16 February 2015 – Singapore: Asia’s largest mixed martial arts organization with a 90% market share, ONE Championship™ (ONE FC), has announced an additional bout for ONE FC: AGE OF CHAMPIONS, which takes place 13 March in Kuala Lumpur. Rising star Amir Khan returns to lock horns with Florian Garel, and Walaa Abbas replaces Angela Lee as opponent for Ann Osman.

Amir Khan is a Singaporean mixed martial artist with an undefeated amateur record who has competed in the United States. He is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt under Relson Gracie, and also has competitive wrestling and Muay Thai experience. With more than seven years of combat sports experience under his belt, Khan now faces Florian Garel after being victorious in his first two ONE FC bouts.

Originally from France, Florian Garel trains out of Taiwan Top Team and has made Taiwan his second home. Garel studied the Chinese language while in university and moved to Taiwan to marry his Taiwanese wife. A 4th Dan Karate black belt, Garel eventually settled in Taichung where he now teaches martial arts.

Walaa Abbas is a national Egyptian kickboxing champion who has notched a 2-2 record so far as a professional mixed martial artist. She boasts of exceptional striking prowess and always looks to finish fights early. Abbas will be taking on Malaysia’s warrior belle, Ann “Athena” Osman after replacing Osman’s original opponent, Angela Lee.

For more updates on ONE Championship™, please visit www.onefc.com and follow Twitter and Instagram @ONEFCMMA and Facebook at www.facebook.com/ONEFCMMA

About ONE FC

With a 90%+ market share in Asia, ONE Championship™ is Asia’s largest Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) organization. Headquartered in Singapore, the world’s most exciting mixed martial arts organization hosts the best Asian mixed martial artists and world champions, all signed to exclusive contracts, on the largest media broadcast in Asia. ONE Championship™ has partnered with FOX and STAR Sports for an unprecedented 10-year cable television deal with a coverage that spans 70+ countries across the world.

The NBA’s annual mid-season classic has come and gone and boy, it was pretty special, wasn’t it? I’m not usually that excited over the festivities of the NBA’s All-Star weekend, but this year proved that it can still catch the attention of hardcore and mainstream fans alike.

I like to consider myself in the first category so I’ve seen my fair share of All-Star games. Some lived up to the hype. Some didn’t. But over the past few years, I’ve grown disenchanted about what happens during the weekend. Everything seemed staged and even the games themselves have turned me off.

Ahead of this year’s festivities, I had to find a way to get excited about All-Star weekend. So I did what any self-respecting sports gambler would do. I sized up the events and I bet on them, not knowing exactly what to expect. So I put a few units on some of the props, specifically the winners of the Three-Point Shoot Out, the Dunk Contest, and the Shooting Stars game. I didn’t win all of them, but I made enough to at least break even for the weekend.

Ultimately, I ended up watching a lot more of the All-Star weekend than I probably should. But for what its worth, I actually enjoyed what I saw, especially the All-Star game itself. Shout out to Russell Westbrook for cashing in on those 15/1 odds for All-Star Game MVP.

The All-Star game had a plethora of props but I’ll focus on those that I bet on. The BBVA Compass Rising Stars Challenge was the first on my ticket and while my bet didn’t cash – Rudy Gobert at 25/1 odds – the Stifle Tower did make it interesting with a very productive showing. If it weren’t for Andrew Wiggins – the favorite at 3/1 odds – I probably would’ve celebrated a huge win to begin my prop-betting on All-Star Weekend.

Saturday’s festivities included a host of events, although some of my money went to the Three-Point Contest and the Dunk Contest. I lost out on the Greek Freak and his 3/1 odds to win the Dunk Contest, but I did make good scratch on Steph Curry winning his first Three-Point Shootout at 13/4 odds. Not a lot of money was won, but it was still decent enough to spot a few bets on the All-Star Game MVP.

Speaking of the actual All-Star Game, I put money down on MVP on four players with the hope that at least one of them would cash in. I had two of the favorites at bigger sums – Steph Curry at 13/4 odds and LeBron James at 7/2 odds – and two longer shots – Russell Westbrook and John Wall, both at 15/1.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has said that it expects the local casino industry to post significant revenue growth in 2015 despite China’s increased crackdown against corruption.

According to PAGCOR chairman and CEO Cristino Naguiat Jr., the Philippines is likely to survive the crackdown unscathed, as PAGCOR’s casino model doesn’t rely too heavily on China’s VIP market.

