The 2018 World Series of Poker set a 49-year record for most total entrants at 123,865, although that’s a bit misleading considering there were more events this year (78) than […]
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Cambodia’s leading casino operator NagaCorp saw its revenue skyrocket in the first half of 2018 on a surge of VIP and mass market gambling activity.
On Tuesday, NagaCorp informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that its gross gaming revenue in the six months ending June 30 hit US$714m, an 85% improvement over the same period last year. Earnings were up 29% to $232.7m while net profit was up one-fifth to $180m.
NagaCorp stressed that its profit growth would have doubled were it not for the 2017 $60m assignment rights for electronic gaming machines (EGM), a transaction NagaCorp opted not to repeat this year.
The company attributed the stellar results to a number of factors, including the opening of its Naga2 property (pictured) in November 2017. The extension of the company’s flagship NagaWorld property in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh “significantly increased the appeal, capacity, quality, range and reach of VIP, mass gaming and non-gaming offerings.”
Italy has a new retail sports betting giant after Gamenet struck a €265m deal to acquire rival Goldbet.
On Tuesday, Italian media was abuzz with news that publicly listed Gamenet Group Spa had reached a deal to acquire Goldbet for an upfront price of €240m plus up to €25m in top-up payments depending on certain criteria.
Gamenet’s addition of Goldbet’s 990 Italian betting shops will create a combined retail footprint of around 1,700 shops, equaling roughly 21% of the country’s retail sports betting market. The combined entity would also control 7% of Italy’s online betting market and a one-third share of the lucrative virtual betting sector.
Goldbet reported annual earnings of €40m and a net profit of €23m in 2017, and its earnings through the 12 months ending June 30, 2018 are believed to have hit €50m. Gamenet’s annual figures for 2017 featured revenue of €624m and earnings of €82m.
The Magnier family and trainer Aidan O’Brien, the driving forces behind Coolmore and the Ballydoyle Racing Stable, have been selected as the recipients of the 2018 Longines and IFHA International Award of Merit.
Keeneland’s new sponsorship of the Princess Margaret Keeneland Stakes over six furlongs at Ascot Racecourse, UK, on Saturday, July 28, has seen the prestigious G3 fillies’ juvenile event gain a strong entry of 21, all of whom have won at least once.
Frankie Dettori has had the ten-day ban he picked up at Newmarket’s July festival reduced to six days but will still miss Ascot’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) and the first two days of Glorious Goodwood.
After a weekend off July 21-22, the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships series moves back to Monmouth Park July 29, betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes Day at the New Jersey track.
Blockchain is spreading along the planet: Smile-Expo, the organizer of forty successful events from the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference series, will hold the first conference in Baku.
According to the organizers, their goal is not only to popularize blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICO in Azerbaijan, but also to provide businesspeople, lawyers, managers and marketers working in this field with useful tools to start with.
The conference will feature speakers from Azerbaijan, the CIS countries and Europe. Participation has already been confirmed by four experts:
• Elnur Guliyev, Kriptoinvest.az;
A number of sites in the former Portuguese enclave showed increased construction activity over the past months, a sign that casino operators were bracing themselves for the potential activation or reactivation of gaming licenses.
In its latest report, international brokerage Union Gaming pointed out that the construction boom in Macau might be potentially related to a new gaming license.
One of the projects that Union Gaming highlighted was the construction of a rumored large Southeast Asian gaming operator, which is adjacent to the roundabout close to Wynn Macau and the Grand Lisboa. Industry sources said that Genting Hong Kong has indirect ownership over the property via its subsidiary Star Cruises.
The gaming advisory firm also noted the construction of what it believed to be an expansion of the Pousada Marina Infante hotel, which formerly housed an SJM Casino. Union Gaming stressed that SJM Casino’s license is now eligible for reactivation.
A new anti-doping policy that will trigger lifetime bans for horses who test positive for substances such as anabolic steroids has been hailed as groundbreaking and unprecedented by Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh.
In his first start since finishing third in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1), Juddmonte Farms homebred Hofburg could strike an imposing figure in the $100,000 Curlin Stakes July 27 at Saratoga Race Course.
