Greek lottery and betting operator OPAP saw its profit tumble nearly 40% in the first quarter of 2020 as COVID-19 brought an abrupt halt to land-based gaming.  

Figures released Thursday show OPAP’s gross gaming revenue over the three months ending March 31 totaled €328.3m, a 17.1% decline from the same period last year. Earnings were off 23.6% to €86.4m while net profits slid 37.8% to €33.8m.

The company previously warned that COVID-19 had brought a halt to 99% of its operations in Greece and Cyprus by mid-March, while its fledgling online betting site was unable to shoulder the burden due to the pandemic cancellation of major sports.

Acting CEO Jan Karas, who took over from Damian Cope on June 1, called Q1 “a double-faced quarter,” as pre-pandemic growth had been “sizeable” before everything went to hell. Karas gave a shout-out to OPAP staff for their “swift adaptation to the new norm and working conditions” and for their ability to bounce back once the retail all-clear was sounded.

The return of live poker around the world is a cause for massive concern both in terms of for players individually and for poker brands overall.

One player who has said more than most about the possible situations we can look forward to solving within the industry is Isaac ‘Ike’ Haxton. The partypoker pro has written about the threats to a safe return of poker in a recent blog on the partypoker website. 

Haxton, whose online and live reputation sees him sit among poker’s elite, has recently pushed for players to join him in donating to the Minnesota Freedom Fund. His words about when poker comes back to the live arena are ones informed by well over a decade at the felt.

I just donated to @MNFreedomFund

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

UFC 250 last Saturday was headlined by a women’s bout, and so is this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event, also at the organization’s Apex facility in Las Vegas, as a flyweight fight between Americans Jessica Eye and Cynthia Calvillo tops the card. Once again, no fans will be in attendance.

The 33-year-old Eye (15-7) is ranked as the No. 1 contender in the women’s flyweight division behind Valentina Shevchenko. “Evil” is looking for a rematch with the champion as Shevchenko beat Eye by second-round knockout (head kick) in a title fight at UFC 238 in June 2019. Eye bounced back with a unanimous decision victory over Viviane Araujo in December of last year. That Eye won by decision is no shock as she has taken 73 percent of her victories via the judges. She is -120 for Saturday.

Calvillo (8-1-1), 32, is ranked 10th in the strawweight division. Her past six bouts have been in that division. She comes off a majority draw against Marina Rodriguez in December 2019. Calvillo’s lone loss was at UFC 219 by unanimous decision to former strawweight champion Carla Esparza. Calvillo’s UFC debut was in March 2017 at flyweight and she beat Amanda Bobby Cooper by first-round submission. Calvillo is -110 for Saturday.

Casino operator Wynn Resorts says its Macau properties earned no more than $19m in the first two months of its second quarter, forcing it to raise more cash, pronto.

On Thursday, Wynn filed papers with the US Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its intention to conduct a senior notes offering to professional investors, although it couldn’t yet say how much these notes would cost nor how much the company hoped to raise via this offering.

However much change this offering puts in Wynn’s pocket, the company plans to use it to pay bills while it recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as repay a portion of the outstanding amounts of Wynn Macau’s credit facilities.

Wynn also offered a hint of the performance of its Wynn Macau subsidiary – which is 72% owned by the parent company – in the months of April and May. The company expects the combined revenue of Wynn’s two Macau properties to come in between $17.9m and $19m, down from $759.7m in the same two-month period last year. Ouch.

Illinois casinos are still in the dark as to when the state might let them reopen to the public but their online sports betting plans are getting a little clearer.

On Thursday, the Illinois Gaming Board announced that they still had no clue as to when the state’s 10 casinos might warrant inclusion in the governor’s Restore Illinois post-pandemic economic reboot. The casinos were ordered closed on March 16 in order to minimize further spread of COVID-19.

The casinos did get new guidelines they’ll need to have in place before regulators will clear them to reopen. Most of the protocols mirror that of Nevada and other states, including a 50% capacity constraint. Still that’s preferable to the rules applied to Detroit’s three casinos, which learned this week that they’ll be limited to just 15% of their normal capacity when they reopen.

Two casinos – Rivers Des Plaines and the Argosy Casino Alton – were able to launch their retail sportsbooks just one week before the casinos were shut. On Thursday, those two casinos plus five more – Grand Casino Victoria (Elgin), Hollywood Casino Aurora, Hollywood Casino Joliet, Par-A-Dice (East Peoria) and Casino Queen (East St. Louis) – received their ‘master licenses,’ netting the cash-strapped state $40m in immediate license fee payments.

