Monthly Archives: April 2015

Kentucky Derby Betting Odds: Dortmund, American Pharoah heavy favorites

The Kentucky Derby will be in less than two weeks, making it the perfect time to roll out the betting odds of the year’s biggest horse racing event.

Front-runners American Pharoah and Dortmund have been tabbed as the front runners, well ahead of the rest of the field. As it stands now, Dortmund is the short favorite at 9/2 odds, followed closely by American Pharoah at a tidy 2/1. Outside of these two Bob Baffert-trained thoroughbreds, the field is made up of Carpe Diem (6/1), Mubtaahji (9/1), Materiality (9/1), Firing Lane (14/1), Upstart (16/1), and International Star (16/1).

The current trend isn’t looking particularly good for horses outside of American Pharoah and Dortmund because both have looked completely dominant in their lead-up races ahead of the Derby. American Pharoah, in particular, is riding a wave of momentum after dominating the Arkansas Derby. With the Kentucky Derby still 10 days away, it wouldn’t at all be surprising if American Pharoah clears Dortmund to become the favorite.

That’s how much of a two-horse race this Derby is being looked at. But just because that’s the popular sentiment, that doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out that way. Too many times we’ve seen favorites falter at this event, usurped by an upstart that just had the race of her life.

Daughter of A 1.2m lottery winners stole A 22k from nursery in West Yorkshire

The daughter of a lottery winning couple who stole 22,000 from a nursery will avoid jail if the money is paid back. Samantha Crossland, 30, used to run Child’s Play Day Nursery in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, but left the business close to collapse after admitting taking the money from parents’ payments.

The contract to stage the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight still has not been signed

You may have heard that tickets for the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight, set for May 2, have not gone on sale yet . There have many theories floated to attempt to explain this brewing travesty, but the real reason is both simple and infuriating: The contract to stage the fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has not been signed yet.

Cancelled APPT Nanjing Millions Now a Criminal Investigation

The Chinese authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Nanjing Millions according to reporters working for the World Gaming Group.

50 shades of grey.

I bet PokerStars are wishing that they only had one shade of black.

According to news emanating from World Gaming Group, PokerStars, and their Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), could be subjected to a criminal investigation, after China’s television broadcaster CCTV reported the hosting of APPT Nanjing Millions as a ‘criminal event’.

GiGse 2015 Day 2 Recap

The second day of GiGse started off strong, with a number of delegates showing up bright and early to attend the sportsbetting panel featuring Dan Spillane, VP and Assistant General Council for the NBA, Adam Krejcik of Ellers Research, Senator Lesniak on pre-recorded video and moderated by popular gaming lawyer Jeff Ifrah.

Spillane started off by telling the audience the NBA does not support the way New Jersey is pursuing sportsbetting in the state and the NBA thinks the fight for sports betting should be happening in congress, not in the courts.

In response to the NBA’s opinion, Lesniak agreed its not the best way to go about it, but nothing is happening in congress- “the NFL has a lockdown on Congress” he says- and unregulated sportsbetting is happening now in New Jersey, run by organized crime or offshore operations.  The only other option New Jersians have at the moment is to fly to Vegas to place a bet and its simply not fair, he said.

“I don’t disagree with what Senator Lesniak has to say”, said Spillane.  “Its largely in line with our view, where we disagree with him is how you get there”.  Spillane understands the Senator is under pressure to make sportsbetting happen now, but says the current process is a shortcut- the NBA thinks its better to take it to Congress even thought the process will take longer.

Howling About Fantasy Sports: Catching Up With Rick Wolf

special thanks to Joe Favorito @JoeFav

While the casual fan may think that all this “fantasy” stuff is new from a business perspective, in reality the roots of fantasy are a few decades old, and there are few who understand the history, the success, and the failures of the business better than Rick Wolf. A Fantasy Sports Trade Association Hall of Famer, Wolf has been at the front edge of many of the biggest growth opportunities in fantasy for years, and now runs a consultancy, Full Moon Sports, dedicated to helping nurture and grow businesses in the fast moving space. He is also the president of Fantasy Alarm, one of the rising brands in the space.
Wolf has also authored a three part series on how to get into the business as part of his Fantasy Alarm work.
We caught up with Wolf to get a history lesson and a look forward into what is going on in the business.
Q: When you look at potential consulting clients, how do you determine what can work and what can’t?
 
A: When I look for projects to work on, I look for two things: (1) Does this project advance the fantasy sports agenda? That is will it raise the awareness of fantasy sports or will it introduce a new area of fantasy sports that will increase the number of players. (2) How helpful can I be to what they are trying to accomplish?
Q: Where is the biggest growth area in fantasy right now for a startup?
 
