The whole focus of iGaming NEXT ONLINE: Adventure of Change Day 2 was marketing, and there are few companies that know how to market like Apple. Our very own Becky Liggero Fontana conducted a Fireside Chat with Rahul Sood, Co-Founder of Unikrn, and looked at how Apple’s success could be recreated for the gambling world.

Sood noted that Apple created a new phenomenon in marketing by building relationships with customers. “What people didn’t realize was that Apple had fans, not just customers,” he said. Those fans then told their friends to buy Apple products, evangelizing for the brand and reinforcing their marketing efforts.

When you compare that with an Apple competitor, like what once was a decently powerful personal computer company in HP, there’s no comparison really. The latter is soulless, with no community, no fans, and no one to push their products.

But how does one build relationship marketing. It starts internally. Sood said the company needs to have employees who are also a fan of what they working on. The ideal employee “lives, eats and breathes the product.” That creates an internal culture that rapidly becomes apparent to the customer.

Universal Entertainment can finally put one of its headaches behind it. The casino operator went after a former lawyer in 2018, accusing it of unethical business practices after attorney Yuki Arai tried to overcharge the company by more than $100 million. The company contacted Japan’s Dai-Ichi Tokyo Bar Association at the time to call attention to the egregious action, and this didn’t sit well with Arai. He sued the company, claiming it had permanently damaged his reputation, and sought $285,000, in spite of the fact that he had already gotten away with a paycheck he didn’t earn. However, his attempt has fallen short and the courts have decided that he doesn’t deserve any more money.

Arai served as an auditor for Universal from 2014 to 2015, and perhaps didn’t think his shenanigans would be noticed when he slipped in the bill later, well after he had been relieved of his duties. As soon as Universal realized what had happened, it filed a complaint with the bar and also sought relief in court. It argued that Arai had altered a contract with the company for services he hadn’t legally provided and, while Universal never turned over the full amount, still wanted to get back the $80,000 in wages it had provided.

After all the public attention given the drama, Arai went after Universal in July of 2018, asking the courts to make Universal pay $142,000 for “pain, suffering and damage” to his reputation. A Tokyo District Court judge turned him down earlier this year, so he decided to appeal, doubling the amount he sought through his original claim.

Universal published an update (pdf) on the case yesterday, which should hopefully put this chapter to rest. It explained that the Tokyo High Court shot down Arai’s appeal and that he is not entitled to any money. However, this only brings to an end that particular chapter, not the whole story. Universal is still trying to get back the $80,000 it has asked Arai to return, and which the errant lawyer still feels he is entitled to keep.

Breaking into the sports betting industry can be expensive, but Low6 may have found a new, cost effective way in. Co-Founder Jamie Mitchell joined our Becky Liggero Fontana recently to discuss their new cost-effective approach to sports betting marketing, and teased exciting new things they have coming to the American market.

Mitchell began by describing what sets Low6 apart. “Low6 is an influencer-led, B2B white label platform,” he began. “The idea really behind Low6 was to offer franchises, clubs, the opportunity to have a betting platform that was risk-free, so they didn’t have to have a traditional sports book where if somebody gets the correct number on a roulette machine or whatever it might be, that they have to put that prize money up, and also to move away from the sort of harder, stigmatized form of gambling that we’re sort of so used to seeing chastised in the in the media every single day.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LIhtDbpayo&w=904&h=509]

This new approach to sports betting circumvents the traditionally high marketing costs that come with building a brand. “It’s no secret that the sports books have to pay a tremendous amount to acquire new customers to their platforms, and marketing budgets, as a new betting company coming into the market, unless we had tens and tens of millions, we won’t make any impression at all on that traditional space,” he said. “So we looked and said, you know, what can we do to be disruptive? And I know everybody claims to be disruptive but we genuinely think we are. We said look, we’ll give our product to franchises and clubs.”

Things are starting to look pretty dire for the Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs). New information revealed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) reveals just how much the industry has shrunk, and suggests the trend won’t change unless major developments occur.

Of the previously operating 63 licensed POGOs, the BIR notes that only 15 are currently operating. Workforces have also been cut by as much as 70% to comply with Covid-19 protocols.

The primary reason so few POGOs are back to operations are due to low revenues, but Covid-19 precautions played a major role too. The bureau noted that after many Chinese workers visited their homeland for the Chinese New Year, many could not return due to restricted travel.

But other factors are definitely in play. Taxes have been raised on the industry, decreasing its total profitability even if they do resume operations. A POGO lawyer told the Manila Bulletin the new tax rates are “unreasonable.”

Bloomberry Resorts finally saw some life in their portfolio in Q3 2020, thanks to the reopening of Solaire Resort & Casino, but that hasn’t stopped the bleeding. The casino operator reported a P2.5 billion ($52 million) loss for the period.

That’s still a lot better than the P4.7 billion ($96.2 million) loss they had in Q2, but far down from their profit of P3.9 billion ($80.9 million) the previous year. But Solaire being allowed to partially reopen cut those losses in half quarter over quarter, as the casino increased its revenue from P686.6 million ($14.1 million) to P4.4 billion ($91.3 million).

