Denmark’s state-owned gambling operator Danske Spil turned in a middling first-quarter earnings report, with small gains in one division offsetting small losses in another, while rising costs drove down profits.

Figures released last week showed Danske Spil generated revenue of DKK1.23b (US$179.7m) in the three months ending March 31, a modest 0.8% rise over the same period last year. But net income fell 8.6% to DKK398.1m on higher financing costs and last year’s divestment of the company’s stake in games developer CEGO.

The mainstay lottery division Danske Lotteri Spil reported sales rising nearly 5% to DKK 640.4m, while the Danske Licens Spil online casino and sports betting unit was down less than 1% to DKK511.3m, with some of that decline based on the suspension of major sports due to COVID-19. That said, the Swush fantasy sports division rose 5% to an admittedly tiny DKK2.1m.

The Elite Gaming land-based slots hall unit took a bigger hit, falling 18.6% to DKK75.3m. Ongoing declines in this unit were predicted in the company’s 2019 year-end report, but the rate of decline was accelerated by Denmark’s March 13 shutdown of non-essential retail operations due to the pandemic.

Republic of Cyprus-licensed bookmakers reported decent revenue gains in the first quarter of 2020, while the unauthorized PokerStars has apparently decided to get out of Dodge while the getting’s good.

Figures released last week by the National Betting Authority (NBA) show the state’s six ‘Class A’ retail bookmakers handled wagers worth €64.8m in the three months ending March 31, around one-fifth below their handle in the same quarter last year. However, the books played lucky, pushing retail betting revenue up 6% year-on-year to €15.36m.

The nine ‘Class B’ online bookies handled wagers worth €100.7m in Q1, down only 2% year-on-year, while online betting revenue spiked by nearly 56% to €9.9m.

The quarter’s combined betting handle of €165.5m pales in comparison to Q4 2019’s €215.5m, while Q1’s combined revenue of €25.3m is only slightly off Q4’s €27m. The turnover slump likely reflects the mass suspension of sports events starting in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Ontario’s provincial gambling monopoly has been offered a half-billion dollar lifeline from the local government to ensure it can ride out the COVID-19 closure of its land-based casino operations.

On Monday, the government of Canada’s most populous province confirmed that it had provided a C$500m (US$357m) line of credit to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) gambling monopoly. Finance Minister Rod Phillips – who formerly served as OLG CEO – said the funds were intended to “temporarily support OLG’s operational costs and help meet its contractual obligations over the short-term.”

On March 15, OLG announced an “orderly shutdown” of all its land-based casino operations due to the pandemic. OLG operates 26 casino and slots facilities, most of which are under day-to-day control of third-party operators. OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti told The Record that the closures had “reduced OLG revenue streams by more than half.”

OLG is a major contributor to the provincial budget, having anted up C$2.3b in the 2019-20 fiscal year but Philipps warned in March that the COVID-19 mitigation efforts meant OLG’s contributions would likely fall to just C$809m in 2020-21.

China’s lottery sales continue to increase following their lengthy COVID-19 suspension but still have a long way to go to regain their former glories.

Figures released Monday by China’s Ministry of Finance show April’s lottery sales hit RMB23.4b (US$3.3b), more than double the RMB10.5b reported in March, but still representing a 35% decline from the same month last year.

China’s lottery operations have now posted year-on-year declines every month since February 2019. China halted all lottery sales in January and didn’t lift the prohibition until mid-March, although Beijing didn’t resume sales until this month.  

Sports lottery sales continue to suffer from the global suspension of major sports events, resulting in April’s sales falling nearly 42% year-on-year to RMB11.5b. That decline allowed the welfare lottery to reclaim the leaderboard for the first time since March 2018 with sales of RMB11.9b, although that was down nearly 27% year-on-year.

This is a guest contribution by Jon Southurst, a writer with CoinGeek.com. He explains why Bitcoin SV and esports are a match made in heaven, as the micropayments and traceability open up the vertical to entirely new possibilities, perfectly suited for online competition. This article first appeared on CoinGeek.com.

Esports, aka competitive video game tournaments, is one of those ideas that’s been touted as perfect for Bitcoin since the beginning. Easy payments and prize pools, portable game item ownership, provably fair games with permanent and transparent records, anti-cheating measures, accessibility from anywhere, and a billion-dollar market. So where are the stadium-sized Bitcoin esports events? Let’s take a look at the issues to find out why you might be seeing some soon.

It’s not as though no one has tried to make Bitcoin esports a thing. Like many other ambitious ideas, though, they often ran into the blockchain industry’s technical (and human) limitations. Bitcoin Core’s (BTC) hobbled block size nixed the idea of any kind of blockchain there. Others, like Ethereum and EOS, have had more appeal for game builders but still suffer from those platforms’ technical and scaling limitations.

Then there’s the problem of convincing the big companies and players in the gaming industry that Bitcoin offers the benefits they’re looking for. This is common in any industry. Even if you believe in Bitcoin and want to build your own esports platform from scratch, there’s the challenge of attracting enough game designing and building talent away from the mainstream producers.

If your investment portfolio still includes any kind of travel company in it, I’m sorry for you. The global pandemic, and the shelter in place orders that have sprung from it, have destroyed every kind of travel and tourism venture. Hertz appears to be the first major domino to fall, having recently filed for bankruptcy protection, while declaring a fire sale on some of their more desirable rentals.

