Monthly Archives: January 2015

Judge okays Illinois as venue for Caesars Entertainment bankruptcy hearing

A Delaware judge has approved Caesars Entertainment’s choice of Illinois as the venue for the bankruptcy hearing of the casino operator’s main unit.

In an oral ruling on Wednesday, US Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross rejected a bid by some of Caesars’ junior creditors to force the bankruptcy hearing to be heard in Delaware. It was hoped the junior creditors would get a fairer shake in Delaware than in Illinois, where courts have traditionally been more lenient about assigning liability to non-bankrupt holding companies and affiliates. Caesars is owned by private equity funds Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital.

The junior creditors filed papers in Delaware on Jan. 12 to force Caesars into involuntary bankruptcy, beating Caesars’ own filing in Illinois by three days. Caesars is attempting to restructure its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) unit into a real estate investment trust. The plan, which has secured the backing of most of CEOC’s first-lien note holders, would trim nearly $10b off CEOC’s $18.4b debt.

But most of the pain of this restructuring would be borne by second lien note holders, who can expect to receive around 10¢ on the dollar. This has led junior creditors to file multiple lawsuits, accusing Caesars’ hedge fund owners of “looting’ CEOC of its most profitable assets in a bid to shield these assets from creditors’ grasp. Last week, a federal judge in Manhattan said these controversial asset transfers and Caesars’ decision to remove debt guarantees represented an “impermissible” violation of the federal Trust Indenture Act of 1939.

In Wednesday’s oral ruling, Gross said “the interest of justice narrowly supports” Caesars’ desire for the proceedings to be heard by the Illinois court. Gross said the junior creditors’ involuntary bankruptcy filing “was clearly an anticipatory filing” and that they had “raced to the courthouse” to beat Caesars to the punch. Gross said letting the creditors dictate the venue would set a “bad precedent.”

But Gross also said Caesars’ asset shifting “on its face is suspect” and that he was confident his Illinois counterpart would put Caesars’ antics “under a magnifying glass.”

Metric Gaming eyes expansion through Hattrick deal; Bettson inks own partnership deal with Leander Games

Metric Gaming has found a new partner that could help expand its operations into Central Europe, opening up a whole new market for the sports betting services provider. The firm has signed a partnership deal with gaming operator Hattrick Sports Group, which has a strong foothold in the Central European region.

The two companies agreed on a licensing deal that would allow Metric Gaming to integrate its flagship SuperLive products into Hattrick’s gaming platform. Not only would this create a more diversified gaming offering for the latter’s customer base, but it would also help Metric Gaming tap into a market that can aid in expanding its business tentacles. Sounds like a good deal from both sides.

Metric Gaming President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Bertilsson shared that sentiment, expressing high expectations that the partnership between Metric Gaming and Hattrick Sports Group would be “a successful one for us both.”

The deal was equally attractive for Hattrick Sports Group, which can now offer a new betting product to complement its existing live betting services. That was the company’s objective in signing up on this deal and it certainly looks the company made the right choice doing so.

“Hattrick prides itself on staying at the forefront of gaming innovation and technology, so offering SuperLive was an easy choice,” Hattrick CEO Carsten Sandberg said in a statement. “We are excited to be working with Metric and eager to see what our companies can do together.”

Meanwhile, online gaming software provider Leander Games has agreed to a new partnership of its own, signing up with Betsson to begin offering its casino content to the Swedish operator’s customer base. The specifics of the deal involve Leander integrating its proprietary content onto Betsson’s sites through its LeGa open gaming platform. This content integration will also include third-party development partners, including Core Gaming and Nektan.

In addition to the aforementioned system migration, the deal between Leander Games and Betsson also allows the former to update and modernize seven of the most popular games Betsson acquired in a separate deal with Dutch-facing operator Oranje Casino last year. The games will eventually be re-released on the LeGa platform, ensuring that Dutch customers migrating into the Betsson platform will continue to enjoy the same games they played on Orange Casino.

NFL Super Bowl XLIX: Line Movements Part 2

Super Bowl XLIX is less than a week away and slowly but surely, betting action is also gaining some steam. That’s to be expected, although it’s safe to say that the vast majority of bets for the game aren’t expected to come in until this weekend. That’s when things really pick up and could sometimes cause the spread to fluctuate in a matter of hours. For now, though, action is progressing along nicely leading up to the game.

Right now, most sportsbooks still have the New England Patriots as the -1 favorites. Clearly, all the drama surrounding the deflated footballs haven’t had a bigger effect on the spread than most people thought. Some books have even had to move the number to -1.5, but for the most part, the spread has remained where it is since the early reversal after the conference championship games. This isn’t to say that we’re following a similar path to last year’s Super Bowl when everybody and their grandmas we’re riding with the Denver Broncos. In fact, action on the Seattle Seahawks has increased in the past few days, but it’s still not enough to move the spread back in their favor.

