The latest Super MILLION$ title went to Irish player Luke Reeves as he overcame a stacked final table packed with talent to win the top prize of $408,406.

With Melker Larsson going into play as the chip leader, much of the betting action actually ended up going on Ole Schemion and Daniel Dvoress, but after a rollercoaster ride across the best part of four hours, it was the Irishman Reeves who closed it out for the Super MILLION$ win.

Early Exits

The first player to leave the final table was no major surprise in terms of chipcounts going into the action as short-stacked American player Connor Drinan (who once lost all-in pre-flop with aces against aces in the million-dollar entry Big One for One Drop) busted first.

After 888 entries provided a seven-figure prizepool, the WPT Montreal Main Event has reached the final table and there are some outstanding players still in the hunt for the massive $447,859 top prize.

With the player who busts in ninth place only guaranteed a return of $37,024, the competition is going to be extremely fierce at the start. It’s Dan Shak who leads the way, bagging up just under 30 million chips, and with the big blind at 350,000, Shak will be armed with 85 big blinds.

Shak may have the lead, but he’ll be closely pursued by some of the best in the game. Germany have four players in the final nine, and Andrei Kriazhev (28.6 million) will be the player with most hope of putting those chips to the best use in the final, although Lebanese player Rayan Chamas (29.1 million) has even more with which to attack.

Two British players follow the top three in the chipcounts, with Jack Hardcastle in 4th place heading into the action wit 25.4 million and Chaz Chattha, who has previously enjoyed a lot of success in World Poker Tour event, 5th with 19.4 million chips.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

We can’t do a Super Bowl 55 props story for the February 7 game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and not have one of them feature odds on the game’s MVP as that’s always one of the most popular betting options for the big game at sportsbooks.

While there is no such thing as a lock in sports betting, if you wager on someone other than the two starting quarterbacks to win MVP then it’s probably lost money. A quarterback has won the award a whopping 30 times and thus the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes is the -120 betting favorite for Super Bowl 55 (because his team is favored) and the Bucs’ Tom Brady is the +210 second favorite – and then there’s a massive dropoff on the odds.

There is also a prop on the Super Bowl MVP winner’s position and a quarterback is -375; betting on that obviously eliminates the need to predict which team wins the game. A wide receiver is +375, tight end +850, running back +1000, any defensive position +1100 and a kicker +5000. No tight end or kicker (or offensive lineman) has won Super Bowl MVP.

Nevada casinos generated less revenue but posted larger profits in their most recent fiscal year, despite the pandemic’s impact on the final quarter of fiscal 2020.

The Nevada Gaming Control Board’s latest Gaming Abstract for fiscal 2020 show the state’s largest casino operators – those grossing over $1m in annual gaming revenue – generated combined revenue (from all sources) of $18.35b in the 12 months ending June 30, 2020. That’s one-quarter below the $24.55b those same operators reported in fiscal 2019. 

Gaming revenue totaled $6.75b in FY20, down $2b from FY19, although gaming’s share of revenue nudged up 1.1 points to 36.8%. All other revenue sources saw both their share and dollar values decline, with rooms down nearly 27% to $4.72b, food off 25.4% to $3.13b, beverage down 28.3% to $1.49b and ‘other’ falling one-quarter to $2.27b. 

Slots remained the casinos’ chief gaming breadwinner with $6.4b (-21.3%), followed by table games ($2.52b, -24.5%), sports betting ($216.7m, -19.3%), poker ($102m, -39.4%) and racing wagers ($29.7m, -31%). The overall gaming revenue figure was reduced by $2.5b in comps issued by the casinos, although that was down from $3.2b in FY19. 

Authenticity comes at a premium nowadays, and that’s true when becoming a leader of employees, customers, or the public at large. In his new book You Lead, Minter Dial doesn’t just tell the reader how to be a leader, because it’s not that simple. He helps them discover what kind of leader they were meant to be, and gives them the tools to apply that leadership to their life.

Dial begins to explain this concept through his own path to leadership. He was already an important person with years of experience at L’Oréal in the early 2000s, but having a first-hand view of the attacks on New York in 2001 helped give him perspective. It sent him down a path of discovery, re-learning lessons from his grand-father’s experiences in World War 2, and gave him a sense of purpose in the business world. It wouldn’t be enough to lead people to a nebulous corporate target anymore; there had to be core motivation to lead from.

Although You Lead touches on many topics of leadership, it’s all rooted in the firm foundations of first discovering what has shaped and motivated you and the organization you are a part of, and building from that

If you’re not sure what that means, Dial helps you find it. He touches on the ethics that you may not have declared out loud yet, but are integral to how you operate. He speaks of crafting a “North Star”, or a couple of key elements that you, your team, or your organization should strive for. He also offers great tips on establishing a model of leadership, adapting old ideas to the digital age, and little pieces of great advice on a wide array of topics.

