Monthly Archives: May 2020

Brazilian podium headlines massive big $500 in GGPoker WSOP Super Circuit

A fantastic final table in the Big $500 WSOP Super Circuit Series saw Brazilian player BlaireauEnColere win the title and $330,411 as well as the WSOP Super Circuit Series ring.

With 10 hours of play, Day of the 5th event on the GGPoker WSOP series schedule saw just 864 players still involved from the 7,295 entries that started Day 1. Add to that another 220 players and 1,084 kicked off the action.

Just three levels into the action, the money bubble burst, with GGPoker’s own Felipe Ramos running up a stack and taking full advantage of the situation. While Ramos would top the leaderboard, that impetus he had didn’t last until the final few tables as the Brazilian professional busted in 86th place for $3,249.

GGPoker weren’t just represented by the Brazilian in the event, however, with ElkY a.k.a. Bertrand Grospellier still in the mix, The Frenchman, who has well over $14m in live results, is just as impressive online, and eventually bowed out in 67th place for $3,783.

Kyle Busch favored in NASCAR return to action

Major professional sports is starting to trickle back in the United States. The UFC is staging two different cards this week, while NASCAR marks its return Sunday with a Cup Series event at historic Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The race will be 400 miles and begins at 3:30 p.m. ET. It will be the first of three Cup Series races at Darlington this season, including another one already Wednesday.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

There will be no fans in attendance on Sunday and there will be no practice sessions – the lineup will be determined in part by a random draw for starting positions. The betting favorite is Kyle Busch in the No. 18 car at +600. There had been four official points races this season before the coronavirus pandemic forced a shutdown. Busch ranks 12th in points and has two Top-5 finishes but hasn’t won yet in 2020. Busch has raced 15 times in NASCAR’s top series at Darlington and has 10 Top-10 finishes and a win in 2008. His 716 laps led there are first among all active drivers.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11 car) is +650 and Kevin Harvick (No. 4) is +700. Hamlin won the season-opening Daytona 500 in February for the second year in a row – just the fourth driver to win back-to-back Daytona 500s – but hasn’t run well otherwise with an average running position of 16.9 overall that ranks 16th in the circuit. Hamlin has been strong in his career at Darlington with two wins in 14 races and an average finish of 7.8.

Twin River banks post-pandemic casino comeback on ‘pure gamers’

US regional casino operator Twin River Worldwide Holdings (TRWH) is blaming the month of March – and something called COVID-19 – for its nearly $9m loss in the first quarter of 2020.

On Wednesday, TRWH announced that its revenue through the three months ending March 31 totaled $109.1m, a 9.5% decline from Q1 2019. Adjusted earnings fell nearly 50% to $22.1m and the company suffered a net loss of nearly $8.9m from a $17.6m profit this time last year.

TRWH was keen to point out that revenue was up nearly one-quarter through January and February, although that was mainly due to last year’s acquisition of regional rival Dover Downs Hotel & Casino and this January’s addition of three casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado.

Net income was down 44% by the end of February, before the pandemic forced the shutdown of all TRWH casinos, partly because TRWH’s credit-fueled acquisitions and pandemic-related borrowings pushed Q1 interest payments up $4.3m to $11.4m.

Melco Resorts loses $364m in Q1, says mid-term outlook ‘grim’

Casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) lost $364m in the first quarter of 2020 as COVID-19 presented “unprecedented challenges to the tourism industry.”

Figures released Thursday show the Nasdaq-listed MRE generated revenue of $811.2m in the three months ending March 31, a 41.3% decline from the same period last year. The company booked an operating loss of $150m versus a $191m operating profit the year before, and a net loss of $364m versus a net profit of $120m in Q1 2019.

MRE’s struggles aren’t unique to the company, as all casino operations in Macau were laid low by the market’s 15-day pandemic shutdown in February and the resulting quarantine restrictions. MRE’s casinos in the Philippines and Cyprus were also required to shut down in March.

