Canada’s Amaya Gaming has put its entire B2B asset portfolio under review, with the company potentially shifting to a completely B2C model. Amaya revealed the potential shift at the tail end of an announcement of a plan to repurchase and cancel up to 5% of the public float its common shares. Amaya intends to fund this buying spree “through proceeds of certain divestments and cash on hand.”

The company believes its share price – which has yet to recover from the plunge it took following the mid-December news of an investigation into potential insider trading activity – is currently undervalued. Amaya’s shares rose nearly 12% on Monday to $30.40, still well below its $38.74 peak in late November. Amaya’s shares underwent a rocket ride last year following its $4.9b acquisition of the Rational Group, the parent company of PokerStars and Full Tilt.

As for those aforementioned divestments, Amaya announced in October that it was looking to sell its Cadillac Jack (CJ) division, which supplies gaming devices to land-based casinos. Despite being a significant contributor to Amaya’s pre-Stars bottom line, the level of consolidation in the gaming device industry left CJ a minnow in a world of whales. On Monday, Amaya said it “has received and is evaluating non-binding proposals from certain persons.”

Amaya now says it “intends to explore various strategic opportunities to divest its other B2B assets.” These include the US-focused Diamond Game lottery services business and its Amaya Online platform. Should Amaya successfully shed these divisions, the company would essentially be reduced to little more than a rebranded Rational Group (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Amaya’s online platform is currently operational in New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market via a deal with Caesars Interactive Entertainment. Amaya also supplies content to the online gambling sites of some of Canada’s provincial gambling monopolies. Amaya has been maneuvering to make PokerStars the first internationally licensed online gambling site to be granted a license to operate in Canada, although many hurdles remain before that goal can be achieved.

Amaya says it plans to use the proceeds of any asset sales to fund not only the share repurchase plan but for “the repayment of indebtedness.” Amaya funded its Rational Group acquisition largely through debt raised via private equity firms, who aren’t typically shy about pressing for repayment in a timely manner.

Fox Rothschild LLP have been honored at the Finance Monthly Deal Maker of the Year awards, thanks to their integral work on Amaya Gaming’s $4.9 billion acquisition of the privately held Oldford Group.

The online poker deal of the century, Amaya Gaming’s $4.9 billion acquisition of Oldford Group Limited, has been honored in Finance Monthly by taking down one of the Deal Maker of the Year awards.

However, the award winners are not David Baazov and the gang; instead the trophies were handed out to a team of Fox Rothschild LLP attorneys. Spearheaded by partner Marie J. Jones, and joined by associates Mariel J. Giletto, Harry S. Jackson and Christian J. Fisher.

The quartet served as special counsel for Amaya Gaming during the $4.9 billion all-cash transaction of the privately held Oldford Group – the parent company of Rational Group Ltd., the king of the online poker world and owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt.

Fox Rothschild LLP were brought in to handle the gaming regulatory review and due diligence, and tied everything up into a nice neat parcel in less than 60 days. The group are also heavily involved in the process to launch PokerStars and Full Tilt in New Jersey, as they act as Amaya Gaming’s representatives in the licensing process.

The deal made Amaya Gaming the largest publicly held online poker company in the world.

The Finance Monthly Deal Maker Awards are in their fourth year of existence , and they are quickly becoming the industry standard for recognizing excellence in corporate finance.

The nephew of Macau casino icon Stanley Ho has been arrested as part of what authorities are calling the largest illegal prostitution ring ever busted in the world’s top gambling hub. (Insert your own ‘ho’ jokes here.) On Saturday, Alan Ho (pictured center), an executive director at the Hotel Lisboa, was arrested along with five other hotel staff for running a ring whose illicit activities reportedly earned MOP 400m (US $50m) since setting up shop in 2013.

The 68-year-old Ho, the former president of the Macau Travel Association, is believed to be one of two ringleaders of the operation. Ho was at one time a member of the management committee of SJM Holdings, Macau’s largest casino operator, which counts the Lisboa among its properties. Ho’s current role with SJM is unknown and SJM has yet to comment on the arrest.

Macau Judiciary Police said the ring controlled up to 100 rooms in the hotel in which women from mainland China and Vietnam plied their oldest profession. One of the five arrested staffers was a mainland woman who acted as the hotel lobby’s senior manager to coordinate the activity while the other four were responsible for security and recruiting girls online.

Police arrested 96 suspected prostitutes in Saturday’s action and found a list of 2,400 women believed to have utilized the hotel’s services for similar purposes. The ring allowed independent operators to set up shop in the hotel, for which they paid the ringleaders MOP 150k ($18,800) up front and MOP 10k ($1,250) per month for ‘protection’ fees. The girls were allowed to keep all the money they earned via their clients, which typically range from MOP 1,500 to MOP 5k per session.

