Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. Inc. (CEOC), a unit of Las Vegas-based casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp, filed for bankruptcy in the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago on Thursday.

The division Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. who owns and operates 44 gaming and resorts properties and represents 80% ($18.4b) of Caesars’ overall $28.2b debt load, announced that it is moving forward to implement its previously announced financial restructuring plan.

In a press release, CEOC said that the plan, which has received support from more than 80% of first-lien note holders, is intended to significantly reduce long-term debt and annual interest payments, while providing for significant recoveries for creditors and ensuring no interruption of operations across the company’s network of properties.

“Today, with the overwhelming support of our first-lien bondholders, we are moving forward to implement our previously announced restructuring plan, which is intended to strengthen CEOC’s financial condition and significantly reduce debt,” said Gary Loveman, Chairman of CEOC.

“We believe this restructuring is in the best interests of all of CEOC’s stakeholders and will result in a sustainable capital structure for CEOC and value creation for all stakeholders. The restructuring of CEOC is the culmination of a years-long effort to improve the health of CEOC’s balance sheet, which has included substantial investment in new and upgraded assets, especially in Las Vegas. I am very confident in the future prospects of our enterprise, which will combine an improved capital structure with a network of profitable properties,” Loveman added.

Caesars CEO also announced that its casino-hotels would remain open and continue to host meetings and events, assuring customers that their loyalty points would still accrue and the company’s lineup of on-stage entertainers would keep performing according to their schedules.

According to Loveman, the company’s suppliers will still be paid in full and employees would continue to receive pay and benefits as usual.  Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.’s has more than 30,000 employees in its 38 casino-hotels, including Bally’s and Caesars in Atlantic City and the iconic Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

Ladbrokes‘ affiliate program, Ladbroke Partners, has revealed a redesigned website for its current and prospective business partners.

The new look includes a responsive design, adapting to customer’s device and screen size and an intuitive interface that streamlines a user’s experience.

Ladbrokes Partners’ homepage is said to be cleaner, brighter and reminiscent of Ladbrokes’ new “This is the Ladbrokes Life” campaign. The site’s product and available market pages were laid out to highlight its unique selling points, while new pages have been added for promotional and affiliate news.

The site has been made available in different languages such as English, Swedish and German to ensure that it is in line with Ladbrokes’ recent shift to regulated markets. French and Dutch will be rolled out soon.

“This new site puts our business partners at the forefront. One of our key goals was to create a responsive site in light of the increasing number of mobile and tablet visitors. The site also makes it easier than ever to find the markets and products of interest to our affiliates,” said Ladbrokes Digital CMO Selmi Chakim.

Intertain Group‘s InterCasino.com, one of the internet’s first online casinos, established 1996, has undergone a site design overhaul and re-brand.

The redevelopment of the site has been executed ahead of a planned UKTV marketing campaign later this year and based on the feedback of more than 6000 customers, media partners, and affiliates through focus groups and surveys.

Merkur Gaming has appointed gaming industry veteran Jens Halle as the new CEO of the casino gaming systems designer and manufacturer effective January 1.

Halle had left Novomatic group, end of 2014, after 15 years of working as managing director of Austrian Gaming Industries GmbH and chief executive of Novomatic Americas Sales LLC.

The Germany-based firm Merkur Gaming said in a press release on Wednesday that Halle will take charge of the company’s international sales and distribution, consolidation of business activities in Merkur Gaming’s established markets, as well as the company’s expansions into new territories.

“The development know-how and the long-standing wealth of experience at the Gauselmann Group offer great potential and diverse development opportunities for our partners abroad,” said Halle.

“Mr. Halle’s long-standing focus on the global casino business has enabled him to have the right vision, with such experience so as to further develop our products – mainly overseas outside of Europe –  in a truly sustainable way,” said Paul Gauselmann, chairman of the Gauselmann Group, and Jürgen Stühmeyer, sales director of the firm in a joint statement.

Merkur Gaming, subsidiary of Gauselmann AG, develops multi-games, cabinets, casino machines, video lottery terminals, and jackpot systems for the gaming industry.

The Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) has also announced its latest line up of officials.

Ice Totally Gaming, one of the largest and most comprehensive trade event in gaming, will take place on February 3rd-5th at Excel, London.

Every sector is present, whether it’s be it betting, bingo, casino, lottery, mobile, online, social or street gaming, and whichever of these you belong to, you will find products and content to drive your business forward in 2015.

ICE is the annual launch pad for gaming innovation, with hundreds of new product launches over the three days. The event has the great learning programs—a unique gathering place for all major gaming players such as operators and regulators, allowing you to build your contacts, arrange meetings, and get potential partnerships.

ICE’s show-floor seminars are free to attend and can give you up-to-the-minute industry information and engaging debates around what the gaming industry is talking about.

Visitors, exhibitors and delegates attending have the opportunity to tap into all the latest developments taking place in and around both events courtesy of the new dedicated ICE app.

Available for free download on Android and iOS devices, allowing visitors to access the full event schedule, browse the latest product launches, receive information on all of the speakers taking part in the ICE Conference and Seminar programs.

It also features a detailed interactive floor-plan to help attendees navigate the 60,000+ square meters of show floor space as well as keep stakeholders fully up-to-date with the latest developments through a link to the #ICE2015 social media tag.

