The Asian Poker Tour inks a deal with Philippine-based Dafabet, and Zhu Yong wins the Asian Poker League in Vietnam.

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) is no longer shivering beneath the bed sheets. Dafabet has struck a match, lit the kindle, and has climbed in next to them swaddled in fur.

The Philippines-based online gambling giant has agreed a ‘multi-event’ partnership that begins in Seoul, trundles on through Ho Chi Minh and Incheon, before possibly continuing to other APT stops.

The new relationship begins during APT Seoul 29 May to 9 June at The Walkerhill Paradise Casino where the Dafabet brand will be on display during the Main Event, Head Hunter side event, and the player’s party.

Dominik Nitsche readies to unveil his new poker training site “DTO Poker”, and Jimmy Fricke takes his knowledge of poker training into the Esports realm.

You’re not going to find Dominik Nitsche sitting at the poker table wearing sunglasses; turtle neck sweater covering his throbbing jugular, a hoodie covering his head.

The 888Poker Ambassador and German High Roller star doesn’t believe his edge comes from ‘superhuman reads.’ It comes from hours upon hours of study and play forged to increased the likelihood that he will make the right decision more often than the wrong one.

Nitsche has won more than $18m playing live tournaments, including a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, and four World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. Online, he has earned close to $5m playing tournaments, and I imagine a windshield smashing amount playing online cash games.

A Midnight Esports pro is in hot water over a betting tweet, Tfue sues FaZe Clan, and Ferarri rethinks F1 Esports involvement.

After watching John Wick Chapter 3 with my 18-year-old son, he gave me one of those ‘what a pile of pants’ looks.

“There was no plot.” He said.

Anyone showing up to watch a John Wick movie hoping for a plot has lost the plot.

Chris Moneymaker follows in the footsteps of Jason Somerville, Lex Veldhuis, and Patrik Antonius by organising and running a live tournament emblazoned with his name and sigil.

Remember that game you played in school: ‘follow the leader.’ One wonders if everyone secretly craved to be at the head of the line. Then you had those courageous enough to grab it by the scruff, and the rest were unable to bust beyond the thick ice of low self-esteem.

Chris Moneymaker is playing the game.

He’s taken the scruff.

West Virginia’s sports bettors may soon be back betting on the fly as a DraftKings mobile app grows closer to receiving official launch approval.

On Wednesday, the WV Metro News reported that the West Virginia Lottery had successfully completed testing of DraftKings’ mobile betting app, paving the way for the product’s soft-launch ‘sometime next week.’ DraftKings has partnered with Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races.

While all five of West Virginia’s gaming venues managed to launch land-based wagering operations, the state’s bettors have been without a digital option since March 6, when the BetLucky app went dark amid a growing legal dispute between casino operator Delaware North and its technology partner Miomni Gaming.

Delaware North’s two casinos have since also halted their retail betting operations, creating even more of an opportunity for DraftKings’ new app to grab market share. WV Lottery director John Myers said the Bet Lucky app had outperformed its retail counterpart “on several weeks” during its brief existence.

Macau’s top gaming regulator ended up skipping this week’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia conference due to the suspected presence of illegal online gambling operators among the exhibitors.

Paulo Martins Chan, director of Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), was scheduled to give a keynote address on Day 2 of the G2E Asia shindig but pulled out at the last minute. The DICJ opted against sending a replacement speaker.

The Macau News Agency reported that Chan (pictured) had decided against speaking at the conference after receiving complaints that some exhibitors were “using the Macau exhibition to promote illegal online gaming.” The DICJ launched a “detailed investigation” into these complaints and felt “it will be more proper for the Bureau not to attend activities held by the respective exhibition organizer” until the results of this investigation were known.

Similar complaints were lodged following the 2018 conference, which prompted the DICJ to issue a statement earlier this month reminding exhibitors that online gambling was illegal in Macau and that the DICJ would make a “special effort” to ensure no one got away with promoting illegal activity.

Atlantic City casino profits continued to shrink in the first quarter of 2019 as the combination of new casino competition and sports betting expansion costs dragged down the numbers.

Figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) show that AC’s nine brick-and-mortar casinos – plus two purely online gambling operations – generated revenue of $704.6m in the three months ending March 31, a 17.6% improvement over the same period last year.

However, of the seven casinos that were operating in Q1 2018, only one – Resorts Casino Hotel – posted a year-on-year revenue gain, and Resorts was coming off an unusually low result last year. The other six casinos suffered declines ranging from the Golden Nugget’s 2.6% slip to Harrah’s 15.7% tumble.

The revenue gains were only possible due to the two casinos that opened last June – Hard Rock Atlantic City and Ocean Casino Resort – which combined for an extra $135m added to Q1 2019’s total, as well as rising online gambling contributions and new revenue from sports betting.

SafeCharge, the Teddy Sagi-owned payment processor popular with online gambling firms, has been acquired by North America-based Nuvei Corp in a deal worth $889m.

On Wednesday, Nuvei (which rebranded from Pivotal Payments last October) announced that it had made an all-cash offer of 436p per share – a 25% premium over Tuesday’s closing price – to acquire payment processor SafeCharge International Plc, which would value the UK-based firm at around £700m.

SafeCharge CEO David Avgi said the deal would enable his company “to benefit from Nuvei’s North American footprint and sales and marketing capacity to fulfill and accelerate its growth ambitions.” Nuvei CEO Philip Fayer agreed, saying the deal creates a truly global firm with “significant scale.”

SafeCharge is 68.3% owned by Sagi, the founder of gambling technology supplier Playtech. Sagi has been steadily divesting himself of gambling-related holdings in favor of buying up huge swathes of UK real estate, including key areas of London’s Camden Town. Sagi has already agreed to Nuvei’s offer, and SafeCharge’s board (surprise!) unanimously concurred with Sagi’s choice.