It’s been a funny old year in poker, and with many live tournaments forced to either be abandoned on convert to online festivals instead, live poker has taken the biggest hit in years.

While many poker brands are actually stronger financially – live poker festivals are often ‘loss leaders’ designed to attract players to playing online – poker misses live action. It’s great for selling the game, but it also keep poker fans involved in it and part of the fabric of the game rather than just players.

Wondering which players are the highest earners in live poker tournaments this year? The winner is some way clear of the competition… but can you remember him?

Alex Foxen ($1,608,689)

With just a week until one of the most hotly-anticipated poker grudge matches of all-time begins, two familiar faces to poker fans have come out in support of Daniel Negreanu.

It’s just seven days until Daniel Negreanu takes on Doug Polk at two tables of $200$400 NLHE on WSOP.com, and while Poker Shares have Polk as a big favourite, better than 4/1 in fact, there are two big names who are more than willing to take Negreanu to win at that price.

Mike Matusow was the first big name to come out in defence of Daniel Negreanu’s chances and has put his money where his considerable mouth is, putting down $10,000 of his own money at odds of 4/1. Turns out, $10,000 is half of ‘The Mouth’s bankroll, at least, according to the man himself.

Well I did it! I bet 10k of my 20k bankroll on @RealKidPoker getting 4 to 1 vs @DougPolkVids. I would of bet it all but needed 6k for bills on nov. 1st. Plus the 5k I bet on Trump to win in March that could be in jeopardy. Let’s go @RealKidPoker don’t let me go bust again!

Casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment (MRE) is under fire in Cyprus after some top executives were granted local citizenship under a controversial program.

In August, an investigation by broadcaster Al Jazeera revealed that 18 executives of Melco Investment Holdings had filed a collective application for citizenship in July 2019 under the Cyprus Investment Programme (CIP).

The CIP allowed wealthy foreigners to obtain Cypriot citizenship by plowing at least €2.5m into local development projects. Earlier this month, following an Al Jazeera broadcast on the topic, the Cypriot government announced that it would end the CIP effective November 1.

MRE currently operates three satellite casinos and a ‘temporary’ larger casino in Limassol under its Cyprus Casinos offshoot. The company continues to develop the €550m City of Dreams Mediterranean integrated resort, which was originally scheduled to open in late-2021 but pandemic-related construction delays are expected to push this start into 2022.

The District of Columbia’s controversial online sports betting monopoly has withstood yet another legal challenge, while the market gets ready to welcome another retail operator.

On Thursday, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals dismissed a 2019 Superior Court challenge of the DC Lottery’s controversial decision to award a no-bid online betting contract to Greek lottery/betting operator Intralot.

The challenge was brought by DC resident Dylan Carragher, a software developer who felt the DC online betting technology contract should have gone through a competitive tender. But the Court of Appeals found that Carragher had failed to demonstrate that he’d suffered any ‘injury in fact’ and thereby lacked standing, leading the Court to dismiss his challenge.

Sadly, while the Court rejected Carragher’s claims that he’d suffered injury from being denied the right to pursue the District’s betting technology contract, it also ruled that Carragher hadn’t suffered any ‘dollars-and-cents’ injury as a municipal taxpayer.

Colorado’s sports bettors dramatically increased their wagering handle in September but the state’s share of this action shrank due to operators’ overly generous online bonus offers.

Figures released Friday by the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Division of Gaming show the state’s licensed bookmakers generated betting turnover of over $207.6m in September, up 61% from August’s total and a new record for the market.

Sadly, while betting revenue totaled just under $4.2m, the state’s share came to less than $70k as the $3.76m in gross online betting revenue was offset by -$3.79m in ‘net sports betting proceeds,’ meaning the only taxable revenue was the $394m brought in by the state’s retail sportsbooks.

The report doesn’t state as such, but the online negativity is presumably the result of operators’ loss-leading bonus offers to bettors who may only now be activating wagering accounts in tandem with the kickoff of NFL action. A similar dynamic played out in Pennsylvania earlier this week.

Finnish gambling operator Paf says the country should end the online gambling monopoly held by the state-owned Veikkaus in order to more successfully address the issue of problem gambling.

On Friday, Paf CEO Christer Fahlstedt published an op-ed in local media in which he argued that “the problems in the Finnish gaming industry could be solved with a regulated license system.” Fahlstedt warned the government that its plan to attempt to block Finnish gamblers’ access to Veikkaus’ online rivals won’t achieve its stated policy aims.

Paf, which holds a gambling monopoly in Finland’s autonomous Swedish-speaking Åland Islands region, has over the past few years proactively taken steps to reduce its reliance on high-rolling gamblers, despite the negative impact on the company’s financial performance. 

