If I was a business owner or an entrepreneur operating anywhere in the world, I would seriously consider moving my business to Sweden. If I was an average independent guy who wanted to get away from social unrest where the only thing you are allowed to do without threat of imprisonment or fines is protest race issues and riot, I would seriously consider moving to Sweden. If I were a homeless vagrant who wanted a calmer, more sane place to panhandle in peace with more outdoor traffic because people are allowed to live like human beings, I would save up my guitar case money and buy a ticket to Sweden.

And if I were an investor looking to make an actual return on my money and I knew I needed, like, economic activity to accomplish that, one of the first places I would look to invest would be Sweden. I’ve been pounding the table here since 2018 to invest in Swedish gaming companies, particularly Betsson and NetEnt. With NetEnt, my thesis was that its massive decline from 2016 was not being reflected in its bottom line. Perhaps it was overvalued at its peak, but it was still a good, conservative but ambitious company with great finances, low debt, and fun, colorful and unique gaming products. The decline had to simply be a transition in the stock from momentum growth to stable income pick, exacerbated by regulatory attacks from the Swedish government and extreme bullish momentum until 2016.

I guess it wasn’t just me. Evolution Gaming came to the same conclusion, and helped push NetEnt shares right back up to all time highs in a generous offer for the company. Recovery took all of three months encompassing a 472% move. At some point, reality always kicks in. Evolution realized the company was worth buying, and made its move. The question is, why now, specifically in the middle of a global economic shutdown?

The answer, I believe, is just common sense. Essentially, where else are major business deals going to go down now except in one of the only industrialized countries in the world where normal human interaction is actually legal?

Some poker shows are there for years, becoming a part of the landscape of the game. Look at touchstones such as the European Poker Tour coverage, the World Series of Poker action on ESPN or the Pro-Am Poker Equalizer. OK, maybe not that last one.

Other poker shows, however, are gone as quickly as they arrived. The poker news reporting show Poker2Nite, sponsored by notorious former poker site Ultimate Bet, was one such show, coming along in 2009 and gone just 18 short episodes later in 2010.

The show was presented by Joe Sebok and Scott Huff, formerly of Huff & Stapes and now a television executive producer extraordinaire, with credits on shows such as The Missing, Wolf Hall and the forthcoming Dangerous Liaisons recently. Joe Sebok was a pro player even back then, known as ‘The Cub’ due to him being the step-son of Barry ‘The Bear’ Greenstein.

With an ability to round up news that played on both men’s sense of humour and ability to entertain, the show was a good idea and an obvious forerunner to poker news segments on YouTube that are put out there by poker brands. Ultimate Bet being the sponsor was a good thing at the time, but the Ultimate Bet scandal which would ahem… ultimately cause a major stir in the industry was yet to be fully discovered.

Yesterday witnessed the reboot of the MGM Springfield casino in Massachusetts, but under very different operating procedures. The hotel attached to the venue isn’t ready to open its doors to guests yet and the gambling area is only operating at about one-third of what it normally wants to see. The “biggest challenge” of the casino industry as a result of the coronavirus pandemic is forcing changes on a number of different levels and, as the MGM property tries to put the shattered pieces back together, it’s hoping its home city of Springfield will show it some mercy. 

The MGM Springfield cost almost $1 billion to build and was expected to be a huge source of jobs and revenue for Springfield. Things got off to a good start, but increased regional competition slowly began to eat away at the casino’s position and COVID-19 made things even worse. With no hotel, only a few eateries and a much smaller gaming floor, only a handful of the property’s employees have been asked to return to work. 

According to MGM VP and general counsel Seth Stratton, while giving a tour to reporters, “It’s the biggest challenge our industry has ever faced. I don’t know what customers will show up. That said, we are working very hard to welcome them back in a safe environment.”

In working out a deal to put a casino in Springfield, MGM made several financial arrangements with the city. Those arrangements are now in peril, as the casino may not have the necessary capital needed to cover its obligations. MGM is working with the city to reduce or delay payments; however, the talks have taken a break as everyone looks to see what type of public reaction there is to the reopening of the casino – perhaps MGM will be surprised and receive a windfall. 

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.

IMG ARENA signs long-term deal with World Table Tennis (WTT)

IMG ARENA, a leading sports betting service and content hub, has secured a long-term, worldwide live betting streaming and data rights partnership with World Table Tennis (WTT).

A few months ago, when gambling regulators in Colorado were busy with sports gambling operators looking to be issued a license, it may have seemed like the timing for a sportsbook launch was way off. The U.S., and the rest of the world, was just beginning to understand the severity of the coronavirus and virtually all sports activity in the country had shut down. Irrelevant facts, asserted PlayColorado’s Dustin Gouker, who predicted that Colorado was in a great position to lead the western part of the country in sports wagers. If this past May – with no NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB action in place – is any indication, Gouker’s prediction was right on the money.

Before the coronavirus turned the sports world upside down, Colorado anticipated seeing just under $10 million in revenue from legalized sports gambling – for the entire year. That figure dropped substantially after COVID-19’s grasp was further understood, and suddenly, Colorado expected $1.5 million by the end of December. However, things could be looking up, as May’s handle was $25.62 million, according to the state’s Division of Gaming (in pdf). 

