Russia’s bookmakers are now only a presidential signature away from setting up 2021 to be their Worst. Year. Ever.   

On Christmas Day, the upper house of Russia’s legislature gave its approval to plans for a dramatic upheaval of the domestic betting industry. The Federation Council’s vote came just two days after Duma deputies overwhelmingly demonstrated their support by rushing through the bill’s required second and third readings on the same day, despite the Ministry of Finance suggesting an additional month of stakeholder consultation.  

The legislation envisions a sweeping overhaul of Russia’s current market, including requiring local bookmakers to ante up 1.5% of turnover to the Russian sports federation on whose match a bet was made. A single centralized hub for online betting payments, run by an as-yet-unspecified private company, will be responsible for deducting this 1.5% at source. 

The bill also calls for the creation of a new Unified Gambling Regulator that will report to Rosimushchestvo, the Federal Agency for State Property Management. The two existing industry Self-Regulatory Associations (SROs) – which previously operated two separate payment hubs for their respective members – will be phased out. 

Asia’s gambling markets – both land-based and online – took major hits in 2020; land-based casinos at the hands of COVID-19 and online casinos at the hands of meddling governments. 

Due to its proximity to China, Macau was the first market to demonstrate both the horrors the pandemic would inflict on casino markets as well as the enormous lengths casinos would have to go to ensure customers and staff were protected once casinos reopened. 

Unlike most North American casinos, which shut down for months, Macau casinos were closed for only 15 days, but their swift reopening brought anything but a return to normal.

Things hit bottom in June with revenue of only MOP716m, down 97% year-on-year, and while things have improved slightly, mainland Chinese gamblers still need some convincing to make the trek to Macau. 

2021 is almost here and, after the difficult year it’s been, now is a chance for businesses to dig in and implement strategies to ensure greater longevity going forward. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that there’s never a good time to become complacent in business operations and the new year should be viewed as an opportunity to strike out and build a consistent marketing plan that will keep consumers engaged as the new decade unfolds. Affiliate marketing can be a great, cost-effective solution to achieve that goal, targeting specific consumer segments to enhance lead generation efforts and drive conversion rates. Understanding the terminology associated with affiliate marketing, whether to grow a gambling website or any new venture, will give you a strong foundation upon which to construct a solid, forward-thinking marketing plan.

Internet marketing can be complicated because of the multitude of traffic and activity that is occurring at any given time. Being able to focus on the specific target is fundamental to ensuring the best use of a marketing budget, which is where affiliate marketers come in. They typically work on a commission basis, helping businesses control costs while still enjoying greater engagement. Since there is relatively low risk and outlay – and a lot of affiliate marketers always looking for new clients – getting started is simple.

Some of the common terminology associated with affiliate marketing is straightforward – advertiser, affiliate, offer, conversion, creative, etc. Others deserve more attention, such as the phrase “above the fold.” For new enterprises or those just getting started in marketing, this refers to the section of the website page (whether it be a blog, homepage or other) that is visible on one page without the viewer having to scroll. All the information crucial to conversions and drawing consumer attention should be included above the fold.

Action lifecycle is the window designated for events (or actions) that are responsible for directly leading to the sale on the affiliate’s website. The lifecycle is an amount of time within which transactions can be corrected, and the typical window, established by the advertiser or the affiliate (or both, in some cases) can be one to four weeks.

It’s been an interesting 12 months in the poker world; we’ve gone from live-play to moving to online tournaments to keep the game alive. A new audience has been drawn to the game and now online poker is the new black heading into 2021. Here are the top stories from the poker world that captured your interest.

Mike Matusow blows up at perceived World Series slowroll

Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow is never far from drama. In a WSOP online event, Matusow lost his cool after being slow-rolled (in his eyes) by Megan Milly, known as the Poker Hippie on Twitter. Event 4 of the WSOP online event was interesting viewing for Matusow’s 9000 subscribers.

calvinayre.com/2020/07/06/poker/mike-matusow-blows-up-at-perceived-world-se /

UK bookmaker William Hill has planted its Latin American flag by acquiring Colombian betting operator Alfabet. 

