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Augusta and Soccer, the Next Fantasy Frontiers

By Terry Lyons @terrylyons

Contributing columnist to @TheDailyPayoff

It’s early April and your March Madness bracket was busted long ago, your Kentucky Derby futures were long shots at best, and for Fantasy sports players, the NFL season is a distant memory and a deep freeze just delivered the coldest Opening Day of Baseball in recent memory.

Ballpark scenes complete with snow flurries, sleet and ice, left you less than intrigued at selecting your fantasy battery. The only thing left is either Fantasy Golf or Soccer.

NFL football, the dominant force in Fantasy Sports, is designated by 69.4% of fantasy players as their favorite faux sport, according to research compiled by industry gurus at Fantasy Sports Trade Association. In 2014, there were an estimated 41.5 million fantasy players, although those numbers are yet to reflect the millions who experimented in the Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) craze that is upon us in 2015.

DFS has created an industry upon itself as the two leaders, Draft Kings and Fan Duel, continue to shock sports business pundits and Wall Street analysts alike with enormous private equity investments, major sports leagues taking equity stakes, and newly confirmed reports of the Walt Disney Company sinking an estimated $250 million strategic investment into a new deal that will provide ESPN with ad revenue and fantasy sports players with ubiquitous exposure to the Draft Kings brand of daily fantasy.

The glut of offerings in the fantasy (American) football and baseball point to an opportunity for entrepreneurs looking elsewhere, possibly to the truly global games of Soccer and PGA Tour golf.

From a random sampling taken the evening before The Masters, golf’s most prestigious tournament, Draft Kings daily fantasy site was offering 4,410 contests related to MLB baseball, 1,677 contests for PGA golf, 1,388 contests for NBA basketball, 1,013 games for NHL hockey and 1,081 contests for European Premier League futbol (soccer). Mixed Martial Arts – an entity to be addressed at another time – had 440 contests awaiting.

In the world of golf, the contests were all for “Salary Cap” based games where the contestant was required to pick six PGA tour professionals competing at Augusta and fit them into a lineup that did not exceed $50,000 in value. As you would expect, the salary rankings of top players, such as Player of the Year Rory McIlroy, ranked in the $14,900 range while Masters champ Bubba Watson came in at $12,200, Augusta favorite Phil Mickelson was a more affordable $9,900 while Tiger Woods came in a seemingly affordable $9,400. The range spanned to the likes of aging champions Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson who were listed at $4,800.

The ease of picking a simple sixsome and finding a contest that attracted your $1 minimum to $5,300 maximum investment provides a simple mechanism for sports fans to dabble in the world of DFS. This is in comparison to playing salary cap-based games in the NHL where you need to know the amount of ice time skated by the likes of Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon if you plan to compete against the sharks sitting in the Draft Kings’ “Head-to-Head” contest lobby.

Away from the daily offerings, traditional fantasy golf games have long been offered by Yahoo Sports, on the official site at PGATour.com and on the Golf Channel’s online site, but have fallen short in the eyes of many participants when it comes to format and prizes.

Golf Channel’s game is simple as you select a foursome, using either one or two players from various tiers of PGA pros, grouped as “A,” “B,” or “C” players. As a fail-safe, you also pick four bench players with a limit for the number of times you can use a single player, that being 10 times over the course of the full season. The Yahoo Sports golf game allows for team registration nearly all year and is geared towards having groups of players utilize the site for their own private game.

System-wide, it is impossible to catch-up to the overall leaders unless you’ve fielded a top-notch group of foursomes for each and every tournament. To try to avoid the severe drop-off of participants who cannot crack the leaders, Yahoo also carves the season into “Winter,” “Spring,” “Summer” and “Full Season” to allow for seasonal competitions. There is no entry fee, no sponsor but Draft Kings took banner ads on the site to lure potential players to their daily style of play.

Golf Channel runs a free game, sponsored by golf shoe maker Foot-Joy, that calls for participants to pick a foursome from PGA Tour players grouped in tiers with points awarded based on the money the players earn in the tournament. Again, the prize structure is weak, there’s no money prize pool and drop-off of participants over the rather long PGA Tour season is significant.

There are a number of software companies that run fantasy golf leagues, acting more as the commissioner or statistician for privately run leagues. One of the better sites is Fantasy Golf League Software which allows individual groups or “leagues” to customize their own versions of PGA Tour leagues, presumably with the traditional style of one league member being the proverbial Commissioner/Banker while acting as Judge and Jury if there are any discrepancies.

A private league run by friends of this reporter dubbed The Larry Bird Golf League is as simple as it can get. Participants name three golfers for each tournament each week and get credit for the golfer who earns the most money from each tournament’s prize pool. Once your player cashes, he’s done for the season while the other two you played remain eligible for another time.

