THE AMERICAS
Yahoo launched its new daily fantasy sports service while DraftKings’ embrace of automated scripts caused a storm of controversy; Washington politicians considered a sneakier way of preventing the spread of intrastate online gambling; four New Jersey online gambling sites were targeted by a DDOS extortionist; the PowerBall lottery jackpot became a lot harder to win; New York’s latest casino tender attracted just one bidder; Toronto city council approved a full casino expansion at Woodbine racetrack; Slotschoice.com’s David Newsttead laid out a slots license wish list; Rafi Farber cast a critical eye on the stock performance of Churchill Downs Inc. while Tatjana Pasalic and Lee Davy continued their stellar coverage of the World Series of Poker 2015.
EUROPE
Bwin.party confirmed it’s weighing a £900m acquisition offer from GVC/Amaya and GVC CEO Kennth Alexander said he’d be “staggered” if the deal doesn’t happen; Unibet acquired Stan James Online operations; 666Bet operator Metro Play Ltd. was ordered into compulsory liquidation; PokerStars banned the controversial Skier_5 HUSNG software; NetEnt’s profits rose nearly two-thirds in a “very eventful” Q2; Danske Spil acquired a majority stake in fantasy sports operator Swush while Ladbrokes pulled out of the “very fierce” Danish online gambling market; Romania posted its first online gambling blacklist; the Greek half of Cyprus finally approved its casino legislation; Evolution Gaming entered the Georgian market via a deal with Adjarabet; NagaCorp broke ground on its Russian casino project; Winamax inked a football shirt deal with Olympique de Marseilles; Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium inked a 10-year deal to host NFL games and Becky Liggero quizzed AskGamblers.com’s Marko Antonijevic on the state of the affiliate business.
ASIA
OpenBet confirmed a seven-year online sports betting deal with Singapore Pools; Bet365 became the latest Australian operator to do an end-run around in-play betting laws while the Northern Territory regulator said it couldn’t vouch for the mobile apps’ legality; junket operators pleaded for a rethink of Macau’s proposed full smoking ban; Vietnam reconsidered its push to legalize sports betting while the Ho Tram Resort Casino dropped ‘The Grand’; a Chinese VIP gambler sued Crown Melbourne over his $17m losses; South Korea’s MERS outbreak dealt a blow to Paradise Co Ltd’s business and India Bet’s George Oborne, ADDA52’s Anuj Gupta and Nishith Desai Associates’ Gowree Gokhale offered their takes on the state of India’s gambling market.