On Sunday, Hills informed investors that it had secured a majority stake in Cali-based Alfabet SAS, which offers online casino and sports betting in Colombia under the BetAlfa brand. The Betalfa.co site received its Colombian license in 2018. 

Hills’ brief announcement didn’t state how big a majority of Alfabet it had acquired, nor what the company had paid for said stake. Hills said only that Colombia marked the ninth regulated market in which it is active, and that the deal furthered Hills’ international expansion strategy. 

Hills CEO Ulrik Bengtsson, whose penchant for acquiring underperforming assets reportedly contributed to his exit from Nordic betting operator Betsson in 2017, said Sunday that Colombia’s regulated market was “a role model for the Latin American gambling sector,” offering a hint of Hills’ primary motivation behind the deal. 

Iran’s online gamblers could face death under a new draft law being prepared by the Islamic Republic’s elected officials. 

Iranian media recently quoted Reza Taghipour Anvari, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly’s Industries Commission, saying deputies were drafting legislation to update Iran’s gambling laws to specifically address illegal online gambling and betting. 

Taghipour said the aim of the legislation was to “criminalize the perpetrators of Internet gambling, the operators of betting sites and those who transfer money in this field, and the necessary punishment will be determined in accordance with this law.”

Other media outlets subsequently quoted Hassan Norouzi, vice-president of the Judiciary and Legal Commission, saying “tough punishments” would be imposed on both gamblers and the online sites they patronize. Repeat offenders whose “insistence on committing the felony and lack of remorse will be considered by judges as ‘corruption on Earth’ which is punishable by death.”

Its time to look back at some of the stories that interested Calvinayre.com readers. Here are the top five stories from the life section that captured the imagination of readers in 2020.

Turn on the Red Light if you want better eyesight

Red lights aren’t initially associated with healthy eyesight; most people associate red lights with negative situations – stop lights, warning lights and even the red-light district. An article that appeared in The Journals of Gerontology puts a positive spin on red lights. The study found that exposure to red lights for a few minutes each day keeps eyesight in better shape as we age.

Next Jeopardy! host odds: Ken Jennings favored over TV hosts

If, many years hence, people look back on the history of the gambling industry, 2020 will understandably have an asterisk beside it to acknowledge the unprecedented force majeure that COVID-19 inflicted on operators around the globe. The pandemic forced some major retrenchments, delayed or halted some initiatives, while accelerating other trends that might have otherwise taken far longer to achieve traction.

Naturally, the first operators to face the COVID crunch were at the retail level, as politicians – with a few notable exceptions, including the mayor of Las Vegas and the primary occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – realized that the coronavirus couldn’t be bluffed into backing down. Casinos, racetracks and even some lottery retailers were ordered into hibernation for months. (Casinos in some jurisdictions, including British Columbia, remain shut to this day.) 

When gambling venues were finally allowed to reopen, it was with greatly reduced capacity and a raft of expensive add-ons like plexiglass dividers to ensure proper physical distancing. Legions of staff were trained to swoop in with Brillo pads and rubbing alcohol as one player left and another player sought to take their place.   

The added costs of pandemic precaution and reduced capacity to generate revenue resulted in most operators taking a cleaver to their payrolls. Some operators opted to temporarily ‘furlough’ staff while others, realizing their theaters and nightclubs would remain empty for the foreseeable future, chose not to prolong the agony.  

Poker has always played well to music. From poker songs such as the hugely popular The Gambler by the late, sometimes great Kenny Rogers to card-flicking montages that make up much of ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker, cards and music go together like Phil Hellmuth and a snapback – somehow, you’re not quite sure how, they work together.  

What about the music that was top of the charts when some of poker’s biggest moments in history took place, however? From the late 1970’s to recent poker heroes, we’ve trawled the archives (well, YouTube) to find out what was number one in the UK Top 40 the day that each winner took home five of the most dramatic WSOP Main Event bracelets.

