Let’s play a game of wild imagination. Let’s imagine for a moment we’re at a 2020 New Year’s party. On New Year’s Eve 2019 I ask you what would be the absolute worst case scenario for GVC, short of an alien invasion or the sun going supernova and turning the Earth into a molten blob of rock. Think of the craziest thing you could possibly conjure up within the known laws of physics. You’d probably scratch your head, think really hard, and then say something totally nuts like “The global cancellation of all major sporting events simultaneously.”

“HA! That’s totally crazy!” I’d say, “But OK,” I’d continue, sniggering, “you tinfoil hat whacknutter but yeah, I guess that could happen in tinfoil hat universe.”

And then let’s say I asked you to guess what GVC’s stock price would be in the event that this totally insane scenario actually happened. You’d probably say a 70-80% fall would be reasonable. And then I’d say “HA! No it wouldn’t! GVC never falls!” And then you’d think I was the tinfoil hat guy. Which I am not, since the only foil I wear is aluminum.

(I bet if I actually wore an aluminum foil hat and mask outside it would look basically normal. Everything is so totally nuts now that if you dare walk into a bank without a bandana over your face, they kick you out for being a danger to society and you could get fined.)

With the Madrid Open unable to go ahead for real in the Spanish capital, a fundraising initiative has been organised in order for the tournament to take place online.

With less than a fortnight until what would have been the Madrid Open, plenty of big names have signed up for the Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro event, which instead of being scheduled for between the 1st to 10th of May as the original festival would have been held, will be broadcast online between April 27th and 30th.

Some big names are involved in the initiative, which will take place on the World Tennis Tour videogame, courtesy of Nacon Gaming in the virtually created Manolo Santana Stadium. Players will serve, volley, cross-court and smash their way through the action on PlayStation 4.

So far, 19-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, Spanish tennis legend David Goffin, Russian pro Karen Khachanov and American big-hitter John Isner have all signed up from the ATP side of the draw, with many big-name WTA stars taking part too.

When the Premier League was put on an indefinite hiatus due to the Coronavirus outbreak, clubs were left in an odd limbo of having to organize everything other than the football upon which the sport itself relies for everything from entertainment, to employment and most importantly, money.

With the Premier League a huge operation to shut down mid-season, the immediacy of this need was accelerated by the infection of Mikel Arteta with the Coronavirus. Some clubs put their staff on immediate paid leave, such as Manchester United, who announced they would pay all staff in full for the duration. Other clubs such as Leeds United immediately set about raising funds for those affected by the crisis.

Other clubs didn’t act so quickly or ethically in doing the right thing. Liverpool only reneged on their furloughing of staff last week after calls by former players such as Jamie Carragher criticizing their initial decision. Until the last 24 hours, Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy had resisted multiple similar calls to make the right decision. Thankfully, in a statement made today, Spurs have announced that they will pay their non-playing staff through April and May in full.

The wording of that particular twist is important and limiting to the gesture.

The Philippines casino sector is in a holding pattern right now. The country continues to implement strict quarantine rules as it leads South East Asia in COVID-19 infections, and a shutdown of the casinos is a part of that. Two casino operators have recently announced their own intentions of what to do next as they wait for when the curve eventually flattens.

Bloomberry Resorts, operator of Solaire Resort and Casino in the Entertainment City district, announced in a filing to the Philippines Stock Exchange that it would “make additional future investments in the interest of enhancing shareholder value.”

It will do so by taking a broader approach to its investment portfolio. It wrote: “Bloomberry’s future investments will be considered within a broader universe of possible opportunities which include gaming, hospitality, and other non-gaming assets.”

While noting that it’s continuing construction on Solaire North in Quezon City, it doesn’t have any immediate upcoming investments to announce otherwise.

Calvin Ayre has led quite a life, going from humble beginnings to becoming a leader of both the online gaming and Bitcoin industries. On the podcast My Big Break Almost, hosts Paul and Lindy spoke with Ayre, exploring his history and what he’s up to now.

Phoning in from his COVID-19 quarantine home in Panama, Ayre first spoke about his current mission, which is to round up personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies for Antigua. He’s happy to be in Panama, where facilities are top notch, and where he visited many times when he previously lived in Costa Rica.

Paul has been a big fan of Bodog, and asked Ayre to talk about how the company got started. The name came from a list of criteria to make it as memorable and marketable as possible. Otherwise, having been raised on a Saskatchewan pig farm, Calvin started the company with a mere $10,000, and a lot of hard work. “To make a company, you have to use your own time when you’re starting companies,” he said. “You have to use your time as a substitute for capital.”

That doesn’t mean everything went perfectly, but Ayre notes that there’s nothing he regrets about what he’s built. “I don’t really have a big, I wish I wouldn’t have done that moment,” he said. “I kind of seem to have a skill for taking disasters and finding a way to make it work into something positive.” The bottom line for the Bodog founder is that he rather take the risk of trying something, than to always wonder what could have been.

We’ve covered a lot of poker films and television shows in this series that hail from a time when poker was very different. From shows such as the superb Poker After Dark to films such as the lamentable Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, poker shows often fit into categories of looking decidedly dated or masterfully modern. We even recently brought you the news that High Stakes Poker is coming back to our screens.

