Monthly Archives: July 2018

Play’n GO appoints new sales director to advance sales strategy

Casino gaming content supplier Play’n GO is looking to boost its sales. While the company isn’t preparing any “wholesale changes,” according to CEO Johan Törnqvist, it has appointed Magnus Olsson to oversee both the sales and the account management teams. Olsson is the current sales director for the company.

Törnqvist told iGamingBusiness.com that his goal is to streamline the company. He feels that including customer-facing divisions under the same management as sales will help improve Play’n GO’s operational efficiency.

The executive doesn’t anticipate any additional changes at this point. He affirmed, “We’re not rushing into anything here and we aren’t looking to make wholesale changes. What we’re doing as a company is working well we are just tweaking it so, for now, there are no major changes expected.”

Combining sales and account management under a single umbrella is “the first step in a strategy to focus on getting the most out of the customer-facing departments, and to create a globally streamlined sales organisation within the business,” according to Törnqvist. He added, “We’re aiming to streamline the organisation and bring sales and account management, our customer-facing departments, closer together for a better client experience. This move will bring the knowledge and experience of both sectors together to create a more consistent approach to the way we work.”

MGM wants a piece of Osaka

Now that the Japanese government has approved the country’s Integrated Resort Implementation Bill (IRIB), casino operators are going to start pushing and shoving, hoping to gain a better position against the their competition. While some companies may feel that a soft approach is best to improve its status, MGM Resorts International went directly for the throat.

MGM Chairman and CEO James Murren, in a conversation with Japanese media this past Wednesday, said that the company can make a “full contribution” to Japan only if it is allowed to operate in a major urban area. Murren specifically said that MGM wants Osaka. In other words, if MGM can’t have Osaka, they don’t want to be in Japan.

Murren, who was in Osaka to participate in the Tenjin Festival, continued to target Osaka for the operations. He told the Sankei Shinbun news outlet that “Osaka is the top” and declared to a local TV station, “I think Osaka is the perfect place for an IR.”

According to Murren, Osaka has a number of benefits, especially with its infrastructure. He said, “Kansai International Airport and Kobe Airport are nearby, and the Shinkansen and local railway network is developing.” He also reiterated that the company is prepared to spend around $9 billion to build an IR in the country.

A new online Poker Hall of Fame pops up out of nowhere

Online poker is a big deal. There is almost a non-stop flow of tournaments happening around the world all year long, it is constantly being discussed by lawmakers trying to determine if it’s legal or not and it continues to spread deeper and deeper to every corner of the globe. So, if someone is going to create a new online poker hall of fame, you would expect that to be met with a great amount of press, public announcements, maybe even a parade. However, it would seem that this isn’t the case, at least for one new hall of fame.

The ophof.org website has suddenly popped up out of nowhere – no fanfare, no announcements, no marching bands. Nothing more than a list of over 30 poker players and the ability for fans to select three names for induction into the hall of fame’s inaugural class.

Among the poker greats listed are Tom Dwan, the two Phils (Ivey and Galfond), Viktor Blom, Shaun Deeb and the only female to make the list, Annette Obrestad. Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer are, unsurprisingly, not listed. However, other names that don’t appear that possibly should have been are Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen. Granted, the Great Dane, as Hansen is called, has lost a tremendous amount of his online earnings (some put his losses at over $20 million), but he is still worthy of at least being nominated.

The site provides no details about who is behind it, what its goals are, who nominated the individuals – nothing. Even the site’s “About Us” page is extremely vague and only provides links to six poker-themed websites, including PokerNews, CardPlayer, PocketFives, WSOP, Global Poker Index and Poker Pro Labs.

Boyd Gaming hails “significant progress” in plan to make money

Casino operator Boyd Gaming enjoyed “significant progress” in executing its plan for world – or at least regional US market – domination in the second quarter of 2018.

Figures released Thursday show the Las Vegas-based Boyd generated revenue of $618.8m in the three months ending June 30, up 2.1% from the same period last year. Operating income was up 7.5% to $96.2m while net income dropped one-fifth to $38.9m.

It should be noted that Q2 2017 enjoyed a $21m bump from Boyd’s former 50% stake in Atlantic City’s market-leading Borgata casino, which the company sold to its Borgata partner MGM Resorts. Going purely on income from continuing operations, Boyd’s bottom line was up nearly 40%.

All three of Boyd’s business segments enjoyed mild revenue gains in Q2, including the Las Vegas Locals market, which saw revenue inch up to $220m but adjusted earnings rose 11% to $70.2m thanks to the highest Q2 operating margin since 2005. The Downtown Las Vegas segment reported revenue of $61.2m while earnings rose 8% to $13.5m.

