With all the excitement of the conferences coming up in London, sometimes its easy overlook the sessions available that could benefit you and your business.

The upcoming London Affiliate Conference includes a huge expo floor full of booths with open bars, giveaways, games and all sorts of clever marketing ploys, but it also features a variety of sessions addressing the common issues facing iGaming affiliates and operators today.

With three simultaneously running tracks each day, the task of picking out the best sessions to attend can be daunting.  A good piece of advice is to study the sessions on tap in advance, highlight the ones you like and slot them into your schedule if time permits.

If you don’t have time to read through the LAC session schedule but would like to attend one or two, here’s a quick list of some quality sessions you should consider attending.

1)How to earn 4 to 6 figures monthly promoting FX & Binary Options with no starting capital 

Tiz Corta is one of the biggest affiliates around and he’s not afraid to share his tips and tricks with the masses.  This session of Corta’s will cover opportunities for affiliates in the Forex and Binary markets, how to pick the best affiliate programs and offers to promote, how to generate high converting traffic and how to increase revenues by branching out beyond Forex and Binary.

Corta shared with CalvinAyre.com, “We will reveal the simple 3 steps anyone can follow to generate 4 to 6 figures monthly as a Forex and Binary Options affiliate, and the best part is…none of these require any starting capital!”

COLOSSUS BETS, home of the £10,000,000 Colossus and the world’s biggest football and sports jackpots, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with ONEworks™ for the distribution of Colossus Bets’ pools betting products. The agreement will see ONEworks™ integrating Colossus Bets pools into its platform and making those pools available to ONEworks™ licensees.

Bernard Marantelli, founder and CEO of Colossus Bets said: “We are delighted to begin collaborating with ONEworks™, a market-leading sportsbook platform provider whose clients include some of the largest sportsbook operators in the world. This deal will significantly increase access and liquidity to our lottery-sized sports betting jackpots with our patented Fractional Cash-In feature, and takes us a step nearer to our goal of providing the first global £100,000,000 sports pool.”

ONEworks commented: “Adding Colossus Bets with the world’s biggest pools and a ground-breaking Fractional Cash-In feature to our platform is consistent with its ethos of continuing to innovate and providing our customers the best products available. Football betting, in which Colossus Bets specialises, continues to be a sports betting juggernaut and we see great potential in making Colossus Bets pools available to our B2B clients and in turn their retail customers.

About Colossus Bets

Colossus Bets was founded by Bernard Marantelli, a professional gambler who after winning significant sums from multi-leg bets around the world, decided jackpot pools were not run optimally. After failing to convince incumbent operators to improve their product offering to generate bigger pools, he set up Colossus Bets to provide lottery-sized jackpot pools on a weekly basis. The company’s B2C offering was launched in August 2013 and since then Colossus Bets has signed 16 B2B agreements for the distribution of its pools to the end players of its operator partners. Operators who have already gone live to offer Colossus Bets pools to their own end players include Betfair, Betdaq and BoyleSports, with a series of others scheduled to go live in 2015.

For more information, please see www.colossusbets.com

Contact: Bernard Marantelli (CEO and Founder)

BEN ASKREN AND LUIS SANTOS SET TO BATTLE FOR ONE FC WELTERWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AT ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS IN MANILA

ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS TICKETS AVAILABLE AT AIRASIAREDTIX.COM

28 January 2015 – Singapore: Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization with a 90% market share, ONE Fighting Championship™ (ONE FC), has announced its return to Kuala Lumpur with another blockbuster event. ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS is set to take place on 13 March at the iconic Stadium Putra. The main event will feature a ONE FC Flyweight World Championship bout wherein incumbent champion Adriano Moraes will be defending his title against Japanese stalwart Asuka ‘Riku Shibuya’ Mikami. Malaysian mixed martial arts superstars Peter Davis and Ann Osman are also expected to be featured on the card.

ONE FC will also return to Manila, Philippines for ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS on 24 April and to Singapore on 22 May for ONE FC: WARRIOR’S QUEST. ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS will be held at the state-of-the-art MOA Arena while ONE FC: WARRIOR’S QUEST will be held at the 12,000-seater Singapore Indoor Stadium. Originally scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on 14 February, ONE FC: ODYSSEY OF CHAMPIONS will be moved to a later date.