There has been some movement on the totals. Since opening at 48.5, the number has dropped to 48 for some books while others have even pushed it back down to 47.5. It’s a surprising twist since the public usually sides on the over in these types of games, but as it turns out, bettors are justifiably afraid of the Seattle Seahawks’ defense clamping down on the Tom Brady and the Patriots offense. Early action on the under seems to back up this position, and that has compelled some books to drive the number down a little bit to see whether it can get some action on the other side.

As far as where the action is relative to Las Vegas sportsbooks’ record haul of $119 million in betting handle, Vegas books seem to be a little concerned that bets coming in aren’t happening as feverishly compared to last year. While it’s still early to suggest that it’s going to fall short of last year’s record handle, the early signs do point to this year’s handle falling a little short of what books made last year.

Things could still change, though, so don’t put that in writing just yet. Betting on Super Bowl XLIX is just getting started and over the next few days, you can be sure that business will definitely pick up.

Bloomberry buys land in South Korea, plans to build entertainment complex

Bloomberry Resorts Corp. is laying the proverbial foundation for its first overseas resort and casino project after announcing the company’s agreement with a handful of parties in South Korea over a huge parcel of land located within the Incheon Free Economic Zone.

The specifics of the acquisition were not divulged, but Bloomberry disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it had signed four real estate agreements with several land owners for an area totaling 12.2 hectares Muui Island.

Muui Island, also known as Muuido, is located at the south of Yongyu Island and  can be seen from Incheon International Airport. The company called the land acquisition as the first step of its plan to turn the island into a “leisure and tourism complex with entertainment facilities and mixed use developments.”

Bloomberry said that the acquisition will fall under its Korean subsidiary, Solaire Korea Co Ltd. and that “more details will be disclosed as soon as conditions of the agreements are complied with.”

Bloomberry chairman and CEO Enrique Razon mentioned the company’s plans to expand its casino business last year, specifically mentioning Japan and South Korea as the two likely targets for this expansion, which would be the company’s second integrated resort and casino after Solaire Hotel and Casino in Manila.

News of the land purchase also ignited the company’s healthy shares gain at the Philippine Stock Exchange, reaching as high as Php13.46 per share on Tuesday before closing the day at Php13 flat. That represented a 0.93% increase from Monday’s closing price of Php12.88.

The land purchase follows the company’s share sale back in November 2014 that raised close to Php5.65 billion. Bloomberry has previously said that the share sale was done to help finance its overseas expansion.

Video Experts Group (VXG) Launches Consumer Lottery Ticket Checker…

Since making it available, Lotto Scanner has impressed both industry experts and the users who were lucky enough to test the scanner before it’s released on Google Play later this week. Currently only the Canadian Lotto 6/49 and 49 tickets are supported, however VXG has stated that their plans are to support all North American lotteries by the end of 2015.

Macau Gaming Stocks Pop After Analysts Suggest It's Time To 'Get Back In'

Macau gaming stocks surged Monday after analysts at Union Gaming Research Macau suggested that now is the time for investors to start buying the stocks of battered Macau casino operators. With the stocks down an average of 50 percent in the last year, analysts believe that they have finally reached a bottom.

Paul Phua has prior conviction in Malaysia

Former Macau junket operator Paul Phua, accused of running an illegal World Cup gambling operation in Las Vegas, has prior conviction in Malaysia for the same offense.

Paul Phua Wei-seng, a Malaysian native from Sarawak, was arrested in Miri in 2004 and convicted for his involvement in an illegal betting scheme during the European Championship soccer tournament, reported by independent news outfit Malaysiakini.

He was slapped with a hefty fine and left the country soon after his conviction, reportedly to Vietnam to escape people who lost money when the betting operation was going bust.

The convicted criminal was even barred from re-entering the country during the World Cup in 2008.

This adds to what has become an ongoing saga of Paul Phua’s case, following a controversial announcement of Malaysia’s minister of home affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi last month that Phua was assisting the government on issues of national security.

Phua was one of eight individuals arrested in July on charges of operating an illegal FIFA World Cup betting business out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Just weeks before this arrest, Phua was also among two-dozen individuals arrested in what Macau officials called the largest illegal sports betting bust on local record. Prosecutors submitted the documents alleging that Phua had secured his Macau release via “under the table” payments to local police. The feds claim to have learned of these alleged bribes via instant messages sent by Phua’s 23-year-old son Darren, who was also among those arrested in Vegas.

Merrill woman wins $1 million lottery

Bud and June Runion vanished while going to meet someone to buy a vintage car they found on Craigslist, authorities said. Investigators have found the unidentified bodies of a male and a female, as well as an SUV owned by a Georgia couple who vanished last week while going to meet someone to buy a vintage car they found on Craigslist.

