Monthly Archives: December 2020

Joseph Hebert Goes wire-to-wire to win U.S.-based main event for $1.5 million

The Las Vegas leg of the World Series of Poker Main Event has been won and it was the final table chip leader Joseph Hebert who led from the start and sealed a memorable victory to turn $300 into $1.5 million at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Sin City.

The conclusion of the nine-man final table was affected considerably in the approach to the action as just a day before the climax of an event that has not been a stranger to controversy, former WSOP bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva disqualified due to a positive COVID-19 test. De Silva, who would have gone into play in 8th place of the nine remaining players, busted in 9th instead, leaving the way clear for the eight remaining men to push for glory inside the Rio.

First to lose that opportunity was Gershon Distenfeld, who saw short-stack Harrison Dobin double-up before he himself busted, king-ten suited no good against Ron Jenkins’ pocket queens. Distenfeld, who famously said that he would donate all of his winnings to charity will be making out a cheque for a mammoth $125,885 thanks to De Silva’s disqualification.

Out in 7th place for $163,786 was Shawn Stroke, which would have disappointed any supporters he had at home, as he’d entered play second in chips. He left a long time before the heads-up, however, as his pocket threes couldn’t survive and were beaten by Jenkins, who had pocket queens for the second time, winning with the ladies both times.

South Korea casinos extend shutdown; Mohegan Incheon project delay

South Korea’s casinos are struggling as the country struggles to flatten its pandemic infection curve, while the global gaming slowdown has pushed back the opening of an in-development integrated resort. 

On Monday, Grand Korea Leisure (GKL) informed investors that its three Seven Luck-branded foreigner-only casinos wouldn’t reopen as scheduled on Tuesday (29). Instead, the casinos will now reopen at 9am on Monday, January 4, provided the country’s third wave of COVID-19 doesn’t turn into a tsunami. 

South Korea reported a record 40 pandemic deaths on Tuesday and new infections topped 1,000, leading the Yonhap news agency to warn of a “looming medical system crisis.” GKL shut its two Seoul casinos one month ago, and its Busan property followed suit shortly thereafter.

GKL’s main foreigner-only casino rival, Paradise Co Ltd, shut its Walkerhill casino in Seoul on December 15, promising to reopen on Tuesday. But Paradise announced this week that Walkerhill would now stay shut until January 4 at 7am. All Seoul casinos were operating at only 20% of normal capacity on the order of local authorities. 

Nevada’s sportsbooks enjoy record revenue in November despite casino slump

Nevada casino gaming revenue took a major hit in November, despite a record performance by the state’s licensed sports betting operators. 

Figures released Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Control Board show statewide casino gaming revenue of just under $771.2m in November, a nearly 17.8% decline from the same month last year and around $50m below October 2020’s result.

The decline was largely expected, following Gov. Steve Sisolak’s late-November decision to halve casinos’ already limited capacity to 25% of normal. With the state’s COVID-19 infection rate showing no sign of slowing, Sisolak announced earlier this month that he was extending this restriction at least through January 15.  

The impact was felt most directly on the Las Vegas Strip, which saw its November gaming revenue slide nearly one-third year-on-year to $349.8m. Most other regions also reported negative growth, although Downtown Las Vegas – which is far less reliant on out-of-state customers and also benefited from the first full month of the new Circa property – gained 1.7% to $53m. 

College football odds: Friday bowl lines & trends

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

New Year’s Day is the signature day of college football’s bowl season, and there are four games on the holiday to kick off 2021, including the two College Football Playoff semifinals.

The first game at noon ET is the Peach Bowl from Atlanta as No. 9 Georgia visits No. 8 Cincinnati. The unbeaten and American Athletic Conference champion Bearcats seem to have gotten the shaft from the College Football Playoff selection committee as they were dominant this season, especially on defense (16.0 ppg allowed) but were penalized for playing a relatively week schedule. Frankly, if this year’s Cincinnati team didn’t make the playoff, no Group of 5 school ever will unless it expands.

A two-loss season and a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl would be great for many programs but not for Georgia, which had national championship expectations. However, the Dawgs lost by double digits to both Alabama and Florida. Georgia is a 7-point favorite and is 14-1 straight up in its past 15 as a favorite.

How India has become a target market for European casino operators

This is a guest contribution by Dinesh Rhana of luckydice.in.

The online world has taken casino gaming for a trip around the world. In days gone by, casino type games and in some places casino halls, have served us well, but now many head online for their fix.

When you play online, you could be playing alongside people from the other side of the world, you could even be playing with a casino operator on the other side of the world, this is a global industry.

Inside of this, companies target specific areas with their service, and tailor it towards them. The biggest online area for this has always been Europe, we have many European operators and huge numbers of players in the region, so naturally the operators kept things close to home and promoted to locals.

How India has become a target market for European casino operators

This is a guest contribution by Dinesh Rhana of luckydice.in.

