It was a huge disappointment to many when the Covid-19 pandemic postponed SiGMA’s Manila 2020 event to 2021, but it brought about a huge new opportunity. SiGMA-ICE Asia and SiGMA Deep Tech Summit, running from June 8 to 10, came about at the perfect time as the gambling industry starts to get its arms around the challenge in front of it, and kept its focus on the Philippines with a few important presentations about the country on Day 1 of the conference.

The day began with a keynote presentation from Andrea Domingo, Chairperson and CEO of the Philippines Amusement and Gambling Corporation (PAGCOR). She didn’t dance around the central issue of the pandemic, noting right away that, “In the Philippines we’re suffering as much as everybody else.”

Domingo focused first on the health and economic wellbeing of those under PAGCOR’s supervision, committing to healthy working conditions and continued employment of the 132,000 direct hires of the gaming industry.  “And third we have to maximize revenue collection because our government, like all governments, needs the money not only to fight COVID but to buy a vaccine, to do massive testing, support hospitals and also to jumpstart the economy after the COVID crisis is over,” she added.

She also specifically thanked SiGMA for hosting the conference. She said she hopes that the Philippines gambling sector could take some lessons away from it, and improve as a result.

France’s online poker market enjoyed a serious surge in the first quarter of 2020, although it’s unclear how long the pandemic-influenced gains will last.

Figures released Monday by French gambling regulator ARJEL show locally-licensed online operators generated combined revenue of €435m in the first three months of 2020, a 22% rise over the same period last year. The gains came as active player accounts rose 17% year-on-year to nearly 2.6m.

The gains came despite sports betting turnover falling 4% year-on-year to €1.22b, the regulated market’s first wagering decline in nine years. The COVID-19 cancellation of major sports events in March pushed that month’s turnover down 40%, spoiling what had been an 11% turnover rise over the first two months of 2020.

Despite the turnover decline, favorable (for the bookies, anyway) sports results resulted in betting revenue rising 18% year-on-year to a record €263m. The results would have been much higher were it not for COVID-19, as revenue was up a staggering 48% by the end of February.

After running the rule over a dozen rivals of huge stature, Justin Bonomo has won yet another big tournament as he bagged $1.7m for taking down the Super High Roller Bowl Main Event.

The backdrop to the $100,000-entry Poker Central Super High Roller Bowl Online Main Event final day was something totally different, with Artur Martirosyan having already completed the unlikeliest of comebacks to triumph against Viktor Blom in the race for the Championship.

With just 13 players remaining in the race to become Main Event champion, it was the former Poker Masters Purple Jacket winner Ali Imsirovic who led the field. He would not even make the final table, however, as after players such as GPI world number one Alex Foxen, Super High Roller regular Sergi Reixach and Jonathan Van Fleet bade farewell to the field, it was Imsirovic who bubbled the final table in 9th place.

While that bubble was painful, the next would be even more so, with only seven places being paid.

Prior to the end of last week, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) had contributed almost $240.5 million to the country’s bankroll from its 2019 earnings. The gaming regulator, as well as casino operator, continues to do its part to help the Philippines recover from the coronavirus pandemic and added some more money to the pot last Friday. In an announcement by PAGCOR, it said that it had paid “cash dividends” to the government treasury worth $100.3 million, bringing its total contribution this year to $340.8 million.

According to PAGCOR Chair and CEO Andrea Domingo, the money is to be used primarily to support the government’s anti-coronavirus efforts, and was provided after a request was made by the country’s finance secretary, Carlos Dominguez. The group added, “There’s a need to infuse more funds to the government’s effort in battling the COVID-19 pandemic. With our latest cash dividends remittance, we hope to contribute more significantly to that cause. We might have suffered huge revenue losses, but we can’t afford to lose the fight against this global health crisis.”

The latest contribution makes PAGCOR the third-largest contributor to the country’s bank account. The only two entities that have provided more funds are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippine central bank) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation. The money was pulled from the entity’s net earnings from last year, as well as leftover earnings from 2018, and also follows another $290.4 million that has been given to the country’s Socio-Civic Projects Fund, which is directed by the Office of the President (OP).

The agency adds in its statement, “On March 24, PAGCOR turned over P6 billion to OP, in addition to the P2 billion ($40.06 million) and P500 million ($10.01 million) remittances that were released on March 11 and March 1, respectively. PAGCOR, as well as its licensees also donated food packs, personal protective equipment and other medical essentials to frontliners, hospitals and communities in the National Capital Region and some parts of Luzon. The charitable arms of casino licensees have likewise extended direct assistance for the government’s fight against the pandemic.”