Prostitution is legal in Macau but soliciting and living off the avails of prostitution are against the law. The ring reportedly allowed its working girls to frequent the hotel’s ground-floor area provided they didn’t constantly stand in the same place. If they got tired, they were told to rest in the hotel’s restaurants or take a walk outside.

In 2012, Las Vegas Sands was accused of harboring prostitutes at its Macau properties. Sands vehemently denied the allegation, which was made by former Sands China CEO Steve Jacobs as part of his wrongful termination suit. However, in December 2010, Macau police arrested over 100 women on prostitution charges at Sands’ Venetian Macao property.

Brazilian football legend Ronaldo outlasts his PokerStars Team Pro teammates with his deep run at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event.

When Miroslav Klose hit the back of the net in Germany’s 7-1 massacre over Brazil, in the summer, he overcame the Brazilian legend Ronaldo as the record scorer in World Cup Finals history.

So what do you do when you are retired, and someone pinches one of your outstanding records?

Well, if you are Ronaldo you find something else that you can be competitive in. Something like poker. It was April 2013 when PokerStars announced it was adding the huge name of Ronaldo to its Team PokerStars SportStar roster. The legends of the sporting world, past and present, are not hired for their poker skills, but when a deep run in a major tournament, coincides with their popularity and fame, you have headlines that will hit the newsstands all over the world.

At the time of writing there are 40 players left in the $10,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event, and the only member of the PokerStars team still left in the competition is Ronaldo. Jason Mercier, Jonathan Duhamel, Naoya Kihara, Liv Boeree, Daniel Negreanu, George Lind, ElkY, and Andre Akkari have all cashed, but it’s the Brazilian who will be taking home the highest sum of all.

To illuminate those headlines even more, Ronaldo should be in Switzerland, handing over the Fifa Ballon d’Or to his namesake Cristiano. The young Portuguese wizard has just beaten Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer to win the award for the second year in the row.

So just how far can Ronaldo go in this one?

Russian poker player ‘sss66666’ has become the first-ever player to win a $1m jackpot playing in a $5 Spin & Go game on PokerStars.

One sure fire way to attract more players onto your Spin & Go format is to introduce a game where you can win $1m from a $5 investment that takes mere minutes to achieve. An ever-surer way of increasing volume is to actually report that someone has won the $1m.

That’s exactly what happened, just a few hours ago, as the Russian poker player ‘sss66666’ defeated ‘geldduvel’ in one of the sickest heads-up cash disparities in the history of the online game.

The winner must be thanking his lucky stars that the Russian authorities were not successful in their attempts to block Russian players from playing on the site, and the victory is bound to kick up a storm in his homeland.

The $1m jackpot is part of a PokerStars promotion of limited nature. You can only win the $1m top prize through the $5 buy-in structure, and you have a 0.00003% chance of hitting the big one – a whopping 240,000 times your initial investment.

It’s the first time that the $1m jackpot has been hit, and the two other players seated at the table went home with $100,000 each. According to the PokerStars blog, ‘sss66666’ had lost half of his stack after just four hands, but found a double up before eliminating ‘Nonko999’ with [As] [8h] versus pocket sevens.

That left Sss666666 facing geldduvel with a $900,000 pay jump between first and second, with no deals being available to either party. Once again, ace-eight was the winning hand, as Sss666666 flopped two pair on [As] [9s] [8s] [Jd] [3d], against [Ad] [5h], and the jackpot was breached when the money went in on the turn.

Marina Bay Sands has put on the gloves and sued China For You Group chairman Chen Huaide for running away from S$3.9 million in debts. The Singapore subsidiary of US casino operator Las Vegas Sands filed the lawsuit in the Hong Kong High Court late last week.

According to Marina Bay’s filing Huaide, who replaced He Jianhong as chairman of the investment holding company, could be responsible for Marina Bay Sands’ unusual share price movement, which plunged 27.4% to 45 Hong Kong cents last Thursday before falling another 11.1% to 40 Hong Kong cents on noon last Friday.

“A charging order may have been made restraining Mr Chen from transferring certain shares of certain company or companies on January 7,” the company said in its filing.

For its part, China For You Group, which changed its name from China Packaging Group in November 2014 explained that the issues involving its chairman “is his personal matter.” According to a statement released by the company, the shares of one of Huaide’s private companies are the subject assets of the changing order and that the company “had no involvement in the matters.”