Two online casino providers licensed by the German state of Schleswig-Holstein have been ordered to stop advertising their services in the state of Saarland. 

On Wednesday, the Saarland’s media regulator Landesmedienanstalt (LMS) announced that it had instructed “two market-strong providers of online casino games with a license from the state of Schleswig-Holstein” to stop promoting their products on Saarland television channels. The announcement didn’t identify the offenders by name. 

Way back in 2012, Schleswig-Holstein issued online casino, poker and sports betting licenses to a number of domestic and foreign gambling operators. At the time, Germany’s 15 other states supported a federal plan that permitted only online sports betting, leading to legal jostling over whether gamblers in these other states could access Schleswig-Holstein’s online casinos.   

Schleswig-Holstein renewed its online casino licenses a year ago, and the LMS noted that the state had initially “guaranteed the limitation of advertising” for its online casinos. “In practice, from the LMS point of view, this limitation is no longer noticeable.”

Thanks to a number of media sites who didn’t understand the true purpose of cryptocurrencies, or the problems it could solve, digital currencies got off to a bad start in mainstream awareness. It has taken a long time for the negative stigmas to begin to be chipped away, but there has definitely been a lot of progress in the past couple of years. At this week’s SiGMA-ICE Asia digital conference, crypto and blockchain innovation made an appearance, delving into how the technology is particularly beneficial to the iGaming space. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, interest in crypto as a legitimate form of payment has now reached an entirely new level across the globe. 

Max Krupyshev, the CEO of cryptoprocessing.com, and Hong Kong Blockchain Association co-founder and co-chairman Tony Tong provided substantial insight into how crypto is making its way to iGaming payment channels. Digital currencies have the ability to provide payment solutions that are unparalleled by any conventional alternative, allowing for both gamers and gaming platforms to resolve purchases and payouts easier and cheaper than ever. This has become even more important as iGaming operators establish their activity throughout multiple jurisdictions, allowing the global reach of crypto to help ease entry into new territories.

Krupyshev has witnessed a strong push toward crypto as a payment solution in the iGaming space. Over the past couple of years, he has seen more interest from operators and crypto now accounts for a quarter of all payments. The percentage could be higher, but people are still trying to understand how digital currencies work, what their advantages are and, of course, overcoming the negative stigma. 

To help combat the latter, cryptoprocessing.com, and other similar payment platforms, are operating very similarly to conventional payment platforms. To adhere to existing money-laundering prevention regulations, crypto accounts have to be verified and the source of the crypto address is confirmed to ensure the legitimacy of the funds. This is a process that is constantly being administered for both existing and new accounts, helping to ensure that any transactions that go through the platform are on the right side of the law.

Bwin’s Russian-licensed sports betting site never had a chance at success, according to the operator’s former CEO.

Former Bwin.ru CEO Dmitry Sergeyev recently posted a post-mortem of his time with the site on his personal Telegram channel, spurred by Facebook’s reminder that it’s been three years since Bwin’s parent GVC Holdings announced its joint venture with Russian-licensed bookmaker Digital Betting LLC.

Sergeyev (pictured), who joined betting operator Parimatch last year and last month was named CEO of that company’s Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) division, noted that Bwin.ru got off to a rocky start, having to delay the site’s launch until November 2017.

Sergeyev said the delay was partly due to GVC being distracted by its ongoing integration of the Bwin.party brands and Sergeyev had “serious fears” that GVC was getting cold feet about entering the Russian market. Sergeyev claimed his June 2017 press conference announcing Bwin.ru was intended to ensure that GVC “wouldn’t change their minds.”

Macau’s gambling industry is in trouble until tourism comes back, and with most international travel still being held up by the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s hard to say when that will happen. But thanks to the efforts of chief executive Ho Iat Seng, they are slowly getting to place where they can be helpful, and concessionaires can’t wait.

On June 10, Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U announced residents of Macau with “business or practical travel needs” will be able to apply to the Health Bureau for exemption to travel to Zhuhai without a medical examination. They can begin applying on June 11, and more details are expected to be announced on June 12.

To receive the exemption, residents will have to undergo medical tests two days before their intended travel, but should they receive the exemption, they’ll be able to travel back and forth for a week with no further testing.

The Macau government will also be launching a shuttle service to the Hong Kong International Airport, intended to bring residents back who may have been stranded abroad. These locals will have to be quarantined for two weeks before they are allowed to freely move around the special administrative region.

