At the end of this month, partypoker are hosting a Shooting Stars for Charity event that will see some of the biggest names in poker in the action with a $500 bounty on their heads and half a million dollars on the line.

Costing $1,100 to enter, the Shooting Stars for Charity tournament is part of the inaugural WPT World Online Championships, which takes place from July 17th to September 8th this year. As partypoker have announced on their blog, there will be some big names taking to the online felt, with $100 from each buy-in going to charity, with a minimum donation of $50,00 making its way to 1DaySooner, who are a charity that “advocates on behalf of human trial challenges to speed up the development of a COVID-19 vaccine”. Abie Rohrig, who is Communications Director for the charity was understandably delighted by the scheduling of the event.

“We are very grateful for the generosity from partypoker and the players,” she said, “We are confident that the donations will go a long way toward getting us a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.”

That would be the best result of all, of course, but if you’re thinking of playing, then every Shooting Star bounty will net you $500, with players such as partypoker pro Sam Trickett, Aylar Lie, former WSOP Main Event winner Ryan Riess and Igor Kurganov to name just four. It would be pretty sweet if Kurganov booked the win, just because the poker legend and former PokerStars Tea,m Pro has already promised to donate 100% of his winnings to the charity.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The word “best” is used way too often in sports, and it might not be accurate to say this Saturday’s UFC 251 fight card is the best in the organization’s history. It’s definitely the most unique, however, as it’s the debut card at Fight Island – otherwise known as Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The main card will begin at 10 p.m. ET time despite the fact that Abu Dhabi is eight hours ahead of Eastern time.

UFC president Dana White created/built Fight Island because of travel restrictions of international competitors to the United States during the coronavirus pandemic, but it actually will be the fourth time Yas Island hosts a UFC card.

The main event was to feature welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (16-1) defending his title against top-ranked contender Gilbert Burns (19-3), but Burns had to pull out after testing positive for COVID-19. He has been replaced by third-ranked and fan-favorite Jorge Masvidal (35-13), whose coach Mike Brown will not be in his corner after testing positive this week for the coronavirus.

Gamblers in the Republic of Cyprus could soon have access to a one-click option to self-exclude from all locally licensed sports betting operators, while the Republic’s lone casino licensee has undergone a management shakeup.

On Tuesday, the Cyprus National Betting Authority (NBA) launched a public consultation into the establishment of a Unified Self-Exclusion Platform for customers of NBA-licensed retail and online bookmakers. The NBA is seeking input from its betting licensees and “all relevant stakeholders” until July 24.

The NBA’s main goals for its new responsible gambling tool are a registration process that is “simple, user-friendly and fast,” while ensuring that customers are made aware of the existence of the platform and that counselling and treatment services are offered to customers who opt for self-exclusion.

The NBA envisions a system that will allow gamblers to select a variable self-exclusion period, along with the option for permanent exclusion. The self-exclusion period would take effect immediately upon registration and online bookmakers would be required to transfer all funds in a customer’s account within five days of that customer requesting self-exclusion.

The US gambling sector’s biggest annual get-together has been scrapped for 2020 due to fears over surging COVID-19 infections.

On Wednesday, the American Gaming Association (AGA) and Reed Exhibitions officially called time on the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Las Vegas 2020 conference. The conference, which was scheduled for October 5-8, has been rescheduled for October 4-7, 2021 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.  

AGA CEO Bill Miller said Wednesday that “in light of continued uncertainty around a viable marketplace at a physical G2E show, global travel restrictions, and currently unknown guidance on large public gatherings this fall, we have come to the unfortunate conclusion that we simply cannot hold an in-person G2E this year.”

Reed Exhibitions America president Hervé Sedky added that discussions with health authorities, exhibitors and buyers made it clear that “proceeding with an in-person gathering simply was not feasible.” The organizers pledged that they would soon be announcing plans for virtual events that “better reflect the current environment.”

The online gambling and sports betting venture of GVC Holdings and MGM Resorts is significantly boosting its financial bet on achieving US market dominance within the next five years.

On Wednesday, US casino operator MGM and UK-listed gambling giant GVC announced that they were investing a further $250m into their US-facing Roar Digital online gambling and sports betting joint venture and its BetMGM brand. This second round of investment builds on the companies’ initial $200m pledge when they announced their pact in 2018.

Roar Digital CEO Adam Greenblatt hailed “this further unequivocal support from our two shareholders” as pivotal in achieving Roar’s goal of securing “leading market positions” in regulated US gaming and betting states.

With Roar “on track” to be operating in 11 states by the end of 2020, Greenblatt said the business would generate “over $130m” in net revenue this year. Most of this will come via its operations in New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market, which soared to new heights following the mid-March closure of Atlantic City’s brick-and-mortar casinos.