Monthly Archives: May 2020

Esports takes centre stage as SickOdds returns for AffiliateCon Virtually Live

Esports affiliate SickOdds will be speaking at AffiliateCon Virtually Live on Tuesday 12 May.

Following their appearance at AffiliateCon Sofia 2019, Tom Wade and Nick Pateman, SickOdds co-founders, will present ‘Pandemics & The Future: An unprecedented opportunity for esports?’ for this year’s virtual edition.

AffiliateCon Virtually Live will be free to watch on YouTube, following the postponement of AffiliateCon Sofia to 2021 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Wade and Pateman tell us more about their panel below; for the full event agenda, visit affiliatecon.com.

Gaming in Germany webinar | Responsible advertising in a regulated iGaming market

On May 20 at 15:00 CET, Gaming in Germany will kick off its new webinar series with its first installment “Responsible Advertising in a regulated iGaming market.”

The sixteen German federal states recently agreed on a treaty that will allow country-wide online gambling from July 1, 2021 onward. The regulation of online gambling will open up significant advertising and business development opportunities for licensed operators.

In this webinar, we will discuss what the German media environment looks like and how operators can advertise in a manner that is both effective and sustainable.

Panelists

Loto-Quebec issues record online poker bad beat jackpot

The online gambling monopoly in the Canadian province of Quebec has awarded a record-high online poker bad beat jackpot.

On Monday, Loto-Quebec announced that the OK Poker product on its Espace-jeux online gambling site had issued a new record online bad beat jackpot the previous week as the players at the table shared a cool C$755,896 (US$537,711).

According to the government-run operator, Montreal resident Raymond Desjardins was playing OK Poker’s bad beat table on the evening of April 30 when he drew a straight flush on the river. One of his opponents, who apparently didn’t wish to be identified, went all-in with a hand that was good enough to win 99.9% of the time, except this time.

Desjardins said that when he saw his opponent’s quad-tens, he and his son “let out a big whoop.” Desjardins collected 25% of the jackpot (C$188,974) while his losing opponent walked away with C$377,974 and the other six players at the table picked up C$31,495 apiece.

Philippine online gambling ops caught in political crossfire

Philippines-licensed online gambling operators continue to find themselves caught up in political squabbling over their right to operate.

Last week, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) announced that Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) would be allowed to resume partial operations provided they follow Enhanced Community Quarantine guidelines, including limiting operations to 30% of manpower.

In confirming the restart, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that since all POGO customers are based abroad, POGOs were akin to the nation’s significant business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, which includes call centers for major international businesses.

This view was later rejected by Rey Untal, president of the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), who told local media that, while POGOs and BPOs “share one extraneous similarity,” POGOs “cannot be considered” part of the BPO sector.

UFC 249 Title Odds: Ferguson, Cejudo top board

Major professional sports returns to the United States this Saturday with a rescheduled UFC 249 card from VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. UFC president Dana White had to look far and wide for a place to hold this event after he had to postpone it last month due to the coronavirus.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

White picked Florida in large part because Gov. Ron DeSantis had deemed professional sports as an “essential service” in the state as long as the location is closed to the general public. The Florida State Boxing Commission also will regulate the event, whereas other states haven’t deemed sports as essential and/or their commissions wouldn’t regulate this card.

The main card begins at 10 p.m. ET on pay-per-view and is headlined by two title fights: Tony Ferguson (26-3) vs. Justin Gaethje (21-2) for the interim lightweight belt, and bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo (15-2) defending his belt against Dominick Cruz (22-2). All four are Americans.

Beijing to resume lottery sales after three-month suspension

China’s lottery operations are finally resuming in the nation’s capital Beijing as efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 appear to be working.

This weekend, the Beijing Sports Lottery and Beijing Welfare Lottery announced that lottery sales would resume in the capital on Wednesday (6), bringing an end to the suspension of sales that began on January 22. The sales halt was originally intended to last only through the Lunar New Year holiday but was extended as the pandemic’s full impact became known.

Lottery sales in other Chinese provinces resumed on a limited basis in mid-March, and even Wuhan City – the original epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province – was allowed to resume sales on April 8. But Beijing, home to 20m people and much of the nation’s top leadership (and foreign press), remained a dormant outlier.

Lottery officials began prepping Beijing retailers last week for the new rules of the game, including vigorous disinfection routines, limiting the number of customers able to enter shops, taking the temperatures of those who do and guiding customers through ‘non-contact’ sales processes.

Nevada casinos learn details on reopening social distancing rules

Nevada casinos are learning the tough limits that will govern gaming operations once the state clears them to open following their pandemic shutdown.

While Nevada’s casinos still don’t know when Gov. Steve Sisolak will deem it acceptable for them to relaunch their gaming operations, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) continues to prepare operators for the return of gambling to the Las Vegas Strip.

Building on last month’s guidance for creating a reopening plan of action, the NGCB has now issued health and safety policies for resumption of gaming for its non-restricted licensees (basically, any venue operating more than 15 slots). The guidance lays out minimum requirements, and operators aren’t barred from taking more restrictive steps.

Among the highlights are an occupancy limit of no more than 50% of a gaming area’s capacity, as defined by local building and fire codes. This is to be monitored by security personnel head counts, video surveillance systems and any other method available.

LeoVegas launches LiveCasino brand on in-house platform

Online casino operator LeoVegas has unveiled a new live dealer brand on the company’s proprietary platform.

Monday brought the formal debut of LiveCasino.com, a Malta Gaming Authority-licensed live dealer casino from LeoVegas, the self-proclaimed ‘King of Casino’. LiveCasino (not to be confused with UK-facing affiliate Livecasino.co.uk) marks the second new brand to launch on LeoVegas’ in-house technology platform, following the Swedish-facing GoGo Casino.

LiveCasino’s offering includes products from live dealer specialists Evoltuion Gaming as well as other games from providers NetEnt, Microgaming and others. The site was developed by the company’s “multi-brand unit” Brands of Leo and will be run by the team responsible for GoGo Casino.

LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman said LiveCasino was debuting in “a number of English-speaking countries” and launches in other locally licensed markets would follow. The site allows players to sign up via their Facebook or Google accounts, “a unique and innovate way to log in and register” that Hagman characterized as “an industry first.”