As Sportradar continues to blaze a path in the sports data intelligence segment, it’s adding some new firepower to its arsenal. The company, which is now found in all corners of the world, helping improve sports and sports gambling, announced yesterday that it has appointed Jeffery Yabuki as its Chairman of the Board. In the process, it has tapped a top executive leader with a solid background of business development and expansion that is going to help Sportradar continue to raise the bar for the entire sports industry. 

Yabuki is the former CEO of financial services technology giant Fiserv, a position he held for 15 years before being bumped to Executive Chairman. Fiserv started as a regional company with a small workforce before growing into a global behemoth that enjoyed almost triple-digit growth and massive shareholder return under Yabuki’s guidance. The executive is also listed on the board of directors at both Bank of Canada and Ixonia Bancshares, Inc. 

Speaking on his new role, Yabuki asserted in a statement, “As the leading global provider of sports data intelligence, Sportradar has achieved remarkable growth and is well positioned for the future in this evolving market. I am honored to join the Global Board to partner with Carsten and the incredibly talented Sportradar leadership team to create differentiated value at the intersection of sports entertainment and technology leadership.”

The new chairman was referring to Carsten Koerl, Sportradar’s Global CEO. In addition to now working with Koerl on a daily basis, Yabuki will also work alongside board members Hafiz Lalani, John Doran, Chuck Robel, Marc Walder, Hervé Couturier and George Fleet to drive the company forward. Sportradar continues to mold its global operations workforce after having enjoyed explosive success over the past couple of years, leading to the introduction of regional CEOs last month who will work under Koerl’s guidance to support the company’s continuing expansion. These three are Arne Rees, overseeing North American operations, Werner Becher, in charge of the UK, Latin America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Eduard Blonk, tapped to spearhead Sportradar’s Asia Pacific activity. 

If Las Vegas falls further into the abyss because of COVID-19 restrictions, New Year’s Eve partygoers can take the blame. This is the position of a Nevada health official, who believes anyone who dropped in on Vegas to say farewell to 2020 and welcome in 2021 should now assume they are infected with the virus. He added that they could now be spreading the coronavirus without even realizing it, and that ignoring recommendations to avoid gathering on the streets of Sin City may end up costing more than what the celebrators had bargained for. 

In an interview with local media outlet KTNV-TV, Nevada’s COVID-19 expert, Caleb Cage, pointed out that Vegas visitors on New Year’s may have been exposed to the virus and that they might now be helping spread it, even if they aren’t showing any symptoms. He added that the choice to ignore health warnings recommending everyone avoid congregating to ring in the new year may prove costly, adding, “It was a risk to go out on New Year’s Eve. The governor made it clear.” Cage is more than just a scientific source on COVID-19; he was also infected with the virus.

Nevada had placed a restriction on gatherings a few months ago, limiting the number of people to 50. This position was reiterated ahead of the typically bustling atmosphere of Vegas to celebrate the new year, and a number of photos circulating social media and news sites show large clusters of people, some of whom aren’t wearing masks. Ahead of the expected New Year’s Eve crowds, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak tried to motivate would-be revelers to stay away from inundating popular hotspots, asserting, “To organize or promote gatherings with the tickets or fee as if it’s business as usual, that’s just plain irresponsible. The science prevails, and the science says the more people in a gathering, it is guaranteed that a portion are going to have COVID, either symptomatic or asymptomatic.”

Megan Brownhill, who mans a temporary tattoo booth on the Fremont Street Experience in Vegas, knows first-hand how out of control the situation was. Despite the FSE supposedly only being open to local hotel guests on New Year’s Eve, she saw how the streets were flooded with people and was even fined because some of her customers didn’t wear masks. Since one of her coworkers tested positive for COVID-19 recently, she’s concerned that a new spike could be coming. 