VIPs, who would have been the first invited back with restricted crowd sizes, made up almost half of that Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) at P2 billion. Mass table and EGM brought in P1.1 billion and P1.3 billion respectively. Year over year, all three segments saw a decline of more than 70%.

Bloomberry’s South Korean casino, Jeju Sun, is still not open and recorded no revenue.

The second day of iGaming NEXT ONLINE: Adventure for Change is underway. This flagship event will offer great insights on how to bring customers in as we adapt to the new world.

The day starts with “What Relationship Marketing Can Do for You?” Our very own Rebecca Liggero Fontana returns to chat with Rahul Sood, Co-founder of Unikrn and Creator of Microsoft Ventures.

Later in the day, expect to see iGaming Next’s Co-Founder and Managing Director Pierre Lindh talking with a panel on the topic of “How to Attract and Retain Millenials.”

If you missed Day 1, we have recaps on what Ayre Media founder Calvin Ayre said about Bitcoin, and a panel from Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen on how iGaming can use blockchain to its advantage.

Genting HK has had a rough year. Just like all gaming operators, it never anticipated its world would be turned upside down from one day to the next over a microscopic virus, but that’s the reality everyone is now facing. The company had spent massive amounts of money preparing a fleet of casino cruise ships that, for the most part, have only been able to stay high and dry while the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control. As a result, Genting has had money issues virtually this entire year and has had to find different means of covering its expenses. The latest attempt to straighten things out might be found in Macau, where the company is going to sell 50% of a local subsidiary behind a hotel project in the city.

Genting HK announced that it is working on a deal that would see it pick up $96.7 million in return for offloading half of its stake in Genting Macau Holdings Ltd. That entity subsequently controls another unit, Treasure Island Entertainment Complex Ltd., which is directly behind the hotel project located in the Nam Van area of the city. Genting Macau owns 75% of that company, and White Supreme Corp. out of the Marshall Islands is said to be the entity ready to put its money behind the project through the purchase of Genting Macau. 

White Supreme, of which well-known Macau investor Ao Mio Leong is the principal shareholder, is going to pay $6.45 million for the 50% cut of the company, and $90.3 million to cover a shareholder’s loan, as well as interest, Genting Macau owes to Star Cruises Asia Holding Ltd. The latter entity is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genting HK that has “significant highlights across operations in Asia and America,” according to a company statement. It primarily focuses on cruises in and around Asia. 

White Supreme could also eventually own Genting Macau completely. The sales agreement includes a clause that covers call and put options, and which would allow the company to purchase the other 50% sometime in the future if it wants to. Treasure Island has several hospitality projects in the works in Macau, and making the purchase could prove lucrative as Macau looks to expand its tourism options. 

It may still be too early to make a definitive call on the state of casinos across Asia, and everywhere else in the world, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. COVID-19 has caused massive amounts of damage to gaming operators’ financial stability and, with new spikes of the coronavirus seen from time to time, recovery has been predicted to need at least three years by some industry insiders. However, things might be turning around and there is now an outside chance that casinos could rebound sooner than previously expected, particularly in Asia. 

Based in part on the results just provided by Galaxy Entertainment, there is now room for operators to be optimistic about their recovery chances. The casino operator said that October produced positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and that November was on track to be the same. That was enough for Bernstein Research analysts to assert, “Galaxy is in the best liquidity position to weather the pandemic storm and should see solid recovery driven by its premium customer base.”

Bernstein isn’t the only firm to put the Asia casino sector in a more positive light moving forward. Jeffries sees the potential for a strong recovery, but would like to see more of the current COVID-19 restrictions placed on Macau and other areas reduced. The company feels that China’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) for the gambling city is a huge source of improvement if it can be relaxed more soon. Changes are already underway to ease travel restrictions to Macau, and the next several weeks will be worth watching to see how plans develop.

Galaxy’s positive performance isn’t the only factor that is giving way to analysts’ views on a stronger Asia recovery. Bloomberry Resorts just stated that it is close to breaking even in terms of EBITDA measurements, which would seem to indicate strong potential, especially in the Philippines. Bloomberry is behind, among others, the Solaire Resort & Casino in the country and the continued COVID-19 threat has forced the Philippines to be stricter with its health measures. Casinos have been impacted for a longer period than their counterparts in other countries, but Bloomberry is reporting positive net revenue for the third quarter of the year, which is a huge bounce from its performance earlier this year. 

The last poker boom worthy of the name took place in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event from an $80 satellite. We’re approximating that amount because numerous credible sources maintain that Moneymaker’s satellite entry was anything from $30 to $100, but either way, his victory transformed the game.  

The 2003 Poker Boom was unprecedented and came about for many reasons. Poker had long been ready to explode and the combination of online poker along with other factors such as companies like the World Poker Tour and the original PartyPoker brand growing were huge. In retrospect, the original poker boom was due to Mike Sexton’s legacy as much as it was Chris Moneymaker’s success at the felt.  

So could another, perhaps even bigger ‘poker boom’ be coming in 2021?  

