Monthly Archives: March 2015

CalvinAyre.com Readers receive a 25% discount for iGaming Asia Congress 2015

CalvinAyre.com has signed up as a media partner of iGaming Asia Congress 2015, which will be held on March 17–19 at the Grand Hyatt City of Dreams Macau, and our readers will receive 25% discount by using a promo code.

Follow these simple steps.

• Click here to go to online registration form

•Tick the 3-day pass button

• Click the Go to Step 2 button

• Fill out the form with your information and use the promo code: BU940CA

Over 250+ of Asia’s leading sports betting, online casino, lottery, social and mobile gaming executives are expected to attend. iGA 2015 is a great place whether you’re looking to form new partnerships, learn about the Asia’s latest innovations, opportunities, strategies, and developments for interactive gaming and to network to discover new opportunities.

Weekly Poll: Were the Seals and Clubs’ technical issue and police operation related?

Take Our Poll

Bitcoin-only online poker site SealsWithClubs (SwC ) has been shut down due to what was described as technical issue after the home of its founder Bryan Micon was raided at gunpoint by the police, which is why we decided to ask our readers, “Were the Seals and Clubs’ technical issue and police operation related?”

It would be easy to connect the raid with the technical issues that took down SwC around the same time and most of our readers seemed to agree as 77% voted “Yes” and only 23% voted, “No.”

Prior to the raid, Seals With Club users complained a series of technical problems that made the room unavailable on Feb 11, then after few days Bryan Micon’s video came out, describing how police raided his home on the same date; served with a warrant from the Nevada Gambling Commission accusing him of violating Nevada Revised Statutes NRS 463.750(10b) and the operation of an interactive gaming site without all required licenses, but wasn’t formally charged with any crime.

Micon said that the timing might be suspicious but he hasn’t been able to make a connection between the two occurrences himself. “It’s true, there have been some irregularities with our server that coincided exactly with the time that my front door was broken down, and it seems too unlikely for these things to not be connected. Right now, however, it’s simply impossible to understand what exactly happened,” Micon said.

Cole Schotz Successfully Defends Against Motion to Dismiss New Jersey State Lottery Claims

The Presiding Judge of the New Jersey Tax Court held in our favor last week, ruling that our clients can proceed with their claims against the State of New Jersey, Division of Lottery challenging the retroactive taxation of their lottery winnings. On June 9, 2000, Melvin Milligan won the top prize in the Big Game Drawing totaling approximately $46 million.

Innovation in iGaming Profiles: Stakes & Ladders/Bets of Mates

In the following episodes of the CalvinAyre.com innovation iGaming Profiles, we focus on the stories behind two sportsbetting start-ups that recently merged into one- Stakes & Ladders and Bets of Mates.  The two companies merged in early 2015 and now operate under the single brand of Stakes & Ladders with both founders taking an active part in the business.

David McGurk is the founder of Bets of Mates, a social sportsbetting company that facilitates competition amongst friends. McGurk spent over ten years as a semi-pro football player, but as his career began to wind down, McGurk decided he wanted to start up his own business. The original idea was formed while McGurk and his friends were enjoying a bet themselves.

“The three of us were sat watching a game and we all lost our bets which were bet against a bookmaker, so we thought the if the idea was we could bet against each other, one of us could actually win.  So we went from there and sort of ran with that idea and progressed it and came up with a better idea where you could enter pools of betting against your friends or against strangers”.

At the time, McGurk was able to leverage connections with professional footballers to help spread the word about his new business.

“I’ve got a lot of friends in football where they just helped us with the publicity, they would send out a lot of tweets for us, send messages on Facebook and we got them signed up to the site so fans of the football clubs they were playing for could actually play against players”.

August 1, 2014 marked the date when England’s Football Association issued a new betting ban for footballers and also the date when McGurk had to think about shifting his strategy.

“Unfortunately the FA have instigated a rule where professional footballers can’t bet on any football whatsoever so that kind of slowed things down a little bit for us, so we tried getting the extra investment to boost the website.  We couldn’t get it, but fortunately [Stakes & Ladders] came up with a merge idea and things have gone smoothly with that”.

