THE AMERICAS
Daily fantasy sports participation fell for the third straight week while FanDuel applied for a UK gambling license and its CEO said there’d be no initial public offering until the US regulatory situation clarified; Zynga posted a rare $3m profit thanks to slots and poker; Loto-Quebec’s online gambling site posted double-digit growth; two more Legendz Sports figures were convicted of racketeering; Baha Mar Ltd’s Chinese bankers foreclosed on the property; Sam Nazerian gave up his pursuit of a Nevada gaming license; creditors asked a judge to make a Caesars attorney give evidence; Seth Palansky rejected suggestions of a WSOP Hall of Fame voting conspiracy and Terence Chan joined Tatjana Pasalic for this week’s episode of Chats With Tats.
EUROPE
PokerStars’ drastic revamp of its VIP program left many players fuming, while Amaya Gaming appointed Rafi Ashkenazi as the new CEO of the Rational Group and purchased a bunch of Betstars domains; Contagious Gaming abandoned plans to acquire Sportech; Poker Heaven shut down for good after a decade of operation; UK racing groups formed a new united front to lobby for a racing right after negotiations with bookmakers broke down over the annual Levy negotiations; Unibet posted yet another new revenue record; Italy’s online sports betting operators were given greater freedom; France’s gaming regulator warned about ‘dramatizing’ the market’s underperformance; eSports betting operator Unikrn announced the creation of an eSports code of conduct; Olympic Entertainment acquired a Lithuanian betting operator; Dafabet boosted its Welsh football sponsorship presence; Jamworx founder Marc Kenisberg previewed the industry’s first multi-vertical Bitcoin affiliate program; branding expert Minter Dial explained why customer service is the new marketing; and Rebecca Liggero prowled the floor of Days One and Two of the SIGMA 2015 confab in Malta.
ASIA
Macau casinos stretched their revenue losing streak to 17 months but Macau officials denied reports of a possible easing of transit visa rules; Melco Crown Entertainment’s profit fell 75% while SJM Holdings’ profit fell 81%; Sportsbet was accused of stealing a punter club’s secret sauce; an Aussie politician pitched the government on a betting turnover tax while an Aussie punter learned the hard way not to post selfies with your winning betting slip; Echo Entertainment said its VIP gamblers were getting too lucky; Resorts World Sentosa was forced to compensate an unlawfully detained gambler; India’s Supreme Court upheld a state’s right to ban online lotteries; South Korea braced for another celebrity betting scandal; digital entertainment helped double Konami Gaming’s profits; Chinese investors plowed millions into Cambodian live dealer online casinos; PAGCOR exceeded its income targets in the first nine months of 2015 while Bloomberry Resorts narrowed its losses and Andrew Tan unveiled plans for a $1.4b leisure and entertainment township at Manila’s Entertainment City.
