COLOSSUS BETS, home of the £10,000,000 Colossus and the world’s biggest football and sports jackpots, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with ONEworks™ for the distribution of Colossus Bets’ pools betting products. The agreement will see ONEworks™ integrating Colossus Bets pools into its platform and making those pools available to ONEworks™ licensees.

Bernard Marantelli, founder and CEO of Colossus Bets said: “We are delighted to begin collaborating with ONEworks™, a market-leading sportsbook platform provider whose clients include some of the largest sportsbook operators in the world. This deal will significantly increase access and liquidity to our lottery-sized sports betting jackpots with our patented Fractional Cash-In feature, and takes us a step nearer to our goal of providing the first global £100,000,000 sports pool.”

ONEworks commented: “Adding Colossus Bets with the world’s biggest pools and a ground-breaking Fractional Cash-In feature to our platform is consistent with its ethos of continuing to innovate and providing our customers the best products available. Football betting, in which Colossus Bets specialises, continues to be a sports betting juggernaut and we see great potential in making Colossus Bets pools available to our B2B clients and in turn their retail customers.

About Colossus Bets

Colossus Bets was founded by Bernard Marantelli, a professional gambler who after winning significant sums from multi-leg bets around the world, decided jackpot pools were not run optimally. After failing to convince incumbent operators to improve their product offering to generate bigger pools, he set up Colossus Bets to provide lottery-sized jackpot pools on a weekly basis. The company’s B2C offering was launched in August 2013 and since then Colossus Bets has signed 16 B2B agreements for the distribution of its pools to the end players of its operator partners. Operators who have already gone live to offer Colossus Bets pools to their own end players include Betfair, Betdaq and BoyleSports, with a series of others scheduled to go live in 2015.

For more information, please see www.colossusbets.com

Contact: Bernard Marantelli (CEO and Founder)

BEN ASKREN AND LUIS SANTOS SET TO BATTLE FOR ONE FC WELTERWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AT ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS IN MANILA

ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS TICKETS AVAILABLE AT AIRASIAREDTIX.COM

28 January 2015 – Singapore: Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization with a 90% market share, ONE Fighting Championship™ (ONE FC), has announced its return to Kuala Lumpur with another blockbuster event. ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS is set to take place on 13 March at the iconic Stadium Putra. The main event will feature a ONE FC Flyweight World Championship bout wherein incumbent champion Adriano Moraes will be defending his title against Japanese stalwart Asuka ‘Riku Shibuya’ Mikami. Malaysian mixed martial arts superstars Peter Davis and Ann Osman are also expected to be featured on the card.

ONE FC will also return to Manila, Philippines for ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS on 24 April and to Singapore on 22 May for ONE FC: WARRIOR’S QUEST. ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS will be held at the state-of-the-art MOA Arena while ONE FC: WARRIOR’S QUEST will be held at the 12,000-seater Singapore Indoor Stadium. Originally scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 14 February, ONE FC: ODYSSEY OF CHAMPIONS will be moved to a later date.

Ben Askren will defend his ONE FC Welterweight World Championship for the first time at ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS. Standing opposite him in the ONE FC cage will be Brazilian MMA veteran Luis Santos, who made quick work of Bakhtiyar Abbasov in his ONE FC debut.

Tickets for ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS, presented by Tune Talk, are on sale from 19 January at www.AirAsiaRedTix.com. Ticket categories begin with the full Red Carpet and cageside experience for VVIPs at RM388 followed by VIP RM278, Gold RM168, Silver RM108 and Bronze RM58. Early bird promotions for Gold, Silver and Bronze categories are available until 31 January. Prices include ticketing fee.

CEO of ONE Fighting Championship™, Victor Cui, stated, “We are kicking off 2015 with three spectacular events lined up to start the year. ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS will see the return of ONE FC Welterweight World Champion Ben Askren as he takes on one of the toughest challenge of his career against Luis Santos. Ben Askren is the absolute best in the world and we are excited to see him up against the highly skilled Luis Santos. We are also ecstatic at the chance to be back in Manila on 24 April and in Singapore on 22 May to treat fans to world-class mixed martial arts action!”

Lee Davy continues his confessions series with a trip down memory lane as he recalls his association with the magazine Poker Pro Europe.

All anybody ever wants is a chance.

But it’s not always that easy.

