ready for the challenge, saying in a statement, “Kaizen Gaming is among the industry leaders, having achieved many great things and received accolades and awards over the past years. It is my firm belief that Kaizen Gaming will become even greater, at an international level and I am excited to be part of this process.”

With Better Collective, Jansson was most recently the Head of Commercial after having spent four years as the Head of Sales with the company. He has also served as a consultant for Betfair’s online gaming operations and for Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet. Jansson adds, ‘It’s a great honor for me to be part of one of the most prominent and fast growing GameTech companies in Europe.”

Kaizen already has a well-established presence in Greece and Cyprus through Stoiximan. It introduced the Betano brand, which has allowed the company to extend its reach to Brazil, Germany, Portugal and Romania. The company is backed by Greece’s gambling powerhouse, OPAP, which owns 36.75% of Kaizen and another 84.48% of the company’s Greek and Cypriot operations. 

The latest fun and inventive innovation has hit the GGPoker screens as Flip ‘n’ Go tournaments are now available in the poker brand’s lobby.

With a reputation for bringing players and fans some of the biggest competitions on offer in the poker industry, GGPoker has brought events such as the Super MILLION$ and the World Series of Poker 2020 Online Series to the world in the past few months, and with many huge festivals to come in 2021, there may be bigger games on offer than to Flip ‘n’ Go.

They do sound like a lot of fun, however.

Here’s how they work. Flip n Go’s are two-phased tournaments. The first phase is flip-happy, with players able to buy up to ten extra entries at the registration stage. They can therefore sit down to begin play with ten times the chances that anyone registering just one entry would do.

Arizona continues to feel the pinch from COVID-19 and it doesn’t look like things are going to get better quickly. Like other states, it needs to figure out how to cover budget shortfalls and, also like other states, could benefit from sports gambling. That’s the essential takeaway from recent comments made by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who is trying to get momentum building in the state to quickly make changes that will pave the way for in-state sportsbooks to set up shop.

This isn’t the first time the sports gambling topic has come up in Arizona and a measure to find support has failed the past couple of years. One problem, according to Ducey, is that existing laws prohibit sports gambling and these would have to be reversed before any progress can be made. He presented a letter to the Arizona Legislature yesterday, in which he explained that he’s now laying the groundwork to make that possible.

In his letter, Ducey explained that he has worked out new compacts with the state’s native Indian tribes to give them exclusive rights to casino-style gambling in the state. The compacts are ending their 20-year run and will need to be renegotiated, which could give Arizona some extra pull to tip things in the state’s favor. Historically, in all states with tribal compacts, the tribes have been reluctant to allow sports gambling or have demanded they be given virtual control over the activity.

However, Arizona is ready to take a stab at making changes to bring the state up to date. C.J. Karamargin, the press aide for the governor, told Capitol Media Services, “Our goal is to bring Arizona gaming into the 21st century. A lot has changed since the first compacts were signed, back when cell phones weren’t the thing they are now. The world looks a lot different today and our proposal is intended to reflect the way people live their lives today.”

As America prepares for the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, the possibility that online poker could be returning to the United States is a tantalising one.

With the death of Sheldon Adelson, another block to the return of online gambling – something Adelson was bitterly opposed to – has arisen. Indiana could be the next state to truly push for the return of online gambling and therefore poker to The Hoosier State.

It’s been widely reported that Senator Jon Ford, a Republican member from Terre Haute, has introduced the bill that if passed would legalise all forms of online casino gambling. With 14 state casinos, the online casinos would be able to offer all the usual games that are open to punters in the traditional casinos across Indiana. 

Of course, it’s not that simple and won’t happen overnight. Opposition is expected and a second license would be needed, too. If operators can bring their casino product – and poker would be a fascinating addition in this area of the States – to players in a new state so early into Biden term of office, it would be a real statement that the ‘United States of Online Poker’ could yet fully return to offering a reputable product to players nationwide. Even going state by state, there are more areas opening up such as New Jersey and Nevada that with Indiana in the acceptable states who could offer a multitude of games to their population.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment has taken it on the chin like almost all other casino operators around the world. The COVID-19 crisis has continued to deliver blow after blow to the global gaming industry, not willing to relent even when it’s down. Fortunately, things are expected to begin to improve this year once the vaccine starts to be distributed on a large scale, and Melco began to see some recovery as 2020 drew to a close. Still, it wants some additional financial support to ensure it can get past what will hopefully be the final coronavirus onslaught and is preparing to issue new senior notes to pick up some additional cash.

In the third quarter of ’20, Melco saw a substantial slide across all of its casino operations, with only Cyprus and Manila providing any real support. It reported negative earnings of almost $77 million, compared to positive revenue of $418 million a year earlier, and was able to rebound slightly from the previous quarter. The last three months of the year continued to provide movement in the right direction for its gross gaming revenue (GGR), at least in Macau, with October and November performing better than expected. According to a filing by Melco arm Melco Resorts Finance Ltd. (MRF) yesterday, the company indicated that its GGR for the two months had “increased by approximately 94 percent” quarter over quarter.

The dollar figure for the growth wasn’t provided, but it’s possible to get an idea of what it could have been. Melco’s City of Dreams Macau, its primary property in the city, saw just over $787 million in operating revenue in the third quarter of 2019, which dropped to just $91.4 million last year. Non-gaming revenue for that quarter came in at $18 million, which was $86 million less than it was a year earlier. 

