You are what you read, and in 2020 it’s never been more important to take advantage of the downtime to improve yourself and learn a few things from the pros. Hundreds of great books come out every year exploring business, leadership and entrepreneurship. From the realities of leadership to the art of negotiation, here are 10 iBooks that are a must-read for any operator, marketer or budding entrepreneur who is looking for an edge and a sage piece of wisdom. 

Never Split the Difference – Chris Voss

Chris Voss is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of business negotiation. The former FBI negotiator faced down kidnappers, bank robbers, violent gang leaders and notorious terrorists. When it comes to negotiation, Voss perfected negotiation into a fine art. Voss shares the nine key negotiation principals that he learnt with the FBI; perfect for affiliates and operators looking to develop their negotiation skills. Now retired from the FBI, Voss teaches the fine art of negotiation to some of the leading business leaders in the U.S. through his Black Swan institute. 

The 4-hour workweek – Tim Ferris

If some deep-pocketed backers have their way, Kentucky might soon get a new harness race track and a new casino. The majority owners of the Kentucky Downs horse racing track have partnered with the Keeneland Association to submit an application for a license in the Bluegrass State that would allow it to operate both options. If things go according to plan, the harness track would be set up in the city of Corbin, while the casino would be developed on the way from Corbin to Williamsburg.

A press release from this past Monday about the planned initiatives states, “Keeneland and the majority owners of Kentucky Downs announced today their filing of an application for a racing license and proposed construction of a state-of-the-art racing facility and related track extension in Kentucky to be located in Corbin and Williamsburg, respectively. The proposed facilities will feature live Standardbred racing and historical racing machines for guests from Kentucky and beyond.”

Approval of the application won’t be a slam dunk. Kentucky has restrictions on the type of gambling allowed and licensed parimutuel properties are the only ones given permission to operate historical horseracing machines, a twist to the standard slot machine, and Kentucky Downs already found opposition when it announced plans to expand its offerings earlier this year. However, the machines have been in place for about eight years and have given Kentucky a significant amount of revenue, but trying to introduce any additional gambling options in the state is sure to meet strong resistance. The first step in the process will be to receive approval of the license by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. 

If that approval is received, things will most likely move quickly to get the facilities up and running, especially given the financial impact COVID-19 has brought to different communities around the world. According to the president and CEO of Keeneland, Bill Thomason, “Keeneland has dedicated resources to this region and project for many years and we look forward to working alongside our partners at Kentucky Downs to bring this project to life. This project will strengthen Kentucky’s vital horse industry and positively impact the Commonwealth and the local communities by stimulating significant economic growth, generating hundreds of new jobs and enhancing tourism and hospitality.”

Bitcoin SV continues to reshape the digital currency ecosystem, making it the perfect technology for businesses to leverage the Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision and get a competitive edge over their competition.

A live streaming event from New York and London, the sixth CoinGeek conference promises to bring together some of the most innovative and respected minds in the blockchain community.

The CoinGeek conference is set for September 30 to October 2 and is purpose-built to provide maximum value for developers, investors and business leaders with the latest innovations from industry leaders.

The live streaming event will give investors and developers the opportunity to gain a developed understanding of the BSV ecosystem and the latest innovations in blockchain technology.

Australian casino operator The Star Entertainment Group (TSE) is pushing a new Sydney expansion plan, while fending off negative publicity involving executive bonuses and porn shoots.

Despite its original expansion plan having been rejected by Sydney officials last year, TSE has submitted a proposal for not a single 237-meter hotel tower but two new towers at its flagship casino property. The AU$1b plan envisions a 180-meter tower on the south side of the complex bookended with a 110-meter tower on the north side.  

Both towers would exceed the New South Wales government’s preference for keeping the district’s skyscrapers below 60 meters and local opposition to vertical expansion appears not to have abated since last November. But TSE appears to be banking on its promise that the plan would create 1,000 new temporary construction jobs and a similar number of permanent hires once the buildings are in use.

TSE is bracing for the end of its local casino monopoly as rival Crown Resorts prepares for the soft opening of its flashy new Crown Sydney venue this December. With both operators currently suffering from a distinct lack of Chinese VIP gamblers, it will be necessary to lure domestic high-rollers, a fight in which swanky amenities could play a major role.

Malicious cyberattacks against online gambling sites soared during the pandemic lockdown as scammers looked to take advantage of the sites’ increased popularity.

Technology analytics firm Neustar Security recently released its Cyber Threats & Trends Report: Jan-Jun 2020, which details a 151% surge in the number of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year.

Worse, these attacks are getting more powerful and lasting longer. While attacks at the lower end of the scale involving 5 Gigabits (Gbps) or lower per second were up over 200% year-on-year – and such attacks represented over 70% of observed attacks – those at the other extreme (involving 100 Gbps or more) were up around 275%.

The longest attack duration this year was five days and 18 hours, the longest Neustar has ever observed, while the largest individual attack size was a whopping 1.17 Terabits per second, the largest that Neustar has ever mitigated (although Amazon Web Service reported a client being hit by a 2.3Tbps attack). The average attack size rose by 1Gbps year-on-year to 12Gbps.

