THE AMERICAS

Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov announced an indefinite leave of absence as the insider trading brouhaha prompted class actions lawsuits in the US and questions as to which Baazov brother was actually controlling Amaya; DraftKings and FanDuel agreed to stop offering fantasy contests on college sports events while Yahoo’s fantasy product stopped accepting credit card deposits; GAN added Oculus Rift virtual reality tech to its Simulated Gaming product and inked a new social casino deal with a mystery operator; the Illinois Lottery ignored the expiration of their online sales pilot program; a federal court dismissed a class action suit against IGT’s social casino division DoubleDown Interactive; Caesars Entertainment’s bankruptcy was complicated by a financial adviser’s extramarital affair and our Becky Liggero previewed the top five sessions at the upcoming iGaming North America 2016 in Las Vegas.

EUROPE

Russian bookmakers swallowed hard after the government announced a 100x rise in online betting duties; Italian authorities rumbled yet another mob-run illegal online betting ring; UK racing mulled an alternative to Betfred’s Tote pool betting product; TGP Europe betting sites accused a host of punters of Cheltenham bonus abuse; France introduced legislation to distinguish eSports tournaments from gambling events and Boston Venture’s Burce Eliot pegged 2016 as a breakout year for eSports wagering; Aspers won the