Tennessee’s online-only sports betting market proved a winner in its first full month of operations, while FanDuel plants its retail sportsbook flag in Atlantic City. 

Figures released Wednesday by the Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) showed that the state’s four sports betting licensees – BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel and local outfit Action 24/7 – generated combined wagering handle of $131.4m in November. Betting revenue totaled $13.2m, of which the state’s share came to slightly less than $2.4m.

The numbers represent best-ever results for any US state’s first month of legal wagering, a feat likely aided by this season’s surprisingly good showing by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. Tennessee is home to only around 7m individuals, making the state’s first month numbers all the more impressive. 

But TEL CEO Rebecca Paul Hargrove urged caution, noting that November was “only one month in an unpredictable and extraordinary year, making it difficult to begin extrapolating out from this single month.”

Online casino sights need to stay on top of the hottest slot offerings to keep up with the competition. We’ve got the newest slots released in the past week, so you can check them out and decide if you want them on your site.

The world’s most feared pirate is taking over Parrot Bay, the new video slot from Red Rake Gaming

Red Rake Gaming, the online gaming industry’s leading provider, has just announced its latest release, Parrot Bay, a 6×10 reel video slot with its popular trademark “1 million ways to win” and a free spins feature.

In this video slot, players can join the most feared pirate and his crew to find the world’s most valuable treasures in an exciting cannon minigame and a free spins feature with special symbols and multipliers.

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.

Sky Racing World Launches Free Live Streaming Mobile App

New product will feature daily live-stream of International horse racing on mobile devices

Christmas came early for the Asian-facing online gambling sector as a quartet of inept fraudsters once again found themselves in serious legal jeopardy.

On December 14, arrest warrants were issued in the Philippines for Jan Robert Gustaffson, Sylvia Bernadette Gonzales de Guzman, Maria Arleen Aldaba and Sherwin Quiambao, all of whom face multiple counts of qualified theft and criminal fraud. 

Aldaba and de Guzman posted bail ahead of arraignment and pre-trial proceedings on January 20, 2021. Quiambao remains at large while Gustaffson, a Swedish national, reportedly fled the country in February. However, a petition has been filed with the Bureau of Immigration to ensure Gustafsson’s immediate detention should he be so foolish as to attempt to return to the Philippines. 

The four fraudsters were part of a criminal group that attempted to defraud their former employer, Spectrogen Corp, a business process outsourcing firm supplying services to Philippine-based online gambling operators. 

Germany’s online gambling hopefuls are recoiling in horror at proposals to impose new online slots and poker taxes ahead of the launch of the country’s new regulated market. 

On Tuesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that a working group comprised of the finance ministries of the states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Berlin had drawn up a draft law that would impose a 5.3% tax on online poker games and a ‘virtual machine tax’ of 8% on each spin of an online slot.   

The report didn’t specify on how this online poker tax would be applied but seems to suggest an additional rake taken on each pot. There are no indications at present what level of new taxation might be imposed on other online casino products (licenses for which are to be severely limited and issued separately from online slots permits). 

The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) declined to comment on the specifics of the SZ report except to say that changes to existing gambling laws were being discussed. Germany’s 16 states are currently in the process of individually ratifying the new federal gambling treaty ahead of the regulated online market’s launch on July 1, 2021.  

The modern poker plays an aggressive, pro-active game that relies on superb skill, patient discipline, game choice and optimal play.  

One player who typifies all these qualities is David Peters, who has become the 7th most successful live tournament poker player of all time. But how did the quiet man of elite poker who hails for Toledo, Ohio do it? Let’s take a step back in time and find out.  

Free-Rolling the Dream  

Inspired by Chris Moneymaker’s incredible 2003 victory in the 2003 Main Event, David Peters started out life as a poker player by paying nothing at all to win money. Yes, Peters was one of the many millions of players who play freeroll poker tournaments for nothing and hope to spin their entry into some real money. Peters did exactly that, winning $600 having risked nothing and that gave him the shot at playing for real money.  

The latest super MILLION$ event on GGPoker had a massive $2 million guarantee, and with a $10,300 buy-in, fell just five buy-ins short of that guaranteed prizepool with 195 entries in total. 

The final table kicked off in fine style, with 34 minutes of play before anyone bit the dust. That led to stacks getting shallower and the guillotine’s blade hanging ever closer – metaphorically, anyway, even GGPoker haven’t come up with a guillotine graphic yet – to the player’s heads.  