SEO for 2015 – 3 Top Areas to Focus in Gaming

SEO for 2015

One really popular topic right now on the SEO forums and pertinent blogs is 2015. That is right, 2015, the year. What does it mean for SEO to be in 2015?

There is also some serious debate raging in the SEO forums I frequent right now about this. Does SEO even matter anymore?

I am going to look at these 2 questions in this article. In short, 2015 is very similar to 2014 and SEO matters.

SEO DOES MATTER!

This is a topic I have a lot to say on. I am talking years of experience. SEO trench work and consulting all day long. I have had sites on the first page of google for the term ‘poker.’ Yadda yadda, this isn’t my first rodeo.

That said, I don’t consider myself an SEO guru or master. I am merely someone that respects it and enjoys working hard at it. I am not at 10k hours, getting closer every week.

Wynn Macau asks staff to take unpaid leave; proxy betting back in vogue?

Macau’s casino industry gave off another strong signal that all is not well after Wynn Resorts asked its staff to take voluntary unpaid leave.

The Hong Kong Standard reported that Wynn Macau staff received text messages seeking volunteers to take “no-pay leave or annual leave from March 9-15.” While the request is for volunteers, it marks the first time Wynn Macau has made such a request since the 2008 global economic crisis. Other Macau casinos have reportedly been making similar requests of their staff since December due to the lack of customers at their gaming tables.

PROXY BETTING BACK IN VOGUE?

In a further sign that Macau casino operators are leaving no revenue stone unturned, some operators have reportedly restarted their telephone betting business. Last week, Daiwa Securities claimed “at least one” of the two operators that suspended telephone betting last year had quietly resumed the practice.

Sands China cut off its proxy betting in October and a spokesperson told GGRAsia that the company had not rethought its decision. Wynn Macau is believed to be the other operator who dropped the ban hammer but its current stance on the practice is unknown.

Phone betting or proxy betting involves a trusted go-between who sits at the gaming table and relays play-by-play card information to a mainland bettor, who decides how much to wager on any given hand. The practice, which allows high-rollers to gamble without having to leave the mainland, was believed to account for up to 8% of Macau’s VIP gaming turnover.

INDIVIDUAL VISIT SCHEME REJIG PROMISES TO CONSIDER CASINO INTERESTS

Gaggle of IPG Shops Selected For NY Lottery Ad Duties

The New York State Lottery has selected a handful of Interpublic Group agencies to handle advertising duties during its next contract period, the lottery organization confirmed Tuesday. McCann and MRM//McCann have been named to handle creative and digital responsibilities for the Lottery, while sibling media agency UM was named media agency of record.

Ben Askren to Face Luis Santos in ONE: Valor of Champions Main Event

MARK STRIEGL TO MAKE ONE CHAMPIONSHIP DEBUT AGAINST CASEY SUIRE

EUGENE TOQUERO RETURNS TO ACTION OPPOSITE INDONESIA’S BRIANATA ROSADHI

TICKETS FOR ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS ON SALE NOW AT SM TICKETS

6 March 2015 – Manila: Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization with a 90% market share, ONE Championship™ (ONE), has announced two additional bouts for ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS. In the co-main event, Filipino superstar Mark Striegl will make his promotional debut when he takes on the undefeated Casey Suire. Accomplished kickboxer Eugene Toquero also returns to action when he faces Indonesia’s Brianata Rosadhi. ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS will be headlined by a ONE Welterweight World Championship bout between incumbent champion Ben Askren and the number one contender, Luis Santos.

Tickets for ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS are available now at www.smtickets.com. Ticket categories begin with the full Red Carpet and cageside experience for VVIPs at PHP5380. Tickets priced at PHP3180, PHP1280, PHP640 and PHP220 are also available. Early bird promotions for Gold, Silver and Bronze categories are available until 20 April. Prices include ticketing fee.

CEO OF ONE Championship, Victor Cui, stated, “ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS is set to be the biggest sporting event to be held in the Philippines this year. Mark Striegl is a Filipino MMA superstar who has proven that he has what it takes to compete with the best in the world. He now tests himself against the best in the world in ONE Championship’s stacked Bantamweight division, beginning with the undefeated Casey Suire. Both mixed martial artists are known for their exciting styles. Get set for a night of adrenaline pumping mixed martial arts action as ONE Championship goes live around the world on 24 April!”