Affiliate marketing has become increasingly popular, allowing companies to extend their marketing reach without having to put up a lot of cash. It has been particularly attractive to the iGaming segment, where operators find themselves in a highly competitive field, but affiliate marketing is only effective as long as the affiliates reach certain goals. One of the more established companies, XLMedia, found out last year how important it is to be in control of its network when penalties introduced by Google against it led to a major drop in revenue. However, the company is ready to bounce back and put those issues behind it. 

Last September, XLMedia announced that it was going to come up short on its revenue expectations for the first half of the year by around $2 million. Part of that was due to COVID-19, but it was also because Google slammed the company for allegedly playing tricks to achieve better positions in Google search rankings. XLMedia had reportedly come under fire for a number of transgressions and issued a “manual ranking penalty,” causing it to lose its place in Google searches. Among the activity that can lower Google’s ranking score are things like using hidden text and websites that use a lot of spam; however, the penalties attributed to XLMedia were not disclosed. 

The company is now rewriting the playbook on how it operates and is taking a “multi-track approach” to recover lost ground on Google. With its newfound dedication to structure and attention to detail, XLMedia expects to reach group revenue of around $54.5 million and, discounting certain business transaction expenses and share-based payments, believes it will achieve adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of around $11.5. That figure is in line with its current level. 

To help it rebound, XLMedia is going to reduce the number of websites it offers. At the same time, the sites that will remain in the portfolio, as well as new sites that are coming online, will see improvements and enhancements to make them align better with Google’s ranking requirements. Many of these upgrades have already begun and the company has reported shared its latest revamped data with Google to determine if it is more suitable. 

New Hampshire’s sports gambling market opened a year ago and sprinted off the blocks. Less than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court bashed lawmakers and certain lobbyists for having introduced PASPA, the state’s online sports gambling activity saw strong participation from the start, even though there was some concern over how the market might evolve. With that in mind, limits were placed on the number of licenses that would be issued and the type of venues that could hold a license. A new bill hopes to chip away at those limits, allowing New Hampshire to see a large sports gambling market with more sportsbooks popping up across the state.

Following the mobile-only launch, retail sportsbooks began appearing in New Hampshire when DraftKings descended on The Brook in Seabrook last August (it later expanded and was included in the Filotimo Casino & Restaurant in Manchester). Over the past six months, there has been more than $225.7 million in sports wagers made, according to the New Hampshire Lottery, and around $18.4 million of that has gone to sportsbooks. Legislators believe there’s more money to be made, though, and want certain restrictions in the state’s sports gambling laws removed. 

One of these restrictions is on the type of wagers that can be placed. Currently, physical sportsbooks and gambling kiosks aren’t able to include live in-game odds, which handicaps gamblers. New Hampshire Representative Tim Lang, who sponsored the gambling bill, is leading the charge to get this changed and told The Center Square, “It makes zero sense. I could literally be sitting in the casino, where I could place a bet before the game started. But once the game started, I would have to take out my phone to place another bet.”

Lang put together House Bill 330 (HB330) to address that flaw in the gambling laws and took advantage of the effort to add some additional actions. Currently, only a maximum of ten retail sportsbooks are allowed in the state; however, if Lang’s bill were to be approved, there would be no cap. This might be tied to an initiative begun by the Lottery, which manages New Hampshire’s sports gambling market, given that the entity has trademarked a new name that is most likely linked to sports gambling. Sports 603 is expected to be a company run by the Lottery that would put sports gambling kiosks in locations around the state where residents can buy lottery tickets.

The gaming industry is showing how effective women are at running operations. Over the past several years, several casinos and gaming companies have promoted female executives into positions of leadership and Atlantic City is one of the locations that has been leading the charge. However, it isn’t alone and, around the world, it is increasingly common to find females taking over, a response to research that shows how women often make better executives. The latest to be added to the CEO ranks of gaming companies is Cristina Niculae, who is now heading up Interactive Gaming Group (IGG).

IGG turned to the long-time gaming executive to help take it into the future, relying on her expertise in strategy and business leadership to make the iGaming marketing company more successful. Niculae was previously the chief strategy officer at GiG and, prior to that, was the company’s chief operating officer, overseeing operations in its iGaming Cloud arm. The newly-appointed CEO said of her new role, “I am delighted to accept the role as CEO of Interactive Gaming Group and lead the company into its next phase of growth. I have been impressed by the innovative and experienced founding team and I believe in this motivated and highly skilled group of people driven by a mission to rapidly become the best streaming affiliate in the industry.”

