Monthly Archives: May 2015

Finnplay Expands Asian Games Portfolio with XIN Gaming

Helsinki, Finland, 5th May, 2015 –Press Release: Finnplay, the Finnish based Gaming platform provider today announced it has signed a distribution deal with Asian specialist slot developer and provider XIN Gaming.

Martin Prantner, chief executive of Finnplay, said: “Asia is a rapidly expanding market for our business of which we are attending G2E Asia in Macau this month. By partnering with XIN Gaming, we can provide and ensure our global clients have access to Asian-themed gaming content available on all platforms and through all channels.”

Mathias Larsson, managing director of XIN Gaming, said: “I am delighted to make this agreement with Finnplay, as they are a successful independent platform provider. Our agreement fits extremely well with the XIN Gaming offering given the large number of Asian customers that Finnplay provides. I look forward to growing our businesses together.”

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The EPT Heads to Dublin in Season 12

The European Poker Tour will be heading to the Emerald Isle after PokerStars unveiled their Season 12 roster, and it contains a trip to Dublin.

It’s adios London and Deauville, and top of the morning to Dublin, as PokerStars ring out the changes in their latest incarnation of the European Poker Tour.

The 12th season of European poker’s most illustrious festival will kick off in the Catalan capital of Barcelona: Aug 19-30, 2015. It’s by far the most popular stop of the whole tour, and will once again summon the largest field sizes in European poker.

From there it’s another visit to Malta. The EPT made history when hosting 69-events during their inaugural Season 11 visit (a record currently being broken in Monte Carlo), and the presence of the Global Poker Masters (GPM), and European Poker Awards (EPA), added to the glitterati of the whole thing. EPT Malta will take place Oct 21-31, 2015.

MGM Resorts revenue falls, profit rises

Casino operator MGM Resorts‘ profit rose nearly two-thirds in Q1 despite a double-digit revenue decline.

Revenue in the three months ending March 31 fell 11.3% to $2.33b but net income rose 65% to $169.9m. Total gaming revenue was down 19% to $1.28b while most non-gaming revenue streams were up slightly – except entertainment, which fell 6% due to “a decrease in in-house shows and timing of certain arena events.”

Revenue from MGM’s wholly owned domestic resorts came to $1.6b, up half a percentage point from the same period last year. Slots revenue and handle were up 5% and 9% respectively while table game hold percentage fell 0.7 points to 20.1%. CFO Dan D’Arrigo said Q1 was negatively impacted by high rollers opting to delay their trips to Vegas to coincide with last weekend’s Mayweather v. Pacquiao tilt at the MGM Grand.

MGM’s 50% share of Atlantic City’s Borgata property came to $12m while its share of the CityCenter property in Vegas added $101m. This latter figure was up more than seven-fold from 2014 due to a financial settlement with a developer. Absent this one-off, MGM’s CityCenter haul was a more modest $22m, although this would still represent an over 50% year-on-year improvement.

Mustapha Kanit Wins the €50k EPT Monte Carlo High Roller

Italian Mustapha Kanit has won the €50,000 buy-in European Poker Tour Monte Carlo High Roller after defeating the Canadian, Mike Watson, in heads-up action, to take the first prize of €936,500.

Mustapha Kanit is currently the #1 ranked Italian poker player according to the Global Poker Index (GPI). Keep this run up, and it’s inevitable that he will one day break into the world’s top 10.

[Image Credit: PokerNews]

Kanit has emerged victorious in the €50,000 buy-in European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo High Roller event. He beat the Canadian Mike Watson, in heads-up action, to take home €936,500. It’s the largest prize of his young career.

THOUSANDS of pounds have been won by three charity lottery players in Bristol on the same day.

Three lucky tickets from Bristol won A 1,000 through the People’s Postcode Lottery on Friday, May 1 when the postcode BS4 1TW was drawn as a daily prize winner. As part of the lottery, residents play with their postcodes to win cash prizes while raising money for charities and good causes across Great Britain and globally.

SJM Holdings’ revenue, earnings and profit all down sharply in Q1

Macau casino operator SJM Holdings joined its competitors in reporting steep declines in revenue, earnings and profits in the first quarter of 2015.

For the three months ending March 31, SJM reported revenue down 37.3% to HKD 14.3b (US $1.84b), earnings down 43.3% to HKD 1.24b ($160m) and profit down 46.5% to HKD 1b ($129m). Despite the downturn, SJM’s share of Macau’s overall gaming revenue pie slipped just 0.3 points to 22.7%. SJM ended the quarter with HKD 23b in cash and just HKD 890m of debt.

SJM’s VIP revenue fell 45.4% to HKD 7.9b. VIP hold improved nearly half a point to 3.18% from the same period last year but it wasn’t enough to overcome a whopping 54% drop in VIP turnover. The average number of VIP tables in action during Q1 was 530, down from 582 in Q1 2014. Mass market revenue fell a comparatively minor 23.9% to HKD 6b and the number of mass market tables nudged up 14 to 1,209. Slot machine and Tombola revenue fell 5.6% to HK 330m.

SJM’s flagship Casino Grand Lisboa reported revenue of HKD 5.2b while SJM’s other self-promoted casinos contributed HKD 1.7b and the 15 satellite casinos that operate under SJM’s license added HKD 7.4b.

Could it be you? Winning Euromillions ticket bought in Derbyshire is still unclaimed

The search is now on to find the owner of the winning ticket who matched the five main numbers and one Lucky Star number in the Euromillions draw on April 14 If nobody comes forward with the winning ticket before the prize claim deadline, then the prize money, plus all the interest it has generated, will go to help National Lottery-funded projects across the UK. A National Lottery spokesman said: “We’re eager to find the mystery ticket-holder and unite them with their winnings – this amazing prize could really make a huge difference to somebody’s life.

Humans Hold Lead Over No Limit Hold’em Computer

Computers have solved checkers and overtaken even the best humans in chess, not to mention countless other strategy games. However, there are some areas where they continue to lag behind elite players, and no limit hold’em continues to be one of them, at least for now. Four professional poker players are currently engaged in heads-up […]

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Mustapha Kanit Wins EPT Grand Final €50,000 Super High Roller

Mustapha Kanit has long been one of the top Italian poker players, with plenty of big cashes over the course of his career. But he never had that signature victory that could bring him into the spotlight worldwide, at least until this past weekend. On Sunday, Kanit won the €50,000 ($55,700) Super High Roller at […]

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Erik Seidel wins €100K EPT Grand Final Super High Roller

Erik Seidel triumphed at the EPT Grand Final Super High Roller in Monte Carlo over the weekend, adding a €2.01 million score to a Hendon Mob page that is as almost as long as he is, and one that stretches back almost 30 years. This was “one of the best tournaments of my career,” according […]

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