Monthly Archives: May 2017

R. Franco Digital outlines LatAm opportunities at Juegos Miami

31st May, 2017 (Madrid, Spain) – R. Franco Digital, Spain’s largest omni-channel gaming supplier, will debate the future of technological innovation and show how operators can succeed in emerging Latin American markets at this week’s Juegos Miami conference in Florida.

R. Franco’s chief digital officer Alejandro Casanova will participate in a panel at the show on June 2 at 10.10, where he will discuss the technological approach to innovation, growth and development.

The supplier will also highlight the ways its products can help operators unlock the full potential of Latin America’s emerging markets.

These include Mediatech Solution’s IRIS Core Gaming Platform, which hands operators the content, flexibility and regulatory expertise required to succeed in the region. R. Franco completed the acquisition of Mediatech earlier this year.

TopBetta selects OtherLevels

Australian social operator set to drive further engagement

London, May 2017 – Social betting operator TopBetta has partnered with digital marketing platform provider OtherLevels in a bid to boost engagement with its customers.

The company is the first in the Australian market to implement web push notifications, which enable a site to deliver offers and content directly to a user’s desktop browser, or a mobile browser on Android devices, without the need to download an app.

This greatly expands a brand’s target audience due to its significantly higher opt-in rates, reducing the acquisition costs incurred by paid search and advertising.

Ex-Rep. Mike Rogers a betting favorite to become next FBI director

The odds are in favor of former Michigan congressman Mike Rogers to lead the FBI following the sudden dismissal of director James Comey.

Since Comey’s ouster, the roster of candidates who could potentially replace him—all with various levels of law enforcement and legislative experience—continues to change. Joe Lieberman had been considered a front-runner and had even met with U.S. President Donald Trump to interview for the top FBI position, but the former senator withdrew from consideration, citing the potential of a conflict of interest, The Wall Street Journal reported.

And now that Lieberman is out of the running, two other prospects are being floated to lead the bureau: Rogers and former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating.

The two candidates were both former FBI agents, but Rogers, 54, is said to have the edge over Keating, who is 73. Rogers, who retired from Congress in 2014 after seven terms, also has the backing from the former and active agents’ associations, who cited his experience serving in the FBI as well as his time in Congress as the reasons for their endorsement.

Lawrence Ho slams Crown for aggressive China marketing

Macau casino boss Lawrence Ho has criticized his former joint venture partner James Packer’s company Crown Resorts for its aggressive marketing to high-rolling gamblers in China.

In an interview with the Financial Times published late Tuesday, the Melco Resorts & Entertainment CEO said the 18 Crown staffers arrested last October and the South Korean casino representatives detained in 2015 had failed to be “discreet” in their dealings with mainland Chinese gamblers.

Chinese law prohibits gambling operators from promoting gambling activity on the mainland but Ho said the Crown staffers and the South Koreans had been “running around offering credit, talking about collection.” Ho said the reaction of the Chinese authorities was “like what the hell, you’re deliberately spitting on our faces.”

A spokesman later said that Ho wasn’t “singling out Crown” with his comments, only making “general comments on the industry overall,” but Ho isn’t the first industry figure to criticize Crown’s promotional activities.

Warriors tip off as favorites against Cavaliers in 2017 NBA finals

The 2017 NBA Finals tip off this Thursday with Game 1 in Oakland, a familiar site for the annual championship series as the favored Golden State Warriors have home-court advantage against the underdog Cleveland Cavaliers for the third consecutive year.

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Last year, the Cavs rallied back from a 3-1 deficit to stun the Warriors and win their first-ever NBA title. This year, Cleveland is again listed as a dog to win the NBA Finals at +200 (bet $100 to win $200) while Golden State is -240 chalk (bet $240 to win $100).

The big difference this time around obviously is that the Cavs are the defending champs, with the Warriors countering their title by adding Kevin Durant last offseason. Golden State beat Cleveland in six games two years ago for the title, although the Cavs lost point guard Kyrie Irving at the end of Game 1 and did not get much from anyone but LeBron James the rest of the way.

Super High Roller Bowl day 2 news: Rast rips the Hart out of the event

A quick round-up of the second day of action in the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl including an update on the trials and tribulations of one Kevin Hart.

Had anyone else screamed, fist pumped and humped the table like Kevin Hart did during the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) there would have been a lynching.

But it’s Kevin Hart.

The man who has vowed to make poker fun again was the star of Day 1 when he eliminated Phil Hellmuth.

888Poker quickens the pace with Fast BLAST games

888Poker has delivered the perfect tonic to poker players with very little time to partake in a spot of cards by reducing the time limit in BLAST Poker games to two minutes with their new Fast BLAST games.

Watching online poker rooms evolve is like looking at a bunch of kids playing Simple Simon Says.

Full Tilt creates Rush Poker, and everyone follows.

Winamax creates Expresso Poker, and everyone follows.

Patrick Leonard discusses the “Rec-Reg” and Diamond Club VIP program

Partypoker ambassador, Patrick Leonard, takes a time out from his exploits in the India Poker Sports League to answer some questions about the new Diamond Club VIP program.

The incredible marketing and branding expert Bernadette Jiwa sent me another nugget in the cyber mail, today.

The headline was Ten Things Your Competitor Doesn’t Do.

I was about to get stuck into it like a stick in wet sand when I received another sheaf of paper from cyberspace, this time from partypoker ambassador Patrick Leonard, who had this to say about the new Diamond Club VIP program.