First of the nine to depart was Ukrainian player Vlad Martynenko, who came into play with the short-stack and moved all-in for his whole stack with pocket fours from the small blind after a standard button raise from Aleskei Barkov on the button. Barkov held tens, however, and with Martynenko chasing the case four, he couldn’t find it and busted for the first payment of $57,502.  

Next to go was the Marius Gierse in 8th place for $72,842 after his move over the top of Nick Petrangelo’s opening bet saw all of the Austrian’s committed with pocket eights. Petrangelo made the call with a suite ace-queen and hit the queen on the flop to eliminate the Austrian who had commented ‘Just one time!’ as the chips went into the middle. No such luck.  

Russia’s betting operators got a serious lump of coal in their Christmas stockings as legislators abruptly approved a major regulatory shakeup, including even higher taxes than originally proposed. 

On Wednesday, Russia’s Duma approved second and third readings of the controversial new legislation that aims to (a) dramatically hike Russian bookmakers’ financial contributions to local sports, (b) create a new Unified Gambling Regulator, (c) abolish two existing industry associations and (d) establish a single hub for online betting payments.

The approval – the third reading garnered 76.4% support from Duma deputies – came despite the Ministry of Finance suggesting just the day before that deputies wait until January 22 to submit further amendments to the bill. Instead, a flurry of changes was submitted at the 11th hour and legislators apparently saw no point in delaying further progress.  

One of these amendments suggested raising the proposed cut of betting turnover that would be funnelled to the appropriate sports body on whose event the bet was made from 1% to 1.5%. 

There are a lot of ways to get the necessary tools and skills to be successful in the business world – higher education, internships, mentoring and on-the-job training. Perhaps most important, though, is the school of hard knocks, better known as life. Life experiences provide a wealth of knowledge and training that can be directly applied to business activity in order to make better decisions for both personal advancement and the success of the business.

Life, by its fundamental nature, is full of ups and downs, good times and bad. All of the positives and negatives are chances to learn something new and, as an entrepreneur looking to break into any industry, you have to be ready to face a roller coaster of emotions and activity that will result in some days being productive and others bringing setbacks. Only those that have been able to learn how to overcome adversity in life can find true success in a business environment.

At the core of establishing any type of business or venture is the ability to solve problems. When a difficult position presents itself, it’s time to choose one of two paths – the one that lets the problem dictate the solution or the one where you dictate the solution to the problem. Life experiences inherently include the need to make decisions and that decision-making capability will be a strong asset in the business.

Most people find themselves, at some point in their lives, having to take risks. It could be getting on stage in front of a group of people or getting behind the wheel of a car for the first time. As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to take risks to find success, as you’re often stepping into the unknown. Once you make that decision, you have to be prepared to stay committed and see it through until the end.

Bitcoin continued to take big strides in 2020, further proving to the world it’s utility as a blockchain and creating new opportunities for the gambling industry. Here are our top five Bitcoin stories from 2020

Becky’s Affiliated: How Gap600 enables instant transactions for iGaming payment processors

When you think of Bitcoin and gambling, the first thing you probably think of is a fast and cheap payment method. Gap600’s CEO Daniel Lipshitz joined CalvinAyre.com’s Lead Reporter, Becky Liggero Fontana, to explain how instant, guaranteed transactions at low cost are already happening on the Bitcoin SV blockchain.

Bitcoin for Gambling

END 2 END is a leader in Bingo Multiplayer solutions, and as simple as Bingo might seem, it needs localization just like any other game to suit a target market. CEO and Founder Alejandro Revich joined our Becky Liggero Fontana after SiGMA LATAM to share how his company makes it easy for operators to offer up the right product every time.

The secret, as it turns out, is to take all of the hard work out of the operators’ hands, and localize games for them. “In all the world, bingo, it’s different,” Revich shared. “All our clients have different implementation of bingo, so we take some time to create a very parametric platform. The idea for us is to adapt our technology to the business of the client, not the client adapt to our technology. Mainly in LATAM, we are near to Europe, so we play Bingo 90 balls mainly, but for example in Colombia, the most important game is Bingo 75, like U.S.”

Watch the full interview to see how END 2 END handles aggregation for a multiplayer game, and their efforts to keep innovating Bingo for new players. And if you haven’t yet, watch all of our videos as they go up by subscribing to the CalvinAyre.com YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5alto3upacVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Alejandro Revich shares END 2 END’s Bingo expertise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5alto3upac)

It’s impossible to ignore tragedy, and the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that more and more each week. For many people, denial has given way to acceptance. For others, it’s not something they can comprehend, so they choose not to. A huge number of varied responses are all understandable, no matter how different they may be.