Sky Betting and Gaming, better known as Sky Bet, has decided to uproot itself from its current office in Leeds to one down the road. The gaming company employs many of the city’s residents and will put around 1,400 of these in its new digs on Wellington Place, a newly-inaugurated commercial zone. The new facilities come with some added characteristics to conform to a COVID-19 world; along with several other changes designed to help its workforce stay protected from the coronavirus, Sky Bet is preparing to develop what it calls “neighborhoods” at its new facilities.

As with many companies around the world, Sky Bet has transitioned to allow many employees to work from home in order to control the spread of COVID-19. The Flutter Entertainment-owned gambling operator will continue its WFH scheme, but also anticipates employees spending about 40% of their time in the new offices. According to Sky Bet Brand Creative and Sponsorship Director Michael Afflick, the goal is to “promote working from home when [employees] want to and coming into the office when [they] need to.”

That transformation in the operational model required Sky Bet to alter its office blueprint, developing a hybrid solution that will provide an inviting atmosphere for employees. It is establishing its on-site neighborhoods, which are described as physical spaces at the facility to which employees can connect while working from home. These areas occupy the second through sixth floors of the new building and each floor will hold anywhere from eight to 18 meeting rooms and 266 desks. The ground floor of the building will offer reception and retail areas. There will also be a gym, a cafeteria, a gaming room and a faith room.

Afflick explains, “We’re preparing for a post-COVID world so the desks won’t be two metres apart. We want to make coming into work more appealing than it ever has before. We think that part-time office working and more collaborative spaces will set us up better for the future.” The new spaces are still being finalized, with Sky Bet pushing for a grand opening before the end of May. When it’s all done, the company will have at its disposal a total of 136,000 square feet, up from the current 105,000, and will offer almost twice as many meeting rooms as it did before, increasing the number from 37 to 79. The design also comes with technological upgrades, with Sky Bet building an app that will allow its employees to reserve meeting rooms and parking spaces, and introducing state-of-the-art video conferencing and audiovisual equipment.

UK medical experts have declared war on gambling, calling it “an urgent, neglected, understudied, and worsening public health predicament.”

This week, The Lancet Public Health journal announced the launch of its inaugural Commission on Gambling, which it claims will be a “scientific inquiry.” However, these scientists appear to have pre-judged the outcome of this inquiry by declaring early on that gambling is “not an ordinary activity: it is a health-harming addictive behavior.” 

To be charitable, starting with the conclusion and working backward to arrive at that conclusion is the polar opposite of a scientific approach. It brings to mind the efforts of evangelical Christians to get ‘intelligent design’ taught alongside the theory of evolution in US schools. 

Intelligent design, if you’ve forgotten, was the ‘evidence-based scientific theory’ that there was an intelligent creator who created the natural world all at once rather than it happening in fits and starts as the universe expanded from the big bang. How did these evangelicals know this? Well, they just knew, and they wanted kids to know, too. 

The Americas

The Wall Street Journal reported that MGM Holdings is interested in buying out Entain (formerly GVC Holdings). It was reported that a bid of $10 billion was rejected, and MGM are considering returning with a higher offer; Main Event champion and prop bet legend Huckleberry Seed was finally inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Huckseed finished ahead of Matt Savage and Isai Scheinberg in the final voting; The Navajo Nation, a native Indian tribe that operates casinos in Arizona and New Mexico, continues to struggle with COVID restrictions in 2021. The group is set to furlough over 1,100 employees, and permanent closures may be on the way; Casino operator Bally’s Corp has struck a deal to build a new Pennsylvania mini-casino. The operator announced that it had signed a framework agreement to develop the mini-casino near Penn State University; Florida lawmakers continue to try and push the state and tribes to come to an agreement on sports betting. State Senator Jeff Brandes proposed three bills in late December in a bid to legalise sports betting in the state; Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) is replacing its sports betting brand with a more established brand in a bid to compete in the U.S. online market. TwinSpires is expected to partner with CDI in a long-term arrangement; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to push for his state to legalise mobile sports betting. Media outlets have predicted Cuomo will make a pitch for mobile betting in his State of the State address; Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson is taking leave for cancer treatment as the Sands chairman has battled non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 2019.

