The NBA Playoffs have arrived and like everybody else, I’ve found myself diving through a pile of previews on first-round match-ups that are talking about which teams will advance and which ones are primed for the upset. These things are important now that title odds and series odds are already being offered by a lot of sports books.

The most popular bet at this point are the title odds for each team because locking on the favorites and the potential sleepers this early means that you’re getting better odds than what you’d get after the first round is finished. That’s what happens when half of the teams in the playoffs get bounced out, leaving only eight teams left standing. Less teams, lower odds. Pretty simple.

Looking at it from this perspective, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors each getting 11/5 odds as the two favorites means that if you’re confident about both team’s chances, this is the best price you’re going to get for either team. A little ways down the road from the Cavs and Warriors are the defending champions San Antonio Spurs at 7/2 odds.

Based on the pricing of most sportsbooks, oddsmakers are pretty confident that these three teams can be considered tri-favorites and everybody else is either a dark horse or a long shot at best. Normally, there’s going to be a team or two getting somewhere around 7/1 to 10/1 odds, but a quick glance at what’s being offered shows that the next two teams on the list – the Atlanta Hawks and the Chicago Bulls – are all the way down at 12/1 odds. It gets even muddier from here because the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers aren’t too far behind from the Hawks and the Bulls at 14/1 and 18/1, respectively.

UK bookmaker Ladbrokes has confirmed the appointment of Andrew Bagguley as managing director of digital, the position recently vacated by chief executive officer Jim Mullen.

Bagguley joined Ladbrokes in January 2014, taking the role of director of mobile after a three-year stint as group product management consultant for Deutsche Telekom. He’s also done time with the likes of Guardian News & Media, New International and Intergaph.

Bagguley will be tasked with Ladbrokes’ digital growth, which recorded a 71% profit increase in 2014 to £14 million. Ladbrokes’ online vertical lags most of its UK rivals but the company is eager to poach some market share.

Ladbrokes also appointed former Bet365 Head of In-Play trading Glynn Carol as Director Sales Operations.

In this week’s Calling the Clock, Lee Davy ignores that stiff neck to bring you news that includes a lot of poker on TV, a superlative performance by an unsung star, Jason Somerville trying to become Daniel Negreanu, Daniel Negreanu trying to become Jason Somerville, and a whole lot more.

If I was handing out the gold stars this week, then the biggest one would be pinned onto the chest of Angela Jordison.

The mother of two, who spends most of her time running a bar, hit the headlines of every poker media outlet on the planet, after winning the first three events in the low stakes buy-in series: The Spring Poker Round Up at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino, Pendleton, Oregon.

Statistically speaking, you are more likely to see a major Game of Thrones star last an entire series without getting a body part hacked off, such is the magnitude of her success.

Angela Jordison with an unbelievable streak of three side event victories in three days, at the Spring Poker Round Up in Oregon, and Ludovic Geilich wins the Genting Poker Series Main Event in Newcastle.

[Image Credit: PokerNews]

The cleaning gang, at the 2014 Global Poker Index (GPI) American Poker Awards (APA), hadn’t finished racking away the champagne flutes when Anthony Zinno decided to put in an early bid for 2015 Tournament Performance of the Year, with back-to-back World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event victories in Niagara Falls and Los Angeles.

The engraver had already etched his name into the trophy.

A jury has found two young men guilty of murdering professional gambler Mehmet Hassan, whilst the woman used as bait in the honeytrap scheme receives a manslaughter verdict.

The people responsible for the senseless death of gambler and poker player, Mehmet Hassan, have received their verdicts by jury. Kyrron Jackson, 28, and Nicholas Chandler, 29, were both found guilty of murder. Leonie Granger, 25, was found guilty of manslaughter.

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC told the jury how the trio carefully orchestrated the ‘honeytrap,’ and that Mr. Hassan ‘enjoyed the company of women’ and that made him particularly ‘vulnerable towards the unscrupulous.’

Granger befriended Hassan weeks prior to the murder where she used the name ‘Rachel’ during their interactions. The jury heard how Hassan had taken Granger to the classy restaurant Nobu, and had given her £1,000 to gamble with, on the night of his murder. Granger went to Hassan’s flat, before making an excuse to leave. She left the door open so her two companions could gain access. They tied Mr. Hassan up with parcel tape, and a necktie, before beating him to death. He died of neck and chest injuries.

Three poker stars doing their utmost to spread their love on a global scale as Liv Boeree appears in the Independent, Jason Somerville appears in Next Impulse Sports, and Alex Jacobs appears on Jeopardy.

It’s been a good week for Alex Dreyfus.

The busiest man in poker has been able to put his feet up whilst the players take their turn to spread the love of our beautiful game all over the world.

Three mainstream appearances to talk about, and we will start with the duo from PokerStars: Liv Boeree and Jason Somerville.

Casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) sidestepped the worst of Macau’s 2014 revenue downturn but the bad times caught up with the company in Q1.

GEG released unaudited Q1 figures on Thursday, showing revenue of HKD 13.7b (US $1.76b) in the three months ending March 31. The figure is down 32% from the same period last year and down 15% from Q4. Earnings were down 40% year-on-year to HKD 2.3b ($297m).

GEG’s flagship Galaxy Macau property reported revenue down 28% to HKD 9.2b, as VIP revenue fell 35% and mass market revenue dropped 14%. But mass market revenue was up 7% from Q4 and hotel occupancy remained high (95%). Revenue at the StarWorld Macau was off 42% to $4b thanks to hefty declines in both the VIP (-48%) and mass market (-18%) tables. Earnings from the CityClubs branded casino business were down 35% to HKD 31m.

Meanwhile, Galaxy Macau’s Phase 2 is set to open on May 27, yet GEG still doesn’t know how many gaming tables its new property will receive. In January, GEG said Phase 2 had the capacity to host up to 500 tables but Macau officials have offered little guidance as to how many tables GEG will ultimately receive. Casino operator Melco Crown Entertainment (MCE) says its new Studio City property, which is set to open in Q3, would like 400 tables of its own.

Pennsylvania’s House Gaming Oversight Committee held the first of two scheduled informational hearings on online gambling Thursday morning.

Three separate iGaming bills have been filed in Pennsylvania’s current legislative session, one poker-only and two that also allow casino games. The focus of Thursday’s get-together was the HB 649 legislation introduced by Rep. John Payne, who happens to chair the Committee.

In stark contrast to the recent federal online gambling hearing, the sane outnumbered the loonies among the testifying witnesses. Clearly, he who organizes the hearing sets the tone for the debate that follows.

One by one, reps from Caesars Entertainment, Gaming Laboratories International, GeoComply, Spectrum Gaming Group and Penn National Gaming touted both the benefits of a regulated intrastate online gambling market and the utter lack of lurid headlines emanating from the three US states in which online gambling has been authorized.