LiveSport, the global sports media company, has secured majority of the shares in Enetpulse, the global provider of live sports data.

Richard Hájek, Managing Director of LiveSport Holding, said: “LiveSport continues to adapt to the demands of the sports community in order to maintain our position as the leading sport live score company that can service every aspect of the requests of our growing user base.”

“The supply of data to the sports business world is becoming increasingly important and Enetpulse, with their progressive vision, excellent technological infrastructure and industry expertise, is a company who are at the forefront of this market.”

“We have been looking at sports data delivery area for a long time, so we believe this is a good fit for LiveSport, which will help our company to achieve an even bigger reach within the sports community. Enetpulse B2B business will benefit from support that our network of 50+ sporting websites can provide, in addition to other synergy effects.”

Leo Noer, Managing Director of Enetpulse, said: “After 15 years of operation I am delighted to confirm that Enetpulse will now become part of the LiveSport family. This announcement marks an exciting next step in the history of Enetpulse and we are looking forward to fulfilling a key role within the LiveSport group, which we believe is the right partner for Enetpulse.”

“Enetpulse are already at the forefront of an exciting and dynamic time for the global sports data market. We welcome the opportunity to now finally being part of a company that shares our vision and desire to be the market leader in our space.”

Enetpulse will continue it’s current path to increase the newly launched InPlay sports data product to the betting industry, with the same passion for serving their clients to perfection, dedicated long term management and constant growing worldwide network.

Melco Crown Entertainment’s Studio City, James Packer’s third casino in Macau, has secured partnerships with Warner Bros. and comic book outfit DC Entertainment, adding more family-friendly features.

In addition to the 130m tall Ferris wheel, the Golden Eye, an ongoing production of The House of Magic, a 5000-seat entertainment centre, a TV-broadcast studio and a version of the Ibiza dance music institution Pacha Nightclub, the massive complex will also include a 30,000 square foot family entertainment center that will feature Warner Bros and DC Comics characters like Tom and Jerry, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

Melco Crown Chief Executive Lawrence Ho said that Studio City would also introduce Macau to Batman Dark Flight, a virtual reality ride.

The $US3.2 billion (AU$3.9 billion) Hollywood-inspired gambling and entertainment complex is set to open in the third quarter of this year and begin operating 400 gaming tables and 1600 hotel rooms.

Gambling revenue in Macau fell 2.6% to 351.5 billion patacas ($54.4 billion) in 2014, the first fall in 11 years since the city began releasing financial reports in 2002. Studio City’s mass-market-friendly features are intended to reduce reliance on high rollers amid a Chinese government crackdown on corruption that has hit VIP gambling revenues.

“Studio City will radically enhance and diversify Macau’s evolving leisure experiences as Melco Crown Entertainment works to anticipate, innovate and ultimately satisfy the ever-growing needs of the region’s and world’s leisure destination visitors,” Ho said.

“It [Studio City] will represent Asia’s ‘next generation’ of immersive, world-leading, entertainment-driven gaming and leisure destination experiences, as we work to support Macau’s tourism development and diversification,” Ho added.

Hong Kong-listed casino developer Louis XIII Holdings Ltd has completed an extra upsize option on a share placement for its new VIP-focused Macau casino project. In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company was able to raise gross proceeds of HKD531.1 million ($68.5 million) from the upsize exercise.

More importantly, it was also able to raise an aggregate of around HKD2.17 billion ($217 million) since December 19, 2014. That total includes HKD1.56 billion ($201 million) under a share placing exercise and another HKD609 million ($78.5 million) from a handful of upsizing procedures organized by CLSA Ltd, Louis XIII’s placing agent in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s ITC Properties Group Ltd. also announced that it had increased its stake in Louis XIII Holdings by another 6.3%. Under the terms of the deal, the ITC paid HKD95.12 million ($12.27 million) for a total of 28.2954 million shares, the equivalent to an average price of $3.363 per acquired share at a discount of around 1.09%. With the acquisition of new shares, ITC Properties now holds 16.9% of the share capital, and according to its filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, there’s a chance that it might increase its stake further in the future.

NO SUSPENSION AFTER GALAXY MACAU PHASE 3 FIRE

Meanwhile, Macau officials opted not to order any suspension on the construction of the 36-storey building that caught fire last week at Galaxy Macau Phase 2 . A spokesperson from the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau told GGRAsia that that a team of technicians had already conducted an investigation of the site and that no further action will be imposed on Galaxy Entertainment.

“The bureau will not order the suspension of construction works because the fire only damaged the outside façade, not having affected the structural safety of the building,” the spokesperson added.

An investigation by the Fire Services Bureau revealed that the fire started when a construction worker forgot to turn off welding equipment, thus “setting alight construction materials on the roof of the building.”

WSOP.com and 888 Poker announced that they will begin sharing limited player liquidity across their online poker rooms in the Garden State effective January 12.

The move has been designed to help boost player liquidity, which is considered as a key in the New Jersey market as it enters its second year of regulating online gaming.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has identified online poker as a potential growth area this year, despite generating 25% of the state’s total online gaming revenue, compared to 75% that comes from internet casino games.

Online poker players in New Jersey could benefit from increased prize guarantees for tournaments and a greater number of players available for cash games, sharing $130,000 (€109,825) in guaranteed tournaments each week.

Micro and low-limit cash games and selected tournaments will be part of the shared liquidity. Each site will continue to maintain its individual reward and VIP programs and players will earn points towards these programs only when they play on the specific site. Both WSOP.com and 888Poker have agreed to limit the liquidity share to specific cash game and tournament tables in order to effectively monitor and ultimately determine what the right mix will be for the customer base.

