Monthly Archives: October 2016

Online Poker Room Natural8 Sign Kitty Kuo, Xuan Liu & Dong Kim

The Philippines-licensed online gambling company, Natural8, has hired Kitty Kuo, Xuan Liu, and Dong Kim to represent the brand around the world where they will be known as Team Hot.

The opportunity to represent an online poker room in a sponsored capacity seems to be on the rise, and the Philippines-licensed online poker room Natural8 is the latest to follow the trend.

The online gambling company has hired Kitty Kuo, Xuan Liu and Dong Kim to represent the brand both online and at live tournaments throughout the world with extra emphasis placed on the Asia-Pacific market. From now on you can call the three of them Team Hot.

The choices are sound.

Online Poker Room Natural8 Sign Kitty Kuo, Xuan Liu & Dong Kim

The Philippines-licensed online gambling company, Natural8, has hired Kitty Kuo, Xuan Liu, and Dong Kim to represent the brand around the world where they will be known as Team Hot.

The opportunity to represent an online poker room in a sponsored capacity seems to be on the rise, and the Philippines-licensed online poker room Natural8 is the latest to follow the trend.

The online gambling company has hired Kitty Kuo, Xuan Liu and Dong Kim to represent the brand both online and at live tournaments throughout the world with extra emphasis placed on the Asia-Pacific market. From now on you can call the three of them Team Hot.

The choices are sound.

StarCraft ProLeague Crashes And Burns After 14-Years

The oldest eSports league in the world, South Korea’s StarCraft ProLeague, has closed down after 14-years in the business due to problems with sponsorship and match fixing scandals.

There are some of us, like me, who have been caught up in the tidal wave of eSports stories in the press, and are blown away by the immediacy of the sports growth.

And then you wake up one morning and read that South Korea’s eSports Association (KeSPA) has been running the StarCraft ProLeague for the past 14-years.

The league was the top dog when it came to the StarCraft: Brood Wars, and in 2012 switched to Starcraft II (much to the notice of most of the players).

SkyCity warns of adverse effect from China VIP crackdown, shares tumble

New Zealand casino operator SkyCity Entertainment Group’s shares tumbled on Friday over concerns that China’s anti-gambling moves could further depress already depressed VIP gaming revenue.

SkyCity issued a “disappointing” fiscal Q1 trading update on Friday, with ‘normalized’ revenue – so named because it smooths out the inherent variance of VIP gambling activity – falling 5.7% to NZD 262m (US $188.5m) in the three months ending September 30.

While nearly all of SkyCity’s casino properties were in negative territory for the quarter, the biggest decline came from its ‘international business’ (IB) segment (VIP to you and me). Normalized IB revenue fell 20.2% to NZD 34.3b due to decreased turnover and a lower than average win rate (although higher than the previous year’s Q1).

SkyCity says it enjoyed “fewer trips than expected from larger VIP customers” in Q1. That trend could continue, given China’s recent detention of 18 Crown Resorts staffers for promoting Australian casino visits to Chinese high rollers.

Crown Resorts attempts to downplay its reliance on Chinese VIP gamblers

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is attempting to downplay the impact of potentially having to curtail its lucrative Chinese VIP gambling business.

Crown held its annual general meeting on Thursday, during which it sought to reassure investors that last week’s detention of 18 Crown staffers, including its head of international VIP business Jason O’Connor, wasn’t a death blow to the company’s future earnings potential.

According to Crown, one-third of its revenues come from overseas visitors to its Australian resorts, while international VIP gaming programs account for “around a quarter” of FY16 revenue (actually 28%). Of this international VIP revenue, “approximately 12%” comes from visitors from mainland China.

Crown goes on to say that margins in its international VIP gaming program are “substantially lower” than Crown’s other businesses, meaning the share of profits derived from mainland Chinese VIPs is “substantially less than 12%.”

Crown Resorts attempts to downplay its reliance on Chinese VIP gamblers

Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is attempting to downplay the impact of potentially having to curtail its lucrative Chinese VIP gambling business.

Crown held its annual general meeting on Thursday, during which it sought to reassure investors that last week’s detention of 18 Crown staffers, including its head of international VIP business Jason O’Connor, wasn’t a death blow to the company’s future earnings potential.

According to Crown, one-third of its revenues come from overseas visitors to its Australian resorts, while international VIP gaming programs account for “around a quarter” of FY16 revenue (actually 28%). Of this international VIP revenue, “approximately 12%” comes from visitors from mainland China.

Crown goes on to say that margins in its international VIP gaming program are “substantially lower” than Crown’s other businesses, meaning the share of profits derived from mainland Chinese VIPs is “substantially less than 12%.”

Philippine casinos to benefit from China tourism deal

China and the Philippines have struck a deal to boost tourist travel between the two Asian nations.

On Thursday, Philippine news outlet Business Mirror reported that China and the Philippines had reached agreement on implementing a 2002 memorandum of understanding signed by both countries. The goal of the MOU is to encourage investment in tourist infrastructure and to boost tourist traffic between the countries.

The first beneficiary of the new arrangement will be a twice-weekly charter flight service between the Chinese city of Guangzhou and Laoag, the capital of Ilocos Norte province in the Philippines. The flights, which get underway on Nov. 1, promise to deliver 400 Chinese tourists per week.

Interestingly, the charter service was initiated by the Jimei Group, a Macau-based casino junket operator that also operates two casinos in the Philippines, including the Fort Ilocandia and Resort Casino in Laoag.