Italy’s online betting market posted strong gains in November but Bet365’s slice of that pie grew thinner and PokerStars lost a little of its Italian swagger.

Figures released by Italian gaming news agency Agimeg.it show total sports betting turnover topping €750m in November, 28% higher than in the same month last year. Italian-licensed online sports betting sites were responsible for around €385m of this total.

Perennnial market leader Bet365 continued to top the ranks with €129m, although this was down from €137m in October. Gala Coral’s Eurobet brand ranked second with €35.8m, down about €2m, while Sisal enjoyed a slight gain to just under €30m. Local boys Snai and Lottomatica rounded out the top-five with €27.5m and €22.3m, respectively.

Lottomatica ranked tops in the online casino revenue charts, netting 10.9% of the overall €40m. Sisal ranked second with 8.5%, followed by Eurobet (7.2%), Bwin (6.3%) and Snai (6.2%). The casino offering of Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand had a bad month, falling from 6.4% in October to just 3.4%, while Betsson’s StarCasino brand made the top-10 for the first time with a 2.8% share.

Japan’s casino plans appear guaranteed after the legislature’s upper house voted to amend the constitution on Wednesday.

The Diet’s upper house approved the Integrated Resorts Promotion (IR) bill in a plenary session that extended into Wednesday night. The bill, which underwent amendments during the upper house debate, must now by law return to the lower house for rubber-stamping.

Wednesday marked the final day of the Diet’s extraordinary session, but the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voted to extend the session by three days to ensure the IR bill wouldn’t fall victim to procedural restrictions. The amended IR bill is expected to be approved by the lower house on Thursday morning.

The upper house vote came despite a joint no-confidence motion filed by four opposition parties – the Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party – that was ultimately vetoed by the LDP. The motion injected further delays into the process, leading the LDP to push for the session extension, which was supported by the lower house.

Popular digital currency bitcoin surged to a new level in 2016—its highest since February 2014—as traders fly to safety amid Chinese stock market jitters.

On Tuesday, the digital currency traded at a high of $793.27, according to BitStamp. This means that bitcoin has already soared 70 percent since August this year.

Tuesday’s bitcoin price broke the previous 2016 high achieved in the summer, when traders prepared for the halving process, or the scheduled shrink in supply of the digital currency. In August, bitcoin bulldozed its way past the $680 mark, hitting a high $689.87 with 15.65 million bitcoins in circulation—its highest since September 2014, when the cryptocurrency went on a free fall from more than $1,000 per single bitcoin.

This time, the rise in bitcoin is credited to the choppy Chinese stock markets, which were trading low for most of the day before it closed in a mildly positive territory. The Chinese yuan falling against the U.S. dollar has also given a boost to the digital currency. Dan Stanchfield, founder and chief executive officer of bitcoin wallet KeepKey, told Reuters that they’ve “been seeing lots of volume from China and also India.”

More Chinese firms are keen on putting their money in the Primorye gambling zone amid stricter gambling regulations and on-going corruption crackdown in their homeland.

The Asia Gaming Brief reported that Beijing-based Guo Wei, a group of Chinese companies, flew to the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on Tuesday to seek business opportunities in Russia’s gambling zone, according to the Primorye Territory Development Corporation.

Guo wei is involved in large-scale tourism projects, including cultural tourism facilities, sports facilities, and hotel infrastructure. One of their successful investments include the Beauty Crown hotel in Sanya, Hainan Islands.

They reportedly toured the Lawrence Ho-led Tigre de Cristal casino, as well as land lots of other investors, where construction works are currently under way.

More Chinese firms are keen on putting their money in the Primorye gambling zone amid stricter gambling regulations and on-going corruption crackdown in their homeland.

The Asia Gaming Brief reported that Beijing-based Guo Wei, a group of Chinese companies, flew to the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on Tuesday to seek business opportunities in Russia’s gambling zone, according to the Primorye Territory Development Corporation.

Guo wei is involved in large-scale tourism projects, including cultural tourism facilities, sports facilities, and hotel infrastructure. One of their successful investments include the Beauty Crown hotel in Sanya, Hainan Islands.

They reportedly toured the Lawrence Ho-led Tigre de Cristal casino, as well as land lots of other investors, where construction works are currently under way.

Tabcorp Holdings’ plans to form a betting behemoth with fellow Australian gambling operator Tatts Group may hit a snag with the appearance of a new suitor.

On Wednesday, reports surfaced that a new bidding group, called the Pacific Consortium, offered as much as AUD7.3 billion (USD5.5 million) for Tatts Group. The consortium is composed of Morgan Stanley, Macquarie Group, KKR & Co. and First State Investments, according to Bloomberg.