Laurent Malka is one of the first people I met in the online gambling industry, our initial meeting was at GiGse 2005 to be exact.  He’s one of the best digital marketers in our space, a widely respected expert in affiliate management and someone who understands iGaming better than most. Malka’s experience in iGaming spans from his time at The Nation Traffic and Euro Partners followed by the launch of his own company, Wingate Ventures, amongst other projects including operating several online casinos.

It wasn’t until l saw his post in the Stephanie Wynters Mastermind Group on Facebook that I realized Malka had started a new project to better the lives of anyone generating or buying traffic.  I wanted to learn more about Malka’s latest venture, TrackingDesk, especially because I can relate to tracking headaches as an affiliate due to my time at Casino City.  The timing is also appropriate, seeing as the LAC is around the corner and affiliates are ready to step things up for 2015.

We all know its not as easy to make a buck in today’s iGaming market as it was 10 years ago, so making the most of your traffic is essential.  Affiliates can absolutely squeeze more revenue out of their existing campaigns with better tracking and less time spent on the arduous task of data management – whether TrackingDesk is the answer to all your problems or you just need a nudge to step up your tracking, hopefully you’ll learn something from my interview with Malka.

Thank you for joining me and sharing your knowledge, Laurent.  Lets start with the background on this project- how & why did you decide to create TrackingDesk? 

After the casinos were sold in august 2013, we found ourselves with many large traffic sources. We had the possibility to either refer them to some friends or monetize their traffic. Several millions hits per day, from over 30 countries required a complete turnaround in the way we were operating until then. Pushing a brand over which you have complete technical control is a serious challenge, but pushing 20 brands over which you have very little technical control is a very different game. So when you find yourself with 20 brands to promote, over 30 countries and each brand has at least 5 different landing page per country, you quickly find yourself drowning under data. No matter how you try to handle this, unless you have a system in place that enables you to manage this traffic in a simple and agile manner, that reports in a granular way results and performances, there is NO WAY you can have a positive ROI.

So my team and I started hunting for platform that could get us to the right position. Unfortunately (and fortunately), we didn’t find anything that would match our requirements. So we were left with the only option to integrate various systems together. From analytic platforms, tracking software, landing page management, geo targeting databases to reporting software. Eventually, we manage to connect everything together and we started operating.

I took a step back and I started breaking down the features and matching them with various type of users – Affiliates, Media Buyers, Agencies, Enterprises. Eventually, I realized that there was a serious gap in the market. Large corporations and enterprises had access to heavy (and expensive) platforms, while small agencies and affiliates were left with basic tools. So I made up my mind, gathered a team and started designing TrackingDesk.

In this week’s confessions series, Lee Davy, talks about some of the characters in his local home game, and why their attitude towards the game blends in with the success of the PokerStars Spin & Go format.

I have just come off the phone, from a conversation with my mate Steve. We always have a little chat the afternoon after our local home game. We’re gossiping. We talk about how lucky people are, who unlucky others are, who deserves to win, and who deserves to lose.

I use this time to give my friend some advice. Steve loves the game, but it’s his love for the game that gets him into trouble. He plays too many hands, sees too many flops, and loses more money than he wins. I know I shouldn’t give him advice. I should take his money. But I like Steve. He’s a solid bloke. He’s salt of the earth.

“You just don’t get it Ching.” He told me when I castigated him earlier for ruing a hand he played where he folded, instead of chasing a one-outer that duly arrived. “I don’t play to win money. I love the game. The money is a nice bonus. But twice I week I sit down and play. I’m in my element. Like a pig in shit.”

Steve used to have a nasty habit on the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). He used to tell me that they would wink at him, and beckon him over like a young woman in a pair of fishnet stockings. That was an expansive affair. He never complained though.

“I loved every penny I spent.” He once told me.

Gary is another one of the boys. He likes the wheel. He has a system, and it seems to work for him. I use the word ‘seems’ because I know that the outcome is generated by luck. I guess he’s a very lucky man. He loves it though.

For the third time in four years, Rep. Bobby Moak has submitted an online gambling bill to the lords and masters in the Mississippi Legislature.

If online poker has any chance of emerging from the draconian deathlike grip of the Undemocratic States of America then we have to hope that men like Democratic Representative, Bobby Moak, never give up in what they believe is just and fair.

In 2012, Moak introduced The Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act – it didn’t make it past the House Ways and Means Committee. In 2013, he tried again – same response. Now it’s a case of third time lucky.

House Bill No. 306: The Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act is a 74-page document, not too dissimilar from the pieces of paper that were cast into the recycling tray back in 2012 & 2013. The new piece of draft legislation is being pushed through ahead of results from a comprehensive study of internet gambling governed by the Executive Director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, Allen Godfrey.

The bill leads with the assertion that millions of people are engaged in online gambling through illegal offshore operators. It’s promise is to bring some law and order into what it believes to be an industry that lacks oversight, regulation and enforcement.

The need to protect the young, stop sending taxes and revenue overseas, the creation of jobs, and the improvements it could make to statewide economic conditions, are cited as reasons for following the lead of Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.

The act is wise in the insertion that the Magnolia state could enter into agreements with other entities to share liquidity with games such as online poker. This agreement could stretch to other states, tribes and even other countries. A recent bill was also presented to the overlords in Washington State, but it was devoid of ink that would allow them to do business with other countries – New Jersey have already been in discussion with the UK for example.