With live poker out of the picture in the short-term, Johnnie Vibes took time out from lockdown to take on ‘15 Bigs’ of a different kind. The hugely popular YouTuber, whose video blogs are a sensation in the industry with thousands of subscribers, is admired by many other players.

We go from aspiration to perspiration with our questions for Johnnie here, however. Will he be able to cope with one book on a desert island, and which song would he listen to on repeat? Let’s push those chips over the line.

If you were to be shot at dawn, what would be your last meal/drink?

I would say my biggest fear is death, so I’d probably drink a magic mushroom tea. Ease the anxiety of my pending doom. I want to go out thinking deeply about the world and hopefully with a smile on my face.

Tim ‘TheTrooper97’ Watts is something of a curate’s egg both on Twitter and on YouTube, where the popular poker YouTuber puts out around four videos per week. Watts has a family-based lifestyle and yet trawls Las Vegas looking for entertaining ways of bringing poker to the masses, so what is it that makes Watts so successful? Let’s subscribe and mash that like button.

Having been making poker videos since the very beginning of 2012, Watts’s watchword is clearly consistency. He’s built a small yet fiercely loyal viewership of 38,500 subscribers that typically view each of his videos between 5,000 and 10,000 times between them. Occasionally, watts stumbles on something a bit more viral, but we’ll come to that later.

“I play poker and drink a lot of coffee.”

Tim Watts is not a man for over-explaining what he does, and that has reached a consistent audience, with the middle-marker of those 5,000 and 10,000 views-per-video reflected by his 8,000 Twitter followers. Keeping it simple yet being entertaining is the holy grail of YouTube videos, but pretty much any content everywhere, be it on television, the radio or in film, so Watts has mastered a niche skill. His knack of dialing this up into highly watchable videos is something that is harder to qualify, but we’ll try.

Tim ‘TheTrooper97’ Watts is something of a curate’s egg both on Twitter and on YouTube, where the popular poker YouTuber puts out around four videos per week. Watts has a family-based lifestyle and yet trawls Las Vegas looking for entertaining ways of bringing poker to the masses, so what is it that makes Watts so successful? Let’s subscribe and mash that like button.

Having been making poker videos since the very beginning of 2012, Watts’s watchword is clearly consistency. He’s built a small yet fiercely loyal viewership of 38,500 subscribers that typically view each of his videos between 5,000 and 10,000 times between them. Occasionally, watts stumbles on something a bit more viral, but we’ll come to that later.

“I play poker and drink a lot of coffee.”

Tim Watts is not a man for over-explaining what he does, and that has reached a consistent audience, with the middle-marker of those 5,000 and 10,000 views-per-video reflected by his 8,000 Twitter followers. Keeping it simple yet being entertaining is the holy grail of YouTube videos, but pretty much any content everywhere, be it on television, the radio or in film, so Watts has mastered a niche skill. His knack of dialing this up into highly watchable videos is something that is harder to qualify, but we’ll try.

A fantastic opening day of action kicked off the second ePremier League (ePL) Invitational Tournament as Jofra Archer, Ryan Sessegnon and Charlie Taylor all booked wins to progress to the Last 16.

Spencer Owen (West Ham United) 1-3 Ryan Sessegnon (Tottenham Hotspur)

An entertaining clash between two London teams saw Ryan Sessegnon play 90 minutes for the first time in a long while. The match itself was an early frontrunner for the most exciting derby of the tournament, as two Harry Kane goals eventually helped a slightly fortunate Sessegnon progress at the expense of Owen, who was a much-fancied player before the event began.

YouTuber Owen posted a tweet after the event with a screenshot of the statistics in the game, which did favour his team but only served to prove how profligate he had been. Sessegnon himself was happy to admit he’d got lucky to progress.

When the sports world gets back into the full swing of things, there could be plenty of sportsbooks to choose from across the US. The number of states offering legalized sports gambling continues to grow and Colorado just officially launched its sports gambling operations at the beginning of the month. There’s a good chance that the coronavirus pandemic will cause more states to turn to sports gambling as a way to recover lost revenue, and Louisiana may be one of them. Ultimately, the decision rests on the shoulders of state residents, but legislators have approved a measure that will allow those living in the Pelican State to make that decision this November.

