A bunch of World Series of Poker related stories including a record 12th World Series of Poker Circuit ring for Maurice Hawkins, Andrey Veselov taking down the Circuit Main Event in the UK, a bracelet for sale on eBay, and Dutch Boyd invoking change via social media.
A few globules of vomit from the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and we’ll begin by regurgitating the business that took place in Dusk till Dawn recently.
The WSOP and partypoker are best buddies, and that means if you want to host an event in the UK you host it in Rob Yong’s boudoir, and that was the case as the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) arrived in Nottingham looking more Maid Marion than Friar Tuck.
The silver coin in this Christmas pudding was a the £1,100 buy-in, £1m GTD World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event. 1,023 of the UK’s most exceptional poker players turned up to compete, and a Russian-born UK resident took it down.
The Winning Poker Network and Americas Cardroom have finally taken transparent action against the bots that have infiltrated the network, confirming the closure of two accounts, the creation of a new $25k caveated reimbursement policy, and the return of more than $200,000.
Aeons after Joey Ingram made the Winning Poker Network’s (WPN) bot infestation a very public one; it seems they have taken off the gloves, and are prepared to start hitting back.
Once again, the prelude to a WPN announcement came from a torpedo fired from within the community, and not from the stores of the WPB flagship.
Eric Collier, competing under the screen name ‘TheKamist’, reached the heads-up phase of a $16.50 buy-in, $10k GTD event on Americas Cardroom (ACR), and just happened to be streaming the whole thing live on Twitch.
Arizona joined a growing number of states allowing winners of big lottery jackpots to stay anonymous Wednesday after Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation letting winners of jackpots of $100,000 or more request that their names not be made public.Arizona, Legislation, Government, Anonymous
A Missouri couple found a lottery ticket in their glove compartment and discovered it was a $50,000 winner just one day before it would have expired.Powerball, Winner Stories, Missouri, Multi-State Game
Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool join Barcelona and Ajax in the semi-finals of the Champions League after a crazy, crazy night of action.
It was going to take something teeth rattling to barge past Manchester City in the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Champions League, and boy did they rattle as Tottenham Hotspur made it through to the Semi-Finals in a seven-goal thriller that had everything.
Oh, how crucial Son Heung-min’s late goal at Wembley turned out to be as they arrived in the place where most leave with nothing but motion sickness. City had won 12 on the trot in this place. It’s now 13, but it will rank as the most meaningless victory of them all.
A colt by Dominus showed off his turn of foot when he ran an eighth-mile in :09 3/5, the fastest at the distance thus far, during the April 18 fourth session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring of 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale under tack show.
In what would be a significant change in how 2-year-old races and stakes races are conducted in the United States, 20 of the leading tracks plan to phase out the use of race-day medication beginning with juvenile races next year.
In terms of the meeting’s progression, the two halves of the April 18 California Horse Racing Board meeting at Santa Anita Park couldn’t have differed more.
Casino operator Las Vegas Sands relied on its Macau mass market strength to overcome a slump in VIP gaming in the first quarter of 2019.
On Wednesday, Sands reported revenue of $3.65b in the first three months of 2019, a modest 1.9% rise over the same period last year. But operating income slipped 16% to $971m and net income tumbled 54% to $744m, although it should be noted that Q1 2018 benefited from a one-off $670m benefit thanks to Donald Trump’s generous US tax cuts.
Interestingly, Sands noted that its results were negatively impacted by a “nonrecurring legal settlement,” which appears to be a reference to the settlement in March of Sands’ long-running court battle with Richard Suen. The amount of the settlement went undisclosed at the time, but the Q1 report suggests Sands paid Suen around $96m.
Getting back to the results, the all-important Sands China division reported revenue up 8% to $2.33b, adjusted earnings up 8.7% to $858m while net income was flat at $557m.
When given the assignment of previewing Friday’s Stanley Cup playoff games, we thought there was a good chance that one of those WOULDN’T include Game 5 of the Eastern series between the top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning and the No. 8 Columbus Blue Jackets.
Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com
The Lightning had a record-setting season with 62 wins and had swept Columbus by a combined score of 17-3. We figured the Lightning would sweep that playoff series in four. Indeed, there was a sweep – by the Blue Jackets, completed on Tuesday. Fair to say that’s the biggest series upset in NHL playoff history (first playoff series win in Columbus franchise history) and was the first time a Presidents’ Trophy winner was swept in the first round.
Frankly, that’s great news for all the teams still playing as it completely opens up the Stanley Cup chase.
The American Graded Stakes Committee will revisit a race-day Lasix ban in all listed and graded stakes but a final decision will wait until all regulatory hurdles are cleared.
Its been in interesting week for Bitcoin SV (BSV) to say the least, with plenty of chatter across Twitter and crypto-facing news sites on the delisting of the cryptocurrency from several exchanges. While for the innocent bystander it may be difficult to decipher fact from fiction amongst a sea of emotional and often nonsensical tweets, its most certainly not all doom and gloom for BSV supporters.
There are professionals with years of experience in the crypto industry, such as Jack Liu, who has left significant roles to start building on BSV due to its superior technology and vision. Delisting BSV from exchanges will not stop such professionals and in fact, the news inspired Liu to start trading on his new BSV-powered exchange, FloatSV, earlier than expected.
“There’s got to be an exchange for BSV, this is how I thought about it when we launched. Now unbelievably many exchanges are delisting it, so number one is make sure there’s at least a venue where people can trade SV. Hopefully it stays listed everywhere else and then we have more plans on Float as well to come,” Liu shared with CoinGeek.com.