Interview with Tiziano Gambacorta on Affiliate Marketing

Rebecca Liggero talks to Tiziano Gambacorta of Inspired Publishing LTD and he talks  about effective Affiliate Marketing.

 

Tiz G. Corta, CEO and Owner, Inspired Publishing Ltd., is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, coach and university lecturer. He has been involved in the online industry since 1995 when he launched his first ecommerce store as a teenager. He pursued a career as an investment banker & fund manager before relinquishing the corporate lifestyle in favor of building a home-based affiliate business. Within one year the operation grew to a six / seven figure business with two full time staff and no fixed office. In the last 12 months Tiz ran the business from 11 different countries. He lectures on one of the first-ever university-level courses on email marketing. His latest books include Zero To $1 Million: 5 Steps to Doubling Your Income with Email Marketing and Your First Million: 15 Mindset Hacks To Earn

According to Corta, there are three things an affiliate must focus on if they want to succeed:

1) Choose a niche or have an edge. It could be in a form of knowledge in the market, technical edge or having traffic.

2) Focus on tracking!  This is of upmost importance.

3) Discipline- Find out what’s working in your business and keep doing it again and again.

International Game Technology revenue, profits tumble but social gaming shines

Gaming device maker and social gaming operator International Game Technology (IGT) saw revenue and profits tumble in its fiscal Q1, but social gaming continued to shine. Total revenue fell 17% to $451m while net income fell 56% to $35m in the quarter ending Dec. 31. It could have been even worse, but fiscal Q1 2015 had one more week than the same period the previous year, which boosted revenue by $22m and operating income by $2m.

IGT CEO Patti Hart acknowledged that “market challenges remain in the land-based casino business” but tried to play up the performance of the interactive division, which includes the lucrative DoubleDown Casino social gaming operation.

The interactive division saw revenue rise 23% to $91.5m, of which social gaming accounted for $79.4m (also up 23%). DoubleDown’s daily average users (DAU) rose 11% to 1.9m, while average daily bookings (the sale of virtual goods and credits) per DAU rose 2% to $0.43. Average monthly users fell 16% to 5.2m, which the company credited to marketing targeting “higher-quality players.” Mobile users accounted for 39% of DoubleDown revenue, an improvement of 68% year-on-year. Meanwhile, revenue from the real-money IGTi operations rose 23% to $12.1m.

IGT’s gaming operations division saw revenue fall 5% to $211.1m, which the company attributed to a 16% decrease in the installed base of machines. Product sales revenue tumbled 39% to $148m due to lower machine unit volumes and the fact that the previous Q1 enjoyed a 2,800 video poker unit sale a further 825 VLT units in Illinois.

On the bright side, costs fell 7% despite the extra week in Q1, which the company credited to the March 2014 ‘business realignment’ aka laying off 7% of its global workforce. IGT declined to offer any guidance as to how it expected to fare in 2015 as a whole.

Last July, Italian lottery and gaming technology firm GTECH announced it would pay $6.4b to acquire IGT. A Feb. 10 date has been set for IGT shareholders to vote on the proposed merger of IGT and GTECH. Assuming the vote is favorable, the parties hope to conclude the merger by April.

SEO Tip of the Week: What is trust optimisation?

90 Digital CEO Nick Garner talks about trust optimisation and why you will get higher click through rates in this edition of CalvinAyre.com’s SEO Tip of the Week.

It’s a mental framework covering a basket of factors which are neither link acquisition or onsite optimisation.

If you trust optimize your website, you will get higher click through rates which then should reflect well on Google search results.  When doing SEO projects, I suggest you think about three things: onsite optimisation, link acquisition, trust optimisation.

Rationale for Trust Optimisation

Rand Fishkin from Moz recently did an experiment where he did a longtail search query ‘IMEC Lab’. His post ranked 7th. He then asked his Twitter followers to go and click on his post in this set of search results.  After 228 visits from Google, mostly through this search query,  Rand checked again and his search listing was number one.  Source: http://moz.com/rand/queries-clicks-influence-googles-results

Another was in negative SEO

Bartosz Goralewicz did an experiment where he created a bot designed to click on every search result except for his own, which was ranking number 1 for keyword  ‘penguin 3.0′ .

Mississippi Grind and Star Ryan Reynolds Take Sundance by Storm

Mississippi Grind made its Sundance Film Festival debut this week, and stars Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn were there to do the inevitable publicity mill dance. The film, which premiered at the legendary Indy film festival over the weekend, has echoes of Robert Altman’s poker road movie California Split, and stars Reynolds and Mendelsohn as two […]

The post Mississippi Grind and Star Ryan Reynolds Take Sundance by Storm appeared first on .