Winning the Premier League is a genuine dream for at least seven teams this season, but for the other 13 sides in contention every week, staying up to play in next season’s EPL is the biggest target at the start of the season.  

Facing the Drop  

On the face of it, for any of the current bottom three to survive would be a surprise and this is reflected in the betting odds, with Sheffield United (1/16), West Bromwich Albion (2/9) and Fulham (10/11) the three favourites for the drop. That’s without looking at the form table, however, which should change your approach instantly.  

As resolute as Chris Wilder has been in his defence of Sheffield United, The Blades have looked out of their depth this season and going into the second half of the campaign are yet to reach double figures in terms of league points. That bodes terribly for their survival hopes, not least because the second half of last season for the Yorkshire club was poor compared to their early season form, which essentially kept them up. Having just one victory in their last 22 Premier League fixtures, a lack of serious firepower up front and no money to buy themselves out of trouble, Sheffield United will be playing Championship football next season. 

Sweden’s gambling regulator has slapped down a licensee’s attempts to circumvent the market’s online casino deposit limits, while the market’s top advertisers reported significant spending declines in 2020. 

On Tuesday, the Spelinspektionen regulatory body announced that online casino licensee Videoslots Ltd had engaged in a scheme in which customers were okayed to reverse months-old withdrawals, which allowed these customers to deposit more than the SEK5k (US$603) weekly limit that has been in place since last July. 

Spelinspektionen discovered Videoslots’ gambit during a check of how the operator was complying with the new limits, which were imposed as a means of ensuring locked-down Swedes didn’t gamble away the mortgage due to pandemic boredom. 

While Videoslots appeared to be enforcing the deposit limit for first-time customers, existing customers were allowed to reverse withdrawals that had been processed as far back as two months ago. Reversing these withdrawals allowed customers to top up their accounts far beyond the mandatory weekly limit. 

The latest GGPoker Super MILLION$ final table looks set to be a thrilling one as superstars such as Connor Drinan, Mike ‘Sir Watts’ Watson and Ole Schemion all chase down Melker Larsson in a bid to become champion.

It is Melker Larsson who leads the final nine into action, and the player who will be taking to the online felt from Mexico qualified for the event by winning a $100-entry satellite. That’s paid for itself 500 times over already and Larsson will sit down with over 4 million chips, but as you can see from the betting market before kick-off on the stream, it is not only Larsson who has attracted plenty of punters to invest in his skills.

Plenty of bettors have picked Ole Schemion as the danger man and it’s not hard to see why given just how successful the German (playing from Austria tonight) has been in his career. Schemion will come into play second in chips with 2.9 million and hoping to build on an already impressive Super MILLION$ resume.

With over $2.6 million in winnings on GGPoker alone, Schemion will be a major threat and is just 5.75 to book the win, as is Larsson. Next in the betting is Daniel Dvoress, the Canadian high roller regular being available t 7.5 and backed by 89 punters, more than any of the other players heading into the action. Dvoress will come into play 6th in chips, but with 2,148,079 fun-discs to play with in a very even spread, could yet prove his backers to be shrewd.

The WPT Montreal Main Event is deep into the money and with just 23 players remaining in the hunt for the $447,859 top prize, it’s going to go down to the wire to find a final nine players from the many talents who are still fighting for the title.

It is Felix Schulze who leads the final 23 Players in the partypoker WPT Montreal Main Event, and he’ll start the penultimate day of action with 20.7 million chips.

The $3,200-entry Main Event saw an ironically off-brand 888 entrants, with just 133 players being paid out. That number was reduced to just 23 after five hours of play on Monday evening, with some big names dropping out of contention.

Day 1b chip leader Luiz Orrico perished in 43rd place, earning $10,214 in the process, with partypoker players Joni Jouhkimainen (31st for $14,699) and Jamie Staples (77th for $7,654) both coming up short in terms of a really deep run.

Crown Resorts is definitely no longer the jewel of the Australian gaming scene and can no longer expect to receive the same level of respect that it had one enjoyed. Tales of money laundering, war criminals, employee mistreatment, machine tampering and more have hobbled the once-great empire and most people believe that it is now on its knees, begging for mercy. It is asserting that it is at risk of having to give away massive amounts of money if credit ratings agencies don’t ease up; however, the agencies are only reaching their conclusions based on the company’s actions and inactions. 

The Guardian reports that Crown could have to repay over AUD$175 million ($135 million) if the agencies continue to mark down the company. Moody’s took Crown to Baa3 last November, which is just one step above being considered junk. The agency is also reportedly considering another push downward, given that Crown is still facing an inquiry by the New South Wales (NSW) Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) and its future status as a casino license holder is still in question. 

Yesterday, it was announced that Moody’s wasn’t willing to rate the $135 million in debt that was offered as euro medium-term notes (EMTN). These notes have been held by Crown for more than 14 years and are thought to belong to a Japanese investor. Although Moody’s won’t touch the debt, both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) have rated it, giving it a rating of BBB, which is only two levels above junk. 

Should Fitch and S&P decide to follow Moody’s and either withdraw their ratings or list the debt as junk, that would allow the holder of the notes to claim repayment. That claim could potentially cover the face value, as well as interest that would have been paid between now and 2036, the year the debt would have matured. While Crown is believed to have the money to be able to cover the repayment, it would certainly impact its ability to work on other projects.