Christopher Fitzgerald is the man to beat after the second and final Day 1 flight of the World Poker Tour’s hugely successful World Online Championship.

With the eye-watering entry fee being a gigantic $25,000, the Super High Roller Championship saw 111 players take part on Day 1b, which, when added to the 88 players who took part on Day, means 199 players have so far put up the five-figure sum to be involved.

With a $5 million guarantee, there’s no wondering why and with that missed by just one entry, everyone will be fighting for the million-dollar top prize knowing that there is a little extra added value in the prizepool too. Everyone will want to emulate the actions of Phil Mighall, the British pro who already won $1.5 million this series.

Just 11 players made it through from Day 1a, but a few more booked seats for Day 2 on Day 1b, with 18 players successfully negotiating the 18 blind levels, each lasting 25 minutes on partypoker.

With a massive 1,697 entries all putting up the $5,200 buy-in, the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event had a fantastic turn-out on Sunday night. A ‘Sunday Major’ it may have been in all but name to the many players taking it on, but the WCOOP Main Event is a historic event.

PokerStars have done a great job this series of bringing the action to fans too, with some commentary from legendary duo James Hartigan and Joe ‘Stapes’ Stapleton and some fun clips of the highlights throughout the World Championship of Online Poker.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W14F2lCorcI]

With just 579 of the 1,697 entries making Day 2 – still short of the money – the event was taking place in an 8-Max format, and saw ten re-entries too. There could still be a lot more people playing on Day 2, with re-entry or registration taken up until five minutes before the cards go into the air.

Las Vegas casinos continue to expand their list of pandemic-acceptable amenities, even as data increasingly suggests that casinos may be serving as COVID-19 transmission centers.

Last week, Nevada’s COVID-19 Mitigation and Management Task Force cleared bars, pubs and bar areas within restaurants in Clark County to reopen effective Sunday (20) at 11:59pm. Watering holes in the county, which includes Las Vegas, are limited to 50% capacity and their dance floors and pool tables must remain out of action for the time being.

The decision came despite Clark County continuing to meet two of the Task Force’s three elevated disease transmission criteria, although its test positivity rate fell 2.6 points from the previous week to 8.6%. The decision means bars will be open for Monday’s hotly anticipated first Las Vegas Raiders home game at the new Allegiant Stadium, although fans won’t be allowed to attend in person.

Bars aren’t the only Vegas staple returning to action. Penn National Gaming’s Tropicana casino, the company’s only Vegas Strip property, reopened to the public last Thursday at 10am, after delaying its original plan to reopen September 1.  

Dutch gambling venues have been hit with new pandemic restrictions on their hours of operation, while London’s casinos desperately try to fend off fresh limits.

Last Friday, the Netherlands’ Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport issued “new regional measures to control the spread of coronavirus.” The restrictions, which took effect at 6pm on Sunday, require all venues with catering licenses to stop accepting guests after midnight and all guests must leave the venues by 1am.

The new rules apply to venues in six geographic regions currently facing “the sharpest increase in coronavirus infections.” These regions are Amsterdam-Amstelland, Rotterdam-Rijnmond, Haaglanden, Utrecht, Kennemerland and Hollands Midden, which contain most of the country’s major cities, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague.

The news is a bitter blow for the state-run Holland Casino, which just last week was celebrating plans to extend operating hours at some venues from 3am to 4am. The rationale behind this change was that staying open longer allowed the venues to accept more guests under existing COVID-19 restraints, which limit the number of guests allowed inside at any one time to 30% of normal capacity.

Legal online sports betting could be coming to the Indian state of Maharashtra as the local government mulls ways of topping up its depleted treasury.

Last Friday, the Times of India quoted an unidentified National Congress Party minister in the state of Maharashtra saying the local government was reviewing a report detailing the impact of legalizing online betting and possibly other forms of gambling.

The government established a task force headed by a former finance minister a few months ago as the state’s financial taps began to run dry due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact. The task force was asked to consider the obstacles to legalizing and regulating online gambling.

For the record, this isn’t the first time that Maharashtra has publicly mused about legalizing online gambling. But as of the end of August, the state is estimated to have suffered a revenue shortfall of over Rs610b (US$8.3b) due to the pandemic, making any and all potential revenue sources newly attractive, despite previous qualms about their alleged social harms.

You’ve kicked off your Fantasy Football League and already you’re behind Auntie Pam who you last saw aged five, that guy at the office who you can’t stand and your little brother, whose team is called Hands-Yöur Butt. Your squad is in desperate need of help and you’re tempted to blow your season’s Wild Card option and it’s only Gameweek #2.

Fear not. We’ve crunched the numbers and come up with the top scorer and a couple of solid value options to remedy your defence, midfield and attack. 

Goalkeepers

The top scorer for this position after the season’s delayed kick-off if Alisson, the Liverpool goalkeeper, having scored 15 points. This is surprising in one sense because the champions conceded three in their first game but not in another sense because the Brazilian saved a penalty and kept a clean sheet at Chelsea in Gameweek #2.