THE AMERICAS
DraftKings cut $1m off its marquee NFL contest after the seventh straight week of declining daily fantasy sports activity; the Stronach Group sued racing fantasy site DerbyWars for violating the Interstate Horseracing Act but Star Fantasy Leagues CEO Seth Young believes daily fantasy sports’ golden years are still ahead; the House of Representatives scheduled a hearing on Sheldon Adelson’s anti-online gambling bill; a Pennsylvania judge dismissed a convict’s lawsuit against USA Today for ruining his jailhouse betting operation; New Jersey suggested letting its online poker sites hire celebrity pitchmen; the Argentine province of Misiones launched its own online gambling site; Nevada casino sportbooks reported their second-largest monthly betting handle; a Massachusetts judge dismissed Boston’s legal bid to block Wynn Resorts’ Everett casino and Felipe Ramos sat down with Tatjana Pasalic for this week’s episode of Chats with Tats.
EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
UK racing showed it wasn’t joking about its new sponsorship rules by naming its first Authorized Betting Partners; online operations overcame retail declines in Gala Coral Group’s fiscal year; GVC Holdings said Christmas came early in Q4; the Paddy Power-Betfair merger could result in £25m in job cuts; Ukraine published a draft of its new gambling law; Playtech inked an online bingo technology deal with News UK; Spain’s gambling market posted its first spending increase since 2008; Evolution Gaming launched squeezable baccarat on William Hill’s new ‘Macau’ site; Portugal announced it would ring-fence its regulated online poker market; Paysafe (aka Optimal Payments) admitted over 7.8m customer accounts were hacked a few years ago; Ladbrokes signed its first German football sponsorship deal but failed to pull off a £54m tax dodge in the UK; South Africa casinos returned to growth after an anti-online gambling campaign; Israel arrested 32 students for running a high school casino; the US arrested more FIFA officials in Switzerland; Russia welcomed blockchain technology while closing the door on Bitcoin; Betcade founder David Chang explained why apps top browsers every day of the week; Lottoland Solutions’ Glen Bullen examined the untapped potential of lottery betting; Lee Davy pondered the effectiveness of the much-publicized player boycott of PokerStars and the uncertain future of the online poker pro.
ASIA
Macau casino revenue fell for the 18th straight month and desperate junket operators are finding VIP gambling debts impossible to collect; Macau casino crime spiked by one-third as Macau announced it would set up a new cybercrime unit; Australia’s sports leagues came out in favor of online in-play betting while Clubs Australia wants the government to impose an online point of consumption tax and Google warned the Aussie gov’t that domain blocking of unwanted online gambling sites was a non-starter; a Victorian responsible gambling study debunked myths of an explosion in Australian sports betting; Singapore rearrested match-fixer Dan Tan one week after he was released; a Chinese gambler swallowed a five-inch saw blade to win $600; Brisbane’s MeVu hopped on the eSports betting bandwagon; Shenzhen’s 500.com bought an online payment processor to help ride out China’s online lottery suspension; Halex Holdings abandoned plans to enter Cambodia’s lottery market; Delta Corp got a new land-based casino license in Goa; and Rafi Farber insisted Genting Singapore’s ugly financial numbers don’t tell the whole story.
