February 2012 General Events
Calendar of General Events for February 2012 brought to you by sportsgamblingodds.org
General News
AFRICAN ARRESTS IN INTERNET LOTTERY SCAM
2011-12-21
Analysts study slow start to trading
The IPO on Nasdaq last week of social gaming giant Zynga was the subject of analyst assessments Tuesday following the company's disappointingly slow progress - it closed almost a dollar down on the $10 listing price Monday.
The San Francisco online gaming company, which generates most of its revenue from games on Facebook's social-networking platform, sold 100 million shares at $10 apiece Friday, raking in $1 billion and valuing the company at $7 billion (see previous InfoPowa reports).
However, the stock price began falling almost immediately after hitting the open market, and shares ended down 5 percent at $9.50. That pattern didn't change Monday, as Zynga stock slid to a closing price of $9.05.
Some analysts believe the stock is suffering from a large offering and increased competition. The offering represents 15 percent of the company, a much larger offering than other recent tech IPOs such as LinkedIn, Groupon and Jive, which all offered less than 10 percent.
That decision led to the inability of individual investors excited about the stock to raise the price, said Sam Hamadeh, CEO of PrivCo.com, which compiles financial data on private companies. The offering was "too big to move," he said.
Other observers opined that the company's reliance on Facebook and fears that its meteoric growth may be plateauing could have discouraged investors, along with a changing sentiment toward tech companies, with buyers becoming more sceptical and perhaps fearful of another internet bubble.
They pointed to recent IPOs that excited initial interest that proved unsustainable: LinkedIn's May IPO saw the stock price quickly double, whilst Pandora hit $16 despite only targeting a high end of $12. However, both companies were unable to hold on to those highs, and other tech IPOs in recent weeks also failed to live up to their initial hype, with Angie's List and Groupon both struggling to maintain early momentum.
Jim Krapfel, equity analyst at Morningstar, said investors viewed these as cautionary tales when evaluating Zynga. He claimed the market turned negative in August: "Until that improves meaningfully, that kind of trend will likely continue into 2012."
The economic recession has not helped confidence either, Hamideh observed.
WILL HILL'S NEVADA SPORTSBOOK ACQUISITION NAMED IN LEGAL ACTION
2011-08-04
Cantor Gaming suing competing sports book's chief executive
William Hill plc's move into the Nevada sports betting market through the $15.7 million acquisition of Brandywine Bookmaking and the Lucky’s Race and Sports Book chain (see previous InfoPowa reports), appears to be ruffling a few feathers.
Cantor Gaming, which is active in the on-premises remote gambling sector in the betting mecca, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Clark County District Court, alleging that one of its former executives, Joseph Asher, breached non-compete and confidentiality obligations.
Cantor claims that Asher left its employ in 2007 and went on to develop the Las Vegas-based Brandywine Bookmaking and Lucky’s Race and Sports Book chain - now the focus of plans to sell the enterprise to British bookmaker William Hill plc.
Cantor Gaming faces intense competition from the Brit firm, which is also buying the local Leroy’s sports betting chain owned by American Wagering Inc.
Asher has denied the charges, saying in a statement Wednesday: "I left Cantor over four years ago and Brandywine has been operating for over three years. Cantor didn't file its complaint until after we signed a deal to sell the company to William Hill.
“The timing says a lot. Any allegation that I have done anything wrong is ridiculous and totally false."
However, the Cantor filing charges that after working with Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. for more than a decade as an outside attorney, "Asher was given the opportunity ….to participate as a partner in Cantor’s high technology entry into the gaming industry.’"
In September 2004, Asher accepted a limited partnership interest in Cantor company CGW Holdings and served as managing director and vice president of another Cantor company, CGW Nevada.
According to the filing, Asher "became privy to Cantor’s revolutionary ideas in mobile gaming and sports wagering" and "was subject to a contractual duty of loyalty that included stringent non-compete obligations in favor of both CGW Holdings and CGW Nevada."
Asher played a key role over the following three years in obtaining gaming licenses and negotiating with casino operators on potential sports betting deals, it is claimed.
He resigned in March 2007 and, Cantor claims, "began a concerted effort to establish a gaming enterprise through the improper usurpation of proprietary ideas and corporate opportunities that rightfully belonged to the Cantor partnerships."
"Asher diverted profitable business opportunities with Navegante Group, a well-respected casino services provider," the filing alleges, saying that the diversion of Navegante also had the effect of delaying CGW Nevada’s commencement of sports wagering operations by several months.