The proposal is worth between AUD4.40 and AUD5 for each Tatts share, which is higher than Tabcorp’s offer in October. At the time, Tabcorp agreed to buy Tatts for AUD4.34 a share. Based on Tuesday’s close, Tabcorp’s proposal values Tatts at AUD4.145 a share.

Respective boards for Tabcorp and Tatts had already unanimously recommended sealing the deal between the two gambling operators. The deal, which expects to be complete by mid-2017, will be implemented via a Tatts Scheme of Arrangement that will see Tatts shareholders receive 0.8 Tabcorp shares plus 42.5¢ cash for each Tatts share. The price represents an 18.4% premium to the one-month average price of Tatts shares. Tatts shareholders will control 58% of the enlarged entity, with Tabcorp’s shareholders holding the remaining 42%.

Macau, China, December 2016- From 48 players down to the Final 8!

The Asian Poker Tour Finale Macau 2016 wrapped up another exciting day at the Crystal Palace in Casino Lisboa with the Final 8 of the Main Event reached just minutes into the midnight hour. Hailing at the top with a dominating stack was China’s Lu Yunye with 4,390,000 in chips.

Main Event Final 8 Chip Leader, Lu Yunye

Day 3 began with India’s Praveen Dwarkanath leading the 48 player field. Yunye was running second in chips, and China’s Chen Xiu in third position. With only 36 places paid, bust outs came early which included the fall of notables Korea’s Lim Yo Hwan and Singapore’s Terminator T. For the Terminator, he came out swinging his bat hard as he’s done on the previous days. While he successfully eliminated a few players, his aggression took a bad turn with China’s Yifan Zheng grounding him out of the tournament without any pay. Click here for the hand history.

Over the course of 2016, the combined London and Manila CalvinAyre.com film crews covered a total of 27 conferences and events throughout the world ranging from one to three days apiece.  Last week I revealed some of the biggest changes coming up in our 2017 conference circuit and this week I’d like to highlight which 2016 conference recap videos received the most views from our readers.

10: G2E Asia Day 1 Recap

G2E Asia has been growing year on year since its inception ten years ago and is now regarded as the biggest event of the year focused on the Asia-facing gambling industry.  In this recap, my Asia-based counterpart Stephanie Raquel touches on the opening ceremony featuring Reed Exhibitions President Hu Wei and the AGA’s Geoff Freeman and includes some words from Aaron Fischer on the outlook of the Asian gambling market.

9: World Gaming Executive Summit (WGES) Day 3 Recap

INITIAL BOUTS ANNOUNCED FOR ONE: QUEST FOR POWER

14 December 2016 – Jakarta, INDONESIA: The largest sports media property in Asian history, ONE Championship™ (ONE), is set to electrify the Jakarta Convention Center once again on Saturday, 14 January for its first event in 2017 dubbed ONE: QUEST FOR POWER. Headlining the spectacular fight card is ONE Middleweight World Champion Vitaly Bigdash as he defends his title against Polish fighter Marcin Prachnio.

Ticket information for ONE: QUEST FOR POWER is available at onefc.com.

Victor Cui, CEO of ONE Championship, stated: “2017 is shaping up to be a phenomenal year for ONE Championship. We have an exciting lineup of world-class events all across iconic cities in Asia, and we are thrilled to kick things off in Jakarta. Get ready for the biggest year in MMA history!

I’ve certainly been complaining a lot about this season, but that’s mostly because it’s been insanely unpredictable from a betting standpoint. The thing I do like is the amount of new blood in the playoff scene. Dallas, Tampa, Oakland, Detroit and even Tennessee? This is great stuff. Let’s try to make sense of it all after another week of mayhem and carnage.

1. New England Patriots (11-2 SU and 10-3 ATS)

Dropping 30 points on the league’s top rated defence is one thing, especially since the most Baltimore had previously allowed was 28 (vs. Oakland) and 27 (at Dallas). The only reason the game against Baltimore was remotely close is because of two botched special team plays. That’s probably the easiest thing to fix. No team looked outright better overall than the Patriots this past week, which is why they return to number one overall in my books. Plus they’ve been slaying the spread lately.

Next Game: New England -3.0 at Denver

The Nevada Gaming Commission has given Inspired Gaming the green light to situate their virtual sports machines in Nevada sportsbooks after passing a technical test last week.

Do you wanna hear how I lost £500 betting on a virtual football game?

I was working on the railway at the time as a shift supervisor. It was Saturday night; the quietest night of the week so I brought my PlayStation, FIFA99 and five movies from Blockbusters.

