In the fast-moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

Wazdan set for Switzerland entry

Supplier has 15 titles certified ahead of imminent country debut

Last night on Monday Night Football, two NFC teams faced off to close out Week 8 in the NFL. Of the two, one sits at the bottom of its division at 1-7, while the other is in command of its division with a solid 6-2 lead. While almost everyone thought the game might be a blow out in favor of the leading team, if this year’s NFL season has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is ever a lock. The New York Giants, with a 3-4 record in the NFC East, gave the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers a lot more trouble than anyone expected. 

The Bucs put the first points on the board, a field goal to take a 3-0 lead. However, things went a little sideways from there, as quarterback Tom Brady found himself trying to mount a comeback after falling 11 points behind. The Giants came out with both guns blazing in the first half, holding the Bucs to just six points, and kept the pressure on Tampa into the third quarter before the Bucs were finally able to get into the end zone for a touchdown.

Two Bucs interceptions in the second half gave the team a boost, but it wasn’t a pretty game. The Giants continuously threatened the Bucs and led the game in total yards, as well as first downs. Tampa was forced to punt three times and added a turnover to a game that had underdog-pickers thinking they might cash in big time until the very end. 

It could honestly be said that the Bucs were able to win because of Brady, whose veteran status allowed him to keep his cool and stay calm under pressure. He found Rob Gronkowski and Mike Evans to pick up touchdown passes, moving into first place on the list for most career TDs in the league. He now has 561, having overcome New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who previously held the record with 560. 

The Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are baffled at how poorly the budgeting for Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort has gone. The Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise have gone to them hat in hand, asking for an additional $50 million for the project, and they got grilled for it.

The Cherokee, North Carolina casino has been under construction for two years now, with a $250 million expansion planned. But at an October 26 Tribal Council meeting, representatives could not grasp why $50 million more was needed, when the project was initially only supposed to cost $200 million. “I’d like to see something justifying why we’re giving you $38 more million for this project,” said Birdtown Representative Albert Rose during the Oct. 26 meeting. “This is a huge amount of money for just a simple resolution coming in here asking for it.”

TCGE Board Member John Houser admitted the initial estimate of a $200-250 million expansion wasn’t well thought out. “The schematic for the plans for this project were pretty much done on the back of a napkin,” Houser said. “It was a concept.”

The TCGE explained their new estimate was the project would cost $37.9 million more than planned, mysteriously putting the total cost at $296.9 million. However, $250 million plus $37.9 million does not add up to that sum.

The latest high roller Big Game was exactly that, a very big one indeed, and after 138 entries created a massive $357,500 prizepool, it was Austrian poker powerhouse Matthias Eibinger who walked away with the title. 

The partypoker Big Game online has a $2,600 buy-in and lives up to its name, taking place on a Sunday amid the majors that stretch out across all the major poker networks such as partypoker itself, as well as PokerStars, 888poker and GGPoker. 

The tournament is a long way from the partypoker Big Game of the former hit TV show where it was cash that was king. Checkout this episode from the archives: 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyvESreWDXY?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360]

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a full year since PokerStars brought online poker back to Pennsylvania. In that time, numbers have been strong, tournaments have welcomed more and more players and the Keystone State has maintained its active status. 

To express their thanks to the poker community – and possibly remind them that PokerStars have put in the first year’s hard work on the back of rumours that other poker sites are about to wade into the market – there will be a slew of tournament to reward loyal players. 

The PokerStars 1st Anniversary Series will feature a total prizepool of at least $1 million between November 8th and 15th, with 35 events culminating in a $100-entry Main Event which has a $200,000 guarantee. 

As well as the Main, however, there are some other really fun-sounding events. With over $10,000 in tickets to events up for grabs in seven freerolls, PokerStars players can qualify right now for as little as $1 and ‘Stars will be hoping plenty of players do so. Other signature events that players can qualify for include the $100 Sunday Special on November 8th which guarantees $100K, the $20-entry ‘Mini’ Main Event on November 15th which has a $25,000 prize pool and a $50 phased tournament running throughout the series which has a guarantee of $50,000. 

Queensland and New South Wales are set to square off in their annual grudge match, as State of Origin best-of-three rugby series heads to Adelaide for the first time.

The National Rugby League (NRL) was forced to move the event from the regular mid-season clash to the end of the season due to COVID-19 pandemic. The two states have been forced to pick extended squads, with both sides waiting to finalise their squads at the conclusion of the NRL Grand Final.

Queensland enters the series as underdogs, with master coach Wayne Bennett being forced to debut eight new players in an extended 17-man line-up. Bennett claimed the Queensland coaching role after former coach Kevin Walters moved to take control of the Brisbane Broncos.

Bennett has assembled an all-star coaching roster that included former Queensland coach Mal Meninga. The former Queensland mentor steered the Maroons to their most successful period in Origin history, winning eight series. Queensland has put together a solid starting 17 on paper, but will do well to match the Blues scoring power.

