Monthly Archives: September 2016

Erik Sagstrom Wins WSOP Circuit for Planet Hollywood High Roller Event

Swedish online pro Erik Sagstrom is back from the shadows after winning the WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood No Limit Hold’em High Roller event in Las Vegas on Monday night. The 23-year-old bested a field of just 26 players to take home $65,000 in the $5,300 buy-in event. Impressively, he joined the tournament on no sleep, having […]

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Austria competition watchdog blocks Novomatic takeover of Casinos Austria

Austria’s competition watchdogs have blocked gaming technology firm Novomatic Group’s takeover of Casinos Austria.

Late last week, Novomatic announced that Austria’s Federal Competition Authority (BWB) had objected to Novomatic teaming with the Czech investors behind betting operator Sazka to acquire a controlling stake in Casinos Austria and its Austrian Lotteries subsidiary.

Novomatic CEO Harald Neumann said that despite months of negotiations, the BWB had “adopted a viewpoint that has precluded any solution that would be economically feasible for Novomatic.”

Neumann said the BWB had proposed a number of conditions for approving the deal, including selling off some of Novomatic’s 18 casinos in the Czech Republic, while also imposing restrictions on Casinos Austria’s video lottery terminals business.

German state of Hesse offers temporary online betting permits

The German state of Hesse has announced it will issue temporary online sports betting permits to operators until the country’s tangled regulatory regime gets straightened out in the courts.

This week, the Hessian Ministry of the Interior announced it would allow betting operators to apply for Duldungsverfügungen aka “temporary toleration dispositions” that would permit operators to offer both land-based and online betting. Operators have been given a 60-day window starting September 15 in which to apply for the permits.

However, the permits would only be valid in the state of Hesse, meaning operators would still be on legally unsure turf if they accept wagers from punters located in the other 15 German lander (states), a limitation that will likely discourage most operators from seeking out the Hessian permits.

The Hessian government says the temporary workaround is necessary following the October 2015 ruling by the Hessian Administrative Court that prevented the formal issuing of the 20 nationwide sports betting licenses announced in September 2014.

Cricketer Shane Warne to Represent India’s Latest Poker Site

Aussie cricket legend Shane Warne will join a host of celebrities when he becomes the face of a new Indian poker site called Celebritygames.in. The new real money poker site is the brainchild of British-born Indian entrepreneur Raj Kundra and his company, Satyug Gold Pvt Ltd. Hoping to capitalize on India’s budding poker market, Kundra’s new venture […]

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Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference will reveal prospects and risks of cryptocurrency exchanges

September 23, Kiev will host Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference 2016. One of its topics will include the development of cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Benjamin Bommhardt, a cofounder and Sales Director at Draglet, will speak within the Fintech section.

Participants of the expert section will discuss three components of cryptocurrency platforms operating: development, challenges and prospects. The speaker will share his opinion regarding the current situation and tell about risks from the perspective of exchange platform owners.

Benjamin Bommhardt is the expert in crypto trading area and cofounder of Munich-based Draglet (the company develops and tests software for digital currencies exchanges). Besides presentation at industry events, he also gives Bitcoin lecturers at Munich University of Applied Sciences (MUAS).    

The expert section will also include presentations dedicated to cryptocurrency legislative regulation issues, Bitcoin application in the banking sector and Blockchain technologies in public administration.

Aung La N Sang Takes On Michal Pasternak At ONE: State Of Warriors

06 September 2016 – Yangon, Myanmar: The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), returns to Myanmar for another exciting evening of world-class mixed martial arts action. ONE: STATE OF WARRIORS is set for Friday, 7 October at the state-of-the-art Thuwunna Indoor Stadium in Yangon. Headlining the event will be “The Burmese Python” Aung La N Sang as he takes on top Polish middleweight Michal Pasternak. In the global main event, ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka “Nobita” Naito of Chiba, Japan will defend his title against Joshua Pacio of Baguio City, Philippines.

Tickets for ONE: STATE OF WARRIORS are available click here.

CEO of ONE Championship, Victor Cui stated: “The way Aung La N Sang can carry a crowd is unparalleled. The fans effortlessly move to the beat of his drum and it’s an atmosphere ONE Championship just can’t get enough of. Aung La N Sang is ready to take on the biggest challengers the promotion has to offer, and he’ll get to work this October starting with Michal Pasternak.”

Managing Director of AGD, Htoo Htet Tay Za stated: “To be a part of ONE Championship and Aung La N Sang’s triumphant return to Myanmar was an immensely proud moment for us at AGD Bank, and we want to keep that momentum going. We cannot wait to see the Myanmar people come together once again to cheer for our heroes in the cage as they compete for national pride on the largest stage in Asian MMA.”

Is SJM Finally A Buy Here?

Jim Rogers, at the peak of his investment career, was always insistent on actually visiting a place and seeing it on the ground before he invested in it or shorted it. While most of us do not have the resources to do that, it is certainly sound advice if you can afford it. On his trip around the world he embarked upon post retirement, he made sure to visit the most disreputable places on the planet to see if what everyone was saying about them was true. In most cases he discovered that they weren’t as bad as everyone was saying. This is why he frequently talks about investing North Korea and Myanmar of all places.

