Monthly Archives: October 2016

Week 8 Thursday Night Football Betting Preview

Marcus Mariota has a strong chance of improving his dismal home record with the Tennessee Titans favored against the Jacksonville Jaguars for Thursday night.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Tennessee is listed as the 3.5-point favorite against the underachieving Jaguars with a total of 44. The Titans are a -175 favorite on the moneyline, with the Jaguars at +155.

Tennessee is 3-4 straight-up and 2-5 against the spread, but are only 2-8 SU in games Mariota has started at Nissan Stadium. The second-year QB is struggling with his accuracy, but the short week before Thursday games often makes running the ball more paramount.

Pennsylvania online gambling legislative future looking shaky

Pennsylvania’s online gambling legislative hopes aren’t completely dead, but a queue of expectant undertakers has formed just outside the door.

Tuesday saw Pennsylvania’s state legislature conclude what was supposed to be its final day of sitting before the November 8 election, but no action was taken on the online gambling and daily fantasy sports bill the House of Representatives approved in June.

Late Tuesday, the state Senate approved quick-fix legislation to temporarily restore funding that local municipalities lost last month when the state Supreme Court struck down a local slots tax as unconstitutional. But the Senate declined to add online gambling language to this bill, which didn’t matter, since the House never got around to passing the Senate bill on Wednesday.

The House announced that it would reconvene at 9am on Thursday, leaving open the slim possibility for action on gaming issues. Barring that, the House has two remaining sessions scheduled for Nov. 14 & 15, while the Senate will meet on Nov. 16. But some state reps told local media that gaming wouldn’t come up for discussion until the next legislative session commences in January.

Betcade receives UK FCA approval to become an Authorised Payment Institution

London, UK, October 2016 – Betcade, set to become the first dedicated store for real money gaming apps on Android, is proud to announce that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has officially approved Betcade as an Authorised Payment Institution in the UK.

The admission marks another significant milestone for Betcade, ensuring Betcade offers a full range of safe mobile payment processing services including; credit card, debit card, ewallets, bank transfers and more to customers in the UK and Europe for the gambling industry. This licensure further cements the brand as trusted, secure, and backed by the leading financial regulatory institutions in the world.

“At the forefront of our launch remains the focus to deliver not only a trustworthy platform, but a secure environment for both operators and consumers,” said Paul Barclay, General Manager of Betcade Europe. “This milestone marks an important part of our payment solutions and one that enables us to deliver all the great features and benefits we’ve been working on over the past 2 years. It’s a proud moment for the Global Betcade team who’ve worked extremely hard to build a best in class app store for the gambling industry.”

Established on 1st April, 2013, the Financial Conduct Authority is the conduct regulator for 56,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK and the prudential regulator for over 24,000 of those firms. With the financial markets needing to be honest, fair and effective for consumers, the FCA’s aim is to make markets work well for individuals, large and small businesses, and for the economy as a whole.

LeoVegas Player Wins Mega Fortune and a Trip to Malta

A lucky winner has hit the jackpot playing the popular Mega Fortune Dreams game at leading mobile casino, LeoVegas.com. As a result of her jackpot win, the player has also bagged herself a luxury trip to Malta courtesy of the mobile casino’s Leo Masters promotion.

Ingrid, from Sweden, won over €62,000 playing Mega Fortune Dreams on the LeoVegas mobile app. She staked just 41 cents on the game before going on to take the five-figure jackpot.

The Swede will now travel to Malta, on an all-expenses paid trip, to take part in the Leo Masters Grand Final, where she will battle it out on the slots for the chance to win a further €10,000.

Ingrid is already making plans for her winnings, including booking a holiday to somewhere hot as well as buying a new car.

Online Poker Rooms: Why Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t And What You Can Do About It

In this opinion piece, Lee Davy writes about the importance of creating trust with a customer through the art of story and how online poker rooms are failing miserably to get it right.

This morning I received an email from Full Tilt which is funny because I thought they were dead. It had nothing to do with poker. Instead, it was an email designed to get me to play Blackjack.

The ad didn’t work.

I didn’t buy into the story Full Tilt were trying to sell.