How will today’s potentially explosive elections in the United States affect Macau stocks? As nail-biting as they are and riot-instigating as they may be, it’s only a secondary question. The main problem for Macau right now is that the Chinese government is not letting anyone in to gamble. Until they do, it doesn’t matter who the US president is. However, assuming everything does return to normal somehow at some point, then yes, the US election results might matter in the longer term.

The basic answer is that a Biden administration would probably be less bad, as a second term Trump would unleash Sinophobic fury above and beyond what he’s already done in his first term with his protectionist trade wars and other belligerent nonsense. Joe Biden on the other hand could possibly rescind some of the tariffs that Trump has enacted. That would be quite welcome. Maybe he won’t but at least it’s a possibility. With Trump it’s completely out of the question, and so I believe a Biden victory would give Macau stocks a short term bump. Biden might even do something extra and send Ambassador Hunter over there to make a few fun deals and be a board member at Galaxy or whatever. Hunter would love that.

A Trump victory would scare away a lot of the Macau buyers that have come in to push the sector back up since March. Who knows what an unfettered second-term Trump could launch against China, especially if he blames Beijing for crashing the dollar when it sells US Treasuries after Trump spends another $2 trillion on bailouts financed entirely by the printing press. I would even say that some sort of low-boil covert hot war between Washington and Beijing is not completely out of the question.

Fundamentally though, reality and Macau stocks are not exactly on the same page these days, whoever wins. The VanEck Gaming Vectors ETF, which tracks largely Macau casinos, has doubled since the March bottom. Why? There has been no recovery. Not even close. Visitation to Macau is down 78% in September compared to the same month last year. There is no rocket science here as to why. Visitation to Macau from anywhere other than mainland China, a trickle from Hong Kong and a drip from Taiwan is for all intents and purposes choked off entirely. It’s not the virus. There have been no new deaths from the virus in Mainland China since April. 105 have died in Hong Kong, zero since September 25.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Major League Baseball’s free agency officially opened Sunday, but it could be a fairly quiet offseason because so many teams are crying poor after a coronavirus-shortened 2020 regular season that featured no fans in stadiums. Owners still don’t know whether fans will be allowed in 2021, either.

Still, there will be some significant signings and trades in the Hot Stove League that will affect 2021 World Series odds. Here’s where we stand as of now, though.

No team has repeated as World Series champion since the New York Yankees won their third in a row in 2000, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are +500 favorites to end that drought. Los Angeles was clearly the best team in MLB this year in winning its first title since 1988. The Dodgers had MLB’s best record and run differential during the regular season. That said, nothing is a sure thing as Los Angeles was down 3-1 to the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS before rallying.

Asia’s racetracks are embracing digital wagering as a way to keep bettors on board while the pandemic prevents them from sitting in the stands.

On Sunday, the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) kicked off its winter season under pandemic ‘behind closed doors’ restrictions, meaning only trainers, jockeys and other stakeholders – including only one owner per horse – are allowed at the track, while the grandstands will be utterly free from the usual crowd of up to 8,000 spectators.

There was no betting offered on Sunday’s meet – the first racing activity the track (and much of India) has seen in seven months – nor will there be any on the November 7 meeting. The BTC’s new mobile betting app is apparently still not ready for prime time and reportedly won’t be available until the November 14 meeting.

This summer, the Karnataka state government gave in-principle approval to BTC’s request to offer digital wagering, the first such permission granted to any Indian racing body. But BTC managing committee member Harimohan Naidu said this weekend that the app’s development was “still under process.”

Latvia’s online gambling operators fared better than they expected during the government’s pandemic suspension but that doesn’t mean they’ve gotten over the slight.

Figures released last week by the Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection of Latvia (IAUI) show state-licensed gambling operators generated combined revenue of €129.2m in the nine months ending September 30, a 45.5% decline from the same period last year.

The major decline was the result of – surprise! – COVID-19 and, specifically, the Latvian government’s reaction to the pandemic. In March, the government ordered a halt to land-based gambling and followed that up in April with an online ban, despite local licensees’ loud protestations (and lawsuits) that the coronavirus didn’t spread over the internet.

Latvia’s government lifted the gambling ban in June, but the damage had been done, particularly on the land-based side. Revenue from slot machines in casinos and gambling halls was down by more than half to €80.7m, while casino table games slid 64% to €4.6m. Betting shop revenue was off 46.4% to €1.25m, bingo dipped 43% to €97k and ‘other’ products fell by half to €6.1m.

Quebec’s online gambling revenue soared over the first half of its current fiscal year as the Canadian province’s land-based options went dark due to COVID-19.

Last Friday, the Loto-Quebec provincial gambling monopoly released an update on its financial performance over the first half of its current fiscal year. As of September 30, revenue totaled C$687.4m (US$518.6m), less than half the C$1.4b earned in H1 2019-20, while net income tumbled by three-quarters to C$181.2m.

