The first round-up from this week’s Champions League matches including Paris St Germain beating Manchester United at Old Trafford, and Roma beating Porto at the Stadio Olimpico.

Football is as fickle as a flamingo living in Frome.

We saw how fickle at Old Trafford, last night.

When Manchester United drew Paris St Germain (PSG) in the Round of 16 of the Champions League, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the then boss of Molde, watched the draw at home with his son.

Atlantic City’s casinos started 2019 on solid footing, as hot slots overcame cold tables.

According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Atlantic City’s nine casino operators reported brick-and-mortar gaming revenue of $177.3m in January, a 9.2% improvement over January 2018’s result.

That said, it bears mentioning that the previous January suffered from a blizzard that dumped a foot of snow on the seaside gambling hub, which artificially depressed that month’s numbers (while also depressing the hell out of local residents). And January 2019’s total was nearly $32m below December 2018’s holiday-aided haul.

At any rate, January’s gains were entirely due to its slot machines, which reported revenue up 15.1% to $126.1m, while the table game total was down 3.1% to $51.2m. Add in the record $33.6m generated in January by the casinos’ online gambling partners plus the $18.8m from sports betting and the month’s total gaming revenue figure was up nearly one-quarter to $229.6m.

New Jersey’s sports betting market hit new heights in January, setting a record for betting handle, although revenue took a slight dip.

Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed bookmakers handled wagers worth $385.3m, up more than one-fifth from December’s total and a new market record. The numbers reflect early interest in the 2019 Super Bowl, which reported nearly $35m in betting handle, albeit some of those wagers would have been placed in February.

January’s online betting handle came in just under $305m, representing nearly 80% of overall betting turnover and a 25% rise from December’s online handle. By contrast, retail wagering was up a modest $2.2m from December to $80.3m.

January’s betting revenue – which under the DGE’s definition includes pending wagers – hit just under $18.8m, about $2m below December’s result. Actual wagering revenue from ‘completed events’ came in just under $15.5m, half of which was won via football.

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market shows absolutely no sign of letting up as it smashed yet another monthly revenue record.

Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show the state’s licensed online gambling operators generated revenue of $33.6m in January, a stellar 53% rise over the same month last year and $4.6m higher than the previous record set last December.

In fact, January’s online casino revenue of $31.7m could have set a new monthly best for the overall market all on its own. As it stands, January’s online casino revenue was 58.5% higher year-on-year and $4.5m higher than December 2018.

And then there’s online poker. The perpetually disappointing poker vertical reported revenue of $1.88m in January, a 3.5% decline from January 2018 although it did inch up slightly from December 2018’s $1.76m.

Turkey’s new sports betting management contract has been awarded to a consortium that includes Scientific Games Corporation.

Last month, Turkey’s government announced a tender for a 10-year contract to manage and expand the operations of the state-owned Iddaa-SporToto sports betting business. Among the criteria that interested bidders were asked to submit was how low a commission they intended to claim as their own.

On Wednesday, Turkish media reported that Sans Girism OGG, a consortium involving Scientific Games and local conglomerate Demirören Group – which is controlled by Turkish Football Federation chairman Yildirim Demirören – had submitted the lowest bid, expecting a mere 0.2% of sports betting revenue.

The next lowest bidder was the Inteltek partnership, which offered a 0.5% commission rate. Inteltek, which includes Greek lottery and betting giant Intralot and local telecom operator Turkcell, was awarded the previous 10-year SporToto contract in 2008, for which it received a 1.4% commission.