Mark Striegl is a Filipino mixed martial arts superstar who has found success in every promotion he has competed in. Striegl has a proven grappling pedigree, and has won eleven of his bouts by submission. Striegl will be making his ONE debut in the bantamweight division after exploding onto the MMA scene with twelve straight wins in the featherweight division.

Coingaming Launches GameART Games for Bitcoin Players

Curaçao: 3rd March 2015 – Coingaming.io, the leading platform provider which specialises in the provisioning of Bitcoin cryptocurrency solutions for the iGaming sector, today announced that it has integrated GameART’s casino games for their Bitcoin only licensed gaming platform.

Integration with GameART provides operators that use the Coingaming Bitcoin only casino platform with access to their first 12 games available on all devices, including both flash and HTML5 versions with mobile coming soon. GameART’s exclusive designs, 3D graphics with high-quality audio and sound-effects will certainly appeal to the unique and demanding Bitcoin player-demographics.

Tauri Tiitsaar, COO of Coingaming, comments: “Coingaming is rapidly establishing itself as the leading category provider of premium casino gaming content for the Bitcoin casino player market. Having recently signed an agreement with Quickfire and Microgaming, we continue to look forward to partnering with the industry’s leading games content providers such as GameART whose games maximise game-player retention and improve ROI for our Bitcoin operator’s.”

Borut Lozej, Business Development Director of GameART added: “Coingaming is well-respected when it comes to Bitcoin gaming platforms and is by far the best rated and respected cryptocurrency gaming operation. The addition of this first batch of the GameART portfolio  with more games to be added, further delivers premium gaming content to Bitcoin players via this distribution agreement and will clearly bring exciting opportunities for both GameART and Coingaming.”

For further information, please contact:

Coingaming.io

Mark McGuinness

Pennsylvania slots up, Maryland casinos down in February

Pennsylvania casino slot machine revenue nudged up 1.1% to $183.2m in February. Seven of the state’s 12 casinos posted year-on-year gains, including the market leading Parx Casino, which rose 7.3% to $29.6m. Rivers Casino ranked second with $22.5m (-3%), relegating Sands Bethlehem to third place with $22m (+5.5%). February’s tally was $2.2m more than January’s total.

Across the border in Maryland, the state’s five casinos earned $82.8m in February. That makes three straight months of declines since the state peaked at $90.2m in November. Revenue records had been falling left right and center since Horseshoe Casino Baltimore opened in late August but the thrill has apparently worn off.

As ever, Maryland Live! topped all comers with just under $47m, down $2.4m from January. The aforementioned Horseshoe suffered a much smaller decline, falling only about $150k to just under $23m. As for the state’s lesser lights, Hollywood Casino Perryville earned $6m, unchanged from January. Rocky Gap earned $3.5m (+16%) and Ocean Downs was unchanged from January at $3.3m.

Looking at things from a year-on-year perspective, the four casinos that were open in February 2014 had a much rougher time. Maryland Live! was down 10.2%, Ocean Downs fell 4.9% and Perryville fell 14.7%. Rocky Gap bucked the trend by rising 11.7% year-on-year. Minus the Horseshoe, the state’s year-on-year total is off 9.4%.

Operators insist that February’s decline was in part due to wretched weather. But since the snow didn’t seem to stop Pennsylvania’s casinos from posting gains, concerns are mounting that Maryland’s market is saturated. Meanwhile, MGM Resorts is on track to open its new National Harbor venue next year and the state legislature is considering a measure that would slots at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore (informally known as the Bad Idea Act of 2015).

The Shoe’s revenue has been remarkably constant, averaging $22.8m in its six full months of existence, but that’s about 35% below projections. In January, the Shoe got the okay to exchange around 300 of its slots for 30 extra gaming tables, while Maryland Live! traded in 300 slots for 13 tables. Not that it helped either casino that much.

Confessions of a Poker Writer: The Self-Obsessed and Selfish World of Poker

Lee Davy continues his confessions series with an op-ed inspired by a 2+2 thread asking if poker players are especially self obsessed and selfish?

Whilst browsing 2+2 I read a thread called: Are Poker Players Especially Self-Obsessed and Selfish?