Over in Cambodia, a storage facility belonging to casino operator NagaCorp was removed after protests from hundreds of monks caused a ruckus in the country as fears grew that the casino company was planning to develop the land located on the Buddhist Institute. The removal of the temporary structure was ordered by Cambodia’s National Assembly’s commission on religious affairs after hearing from outraged Buddhists over the presumed plans of NagaCorp to use the land to develop a gaming facility.

Seng Somony, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Cults and Religion, didn’t specify as to when the structure was removed but the fact that it was suggested that the Buddhist Institute wasn’t under threat from NagaCorp’s ongoing casino development.

Yem Po­nhearith, the head of the National Assembly’s commission on religious affairs confirmed the reports of the structure’s removal after visiting the site late last week.

CAP Network to Sponsor Acquisition Zone at London Affiliate Conference Market-leading affiliate network, CAP Network, to take lead sponsorship of zone dedicated to player acquisition in the gaming market 9th January, 2015, London, UK (Press Release): Leading publishing, research and events company iGaming Business has confirmed the CAP Network will take the lead sponsorship of the new acquisition zone within the London Affiliate Conference (LAC).

Targeting senior marketing executives working within both operator and affiliate brands, the acquisition zone is a premium area within LAC that is focused on all areas of player acquisition and not just affiliate marketing. The zone will include a dedicated lecture theatre open to all attendees, which will include speakers talking about subjects such as media buying, responsive advertising, real-time email marketing, social media monitoring, why direct mail isn’t dead and advanced conversion and retention techniques.

“Over the last few years we have seen our affiliate events attract lots of new attendee types such as rights holders, media buyers, agencies, ad networks and media owners. This has meant our events are fast becoming a central place to negotiate all acquisition deals and not just affiliate, so launching the acquisition zone was a logical step for us,” commented Alex Pratt, Head of iGaming Business.

In addition to the lecture theatre the zone will also have a dedicated exhibition zone with companies such as AdCash, Dynamic Messaging, Social Monitor, MyAffiliates, Silver Pop, the Isle of Man Post Office and the official zone sponsor—the CAP Network. As the zone sponsor, the CAP Network will have a major presence within the area where they will present their acquisition solutions that deliver thousands of players to operators in over 20 countries.

“CAP Network is excited to be exhibiting at LAC to showcase the breakthroughs we’re making in player acquisition methodology. Since June 2014, the CAP Network has sent 14,000 new depositing customers across 20+ different countries to the operators we are partnered with,” commented Allan Stone, General Manager, CAP.  “Like CAP, iGB has recognized the shifting demands of the delegates, which now includes player acquisition channels beyond traditional iGaming affiliates. CAP’s sponsorship of the LAC Acquisition Zone complements this shift, and is an awesome opportunity for us to share how we’re paving the way for both operators and affiliates,” Stone Continued.

To find out more about the London Affiliate Conference, please visit http://www.igbaffiliate.com/events/londonaffiliateconference/

Travellers International Holdings Inc, the joint venture controlled by Genting Bhd and the Philippines’ Alliance Global Group remains confident that the Philippines will continue to get robust returns, even as Macau continues its tailspin amidst China’s continued crackdown against corruption.

In an interview last week, Alliance Global Chairman Andrew Tan spoke about the status of the Philippine’s gambling industry, emphasizing that it would remain insulated from Macau’s current woes because the former is catering to a different market.

Tan said that the Philippines’ isn’t as reliant on the high-roller segment as Macau is but more on the growing mass-market segment in the region.

“We don’t have [the VIP] segment of the market here and I think that ultra-high rollers now are thinning out that’s why their [Macau] growth has been slow last year,” Tan said.

Instead, the Philippines’ strategy of attracting what Tan described as “regular customers” could be more than enough to keep the gambling industry in the country as healthy as it can be. A key strategy in the Philippines is to build a stout tourism infrastructure that will be heavily complemented by the gambling industry.

“That traveler market is still growing with so many hotels being built now,” Ta pointed out. “In the industry, all of us have been building quite a number of hotels, giving a lot of room and opportunity for more tourists to come,” he added.

With so many destination options for tourists all over the world, Tan believes that the Philippine gambling industry is well-poised to take full advantage of these benefits, allowing it to attract a trove of mass-market gamblers to help offset the lack of high-rollers, at least compared to the number of VIP gamblers Macau still attracts given its current situation.

A local online casino player has experienced the dream start to 2015 after hitting the jackpot to win a staggering £100,000.

Sarah Pugh (38) from Blackpool, who plays games such as Blackjack and Roulette on one of Europe’s leading mobile casino sites, LeoVegas.com, learnt of her life-changing win via the company’s Facebook page and is now set about the task of spending her winnings.