We do some variations to keep people interested, including a special in-season competition for the Majors and even a new “Skins Game” concept to reward a Fantasy Team who is the only team in the league to pick a tourney winner. That “Skin” has yet to be cashed as of the Masters.

In soccer, the challenge of picking winners is similar to ice hockey, where a deep knowledge of every roster and every player by position (Goal-keepers, defense, midfielders and strikers (forwards) is needed in order to play intelligently.

The key difference in playing DFS soccer is that the schedule is so different than that of the NBA, NHL and MLB, with the majority of matches held on Wednesday or Saturdays. In Draft Kings’ soccer, the salary cap listed Tottenham’s Harry Kane at $10,700 and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud at $10,300 and the lower-level roster players at $3,000. Thankfully, the figures were not calculated in Pounds Sterling.

The sharps tend to play the best players in soccer at home, but, keep in mind, most of the action on the sport of soccer is done via the High Street bookies who take action on everything from the outcome of the game to who scores the first goal. The need for salary cap style fantasy is not nearly as attractive as action on the game itself, so a smart fantasy soccer play might be better promoted to the growing American soccer audience being taught the nuances of the game by NBC Sports Network coverage.

As of yet, MLS soccer has yet to spawn much interest via mainstream fantasy players, yet interested players need not look any further than MLS.com where you are asked to build an 18-player roster with a $120 million salary cap with the offering of some $10,000 in prize money. To be eligible for prizes, a contestant must be from the 50 United States or Canada, according to site rules.

MondoGoal, a new start-up without the bankroll of Draft Kings or Fan Duel, is going “all-in” on fantasy soccer with offerings of daily cash leagues involving Premiere League, MLS, Spanish, Italian, German Bundesliga, Champions League and even plans for a special Women’s World Cup league this summer.

MondoGoal is concentrating on a more “European” and “Worldwide” audience, rather than the American fantasy audience and the start-up has partnered with some of the most well known football clubs in Europe, including FC Barcelona, AS Roma, Chelsea FC and Manchester City, among others.

Fan Duel has yet to delve into Daily Fantasy soccer or golf and is heavily promoting their association with the NBA, the league which shocked the gaming world by taking an equity stake in the company which is operating off a massive $70 million dollar raise which surfaced last September.

The step to consider from this brief round-up? After scouting The Masters this weekend and enjoying the pristine atmosphere and springlike weather of Augusta, try a daily Fantasy sports golf tournament next weekend. It’ll be a new tradition, unlike any other.

For further information, visit the following sites:

Golf Channel: https://fantasy.golfchannel.com/

Fantasy Golf League Software: http://www.fglweb.com/fglmain.php

MLS Soccer fantasy game: http://fantasy.mlssoccer.com/

MondoGoal: https://mondogoal.com

Link to Fan Duel $70 million investment story in WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/09/02/fanduel-raises-70-million-as-daily-fantasy-sports-battle-heats-up/

Giants’ Mara Name Still linked with Horse Racing

By Tom Pedulla, America’s Best Racing

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The way Chris Mara sees it, gambling runs deep in his DNA.

His grandfather, Tim, is best known for founding the New York Giants football team in 1925. Less known is that Tim wheeled and dealed as a legal bookmaker. He became so well known at his craft that a photograph of him still hangs at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

Chris, 58, has been going to the races since he was 8 or 9 and enjoyed being around the sport since then. He parked cars at Yonkers Raceway when he was a teenager and dabbled by taking a few small shares in Standardbreds as he grew older.

He always knew he wanted to take the plunge into Thoroughbred ownership, but he wanted to be sure to spread the risk with other partners. The key was finding the right mix of owners since the top priority, after all, is having fun. And he wanted to make sure he had a reasonable shot at success.

Today, he and his wife, Kathleen, are “all in” with Itsaknockout, who came in fourth in Saturday’s Florida Derby race.

View Original Source: http://www.americasbestracing.net/en/the-latest/news-stories/2015/3/27/new-york-giants-chris-mara-derby-dreaming-with-itsaknockout/

Rick Horrow the Sports Professor interviews Frank Scandale of TheDailyPayoff.com

Rick Horrow the Sports Professor interviews Frank Scandale of TheDailyPayoff.com – The Daily Payoff is the first U.S.-based platform to cover all business aspects of the gaming and gambling businesses. The site is powered by Sportsblog, the fastest growing independent sports publishing site on the web with over 20 million unique visitors a month

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President Barack Obama’s NCAA Tournament Bracket

Here’s President Barack Obama’s NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket

ESPNPresident Barack Obama has filled out his annual NCAA Tournament bracket.