Europe

Sports betting operators continue to watch the situation in the U.K. as the Premier League ponders a shutdown. U.K. Prime Minister has initiated a third national lockdown as several players have also tested positive; Oryx Gaming is making final preparations to enter the Dutch market in 2021 as the Dutch government adds the final touches to iGaming legislation for operators; U.K. gambling company Entain has made a £252m offer for Baltic online operator Enlabs in a bid to expand Entain’s Eastern European presence. Enlabs shareholders have until mid-February to accept the offer.

Casino operator MGM Resorts is furloughing more staff from its Las Vegas resorts, adding to the city’s nation-high unemployment rate. 

On Thursday, the Reno Gazette Journal reported that MGM planned to furlough 140 managers at its Las Vegas properties starting Monday. MGM spokesperson Brian Ahern said the “temporary reductions” were the result of projections showing business volumes will “remain low for the beginning of the year due to the pandemic.”   

MGM furloughed thousands of staff last spring when the pandemic shut Nevada casinos for months, but capacity restrictions imposed as a condition of reopening led MGM to permanently lay off 18k staff – one-quarter of its workforce – in August. Other Vegas casino operators were forced to make similar cuts, including some announced earlier this week after capacity was further limited late last year.

On Tuesday, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed Las Vegas had an unemployment rate of 11.5% in November. That’s lower than the 16.4% reported in El Centro, California, but Vegas has the dubious honor of boasting the highest jobless rate among 51 metropolitan areas with a population of 1m or higher (second place went to New Orleans at 9.8%). Vegas also had the highest year-on-year rise in its unemployment rates, gaining 7.9 points from November 2019. 

Tennessee sports bettors will soon have a fifth online option while one of its current licensees’ ties to a high-interest lending firm are raising responsible gaming concerns. 

This week, the Tennessee Education Lottery’s Sports Wagering Committee gave conditional approval to Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) to launch online betting (the only kind permitted in the state) under its BetAmerica brand. CDI, which recently announced plans to rebrand BetAmerica as TwinSpires, still needs to clear a few technical hurdles before launching in Tennessee.

CDI joins existing licensees BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and local firm Action 24/7, with another three would-be licensees – William Hill, Wynn Resorts’ WynnBET and ZenSports – still waiting in the wings. It remains to be seen whether any of the latter trio will be able to launch in time for this year’s Super Bowl on February 7. 

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Lottery has issued a betting vendor registration to Advance Financial, a Nashville-based fintech firm that offers so-called ‘flex’ loans, which are effectively a line of credit with seriously high interest rates (279.5% APR) for borrowers with few other options. So, payday loans.

Of all the players to fully embrace the modern poker career, Jason Koon is one of the most respected and revered players at the table.

It’s been hard work to get to the top, but Jason Koon is today one of the best poker players of his generation. How did he get there, and which parts were inspiration and perspiration? Let’s take a look.

The Cure Beats the Injury

Jason Koon hails from West Virginia, and had a tough time growing up, victim of bullying and abuse, as he revealed in this highly personal interview.

The casino cash stolen over the holidays from South Korean operator Landing International Development was the work of more than just a single employee, according to local police. 

Earlier this week, the Hong Kong-listed Landing confessed to investors that an employee had apparently made off with over KRW14.5b (US$13.4m) in cash from Jeju Shinhwa World, the company’s gaming venue on South Korea’s Jeju Island. 

The Yonhap news agency reported Thursday that Landing had asked police to track down a female Malaysian employee the company suspects of being behind the heist. The unidentified staffer apparently didn’t return to her post after the holidays and her whereabouts are currently a mystery.

The staffer apparently wiped the casino’s security footage before she fled the scene, leaving police without any hard proof of her involvement in the theft. But police are working on the theory that she had at least two accomplices, both of whom presumably possess strong backs.