Daily fantasy sports and (now) sports betting operator DraftKings is expanding its fantasy product mix, its geographic footprint and its executive roster.

While most of the DraftKings news these days surrounds its rapid rollout of new single-game real-money sports wagering, the company hasn’t forgotten its fantasy roots. This week, the company announced the imminent arrival of quasi in-play DFS via its new Flash Draft product.

Flash Draft, which expects to arrive on users’ Android and iOS mobile devices midway through the upcoming NFL season, will allow players to pick athletes they believe will score the most points in quarters 2, 3 and 4 of NFL games, plus a separate contest covering the game’s second half.

These drafts are done live, starting 30 seconds after the conclusion of the previous quarter, and consist of five rounds apiece. Players have only 15 seconds in which to select one of three players they believe will produce the most points in a given quarter. The contests have guaranteed prize pools, but the more players that participate, the higher the potential bonus.

Hong Kong-listed gaming operator Ourgame International Holdings is restructuring its business after Chinese regulatory headwinds did a number on the company’s financial outlook.

On Wednesday, Ourgame informed the market that it expects to record a net loss in the first six months of 2018 that will be “significantly higher” than the RMB74m (US$10.75m) net loss the company reported in the same period last year.

The company said the losses were primarily due to “highly challenging conditions that the Group’s card and board game businesses in China have continued to face together with regulatory headwinds,” not to mention intensified competition from rival developers and “adverse payment policy changes” from its “main mobile carrier payment partners.”

As a result, Ourgame plans to undergo a restructuring that will see it sell off segments of its China card and board games business, including Ourgame Hall and Poker World, although it will continue to earn benefits from these divested properties through a licensing model.

The convicted operator of Macau’s ‘name and shame’ website of gambling debtors has lost his appeal of his prison sentence for violating data protection laws.

On Thursday, Portuguese-language media outlet Ponto Final Macau reported that Macau’s Court of First Instance had rejected an appeal by Charlie Choi Kei Ian, who’d been sentenced to six months in prison for failing to remove the personal data of some 500 alleged gambling deadbeats from the ‘Wonderful World’ website.

According to the report, the Court rejected Choi’s appeal on July 12, but the information has only now been made public. Choi (pictured) confirmed to Ponto Final that, after consulting with counsel, he’d determined that there was “no remedy but to accept” the sentence.

Choi had long maintained that, while he was chairman of Wonderful World Group Ltd, neither he nor the company of that name had any connection with the debtor website. But two witnesses at Choi’s trial claimed otherwise, and Choi himself appeared to contradict his denials in contemporary media reports.

UK-listed gambling operator Rank Group saw its annual profits tumble as digital gains failed to shore up ongoing retail declines.

On Thursday, Rank revealed that its revenue in the 12 months ending June 30 had slipped by £10m to £741m while operating profit slipped 7.7% to £77m. However, nearly £27m in exceptional items dragged pre-tax profit down 41% to £46.7m and statutory net profit down nearly 43% to £35.9m.

Those exceptional costs included impairment charges, “onerous leases” and the closure of its Grosvenor Bradford casino in June. That fits with the larger picture in Rank’s FY 2017/18 results, in which retail operations proved a drag on the overall numbers.

Grosvenor Casinos retail revenue was down 6% to £373m and operating profit fell 6.7% to £48.6m. London’s Grosvenor venues fared worse than those in the provinces, while the brand’s Belgium operations saw revenue fall nearly one-third as customer traffic slumped by 42.5%.

Brazilian state bank Caixa Economica Federal has rolled out an online lottery service, in a bid to boost revenues.

National Superintendent for Caixa Lotteries Gilson Braga hopes Brazilians will take advantage of the increased access of their games. He was quoted by news outlets as saying, “We want to reach a younger audience, from the generations Y and Z, the so-called millennials. It’s an audience that is totally included in the digital world and will not go to a lottery store to bet or pay their bills.”

Caixa forecast a 3% increase in betting volume as a result of making the lottery games available online. Chief Executive Nelson Souza said that with the new system in place, the bank looks to charge 12% of total revenue from ticket sales, whereas before they took 10% of revenue of tickets sold in the conventional manner.

“The new service benefits bettors, lottery players and the general population… The collection and the prizes offered will increase, motivating the bettors to carry out more games. Consequently, it also increases the transfer of the Lotteries to important sectors of society,” Souza said.