World Number One Ash Barty and defending French Open Champion has announced that she is withdrawing from the French Open at Rolland Garros.

The Australian was one of the first seeds to withdraw from the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows, and has cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reasons behind her withdrawal from the European event.

The 24-year-old World Number One claimed her maiden grand slam victory at Roland Garros in 2019, but has been unable to train with her coach in Australia because of travel restrictions.

It has been a difficult decision to make but unfortunately I will not be competing in Europe this year. Last year’s French Open was the most special tournament of my career so this is not a decision I have made… https://t.co/Tyh2yKEHxV

Denmark’s state-run gambling operator Danske Spil took a pandemic beating in the first half of 2020 but says it’s “back on track” to realize its earlier projections for its full-year performance.  

Figures released Wednesday show Danske Spil generated revenue of DKK2.3b (US$365.3m) in the six months ending June 30, down 7.8% from H1 2019. But operating profit was flat at DKK1.67b and profit slipped only 2.9% to DKK794.4m (although that decline rises to 9.4% once the 2019 divestment of its stake in games developer CEGO is factored into the mix).

The company managed to keep its ship afloat through reduced expenses, particularly on the marketing front, while gaming taxes and commissions were also lower due to COVID-19 reducing the scope of Danske Spil’s operations.

The mainstay lottery division Danske Lotteri Spil reported revenue of DKK1.3b, up 5.2% year-on-year, thanks in part to a series of extra-large prizes on offer, particularly via the Eurojackpot lottery.

Live poker may take many years to bounce back from the Coronavirus crisis of 2020, although by the tail-end of this year, we might be saying ‘of this decade’. Let’s face it; no-one know when the pandemic will end, and poker players running models or batting back political rhetoric know only as much or as little as anyone.

We may, however, find out a little more about the state of live poker by monitoring live poker tournaments. Cash games are a guide to how well casinos have prepared their poker rooms, sterilised chips, or bought up on plexiglass screens.

Tournaments are quite a different operation, often involving players from out of state, and one such event takes place in September at The Venetian resort in Las Vegas.

The Venetian re-opened for business almost exactly three months ago, and since then has made sure to let its players know that certain safety measures have been put in place and need to be followed.

South Korea’s Paradise City casino has bounced back from its recent COVID closure, but Kangwon Land remains the market’s 800-pound gorilla.

To almost everyone’s surprise, Paradise Co Ltd’s flagship Paradise City integrated resort in Incheon reopened as promised on Wednesday. The property shut down last week after a single staffer tested positive for COVID-19, but this closure was extended after more staff – including two gaming floor employees – also tested positive.

Paradise said Wednesday that all staff – including outsourced workers – had undergone COVID-19 testing and only those who tested negative were allowed to return to work. The foreigner-only casino reopened at 2pm, one hour after the hotel, safari park, kids zone, certain dining areas and the outdoor pool.

Kangwon Land, the only South Korean casino at which local residents can gamble, remains shut until at least September 21, nearly one month after it was forced to close for the second time this year. The lengthy closures have already cost the casino hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue and there’s no guarantee that this latest reopening won’t be equally short-lived.

Spanish gambling operator Codere reported a nine-figure loss in the first half of 2020 amid general uncertainty about the company’s financial future.

On Wednesday, Codere reported operating revenue of €317.6m in the six months ending June 30, down 54.7% from the same period last year. Adjusted earnings fell 89.5% to €16.6m while the company booked a net loss of €177.6m versus a loss of €24m in H1 2019.

The company noted that its retail operations around the globe were closed for most of the second quarter, and while online operations remained active, the suspension of major sports league activity meant their revenue was also in the red compared to H1 2019.

During Q2, all of Codere’s regional operations reported negative growth, with absolutely zero revenue from Argentina and Panama. Argentina was doubly impacted by a 51.7% devaluation of the local peso versus the Euro, resulting in negative earnings of €7.7m.

The British racing sector is being forced back ‘behind closed doors’ as the nation struggles to get its COVID-19 infection rate under control.

