THE AMERICAS
Free of its bankrupt main unit, Caesars Entertainment posted a rare profit in Q2 while Caesars Interactive posted record revenue but Rafi Farber preached caution for Caesars investors; MGM Resorts fared better than most in Q2 while filing a lawsuit against Connecticut’s tribal casino plans; social casino games saved Zynga’s bacon (again); the Macho Sports brothers were sentenced to federal prison; the Minnesota Lottery set a date to shut down its online operations; Google began showing snippets of betting odds in search results; CBS Sports rolled out its rake-free daily fantasy sports site while RotoGrinders debuted a new daily fantasy bulk entering tool; Scientific Games revenue rose two-thirds in Q2; Bitcoin Gambling Guide’s Chris Evans examined the challenges and opportunities of Bitcoin while Tatjana Pasalic chatted up the likes of Seth Palansky and Jason Somerville in her Chats With Tats video series.
EUROPE
William Hill’s H1 profit tumbled thanks to £44m in additional UK gaming taxes; GVC Holdings raised its Bwin.party bid to £1.3b while Bwin.party scrapped its Manchester United casino app after just five months; Unibet bucked trends by posting online poker gains in Q2 and paid €59m to acquire iGame; Russian media offered conflicting reports on online poker regulation; Ireland handed out its first online betting licenses; PokerStars launched its largest ever marketing campaign while Terrence Chan campaigned to put Stars founder Isai Scheinberg in the Poker Hall of Fame; Italian firms caught up in the Betuniq crackdown threatened to sue the Malta Gaming Authority; Yahoo inked a daily fantasy sports partnership with Mondogoal; PartyPoker eliminated controversial withdrawal fees; Finnish operator Veikkaus earned 40% of its sales online; the Microgaming Poker Network welcomed Guts.com; Optimal Payments got FCA approval for its Skrill acquisition; Nichola Stott discussed the finer points of content marketing for the igaming industry; another English Premier League season loomed, prompting Coral and Betfair to seal new EPL betting partnerships while Bet-at-home signed its first Bundesliga deal.