Ben Askren will defend his ONE FC Welterweight World Championship for the first time at ONE FC: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS. Standing opposite him in the ONE FC cage will be Brazilian MMA veteran Luis Santos, who made quick work of Bakhtiyar Abbasov in his ONE FC debut.

Tickets for ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS, presented by Tune Talk, are on sale from 19 January at www.AirAsiaRedTix.com. Ticket categories begin with the full Red Carpet and cageside experience for VVIPs at RM388 followed by VIP RM278, Gold RM168, Silver RM108 and Bronze RM58. Early bird promotions for Gold, Silver and Bronze categories are available until 31 January. Prices include ticketing fee.

CEO of ONE Fighting Championship™, Victor Cui, stated, “We are kicking off 2015 with three spectacular events lined up to start the year. ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS will see the return of ONE FC Welterweight World Champion Ben Askren as he takes on one of the toughest challenge of his career against Luis Santos. Ben Askren is the absolute best in the world and we are excited to see him up against the highly skilled Luis Santos. We are also ecstatic at the chance to be back in Manila on 24 April and in Singapore on 22 May to treat fans to world-class mixed martial arts action!”

Lee Davy continues his confessions series with a trip down memory lane as he recalls his association with the magazine Poker Pro Europe.

All anybody ever wants is a chance.

But it’s not always that easy.

Getting in front of the right people is as important, if not more so, than the work you actually put into developing whatever skill you are trying to sell.

Luck is also a factor.

There is also a timing issue that is very important. In the book SmartCuts by Shane Snow, the author talks about a phenomenon known as Catching the Wave. You have to be in the right spot, at the right time, and although that involves a high degree of skill and intuitiveness, there is also a whole lot of luck.

The reason I am able to sit down at my kitchen table and write this, and be paid for it, rather than head into the Steelworks and try to operate 20-trains per day with only 10-locomotives, is because I got my chance, and I made sure that I caught the right wave.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands (LVS) defied the skeptics by posting strong earnings growth in both Q4 and FY 2014. For the three months ending Dec. 31, revenue rose 6.6% to $3.42b, operating income rose 15.4% to $1.02b and net income rose 24.9% to $721.3m. For the year as a whole, revenue rose 5.9% to $14.58b, operating income rose 20.3% to $4.1b while net income rose 23.2% to $2.84b.

As ever, Sands China was the primary engine of LVS’ growth, with full year revenue up 6.8% to $9.57b, adjusted earnings up 12.4% to $3.26b and net income rising 15.4% to $2.55b. The gains came despite Macau’s record downturn, which helped push Q4 revenue down 16.2% to $2.12b and profit down 18.3% to $535.3m.

The Venetian Macao saw Q4 revenue fall 23.4% to $880.3m, Sands Cotai Central fell 10.8% to $705m, Sands Macao fell 18% to $268m while the Four Seasons Hotel Macao bucked the trend by rising 2.4% to $243.8m.

Macau’s dearth of VIP gamblers was evident in rolling chip volume, which was down nearly 40% at the Venetian, -52.3% at Sands Cotai Central, -36.3% at the Four Seasons and -43% at Sands Macao.

Mass market table drop was down at the Venetian (-7.1%), the Four Seasons (-10.2%) and Sands Macao (-14.2%) but mass market betting rose 10.6% at Sands Cotai Central. Slots numbers were up in the low single-digits at Sands Cotai Central and the Venetian, while rising 10.3% at Sands Macao and falling 42.7% at the Four Seasons.

At Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, revenue rose 27.1% to $838.6m and occupancy rates rose 1.4 points to 98.3%, prompting LVS chairman Sheldon Adelson to paraphrase Mark Twain by saying rumors of Singapore’s demise as an integrated resort destination had been greatly exaggerated. Gaming revenue at MBS increased by one-third thanks to VIP win rate nearly doubling year-on-year to 3.58%, which helped offset a 26.8% fall in VIP gambling turnover and a 3.3% decline in mass table drop.