“China is not our number one market,” Naguiat said told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “Of course, more Chinese coming here would be better for us, but of 100 million outbound Chinese tourists, we get less than 1 percent of that. It’s relatively small.”

“There’s a wider mix of nationalities coming here to play in our casinos. It’s not just the Chinese,” Naguiat added.

Naguiat and PAGCOR are projecting another year of double-digit casino revenue growth in the Philippines on the strength of Solaire Manila’s expansion and the opening of City of Dreams Manila. The Philippine casino industry saw its gross gaming revenue increase by 16% in 2014 while VIP and junket players have increased by almost 50%.

Naguiat also believes that the Philippines may have benefited from the construction delays experienced by the casino projects of Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global and Kazuo Okada’s Tiger Resorts & Leisure Entertainment, as there’s no over-capacity in the Philippines casino market that might have been negatively impacted by China’s crackdown.

Casino operator SkyCity is calling an audible on its planned convention center in downtown Auckland after the government ruled out public funding to help pay for the project’s costs.

The casino operator is revising its design for the convention center to keep its cost around the initial budget of $400 million. That could mean developing a smaller scale project, something Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said the government was amenable to as long as the new designs wouldn’t be more than 10% smaller.

“We have indicated today that we are prepared to accept a slightly smaller NZICC if that’s required to meet the agreed total construction cost, but again that’s at the Crown’s option, we have to decide whether we’ll accept that,” Joyce said, as quoted by Radio New Zealand.

Joyce also said that it’s up to SkyCity to come up with “suitable” design changes and submit them to the government. Likewise, SkyCity is free to ramp up its own budget if it saw the need to take that route.

“The Government has made it clear it will be absolutely our cost,” SkyCity Chief Executive Nigel Morrison said.

CASINO CANBERRA EXTENDS OPENING HOURS

Casino Canberra announced that it would extend its opening hours from Saturday as part of the new owners’ plan to help revitalize the area. The casino would now open every day at noon and close at 4am, with an option of staying open until 6am if it’s busy.

90 Digital CEO Nick Garner talks about another important part of Trust Optimisation which is making sure that users get what they expect to see in this edition of CalvinAyre.com’s SEO Tip of the Week.

Short intro to Trust Optimization.

Along with on site optimization and link acquisition, there seems to be a third element to ranking well on Google, it’s called Trust Optimization. Trust Optimization is based on the information we have got from anecdotal evidence on click through rates and rankings along with explicit guidelines from Google stating what they are looking for in a trusted website.

On with the post…

In a previous post we talked about accessing the main content of a page without having too many ads and get in the way. Here we go into disruptive and destructive elements on the page which gets in your way.

In Google quality Rater Guidelines 2014, they say:

“ • Ads and SC should be arranged so as not to distract from the MC—Ads and SC are there should the user want them, but they should be easily “ignorable” if the user is not interested.

The French poker community has been dealt another blow with news that the European Poker Tour Deauville Festival will not be returning in Season 12.

I feel like a broken record.

France and poker go together like a lion and an antelope.

According to PokerNews scribe Giovanni Angioni, poker players enjoying life on the European Poker Tour (EPT) will not get the opportunity to travel to Deauville in Season 12.

“Our contract to hold EPT events in Deauville has now reached its natural conclusion,” Rebecca McAdam, Senior Manager of Public Relations at PokerStars and Full Tilt told PokerNews.

It’s a body blow of Carl Froch proportions for the French. Finding a top quality live event in France is becoming more difficult than finding a Pamela Anderson marriage that works.

The Partouche Poker Tour (PPT) was once one of the most eagerly anticipated events on the annual calendar. In 2012, Patrick Partouche, CEO of Groupe Partouche, rang the death knell. Whilst it’s true that there were a lot of reasons why people were glad to see the back of the event, it did leave a hole in the French live poker schedule.

Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has filed to divorce the former One Drop star Rick Salomon for the third time in the past five years.

When you achieve notoriety by becoming stars of the sex tape craze, you don’t need an audience with John Gottman to realize that the odds of finding marital bliss are not going to be in your favor.

And so it seems to be the case with Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon. According to court reports obtained by TMZ, the former Baywatch beauty has filed for divorce for the third time in the past five years.

The 47-year old couple first tied the knot in Oct 2007. Two months later and Pammie was filing for an annulment. The couple had some sort of reconciliation and was remarried in Jan 2014. Six months later and Anderson once again filed for divorce, before calling off the separation and falling back in love. It seems it’s not going to be third time lucky for Salomon.