Poker, however, isn’t only retrospective or modern day. A new series that has grown from the scorched Earth of the recent Coronavirus crisis isn’t a new series at all, but it’s packed with original content. What could we be talking about other than the triumphant idea from PokerStars of the ‘EPT Retro’ series that has become a staple of lockdown living.

The idea itself is pretty simple. If you’ve ever enjoyed watching the old series of the European Poker Tour but wished you could lay a brand-new commentary track by everyone’s favourite EPT commentators, Joe ‘Stapes’ Stapleton and James Hartigan, well now you can – because they’re doing it for you!

Yes, the series that saw poker explode as a television spectacle took a little while to get going, and before it did, it was hosted by a few different names who no longer have anything to do with poker. Colin Murphy commentated alongside John Duthie on those early broadcasts, before James Hartigan entered the booth halfway through Season 3, at which point he shared the mic with several players before Joe Stapleton came in and redefined how we look at co-commentators within poker.

While some casino companies in the US have offered to continue paying their employees while struggling to stay in the black during the shutdown caused by the coronavirus, not all have been so generous. Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands are two that have dug deeper into their wallets to cover employee salaries, while companies like Boyd Gaming and Eldorado Resorts have opted to send their employees out the door. However, at the same time, executives with some of those that fall in the latter category are going to hold onto their six- to seven-figure compensation packages. In light of the discrepancies, unions representing casino workers across the country are now calling out the employers, accusing them of abandoning their workforces when the employees need the most support.

The president of the Local 54 chapter of the Unite Here union in New Jersey, Bob McDevitt, spoke up this week, telling the casino industry that it had been workers “in the poorhouse,” according to The Press of Atlantic City. The union chapter represents a number of casino and hospitality workers in Atlantic City, and McDevitt’s comments follow a decision by the local casino industry to furlough almost the entire casino workforce of around 26,450. He added, “There is absolutely no excuse for an industry that has done quite well to turn their backs on these workers…”

As the federal government prepared its economic stimulus plan to combat the COVID-19-induced financial losses, most casinos were given access to the $425 billion in corporate loans and tax credits designed to enable the companies to retain their employees. However, many opted to send their employees to the unemployment offices, which haven’t been able to keep up with demand.

Donald “D.” Taylor, Unite Here International’s president, spoke up, as well. He called out the casino industry, stating, “We think, without a doubt, the gaming industry … should actually pay for people during the shutdown. We think, without any question, this industry, which is a privileged license — not like a normal business, this is a privileged license — that both the states should insist that they pay people through the shutdown and, frankly, the conscience of these casinos should do the same thing.”

Although there isn’t a whole lot of activity to keep sports gambling fans happy right now, things will, eventually, recover. Sports leagues will get back onto the fields and courts and sportsbooks will start putting up the lines once more. In some places, this could begin sooner rather than later, as the top two soccer leagues in Germany are now ready for a re-launch. In anticipation of the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the global shutdown it caused, Colorado has been busy getting its sports gambling processes in place, and casinos that were awarded licenses have been busy looking for some assistance to manage the operations. One of the most successful sportsbooks in Nevada is now ready for expansion and is set to be one of the first entities to launch in the Centennial State. Provided it meets with regulatory approval, SuperBook will be able to start taking bets at The Lodge Casino in Black Hawk when Colorado’s sports gambling market goes live on May 1.

Sports Handle reports on an announcement by David Purdum with ESPN regarding the company’s Colorado coup. Specifics regarding the arrangement weren’t released, but SuperBook, which currently operates only out of the Westgate in Vegas, will immediately be able to capitalize on a sizable market that is gambler-friendly. Colorado is going to allow digital user registration, which means gamblers don’t have to travel to a physical location in order to identify themselves before being able to place bets. This has worked well in other states, like New Jersey and Pennsylvania, that have similar procedures in place, and states that require a trip to an authorized casino are finding that ramping up their sports gambling markets is going to take longer than anticipated.

Jay Kornegay, the VP of race and sports operations for the Westgate, explains, “The casinos operating in Colorado are in remote areas, unlike Nevada and the Strip. They are mountain towns, so the remote signup option Coloradans have for mobile apps is vital. To have that convenience of signing up for a mobile app from your couch rather than go to a physical location like you do in Nevada is big … Most of our handle, 95 percent will be mobile” in the state.

In the western half of the U.S., Nevada rules the sports gambling scene – not surprising since it was the only state to be authorized to accept legal sports wagers for decades. However, some industry analysts believe that Colorado has the potential to jump ahead of the Silver State in terms of sports gambling revenue, and the SuperBook could be able to capitalize substantially from operations in both states.

Although Macau has worked desperately to get things back to normal after the coronavirus forced the city to shut down, travel restrictions remain in place that are preventing any type of substantial rebound. Across the city’s border lies the Chinese province of Guangdong, typically an active launch point for travelers looking to hit the local casinos and shops. However, as the province maintains its travel restrictions, Macau is having to deal with the fallout, and last week’s Easter holiday proved to be anything but a high point for the city. Across the first three days of the Easter weekend, less than 1,000 visitors crossed the border into Macau. Unfortunately, that isn’t even the city’s record low.

