German online betting operator Bet-at-home is sticking with its 2020 financial forecasts despite the significant drop in its first quarter figures.

Figures released Monday show the Düsseldorf-based Bet-at-home generated gross betting and gaming revenue of €32.2m in the three months ending March 31, a 13.4% decline from the same period last year, while net revenue slid 18% to €25.5m.

The company, which is part of the Betclic Everest Group, blamed the declines on the halt of most major European live sports events in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to customer turnover declining 18% to €677.8m.

The company’s exit from Switzerland’s new regulated online market and ongoing struggles in Poland-facing operations also contributed to the revenue decline, but the “short-term expansion” of eSports betting and “more exotic” traditional sports leagues helped cushion the blow. The online casino vertical “remained nearly unaffected” by the pandemic and its share of overall revenue hit 57.6% in Q1.

Colorado’s legal sports betting market made its May 1 launch target, providing a rare bit of positive news for the state’s struggling casinos.

Last Friday, four Colorado-licensed online sportsbooks opened their digital doors to the state’s bettors, becoming the 18th US state to offer some form of legal betting. Six operators were officially cleared for takeoff by state regulators, but only four – Roar Digital’s BetMGM, Rush Street Interactive’s BetRivers, DraftKings and FanDuel – actually launched.

The lack of urgency in launching betting operations has a lot to do with the current dearth of major sports on which to wager due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. There are also no retail betting options at present due to the pandemic-related shutdown of all land-based casino operations on March 16.

The shutdown was reflected in the state’s official figures for the month of March, which saw the 33 casino operators report gaming revenue of just $31.9m, a 56% decline from March 2019’s returns. April’s revenue will be flat zero, and even if operators do get the nod to relaunch operations this month, it will likely be on a significantly reduced capacity basis.

While gambling’s role in the world is often a hot topic of debate, COVID-19 has put the conversation on steroids, particularly in the U.K. Fresh off of her claimed victory over gambling ads, All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) chair Carolyn Harris joined the “Gambling in Society” panel on day 5 of the SBC Digital Summit, moderated by Alex Tomic, CEO of Alea, with panelists Tom Galanis, Managing Director of TAG Media, Erik Bergman, Founder of Great.com and Ivan Filletti, COO of Gaming Malta.

Right off the bat, Harris wanted to make clear that she is not a gambling prohibitionist. She believes it can have a role in society, so long as it does not prey on those who have addictions, or those who can’t afford it. Tomic accepted that introduction, but noted that it’s difficult at this point to define what affordability really means.

Meanwhile, Galanis was ready to defend the industry in his rebuttal. Referencing the highlighted problem gambling cases groups like the APPG point to, he noted that the industry can’t structure its business based on emotion, but only on hard data.

Harris, mindful of her audience, continued to insist that she didn’t want to eliminate gambling entirely. “If somebody has enjoyment and pleasure and can afford to gamble online, then they should be allowed to gamble online,” she said. The problem is when they go beyond their means, changing credit cards, and operators should have to look into that.

This week has been an incredibly productive week for the entire gaming industry. With the coronavirus upending gaming operations around the world, anyone even remotely tied to the industry has had to scramble to adapt. The SBC Digital Summit helped give everyone an opportunity to see how the space is dealing with the current situation and what lies ahead when the recovery begins. Attendance for all the seminars during the summit was incredible, and everyone has come away with a new appreciation of how resilient the gaming community is. There’s little doubt that this summit will go down in history as one of the most productive gaming conferences ever held.

Getting things started on Day 1, April 27, was a look at sports gambling and how it will weather the COVID-19 storm. Sports have been temporarily forced out of commission, which means sports gambling has taken a nosedive, as well. Next up was a dive into how gambling, in general, will be able to bounce back from the coronavirus. It’s obvious that the hill will be challenging to climb, but not impossible.

Just because casinos and sportsbooks are essentially offline right now, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t gambling options available. This was evidenced by a panel on Day 1 that looked at the various options that have been available. Options may be limited, but there has still been some activity, and things are slowly beginning to pick up. Wrapping the day up was a look at eSports, as well as how the coronavirus has impacted Spain’s gaming scene.

Day 2 started with a keynote address by Jesper Kärrbrink, the chairman and creative director of Green Jade Games before moving into online casino and poker in light of the global pandemic. One of the hottest topics of the day was global regulation, which is almost certainly going to find itself the center of attention for a long time to come. Regulators are going to be busy discussing a lot of different aspects of the gaming industry for a while, including live casinos and slot offerings, two topics that were also discussed on Day 2.

During a time where we’re all missing live poker, we’ve decided to delve into the vaults of some of poker’s biggest tournaments… and most surprising winners.

From the World Series of Poker Main to the European Poker Tour, and back home via the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, we’ve plucked five lucky hopefuls who went into their respective final tables as unknown names, but just a few hours later had carved their names into poker history.

We start with one of the most charismatic and charming poker players the world has ever seen.

1. John Hesp

The first day of the iGaming Next Online conference has come to an end, and it provided an entirely different look at how the gambling industry will battle through this COVID-19 pandemic. Each speaker gave tips on how we can not only be better during this time of crisis, but how we can also be better coming out of it.

The day began with a welcome message from Pierre Lindh, Managing Director and cofounder of iGaming Next. He gave a broad overview of the current moment for the gambling industry, but cautioned that “Life will not go back to normal before there is a vaccine.” Ultimately though, as the industry matures, he noted that we should be looking for the opportunities that come over the horizon.

Next up was a talk from Dragan Donkov, Manager Learning and Development Team at the Richmond Foundation – Malta. He spoke to how we can manage our emotional well being as the world seems to fall apart around us. While everyone deals with crisis differently, he noted that it’s normal to feel fear.

More than ever, people are feeling isolated, bored, and anxious about getting sick, losing their job and security. We’re currently feeling a collective and individual sense of grief for what we’ve lost. And most of us have gone through all the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and finally acceptance.

The (somehow) ever-controversial Ayr United kit launch is here! The photoshoot took place at the CoinGeek Institute (CGI) and as with previous years features a male and female model.

This year’s models are 32-year-old Michaela Moffat and 30-year-old Ronaldi Maradina who, for the first time, were both e-born and raised in the Scottish West Coast town, and are said to be personal friends with virtually everybody in Ayr.

“Michaela & Ronaldi celebrating Ayr winning promotion to the SPL at eHampden Park in next month’s play-off victory over Hamilton.”

This is the tenth year of sponsorship from Bitcoin SV entrepreneur, Calvin Ayre who commented: “Its such a pity we lost so much of the season as The Honest Men were firmly in position for the play-off and I hope we can resume where we left off. Its staggering that in such a short time Bitcoin SV is not only the fastest growing blockchain but has over 400 projects already built on it (because it can scale) and can currently can accept 5,000 transactions per second. This utility means its value is more tangible and hence over the last 12 months is one of the best performing assets, beating even gold. Put simply Bitcoin SV is Bitcoin.”