LeoVegas had been rewarding its loyal players throughout December by giving away a daily prize jackpot of £1,000 – culminating in Sarah winning the overall prize pot of £100,000 on New Year’s Day.

Sarah, who works for a clothing retailer in nearby Poulton-le-Fylde, is still in shock after hearing of her win and commented: “I’ve only been playing online casino with LeoVegas for around four months, so it’s fair to say that the win came as a massive surprise and has not really sunk in yet.

“I’ve not had chance to think about what I’m going to spend the money on but my immediate priorities are obviously my three children. It has given the family real financial stability for the future and is genuinely a life-changing amount, although I’m sure I’ll be able to treat us to a nice holiday, once it’s all sunk in.”

Shenaly Amin, UK Country Manager for LeoVegas.com: “We really appreciate and value our loyal players and love turning them into big winners, so thought the start of the New Year would be the perfect time to give away one of our biggest jackpots yet.

“We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sarah on her fantastic win and are really chuffed that the money is going to offer some financial stability and have a life-changing impact on her and her family. It’s brilliant news to start 2015!”

Lee Davy catches up on all the main headlines from a fun filled week including another PokerStars New Jersey entrance prediction from Ray Lesniak; WSOP.com & 888Poker to sharing prize pools; Steve O’Dwyer & Josh Kay winning in the Bahamas; Shane Warne leaving 888Poker; and a ton of stories from the team at PokerStars.

We’ll start Stateside, and with the New Jersey Senator Ray Lesniak. The Gypsy Rosie Lee of American online poker has once again rubbed his crystal balls. This time he believes PokerStars will receive approval to start operating on American soil by the end of March. It’s not the first time that Lesniak has drawn a date in the sand, and one believes it might not be the last. His under-estimation of the power of Sheldon Adelson’s ageing muscles is cited as the cause of his previously failed predictions.

Two outfits that are doing business in New Jersey are WSOP.com and 888Poker.com. Starting Monday the pair will start sharing prize pools in a bid to try and inject some monetary enthusiasm into an online poker market that contains as much enthusiasm as an under 14’s school disco.

“Shared liquidity will help create a better player experience that we hope will attract a diversity of players and begin to bring poker to a broader audience once again.” Said David Licht, CEO of the All American Poker Network (a joint venture between 888 Holdings and Avenue Capital).

The sites will share an estimated $130,000 in guaranteed tournaments each week.

Changes of Heart

Moving outside of the States and PokerStars shocked the poker community, last week, by reversing their attitude on two key areas of their business. The major reversal was their change of heart over their planned rake increases. You may remember that the poker community went a little crazy after Stars went public with their wholesale rake changes planned for Nov 3 and Jan 1 respectively – well they’ve changed their minds.

American cash game player Josh Kay has won the inaugural Latin American Poker Tour Bahamas Main Event after defeating the German star Martin Finger, in heads-up action, as part of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

[Image Credit: Pokernews & Danny Maxwell]

Josh Kay is a very happy man right now.

Not only does he have $367,928 reasons to smile, but he also knows that he waded through a field of exceptional players to earn all those dollars.

Kay is the winner of the inaugural Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) $3,000 Main Event, in the Bahamas – held in conjunction with the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) – and what a victory it was.

The Michigan native is ostensibly a cash game player, demonstrated by the fact that his winning paycheck contains the same sort of numbers that his entire Hendon Mob CV has chalked up over the past six years.

On the final day of action 11-players remained from a field containing 736 entrants, and that included two former PCA Main Event champions in Galen Hall and Dimitar Danchev. Hall would fall short of the final table, and Danchev would end his run in sixth.

Richard Trigg: PocketFives Yearly PLB Winner Video

jwplayer(“mediaspace”).setup({

flashplayer: “/video/player.swf”,

file:”http://30.cdn.bit2host.eu/videos/audio-interview/richard-trigg-pocketfives-yearly-plb-winner-ld-audio-interview.m4a”,

autostart:”false”,

Dan Bilzerian’s legal team advise the media that the Instagram King is keen to arrange a plea deal to avoid trial on felony charges that Bilzerian and his friend blew up a home made bomb in a Las Vegas desert.

Who am I to give Dan Bilzerian advice?

The man has a gazillion dollars, has more bit part roles in movies than a Ricky Gervais Extras character, sleeps with more women than I have cuddly toys, and owns a goat.

But if I were to give Bilzerian some advice it would be this.

“When blowing shit up in places where you aren’t allowed to blow shit up, don’t tell your millions of social media followers that you blew the shit up.”

