Author Archives: The Daily Payoff

Entain’s $2.3 billion offer to buy Tabcorp ops likely misses the mark

Entain announced recently that it was possibly interested in buying TAB, the racing and sports gambling unit operated by Australia’s Tabcorp. At the time, it was still crunching the numbers to determine how much it was willing to put up, and the results are in. However, even though it has put a $2.3-billion cash offer on the table, it might find Tabcorp unimpressed with the amount. 

Entain is responding to rumors that Tabcorp might consider dividing its house as TAB has not been performing to expectations. It was the first to submit a proposal and asserts that the figure is in line with the market valuation provided by analysts with the Australian Securities Exchange. However, history has shown that companies will rarely sell assets at market value unless they’re desperate for cash. Based on Tabcorp’s just-announced earnings report, it isn’t.

The company just released its latest financial report today and showed a group-wide decline of just 1.5% for the first half of fiscal year 2021. The bottom line was $2.22 billion for the period, with a 6.2% decrease in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Much of that centered on Tabcorp’s Gaming Services division, which saw a 51% drop in revenue to $57 million. However, other areas, such as Lotteries/Keno and Wagering/Media, increased. 

CEO and Managing Director David Attenborough acknowledged that it had received a number of proposals, but didn’t provide details on the players or the amounts. He only offered, “There has been considerable commentary in the market about our wagering and media business. We have confirmed we have received a number of proposals and unsolicited approaches in relation to a potential transaction involving this business. They are also highly conditional and subject to numerous requirements such as due diligence, financing and various regulatory and racing industry approvals. The board will take the appropriate time to carefully consider all of the relevant issues and strategic options that arise in respect to these matters.”

Genius Sports scores another coup with WynnBET hookup

Genius Sports continues to take the sports gambling industry by storm. It is on a tireless mission to be the go-to sports data providers for anything and everything related to sports, and just picked up another big deal. Wynn Resorts, through its WynnBET sports gambling arm, drafted the company to provide its data services to the company in a new multi-year deal.

Going forward, Genius Sports will use its official data channels to give WynnBET access to hundreds of sports organizations, including NASCAR, EPL and plenty of international options. A statement by the company explains, “The new partnership will also involve Genius’ ultra-fast, reliable official data content for hundreds of international soccer, basketball, ice hockey, table tennis and volleyball federations and leagues, including the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga, LigaMX, Euroleague Basketball, and Argentine soccer.”

WynnBET will be able to take full advantage of Genius Sports and its LiveData and LiveTrading platforms, offering in-game gambling action where the operator is currently licensed, including Colorado, Michigan and New Jersey. Wynn continues to work on securing new licenses and already has several options in the works. It is close to being able to offer sports gambling in Iowa and Ohio, where it has recently gained access, has received conditional licensing in Tennessee and has applications pending in Indiana and Virginia.

Adds Jack Davison, Genius Sports’ Chief Commercial Officer, “Along with its broad market-access and nationally-recognizable brand name, Genius is an ideal partner to enhance WynnBET’s expanding online sportsbook and in-game betting offering. With growing numbers of states introducing online betting regulation, in-game handle is quickly rising – and WynnBET recognizes the direct engagement and revenue benefits of official data in this landscape.”

Malta contemplates issuing a fifth casino license

Malta now has four casinos in its roughly 122-square-mile territory, including Casino Malta, the Dragonara Casino, Oracle Casino and Portomaso Casino. It might soon have a fifth gambling property, though, if a government plan currently in the works is accepted. A request for proposals (RFP) for a new casino is underway, but any suitors will have to be prepared to accept some restrictions.

Malta published in the government’s official newspaper, the Malta Gazette, an RFP yesterday regarding a “concession to open and operate a casino in Malta.” The country’s Privatization Unit (PU) is overseeing the process and all submissions must be made in public no later than noon on April 7.  From now until then, several milestones are already in place to facilitate the process, including a cutoff date of March 1 for any requests for clarification on the RFP. Responses to those requests will be delivered no later than March 17, which will give candidates only about two weeks to make their final submissions.