The World Poker Tour’s involvement in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown shuts down until May 30 with a final table headlined by James Carroll, Maria Ho and Eric Afriat scheduled for the HyperX Esports Arena, and Aaron Mermelstein wins the $25,500.
It’s time to put your contact lenses in.
We have some World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown news to catch up on.
We knew that Elio Fox had won the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller, and now we know that the two-time WPT Main Event Champion, Aaron Mermelstein, has taken down the $25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller.
Sweden’s former gambling monopolies are winning the battle for market share in the newly regulated online market.
On Thursday, Sweden’s Spelinspektionen regulatory body released a brief snapshot of how its new online gambling licensees were faring under the new regulatory scheme. Based on its own computations and Swedish tax agency info, Spelinspektionen said net revenue over the first three months of 2019 totaled nearly SEK3.3b (US$353.4m).
Despite having nearly 60 competitors, Sweden’s two former gambling monopolies claimed half (SEK1.645b) of Q1’s overall online revenue. Svenska Spel (sports betting) was estimated to have generated revenue of SEK577m while ATG (horseracing) was the overall champ with SEK1.07b. (Those figures don’t include either firm’s land-based operations.)
Earlier this month, Spelinspektionen released figures covering total online and land-based gaming revenue over the first two months of 2019. Svenska Spel was the clear leader, with ATG in second, while international online operators were well back, led by the Kindred Group’s Unibet (SEK247m), Bet365 (SEK117m) and LeoVegas (SEK103m).
Mick and Wendy Ruis of Ruis Racing have purchased the Woodford County farm formerly owned by Woodford Thoroughbreds, Kirkpatrick & Co. announced April 18.
Churchill Downs announced April 18 significant initiatives to improve safety protocols and procedures ahead of the May 4 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
Sports betting technology supplier Kambi has extended its deal with Bulgaria’s national lottery operator to prepare for its entry into the Moldovan market this summer.
On Wednesday, Kambi announced that it was enhancing its existing relationship with National Lottery JSC, Bulgaria’s leading private gaming company, which operates locally under the 7777.bg online lottery and gaming brand. The two parties first hooked up in July 2017 after 7777 decided to add sports betting to its product mix.
The expanded deal, which replaces the parties’ original pact, will see Kambi support National Lottery JSC’s push into Moldova, which recently awarded the Bulgarian firm an exclusive 15-year contract to run its national lottery product and a new online and retail sports betting service. The new monopoly operation is a public-private partnership with Moldova’s Public Property Agency.
Kambi’s plan is to roll out the online sports betting product in Moldova “in the next few months.” Retail betting operations will be rolled out initially via “local stores” and eventually via a network of dedicated betting shops.
Grade 1 winner Discreet Lover will make his first start in more than five months April 20 when he kicks off his 2019 campaign by facing 10 rivals at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in the $1 million Charles Town Classic Stakes (G2).
Thursday, April 18th, 2019, Malta – EveryMatrix is pleased to announce the recent signing of a new agreement between leading integration platform CasinoEngine and CT Interactive, top-notch content provider.
Under the agreement, CT Interactive will provide a blockbuster game content of over 100+ HTML5 titles through the company`s Remote Game Server ELEPHANT to CasinoEngine’s large network of operators, and thus expanding the scope of its market reach.
Lachezar Petrov, Head of CT Interactive, commented: “We have been very impressed by EveryMatrix and its team of visionary people, working with high-profile iGaming partners, and we are delighted to have them as a valuable partner. As CT Interactive`s slot titles will be live with EveryMatrix`s desktop and mobile users across all operator’s channels, we are thrilled to offer players a portfolio of popular games, including our latest releases such as 40 Mega Slot, Ramses the Great, Fluftails”.
Mr Petrov said that the deal marked another peak for the company, that is looking to partner with the industry’s leading players.
Daily fantasy sports app Daily Number, today announced its exclusive partnership with legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather. This announcement was delivered as a fight promotion “pump fake” that put the boxing world on notice and signaled the start of an exclusive partnership between the app and one of the most famous boxers in history. Daily Number is founded by successful entrepreneur Tom McAuley.
To officially announce this partnership, Daily Number worked closely with Mayweather and Connor Kroll, both of whom have joined the company as equity partners along with Co-Founder and All-Pro NFL Cornerback Richard Sherman, to covertly orchestrate a pseudo fight promotion aimed at shocking the sports world into believing one of the most successful boxers of all time was coming out of retirement. Mayweather ignited the rumor mill by posting a teaser video on his social media accounts on Monday, teasing a big announcement. Today, Mayweather made his much-anticipated big announcement with another video on social media. In the video, the global sports icon held a fake press conference to announce his exclusive partnership with Daily Number.
“I’m excited to announce to the world that The Money Team is now Team Daily Number,” said Mayweather. “You’re talking about the highest paid athlete of all time. It doesn’t take me 10 years to collect a couple hundred million like those guys playing baseball. Daily Number and my brand together is a guaranteed home run.”
The artificial fight promotion is just the beginning for Daily Number, which will be rolling out unique content over the next year featuring Mayweather, Sherman, Antonio Brown, Paul Pierce and more.
“Daily Number is just going to keep punching you in the mouth,” said McAuley. “Right when you think we’ve stretched the limits of what is possible for an early stage company, we’re going to hit you with the next thing. It truly is an exciting place to be, where the craziest idea you can imagine is executable. That’s 100% a factor of the incredible people that have bought into what we’re doing.”