Kentucky is the heavy favorite to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and President Barack Obama is going with the crowd, picking the Wildcats to finish the season 40-0 and win it all.

Obama made filled out his annual bracket for ESPN and Kentucky is not the only “chalky” pick the president is making.

Of his Final Four picks, three are No. 1 seeds and the fourth is a 2-seed.

Here is the full bracket via WhiteHouse.gov:

Why The Daily Payoff? Asking The Co-Founder

The editorial side for The Daily Payoff is overseen by Frank Scandale, the award-winning media veteran who most recently has served as Vice President, Print Production for Digital First Media but before that was editor and a vice president of The Record (Bergen County, NJ) newspaper from 2001-2011.

Given the interest in the gaming and gambling space in the state, we caught up with the Glen Rock, NJ resident to talk about why now, and where the industry is going.

Q: How is this venture different from your other stops, and what elements of the business today will help this venture grow?

A: This is really an outgrowth of all the journalism stops I’ve made over 30 plus years. One thing about journalism, it evolves and the challenge is to evolve with it.

I’ve covered gambling some in Colorado where in the early 90s it launched limited stakes gambling in three mountain towns, Cripple Creek, Black Hawk and Central City. Being from New Jersey, home to Atlantic City, I had a natural curiosity about the industry. As the technology changed and allowed us as consumers to do more things, such as follow our favorite teams, players, horses and casinos from the comfort of our phones, more opportunities for journalism have occurred. Covering gambling and gaming is just one aspect of journalism, which is becoming more niche-focused than ever before. I believe this venture will grow because of the growng appetite for information in this space, whether it is about legislation governing the industry, brick and mortor development (just look at New York’s granting of three upstate licenses and a fourth coming closer to the metro area), new games and , of course, the unrelenting rise of fantasy games.

Q: In New Jersey in particular, what has gone wrong with the gambling and horse racing industry and what is the opportunity going forward?

A: To be clear, I am not the person to analyze what is wrong or right with these industries. Our role is to create a forum for news and analysis by the experts to inform the public and the politicians of the news, trends and insight into these businesses. If you are asking me what I think as a longtime resident of New Jersey who discusses these things with others, the answer is that there are so many issues with the casino industry here I can’t put my finger on any one thing. According to The Center for Gaming Research in Nevada, Las Vegas,New Jersey’s casino and gaming revenues have declined just under 50 percent since 2007. You could point to the competition that has risen up in neighboring states as a good reason; Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York, to name a few states that have entered into the market in a big way. Others say it is the environment directly outside of Atlantic City casinos. Did the government and private industry miss their opportunity to make Atlantic City the Las Vegas of the East with tons to do outside of gambling? Could be.

I do know that if you look beyond our state at the national trend, the revenues are up. Not much, but up a couple of percent last year over the year prior.

Horse racing is a different animal. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I don’t know much about it other than OTB sure makes it easy to bet without going to a track. I personally like seeing the horses run, the smell of the track, the ambiance. I don’t go much at all, maybe once a year to Monmouth, but I always enjoy the day. Harness racing sure seems to be doing some business. For instance, Yonkers just announced it was raising its purse by 20 percent starting this Sunday. Again, I don’t know what the long-term trends and histories of these places are, but over the next months and years, I hope www.TheDailyPayoff.com becomes that site where all is explained and everyone is enlightened.

Q: Do you think legalized sports wagering is more of a possibility or a certainty in the United States in the next five years and why?

A: I do think that is the way it is leaning. When you see the NBA floating conversations starters in the Op-ed section of the New York Times and the MLB and MLS mulling the possibility of a structure, organized legalize sports waging infrastructure (http://e93.e68.myftpupload.com/wagering-on-baseball-mlb-comish-manfred-open-to-talking/) , then you have to think it is coming. I saw Sen. John McCain is calling for a national debate on the subject in an ESPN interview http://espn.go.com/chalk/story/_/id/12255167/sen-john-mccain-says-congress-needs-hold-hearings-discuss-legalizing-sports-betting so that is also a start.

Q: What do you say to people who think gambling will ruin sports? That’s a good question, if it were not already happening, right?

A: The experts will tell you it is happening illegally in big, big numbers. What the leaders in the sports and political arenas are saying on this subject is let’s looking an organized way to do this. Of course, there is a tax and revenue component of this to the states and federal government.

Q: Why do you think a site like this has not existed before?

