Another star-studded final table of nine players will compete for the latest Super MILLION$ title as the weekly $10,300 GGPoker tournament comes to a close tonight live on Twitch. 

With Elio Fox leading the way with 3,098,695 chips , it’s a UK one-two as Ludovic Geilich goes into play second in chips with 2,764,461. 

While both those players will have plenty of hope, it is the presence of GGPoker ambassador Bertrand Grospellier – or ‘ElkY’ to his many fans – who is leading much of the interest in this week’s showdown. 

‘ElkY’ has been a huge player over many years in the game, with a personal highlights reel that is the envy of virtually every poker player on the planet. 

Nevada’s ill-fated experiment with so-called ‘entity betting’ has resulted in still more federal charges against another crop of con men.

On Monday, the US Attorney for the District of Nevada announced the indictment of Las Vegas residents John Frank Thomas III and Thomas Joseph Becker on a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 13 counts of wire fraud in relation to a pyramid scheme posing as a sports betting investment business.

The dastardly duo ran a number of purported betting-based investment funds – which bore names such as Einstein Sports Advisory, Wellington Sports Club, Vegas Football Club and Welscorp Inc – that promised “unlimited riches” for investors thanks to the duo’s claimed wagering skillz.

While the duo claimed to have “special insights” into the sports world that could produce betting returns averaging 140%, the duo didn’t actually place any bets with the millions they received from their marks.

Philippine casinos have reportedly received permission to launch online gambling operations to help make up for the pandemic downturn in their land-based business.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) had okayed several of its land-based casino licensees to launch online betting operations as a means of offsetting the steep losses Manila’s integrated resorts have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

PAGCOR president Alfredo Lim told the media outlet that the regulator had approved applications filed by three casinos in Manila’s Entertainment City gaming zone – Bloomberry Resorts’ Solaire Resort & Casino, Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s City of Dreams Manila and Universal Entertainment’s Okada Manila – for ‘betting through the internet.’

Rumors of such a step have been circulating for about a month and PAGCOR confirmed last week that it had received proposals from some casino licensees seeking to take online bets “from known patrons only.” PAGCOR said at the time that various government departments were “conducting studies” related to these proposals.  

Kenyan sports betting operator SportPesa’s botched return to its home market continues to go off the rails as in-fighting among key stakeholders injects further doubts as to the operator’s local future.

This week, SportPesa shareholder Paul Wanderi Ndung’u went public with a statement accusing SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri and the company’s international investors of attempting to ‘hollow out’ the company at the expense of Kenyan stakeholders.

Wanderi, who until last December chaired the operator’s Kenya-based parent company Pevans East Africa Ltd, said he and other key local stakeholders were entirely unaware of SportPesa’s plans to restart its Kenyan operations last Friday under a new betting license issued to Milestone Games Ltd.

Those plans also took Kenya’s Betting Control & Licensing Board (BCLB) by surprise, as the regulator ordered the new SportPesa to halt operations the same day. The BCLB noted that Pevans East Africa had appealed the 2019 revocation of SportPesa’s local license and the SportPesa brand wouldn’t be eligible to operate in Kenya until this dispute was resolved.

A partnership between PokerStars and one of most famous South American poker players in history could yield more fans across poker and eSports.

André Akkari, who for years has been associated with PokerStars, the world’s most popular poker site, has cashed for over $2.67 million in live tournaments alone and currently ranks as the 629th most successful player in poker history. That’s only at the live felt, however, with Akkari’s online reach creating plenty more cashes along the way.

With some of that money, he became an investor for the eSports team Furia back in August of 2017 when the team was formed by Akkari and fellow Brazilians Jaime ‘raizen’ Pádua and Crisitan Guedes.

Furia, who will be playing in the forthcoming BLAST Premier Fall regular season, are a United States-based team and after a successful period playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) have joined forces with PokerStars, who are excited about the partnership.

There were many who mourned the loss of poker on the MPN, but a new game on the Microgaming Network has brought poker back to fans of the game – albeit in a slightly different format.

The MPN Tour was a highlight of the poker schedule for many, up until fairly recently a fixture, welcoming players to far flung venues such as the Battle of Malta Festival:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSNqZIm1yk0?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360]

Microgaming’s online casino already supplies operators worldwide with a wide variety of casino games, but as well as the traditional table-game inspired roulette, blackjack and craps variations, along with new and exciting skill-based efforts, poker will be added into the portfolio very soon.