Getting in front of the right people is as important, if not more so, than the work you actually put into developing whatever skill you are trying to sell.

Luck is also a factor.

There is also a timing issue that is very important. In the book SmartCuts by Shane Snow, the author talks about a phenomenon known as Catching the Wave. You have to be in the right spot, at the right time, and although that involves a high degree of skill and intuitiveness, there is also a whole lot of luck.

The reason I am able to sit down at my kitchen table and write this, and be paid for it, rather than head into the Steelworks and try to operate 20-trains per day with only 10-locomotives, is because I got my chance, and I made sure that I caught the right wave.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands (LVS) defied the skeptics by posting strong earnings growth in both Q4 and FY 2014. For the three months ending Dec. 31, revenue rose 6.6% to $3.42b, operating income rose 15.4% to $1.02b and net income rose 24.9% to $721.3m. For the year as a whole, revenue rose 5.9% to $14.58b, operating income rose 20.3% to $4.1b while net income rose 23.2% to $2.84b.

As ever, Sands China was the primary engine of LVS’ growth, with full year revenue up 6.8% to $9.57b, adjusted earnings up 12.4% to $3.26b and net income rising 15.4% to $2.55b. The gains came despite Macau’s record downturn, which helped push Q4 revenue down 16.2% to $2.12b and profit down 18.3% to $535.3m.

The Venetian Macao saw Q4 revenue fall 23.4% to $880.3m, Sands Cotai Central fell 10.8% to $705m, Sands Macao fell 18% to $268m while the Four Seasons Hotel Macao bucked the trend by rising 2.4% to $243.8m.

Macau’s dearth of VIP gamblers was evident in rolling chip volume, which was down nearly 40% at the Venetian, -52.3% at Sands Cotai Central, -36.3% at the Four Seasons and -43% at Sands Macao.

Mass market table drop was down at the Venetian (-7.1%), the Four Seasons (-10.2%) and Sands Macao (-14.2%) but mass market betting rose 10.6% at Sands Cotai Central. Slots numbers were up in the low single-digits at Sands Cotai Central and the Venetian, while rising 10.3% at Sands Macao and falling 42.7% at the Four Seasons.

At Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, revenue rose 27.1% to $838.6m and occupancy rates rose 1.4 points to 98.3%, prompting LVS chairman Sheldon Adelson to paraphrase Mark Twain by saying rumors of Singapore’s demise as an integrated resort destination had been greatly exaggerated. Gaming revenue at MBS increased by one-third thanks to VIP win rate nearly doubling year-on-year to 3.58%, which helped offset a 26.8% fall in VIP gambling turnover and a 3.3% decline in mass table drop.

Stateside, LVS’ two properties in Las Vegas reported revenue down 6% to $362.6m, driven by a 14.1% decline in gaming revenue as Chinese high-rollers stuck closer to home. Room occupancy in Vegas fell 7.7 points to just 81.1%. In Pennsylvania, Sands Bethlehem revenue rose 7.7% to $133.6m.

This is a guest contribution by Stephen Padveen, a Senior Partner with t2Marketing International. . You can connect with t2Marketing International at one of their upcoming appearances. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you

There are billions of user accounts across the social sphere, and it can sometimes be difficult to determine what niche among these user clusters you should be targeting with your social messages. Virtually every one of them holds value for some vertical or another, but which one or ones matter to you?

When developing a social media player archetype that you can be targeting with your casino’s message, there are a number of criteria that should be considered. Several of the twenty criteria listed below might seem trivial, but all of them are important items that can be targeted on social channels and should be included in your checklist when building out a new target demographic profile for your social messaging.

Age

Obviously, your messaging will vary based on the age of your targeted market. Moreover, considering the legal issues surrounding the world of gaming, age is going to be an important distinction at the outset.

Location

Two more events to catch up on as Nam Le defeats He Chang to win the Tournament of Champions event, and the Norwegian Mikal Blomlie defeats Sammy Lucisano to take the honors in the No-Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha Rotation event.

When the Champions League was first introduced into the football calendar I thought it was a dumb title for the competition. It’s turned out to be the most prestigious club competition in the world, but it hardly a tournament comprised entirely of champions now is it?

I guess this is my problem with the Aussie Millions Event #13: $1,150 Tournament of Champions, in as much as the eventual champion, wasn’t a champion before he became a champion.