"On behalf of the CGW Partnerships, Asher was spearheading discussions about specific locations with Navegante throughout 2006 and early 2007,’’ Cantor Gaming asserts. "Representatives of Navegante were in communication with Asher concerning sports wagering at Navegante locations as late as one week prior to Asher’s sudden departure.
"Asher usurped this opportunity for himself and his Brandywine entity. Asher and Brandywine entered into an arrangement with Navegante to conduct sports wagering at facilities managed by Navegante, including the Red Lion Hotel & Casino in Elko, the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno, the Plaza Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and Casino Fandango in Carson City.
"But for Asher’s usurpation of CGW Nevada’s corporate opportunities and Asher’s violation of his fiduciary and non-compete obligations to the CGW Partnerships, CGW Nevada would have been able to conduct sports wagering operations at these facilities," Cantor complains.
Cantor Gaming is now concerned that Asher as CEO of Brandywine will join William Hill management and attempt to divert business opportunities from Cantor to William Hill, the filing notes.
In addition to the Brandywine allegations, the filing also complains that Asher has failed to pay the outstanding principal and accrued interest on two loans of unspecified value from Cantor.
Cantor’s lawsuit asks the court to impose a constructive trust on the proceeds of the Brandywine sale to William Hill and to award Cantor unspecified damages.
Brandywine, operating as Lucky's, has 16 Nevada land locations.
APPT MELBOURNE DOWN TO FINAL TABLE
2011-08-01
Finalists compete for A$330,000 main prize
In Melbourne, Australia nine players survived to a final table in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour V's first stop, with New Zealander Phil Willcocks (28) continuing his long run as chip leader in this exciting event into the Day 4 finale, and a A$330,000 incentive to excel.
The final table of survivors from an original field of 260 is:
• Phillip Willcocks 2,317,000
• Leo Boxell 1,170,000
• Phares Bouya 910,000
• Michael Frydman 741,000
• William Jones 730,000
• Jackson Zheng 640,000
• Julius Colman 513,000
• Van Marcus 346,000
• Eddie Mascardi 335,000
When play recommenced Monday, it took only four hands for the first player, Julius Colman, to be eliminated in a clash with William Jones. Colman headed for the cashier and a ninth placing payday of A$27,000.
When InfoPowa went to press the action was at level 20 and the chip lead had changed, with Steve Bouya leading on 1.7 million, ahead of three other players who had cracked the million chip mark, William Jones (1.4 million); Phillip Willcocks (1,2 million) and Leo Boxell (1,1 million).
The next player eliminated takes home A$36,700.
PADDY POWER POSTS STRONG YTD RESULTS
2011-05-18
Online revenues show solid growth with UK and Irish mobile gambling up 298 percent
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power announced in an Interim Management Statement that its strong momentum continues into 2011 for the period 1 January 2011 to 15 May 2011 (YTD).
Key performance indicators include:
- Group revenue up 21 percent year to date
- of which 33 percent growth in online revenues and 7 percent growth in retail revenues.
- UK and Irish online business:
- paddypower.com's online sportsbook performed strongly with total amounts staked up by 46 percent.
- amounts staked via mobile showed a 298 percent growth with 34 percent of its active customers transacted via mobile.
- Sportsbook Gross Win up 60 percent
- Gaming/B2B Gross Win up 26 percent
- Australian online business:
- Amounts staked up 7 percent
- Gross Win up 13 percent
Nigel Northridge, Chairman, Paddy Power PLC said "The comparative period for the remainder of the year benefited from the football World Cup, as well as very favourable sports results. However, the strong underlying momentum in the Group should help to offset these factors, and consequently the Board looks forward to the balance of 2011 and beyond with confidence.”
COLORADO CONSIDERING ONLINE GAMBLING?
2011-04-25
Don't miss the opportunity, Colorado Gaming Association study finds
The state of Colorado could be about to join the six other US states that have seriously considered the legalisation of online gambling in recent times.
According reports in the Denver Post this weekend, Colorado [land] casinos commissioned a recently released study that found the state's brick-and-mortar operators could be at risk if they don't quickly embrace online gambling, in a competitive environment where Congress could ultimately regulate and tax the activity.
States that have recently examined legalisation initiatives include New Jersey, Hawaii, Florida, California, Nevada and Iowa. And the city-state of Washington DC's latest budget has de facto legalised online gambling within DC borders.