24 July 2018 – Manila, Philippines: The largest global sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), held the ONE: REIGN OF KINGS Official Kick-Off Press Conference today, 24 July at the City of Dreams Manila.
ONE Championship, in conjunction with Globe Telecom, the leading provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines, is launched as the exclusive ONE Championship Super App launch sponsor in the Philippines at the ONE: REIGN OF KINGS Official Kick-Off Press Conference.
Gracing the press conference with their presence were ONE Championship Chairman and CEO, Mr. Chatri Sityodtong, as well as a handful of ONE Championship superstars ready to ignite the Mall of Asia Arena with action and excitement.
In attendance are Globe CCO Mr. Albert de Larrazabal, Globe SVP – Content Business Group Mr. Nikko Z. Acosta, City of Dreams Manila SVP and COO Mr. Kevin Benning, Games and Amusements Board Chairman Mr. Abraham Kahlil B. Mitra.
Eighteen municipal councils in Australia have prodded the government of Victoria to slash the maximum bets on the state’s 27,000 pokies from AUD5 ($3.70) to AUD1 ($.074).
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Victoria’s local councils threw its support to the Alliance for Gambling Reform (AGR), a group that had been at the forefront of the fight for gambling reform, ahead of the state election.
These local councils reportedly poured hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars to the group’s war chest, believing that slashing the maximum pokie bets will “significantly reduce rising levels of gambling harm” in the state.
Calls for the reduction of maximum bets on pokies also came four days before the scheduled release of the state regulator’s report on gambling losses. Anti-gambling campaigners claimed that the sharpest state pokie losses happened right under Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ nose.
The tables have turned for casino operator Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI) as the legal saga over the $4.5 million supply contract of LED lights in Okada Manila continued.
Aruze Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (APMI) recently lodged perjury complaints against TRLEI chief executive advisor Dindo Espeleta who it accused of making false statements that became the basis for the casino operator’s fraud charges against the gaming device maker, according to The Manila Bulletin.
The perjury complaint against the TRLEI executive were filed a month after the Philippine prosecutors dismissed the perjury and fraud cases that Universal Entertainment filed against Japanese gaming mogul Kazuo Okada.
In its 16-page complaint, APMI president Tetsuya Yokota claimed that Espeleta committed perjury in several instances wherein the respondent “willfully and deliberately made an assertion of falsehood.”
Rarely do fundamental trading patterns change for a stock, assuming the company remains basically the same. What has been, will continue to be, barring a fundamental change of the company itself. For regional gaming companies in the US, nothing has fundamentally changed since the 1990s. Sure, the companies have grown and done well, but they remain the same sort of momentum stocks that rally hard with the business cycle boom and fall hard with the bust. Looking at a long term chart of Pinnacle for example, the stock has never rallied on a slow-burn, neither has it gently declined over long periods of time. Either it’s zooming up, or it’s collapsing. If you own it, expect more of that.
A long term chart of any of the US regional gaming stocks looks both enviable and scary. Anyone who bought at market bottom in early 2009 now stands on gains of thousands of percent at least. 1000% for Pinnacle, 3,700% for Penn National Gaming, and 1,300% for Boyd. It can be tempting to try to establish a position now and try to eke out some of those gains, but it makes sense to first try to see why these stocks rally and why they collapse so hard. Is it for any fundamental reason, like earnings are revenues or growth prospects, or is it mostly just the nature of the way the regional sector trades? It looks like traders just tend to pile into these momentum plays all at the same time because that’s what everyone else does, and then exit at the same time when overall economic conditions worsen.
It’s easy to make a glib statement like, “These stocks are rocketing higher because these companies are doing awesome!” Maybe they are, but it pays to take a little time to see if they’re moving they way they strictly because of that, based on past movements. Granted, even if fundamentals weren’t the primary factor back then doesn’t mean it isn’t the case now, but chances are a stock will keep behaving just like it has in the past. So let’s take a look at how each of these companies was doing financially last time each of them exploded higher, and what was happening the last time they collapsed.
Boyd
Budapest – 24 July 2018 – The third edition of Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference and Awards will be held on the 25th of September at the Ritz-Carlton in Budapest. The organizers are honored to once again have the support of leading sports betting service provider, SBTech, as the “Registration Sponsor”.