[Image Courtesy of Pokerasiapacific & Kenneth Lim]

Still with me?

Nam Le and He Chang, two players who have never won an Aussie Millions gold ring, were the final two players from a field of 115 players. Only the former Aussie Millions Main Event winners were given the opportunity to participate for free – hence the name. But I don’t like it. The fact that a Tournament of Champions winner is not a former champion takes some of the sugar coating dust off for me.

The pair agreed an ICM chop no sooner had Takaya Yamashita been eliminated in third place. The heads-up play then continued for a further 60-minutes before the final hand played out as follows.

The former Asia Pacific Poker Tour Manila champion, Van Marcus, and young online hot shot, James Obst, have both been recognized for their contribution to Australian poker by the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.

With over $1.3m in live tournament earnings, and a mattress stuffed with money earned in high stakes online and live Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) games, nobody is going to argue about Van Marcus’s inclusion into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.

He is a former Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Main Event champion, and he has also come mighty close to bagging a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, on three occasions, after finishing third in PLO events back in 2007 & 2009, and a fifth in 2009.

Van Marcus was placed on a short list that contained luminaries such as Grant Levy, Joe Cabret, Michael Guttman, Tino Lechich and David Steicke. He was the only player inducted, and the announcement was made prior to the start of Day 2 of the Aussie Millions Main Event. Australian Poker Hall of Fame chairman, Joe Hachem, did the honors.

With the 2015 ceremony completed, that now means the Australian Poker Hall of Fame consists of 15-players. It’s the second consecutive year that a single person has been inducted after Graeme Putt became the first solitary induction back in 2013-2014.

James Obst Handed Recognition Award

It’s good to see the Australian Poker Hall of Fame recognizing talent of the future, alongside patting the best of the past on the back.

For the first time in the past 46-years, the World Series of Poker Main Event, will guarantee that 1,000 people will get paid, as they bow down to public pressure and drop the guaranteed $10m first prize.

PokerStars introduced rake changes. The customers vented their frustration. PokerStars changed their minds. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) introduce a $10m Guarantee for the $10,000 Main Event. The customers vented their frustration. The WSOP changed their minds.

There are two lessons to be learned here. The first is that our poker tours are listening to feedback, and acting upon that feedback; that’s great news. The second lesson to be learned is more of an inquiry.

Why aren’t the opinions of the customers being considered before the changes take place?

A question that involves an article on its own methinks.

Leading with the headline that 1,000 players are going to be guaranteed a min-cash, in the most prestigious poker tournament in the world, is a great headline. I would say that it’s a headline that would attract more players to the Main Event.

There was no need to have a $10m headline. Nobody in their right mind is going to get more excited for a $10m first prize, when they know they are 99% certain to receive $8m if they win.

Loretta Lynch (pictured center), President Barack Obama’s proposed nominee for US Attorney General, was quizzed about her views on online gambling during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who sponsored the Sheldon Adelson-supported Restore America’s Wire Act, asked Lynch whether she was familiar with the 2011 Department of Justice opinion that the 1961 Wire Act referred only to sports betting. Lynch, who is looking to replace outgoing AG Eric Holder, said she was familiar with the opinion but hadn’t studied it in detail.

Graham (pictured, on the right) then unleashed one of the anti-online gambling crowd’s favorite mythical hobgoblins, asking Lynch whether she agreed with the idea that “one of the best ways for a terrorist organization to enrich themselves” is via online gambling. Lynch responded by saying terrorists will use whatever means at their disposal. Undeterred, Graham promised to send Lynch his source material, which likely consists of a series of Rorschach ink blots and an audio book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales read by Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile, Adelson (pictured, on the left) participated in an informal summit with GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. It’s not known whether Adelson’s lobbyists or the Committee members initiated the meeting. Sources suggested the meeting was both a strategy session and an update but The Hill reported that none of the GOP reps in attendance nor their staff members were all that comfortable with questions regarding further details.

Adelson is one of the GOP’s top campaign contributors but he was unable to convince his elected minions to bring RAWA up for a vote in the lame duck session of the last congress. Adelson is believed to be pushing for the new GOP-controlled Congress to make a fresh push in 2015 but the GOP is wrestling with the contradictions between Adelson’s ‘big ask’ and their oft-stated belief in state’s rights, which RAWA would effectively trample.