Veikkaus, on the other hand, has more or less been forced into imposing similar restraints following a series of embarrassing episodes that exposed its sketchy commitments to responsible gambling measures (not to mention transparency in procurement contracts).

Nevada gambling regulators have enshrined Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment’s status as the first tribal casino operator on the fabled Las Vegas Strip.

On Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) unanimously approved MGE’s application for a license to operate gaming at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas property. The NGC ruling follows a similarly unanimous approval by the Nevada Gaming Control Board two weeks ago.

MGE chair James Gessner – one of 15 MGE figures who received personal licensing approval on Thursday – expressed pride at becoming the Strip’s first tribal operator, noting that the company had blazed a similar trail in Atlantic City years ago through a deal with Resorts Casino Hotel.

The Mohegan Sun Casino at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is slated to open January 15, 2021, assuming everyone in the state isn’t dead from COVID-19 by then. MGE currently operates in Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington state, as well as two casinos on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, and is planning mega-projects in Greece and South Korea.

Sweden’s state-run gambling operator Svenska Spel reported a downturn in the third quarter as its land-based operations were laid low by pandemic shutdowns.

On Friday, Svenska Spel reported revenue of SEK1.85b (US$210.8m) in the three months ending September 30, down 8% from the same period last year. Operating profit fell harder, down 17% to SEK531m while profits slid 64% to SEK441m, although the bulk of this profit plunge was due to deferred tax income in 2019.

The company blamed the revenue downturn on the closure this spring of its land-based Casino Cosmopol operations due to COVID-19. The Casino Cosmopol venue in Sundsvall – the company’s original casino – was permanently shuttered in August as COVID-19 proved the tipping point following a decade of pre-pandemic losses.

The Vegas brand’s slots operations suffered from the closure of over 100 host venues (restaurants, bingo halls, etc.). All told, the Cosmopol & Vegas unit’s revenue was down 59% year-on-year to SEK177m.

Online gambling operator Betsson AB saw its profits jump by three-fifths in the third quarter thanks to a surge in customer activity.

Figures released Friday by the Stockhom-listed Betsson show revenue of SEK1.67b (US$191.1m) in the three months ending September 30, up 31% from the same period last year and a new company record (for the second straight quarter). Earnings did even better, rising 37% to SEK416.6m while net income spiked 60% to SEK290.6m.

To be clear, Q3 2019 was a downer for Betsson due to its struggles to adapt to Sweden’s regulated online market and disruptions to its Dutch– and Norwegian-facing operations. That quarter also showed an 8% fall in active customers, while Q3 2020 showed active customers up 46% to a record 920k and customer deposits jumping 53%.

Online casino revenue got a major pandemic boost, rising 39% to SEK1.3b, pushing casino’s share of the overall pie up four points to 78%. Organic growth (absent recent acquisitions) was a more modest but still impressive 29%.

The Special Purchase Acquisition Company (SPAC) trend continues. There has been no shortage of interest among different commercial segments to team up with the “blank check” companies in order to be able to enter the world of public trading, and the most popular one this year in the gaming industry would have to be the deal between DraftKings and the Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp SPAC, which allowed the sports gambling and fantasy sports operator to go public. This was just one of many, though, and another SPAC hopes it might be able to see the same success as the DraftKings/Diamond Eagle deal. Tekkorp Digital Acquisition Co. targets the digital gaming industry, and has now made its first appearance on the stock exchange. 

Tekkorp is now live on NASDAQ, trading under the ticker TEKKU. It launched there yesterday, offering 25 million units at $10 each. According to a company press release about the shares, “Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one redeemable warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Class A ordinary share at a price of $11.50 per share. Only whole warrants are exercisable. Once the securities comprising the units commence separate trading, the Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants are expected to be respectively listed on Nasdaq under the symbols (TEKK) and (TEKKW). The offering is expected to close on Oct. 26, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.”

Tekkorp has some heavy-hitters backing it up. The board includes two long-running gaming executives, including Morris Bailey, who serves as its chairman, and Tony Rodio. Bailey is behind Resorts Casino & Hotel in Atlantic City, the first in New Jersey to offer both in-person and online sports wagers, and Rodio is the former CEO of Affinity Gaming and Caesars Entertainment. The latter gig ended when Caesars and Eldorado Resorts merged, leading to former Eldorado CEO Tom Reeg taking over the combined companies. 

In addition to those two, Tekkorp is led by CEO Matthew Davey. He is the former CEO of Scientific Games digital subsidiary SG Digital, and is joined by Robin Chhabra, who serves as the company’s president. Chhabra is the former CEO of FOX Bet, as well as the former chief corporate development officer for The Stars Group.