If that’s not worthy of a point of view I don’t know what is.

There are only a handful of poker players who have allowed me to peek under the hood. Most of them only show their shiny veneer. If you haven’t had a good look at the guts, it’s difficult to understand what makes a poker player tick. I am aware of the size of the sweeping arc my brush is about to make.

A lot of poker players are self-obsessed because they feel they need to be. If you want to be an outlier then you need to get 10,000 hours of practice in the books. You need to be self obsessed, you need to make sacrifices, and this means you have to be a little selfish.

There’s also the eternal search for sponsorship. Everybody has that dream. After Jason Somerville signed for PokerStars recently he said it was like the Holy Grail. These days, that comment could apply to any form of sponsorship. In a recent interview with Kristy Arnett she said, “It’s tough playing on your own dime.” She’s right. It’s one of the toughest aspects of professional poker.

Poker, especially tournament poker, is all about staying in the game. You know that if you stick around long enough you will eventually win that big score. You only hope that when it actually arrives it isn’t used to pay off your make up. This is why sponsorships are so important. They keep you in the game. You can spend your money on other important things like eating and paying rent.

Calling the Clock: Alex Dreyfus the Visionary, Jason Somerville the Future and Matas Cimbolas the Heater

In this week’s poker round-up Lee Davy reminds you that the American Poker Awards were the dogs bollocks, the World Series of Poker Circuit sets a new Maryland record before going international, the Grinder launches another business venture, Jason Somerville joins PokerStars as Twitch goes online poker mental, RAWA is postponed due to intense snowball fighting and much more.

Poker was a face of beauty this week. The man determined to ‘Sportify’ poker continued to scratch the necessary actions off his to-do-list by hosting the American Poker Awards (APA), and American Poker Conference (APC).

Nolan Dalla called it ‘one of the most exciting nights in poker’s history’, Alisson Hollander called it a ‘revolutionary change in the industry’, and Daniel Negreanu called Alexander Dreyfus a ‘visionary.’

It looked bloody amazing as well – all very Beverley Hills. Kara Scott held the conductors baton with the right blend of grace, humor and professionalism that you have come to expect from her, and nearly everyone turned up in person to collect their award.

A full list of the winners can be found right here.

A few interesting points came out of the inaugural APC. Adam Pliska told everyone that poker had become the third most viewed sport in the world. Mike Sexton said that poker was doing more for charity than any other sport in the world, and Alex Dreyfus told everyone that 2014 was the biggest year in live tournament history collecting over $1 billion in total buy-ins.

RAWA Postponed; Pennsylvania Bumping and Grinding

“Jobless Poker Player” Pleads Guilty to Card Marking

Mihai Lacatos, 61, has pleaded guilty to 18 different charges of fraud relating to a six year spree where he cheating UK casinos out of thousands of pounds using a technique known as ‘card marking.’

Life must be tough for casinos these days.

The ingenious trickery of the fraudsters is challenging the security standards of the casino industry like no time before.

Take 61-year old Mihai Lacatos for example. A criminal mastermind if there ever was one. The Daily Mail broke the story that Lacatos has been found guilty of cheating UK casinos out of thousands of pounds using an innovative technique known as ‘card marking.’

Card marking I hear you ask?

What’s card marking?

Brace yourself. It gets a whole lot more technical from hereon on.

Jason Koon and the Ruby Tuesday’s

Jason Koon delivers a Tuesday double whammy after taking down the Super Tuesday $1,000 buy-in event on PokerStars, before heading to Los Angeles and winning the $50,000 High Roller Turbo Six-Handed event at the World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic.

The Boomtown Rats didn’t like Monday’s.

The Rolling Stones missed their Ruby Tuesday’s.

I’ll stick with the Tuesday’s. I have always been more Stones than Rats. I think Jason Koon probably feels the same.

Whilst the chiseled jaw man mountain of muscle may be too young to remember either aforementioned giants of the UK music scene, he will have fresh memories of recent Tuesday’s when he felt on top of the mountains he often likes to climb before breakfast.

24 Feb 2015; Jason Koon, an American who is not allowed to play online poker in his home country because his country is a fucked up mess, travels to Canada to play in the $1,000 Super Tuesday on PokerStars.

I can hear the Muggles from here.