The fact that Melco is trending upward is a good sign, but the continued lag in activity spanning more than a year puts it in a precarious situation. The company is ready to offer new senior notes in order to shore up its finances, looking for $250 million in aggregate principal, with the notes priced at 103.25% of that principal, plus accrued interest from December 4 of last year. The notes would be due in 2029 and offer an interest rate of 5.375%.

With the help of the governor, Nevada casinos are hoping to draw back customers with the safety of vaccinated employees. Gov. Steve Sisolak has announced resort employees will have priority access to Cvodi-19 vaccines, putting them in the “Tier 1 lane.”

This puts casino employees in at the same priority as other essential workers, including government employees and teachers, but also including food-service and airport workers. Making up more than 25% of Nevada’s workforce, adding resort workers to the Tier 1 group makes that group pretty big indeed.

By prioritizing the casino industry, the hope is that Nevada’s struggling economy can make a faster recovery, something gambling officials agree with. Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association, said the move will “will accelerate the consumer confidence needed to drive the visitor volume our economy depends on.” Candice McDaniel from the state Department of Health and Human Services agreed, noting the employees are “essential to our ability as a state to be healthy and to recover.”

There’s a pretty clear strategy to who’s getting vaccinated here. If a visitor can land at an airport where employees are all vaccinated, and then show up at a resort where they can dine and play with vaccinated employees, the general fear of Covid is removed. Valentine noted this offers a “significant competitive advantage” over other destinations.

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. We also roundup the latest slot game releases for you every Wednesday.

BetConstruct’s White Label Package to Power BetShah

The online operator BetShah integrates products from gaming and sports betting software provider BetConstruct.

If Donald Browne expected that relinquishing his position as CEO of Imperial Pacific International (IPI) might save him from being a target, he appears to have been mistaken. Browne served as the scandalous casino operator’s head honcho for about six months before stepping down when his brief contract came to an end last month. However, the company behind the Imperial Palace casino in Saipan continues to be the subject of public and political ridicule for a comedy of errors that could have been avoided, and threats of putting Browne behind bars have already surfaced. The latest warning comes from the same source, but is backed by a large and powerful federal body that is beginning to take a vested interest in how IPI runs its day-to-day operations in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

Browne and IPI Chair Cui Li Jie are expected to appear before CNMI Chief Judge Ramona Manglona next Thursday, per an order she has issued. If they don’t show up, the judge is ready to issue arrest warrants for both of them. While IPI is no stranger to controversy and questionable work ethics, this time, the US Department of Labor (DOL) is involved and it’s now a whole new ballgame.

The DOL has accused IPI executives of forcing employees to work without pay for long periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as not having provided the basic necessities to its workforce. The federal agency also believes that IPI left a number of employees stranded with no way for them to return to their home countries, which the DOJ asserts has led to a humanitarian crisis. Whenever violations of humanitarian rights start to be whispered, things are getting serious.

The DOL already believes that Browne, Cui and IPI should be held in contempt for not properly responding to a previous judgment dating back to April 11, 2019. Several calls to have Browne and IPI held more accountable for what has been going on at the company have been made but, so far, threats have rung hollow with the line in the sand moving each time it has been drawn. For his part, Browne has tried to assert that he can’t be held responsible since he is no longer the CEO, but this argument would most likely fall on deaf ears. He could be given some sort of relief for having only been an IPI figurehead to appease regulators, but his argument that he was unaware of the April 2019, court order won’t hold up. He was the company’s head of security at the time and would have most likely been aware of all the negative attention IPI was receiving.

Continuing on with the theme of upcoming events in 2021, this week I wanted to focus on digital events, a schedule that is a bit more, shall we say, predictable than in-person events for the time being. 

While many of us experienced “digital event fatigue” towards the end of 2020, its important to look at the bright side of the situation. Never, ever in our gambling industry careers have we had so much information at our fingertips and in most cases, for free. Not to mention digital events are time-efficient, we don’t have to travel to another location, we don’t even have to get out of our pajamas to learn from the top experts our space. This is actually something quite special that might not continue once the pandemic is over, so take advantage while you can!

I’m sure there will be plenty more digital events popping up as the year goes on, once we have a better idea of what in-person events are going to push forward and which are not. 

Rather than list all the events in chronological order, they are grouped by organizer with short descriptions on what you can expect. 

Texas looks like it may bend to the pressure of competition, as the Governor’s office has now started putting out feelers about adopting legal sports betting. The office of Governor Greg Abbott has reportedly been reaching out to states where sports betting is legal to get an idea of how to do it, notes the Legal Sports Report.

Apparently pushed to do so by professional team owners in the state, including Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, and Tilman Fertitta of the Houston Rockets, Abbott’s office may have spoken with New Jersey lobbyists and regulators about how the Lone Star state can get in on the action.

“Something is going to happen in Texas,” said Bill Pascrell III, a lobbyist with the Princeton Public Affairs Group. “It’s complicated because there’s no gaming culture and nothing definitive yet. But the governor is interested and the legislature is interested.”

If Texas is serious about the effort, it’s going to take a lot of work. They would have to change gambling laws, of course, but also adopt a constitutional amendment to get it done.