A: Just one of those things that was overlooked. There are many, many excellent sites that are dedicated to specific aspects of gambling and gaming. If you want, you can search every one of them and get tons of great content. But housing them under one roof and serving as a portal to an infinite supply of this great content seemed like an efficient way to go about it. Plus, we are planning to have our own unique content and grow that end of the site. I only thought of this concept because as I traveled around the country I noticed casinos everywhere. I was driving in Central Michigan, which is not very populated as far as I could tell, and I came across this giant casino, Soaring Eagle, a tribal casino, and thought, “Wow, this is huge.” Plus there are still plenty of horse and dog tracks. Of course, i believe 47 or 48 states have lotteries, as well.

Q: Are there people who cover the space well that you follow?

A: I am learning fast who covers and who does a good job. I am so far behind at this point, but you know John Brennan at The Record is one of the top brains on this subject as far as I can tell. Howard Stutz at the Las Vegas Review-Journal is good. There are so many smart, talented reporters and commentators and analysts out there. We hope to feature their work as we grow and expand. Think about it, there’s casinos, lotteries, horses, dogs, fantasy, cards, e-gaming, legislation, and then there is the whole universe outside the United States. The possibilities are staggering.

Q: How has the digital space changed the gambling industry now and going forward?

A: A guy I was talking to from one of the major sports was saying how at games now he sees tons of fans on their phones making bets on the outcomes of the game, the quarters, the players, the over-under, you name it. You have people watching their computers or phones while NFL plays out its dance on Sundays who don’t really care which team wins, but rather which running back racks up the most points.Now, Tim Rooney Jr. , who runs the Yonkers Raceway and Empire Casino operation in New York told a funny story about how things evolve with technology but really haven’t changed fundamentally. He talked about how people years ago were running to pay phones at the track to likely wager on various sporting events. He said, “all I can tell you is that they are not calling home to find out what’s the wife is making for dinner.”

PERSONALITY CORNER: Tim Rooney Sr.

By Frank Scandale@FScandale

Age: 76

Title: President of Yonkers Racing Corp and Empire City Casino.

Former Life: Part owner in the Pittsburgh Steelers

Duties: “Keep everyone in line and make sure expenses are under control.”

Favorite Sports Moment: “Very easily, when we won our first Super Bowl.”

Favorite Family Moment: “ Ha. Reviewing it, it has to be the same moment because of the family involvement. Unbelievable.”

Most Admired Person: Wellington Mara. I knew Cardinal (Terrance James) Cooke, but as a regular human being, Wel Mara was special.”

Favorite Golf Spot: Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, NY.

Even a guy who used to co-own one of the best NFL teams in a city that saw its share of horrendous winters and can’t avoid talking about this winter’s hottest topic – the weather.

Relentless sub-freezing temps, snow and lingering ice have made 0 degrees the new 32 in the Northeast and its effects have not have escaped Tim Rooney Sr. and his operation at the Yonkers Raceway Corp. which also operates the Empire City Casino in the shadow of New York City.

This became the second consecutive winter when the region took it on the chin.

“Last year, the first quarter hurt dramatically against the same quarter in 2013. When the weather hit, we were down, but we came back up at the end of the year. January (2015) started off fairly strong, but then the bad weather even supplanted the weather from the last year!” Rooney laughed. “We came back again and were up every day until last Saturday when that 5 inches of snow hit us. We had the accounting department check how many days we had under 25 degrees or snow and we are double the number of bad days this year compared to last year.”

Weather is only one of the factors that determine how the casino and harness racing business will go for Rooney. The competition and proliferation of brick and mortar casinos and online betting made his days as a football team owner seem orderly.

In a wide-ranging interview, the gregarious Rooney touched on football, gaming, horse racing, online gambling, his family and golf.

The Rooney name has been synonymous with professional football since 1933 when Art Rooney Sr. founded the Pittsburg Steelers for $2,500. Tim and two of his four brothers were forced to sell their shares in 2009 in the team because the National Football League’s concerns about the family’s other business interests in gambling entities. The move was painful for Rooney for many reasons, not the least of which is passion for the pigskin despite his love for horses.

“Well, there is no comparison. My father was in the business (racing) his whole life, but football is football.

He likes to say his favorite sports moment was the first time the Steelers won a Super Bowl, Super Bowl IX in 1975. “Nothing possibly comes close. They were all good (wins) but there is no emotion ever having equaled that first one.”

When pressed about his favorite family moment – he has five children and 19 grandchildren – he laughs and hesitates, saying, “I probably shouldn’t say this, but it might be the same moment because of the family’s unbelievable moment (together)…winning the Super Bowl was unbelievable.”

So much has changed now with respect to sports and gambling, but Rooney wishes the NFL then had allowed them to hold their shares.