Niculae has a long list of accolades she has accumulated over the years. She was listed as one of the most influential women in the gaming industry by iGaming Business two years ago and her solid track record of helping companies achieve better results is reflected in that nomination. Niculae sees a bright future ahead for iGaming and understands what is needed to make a company technologically and digitally superior in an industry that continues to become more crowded. She added, through a separate statement, “In the casino space, rapid digitalisation and increased competition between online casinos are creating a strong value proposition for what streaming communities have to offer. Therefore, I feel inspired by the tremendous potential of Interactive Gaming Group to innovate and create long term value in this exciting space.”

In addition to her successful track record in the gaming industry, Niculae also has extensive experience in technology. She previously worked as a network engineering director for Ericsson and as an IT center manager for Oracle. Her foray into the gaming realm came with her entrance into GiG in 2017 and, since then, she has had a lasting impact on how the iGaming segment has evolved. Niculae has the full support of IGG’s founders, who said, “We believe that Cristina is the perfect person to enable Interactive Gaming Group to scale to the next level and become a leading power-player in the iGaming industry.”

Imperial Pacific International (IPI) is reportedly trying to make good on its outstanding debt, but the casino operator is so far in the hole that recovery seems untenable. It has begun to give its employees the millions of dollars in backpay they are owed and has allowed them to have access to electricity and water once again; however, it is facing new problems due to ongoing disputes that involve virtually everyone in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The question of whether IPI can open its Imperial Palace resort in Saipan as scheduled next month has been answered, with the company admitting that it won’t be ready, and this isn’t sitting well with CNMI’s gaming regulator. Although, at this point, the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) honestly can’t be surprised.

IPI said years ago that Imperial Palace would be ready to go in 2018 and then changed the schedule, tacking on two more years in 2019. That wasn’t enough, though, and the company asked for another extension that would put the drop-dead launch date sometime in 2022. However, per IPI’s casino licensing agreement, it is expected to have the venue up and running by February 28. Last Wednesday, the CCC was given an update on the construction progress by IPI’s chief engineer, Eric Poon, and was left unimpressed with the details. 

CCC Executive Director Andrew Yeom was disappointed to hear that IPI can’t meet the February deadline, calling it “alarming” that the schedule for completion has to be changed once again. He added that IPI’s licensing agreement specifically mandates how the progress should go and warns that failure to adhere to the schedule could be considered a breach of contract. Although, after having been accused several times of breaching its contract and failing to comply with regulator’s orders, IPI is most likely numb, especially since it continues to be allowed to get away with violations without any severe repercussions. 

Poon reportedly said that it would be impossible to complete construction on time and believes that the only realistic schedule would put the probable launch date at around December of next year, as had previously been suggested. CCC Chairman Edward C. Deleon Guerrero was present when Poon gave his update and said, “If you don’t do that at the end of February, CCC will again be forced to file an enforcement action for failure to comply with the license agreement. So, make sure that somebody in IPI with sufficient authority looks at this and takes some actions.”

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.

Team up with the Defenders of the Realm in High 5 Games’ New Release!

High 5 Games, the industry’s leading independent casino games provider, brings back the winning power of Beat Boxes in it brand new game.

Sheldon Adelson, the man who built the Las Vegas Sands empire, passed away two weeks ago, bringing to an end an era of what can only be described as a transition between the old guard and the new in the casino industry. Following the demise of Sands’ founder, chairman and CEO, the show must go on, even if it could add a few pages to its script, and two long-time company executives are now being bumped up to fill the void. Robert G. Goldstein and Patrick Dumont are going to bring Sands into the 21st Century.

Goldstein was the company’s president and chief operating officer, having taken on the roles six years ago and ten years after he joined Sands’ Board of Directors. Since Adelson passed, Goldstein has served as the company’s interim chairman and CEO and will now officially hold both titles as he looks to take Sands forward. His history with the company is extensive and includes roles as the president of global operations and executive VP, as well as president and chief operating officer, of The Venetian and The Palazzo Las Vegas. 

The new top boss said in a press release about Adelson, “Mr. Adelson’s leadership guided us to the top of our industry, and his legacy lives on through the company’s 50,000 team members and the iconic properties he developed around the world. Our spirits have been dimmer in these few weeks since his passing, but the future of the company he founded shines bright. He would expect nothing less than an aggressive pursuit of the work he started, and I am determined to lead this company forward in a way that best honors his vision.”