A: Right now, there are a lot of “me too” start-ups in fantasy sports. Quite frankly that is great. The smartest people start-up things that will generate some revenue while they find their niche. The biggest revenue growth area is still in Daily Fantasy Sports as it has only scratched the surface. The biggest pure penetration growth for increasing the number of players is still in the “second-screen” area. Single-game free fantasy sports will be bigger than anything we have ever seen as far as participation goes.
Q: With all the growth that has occurred in the fantasy sports business in the past two years, what is the one aspect of the business that has surprised you the most?
 
A: Honestly, it has surprised me that new companies will label things that are clearly gambling as fantasy sports or that daily fantasy companies have been unable to stay away from connecting themselves to gambling by using the words “bet”, “wager” and “gambling”. Fantasy sports is a game of skill like chess.
Q: The NFL just announced teams will be able to create partnerships with pay fantasy companies for a year and then the business will be reevaluated. How do you think they will determine success?
 
A: A hedge like this is very difficult to understand. Fantasy Sports is a cornerstone of the NFL. The NFL is a member of the FSTA. By placing a time limit on it, you don’t allow partners to long-term plan and INVEST in businesses with the NFL. The reality is that the all sports leagues have so much invested in the broadcasts that they should embrace fantasy sports as deeply as possible since it DRIVES VIEWERSHIP in every way imaginable.
Q: What sport has the most potential for growth in fantasy sports?
 
A: Globally, I think the NBA has the most impact right now and is growing in Europe and Asia.
Q: Many outside the US still consider the idea of fantasy sports to be an American phenomenon. Do you see the culture changing for the business abroad?
 
A: This is an American assumption. Fantasy sports is wildly popular in England, Australia, China and Japan amongst other places. In 2009, we tried to understand this and with IPSOS-Reid studied some international markets. In England 22% of adults played fantasy soccer or fantasy cricket. This is a lot bigger than the US.
Q: How does DraftKings announced partnerships with MLB and ESPN change the landscape of pay fantasy?
 
A: The arms race between Fanduel & Draft Kings has escalated beyond dollars and cents right now. It is great for the attention on Fantasy Sports. A deal like this always depends on the large partners showing up as partners. Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote this about partnerships in Fantasy Sports.
In this case it is especially poignant. I quoted the 1949 movie, The Fountainheadfrom the 1936 book by Ayn Rand: “In all proper relationships there is no sacrifice of anyone to anyone. An architect needs clients, but he does not subordinate his work to their wishes. They need him, but they do not order a house just to give him a commission. Men exchange their work by free, mutual consent to mutual advantage when their personal interests agree and they both desire the exchange. If they do not desire it, they are not forced to deal with each other. They seek further. This is the only possible form of relationship between equals. Anything else is a relation of slave to master, or victim to executioner.”
Time will tell if it is a true partnership.
Q: What was the biggest business mistake made in the fantasy sports space?
 
A: The world pays for executions and not ideas. People who come to me often tell me they have the next disruptive or revolutionary idea for the fantasy sports space. Fantasy sports players are slow to adopt new things, so even when things are “disruptive” or “revolutionary”, it takes years for them to penetrate. Look at daily fantasy sports for instance. Snapdraft was conceptualized in 2004 (I think), but was not legal until 2006. Instant Fantasy Sports existing illegally, but had very few customers. In 2006, when UEIGA made it possible to have daily fantasy sports, the fantasy sports player was happy. Fanduel and Draft Kings have advanced the number of players quickly by spending 10s of millions on marketing. Yet, they only have 8-10% of fantasy players trying this so far.
Q: Who are some of the business people you watch in the space?
 
A: This will sound odd, but I try to objectively watch everyone. Some of the best business ideas will come to me from people I have not met or fantasy sports players.
Q: What are the biggest changes, positive and negative, that you see in the fantasy sports business coming in the next year?
 
