Monthly Archives: October 2016

Maryland casino revenue up in September but fails to clear $100m hurdle

Maryland’s casino gambling revenue enjoyed a year-on-year boost in September but failed to keep the state’s $100m streak going.

Figures released Wednesday by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming agency show the state’s overall casino revenue hitting $97.1m in September, an 11% rise over the same month last year. Table games were up 27% to $35.4m while slots gained a more modest 3.6% to $61.7m.

Despite the year-on-year gains, September’s total failed to top the $100m mark, a feat the state’s casinos achieved in four of the past five months through August. Guess the cost of back-to-school supplies did a number of some parents’ discretionary income. Thanks for nothing, kids.

As usual, Maryland Live ruled the revenue roost with $53.9m, up 8.8% year-on-year, and only slightly off August’s $55.9m. Horseshoe Casino Baltimore posted the month’s biggest improvement, rising 21.6% to $26.9m. Most of the Shoe’s gains came via its tables, which shot up 38% to $12.5m.

Lega B selects Genius Sports as Official Data Partner

UNITED KINGDOM, London – 5 October, 2016, Lega B, the governing body that runs the second tier of professional football competitions in Italy, has selected Genius Sports as its official partner for the collection and commercialisation of all Serie B ConTe.it Championship data.

As Lega B’s Official Betting Data Partner, Genius Sports will exclusively distribute live streaming and statistical data from all Serie B matches to Italy-facing online betting operators. Genius Sports has also acquired the rights to distribute official Serie B data to the media until the end of the 2018-19 season.

The partnership features the launch of a unique and innovative football data collection technology developed by Genius Sports. The Football LiveStats system will collect real-time data from pitchside at every Serie B fixture and provide live scores and performance-based statistics to the league’s digital media platforms including websites and mobile Apps.

This next generation technology will enable Lega B to improve its fans’ experience of matches with fast, accurate and engaging data and create new commercial opportunities, as well as bolster its existing integrity measures against match-fixing.

Washington State warns Valve Corp to halt eSports skin betting via Steam

Gambling regulators in Washington state have ordered eSports game developer Valve Corporation to clamp down on ‘skin’ betting or face the consequences.

On Wednesday, the Washington State Gambling Commission issued a statement saying it had warned Valve to “immediately stop allowing the transfer of virtual weapons known as ‘skins’ for gambling activities through the company’s Steam Platform.”

Skins are purely cosmetic add-ons to eSports weapons that can be purchased with virtual currency or won via achieving certain game benchmarks. While they in no way affect game play, certain skins can be highly prized among game fans, and a lucrative side business of reselling skins via the Steam marketplace has developed.

Some third-party sites allow players to wager skins on the outcome of eSports matches, while other sites offer the ability to wager skins on purely random games of chance.

Kangwon Land imposing new ‘cooling off’ measures on problem gamblers

South Korea’s Kangwon Land casino is pledging to impose new restrictions to lessen potential harms facing problem gamblers.

On Tuesday, Kangwon Land CEO Ham Seung-huie told the country’s National Assembly that the casino would introduce a “cooling-off” program early next year that will ban entry for suspected problem gamblers for up to three months.

The announcement comes two months after South Korea’s Board of Audit and Inspection said Kangwon Land’s owner High1 Resort wasn’t doing enough to mitigate problem gambling behavior.

Kangwon Land is under particular scrutiny as it is the only one of South Korea’s 17 casinos that allows local residents to gamble. It is also the country’s most profitable casino, generating earnings of KRW 338b ($303.4m) on revenue of KRW 848b last year.