Stateside, LVS’ two properties in Las Vegas reported revenue down 6% to $362.6m, driven by a 14.1% decline in gaming revenue as Chinese high-rollers stuck closer to home. Room occupancy in Vegas fell 7.7 points to just 81.1%. In Pennsylvania, Sands Bethlehem revenue rose 7.7% to $133.6m.

This is a guest contribution by Stephen Padveen, a Senior Partner with t2Marketing International. . You can connect with t2Marketing International at one of their upcoming appearances. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you

There are billions of user accounts across the social sphere, and it can sometimes be difficult to determine what niche among these user clusters you should be targeting with your social messages. Virtually every one of them holds value for some vertical or another, but which one or ones matter to you?

When developing a social media player archetype that you can be targeting with your casino’s message, there are a number of criteria that should be considered. Several of the twenty criteria listed below might seem trivial, but all of them are important items that can be targeted on social channels and should be included in your checklist when building out a new target demographic profile for your social messaging.

Age

Obviously, your messaging will vary based on the age of your targeted market. Moreover, considering the legal issues surrounding the world of gaming, age is going to be an important distinction at the outset.

Location

Two more events to catch up on as Nam Le defeats He Chang to win the Tournament of Champions event, and the Norwegian Mikal Blomlie defeats Sammy Lucisano to take the honors in the No-Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha Rotation event.

When the Champions League was first introduced into the football calendar I thought it was a dumb title for the competition. It’s turned out to be the most prestigious club competition in the world, but it hardly a tournament comprised entirely of champions now is it?

I guess this is my problem with the Aussie Millions Event #13: $1,150 Tournament of Champions, in as much as the eventual champion, wasn’t a champion before he became a champion.

[Image Courtesy of Pokerasiapacific & Kenneth Lim]

Still with me?

Nam Le and He Chang, two players who have never won an Aussie Millions gold ring, were the final two players from a field of 115 players. Only the former Aussie Millions Main Event winners were given the opportunity to participate for free – hence the name. But I don’t like it. The fact that a Tournament of Champions winner is not a former champion takes some of the sugar coating dust off for me.

The pair agreed an ICM chop no sooner had Takaya Yamashita been eliminated in third place. The heads-up play then continued for a further 60-minutes before the final hand played out as follows.

The former Asia Pacific Poker Tour Manila champion, Van Marcus, and young online hot shot, James Obst, have both been recognized for their contribution to Australian poker by the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.

With over $1.3m in live tournament earnings, and a mattress stuffed with money earned in high stakes online and live Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) games, nobody is going to argue about Van Marcus’s inclusion into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.

He is a former Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Main Event champion, and he has also come mighty close to bagging a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, on three occasions, after finishing third in PLO events back in 2007 & 2009, and a fifth in 2009.

Van Marcus was placed on a short list that contained luminaries such as Grant Levy, Joe Cabret, Michael Guttman, Tino Lechich and David Steicke. He was the only player inducted, and the announcement was made prior to the start of Day 2 of the Aussie Millions Main Event. Australian Poker Hall of Fame chairman, Joe Hachem, did the honors.

With the 2015 ceremony completed, that now means the Australian Poker Hall of Fame consists of 15-players. It’s the second consecutive year that a single person has been inducted after Graeme Putt became the first solitary induction back in 2013-2014.

James Obst Handed Recognition Award

It’s good to see the Australian Poker Hall of Fame recognizing talent of the future, alongside patting the best of the past on the back.

For the first time in the past 46-years, the World Series of Poker Main Event, will guarantee that 1,000 people will get paid, as they bow down to public pressure and drop the guaranteed $10m first prize.

PokerStars introduced rake changes. The customers vented their frustration. PokerStars changed their minds. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) introduce a $10m Guarantee for the $10,000 Main Event. The customers vented their frustration. The WSOP changed their minds.

There are two lessons to be learned here. The first is that our poker tours are listening to feedback, and acting upon that feedback; that’s great news. The second lesson to be learned is more of an inquiry.

Why aren’t the opinions of the customers being considered before the changes take place?

