The opening panel Aug. 11 at the Saratoga Institute on Racing, Equine, and Gaming Law conference set the tone for what figures to be a continued industry battle over federal versus state-by-state regulation.
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Grade II Winner Divisidero to Get Freshening
Kitten’s Joy colt won’t run in Aug. 15 Secretariat Stakes (gr. IT) at Arlington Park and will instead get a 60-90 day freshening, Gunpowder Farms manager Josh Stevens said Aug. 10.
Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale Day 1 Notebook
Glenye Cain Oakford looks at some of the opening session’s sire results, recent commercial acceptance of turf-oriented pedigrees, and talks to Dr. Kendall Hansen as champion Hansen’s first yearlings head for the ring.
Hargreaves Lansdown names Chris Hill finance head
Hargreaves Lansdown PLC said Monday it has appointed Chris Hill as its chief financial officer, the role he currently holds at online trading company IG Group PLC . Mr. Hill is expected to take up his new post at the financial services company in March 2016.
Wyoming Teen Pleads 'Not Guilty' in Roadside Shooting
An 18-year-old Wyoming man has pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges in the fatal roadside shooting of a husband and wife on Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation. Investigators say Deniz killed 51-year-old Jason Shane and 47-year-old Tana Shane on July 26 when they and their daughter offered to help what they believed was a stranded motorist in the small town of Pryor.
King of Kaiju: Rampage Riches Launches with Exclusive Gala Coral Deal
Gibraltar, 11 August 2015 – The Kaiju are on the loose in the inaugural monster-themed slot game from the new King of Kaiju® series, developed by Lost World Games.
King of Kaiju: Rampage Riches, is a 5-reel 20-payline slot game and the first title from Lost World Games to pay homage to Japanese-themed Kaiju movies such as Godzilla, Rodan, King Kong, Pacific Rim and Cloverfield. The game also takes clear inspiration from the traditional video game industry and includes over 40 in-game achievements and a stylised motion comic movie introduction.
The game’s theme sees ancient creatures emerge from the depths of the oceans and shadowy corners of covert military installations. They are so powerful and terrifying that they can reduce the world’s major cities to rubble. Awakened by the radiation of a mysterious rock, these giant monsters will rampage across Rome, London, Tokyo and New York destroying everything in their path to establish the King of Kaiju®.
Rampage Riches features three key bonus features including Radioactive Exploding Wilds which, when triggered, transform into a Wild symbol. These may also randomly change up to five other symbols into Wilds in the game window. The 4-stage ‘Rampage’ pick bonus allows players to pick a Kaiju and destroy famous landmarks within Rome, London, New York and Tokyo. There is also a free spin bonus with guaranteed wilds on every spin that can re-trigger. The variety of these bonuses means that players have a number of ways to win and a strong anime/comic theme that makes the game play feel fresh and exciting.
Open Sports Day aims to bring locals and iGaming crowd together
A group of iGaming volunteers teamed up earlier this year and started working on a fund raising sports day. It’s goal, to bring the Malta iGaming community closer together with the Maltese public. Malta is home to some 300 gaming companies who employ an impressive 9,000 strong workforce.
The team behind the event consists of prominent figures within the local and gaming communities of the island, including a number of CEOs, top-level event organisers and a respected lawyer. Some of the names organizing the event include:
Dennis Dyhr-Hansen – CEO Matching Visions
Kevin Buttigieg – CEO Remax Malta
Incognito says NFL system is bogus, Goodell has too much power
Richie Incognito shared his thoughts on how the National Football League (NFL) investigate misconduct, comparing his case to Deflategate.
In November 2013, NFL hired Ted Wells, the NFL’s go to scandal investigator, to look at the bullying allegations that Jonathan Martin had made against a few of his Dolphins teammates—Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey.
In an interview with Newsday, Incognito talked about how the NFL investigates misconduct, and compared his case to Tom Brady’s four-month long Deflategate investigation. He accuses Wells of not being independent.
“I just think it’s bogus, the whole system in how it’s set up with Roger and the complete, absolute power he has,” Incognito said. “He has so much power and he hires independent investigators who come in and are obviously not independent. They come in with an agenda and they come in looking to find facts to back up their argument. All the facts are slanted in their favor.
Rating The Major U.S. Regional Gaming Stocks Away From The Buzz That Has Bid Them Up
“It is now the scientific consensus that our risk avoidance mechanism is not mediated by the cognitive modules of our brain, but rather by the emotional ones. This may have made us fit for the Pleistocene era.
bet365 awarded a Sports Betting licence by the Malta Gaming Authority
The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) has granted a Sports Betting licence (Class 2 Remote Gaming Licence) to bet365 – Hillside (New Media Malta) Limited, a leading online gaming operator providing sports betting, casino and poker type games.
A spokesperson for bet365 said: “Due to the regulatory developments in various operating territories, bet365 decided that in addition to the remote gaming licences held by our existing operating hub in Gibraltar, a Class II licence by the Maltese Regulator was required in order to obtain and maintain certain regulatory approvals as well as to support its operations in the evolving global regulatory environment. We are therefore pleased to have been awarded a Class II Remote Gaming licence by the MGA, following a robust application process which examined our gambling operations, procedures and the experience of our personnel. In conjunction with the Maltese licensing process, we have also now established a Maltese marketing company, with premises located in Sliema, accommodating our marketing management and procurement functions headed by Mr Fred Bjurjfall who will be supporting the marketing activities of the Group”.
“The Malta Gaming Authority is delighted to have bet365 included in its portfolio of licensees. The Authority is committed to addressing the ongoing evolution of the industry as well as the challenges this brings along with it, with transparency, integrity and focus on consumer protection. The fact that bet365 chose to include Malta as one of its licensing jurisdictions is testimony to our reputation and encourages us to keep raising the bar in innovation and thought leadership on gaming regulation” said Joseph Cuschieri, MGA’s Executive Chairman.