Back when the Poker Million first made it to the television screen, poker was riding a pre-Moneymaker wave of cult popularity in Britain. Late Night Poker had just come out and was gaining a niche audience who lived for the midnight hour once a week to see their favourite characters take to the felt.

In 2000, the Poker Million was invented to offer one player the chance of winning a million pound top prize. This wouldn’t be the only prize, but the pay-jumps were brutal. In the original series of the Poker Million, 10th-placed Dave Welch cashed for £2,000. The big names at the time went up the top 10, but the amounts were paltry compared to that top prize. Simon Trumper (9th for £6,000), Barny Boatman (6th or £14,000) and Tony Bloom (4th for £25,000) all missed out on the first seven-figure tournament prize in British poker. Heads-up, John Duthie, creator of the European Poker Tour, would beat Teddy ‘Sugar’ Tuil to give the Israeli player a £100,000 consolation prize. It was the final hand that the TV company must have dreamed of when they conceived the show in the first place.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_lswkSAh8?feature=oembed]

The Poker Million might have been a success, but the format would not return to TV screens until three years later in 2003, the year Moneymaker won the biggest prize in poker. This time, the prize-pool was reduced by a vast amount, and it was snooker legend Jimmy White who won the first prize, a comparatively miniscule $150,000.

If International Entertainment Corp. (IEC) has its way, the Philippines could see a new integrated resort (IR) in the not-so-distant future. The Hong Kong-listed gaming investment firm has announced that it is preparing to send a request to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) for its Marina Square Properties Inc. (MSPI) subsidiary to be issued a provisional license for the operation of gambling activities. The company doesn’t mention any specific project details in its announcement.

The announcement (in pdf) explains that the license request will include plans to “expand and upgrade the current hotel premises, facilities and services by the establishment and operation of a casino and the development of an integrated resort in the City of Manila, Philippines.” Because it specifically mentions a “current hotel” and that MSPI has “submitted a written request” to Manila officials to recommend the project, the most likely candidate is the New Coast Hotel Manila, a property that includes space currently leased by PAGCOR for its own gaming operations. The hotel was formerly known as the New World Manila Bay Hotel.

IEC has most likely been gearing up for an IR in the Philippines for some time. It sold its ownership rights of the Wigan Athletic Football Club a couple of weeks ago, after having held onto the soccer team for about a year and a half, and is also big into live poker. It launched a partnership of sorts with The Stars Group a little more than two years ago that allowed it to host PokerStars-branded poker tournaments throughout Asia.

For IEC to be able to submit its license request to PAGCOR, it must first have support of government officials. This can be obtained through a “Letter of No Objection” and a “City Council Resolution,” which IEC is seeking through its request sent to Manila. If city officials provide the supporting documents, IEC can then forward its license application to PAGCOR for consideration. However, there are no guarantees that any of the steps will be met with approval.

If International Entertainment Corp. (IEC) has its way, the Philippines could see a new integrated resort (IR) in the not-so-distant future. The Hong Kong-listed gaming investment firm has announced that it is preparing to send a request to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) for its Marina Square Properties Inc. (MSPI) subsidiary to be issued a provisional license for the operation of gambling activities. The company doesn’t mention any specific project details in its announcement.

The announcement (in pdf) explains that the license request will include plans to “expand and upgrade the current hotel premises, facilities and services by the establishment and operation of a casino and the development of an integrated resort in the City of Manila, Philippines.” Because it specifically mentions a “current hotel” and that MSPI has “submitted a written request” to Manila officials to recommend the project, the most likely candidate is the New Coast Hotel Manila, a property that includes space currently leased by PAGCOR for its own gaming operations. The hotel was formerly known as the New World Manila Bay Hotel.

IEC has most likely been gearing up for an IR in the Philippines for some time. It sold its ownership rights of the Wigan Athletic Football Club a couple of weeks ago, after having held onto the soccer team for about a year and a half, and is also big into live poker. It launched a partnership of sorts with The Stars Group a little more than two years ago that allowed it to host PokerStars-branded poker tournaments throughout Asia.

For IEC to be able to submit its license request to PAGCOR, it must first have support of government officials. This can be obtained through a “Letter of No Objection” and a “City Council Resolution,” which IEC is seeking through its request sent to Manila. If city officials provide the supporting documents, IEC can then forward its license application to PAGCOR for consideration. However, there are no guarantees that any of the steps will be met with approval.

