Monthly Archives: March 2015

Maryland Live! ink free-play online gaming deal with GameAccount Network

Maryland’s top casino operator Maryland Live! has inked a free-play online gaming deal with systems and software outfit GameAccount Network.

The new Simulated Gaming offering is expected to launch sometime in Q2 of this year via MarylandLiveCasino.com. The system will be integrated with the casino’s Live! Rewards program, allowing players to earn loyalty points via online play.

Maryland Live! president Robert Norton said GameAccount had successfully pitched the merits of its Simulated Gaming product and also “demonstrated their regulated gaming capability in New Jersey.” While there’s no indication that Maryland will join New Jersey in regulating real-money online and mobile play anytime soon, Norton said the GameAccount deal “provides us with a strategic partnership to execute both options.”

The two parties in this deal are far from strangers. In 2011, Maryland Live! inked an online free-play deal with nLive, which at the time was a joint venture of GameAccount and Australian slots operator Aristocrat but Aristocrat bought out GameAccount one year later.

UKIPT 2015 Season 5 Stops Announced

The United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour Season 5 2015 stops have been announced and it’s all aboard for Marbella, Bristol, Isle of Man and Edinburgh.

PokerStars have announced the remaining Season 5 2015 United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) stops, and Bristol is the surprise returnee.

This is the tale of the tape.

• Nottingham – Apr 12th-19th

Sam Simon, Simpsons Co-creator, Philanthropist And Poker Player, Dead At 59  

Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons, avid poker player and former husband of Jennifer Tilly, has died at the age of 59 following battle with cancer. While Simon may have been best known for his work as the writer, director and executive producer of The Simpsons, for which he won seven Emmys, he was also […]

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Yonkers Raceway Boosts Purse

Yonkers Raceway has announced a 20 percent, across-the-board purse increase, effective with the race week beginning this Sunday (March 15).

In addition, to show its appreciation for those horsemen who’ve overstuffed the box for the “French” trots, those races, which already went for larger purses, are also boosted another 20 percent.In terms of numbers, the non-“French trot” purses, which ranged from $9,000 to $35,000, now go from $11,000 to $42,000. The “French” races (remember, next one scheduled for this Sunday, March 15) went from a range of $13,000/$46,000 to $15,600/$55,200.

“We’re very happy to be able to offer these substantial purse increases,” Raceway COO Bob Galterio said. “We’re very grateful to all the horsemen who have continued to support us, especially with the oversized fields. We also understand this is the time of the season when they have more choices where to race, and we are committed to presenting the best product possible.”

Yonkers has announed  similar purse boosts before. The last one was in August 2014 of 15 percent across the board, and in June 2012 the track offered a 20 percent purse increase.

Georgia to roll out Monopoly Millionaires' Club lottery scratch ticket

Georgia, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Tennessee will be the first to roll out the new scratch ticket, but more states are expected to follow. The lottery ticket created by Scientific Games Corp. under license from Hasbro Inc. will debut in March 2015 before the new premiere date of the “Monopoly Millionaires’ Club” television game show on March 28 and 29. During the first week of production, the show had its first two $1 million winners and awarded a grand total of over $3.5 million in cash and prizes.

Peter Parker’s uncle reminds Intertain that with great acquisitions comes great debt

Canadian gaming operator Intertain Group capped off its year of acquisitions by reporting revenue of $40.8m in 2014.

The figure is all the more impressive considering Intertain didn’t record any revenue in 2013, the year it agreed to acquire the B2C WagerLogic operations (since rebranded as InterCasino) from fellow Canucks Amaya Gaming. Intertain followed that $70m deal with the $45m acquisition of UK-facing online bingo operator Mandalay Media last June and the €89m acquisition of Nordic-facing online casino operator Vera&John in October.

Intertain says InterCasino provided $22m of 2014’s revenue pie, with $17.2m from Mandalay Media and $1.6m from Vera&John. Had Mandalay and Vera&John been contributing to Intertain’s coffers for the full year, their revenue would have come to $35m and $54m respectively.

However, to paraphrase Peter Parker’s dead uncle, with great acquisitions comes great debt. Intertain’s 2014 adjusted earnings came to $20m but net losses came to $26m thanks to $19.8m in acquisition-related expenses. Both revenue and debt will grow even larger in 2015 thanks to last month’s £425m acquisition of the Jackpojoy and Botemania online bingo brands from UK gaming operator Gamesys

Georgia to roll out Monopoly Millionaires' Club lottery scratch ticket

Georgia, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Tennessee will be the first to roll out the new scratch ticket, but more states are expected to follow. The lottery ticket created by Scientific Games Corp. under license from Hasbro Inc. will debut in March 2015 before the new premiere date of the “Monopoly Millionaires’ Club” television game show on March 28 and 29. During the first week of production, the show had its first two $1 million winners and awarded a grand total of over $3.5 million in cash and prizes.

Strip Scribbles: Mark Shunock + 17 women, and his wife's out of town

Host Mark Shunock and wife Cheryl Daro perform during “Mondays Dark,” benefiting the LGBTQ Center, at Vinyl on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, in the Hard Rock Hotel. It’s a male fantasy: One man and 17 women, and it’s while his wife is out of town! The dream-come-true situation occurs next Monday when “Rock of Ages” at the Venetian star Mark Shunock has his “Divas” night for his monthly “Mondays Dark” fundraiser.

Betsoft inks deals with Oriental Group, Virtus info and BetChain

3D video slots software developer Betsoft Gaming has had a busy time of late, adding three names to its growing list of clients.

Deal #1 involves the Oriental Group, an Asian-facing live dealer online casino operator. Oriental recently launched Betsoft’s Slots3 suite of 3D video slots as well as the ToGo mobile games.

Betsoft commercial director Mark Allison celebrated the deal’s potential to bring Betsoft’s products to “an entirely new market of players via Oriental Group, a respected titan in the enormous Asian market.” Oriental Group’s Brian Ang said the addition of Betsoft’s titles – particularly the ToGo mobile games – would greatly enhance players’ online casino experience.

Deal le Deux seeks to build on Betsoft’s Asian market presence by providing desktop and mobile games to Virtus Information Ltd., which operates the Asian-facing 998bet.com. Virtus’ Choong Leo Ong said the new products should be accessible by his company’s customers within the next few weeks. Betsoft account manager Julian Camilleri said the two company’s “common philosophy will ensure that this partnership is both long-lived and mutually lucrative.”

PokerStars Returning to China for Nanjing Millions

The 2015 Nanjing Millions, scheduled for April 14th to 19th, will bring PokerStars back to the People’s Republic of China for the third time since it entered the market last July. PokerStars may be having a hard time entering America, but the world’s most populated country has been welcoming the Internet’s most populated poker network with […]

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Dorset good causes get A 25,000 – Thanks to the Big Lottery Fund

The latest round of Awards for All grants saw 87 groups across the South West share a pot of nearly three quarters of a million pounds. In Dorset groups received A 25,436 in total, Piddlehinton Millennium Green received A 1,833 which will be put towards play equipment for the village’s children and Lytchett Minster School got A 10,000 for an extracurricular outdoor activity project for students.