Things couldn’t be worse for Hertz right now. It has furloughed or laid off 20,000 employees, half of its global workforce, due to the pandemic. It’s CEO has resigned. While operations have not been affected globally, it has decided to file for bankruptcy protection to restructure its debts, which began piling up as services like Uber and Lyft chewed into their business over the past few years.

“The impact of Covid-19 on travel demand was sudden and dramatic, causing an abrupt decline in the company’s revenue and future bookings,” Hertz said on May 23. That decline forced the rental company to take “immediate actions to prioritize the health and safety of employees and customers, eliminate all non-essential spending and preserve liquidity.”

Most of the market could see this coming. Hertz had a year to date high share price of $20.85 before the pandemic hit full force, but quickly slid down to $3.38 by March 18. It’s now trading at roughly $2.80.

After a busy weekend of action, three big name pros once again cemented their reputations and ‘scooped’ up big online titles.

Winning a Spring Championship of Online Poker event is something many players have done, yet many big names have missed out on, too. Dominik ‘Bounatirou’ Nitsche was amongst the number of players who didn’t have a SCOOP title before his victory in the $530-entry Event #87. A high roller event, the tournament featured 956 players, and had a prize-pool of $500,000. Although slightly short of the guarantee, missing it by 44 entries, PokerStars won’t be too disappointed, with the rake covering the tourney by a few thousands. 

Nitsche’s victory was worth $82,365 to the 888poker player and after the event he took to Twitch to walk through some of the plays on his DTO Poker Trainer. It’s fair to say that after such a result, Nitsche might see a spike in players signing up.

While Nitsche was winning his first SCOOP title, another player was banking his third victory in the popular online poker series, that this year has been extended to exceed the GG Poker WSOP Guaranteed prize-pool. Or, ahem, to continue to make poker fun.

With many companies experiencing fluctuating business fortunes during the COVID-19 lockdown, while some have been forced to change plans, others have seen their current business model need to be accelerated.

One such company who have seen their KPI’s grow in recent weeks are Luckbox, an esports betting site that is now preparing to go public on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) after the first half of 2020 has given them an unexpected platform to build quicker.

Esports betting has grown during the COVID-19 lockdown largely due to the postponement of ‘IRL’ sports such as football and tennis. During this period, millions of pounds, dollars and euros would usually have been spent on sporting occasions such as the English Premier League title race, the Wimbledon Championships or international cricket.

Instead, many of the world’s population have taken a sudden and vested interest in esports such as Dota2 or League of Legends. Even FIFA tournaments between Premier League footballers such as James Maddison and Diogo Jota (both men winning the first two ePL Invitational events) have been hugely popular with fans and sportsbettors alike.

After years of causing nothing but grief for Imperial Pacific International (IPI) and gaming regulators in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Imperial Palace might soon be shutting its doors permanently. Numerous problems, stemming from IPI’s inability to play by the rules, has caused the company to suffer financially, and that suffering was compounded by the arrival of the coronavirus. The casino was forced to shut down temporarily because of the global health pandemic, and that closure might now become permanent. 

Imperial Palace has lost millions of dollars due to mismanagement of the casino, as well as the mismanagement of the still-ongoing construction expansion of the venue. The coronavirus exacerbated the situation, but wasn’t the only major fiasco recently suffered by the company. Last month, a judge determined that IPI, in typical fashion, was trying to avoid its fiduciary responsibilities by denying a contractor its contractually-stipulated payment for services rendered. IPI was ordered to pay Pacific Rim Land Development, LLC $5.6 million as a result, further damaging both the wallet and the reputation of IPI. 

IPI didn’t waste time filing an appeal in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the after that ruling was handed down, but could still be forced to pay the award while the appeal is pending. Were that to happen, IPI apparently doesn’t have the cash to cover the debt, and a lawyer for IPI asserts, “If the judgment becomes enforceable while the appeal is pending, IPI will be unable to pay it, and will likely have to close permanently.”

Apparently, the upper executive level of IPI believes the company’s expenses are mere “recommendations” and not obligations. The company wasn’t able to pay its full casino license fee last September, withholding part of the $15-million cost, and has recently only been able to cover partial salaries. According to the Saipan Tribune, the next installment of paychecks could be missed completely because IPI is out of money. 

When Illinois lawmakers approved sports gambling last year, they did so by taking a “do as I say, not as a do” approach by including a clause that would prevent some operators from participating. The so-called “bad actor” clause was designed to limit entry by those entities that had previously offered daily fantasy sports (DFS) in the state before the practice was deemed illegal by the former Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan (despite the fact that the operators were in compliance with the law prior to her ruling). DraftKings, as well as FanDuel, took issue with the bad actor clause and promised to not go down without a fight, but DraftKings now believes it found a way in without a bloody battle, and the state’s existing gaming operators may not be able to do anything about it this time. 

The bad actor clause would have prevented DraftKings and FanDuel to remain on the sidelines for 18 months; however, the legislation that was passed allows for almost anyone to set up management services operations in the state. The master license, which allows a company to directly offer sports wagers, whereas a management services license allows for an entity to essentially serve as another company’s representative.

That is apparently the route DraftKings has taken, since a new company presented to the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) that is requesting a management services license, Crown IL Gaming LLC, is identified as belonging to DraftKings. It submitted its license application on April 28. 

DraftKings can’t be given all the credit for the creative initiative – FanDuel has a similar deal that it’s working on with Boyd Gaming, which operates the Par-A-Dice casino in Illinois. Boyd has already been approved to offer a sportsbook, which should facilitate FanDuel’s entry into the state. DraftKings, though, will have to find a different partner.