Anderson has previous broken marriages to the Motley Crue star Tommy Lee (95-98) and Kid Rock (06 – 07). Anderson and Lee kicked off the sex tape craze when in 1995 a sex tape of the pair was stolen from their home and circulated by the Internet Entertainment Group (IEG). The pair sued IEG, received an out of court settlement, and then allowed the tape to be broadcast. Anderson has also appeared in a sex tape with the former Poison singer Bret Michaels.

Salomon is no stranger to sex-tape controversy. He is partly responsible for the rise to fame of Paris Hilton after his part in the One Night in Paris sex tape involving the pair. In 2008, Salomon finished fourth in the $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop for a $2.8m score. He has over $3m in live tournament earnings.

The Scouse Pammie

Georgian poker welcomes The World Poker Tour, after the poker tour behemoth announced an exclusive deal with the countries flagship gambling entity Europe-Bet.com.

What do I know about Georgia?

I know that it’s the name of a European country – and not just a state in the U.S – which will no doubt alarm many in the land of stars and stripes; Georgians don’t call their country Georgia and instead call it Sakartvelo; if you get up close and personal with a Georgian you will probably end up smeared with spit due to their snot induced use of consonants; and the World Poker Tour (WPT) will be setting up camp in 2015.

The WPT have announced an exclusive partnership with the Georgian facing online, and live, casino Europe-Bet.com. The terms of the contract will allow the latter to use licensed WPT products and services on an exclusive basis in Georgia. This includes the ability to distribute the WPT TV show, sell merchandise and anything else carrying the WPT brand.

“We continue to strive to maintain our brand positioning, not only as the undisputed market leader in Georgia, but also as a globalized operator,” said Europe-Bet.com CEO Nicolas Fleiderman. “Our partnership with World Poker Tour will help us expand our poker penetration at a solid pace. We are excited to host WPT events at our premier poker club, and to showcase our strong online offering.”

The deal will also see the two teams host three live events throughout 2015. WPT National Georgia will take place on June 4. It will be a $1,000 buy-in event, with the final table taking place on June 7. The event will carry a $200,000 guarantee and online satellite qualifiers are currently underway on the site.

Then as autumn becomes winter the capital of Tbilisi will be host to a WPT Main Event stop, and a second WPT National tour event. Details of both of these events haven’t been released to the public at the time of writing. But we do know the Main will take place in Nov and the second National in Dec.

Sam Panzica wins his fourth World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring after beating Howard Darnold, in heads-up action, to take the first prize of $41,159 at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida.

Sam Panzica has become only the 18th player in history to win four World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) gold rings, and I would lay my bottom dollar that at 22-years old he is the youngest to ever do so.

The victory, Panzica’s 20th WSOP-related cash, takes his total live career earnings over the $400,000 mark. His first victory came in Choctaw, back in January 2013, when he topped a field of 279 players to win the $33,477 first prize in a $580 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event. Then nine months later he won back-to-back rings in Omaha events in Cincinnati. There are only sevens players who have five or more rings. Panzica wants in.

Panzica’s fourth ring came in Event #9: $1,125 NLHE. 147-players entered the event. There was a $147,000 prizepool and Panzica took the top prize of $41,159.

It was a tough final table. Former WSOPC gold ring winner Paul Solokoff finished sixth, and a player I believe will be a star in 2015, two-time WSOPC gold ring winner Joe Kuether finished seventh. Kuether recently bagged his first-ever seven figure score when he finished runner-up to Ilkin Garibli in the $25k High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA).

Here are the Palm Beach results so far.

EVENT #1: Juan Restrepo defeated 2,050 players ($580 NLHE Re-Entry) for $161,452

partypoker and Dusk Till Dawn will officially launch their new partnership with the partypoker branded Grand Prix Million and an ambitious shot at attracting 10,000 entrants.

“Keep the faith with me and please be patient and constructive.” Rob Yong on his partnership with partypoker.

Dusk till Dawn (DTD) owner Rob Yong is a smart man. He has one finger on the pulse of the UK poker scene. He knows that there is dissension in the ranks of the online grinding community when it comes to their presence on partypoker.

But he also has foresight.

He has faith.

Yong’s three-year deal with partypoker is a deal he has made because he believes it’s going to work.

‘Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was DTD,” Yong wrote on his blog, “It was two years and £2m of delay costs before the government would even let us open our doors, but even the most opinionated poker player in the UK would struggle to say that DTD has not delivered exactly what the UK Poker Community ordered.”

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands wants to build a KRW 5t (US $4.5b) casino in South Korea’s second largest city Busan but only if the government agrees to relax its ban on locals visiting casinos.

