Online gambling operators are increasingly being targeted for account takeover fraud, in part due to customers choosing some truly lousy passwords.

A new survey of global fraud and payments professionals by the Ravelin fraud detection firm found gambling second only to taxi companies in terms of the average annual number of account takeover attacks. These attacks involve fraudsters obtaining customer credentials to take control of an online account and then either use the account to spend lavishly on goods or services or sell the compromised data to nefarious third parties.

Gambling firms faced an average of 60 account takeover attacks per year, behind only taxi firms (65 attacks) but ahead of grocers (53). While gambling sites are obvious targets due to the large sums that accounts can contain, the grocers’ profile got a boost this year due to skittish customers filling their carts online during pandemic lockdown. 

Over half (52%) of gambling operators reported a significant rise in ‘serious’ account takeover attempts this year, again, thanks to the surge in online gambling activity as land-based options diminished due to COVID-19.

Last year’s partypoker Caribbean Poker Party Main Event took place at the Baha Mar resort in The Bahamas and was a wall-to-wall celebration of live poker, lit orange and set to a backdrop of bubbles, be they in champagne flutes or floating on the top of infinity pools.  

This year’s partypoker CPP Main Event is, of course, very different, but while it can take place anywhere there’s WiFi, the actual play is at virtual felt rather than the air-conditioned tables in a Bahamian resort. Every hand will be played out online, and while the Day 1a field totalled 490 players, just 70 players made it through to Day 2.  

With a bumper $5 million guarantee, the 490 entries worth $5,000+$300 each mean that $2.45 million of that prizepool is already in the can from entries and Day 1b on Tuesday 24th November is expected to be much busier than Day 1a.  

After the requisite 18 levels, each lasting 25 minutes, it was the Australian high roller Michael Addamo who racked up the biggest chip-stack of 18,658,743 chips. With each player starting with a million chips, Brazilian player Pedro Chaves went into the books in 2nd position with 17,110,419 and Dutch player Manuel Ruivo ended the night with 16,674,394, good for a podium finish.  

On Day 3 of the European Poker Tour’s maiden EPT Online Main Event, 72 players were reduced to just nine as the final table of the inaugural EPT Online Main Event was reached.

With overnight chip leader Toby Joyce not among the final table’s nine remaining hopefuls, who did grab the chip lead and put themselves in pole position to win over a million dollars? Let’s take a look back at the action.

The day took just over seven hours to complete, and those 72 players were reduced from nine tables to one at a rapid pace to begin with. Those to miss out on the top prize of $1,019,082 early included players such as Hungarian pro Laszlo Bujtas and Simon Mattsson, while PokerStars saw their last ambassador crash as Ramon Colillas exited in 53rd place for $22,167.

French poker legend Antoine Saout bit the dust, followed by Rafael Moraes and Will Arruda, while the aforementioned Day 2 chips leader Toby Joyce left when his ace-king couldn’t catch Jon Van Fleet’s pocket threes. Van Fleet’s Tweet on the eve of the final table tells you how his Day 3 went.

The action is underway in the 2020 ATP World Finals, and while outsiders might look at the event and assume that Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal might have the glory to themselves, the reality is far from that assumption.

The betting markets don’t fully reflect it, but the ATP World Finals represent a great chance to bet on the underdog in the Men’s Singles festival, with no-one having won the event by winning every match – and gaining a seven-figure prize as a result – for some years.

This year, the two groups have pitched together, as they always do, the strongest eight players in men’s tennis across the year.

In ‘Tokyo 1970’ Group, Novak Djokovic (23/20) and Daniil Medvedev (4/1) are favourites to make it through to the semi-finals, but Germany’s Alexander Zverev is a tempting 33/1 shot. It’s fair to say that this might not be Diego Schwartzman’s year, with his record in losing to Novak Djokovic in straight sets setting him up for a fall, but the Argentinian has come back from worse, and if he can find a way to beat Zverev, those odds will shrink. It really is a tough ask, however, and ‘Djoko’ would still be a good bet at this point, with the world number one sure to be fired up after a mixed year on and off the court.  

Sports betting operator SportPesa’s return to its native Kenya appears back on track – for the moment, at least – after a court quashed an effort by the local gambling regulator to block the company’s revival.

On Wednesday, Kenyan media reported that High Court Justice Pauline Nyamweya had issued a ruling striking down a Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) decision prohibiting SportPesa from relaunching its Kenyan betting business.  

