Australian online betting operator BetEasy has officially rebranded as CrownBet after hooking up with casino operator Crown Resorts in December.

BetEasy had a short shelf life, having been rebranded from Betezy last year. Matthew Tripp, who founded Sportsbet before selling out to Irish betting operator Paddy Power for $115m, acquired Betezy last March for $10m once his non-compete clause expired. BetEasy had its official launch in September but within weeks Crown came sniffing and the two parties eventually formed a joint venture, two-thirds of which is held by Crown, while Tripp remains CEO.

The CrownBet.com.au website is essentially the old BetEasy site with new branding and color scheme. In a statement accompanying the launch, Tripp said the new CrownBet operation would enjoy synergies with the Crown Signature Club rewards program. Online punters can earn reward points that can be redeemed at Crown’s land-based facilities.

Tripp had previously referred to BetEasy as “last Australian operator on the shelf” and Crown boss James Packer said CrownBet had been “built to operate as a world-class Australian-owned business that will compete strongly with the largely foreign-owned competitors in our wagering industry.” This marks the first extension of the Crown brand into the online betting sphere, although the company controlled the down under operations of betting exchange Betfair.

Online exchange betting outfit World Bet Exchange (WBX) has shut down, but not before identifying its murderer as Colonel Cameron in the conservatory with the online point of consumption tax (POCT).

WBX officially closed its doors on Monday (16) at 5pm GMT. While betting has been suspended, customers can continue to log on and withdraw their account balances. WBXMail will continue to function and the site’s Member Services Team will still be on hand to provide support between the hours of 9am-5pm GMT. All long-term markets will be “settled in the normal way, when results are known.”

In an email to WBX customers, CEO Malcolm Gray said that he was proud of his team and also “the fairness in which the exchange has operated.” Gray offered assurances that WBX would “continue to service its members and affiliates in the same spirit during the wind-down period.”

Gray said he’d “always taken a long view with WBX” but regulatory changes in the UK market had made the writing on the wall clear. “Unfortunately the business strategy is no longer viable due to the rising costs of regulatory compliance and levies in the United Kingdom, along with the increasingly prohibitive stance of various betting jurisdictions.”

Brayden ‘BRAYDEN93” Fritzhall outlasted over 50,000 players on his way to victory in the Sunday Million 9th Anniversary Special, and Russia’s Liliya ‘Liay5’ Novikova joins Team Online.

PokerStars have done it again.

Necks were on the line, the guillotine stayed hoisted well above their heads, and reputations remained in tact.

They were celebrating the ninth birthday of their special child: The Sunday Million, and in keeping with tradition they laid out a feast worth $9 million bucks.

Erstwhile sports betting tout Adam Meyer (pictured) has come up with a surefire two-pronged strategy to battle his federal extortion, fraud and weapons charges: I’m a secret government agent, and I’m batshit insane.

Meyer, who formally headed up the Real Money Sports prediction service, was arrested in December after a client claimed Meyer had threatened him with a gun if he didn’t give Meyer more money. Meyer reportedly extorted over $25m from the victim, since identified as Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin businessman Gary Sadoff, who owns the Badger Liquor Company.

In documents filed with federal prosecutors on Tuesday, first assistant US Attorney Greg Haanstad detailed how Meyer plans to employ the “public authority” defense. Basically, Meyer is claiming that his illegal actions were performed at the behest of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, with whom Meyer claims to have been cooperating.

According to the documents obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Meyer also claims to have been cooperating with illegal sports betting investigations launched by Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and a NCAA Division 1 football team. The feds have rejected Meyer’s claims and demanded that he disclose the names of witnesses he plans to call to testify in his defense.

Bloomberry Resorts, the operator behind Manila’s Solaire Resort & Casino, has purchased an island and casino operation in South Korea.

On Tuesday, Bloomberry said its Solaire Korea Co Ltd subsidiary had inked a deal to acquire up to a 92% stake in Golden & Luxury Co Ltd, which operates T.H.E. Hotel & Vegas Casino on South Korea’s Jeju island. The island is home to a number of small-scale casinos that are popular with Chinese tourists. Jeju is also the site of Genting Singapore’s in-development Resorts World Jeju integrated resort.

Bloomberry also inked a deal to buy the 21-hectare Silmi island, which is included in the Incheon Free Economic Zone (FEZ). Both deals still need to obtain official government approval. Bloomberry declined to comment on the acquisitions’ costs, saying only that the deals were “subject to performance of several conditions” and specifics would be revealed “once appropriate approvals have been obtained.”

Bloomberry chairman Enrique Razon issued a statement saying his company was “slightly shifting our focus to other destinations.” Razon said this shift would take a few years, but “it is good business to start prospecting, and Korea is a likely choice because of its positive investment climate.”

Advocates and opponents of New Jersey’s quest for legal sports betting squared off in the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

For those who’ve been in a state of suspended animation over the past few years, New Jersey has been doggedly trying to enact a legal sports betting environment but has been stymied at every turn by their opponents at the US Department of Justice, four pro sports leagues and the NCAA.

Having been told that their earlier attempts fell afoul of the federal PASPA sports betting prohibition, New Jersey took the advice of a DOJ attorney who argued that the state had the option of repealing its own anti-betting enforcement “in whole or in part.” The state ran with this ball, passing legislation that would permit – without explicitly authorizing or regulating – sports betting at Atlantic City casinos and state racetracks.

The state’s opponents insisted this was too clever by half, arguing that New Jersey’s options were limited to either an all-out ban or an anything goes, anarchic, bookies moving from the back-of-the-bar to kindergarten playgrounds scenario. In November, a federal judge sided with the state’s opponents, setting up Tuesday’s appeal to the Third Circuit court in Philadelphia.