For the purposes of this list, we’ve gone with hits that were top of the pops in Britain, because it’s the home of music, with bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the Spice Girls creating a legacy of lyrics that we will never forget and musical melodies that are still hummed the world over to this day.

1976 – Doyle Brunson Wins His First WSOP Main Event

Coming from a close family in the Garden of England, our latest subject in the Poker Idols series is often called ‘Stevie’, and has one of the most familiar poses in poker. Who is he? Well, the man in 6th place in the all-time money list for live tournament players and the most successful tournament poker player in British history.

Stephen Chidwick has become synonymous with success in this era of GTO play. In fact, he might be the GTO player. So how did this supremely talented and highly respected individual conquer the poker world? Let’s take a look.

No Big Deal

Born and bred in Deal, Kent, the young Chidwick didn’t play his first live poker tournament until he was 19 years old, but when he did, he got off to a globetrotting start. Chidwick’s first-ever cash in a ranking event was an outright win as he took down the PCA $1,000 side event in January 2008 for $88,760. Over the next couple of years, Chidwick would only cash a handful of times live but he booked five flags from five different countries in those early results in The Bahamas, Barcelona, Paris, Punta Del Este and Las Vegas, with his first World Series of Poker cash coming courtesy of a 40th-place finish in a $1,500 bracelet event.

In the past few years, many facets of football media in particular has headed online. While the audience for Match of the Day is still huge, viewers no longer feel the need to tune in at 10.30pm on Saturday night to watch it. Instead, weekly highlights are viewed on demand, along with daily videos direct from the clubs themselves.

YouTube has become a treasure trove of football-related content, free and on demand.

One of the most popular of these channels isn’t one that comes from the club in an official capacity but was created by fans. Predictably, perhaps, it’s called Arsenal Fan TV, and is by far the most popular independent fan channel in the world.

AFTV, as it is abbreviated to, holds court with short interviews post-game with some of The Gunners’ biggest fans, such as the long-suffering host Robbie, ultra-positive headphone-wearing Ty, foul-mouthed rageaholic DT, Arsenal’s fan fam from the streets Troopz and moody old-timer Claude, though both the latter two of that selection no longer appear on the channel.

It’s been a busy year in poker for many players, but it’s hard to think of one who has been putting out content with the regularity and energy of Daniel Negreanu.

The 46-year-old, known as ‘Kid Poker’ is a big fan of the Rocky movies, but he found himself up against the ropes across the 12,000 hands played in the first half of the challenge.

It all started so well for Negreanu as he took a six-figure lead in the live portion of the challenge, which constituted a fairly thin 200 hands, all broadcast on PokerGO. Master of the live arena, Kid Poker banked a decent profit, but Polk was always going to be fine with that given the next 24,800 potential hands would be at the felt where he is king.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDj1viQ4E4Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: High Stakes Feud | Daniel Negreanu vs Doug Polk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsDj1viQ4E4)

It was the story of the year that spread like wildfire and called every bet on every street. Yes, our look at the poker stories of 2020 begins with what many suspected might become poker’s final chapter only for the virus to provide the game with a new beginning.

Virus Cancels Tournament Plans

It was an inevitable shock to the poker ecosystem when Coronavirus struck. One day, live tournaments were being won, the next, players were told that they would have no events to attend in person. Lockdown, when it came, threw the whole world into a COVID-19 panic, and the pandemic claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in a shockingly short space of time.

Pursuits such as poker seemed less important for a long time, but over the course of the initial lockdown, poker’s adaptation was to inspire millions around the world.

Sam Trickett is a bona fide poker legend, and not just in Britain. The Retford-based former plumber turned an obsession with the game into a poker career that yielded millions. He’s won the biggest prize any British player ever has in tournament poker, is a cash game legend and has even played at Old Trafford.

Despite all these bookmarks, do we really know the real story of ‘Tricky’? Let’s step back in time and look back at the life and times of one of poker’s most charismatic characters.