SportPesa shut its local operations last year following a lengthy dispute with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) over alleged tax arrears. Last month, the company authorized new BCLB licensee Milestone Gaming Ltd to use SportPesa’s brand, mobile paybill numbers and short codes to handle wagers from Kenyan bettors.

That effort was rudely disrupted by the BCLB within hours of the new ke.SportPesa.com domain’s launch, based on the regulator’s view that local ownership of the SportPesa brand was the subject of a legal dispute. But Nyamweya’s Wednesday order instructed the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) to lift its blocking of the new SportPesa website.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Has any team finished an NFL regular season at 14-2 but had both losses come to the same team? That seems unlikely, but it’s conceivable it could happen to the Super Bowl-favored Kansas City Chiefs in 2020.

Patrick Mahomes and company come out of their bye week at 8-1 and that lone loss was as a 12-point home favorite in Week 5 to the Las Vegas Raiders, 40-32. That was no fluke, either, as the Raiders were the better team that day and Derek Carr was frankly better than Mahomes. The Chiefs look for payback in the Sunday night game of Week 12 as they make their first-ever visit to Las Vegas. If Kansas City wins, the AFC West race is all but over. The Chiefs are -7 and have won nine straight AFC West road games.

Chiefs-Raiders could be an AFC playoff preview as could Tennessee Titans at Baltimore Ravens in the early window Sunday. Tennessee visited Baltimore in the Divisional Round of last season’s playoffs and stunned the top-seeded Ravens 28-12 behind 195 yards rushing from Derrick Henry, who also threw a touchdown pass on a trick play. Baltimore was a 10-point favorite then and is -6.5 this time. Tennessee is 0-4 ATS in its past four on the road.

A sports betting tipster promo has resulted in a spanking by the UK’s advertising watchdog, while the country’s gambling regulatory boss has warned that licensees are still making too many “poor judgments” in their marketing efforts.

On Wednesday, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint against Geordie Shore reality TV ‘star’ Sam Gowland, whose Instagram account had promoted gambling tipster service Thebettingman in June.

The Instagram story featured captions detailing the alleged winnings Gowland had reaped after placing wagers with tips provided by Thebettingman. Gowland called betting the “best second source of income I’ve ever had … hence the new car I’m getting,” while urging his followers to check out the tipster service “if u wanted to make money.”

The complainant noted that Gowland’s posts didn’t contain the required #ad hashtag indicating that it was a paid promotion. The ASA took exception with the fact that Gowland was (a) suggesting betting as a path to achieving financial security, and (b) only 24 years old at the time, which broke ad rules requiring gambling pitchmen (and women) to be at least 25.

Gathering employee feedback can be tricky. Everyone’s got their own hang-ups and fears and biases, and getting to the truth isn’t always easy. To do it, you’ll likely need a mix of face to face conversations and anonymous inputs, and the reward for listening to feedback is well worth it.

Not every organization has a well-structured employee feedback gathering system, and maybe you need some help getting started. Let’s look through some of the more popular techniques can how you can apply them.

One on Ones

The classic coaching session. Talking to your team member one on one isn’t just about getting them to improve their work, it’s just as much about learning what’s going on in their head.

It emerged today that the 2021 Australian Poker Millions have been postponed indefinitely. Australia’s most prestigious poker event has been scrapped due to the ongoing fight against COVID-19.

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— Crown Poker (@CrownPoker) November 13, 2020https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

In a statement via their website, Crown Casino Melbourne confirmed that the safety concerns for staff and players meant the tournament could not proceed as scheduled. In a recent announcement to the media, Crown CEO Ken Barton pledged to work with authorities to ensure the safety of staff and players:

Back in early September, Bulgarian player Stoyan Madanzhiev became the WSOP Main Event champion. To him, and the poker world at the time, that meant he was the 51st world champion of the game following in the footsteps of players such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan, as well as, of course, the 2019 WSOP Main Event winner, Hossain Ensan.

That was until this week, however. The World Series of Poker announced a brand-new ‘Hybrid’ Main Event, costing $10,000 to enter and having no rebuy function, they referred to it as the WSOP Main Event, as in the 51st WSOP Main Event, eradicating Madanzhiev’s win as the crowning of the World Champion.

Upset, Madanzhiev this week discussed his feelings with a fellow WSOP bracelet winner in Daniel Negreanu, who quite literally signed off on Madanzhiev’s bracelet win back in September.

I totally understand why you are upset man. I do.