What does this have to do with Macau and SJM Holdings? Only this: With Macau bottoming for now, SJM may be bottoming too, or at least leveling off. Among the large caps, it is the worst performing Macau stock since the 2014 top, which theoretically places it as a good contender for biggest bounce. Or, alternatively, it could just be the weakest casino company there, and any bounce that Macau may have from here may translate poorly to SJM. Here’s a Google chart comparing the falls of Galaxy (0027), LVS, Wynn, and Melco Crown since 2014. SJM (0880) beats them all in terms of pure fall.

For some reason that is unclear from public records alone, SJM has had a very hard time recovering in comparison with other Macau stocks. This does not refer only to its stock price, which is also a laggard since the January 2016 recovery second only to Melco:

It is also a laggard with respect to the recovery of its top line. The question is why. To answer that, someone who has experienced all these places first hand would need to provide a detailed score sheet. Are SJM casinos just not keeping up with the competition? Are they just not as good as others in Macau? Or are they really amazing and it’s just bad marketing or poor decision-making by executives or just bad luck? Are they perhaps too conservative with their fiscal policy, which may be holding them back from aggressively competing? These are questions that must be answered by someone with on-the-ground experience before we simply assume SJM is oversold and ready to bounce with the rest of the Macau complex.

International betting community gathers in London for Betting on Sports 2016

The Betting on Sports conference has attracted sportsbook operators from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

London, September 6th, 2016: London will be subjected to a sports betting industry invasion on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September, as sports betting operators from around the globe arrive to network and discuss the latest trends and developments. The Betting on Sports conference has attracted sportsbook operators from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and even Australia.

Betting on Sports 2016, organised by SBC Events, is the largest sports betting industry conference, with a 70-strong list of speakers, including a golden fantasy sports trio of Valery Bollier (Oulala Co-Founder & CEO), Shergul Arshad (Mondogoal Founder & CEO) and Ubaldo Baldi (Skill Games & DFS manager at Lottomatica). They will be trading ideas about how the bookmakers can work with DFS operators, and make use of their products in an increasingly regulated gambling environment.

Mondogoal’s Shergul Arshad shared his thoughts about the upcoming event: “I’m very excited for Betting on Sports. Everything has its timing as far as industry cycles go, and the next six months will be the time for daily fantasy sports and sports betting sites teaming up. We’re leading the way with the deals with SISAL and Lottomatica in Italy, and both of these have seen good responses to their initial competitions based on Euro 2016.”

International betting community gathers in London for Betting on Sports 2016

The Betting on Sports conference has attracted sportsbook operators from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

London, September 6th, 2016: London will be subjected to a sports betting industry invasion on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September, as sports betting operators from around the globe arrive to network and discuss the latest trends and developments. The Betting on Sports conference has attracted sportsbook operators from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and even Australia.

Betting on Sports 2016, organised by SBC Events, is the largest sports betting industry conference, with a 70-strong list of speakers, including a golden fantasy sports trio of Valery Bollier (Oulala Co-Founder & CEO), Shergul Arshad (Mondogoal Founder & CEO) and Ubaldo Baldi (Skill Games & DFS manager at Lottomatica). They will be trading ideas about how the bookmakers can work with DFS operators, and make use of their products in an increasingly regulated gambling environment.

Mondogoal’s Shergul Arshad shared his thoughts about the upcoming event: “I’m very excited for Betting on Sports. Everything has its timing as far as industry cycles go, and the next six months will be the time for daily fantasy sports and sports betting sites teaming up. We’re leading the way with the deals with SISAL and Lottomatica in Italy, and both of these have seen good responses to their initial competitions based on Euro 2016.”

International betting community gathers in London for Betting on Sports 2016

The Betting on Sports conference has attracted sportsbook operators from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

London, September 6th, 2016: London will be subjected to a sports betting industry invasion on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September, as sports betting operators from around the globe arrive to network and discuss the latest trends and developments. The Betting on Sports conference has attracted sportsbook operators from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, US, Canada, Africa, Asia, and even Australia.

Betting on Sports 2016, organised by SBC Events, is the largest sports betting industry conference, with a 70-strong list of speakers, including a golden fantasy sports trio of Valery Bollier (Oulala Co-Founder & CEO), Shergul Arshad (Mondogoal Founder & CEO) and Ubaldo Baldi (Skill Games & DFS manager at Lottomatica). They will be trading ideas about how the bookmakers can work with DFS operators, and make use of their products in an increasingly regulated gambling environment.

Mondogoal’s Shergul Arshad shared his thoughts about the upcoming event: “I’m very excited for Betting on Sports. Everything has its timing as far as industry cycles go, and the next six months will be the time for daily fantasy sports and sports betting sites teaming up. We’re leading the way with the deals with SISAL and Lottomatica in Italy, and both of these have seen good responses to their initial competitions based on Euro 2016.”