The Korea Times reported that Marina Bay Sands CEO George Tanasijevich met on Friday with Busan mayor Suh Byong-soo, who was reportedly receptive to Sands’ overture and called on the central government to revise its casino laws.

There are currently two small casinos in the Busan region; Paradise Co’s Paradise Casino Busan and Grand Korea Leisure’s Seven Luck casino, neither of which are allowed to admit South Korean citizens. The only casino allowed to cater to locals is Kangwon Land, which not so coincidentally earns more than the country’s other 16 casinos combined.

Busan is located on South Korea’s southeast coast, while most international casino operators’ interest has been in the Incheon region in the country’s northwest. Sands has been expressing interest in Busan’s potential as a casino destination since 2012 but Sands has made similar pitches regarding potential projects in the capital Seoul, again, only if the country relaxed its locals ban.

Tanasijevich proposed that the government opt for a scheme similar to Singapore, where locals are permitted in casinos provided they pay an entry levy. Tanasijevich also suggested South Korea prohibit access to anyone with a criminal record or serious financial issues, such as bankruptcy.

However much it might be tempted to snag some of Sands’ billions, South Korea is unlikely to accede to Sands’ requests, for the main reason that the other international operators already approved for casino licensing would immediately demand equal treatment. Besides, South Korea’s stated goal in opening up its casino market to international investment was to boost international tourism, not to increase domestic spending on gambling.

THE AMERICAS

Three prominent California tribes and Caesars Entertainment rolled out the welcome mat for PokerStars while Gov. Chris Christie was accused of keeping Stars out of New Jersey; a US securities watchdog launched a probe of Amaya Gaming’s acquisition of PokerStars; online gambling revenue rose in New Jersey and Pala Interactive’s Jim Ryan said new credit card codes would give the market a boost; Boyd Gaming said it expects $5m in online gambling earnings in 2015; seven of Atlantic City’s eight casinos posted January revenue gains; the Borgata planned AC’s first non-poker skill-based wagering competition while the Trump Taj Mahal was fined $10m for anti-money laundering lapses; a Canadian poker player was arrested for assault and robbery at the Fallsview Poker Classic; Zynga admitted it botched its poker revamp; Doyle Brunson announced he would have his 12th major surgery after a cancer diagnosis; Minnesota got a new sports betting bill and Rafi Farber made slots manufacturers go mano y mano.

EUROPE

William Hill made a play for 888 Holdings while Bwin.party saw its stock fall one-fifth after would-be suitors reportedly walked away from the table; Guts.com exited Germany following a Munich court verdict; Ireland’s online betting bill neared the finish line; Unibet finished 2014 on a positive note; Russia sought new ways to block online gambling sites; the UK Gambling Commission issued new social responsibility requirements; Market Box Media’s Yoni Sidi examined marketing strategies in a point-of-consumption world; Coral’s Tania Self discussed social media strategies while Robbie Davies suggested using branding to crush rivals; Focus Online’s Phil Fraser offered online bingo predictions for 2015; Lee Davy talked video game wagering with Gaimerz.com founder Martyn Denney while the developers of first-person shooter game First Strike warned pro players about match fixing; the Global Poker Masters inked a deal to live stream on Twitch; former PokerStars pro Marcel Luske launched Fortified-ID Holdings to combat online fraud; Lee Davy recapped the International Gaming Awards and Rebecca Liggero looked back at her six favorite features of ICE Totally Gaming 2015.

ASIA

Melco Crown Entertainment saw VIPs vanish in Q4 and SunCity’s chairman warned that VIPs were irreplaceable; Chow Tai Fook announced plans for a $2.6b casino in Incheon while Paradise Co announced a Jeju expansion and Grand Korea Leisure was overrun by Chinese gamblers; 500.com saw revenue fall without a World Cup boost; Vietnam said the winner of the Van Don casino derby had to start building by April; Iao Kun Group was denied a dual listing in Hong Kong; SkyCity’s profit dipped 10% in H1; China executed a tycoon with gambling ties and a Chinese teenager cut off his own hand to ‘cure’ his online gaming addiction.

A Canadian poker player who was chip leader at the final table of the Fallsview Poker Classic’s Event #1 was arrested for assault on Tuesday before play could finish. Harnam Matharu (pictured), a 21-year-old Edmonton resident, was in line for a potential $200k payday but ended up being escorted out of Niagara Falls’ Fallsview Casino in handcuffs before he could say ‘bad beat.’