Prior to the end of last week, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) had contributed almost $240.5 million to the country’s bankroll from its 2019 earnings. The gaming regulator, as well as casino operator, continues to do its part to help the Philippines recover from the coronavirus pandemic and added some more money to the pot last Friday. In an announcement by PAGCOR, it said that it had paid “cash dividends” to the government treasury worth $100.3 million, bringing its total contribution this year to $340.8 million.

According to PAGCOR Chair and CEO Andrea Domingo, the money is to be used primarily to support the government’s anti-coronavirus efforts, and was provided after a request was made by the country’s finance secretary, Carlos Dominguez. The group added, “There’s a need to infuse more funds to the government’s effort in battling the COVID-19 pandemic. With our latest cash dividends remittance, we hope to contribute more significantly to that cause. We might have suffered huge revenue losses, but we can’t afford to lose the fight against this global health crisis.”

The latest contribution makes PAGCOR the third-largest contributor to the country’s bank account. The only two entities that have provided more funds are the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippine central bank) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation. The money was pulled from the entity’s net earnings from last year, as well as leftover earnings from 2018, and also follows another $290.4 million that has been given to the country’s Socio-Civic Projects Fund, which is directed by the Office of the President (OP).

The agency adds in its statement, “On March 24, PAGCOR turned over P6 billion to OP, in addition to the P2 billion ($40.06 million) and P500 million ($10.01 million) remittances that were released on March 11 and March 1, respectively. PAGCOR, as well as its licensees also donated food packs, personal protective equipment and other medical essentials to frontliners, hospitals and communities in the National Capital Region and some parts of Luzon. The charitable arms of casino licensees have likewise extended direct assistance for the government’s fight against the pandemic.”

Greece-based lottery and gambling company Intralot had high hopes for a strong 2020. As it was coming off a weak 2019, it looked toward this year as its turn-around year, ready to capitalize on the growing sports gambling market in the U.S. and several lucrative (albeit questionable) deals with states. However, the coronavirus has had different plans for the company, and the first quarter of the year has been anything but productive. Adding to its problems, Bulgaria pulled the plug on a sportsbook contract that led to Intralot losing an important B2C segment that it had managed through a partnership with Eurobet Bulgaria. So far, 2020 is not shaping up to be the breakout year for the company.

Intralot has published (in pdf) its first-quarter revenue health, and the numbers are way off what it had hoped. In Q1 of last year, the company reported turnover of around $218.34 million, but could only muster $115.39 million in Q1 of 2020. This represents a massive 47% drop year-over-year, and follows a decline that was seen in all of 2019. 

This past February, Bulgaria suspended Eurobet Bulgaria for not playing by the country’s newly updated gambling rules, which led to Intralot taking a hit to its bottom line. This was the main reason for the decline, but not the only one – the vacated U.S. market hasn’t helped, and the closure of Intralot’s operations in Turkey last year have also caused gaping holes in its earnings capabilities. Scientific Games was awarded a new sports gambling tender in the country in the first quarter of 2019, leaving Intralot high and dry. The company explains, “Turkey revenue decrease is driven by Inteltek’s contract discontinuation post August 2019, as well as by a decline in Bilyoner’s top line performance following the transition to the new Sports Betting era in Turkey)… Performance in Euro terms was further impacted by the devaluation of the local currency (10.3% Euro appreciation versus a year ago…).”

Adding to the problems, the company has seen weaker lottery sales. The segment dropped 15% during the first quarter of the year, leading Intralot to be able to report just $77.08 million in sales. Operating expenses have been reduced, but not nearly as much as they need to be. The company cut its spending by 18%, saving it $6.78 million, but its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) dropped by 50% to $16.93 million. 

With 418 entries in total putting up the $2,100 entry fee, a massive of prizepool of $836,000 saw Joao Simao triumph against Steve O’Dwyer heads-up to claim the top prize of $150,547.

When the final table was reached, it was Steve O’Dwyer who held a huge chip lead, with 12 million chips, some way clear of the 7.2 million that Matt Stone had at that stage. Joao Simao, by contrast, came into the final table as short stack, with just 934,000 chips to his name, but an early double through the player known as ‘m.a-0000’ recovered his chances. Simao was all-in and at risk with pocket nines and needed to hold against the king-queen of his opponent. He was relieved to see a ten-high board double him back into contention.

The same could not be said for ‘m.a-0000’, who never recovered from the hit to his stack, eventually going all-in with pocket queens against ‘ArtHouse2011’, who held pocket aces. Those held to crippled the stack of ‘m-a.0000’ and they left in the next hand, spare change snapped up by Steve O’Dwyer.

It would be Spanish player Andres Gonzalez who left in 8th place for $19,983, busting when he had pocket aces cracked by O’Dwyer’s pocket jacks, a jack on the flop spelling doom for the European player and giving O’Dwyer yet more control over the remaining players.