On Wednesday, the British government announced plans to reintroduce rules barring individuals from assembling in groups larger than six people, regardless of whether that group assembles indoors or outdoors. The restrictions will take effect on Monday (14) and will apply for “the foreseeable future,” possibly until after Christmas.

The so-called ‘rule of six’ has a few exemption s but racetracks aren’t among them. The Arena Racing Company’s Doncaster Racecourse welcomed over 2,500 guests to its grounds on Wednesday, the first day of the four-day St. Leger Festival, but the rest of the meeting will now take place with only essential personnel on hand.

Wednesday’s meeting was the first time racing fans had been let in to witness the action in person since the UK’s original pandemic lockdown took effect in March. Racing was allowed to resume on a spectator-free basis in June but the sector had hoped the Donacaster test would lead to more tracks being granted permission to resume normal activity.

The last bracelet is perhaps the sweetest to win of the World Series of Poker, and that honour fell to Connor Drinan last night as he wrapped up the WSOP Super MILLION$ bracelet win.

With just the final nine remaining, there was a lot on the line, including a very interesting poker celebrity side-bet, but there was mainly the matter of the majority of the $8.7 million prizepool to fight for first.

It took just 150 minutes to find a winner in the end as Connor Drinan outlasted the eight opponents who stood between him and a WSOP result of $1.4 million that more than equated to all the money he’d made in WSOP events before the final.

Drinan’s route to glory was not an easy one, but it was the worst possible start for the short-stacked Kenneth Smaron, who lasted just one hand. All-in from the big blind with queen-jack, he flopped top pair, but Christopher Kruk had a straight and flush draw, which came in with instant service on the turn.

Slots just aren’t innovating as fast as some people would like. While everyone in the industry bangs their head on a few key ideas, Savvas Fellas, founder of Lindar Media, suggests they might want to look to games like Call of Duty: Warzone for inspiration.

During a panel at the SBC Digital Summit Berclona, Fellas bemoaned the lack of new features in slots gaming. “Innovation, our bar is too low,” he said, citing a lack of progress specifically in skill features in gaming.

But one of the hottest video games this year, Warzone has lots of features slots could borrow from, increasing social aspects that could do wonders during a time of pandemic.

Things like customized guns, blinged out name tags and spray paints are not new features in video games, having existed for years now. While they provide no tangible advantage to the player, people pay and work to get the ones they want, and that encourages others to do the same. That could hold lessons for the slot industry, Fellas said, as so many crave a more social experience while locked at home.

Online gambling operator 500.com has finally won permission to relaunch its Swedish-licensed MultiLotto brand, which accounts for nearly all of the struggling company’s current revenue.

On Wednesday, the New York-listed 500.com announced that Sweden’s Spelinspektionen regulatory body had reinstated the online gambling and betting license of Multi Brand Gaming Ltd, an offshoot of 500.com’s Malta-licensed The Multi Group (TMG) that operates the Multilotto.com and Multilotto.se domains (the latter of which remains offline at present). 

Spelinspektionen suspended Multi Brand’s license in January after 500.com somehow failed to complete the license renewal process by the stated deadline. 500.com initially said it hoped to resume Swedish operations by “mid-February” but that timeline came and went without any hint that Sweden was preparing to allow the company back into the local market.

Sweden’s issues with 500.com’s petition for reinstatement remains unknown, but the delay coincided with the company’s involvement in a Japanese political corruption scandal related to 500.com’s pursuit of an integrated resort license. Just this week, the Japanese lawmaker at the center of these bribery allegations was arrested for a fourth time as more details became known.

It might sound like an old cliché, but a social media presence can make or break your brand in the world of iGaming. Finding the right social media platform to reach your audience is crucial, not just for operators, but also affiliates. The right choice will drive traffic and players to all the right places.

The reality is that you’ll be targeting a large audience across multiple platforms with different types of content. While this may seem relatively painless for a ten-year-old, targeted social media planning can become a major time drain across the office when you are creating content for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter – and that’s only the planning.