The PU explains on its website, “The Privatisation Unit, acting on behalf of the Ministry for the Economy and Industry​, is hereby inviting Prospective Proponents to submit Proposals for the opening and operation of a casino in Malta. Prospective Proponents are reminded that for the opening and operation of a casino in Malta, the Successful Proponent must, in addition to holding the Concession, also hold a valid Casino Licence issued by the Authority in terms of the Gaming Authorisations Regulations.”

All proposals must come from companies that are established and registered in the European Economic Area and the entity that wins the concession must be fully-owned by that company. The casino will need to be built in a tourist area that has been designated as such by the Malta Tourism Authority, but two specific areas are off-limits. No casino will be allowed in either Gozo or Comino. Both are small islands that are part of Malta’s larger archipelago of 21 islands.

Luisa Woods hints at where the opportunities lay in a regulated US market

Delaware North Vice President Luisa Woods has been in the U.S. gambling industry since the 1990s, and she’s devoted her career to figuring out the best approach to marketing. She sat down with Calvinayre.com‘s lead reporter Becky Liggero Fontana to offer her thoughts on how U.S. casinos can overcome the new challenges of the regulated market.

Woods believes that the omnichannel market and the cross-over between online and land-based casinos represents a huge opportunity for operators. Woods spoke at a Betting on Sports America panel about the challenges operators face in navigating state regulations. She told us it’s still all about ‘location’ for land-based operators:

“It’s a really big challenge that land-based operators are very used to thinking in terms of location. They’re used to thinking in terms of you know traffic patterns and obviously, Americans flow very freely between states. Our properties in West Virginia are a great example of this, particularly we have a property at Wheeling Island which is on the northern panhandle and a lot of people will work on one side of the border and live on the other or travel across the border for entertainment or other things.”

“Both Pennsylvania and Ohio have gaming facilities, however, people who live within the catchment area of that casino are very used to driving to our property. Suddenly, you’ve got a situation where when they’re sitting at home and watching television, they’re being introduced to the idea of there’s a mobile app that I could download and play on but it’s not necessarily associated with the gaming company that I typically frequent. This is something that every single operator is having to wrestle with; it becomes a challenge of which markets are you going to enter.”

New Slots Announcements – February 17, 2021

Online casino sites need to stay on top of the hottest slot offerings to keep up with the competition. We’ve got the newest slots released in the past week, so you can check them out and decide if you want them on your site.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements. Our Press Release section is updated constantly.

GAMING1 embarks on a mystical journey in Astro The Great Race

Epic title invites players to compete in a frenzied race

Hellmuth, Negreanu, Polk, Tony G Tangled in Proposed Heads-Up Challenges

Phil Hellmuth challenging Doug Polk to a heads-up match sparked a chain reaction of potential heads-up competitions, although we may never get to see any of them.

There’s virtually no way Phil Hellmuth and Doug Polk will actually play. (Image: YouTube)

Polk recently finished off a beatdown of Daniel Negreanu in a 25,000-hand heads-up match. He won $1.2 million at $200/$400 stakes, completely obliterating his rival. Afterwards, the “Poker Brat” popped off, criticizing Negreanu’s play. The 15-time bracelet champion, in the same interview with PokerGo, said he challenged Polk to some heads-up poker.

Polk, however, claimed in a tweet that the offer was unreasonable, so he turned it down. He also has said numerous times recently that he has no interest in playing new challenges, even if Negreanu asked for a rematch, although he hasn’t officially said he’d for sure turn down the offer. Just don’t expect him to play as he’s made it clear he no longer enjoys poker.

Ex-lottery op 500.com buys BTC.com crypto mining assets

Asian online gambling operator 500.com is ramping up its transition to cryptocurrency miner through the purchase of Jihan Wu’s crypto mining pool BTC.com.  