A Louisiana Senate judiciary committee approved Senate Bill 130 (SB 130) yesterday with no one apparently objecting to the measure, according to media outlet The Center Square. The approval is a stark change from the previous legislative session, which found the bill facing an uphill battle in the House before it was forced to be shelved. Now, one of those who apparently was struggling with legalized sports gambling last year, Senator Cameron Henry, is sponsoring SB 130. Henry had been accused of trying to thwart legalized sports gambling efforts last year by the bill’s primary sponsor at the time, former Senator Danny Martiny.

Louisiana was already losing money before the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to slower revenue at casinos, neighboring states have begun to legalize sportsbooks, and Louisiana residents haven’t been opposed to jumping across the border to place their bets. SB 130 proponents want the state’s casinos to be able to compete with those external operations and keep the revenue at home, a plan that will only be magnified by COVID-19’s impact on the economy.

SB 130 is just a step toward legalized sports gambling, and doesn’t even lay the foundation. There isn’t much point to creating the framework if residents don’t approve of the activity, so the first order of business is to find out how much public support there is. It’s also a state requirement. Voters have to approve gambling expansion SB 130 will allow a ballot entry to appear this November, giving residents a chance to weigh in on the subject.

GAN Ltd, the U.K.-based supplier of Internet gaming software, gambled on an initial public offering (IPO) and won. Fortunately for those who decided to participate in the offering, they did, too. When the company announced at the end of last month that it would soon launch on a U.S.-based exchange, it expected to see shares go for anywhere from $6.50 to $8.50, with 4.05 million shares up for grabs. GAN was apparently playing things conservatively, because the result of the IPO launch was significantly better.

GAN is now live on NASDAQ under the ticker GAN. It had anticipated receiving up to $34.5 million through the IPO, but there was no shortage of interest from investors spending top dollar to own a piece of the company. Instead of the 4.05 million shares, it ultimately upsized the offering to 6.38 million shares, and they all went for top price of $8.50. The end result was about 77% more money being directed to the company’s operations than expected.

The company issued a statement on the results, explaining, “The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by GAN, are expected to be approximately $54.2 million, excluding any exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ordinary shares.” Obviously, the company has been more than pleased with the results. However, they’re not alone.

When the stock went public, it opened at $10.60 a share – investors were already enjoying an immediate return on their investments. However, that was just the beginning. Throughout the first day of trading, the stock rose to as high as $13.92 before settling down a little bit. Still, by the end of the day, it closed at $13.25 for a gain of more than 55%. Given the current impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the global gaming community, GAN’s market performance speaks volumes of what lies ahead for the industry.

Just because a court says we have to, doesn’t mean we have to. That’s the take-away from a decision by the Darmstadt Regional Council (DRC) in Germany, which has chosen to ignore a court order that prohibits the council from issuing online sports gambling licenses. In spite of the court’s ruling, the DRC is still taking applications from operators and will continue to review them, confident that the courts will ultimately come to their senses.

The Darmstadt Administrative Court (DAC), one of Germany’s five federal Supreme Courts, issued its order after the licensing process was called into question by a gambling operator out of Austria, Vierklee. The company argues that the process of applying for a license to operate a sportsbook in the country is discriminatory and lacks transparency, and the court agreed to halt the process while the case is being heard.

Vierklee complains that, with the new Third State Treaty on Gambling, the criteria for how to apply, as well as who can apply, for a sports gambling license is confusing and that the process favors German companies who have experience working in the online gaming industry. The company also feels that the legal framework is arbitrary and “discriminatory” because it doesn’t provide a uniform date of launch for online gambling.

The suspension ordered by the DAC doesn’t signal that the court agrees with Vierklee’s arguments; only that it is willing to give the grievances a fair opportunity to be heard. In the meantime, The DRC has already submitted an appeal of the suspension with the Kassel Administrative Court (KAC), another Supreme Court in Germany, and will keep its operations running until the final outcome is announced. While it cannot issue any sports gambling license because of the DAC’s order, it can still review and prioritize the applicants. In doing so, once it wins its appeal, the licenses can quickly be issued. Should its appeal be denied, then the money companies gave with their application submissions will not be returned.