“SBTech has been among our first partners when we launched our events sub-division and has continuously been a loyal supporter. We are honored to once again benefit of their support and make sure you come down to Budapest and hear what SBTech Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Cochrane, will share about the US gambling market and it’s opportunities for European operations during the IMGL MasterClass.” said Zoltán Tűndik, Head of Business at European Gaming Media and Events.
You can browse the full agenda and already confirmed speaker list on the following link.
Make sure you grab your seat in time and attend the most prestigious boutique style gaming event which gather C-level executives yearly in one of Europe’s most visited city. Register here!
Net profit of casino operator Delta Corp. continued to track an upward trajectory in FY 2019 on the back of greater acceptance of gaming in India as well as good financial housekeeping.
In a regulatory filing, Delta Corp. announced that its net profit skyrocketed by 85.7 percent to Rs 41.4 crores ($7.67 million) in the first quarter of FY19 from Rs 22.3 crores ($4.13 million) in the same period last year.
Delta’s revenue for the first three months of FY19 also climbed by 45.6 percent to Rs 187.3 crore ($34.69 million) in the first quarter of FY2019 versus Rs 128.6 crore ($23.81 million) in the first three months of FY2018.
The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) in the first quarter of 2018 totaled Rs 65.4 crore ($12.11 million), up 44.4 percent against Rs 45.3 crore ($8.39 million) in the same period last year. However, EBITDA margin for the quarter marginally declined by 30 basis points to 34.9 percent.
A rush of ticket sales for the half-billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot has prompted lottery officials to revise their estimate for the Tuesday night drawing to $512 million.Mega Millions, Jackpots, Multi-State Game
BetChicago Completes Deal to Add Risk Management and Data Services Dependent On Betting Legalization And Licensing In Illinois
NEW YORK – CHICAGO – JULY 24th 2018 – Sportradar AG – global market leader in betting technology and services – and BetChicago, the go-to source for Chicago sports betting news and analysis, announced a formal multiyear partnership. In advance of legalized sports betting, Sportradar’s media products have been integrated on the newly launched BetChicago.com to enhance their sports betting media content with premium sports data and content solutions. If sports gambling becomes legal in Illinois, Sportradar will provide risk management and data services to BetChicago.
“This partnership with Sportradar is a great first step for BetChicago” said Frank Ignatius, CEO of BetChicago. “By partnering with the most innovative and technologically advanced vendor in this industry, BetChicago has elevated its brand and stayed true to its goal of offering best-in-class content and technology. Live, accurate, real-time data is essential to BetChicago the media company, and will be even more critical in the future with the imminent legalization of sports betting in Illinois. We believe the future of this industry is directly tied to live-betting and other real-time functionality, so a deal with the leader in sports data is a natural fit.”
“It truly is an exciting time in the United States for sports betting and we’re delighted to partner with BetChicago as they proactively look to provide sports fans in Illinois with the highest quality betting technology, services and content,” said Neale Deeley, VP Gaming Sales, Sportradar. “This partnership shows that Sportradar is not only committed to working with big partners in the United States, but also identifying new market entrants that we believe we can support and elevate with our systems.”
There has been some concern over how Macau could handle the casino licensing renewals when the current concession periods begin to expire. Most anticipate there to be automatic extensions given to the operators whose licenses expire first in an effort to gain time while the whole licensing scheme is hashed out by legislators. It looks like Macau lawmakers are being more proactive on the issue and are said to already be reviewing a proposal on how the renewal process should be handled.
Lionel Leong Vai Tac, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance, said over the weekend that a preliminary proposal on gaming law changes has already been introduced. This could go far in the preparation of the bidding process for existing concessions.
Leong indicated, “We’ve said before that the awarding of the gaming concession contracts [when the current ones expire] will have to be done via a bidding process, and the related law needs to be amended as well [in preparation for a new tender]. We are now having an internal study on it [the preliminary proposal].”
He didn’t specify the details of the proposal, but stated that the government will “listen to social opinions and analyse them” throughout the rebid process. There are currently six licenses issued to operators in the gambling hub, and they all expire in either 2020 or in 2022. The first to expire will be those of MGM China and SJM Holdings.