Microgaming launches brand new poker software to customers

ISLE OF MAN – Microgaming celebrates the launch of Prima on the MPN, a new online poker client designed to deliver a premium experience to players worldwide.

Built with players in mind, the new client features a streamlined interface to provide easy navigation to cash, tournament and casino games, which includes a blind cash game lobby and a simplified rewards system.

Most notably, the client has been developed with a strong focus on enhancing the user experience and promoting responsible gaming with increased transparency. The new Prima client includes a player history tool that displays overall profit and loss across all game types which can be filtered for any time period, giving players the ability to track and review their gameplay and make informed choices.

Using cross-platform technologies, Prima has been designed in a modular fashion and is powered from the same codebase that will enable Microgaming to swiftly deploy new updates across all platforms at the same time. With the new technology, the latest features can be delivered to players and new markets faster than ever before, in addition to supporting new and upcoming devices in future.

College football Heisman Trophy odds update

Here’s something you probably can’t remember seeing: A player as a co-favorite on the Heisman Trophy odds who might not even begin a season as a starter on his team.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Said player is Alabama sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is +700 on the futures odds to win the Heisman along with Stanford senior running back Bryce Love. With all its tradition, one might expect Alabama to be among the leaders nationally in Heisman Trophy winners, but the Tide have had just two and only since 2009: running backs Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry. Of course, the most famous former Alabama QB is a guy named Joe Namath.

Tagovailoa barely played last regular season as a freshman but rescued a struggling Alabama offense by taking over for Jalen Hurts in the second half of the national championship game against Georgia. Tagovailoa, from Hawaii like former Oregon Heisman winner Marcus Mariota, threw one of the most memorable passes in NCAA history in that game: a walk-off 41-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith for the 26-23 overtime victory.

Azino777 online casino is Russia’s top online video advertiser

Online casino operator Azino777 was the top video advertiser on Russian-language internet sites in the first half of 2018, but its profile is growing dangerously high in Russian political circles.

This week, Moscow-based business daily Vedomosti published a report indicating that the Curacao-licensed Azino777 was the largest online video advertiser on Runet, the Russian-language internet community, in the first six months of 2018.

According to audience research firm Mediascope’s survey of desktop internet users aged 16-24 in cities with populations over 100k, Azino777’s online video promos accounted for 7.1% of all Russian-language online advertising, a higher ranking than international giants Pepsi and Mars, as well as local online heavyweights Yandex, Mail.ru Group and Google.

Azino777 topped a similar Mediascope chart earlier this year, based on its ubiquity on illegal file-sharing sites. The site has produced several videos featuring well-known Russian rappers extolling Azino777’s virtues, despite Russian law explicitly prohibiting any form of online gambling beyond sports betting.

Penn National not making “huge investments” in sports betting

Regional casino operator Penn National Gaming (PNG) more than tripled its net income in the second quarter of 2018 despite only a modest increase in revenue.

Figures released Thursday show PNG generated revenue of $827m in the three months ending June 30, a 3.8% gain on the same period last year. By contrast, adjusted earnings were up 8.6% to $247.1m and net income hit $54m from just $17.1m last year.

A few caveats: first, adjusted earnings fell to $131.2m (+15.6%) once you subtract the rent PNG pays its real estate investment trust landlord Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc. Second, PNG changed its definition of adjusted earnings in Q1 to “enhance comparability with our competitors’ definition” of the metric.

Those quibbles aside, PNG’s three main geographic categories were all in positive territory in Q2, with the Northeast region’s eight properties rising 4.4% to $423m, the South/West segment’s eight venues up 6.5% to $163.4m and the Midwest segment’s eight venues rising 1.6% to $230.5m.

Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen at it Again, Accused of Angle-Shooting During WPT Gardens Poker Festival, Still Makes Final Table

Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen made the WPT Gardens Poker Festival final table on Wednesday but for the umpteenth time in his controversial career, the seven-time WSOP bracelet winner was accused […]

The post Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen at it Again, Accused of Angle-Shooting During WPT Gardens Poker Festival, Still Makes Final Table appeared first on .

