Monthly Archives: May 2019

ICE North America, the biggest sports industry gathering in gaming, opens in Boston

Decision makers, thought leaders, legislators, key operators and the MVPs of sports betting and interactive gaming united at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, MA, USA, for the opening day of the inaugural ICE North America. The Clarion Gaming organised event, which features 42 exhibitors, 29 commercial sponsors and 200+ opinion-forming speakers, welcomed attendees to what is the biggest sports industry gathering in gaming on the exact one year anniversary of the repeal of PASPA.

Speaking at the official opening of ICE North America, Kate Chambers, Managing Director of Clarion Gaming said: “Wherever Clarion Gaming operates in the world we do so in partnership with the industry sectors that we set out to serve. The decision to consolidate our presence in the United States into a single event and broaden our remit to include the five verticals of Sports Betting, iGaming, Esports, iLottery and Affiliate Marketing, was taken after close consultation with stakeholders active in North America who told us that there was a need for a professional and, most importantly, for a trusted platform to help drive the future of gaming across the continent. As such, our vision is to ensure that the entire A-Z of the gaming ecosystem in North America will benefit from the reputation and influence of what is the world’s most successful gaming event brand. ICE North America will enable gaming brands to establish a competitive advantage in what is a tremendously dynamic market full of opportunities to collaborate across all of our five key verticals.”

She added: “Delegates invest a great amount of time attending the events organized by Clarion Gaming and it is our duty to deliver the very best market analysis and insight. Our speaker list reflects this and delegates can look forward to a disruptive learning and network experience that explores the key issues and topics from every perspective.

“Lastly I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to Roy Student who has served as Brand Ambassador to ICE North America. Not only has Roy built up an encyclopaedic knowledge of the industry, but he also shares our vision of what an event needs to deliver in order to be considered outstanding.”

partypoker closed another 94 bot-controlled accounts in April

partypoker continues to roll out their monthly bot-cull report, and this time the figure is 94-bot controlled account closures in the month of April with more than $150,000 heading back to affected players.

Do you go for a walk in the woods knowing that a bear shits in those woods? Maybe if you’re Daniel Dvoress, but if you’re like me, and the most dangerous thing you come across when walking through the woods is a bee, then you don’t go anywhere near the woods full of bear shit.

When I think about bots my crow’s feet kick into life. My thoughts on the matter are shaky. The icy stream for me is the likelihood that the bot makers will decide to become clowns, perfume makers, or head to Vietnam to open up a Pho place.

As long as there is online poker, there will be people wanting to win by less scrupulous means, and this means creating better bots, and more robust cloaking devices. All of which means, the online poker rooms better have the right kind of angel hovering over them, or a top of the range bot detection system.

Atlantic City’s casinos struggling despite new gaming verticals

Atlantic City casinos reported an overall revenue gain in the month of April, but only one casino enjoyed a year-on-year improvement and three venues saw revenue fall by nearly one-quarter.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement released its April casino report on Tuesday, and the numbers – once filtered through the numerous changes the market has undergone – make for some sobering reading.

The headline figures show brick-and-mortar gaming win (slots and table games) of nearly $207.6m in April, an 8.4% improvement from April 2018. Slots revenue rose 6.1% to $144.86m while tables shot up 14.3% to $62.7m.

But only one of the seven casinos that was open in April 2018 reported a year-on-year gain last month, and the market-leading Borgata was up only 0.5% to around $53.4m. The two casinos that opened last summer reported numbers that largely mimicked their March results, with the Hard Rock Atlantic City earning $23.4m and Ocean Casino Resort just under $15.2m.

Jaka and Tetart take down WPTDeepStacks titles in Black Hawk and Deauville

Reports from two WPTDeepStacks Main Event winners including Faraz Jaka winning in Black Hawk, and Nathan Tetart doing likewise in Deauville.

Faraz Jaka is the only player to win both World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year and WPTDeepStack (WPTDS) Main Event honours after taking down the WPTDS Main Event in the Golden Gates Casino & Poker Parlour in Black Hawk.

Jaka won the WPT Player of the Year title in Season VIII, and is a rarity, having done so without winning a WPT Main Event title. Despite amassing more than $6.3m playing live tournaments, his victory in the 251-entrant event is only his third on the live circuit and his first since 2014 when he won a $6,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic in Johannesburg.

The lack of ticks in the ‘win’ column doesn’t mean that Jaka has been dragging his knuckles. In his post-match interview, Jaka told WPT reporters that he hasn’t played much in the past two years, but intends to change that starting right now.

3 Barrels: Konstas wins $25k; Staples Sunday Milly run; Hendry & partypoker

3: Barrels with a partypoker theme including results from the partypoker LIVE sponsored Merit Poker Classic, a deep run in the Sunday Million from Matt Staples, and Stephen Hendry partners with partypoker. 

partypoker LIVE has partners the world over, and one of these is the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino in Kyrenia. Yesterday, I told you how Andreas Christoforou won the $5,300 buy-in, $3m GTD Merit Poker Classic, but I failed to give you the results of the undercard – and it was a bloody good undercard.

Only a few live tournament operators can piece together a $25,500 buy-in event, but Merit managed it. The event attracted 28-entrants (including 11 re-entries), and the Cypriot, Giannis Konstas, took the $323,447 first prize after beating the Russian star Vladimir Troyanovskiy, heads-up.

Five players finished ITM including the Romanian high stakes darling, Liviu Ignat, and the Bulgarian duo of Krasimir Yankov and Dimitar Danchev.

Scientific Games showcases full OpenSports solution and casino content at ICE North America

LAS VEGAS – May 15, 2019 – Scientific Games Corporation (NASDAQ: SGMS) (“Scientific Games”) is showcasing its full portfolio of complete, end-to-end sportsbook and digital casino solutions at ICE North America, held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Scientific Games is exhibiting its OpenSports proposition from Stand A30. The modular and flexible full-stack sportsbook solution comprises five pillars:

• OpenBet – The industry’s proven and scalable betting engine

• OpenPlatform – Player account management including promotions and wallet

Final Game of Thrones odds for episode six

The fifth episode of the final season of Game of Thrones has come and gone, and it blew up most of the odds we’ve talked about this season. We’re back to take a final look at what’s on offer for episode six.

As always, if you haven’t seen the latest episode, it’s spoilers here on out.

Before we really jump in, Benioff and Weiss, head writers of the show, must have had a feeling what lines bookies would offer, and did their best to create pushes. Which Lannister will die first? Cersei and Jamie look to have been crushed at the same time, so we can forget that wager. Who will win the Cleganebowl? How about nobody! Who will kill Cersei? Does a roof count?

Anyway, looking at the final wagers offered, we still have some interesting stuff here.