Monthly Archives: September 2015

Ga. lawmakers question lottery payouts to HOPE

During a joint meeting of the temporary committees created by the House and Senate to study the issue, lawmakers are looking for ways to address the shrinking share of tuition that the scholarships cover. One avenue is to increase the available money from the existing sources, and another would be to find new sources by legalizing casinos and betting on horse races.

MGM: Pequots, Mohegans casino plans illegitimate

MGM Resorts International called Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes’ alliance “the result of an illegal and unfair gaming act.”

After hundreds of years of rivalry, Pequot and Mohegan tribes have signed an agreement last week to build a casino as a defense against out-of-state companies siphoning revenue from Connecticut.

The new satellite casino is expected to cost about $300m and to have about 2,000 slot machines and 150 table games.

A study commissioned by the tribes also projected a new casino could create about 6,000 jobs and generate $78m in taxes.

Mike Strong appointed Betgenius Sales Director

UNITED KINGDOM, London – 15 September, 2015 – Betgenius today announced the appointment of Mike Strong as Global Sales Director at Betgenius to oversee the day-to-day sales operations and support the company’s international growth.

An expert in new business generation in the sports data sector, Mike joins Betgenius from Opta, where he was Sales Director for four years.

Mark Locke, Chief Executive Officer of Betgenius, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Mike to Betgenius and excited about the contribution he will make to the business. He brings with him a great depth of knowledge and a wealth of experience in sports data and gaming. Mike will play an important part in our drive for growth and will be integral to our goal to remain a world leader in sports betting, gaming and data integrity.”

Mike said of the appointment: “I’m thrilled to join the growing Betgenius team, which is so well-known in the industry for its innovative products and depth of expertise. I’m excited about the current outsourcing opportunities for bookmakers worldwide and Betgenius’ position as the trusted partner and leading revenue generator in the betting and gaming industry.”

KakaoTalk denies plans to tap mobile casino market

KakaoTalk operator Daum Kakao Corp. denied plans to launch mobile casino games.

The clarification came after rumors that the messaging app, which boasts more than 100 million users, was planning to tap into the mobile casino market.

“Daum Kakao is not considering adopting casino content in the gaming platform,” the company said. “Although the introduction of casino games linked to social networking services is a trend in the global market, we have no plan to roll out such things,” a Duam Kakao official said.

KakaoTalk has 600 games connected to its platform and company said that although it is true that they are tapping into so-called web board games, they only include games like baduk, a popular board game in Asia and Korean card game Go-stop.

Gambling with their futures

This is a guest contribution by Matt Harris is head of sports content at 90Digital.com. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

We’ve all seen stories relating to this rather niche area of the betting markets: A proud parent with a talented child gambles on their future sporting success whether it’s a full international football cap, a slot as an England test cricketer or, in the case of Rory McIlroy’s father, a punt on his son to win the Open Golf Championship.

In the news

It’s fascinating to look back on the winning bets and the near misses while future gambles frequently make the headlines. Back in August, the press ran a story on four year old Billy Carroll – a promising cricketer who is already showing some precocious talent. Billy has already made his local cricket club’s under nine team prompting his father Paul to bet that he will one day play for England.

Wok Star Slot Game Cooks Up A Storm

Gibraltar, 15 September 2015 – Wok Star is the new fusion slot game from GW Games that combines delectable cooking ingredients with the power of rock music.

The Chinese cuisine inspired “rock ‘n’ bowl” game has a 5×3 grid and 20 paylines, guitar wilds, a Wok Star bonus feature and unlimited free spins that continue until a stop symbol is triggered. The visuals give the game a retro feel and are reminiscent of a Chinese restaurant, featuring chopsticks, bowls of noodles blended with rock, electric guitars, an amp and a glowing neon sign.

In the Wok Star Bonus, players can stir up big wins with their favourite ingredients such as chilli, prawns, vegetables, rice and noodles. Players are presented with multiple bowls and can reveal cash wins, multipliers or the golden dragon that will level them up for bigger potential wins. In free spins, players are given three lives that only end when the stop symbol is shown.

Andrew Henson, Commercial Director of GW Games, commented, “Wok Star has a unique theme that offers the potential for really big wins. We’ve secured an exclusive deal with one of the largest gaming operators and opted to build the game for this site via Odobo and have enjoyed working with their team and technology. We’re excited to see this game out in the market.”