As with most of the world, Quebec’s retail gambling operations went into an extended deep-freeze this spring as the pandemic took hold. The net effect on H1 2020-21 was across the board declines in all gambling verticals that required customers to be physically present.

Lottery revenue was down by more than one-quarter to C$335.2m, while land-based casino operations fell nearly 65% to C$179.9m and video lottery terminal operations in the province’s bars and bingo halls slid 62.6% to C$174m.

Gambling operator GVC Holdings is warning investors of the financial cost of the UK’s latest pandemic lockdown, while the UK taxman is also suffering from the shutdown of retail gambling operations.

On Monday, GVC announced that it expects a negative earnings impact of £37m from the raft of COVID-19 retail shutdowns spreading across Europe. Should the current closures extend for a month, the negative impact is expected to rise to £43m. These figures include the effects of government support programs and other retail cost mitigation.  

GVC’s UK retail operations – encompassing its Coral and Ladbrokes brands – would account for £34m of this loss. Some regions of the UK had already been forced into so-called ‘Tier 3’ retail restrictions but Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced this weekend that casinos and betting shops would be required to shut nationwide as of Thursday (5) through at least December 2.

For the moment, betting shops in Scotland and Northern Ireland remain open. Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) president Michael Dugher issued a statement urging governments to take a “science-led approach and avoid the arbitrary and unnecessary decisions that led to random closures of casinos and betting shops, which damage employment and revenues to the Exchequer.”

Online gambling operator Kindred Group is pulling its 32Red brand from the Italian market for as yet unexplained reasons.

Italian gamblers who logged onto 32Red.it this weekend discovered a message informing them that the site would be shutting down as of November 30. The message claimed the closure was “a difficult choice to make” without going into detail regarding the factors that led to this decision.

32Red’s Italian customers have been “strongly” recommended to withdraw the funds from the site by November 29 “as afterwards you will no longer be able to access the casino.” The message encouraged customers to transfer their affections to the Italian-licensed site of Kindred’s flagship Unibet brand, where they will reportedly receive “the warm welcome they deserve.”

32Red’s presence in Italy’s regulated market dates back to 2012, five years before the brand’s operations were acquired by Kindred. Presumably, Kindred will shed more light on its decision to streamline its Italian presence when the company issues its Q3 earnings report later this week.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghuf9uoDOP8]

Renowned author and academic, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang believes that we get more done when we work less. While it may sound like a contradiction, the Stanford University academic has written four books on the subjects of creativity and productivity in the digital age. He took some time out to sit down with our own Becky Liggero Fontana on the latest episode of The Long Con, to share his insights on how it’s possible to improve our productivity habits.

Pang believes that the majority of people believe that work and rest are mutual competitors in their daily lives. “We get the idea that we’ll sleep when we’re dead, or rest is the thing that you get once you get everything done.”

According to Pang, the behaviour is seen among people who are time-pressured or people who really like their job, and are really interested in their work.

It’s been 12 years since Waterfront Philippines Inc. first sought a gaming license to launch an integrated resort (IR) to Entertainment City in the Philippines. Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the country’s gaming regulator, as well as an operator of several casinos, didn’t believe Waterfront had met its requirements and tried to block the license request. After seeing the dispute between the two entities bounce back and forth in court for years, it finally made its way to the Supreme Court, which has issued its final verdict. PAGCOR needs to get out of the way.

In 2017, PAGCOR was denied from blocking the license in court. It wasn’t happy with the ruling and appealed, only to lose in December of the following year. Undeterred, PAGCOR tried again. However, the Philippines Court of Appeals denied the attempt, backing its December ruling. The gambling operator still wasn’t ready to accept defeat and took its case to the Supreme Court. The high court issued its ruling last February and, once again, PAGCOR fought the decision, arguing that the court had made a mistake in its judgment. The Supreme Court dropped the gavel one more time last mon th, asserting that its decision was “final and executory by being recorded in the Book of Entries and Judgements.”

That essentially means that PAGCOR now has no recourse if it wants to try to deny the license to Waterfront again. While it continued to drag its feet with the company, which had made a $100-million deposit on the license, PAGCOR was able to issue licenses to four other properties in the country – City of Dreams, Okada Manila, Resorts World Manila (RWM) and Solaire Resort and Casino. Of those, only RWM is not located in Entertainment City and another property, Westside City Resorts World, will open there before Waterfront would be able to launch.

PAGCOR had previously been ordered to pay Waterfront for damages over the dispute, but only about $4,000 – nowhere close to what it has had to lay out in legal fees and expenses tied to the license fee deposit it gave. The prolonged inability to proceed, coupled with the weakened economy caused by COVID-19, might force the company to temporarily reconsider its options, but it still expects to take advantage of its victory at some point. The company said in a statement last week that the decision and the subsequent license issuance “will have a favorable effect on WPI’s business or operations once the pandemic is over.”