Monthly Archives: April 2015

Becky’s Affiliated: How UK-facing bookmakers can circumvent soaring advertising prices

Times are tough for UK-facing bookmarkers when it comes to advertising and acquiring new players for a decent price in the UK market.  A triple hit of increased paid advertising prices, soaring TV advert prices and the newly implemented Point of Consumption Tax (POCT) have put a number of UK books in a right pickle.

Justin Brookfield, Co-Founder of Tomorrow (formerly known as Locker Room), has been in the digital advertising industry since 1996 and specializes in UK-facing sportsbooks and customer acquisition.  Brookfield agrees the advertising landscape in the UK is grim, but he has a number of ideas on how books can circumvent the soaring advertising prices.  In this interview, I had the opportunity to chat with Brookfield about this challenging environment we’re facing now in the UK.

Becky Liggero: Thank you for joining me today, Justin.  Can you start by telling me what’s happening with paid search? I know over the past few years prices have just gone crazy – how is this increase in pricing impacting the small and the large books here in the UK?

Justin Brookfield: I think its probably fair to say in the last two or three years paid search is starting to get really, really expensive.

Super High Roller Bowl Names 54 Players; Liv Boeree Debuts on Twitch

Poker Central have added a roster of 54 notable players to the Super High Roller Bowl website, and PokerStars Team Pro Liv Boeree debuts on Twitch.

At the beginning of April, the new kid on the TV production block, Poker Central, announced plans to host a $500,000 buy-in event called The Super High Roller Bowl.

The plan was a lofty one. One that would put them on the map alongside the World Series of Poker (WSOP), hoping to produce one of the largest prize pools in the world. The website shows a $25m prize pool, and $8m first prize, although a look at the finer detail alerts you to the word ‘estimated’. But what better way to ensure you hit those numbers than to slap the names and faces of the intended player pool on your website a few months ahead of the game.

They need 50 players to reach $25 million, and there are 54 players named on the site, along with another 4 that seem to be confirmed, but don’t have names next to them as of yet (CEO, French Businessman, Hedge Fund Manager and Retired Businessman).

Delaware iGaming Results for March: Steady as She Goes

The Delaware Lottery released their digits of destiny for March, and the prognosis is steady as she goes, with total online gaming revenue up slightly for the third consecutive month.

The Delaware Lottery has released their iGaming revenue numbers for March and total gaming revenue has increased slightly for the third successive month.

Delawareans handed $146,188 to Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington. Whilst it shows progression, it’s still a demonstration that the men and women of Delaware haven’t really fallen in love with online gambling. Looking back through the 17-months, since stats were recorded, there aren’t even signs of lust.

Table games brought in $51,626 (the lowest total since Oct), and Video Lottery brought in $50,926 (the highest total since Oct), but it was poker that continued to show a little more spirit. The state turned over $43,636 in poker generated revenue. That’s the highest since May 2014, and evidence that the player pooling relationship they have with Nevada, is at least pushing the numbers in the right directions, albeit at a smaller pace that everyone would like to see. New registrations in the state were also at a three-month high with 306 more people signing up to gamble online.

Three firms split on Elaine Wynn's board candidacy

The high-profile boardroom battle between Wynn Resorts’ board of directors and dissident board member Elaine Wynn will come to an end Friday morning, but not before both sides fired off more volleys in advance of the company’s annual shareholders meeting. As things stand now, three companies that advise shareholders how to cast their votes in the way they believe the company would be best managed are split.

Confessions of a Poker Writer: Poker Media Content of the Year

Lee Davy continues his confessions series with a look at the Global Poker Index Poker Media Content of the Year award, and points out a very early contender.

Can you remember who won the Main Event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in Malta?

Can you remember who he beat heads-up?

The event took place less than a month ago, and unless you were a blogger covering the event, in real time, I doubt that too many of you will know the answer to those questions.

Jonathan Duhamel Leaves PokerStars After Four Years

Former World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Jonathan Duhamel, has parted ways with the online poker room giant, PokerStars, after four glorious years with Team Pro.

Jonathan Duhamel has parted ways with PokerStars.

As has become irritably standard with PokerStars, there was no fanfare, no bon voyage; hell…there wasn’t even a press release. Instead, we are left like vultures trying to eat off morsels we find on social media, or rumors we hear along the grapevine.

The Canadian’s life transformed in 2010. One minute he was as faceless as the next online cash game grinder, and the next he was breaking Matt Affleck’s heart, in one of the most popular poker hands in modern times. He would go on to be the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion. PokerStars would sign him in January 2011.

Adelson says Macau visitor cap as likely as him waking up with a full head of hair

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands couldn’t escape the doldrums plaguing Macau, as both revenue and earnings tumbled in Q1.

Revenue in the three months ending March 31 fell 24.9% to $3.01b, while earnings fell 29% to $1.05b. Operating income fell 37.8% to $711.1m and profit fell 34% to $511.9m.

As expected, Sands China provided most of the revenue and the decline. Sands China revenue was down 34.9% to $1.77b, while adjusted earnings fell 43.4% to $531m and profit fell a hefty 54.2% to $344.7m.

As one might expect from the broader Macau market profile, the VIP share of Sands’ profit fell from 18% in Q1 2014 to just 13% this year. Mass market tables slipped one point to 52% while slots held steady at 8%. Hotel and mall revenue each gained two points to 14% and 12% respectively.