PokerStars has announced that from the beginning of June it will restrict the length of new and existing affiliate deals to two years, and that could spell bad news for online poker media. Poker media sites, from TwoPlusTwo to PokerNews, to CardsChat, depend on affiliate revenue sharing deals; a form of marketing whereby the media […]
The post PokerStars Rips Up Rev Share Affiliate Deals appeared first on .
Asian online betting giant SBOBET has launched a poker site on gaming solution provider Microgaming’s poker product MPN.
Just a couple months after announcing the addition of Georgian operator Adjarabet, MPN (formerly Microgaming Poker Network) announced that the Isle of Man- and Philippines-licensed SBOBET had gone live on the network.
SBOBET joins Betsson, BetVictor, Betway, Paf, Stan James and 32Red on MPN, although the SBOBETpoker.com offering is currently only available in Indonesia and Malaysia (the English-language home page still shows a ‘coming soon’ notice). SBOBET is also the seventh operator to launch the MPN’s HTML5-based mobile poker product.
Microgaming’s head of poker Alex Scott said his firm was “thrilled to be adding such a well-known name to the MPN.” Scott said the signing of such a “huge operator” as SBOBET was a reflection of all the hard work the company has done to beef up the MPN brand over the past year, including the launch of the new MPN Poker Tour.
U.S. Rep. Donald G. Marean of Maine, a longtime owner and breeders of Standardbreds, has been elected to the American Horse Council board of trustees
The Department of Homeland Security and Department Labor have issued a final interim H-2B temporary guest worker program rule and a final wage rule.
Equus Interactive’s Racetrack Warriors announced an agreement May 5 with the Jockeys’ Guild and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) that will bring a new fantasy draft game to market called “Jockey Draft.”
As Monmouth Park prepares for its upcoming season, Dennis Drazin, who advises the track operators, said during May 5 luncheon the New Jersey facility is operating in the black.
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas announced last week that some consumers’ credit and debit card information may have been hacked at some of its retail and service locations. In its statement , Hard Rock said the breach potentially affected consumers’ names, card numbers, CVV codes, but not PIN numbers “or other sensitive customer information.”
Upon further evaluation of sidelined Louisiana Derby (gr. II) winner International Star, veterinarians have diagnosed a hairline fracture in his left knee.
U.A.E. Derby (UAE-II) winner Mubtaahij, who was eighth in the Kentucky Derby in his U.S. debut, will remain in the United States to aim for the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) June 6, trainer Mike de Kock confirmed May 4.
Kid Cruz is set for a return to Pimlico Race Course on Black-Eyed Susan Day, May 15, a year after competing in the 2014 Preakness Stakes (gr. I).
Greece’s gambling market showed signs of life in 2014, with gambling turnover rising for the first time since 2009.
According to the country’s Gaming Oversight and Control Commission (EEEP), 2014 saw Greek punters wager a total of €5.9b, a gain of 9% over 2013’s total. While the break in the five-year losing streak will be welcome news, 2014’s total is still well off the €8.7b Greeks wagered in 2009, right before the country’s economy truly began circling the toilet drain. The average spend per gambler was up 7.5% to €187 last year.
Former state-owned betting monopoly OPAP accounted for €3.8b of 2014’s total wagers, while its Hellenic Lotteries subsidiary sucked up an additional €500m (€88.4m via scratch cards). Together, the two firms accounted for 72% of the total spend. Casino gaming turnover fell by €100m to €1.6b, accounting for 27% of the total pie. The ODIE horseracing monopoly handled €65m, representing a mere 1% of the total.
The cash-strapped Greek government took a €525m cut of the gambling proceeds. EEEP didn’t break out individual stats for online gambling but the country’s new Syriza-led government recently announced it hopes to raise an additional €500m per year via the issuing of new online gambling licenses.
Surveillance video has blown the cover of a California Lottery investigator who posed as a short-changed winner at a Palmdale gas station. State officials say the investigator turned in a $75,000 winning ticket last month at the Chevron station but the clerk gave him only $75.
Former NBA commissioner David J. Stern will discuss the building of the NBA brand and how it relates to Thoroughbred racing during a question-and-answer session at the Pan American Conference June 4-5 in New York City.
Whether Zayat Stables’ Mr. Z runs in the May 16 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) remains up in the air, with Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas lobbying for the colt to contest the race at Pimlico Race Course.
Though there was a slight decline in the number of races run in April, wagering and purses rose 5.86% and 4.92% in the U.S. when compared with April 2014, according to the racing economic indicators from Equibase.
UK-listed online gambling operator GVC Holdings says all its key numbers are up by double-digits so far in 2015, with the exception of its sports betting margin.
GVC issued a trading update on Tuesday covering the first 120 days of 2015. Average daily net revenue came to €658k, up 17.5% over the same period last year. Sports betting daily revenue is up 15.2% to €311k as betting turnover rose 21.4% to €4.6m per day. However, sports betting margins slipped nearly one full point to 8.75%. Non-sports gaming revenue was up 19.7% to €658k.
GVC CEO Kenneth Alexander said the board was “delighted by the strong start” and attributed the decreased sports margin to the punter-friendly results that so many of GVC’s peers have moaned about in their own Q1 results statements. GVC also announced that shareholders could expect to receive a 15.5€cents per share dividend as of Wednesday.
BET-AT-HOME GAINS DESPITE MARKETING CUTS
Boxing’s ‘fight of the century’ may have ended with a Floyd Mayweather Jr. victory but controversy continues to grow over Manny Pacquiao’s post-fight claims of a shoulder injury.
Following the fight, Pacquiao’s camp revealed that their champ had suffered a serious injury to his right shoulder weeks before the fight. But the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) denied the fighter’s prefight request for an injection of an approved anti-inflammatory drug, a refusal that Pacquiao’s camp claimed had left Manny with one good arm.
The NAC has countered these claims by producing a prefight medical questionnaire in which Manny’s camp answered ‘no’ to a question asking if the fighter had “any injury to your shoulders, elbows or hands that needed evaluation or examination?” The form indicates that false answers could lead to perjury charges. Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz has since taken credit for the “inadvertent” paperwork booboo.
Pacquiao’s promoter Top Rank issued a statement claiming they’d notified the US Anti-Doping Agency and received approval “at least five days before the fight” to use accepted anti-inflammatories, including the numbing agent lidocaine. But the NAC says it was never made aware of this approval and therefore rejected a last-minute appeal by Pacquiao’s camp.
If you’re headed to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this summer, thinking you may impress your poker table mates with wads of real live $100 bills, think again. The Caesars flagship property is following suit with other major Sin City casinos’ poker rooms, and forbidding the use of real money in poker cash games. The […]
The post Following Trend, Caesars Palace Las Vegas Just Says No to C Notes appeared first on .
NBC Sports reported that its live coverage of the May 2 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) on NBC averaged 16 million viewers, up 4% from 15.3 million last year, according to information from The Nielsen Company.
The three-day clinic, sponsored by Blood-Horse, will feature trips to Stonestreet Farm, Darley, Valkyre Stud, and Hagyard Equine Medical Institute.