On Tuesday, the Shenzhen-based, Nasdaq-listed 500.com announced that it had reached a share exchange agreement with Blockchain Alliance Technologies Holding Company that will see 500.com assume control of the entire mining pool business of Bitdeer Technologies Holding Company, which operates as BTC.com. The deal also involves the transfer of the BTC.com domain and crypto wallet. 

The deal will see 500.com issue more than 44m Class A ordinary shares representing around 10% of its outstanding shares to Blockchain Alliance in exchange for all shares in Blockchain Alliance Technologies Ltd held by Blockchain Alliance. There’s also a potential top-up payment of 5% of 500.com’s outstanding shares should BTC.com report a net operating profit of at least US$20m in 2021. 

BTC.com ranks as the fourth largest mining pool with an estimated 10% of the BTC (Core coin) hash power. BitDeer’s beneficial owner is none other than Jihan Wu, co-founder of mining hardware outfit Bitmain, who left the firm in late-January following a prolonged and occasionally nasty feud with co-founder Micree Zhan. 

Caesars Sweepstakes a Positive Sign for 2021 WSOP

Caesars Entertainment started a sweepstakes offering a lucky winner airfare, a hotel stay and a seat in the 2021 Main Event, a good sign the company intends to hold a live World Series of Poker this year.

This could be the first positive sign of a 2021 WSOP: Caesars is offering a promotion on the WSOP.com website giving one winner a prize package that includes a Main Event seat. (Image: WSOP.com)

The Ultimate Poker Champion Experience sweepstakes, available to enter for free here, began Monday and runs through April 30. U.S. residents aged 21 years and up can participate. Caesars will draw a winner on May 6.

Restrictions Reduced as COVID Cases Decline

How to Avoid ‘Winner’s Tilt’ and Other Hidden Perils of Poker Success

Most of us are familiar with the risks of losing: discouragement, depletion of our bankroll, and tilt come to mind. We might be less familiar with the risks of winning.

Sometimes in poker it’s all too easy to win a battle while losing the war. (Image: Business Insider)

Yes, winning carries its own set of perils that are perhaps even more dangerous than the risks of losing because they are less visible and, thereby, more pernicious.

Risk of Winning #1: Complacency

Daniel Smiljkovic leads final 25 after day 2 of MILLIONS mini main event

Day 2 of the MILLIONS Online Main Event saw 169 players reduced to just 25 and as the dust settled, Austrian player Daniel Smiljkovic had bagged up the chip lead with 133.6 million, the equivalent of 167 big blinds with which to attack Day 3.

With two days left in the monstrous opening tournament of the 28 that make up the partypoker MILLIONS Online series, Daniel Smiljkovic is closely followed in the chipcounts, followed as he is by Laszlo Molnar from Hungary (127.8 million) and Russia’s Leonid Orman     (69.5 million), although the former is quite clearly closer than the latter.

A little further back in the field, there are two big British names gathering like highly-skilled vultures, though only one of them is actually a lawyer. Will Kassouf fulfils that professional capacity, and the former WSOP “nine-high like a boss” player has 24.6 million with which to battle towards a final table seat.

Having won a $109 satellite to qualify for the tournament in the first place, Kassouf was understandably delighted at the profit he’s already returned on his investment and his chances with the 33 big blinds he’ll carry into play. 

Bert Stevens leads super MILLION$ final table

The latest and 36th Super MILLION$ final table will kick off with Bert Stevens in pole position as the action gets under way on GGPoker in a bid to win the $408,406 top prize and high roller bragging rights.

The chip leader may be Bert Stevens, who goes into action with 4.56 million chips, but he’s closely followed by Damian Salas, the man who recently won the WSOP Hybrid Main Event for a total prize of $2.5 million, who bagged up 4 million by the close of play on the penultimate day.

Elsewhere, there will be plenty of competition from other great names, with four-time WPT Main Event winner Darren Elias (2.2 million) and Russian regular Aleksei Barkov (2 million) both chasing down the leader.

While everyone will be hoping to take down the title and claim that top prize, Spanish player Adrian Mateos has only got just over a million chips to play with as he comes into play as the short stack.