A: There is a minor crack in the business people on the seasonal side of fantasy sports attacking daily fantasy sports because of a small group of entrepreneurs who cannot stop connecting fantasy sports to gambling when the two couldn’t be farther apart.
It is critical that we do not allow that chink in the armor to expand regardless of how the egos play their cards. The seasonal content & service providers need to realize that daily fantasy sports created an opportunity to rejuvenate fantasy sports that they should embrace. The daily fantasy sports providers need to understand that they cannot simply do as they please with the use of gambling words, misleading promotions and should be thankful for what came before them that paved the way for the existence of this genre. Both groups should also realize that there will be something coming after them that will be more popular than both and they both should be hoping for it.
So this is both the biggest positive and biggest negative depending on which way the people involved go. Right now the most powerful leaders on each side are handling this perfectly. It is the smaller companies and providers that are jockeying for position that are hurting themselves and a $2B industry.
From my vantage point, I see my life’s work in jeopardy when people do not respect each other enough to play by the rules and believe that both old and new NEED to help each other.
Lincoln said: “A house divided against itself can never stand.”
Rick Wolf is a leader in the fantasy sports industry. He is a founding Board Member and one of only fifteen FSTA Hall of Famers including Bill James, Ron Shandler, Glenn Colton and Matthew Berry. He is the Co-Host of Colton & The Wolfman every week on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio. With college friend, Glenn Colton, he has won five Expert baseball titles and four Expert football titles. He currently runs the sports consultancy Full Moon Sports, which has assisted many sports companies including Topps, USA Today and FOX.

Amaya insider trading probe gets weird with alleged link to Hell’s Angels boss

The insider trading probe into Amaya Gaming’s purchase of the parent company of online gambling site PokerStars officially got weird on Tuesday following media reports that one of the alleged profiteers is a senior member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang.

On Tuesday, Montreal’s La Presse reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating Salvatore Cazzetta, the former head of the Rock Machine biker gang who has since switched allegiance to the Hell’s Angels, for his possible investments in Amaya prior to last June’s $4.9b acquisition of the Rational Group.

La Presse quoted a source that claimed Cazzetta’s Amaya investment was only around $10k, a “personal and small investment.” Cazzetta is currently awaiting trial in Quebec on fraud and conspiracy charges relating to the importation of untaxed cigarettes. Cazzetta previously served a lengthy stint in prison after being caught attempting to import cocaine.

La Presse claimed the RCMP’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET) was investigating whether organized crime figures were among the investors who made handsome profits by buying Amaya shares prior to the Rational acquisition. Unidentified police sources told La Presse that the RCMP was collecting information prior to the opening of an investigation into stock trades by organized crime figures.

Michelle Chin Creates WSOP History at Council Bluffs

Michelle Chin creates history after beating Mike Lang, in heads-up action, to become the first female Main Event champion in the World Series of Poker Circuit’s 11-year history.

It took 11-years for the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) to hand out a Main Event first prize to a female, and when it did, it went to a someone rarely plays tournament poker.

Taiwanese born, Michelle Chin, told WSOP reporters that she was playing in only her 10th ever tournament when she captured the first prize of $88,126 in Event #10: $1,675 buy-in Main Event at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Chin, who has been a US citizen for the past 12-years, overcome 235 entrants, and a very tough final table, to earn the win, and a seat in the National Championships taking place in North Carolina July 29-31. Horseshoe Casino Champion Duane Gerleman will also be joining her after five cashes, three final tables, and one victory.

Chris Russell Wins Cherokee’s Largest Ever Tournament

Chris Russell has taken the top prize in the largest event ever held on Cherokee soil, after defeating a field of 2,937 entrants in a World Series of Poker Circuit side event.

If the re-entry rule is one thing it’s certainly controversial. It divides opinion. You either love it, or you hate it. I don’t know if Chris Russell is a fan, but I do know that he only had enough money to do it the old fashioned way. He only had one bullet. That’s all he needed.

The tale of Russell’s victory, in Event #4: $365 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) in Harrah’s Cherokee, North Carolina, will not feel out of place next to a campfire and a ton of s’mores.

In a last minute moment of intuition, Russell jumped into his car, and drove from Tennessee to Cherokee, with the aim of firing a single bullet in the $365 buy-in event. After the first day he had turned his starting stack into 100,000 chips. He spent the night sleeping in the back of that car. Two days later he was driving back home with $125,559 in his duffel bag.

Mohegan Sun looks to South Korea for next casino deal

Six months after losing out on its bid to build a resort casino in Boston, Mohegan Sun is now looking for its next casino venture half a world away – in South Korea. The tribe that owns and operates casinos in Uncasville, Conn., and in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania, announced Tuesday it was in exclusive negotiations to open a first-of-its-kind resort casino at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, some 7,000 miles away from Boston.

New Bern man wins big prize in NC lottery

Charles Benjamin of New Bern caught quite a few catfish and brim on Saturday morning, but the catch of the day would weigh in as a $150,000 lottery prize. NC lottery officials say on the way home from his fishing trip, Benjamin stopped at the Duck Thru Food Store on N.C. 43 in Vanceboro and purchased two of the new $5 Trucks & Bucks tickets.