Dumont has been with Sands for almost 11 years and, since 2017, has served as a director. He is more than just another casino executive, though, as he is married to Sivan Ochshorn, the daughter of Adelson’s wife from her previous marriage. Dumont became the company’s chief financial officer (CFO) in 2016, and will now serve as the president and chief operating officer of Sands. He added in the press release, “Mr. Adelson established the roadmap for the future of this company, and that roadmap is unchanged. I am dedicated to working with Rob and our leadership team to make our strategic objectives a reality. Our path forward is clear and remains true to the principles our founder was committed to for so many years – we will continue supporting our people and the local communities in which we operate, reinvesting in our current markets, producing strong returns for our shareholders and aggressively pursuing new development opportunities.”

Now that it has been able to see how effective its initiative has been, William Green has shed light on a project it began last October. The sports gambling giant has gone green, embracing 100% renewable energy sources for its electricity needs in the U.K. as it moves to reduce its carbon footprint. The initiative is likely to find other companies following in William Hill’s footsteps, especially as more attention is given to environmental matters on a global scale.

William Hill entered an agreement at the beginning of last October to change its energy supplier in the U.K. from Grid Electricity to Total Gas Power (TGP). That transition paved the way for the company to rely completely on energy from solar, wind and hydro, which will reportedly allow it to reduce its carbon footprint by around 61,500 tons across the three-year life of the new contract with TGP. That, as explained by SBC News, is equal to what is output by 38,000 cars or a flight from London to Las Vegas.

This is just the beginning for William Hill, as the company plans on initiating other efforts to become more green. As explained by the sportsbook’s chief procurement officer, David Medori, “We have prioritised the Environment as being extremely important to William Hill and have committed to becoming a Carbon Neutral Business. We have established aggressive targets over 5 years in C02 reduction on Energy, Waste, Transportation and Water.”

To assist with those other initiatives, William Hill is also beginning to use smart metering solutions in all 2,000 of its gambling shops in the U.K. Smart meters allow businesses to track energy consumption down to the individual outlet to which a device is attached and can be used to control the electricity usage. The devices send data wirelessly, often to a single management station, where it can be analyzed so adjustments can be made.

2020 was a rough year for the Philippines Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs), with many taking their leave of the country, either due to Covid or taxation. That being said, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has reported taxes taken in from the sector increased 11.71% to P7.18 billion ($149.3 million)

Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay announced the good news in a January 26 statement. The tax take is up from the P6.4 billion raised in 2019, and P2.36 billion in 2018.

Despite an exodus of Philippines offshore gaming operators (Pogo) due to taxation issues and a high number of COVID-19 infections here, taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from the sector rose by more than a tenth to P7.18 billion last year.

The BIR’s success in bringing in more taxes had less to do with the POGO sector bringing in more money, but with more aggressive approaches to collections. POGOs were long accused of not paying all taxes expected of them, a disagreement which has resulted in court battles. When 2019 numbers were reported a year ago, BIR deputy commissioner Arnel Guballa noted at the time that POGO firms would have to pay their taxes or be shut down, a threat they followed through on.

This is a guest contribution by Sergiy Logvynenko, Account Manager at Sigma Software. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

The online casino world has developed very intensely in the last few years and the biggest impact is the number of games. First of all – slot games. Any player can select something that will fit his or her preferences. Seems that nowadays every casino operator suggests about a thousand slot games or even more. 

I love the comparison of Casino + slot games with Netflix + movies. It is not exactly the same but sounds similar. There are a huge amount of titles that create a problem for a player to select something. Casino operators work on that situation by using different recommendation systems based on player profiles and previous playing experience. It does not work so well as they would prefer. At the same time, it is something.

I would like to touch on another side of this situation and look at it from the game provider’s point of view. As a provider, you are spending a huge amount of time designing, developing the game, passing certifications, and adapting to different regulations. Finally, you end up in a situation when your game is on the market and it needs to compete with hundreds or even thousands of similar games. Of course, your game has unique selling points and you have the best marketing team and solid budget to promote it. The player will try the game. Will he or she play for a long time? Let’s be honest – sometimes it happens, but not so often. It happens because a player likes the game, but not everything in the game – i.e. he/she likes math, but the game is too “slow” visually or has too many effects. These are just some examples to mention. There are a few more important reasons to switch to another game – the game becomes boring after some time or today the player wants to relax and prefers to have a game with relaxing sounds, etc.

The wait for a new Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) CEO is over. The regulator has announced the appointment of Dr. Carl Brincat to the role, and he will immediately start the job.

This follows months of the role being vacant, after former CEO Heathcliff Farrugia resigned in October, 2020. Farrugia noted he would not seek to renew his contract, although this came at the same time when his name was being tied to a notorious murder case in the Mediterranean nation.

Brincat brings a law background to the role, previously having served as the MGA’s Chief Legal & Enforcement officer, working with the MGA for more than 6 years. He was happy to get the job:

 “It is an honour to be selected to lead the organisation at such a critical juncture for the MGA and the industry alike.