If it feels an odd question to ask in the middle of a Coronavirus pandemic, that’s probably because it is, but it’s not necessarily the wrong one. Live poker has always been something of a loss leader, and live festivals create the biggest of those losses. As such, when the COVID-19 restrictions took a firm grip on live poker back in the Spring of this year, that put poker in something of a quandary.  

Portugal’s online gamblers are fewer in number this year than the year before, although slightly more of them are patronizing locally licensed sites.

This week, the Portuguese Association of Online Betting and Games (APAJO) released the results of a new survey conducted by pollsters Aximage on the habits of the country’s online gamblers. The survey, which was conducted in August, involved 601 registered online gambling customers (501 of which were male), the bulk of whom were between 18 and 34 years of age.

The survey found that 82.9% of respondents had gambled online in 2020, down from 93.6% the year before. The number of respondents who gambled solely with Portuguese-licensed sites increased 1.2 points to 45.2%, while the number who favored only internationally licensed options dipped 0.4 points to 5.6%. The jurisdictional-agnostic ranks of those who enjoyed both options fell 0.8 points to 49.2%.

The majority of respondents (92.8%) claimed to be able to discern between operators who held local licenses and those who didn’t. Of those who chose to gamble purely on Portuguese-licensed sites, 71.5% did so for security reasons, up 7.5 points from 2019. Those who favored international sites cited better bonuses, odds and a broader product range as motivating factors.

The latest GGPoker Super MILLION$ final table will see Stephen Chidwick battle from short stack as a Canadian-packed last nine do battle to become the latest champion.  

Top prize this week is a bumper $628,892 – enough to draw plenty of players on Day 1 and due to the $3 million prizepool this week. Chip leader after the first day was Canada’s Kyle Menard, who will go into the final table with 5.9 million chips. His nearest challenger is another Canadian, ‘iStayOn5’, who has 4.2 million, and the country is represented heavily, with five of the highest seven players hailing from Canada.  

With the Brazilian player ‘fab5’ coming in with 3.5 million chips, Timothy Adams is next on the list, with 3.4 million and a wise head on his shoulders, currently sitting as he does top of the 2020 live tournament money list by a very long distance.  

With players such as Finland’s Eelis Pärssinen (3 million) also progressing to the final, it’s going to be fiercely competitive when play recommences on the live-delay streamed GGPoker Twitch channel.  

Czech lottery and betting giant Sazka Group is poised for major global expansion after receiving a half-billion-euro injection from a major US private equity group.

On Tuesday, Sazka announced that funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management had agreed to invest €500m in Sazka Entertainment AG, a new subsidiary of Sazka’s majority owner Karel Komárek’s KKCG Group. Following the deal, Sazka Entertainment AG will become the new 100% owner of Sazka Group.

The parties said the bulk of Apollo’s €500m investment will go toward acquisition and growth opportunities in Europe and North America, “with a focus on lotteries.” Assuming regulators don’t object, the parties expect the deal to close sometime next year.

Komárek said the partnership with Apollo came following “a series of discussions with major investment funds from around the world” and has positioned Sazka for geographic expansion, “continuing to focus on lottery and complementary gaming verticals.”

It’s already been a Premier League season that has already been packed with goals. From Turf Moor to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, defences have been plundered with alarming regularity for more conservative managers and with glee for more expansive coaches.  

With most sides among the goals, however, which strikers are looking most likely to bag the Premier League Golden Boot? Let’s first take a look at the current top scorers.  

Premier League Top Scorers 2020/21 Season So Far:  

Heung-Min Son (Tottenham Hotspur) – 8 goals  

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

One of the reasons that LSU fired very successful coach Les Miles during the 2016 football season is because he was being dominated by bitter rival Alabama each year. Ed Orgeron took over that season for Miles as the interim coach and was eventually given the full-time job.

Orgeron had no better luck against Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide … until last year’s national champion Tigers went into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama 46-41 in one of the more memorable games of 2019. Joe Burrow might have clinched the Heisman Trophy that day by throwing for 393 yards and three scores.

The SEC West schools renew their rivalry on Saturday from Baton Rouge with a 6 p.m. ET kickoff (hopefully, that is, as LSU is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak), and this one is not likely to be close with the No. 1 Crimson Tide rolling along this year and 28-point favorites.

Sweden’s online casino operators could face deposit and bonus restrictions through the middle of next year as the government proposes extending ‘temporary’ COVID-19 consumer protection measures.

On Tuesday, Sweden’s Ministry of Finance proposed an “extended period of validity” for the temporary limits on online casino deposits and bonuses that took effect on July 2. The government wants to see the limits, which were originally scheduled to last only through the end of 2020, extended through June 30, 2021.

The limits cap weekly deposits at SEK5k (US$580) and bonus offers at just SEK100, while also requiring online casino customers to set limits on their playing time (which also apply to land-based gaming machines).

The limits have been credited with significant reductions in operator revenue, while some operators have claimed that the limits are pushing gamblers – particularly those with problem gambling tendencies – to internationally licensed operators not subject to the whims of Sweden’s government.