When Greek gaming authorities awarded Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE), also known as Mohegan Sun, the rights to develop an integrated resort (IR) in the country, they most likely did so thinking that the U.S.-based casino operator’s project wouldn’t run into any problems. The company intends on spending almost $9 billion for the development, dubbed Inspire, provided it can get passed a dispute with Hard Rock International (HRI) over the validity of the authorities’ decision, and has reiterated its intention to get the massive gambling property started as soon as possible. However, the coronavirus has already caused the company, as well as all other casino operators, distress, and it is reportedly falling behind on its financial obligations.

MGE has provided an update on its plans designed to put Greece at ease. The company’s CEO, Mario Kontomerkos, explains, Mohegan Gaming Entertainment is fully committed to turning Greece into a top destination for entertainment and business conferences in Europe,” adding that MGE will begin construction just as soon as it is officially given the tender “despite the unprecedented impact of the pandemic on the gaming sector.”

That tender may be a long way off, if HRI has a say in the matter. The rival casino company is appealing the decision to give MGE the casino deal on the grounds that it was tainted by personal conflicts of interest. HRI also asserts that it is in a much better position to be able to manage a project of this magnitude, given its current global operations. Until the case is decided conclusively, MGE hands are tied and it won’t be officially recognized as the winner.

If the accusations of conflicts of interest and shady deals are accurate, Greece will be the ultimate loser. The country is just two years into a rebuilding process after a financial recession, which lasted for a decade, stripped away around a quarter of the country’s economic output. The coronavirus pandemic, although it hasn’t hit Greece as hard as some areas, will impact the country’s ability to attract tourism, forcing the economic rebound to linger on.

Earlier this week, reports started to surface that Macau was ready to relax its tight border controls, which the gambling city had in place for the past couple of months due to the coronavirus. The announcement followed word that the Gongbei border and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge were resuming regular operating hours as of this past Sunday, but it now appears that someone may have been a little overzealous when releasing the update on the border controls. According to a new statement by Macau health officials, there are no confirmed details as to when border restrictions will be lifted.

The good news is that Macau seems to have all but eradicated all traces of COVID-19. However, the city is still guardedly cautious about completely lifting travel restrictions, as even a single new case of the virus could force the city to undo all the forward momentum it has seen. Health officials in Macau said yesterday that they are still working with officials in mainland China, as well as Macau leaders, to firm up the final details of a plan that would allow the city to launch a more pronounced recovery process.

During a press conference on COVID-19 and an update on how Macau is responding to the pandemic, Conde de São Januário Hospital clinical director Alvis Lo Iek Long stated that the relaxation of borders and quarantine measures would only happen gradually. He added that all efforts would require “complementary” measures launched by Macau and mainland China, with both needing to agree on testing and alert procedures. He added that, once the final plans are formulated and ready to be introduced, the government will release the information and said that, in the meantime, residents need to remain patient.

The current border controls don’t just impact arrivals into Macau. There is a small handful of foreigners still unable to leave the city because of the ongoing health crisis, and they’re getting anxious to be able to return home. The Macau Government Tourism Office has been busy helping arrange departures for a number of non-residents, but the individuals have to be completely cleared by health officials before being allowed to start their journey. While Macau has not registered a new coronavirus case in the past several weeks, almost 90 people are still been kept under medical quarantine at the Pousada Marina Infante Hotel.

Only 9% of New Zealand’s gamblers report gambling more since they were put under pandemic lockdown, with boredom playing a major part of that increase.

A new COVID-19 impact study released by New Zealand’s Health Promotion Agency queried some 1,190 adult respondents – with an overrepresentation of Maori and Pasifika respondents – regarding their use of alcohol, tobacco and gambling products during the country’s Level 4 lockdown.

Around 39% of respondents said they’d gambled since the lockdown took effect. Of these gamblers, 50% reported gambling less than usual, 41% about the same and 9% gambled more than usual. Of the latter group, the 18-24 age demo were more likely to report gambling more (22%).

Of those who reported gambling, 23% did no online gambling during the lockdown while another 24% reported gambling online less than usual and 33% about the same level. Twelve percent reported gambling online more than usual while 8% reported gambling online for the first time during the lockdown.