“When we were closing in on the sale, I honestly did not want to sell my stock in the Steelers. My father had done this (racing) long before this and we had been running the team in this manner,” he continued. “On the other side, my brothers who stayed in will be a lot wealthier, especially when Buffalo sold for $1.4 billion.”

Despite his love of football, he says he does not attend games anymore. Too easy to stay home and watch it on television, he says. He used to fly to Pittsburgh on Saturday, have dinner with his brothers that night, go to the game and fly home on Sunday night.

Today, his focus is on Yonkers and Empire with his son Tim Jr. and son-in-law Bob Galterio. With casinos popping up all around the Northeast and siphoning off potential and former customers, Rooney says the trick is to keep reinventing and innovating. Rooney, in fact, hinted that Empire would unveil something new soon along with a strong advertising campaign.

“We’re going to try out some new things this year, a little more refreshing,” Rooney, now 76, said. “We have a new ad campaign coming out at the end of February or so. It’s more of a return to a stronger campaign on TV.”

The table games at fully licensed casinos has been a draw for some players, he said, but New York State’s upcoming budget has a provision for Empire to receive a higher quality electronic table game, something Rooney insists will level the playing field somewhat. The legislature still has to approve it, but he is optimistic that will happen.

“Our facility is very good. We just opened another restaurant and put a lot of money into our food business. Two of the three restaurants are doing very well. But the biggest thing we have coming is that part of Governor Cuomo’s budget is to give us a higher quality of electronic table games, one of which is blackjack. “

That looming boost and the weather’s inevitable improvement has Rooney eyeing a 5 percent improvement in 2015. “I think we will be up a couple of million dollars this year.”

The real issue down the road is becoming a fully licensed casino when New York State allows those businesses in the metro region to apply. Under the state’s gaming law, New York City and its surround suburbs, including Yonkers, are prohibited from receiving any casino licenses for at least seven years, according to a story in the New York Daily News last December.

“We’d be looking to get one of those new licenses,” Rooney said.” Basically if we had a license now, we could open immediately.”

That would complement Rooney’s operation that features approximately 6,000 electronic machines now. “For us not to get a license would be hard to imagine.”

For now, the only non-tribal casino licenses will be located further upstate, which Rooney believes will not impact business.

The other big issue looming on the horizon is online gambling and sports, a mounting issue as prominent figures such as current NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his predecessor David Stern call for legalized sports betting outside of Nevada.

For Rooney, it’s a complicated issue, while he knows there is so much betting now in sports. According to the American Gaming Association, the estimated amount bet illegally on the recent Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl game was said to be approximately $3.8 billion, compared to approximately $100 million bet legally.

“The only question I have for it and somebody smarter than me can figure it out is when a guy makes an unbelievable catch in the game and then later on an important third down drops the ball, everybody is suspicious of everything that happens. Is somebody going to ask if he dropped it on purpose?

He recalls the days at the track when people were betting heavy on sporting events at the pay phones, back before cell phones existed. “If you go out and see the pay phone lines, all I can tell you is that they are not calling home to find out what’s the wife is making for dinner.”

Today, the game is more interesting and exciting for a wider ranger of people.
“If say Denver is playing Seattle and you don’t have an interest in either team, I don’t care who wins the game, but people watch them because they are betting on the game. That is really part of the popularity of the game.”

When the snow finally melts in the East, you’ll likely find Rooney relaxing on a golf course, one of his favorite other sports. The mere mention of golf gets him going about Tiger Woods, the stalled champion nursing injuries and a bruised mental game.

“Tiger Woods. When you looked at his position, the only other guy who dominated a sport like Tiger was maybe Michael Jordan. Not Bradshaw. Not Manning. None of them was a dominating in their sport as Woods.”

He recalled how small the purses were in comparison to today’s average first-place prize money being way north of $1 million, and cited his family’s own tournament, The Philadelphia Golf Classic back in the 1960s.

“We had this match, we owned it, sold the tickets, everything. The purse total was $150,000. That was tied for the biggest purse on tour at that point,” he explained. “In our tournament we got lucky. (Jack) Nicklaus and (Arnold) Palmer tied and went into a playoff. It’s the only thing that got us to break even.”

The Olympic Gamble Arrives…

by Joe Favorito @JoeFav

The past few weeks have been another whirlwind of activity around the fantasy sports and gaming space. There was the news that European soccer clubs like FC Barcelona were embracing pay fantasy sports more and more, a host of pieces on FanDuel and Draft Kings reporting record quarters for engagement amidst massive marketing, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association held its annual winter meetings, New Jersey politicians continued their amplified fight to bring sports wagering to the Garden State and other places still on the outs with Federal Law, and oh yeah, the State of Nevada finished the process to allow sports wagering on the Olympic Games.