A question that involves an article on its own methinks.

Leading with the headline that 1,000 players are going to be guaranteed a min-cash, in the most prestigious poker tournament in the world, is a great headline. I would say that it’s a headline that would attract more players to the Main Event.

There was no need to have a $10m headline. Nobody in their right mind is going to get more excited for a $10m first prize, when they know they are 99% certain to receive $8m if they win.

Loretta Lynch (pictured center), President Barack Obama’s proposed nominee for US Attorney General, was quizzed about her views on online gambling during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who sponsored the Sheldon Adelson-supported Restore America’s Wire Act, asked Lynch whether she was familiar with the 2011 Department of Justice opinion that the 1961 Wire Act referred only to sports betting. Lynch, who is looking to replace outgoing AG Eric Holder, said she was familiar with the opinion but hadn’t studied it in detail.

Graham (pictured, on the right) then unleashed one of the anti-online gambling crowd’s favorite mythical hobgoblins, asking Lynch whether she agreed with the idea that “one of the best ways for a terrorist organization to enrich themselves” is via online gambling. Lynch responded by saying terrorists will use whatever means at their disposal. Undeterred, Graham promised to send Lynch his source material, which likely consists of a series of Rorschach ink blots and an audio book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales read by Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile, Adelson (pictured, on the left) participated in an informal summit with GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. It’s not known whether Adelson’s lobbyists or the Committee members initiated the meeting. Sources suggested the meeting was both a strategy session and an update but The Hill reported that none of the GOP reps in attendance nor their staff members were all that comfortable with questions regarding further details.

Adelson is one of the GOP’s top campaign contributors but he was unable to convince his elected minions to bring RAWA up for a vote in the lame duck session of the last congress. Adelson is believed to be pushing for the new GOP-controlled Congress to make a fresh push in 2015 but the GOP is wrestling with the contradictions between Adelson’s ‘big ask’ and their oft-stated belief in state’s rights, which RAWA would effectively trample.

The Netherlands gaming regulator has slapped Malta-licensed online gambling operator ComeOn Europe with a €180k fine for illegally serving Dutch punters. The fine is the latest in a series of six-figure fines the Kansspelautoriteit (Dutch Gaming Authority, or KSA) has levied against unauthorized operators as the country prepares to launch its own regulated online gambling market.

The KSA accused ComeOn Europe Ltd. (now Co-Gaming Limited) of targeting Dutch gamblers via Comeon.com. The site featured a Dutch language option, a Dutch flag and a Dutch-language chat service. The KSA says it repeatedly contacted ComeOn reps with various cease-and-desist messages, to which ComeOn reportedly replied by promising to amend its errant ways. However, the KSA says that the site was never updated to its satisfaction, leaving it no option but to levy the fine.

The KSA has also put eight associated companies and eight directors and shareholders of ComeOn on notice that they appear to be “more or less” involved in the unauthorized activity. The KSA cautions that their investigation is ongoing, so it does not at this time feel comfortable labeling the individuals as offenders.

Over the past year, the KSA has levied similar fines against the operators of 7Red.com, RoyaalCasino.com, Mansion Online Casino Ltd. and associated support companies. Most recently, Titanbet.com operator Imperial E-Club was dinged for €200k, the largest fine to date. The KSA even went after a Belgian couple for offering an online house lottery in which Dutch was a language option.

Netherlands’ legislators are in the process of passing the country’s new Remote Gambling Bill, which was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1 but has run into the traditional legislative snags. The latest word is that the upper house may bring the bill up for a vote before its summer break, making it more likely that the new regime won’t take effect until early 2016.

Notwithstanding, the KSA continues to ink info-sharing deals with its counterparts in other gaming jurisdictions. In November, the KSA inked a deal with gaming regulators in Malta and the KSA has since signed a letter of intent with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. The letter is the prelude to a memorandum of understanding that will spell out the details of cooperation on a number of online gambling issues, including licensing, compliance and enforcement.

A Delaware judge has approved Caesars Entertainment’s choice of Illinois as the venue for the bankruptcy hearing of the casino operator’s main unit.