The Plumber with a Pipe Dream

Sam Trickett started life wanting to become a footballer, but a serious knee injury put paid to those dreams despite no lack of skill in that area. Told by doctors that he might not walk again if he damaged the knee further, the young Trickett thought he might become a professional pool player instead. Again, his natural application led him to pursue it with real dedication, but a chance game of poker one night at the pool hall transformed the young Trickett’s life.

The Christmas Premier League fixture list is going to be an exciting one to watch over the festive period. With clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all facing challenging games, it’s going to be a decisive period of the English Premier League season.

Who will come out on top? Let’s take a look at two Christmas crackers and pull both ends to see who takes the prize of three points.

Leicester City vs. Manchester United (Boxing Day, 12.30pm GMT kick-off)

It’s a lunchtime kick-off at the King Power Stadium as last season’s decisive final game that sent The Red Devils into the Champions League and The Foxes to the Europa League plays out a lot earlier in the campaign this year.

Two of the biggest poker challenges of the year have reached crucial stages in the days before Christmas and while all four men who are facing off across the virtual felt will be taking a breather over the festive period, you’ll want to know exactly how things stand.

Let’s take a look at both challenges and assess who is winning, who has the best chance and what the odds are for success in the two ding-dong showdowns as they head towards a conclusion in the New Year.

Doug Polk vs. Daniel Negreanu

Just a day ago, Polk won $114,140.26 across 904 hands of no limit hold’em, bringing his overall lead in the challenge up again to over $810,000. With 12,222 hands having been played, even our rudimentary arithmetic mean there are 278 hands until the halfway stage.

If poker fans thought that they were going to be devoid of entertainment with the World Series of Poker taking place online rather than live in Las Vegas, they were wrong. From players winning on WiFi in whole foods car parks to others losing signal at the most vital moment, the WSOP still brought moments of real drama throughout the summer series.

One of the best of those moments came when Ron McMillen, a 70-year-old businessman who had never played online poker before, won the very first tournament that he entered and captured a WSOP bracelet in the bargain.

PokerNews reporter Chad Holloway broke the news in a Tweet that was seen around the world as the ‘MacDaddy15’ winner of Event #9 of the 2020 WSOP Online Series turned his $1,000 entry into $188,214 in the 6-Max No Limit Hold’em event. It quickly became the viral smash of the summer WSOP series.

Iowa’s Ron “MacDaddy15” McMillen had never played online poker before, but that didn’t stop him from winning tonight’s @WSOP Online Event 9: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max for $188,214.

It would be a serious understatement to say 2020 was a heck of a year. In January at ICE London, there was already some unease about the coronavirus. Little did we know how much our industry and our world would change.

The Ayre Media team is adaptable. Our office staff were all sent home the second week of March and we’ve yet to go back. Everyone from the writers to the people behind the scenes posting articles, creating images and handling all of our IT needs were able to adjust to working from home. Never having to get out of your pajama bottoms proved a big incentive.

We’re also innovative. 2020 was supposed to be a busy year with our team heading to conferences on four continents. But with travel off the table, the last conference I attended was ICE London. Thanks to the innovative nature of conference organizers – including SBC, SiGMA, Clarion, Reed, and so many others – the virtual conference was the place to see and be seen.

Sure, we weren’t able to toss back a few pints at the end of the day – at least, not in person – but we could still see familiar faces, learn about new trends and make deals, all from the comfort of home. I don’t know if much will open up in 2021, but until we can meet face to face, it’s still great to meet up screen to screen.

There’s no denying that 2020 was a rough year for casinos, with Covid-19 being a huge threat to not only their profits, but their existence. The pandemic played a central role in the majority of our top 5 casino stories in 2020.

Suncity’s Russian casino Tigre de Cristal reopening Thursday

Although casino closings played a huge role in the year, their reopening during the summer months too. Our readers wanted to know more when the brick-and-mortar industry in Russia came back to life in July.

The Eldorado/Caesars deal could fall apart thanks to the coronavirus