Each week, we write about poker and players take to the tables with a desire to focus on each event, each player, each hand. In a way, we ignore the pandemic ourselves a little in an effort to entertain, as everyone in the media does.

In the end, though, ignoring tragedy is impossible. Poker players who have taken to YouTube during the pandemic have tried, but perhaps the most triumphant broadcasters during this odd time in human history have been two men who are used to sharing a lot of time and bringing audiences into their world.

To say that The Chip Race is a successful podcast is a huge understatement. It’s the five-star hotel of the podcast world, providing every guest with everything they need from the metaphorical chocolate on the plumped pillow to a complimentary stay in the attendant spa. In the fine print, however, are a series of probing, personally revealing questions asked by two of the easiest guys in poker to talk to. As a result, the interviews are great, and the show is all killer and no filler.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Christmas Eve is annually perhaps the worst sports day of the year in North America because the NHL and NBA always are dark on December 24 and the NFL usually is – which is the case this year. However, there is one college football game Thursday: Hawaii of the Mountain West against Houston of the AAC in the New Mexico Bowl at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Because nothing was normal in this college football season due to COVID-19, the New Mexico Bowl naturally isn’t being played in New Mexico but from Frisco, Texas. State COVID guidelines in New Mexico wouldn’t allow for it to be played there. Houston is a 13-point favorite in the second all-time meeting between the schools (2003 Hawaii Bowl), and the Warriors are 2-5 ATS in their past seven overall.

There is also a bowl game on Christmas (along with an NFL matchup and five NBA games) as Conference USA runner-up Marshall takes on Mid-American Conference runner-up Buffalo in the Camellia Bowl (2:30 p.m. ET) from the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama. The Bulls are 3.5-point favorites, but the Thundering Herd are 7-1 ATS in their past eight bowl games.

With just two Super MILLION$ events left in 2020, players were desperate to make the final nine of the penultimate final table showdown on the GGPoker schedule in this popular tournament series. 

There are plenty of big names at the final table but leading the way in chips is the Irish player ‘Xingyun888’, who has 4.6 million chips and a slim lead over Nick Petrangelo, who has 3.3 million and will be feeling confident ahead of the final.

Petrangelo is a great player and recently joined Joey Ingram on his Poker Life podcast to discuss winning a World Poker Tour Championship event for $490,000.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_bCHXfHxI0?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360]

Russia’s online sports betting operators have received a temporary reprieve from proposed regulatory changes, holding out hope that the government will come to its senses while the sector is still viable. 

Tuesday (22) was the scheduled deadline for Russian legislators to submit amendments to Bill No. 1055657-7, the controversial new legislation that aims to (a) dramatically hike Russian bookmakers’ contributions to local sports, (b) eliminate two betting industry associations, (c) create a new Unified Gambling Regulator and (d) establish a single hub for online betting payments. 

However, on Monday the Rossiyskaya Gazeta revealed that that the Ministry of Finance – to which the new unified regulator will report – had proposed extending the amendment deadline until January 22. So Russian bookies will at least get to enjoy the status quo until well after Orthodox Christmas (January 7). 

The bill was approved in its first reading earlier this month, but the Ministry is reportedly responding to concerns from both the betting industry and some government deputies that the significant upheaval proposed in the bill requires more stakeholder input before proceeding further. 

Three weeks ago I was tasked with writing a review of 2020. My brain immediately clogged up as I tried to flush this massive turd of a year down the toilet of my mind. 2020 is now jammed somewhere in my spinal cord and I can’t get it out. Ever since, I have been in a perpetual state of creative catatonia, paralyzed from the neck down. The only thing I can say for sure is this: Either I drank way too much mushroom cactus juice and I’m stuck in the longest nightmarish trip ever, or I didn’t do nearly enough and I should really start chugging. Hindsight, they say, is 2020, but I still have absolutely no idea what in the world is going on.

But from what I can make out from my underground bunker, I hear that…

In January…

…after three and a half years of meticulous painstaking negotiations going through every conceivable detail with a fine-toothed comb, a comprehensive Brexit agreement was finally worked out between the U.K. and the EU, never to be reopened again. Britain finally left the bloc on January 31, and we all moved on with our lives.