3BALL USA to Launch Olympics-Style 3×3 Basketball Showcase at Great Mall In Silicon Valley®

by Tanner Simkins @TannerSimkins

The Outdoor Event Tips Off August 17th at Great Mall in Silicon Valley (Milpitas, CA);

8-Team Tournament to Feature “Super Teams” from Around the World Competing for $50,000

San Jose, Calif., July 26, 2018 – 3BALL USA, a well-established team organizer in Olympic rules 3×3 basketball, today announced the launch of its first-ever post-collegiate 3×3 tournament taking place August 17 to 19 at SIMON®’s Great Mall located in Milpitas, California (Silicon Valley). 3×3 is the uniquely fast-paced version of “3-on-3” basketball that the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) introduced in 2007 and that recently became a new Olympic sport to be featured at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. 3BALL USA, a Bay Area-based organization whose mission is to help grow the 3×3 basketball movement in the U.S. through experiential events in high-traffic locations, will tip off with an outdoor showcase in anticipation of a formal summer league that will begin play in 2019. The 3BALL management and advisory team includes sports industry executives George Raveling, Spencer Haywood, Andy Dolich, Stan Morrison, Bill Duffy, Matt Levine, Phil Evans, and Gary Hunter.

The public is welcome to the event, which will feature 8 elite men’s 3×3 teams competing in 21 games, a high-flying slam dunk contest, a one-on-one challenge featuring streetball icon The Professor, interactive selfie walls, music, food trucks, and a virtual reality activation from YBVR. Tickets go on sale today and can be purchased at www.3ballusa.com and EventBrite.com. For each night of the tournament (minimum of 6 games per night), the ticket price is $25 for adults, and children 12 and under will get in free. Pool play begins on Friday at 7:00pm PST and on Saturday at 6:00pm PST, and the Playoffs begin on Sunday at 5:00pm PST. The entire event will be live streamed on Twitch, the leading digital platform in the U.S. for live video, and Sina Sports, the #1 digital sports platform in China. Additionally, NBC Sports Bay Area, NBC Sports Chicago, and NBC Sports Washington, will broadcast the 3BALL USA Championship Game, which will close the event on Sunday.

The FIBA-endorsed tournament will adhere to the official FIBA 3×3 game rules that will be used during the 2020 Olympics. The eight teams featured in the competition will be seeded based on pool play results and face off in a single elimination playoff round on Sunday. The 3BALL champions will win a $50,000 cash prize, and the top-finishing American team will earn automatic qualifications for the 2018 Sina Sports 3×3 Elite League in Beijing, China and the 2019 USA Basketball 3×3 National Championships at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. An elite field of teams from around the world will be announced over the next week to ten days.

3BALL USA, which has had at least one team in the USA Basketball 3×3 National Championships each of the past three years, was established in 2016 when founder and chief executive officer Michael Wranovics discovered FIBA 3×3 and recognized a growing opportunity for aspiring post-collegiate basketball players and a new pathway to the Olympics. Soon after, he recruited four free agent players (DeAndre Liggins, Alfonzo McKinnie, Myke Henry, and Stefhon Hannah) to form a 3×3 super team: 3BALL Premier. The four Chicagoans, three of whom have since played in the NBA, won their first 28 games in 3×3 competition, including a gold medal at the 2016 USA Basketball 3×3 National Championships. They went on to take the silver medal at the FIBA 3×3 World Cup in Guangzhou, China later that summer. This initial success helped Wranovics, a sports event and media entrepreneur, to attract renowned Bay Area businessman and former sports team owner Tad Taube to partner in developing the nation’s first professional 3×3 summer league.

“The global popularity of basketball has never been stronger, and FIBA’s innovative 3×3 game is helping to engage new players and younger fans around the world,” said Wranovics. “Capitalizing on the growing excitement around this faster-paced version of the sport, our goal with 3BALL USA is to introduce a professional model that offers a new generation of U.S. athletes the opportunity to compete for a gold medal in Tokyo and beyond.”

“We are excited about the first-ever 3BALL tournament at Great Mall,” said Lynne Rice, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Great Mall. “Simon is constantly innovating to elevate the consumer experience and introducing new offerings to our shoppers, so having 3BALL USA put on its event at our shopping center seems like a natural fit.”

3BALL USA will launch its league in summer 2019, consisting of weekly three-day tournaments in a variety of high-traffic locations. Additional details will be announced in the coming months.

Betfred’s FOBT tax victory could have serious online blowback

UK bookmakers Betfred have won a court fight with the local taxman that could inadvertently bring new limits on online casino play.

This week, a first-tier tribunal ruled in favor of Betfred’s claim that the value added tax (VAT) applied to revenue derived from the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in the company’s betting shops had breached the concept of ‘fiscal neutrality,’ in that similar products in casinos (both land-based and online) weren’t subject to the same tax.

The tribunal declared that slots games “all met the same need from the point of view of the customer,” regardless of whether they were based on an FOBT or some other delivery mechanism. The tribunal applied the same reasoning toward roulette, card games and virtual racing games.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) had applied the VAT to Betfred’s FOBT revenue between December 2005 and January 2013, after which the government introduced its 20% Machine Games Duty, which was hiked to 25% in 2014.