Online Poker Rooms: Why Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t And What You Can Do About It

In this opinion piece, Lee Davy writes about the importance of creating trust with a customer through the art of story and how online poker rooms are failing miserably to get it right.

This morning I received an email from Full Tilt which is funny because I thought they were dead. It had nothing to do with poker. Instead, it was an email designed to get me to play Blackjack.

The ad didn’t work.

I didn’t buy into the story Full Tilt were trying to sell.

The Stoic Way of Dealing With Speech Play in Poker

Lee Davy investigates how recreational poker players might handle a confrontation with William Kassouf and turns to the Stoics for inspiration.

Imagine you’re a social butterfly preferring solitude over sound; peace over people, but you love your poker, and one day, playing online you accidentally enter a satellite for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and win the seat.

Shit.

It’s non-refundable.

Nomination deadline extended for SBC Awards 2016

London, October 2016: SBC has decided to extend the nomination deadline for the SBC Awards 2016 by another week. Companies now have until Tuesday 1st November to put themselves forward for one or more of the 15 awards created by SBC to recognise industry excellence in 2016.

This means the nomination stage for the SBC Awards 2016, will get a ‘Halloween night’ finale. The ceremony itself takes place on Wednesday 7 December at Under the Bridge, the prestigious £20 million club venue built underneath Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge.

Rasmus Sojmark, SBC Founder, commented: “Due to requests from companies and contacts in the industry, as well as an extremely busy last week around the EIG and the BAC in Berlin, we have decided to extend the SBC Awards 2016 nominations deadline by another week.”

After the nomination deadline, the best entries will be shortlisted by SBC. The overall awards will be put to a vote between all those who registered for this year’s Betting on Football conference at Stamford Bridge, and the Betting on Sports conference at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel.

PokerStars Honour Chad Brown With New Jersey Charity Event

PokerStars continue to honour Chad Brown by hosting a charity event in their inaugural live festival in New Jersey to raise funds for the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukaemia, Cancer and AIDS Research.

I have been thinking about death a lot lately. Perhaps, it’s because I have become a father again at the age of 41; maybe it’s because my old man can’t kick his smoking habit?

I often wonder what would happen should he die?

There would be a surge of emotion. There would be tears and pangs of regret for not trying harder to help him quit. Then over time, I won’t notice his absence. There will be more tears at Christmas and his birthday, and then, eventually, nothing.

UK competition watchdog formally okays Ladbrokes-Gala Coral merger

The UK competition watchdog has formally approved the merger of gambling operators Ladbrokes and Gala Coral Group.

On Wednesday, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) officially approved the sale of 360 betting shops to Betfred, Stan James and Bet 21, which was announced 10 days ago. The CMA had ordered the shops sell-off to alleviate market saturation concerns brought on by the pending merger of the two betting powerhouses.

Last week’s announcement revealed that Betfred was in line to acquire 322 shops while Stan James picked up 37. A single shop was tagged for disposal to an unidentified buyer, which has now been revealed as the little known Bet 21 Ltd.

Ladbrokes issued a statement saying it expects the merger with Gala Coral to take place “in the very near future.” In the meantime, Lads plans to publish a prospectus to prep the enlarged company for readmission to the London Stock Exchange.

Caesars reaches deal with lone remaining holdout junior creditor

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment has reached a deal with the last remaining bondholder blocking the company’s interminably delayed proposed restructuring.

On Tuesday, Caesars announced that hedge fund Trilogy Capital Management had agreed to support the plan to restructure Caesar’s bankrupt main unit Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC). Neither firm saw fit to disclose what goodies Caesars dangled to convince Trilogy to flip its script.

Trilogy, which held only $9.4m of CEOC’s $18.4b of debt, had mounted a surprise last-minute assault on the deal Caesars had reached with its other junior creditors, a deal that had taken nearly two years to negotiate. Caesars was forced to extend its stated deadline last week to continue efforts to try to bring Trilogy on board.

The Trilogy deal now leaves just one more niggling obstacle to CEOC’s restructuring, which will see the company split into a casino management firm and a real estate investment trust, The company is still fighting with the National Retirement Fund over CEOC employee pensions, but Caesars bankruptcy lawyers claim they’re close to resolving this issue.