Investment firm Roundhill Investments launched its new Sports Betting and iGaming ETF (exchange-traded fund) a week ago, ready to capitalize on the return of global sports competitions and, subsequently, global sports gambling. As far as timing goes, the BETZ ETF could not have been introduced at a more appropriate moment, as major sports organizations around the world are now starting to come back to life. As a result, the level of interest in the ETF has been off the charts and it is already experiencing major positive gains since launching last Thursday. 

In just the first day of being live, BETZ enjoyed over $17 million in shares traded. The next day, the figure jumped to $50 million. As of this past Tuesday, a total of 1.14 million shares had been traded, equaling around $19 million in volume. Given that most ETFs, when first launched, are typically received with much skepticism and weak attention, the response to BETZ is made even more poignant. Add into the mix the fact that Roundhill only has one other ETF, the BITKRAFT Esports and Digital Entertainment ETF, and the results show an even greater amount of interest on the part of investors to get going with the explosive growth expected in sports gambling.

Even Roundhill has been somewhat surprised by the results. Co-founder and CIO Tim Maloney asserts, “Even in our wildest dreams, we didn’t envision five-odd million shares over three days trading.” He explains that there are primarily three reasons for the response: more investors at home due to the coronavirus lockdown, more time on the part of the investors to perform due diligence on investment vehicles and the increase of the “Robinhood” investor – the latter a reference to the rise in popularity of the online trading platform. He adds, “We create products that really make sense to a retail-skewed demographic, and we want to empower them to invest what they know.”

BETZ has three segments in its coverage. The first includes sports gambling and iGaming operators, the second covers entities that are heavily, but not solely, involved in the industry and the third covers companies that have some relation to the industry. 30 stocks are included in the fund, led by both DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel. Both are making waves in the sports gambling market across the US thanks to new deals and offerings as the country continues to expand its legal sports gambling market and account for a total of 12% of the ETF. GAN Ltd., which is beginning to gain a lot of ground in the gaming ecosystem, controls 5% of the fund. 

Investment firm Roundhill Investments launched its new Sports Betting and iGaming ETF (exchange-traded fund) a week ago, ready to capitalize on the return of global sports competitions and, subsequently, global sports gambling. As far as timing goes, the BETZ ETF could not have been introduced at a more appropriate moment, as major sports organizations around the world are now starting to come back to life. As a result, the level of interest in the ETF has been off the charts and it is already experiencing major positive gains since launching last Thursday. 

In just the first day of being live, BETZ enjoyed over $17 million in shares traded. The next day, the figure jumped to $50 million. As of this past Tuesday, a total of 1.14 million shares had been traded, equaling around $19 million in volume. Given that most ETFs, when first launched, are typically received with much skepticism and weak attention, the response to BETZ is made even more poignant. Add into the mix the fact that Roundhill only has one other ETF, the BITKRAFT Esports and Digital Entertainment ETF, and the results show an even greater amount of interest on the part of investors to get going with the explosive growth expected in sports gambling.

Even Roundhill has been somewhat surprised by the results. Co-founder and CIO Tim Maloney asserts, “Even in our wildest dreams, we didn’t envision five-odd million shares over three days trading.” He explains that there are primarily three reasons for the response: more investors at home due to the coronavirus lockdown, more time on the part of the investors to perform due diligence on investment vehicles and the increase of the “Robinhood” investor – the latter a reference to the rise in popularity of the online trading platform. He adds, “We create products that really make sense to a retail-skewed demographic, and we want to empower them to invest what they know.”

BETZ has three segments in its coverage. The first includes sports gambling and iGaming operators, the second covers entities that are heavily, but not solely, involved in the industry and the third covers companies that have some relation to the industry. 30 stocks are included in the fund, led by both DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment-owned FanDuel. Both are making waves in the sports gambling market across the US thanks to new deals and offerings as the country continues to expand its legal sports gambling market and account for a total of 12% of the ETF. GAN Ltd., which is beginning to gain a lot of ground in the gaming ecosystem, controls 5% of the fund. 

In the fast moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

FSI and Scientific Games enter strategic fantasy sportsbook partnership

FSI – Fantasy Sports Interactive are proud to announce they have entered a strategic partnership with Scientific Games that will provide FSI’s original Fantasy Sportsbook offerings to Scientific Games’ global customer network.