In an oral ruling on Wednesday, US Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross rejected a bid by some of Caesars’ junior creditors to force the bankruptcy hearing to be heard in Delaware. It was hoped the junior creditors would get a fairer shake in Delaware than in Illinois, where courts have traditionally been more lenient about assigning liability to non-bankrupt holding companies and affiliates. Caesars is owned by private equity funds Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital.

The junior creditors filed papers in Delaware on Jan. 12 to force Caesars into involuntary bankruptcy, beating Caesars’ own filing in Illinois by three days. Caesars is attempting to restructure its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) unit into a real estate investment trust. The plan, which has secured the backing of most of CEOC’s first-lien note holders, would trim nearly $10b off CEOC’s $18.4b debt.

But most of the pain of this restructuring would be borne by second lien note holders, who can expect to receive around 10¢ on the dollar. This has led junior creditors to file multiple lawsuits, accusing Caesars’ hedge fund owners of “looting’ CEOC of its most profitable assets in a bid to shield these assets from creditors’ grasp. Last week, a federal judge in Manhattan said these controversial asset transfers and Caesars’ decision to remove debt guarantees represented an “impermissible” violation of the federal Trust Indenture Act of 1939.

In Wednesday’s oral ruling, Gross said “the interest of justice narrowly supports” Caesars’ desire for the proceedings to be heard by the Illinois court. Gross said the junior creditors’ involuntary bankruptcy filing “was clearly an anticipatory filing” and that they had “raced to the courthouse” to beat Caesars to the punch. Gross said letting the creditors dictate the venue would set a “bad precedent.”

But Gross also said Caesars’ asset shifting “on its face is suspect” and that he was confident his Illinois counterpart would put Caesars’ antics “under a magnifying glass.”

Metric Gaming has found a new partner that could help expand its operations into Central Europe, opening up a whole new market for the sports betting services provider. The firm has signed a partnership deal with gaming operator Hattrick Sports Group, which has a strong foothold in the Central European region.

The two companies agreed on a licensing deal that would allow Metric Gaming to integrate its flagship SuperLive products into Hattrick’s gaming platform. Not only would this create a more diversified gaming offering for the latter’s customer base, but it would also help Metric Gaming tap into a market that can aid in expanding its business tentacles. Sounds like a good deal from both sides.

Metric Gaming President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Bertilsson shared that sentiment, expressing high expectations that the partnership between Metric Gaming and Hattrick Sports Group would be “a successful one for us both.”

The deal was equally attractive for Hattrick Sports Group, which can now offer a new betting product to complement its existing live betting services. That was the company’s objective in signing up on this deal and it certainly looks the company made the right choice doing so.

“Hattrick prides itself on staying at the forefront of gaming innovation and technology, so offering SuperLive was an easy choice,” Hattrick CEO Carsten Sandberg said in a statement. “We are excited to be working with Metric and eager to see what our companies can do together.”

Meanwhile, online gaming software provider Leander Games has agreed to a new partnership of its own, signing up with Betsson to begin offering its casino content to the Swedish operator’s customer base. The specifics of the deal involve Leander integrating its proprietary content onto Betsson’s sites through its LeGa open gaming platform. This content integration will also include third-party development partners, including Core Gaming and Nektan.

In addition to the aforementioned system migration, the deal between Leander Games and Betsson also allows the former to update and modernize seven of the most popular games Betsson acquired in a separate deal with Dutch-facing operator Oranje Casino last year. The games will eventually be re-released on the LeGa platform, ensuring that Dutch customers migrating into the Betsson platform will continue to enjoy the same games they played on Orange Casino.

Bloomberry Resorts Corp. is laying the proverbial foundation for its first overseas resort and casino project after announcing the company’s agreement with a handful of parties in South Korea over a huge parcel of land located within the Incheon Free Economic Zone.

The specifics of the acquisition were not divulged, but Bloomberry disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it had signed four real estate agreements with several land owners for an area totaling 12.2 hectares Muui Island.

Muui Island, also known as Muuido, is located at the south of Yongyu Island and  can be seen from Incheon International Airport. The company called the land acquisition as the first step of its plan to turn the island into a “leisure and tourism complex with entertainment facilities and mixed use developments.”