Tale of Saudi prince trading wives for casino chips (sadly) a hoax

A lurid tale of a Saudi prince’s nine-figure gambling spree, during which he bet and lost several wives, turns out to have been too good to be true.

An online article making the rounds claimed that Prince Majed bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud lost $359m over a six-hour gambling spree at the Sinai Grand Casino in Egypt’s Sharm El Sheik resort zone.

Adding to the prince’s woes, the reports claim he became so desperate for cash that he put up five of his wives in exchange for another $25m in casino credit, which he also lost, then left behind his matrimonial chattel when he finally exited the casino.

The report quoted casino director ‘Ali Shamoon’ saying that it wasn’t the first time that “a customer bets a living creature,” although Shamoon noted that this usually meant camels or horses. Upping the ante, the report then quoted Egypt’s actual foreign minister saying the wives would likely be returned to their homeland within a week, assuming the prince honored his marker.

BetConstruct attends RGW 2017 and hosts a workshop in Moscow

May 2017: BetConstruct travels to Moscow to host its eighth Orientation Day Workshop on June 6 and join the Russian Gaming Week on June 7 – 8.

This year as well our team will present the company’s whole product line including Sportsbook, RNG and Live Dealer Casinos, Fantasy Sports and Virtual Games, all backed with new features. Among the innovations are our VR Casino and SlotBuilder.

Sergei Efimenko, Head of Operations, will share insights into investing in betting and creating a successful business using B2B solutions. He will discuss the essentials of gaming and betting business and speak about securing win-win solutions in customer-partner negotiations.

Ahead of RGW Moscow, BetConstruct will host a workshop at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Moscow on June 6. At the event all attendees will have an opportunity to learn more about the Spring Gaming Platform, as well as create their own websites in just two hours using BetConstruct’s CRM, CMS, Sportsbook management, bonus engine and loyalty system.

The Delhi Panthers win Season 1 of India’s Poker Sports League

The Delhi Panthers has won Season 1 of India’s Poker Sports League securing $225,000 in prize money, with the CEO and co-founder, Pranav Bagai, vowing to return for a second season.

Is the Poker Sports League (PSL) anything more than a caricature of the Global Poker League (GPL)?

Only time will tell, but the game of poker in India has just been lifted into a Batman-style spotlight after the PSL completed their first Season, and by all accounts, it was a spectacular success.

For five days, 12 teams, consisting of a mentor, two local pros, two live qualifiers, two online qualifiers, and two wild card entries, battled it out in the Deltin Casino Royale in Goa in a broad range of games such as turbo events, freezeouts, and heads-up Hold’em and Omaha.

Philippine casinos one signature away from new AML rules

Philippines-based gambling operators are but one presidential signature away from new anti-money laundering requirements.

On Tuesday, the Philippine Senate unanimously approved the third reading of Senate Bill 1468, which seeks to include gambling operators – land-based, online and shipboard – as well as junket operators as ‘covered persons’ under the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

The Senate’s vote came one day after the House of Representatives unanimously approved its own version of the plan. All that’s required now is for President Rodrigo Duterte to sign the measure into law, a step Duterte is expected to take early next month.

The votes came in the dying days of the current legislative session, as legislators were attempting to meet a June deadline imposed by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), which had urged the Philippines to rectify its refusal to include gambling operators as ‘covered persons’ when it approved the AMLA several years ago.

Kenya MPs scrap proposed uniform 50% gambling tax plan

Gambling operators in Kenya have been spared punitive tax hikes after members of parliament opted to remain the status quo.

On Tuesday, Kenya’s National Assembly voted to scrap plans to impose a uniform 50% tax on all gambling revenue that the government had claimed was necessary to reduce gambling-related harms among its citizens. Betting operators will continue to pay 7.5%, lotteries will pay 5%, gaming operators will pay 12% and prize competitions will pay 15%, exactly as they did before this whole mess kicked off two months ago.

In late March, Kenyan Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich shocked the gaming industry with his 2017-18 budget, which contained the dramatic tax hikes. A flurry of protests ensued, including a legal challenge of the tax plan’s constitutionality by local betting operator Sportpesa.

Last Thursday, MPs voted to maintain the sports betting tax at 7.5% while imposing the new 50% rate on other forms of gambling. But objections were raised almost immediately after the vote by legislators who claimed that a quorum wasn’t present and thus the vote wasn’t official. National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale invoked parliamentary procedure to require a fresh vote on the subject.

India seeks public input on legalizing betting, gambling

The Law Commission of India is seeking public input to help craft its report on whether the government should legalize sports betting and gambling.

Late last year, India’s Supreme Court tasked the Law Commission with studying the potential for legalizing sports betting in the world’s most populous country. The Court’s request was based on recommendations made by the Lodha Committee, which suggested that legalized betting could help reduce highly public incidents of tampering with Indian sports, most notably cricket.

On Tuesday, the Law Commission issued an appeal for input from both gaming industry stakeholders and the general public with regard to legalizing not only sports betting but other forms of gambling, as well. The Commission reasoned that “gambling is very closely associated with betting” and considering one without the other “may render the whole exercise futile.”

Specifically, the Commission wants to know if legalizing betting and gambling will help reduce illegal activity and allow the government to earn “substantial” revenue and generate jobs. The Commission also wants input on whether legalizing gambling will be “morally correct in the Indian circumstances.”