It must have been 2 or 3 in the morning when I decided to create a FIFA tournament where I would choose to play one team and let the computer play against itself for the other games. It sounds like madness, but I was enjoying it until a train driver returned from duty to disrupt things.

Gateway Becomes Canada’s Largest and Most Diversified Gaming Company

Ontario Expansion is Next Chapter in Gateway’s Successful Growth Strategy

Burnaby, Dec. 2016 – Gateway Casinos & Entertainment Ltd. (“Gateway”) is pleased that OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming) has selected Gateway as the service provider for both North and Southwest Gaming Bundles in its modernization of Ontario’s gaming industry. The Ontario expansion will bring eleven new properties (nine existing and two planned new builds) to the Gateway portfolio when fully implemented, making Gateway the largest and most diversified gaming company in Canada with properties in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta.

The North Gaming Bundle includes OLG Casinos in Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie along with OLG Slots at Sudbury Downs. In addition there are planned new builds in Kenora and North Bay. The Southwest Gaming Bundle includes OLG Casino Point Edward along with OLG Slots at Western Fair District in London and OLG Slots at Clinton, Dresden, Hanover, and Woodstock Racetracks. Under the guidance of Gateway Chief Executive Officer, Tony Santo, the Ontario expansion will be led and implemented by a seasoned team of gaming executives based in Ontario.

Key igaming conferences back in German capital following 2016 events

December, 2016 (London) – Organisers of EiG and BAC have confirmed that both events will once again take place in the German capital, following successful 2016 events.

EiG will be returning to the Arena Berlin, and will take place on Monday 30th October – Wednesday 1st November.

As usual, BAC will back onto EiG and as such the Berlin Affiliate Conference will take place on the 1st – 4th November 2017 – with the expo and conference days being Thursday 2nd November and Friday 3rd November.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the governing body for both snooker and billiards worldwide, has selected Sportradar to provide its extensive integrity-focused services for the next three years.

This direct partnership will see Sportradar apply its award-winning Fraud Detection System over snooker’s thousands of matches each year, but will also see the company, headquartered in Switzerland, provide an annual Education Workshop to WPBSA stakeholders, as well as intelligence and investigatory support as required.

Speaking about this new partnership, WPBSA Vice Chairman,  Nigel Mawer QPM said: “We have had the chance to work with Sportradar over the last few years so we were delighted we could convert that experience into a stronger and closer relationship. Sportradar continue to develop new services and improve the sharpness of their existing products, which means that this partnership should enable us to preserve the most robust defences against those who would look to undermine our sport”.

Sportradar’s Managing Director Integrity Services, Andreas Krannich had this to add: “We have really enjoyed working closely with snookers world governing body. Fans and stakeholders of the WPBSA should feel reassured that they have such a committed and forward-looking team protecting these two sports. This development is really encouraging and we look forward to doing our bit to ensure snooker remains an exciting, world class sport”

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), the governing body for both snooker and billiards worldwide, has selected Sportradar to provide its extensive integrity-focused services for the next three years.

This direct partnership will see Sportradar apply its award-winning Fraud Detection System over snooker’s thousands of matches each year, but will also see the company, headquartered in Switzerland, provide an annual Education Workshop to WPBSA stakeholders, as well as intelligence and investigatory support as required.

Speaking about this new partnership, WPBSA Vice Chairman,  Nigel Mawer QPM said: “We have had the chance to work with Sportradar over the last few years so we were delighted we could convert that experience into a stronger and closer relationship. Sportradar continue to develop new services and improve the sharpness of their existing products, which means that this partnership should enable us to preserve the most robust defences against those who would look to undermine our sport”.

Sportradar’s Managing Director Integrity Services, Andreas Krannich had this to add: “We have really enjoyed working closely with snookers world governing body. Fans and stakeholders of the WPBSA should feel reassured that they have such a committed and forward-looking team protecting these two sports. This development is really encouraging and we look forward to doing our bit to ensure snooker remains an exciting, world class sport”

The bribery saga involving gaming operator Jack Lam and Philippines officials has now devolved into Rashomon-style variations of significant events.

On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a formal investigation into allegations that Lam bribed Bureau of Immigration (BI) officials to obtain the release of Chinese nationals arrested for working illegally at Lam’s online gambling operation.

Monday brought word that the Department of Justice had video evidence of Lam’s intermediary, former police superintendent Wally Sombrero, giving P50m (US $1m) to two BI commissioners, Al Argosino and Michael Robles, allegedly to obtain the release of 600 of the 1,316 Chinese workers arrested on November 24 at Lam’s Fontana Casino in the Clark Freeport.

Sombrero, who is under the NBI’s protective custody, has denied bribing anyone, and claimed that the BI officials in the video were the instigators of an extortion plot.