Casino operator Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) saw its first-quarter profits fall by more than half despite sales suffering only a modest decline during the period.

Figures released Thursday show GKL’s sales totaled KRW109.2b (US$92.5m) in the first three months of 2019, a 10.5% decline from the same period last year. But gross profit was down 37.5% to KRW24.5b and net income plunged 51.3% to less than KRW8.5b ($7.2m).

GKL, which is controlled by the South Korean government and operates three Seven Luck-branded foreigners-only casinos – two in Seoul and the other in Busan – didn’t offer any explanation as to the disparity between its sales and profit figures.

However, the company reported a significant rise in “rental expenses,” which shot up nearly 79% to KRW6.2b and ‘commissions’ were up more than 40% to over KRW6.6b. The company also booked nearly KRW5.4b in ‘depreciation expenses on right of use assets.’

Denmark’s state-run gambling business Danske Spil is taking over the online casino operations of local slots jockeys Tivoli A/S.

On Thursday, Danske Spil announced a ‘partnership agreement’ that will see the state-run company pay a flat fee for the assets of Tivoli’s locally licensed online casino site TivoliCasino.dk.

The agreement also contains a provision under which Tivoli will continue to earn royalties from the online casino’s operations for a 10-year period, with an option to extend if both parties consider it worthwhile.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Tivoli stated that the agreement meant “the Tivoli A/S result before tax and extraordinary items is adjusted from the level of DKK 100 million to the level of DKK 220 million before tax and after extraordinary items,” implying an expected net benefit of DKK120m (US$18m) in 2019.

A new floating casino in the Indian state of Goa hopes to make a splash by staying buoyant long enough to impress gambling tourists.

Thursday saw the kickoff of an 11-day ‘opening extravaganza’ for the Big Daddy Casino on the MV Lucky 7, a 72-meter vessel whose operator, Golden Globe Hotels Pvt Ltd (GGH), claims is “the biggest and most modern offshore gaming destination in Asia.”

The vessel, which was built back in 1995, has a notorious past, having run aground on a sandbar in July 1997 while it was being towed to its permanent mooring on the Mandovi river. It took several months before the MV Lucky 7 could be shifted from its resting place and GGH temporarily transferred the ship’s gaming operations to another vessel, the MV San Domino, that December.

GGH is keen for the public to forget this regrettable past, which didn’t help endear Goa’s casino industry to already dubious locals. GGH has hired numerous Bollywood stars in the hope of enticing tourists to check out the boat’s 110 live gaming tables, which are spread out over the ship’s three levels, along with the usual assortment of wining, dining and other non-gaming entertainment options.

Romanian gambling operator SuperBet has received a major cash injection from the Blackstone Group.

On Wednesday, the US-based Blackstone Group private equity firm announced that its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities subsidiary had made a €175m investment in Romania’s SuperBet. Blackstone senior managing director Andrea Valeri said her group was keen to support the gambling operator’s “upward trend,” which is based on “international expansion and continued technology investments.”

SuperBet CEO Sacha Dragic duly logrolled back, saying Blackstone was a “capable” partner to support his company’s market-leading position in Romania. Dragic added that Blackstone’s cash will also help Superbet capitalize on expansion opportunities in both Central & Eastern Europe and around the globe.

SuperBet began life as a land-based betting operator in Romania, and currently operates over 1,200 points of sale throughout the country. SuperBet launched a Romanian online betting site in 2016 and has since established land-based operations in Poland, although its Polish-licensed online presence has yet to launch. The company boasted turnover of €180m last year.

Sports data specialists Genius Sports have inked a “transformational” deal as the exclusive provider of UK football data to sports betting operators.

On Thursday, Genius Sports announced that it had struck an exclusive “multi-year” deal with Football DataCo, the data rights-holder of the Premier League, English Football League and Scottish Professional Football League. The deal enshrines Genius Sports as the new official data supplier of live UK football data to the global sports betting sector.

Neither the exact length nor the financial terms of the deal were disclosed. Regardless, the deal is something of a coup for Genius Sports and its sports betting offshoot Betgenius, as they replace rivals Perform Group, which had a deal with Football DataCo dating back to 2013.

Genius Sports Group CEO Mark Locke hailed the deal as “transformational” for his firm, given that the 4,000 matches played each season with Football DataCo’s partner leagues represent “some of most valuable sports betting content in the world.”

GVC Holdings is one step closer to a lucrative Nevada license, but it didn’t come easy. The sports wagering company won a 2-1 vote by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) to get a provisional license, and will now face the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC), reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The company faced nearly four hours of testimony from the three-person board, and Terry Johnson wasn’t going to let them through easy. He felt the company did not face enough repercussions for its conduct in Turkey, which it left in November 2017 because online gambling is illegal in that country.

Information also came out that Ladbrokes, which was the GVC brand in Turkey, was concealing payment information to keep money flowing. On top of that, some employees were taking advantage of customers, keeping a little bit of the deposits on the side for themselves.

“I’m at a loss to understand where exactly did the buck stop in the company if it didn’t stop with you, and why are we to be assured that going forward you’re going to be at the helm of this company in a different manner than what transpired over the past several years?” Johnson asked.

Tottenham Hotspur will face Liverpool in the final of the UEFA Champions League after another incredible comeback, this time in the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam.

When tears stream down your face after a team you don’t care about wins a football match; you’ve squirted lemon juice into your eye, or something monumental has happened.

It should be mandatory for therapists to force depressed patients to watch the 2019 UEFA Champions League Semi-Final second legs as a way to drag happiness out of the pit.

It was a scintillating couple of days that allowed people to forget about the troubles of the world and to focus on what makes us human (unless you’re a fan of Barcelona or Ajax, in which case you’re likely looking for a therapists couch to help you get over it).

Online gambling operator The Stars Group (TSG) feels confident that its new Fox Sports betting partnership will allow it to crush its rivals in the expanding US legal betting market.

On Thursday, TSG held an analyst call to discuss Wednesday’s surprise announcement of the blockbuster 25-year Fox Bet deal, which will see the broadcaster take a nearly 5% stake in TSG and potentially a 50% stake in TSG’s US-facing betting business over the next decade, in exchange for granting TSG exclusive access to pitch betting opportunities to Fox Sports viewers.

The Fox Bet JV will be overseen by TSG’s chief corporate development officer Robin Chhabra, who called the Fox deal the “ideal springboard” into the expanding US betting market. TSG has also set up an advisory board that will include Ted Moss, former managing director of TSG’s SkyBet brand, and Grand Parade founder Andy Clerkson.

TSG views the Fox deal as a “large and cost-efficient” customer acquisition channel. Chhabra pegged the average Fox Sports viewer not as a ‘hardcore’ bettor but someone looking to “spice up” their viewing with a little action on the side.

Macau keeps finding new ways to fit even more people into the city. After a month of record high tourism, Macau International Airport (MIA) has reported its busiest month since it opened 24 years ago.

In total, MIA exceeded 800,000 passengers for the month of April, the first time it’s ever accomplished that feat. Macau International Airport Co Ltd. remarked that this was a 19% increase year-on-year. This was helped by increased air traffic, with 6,400 landings and takeoffs in April, a 21% increase for the same period.

They expect to keep growing this number as well. MIA noted in the release that it will work with the Macau government to increase routes, and collaborate on advertising Macau as a “world tourism and leisure center.”

This increase in air travel likely helped carry Macau to its best Labour Day tourism numbers as well. The Macau Government Tourism office recently announced a 37% increase of tourist traffic over the long weekend, in large part thanks to the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge, but also in some part due to air travel.