For Colorado, that handle turned into just over $96,500. Not overwhelming but, recalling that there was no major sports action in the U.S. and the fact that May was just the first month the state introduced legal sportsbooks, the amount of return resonates even louder. It also provides a solid foundation for what’s to come if the sports leagues can launch as expected between now – with the NHL, NBA, MLS and MLB getting ready for reboots – and September, when the NFL still hopes to get its players on the field. 

Taking the lead in sports wagers in May was table tennis, which managed to grab 25.7% of the action for a handle of $6.58 million. That feat won’t be reproduced, however, as table tennis has fallen out of favor due to concerns over possible match-fixing. Colorado, along with New Jersey, asked its new sportsbooks to take down lines on international table tennis events last week as the issue continues to be investigated. 

First, it was May; then it was June. Next came possibly July, but it looks like that will pass, as well. The General Community Quarantine (GCQ) thrown over Manila in the Philippines remains in place, and it doesn’t look like it will be removed anytime soon. That’s potentially bad news for the metro area’s casino industry, which is now entering its fifth month on lockdown. COVID-19 continues to maintain a tight grip on the country and doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to letting up.

Talk of the GCQ coming to an end has been whispered for the past couple of weeks. It grew new legs recently when rumors starting circulating that the Presidential Palace was looking into moving Manila out of the highly-restrictive quarantine into Modified GCQ, which would allow more businesses, including gambling facilities, to unlock their doors and get back to work. However, those legs were pulled out from underneath the idea yesterday by Harry Roque, a spokesperson for President Duterte Rodrigo.

The Philippine Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and mayors have been meeting regularly to discuss protocols. However, despite attempts by economic leaders to convince the IATF-EID and the political leaders to push forward with the easing of restrictions, there hasn’t been much support. States Roque, “That was not part of any recommendation made. That’s what the economic managers want, but it is not the recommendation made by anyone, mayors or the IATF, during the meetings.”

The Philippines have recorded over 57,000 coronavirus cases, and the outlook isn’t getting any better. Yesterday, there were 836 positive tests and there are concerns that another wave is coming, just like what has been seen in other countries. Since the Philippines started to let up on travel restrictions at the beginning of June, the number of positive cases has tripled, and health officials believe there could be as many as 12,000 unverified infections.

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

Latin America is one of the new hot spots for gambling, and all manner of company are trying to get their foot in the door. That made for a great conference at SBC Digital Summit Latin America, where our Becky Liggero Fontana hosted a panel, featuring Alex Leese, CEO of Pronet Gaming. They spoke after the conference to expand the discussion.

Pronet Gaming already has a fairly significant presence in the LATAM region. “We serve a number of operators over there at the moment, and that is in a combination of the regulated markets, and also the gray markets, although I think it’s probably fair to say that any gray market at the moment in LATAM you can probably define as regulating,” Leese said. “I guess it’s all going to happen, hopefully, within the next 12 months. But I mean it is certainly a region that a lot of people are focused on, you know from all sections of the gaming industry, B2C providers, B2B providers, gaming content providers, it’s the real hot spot at the moment I would say.”

Just like any region isn’t a monolith, neither is South and Central America, and Pronet was kind enough to break down some of the differences. “I guess if we actually go through the markets, I mean in terms of, for example Mexico at the moment, so I mean that has always traditionally been a dot-com market, and I think it’s only recently through the ability to license the online sites via the casino, as in as in the land-based casino licenses, that that’s really kind of opened things up,” he said. “There’s not a huge number of operators at the moment in that market who are fully regulated, and by that I mean in terms of are able to advertise on above-the-line TV, etc, etc. So that’s why I said on the panel that I did, that you know the opportunity there is huge for the right operator with the right profile, with the right local partner of course. And then I guess actually looking into some of the other markets, take Argentina for example, so I think if you’re a dot-com there, I think it’s going to be a little bit tricky now potentially in Buenos Aires province where there’s a limited number of licenses available, I think that will be a struggle. It just depends upon how able the authorities are to block the gray market sites. You look at, you know what happened in Spain which then transferred over to Colombia as a market, they’ve been quite able to block off any dot-com operators.”

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The UFC undoubtedly spent several million dollars to make Fight Island in Abu Dhabi a reality, so the organization will want to stage as many cards as possible there – although it’s obviously not exactly easy to get to the United Arab Emirates for those from the United States, which is the UFC’s primary market.

Following Saturday’s mega-UFC 251 card, there’s another one Wednesday night on Fight Island that is headlined by a featherweight bout between Americans Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige. The main card starts at 10 p.m. ET, which is 6 a.m. in the UAE. No cards there are meant for locals to attend – the early start doesn’t matter – but for television in the USA.

The 32-year-old Kattar (21-4) is ranked No. 6 in the featherweight division. “The Boston Finisher” lost to No. 2 Zabit Magomedsharipov as a +220 underdog last November by unanimous decision but bounced back in May with a second-round KO (elbows) of ninth-ranked Jeremy Stephens.