Not all platforms are the best choice for every business and you need to identify your audience and objective. Are you talking to players or are you promoting a new slot or a payment method, or do you have a B2B business?

Each platform reaches a different type of audience, and we’ll walk you through some tips to find the right fit for your brand.

A hugely successful World Series of Poker took place over the second half of the summer on GGPoker and the WSOP.com official website. So what it made it so successful?

In terms of sheer numbers, the Series awarded $147,789,550 in prizes, with 54 gold bracelets given out on GGPoker and another 31 awarded via WSOP.com during the month of July.

Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker, was passionate to a fault about the series in the following statement:

“Obviously the events of 2020 have been unprecedented, and hosting the WSOP Online series at GGPoker wasn’t in our plans at the start of the year, but going online has been a wonderful experience, with tens of thousands of new players all over the world able to experience some of WSOP magic that they might have been otherwise unable to – we’re delighted that the series has been such a resounding success!”

South Korea now has an easier way of obtaining Bitcoin SV (BSV). Hotbit Korea, a recently launched subsidiary of Hotbit Global, has started offering two BSV pairs on its platform.

With the two new pairs, South Koreans will be able to directly trade fiat funds for BSV. With the added liquidity of parent company Hotbit Global, which is registered in Estonia and Hong Kong, and has regulatory approval to also trade in the U.S., Canada and Australia, customers will find plenty of trading depth to get great deals.

HotBit Global has supported Bitcoin SV since its very early days, recognizing the value that the BSV blockchain brings to the world. With a massively scaling blockchain, BSV is the only digital currency that can support enterprise businesses transactions, as it never has to suffer the congestion other chains often see, and that keeps transaction costs extremely low.

#BSV will be listed on the Hotbit Korea #KRW market on Sep 4th at 3PM.#Bitcoin SV (BSV) is created to improve #transaction efficiency by designing high block size with a #hardfork of Bitcoin Cash (#BCH).https://t.co/NWh9BbvFdr#hotbitkorea #hotbit #listing #bitcoinsv pic.twitter.com/daXDulb8BL

As it’s still a developing vertical, esports offers a lot of unique opportunities for operators, but many risks as well. At the SBC Summit Barcelona Digital, the ‘Breaking Barriers in esports Betting’ panel didn’t always see eye to eye on which paths to success were worth betting on.

When sports betting shut down, lots of punters turned to esports as one of the only available games to bet on. Erik Kristiansen, CEO of PixelBet and Pavel Krasnovsky, CEO of RTSmunity, didn’t see eye to eye on if this growth would be sustainable. Kristiansen thinks if the offering is right, older punters could stick around, but Krasnovsky thinks it will all be washed away as more traditional sports offerings come back.

Steven Salz, CEO & Co-founder of Rivalry, and Dr. Matthis Krischenhofer, Chief Legal Officer, Sport1, Medien AG, proposed that esports could perhaps be used in a different way. By offering a platform that appeals to younger punters, they could be converted to more profitable verticals. Salz explained:

“Our view is that esports is a great market access to less younger demographics and the next generations interest in betting. So I think what an esports endemic or an esports focused platform brings, like Pixelbet, is you can build on top of funnel, an onboarding experience, a retention experience, an overall user experience, and a customer support experience that is designed for a younger generation or the next generation. This is because you’re focusing on esports, but then you can up-sell them to sports, casino etc.”

Tsukasa Akimoto’s ability to snub his nose at the law, while serving as a Japanese lawmaker, apparently had no bounds. The disgraced parliamentary member has been arrested – for the fourth time – on charges related to the developing integrated resort (IR) initiative in the country, once again bringing embarrassment to Japan’s attempts to create a responsible, legitimate gambling market. As with the previous three arrests, this latest is tied to his dealings with China-based online gambling operator 500.com.

Akimoto is now looking at additional charges of violation anti-organized crime laws in Japan. There definitely seems to be a pattern to his actions, and this latest twist in the ongoing saga follows an arrest on similar charges that took place only a few weeks ago. The 48-year-old reportedly received bribes from 500.com to help it garner legislative support to enter Japan’s gambling scene, and then, when it was discovered that he had accepted the money, tried to pay off witnesses to change their stories. 