Some people like technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI), while others don’t want to see things ever change – that also applies to virtually anything ever introduced. However, change is going to take place whether we want it to or not. Sometimes it’s for the better, sometimes it’s for necessity. The coronavirus has already led to increased implementation of technological solutions in order to allow society to bring the global pandemic under control, and some of these applications are now here to stay. This could also be found in the travel industry, which could be close to becoming more automated than ever. 

It has already been possible, for a long time, to breeze through airport check-in by scanning a bar code on a smartphone to announce your arrival and head to the gate – no printed boarding pass needed. However, much more is coming to the travel industry to limit the interaction between humans and automate processes that can handle the more repetitive and standardized activities. Most of the innovation is driven by advancements in AI, which is inarguably getting exponentially smarter with each day that passes. 

For example, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is being developed that doesn’t require batteries. If, for example, an airport needs to keep its hand sanitizer dispensers filled at all times, employees and security guards can be equipped with an app on their phones that would automatically determine whether or not a dispenser is low and send an order request to a dispatcher. In airports that span several square miles, this can become a huge time-saver. 

Autonomous mobility scooters are also starting to crop up in certain airports. Anyone who has traveled by air has witnessed an employee pushing a long line of luggage carts that were collected from various points around the airport. However, these electric scooters are able to take their passengers to the intended destination and then return to their home base autonomously, ready for the next customer. 

Lawmakers in New York have been anxiously waiting for Spectrum Gaming Group to hand over its findings on how the state’s sports gambling market may, or may not, produce the revenue most people have predicted. The report was commissioned by the state and was to be delivered at the beginning of this month; however, COVID-19 has forced many schedules to be disrupted, and Spectrum was allowed to take more time to turn in its results. Despite no clear deadline for the report to be delivered, one of the main sports gambling proponents in the state, and a lawmaker behind its legislation, still believes something could happen this year. 

Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. isn’t giving up hope that New Yorkers will be able to place online sports wagers starting sometime in either 2021 or 2022. He spoke to Legal Sports Report (LSR), asserting that, when the results are finally submitted, he is “confident” that there will still be enough time to push for legalization before the end of 2020. The current economic situation caused by the coronavirus could actually give his efforts a boost. 

Addabbo and Assembly Gary Pretlow have been the most vocal lawmakers on trying to bring sports gambling expansion, and, more specifically, online wagers, to the Empire State. Their efforts, however, have continuously met a brick wall in Governor Andrew Cuomo, who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, has tried to suppress sports gambling legislation. However, with the amount of economic destruction brought about by the coronavirus, he might have to change his tune.

Addabbo explained to LSR that the delay in Spectrum’s submission of the study could be a good thing. He explains, “The virus did affect our gaming statewide, there’s no question. Given that the global pandemic hampered our state for months now, it’s going to take a while for gaming entities to get back up and running. For the study to reflect that I think is the right thing to do.”

Macau’s gaming regulator, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ for its Portuguese acronym), now officially has a new director. When Paulo Martins Chan announced that he wanted to give up the position and return to the Public Prosecutions Office, it didn’t take long for a successor to be named, and Adriano Ho was the man tapped for the job. The transition was completed yesterday, and Ho has promised to fulfill his duties in correlation to the best interests of the public while serving at all times with integrity.

Ho’s appointment was first announced yesterday in Macau’s Official Gazette. Before coming in to take control of the DICJ, he had served as an advisor to the Secretary for Security. Prior to that, he had been the head of the Macao Sub-Bureau of the China National Central Bureau of INTERPOL, a position he maintained for six years from 2004 to 2010. He left that position to direct Macau’s Judiciary Police Criminal Investigation Department from 2010 to 2012 before overseeing the Gaming-related and Economic Crimes Investigation Department for two years from 2012 to 2014.

Ho was sworn in yesterday by Lei Wei Nong, Macau’s Secretary for Economy and Finance. He feels confident in Ho’s ability to oversee the DICJ and help continue to make it operate with more transparency and regulatory oversight, traits that are needed more than ever as Macau begins down the long road to recovery following the coronavirus pandemic. With virtually zero gaming revenue coming into the city for a couple of months, certain individuals could look for creative means to receive quick injections of income.

For his part, Ho knows what he’s getting into and is ready to meet the challenges head on. He said during his inauguration on Wednesday that he is ready to enforce government regulations to provide better control over gambling while, at the same time, implementing new applications that can help increase efficiency in the department. He added that he expects to be able to create a more solid internal infrastructure and promised to “serve the public with integrity” as he fulfills his duties.