Before the weekend broke out Bilzerian’s lawyer David Chesnoff told the press that he hoped to arrange a plea deal, to avoid trial, on felony charges that Dan Bilzerian created a homemade bomb, planted it on a tractor trailer, and then blew it up in a Las Vegas desert.

Bilzerian, and his buddy, Jeremy David Guyman, were arrested for the crime after a series of clues that Inspector Clouseau would have had no problem tracking.

THE AMERICAS

Caesars Entertainment convinced enough senior creditors to approve its bankruptcy restructuring; New Jersey reflected on its first year of regulated online gambling while Ray Lesniak promised PokerStars would hit the Jersey shore by March; Ontario officially launched its own online gambling site which made Alberta jealous; Indiana got its own sports betting legislation and the former NBA commissioner backed his replacement’s pro-betting position; the Iipay Nation filed a motion to dismiss the state’s case against their bingo site; Pennsylvania slots revenue fell for the second straight year; Paul Phua lost his bid to play poker while awaiting his sports betting trial and Income Access’ Allan Petrilli and Max Value Software’s Steve McLoughlin discussed affiliate marketing in America.

EUROPE

Germany convicted a player for gambling online; Unibet acquired Bingo.com and got spanked by the UK’s ad watchdog; Ladbrokes exited more European grey markets and secured a Rugby League sponsorship; Paf bought into the Italian market by acquiring Winga; Russia banned problem gamblers from driving; Romania amended its online gambling laws; PokerStars did an abrupt U-turn on its rake changes and vowed that its Spanish online casino would return shortly; Shane Warne bid 888Poker buh-bye and 53Outs’ Sinead Quigley Maher wondered if pros were allowed to have personal opinions; a European Union court said OPAP’s VLT deal was legit; Carl Hendy explained why SEO in online gambling needs to improve while Bastian Grimm explained the pros and cons of black hat SEO; the Keiser Report’s Max Keiser explained why online gambling sites should embrace Bitcoin; Robbie Davies explained how to be an igaming conference hero and Rebecca Liggero previewed the January conferences at which you can test out those theories.

ASIA

Crown Resorts’ Sri Lanka casino plans appear doomed after a change in the country’s leadership; Melco Crown Entertainment delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange; Chinese authorities broke up a cross-border online gambling ring in Shandong; Macau could lose up to 50 VIP gaming rooms in 2015 and the city’s revenue slump took $7b out of the pockets of Galaxy Entertainment’s chairman; PokerStars signed their first pros from India and Japan; Paradise Co Ltd reported revenue rising in 2014; Nepal lawmakers pressured their tourism ministry to reopen shuttered casinos and Las Vegas Sands’ alleged efforts to dig up dirt on Macau officials will get an airing in former Sands China CEO Steve Jacobs’ wrongful termination suit.

This week’s official launch of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp’s PlayOLG.ca online gambling site has politicians in Alberta pondering their own online future. Jody Korchinski, spokesperson for the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC), said this week that online gambling is “actively under review” at the provincial gaming monopoly.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two remaining provinces (besides the thinly populated Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories) yet to embrace provincially run online gambling.

Korchinski told MetroNews the AGLC was “certainly aware that technology is changing” and that there are “expectations from consumers that [online gambling] be available for Alberta players.” Despite these expectations, Korchinski said “no final decisions have been made” as to when Albertans might see a homegrown online gambling option.

Whenever Alberta gets underway, let’s hope they avoid the serious security glitches that plagued the online gambling launch of PlayNow.com in neighboring British Columbia back in 2010. PlayOLG has had some comparatively minor glitches, particularly in the registration process. Some users reportedly got “not in Ontario” notifications, despite logging on from IP addresses within Ontario. Others complained about waiting up to an hour to speak with a human via live chat. OLG issued a statement to CityNews saying that demand was “very high” and that it “appreciate[s] everyone’s patience at this time.”

Meanwhile, the provincial Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is worried that PlayOLG will create more problem gamblers. Robert Murray, manager of education and community resources at the Problem Gambling Institute of Ontario, CAMH, told the Toronto Star that PlayOLG will draw in players who might have held off gambling online with internationally licensed online gambling operators. Murray says “for a segment of the population the convenience of gambling remotely is going to be attractive especially since it is government sponsored.”

Murray’s concerns aren’t supported by the data, at least, not long term. Studies have shown that problem gambling rates typically undergo a surge as a result of new gambling options, but that these spikes are short-lived and numbers fall back to previous levels as the novelty wears off. Other studies have shown that problem gambling rates have remained constant despite significant increases in both the availability and variety of gambling options.