Local observers have noted that the federal crackdown on three online poker sites last week is unlikely to halt the persistent demand from US players for online gambling facilities, and will not permanently shut down Internet gambling in a country that accounts for nearly one-fifth of global website wagers.
The Denver Posts reports that other operators are already filling the vacuum left by the three sites affected by the federal enforcement action, despite growing difficulties with e-cash processors. The newspaper quotes noted gambling expert, Professor I. Nelson Rose, who said:
"Just like Prohibition, you can have pretty spectacular raids on breweries and speakeasies, and you don't stop people from drinking. This isn't going to stop people from playing poker on the Internet."
The Colorado study showed that Americans account for 17 percent of worldwide Internet bets. Total online gambling revenue generated from U.S. residents is estimated at nearly $6 billion annually, which includes wagers on other casino-style games and sports.
The Poker Players Alliance is active in the state, with 18 000 registered members.
Like other state enforcement agencies across the United States, the Colorado attorney general's office operates on its opinion that internet gambling is illegal in the state, although it acknowledges that it has yet to charge anyone for illegal internet gambling, and there is no specific statute that positions the pastime outside state law.
That does not deter the attorney general's office, which maintains it can prosecute online poker players under existing gambling and money-laundering statutes.
"It is within our power to prosecute these types of cases," Mike Saccone, a spokesman for the AG's office, told the newspaper.
Many of Colorado's land casinos operate poker rooms, but internet operations would be more profitable and practical, a local consultant told the Denver Post.
"[Poker] is not as lucrative for a casino because it takes a lot of room and labour, and it just doesn't generate a lot of revenue," said gambling industry consultant Bill Palermo, adding that operating online poker rooms is another story, with minimal startup and maintenance costs compared with a brick-and-mortar operation.
The January 2011 study commissioned by the Colorado Gaming Association found that "online gambling represents an opportunity for and a threat to commercial casinos in Colorado."
"If Colorado does not act on this emerging field in a timely manner, the existing commercial casino industry will be at risk," the study warns in publishing its results.
The casino association is not currently pursuing any online gambling legislation. But the group commissioned the study in anticipation of "Congress's eventual regulation and approval of online gaming, and assuming that the states would be given jurisdiction to regulate it," said executive director Lois Rice.
"The [New York US Attorney's] indictments reinforce proponents' arguments that the states should legalize intra-state poker," said gambling expert Rose, "so that the operators and their computers and payments processors will be physically here to be taxed and regulated."
COURT CONFIRMS CZECH LOTTERY INSOLVENCY (Update)
2011-03-30
National lottery operator Sazka had 10.5 billion crowns ($604.1 million) in debt as of September 2010.
A Czech district court has placed national lottery operator Sazka into insolvency after it applied last week (see previous InfoPowa report).
A Reuters news agency report reveals that a meeting of Sazka's main creditors has been called for May 26.
Sazka is owned by Czech sports unions, and reportedly had 10.5 billion crowns ($604.1 million) in debt as of September 2010.
One investor, financial group PPF, earlier took over debt owed by Sazka from its largest creditor and planned to coordinate steps with other creditors, namely Czech investment group KKCG, the report notes.
In January this year Sazka delayed part of a payment on its 2021 amortising bond and lost its rating from Standard and Poor's, although the payment was made later.
GERMAN CONFUSION (Update)
2011-03-21
Conflicting court decisions on State Treaty on Gaming
Contradictory court rulings in German courts last week only added to the general confusion on the legality in EU terms of the monopolistic States Treaty on Gaming.
The treaty, an agreement among the 16 German provinces that gives them monopolistic control over the lucrative German gambling market, is currently under review following differences of opinion by certain signatory states, and pressure from the European Commission (see previous InfoPowa reports).
In one ruling last week a court in Bremen lifted a 'cease and desist' order on a sports betting operator, finding that the Treaty under which the order was imposed is in conflict with European Union laws.
Conversely, another court in Saxony imposed a 'cease and desist' injunction on eleven defendants alleged to have been providing gambling services to German residents in contravention of the Treaty.
The rulings are just the latest in a confusing legal scene where the Berlin Administrative Court has raised enquiries regarding the compatibility with EU law of the Treaty, but the Higher Administrative Court has yet to make a final decision, but wants private betting companies excluded from the market while it considers the situation.
Clearly some innovative thinking will be required among the 16 states to align the German gambling industry more closely with neighbouring and more progressive regulatory developments and the requirements of the European Commission, which will shortly be issuing its Green Paper on online gambling and initiating a wide public consultation on the way forward for the European industry.