The online world has taken casino gaming for a trip around the world. In days gone by, casino type games and in some places casino halls, have served us well, but now many head online for their fix.

When you play online, you could be playing alongside people from the other side of the world, you could even be playing with a casino operator on the other side of the world, this is a global industry.

Inside of this, companies target specific areas with their service, and tailor it towards them. The biggest online area for this has always been Europe, we have many European operators and huge numbers of players in the region, so naturally the operators kept things close to home and promoted to locals.

Bitcoin Association launches online education platform Bitcoin SV Academy

ZUG, Switzerland – December 29, 2020 – Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business with the Bitcoin SV blockchain, today announces the official launch of Bitcoin SV Academy – a dedicated online education platform for Bitcoin, offering academia-quality, university-style courses and learning materials.

Developed by Bitcoin Association, Bitcoin SV Academy has been created to make learning about Bitcoin – the way creator Satoshi Nakamoto designed it – accessible, accurate and understandable. Courses are available in their entirety online and offered in three distinct streams:

Bitcoin Theory – covers the design of Bitcoin as a system as prescribed by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin Development – provides vanguard information for application developers building with Bitcoin, including tools and techniques for leveraging the unique features of the network.

Bitcoin Association launches online education platform Bitcoin SV Academy

ZUG, Switzerland – December 29, 2020 – Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organisation that works to advance business with the Bitcoin SV blockchain, today announces the official launch of Bitcoin SV Academy – a dedicated online education platform for Bitcoin, offering academia-quality, university-style courses and learning materials.

Developed by Bitcoin Association, Bitcoin SV Academy has been created to make learning about Bitcoin – the way creator Satoshi Nakamoto designed it – accessible, accurate and understandable. Courses are available in their entirety online and offered in three distinct streams:

Bitcoin Theory – covers the design of Bitcoin as a system as prescribed by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin Development – provides vanguard information for application developers building with Bitcoin, including tools and techniques for leveraging the unique features of the network.

Where to invest in gambling in 2021

2020 is over. Let us never speak of it again. Technically, the new decade begins in three days with 2021. The least that can be said is that 2021 doesn’t have a hard act to follow. Short of a nuclear alien invasion war, it can’t be any worse than 2020. Or so we hope. Though an alien invasion would, admittedly, probably be way more fun than continued lockdowns.

In short, here’s what happened in 2020 to the global gaming industry. Las Vegas and US casinos took a sledgehammer to the knees but got through the year with taxpayer bailouts and issuing a whole bunch of shares at incredibly inflated prices thanks to stock market rescues. Macau got shut down, and remains shut down, but is casinos got through the year by issuing way more debt. The United Kingdom paralyzed itself with lockdown after lockdown and also lost one of its industry jewels, William hill, to cyclically defunct Caesars, further consolidating the country’s already extremely centralized corporate superstructure into a giant pyramid resembling the Tower of Babel that will stay stable forever because they always do. GVC, seeking to change its bad-boy grey market image, changed its name to Entain, dropping the “ert” I guess, and promised to go white by 2023. No, Brexit is still not official, but might be voted on in Parliament today.

Swedish stocks skyrocketed as the country seemed to let viruses do what viruses do without making too much of a fuss about it. Cambodia actually got control of the virus, which might have something to do with the country having one of the youngest populations in the world, and Nagacorp did well. Russia’s Primorye took more baby steps forward despite the pandemic, and still looks like the Next Big Thing in gaming, especially with Macau paralyzed indefinitely.

So what’s with 2021? Here’s a region by region rundown.

Where businesses should send their marketing dollars in 2021

COVID-19 has been the biggest disruptor of global commerce in recent years, even bigger than the recession-not-recession of 2008. As the year wraps up and 2021 is set to arrive, it’s a perfect time for businesses to take stock in how they manage their expenses in order to fuel better growth, and one of the major targets is the marketing budget. More than ever, it’s important to maximize the return on the marketing investment to ensure the dollar goes as far as possible, and there are several key areas where marketers can concentrate their expenditures to ensure greater returns.

Inarguably, social media is going to continue to be one of the primary sources of customers for years to come. Whether running an online gambling operation, a cryptocurrency exchange or any of a myriad of possibilities, marketers have to go where the consumers can be found and they are now found more on social media than any other platform. Over the past two years, there has already been a notable increase in social media marketing spend, increasing to almost 30% by the end of the third quarter of this year, and this isn’t expected to stop anytime soon.

Voice search deserves attention in 2021. It has yet to become an inherent part of Google’s search algorithms; however, as more consumers search from mobile devices, they are using voice searches instead of typing in their desired terms. The problem is that voice and text searches often result in unique results, which means marketers need to ensure that they are on top of voice search components and how they can be used to drive traffic to targeted results.

Interactive content, once viewed as a nice add-on, is now a necessity. A website or social media account that offers interactive content is guaranteed to receive greater engagement, as the content is seen as added value for consumers. The content is entertaining and visual, proving to be a greater attraction than stale and static content that never changes.