Milwaukee man wins largest jackpot in Megabucks' lottery history
John Rumpel purchased the winning $22.2 million ticket for the May 30 drawing at A&I Services in Milwaukee. The former high school teacher says his wife sent him to a convenience store for a gallon of milk and while he was there, he decided to buy a ticket.
Yahoo Daily Fantasy, So Far Fantastic
The concept of daily fantasy sports is one of those strokes of genius that you wonder why it took so long for someone to offer it to the public in exchange for a lot of money. Blogging has Twitter and Tumblr, when somebody figured out that people would go crazy for bite-sized microblogs. Video has YouTube and then VineTube, when someone figured out that 6-second videos were actually a great idea. And finally, sports betting has fantasy sports and then daily fantasy sports, when somebody miraculously figured out that people would love placing microbets not on entire seasons or games, but just individual player performance reset daily. What a novel idea. (If anyone has a microidea that splits up a popular industry into bite-sized pieces, perhaps you should pursue it.)
With Yahoo now entering the daily fantasy sports arena, the whole industry is taking a huge leap forward. No one knows exactly how this will play out. On one extreme, it could be similar to when Google entered search, and Yahoo could finally be redeeming itself, somewhat, from its late 90’s loss of the title of King of the Internet. On the other extreme, it could be similar to when Google entered social media with Google Plus and nobody cared. Chances are, it will be something in between.
One could argue that Yahoo Daily Fantasy Sports will flop like Google Plus because just like Google was never thought of as a social media brand, Yahoo is not generally thought of as a betting site. But Yahoo’s foray into Daily Fantasy Sports won’t be a failure, because Google ventured into social media ex nihilo, out of nothing. Yahoo at least has a serious fantasy sports user base of 6.235 million back in 2013 (ergo more now). Converting a fantasy sports user base paying small fees and driving ad revenue into a daily fantasy sports user base paying into a betting pool is not nearly as hard as converting searchers plugging keywords into your search engine to a user base that suddenly wants to click on your social media buttons.
As much as Google has pulverized Yahoo in search, Yahoo still has advantages that Google hasn’t been able to touch. Primarily, those advantages are finance and sports. I am not much of a sports fan, but personally, I can attest to finance. Yahoo Finance is vastly superior to Google Finance in almost every way. I would go so far as to say that the only real advantage Google Finance has over Yahoo is the flash graphs. If Marissa Meyer ever figures out that she should put flash graphs on Yahoo Finance, I would never use Google Finance again.
Police official tried to cash in stolen lottery ticket
The chairman of a Connecticut police commission has resigned after being charged in Florida with trying to cash in a winning $520,000 lottery ticket that was reported stolen by his niece.Florida, Connecticut, Scratch Games, Theft, Arrest, Crime
Gross, Average Increase at First F-T Session
Bolstered by two Tapit colts that sold for $2 million and $1.2 million, the first session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale registered gains in gross and average compared with the comparable session in 2014.
Colorado Springs casino operation sees second-quarter earning soar
Century Casinos Inc. earnings surged in the second quarter with the opening of a new racetrack and casino in Calgary and the launch of an off-track betting operation in Canada. The Colorado Springs-based gaming company reported Friday its earnings for the April-to-June quarter jumped 42 times from a year ago to $6.6 million, or 27 cents a share, from $156,000, or 1 cent a share, during the second quarter of 2014.
Columbus' racino, casino post expanding revenue
Revenue at Hollywood Casino Columbus totaled $18.2 million in July, up 3.4 percent from July 2014, according to results released on Friday by the Ohio Casino Control Commission. At the Scioto Downs Racino, revenue increased by 8.5 percent from July 2014 to $12.8 million last month, the Ohio Lottery Commission reported on Friday.
Wynn plans to pay $850M for area by casino
Between community mitigation payments, payments in lieu of taxes to Everett and transportation improvements, Wynn Resorts plans to expend about $850 million for the area around its planned casino over the term of its 15-year license. A decision expected by Aug. 28 from the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs could result in a Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act permit, allowing the gambling company to undergo a variety of other permitting processes.
Bet-at-home H1 earnings jump 81% despite higher taxes, no World Cup
BetClic Everest Group’s German-facing subsidiary Bet-at-home AG enjoyed a nearly 81% earnings gain over the first half of the year.
Bet-at-home reported revenue up 6.9% to €56.7m in the first six months of 2015 as betting and gaming stakes rose 8.8% year-on-year to €1.17b, despite last summer having enjoyed a boost from the FIFA World Cup.
But the lack of a World Cup cuts both ways, as Bet-at-home saw marketing expenses fall by €5.8m to €9.4m in H1. Despite the reduced promotional push, the company increased its registered customer ranks by nearly 8% to 4.1m. The marketing frugality also allowed the aforementioned €7.2m rise in earnings over the same period last year to €16m.
Bet-at-home’s earnings bonanza was doubly impressive given the additional €3.2m it was required to ante up to meet the European Union’s new value added taxes on electronic services, which kicked in Jan. 1. Other operating expenses were up €1.7m to €8.2m largely due to the increased betting volume.
PokerStars Californian Tour Comes to a Halt; Jason Somerville Signs New Two Year Deal with Twitch
PokerStars Team Pro tour of California has come to an end, and Jason Somerville inks a new two year deal with Twitch to continue airing his #RunItUp series.
The wheels on the PokerStars Californian tour bus have stopped going round and round.
Was it a success?
By all accounts it was.
Tapit Strikes Again as Colt Sells for $2M
Tapit struck again at the Aug. 10 session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale when one of his colts brought $2 million.