Bloomberry said that the acquisition will fall under its Korean subsidiary, Solaire Korea Co Ltd. and that “more details will be disclosed as soon as conditions of the agreements are complied with.”

Bloomberry chairman and CEO Enrique Razon mentioned the company’s plans to expand its casino business last year, specifically mentioning Japan and South Korea as the two likely targets for this expansion, which would be the company’s second integrated resort and casino after Solaire Hotel and Casino in Manila.

News of the land purchase also ignited the company’s healthy shares gain at the Philippine Stock Exchange, reaching as high as Php13.46 per share on Tuesday before closing the day at Php13 flat. That represented a 0.93% increase from Monday’s closing price of Php12.88.

The land purchase follows the company’s share sale back in November 2014 that raised close to Php5.65 billion. Bloomberry has previously said that the share sale was done to help finance its overseas expansion.

Former Macau junket operator Paul Phua, accused of running an illegal World Cup gambling operation in Las Vegas, has prior conviction in Malaysia for the same offense.

Paul Phua Wei-seng, a Malaysian native from Sarawak, was arrested in Miri in 2004 and convicted for his involvement in an illegal betting scheme during the European Championship soccer tournament, reported by independent news outfit Malaysiakini.

He was slapped with a hefty fine and left the country soon after his conviction, reportedly to Vietnam to escape people who lost money when the betting operation was going bust.

The convicted criminal was even barred from re-entering the country during the World Cup in 2008.

This adds to what has become an ongoing saga of Paul Phua’s case, following a controversial announcement of Malaysia’s minister of home affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi last month that Phua was assisting the government on issues of national security.

Phua was one of eight individuals arrested in July on charges of operating an illegal FIFA World Cup betting business out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Just weeks before this arrest, Phua was also among two-dozen individuals arrested in what Macau officials called the largest illegal sports betting bust on local record. Prosecutors submitted the documents alleging that Phua had secured his Macau release via “under the table” payments to local police. The feds claim to have learned of these alleged bribes via instant messages sent by Phua’s 23-year-old son Darren, who was also among those arrested in Vegas.

Gaming device maker and social gaming operator International Game Technology (IGT) saw revenue and profits tumble in its fiscal Q1, but social gaming continued to shine. Total revenue fell 17% to $451m while net income fell 56% to $35m in the quarter ending Dec. 31. It could have been even worse, but fiscal Q1 2015 had one more week than the same period the previous year, which boosted revenue by $22m and operating income by $2m.

IGT CEO Patti Hart acknowledged that “market challenges remain in the land-based casino business” but tried to play up the performance of the interactive division, which includes the lucrative DoubleDown Casino social gaming operation.

The interactive division saw revenue rise 23% to $91.5m, of which social gaming accounted for $79.4m (also up 23%). DoubleDown’s daily average users (DAU) rose 11% to 1.9m, while average daily bookings (the sale of virtual goods and credits) per DAU rose 2% to $0.43. Average monthly users fell 16% to 5.2m, which the company credited to marketing targeting “higher-quality players.” Mobile users accounted for 39% of DoubleDown revenue, an improvement of 68% year-on-year. Meanwhile, revenue from the real-money IGTi operations rose 23% to $12.1m.

IGT’s gaming operations division saw revenue fall 5% to $211.1m, which the company attributed to a 16% decrease in the installed base of machines. Product sales revenue tumbled 39% to $148m due to lower machine unit volumes and the fact that the previous Q1 enjoyed a 2,800 video poker unit sale a further 825 VLT units in Illinois.

On the bright side, costs fell 7% despite the extra week in Q1, which the company credited to the March 2014 ‘business realignment’ aka laying off 7% of its global workforce. IGT declined to offer any guidance as to how it expected to fare in 2015 as a whole.

Last July, Italian lottery and gaming technology firm GTECH announced it would pay $6.4b to acquire IGT. A Feb. 10 date has been set for IGT shareholders to vote on the proposed merger of IGT and GTECH. Assuming the vote is favorable, the parties hope to conclude the merger by April.