Monthly Archives: February 2020

The top seven poker players to follow on Twitter

Last week, we compiled a list of seven players you’ll want to investigate on Instagram. This week, however, we’re taking a look at the most popular players to take to Twitter.

Twitter is a great platform for poker players. Tweets have to be short – 280 characters to be precise, but they are typically a lot shorter. Perfect for poker players, whose wit is often best condensed to a simple bitesize piece of brilliance. These seven know exactly how to pitch it and have over 1.5 million followers between them.

They’re not just the most popular, however, as we’ve included a couple of our favourites from the recent Global Poker Awards nominations who deserve recognition with the ceremony to crown the winners taking place in just over a week’s time.

Matt Salsberg

Caesars loses $304m as interest payments sink ‘solid’ quarter

Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corporation closed out 2019 with another nine-figure net loss, in yet another example of what the struggling company’s chief exec calls a ‘solid’ performance undone by the pesky need to service its debt.

On Tuesday, Caesars reported revenue rising 2.6% year-on-year to $2.17b in the final three months of 2019, while operating income rose 77% to $177m. However, the company booked a net loss of $304m in Q4 versus a net profit of $198m in Q4 2018.

For the year as a whole, revenue rose 4.2% to $8.74b while operating income fell 16.4% to $618m and the company booked a net loss of $1.2b versus a $303m profit in 2018.

In what has become something of a tradition, CEO Tony Rodio said the numbers showed “another quarter of solid operational performance,” which makes one wonder if a teenage Rodio was similarly adept at spinning a failing grade on a book report to his parents. “When you think of it, Dad, an ‘F’ is only five letters from an ‘A’ but it’s 20 letters from a ‘Z’!”

XFL proving to be a winner with fans, gamblers

It may never rise to the level of the NFL, but the XFL is quickly gaining traction with fans and gamblers nonetheless. For the second consecutive week, the new league saw an increase in overall fan attendance, reaching nearly 82,000 fans in the four games of week 3. However, enthusiasm has not ended there, as betting on contests on the league is also increasing.

Ratings for Week 1 exceeded 3.3 million viewers, which declined in Week 2, which was expected when the league was competing against the Daytona 500. Week 2 saw just over 2 million people tuning in. Week 3 ratings will be out later this week.

But without those ratings, we can look to in house attendance, and the numbers at the gate have continued to improve. Attendance during the first week of the season was just below 70,000 total, with a high of 17,815 in Los Angeles. The following week fan attendance increased to 76,285, with more than 29,000 fans attending the Seattle Dragons contest.

This last weekend, the trend continued with a total of 81,942 fans attending games. The high was set in St. Louis’ home opener, where the BattleHawks had an overall attendance of 29,554, a league record to this point. Seattle had a nearly 25% drop off in their second home contest, but still had over 22,000 fans.

XFL proving to be a winner with fans, gamblers

It may never rise to the level of the NFL, but the XFL is quickly gaining traction with fans and gamblers nonetheless. For the second consecutive week, the new league saw an increase in overall fan attendance, reaching nearly 82,000 fans in the four games of week 3. However, enthusiasm has not ended there, as betting on contests on the league is also increasing.

Ratings for Week 1 exceeded 3.3 million viewers, which declined in Week 2, which was expected when the league was competing against the Daytona 500. Week 2 saw just over 2 million people tuning in. Week 3 ratings will be out later this week.

But without those ratings, we can look to in house attendance, and the numbers at the gate have continued to improve. Attendance during the first week of the season was just below 70,000 total, with a high of 17,815 in Los Angeles. The following week fan attendance increased to 76,285, with more than 29,000 fans attending the Seattle Dragons contest.

This last weekend, the trend continued with a total of 81,942 fans attending games. The high was set in St. Louis’ home opener, where the BattleHawks had an overall attendance of 29,554, a league record to this point. Seattle had a nearly 25% drop off in their second home contest, but still had over 22,000 fans.

Champions League round of 16 preview: Manchester City go for the throne

Some games of football take on added significance due to events off the football pitch. Think of Iran taking on the U.S.A. at the World Cup in 1998, which was dubbed the “most politically charged game in World Cup history” at the time. Politics of a different sort are the backdrop for one of the Champions League game this midweek, but just like last week, when we tipped Borussia Dortmund to beat Paris St. Germain 2-1 at odds of 10/1, there is value to be had.

Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich (Tuesday, 8pm GMT kick-off)

An intriguing clash at Stamford Bridge sees the West London outfit head into the game as distinct outsiders to progress in the tie. While Frank Lampard’s side sit in 4th place in the Premier League, they have lost nine times in a league season, which with 11 games still to play, does not bode well for the visit of the Bundesliga leaders, who have scored 65 goals in their 23 league games to date.

In Robert Lewandowski, Munich have the sort of striker that Chelsea have coveted since the first retirement of Didier Drogba. Strong as an ox, deft of touch and clinical to a fault, the Polish poacher is the man they will watch for. But in Serge Gnabry, Munich also have a very talented second striker, and we think he can shadow behind Lewandowski to devastating effect.