Company CEO Lawrence Ho reassured investors that MRE had cash and equivalents of $1.2b at the end of Q1, and a new credit deal in April offered a further $1.6b worth of undrawn revolver capacity. MRE also added $355m via the recent sale of MRE’s stake in Australian rival Crown Resorts. MRE suspended its quarterly dividend but investors shrugged, pushing MRE’s shares up 3% by Thursday’s close.

Denmark’s sports betting revenue grows despite pandemic halt

Denmark’s gambling market took a step back in the first quarter of 2020 as COVID-19 concerns took a bite out of land-based revenue.

Figures released Thursday by Denmark’s Spillemyndigheden regulatory body show market-wide gambling revenue of DKK1.53b (US$221.8m) in the three months ending March 31, down 5% from the same period last year and down a similar percentage from the final quarter of 2019.

Sports betting claimed Q1’s gaming vertical crown with DKK635m, up 2.6% year-on-year despite the pandemic-related halt of most major sports events in mid-March. Mobile remains the dominant betting channel with nearly 52% of all wagering, while land-based bets claimed a one-third share and desktop computers accounted for the remaining 15%.

Online casino revenue slipped 1% to DKK555m, reflecting the regulator’s recent announcement that Danish gamblers weren’t shifting their action to the online casino vertical following the elimination of their land-based options. Between March 9 to May 3, online casino revenue rose 2% year-on-year but this was a smaller growth rate than the vertical displayed through most of 2019.

Norway upholds gambling regulator’s GTFO order to Kindred

Norway’s gambling regulator is claiming victory in its war against online gambling operator Kindred Group’s right to operate in the country.

In April 2019, Norway’s Lotteritilsynet regulatory agency formally ordered Kindred’s Malta-based subsidiary Trannel International Ltd to “stop the illegal offer of money games” from its Unibet, MariaCasino, Storspiller and Bingo.com brands, based on the regulator’s view that Kindred was infringing on state gambling monopoly Norsk Tipping’s turf.

Trannel appealed this order to Norway’s Ministry of Culture and Lottery Committee but on Thursday, the regulator announced that both the Ministry and Committee had rebuffed this appeal and “fully” upheld the regulator’s GTFO order.

Lotteritilsynet senior adviser Trude Felde said the decision was “an important confirmation that we interpret the regulations correctly.” Felde said the regulator would contact Kindred to “ask if they intend to comply with the decision.” (Spoiler alert: they won’t.)

The Bundesliga is back…but who will win the title?

With just two days until elite-level football is back and the German Bundesliga returns, everyone is talking about the league where Jadon Sancho is the best player, Erling Braut Haaland is the most valuable player yet Bayern Munich sit at the top of the league.

While Robert Lewandowski leads the current goalscoring charts, an overwhelming 1/4 to maintain his current leading position until the end of the season, there are lots of other sportsbetting opportunities with which to fülle deine stiefel or fill your boots if you’re not a native.

Who will win the Bundesliga?

Bayern Munich kick off the final nine games with a four-point lead, but while that may make it look like they’re been in steady control since August, it’s been quite the opposite for the Bavarian champions. Until the turn of the year, they were in real trouble, and at one point sat seven points behind the leaders. However, 10 wins from their most recent 11 league games have put them in pole position to make it eight seasons in a row that they will have become champions and they are 2/9 favourites to do so.

Melco announces unaudited first quarter 2020 earnings

Macau, Thursday, May 14, 2020 – Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (Nasdaq: MLCO) (“Melco” or the “Company”), a developer, owner and operator of casino gaming and entertainment casino resort facilities in Asia and Europe, today reported its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2020.

Total operating revenues for the first quarter of 2020 were US$0.81 billion, representing a decrease of approximately 41% from US$1.38 billion for the comparable period in 2019. The decrease in total operating revenues was primarily attributable to softer performance in all gaming segments and non-gaming operations as a result of the temporary casino closure in Macau and enhanced quarantine and social distancing measures to mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak in the first quarter of 2020.

Operating loss for the first quarter of 2020 was US$149.9 million, compared with operating income of US$191.1 million in the first quarter of 2019.

Adjusted Property EBITDA(1) was U.S.$75.3 million for the first quarter of 2020 compared to Adjusted Property EBITDA of US$413.5 million in the first quarter of 2019, representing a decrease of 82%.