Monthly Archives: August 2015

Upstate woman wins $250K lottery prize

Lottery officials said Jamielynn Maldonado earned the quarter-million dollar prize on a $10 Classic Cash scratch-off card she bought from the Spinx station at the intersection section of Pelham Road and Highway 14 in Greenville County. Maldonado and her husband said they plan to use the prize money to help their church and their aging parents.

Vanessa Selbst Wins Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout

Vanessa Selbst survived a table of famous pro poker players before beating actor Kevin Pollak to win $1 million in the Super High Roller Celebrity Shootout. The event, which took place earlier this summer, has been airing on Wednesday nights on the NBC Sports Network. The tournament was a small invitational event, one that featured […]

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Ladbrokes Australia intro cash-in feature

The Australian arm of UK bookmakers Ladbrokes has launched a new ‘cash in’ option, allowing punters to top up their accounts at local newsagents.

The new Cash In feature allows Ladbrokes Australia customers to make deposits to their online account at over 1,000 participating newsagents across the country. Players who don’t have an existing Ladbrokes online account can sign up at participating newsagents using the provided iPad terminal.

The Cash In feature works via Ladbrokes mobile betting app. Punters enter in the amount they wish to deposit, show the resulting QR code to the closest participating newsagent – who can be located via the app – then hand cash or credit card to the newsagent and the funds will be immediately credited to the customer’s Ladbrokes betting account.

While the feature may be an Aussie market first, Lads’ archrivals William Hill have already rolled out something similar in Nevada. In June, William Hill US struck a deal with ubiquitous convenience retailer 7-Eleven Inc that allows Hills’ Nevada customers to top up their accounts at any of the state’s 217 7-Eleven outlets using Hills’ mobile betting app.

FBI launch Internet Sports Books Initiative to combat “emerging threat”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched what it’s calling the Internet Sports Books Initiative in a bid to crack down on the “emerging threat” of online sports betting connected with organized crime.

A week ago, the FBI’s official This Week podcast announced the commencement of its new Initiative against illegal online sports betting. The FBI claimed this business was “mostly” facilitated by “the Italian mafia and Asian crime groups” operating internationally-based websites that offer a “credit-based system” for placing sports wagers.

The Initiative “enhances efforts to disrupt and dismantle the criminal enterprises through prosecution and forfeiture.” While Supervisory Special Agent Nicholas Cheviron noted that the FBI’s efforts involved the cooperation of “local, state, federal and international partners” in achieving this aim, he offered no specifics on what, if anything, was new about the Initiative.

The FBI suffered a highly visible black eye this year via their unsuccessful prosecution of Paul Phua. The Malaysian national was arrested in July 2014 for allegedly operating an illegal online sportsbook out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but the case was tossed this spring over the FBI’s unconstitutional evidence gathering tactics.

Jags, FanDuel And A Glimpse At The Future of DFS Marketing

Jags, FanDuel And A Glimpse At The Future of DFS Marketing

 
The land grab continues between FanDuel and DraftKings in finding ways to engage casual fans for daily fantasy. Until now, a great deal of that money went directly to ads and traditional marketing spends, along with some untraditional ones like Floyd Mayweather’s shorts and the saddle of American Pharoah. However with Fan Duel more committed to just two key properties in the US, the NBA and the NFL, we are starting to see larger and bolder activations to engage fans in market and build a core following.

 

With partner Horizon Media, FanDuel has started their market-by-market partnership extensions with NFL clubs, the first of which is with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
 

Called  “FanDuelVille at EverBank Field”:  The Ultimate Home of Fantasy Football, the team and their partner have re-branded the north end zone deck at EverBank Field, home of the now-famous Smart Pharmacy Spas and cabanas. FanDuelVille will allow all fans at EverBank Field access to the space, which can comfortably hold 3,000 fans at once, with the ability to watch the live game experience from any area in FanDuelVille on the world’s largest video boards.
 

Once they enter FanDuelVille, fans at EverBank Field will have access to unique free daily fantasy football games and experiences, live fantasy football statistics and scoring updates.  FanDuelVille will also give fans entry to the biggest and best party scene in professional sports, including multiple bars with signature cocktails, a live DJ and emcee, as well as significant promotional opportunities for fans to win all-inclusive premium hospitality experiences.
 

“We asked the question, ‘Where is fantasy football’s utopia?’ The undeniable answer was here at EverBank Field, with the perfect mix of live professional football, unparalleled entertainment, and one of the best fan experiences in the National Football League,” said Jaguars President Mark Lamping in a release.  “FanDuel agreed and FanDuelVille was born.”
At the end of each Jaguars home game, FanDuelVille will become the “FanDuel 5th Quarter,” a post-game party to which all fans are invited to enjoy live music, afternoon and evening NFL football games, and interactive experiences with Jaguars personalities, Jaxson de Ville, and members of the ROAR of the Jaguars.
 

“As a Jaguars partner, we were ecstatic with the creativity the club showed in helping us find a true home for our product,” said FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles added. “FanDuelVille exemplifies the type of entertainment experience we try to deliver to our customers on a daily basis and marries our signature product to create an unbeatable live experience.”
For a team constantly looking to make a splash under owner Shahid Khan, the FanDuel kickoff this weekend is a smart one, and gives both the team and FD the opportunity to mix and match and see what can be adapted to the other activation platforms across the league that will be created in the coming months.
The next step in DFS marketing has arrived.

So This Happened: Powerball Winner Spends $9 Million On Bail For Convict Fiance

Lottery winner Marie Holmes criticized for paying her finance’s $9 million jail bond http://t.co/ifoks46Dgi pic.twitter.com/zw2Bh6Vbvq Marie Holmes stole our hearts earlier this year when she won a $188 million Powerball jackpot. The 26-year-old unemployed, North Carolina single mother of four, including a special needs child, clearly needed the money.

Betsafe ad campaign tells punters it makes “good living at your expense”

Online gambling firms have rolled out new marketing pitches to capitalize on the start of a new football season but Betsafe’s “No Bullshit Betting” campaign is in a league of its own.

Irish betting operator Paddy Power is the undisputed champion of cheeky marketing, yet its new ‘You’re Welcome’ campaign pales in comparison to promos released last month by the Malta-headquartered, UK-licensed Betsafe, a subsidiary of Nordic betting operator Betsson AB.

In the ad, viewable below, Betsafe’s female ‘boss’ casually strolls through a mix of hip-hop playas, Arab sheiks and other degen bettors straight outta central casting while brazenly informing punters that she makes “a good living … at your expense.” The pitch closes with a blunt assessment that punters “don’t have what it takes to beat [Betsafe] in the long run, because we’re in it to win it.”

Along the way, the taunt-cum-challenge points out that if winning was “so goddamn easy, how comes there’s always such a huge jackpot?” The pitch rubbishes “the typical bullshit” bonus offer, while acknowledging that Betsafe also dangles such lures, but only to remind punters that every next spin could win that massive jackpot, even though “it probably won’t.”