While most of the news was part of the escalating dialogue in the value of fantasy sports as a revenue driver and engagement barometer for casual fans, the Olympic push was a relatively new salvo fired into the sports and gaming world. While it is somewhat ironic that Nevada, the state where lobbyists spend big bucks to keep Federal laws blocking other states to engage in sports wagering, is looking to increase the opportunities on global sport, would look to add international and potentially obscure sports to its wagering platform, the reality is that the petition shows just how much global fantasy and gaming is gaining steam, and consumers are getting more used to gaming as a regular part of their engagement experience.

The Olympic question is interesting for many reasons. The statue right now does not allow wagering on the Games because of “amateurism” and the use of judges who could influence votes, yet there are as many as seven countries in Europe where Olympic wagering is allowed, with no discernable issues. There is also the growing blurring of what is considered amateur in a world where the Olympics have become much more high tech, much more expensive, and much more subsidized by brands and events where athletes get paid…and rightfully so. The amount of security spent on The Games these days’ accounts for all kinds of monitoring in the digital space, so the thought of even more corruption being brought into The Games because of wagering seems to be becoming more and more of a non-issue.

The real intriguing aspect for Olympic gaming is on the fan engagement and revenue side. The IOC is constantly looking to engage a younger audience, one which is digitally savvy and is accustomed to finding new ways to be involved with whatever event they are watching or experiencing, whether that is in entertainment or sport. The gamification of The Games, one where you can, either for dollars or points, better follow athletes and the goings on in sports big and small from hundreds of countries, raises the value and the consciousness of The Games beyond what is done today. On the revenue side, the IOC, always looking for new streams of revenue, can reap huge licensing fees for data to companies who would engage in Olympic gaming and fantasy, an area which professional sports from the Premier League to the NBA and the NHL, are realizing today.

Like with all fantasy and sports wagering issues going on today, for Nevada this will be less about a brick and mortar engagement (although it wouldn’t hurt to have more consumers in a sports book during the dog days of August watching the Rio Games) as it is a play to grab more of the fast-growing global digital space.

The digital gaming space, as the NBA and NHL have now acknowledged with their team and league deals with Fan Duel and Draft Kings, is where the real dollars will be made going forward, and the ability to have that space as an offering to casual Olympic fans makes great sense. Rest assured the major leagues in North America will continue to watch the developments with Nevada and the Olympics, as gaming and gambling continue to be a lucrative, enticing and still controversial engagement point for all.

15 Online Gambling Twitter Accounts to Follow in 2015

2015 is shaping up to be a big year for online gaming. California and Pennsylvania will revisit their online gambling bills; several other states are also likely to look into iGaming; sports betting will continue to be a hot topic in New Jersey and perhaps beyond; and the Daily Fantasy Sports industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

With this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of Twitter personalities that anyone interested in poker, gambling, gaming, and Fantasy Sports should follow.

Before I get started, let me point out that there is no doubt in my mind I overlooked some deserving people on this list, but the great thing about Twitter is the connectivity, so the people I have overlooked will become apparent simply by following the people listed below.

Victor Rocha @VictorRocha1 – 2015 is going to be all about the bass… I mean California (sorry, that song is catchy) and there is nobody with their finger on the pulse of the gaming industry and tribal interests in the Golden State more than Pechanga.com editor Victor Rocha. Rocha’s Twitter feed is full of relevant links to gaming and tribal stories as well as Rocha’s own thoughts on a variety of topics.

Chris Grove @OPReport – Analysis, data, and informed commentary are the hallmark of the OnlinePokerReport.com Editor’s Twitter account. In addition to his insightful tweets, you’ll also be following the best live-tweeter in the business.

Adam Krejcik @akrejcik – An Eilers Research Analyst, Krejcik is one of the Internet’s go-to sources for Daily Fantasy Sports news and information (what do you mean you’re not following DFS, it’s all the rage), as well as offering up his insights into the iPoker and iGaming industries.

Chris Krafcik @ckrafcik – The top man (North American Research Director) at one of the top iGaming news outlets (Gambling Compliance) is a must follow. Krafcik is not the most prolific tweeter in the world, but when he does tweet it’s often information no one else is privy to.

Adam Small @A damLoebSmall – The PocketFives.com cofounder provides excellent insight on a variety of iGaming and poker issues. Small is a regular contributor to Twitter discussions on just about any topic that happens to capture his interest.

