On the 14th of October, some of the world’s leading football traders and experts will convene at the Emirates Stadium in London the first annual Matchbook Traders Conference.

The first of its kind, this full day conference combines betting theory and practice to provide an incredible opportunity to meet and network with some of the best funded sports traders in the world.

The combination of the speakers gives the conference an excellent rounding in the industry for any individual. All sessions have been crafted to provide practical knowledge that is accessible and easy to apply.

One example is, self-taught R Programmer Tom Heslop who cuts through the complicatedness of data modeling in his session and provides a meaningful introduction to the basics.

Gaming and payment technology supplier Everi Holdings has expanded its partnership with the Alberta Gaming & Liquor Commission (AGLC) to include portfolio of gaming products to casinos across the province.

AGLC has approved a live trial of Everi’s gaming machines in Alberta in the coming weeks and once the trial is completed, the latter anticipates a continued placement of its standard and premium video and mechanical reel gaming machines, with potential expansion to additional facilities within the AGLC network beginning in early 2016.

The AGLC licenses and oversees 28 casino and racing entertainment centers throughout Alberta.

Everi, a provider of payment solutions to Alberta casinos for over 19 years, will also add its JackpotXchange, an automated jackpot payment kiosk, which is in queue for testing with a live-trial period to follow.

China’s temporary suspension of online sales has impacted DJI Holdings’ operating results and financial position in the first half of 2015.

UK-listed lottery technology supplier DJI Holdings plc has announced its unaudited interim results Tuesday for the six months ending June 30, posting a 35.9% drop in net revenue to £2.1m from £3.4m in H1 2014.

The company also recorded a gross sales of £86m, down 48% from £134.2m over the same period a year ago, with net loss up 47.8% year-on-year to £3.4m from £2.3m.

Despite the loss, DJI CEO Darren Mercer said that during the temporary suspension in March, the company has taken the advantage of this down-time to significantly improve its long term prospects by exploring new ways to work with provincial lottery partners to develop other revenue streams, both lottery and non-lottery; and to strengthen its position in the lottery sector to fully capitalize on the resumption of online lottery sales.

The Chinese government has tightened restrictions on cash withdrawals from foreign ATMs, a move which could affect Macau’s mass gross gaming revenue.

China’s State Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has announced new annual limits on UnionPay cash withdrawals outside of China.

According to statement posted on SAFE’s website on Tuesday, new rules limit overseas cash withdrawals from China’s Union Pay service to a total of 50,000 yuan ($10,800) for the period between October 1 and December 31 this year.

Under the old rules, there was a daily limit of 10,000 yuan per card but starting January 2016, there will be an annual limit of 100,000 yuan ($21,800),

Say what you want, but virtual currency is here to stay. From tools, computers and even patents, there’s just no stopping bitcoin and its underlying technology from redefining online commerce.

Bank of America filed an application before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to patent an alternative wire transfer system, which uses cryptocurrency as a transparent intermediate step for fiat currency transfers. The patent was filed on March 17 and published on Sept. 17.

The patent application (read the content here) seeks to protect a system that can be used to transfer electronic funds between customer accounts using the blockchain technology of cryptocurrency as means of payment.

“Enterprises handle a large number of foreign wire transfer requests on a daily basis. As technology advances, foreign transactions have become more common. For some customers, it may be desirable to conduct a foreign wire transfer in less time than what current foreign wire transfer systems allow,” authors Thomas Edward Durbin and James Gregory Ronca wrote in the filing.

Markets everywhere are falling. Japan down another 4% today. China another 2%. Tech stocks in the US were down 3% to Black Monday lows with futures down. Emerging market currencies like Brazil are breaking decade lows. The Russian Ruble is nearing record lows, which makes sense, considering Putin’s army is now invading Syria and rousing the United States, echoing way too much of the Cold War for comfort.

It’s times like this when common sense starts to slowly return to investors. By that I mean, the way that people value stocks starts to change and begins to actually make a bit of sense. No longer is it “How high will it go?” or “How much will someone else pay for these baseball cards? but “How much is it worth to hold it?” If it isn’t worth the risk of holding it, if it doesn’t literally pay to hold it, it can keep falling. But if it does pay, the decline can stop before bear market bottom is hit.

The defensive stocks are fine through all this. 888 and Paddy Power, which I gave the #1 and #2 defensive ranks respectively, are weathering the decline just fine.  888 is up 26% on the year while the FTSE 100 is down 11%. Paddy Power is up 24%, with a little help from a good merger. And Macau keeps crashing. When will that end?

I believe we are closer to the bottom than the top, but the bottom could be a while off still. To give a very broad historical perspective here, during the roaring 20’s and its concurrent equity boom from June 1921 to June 1929, the US money supply zoomed up 62%, from $45.3B to $73.26B (see page 92). That’s 62% in 8 years. The ensuing crash wiped out 90% of the boom value by the time everything bottomed.

This is a guest contribution by Jonas Odman, former Bodog Poker President. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

There are many similarities between Daily Fantasy Sports and poker, in particular poker tournaments. Both are peer-to-peer games with a mix of skill and chance and as an operator, you need to make sure you have a healthy player ecosystem. There are also similarities between the online poker boom back in 2004-2006 and the current DFS boom in the U.S.

But there are also differences. While online poker companies were making a ton of money pre-UIGEA, the two DFS giants, Draft King and Fan Duel, both prioritize market share over profitability and spend crazy amounts of money on TV advertising. Party Poker, the most aggressive media buyer during the poker boom, was very profitable. In 2005, Party made a profit (EBITDA) of almost $600m.

I think it is likely that an equivalent of UIGEA will shut down the DFS market in the U.S. at some point which will make this expensive fight for market share look even more questionable. I foresee that the DFS boom will be called the DFS bubble, and rightfully so.