Gaming Industry News Weekly Recap – Stories You Might Have Missed

APRIL-2-new-weekly-recapTHE AMERICAS
Amaya Gaming CEO David Baazov announced an indefinite leave of absence as the insider trading brouhaha prompted class actions lawsuits in the US and questions as to which Baazov brother was actually controlling Amaya; DraftKings and FanDuel agreed to stop offering fantasy contests on college sports events while Yahoo’s fantasy product stopped accepting credit card deposits; GAN added Oculus Rift virtual reality tech to its Simulated Gaming product and inked a new social casino deal with a mystery operator; the Illinois Lottery ignored the expiration of their online sales pilot program; a federal court dismissed a class action suit against IGT’s social casino division DoubleDown Interactive; Caesars Entertainment’s bankruptcy was complicated by a financial adviser’s extramarital affair and our Becky Liggero previewed the top five sessions at the upcoming iGaming North America 2016 in Las Vegas.

EUROPE
Russian bookmakers swallowed hard after the government announced a 100x rise in online betting duties; Italian authorities rumbled yet another mob-run illegal online betting ring; UK racing mulled an alternative to Betfred’s Tote pool betting product; TGP Europe betting sites accused a host of punters of Cheltenham bonus abuse; France introduced legislation to distinguish eSports tournaments from gambling events and Boston Venture’s Burce Eliot pegged 2016 as a breakout year for eSports wagering; Aspers won the https://calvinayre.com/2016/04/01/business/not-your-april-fools-joke-mecca-bingo-wants-to-become-an-olympic-sport/“>large casino license in Southampton; Lord of Poker made a bid to become the world’s first role-playing poker game; Jason Somerville notched his 10 millionth view on Twitch; Chelsea Apps Factor’s Marcus Wareham examined ways to integrate mobile technology into retail betting shops; Chroma Sports’ Jon Trigg argued that UK sportsbooks may get into daily fantasy sports as a purely defensive move; Rafi Farber suggested Paddy Power-Betfair and 888 Holdings were investors’ best bets and our cameras caught all the action at the 888Live Poker Tournament as Aspers Casino.

ASIA
The casino money laundering scandal in the Philippines heard conflicting testimony from a junket operator; Macau casino revenue fell for the 22nd month; Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba pledged to make a $15m investment in eSports while a Newzoo report estimated brands would spend $325m on eSports in 2016; DraftDay made its first international foray via the launch of CrownBet/Fox Sport’s new DFS joint venture Draftstars; Thailand busted an online gambling ring as the government promised the military new enforcement powers; China’s lottery sales fell 9.4% in February; Tony Fung’s $8b Aquis casino project in Queensland secured Chinese backing then ditched plans for a casino in the project’s Phase One to speed up the approval process; Goa’s floating casinos were granted a one-year stay of execution and Stellar Management’s Augustine Vinh predicted Vietnam would boast three large-scale casinos by 2020.