John Mehaffey @John_Mehaffey – The longtime poker industry columnist is a fountain of information on the industry as well as the local Las Vegas gambling scene, to the point that it sometimes seems like he has a mental database of the location of every gaming machine and table in Clark County.

Alun @Poker_Hack – A leading poker industry authority (and the Head of Content at Pageant Gaming Media) with a unique and varied perspective on the industry; he can also lay claim to one of the best Twitter snark games going; oh, and he hates semicolons.

_Tizzle @_Tizzle – A true poker industry insider (Tizzle is one of the minds behind PokerTracker), with strong insights and opinions, an incredible rolodex, and a very refined palate – _Tizzle is the go-to authority for fine dining in the poker community.

Alex Weldon @benefactumgames – A new columnist in the poker industry over at PartTimePoker, Alex is a really strong player and as a board game designer is able to dissect promotions and games like few others. His premiere column which included an adjustable fish to shark ecology model put him on the map and he’s been churning out good content ever since.

Marco Valerio @AgentMarco – The former QuadJacks presenter and interviewer extraordinaire has moved on to a larger role in the iGaming world. Marco is well-connected, covers all aspects of gaming, and filled with just the right amount of wanderlust (is there a conference he doesn’t attend?).

Kim Lund @InfiniteEdgeKim – While most of the people on this list advocate for expansion, consultant and longtime industry man Kim Lund focuses on an ancillary aspect of the gaming industry, as he continues to beat the drum for improved ecologies.

Robert DellaFave @DivergentGames – Somewhere between a commentator and an analyst, DellaFave is one of the top reporters in iGaming, with his work featured at a number of prominent sites. DellaFave has a keen eye for the analytics of the industry and often breaks down data from traffic reports to tournament series.

Roger Gros @GlobalGamingBiz – Along with California, another big story in 2015 will almost certainly be the continued remaking of Atlantic City and potential sports betting legalization in the state. So if you’re not following Global Gaming Biz’s Roger Gros for your New Jersey information, you’re doing it wrong.

Michelle Minton @MichelleMinton – Michelle offers up a libertarian point of view to the legalization discussion, and does so in a very academic way. Minton’s dissection of the 1961 Wire Act was key in pushing back against Sheldon Adelson’s online gambling prohibition efforts. The poker world owes Michelle a debt of gratitude for her research, writing, and diligence on this issue.

Steve Ruddock @SteveRuddock – Hey, that’s me! My Twitter account is full of iGaming links (to my stories and others), some opinions, and the occasionally witty remark.

Harry Reid's True Colors Emerge in Online Gambling Fight

Here we are again.

We have yet another aging legislator calling for prohibitions on an industry he simply doesn’t understand.

In 2006, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens called the Internet “a series of tubes“ and now, in 2014, we have Harry Reid (the current Senate Majority Leader and soon to be Senate Minority Leader) lamenting how difficult the Internet (speaking specifically about gambling) is to regulate because it’s “up in the sky.”

Reid angling for CSIG chairmanship?

According to Steve Tetreault of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Reid said he is in agreement with Sheldon Adelson. Online gambling should be prohibited. These comments came after the failure to have RAWA added to the Cromnibus pending bill.

Q:I think the proliferation of gambling on the Internet is not good for our country,” Reid stated. “I think it is an invitation to crime. I think it is hard to control for crime when you’ve got brick-and-mortar places, let alone something up in the sky someplace, and it is very bad for children.”;

Reid has long sought to ban online gambling, but with the important stipulation that online poker would be legalized. Unfortunately, Reid’s political speak over the years has made it difficult to figure which issue is more important to him.

His comments this week seem to put this debate to bed.

After several years of guessing whether Harry Reid’s opposition to online gambling trumped his desire to legalize online poker, we finally have our answer: Harry Reid would throw the baby out with the bathwater if he had the opportunity.

Harry Reid’s wishy-washy approach, and noncommittal comments on the topic have long frustrated iGaming advocates, but there can be little doubt where his allegiances lie following comments like this: “If there is a chance to (legalize) poker, I will do that, but I am not for the Wire Act.”

Reid was also quoted as saying: If RAWA was attached to the Cromnibus in the House of Representatives, “then maybe there would have been an opening somehow for poker.”

These statements should be quite concerning, and not just to online gaming advocates, but also to poker-only advocates. “If there is a chance,” and “maybe there would be a chance,” Reid said of an online poker carveout, which can be extrapolated to mean “I’ll take it if I can get, but if not, tough cookies, it all gets banned.”

This seems to clearly indicate Harry Reid would push for RAWA whether it had an online poker carveout or not.