“This is an excellent step forward for us and should help in building a larger audience and player base for online poker in New Jersey,” said David Licht, CEO of the All American Poker Network (AAPN), the joint venture between 888 holdings and Avenue Capital. “Shared liquidity will help create a better player experience, we hope will attract a diversity of players and begin to bring poker to a broader audience once again.”

“It is important we continue to experiment and look for new ways to create stickiness,” said WSOP.com Director of Online Poker Bill Rini. “Customers used to playing on our site will not notice anything different, except more robust action and bigger prize pools. We also hope this will help expand the market by offering more variety.”

Sportster Bet and Win, the social sports betting app developed by Nordeus in partnership with the bwin.party-backed social gaming studio Win Interactive, is to be shut down at the end of January, four months after its launch.

The closure of the Facebook game comes weeks after bwin.party announced that it was in discussions regarding the potential sale of social gaming unit Win development studios.

A communication was sent to Sportster customers that says, “Dear users, we are sorry to inform you that we are shutting Sportster down on January 30th. Please note that you will not be able to log into the game after the scheduled date.”

The social betting game was launch on September 30, a collaboration between game publisher Nordeus and bwin.party’s social gaming development studio Win, aiming to extend the sports betting operators’ social coverage and product portfolio.

Scientific signed with UK-based Mecca Bingo Ltd.

Scientific Games has signed a five-year agreement with UK-based Mecca Bingo Ltd. to provide the server-based gaming solution to Mecca Bingo clubs across the UK.

The server-based gaming platform is powered by technology partner Videobet, a Playtech company and an exclusive content from SG Gaming library along with Clarity, T8 and Triple 7 cabinets.

The last time I covered the Philippines in any depth, Manila was at the tail end of a huge spurt in money growth of about 50% in two years, translating to 25% annual money growth. Now, since December 2013, that growth rate has slowed dramatically to 4% a year. 4% a year is not much more than the average 2% annual growth in the world’s above-ground gold supply. In other words, for all intents and purposes, Manila has been on a virtual gold standard for over a year now.

Predictably, with the extreme deceleration in money growth comes deceleration in price inflation from 5% annual to 2.7% annual, a 50% drop. GDP growth is also down to near recession levels as expected, but there’s also a very good side to this. Government spending in the Philippines has stabilized, along with interest rates to around 4%. Lower than in the past, but not dangerously low. Manila’s debt to GDP is down to under 50% despite weak GDP growth. Government spending, the universal GDP “fudge factor”, is actually steady. Try to find that in the Western world. It can barely be said even of the so-called “austerity” countries. Total external debt in the Philippines is actually down.

The overall picture is that while the Filipino economy is in for some weakness due to slowed money growth, if this steady-to-tight monetary policy holds through the coming weakness, then by the time that major casino development projects are complete, the economy will be in full rebound mode. The timing won’t be perfect, but that will probably be the trend.

Companies going in on the upswing will benefit, especially if development plans were and continue to be financially responsible. Melco, Genting, and Universal Entertainment Company are all putting their chips in at Entertainment City. Genting’s development there has been especially prudent and could turn out to be a great success.

The key points to note with Genting’s investment into Entertainment City are, first of all, despite the money put down there, total debt for the company is down to $479.1 from $746.4M a year before. That a 36% decrease in one year. Very smart to pay down debt now while interest rates are low. Interest expense for the company has plummeted to $63M from $231M in the same time frame. 89% of the company’s debt is floating rate, and only 11% fixed, but at the rate the company is paying it down it shouldn’t even matter. For the $1.1B project that the Bayshore Project in Entertainment City is projected to be, Genting is sure managing its finances well.

The major risk is that the slowdown in money growth will bring the country into a deep recession, complicating the launch of Entertainment City. That is certainly possible, but given that the current slowdown is over a year old already and GDP growth in the Philippines is still technically positive even with government spending more or less steady, this is a good sign that the Filipino economy is handling the monetary shock well enough. The current slowdown is not over yet, but given the country’s relatively low debt burden and manageable interest rates, there won’t be a torrent of defaults even if GDP growth goes negative.

In fact, expect that to happen, and expect gaming companies invested in Entertainment City to take a temporary hit. It will be a good buying opportunity.

An online poker bill that would overturn the draconian laws that make the game a Class C felony in Washington State has been prefiled ahead of the 2015 legislature session scheduled to kick off at the start of this week.

Seven million more American souls could soon be playing a legal form of real money online poker as Washington House of Representatives member, Sherry Appleton, prefiled a new online poker bill (HB 1114) on Friday.

The new bill seeks to replace the draconian laws brought into practice, in 2006 that made participation in online poker games a Class C felony. Anyone caught breaking the law could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

It’s widely reported that the bill will be formally introduced when the 2015 legislative session begins on Mon 12th Jan, and OnlinePokerReport (OPR) scribe Chris Grove believes that the driving force behind the bill is the Washington Internet Poker Initiate founder Curtis Woodard.

Attn: WA poker players, We Have a Bill !! HB 1114 (2015-16) Now the real work begins, make yourself heard! http://t.co/AKUwjdeLe7

— Curtis Woodard (@curtinsea) January 12, 2015

The bill contains the same meat that we have seen in most other bills, with the glaring exception being the lack of the words: ‘bad actor.’ Good news if PokerStars ever want to invade the Evergreen state. The reasoning behind the submission is a simple one.

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.