Last Friday, only 260 people entered Macau. Saturday saw just 20 more than that amount, and Sunday welcomed 270 travelers. Last year, to put things in perspective, Macau borders processed just under 556,200 visitors – around 139,000 each day for the four-day holiday weekend.

The numbers follow a trend that has been seen for the past couple of months, with April consistently bringing the lowest figures. The most visitation in a single day so far was just 360, and the lowest was 210. That occurred on April 4, setting a new record low for visitation to the normally bustling gambling city.

Macau had ordered a temporary shutdown of the city in February because of the outbreak of COVID-19, but has since relaunched virtually all its activities. However, travel restrictions in mainland China and elsewhere are still in place and, in addition to the Guangdong province controls, public transportation normally running at all hours between Hong Kong and Macau is suspended. Anyone coming from Macau’s sister city looking for some excitement must also submit to a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine, which is also keeping many travelers away.

Drastic times call for drastic measures, and a plan in the Philippines might win the prize for taking things to a new level. In an effort to recuperate the financial losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a campaign has been launched by a high-ranking politician in the country to sell casinos run by the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR). If the plan is successful, all 47 properties owned by the gaming regulator could be offered to buyers. Of course, with the world economy in the tank, finding deep enough pockets to make the purchases might not be so easy.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon believes that privatizing the PAGCOR-controlled assets, as well as assets belonging to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), would be the quickest and easiest way to generate free capital to help the country during the COVID-19 outbreak. He pointed out that the government could potentially make as much as Php 300 billion ($5.9 billion) from the sale of the properties, telling CNN Philippines, “The government does not have to look far to raise additional revenues. There are ‘low-hanging fruits’ the government can immediately tap to provide the much-needed resources for our country to survive this pandemic.”

The idea of privatizing PAGCOR’s casinos was proposed back in 2016. The argument was that the gambling facilities should be run by private companies, allowing the gaming regulator to concentrate on what it was designed to do – regulate the gaming industry. However, not much came out of the proposal, as PAGCOR’s casinos started to turn a profit. The chair and CEO of the agency, Andrea Domingo, told Inside Asian Gaming two years ago, “I think for the next few years, because they’re still profitable – because the PAGCOR owned and operated casinos, the GGR they yield goes directly to the government, 100%.”

She added, “With the IRs, our share of the GGR is about 19.5% so if you look into that and the contribution to the national government every year, if you take this out it will take five years for a new IR to contribute that amount which automatically lessens our net contribution to the national government by Php22 billion for at least for the next 10 years.”

Australian betting operator Tabcorp Holdings has launched a new marketing campaign aimed at stirring punters’ patriotism during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tabcorp’s TAB betting brand recently unveiled a new marketing pitch urging local bettors to ‘Back the Industry and Bet with TAB.’ The video spots (a sample of which can be viewed at the bottom of this article) urge bettors to shun rival Aussie-licensed corporate bookmakers in favor of the TAB’s offering in order to support the local racing industry.

The spots claim that TAB returns more than four times the sums to the racing industry than its online betting rivals – most of which are local offshoots of UK- and European-based companies – thereby supporting “the hundreds of thousands of local faces that keep racing going.”

That Tabcorp-flattering math, based on a ratio of industry returns to turnover from the 2019 financial year, was undeniably helped by the TAB’s near-monopolistic control of retail betting and tote wagers, courtesy of its recent absorption of rival Tatts Group. TAB also controls racing broadcasts, including livestreamed video, through its Sky Racing subsidiary.

The UK racing sector is preparing to vote on a plan to resume operations as the true cost of its pandemic shutdown becomes apparent.

The board of directors of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) will meet this Wednesday to discuss the feasibility of lifting the suspension of racing events that was imposed on March 18 and was intended to run through April 30.

The BHA established a COVID19 Racing Industry Group, which in turn established a Resumption of Racing Group to figure out how to resume racing behind closed doors in a fashion that would be acceptable to horsemen, racecourses and other stakeholders.

This plan would then be pitched to the government, which last Friday indicated that there were no imminent plans to lift the current restriction on public gatherings of more than two people. (Ireland’s government recently extended its lockdown through May 5.)

The upstart XFL has filed for bankruptcy midway through its comeback season, a victim of COVID-19 and fan disinterest.

On Monday, the XFL’s parent company Alpha Entertainment LLC officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the state of Delaware. The filing listed both assets and liabilities in the $10m-$50m range with 1,000-5,000 creditors, including former NFL coach Kevin Gilbride and former players Winston Moss and Jim Zorn.

The filing was preceded last Friday by the XFL suspending its operations and laying off all staff, who were reportedly told they’d be paid through Sunday. The league thanked its fans, staff, television partners and players, some of whom hopefully made enough of an impression to warrant tryouts with some NFL clubs (assuming that season isn’t cancelled as well).

The XFL cancelled the rest of its 10-game season on March 20, having played only five games, but said at the time that it was looking forward to “playing full seasons for you – and with you – in 2021 and beyond.” Full-time staff were even kept on the payroll following the cancellation.