Belle Corp., which owns half of City of Dreams Manila (CoDM), has had a rough couple of years. Things went well in 2018, when it posted a year-on-year revenue increase of $69 million, but that was the height of the gains. Last year, it saw its consolidated net income fall 11% in the first half of the year, and 2020 has hit it even harder. According to its latest filing, Belle Corp., suffering from the casino shutdown in the Philippines, reported a 96% drop in income for the first nine months of the year.

From January to September, Belle Corp. had income of just $1.92 million, down from $52.8 million during the same period in 2019. The Philippines, like virtually everywhere else around the world, was forced to shut down its gambling and other commercial operations because of COVID-19, leading to the company seeing revenue of just $60.06 million compared to the $119.09 million it recorded during the first nine months of last year.

From July to September, the company took a net loss of $2.66 million after having gains of $10.64 million during the same period in 2019. That quarter’s bottom line came off of revenue that had fallen 42%, dropping to $18.69 million from $32.43 million a year earlier. The majority of the losses are directly attributed to the shutdown of CoDM, which caused the company to lose 86% of its revenue from the venue over the first nine months of 2020. It only received $6.717 million during the period, whereas it had been able to rake in $49.19 million for the period last year.

COVID-19 forced the Philippines to either shut down completely or severely handicap casinos from the middle of March until September. Losing a primary revenue stream for six months is enough to hurt any company, and Belle Corp. added in its filing, “The decreases in revenues and profits resulted primarily from Covid-19 related developments. The effects of the pandemic began with declining tourist arrivals prior to the implementation of the community quarantines nationwide and [were] compounded by the temporary suspension of gaming operations at City of Dreams Manila on March 16, 2020 in compliance with government initiatives to contain the virus.”

Codere was born in Spain, making its first appearance 40 years ago through “amusement with prizes” slot machines. Since then, it has grown to include casinos, bingo parlors and more, both in its home country and abroad. As it has grown, it hasn’t lost sight of its roots and continues to be a big part of Spain’s gambling landscape. According to the company’s CEO, Vincente di Loreto, that isn’t going to change, either, and, even as Spain is cracking down on the gambling industry, Codere believes Spain will play an even more important role in the company’s success. 

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Codere just wrapped up a two-day virtual conference in Madrid, Spain, where it discussed what’s going on with the company and where it is headed. The “Apostamos x Ti” (We’re betting on you) conference provided a great deal of inside information about the company’s goals, and di Loreto added, “Spain is a key market in which we have high hopes for growth, for which we must redouble our efforts and investments. Of course, there are difficulties and uncertainties, above all of a regulatory nature, but these are challenges that we will face by leveraging our strategic pillars, convinced of the potential of this market beyond the current situation.”

Part of the “regulatory” issues the executive was hinting about is tied to Spain’s government and gambling regulator coming down hard on all forms of gambling. It is implementing changes to how casinos – land-based and online – can advertise and where, and is also forcing sports organizations to sever their sponsorships with casinos and gaming companies. In addition, betting caps introduced as a result of COVID-19 that were meant to be temporary could be converted into permanent limits.

China has made it very clear that they want to put an end to their citizens gambling online with overseas operations, and now they’re starting to show the dog can bite. As first reported by Inside Asian Gaming, a new draft of China’s criminal law provides for a 5 to 10 year prison sentence for anyone organizing or soliciting gambling online.

The new amendment to the criminal law adds a crime to Article 303, targeting gaming activities both within and outside of China. It states:

“Whoever operates or manages casinos, or is designated by casinos outside the country, and organizes or solicits Chinese residents to participate in overseas gambling, where the amount involved is large with a serious nature, shall be punished according to provisions under the preceding paragraph.”

The punishment for the crime is the same as opening a casino in China. Those found guilty get a max sentence of 5 years, unless the circumstances are considered serious, in which case they can get a maximum of 10 years.

There’s been plenty of talk about how Affiliates stand to gain advantages from Bitcoin SV gambling. Peergame is now practicing that age-old motto, ‘show, don’t tell,’ teasing an affiliate program coming soon.

In a blog post, Peergame revealed they will soon be launching a closed beta of the Peergame Affiliate Program. While no date has yet been given, the October 16 blog post teased, “If everything goes accordingly, the launch is happening very soon.”

Using the advantages of the Bitcoin SV [BSV] blockchain, Peergame notes that affiliates will benefit from instant payouts of commissions. “Affiliates simply have to connect their own paymail address to our platform and refer players,” they wrote. “Then, as referees play on Peergame, commissions will automatically be deposited into the connected paymail address in real-time. This system will allow our affiliates to enjoy watching their own pockets grow by seconds without any unnecessary hassle.”

Unlike other affiliate programs, Peergame notes they won’t be calculating commissions based on revenue. Instead, they will offer a wager-share. “A wager-share will guarantee our affiliates a life-time of steady profits as long as they have referees playing with us, without the unnecessary worry over negative carryover or referees beating the house.”