Monthly Archives: July 2017

Resorts Casino launches FastPick fantasy parlay betting product

Resorts Casino Hotel has become the first Atlantic City casino to launch a daily fantasy sports product that strongly resembles parlay betting.

On Monday, the Associated Press broke the news that FastPick.com had begun offering online daily fantasy sports contests in tandem with Resorts Digital Gaming, marking the first time a casino based outside Nevada offered its customers a real-money DFS product.

The launch of FastPick, which is powered by Sport Analytics & Data (SportAD), is all the more notable given its structure, which strongly resembles traditional parlay wagering. FastPick customers play against the house, rather than each other, with wagers that start as low as $5 for payouts that max out at an impressive $100k.

FastPick offers players a range of preselected head-to-head athlete matchups in a given sport – current choices are NFL, NBA, MLB and English Premier League – from which players select anywhere from three and 10 matchups. The athletes’ performance determines the score, and if all of the athletes chosen by the player outperform the house’s lineup, cha-ching.

VIP gambling reclaims Macau casino revenue throne

Macau’s VIP gambling market continued its resurgence in the second quarter of 2017, outpacing mass market growth by a factor of four.

Figures released Monday by Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) showed the special administrative region’s casino operators enjoyed VIP baccarat revenue of MOP 35.85b (US $4.46b) in the three months ending June 30.

The figure is up only 1% from Q1 2017’s VIP gambling total but up an impressive 34.8% from Q2 2016’s MOP 26.6b. The VIP share of the overall Macau market’s Q2 revenue improved to 57% from 51.5% in the same period last year.

By comparison, total mass market gaming revenue (including slots) fell 2.6% sequentially but gained 8.1% year-on-year to MOP 27b. Of this sum, mass market baccarat generated MOP 19.7b, up 5.7% year-on-year. Mass market baccarat’s share of the overall gaming revenue pie fell to 31.3% from 36.1% in Q2 2016.

Christian Pham Leads WSOP Main Event After Day Six, Tearful Adrian Moreno Wins Little One for One Drop, Chris Ferguson Ends Summer with POY Lead

As the 2017 World Series of Poker begins to start breaking down to its final few tables, the air inside the Rio gets colder (literally) and more serious. At the […]

The post Christian Pham Leads WSOP Main Event After Day Six, Tearful Adrian Moreno Wins Little One for One Drop, Chris Ferguson Ends Summer with POY Lead appeared first on .

SportPesa enter Italy sports bet market with RCS Gaming deal

Kenyan sports betting operator SportPesa has entered the Italian market via its acquisition of locally licensed operator RCS Gaming.

Late last week, SportPesa Global announced that it was acquiring 75% of RCS Gaming, a subsidiary of the RCS Media Group. Terms weren’t disclosed, but the deal will see RCS rechristen its Italian-licensed Gazzabet brand as SportPesa.

Gazzabet.it launched in September 2014 as a partnership with gambling technology provider Playtech but has yet to claim a significant share of Italy’s online gambling market. Official figures show Gazzabet.it’s sportsbook revenue totaled a mere €800k in 2016, equating to about 0.8% of the overall sports betting market. The site’s casino operations earned around €820k, equal to around 0.18% of the market.

The deal also calls for SportPesa to enter a five-year advertising contract to promote its new Italian betting brand via various RCS Media Group outlets, including the Corriere della Sera daily newspaper and the La7 television channel.

UK fantasy sports operators warned about betting licenses

UK fantasy sports league organizers have been warned not to conduct their operations in a manner that requires them to obtain a sports betting license.

With a new football season just around the corner, the UK Gambling Commission is warning fantasy sports organizers not to get “caught out by gambling law.” On Monday, the UKGC issued a warning to would-be organizers of fantasy football leagues that operating their league as a business requires a UKGC-issued pool betting license.

The UKGC’s pool betting license category encompasses all betting activities – horseracing, football, other sports and fantasy football – in which customer stakes are pooled and the payouts are calculated by dividing the total pool value (minus commission) by the number of winners.

The UKGC exempts certain fantasy operators from this pool betting licensing requirement, such as privately run contests among office colleagues. However, these fantasy operators must be able to demonstrate that their fantasy pool is not being run as a business.