Sydney officials: Crown Resorts project ‘symbol of inequality’

Sydney’s city council wants to know why Crown Resorts wants to build the “landmark tower” of its hotel, casino and residential project on land that’s originally allotted for parkland.

A Casino News Daily report quoted members of the council who said the proposed Crown Resorts project is already at risk of turning into a “symbol of inequality” in the central part of the city.

In the middle of the fracas is a waterfront parkland that will be relocated near the tall residential towers of Crown Resorts’ $1.4 billion Barangaroo casino project in the city. According to the city council, this is already a deliberate move to show that customers of the future gambling venue are more important than the park being situated there.

City officials also took a jab at the luxury residential options of the project that targets well-to-do buyers, saying that the developers’ failure to add one-bedroom or studio units could lead to the project turning into a “symbol of inequality” in the central business district.

Zynga acquires social casino game start-up Rising Tide Games

Zynga has acquired free-to-play social-casino start-up Rising Tide Games in an effort to expand its footprint in the social casino market.

Rising Tide CEO Maytal Olsha who along with casino slots veterans Stuart Zoble, Andrew Sega and Peter Franco will join Zynga as part of the acquisition.

Olsha, worked at Zynga for two years. He was hired to take the company into real-money gambling but the legalization of real-money gambling in U.S progressed more slowly than expected and Zynga had to pull out and shift their focus back to their bread and butter games like Zynga Poker and Hit It Rich Casino Slots.

Olsha shifted roles, taking over the social slots business, which included the reality TV branded Duck Dynasty Slots.

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to adopt junket regulations

Commonwealth Casino Commission has implemented junket regulations, imposing license fees and regulating promoters who bring in high-rollers to Best Sunshine International casino.

During the Friday meeting, the commission has set a $1000 licensing/renewal fee for junket operators, which will be valid for two years; unless revoked by the commission.

According to commission’s Executive Director Edward Deleon Guerrero, as part of the process, junket will undergo“background investigations” then once licensed, junket will be authorized to proceed in terms of arranging those customers to come and play with the casino.”

Best Sunshine must also keep a log of junket representatives registered by junket operators and make it available to the commission and will still be required to pay .01% of the rolling volume as a regulatory fee.

Ga. lawmakers question lottery payouts to HOPE

During a joint meeting of the temporary committees created by the House and Senate to study the issue, lawmakers are looking for ways to address the shrinking share of tuition that the scholarships cover. One avenue is to increase the available money from the existing sources, and another would be to find new sources by legalizing casinos and betting on horse races.

Mergers, Mergers Everywhere, But William Hill Can’t Drink

The word “merger” sounds like a big threatening word in the world of markets. It suggests you’re getting tag-teamed, double teamed, or otherwise boxed out. As if on a political chess board or war game (or actual war), the natural instinct is to build alliances and make sure you’re not being outcompeted or that the balance of power isn’t too tipped to one side. That makes sense in the world of politics where everything is violence and force and might. But in markets where all transactions are voluntary and the small in principle can outcompete the large just by virtue of pleasing consumers better, a merger need not necessarily be matched out of fear.

We’ve seen three big mergers since July in UK gaming. It began with Gala Coral and Ladbrokes, then on to Paddy Power and Betfair, and finally GVC and bwin.party. On the face of it, these three power moves seem to leave 888 and William Hill behind and threatened, but that’s not the case, at least not with all three. Two of these three mergers are not being completed under ideal circumstances, and can more be thought of as salvage operations. The only one that seems to really be a synergy is Paddy Power and Betfair.

First, the Gala Coral and Ladbrokes merger was primarily about digital. Keep in mind that Ladbrokes had been a digital basket case and was thoroughly outcompeted by William Hill from 2013 on. Gala Coral and Ladbrokes’ merger is more of an attempt at catch up than any concrete threat to William Hill. Just to review the numbers once more, Ladbrokes’ digital revenue accounted for 6% of operating profit in 2013, and Hill’s 48%. The numbers have evened out a little bit since Ladbrokes hired Playtech, but Ladbrokes is still behind, though less so with the Coral merger. Market pricing always speaks louder than speculation, so here’s what I said about this merger after it happened:

If you’re looking for a way to trade the merger… go long PlayTech rather than Ladbrokes. Ladbrokes will still have to contend with heavy taxes on its machines, whereas PlayTech has no exposure to those taxes. Now, however, is not the time to go long anything, but when money supply starts growing again, PTEC is a smarter move than LAD for when the time comes.