It was subsequently reported that Matharu was the chief suspect in an assault and robbery of another poker player, Uri Miro, at the World Poker Tour Montreal tournament in Kahnawake, Quebec last November. Miro’s friends were at the Fallsview Casino and thought they recognized Matharu from the Kahnawake tourney. They managed to snap a picture of Matharu, then sent it to Miro, who agreed that Matharu resembled the man who stole $5k from him at a motel in Chàteguay, Quebec.

Following a dinner break, Matharu was about to take his seat at the five-man final table, only to be clapped in irons by two members of the Ontario Provincial Police’s Casino Enforcement Unit. Play continued with antes and blinds duly deducted from Matharu’s stack in his absence. Two players busted out before a winner was eventually declared, but Matharu’s stack was still $88k tall, so at least he’ll have bail money. Or cigarette and candy bar money, should he be convicted.

Casino Enforcement Unit Detective Sergeant Rick Davidson told The Globe and Mail that there was a Canada-wide warrant out for Matharu and the police in Chàteguay had been willing to travel to Ontario to collect their suspect. Matharu was interviewed by Chàteguay police on Thursday and was to appear in court the following day.

Social gaming outfit Zynga saw its shares tumble nearly 16% on Friday – its biggest one-day drop in two-and-a-half-years – after the company turned in underwhelming Q4 and FY 2014 numbers.

Bookings, the sale of virtual good and credits, rose 4% to $182.4m in Q4, well below market expectations of $201m. Advertising revenue rose 139% to $58m but the company still booked a $45m net loss for the quarter.

For the year as a whole, revenue fell 21% to $690m. Game revenue fell 28% from 2013 while ad revenue grew 34% to $153m. Net loss for the year came to $226m, of which $129m was stock-based expense, $24m in restructuring expenses and a $7m income tax benefit.

Looking for a bright side, Zynga pointed out that average daily bookings per daily average user was up 31% in Q4. Trouble is, the number of daily average users fell 2m to 25m, monthly active users fell by 4m to 112m and monthly unique users fell 9m to 71m.

Zynga’s efforts to transition to a mobile-focused company appear to be paying off, as Q4 mobile bookings rose 14% sequentially and 120% year-on-year. Mobile now represents 60% of total bookings and the company has set a 2015 target of 75% mobile bookings.

Zynga’s core franchises – Farmville, Zynga Casino and Words With Friends – reported 35% year-on-year bookings growth. Zynga Casino saw Q4 bookings rise 8% from Q3 thanks to a 34% gain in the Slots category, which was driven by a 27% gain in Hit it Rich! Slots and the launch of Wizard of Oz slots titles in mid-November. But Zynga Poker saw Q4 bookings fall 7% from Q3.

HASTE MAKES WASTE FOR POKER, SPORTS PRODUCTS

Atlantic City’s Borgata casino has received the go-ahead to host the first non-poker skill-based wagering contest approved by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE). The Borgata plans to host a basketball free-throw shooting tournament on March 21, charging would-be Kobe Bryants $20 for a shot at winning a slice of a $10k pool.

There will be three 90-second rounds of shooting and the contestant who makes the most dynamite go ‘boom’ will win $5k. While the Borgata has no intention of preventing professional ballers from picking up a little easy scratch, Snr. VP Joe Lupo told Bloomberg the tournament was intended to “talk to a little bit younger demographic who, over time, might become a slot player.”

While the Borgata is AC’s undisputed casino revenue leader, Lupo said the decline affecting the whole market required casinos to be “innovative and creative” in luring new punters through their gates. With the DGE on board, the Borgata is planning more of these types of skill-based promotions, including some that would be performed on slot machines.

GOLDEN NUGGET WINS UNSHUFFLED CASE

The latest ruling in the long-running ‘unshuffled’ card case at AC’s Golden Nugget has sided with the casino. On Friday, State Superior Court Judge Donna Taylor ordered the 14 gamblers who profited from a card manufacturer’s cockup to return the $1.5m the casino has been trying to claw back.

If you’re just joining us, way back in 2012, a bunch of mini-baccarat players noticed that the cards coming out of a Golden Nugget dealer’s shoe hadn’t been shuffled. Knowing what cards were coming, the gamblers dramatically upped their wagers until the casino finally noticed something was amiss. Some of the gamblers were able to cash out and leave while others were detained by casino security and had their winnings confiscated.

Judge Taylor said the fact that the cards “were not pre-shuffled in accordance with any regulation” meant that the game violated the state’s Casino Control Act and consequently was not authorized.” Taylor ordered the gamblers to return their ill-gotten winnings minus their original betting stakes.