Foxwoods posts 2.7% slots revenue growth in June

Slot-machine revenue of Foxwoods Resort Casino grew 2.7 percent in June as tourists from neighboring states trooped to Connecticut.

In a statement, Tribal casino operator Mashantucket Pequot Tribal announced that its revenue rose to US$36.3 million in June from $35.3 million in the year-earlier period.

But compared to the previous month, Foxwood’s slots revenue slowed from US$38.1 million. It was the second month of the current calendar that Foxwoods showed a gain. March was the last to show a year-over-year gain when revenue rose 3.2 percent.

Last week, Mohegan Sun announced that its June revenue climbed by 8 percent to US$49.3 million from US$45.7 million a year earlier.

CEEGC 2017 Budapest Agenda for Day 2 revealed – Affiliate and Operators preparing for 18’s main events (Fifa World Cup and the Winter Olympics)

17 July 2017, Budapest: The organizers of CEEGC2017 are excited to announce that they have now finalized the agenda for Day 2 of the event. The second day of the conference aims to focus on the upcoming events of the online gambling industry which involve all the peers that are present in the sports betting landscape.

The year 2018 will have two main highlighted events in the calendar, the Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. Given the fact that competition is getting the market really crowded, we are anticipating a busy year for operators, software providers and affiliates. The whole industry is already making marketing plans in order to be the top brand which will attract the large volumes.

While top affiliate companies are already gearing up and gathering assets in order to stay ahead in the sports betting segment, a large part of the affiliate industry is already negotiating with the operators in providing a quality bonus structure for the 2 main events. We are creating this panel to give a voice for affiliates who can address their direct messages for the operators in order to facilitate a conversation about the do’s and don’ts of marketing such large events.

The panel is a must attend panel if you are operating a sports betting website or if you are an affiliate that is looking to convert or cross-market in 2018.

Emerging markets with Gabor Helembai (Hungary) and Jaka Repansek (Slovenia) during CEEGC 2017 Budapest

17 July 2017, Budapest: The organizers of CEEGC2017 are excited to announce the first two speaker in the long lineup they have prepared for the second edition of the Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference. An event which is going to take place between 19-20 September at the Kempinski Corvinus Budapest.

“Hungary on the verge to regulate the online gambling market” is the title of Mr. Gábor Helembai’s presentation and the topic is currently being a focus point of the industry.

The Hungarian online and land based gambling market has been the debate of many years and we are now witnessing a tipping point at which the Hungarian government has to make a choice.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has made a ruling this June against Hungary. The official press releases stated that, “The Hungarian legislation on the authorization of online games of chance is not compatible with the principle of the freedom to provide services,” However, this was awaited by the suing party (Unibet), but nobody has expected that the Hungarian Parliament will not comment on this.

James Packer-backed investment firm bets big on casino rival The Star

Casino mogul James Packer has successfully penetrated back into Australian casino operator The Star Entertainment Group, signaling the end of a four-year-old rivalry.

In a regulatory filing before the Australian Stock Exchange, The Star announced that investment company Ellerston Capital has increased its stake in the company, bringing its total bet to 5.07 percent.

Records showed that Packer, who owns Australian-listed casino operator Crown Resorts, have a 25 percent stake in Ellerston through his private investment Consolidated Press Holdings.

Ellerston claimed that Packer had no role in the company’s investment decisions even though it had been rumored last week that the casino billionaire snapped up Malaysian casino operator Genting’s stake in The Star, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

SIS appoint former Ladbrokes director as new COO

17th July 2017 – Leading live pictures and data supplier SIS (Sports Information Services), has strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of Dominic Matthews in the newly-created role of Chief Operations Officer.

Matthews joins from Ladbrokes, where he held a number of senior positions during a 26-year period with the operator, including most recently Commercial Projects Director and Retail Operations Director.

As part of his new role, he will be responsible for all the operational and commercial teams across the business, ensuing alignment of both the company’s strategic direction and the efficiency of its day-to-day operational functions.

Matthews will report directly to Chief Executive Richard Ames, who took over as CEO last month.