THE AMERICAS
Paul Phua left US soil after the DOJ admitted it no longer had a case; California’s online poker fight took a sharply negative turn; Nevada sportsbooks can now accept so-called ‘entity’ bets while Louisiana blew its chance to legalize fantasy sports;; the NFL put the kibosh on a fantasy football convention in Las Vegas; American Pharoah won the Triple Crown and owner Ahmed Zayat succeeded in getting his $1.65m gambling debt lawsuit tossed; DraftKings inked a marketing deal with Madison Square Garden Co.; the gaming industry protested the IRS boosting taxes on casino winnings; women make better gambling decisions under stress than men; new legislation would put three casinos in North Jersey; Roger ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Vers said it’s not too late to buy Bitcoin; Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts stayed schtum on merger rumors; the NFL announced its first live streaming deal for a regular season game; Rafi Farber warned of Station Casinos’ growing pains; archaeologists unearthed America’s oldest tribal casino; Rebecca Liggero discussed the Restoration of America’s Wire Act with Rich Muny and Nolan Dalla while Lee Davy recapped all the action at the World Series of Poker.
EUROPE
Playtech announced a £460m acquisition of troubled spread betting operator Plus500; Spain issued its long-awaited online slots licenses; PokerStars launched its UK-facing sportsbook; Paddy Power was said to be prepping a £1.6b bid for Ladbrokes; William Hill exited Romania; Dutch media agreed to restrict illegal gambling advertising; Denmark’s online market grew more than one-fifth; Betsson CEO Magnus Silfverberg submitted his resignation; Sportradar launched a new lottery monitoring system; Dafabet inked a shirt deal with Sunderland AFC; Tailorbet CEO Liam Casey discussed how to differentiate an online sportsbook while Robbie Davies said failure was assured for online poker startups; Slotozilla.com’s Rick Slot made a plea for personal responsibility; Portugal questioned Federbet’s motivations; Sepp Blatter announced his resignation as FIFA president and Rebecca Liggero profiled Goo Technologies’ Niclas Lundqvist in the latest installment of CalvinAyre.com’s innovator profile series.