Prosecutors are apparently willing to go after Akimoto for each and every instance of wrongdoing, and he is now being accused of trying to bribe former 500.com advisor Katsunori Nakazato, a defendant in the ongoing case. Akimoto reportedly contacted a third party, Daisuke Matsuura, several times in order to try to arrange payments for Nakazato in exchange for false testimony. Masahiko Konno, a second defendant in the case and another 500.com advisor, was named as the primary target that led to Akimoto’s arrest last month. 

Those allegations are supported by Matsuura’s own testimony. He asserts that he had a dinner meeting with Nakazato in June and promised to make his perjury worthwhile. The following month, another individual, Kazuhiro Miyatake, allegedly wanted to give Nakazato $47,000, which Matsuura has confirmed came via a request by Akimoto. 

The sports world is returning to normal – finally. All major sports leagues are back in action, minus the NFL, which kicks off tomorrow. Just in time for the season, ESPN has brought back its Daily Wager broadcast, airing from a new home inside the LINQ Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. After being on a forced hiatus since March due to the coronavirus, the sports gambling-focused show is ready to make up for the lost time. 

The first episode of the Daily Wager reboot aired last night, also marking the first show held at LINQ. Previously, it was broadcast from the ESPN studios in Connecticut, and the sports media company had been working on moving to the Caesars property since May of last year, soon after it began, before being forced to halt its plans because of COVID-19. Going forward, the 6,000-square-foot studio will broadcast the show from Tuesday through Friday, as well as on Sunday, as long as the NFL action continues. 

The increased interest in sports gambling across the US has opened the doors to a number of broadcasts dedicated to sports wagers. With 18 states now offering legal sportsbooks, and another four almost ready, there is no shortage of fans to attract. In addition to these 22 states, another seven are working on their own versions of sports gambling legislation and, within a year, it’s possible that over half of the country will have some type of regulated market. 

The Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN), a Las Vegas-based sports network, recently expanded and opened a studio in Illinois, another up-and-coming gambling hotspot. It signed on with Rush Street Interactive to host the Rush Hour sports broadcast, which focuses almost exclusively on sports gambling, and additional moves are likely to come in the future. As much as gambling opponents try to resist, the activity is becoming a standard element across the US, and trying to stop the momentum has the same results as hitting one’s head against a brick wall – and about the same outcome.

While it hasn’t been officially dubbed a fire sale by anyone, it’s definitely a fire sale. Station Casinos has put all its land in Reno up for sale, including a spot the casino operator had hoped it could turn into a massive gambling resort. The Reno Gazette-Journal explains that the properties were listed this past Saturday, and the fact that Station is most likely looking at taking major losses through any deal, it must be looking to come up with some fast cash. 

The two major properties that are now listed on CREXi.com, a commercial real estate exchange include an empty, 89-acre plot in south Reno and one that spans eight acres close to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center and Reno Town Mall. The latter is where Station had hoped to build its next venue before it ran into serious trouble with locals, as well as economic setbacks. 15 years after making the move, nothing ever emerged.

Station envisioned a gambling facility and 900-key hotel for the property when it was first purchased in 2005. It saw massive, 225-foot hotel towers, retail spaces and, of course, a casino. $500 million would go toward the property’s development and, within a year, Station had received approval by the Reno City Council. In 2008, however, the real estate bubble in the US burst, and things went downhill. Nevada was hit hard by the recession, losing both a lucrative real estate development industry and its significant tourism market. Within six years, in 2014, the casino operator was looking to unload some of its Reno land, but wanted to keep the larger 89-acre property in its portfolio. Two years later, that changed and it, too, went up for sale.

Station then backed off and decided to approach the Reno City Council with another proposal, one that would include a smaller venue and no hotel. Once again, resistance emerged and nothing was ever produced, despite the company getting the green light from the council. With all of the properties now available for new ownership, it seems as though Station may have given up on its Reno renovation.