If you don’t understand how something works, don’t try to fix it

I’m actually ok with Harry Reid metaphorically referencing the sky when talking about the Internet, but his other comments that followed demonstrate an incredible misunderstanding of how the Internet works; perhaps from spending too much time in conversation with Sheldon Adelson.

What nobody seems to want to answer is:

How do banks protect against online crime such as money laundering?

How does eBay or Amazon protect against fraudulent charges?

How does American Express verify someone is of age to apply for a credit card online?

So, why is it these companies and industries that do business online are seen as safe and secure, but an online gambling site is somehow uncontrollable – the Wild Wild West as some like to call it?

If you feel an online gambling site cannot verify someone’s identity, than you should also have these same concerns about online credit card applications that require background checks that are every bit as in-depth and intrusive as a regulated online gambling site.

Want even more hypocrisy? Sure!

The real questions I would like ask Senator Reid to answer are:

What makes online poker sites safer than online casinos?

And why are online horse racing and fantasy sports considered safe enough to receive an exemption in RAWA?

Senator Reid stated that online gambling sites are hard to “control for crime” and they are “bad for children.” Yet he is in favor of legalizing online poker.

The fallacy here is that somehow online poker sites (or horse racing, lotteries, and fantasy sports) can be regulated and controlled, but online gambling/casino sites cannot – even though the same companies would be running them and the same regulators would be overseeing them.

Here is the thing, you can be for online poker legalization because poker, as a game of skill, is inherently different than games of chance played against the house, but you can’t take this stance because you feel one is able to be regulated and the other is not.

Anyone who is for online poker but against online casinos based on security and regulatory concerns either doesn’t understand how the Internet works or they are trying to sell you some snake oil.

Uptake

The strongest opponent of online gambling, Sheldon Adelson, is a self-admitted technophobe who does not understand how any of this technology works. Furthermore, as a billionaire casino mogul, he also has an alarming conflict of interest when it comes to online gambling.

He has recruited people who simply do not understand the subject they are speaking on, yet bill themselves as experts by appearing on shows with faulty data and/or going before legislative bodies. Or most worrisome, introducing legislation. Evidence here, here, here, and here.

And now we have the Senate Majority Leader, who also clearly has an education gap when it comes to the Internet, falling in line with Adelson’s crusade.

As the saying goes, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

On this issue we seem to have a lot of people speaking up in favor of Sheldon Adelson’s designs who would have been better served holding their tongue, Senator Reid among them.

"The Gambler" Star Mark Wahlberg: I Have a Good Poker Face

Gambling has been thrust into the mainstream of late, and it’s nothing to do with DDoS attacks, Danish trojan horses, or hypocritical octogenarian casino owners.

Instead, we have Mark Wahlberg to thank as he buzzes around town to promote his latest movie The Gambler – the remake of the 1974 movie directed by Karel Reisz and starring James Caan.

It’s a world away from the comedy of Ted, and the action-packed Transformers: Age of Extinction (a movie that made me feel as if someone had peeled back my eyelids and poured absinthe in them), but if you are going to be starring in a movie called The Gambler, you had better be used to taking some risks.

Wahlberg believes that preparation for his movies is integral to the development of the part. He has to experience what it is like to become one with his role. This is why during a trip to The Wynn in Macau, Wahlberg ran up $45k playing blackjack before heading to the roulette wheel and slapping it all on black. Just like in the movie, it came in red. He walked away with nothing. One assumes that Wahlberg has also spent a lot of time talking to Teddy Bears, beating up speak your weight machines, and God only knows what he got up when researching Boogie Nights?

So how would Wahlberg fare if he was playing poker? Apparently, not so bad. During an interview with USA Today – where he was playing a spot of poker and blackjack – reporter Donna Freydkin asked Wahlberg if he had a good poker face?

Q:I think I have a good poker face, when it comes to my kids, and trying not to crack a smile when they are in trouble,” said Wahlberg.;

Wahlberg has four children aged between nothing and eleven. He even brought his 11-year-old onto the set of The Gambler so she could experience Daddy’s world (a world he told Jimmy Fallon he doesn’t want her to be a part of).

So how did his daughter find the action on the film set?

“Dad, this movie looks really, really boring,” his daughter told him.

So it will be exactly the same as the last couple of gambling movies that have flopped so miserably then?

Wahlberg Searching for a Pardon

Wahlberg may not have gambled much when he was younger, but he was always in a spot of bother. The actor spent 45 days in jail during the 1980s for hitting a man with a stick whilst trying to steal some booze. Wahlberg has recently asked the state of Massachusetts for a pardon.

“I am not the same person I was 26 years ago,” said Wahlberg.

Wahlberg was 17 years old at the time of his incarceration.

The Gambler opens nationwide on December 19.